Film Noir

Gats and gams, broads and bullies, bullets and babes, crooks and cons, dark and deadly, fateful and fatal.
All these words refer to film noir.  They are all elements of the noir film and the style which makes noir, noir. There has long been a dispute over what noir is or isn't.  But one thing is for sure, it is cool.
     The term, coined by the french was used to explain the new american films of the mid forties.  The films made in post war america were done on the cheap and because sets were not elaborate minimal lighting was used.  Hence the term "black film". Yet not only were the pictures dark, the themes were dark.  Be it the rise of existentialism or the popularity of pulp fiction or the emergence of B movies, noir was a motif and style which told the story of flawed characters and their inherent demise.  These immoral heroes and villains were not easily recognized as noir blurred the lines of right and wrong while defying convention.
As fate would have it those born to lose would lose and if these poor souls showed any virtue it was lost on the sins of lust, betrayal, revenge and greed.

"Fate or some mysterious force has put the finger on you or me for no good reason at all." Final lines spoken by Tom Neal in the movie Detour.
With their absence of a moral code these fools are driven to act with instinct and these actions come with consequences. Desirous to be free form the conformity of the masses it is their freedom which drives them to their undoing.  Born of noir is the ultimate anti-hero.  They have a code to which they will uphold no matter the cost.  And the cost is often death.  These men and women represent the id of human nature.  They are cowards, drunks, bullies, violent, sexually deviant, and maniacal.  Driven by  pleasure (dames, booze, money, kicks) and a personal freedom which flaunts style over matter and the inability to develop any relationship of depth.  The era of noir lasting roughly from 1945-1957 gave us gritty characters, dark images, contrasting shadows and light, dialogue drowned in neorealism, moody men and women, defeated souls and charged sexuality.  They gave us black and white cool.

The noir film perhaps is best summed up by the nature of the  characters to drive themselves toward their destined defeat, either by action or non-action they inevitably lose to the overt unpredictable enigma of life.  Some noir films to see: Out of the Past, Double Indemnity, Touch of Evil, Kiss me Deadly, Detour, M, Vertigo, The Killing, Raw Deal, Somewhere in the Night, Blonde Ice, Naked Alibi, I Wake Up Screaming, The Asphalt Jungle and many others.
Some noir reading: A Girl and a Gun by David N. Meyer, Dark City by Eddie Muller, The Film Noir Reader by Alain Silver and James Ursini, and many others.
Some comic book noir: 100 bullets by Brian Azzarello, Sin City by Frank Miller, Criminal by Ed Brubaker, Cross Bronx by Michael Avon Oeming, Marvel Noir-various titles

"This is the end, my only friend, the end.  The end of laughter and soft lies, the end of nights we tried to die"- Jim Morrison

Stuntmen for life

Here is a tribute to stunt performers all over the world with some info on movies made about stunts and stuntmen and women.  Stunt players don't get (nor  do they want) the glory.  Being a young stuntman on CA stunt team shortly after this movie came out we understood and we lived like these guys lived...This is to recognize those movies made about us stuntmen and how few there are tells the story...Let's go for it!

Hooper (1978)
Well this is the best of them for many reasons (Burt Reynolds, Buddy Joe Hooker, Stunts Unlimited, Jock Mahoney, and all those stunt references).  The movie is about a stunt man named Sonny Hooper (Buddy Joe Hooker?), played by Burt Reynolds (who actually got his start as a stuntman) and how he deals with being an aging stuntman.  "if we don't watch out they will blow us right outta the water" He is referring to the new young up and coming stuntmen, one of whom is played by Jan Michael Vincent (Ski) Burt hires Ski on the movie within the movie called "The spy who laughed at danger" and the kid comes up with all these gags and gets the director, played by Robert Klein, all fired up to do stunts at any cost.  Sonny has back problems "Ive seen my x-rays they look like a map of L.A." and quits/gets fired before taking on a crazy car jump "that's 282 feet!".  Of course he returns and pulls off the stunt with Ski and saves the picture.  There are high falls, car gags, body burns and plenty of brawls to keep every stunt performer busy. There are references and nods to some names and stunt teams (Bobby Bass, Stunts Unlimited) and Brian Keith plays legendary stuntman Jock Mahoney (known in the movie as Jocko Doyle)  Directed by fellow stuntman Hal Needham this movie has it all...This short video tells the story of most stuntmen and stuntwomen who dreamed of doing stunts for a lifetime...

In 1985 a group of us stuntmen were breaking into the business anyway we could and we emulated the stuntmen in the movies and this movie was our mantra.  "Want not good times?"

Stunts (1977)
When a stuntman dies on the set his brother (also a stuntman) shows up to investigate and take on the stunts.  Two other stuntmen die before Glen Wilson, played by Robert Foster, and B.J., played by Fiona Lewis find the saboteur.  The stunts are good and performed by top stuntmen in the biz (Gary Davis, Dar Robinson)  The 70's feel and look are great and the actors portraying stunt performers speak about the bond between stuntmen and stuntwomen.  The line repeated a number times is "are we making a movie or are we making a movie?"  It speaks to the core of moviemaking and how important the film is.  The stuntmen know the risks involved and do their professional best to make the gag look real while also being as safe as possible.  However, stunts need to look dangerous so there is always an element of risk that is unavoidable.  As Robert Foster says to one stuntman before the stunt, "Sweet Luck, Charlie!"

The Stunt Man (1980) 
Directed by Richard Rush and stars Peter O'Toole and Steve Railsback.  Railsback plays a fugitive named Cameron who hides on the set of a movie as a replacement stuntman.  O'Toole palys the eccentric and possibly crazy director Eli Cross who may or may not be trying to film Camerons death.  As the stunts get more dangerous Cameron gets more paranoid (being a war veteran does not help his delusions)

Eli Cross is the an "auteur" and in film criticism, the auteur theory "holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision" (Francois Truffaut).  The plot thickens as reality and fiction are merged.  The movie had it's release problems (actually filmed in 1978, but released in 1980) and did not fare well at the box office.  The stunt co-ordinator was Gray Johnson.  the most significant stuntman was A.J. Bakunas, who would die that very year from a high fall gone bad. Some great stunts of course and a sort of surrealistic plot.


Death Proof (2007)

This one makes it because of Stuntman Mike the character played by Kurt Russell.  He is the 1970's/80's stuntman with his satin stunt jacket, turquoise jewelry and pompadour hairdo.  He tells of his credits in stunt work and has the scars to prove it (even though the young girls have never heard of any show he mentions).  His car is the machine that kills, but the character portrayed by Russell is the stuntman Tarantino envisioned for the movie.  That stuntman everyone knew who worked some and was this great character.  The stunts in the movie are all driving stunts and are some of the best ever recorded on film.  Consequently they are performed by some of the stunt greats of the 70's and 80's Buddy Joe Hooker, Terry Leornard, Tracy Dashnaw and Steve Davison.  It has the grittiness of 70's cinema and the realistic car sequences are reminiscent of such great chase films as "Vanishing Point" and "White Line Fever".  The character Stuntman Mike, not his psychotic persona, is truly a tribute to the stunt greats of decades ago.

Films de la vallée de la m

The following movies were filmed (in part) in Death Valley. Having just journeyed there i can see how the mystique and intrigue of this magical and haunting place can inspire. These movies are classics in their own right and worth seeing, if not only for the picturesque landscape. Buona visione!

Zabriskie Point- " How you get there depends on where you're at"

This film is filmed in Death Valley and Los Angeles. A very important part of the film takes place at Zabriskie Point, where our boy and girl meet and "blow their minds". Mark is a troublesome youth in revolt and not sure what stand to take. He

flees L.A. with a stolen plane after being accused of killing a cop at a student protest which turns riotous. He flies to Death Valley where he meets and makes love to Daria, a secretary who drove there for a business venture. She is a quirky, free spirit who digs and loves all things and only works to pay the way.

This film was directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and features the music of Pink Floyd and others. The explosive finale is musically enhanced by Antonio's use of slo-mo and the Pink Floyd song "Come in # 51 your time is up"

One

eyed

Jacks

This film not only stars Marlon Brando, but he directed it as well. It is the old west where bank robbing was a trade and any one with guts could where a badge. Brando plays Kid Rio, another young misguided soul who is morally confused. He is the Jack Kerouac of the west. His Neal Cassady is Dad Longworth (Karl Malden) who after leaving him for dead (at Zabriskie Point) becomes the local town sheriff. Kid Rio seeks his revenge on Longworth and falls for his step daughter, Louisa, as well. It all comes to a bloody end and the scenes between Louisa and the kid are Brando at his best.

Vanishing Point-"Thrills, spills and a handful of pills" Kowalski, our ex-lawman and driver extraordinaire, is a renegade driver transporting a car ( a souped up Dodge Challenger no less) from Denver to San Francisco. Subsequently, he drives through Death Valley and meets some hippies, including a nude motorcyclist chick. He is speeding in more ways than one as he is fueled by bennies the entire trip. He also has a radio Dj by the name of Super Soul who monitors the police band and gives him updates over the radio. This film made in 1971 is classic for it's car chases and as Super Soul reminds us "speed means freedom of the soul"

Can ya dig it?

Here's to the losers...

Here is a tribute to some of comic greatest losers...read 'em and weep:

The Wrecking Crew: Wrecker, Thunderball, Piledriver and Bulldozer

They started off with a bang by gaining Asgardian Power, but were soon defeated by Thor and ended up in jail. In their defense they break out every time, yet can never defeat the super heroes they face (Spider-man and Spider-woman, Alpha Flight,

Thor, Hercules, etc.) In addition, there is a power struggle for command of the crew between The Wrecker and Thunderball. This has them at times battling each other as well as their daily do-gooder, but as a typical bad-guy gang does they keep getting together like a dysfunctional family of sorts.

Frightful Four: Wizard, Trapster, Sandman and various others

Speaking of dysfunctional families, these guys take the cake. They began working together after a prison breakout (where all good evil relationships are fostered) and due to the obsession by Wizard to best Reed Richards, they took on the Fantastic Four. The team of three used both Medusa and Thundra as a temporary fourth member, both of whom turned on them and helped the F.F. defeat them. Since then it has been a number of different villains filling in (Brute, Electro, Llyra and others) More recently though Wizard and Trapster are the two original members while adding two replacements in their conquest to defeat the F.F. No matter, the Frightful Four always seem to find a way to screw it up and have been getting the hides handed to them by the F.F. for years on end. The good news is Wizard will never stop as he truly believes he is smarter than Reed. So, stay tuned...

Morbius: The Living Vampire

That's right he's not dead. As a Doctor with a rare blood disease, Michael Morbius, he tried to cure himself by injecting bat fluids into his body and when mixed with electroshock treatments-Morbius the living vampire was born. He lives on human blood and hates himself for it. Numerous attempts to cure his current state have been futile. He vows never to kill again, but his insatiable thirst for blood is too much to overcome. He is one sorry sucker.

Nightshade

Tilda Johnson grew up in Harlem with an aptitude for science. She accumulated knowledge in the areas of cybernetics, genetics and physics through which she created an army of werewolves. In tandem with the yellow Claw she attempted to defeat Captain America and the Falcon, but was bested and thought dead when she escaped off a high cliff to certain death. She in fact survived and went on to be defeated by Power Man and Iron Fist and Captain America again, not before turning him into CapWolf. For the latter she is hated by all comic fans and is given the ultimate loser tag.

Words to live or die by...

James Morrison, poet, singer, drunk, idol, nomad, lizard king, however you label him his words are lasting and seem to transcend time. He appeared in our lifetime to be a being without a world, as if he did not fit in here, yet his body of work (music, lyrics and poetry) speaks volumes of his intelligence and innovation as both a entertainer and a man of image. Read now some collected words spoken by the man known as "Jim"...

" The aim of the h

appening is to cure boredom, wash the eyes, make child-like reconnections with the stream of life."

" We're like actors-turned loose in this world to wander in search of a phantom ... endlessly searching for a half-forgotten shadow of our lost reality."

"No one here gets out alive."

" Sure it's possible for there to be a transcendence-but not on a mass level, not a universal rebellion. Now it has to take place on an individual level- every man for himself as they say. Save yourself."

" A hero is someone who rebels or seems to rebel against the facts of existence and seems to conquer them..."

" Love is one of the handful of devices we have to avoid the void"

"I think in art, and especially in film, that people

are trying to confirm their own existence"

"I'll tell you this, no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn"

"I am not mad. I am interested in freedom. Good Luck."

Jack Kerouac - King of the Beats... The father of a generation, a beat generation, and an inspirational maniac to many young road warriors (myself included). He was flawed, yet genius, alcoholic and innovative; he was hung up on guilt, but sinful in his ways. He was known as a "madman, bum and angel". He was the king of Beats and the master of "spontaneous prose", yet as popular as he was he died alone and rarely helped others, sans the bounty of literal work (novels, poetry, letters) he left behind. These are his words...

" There is a delicate balancing point between bombast and babble"

"But i'd gone so far to the edges of language where the babble of the subconscious begins..."

"To break through the barrier of language with words, you have to be in orbit around your mind..."

"-a vision gleaned from the way we had heard the word "beat"- meaning down and out, but full of intense conviction-"

[practice] a little solitude, going off by yourself once in a while to store up that most precious of golds: the vibrations of sincerity."

"What is it, existence- A lifelong struggle to avoid disaster. Politics, gambling, hard work, drinking, patriotism, protest, pooh-poohings, all theraputic shifts against the black void. to make you forget it really isn't there, nor you anywhere."

"When can it stop...there are men, things outside to do...the black angels, the women in bed with the beautiful arms open for you in their youth,...the big clouds of new continents, the foot tired in climes so mysterious, don't go down the hill of the other side of your life for nothing"

"Damn Cody, I'm tired of him and I'm going..."

James Dean: A Visionary Rebel

He was influential in creating pop culture. As a hollywood icon, who died shortly after only one of his movies was released, he created a following that has lasted some 40+ years. His greatest film "Rebel without a cause" was not in theaters until after the fatal car crash that took his life. The year following his death there were some 30,000 dues paying members in his fan club. His method style of acting was influential to many actors who followed suit, but his spirit touched others as well including musician Bob Dylan. He was a free spirit before the hippie revolution and he was a man of great aspiration who had his life taken away too soon. Here are his words:

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.

If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he's dead, then maybe he was a great man.

Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have.

To me, acting is the most logical way for people's neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves.

I`m not going to go through life with one arm tied behind my back.

The only greatness for man is immortality.