_g FILM LIST
JOHN BOORMAN: MYTHSAND THE MODERN WORLD
A John Boorman film will always be something more than the viewer might expect. Throughout his career he has always sought to expand upon our conceptions of what any genre should be, in a number of astonishingly diverse lilms ranging from Point Blank (gangstertlick). Deliverance (adventure tale), Zardoz (sci-ti), to Excalibur (historical epic) and The Emerald Forest (a western in the Amazon jungle). As is usually the case with any groundbreaking artist. he has occasionally met with critical brickbats, so it's nice to see that Glasgow GFT are devoting a special one-day event to his work on Saturday 5 April, including three oi his films and a special lecture.
Throughout Boorman‘s work there remain two massive influences, which he himsell readily acknowledges in Michel Ciment's recent study of his career; ‘I was trying to interpret the Arthurian legend in orderto understand the spell it had cast over me, and it was Jung who enabled me to comprehend the power and importance of myth.‘ Thus, in all of his lilms the action takes thelorm, like the Arthurian search for the Grail, at a quest for knowledge: from Lee Marvin in Point Blank trying to lind out just who runs ‘The Organisation‘, to Powers Boothe as the father looking for his lost son in The Emerald Forest, the desire for greater knowledge is one of the basic patterns which evolve from our unconscious. For Boorman, the cinema itself is a means by which an audience sharing a vision can reach back into the collective unconsciousness for such
Edinburgh: .ABC. Glasgow ABC (Clarkston Road). ABC (Sauchiehall Street). Grosvenor. Rio. I.othian; ABC. Strathelyde; ABC Greenoek. ABC Kilmarnock. ()deon Hamilton.
0 Commando ( l8) (MarkJ. Lester. US. 1985) Arnold Schwarzenegger. Rae Dawn Chong. 911 mins. When his beloved daughter Jenny is kidnapped as a blackmail gambit to secure his services retired colonel Schwarzenegger springs back into action.
A pure action adventure told with zest and the saving grace ofgallows humour.
Iidinburgh‘. Dominion. ()deon. Glasgow; Cinema. ()deon. Rio. Salon. l.othian; Regal. Strathclyde: Kelburne. ()deon Ayr. ()deon Ilantilton. Rialto.
o Deliverance ( 18) (John Boorman. US. 1972) Burt Reynolds. Jon V’oight. Ned Beatty. 109 mins. Four city-dwellers on a weekend canoeing trip in the Appalachians encounter disaster when they are confronted by local hill-billies. and the river proves more than they can handle. A thrilling action movie and a lucid expose of the veneer ofcivilised harmony modern society has painted over man‘s essentially savage
existence. this is Boorman's finest
hour and rewards viewing after
\ viewing. (See panel). Glasgow; GFI‘
261nm l\1-l l" \pt‘il
myths which enable us to make sense orourexpenence.
Yet. this obsession with a-historical myth is tused with a profound concern with contemporary questions and problems. In a number of his films he attempts to dissect the chaos at modern Western society: Point Blank portrays the powerlessness ot the individual to exert any influence over the impenetrable forces of control; Deliverance shows our so-called civilised society as merely a false decoration over the elemental struggles which form the basis of man’s existence; and Zardoz is an allegorical table portraying the destructiveness of organised religion and a coldly rationalising sensibility. Recently, The Emerald Forest has declaimed the West’s ecological
0 Finally Sunday (PG) (Francois 'I‘ruffault. France. 1983) Fanny Ardant.Jean~lx)uis 'I‘rintignant. 111 mins. A real estate agent accused of murdering his wife goes into hiding and has his secretary establish his innocence. Truffault's last film is at once a parody of and homage to the Hitchcockian thriller Edinburgh; EU Filmsoc o GremlinS( 15) (.Ioe Dante. US. 1984) Zach Galligan. Phoebe Cates. 106 mins. Cuddly little mogwais become malevolent monsters if not properly cared for and wreak havoc in an idealised srnalltown America. Glasgow; Grosvenor 0 Kiss of the Splderwoman (15) (Hector Babenco. Brazil—US. 1985) William Hurt. Raul Julia. Sonia Braga. 121 mins. 'I‘wo menshare a prison cell, victims. in their differing ways. of an unspecified fascist regime. One is a flamboyant homosexual. the other a macho revolutionary. The pain oftheir confinement ultimately brings mutual understanding. love and a moving exchange of roles.Glasgow; GFF 0 Legend (PG) (Ridley Scott. UK. 1985) Tom Cruise. Mia Sara. 94 mins. Wildly self-indulgent fairy tale in which good and evil clash once more. Lothian; ABC. Regal. o Letterto Brezhnev( 15) (Chris | Bernard. UK. 1985) Peter Firth.
0 CINEMA 'I’IMIiS AND DA'I‘ILS
exploitation of the globe’s still-unspoilt areas, and depicts the primitive Indian tribes as more in harmony with their environment than modern urban man.
Very often, the triumph of Boorman‘s films is that they also work as tightly controlled narratives and can be enjoyed on that level alone. There is however, so much more to be appreciated, and John Brown of the Scottish Film Council will be giving a talk on Boorman's work at 10.30am on Saturday 5 April at the GFT, Rose Street. followed by a screening of Point Blank. All tickets sold will be entered in a rattle to win a copy of Michel Ciment's sumptuous book (reviewed in the Backlist section this issue) worth £25. The afternoon sees a double-bill ot Deliverance and Zardoz. See you there. (TrevorJohnston )
Margi Clarke. Alexandra Pigg. 95 mins. Lively Liverpudlian comedy romance in which two scallies paint the town red with a couple of Soviet sailors. Edinburgh; Dominion
o The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (U) (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. UK. 1943) Roger Livesey. Deborah Kerr. Anton Walbrook. 163 mins. Clive Wynne-Candy embodies all the vitues ofan old-world Englishman and can legitimately claim to be honest. decent and true. In a 1942 Home Guard exercise his generation are outwitted by a pack ofcheaters forcing him to reflect on his life and times.
As played by Livesey. Candy is a sympathetic cove intent on honour and evenhandedness. befriending a German officer. and Deborah Kerr has never been more ravishineg photographed than as the three loves ofhis life. Exhilarating. imaginative and beguiling story spinning. Glasgow: GF'I‘
0 Mad Max— Beyond Thunderdome (15) (George Miller and George ()gilvie. Australia. 1985) Mel Gibson. 'I'ina 'I‘urner. 107 mins. Max is hailed as a new Messiah by a group ot‘children and faces the challenge of 'I‘ina's controller of Bartertown in this overblown. eccentric
disappointment. Glasgow;(irosvcnor ‘
0 Mad Max 2( 18) (George Miller.
PAGIF. 390
‘ strip exuberance. the highpoint of the series. Glasgow: Grosvenor
Australia. 1981) Mel Gibson. Bruce Spence. 95 mins. This time Max is the champion of a band of oil-owning pioneers in the desert. besieged by marauding. merciless bikers. A breath-taking. action—packed comic
o The Mouse and His Child (U) )Fred Wolf. (.‘huck Swenson. US. 1976) With the voices of Peter Ustinov. Andy Devine and Sally Kellerman. 82 mins. Reputedly tedious and talkative animated feature : Edinburgh: Filmhouse o The Muppets Take Manhattan (U) to (Frank ()2. US. 1984) Guest stars include Gregory Hines. Liza Minelli andJoan Rivers. 94mins.
Amiable. good-humoured Muppet l feature that will be appreciated by afieirmados. Edinburgh: Filmhouse O 1919 (Hugh Brody. UK. 1984)
Paul Scofield. Maria Schell. 99 mins In the Vienna of 1971) two former patients of Freud meet for the first time and reminisce about their childhoods and consultations with
the great man in 1919. Glasgow; GET. 0 Out otAtrica (PG) (Sydney Pollack. US. 1985) Meryl Streep. Robert Redford. Klaus Maria Brandauer.
A carefully measured tragic romance suffused with images of awe-inspiring beauty and topped by another flawless performance from Streep. Edinburgh; ABC. Glasgow; ABC (Sauchiehall Street).
0 Paris Texas ( 15) (Wim Wenders. US—W Germany. 1984) Harry Dean Stanton. Nastassja Kinski. Hunter A Carson. 144 The coolly dislocating visual sense of Wim Wenders combines with Sam Shepard‘s version of America‘s desolate and seedy heartlands to produce a fine story ofpersonal alienation. Edinburgh; Filmhouse 0 Phar Lap (PG) (Simon Wincer. australia. 1983)'I‘om Burlinson. Judy Morris. 1117 mitts. Conventionally told tale ofthe famed Australian racehorse who suddenly and mysteriously died in 1932. The animal kingdom‘s Chariot ofFire. Strathclyde. ()deon Ayr 0 Planet ot the Apes (PG) (Franklin J. Shaffner. US. 1968) Charlton Heston. Roddy McDowell. Kim Hunter. 119 mins. Astronauts land on a distant planet where intelligent apes rule over bestial men. but it turns out they have returned to the Earth ofthe future. Super ape make—up in thisthoughtful and I exciting sci-fi adventure with a t brilliantly handled climax. ()ne of the very best ofits kind. Glasgow: GFF 0 Point Blank ( 18) (John Boorman. US. 1967) Lee Marvin. Angie Dickinson. John Vernon. 92 mins. Boorman‘s breakthrough film is one of the bleakest thrillers ever to come out of Hollywood in its portrayal ofa corrupt and spiritually empty society , where the individual counts for nothing. Cold. dry. memorable. Glasgow: GF'I‘ , 0 Police Academy( 15) (Hugh Brody. US. 1984) Steve Guttenberg. Bubba Smith. 96 mins. Witless vulgarisation ofthe Keystone Kops for the Animal !
House generation. Glasgow; I