Thursday, 4 November 2010

Prizzi’s Honor
(1985)

80%

Subtle, sophisticated black comedy that is all too close to real life. Essentially a treatise on community loyalty, this posits the notion that criminals can never marry out of the criminal fraternity because of a conflict of loyalty. Any attempt to do so will inevitably lead to social ostracism while not marrying the one you love leads to a lonely old age.

Allied with this is the concept of trust and the inability of paid killers to trust each other sexually. This aspect of the movie is the funniest since it deals with the common issues of trust in a sexual relationship. The love that the characters feel for one another is really here nothing more than a desperate and vain attempt to overcome the quintessential lack of confidence between partners of different ethnicities and codes of values.

The performances are indifferent and never quite get to the points raised - with the sole exception of Anjelica HUSTON who enjoys the role of home-wrecker because she clearly understand it so well. Nevertheless, comedies about hit-men are rarely this good and make movies like the remake of Wild Target look like the dreck they truly are.


Copyright © 2010 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.