Wednesday, 19 January 2011

Hard Way
(1991)

RATING: 80%



Clever, self-reflexive policier that scores its points by being the very thing it parodies - yet it gets away with it. The usual odd-couple buddy movie cliches are rolled out while simultaneously being satirized. One actor pretends to be a cop while the other pretends to be an actor trying to learn from the former about how to portray a cop on screen. A brilliantly-acted movie that is also very funny because, rather than being half as funny, it is twice as funny as it hints at what really goes on in the minds of Method actors as they try to convince the public that they are what they are not.

Eventually the simulated reality of this movie comes to resemble the films the actor here regularly appears in; while realizing that reality is tougher than the silver screen. Here, comedy replaces suspense because we have seen this all before - and it works.

The romantic side of the movie is less than convincing and films about films are usually self-indulgent attempts evade the fact that a particular format or genre is tired out, but this is a helluva lot of fun.


Copyright © 2011 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.