Blues Brothers

(1980)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://routinelyaverage.blogspot.co.uk)

Natural Sense of Rhythm

Less than the sum of its many fabulous, musical comedy parts, this is a strange product of White Hollywood. Showing Whites as both White supremacist and lacking in spontaneity & rhythm.

Here, Whites express themselves here through violence (Nazism); Blacks through music (the Blues). This latter fact explains the clear reverence for the famous Black musicians on show; concluding that Whites can only play ersatz Blues – not the real thing. (Perhaps this accounts for the expensive commercial failure of this movie & its massive cult status?)

The theme of racial harmony through music never really gets off the ground because of poor characterization and arbitrary plotting, but the high production values carry the day.

This movie contains marvelous music, a car parc worth of smashed automobiles and a psychotic “woman scorned”. What more could you possibly want?

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Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.co.uk) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

BRITAIN’S STORY:An Overview of British History

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	Book

(Image: http://www.amazon.co.uk/)

British history from a White perspective; that is, designed to avoid White guilt about the source of White, Western wealth.

Copyright © 2013 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.

Per un Pugno di Dollari (1964)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://www.film-review.it)

[Fistful of Dollars]

Marianne KOCH completely steals the show as the woman at the centre of a power struggle. Her virtually-wordless role is no impediment to her performance as she registers all the necessary emotions on her face pertaining to a faithful wife & mother forced to sleep with the film’s villain.

A stylish film that set a trend in the ailing Western genre that ultimately led to its complete downfall: It was so realistic it became increasingly difficult to separate the good from the bad - and from the ugly.

That said, this is the kind of movie Shakespeare would have written had he been a Hollywood scriptwriter – only he would have done it better. This film lacks the dramatic resonance necessary to make it a classic Western, despite its clever premise. Yet, it is a rare example of the Europeans beating the Yanks at their own game.

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Copyright © 2013 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.

Assassination of Richard Nixon

(2004)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	Cinema

(Image: http://www.lefigaro.fr/)

If the sole criterion for considering movies great were the acting’s psychological acuteness, this would be the best film ever made!

A White man without integrity spends his life stealing value from others – hence his estrangement from his wife & kids - even to claiming political kinship with Blacks. Yet, this is the usual White supremacist condescension from someone who’s never been racially-abused himself.

This man’s world collapses around him because it is built on sand; reminding us of the need for productive goals in life: His solution: Blow-up the White House!

This is a haunting description of schizophrenic alienation compounded by the belief that the world “owes me a living”; aptly complementing Richard Nixon’s well known paranoia. Ultimately, a film about personal responsibility and what can happen when you do not take it.

Copyright © 2013 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.

Go-Between (1971)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://osullivan60.blogspot.co.uk/)

A would-be clever movie about a young boy’s introduction to the adult world of sexual love. This one subtly portrays the boy’s confusion and the adult’s attempts to conceal their emotions because social-class barriers are being crossed. Socially-forbidden love and the envy of those who have never loved are the themes here.

Unfortunately, all of these themes are communicated largely through sophisticated dialogue rather than appropriate acting. It would, of course, have been almost impossible to find a twelve-year-old boy who could convey the emotional turmoil and affective confusions of someone on the cusp of puberty. That would require the psychological distance and insight of maturity - so the film suffers from thus having created a rod for its own back.

Moreover, since the film is told from the boy’s point-of-view, the passion of the two lovers concerned is never truly revealed and so never truly dramatized nor explored. An implicit social context is never enough for true dramatic impact - some details must be made explicit. Watching this movie is a bit like real life where most people conceal their true feelings for one another. However, therein lies a crucial difference between melodrama and real life since drama requires the manifestation of emotions to be effective.

That said, the acting is exceptional and stylish - from an exceptional British cast - and tries its best to overcome these quite serious dramaturgical flaws. It needs to be since this movie is a character-driven affair - not a plot-driven one

Copyright © 2012 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.

Gettysburg

(1993)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.allmovie.com)

Superior historical movie that concentrates on facts and figures and detail rather than overheated melodrama. The writing is excellent and the characterization and acting better - from all the performers: A living history lesson offering an accurate view of the events depicted; while being highly entertaining.

However, this lengthy drama - that informs, educates & entertains - tries to mythologize US history by failing to mention Abraham Lincoln’s White supremacy and the absurd claim that the US Civil War was fought to free slaves.

We see both sides’ attitudes in a war where the US both wins and loses: The Confederates demanding independence from foreign oppression; the Federals using Abolitionism to hide its real agenda of fighting anti-secessionist, Lincolnite tyranny.

(The US is a members’ club from which you cannot resign.) This fight for States’ Rights is analogous to the European Union’s (EU’s) current amalgamating denial of them to EU members via European Directives; the difference being member states voluntarily allow such usurpations.

White Americans refuse to see that the American Civil War was an anti-secessionist conflict, not one about freeing slaves orchestrated by the White supremacist tyrant Abraham Lincoln. In this it is very much as obfuscatory as Glory in pretending that White supremacism is synonymous with slavery - abolish the latter and the former will magically disappear.

There is also the political problem of the unfortunate tendency to see the officers’ contribution to war as somehow more important than that of the enlisted men – a peculiar and ironic fact given that this movie details a battle allegedly fought for republican freedoms and meritocracy.

But apart from this dearth of both political candor and not-enough historical accuracy, the film accurately depicts the desperate and often hand-to-hand nature of all civil wars when the opposing sides share so many cultural values that conflict then seems at its most arbitrary and pointless.

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.

In a Lonely Place (1950)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.mrmovietimes.com)

Film about a woman attracted to violent men - ostensibly because she wants to help them but really because she wants to run away from her own personal demons. But is her lover a serial killer?

Humphrey BOGART is the ultimate interesting-faced actor since, despite the fact that he is not the greatest-looking guy in the history of cinema, he usually gets the best-looking and most adoring women. This is no mere wishful-thinking for ugly males, but the result of his undeniable star charisma that is seen here to best effect as an example of untamable-yet-attractive. BOGART is also excellent at playing the kind of social misfit he depicts here.

This is a compelling film about the kind of loneliness coming purely from within; making the central neurotic love-story believable. BOGART is in fine form as the angry, middle-aged writer who cannot control his nasty temper and so rages at the world for leaving him in his lonely place even though his living there is really his own responsibility.

The script is also a clever indictment of the kind of film it could have been if it had been faithful to the source novel. It self-reflexively comments on the poor quality of the original book by having a writer trying to adapt a trashy novel into a screenplay and then loudly (in the dialogue) criticizing anyone whom would do such a thing. A rare example of a movie that is better than the book since it has more to say than the original.

The film’s problem is Gloria GRAHAME’s character who is a largely unexplored woman-who-might-be-in-peril. In a former century, this would have been the story of a painter and his naked muse who, albeit briefly, provides him with a reason to live, to love and to paint.

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Copyright © 2012 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.

Faute a Fidel

(2006)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.listal.com/)

[Blame it on Fidel]

Excellent story of political and personal ontogeny. We see a child lost in an adult world whose politics she barely understands from her overheard polysyllables - repeated wrongly. This tale is told in the first person from the little girl’s point of view – excellently played by Nina KERVEL.

She has an unstable upbringing from parents because they suddenly decide to become committed communists. Yet she experiences many cultures from this shock to her comfortable lifestyle and learns - slowly-but-surely - about the third-person world outside her own head being somewhat more interesting than guilt ridden, bourgeois provincialism.

Ultimately a film about the value of diversity.

Copyright © 2013 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.

Voyna i Mir (1967)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://torrentbutler.eu)

[War & Peace]

True to both the spirit and length of the original, every aspect of this movie comes together to produce a unified and sublime whole: Every frame glues itself to the eyes.

Replete with visual analogues for Tolstoy’s writing, the music & sound design are also used to reveal character. The acting is rather mannered to emphasize the contrast between the elegance of those who do not face combat and those who do. The battles are shot subjectively throughout, yet remain epic to show that the glory hounds, in particular, (with little to live for) desperately seek something to die for.

Soviet cinema produced (like today’s Hollywood) little of esthetic value, but here is a very notable exception. The sad thing about an epic this grand is that no one today could possibly afford to do anything like this ever again, on such a fantastic scale.

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Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.co.uk) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Bank Job

(2008)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(www.noiroftheweek.com)

Intriguing look at how White Western governments really work to protect their shameful sex and race secrets from the light of day - and of how Whites, themselves, imagine that they do. The political aspect most focused on here is that behind the façade of White English emotional repression and politesse lies sexual perversion and erotic self-indulgence.

The breathless style and pace of this movie is designed to compensate for the politically-rich but emotionally-meagre script - but it is still all good fun for that - as well as for the contempt of the UK Royal family as an institution.

Even so, the handbags at dawn combat between Saffron BURROWS and Georgia TAYLOR over the hero is well-acted and believable, as is the emotional retardation of those who seek shelter from their fear of change via theft, intimidation & murder.

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Copyright © 2013 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.

One False Move (1991)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.aveleyman.com/)

Subtle character-study of a crime drama that slowly insinuates itself into your emotions to devastating dramatic effect.

Underneath all the police procedural there are sophisticated analyses of White supremacy and ethnic-minority realism and of both of these as sources of a cultural identity thought to be needed for survival by the former while actually needed only by the latter.

Because no White can prove they actually are white, White supremacism has to do the job the biological sciences cannot. This unstable source of White pride requires a repression of the emotions such that activities like miscegenation are frowned upon in case such pride is seen as being nothing more than the product of cultural, political and personal insecurity. The invented phenotypal difference created by Whites leads to the kinds of inter- and intra-personal tensions explored by this movie.

Everyone, without exception, acquits themselves very well here in their performances; contributing to the slow-burn Southern Gothic atmosphere.

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.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)

RATING:	40%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.allmovie.com/)

Well-off Whites whining about how unhappy they are is never edifying. And it is a pity that Caucasians never examine in detail why they should choose to be as cultureless as they are represented here - that would make for far better drama than this weak excuse for a movie.

Copyright © 2013 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.

Lincoln

(2012)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.wallpaperswala.com/)

The usual White supremacist claptrap about how Freedom is something for Whites to give Blacks – even though Racial Slavery was never legal - as if it were, therefore, something Whites could ever deny them. This White arrogance is designed to make it look like Whites are better than Blacks (although this alleged superiority is only ever based on Whites’ self obsessive, military backed, political power – the only means of enforcing Slavery, in the first place.)

Here, Whites still need to establish themselves as something special – above and beyond those non Whites they look down their noses at – even though history tells a somewhat different story of 500 years of ongoing White imperial bestiality: Rape, Murder & Theft.

What we have here is two groups of White supremacists – Democrat & Republican – deciding what is politically best for the USA, without reference to ethics. How to avoid the high costs of Slavery while keeping Blacks in an inferior social position. All without any reference to the fact that individual States could secede if they wished to but Lincoln, the tyrant who wanted to keep Southern States in bondage to the North, dictatorially decided to wage war against those who wanted to leave the Union of their own free will; one form of slavery supplanting another. Nor any discussion of the inherent flaw in first-past-the-post democracy in that Whites will pass laws to ensure they are in the majority (eg, denying suffrage to non Whites, restrictive immigration, anti miscegenation laws, etc), to make it easier for them to oppress minorities; eg, Ethics & Politics can never mix.

Here the movie does well at showing how greedy Whites are at abolishing Slavery for their own economic benefit since, apart from anything else, States divided will not be good trading partners.

The idea that Whites would kill each other to free Blacks is ludicrous – the film contradicts its own premise by showing how White supremacist White culture is. But Whites would kill each other over the economic downside of Slavery; eg, White unemployment caused by Blacks not being able to demand wages or industrialization making slaves an unnecessary hindrance to technological progress.

The movie fails to show that Lincoln was the classic Machiavellian politician by presenting him a Christ like teller of parables. There is no reference to Lincoln’s White supremacy in order to muddy the waters about the great difference between Racial Slavery and White supremacy by pretending that abolishing the former is identical with abolishing the latter. There is no reflection on the fact that Whites face a constant internal conflict between saying Slavery is bad; while being just as determined to preserve the benefits of same.

Here are Whites struggling to come to terms with the endemic hypocrisy of White culture and, largely, failing. This explains why there is no mention of the fact that Civil Rights for Blacks did not arrive in the US until 1968; while admitting Whites will never share the stolen wealth of the US with non Whites.

This movie is proof, if ever it were needed, that it was far easier for Whites to abolish Racial Slavery than it will ever be for them to abolish White supremacy. This inability explains why Whites love nostalgic trips down Memory Lane, like this one, to ease their present day guilt and shame at the failure of White culture to produce true civilization: A typically-cowardly renegotiation with a guilt ridden past.

It is inevitably hard for Whites to be honest about their own brutish history, but at least this politically unsophisticated attempt to propagandize for Whites (when the reality of Whiteness is the opposite of what is ahistorically shown here) is a little easier to sit through than the execrable for the same reasons Amistad.

Copyright © 2013 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.

Testament du Docteur Cordelier

(1959)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://www.rottentomatoes.com)

[Experiment in Evil;
Doctor’s Horrible Experiment;
Testament of Dr Cordelier]

Jean-Louis BARRAULT is brilliant here while everyone else is either over- or underacting. A crudely-made tv-movie with the same fascinating premise as Shelley’s Frankenstein and Stevenson’s Jekyll & Hyde. Its comic treatment of a child molester brings a whole new dimension to the tired story-line in his being shown as a clown in outsize clothes.

Ultimately, an updated (if rather meandering) attack on science as a panacea to very human, millennial problems (the search for a drug that can cure evil) and the idea that science can replace religion - both without the inevitable political consequences. The scientist here forgets that drugs cannot permanently control free will; while the film propounds what we secretly believe: Civilization is a control-freaks’ veneer covering unresolved emotional hang-ups.

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Copyright © 2013 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.