new jack city is a 1991 american action gangster film based upon an original story and screenplay by thomas lee wright , and directed by mario van peebles in his directorial debut , who also co-stars in the film .

the film stars wesley snipes , ice-t , allen payne , chris rock , mario van peebles and judd nelson .

the film was released in the united states on march 8 , 1991 .

wesley snipes plays nino brown , a rising drug dealer and crime lord in new york city during the crack epidemic .

ice-t plays scotty appleton , a detective who vows to stop nino 's criminal activity by going undercover to work for nino 's gang .

new jack city

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if you want to answer the questions ,
who starred in the movie new jack city ?
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this cast list of who was in new jack city includes both lead and minor roles . ( 16 items )
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ice - t said he’s open to filming part two of his iconic film “new jack city” and as well as 90s hit show “new york undercover . ”
van peebles’ angle paid off in a big way . released on march 8 , 1991 , “new jack city” was based on
twenty - five years ago today , ‘new jack city’ was released in theaters after premiering at the sundance film festival months earlier .
new jack city cast list , listed alphabetically with photos when available . this list of new jack city actors includes any new jack city actresses and all other actors from the film . you can view trivia about each new jack city actor on this list , such as when and where they were born . to find out more about a particular actor or actress , click on their name and you ' ll be taken to a page with even more details about their acting career . the cast members of new jack city have been in many other movies , so use this list as a starting point to find actors or actresses that you may not be familiar with .
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new jack city received mostly positive reviews from critics and audiences . on rotten tomatoes , 76 % of the critics gave the film positive reviews .
5 . ice t was lukewarm on the idea of playing an undercover new york city cop .
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sweeney , liam and roger schonfeld .
diversity and inclusion in new york city’s cultural sector : bric .
stream music from the motion picture new jack city [ explicit ] by various artists and tens of millions of songs on all your devices with amazon music unlimited . exclusively for prime members . new subscribers only . terms apply .
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brilliant soundtrack that is a true time capsule of the new jack swing movement of the late 80s and early 90s .
prior to its march 8 , 1991 premiere , “new jack city” graced the silver screen at the sundance film festival on january 17 , 1991 . the strong debut garnered plenty of buzz .
’s 1987 village voice story , “kids killing kids : new jack city eats its young , ” which focused o the rise of prominent late ‘80s crack cocaine gangs like the chambers brothers .
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sweeney , liam , and roger c . schonfeld .
diversity and inclusion in new york city’s cultural sector : bric .
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with so many layers to its madness , revolt took a trip back to the carter to uncover some of the many notable gems from the brilliantly written and perfectly portrayed masterpiece , “new jack city . ”
new jack swing megamix vol . 1 by dj dark kent ( en vogue , jade , janet , bbd , tlc . .
chideya : now i want to ask you more about rappers - turned - actors in a second . but first , let ' s talk a little bit about
new jack city
and the whole hip - hop cinema . there were not a lot of hip - hop - themed movies that had come out , or hip - hop generation movies that had come out when
new jack city
. . .
filmed during one of the most exciting eras in music with the bloom of new jack swing and hip - hop “new jack city” was built over a foundation of music . in addition to its star - studded soundtrack , the film itself featured various cameos and performances from acts such as keith sweat , guy , troop , levert , flavor flav ,
while he has a string of acting and directing credits , van peebles’ work on “new jack city” ranks as one of his best efforts , considering the eclectic ensemble he brought together to make the film one that fans hold in high regard .
but , from the first time i heard it , ice - t ' s “new jack hustler ( nino ' s theme ) ” was utterly gripping .
ice - t looks back at ' new jack city ' rapper and actor ice - t , one of the pioneers of the
gangsta rap
genre , now has a regular role as an undercover cop on the nbc crime drama law and order . born tracy marrow , the rapper got his big acting break in the film new jack city . he talks about his acting career and the film ' s 15th - anniversary release . note : segment contains language some may find offensive .
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peebles played detective stone in the film , and after doing new jack city , his career pretty much continued on strong . his most recent work includes the movie we own the party , all things fall apart and a guest appearance on the show “nashville . ”
the jack straw new media gallery , located in seattle ' s university district at jack straw productions , opened in 1999 to support artists working with visual and installation art , with an emphasis on sound . click here to listen to our new media gallery artist podcasts and learn more about the gallery , the residency program , and previous artists .
while the movie world is populated with gangster tales , van peebles took a different turn by bringing the effects of drugs on its victims to forefront . as a result , the actor - filmmaker felt like he had “something explosive” on his hands with “new jack city . ”
just as cool and topical today as when it first opened , new jack city stars wesley snipes as the angel - of - death crack kingpin who holds a city in his grasp . ice t , judd nelson and mario van peebles ( who also directs ) play police officers who lay it all on the line . chris rock and vanessa a . williams co - star .
roger c . schonfeld and liam sweeney , “diversity in the new york city department of cultural affairs community , ” ithaka s + r . january 28 , 2016 , urltoken . ↑
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he then recalled how much he made from his role in new jack city , which also featured contributions from wesley snipes as drug kingpin nino brown and chris rock as crack addict benny “pookie” robinson .
i got paid scale , so for new jack city i made about $ 25 , 000 for the whole movie , ” he said .
the movie made like $ 67 million , but by now , it’s probably closer to $ 80 million bucks . that was my first lesson in hollywood . how could i negotiate ? i was never in a film .
cliche - ridden , sloppy piece of work . the public who hadn ' t seen the film worried that it was pro - drug and encouraged gang warfare . ironically , new jack city is preachy to a fault , letting the story stall often to mandate its anti - drug message .
new jack hustler ( nino ' s theme ) written by ice - t produced by d . j . aladdin and ice - t performed by ice - t courtesy of sire records company
’ ruthless drug kingpin nino brown . to hear van peebles tell it , a squad of new jack cops was needed for the job . a group that reflected the community they served .
hard to believe , but it ' s been 15 years since
new jack city
hit the movie theaters . mario van peebles ' hip - hop melodrama turned wesley snipes and rapper - turned - actor ice - t into movie stars . these days , ice - t is a regular on nbc ' s
law & order : special victims unit ,
but he ' s also helping mark the anniversary of the film that placed him on hollywood ' s radar . he spoke with npr ' s farai chideya about how he landed a major role in
new jack city .
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like the movie , the “new jack city” soundtrack followed suit with an eight - week stint at no . 1 on the top r & b albums albums chart as well as reaching no . 2 on the billboard top 200 with hits such as williams’ “i’m dreaming” and color me badd’s “i wanna sex you up , ” and levert and troop’s queen latifah - assisted “for the love of money / living for the city . ”
one of the bigger - budgeted films , mario van peebles ' s new jack city , attracted lots of publicity upon release due to rioting at theatres where it screened . this gave the movie an aura of provocativeness that the publicists could never have dreamed of , especially for what is , in the end , a
major labels and the nation at large , who ' d previously ignored to new orleans .
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the late 1980s and early 1990s were tough years for some parts of america . drugs , police brutality , and poverty combined to form a recipe for disaster , and it was in that environment that new jack city hit theaters on march 8 , 1991 . a reflection of the times but also a cautionary tale for poor people in urban communities , the film is regarded as one of the most gritty and real films about drugs and violence ever made . for better or worse , characters like nino brown have become iconic symbols of pop culture . on the occasion of new jack city ’s 25th anniversary , here are 10 facts about the influential film .
jack straw cultural center gratefully acknowledges city of seattle office of arts and culture , 4culture king county lodging tax fund , washington state arts commission , the national endowment for the arts , artsfund , media sponsor kuow , and individual contributors for their support of jack straw artist programs . this exhibition funded in part by a tech specific grant from 4culture .
new jack city is a 1991 american crime - drama film directed by mario van peebles ( making his directional debut ) . it stars wesley snipes as nino brown , ice - t as scotty appleton , chris rock as pookie , judd nelson as nick percetti , mario van peebles as stone , and allen payne as gee money .
3 . shakur’s new york trial for sexual assault was arguably the first rap celebrity court case .
jack and meg divorced in 2000 . in 2007 , the white stripes , on tour , abruptly cancelled eighteen dates , saying that meg was suffering from “acute anxiety . ” they never toured again . for years , jack was crestfallen .
an earlier version of this passage incorrectly indicated that hamtramck is a neighborhood of detroit ; it is itself incorporated as a city .
ice - t : well , the role - - i played a character called scotty appleton and he was supposed to have been a ` new jack ' cop , a cop that kind of went against the grain .
in 1939 , jack kerouac left lowell for new york city , for horace mann school for boys , from which he graduated to columbia college . in going to new york , he was being true to the persons who triangulated his life : leo , mémêre , gerard . his immediate vehicle was a football scholarship ; his lure , the bright lights , the glamour ; his underlying , unarticulated motive , the search for the knowing but shrouded brother .
“it’s been talked about , ” he said of filming a sequel . “a new jack two has been talked about . a new york undercover sequel has been talked about ( too ) . maybe i could be captain over there . you never know . you just gotta stay around and the game will come to you . ”
the narrator of the song , be it ice - t or wesley snipes ' nino brown — a confusing point , since ice - t had cultivated his own gangsta image and the song also appears on his album “o . g . original gangster , ” even though ice - t actually plays a cop in “new jack city” — isn ' t receptive .
liam and noel gallagher of oasis , at manchester city ' s maine road stadium in 1995 . photograph : kevin cummins / getty images
new jack city came on vh1 recently , and i was engrossed in it as though i was watching the film for the very first time . i think a lot of people feel that way about the film , because it was just that entertaining . watching it for the umpteenth time made me wonder : where has the cast gone ? where are they now ?
despite its preachiness , we all know new jack city is making the right statement on drugs , racism , the system , etc . but the fact is it ' s not very good . if it had come out a few years ago , perhaps it would have been a revelation . but in comparison to do the right thing and boyz n the hood it seems
jack conklin kisses his 4 - month - old daughter riley at training camp last week . ( mark zaleski | ap photo )
noel gallagher plays his union jack guitar : ' the sense of little england loomed large ' . photograph : patrick ford / redferns
the stuttering cmb enforcer ( his name in the film was literally duh duh duh man ) in new jack city , we saw nunn in a whole different way compared to his past characters . these days , nunn is more selective in his roles . he played a principal in won’t back down with viola davis , and was just in a tv series called “sirens . ”
just months after the release of
new jack city ,
wesley snipes starred in the romantic drama ,
jungle fever .
his character , flipper , is the total opposite of nino brown , and if anything , it’s a testament to snipes’ ability as an actor . unfortunately for flipper , his brother gator is a junkie in the height of the crack epidemic .
gh to expand the label ' s presence beyond new orleans . for their part , the departing artists allege
four inner - city teenagers get caught up in the pursuit of power and happiness , which they refer to as
the juice
.
but , in fact , it ' s grounded in reality . the actual new york drug fortresses are a potentially wonderful setting for a contemporary thriller . some other thriller , however . not
new jack city ,
which gets bogged down in so many archetypal plot maneuvers and degenerates into such narrative chaos that it wastes the talent of a promising young director ( actor mario van peebles ) , an ingenious cinematographer ( francis kenny , of
heathers
) and a terrific leading man ( wesley snipes ) .
the singer was pretty hot in the ’90s , and he played smooth bank teller - turned gang member kareem akbar in new jack city . since then , he’s been in film projects here and there , but his most recent tv work had everyone talking . williams was a guest star on last season’s “real housewives of atlanta” where his relationship ( and his teeth it seems ) were put on blast .
as she interrupted the play , fellow blogger and conspiracy theorist jack posobiec filmed the disturbance while screaming “goebbels would be proud” at the audience .
“one of the things that i remember is when the producers and i talked about in a movie where there are cops , where it’s not only a new jack gangster , but a new jack cop . what would that world look like because in the parallel universe , the police commissioner was often portrayed in film , up until then , as the black guy , sort of past his sexual prime and he wasn’t on the forefront of the action , ” said van peebles , who also starred in “new jack city” as stone , the leader of the police unit that put an end to nino and his cash money brothers ( cmb ) . “he wasn’t the sexy cop . he was the one that said to the guy that got to shoot his gun and save the girl , “do it by the book or i’ma have your ass , ” in regards to that police commissioner who was the black dude .
while the song is dubbed “nino ' s theme , ” its fullest use in mario van peebles ' dated , but still visceral - and - vital , box office smash is in a chase scene with ice - t ' s character in pursuit of chris rock ' s pookie as the young crackhead flees on a bike as the detective pursues him on foot across a park , down steps and through alleys . although it ' s a song with a narrative that matched the movie , it ' s a scene that makes use of the beats and ice - t ' s syncopated delivery rather than any of the specific words . wesley snipes is the best part of “new jack city , ” but this is the best scene of “new jack city” that doesn ' t feature the future action star and tax evader .
known for his hardcore gangster raps , and two appearances in breakin’ and breakin’ 2 , ice - t’s first major acting role was as detective scotty appleton in
new jack city .
ice would further this plane of his career with appearances in the film
trespass ,
and on the popular police procedural new york undercover ( even killing new jack co - star michael michele on the program ) before landing a role on law & order : special victims unit . since his 2000 debut as fin tutuola , ice’s seasoned detective has become a mainstay in the law & order universe and one of the series’ most popular characters in its seventeen - season run . ice - t’s come a long way from “6 in the morning , police at my door , fresh adidas squeak across the bathroom floor . ”
it was a time that there was a new gangster in . . . . . . . . . see more »
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but what happened was , his mentor robin harris died [ in march of 1990 ] . martin , he didn’t take it well . so he opted out of the movie , ” added cooper . “he stepped out of the movie , and that’s when they gave the role to chris rock . so when people talk about that “new jack city” [ “suspicious minds” ] episode on martin , he never forgot that movie , man ! ”
rapper and actor ice - t , one of the pioneers of the
gangsta rap
genre , now has a regular role as an undercover cop on the nbc crime drama law and order . born tracy marrow , the rapper got his big acting break in the film new jack city . he talks about his acting career and the film ' s 15th - anniversary release . note : segment contains language some may find offensive .
where survival depends on friends , trust and power . . . an organized crime family out to run this city is up against cops who knows its streets .
in the 25 years since its release , “new jack city” has ingrained itself in pop culture , the most notable example being lil wayne naming his classic series of albums named the nino’s base of operations the carter and taking the nickname lil’ nino . taking things a step further , the movie’s cash money brothers served as the inspiration for cash money records co - founders bryan “birdman” williams and ronald “slim” williams naming their label after the collective .
cobbs played an old man who lived in the carter , which is where the cmb took over to do their drug dealings . feeling as though brown would get to roam free to create nonstop chaos , cobbs’ character eventually guns down brown at the end of the movie as they both exit a courtroom . cobbs , now 80 , has worked consistently since new jack city . he just completed night at the museum : secret of the tomb .
nino brown , a drug crime lord , is rising up the ranks of new york city ' s crime due to selling the ultimate cash crop ; crack . now , two street - wise detectives are assigned to bring down nino and shut down his drug operations by infiltrating his gang units .
in another movie , this moment might look like simple cinematic tricksmanship . in “new jack city , ” it has a special impact , because this ambitious film aims to be a similar record of the rise and fall of a big drug business . the movie was advertised ( no doubt wisely ) as a slam - bang action adventure , but in fact it ' s a serious , smart film with an impact that lingers after the lights go up .
buyer : jack osbournelocation : studio city , calif . price : $ 3 , 200 , 000size : 5 , 614 square feet , 5 bedrooms , 6 . 5 bathrooms your mama’s notes : in late may , rock ‘n’ roll scion and budding television and documentary producer jack osbourne sold his refurbished 1920s spanish - style abode in l . a . ’s celeb - saturated los feliz area for $ 3 . 2 million and , we first heard from gossip juggernaut tmz , [ … ]
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in the new york city of the early ' 90s , crack kingpin nino brown ( wesley snipes ) takes over a housing project and transforms it into a fortress - like crack house , he and his gang , the cash money brothers , ply their trade with total impunity , killing all who oppose them .
the rap comedy flick focused on a group of wannabe rappers , played by chris rock and allen payne . the pair play best friends in the movie but if you’re feeling trivial , you’ll know that payne’s character as gee money in new jack city discovers that pookie is an informant for the police and ultimately kills him . rock’s character albert compares the character of gusto to nino brown . in addition to the casting , rock re - enacted the sequence that featured pookie relapsing and getting high .
new jack city
( citywide ) is a modern gangster thriller about the crack cocaine trade in contemporary manhattan . much of it is set in a harlem housing project taken over by the youthful dealers , who turn it into a nightmare fortress and drug factory . this part of the plot seems the wildest and most extravagant of inventions ; the fortress itself , honeycombed with dark passages , armed lookouts , tv monitors and writhing addicts , almost like something out of
the twilight zone .
in 1991 , “new jack city” hit theaters and , well , nothing was the same . other than turning the table on america and reminding everyone how it eats its young , the film shattered expectations and mended a gem that continues to stand the test of time . wesley snipes , ice t , vanessa williams , allen payne , chris rock are just some of the many figures within this all - star cast that helped turn a street noir into a long - lasting mouthpiece for ghetto america .
there is a moment in “new jack city” when nino brown , a character who has made millions by selling cocaine to poor blacks , relaxes in his suburban mansion . he has his own screening room and is viewing “ scarface , ” the al pacino movie about a drug lord . nino brags to his girlfriend that he will never make the mistakes the guy made in the movie—but as he stands in front of the screen , the image of scarface ' s dead body is projected across his own .
living for the city written by stevie wonder performed by troop and levert rap by queen latifah troop and levert appear courtesy of atlantic recording corp . queen latifah appears courtesy of tommy boy records
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mario van peebles carved his name in pop culture with this 1991 crime drama . peebles , the son of legendary filmmaker melvin , crafted
new jack city
with screenwriter barry michael cooper , in addition to playing the role of stone , a cop leading the anti - cash money brothers unit . with a career as both an actor and filmmaker , peebles has the ability to transcend genres , having participated in fantasy and action pictures , as well as directing films that focused on the black panther movement .
along with van peebles , ice - t , wong , and nelson , “new jack city” featured an all - star group of supporting players that included bill nunn , vanessa williams , christopher williams and allen payne as cmb gangsters duh duh duh man , keisha , kareem akbar and gerald “gee money” wells , respectively . other prominent stars included chris rock as pookie , a homeless crack addict turned police informant who is later killed by the cmb after relapsing , and michael michele as selina thomas , nino’s girlfriends .
upon its nationwide cinema release , many of the film’s showings were dealt with violence in the theaters . as the film’s opening coincidently took place five days after the infamous rodney king beating , incidents included the death of an 19 - year - old man , while in line in new york , a melee in l . a . that erupted after hundreds of ticket buyers were turned away from the theater , as well as reported gunshots fired inside theaters chicago and new york . warner bros . provided extra security the weekend after its premiere . despite all the drama , within the two weeks of its limited release , “new jack city” pulled in $ 15 . 9 million . it would later become the year’s highest grossing independent film of that year with a total of $ 47 , 624 , 353 .
one snowy january night in 1957 , i found myself in a howard johnson ' s in greenwich village buying a hot dog and baked beans for a virtually unknown writer named jack kerouac . it was a blind date arranged by allen ginsberg , who always looked out for his male friends . as allen no doubt saw it , jack needed a place in new york to stay for a while until he could take off for tangier , and i was that rare thing—a girl who had her own apartment .
mexican mountain village , far from the madness of new york , when on the road came out in september . mexico , he promised , would be my real
education
as a writer . but just after i rushed out to buy my plane ticket , jack came down with the flu and had to return to the states . as broke as ever , he turned up in new york on september 4 . ( i ' d had to wire him $ 30 for a bus ticket from orlando . ) he arrived just in time to read the new york times review by gilbert millstein that made him famous—or notorious—overnight .
and signed with jive , but the beef raged on . shortly after moving to new orleans from richmond , california , master p hired the talent from
most people know tracy camilla johns as nola darling in she’s gotta have it . but she also played the very scandalous uniqua in new jack city , a girlfriend of gee money’s who set her sights on nino brown . after the film , she took a major break from acting , but popped back up in 2012 to have a small cameo role in the spike lee joint , red hook summer . ironically , she played nola darling again , but was mother darling . according to lee , nola darling became a jehovah’s witness .
the line preceding that description claims “my education ' s low , ” but that ' s disingenuous . the first words in “new jack city” are nwa ' s “you are about toe witness the strength of street knowledge” and my favorite thing about “new jack hustler” is how deceptively and cutting smart its lyrics are . there are few harsher , more colorful indictments of the drug lifestyle than “pregnant teens , children ' s screams / life is weighed on the scales of a triple beam” and the rapper ' s realization “got me twisted , jammed into a paradox / every dollar i get , another brother drops , ” nor deconstructions more concise than “is this a nightmare ? or the american dream ? ” and it ' s difficult not to be chilled by the rationalization “sleep on silk , lie like a politician / my uzi ' s my best friend , cold as a mortician . ”
it has been 25 years since the classic drug thriller new jack city graced big screens and raked in $ 7 million opening weekend in 1991 . fun billboard fact : the movie ' s soundtrack also hit no . 2 on the top r & b ; / hip - hop albums chart . in a recent interview with okayplayer , rapper ice t - - who played detective sonny appleton in the mario van peebles - directed film - - revealed that he was hesitant to take on the role at the time because his rap career was beginning to flourish .
“part of what happens in a gangster film is you emotionally connect with the gangster , which makes it ok to be the gangster because you never understand the victim and see what the victim of that lifestyle becomes and what that narrative is , ” he continued . “in the complexity of a gangster film , i wanted to also let you get a little hit and make you care about what went on with the victim . part of the trip with ‘new jack city’ was what chris rock did by playing one of the victims who gets addicted to crack . ”
my blind date with jack had led to a love affair that we kept alive through letters after jack left for tangier that february . we reunited briefly on his return to new york , and then he headed west for the coast , where he stunned me by settling into a house with his mother in berkeley . knocked out by the energy of his sentences , the dynamic rushes of images and words that practically impelled you to take to the road yourself , i wrote to him that on the road reminded me of huckleberry finn .
i think you write with the same power and freedom that dean moriarty drives a car ,
i told him . as for me , i was ready to pack my bags and see america by greyhound bus or join jack in mexico city , where he headed in july ( after returning his mother to orlando , florida ) just around the time random house bought my novel on the strength of the first 50 pages . the check for $ 500 seemed a fortune back then—enough to live on south of the border for months . in fact , jack had fantasized that the two of us would be living in a tiny
young people often ask me whether there could ever be another beat generation , forgetting one essential tenet of the beat writers : make it new .
i don ' t want imitators ,
jack would often say , undone as much by the loss of his anonymity and the cheapening of what he wanted to communicate as by the brutal attacks of establishment critics .
the comedian we’ve come to respect as a legend , over a multi - decade career , played the ill - fated benny robinson , best known as pookie . due to
new jack city’s
popularity and subject matter , the notorious b . i . g . even referenced the character on his 1994 track
suicidal thoughts ,
“you see it’s kinda like the crack did to pookie , in new jack . ” at the time , rock had made appearances in
beverly hills cop ii
and as the scene - stealing rib joint customer in
i’m gonna git you sucka ,
as well as playing on saturday night live . rock’s career would take off during the 1990’s , earning positive reception for his hbo series ,
the chris rock show ,
and a string of successful movies . more recently , the comedian earned critical praise for his film 2014 film
top five ,
which he wrote and directed .
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your mama’s notes : in late may , rock ‘n’ roll scion and budding television and documentary producer jack osbourne sold his refurbished 1920s spanish - style abode in l . a . ’s celeb - saturated los feliz area for $ 3 . 2 million and , we first heard from gossip juggernaut tmz , he and his missus , lisa stelly and their toddler daughter hightailed it to the san fernanado valley where they spent — oddly enough — $ 3 . 2 million for a bigger and brand - spanking - new house in and unassuming but affluent , north of ventura boulevard neighborhood in studio city .
as john clellon homes , his best apologist , remarked , jack kerouac was
a deeply traditional nature thrown out of kilter .
one friend said that jack
was the only person of that whole group who my wife would trust to baby - sit the children .
according to carolyn cassady , jack
wasn & apos ; t half as interested in sex as neal ,
but was
more affectionate and intellectual .
when he was living with neal and carolyn in 1952 , kerouac would urinate from his second - floor window rather than chance seeing the cassadys nude on his way to the bathroom .
see a map of the new year ' s eve event site for locations of first aid , restrooms , beverages , food , merchandise , transportation pickups , and more .
while nino / ice - t reject the wannabe ' s overtures , my classmates were much more receptive to my desire to prove my bonafides through “new jack hustler , ” especially since i was smart enough not to echo any of the song ' s repeated uses of a certain verboten word starting with “n . ” this affinity with ice - t didn ' t forge lifelong friendships . my family actually moved away just a few months later . and it wasn ' t like i didn ' t have friends already . i was an outsider , not an outcast . i don ' t want to overplay this moment , but the search for common ground was a constant thing and i vividly remember the satisfaction of finding the common ground over relishing “new jack hustler . ”
featured new signees lil slim , u . n . l . v . and mr . ivan as well as port arthur , texas ' s bun b of ugk fame .
nino brown and his gang , the cash money brothers ( cmb for short ) , become the dominant drug ring within new york city when crack cocaine is introduced to the city streets during the mid - to - late 1980s . meanwhile , scotty appleton , an undercover cop , is having a cash deal with stick - up kid pookie , who seems to be impatient . pookie escapes with the money and leads scotty on a chase through the new york projects , ending with pookie being shot in the ankle , and is let go by the police when scotty attempts to arrest him . nino then converts an entire apartment complex , known as the carter , into a crack house with assistance from nino ' s friend and second - in - command , gee money and his enforcer , duh duh duh man .
aficionados of white stripes lore tend to believe that half - polish jack gillis met meg white in 1993 , at a coffeehouse in hamtramck , a small city within detroit’s borders that was home to a large polish community , where he occasionally played folk songs and read poetry on open - mike nights . ( white says that he doesn’t remember any of that ; “meg was just always there , ” he wrote me . ) jack and meg married in 1996 , and he took her name ; he is legally john white . they lived in the house that he had grown up in , which he had bought from his parents , in a neighborhood called mexicantown .
and how can you not ? “new jack hustler” is tight . d . j . aladdin ' s production is catchy and energetic . in the song , nino / ice - t refers to himself as being “raised like a pit bull , my heart pumps nitro” and ice - t ' s precise flow works both with the propulsive beat , but sometimes stands aggressively and defiantly against the thudding bass .
in the summer of 2015 , ithaka s + r administered a survey to over 1 , 000 cultural organizations in new york city who receive funds from the department of cultural affairs in order to generate a benchmark demographic analysis of the cultural sector . the survey intended to measure the diversity of these organizations’ staff and board members . eighty - seven percent of these organizations turned in spreadsheets with anonymized records for each employee and board member . in all , the spreadsheets yielded a dataset with 48 , 000 records . additionally , 987 organizations ( 92 % rate ) responded to a questionnaire which investigated diversity initiatives and barriers . in january 2016 , ithaka s + r released “diversity in the new york city department of cultural affairs , ” a report exploring this data - set and the community’s perceptions of diversity in their own organizations . [ 4 ]
according to the tennessean , conklin and his fiancee are planning to have four children . and their growing family should have plenty of room to stretch out in the new digs just purchased .
– which pictured suede ' s brett anderson in front of a union jack , with mentions for the auteurs , pulp , saint etienne and denim , and the headline
yanks go home !
– but the 1990 world cup .
young mister osbourne’s new , clapboard - sided residence in studio city — online marketing materials rather generously describe as a “cape cod” — sits somewhat tightly on a . 27 - acre corner lot with five bedrooms and 6 . 5 bathrooms in 5 , 614 square feet . ( it’s really too small to be a right - proper mccmansion so , oxymoron - ish though it may be , we’ll call an architecturally jumbled mini - mcmansion . how’s that sound ?
subscribe to classic trailers : urltoken subscribe to trailers : urltoken subscribe to coming soon : urltoken like us on facebook : urltoken follow us on twitter : urltoken new jack city ( 1991 ) official trailer - wesley snipes , ice - t movie hd a crime lord ascends to power and becomes megalomaniacal while a maverick police detective vows to stop him . welcome to the fandango movieclips trailer vault channel . where trailers from the past , from recent to long ago , from a time before youtube , can be enjoyed by all . we search near and far for original movie trailer from all decades . feel free to send us your trailer requests and we will do our best to hunt it down .
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celebrity whittled down kerouac , reduced him to what was perhaps his essential shape - - or , more specifically , to a drunken caricature of what he might have become had he never set out in search of gerard . jack kerouac died on the morning of oct . 20 , 1969 . he was living with his mother in st . petersburg , fla . , a city of senior citizens . drink in hand , he hemorrhaged while sitting in front of the television watching
the galloping gourmet .
“so i said , ‘here’s what i’m gonna do . if you want kids to say no , you gotta have role models to say yes to . so for the new jack cops , i’m gonna get my jewish friend judd nelson , badass white boy who he has to do it with . i’m gonna get my other friend russell wong , badass asian dude , great looking asian brother . get him in there , ” van peebles explained .
, denny d , dj wop and mannie fresh and was probably the first rap group in the city . after their dissolution , fresh hooked up with former ninja crew member gregory d and they released a handful of influential , if not very widely promoted records .
orville prescott , the conservative regular daily reviewer , would surely have panned the novel , but he happened to be away over the labor day weekend . the far more sympathetic millstein called its appearance
an historic occasion ,
compared jack to ernest hemingway and hailed him as the
avatar
of the beat generation . and with that , jack became the object of a media frenzy so relentless that he was soon saying ,
i don ' t know who i am anymore !
whatever anger has landed on her heart in the jungles of trumplandia , patti smith consistently performs the miracle of putting it down , as seen in her recently published prose - poem , the new jerusalem .
this history was prepared by a national park service study team to be included in the special resource study and environmental assessment of suitable / feasible alternatives for the new orleans jazz national historical park in 1993 .
jack kerouac was born in lowell , mass . , on march 12 , 1922 , the third and last child of his french - canadian parents , leo and gabrielle ( better known as
mémêre
) . leo was big and powerful , a man & apos ; s man who owned a print shop . he was anti - intellectual , bigoted , reactionary . young kerouac , nicknamed ti jean (
little jack
) , and his father rarely spoke , except through the mute ritual of sports .
a modern - day crime epic focusing on the efforts of two unorthodox police officers to bring down a drug gang at the height of new york city ' s crack cocaine epidemic of 10 years ago . the film also chronicles the rise and fall of nino brown , the antagonist of the film , in a light study of drug proliferation and its effects on poor neighborhoods . as numerous attempts to break the control of the gang fail and violence begins to escalate , how far will the police go to catch nino brown ?
yes , ice cube launched his acting career with his understated depiction of the compton crack dealer doughboy in boyz n tha hood , which preceded pac by a year . months after juice debuted in theaters in january of 1992 , ice - t would become a movie star in new jack city . but shakur , who studied acting while attending high school in atlanta , commanded the screen with an effectiveness that no rapper - turned - moonlighting - actor had managed before , and few have done since . while he didn’t realize the promise of that early breakout role , he managed a few more solid acting performances before his death , including an overheated reprisal of his bishop template in the basketball drama above the rim , and a nice turn as a heroin - addicted jazz musician in the underrated indie flick gridlock’d .
“so mix it up . you can make a hit movie without marginalizing any race . and that’s something hollywood still needs to learn . you don’t have to leave nobody out . if you look at the diversity issue with # oscarssowhite and you look at the 25th anniversary of ‘new jack city . ’ we mixed it up , man . we put everybody in it . that’s one of the things i liked about it and that’s part of what compelled me to become a filmmaker that as an actor , i was just responding to what existed . but as a filmmaker , i could help create what would exist . you know three types of people , people that watch things happen , people who complain about things that happen and every now and then , some folks that make things happen . i like to make it happen . ”
the impact of the book was amplified by the figure of the author , who with his rugged good looks and nomadic lifestyle seemed almost the hollywood personification of his beat characters . but jack ' s real - life utterances—diffident , gnomic and naively unguarded , often delivered in a haze of alcohol as his weeks in the limelight wore on—tended to bewilder and frustrate members of the media . most ran with the angle : is america in danger of going beat ? ( i . e . , nihilistic , shiftless and delinquent ) , completely ignoring the spiritual dimension of jack ' s message but spreading the exciting idea that some kind of cultural shift was going on . ( millstein was one of the rare critics who understood that jack was expressing a need for affirmation , although he noted that it was against what another critic called
a background in which belief is impossible .
)
in new orleans , ignited by tt tucker and dj irv ' s famous
red tape ,
where dey at .
over the next few years , several locals started their own independent labels to handle to quickly growing scene .


lord of illusions is a 1995 american horror film written and directed by clive barker , based on his earlier short story , the last illusion ( from books of blood vol . 6 ) . the film presents barker 's signature character harry d'amour onscreen for the first time .

it stars scott bakula as d'amour , alongside kevin j. o'connor , famke janssen and daniel von bargen .

barker asserts that the director 's cut of this film is his definitive version , as the theatrical release does not represent his true vision .

lord of illusions

famke janssen during ' lord of illusions ' los angeles premiere in hollywood , . . .
collins’ crypt : book vs . movie - lord of illusions | birth . movies . death .
famke janssen and clive barker during ' lord of illusions ' los angeles premiere in . . .
famke janssen during ' lord of illusions ' los angeles premiere in hollywood , california , united states .
scott bakula , famke jansse , and clive barker during ' lord of illusions ' los angeles . . .
famke janssen and clive barker during ' lord of illusions ' los angeles premiere in hollywood , california , united states .
nix is the leader of a black magic cult and the main antagonist of the 1995 horror / fantasy film lord of illusions ( clive barker ' s lord of illusions ) loosely based on the short story the last illusion ( from books of blood vol . 6 ) by clive barker .
scott bakula , famke jansse , and clive barker during ' lord of illusions ' los angeles premiere in hollywood , california , united states .
tags ashley tesoro barbara patrick clive barker j . trevor edmond joseph latimore kevin j . o ' connor lord of illusions michael angelo stuno scott bakula sheila tousey
the battle between lord varys ( aka the spider ) and lord petyr baelish ( aka littlefinger ) to out - machiavelli each other is delicious for fans of game of thrones .
no matter how “lord of illusions” does at the b . o . , don’t be surprised if bakula comes back as harry d’amour , in either a sequel or a tv spinoff .
one of the great disappointments with the box office failure of lord of illusions is that horror fans were denied any further adventures of harry d ' amour , a terrific noir detective played with uncharacteristic cynicism by scott bakula in one of his best performances . bakula is a guy typically called upon to be sincere and decent ; he ' s still those things in lord of illusions , but adds a world - weariness that suits the character well .
but lord of illusions , barker’s third and most underrated movie , has yet to experience the same kind of critical reappraisal . like nightbreed , lord of illusions underwent heavy re - cutting on its way to movie screens ( this time by mgm / united artists ) , going out to theaters in a version barker was unhappy with . but unlike nightbreed , it didn’t take nearly 25 years for audiences to see barker’s approved cut of lord of illusions . from its very first laserdisc release in 1995 , barker’s director’s cut has been available , restoring 12 minutes of mostly character development and atmosphere — though with some additional sex and violence , of course .
lord of illusions received mixed to positive reviews , with a current approval rating of 61 % at rotten tomatoes . allmovie was critical of the film , writing that it
starts off strong with an intriguing premise , but then goes quickly nowhere
.
original red band theatrical trailer for the 1995 film
lord of illusions .
starring scott bakula , kevin j . o ' connor , famke janssen , and daniel von bargen . written & directed by clive barker .
fat bastard : evil wizard lord nix is a balding middle aged guy with quite a gut .
horror novelist and filmmaker clive barker offers a potent mix of h . p . lovecraft and raymond chandler in “lord of illusions . ” pic should scare up some respectable coin in late - summer release before realizing its full potential as a homevid rental item .
the page nix ( lord of illusions ) contains mature content that may include coarse language , sexual references , and / or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some . mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older .
horror novelist and filmmaker clive barker offers a potent mix of h . p . lovecraft and raymond chandler in
lord of illusions .
pic should scare up some respectable coin in late - summer release before realizing its full potential as a homevid rental item .
sadly , with lord of illusions , clive barker stumbles into the same pitfalls he did when he made nightbreed just five years earlier . it ' s dull , unengaging , and features a plot that is stretched out far past its breaking point .
the years have been good to lord of illusions , as its mixture of ’40s - type noir and hard - edged ’90s gore ( and dodgy cgi ) prevent it from becoming dated — it remains unstuck in time . unfortunately , barker hasn’t directed a movie since — sad , as he established in only three films a voice as one of the genre’s most distinct and visionary auteurs . and while “horror noir” may never catch on as a viable genre , lord of illusions will always provide a shining example of what it can be . it’s a kind of magic . and magic sets us free .
all the others are presented so entirely in terms of his words , prejudices and illusions that they never appear as independent rounded characters . . . .
while d’amour has had some interesting dealings since his creation , including facing pinhead in “ the scarlet gospels ” and even taking his place in the boom ! studios “ hellraiser ” comic series . but it all started in “the last illusion” , which was the basis of the 1995 noir - horror film lord of illusions
written and directed by horror mastermind clive barker , “ lord of illusions ” is a true cult classic . bakula brings barker regular , paranormal investigator harry d’amour to life with the perfect amount of bravado and self - deprecating humor . complimenting bakula is famke janssen as his romantic interest during the horror - noir romp .
i know a handful of so - called barker fans who rave about his earlier works for contemplative hours , but have never laid eyes upon the balls - out spectacle that is “lord of illusions . ” for shame . certainly flawed , but his obsessive adoration of monsters and mysticism prevails , marking this as another must - see for the true aficionados .
horror novelist and filmmaker clive barker offers a potent mix of h . p . lovecraft and raymond chandler in “lord of illusions . ” pic should scare up some respectable coin in late - summer release before realizing its full potential as a homevid rental item . barker has toned down the full - bore gore of his earlier directorial efforts , which will be [ … ]
lord of illusions opens with an effectively creepy flashback set in the hellish commune of manson - esque sorcerer nix , then flashes forward to the travails of illusionist philip swann . when one of swann ' s death - defying tricks goes fatally wrong , det . harry d ' amour ( scott bakula ) , a hardboiled dick who ' s equally comfortable tracking down deadbeat dads and . . . read more
swann , the anti - hero of clive barker ' s
lord of illusions ,
is a master magician in the style of david copperfield ; audiences attending his performances on hollywood boulevard arrive in tuxedos , which is a dangerous trick in itself .
i tell them it ' s illusion ; they believe me ,
he sighs . actually , he uses real magic .
twenty years after it was first released , lord of illusions remains barker’s least - loved film . his first , hellraiser , has always ( rightfully ) been considered a classic of the horror genre and his follow - up , 1990’s nightbreed , finally overcame its own tortured past and had its reputation restored thanks to a long overdue director’s cut released by scream factory in 2014 .
released in 1995 , lord of illusions opened against the family film the amazing panda adventure , the drama beyond rangoon , the now cult classic action film desperado , the comedy dr . jekyll and ms . hyde , and a limited release of the noir vampire thriller nadja . it also came a week after the release of mortal kombat , which spent three weeks at # 1 at the box office , becoming one of the highest grossing 25 films of the year .
although its popularity is unparalleled , intellectuals dismiss “the lord of the rings” as boyish fantasy . now one scholar defends j . r . r . tolkien’s “true myth” as a modern masterpiece . first of two parts .
lord of illusions just tells a good story instead of being a premise that plays itself out . it pushes in different directions , embracing multiple genres , spanning years and really going for broke in the final act . horror was stuck in such a rut in the ’90s that it ' s hard to believe a bigger audience didn ' t embrace a movie as unique and interesting as this one .
d ' amour is a regular character of barker ' s , appearing in a number of short stories and novels ( as well as the hellraiser limited series comic book launched in 2011 ) , but lord of illusions remains the only time he has been translated to film . it ' s too bad someone didn ' t snatch both the character and bakula for an anthology tv series in the ’90s , as both d ' amour and the world barker creates are perfectly suited for serialized storytelling .
swann : i saw it with my own fucking eyes ! see , that ' s his best trick . no illusions . just the truth . ( he looks at harry ) are you ready for that ?
this project was massively informed by creativity , play and people . it became a exercise in how far could they push an idea , create illusions and subvert popular culture . as well as listening to power ballads .
shortly after quaid ' s death , d ' amour is approached by swann ' s wife dorothea to investigate the killing . he takes the job , and quickly finds himself neck - deep in a battle of magic , illusions , good and evil .
clive barker may be most known for hellraiser , which is a stunningly wonderful film in its own right . but , for me , lord of illusions will always be my favorite of his films . it feels more complete and i simply enjoy it more . to those who haven’t seen the film in a long time , i urge you to revisit it . to those who have never seen it before , do yourself a favor and pick up a copy to give it a chance .
according to today’s daily mail , the lord of the rings must make way for the upcoming revival of lionel bart’s oliver ! , a product of the latest television casting competition , i’d do anything , which begins broadcasting on saturday nights on bbc one this weekend ( see news , 12 mar 2008 ) .
with the first film of director peter jackson ' s bazillion - dollar
lord of the rings
trilogy arriving this december , no one in the western world , highbrow , lowbrow or anywhere in between , will be immune to the renewed onslaught of tolkieniana , from balrog action figures to arcana like karen wynn fonstad ' s exhaustively detailed
atlas of middle - earth .
( contrary to what some critics have suggested , tolkien ' s letters make clear that he was eager to do business with the lidless eye of hollywood , and had few illusions about the compromises that might be required . )
mock ‘n’ roll saw lord whitney team up with illustrator jack hudson to produce a body of work inspired by the most vibrant , iconic , and peculiar record covers of the 1980’s . together they created an entire back catalogue of 80s inspired lp cover designs for a series of fictitious musical artists , including bobby cool finger , hank doom and karma savannah .
i could go on : despite the quintessential englishness of his work and his own anti - americanism - - or perhaps because of it - - tolkien found his largest audience and warmest critical reception in the united states . as shippey demonstrates , tolkien ' s presentation of evil , which often seems depressingly simplistic ( sauron , the dark lord of mordor , does not appear directly in
the lord of the rings ,
but we get the impression that he is sadistic , sarcastic , headstrong and none too bright ) , is at other times quite sophisticated . in his handling of sauron ' s chief creation , the one ring of power , for example , tolkien can be said to have anticipated the contemporary concept of addiction .
as a short fiction writer , barker is known primarily for the horror series books of blood , his six - volume set of short stories , published in 1984 and 1985 . barker ' s style is characterized by cinematic descriptions of blood and gore , as well as unabashedly graphic sexual imagery . his stories are applauded by critics as imaginative and unique . barker has adapted several of his own short stories and novellas to the screen , in motion pictures he himself directed , including the films hellraiser , nightbreed , the thief of always , and lord of illusions . in addition , barker has served as executive producer on numerous films , such as candyman , gods and monsters , hellbound : hellraiser ii , and hellraiser iii : hell on earth .
rob howell won the best designer prize in this year’s urltoken theatregoers’ choice awards for the lord of the rings ’s spectacular , state - of - the - art set . the 45 - foot stage alone , equipped with three revolves and 17 lifts , cost £1 million . in addition to the expense , the design for the lord of the rings is the most high - tech and physically complex in the west end . special planning permission was required to refit the drury lane to accommodate the new high - tech set – according to the daily mail , the process of removing it and reinstating the victorian equipment that it replaced will now take a minimum of ten weeks .
even so , “lord” is more sophisticated and satisfying than anything the genre has offered since “wes craven’s new nightmare . ” and it is the first horror pic in recent memory that has a hero who’s more charismatic than the villain .
in either version — but particularly barker’s approved director’s cut — lord of illusions offers the best of horror and noir . despite taking place in present - day 1995 , it looks and feels right out of the 1940s . the movie is moody and atmospheric , presenting a cynical world in which the characters have seen it all — that is , until they’re proven wrong when confronted by sights no one has ever seen . as is so often barker’s way , the violence is brutal and genuinely horrifying , whether it’s swann’s gruesome onstage fate or a montage in which cult members commit unspeakable acts after being called back into action by their leader .
in conjuring tolkien’s fantastical middle earth , the show also features stilt - walking , giant leaping and aerial choreography , as well as dance , illusions , magic and other special effects . ensemble members were required to undergo weeks of boot - camp style training before rehearsals began ( see news , 8 feb 2007 ) .
in lord of illusions , i got to do all kinds of shit that i wanted to do . the bondage stuff in there , the girl and the ape , all kinds of shit . it ' s very funny because frank mancuso was head of mgm / ua at that time , and he didn ' t like the movie at all . there was one shot of a dead child on the floor , and he said , ' this shot will never appear in an mgm / ua movie . ' as it turns out , it did , because i took it out , and then when he wasn ' t looking , i put it back in . i knew he ' d never bother to see the film again .
if the reconstructive mythmaking of
the lord of the rings
is itself a kind of philology , the book is also deeply grounded in tolkien ' s linguistic expertise . sometimes he became so absorbed in the creation of languages and lineages , in fact , that he put the story itself aside for months or years at a time , believing he could not continue until some quandary or inconsistency in his invented realm had been resolved .
but the crux of the matter , it seems to me , lies in tolkien ' s wholehearted rejection of modernity and modernism . this is what so powerfully attracts some readers , and just as powerfully repels others . the division has existed since
the lord of the rings
was first published , and was deftly summarized by no less august a figure than w . h . auden , in his 1956 new york times review of
the return of the king ,
the final volume of tolkien ' s published trilogy .
already up against a lot of options , lord of illusions failed during its theater run , earning just over $ 13 million domestically on its $ 11 million budget . during the mid - 90’s , original films were coming out pretty frequently . if we look at the 10 highest grossing films of that year , we’ll see that there are two films that were part of a franchise ( batman forever and goldeneye ) and one sequel ( die hard : with a vengeance ) . apart from that , every film was something new , something fresh . it wasn’t like 2015 , where the numbers were essentially flipped with only three original films . that was an era where originality was expected , not something to be surprised by .
it begins in the mojave desert in 1982 , inside a house that has become the headquarters for a cult led by a man named nix . nix has the ability to use real magic and not just mere illusions . while preaching , he tells his followers that he has been named
[ in the following review of the books of blood , anderson observes that barker ' s effective mingling of the realms of life and death in his short stories uplifts the horror genre . ]
tolkien himself often spoke of his work in
the hobbit
and
the lord of the rings ,
as well as the great legendary backdrop of
the silmarillion ,
as something found or discovered whose existence was independent of him . it ' s wise to tread lightly in this sort of interpretation , but tolkien was a devout catholic who believed profoundly in revelation , and it seems clear that on this deeper and broader level he believed his legendarium to be something given , something revealed , which contained a kind of truth beyond measure .
lord of illusions is a 1995 movie directed by clive barker , based on his own short story
the last illusion .
a blend of noir and horror , the story opens in the early 80s at a run - down cult compound in the mojave desert . nix , the leader who calls himself
the puritan ,
wields magical powers he promises to share with his enthralled followers . unfortunately for him , some of the group decide nix has gone too far by kidnapping a young girl . led by nix ' s prize pupil philip swann , the rebels manage to overpower and subdue him . they leave him bound in an iron mask and buried deep under the sands of the mojave , with the loyal followers scattered to the winds .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
the massive and enduring popularity of
lord of the rings
- - it has been 40 years since critic philip toynbee hopefully predicted that the tolkien
craze
or
cult
would soon pass into
merciful oblivion
- - only raises the stakes . it would seem that tolkien ' s work , which reinvented a moribund literary genre and created a new publishing market vaster than the empire of the dark lord sauron himself , supplied something that was missing amid the shifting subjectivities and formal innovations of 20th century fiction , something for which readers were ravenous . but what was it , and why was it important ? or , to put the question in terms familiar to tolkien readers , what has it got in its pocketses ?
what makes lord of illusions so great is that there is a playfulness amidst its gruesome and haunting exterior . the actors know that magic isn’t real and yet it’s presented in such a serious manner that there has to be a little bit of levity thrown in , even if they don’t react to it like we would hope . for example , when d’amour rips swann’s “jaw” off in the coffin , revealing a fake body , there is something so shocking and over - the - top about it , that it put a smile on my face . or nix’s “third eye” , which is rather grotesquely “turtle - heading” in and out of his forehead , making for a visual that falls under the “it’s gross , so i’ll laugh” gag .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
scholars have often been vexed by the crude popular interpretations of machiavelli ' s work but his supposed ethos has taken on a glorious life of its own in the form of a slew of splendidly devious characters .
i like making movies but i don ' t like it as much as writing books . i ' m a writer who is occasionally a filmmaker and the business of making movies is a healthy one for me because it keeps me from being so internalised that i can ' t express myself in the outside world . that ' s what happens to me at the end of writing a long novel . it ' s also a way of getting my ideas to a larger public than the reading public , so i ' m always going to find cinema interesting . but from beginning to end , the business of directing lord of illusions has taken a year and , if you start with the three drafts of the screenplay , it ' s probably longer than that . that ' s two - thirds of a large book and , in my heart of hearts , i believe that it ' s what i put on the page that has the chance of some longevity . on the other hand , the business of making movies is very pleasurable and addictive and , for my personal mindset , very healthy .
an interesting and percipient interlacing of ideas was made by one reviewer . in february 1945 lord moran’s book the anatomy of courage ( constable ) had been published , one month before hw’s the sun in the sands . lord moran ( sir charles mcmoran wilson , 1882–1977 ) had served in the royal army medical corps in the first world war and was awarded an mc in 1916 . the anatomy of courage arose out of his experiences of that time combined with further study into the subject ( the quotation under his title is : ‘the thing in the world i am most afraid of is fear . ’ montaigne ) . during the second world war he was personal physician to winston churchill . the book deals with fear and man’s attempts to overcome it – courage : particularly in relation to shell - shock , nervous breakdown – or as we now call it , post - war trauma .
[ in the following review , d ' ammassa maintains that the five stories included in the second volume of the books of blood are of uniformly high quality . ]
so when lord of illusions came out , it was an original attempt that year for the horror noir genre . * while something like it would get endless tweets and articles about how we “need to support original horror” today , back then it was normal to get original titles , so word didn’t spread . while i mourn that the film didn’t find an audience in theaters , i’m also somewhat glad for that fact . to be completely honest , the theatrical cut of the film was bad . it was full of plot holes , there were jumps in the story that felt jarring , and it simply felt like an incomplete film . while it held the foundation for something great , it took the director’s cut , which was 13 minutes longer , to really flesh out and fulfill the original vision of barker , who also adapted and directed the film .
this part of henry williamson’s autobiography tells of his struggle to secure recognition as a writer between the time of his demobilisation after the last war and 1924 . . . .
tolkien ' s immense erudition is not , of course , the source of his success ; without his storytelling gift , or his introduction of the hobbits as modern , modest , sturdily english heroes against his grand mythic landscape ,
the lord of the rings
would be little more than a curiosity . but it is no accident , nor is it tiresome pedantry , that he invented the elvish languages quenya and sindarin ( loosely modeled on finnish and welsh , respectively ) first , and then built around them the world they required .
d ' amour goes to the magic castle , where he hears nix being described as a legend , and that nix was believed to have taught swann . after getting into the repository , a special room in the magic castle that supposedly contains every magic secret known to man , he discovers that swann ' s
illusions
involved real magic .
no slouch in the performance department himself is the under appreciated kevin j . o’connor ( “deep rising” , igor of “van helsing” ) , portraying nix’s recently estranged protégé philip swann . accompanied by a band of former sect members , he returns to save the girl and stop the ritual . they are successful ( of course they are , it’s a prologue ) in the campaign , but not before nix can pass some of his sorcery on to swann in an effort to seduce him back to the fold . this results in one of the best visual sequences of the enterprise , which is high praise considering “illusions” is wall - to - wall great ( mostly , more on that in a minute ) effects .
[ in the following review of the first three books of blood and the inhuman condition , winter asserts that barker is the most important horror fiction writer of the 1980s . ]
source : anderson , ken . review of the books of blood , by clive barker . west coast review of books , no . 5 ( may 1989 ) : 32 .
in january 1997 , reporter susan jeffreys of the ( london ) sunday times informed a colleague that j . r . r . tolkien ' s epic fantasy
the lord of the rings
had been voted the greatest book of the 20th century in a readers ' poll conducted by britain ' s channel 4 and the waterstone ' s bookstore chain . her colleague responded :
oh hell ! has it ? oh my god . dear oh dear . dear oh dear oh dear .
[ in the following review , morrison provides a generally favorable assessment of barker ' s first three books of blood . ]
source : burns , craig william . “it ' s that time of the month : representations of the goddess in the work of clive barker . ” journal of popular culture 27 , no . 3 ( winter 1993 ) : 35 - 40 .
[ in the following essay , hoppenstand offers an overview of the major thematic concerns of barker ' s short fiction . ]
in all this tolkien was clearly inspired by 19th century finnish scholar elias lönnrot , who
reconstructed
the
kalevala ,
finland ' s national epic , from fragments of traditional songs and poems . ( tom bombadil , who was one of tolkien ' s earliest creations and whose role in the
lord of the rings
universe is never explained , may be derived from the singing wizards of the
kalevala .
) as shippey wryly notes , latter - day philologists have grown suspicious of lönnrot and no longer believe that his work reliably reflects any ancient original . yet the finnish public does not seem to care ; the publication date of the
kalevala
remains a national holiday , and a new generation of schoolchildren reads it every year .
' s photo out of the hundreds of initial submissions and declared ,
this is dorothea .
she remained the only choice , although the filmmakers auditioned dozens of actresses for the part .
[ in the following review , d ' ammassa offers a brief description of some of the stories in the inhuman condition . ]
explores barker ' s use and creation of myth in his fiction , and discusses the history of english fantasy and horror fiction .
as carpenter observes , this is the central doctrine of tolkien ' s philosophy , and it has countless echoes in his work . for one thing , this is pretty much the cosmological back story found in
the silmarillion
( which he had already begun , even at this early stage ) : the two trees that illuminated the creation of the world are killed , but their light is captured in three jewels , or silmarils , which are set in the iron crown of morgoth , the great enemy ( for whom sauron is merely a toady ) . the silmarils are lost in turn and their light splintered , so that only memories and fragments of it remain in middle - earth at the time of
the lord of the rings .
[ in the following review , morrison explores thematic and stylistic aspects of the short stories in the first three books of blood . ]
[ in the following review of books of blood , volumes 4–6 , morgan describes barker as a highly talented yet inconsistent writer . ]
after its initial canadian run in 2006 , the piece was substantially revised and the running time shortened by 40 minutes to just over three hours . the lord of the rings has a book and lyrics by shaun mckenna and matthew warchus , and music by bombay dreams ’ ar rahman and finnish folk group värttinä with christopher nightingale ( see news , 21 oct 2003 ) . it’s directed by warchus and choreographed by peter darling .
“illusions” slips into standard potboiler mode from that point , as d’amour refuses to return to the big apple , obsessed with uncovering the many secrets he knows have been hidden from him by dorothea . plot wise , there are no real surprises that anyone of standard intelligence wouldn’t have previously deduced leading into the latter half , but we all know when it comes to barker’s screen work that the fun is in the “we have such sights to show you” aspect of the endeavor . his direction , growing more assured with each picture , falls just short of replicating the film noir vibe he was trying to achieve . regardless , this remains one of his most technically impressive works to date .
source : keis , cosette . review of clive barker ' s books of blood , volume three , by clive barker . voice of youth advocates 9 , no . 6 ( february 1987 ) : 282 .
chaos isn ' t a pit . chaos is a ladder ,
he suggests .
many who try to climb it fail , and never get to try again . the fall breaks them . and some , given a chance to climb , they refuse . they cling to the realm , or the gods , or love . illusions . only the ladder is real . the climb is all there is .
optical illusions are great for music videos and online slideshows because it ' s easier to fool the mind with a two - dimensional computer or tv screen . in the real world , information such as light , shadow , and relative size allow us to have a fairly good perception of sizes and where things are . there are certain rules : for example , as an object gets farther away , its image gets smaller in our eyes . it ' s harder to fool the well - informed eye .
the inhuman condition is aptly named . these five “tales of terror” from the first volume of barker ' s second books of blood trilogy , tell of humans transformed into something more than human . it is their obsessions—sexual , religious , or intellectual—that drive barker ' s protagonists to transformation , fulfillment , and doom . although some of the characters are . . .
furthermore , members of the u . s . intelligentsia , confined to their northeast corridor reservation or scattered across the continent in a handful of college towns , fully expect to have their tastes ignored , if not openly derided , by the public at large . to some intellectual types ( to me , for example ) it seems gratifying , even touching , that so many millions of american readers will happily devour a work as abstruse and complicated as
the lord of the rings .
whatever one may make of it , it ' s a more challenging read than
gone with the wind
( runner - up in the amazon survey ) , not to mention
harry potter and the sorcerer ' s stone
( fifth place ) .
the lord of the rings
is conventionally called fantasy , yet tolkien in some ways considered it to be true , or at least to be
true myth .
it is a work by a devout christian that never mentions god and has only one reference to religious practice ( and that is entirely nonsectarian ) . in terms of conscious intention , at least , it is a profoundly conservative work , an elegy for lost tales , lost eras and lost hierarchies tinged ( it must be said ) by xenophobia , troubling racial attitudes and a confused sexuality . yet it became a central text of the 1960s counterculture and a source of inspiration to the radical environmental movement .
new book of illustrated “scary stories to tell in the light” launching on kickstarter june 11th . * fully funded * as of 6 / 20 / 18
independently owned and operated since 2010 , millions of people from around the world have made daily dead their destination for coverage of the horror entertainment industry .
source : review of the books of blood , by clive barker . science fiction chronicle 10 , no . 113 ( february 1989 ) : 38 .
[ in the following review of the compilation the books of blood , the critic asserts that barker is a major innovator in modern horror fiction . ]
of course it is overly reductive to see these sad but ordinary events as the sole source of what tolkien ' s friend c . s . lewis called the
profound melancholy
that suffuses
the lord of the rings .
tolkien ' s later experiences at the gruesome and pointless world war i battle of the somme , for example , where two of his closest friends died , certainly cast a long shadow across the rest of his life . still , long before the carnage in the fields of picardy - - where 20 , 000 allied soldiers died in the first day - - tolkien felt a connection to an idyllic past that was now lost , as well as a sense that whatever beauty and wonder remained in the present was likely to pass away . ( as a schoolboy in birmingham he already had a reputation as an eccentric ; he once gave a debating - society speech opposing the norman conquest . )
when king frederick ii of prussia writes that machiavelli is one of the most dangerous thinkers in the history of political thought , he is probably not far from the truth . but the question to consider is dangerous for whom ? for absolute sovereigns and more widely for all adversaries of democratic and popular regimes .
just when you thought a horror story had to consist of a deranged psycho who slashes up teenagers for no apparent reason , along comes clive barker . this collection of short stories [ the books of blood ] proves many times over that there are plenty of new plots in the horror genre . barker ' s imagination has produced a series of surreal , gruesome tales that . . .
magicians are wizards : philip swann passed off his real magic as stage illusions . he explains to the man investigating his
suicide
that
illusionists get vegas contracts . wizards get burned at the stake
. ( in modern - day america ? ) but consider that his teacher nix was a straw nihilist and an omnicidal maniac . in the original story , swann pretended to be a fake simply as a take that to the infernal powers he bargained with .
[ in the following review , d ' ammassa asserts that the title story of in the flesh is the best of those included in this volume . ]
, a film that i myself struggled to enjoy upon my first viewing . however , after repeated visits , it now ranks as one of my favorite horror films of the 90’s and definitely one of my favorite horror films in general .
answering this question properly would require a book rather than an article , of course . if t . a . shippey ' s
j . r . r . tolkien : author of the century
is not quite that book , it is nonetheless a delightful exploration of the relationship between tolkien ' s fiction and his scholarly work and of the mythical , linguistic and philosophical history underlying both . it is also a crusade in a supremely tolkienian spirit , on behalf of the dying academic discipline of philology , or the anatomy and history of languages .
his narrative tone ranges from the tragic and elegiac to the heroic and even comic ( in a pipe - smoking , tweedy sort of way ) , but it is never ironic or cynical , a failure of taste and discrimination that some find embarrassing . also , although he was trying to write a plausible reconstruction of ancient myth , not a modern novel , those forms frequently share a frankness about human sexuality and bodily functions that his work never has . ( consider the ancient irish warrior - goddess queen medb , who fertilized the fields with her menstrual flow . ) if there is one word that characterizes
the lord of the rings ,
with its high - flown poesy , its fatal heroism , its intensively worked - out systems of history and language and its edwardian prudery , the word is boyish .
i suppose not every reader of shippey ' s book will be as interested as i was in tolkien ' s borrowings from
beowulf
( who , in tolkien ' s reading , is a sort of were - bear , akin to the character beorn in
the hobbit
) . or where in old norse poetry he found the name gandalf and decided it might belong to a wizard . or the suggestive connections between the words
hobbit
and
rabbit
( here shippey is making tolkien ' s ghost very angry ) , which is itself a relatively recent coinage of unknown origin . or what use tolkien makes of the mysterious middle english word wodwos , which appears in
sir gawain and the green knight
and has never been adequately translated . ( ok , i ' ll tell you : he thought it meant
wild men of the woods ,
and it ' s the source of the woses , who appear briefly in book five of
lord of the rings
to aid the rohirrim on their ride to gondor . )
he sacrifices his own minions as a gift to the world of the dead .
knife nut : butterfield ' s weapon of choice is a sharp switchblade knife .
nix is being consumed by the fires of hot magma before being completely exploded .
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[ in the following excerpt , badley applies contemporary cultural theory , including feminist theory , to an analysis of representations of women in barker ' s fiction . ]
: there are two worlds of magic . one is the glittering domain of the illusionist . the other is a secret place , where magic is a terrifying reality . here , men have the power of demons . and death itself is an illusion .
he is ambitious , wanting to gain the noble status he lacks . his main expertise is in finance , an echo of the medici family who , over the course of a couple of generations , turned financial might into political control in northern italy .
sixteen of the 17 stories in this book [ the books of blood ] were originally published as the first 3 volumes in barker ' s books of blood series . they are undeniably among the most powerful and impressive short stories published in the horror genre in recent years . among the best are “rawhead rex” , recently made into a full length movie , but almost all of the others are of first class . . .
the craftsmen responsible for the grisly special effects perform far beyond the call of duty .
harry drives . swann takes a throatful of brandy . then he stares at harry .
fantastic noir : blends the traditional elements of a noir detective story with supernatural horror .
hollywood exorcism : harry ' s involvement in one of these is alluded to in flashback , and the experience continues to haunt him in the early part of the story .
it was obviously a book which hw himself found of great importance . he has marked several passages in his own copy of the book , and later quoted from it in
the fictional boss of the soprano crime family in northern new jersey is a man happy to lie , throttle and shoot his way to the continued occupancy of his throne .
he had little compunction about torturing catholics for evidence of plot and conspiracy . but in the moral milieu of the time this was typical for a man in his position .
loosely based on barker’s 1985 short story “the last illusion , ””lord” features bakula as harry d’amour , a new york - based p . i . who has reappeared in several subsequent stories and novels by barker . like the original tale , pic introduces d’amour as a hard - boiled but humane shamus who periodically encounters the supernatural in his work . imagine ross macdonald’s lew archer doing a guest spot on “the x - files , ” and you’ll get the picture .
power floats : nix uses his powers to levitate and walk through the air several times , including standing on top of a near - bottomless chasm holding one of his victims .
plans are now underway for german production , to open in november 2009 , and a scaled - down touring version that will open next year in new zealand before travelling to australia and the far east . producer kevin wallace said in a statement : “the show’s creative team has proven just how enchanting , exhilarating and powerfully entertaining the lord of the rings can be live on stage . we will continue to bring this incredible theatrical event to audiences in london until 19 july , and we look forward to presenting the show to new audiences abroad from 2009 . ”
clive barker provides four more novelets of the supernatural in this latest collection . the title story [ of in the flesh ] is easily the best , the tale of a young man who deliberately commits a crime in order to visit the prison grave of his grandfather , and who finds himself visiting a city of the dead . nearly as good is “the forbidden” . a young woman is doing some research in a poor community when . . .
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an interview with terry gilliam , director of
the man who killed don quixote .
of the amoral protagonist of patricia highsmith ' s novels and anthony minghella ' s film the talented mr ripley , philosopher john gray says tom ripley is a
true machiavellian
.
it ' s unwise to read
the lord of the rings
as allegory in any strict sense , but this commonplace personal odyssey , one shared by millions in the modern age , is strikingly echoed in its plot . frodo , the child - size hero , must leave his beloved shire and travel into sauron ' s domain of mordor , with its slag heaps , its permanent pall of smoke , its slave - driven industries . when he returns after much danger and difficulty , he discovers that the malicious wizard saruman - - as shippey points out , a techno - utopian who began with good intentions - - has industrialized the shire itself , cutting down its trees , replacing its hobbit - holes with brick slums and factories and poisoning its rivers .
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the story itself feels rich and thought out . cabals of magicians and illusionists , secretly aware of the reality of magic yet using it as a means of fooling audiences . a cult that is bred out of fear of death rather coming to terms with it and seeking its embrace . a private detective whose past haunts him yet also fills him with the knowledge he needs to prepare and steel himself against all incoming threats . a terrifying villain who appears only in the beginning and end of the film , yet still his presence is felt like a cloying cloth throughout the middle . barker richly adapts his short story into something greater , something more passionate , creating a character in harry d’amour that has become one of my favorites in the horror genre .
the four tales of horror in clive barker ' s in the flesh are not made for fireside reading . these are disturbing tales that emerge from a profound sense of despair and desolation .
yet the dear - oh - dear attitude lingers on in the land , a little concealed maybe , a little under the surface . what ' s more , it ' s there for a good reason . hugely ambitious in scope yet seemingly antique in sensibility ,
the lord of the rings
occupies an anomalous and uncomfortable position in 20th century literature . considered on its own terms , tolkien ' s epic - - he never intended it as a trilogy , although it was first published and absorbed into public consciousness in three volumes - - poses a stern challenge to the very concept of modernity , and perhaps especially to modern literature and its defenders . ( tolkien on his critics :
some who have read the book , or at any rate have reviewed it , have found it boring , absurd , or contemptible ; and i have no cause to complain , since i have similar opinions of their works , or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer .
)
evil is bigger : nix is a tall and bulky man and of course is pure evil .
source : meeks , fleming . review of clive barker ' s books of blood , volume one , by clive barker . los angeles times book review ( 10 august 1986 ) : 6 .
during a 1983 visit with britain ' s leading writer of horror fiction , ramsey campbell , i was presented with a mountainous manuscript of short stories by an unpublished liverpool playright named clive barker . “you ' re about to read the most important new horror writer of this decade , ” campbell told me . after reading 50 of the thousand - plus pages , i was . . .
in the music video , pink paint defies gravity and drips on drummer dan konopka ' s upright face from left to right . viewing a pile of junk from a different angle reveals a work of art that looks like bassist tim nordwind . and frontman damian kulash poses with eerily life - like paintings of the rest of the band that are split between the wall and the floor .