el condor is a 1970 western film directed by john guillermin .

jim brown and lee van cleef lead a band of apaches ( including iron eyes cody ) against a fortress commanded by patrick o'neal .

the fortress is said to contain the gold reserves of emperor maximilian .

the movie was shot in 35 mm technicolor in almería , spain , and involved the construction of the huge adobe fortress set that was re-used in later films , including conan the barbarian ( 1982 ) and march or die ( 1977 ) ' .

el condor ( film )

littin , miguel , and others , alsino y el condor , nicaragua , 1982 .
find great deals on ebay for el condor and el condor bakugan . shop with confidence . · bonjour , je vous présente , à la guitare , le morceau el condor pasa . c ' est une musique traditionnelle péruvienne qui a été reprise par le groupe simon .
el condor was among the first movies rated r ( for violence , explicit language , and nudity ) .
condor en el santuario animal de cochahuasi , pisac , departamento del cuzco , peru . los primeros cóndores criados en cautiverio fueron liberados en el medio natural en . urltoken el condor : jim brown , lee van cleef , patrick o ' neal , john guillermin : movies & tv . find great deals on ebay for bakugan el condor and bakugan preyas . shop with confidence .
looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing alsino y el condor near you .
you can get killed trying to break through the walls of el condor . . . but it ' s one helluva way to die !
greenspun , roger “screen : ` el condor’ bows , mexican treasure tale comes to the forum” , new york times , june 20 , 1970 , page 22 .
el condor - film - - regia di john guillermin , con jim brown , lee van cleef , marianna hill , iron eyes cody , imogen hassall . western , col . , 97 ' , usa 1970 .
el boletín oficial del estado , diario oficial del estado , es el órgano de publicación de las leyes , disposiciones y actos de inserción obligatoria .
monaco , james . how to read a film . oxford university press , 2000 . film studies theory .
yale film studies film analysis website . 2002 . yale university . 25 july 2006 . urltoken > this site provides ample information to introduce students to film studies .
stone , rob . spanish cinema . inside film series , 2002 . another text on film concepts and techniques .
from time to time in “el condor” there is introduced a certain amount of female nudity , which probably indi cates a trend and certainly makes the film different from the general run of westerns you may have enjoyed as a child .
el condor
is at least a pure example of its genre .
soldier blue
phonies things up with lots of liberal breast - beating before the big violent pay - off , but
el condor
is a totally cynical movie in which everyone acts out of the worst possible motives and nobody in the whole movie qualifies as the good guy .
when you create a vacu um , in art as in nature , some thing ambles in to fill the empty spaces , and in the void that is “el condor” that something is a death that chills desire .
6 . the ufa ( universum film ag ) was the principal film studio in germany during the weimar republic and the second world war .
a sudden shifting of tones so late in a film is a tricky business . normally , i admire the ambition it takes to try such an audacious move—even if the film is unable to pull it off . but guillermin doesn’t try to change the light tone he established early in the film . the clashing of guillermin’s comedic tone with the ugly violence in the third act breaks the spell that el condor is a fun romp .
construcciones el cóndor es una importante empresa de ingeniería , dedicada al desarrollo e inversión de obras de infraestructura pública y privada . lyrics to el condor pasa by paul simon : i ' d rather be a sparrow than a snail / yes i would / if i could , i surely would / i ' d rather be a .
the el condor , the fabled mexican stronghold rumoured to contain emperor maximilian ' s mythical reserves in gold , will attract two adventurous fortune seekers , who with eyes gleaming with desire , will shortly know that only fools rush in .
the american film institute catalog of motion pictures produced in the united states – feature films , 1 . university of california press , 1 . greenspun , roger “screen : ` el condor’ bows , mexican treasure tale comes to the forum” , new york times , june 2 . external links [ edit ] .
corrigan , timothy and white , patricia . the film experience : an introduction . bedford / st . martinãâ´s . comprehensive text on film concepts and techniques .
el plano secuencia integral ,
in cine cubano ( cuba ) , no . 125 , 1989 .
brown and van cleef play a pair of adventurers who , with a band of renegade apaches , besiege a fabled fortress called el condor , in which the treasury of maxi milian ' s mexico is supposed to hoard its vast reserves of gold .
roger ebert ' s review of august 27 , 1970 in the chicago sun - times began :
lee van cleef ' s last words in ' el condor ' are , ' what am i doing here ? ' amen , brother .
jaros , j . , film a doba ( prague ) , may 1984 .
bassan , raphael ,
alsino et le condor—une allegorie pour un pays neuf
in image et son ( paris ) , may 1984 .
rodney martínez , at ecuador’s international el niño centre , said el niño would affect the whole of south america , meaning heavy rainfall and floods in ecuador , peru , chile and northern argentina but potential drought relief in chile and bolivia . the early effects of el niño in brazil are expected to raise temperatures during the football world cup .
el cine revolucionario en bolivia ,
in cine cubano ( havana ) , no . 99 , 1981 .
alsino y el condor made at the time of the sandanista overthrow of the somoza regime in nicaragua , is an allegory of the nicaraguan people rising up to meet their oppressor . the film is a mexican - cuban - nicaraguan co - production , yet despite this , it has the distinctive littin touch . littin ' s shortest film to this point was criticized by some for its too blatant use of political allegory .
lee van cleef ' s last words in
el condor
are :
what am i doing here ?
amen , brother . this movie is arguably not more violent than
soldier blue ,
but its violence is on a vaster scale . it kills hundreds instead of dozens . it uses firebombs as well as cannons . there are fewer rapes , but on the other hand more disembowelments and tortures . and what
el condor
lacks in intelligence , it makes up for in stupidity .
the link between global warming and el niño , a natural climate phenomenon , is not yet well understood by scientists . but a study published in january predicted a doubling of extreme el niño events , as climate change ramps up .
either way , adding the impacts of el niño to the extreme weather already being driven by climate change increases the damage caused , said stockdale : “el niño can be the thing that pushes you over the edge . it will be in the years when you get a big el niño when you feel the impact of climate change the most . ”
understand how writers or film directors manipulate stories in order to achieve a desired effect .
taking plenty of inspiration ( also known as theft ) from the good , the bad and the ugly , el condor tells the tale of two outlaws forming an uneasy alliance as they seek a fortune in gold during the american civil war . as far as plots go , it’s fine to swipe what was essentially just a reason for sergio leone to craft some stunning set pieces . but to go the extra step of casting van cleef is too much . that casting almost forces the audience to make comparisons between the two films . not surprisingly , el condor suffers from the comparison . but that’s far from the film’s most pressing problem .
in the late sixties , early seventies lee van cleef would accept any offer for a western , provided it was shot in his natural habitat , the almeria desert . surprisingly , he wasn’t top - billed for el condor . the film was intended as a vehicle for jim brown , the former football player who had given up his sports career because hollywood paid better than the nfl . in a prison camp , shackled to elisha cook jr . , brown is told about a fortune in gold , once stolen by the spaniards from the aztecs , now stored in a federal mexican stronghold , a fortress called el condor . brown escapes and teams up with van cleef , an alcoholic fortune seeker who once lived with the apaches . brown reckons the apaches are the army he needs to attack el condor , in order to lay his hands on the gold … and some other treasure kept within the walls of the fortress …
i’m not sure what kind of film director john guillermin was trying to make with el condor , but it certainly wasn’t the film scripted by larry cohen and steven w . carabatsos . from lee van cleef’s mugging performance to the light adventure score by maurice jarre , guillermin seems to be trying to craft a rollicking buddy comedy / western . and while the script does seem to back that up at points during the first two acts , it’s only through increasingly grim plot twists in the third act that it becomes apparent the film should have been presented as something much darker .
“el condor , ” which opened yesterday at the forum the ater , is a movie that almost nobody involved seems to have taken seriously — nei ther the writers , nor the direc tor , nor the actors—with the possible exception of the ex plosives expert . for unlike everything else in the film , the explosions , which are fairly numerous , are surpris ing , precise and occasionally spectacular .
understand and analyze the connections between film and literature and how both represent and explore human experience .
convents , g . , in film en televisie + video ( brussels ) , october 1995 .
strong el niños also typically bring warmer winters to the northern us states , which would be a relief after last winter’s arctic conditions .
ledgard , m . ,
jorge sanjinés : el cine urgente ,
in hablemos de cine ( lima ) , june 1981 .
i received the centennial collection editions of the man who shot liberty valance and el dorado . what did el dorado look like in the previous edition ? i took a quick scan and it seems on par with paramount ' s work on the other centennial titles . the main featurettes for both films are lengthy - 40 + minutes for el dorado and 50 + for liberty valance . two commentaries for each film also , which should keep me occupied . the packaging uses trays instead of a disc on each side of the case .
teen rom - com “to all the boys i’ve loved before , ” starring lana condor ( “x - men : apocalypse” ) in the lead role , has begun production in vancouver .
el niños also typically damp down hurricane activity . but prof kerry emanuel , an atmospheric scientist at mit , said even in an el niño year a hurricane , given the right conditions , could still cause tremendous destruction . hurricane andrew , one of the deadliest and costliest in recent history , roared through florida in 1992 , which was an el niño year . “it would be tragic if everyone let their guard down , ” emanuel said .
this new dvd release is from a new video master made from a film print , so it looks super . as you can see in the photos at right , the new version of the film is much sharper and more vivid . and yes , it does include the bee gees music - as in the original film .
condor , who also was recently cast in james cameron’s manga - based “alita : battle angel” movie , is repped by icm partners and stone , genow , smelkinson , binder & christopher .
8 . timothy corrigan and patricia white . the film experience : an introduction . bedford / st . martinãâ´s .
professor axel timmermann , an oceanographer at the university of hawaii , argues that a major el niño is more likely than not , because of the specific pattern of winds and warm water being seen in the pacific . “in the past , such alignments have always triggered strong el niño events , ” he said .
el mirage by christopher woods dvd , format : ntsc , duration : 18 minutes , released in 1977 from the back cover : in 1976 , chris woods , then a student at the california institute of the fine arts film school , made this short documentary during the 43rd us unlimited class soaring nationals held at the storied el mirage glider port in california ' s mojave desert . the nostalgic images in this film have become a time capsule from one of the greatest soaring sites in america that ceased operations in the mid - 1980 ' s .
dvd by warner archive in 2 . critical reaction [ edit ] roger ebert ' s review of august 2 . chicago sun - times began :
lee van cleef ' s last words in ' el condor ' are , ' what am i doing here ? ' amen , brother .
see also [ edit ] references [ edit ] ^ imdb .
however , big el niños like the 1997 - 98 event – what patzert calls “godzillas” – are rare and forecasters at the us government’s climate prediction centre said on 5 june that time was running out for a significant el niño to be set in train . a modest or small el niño would have little impact on the drought , said patzert , noting that the 2006 - 07 drought – the worst on record at the time – occurred during a weak el niño year . even a “godzilla” would not be enough on its own to bail california out , he said : “but it would be a fantastic down payment on drought relief . ”
en españa , el boletín oficial del estado contiene además de las leyes producidas en el seno de las cortes generales , las disposiciones emanadas del gobierno de la nación , imagen de portada del boe las disposiciones generales de las comunidades autónomas , con independencia de que éstas se publiquen asimismo en los diarios oficiales de la propia autonomía .
review by paul remde this is chris woods ' first soaring film . he later produced several excellent soaring films including : the quiet challenge and running on empty . it is a neat time capsule to the days when libelle ' s and glasflugel 604 ' s and nimbus ' s were the hot ships . it is neat to see gus briegleb in the film running the el mirage glider port - which he did for over 30 years . pilots that were soaring back in 1976 will probably recognize many of the pilots in the film . i recognize hannes linke . let me know if you recognize other soaring pilots in the film . the dialog contains interviews with pilots about soaring and why it fascinates them . any pilot that flew at el mirage will love this film . it is also interesting to see how different crewing was back then . crews would follow pilots around while on course and try to help them select suitable landing fields . of course , the cinematography is excellent - as in all chris woods films . i thoroughly enjoyed this nice short film .
the pointed juxtaposition of sex and slaughter that par ticularizes this otherwise mostly mindless movie , intro duces a measure of perverse brutality that is more vicious in fact than may appear from a simple description . i think it is the mindlessness more than the violence that makes for my discomfort , for “el condor” lacks either the pru rience or prudery to support its more sensational gestures .
the avoidance of most potentially controversial points in the film is par for the course in guillermin’s direction . if he had also avoided the dark turns in the plot , i might have actually enjoyed the film more as a fun , pulpy western . but his attempts to just bulldoze over the grim material while presenting the film as escapist fun is a tad insulting .
stockdale said other global impacts could be droughts in the caribbean and southern africa at the end of the year , and also in central asia , although the precise impacts of each el niño vary due to local climatic variations . europe is the continent least affected by el niño by virtue of being on the opposite side of the world .
the four tasks will be : politics , language , culture and film . detailed rubrics will be given to each group .
there will be an advanced showing of this film at the 2007 soaring society of america convention on friday , february 9th .
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 .
el condor , directed by john guiller min ; screenplay by larry cohen and steven carabatsos , based on a story by mr . carabatsos ; director of photography henri persin ; music by maurice jerre ; produced by andre de toth ; released by national general pictures . at the forum theater , broadway at 47th street . running time : 102 minutes . ( the motion picture association of america ' s production code and rating adminstration classifies this film : “r—restricted , persons under 17 re quire accompanying parent or adult guardian . ” )
but , despite better el niño warnings nowadays , martinez said many nations were worse prepared than in 1997 : “in many cases the vulnerability has increased : more exposed population , more land degradation , river sedimentation , collapse of underground water sources , degradation of natural protection in riversides , badly designed infrastructure and lack of coordination and planning to cope with el niño . ”
in time , they learn that all that glitters is not , etc . ; but on the way they suffer a taw indignities , outwit a few fools , fall in and out of troubles—almost enough to make a movie . eventually van cleef ends up dead and brown ends up with mariana hill , simmering ex‐mistress of patrick o ' neal , iron willed commandant of el condor , who also ends up dead .
“if 2014 turns out to be an el niño year as currently forecast , increased public awareness of the dangers of human - induced climate change is likely to follow , ” said prof michael raupach , director of the climate change institute at the australian national university . “however , it is very important that our policy responses do not wax and wane with el niño . ”
“el niño could be quite devastating for agriculture and the water supply in india , ” said dr nick klingaman , an el niño expert at the university of reading in the uk . two - thirds of indian farmland lacks irrigation and is reliant solely on rainfall , meaning even current official prediction of a 5 % reduction in monsoon rains would have a major impact : a 10 % fall is an official drought . krishna kumar , an indian meteorologist and el niño expert , said that even if the 2014 el niño turns out not to be a very hot one , it can still have a major effect on the monsoon because it is the specific location of the warm pacific water which is the critical factor . “the moderate el niños of 2002 and 2009 impacted the monsoon in india much more greatly then the major 1997 event , ” he said , adding that the biggest cut in rainfall is not usually felt until september .
· lyrics to ' el condor pasa ' by simon and garfunkel : away , i ' d rather sail away like a swan that ' s here and gone a man gets tied up to the ground he gives the . jim brown and lee van cleef team up for this western set on the mexican border . brown is luke , who escapes from a chain gang after learning that a fortune in gold is .
filmart are a german label who specialise in cult film releasing titles in the spaghetti western , poliziotteschi , italian horror and gialli . . .
low water levels at lake hume , on the victoria - nsw border , australia , during the dry summer of 2007 , when the last el niño occurred . photograph : ashley whitworth / alamy
that ' s rather disturbing , come to think of it . the cowboy movies that i grew up on ( rex allen , roy rogers , hoppy ) clearly identified with their heroic , virtuous star . the new violent westerns are nihilistic in their disregard for any kind of traditional value system .
el condor ,
a particularly extreme example pits some spanish soldiers against jim brown , lee van cleef and some apaches who happen along .
teen rom - com “to all the boys i’ve loved before , ” starring lana condor ( “x - men : apocalypse” ) in the lead role , has begun production in vancouver . the film , based on the novel by bestselling author jenny han , is being produced by awesomeness films and overbrook entertainment . “to all the boys i’ve loved before” is directed by susan johnson with [ … ]
el niño begins as a giant pool of warm water swelling in the eastern tropical pacific ocean , that sets off a chain reaction of weather events around the world – some devastating and some beneficial .
the hot , dry skies will then track to heat - wracked australia , where 2013 was already its hottest year on record and el niño is threatening to turn the temperature up even further . andrew watkins , manager of climate prediction services at the australian bureau of meteorology , said : “el niño is one of the largest influences on australia’s climate . it’s why historically australia has had one of the most variable climates on the planet . ” watkins said el niño increases the chances of low rainfall in the country’s southern and most populous half and tends to deliver hotter years and higher extreme temperatures .
ultimately , not the best film . although it was better than x - men : last stand . so they have that going for them .
charlie spratt , competition director “the best film i have ever seen on contest flying . the photography is super and the story line perfect . ”
dawn flight is both a film about the wonder of soaring and a film about self - discovery . the symbolic dawn in the title bespeaks the sense of renewal that comes to the young glider pilot when he conquers his fear and meets the challenges presented to him by a mysterious pursuer .
the images above are from the new version of the film . the images below are from an old copy of the film . you can see that the images above are sharper and more vivid . if you click on the images you can view the large images side - by - side .
however , in the tropics and sub - tropics , another deadly impact of el niño is becoming better understood : its ability to spark civil wars . solomon hsiang , at columbia university , new york , showed in 2011 that 50 of the 250 conflicts between 1950 and 2004 were triggered by the el niño cycle , probably due to the loss of crops , jobs and the psychological effects of hotter weather .
“a lot of energy that should have been in the atmosphere has gone into the pacific , ” said kumar . “if el niño does set in that could trigger the release of that heat and faster warming : that has been a major concern . ” an el - niño - boosted 2015 could well be the hottest year on record , according to klingaman , just as nations have to agree a climate change deal .
miguel littin , chilean director in exile and former head of chile films , flirted with magic realism , a style increasingly popular in fiction and following on from this , cinema , in the 1970s , with el recurso del metodo , and then returned to the chileans - in - exile theme of direct criticism and allegories of the political events in chile with alsino y el condor . nearly all those involved in chile films during allende ' s brief tenure in office in the country were thrown out of chile after pinochet ' s takeover of power in 1973 ( some after a period of imprisonment ) , and despite money difficulties , some managed to keep up a form of film production . those who did so were mostly in socialist regimes—the soviet union or cuba—but because of his contacts in the mexican film business , miguel littin was able to continue his career there . this mass exodus of filmmakers from chile who actually managed to continue filmmaking , and provide an alternative point of view to the very small number of films produced under pinochet at this time , lead to the peculiar situation of almost an entire country ' s film output being made in exile .
new research in may showed the global impact of el niño events on food supplies , with corn , rice and wheat yield much lower than normal , although soybean harvests tend to rise . while food production has improved in the last year , el niño is set to reverse that trend , according to leo abruzzese , global forecasting director for the economist intelligence unit . “it may reduce agricultural output over the next few years , which could weigh on global food security ” . drought linked to the 2007 el niño led to a surge in food prices in 2008 that sparked riots in countries as far afield as egypt , cameroon and haiti .
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…
students will watch the corresponding final segment of the movie . during the film , the teacher will stop it at critical moments to get reactions from students .
campbell , leon g . , and carlos cortes ,
film as revolutionary weapon : a jorge sanjinés retrospective ,
in history teacher , may 1979 .
on the other hand , violence is more suitable for audiences under 17 , as our kindly police censor board will testify . unless , of course , the violence is combined with relevance and a social message , as in
joe .
the censors gave
joe
an adults - only tag , while
el condor
breezed past with its original
r .
and why not ? at least good mindless violence won ' t give the kids any funny ideas .
review by paul remde this is a great soaring film . if you love
the sun ship game
, you ' ll also love this film . it has many soaring legends in it : helmut reichmann , george moffat , ingo renner , tommy beltz , hans - werner grosse , klaus holighaus , etc . it does a great job of documenting the excitement of the contest . my favorite feature of the film is the way the film makers asked the same questions of several pilots , and received extremely different responses .
is physical conditioning important ?
,
is the crew as important as the pilot ?
,
are you flying for your country , or yourself ?
, etc . the answers really give insights into the minds of the competitors . i love this film .
the american film institute catalog of motion pictures produced in the united states – feature films , 1961 - 1970 . university of california press , 1997 , page 298 .
it has been fun working with producer / director johnnie walker to bring this wonderful documentary back to you . this is a legal and approved version of this film .
the latest el niño prediction comes from the european centre for medium - range weather forecasts ( ecmwf ) , which is considered one the most reliable of the 15 or so prediction centres around the world . “it is very much odds - on for an event , ” said tim stockdale , principal scientist at ecmwf , who said 90 % of their scenarios now deliver an el niño .
the amount of warm water in the pacific is now significant , perhaps the biggest since the 1997 - 98 event . ” that el niño was the biggest in a century , producing the hottest year on record at the time and major global impacts , including a mass die - off of corals .
as if he’s attempting to compensate for brown’s performance , van cleef goes too far over - the - top . while he is often fun to watch—he manages to steal brown’s insult scene with a hilarious reaction shot and the horrified delivery of the line , “goddamn , luke ! ”—he follows guillermin’s lead and plays the material for comedy to the eventual detriment of the film . by the time el condor was filmed , van cleef was an experienced villain and anti - hero . either of those archetypes would have been preferable to his decision to play jaroo as comic relief . but guillermin leans heavily on van cleef’s performance leading to some good individual moments at the expense of a coherent character arc .
march or die ( 1 . 97 . el condor was among the first movies rated r ( for violence , explicit language , and nudity ) . luke , an escaped convict , and jaroo , a loner gold prospector , team up with a band of apache indians in 1 . mexico to capture a large , heavily armed fortress for the millions—or billions—of dollars in gold that are rumored to be stored within . [ 1 ] vhs and dvd releases [ edit ] the movie was released on a fullscreen vhs in 1 .
any film with rhonda fleming is worth watching ! incidentally she was interviewed recently in the magazine in tune and she said she loved working in black - and - white .
remastered - this version is a bit better quality than the previous version , but don ' t expect the moon . the original film used did not yield great results .
brent finlay , president of australia’s national farmers’ federation , said he was hoping el niño just does not happen . “we have farmers and graziers in new south wales and queensland who are in drought now , and so to have this prediction of a possible el niño will be of grave concern . ” severe drought at any time could have “tragic” consequences on rural communities where he said some farmers had even taken their own lives , he said : “that is what drought does . ”
abolutely agree on gun glory - a cracking film . stewart granger didn ' t make too many westerns but this and the last hunt are right out of the top drawer .
west , dennis ,
film and revolution in the andes ,
in new scholar ( san diego ) , vol . 8 , no . 1 / 2 , 1982 .
the movie script was written by someone named jaime de andrade—in reality franco ' s pseudonym . josé luís sáez de heredia , josé antonio primo de rivera ' s cousin , directed the film . he had the best resources : money , time , huge settings and film stock ( almost 45 meters ) to make this film . it was a very expensive movie but that was not a problem since it was state sponsored . this was not a very innovative idea ; other countries had made state sponsored propaganda movies . some examples would be :
i have been looking forward to seeing this film again , as it is not available on r1 . it was still a very good watch , picture / sound / value very good
tudents will watch the fragment of the la guerra civil española about the bombing of guernica . the teacher will stop the film at critical moments to point out important concepts or ideas .
a strong el niño would bring rain , typically double the annual average in southern california . “i commonly refer to el niño as the great wet hope , ” said bill patzert , a climate scientist at nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory in california . “everyone in the west has their fingers crossed because we are bone dry . we have had three of the four driest years in the west in recorded history . dry land farmers and ranchers are definitely on their knees right now . we are running on reserves , we are pumping aquifers , and our reservoirs are at record lows . ” el niños also typically lead to wetter winters in texas , and other parts of the south - west , which also depend on getting most of their rain in the winter months .
reparto jim brown , lee van cleef , patrick o ' neal , marianna hill , iron eyes cody , imogen hassall , elisha cook jr . director john guillermin sinopsis siendo emperador de méjico maximiliano de austria ( 1864 - 1867 ) , dos aventureros norteamericanos , luke , un convicto ( jim brown ) , y jarro , un solitario buscador de oro ( lee van cleef ) , se asocian con unos indios apaches para buscar el oro del erario mejicano , que está escondido en la fortaleza de
el cóndor
.
elsewhere in the americas , a careful watch is being kept in peru , where the huge anchovy fishery has been wiped out by previous el niños – it was peruvian sailors who first named the phenomenon “the christ child” because its peak occurs at christmas . the 1997 - 98 el niño slashed the catch by 80 % , as the fish migrated away from the abnormally warm waters . luis icochea , a fisheries expert at the national agrarian university in lima , warned that the event this year is developing in a similar way .
luke ( jim brown ) is a convict doing time in a hard - labor prison for blowing up train tracks that were built on land seized by the railroad . while in prison , he learns the story of a fortune in gold bars stolen from the mexican treasury by an outlaw . that outlaw then had the gold stolen from him by a corrupt mexican general named chavez ( patrick o’neal as the most irish mexican you will ever see ) . chavez took his troops and created an impregnable fort in the middle of el condor desert , where he has lived like a king ever since .
i videoed it last time it was on , thursday afternoon , march 13th , 2008 . it was the last film i videoed before moving over to recording all off air recordings on dvd .
the film does do a great job of showing sailplanes in flight in spectacular surroundings . it also is great at explaining what soaring is about and how elegant and lovely and efficient sailplanes are .
my experience with suevia is that you can expect low end transfers . the wonderful country is * i think * a ua film so i ' m hoping it pops up somewhere else in r2 .
triana toribio , nuria . spanish national cinema . routledge , 2003 . study of the influences spanish cinema has had throughout history : how film worked under the franco regime and how it works now .
watched the gunfight at dodge city - not a great film or even a semi - great film , but it ' s enjoyable , mostly because of the good cast and especially because joel mccrea was one of the greatest screen actors of all time . he ' s wonderful in this film . like wichita , this sports a very good score by hans salter . as to the transfer - if you want to see how much bs all this palaver about early to late 50s cheap film stocks or unstable film stocks being the culprit for all those half - assed poor color transfers we ' re treated to , just buy this dvd and see for yourself what color is supposed to look like . maybe not the sharpest transfer , but perfectly rendered color - how come ? low budget film . how come some came running and the tender trap are terrible color transfers - brown , faded , awful , and this film has great color ? well , someone didn ' t drain the color from the gunfight at dodge city and either someone did for the latter two films or someone at warners simply doesn ' t understand color . i do hate to go on about it , but when one sees this sort of transfer and then , to move on from warners , sees man of the west , with its green skies and pasty brown skin tones ( in the region 1 ) well , one has to wonder .
paramount ' s centennial collection releases continue on may 19 with reissues of both the man who shot liberty valance and el dorado . i have to say the extras sound nice ; bogdanovich commentaries for both titles and more . art and details here urltoken and from dvd times here urltoken
in a nice twist , luke , jaroo , and their apache soldiers find themselves in control of the fort and the gold it holds by the end of the second act . but this means the rest of the film plays out like a pale remake of the treasure of the sierra madre as greed clouds everyone’s judgment . jaroo’s threats of violence—presented as empty and comedic earlier in the film—become menacing and realistic .
review by paul remde this is a fantastic hd soaring film . the cinematography is excellent . it shows that soaring is an adventure and that we soaring pilots are fortunate to fly in some amazing environments .
i wanted to take a fresh approach in a soaring film , to use motorless flight not as an end in itself but as a means to express something else that was on my mind .
has anyone read anything about the quality of the spanish release of el condor ? i ' ve searched some forums and review sites for comments about the picture quality etc and can ' t find anything . like many posters on this site , i ' m not at all keen on the idea of buying anything on these warner archive dvd - rs if i can possibly get a decent pressed dvd of it instead . having said that , i may well crack soon and get wichita and westbound on the deep discount archive sale . . . and then hope like hell that they don ' t turn into coasters in a couple of years time !
raza is one of the four propaganda movies about the spanish civil war made during francoâ´s dictatorship . the other three were sin novedad en el alcázar , la patrulla and la fiel infantería . it is a fiction movie that synthesizes the ideology of francoâ´s fascist regimen in the early postwar years .
there are two different versions of the movie ( 5 ) : one from 1942 ( previewed in el palacio de la música in madrid ) ; and a second one from 1950 . with the excuse of making a new , re - mastered sound version , they changed the movie . apparently , no one noticed what they really did . the second version , titled el espíritu de una raza , was six minutes shorter than the first one : all the fascist , anti - american and antidemocratic references were removed for political reasons . they tried to destroy all the copies of the first version , but one appeared in berlin , in 1993 , after the recovery of some ufa ( universum film ag ) ( 6 ) archives . it was then when critics realized there were two different versions .
the structural , narrative , and stylistic approaches used by sanjinés have evolved in accordance with his basic goal of optimum communication with his peasant and working - class audiences . when exhibiting yawar mallku to indians in remote areas , sanjinés drew on an inca oral tradition ; and before showing the film he first had a narrator introduce the story and the characters to the cinematically unsophisticated audiences . later , in el enemigo principal , sanjinés built a narrator into the film itself : a well - known indian peasant leader periodically appears to speak , in quechua , directly to viewers in order to introduce the characters and events which will follow . from peasant reaction to his early films , sanjinés found that unsophisticated viewers were shocked when a close shot follows an establishing shot . therefore , in el enemigo principal outdoor group scenes appear initially in long shot ; and then the camera slowly zooms in , much as a spectator would approach . although yawar mallku involved an indian community in the filming , sanjinés later sought from indigenous groups an even more active collective participation in an effort to make films
from the people , to the people .
in el coraje del pueblo , survivors of the army ' s 1967 massacre of miners actively participated in the filmmaking by re - creating their own activities before and during the bloodbath .
this is a buddy film with a small - time thug ( victor lobianco ) meeting a high - profile gangster ( lee van cleef ) while in prison . the pair team up to attempt a prison breakout .
i too was considering getting the region 1 dvd of man of the west so thanks for the feedback ! why it didn ' t get a 2 disc special edition release is beyond me ; a phenomenal film .
the gunfighter sounds excellent : ) i can assure you it is . to be honest there ' s not a bad film in the set ; some people say rawhide isn ' t great but i kind of like it .
free 4 - page insert included i have included a 4 - page insert inside the dvd case which includes black and white promotional materials from the original film release in 1974 . it is a neat trip back in time !
the film , based on the novel by bestselling author jenny han , is being produced by awesomeness films and overbrook entertainment . “to all the boys i’ve loved before” is directed by susan johnson with a screenplay by sofia alvarez .
production : nicaraguan film institute , cuban institute of cinematographic art and industry , latin american production of mexico , costa rican cinematographic co - operative ; colour , 35mm ; running time : 89 minutes . filmed on location in nicaragua .
is a must - have item for anyone interested in sailplane flying . this film , beautifully shot in the nevada mountains at barron hilton ' s famous flying m ranch , records the star - studded 1984 hilton cup soaring camp .
note : the original masters of this film were destroyed by fire many years ago . this is a digital copy made at some time , by someone . the quality is only ok . as you can see in the image captures below , the colors are not vivid and there are defects such as streaks and fuzz on the film , etc . it is not horrible , but it is not great either . a few minutes into the film , you won ' t notice the quality issues . the audio is quite good and the story is great . i ' m confident you ' ll enjoy it very much as long as you don ' t expect high quality or high - definition .
had to wait for nearly a month for it to arrive from spain . quality not brilliant . sound good but the picture quality leaves a lot to be desired . also the titles were cut short at the end of the film .
sanjinés ' s works offer a defense of the andean indian way of life and expose and attack the indians ' enemies . yawar mallku denounces a progress corps ( read peace corps ) pediatrics clinic that sterilizes unsuspecting andean women , while in the documentary reconstruction el coraje del pueblo , bolivian government and military officials responsible for the massacres of indian miners are specifically identified . the fiction feature el enemigo principal illustrates the exploitation and brutality suffered by indigenous peasants at the hands of powerful landowners and links the power of the landowners to u . s . imperialism . the mise - en - scène of these films reflects sanjinés ' s defense of the indian way of life . for instance , in el enemigo principal the inca heritage of the modern andean indian pervades the mise - en - scène : the predominance of quechua dialogue , the centuriesold custom of chewing coca leaves , the trapezoidal niches and doors characterizing inca masonry , the ancient agricultural ritual , the everyday work of spinning and weaving .
narrated by hal holbrook , reveals the critical role gliders played in world war ii offensives . through rare archival footage and photographs , the film places the audience right at the center of the action in the dangerous world of the american glider pilot .
van cleef’s part wasn’t the only thing that was re - written . the fortress was built especially for the movie ( it was subsequently featured in several other movies , including a reason to live , a reason to die and conan the barbarian ) , and larry cohen was asked to rewrite the script so the focus would be more on the fortress . this wasn ' t a lucky decision : the two men arrive too soon at the fortress and after a boisterous , enjoyable start the film falls flat , offering too many scenes involving brown and van cleef going into the fortress and working their way out of it again . el condor is one of those movies which eventually put all of their premises inside out and upside down : nothing is what it seems ( not even the gold ) and most characters have a hidden agenda . and only in the dying moments we learn why brown was so keen on taking the fortress , and why the cruel but honourable general chavez was so keen on defending it .
the novel was adapted for the screen . malraux began the shooting in 1938 and finished it the following year . expoir is a very committed film without references to ideology . the movie seems to be a tribute to the international brigadists and the republic .
nationality : bolivian . born : la paz , bolivia , 31 july 1936 . education : studied filmmaking and philosophy at catholic university in santiago , chile , late 1950s . career : made first film , sueños y realidades , with oscar soria , in bolivia , 1961 ; named head of bolivian film institute , 1965 ; left bolivia following coup led by hugo banzer , 1972 ; returned to bolivia , 1979 . address : c / o consejo nacional del cine , casilla 9933 , la paz , bolivia .
condor plays romance - novel buff lara jean covey , who starts her junior year content to spend lunch in the library reading . her love life goes from imaginary to out of control when her secret box of love letters is unexpectedly delivered to the various boys she’s had crushes on throughout her life . to avoid confronting them , lara jean fakes a relationship with one of them — but starts to realize that she may not be pretending .
policymakers are likely also to feel the heat of el niño in the negotiations towards a global deal to cut carbon emissions and tackle global warming , which must culminate in paris in december 2015 . since the scorching year of 1998 , the rate of global warming has slowed , with over 90 % of the heat trapped by co2 going into the oceans .
review by paul remde i love this film . the scenery and cinematography are awesome . the views of clouds flowing around mountain peaks are spectacular . i like how he shows water flowing over a rock and compares it with the wind and clouds flowing over and around the mountain peaks . the effect is very well done . the flight is truly an amazing one and you get to relive it as he describes his thought process as the flight unfolds . the film also includes a great interview with klaus about the flight and future flights . he talks about many topics including how sleep deprivation is a major factor in flights like this because late night weather analysis and early morning preparations don ' t leave much time for sleep before the flight . at the end are more breathtaking views of volcanic craters , impressive lenticular clouds , etc . it is a beautiful , inspirational and motivational film . why does he call it
gliding in the 5th dimension
? . . . you ' ll have to watch the film to find out .


wrong is a 2012 french-american independent surreal comedy film written and directed by quentin dupieux .

the film stars jack plotnick and premiered at the 2012 sundance film festival .

it was part of the toronto international film festival 's official selection .

the producers of the film are charles-marie anthonioz , gregory bernard , nicolas lhermitte , josef lieck and kevos van der meiren .

wrong ( film )

tahiti boy & mr . oizo - pizza note - wrong ( original motion picture soundtrack )
in “the wrong move , ” wim wenders adds another element to the postwar rebirth of german cinema .
dupieux makes the viewer work for it with wrong . and it ' s not always worth the effort . . .
browse television , film , short film , music video , web series , documentary , drama and more categories .
in wrong , reality and the world of the film will regularly upend themselves ; it ' s never quite reliably clear , though , that these inexplicable events are happening for a purpose .
there’s almost no lynchian violence or exploration of society’s seedy underbelly in wrong . instead , dupieux keeps his film more squarely in the quirky humor camp , although there’s little in the way of actual lols . wrong is more like a nihilist napoleon dynamite for white - collar burnouts , without the endearing characters and satisfying story arc .
dupieux doesn ' t care about standards and brings all the right goods to wrong . he ' s batshit crazy and takes us on wild and hilarious ride of absurdity . bringing the fun into arthouse cinema , wrong will leave you strangely addicted to dupieux ' s world .
it’s in the film of 2010 that the big world - saving stakes come to the forefront . and the film updates that final message , too :
absolutely nothing is right in wrong , the latest movie from absurdist french director quentin dupieux . while his previous film , rubber , revolved around the homicidal actions of a psychotic tire , his latest effort takes weirdness to a whole new level .
version one , for example , begins with a subtly jumbled title card – right then , wrong now – that perfectly sets the tone for the
hey , wait a second…
cognitive gymnastics that watching the rest of the film entail .
will smith aka the beloved box - office slugger has scored one of 2016’s biggest turkeys . we get out the baster and try to figure out what went so wrong
a work of much playfulness and imagination , wrong hints at a broader promise of budding , starburst auteurism upon which the film as a whole - - a nice , silly riff that could work better in truncated form - - doesn ' t fully deliver .
if you can get past the clock that goes to 60 , the enigmatic pine tree and the office where dolph goes to “work” each day , wrong is the kind of film that will have you wanting to watch it again to try to figure out exactly what the hell happened .
the whole film feels a bit like a dream after a late - night burrito , leaving you wondering if moments in the film actually happened , particularly when mulling over it the next day .
dupieux ' s previous feature was
rubber
( 2010 ) , a b - movie send - up about a sentient tire with telekinetic abilities .
wrong
dispenses with the earlier film ' s over - the - top gore and heady meta - movie hijinks — characters addressing the viewer , an on - screen
audience
observing the action — in favor of unpretentious comedy and non - confrontational cutesiness . this makes
wrong
more palatable — but also blander . what
rubber
lacked in pay - off , it made up for with personality . while
wrong
exhibits a well - developed ( though hardly original ) comic sensibility , its flat style means that no gag , however weird , has any bite .
in that way , fichtner’s character is as close to a god - like being in wrong as dupieux’s cynicism will allow . chang creates problems because he anticipates them and makes a mess of everything . the notion of a bumbling deity that hurts people more than he helps them is a tempting philosophy . but it’s only tempting whenever wrong isn’t actively devolving into an interminable laundry list of strange things that mostly prove how jaded dupieux is .
speaking of jack reynor , he’s such a highlight of the film . how did that character develop ?
f you thought the irreconcilable natures of free will and fate were rivetingly examined by gwyneth paltrow in sliding doors , just wait until you get a load of the new hong sang - soo film . right now , wrong then , which screened at the tokyo film festival earlier this week , is an hour - long love story , told twice – but with tiny variations that send each version on a dramatically different emotional course .
in fact , you might as well check any semblance of reality at the door when viewing wrong , which is available on demand and was released theatrically friday . it’s a delightfully deranged bit of cinema filled with oddball characters , bizarre occurrences and strangely engaging philosophical discussions about the meaning of pizza parlor logos . in dupieux’s world , even clocks can’t be trusted . ( see the wrong motion poster above , exclusively premiered by wired , for a taste of dupieux’s high strangeness . )
when strong - willed summer pratt takes a job at a beautiful estate as the new nanny to a sweet but sad little girl named sophie , she soon starts to suspect something is very wrong with the . . . see full summary »
update with more details : a24’s moonlight won the best picture oscar tonight after an epic mix - up on the stage in which presenter faye dunaway , onstage with warren beatty , read what turned out to be the wrong winner . she originally announced that lionsgate’s la la land won , to walk away with its seventh win of the night from its record - tying 14 nominations , and la la land ‘s producers even gave acceptance speeches before the mistake was discovered , and chaos ensued for the last and most marquee category of the night as reality set in that the wrong film was announced .
in damien chazelle’s new film “whiplash , ” the very idea of jazz is turned into a grotesque and ludicrous caricature .
written , directed , photographed , edited and co - scored by quentin dupieux — a man who is the living definition of
jack of all trades , master of none
—
wrong
often resembles a student film stretched to feature length . dupieux ' s style is efficient but underdeveloped , and leans heavily on rack focus — where the camera dramatically re - focuses from one object to another — as a form of visual punctuation . his music is pleasant but often ill - fitting . his over - use of shallow depth - of - field gives
wrong
the visual texture of a well - produced web video .
wrong
is a surreal shaggy dog story about a loser who wakes up one morning to find that his beloved pooch has disappeared . composed of skit - like scenes and populated by gimmicky characters , the movie is flimsy , glib , and occasionally pretty funny .
in one of the final scenes of arrival , the new first - contact science fiction film with a focus on linguistics , dr . louise banks ( amy adams ) explains why she got divorced . “he said i made the wrong choice , ” the linguist tells her daughter hannah . it’s an easy line to overlook , especially as the gravity of the film’s second - half surprise sinks in . throughout the film , louise is experiencing not her memories of the past , but living out precognitive moments of her own future . she is experiencing time out of order , because her efforts to understand an alien language have irreversibly rewired her brain .
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 .
unfortunately finishing off special effects and creating an ' actor ' s cut ' of the film is less than likely , so we ' ll probably never see the film as it was written – just what was left after garden shears were used in the editing room .
mr wrong tells the story of meg , a country girl who has just moved to the city and whose new car is making some strange and spooky noises . . . what ' s more , it attracts the attention of a mysterious stranger who seems to materialise out of thin air .
there ' s not enough here for a full length feature film - something that becomes obvious the longer the movie is on the screen .
and you’ve said eamon’s rabbits in the film came right out of real life . the actual eamon you knew as a teenager kept rabbits .
so what’s to like ? for the more literal - minded moviegoer , possibly nothing . if you haven’t figured it out already , wrong is clearly not right for everybody : it’s one of those movies that makes you constantly wonder if you’re “getting it , ” and never really answers the nagging question .
the characters — by turns eccentric , amusing and annoying — all come across convincingly skewed , but if you can truly relate to any of them you might want to get your meds checked . to say much more than that would be to rob wrong of its chief charm : complete , uncanny unpredictability .
i raise two virtual pennies for your thought . did you love , hate , or just avoid this film ? tell us in the comments !
however it does appear that an awful lot of character moments – essentially the heart , the star trek core of this film , were removed , leaving what is often thought of as a hollow action film by many . behind the scenes friction can ' t have helped while filming , either .
if the film had any depth , dupieux ' s humor could be subversive . his favorite targets , after all , are authority figures — cops , firemen , employers . the absurd can serve as a commentary on reality ; without a firm grounding , however , all it can be is amusingly weird . in
wrong ,
dupieux opts for
shallow
laughs — jokes without characters , subtext , or a tinge of truth . his gags are gags and nothing more .
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…
is substantially more entertaining than any film adapted from an app has any right to be - - which may or may not be much of an endorsement .
subscribe to trailers : urltoken subscribe to coming soon : urltoken subscribe to indie & film festivals : urltoken like us on facebook : urltoken follow us on twitter : urltoken wrong official trailer # 1 ( 2013 ) - quentin dupieux movie hd dolph springer wakes up one morning to realize he has lost the love of his life , his dog , paul . during his quest to get paul ( and his life ) back , dolph radically changes the lives of others - - risking his sanity all the while
the film won preston a nomination for best director at the 1986 gofta awards , as well as a win for best performance , female ( heather bolton ) .
he shine is coming off of la la land . the box - office smash and owner of a record - tying 14 oscar nominations premiered to rapturous reviews at film festivals last fall , but in the weeks that followed , and as the film screened for more and more critics , a backlash began to grow . representatives of various marginalized communities – women , african americans , and jazz lovers – emerged to take the film down a peg . what ensued was an all - out war ( albeit one waged mostly on twitter ) between the film’s fans and its detractors . while it might seem odd that a movie as guileless and nostalgic as
but actually , arrival more closely resembles contact , a film about jodie foster wearing headphones and listening to those headphones and then listening really hard to those headphones .
if director tate taylor wanted to make a film about the plight of domestic workers , he might have made one about a hispanic or haitian nanny in brooklyn .
i think jack reynor [ who plays conor’s brother brendan in the film ] liked her for the role , and i listened . when i’m talking to actors in my films , and they’re like ,
what about this ? what about this ?
i like to listen to them as they connect to their characters , and to the film . she was on a list , and i knew her through friends , but there was no nod to the commitments in casting her in the film . someone even said the other day that there are rabbits in my film , and the main character in the commitments is called jimmy rabbitte . well , okay…
wrong is a movie starring jack plotnick , todd giebenhain , and eric judor . dolph springer wakes up one morning to realize he has lost the love of his life , his dog , paul . during his quest to get paul ( and his life ) back , dolph radically changes the lives of others - - risking his sanity all the while .
yeah , he had lots of rabbits in his house , and they became kind of a mascot for the film . and i also asked myself ,
if i put a bunch of rabbits in a film and i don’t explain it , will people ask about it ?
and then they do , and that’s kind of funny .
“dmx is the perfect actor for the stylized and satisfying film adaptation of goine’snever die alone , directed with street corner majesty by cinematographer - turned - director ernest dickerson .
in the opening half hour of star wars : rogue one we travel to several different planets , bases , and even time periods , hopping between locations as rapidly as a mission impossible film . we ' re introduced to a bunch of different people and plots and have to keep track of all of it while the film pushes forward relentlessly .
writer - director john carney laments that his film once will inevitably be the first thing mentioned in his obituary , and he isn’t wrong . the low - budget 2007 indie , featuring markéta irglová and the frames’ glen hansard as musicians who sing together as a substitute for the relationship they can’t have , became an international hit , and won an oscar for hansard’s song “falling slowly . ” the broadway adaptation won eight tony awards and has been performed around the world . it’s the kind of success story that naturally becomes the benchmark for all future endeavors .
would such an extended cut be a better film ? based on just the deleted scenes on the home releases , many have suggested it would not have made that much of a difference . i personally disagree and the scenes mentioned above are part of the film to me . however it seems there is far more footage to integrate than those few scenes .
a wanna - be director is given 48 hours by a producer to find the best groan of pain , worthy of an oscar , as the only condition to back his film .
if you ' re an accompanying adult , be rest assured , there ' s plenty of chuckles in it for you too . it ' s a real egg - citing film .
this isn ' t a long film , but it lacks propulsion at times . luckily , it maintains its wry outlook and never quite erases the good will that its best moments inspire .
it wouldn’t have been anything if they died in the end . it just wouldn’t have been a film . it just would have been a joke , or a twist , or something .
writer / director / composer / editor / cinematographer / auteur / weirdo quentin dupieux is a guy who pulls the mat right out from under the hollywood norm and takes bold and colorful chances . last year , dupieux created a feature - length film about a killer tire called rubber . he broke every rule he could and created something pretty fucking incredible . with wrong , dupieux turns a little story about a man ' s quest to find his missing dog into a mind - bending , chopped and screwed reality where almost nothing makes sense . dear reader , this ain ' t your average homeward bound .
away from the festival circuit , only one of hong’s 17 films to date , 2013’s our sunhi , has made it to british cinemas . but though right now , wrong then might not be as instantly loveable as last year’s culture - clash bonbon , hill of freedom , or his elliptical 2012 cannes entry in another country , it’s a film that deserves to grow hong’s overseas following . no director working today can carry out this kind of heavyweight emotional excavation with such feather - light flicks of his trowel . that’s hong’s gift , as counterintuitive as it is unique : he makes molehills out of mountains .
it ' s not hard to come to the conclusion that the film simply got overlooked . after all , star trek is a product of the small screen and up against the cinematic experiences on offer from the other films , it ' s hardly surprising that cinema - goers may have simply decided to wait to see the film . . . if they even knew it was out .
1996 ' s star trek : first contact took $ 150 million worldwide , on a budget of $ 46 million . 1998 ' s star trek : insurrection managed to swallow a budget of $ 70 million and only return $ 118 worldwide , but after the critical feedback about that film , surely a darker action film along the same lines as first contact would jump the box office back up ?
wenders doesn’t explode the film - noir framework of the movie , nor does he explore its historical origins or its implications , whether aesthetic or political . he embraces the genre uninhibitedly , as if asserting
i think it’s lazy journalism . but i’m completely okay with it ! i think it’s obvious that i think it’s very tiresome . it’s an easy way to make copy , to say ,
it’s not as good as his first film ,
or compare it to my first film . i think people thought i was an amateur when i made once , because it looks so amateurish . that they were delighted with the idea that someone made something on a camcorder . that’s not the real story . i’d been making film for 10 years before then . i’d been making tv professionally for four years .
this has happened before , according to our colleague pete hammond , in 1964 , when sammy davis jr . also got the wrong envelope for two music categories . regardless , the notice posted at the end of the abc telecast suggests that pwc has a lot of explaining to do : “the results of all the secret voting are known only to the independent accounting firm of pricewaterhousecoopers until the sealed envelopes are opened on the air . ”
. ” its very title rejects the return that wenders was attempting , and the film itself is among the most original and most daring films of the time , one of the era’s signal cinematic inventions .
the quasi - nihilistic and totally surrealistic ideology behind wrong , writer / director / editor / musician quentin dupieux’s follow - up to rubber , is more exciting in theory than it is in practice . wrong , which is set in a nondescript suburb where an abrupt and meaningless series of events proves that nothing means anything in dupieux’s films , begins with dolph springer ( jack plotnick ) waking up at 7 : 60 a . m . to find that his dog paul is missing . the animals’ absence is meant to symbolize the lack of order in his owner’s life . that characteristic sense of disequilibrium is something that dolph’s been able to ignore right up until paul runs away . dolph’s very much in denial about how screwed up his life has become of late ; though fired from his day job three months ago , he still shows up to his former office and pretends to do work .
those extras on the dvd and blu - ray release really do paint a picture of a different film that should have had a heart , and i strongly recommend exploring all the extras on the home releases of the film which puts a whole other light on the production . . . and leads you to discover patrick stewart ' s enjoyment of the argo all terrain vehicle as supplied by ivan ' ironman ' stewart !
none of this is to suggest that the film is exactly racist . sebastian romanticizes parker simply because he lived and died before jazz started to change for the first time . but it’s impossible to separate jazz from black history , and it’s downright foolish to do so in a film by , for and largely about white people . it’s especially dangerous right now . geoff nelson at paste magazine links the film’s traditionalism and the satisfaction derived from its nostalgia to the trump campaign’s backwards - looking ethos : “there lies a profound irony in liberal white folks heading to la la land to repair after a political season overflowing with the nostalgia of white supremacy . ”
in 2014 , christopher nolan delivered interstellar , a film which gilds wormhole physics with daddy - daughter emotionality . it’s a film i gather some people love — currently # 32 on the imdb top 250 , whatever that means anymore . and it’s unquestionably a nice film . it declares that the whole fourth dimensional architecture of time and space is made out of love . it sends a man into a wormhole , where the universe sends him back to his daughter . interstellar even has its own variation of heptapods : extra - dimensional beings , evolved from humanity , who exist outside of time , so they can save humanity and provide third - act catharsis .
meanwhile , at almost the same time , the writer peter handke , who wrote the script for “the wrong move” as well as for wenders’s first feature , “the goalie’s anxiety at the penalty kick , ” out - wenders wenders with the 1978 film “ the left - handed woman . ” handke directed his own adaptation of his novella , which appeared in translation in the new yorker in 1977 ; it’s tactile as wenders’s earlier films were ; it confronts the loss of cultural foundations as well as the political and personal implications ( positive as well as negative ) of that epochal shift ; and it does so with precisely the emotional , familial , and artistic intimacy that wenders was leaving behind .
this film is a dire warning for the rest of the world . the euthanasia deception is a one - hour documentary featuring powerful testimonies from belgium and beyond - of those devastated by the false ideology of ‘mercy killing’ .
and yet . . . something was missing , both as a film on its own merits and as a star wars movie . the more i went over the movie in my mind , the more problems i uncovered .
most of these criticisms come with an admission that la la land is , on its surface , great entertainment . the snappy songs , brightly colored clothes and the virtuosic film - making are diverting enough that the film’s persistence in entertaining you is emotionally moving . for the millions of americans who are depressed and anxious about the state of the nation , la la land is a trifle that seems more substantial because of our desperate need for distraction .
the smaller characters were all more interesting . the droid k - 2so was a wonderful change from weaker droids who couldn ' t fight , bringing both humor and some great action to the film . saw gerrera was wonderfully crazy in his paranoid militancy , though we didn ' t get nearly enough of him , and i wonder if this film would have been better as an apocalypse now knock - off than a straight - up war movie .
the film was directed by neill blomkamp , who has since admitted that the story wasn’t quite all there . blomkamp had a reputation as a sci - fi thinker after district 9 , but he’s never been as pretentious as his partisans . he likes action scenes , and he likes space guns . elysium is , in that sense , a fairly standard contemporary blockbuster action film . it suffers from our modern story gravity : the world is at stake .
i saw the film on friday afternoon , and came away feeling mostly happy about it . the movie was action - packed , had some great characters , and ended with a bang . it was funny and visually striking .
postwar life in ohio contains its peaceful moments , of bringing in the laundry or shelling peas , but the house at 124 bluestone road is forever saddened by what sethe did . was it wrong ? yes , said the law : she was guilty of destroying property . the law did not see her or her child as human beings , and thus did not consider the death to be murder . in a society with those values , to kill can be seen as life - affirming .
watching further extras on the blu - ray offers snippets of alternative or extended versions of scenes where more of the characters we knew from the next generation shone through the action film surroundings . plus , there ' s a film test of tom hardy feeling his way into the role of shinzon ( with obvious relish in portraying the distanced lost soul of the character ) opposite an in - uniform patrick stewart . that too suggests more meat to their interactions .
dolph’s need to turn a blind eye to the aspects of his life that are obviously , well , wrong is further established when a palm tree in his backyard mysteriously transforms into a pine tree . also , it’s raining inside dolph’s office even though none of his co - workers seem to notice it or care that they’re being soaked . but none of this matters to dolph as much as paul’s absence . so in order to put his life back together , he goes in search for his dog .
back in 2014 , there were all these news stories about how you were collaborating with u2 on the film . but they aren’t credited on the songs or soundtrack , as far as i could tell . what happened with that collaboration ?
the loser ( jack plotnick , sporting a mustache and a cowlick hairdo ) is named dolph springer . though dolph is unemployed , he can somehow afford a roomy los angeles house and a full - time gardener ( eric judor ) . however ,
wrong
is a movie where human - to - canine telepathy , indoor rainstorms , and a technology that visualizes the
memories
of feces all exist ; perhaps its world also includes french landscapers who will come in five days a week for free .
the film is produced by the euthanasia prevention coalition in association with dunnmedia and supported by thousands of like - minded organizations and individuals throughout the world . please consider supporting these initiatives by purchasing a dvd and arranging a screening in your area .
the film had a curious effect on me . i was sometimes confused about events as they happened , but all the pieces are there , and the film creates an emotional whole . it ' s more effective when it ' s complete than during the unfolding experience . seeing it more than once would be rewarding , i think , because knowing the general outline - - having the road map - - would deepen the effect of the story and increase our appreciation of the fractured structure .
of course , master chang isn ' t the only idiot in
wrong .
in fact , the movie has a whole cast of them : dolph ' s fidgety neighbor ( regan burns ) ; a pet detective ( steve little ) who refuses to look at a picture of the dog he ' s supposed to be looking for ; a flighty , bird - brained pizzeria employee ( alexis dziena ) who thinks that dolph and his gardener are the same person and ends up leaving her husband for him / them .
the screenplay for mr wrong was based upon the story by well - known english writer elizabeth jane howard . director gaylene preston used the genre of thriller to examine sexual violence towards women , and what she calls ' the cinderella syndrome ' . using the story of an ordinary young woman leaving home to begin an independent life who is threatened by a quite extraordinary phenomenon , preston explores alternative reactions to fear and their consequences , as well as the unhappiness caused by the fantasy girls grow up with of
mr right
.
with expert analysis from both medical and legal professions , the film reveals the serious , long - term implications of assisted dying laws , and proves that all of us become vulnerable when end - of - life care is handed over to lawmakers .
the angry birds movie is really not bad . it is actually very actively okay . the film has taken its bird - brained brand . . . and used it to construct characters and plots that are certainly serviceable , and possibly even inspired .
over the past few years , there has been a concerted effort among pop culture critics to elevate the voices of the marginalized , both in works of art themselves and among the critical community . as necessary as this effort is , it can make it more difficult for a film to transcend racial and gender boundaries because there is always a group that can claim that the film ignores them . notably , la la land was also criticized for its lack of gay characters on the basis that , well , there are a lot of gay people in los angeles but none in the film . whether you think this is fair or not , it’s going to continue to be an issue until hollywood more generally solves its problem of inequality in gender , race and sexual identity .
indeed , that might just happen . hidden figures pulled off an upset at the sag awards two weeks ago , earning the prize for best ensemble , which is sometimes seen a precursor for best picture ( la la land , weirdly , was not nominated ) . when the story of the year in cinema is written , we may say that la la land peaked too early , or that it was the right film at the wrong time , or that its other , less political criticisms – the story is a little thin , the characters don’t particularly sing or dance very well , and it may be just too self - indulgent for its own good – were exposed after its shine finally wore off . for now , we will have to wait to see if hollywood is more interested in looking forward or looking back .
arrival certainly has a lot in common with close encounters . spielberg’s film ends with scientists at a base camp trying to communicate with extraterrestrials in a floating ship . that’s where arrival begins , middles , and ends , what with time being such a flat circle .
the film cost $ 40 million , took years to make , required everyone involved ( including cillian murphy , chris evans pre - captain america , and rose byrne pre - everything ) to believe passionately that they had to work hard on an unsettling space movie with zero mass appeal about a spaceship moving realistically slowly toward total doom . the film came out , made less than $ 4 million in america , was generally vilified by scientists and totally ignored by critics . ( it’s a cruddy business , sometimes , making movies . )
foster came back to science fiction in 2013’s elysium , a movie that boldly argues that there are rich people and there are poor people , and that’s uncool , man . having established a tone of bare social realism , the film immediately becomes an eerie fable of privilege bestowed : matt damon plays a white messiah to a working - class trashworld seemingly populated exclusively by hispanics . the film solves wealth disparity using advanced medical technology . it’s the least thoughtful sort of science fiction : having addressed a real problem , elysium invents an impossible solution .
in a revelation that will shock few who have seen the film , stuart baird ( helmer of films such as executive decision and us marshalls , and long - time film editor ) had no knowledge of star trek before becoming director of nemesis . he even refused to watch any of the next generation tv series to prepare ( and reportedly went so far to say he hated the franchise , and had to be forced to watch the preceding films , allegedly ) , so it ' s no wonder so many fans feel the characters act strangely .
star trek : nemesis left dangling threads , on purpose , as a story treatment for a direct sequel was already being worked on . the follow up film would have picked up on the slow re - establishment of data ' s neural net within b - 4 , as was hinted at the end of nemesis . probably in a way that was alluded to by ambassador spock , when he met his ' old friend ' captain data , in command of the enterprise - e in the official prequel to the 2009 star trek film , countdown .
these are all feelings that churn up after the film . “beloved , ” film and novel , is not a genre ghost story but a work that uses the supernatural to touch on deep feelings . like the turn of the screw , it has no final explanation . spirit manifestations come from madness and need not follow logical agendas . it is a remarkable and brave achievement for demme and his producer and star , winfrey , to face this difficult material head - on and not try to dumb it down into a more accessible , less evocative form .
as a southern - gothic fairy tale about post - katrina new orleans , beasts of the southern wild could have easily turned out to be a crass and unwittingly exploitative work . co - writer / director ben zeitlin’s fanciful approach to his understandably touchy subject matter theoretically seems glib . thankfully , every time zeitlin and co - writer lucy alibar threaten to oversimplify their story with mawkishly twee sentimentality , they steer the film’s elemental narrative in another direction . the hopefulness that viewers take away from the film , the most buzzed - about title at this year’s sundance , feels earned thanks to zeitlin and alibar’s focus on their characters’ fears of imminent abandonment and annihilation . as a film about the seductive and essential power of hope , beasts of the southern wild is a warm , accomplished , and fitting tribute to the fighting spirit of new orleans .
but why did star trek : nemesis take so little at the box office ? well , let ' s leave the critical view of the film to one side for the moment , as it was nowhere near as one sided in 2002 as it is now , with hindsight .
i hear a lot of people saying this is the best star wars film since the original trilogy . i ' d say it ' s the second best , after the force awakens , largely because it doesn ' t capture what i think makes this franchise great and worthwhile .
maybe at this point it ' s too much to hope for an animated film like the angry birds movie to exist as anything other than marketing fodder , but hopefully it ' s not too much to ask for that # content to have a shred of substance to it .
on box office numbers alone , the film wouldn ' t have crawled its way into the black . but the dvd steered it away from red ink , the disc being one of the most pre - ordered retail dvds in the us and uk come the time of its release .
in director gaylene preston ' s genre - bending tale , meg ( heather bolton ) buys a stylish old jaguar so she can be more independent . while driving on a country road , she hears screams in the back – but there ' s no one there . in the excerpt above , she picks up a mysterious woman in the rain . later she discovers that the woman was the car ' s previous owner , and she is missing . now her killer might just be stalking meg too . for their first , acclaimed feature , preston and producer robin laing rented out local cinemas , conclusively proving that mr wrong had an audience .
no , i think if anyone is looking for him to be responsible in that sense , they’re not going to find it in this film . he is just bound for his own vision , and his own journey , and everyone in the film serves that . and that just is the story i’m talking about at the moment . that’s just a particular kid i’m telling the story about . there’s nothing deeper than that . it really is the story of just how he gets on that boat at the end , that’s all it really is . how he gets over that year of his life .
there’s genuinely no relationship to the commitments in this film , other than the fact that it does have songs in it . there really is no homage to the commitments , no connection to it . a lot of writers see that , and who wouldn’t ? but it’s actually not there at all . the commitments was never a significant movie to me . it’s a perfectly good film , and a good script . but it wasn’t something that moved me as a kid . i was a film snob when i was that age . i would have steered away from the commitments when i was 19 or 20 , whenever it came out . obviously people are going to draw comparisons , because there are so few films made in ireland , and so few musicals . but i’d say you could just as well compare once to the commitments . you’re not going to get much out of that , either .
easily the most off - putting moments of the film were the scenes with the cgi version of grand moff tarkin . the actor who originally played tarkin in the original films , peter cushing , passed away in 1994 . this would have been a good reason to either a ) not include tarkin in the film ( which would have been fine and easy ) or b ) find some other way to include him that wasn ' t so glaringly digital . while the special effects are remarkably good , tarkin still looks fake compared to the real humans around him , fake enough to make his inclusion puzzling .
instead of treating that message like a superpower to acquire , the film delivers it as a subtle worldview . hidden under arrival ’s more palatable themes about overcoming cultural differences and uniting as one species is chiang’s more direct message about learning how to appreciate life’s moments , to live outside the bounds of time .
the film tells the story of sethe ( oprah winfrey ) , who was a slave on a kentucky plantation in the days before the civil war . now sethe is free , and lives in a frame house on a few acres on the outskirts of cincinnati - - ”124 bluestone road , ” the film informs us , as if it would be an ordinary house if it were not for the poltergeist that haunts it . when paul d ( danny glover ) , who knew her years ago in kentucky , enters the house , the air glows red and the walls and floor shake violently ; the spirit resents this visitor .
the film sets out to expose three main deceptions of doctor assisted dying : first , that euthanasia and assisted suicide are a form of compassion . the second is the myth of autonomy : that decisions made between doctor and patient operate in a vacuum . and finally , that government ‘safeguards’ can truly protect the vulnerable .
the commitments and sing street couldn’t be more different . in the commitments , they’re a cover band , doing cover versions of old soul songs . that’s fine , and it’s very funny and enjoyable . but we’re telling the story of a creative process , and of fashioning and shaping and hammering love songs to get the girl to improve your life , to get off the island , and to be a success . and what’s great about the commitments is that the band isn’t a success . they implode , which is a very truthful story . sing street is a fantasy film about the american dream , in a sense . it’s just dressed up as an irish film , but he’s punching the air and heading off , in his head . my film is about a really great band , and i think the songs in it are really great . like , i think
drive it like you stole it
is going to be a massive hit .
well , the family dynamic is nothing like my family , really . i think that’s an amalgam of very different families i thought i knew something about , from looking in the window , or through the kids . but the biggest departure is that conor is an incredibly handsome kid who can do no wrong , and is so full of confidence . i wasn’t like that at all . i had an inner belief in myself , but i didn’t walk around with that swagger . i didn’t look that way . the second ferdia got the part , the film changed quite significantly . i think it ' s important to cut your cloth , not try to force an actor like that into saying things in a certain way . so i went with him , i went with the ridiculous confidence ferdia has . he’s hilarious . and it’s also very current . kids nowadays have that sort of confidence . it’s not that i used it , i just didn’t fight it . i didn ' t resist it .
nemesis came as a bit of a surprise , to patrick stewart at least , as with the completion of star trek : insurrection the contracts of the core cast ( except perhaps , michael dorn due to his involvement on deep space nine ) were complete and none had any ongoing commitment to the studio or further star trek films . it was a phone call between brent spiner and his friend ( and huge star trek fan ) john logan , the writer of ridley scott ' s gladiator , that led to the film ' s development . one can only speculate how costly a one - film contract for the cast would have been .
the original plan for the opening credits was to show snippets of shinzon ' s life , specifically his banishment to the reman mines , and the brutality he was forced to endure before his now viceroy came to protect him . a much more abbreviated version of this footage was used later in the film in the end .
the problem , i think , is that star wars has always still been about good vs . evil , and plainly so . even its most subtle and important battle - - - the battle for anakin skywalker ' s soul - - - was still clearly about what was right and what was wrong . there was always hope , always the good guys vs . the bad guys . even in the prequels , when the jedi are not as good or just as they later become and the sith are not as clearly evil , the audience is still supposed to understand that anakin is twisted away from his destiny to restore balance to the force and toward something dark and power - hungry .
it’s not even a real fantasy film ! it’s someone making will smith think he’s in a fantasy film . that extra layer of artifice is not necessary , and actually harmful to your ability to enjoy collateral beauty . as every negative review has pointed out about this movie , this might be the cruelest trick ever played on a grieving fictional character in the history of drama . but it gets worse ! big willie styles starts going to a grief support group and falls for the head of the group , played by naomie harris . this is going to completely ruin this movie if you have some sick notion of seeing it , so fair warning .
still , it’s not quite right to say that the film endorses sebastian’s purity test . after all , keith makes a pretty good argument at one point that sebastian’s adherence to the purity of jazz is counter - productive and anathema to the boundary - busting spirit of jazz itself . to its great credit , the film refuses to pick sides . instead it lingers in the question , allowing sebastian to ultimately achieve all of his professional dreams – he gets his club in the end – while questioning what he sacrificed to get it . such an ambiguous ending should quash any attempts at certitude . unfortunately , that’s not how our culture works these days .
they have a lot in common with the martian , starring damon as a man who becomes his best self when he’s left alone in the cosmos . the bizarro - world inversion of dr . mann . i’m hesitant to even mention the martian in an essay about science fiction ; the film is famously accurate about everything besides the dust storm at the beginning . actually , the most fantastical part of the martian is the stuff back on earth , where nasa has bottomless funding and china shares technology with any government that needs it . ( apparently , the martian is set a couple decades in the future , making the film’s disco obsession even less convincing . )
hard decisions have to be made . the crew turns against itself , kind of , and people turn against themselves , for reasons that are maybe justified . then the movie takes an infamous left turn : an astronaut ( played by mark strong looking like a fleshpile from hellraiser ) from a previous mission somehow gets onboard , and starts killing people . what had been a capital - m meditation on the cosmos becomes a slasher film . it’s possible that sunshine needed the final act turn to get made — that , unable to find financing for a film about smart people feeling sad on a spaceship , someone had the brilliant idea of wedging in a serial killer .
the film , released in december 2002 in the us , would go on to take $ 67 million at the global box office , off the back of a $ 60 million budget . it ' d sell 1 . 3m dvds in its first week in america , and in the scheme of things , was a financial disappointment .
i could see sing street happening in that sense , but that’s academic until it does well at the box office as a film . i think it has to be something before it’s a play . but i would love to do that . i don’t think that would have worked on begin again , even though people wanted it .
in the mid - seventies , wenders moved from audacity to audacity with the trilogy “ alice in the cities , ” “ the wrong move , ” and “ kings of the road . ” he captured a particular mood of self - distance , that of a west german coming of age with american rock music and american movies . “alice in the cities” starts with its protagonist in the united states , doing a report on the real america of the road , but , with his insistence on making images rather than writing , he gets fired . marooned in new york while awaiting a flight to germany , he meets a woman and her young daughter . the woman goes off on a road trip of her own , leaving the man to bring the girl back to germany—a west germany that’s infused with the artifacts and moods of american pop culture . “the wrong move” is also a sort of road movie . it’s a loose adaptation of goethe’s 1795 novel “wilhelm meister’s apprenticeship , ” about a young man who leaves his mother’s house and travels through germany with an improvised group of wanderers , passing from the rural to the urban , from the horrors of recent history to the gleaming comforts of the new reconstruction , and from radical gestures to political reaction . “kings of the road , ” a cinema - centric adventure , follows a movie - projector repairman on his route through rural germany , as he gains a fellow - traveller as a companion and sounding board .