It's currently snowing here in PA, something unexpected after the inch of ice we had over the weekend. I swear, I'm moving someplace warm someday where there is NEVER any winter. I can't stand the cold weather. Even with all this extra padding I have, I'm not built for it. So, that's enough of my griping. Let's get on with the review for this week, which is of 1987's Taffin starring Pierce Brosnan.
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“Would you all mind not talking about me as if I wasn’t here?”
Pierce Brosnan as Mark Taffin, Taffin
One cold winter day some three years ago, I wandered into the zoo that has become the Super Wal-Mart in East York and saw their bargain bin movies by the front registers. Nobody was digging through them, so I took it upon myself to peruse the titles there, priced at 2 for $10. I didn’t find much that was worth writing home about, but one movie stood out--Francis Megahy’s Taffin, based on Lyndon Mallet’s novel of the same name. This independently produced film, released in 1987 under the MGM/United Artists banner, had a distinct European flavor to it that I simply fell in love with. And of course, there’s always Mister 007 himself, Pierce Brosnan. You can’t go wrong there.
In this vehicle, Brosnan plays the title character Mark Taffin, who lives in a small Irish town as a rugged debt collector. He’s a different brand of hero, though--if he feels that you can do the job yourself, then he won’t help you. If he feels you can do it, but don’t have the brains, he’ll tell you how to do it. And when all else fails, Taffin can totally kick your ass with his fighting skills. So when rumors begin to fly that the Sprawley Corporation plans to build a large chemical plant on the edge of town, the townspeople are looking for help...and lo and behold, who better to help out than Taffin?
If this sounds like one of Steven Seagal’s mid-90’s eco-thrillers to you, then you’re not even close. Brosnan’s character of Mark Taffin is a true man, who stands up for what he believes in (as he comments in one scene to his lover Charlotte, played by the striking Alison Doody, “This [the mind] is far more powerful than this [the fist]...at least, it used to be”). He is a dying breed of man, even back in 1987 when this was filmed, and that stood out to me above all else as the theme of this film.
As far as Brosnan’s performance is concerned, it’s spot-on, chap. A native Irishman, Taffin’s sounds and accent really come through, and his rugged charm could make a straight man like myself swing for the other team. But an actor is only as good as his script, and David Ambrose (who also wrote Year Of The Gun) assembled a great adaptation here that shows the diverse sides of Taffin’s Irish life.
There’s a discussion here about the morality of what Taffin does as well, displayed in arguments he has with his former seminary teacher Mister O’Rourke (Ray McAnally). One memorable quote that comes out of their first argument belongs to Taffin--“And you would rather bend the knee than stretch the mind.” This riveting piece of drama mid-way through the film shows not only the dynamics of the two characters, but the complexity of Taffin--a man who wants to believe in something bigger than himself, but after all he’s seen and done, finds something audacious in what some people would call an invisible support system.
The way Taffin goes about fighting the Sprawley Corporation is unique to the character as well--he enlists the help of his brother Mo (Patrick Bergin) and other friends to dig up incriminating secrets about Sprawley’s top executives, and uses these secrets to blackmail them into signing a document that, as one character puts it to Mister Sprawley himself, “could put both of us away for a long time.” But this act does not come without retaliation from Sprawley--this same executive and his wife get burned alive in their house, and the blame is put on Taffin, ruining his iron-clad reputation and discrediting him among the townspeople.
As for what Taffin does to win the day, I won’t say for fear of ruining the movie’s delicious ending, but in a refreshing change of pace, it doesn’t involve storming Sprawley’s high-rise tower with guns blazing and grenade launchers setting things aflame. If that’s what you’re expecting out of Taffin, then you might as well rent a Bruce Willis movie, because you’re in a completely different league.
The acting in this film, as I’ve previously mentioned, is sensational. Director Francis Megahy really knew what he was doing with the material, and it shows. Allison Doody is perhaps the most alluring Irish woman I’ve seen on film, even if she sometimes came off as a hopeless appendage to Taffin; Ray McAnally plays the duality of Mister O’Rourke to the hilt, since he is a seminary teacher who’s asking a sinful man to do sinful things to sinful people; and above all, there’s the balancing act that Pierce Brosnan had to play as Mark Taffin--showing that you were smart, cool, and collected, and genuinely hurt when even Mister O’Rourke turns his back on you.
There is one drawback to this film, however, especially with female viewers, and that’s the strip club scene that is so talked about. I viewed it as a piece of Irish culture, but then there’s the argument that Director Megahy was simply feeding a film director’s obsession to see a woman’s naked breasts. Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Troopers) and Walter Hill (Red Heat, Last Man Standing) suffer from the same affliction, in case you haven’t noticed. So, what was the point of the scene? I really couldn’t tell you--you’ll have to decide that for yourself, but if there was one thing that detracts from this otherwise well-rounded film (God, that was a horrible pun), it’s the club scene.
If you’re looking for a film with a little European flavor that won’t let you down in terms of drama and quality acting, then look not further than Taffin. While it may not have dozens of explosions, car chases, or fight scenes, it’s a very riveting view of Mark Taffin’s journey for honor and respect--and that’s something we can all identify with.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Movie Monday 04: Blood Simple
It's still cold here in PA, but at least there's no ice freezing my rastafaran' neh-nehs off. In the meantime, enjoy this review of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, a movie I recently sampled with some not-so-hard-earned Christmas money.
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“Well, ma’am, if I see him, I’ll sure give him the message.”
--M. Emmet Walsh as Loren, Blood Simple
If there was ever a movie I had heard so much about and never had a chance to see, it was Blood Simple. The first film by the Coen Brothers, who would later go on to do Fargo, Intolerable Cruelty, and more recently No Country For Old Men, was recently released onto DVD in a director’s cut edition by MGM, and I was able to purchase it in the independent film section of Target for about ten dollars.
Blood Simple was made in Austin, Texas in 1985, and follows a seemingly simple story. Ray (John Getz) has it bad for his boss’s wife, Abby (Frances McDormand). When Loren (M. Emmet Walsh), a private detective, photographs them together doing the nasty in a motel room on a stormy night, he gives the pictures to Abby’s husband, Marty (Dan Hedaya), the owner of a backwoods bar.
Ray and Abby make plans to leave town together, while Marty decides he can’t live with his wife’s infidelity anymore and agrees to pay Loren $10,000 to kill both Abby and Ray. Typical of most characters M. Emmet Walsh gets to play, Loren has an ulterior motive--he fakes the death photographs of Ray and Abby and then shoots Marty, thereby collecting his fee and leaving the only person who could implicate him looking rather dead.
Ray, not wanting to run off with Abby poor, heads to the bar that night to get two weeks worth of pay that’s owed to him. When he opens the door to Marty’s office, he stumbles onto the crime scene...the blood...Marty’s safe standing open...and, oddly enough, Abby’s revolver lying on the floor, still smoking. Ray can only assume that Abby has killed her husband for her and Ray’s future, and does the only thing he knows to do--clean up the mess and get rid of the body.
And I’m stopping right here, because if I tell you readers anything else about this tightly scripted and tightly-wound southern suspense noir, I’d be ruining what is probably one of the best debut films I’ve ever seen from any writer/director, whether they be brothers or not (and that is taking how much I loved El Mariachi into account).
I had never seen John Getz or Dan Hedaya in a film before, and I feel terrible about that, because now I know what I was missing out on. Getz is the stoic strongman who simply can’t live with what he did to his old boss, or what he thinks Abby did to her husband, and he pulls it off with tens across the board. Dan Hedaya is a natural villain, but it’s not entirely clear why Abby and Marty’s marriage is so bad in the beginning of the film. Whatever the circumstances, you actually start to feel sorry for Marty as his perfect plan to get rid of his wife and his wife’s lover unravels around him, and ends up putting him into an early grave.
Frances McDormand is one of the most underrated actresses in Hollywood. I had seen her previously in Darkman, which was not really the most becoming of roles for her (I mean, let’s face it, folks--Darkman wasn’t really becoming for anybody), and it made me wonder what she was truly capable of. I found out by watching Blood Simple. She plays all the angles of Abby’s personality pefectly--the cheating, confused wife; the woman in love with another man; and the woman determined to get to the bottom of who killed her husband. Her reactions in her dream sequence with Dan Hedaya are particularly poignant to me, and are really the standout pieces of acting in the film.
M. Emmet Walsh is one of my favorite character actors, because he’s usually playing these low-life scumbags that you just love to hate. I first saw him in MGM’s Denzel Washington/Robert Townsend vehicle The Mighty Quinn, and I was like “Who is this guy? He’s freakin’ great!” Seeing him in this earlier role solidifies for me that he is one of the most underrated character actors in Hollywood (last time I saw him was in Surviving Christmas, I believe), and seeing him sweating like a pig in that awful yellow suit in Blood Simple with that slightly retarded southern accent was like finding a pot of gold.
The look of this film is true independent style. It represents life as life is, not the color-coordinated hyper-realism that Hollywood often portrays. While that hyper-realism can be fun at times, it wouldn’t have suited Blood Simple. This is a movie where everything was real and practical--the barely furnished studio apartment Abby and Ray move into; the backwoods bar that Marty owns with the statue of a brown bull outside; the field where Ray does the deed to Marty for his ladylove. All of it was real, making it almost surreal, like we’re peeking in on these people’s lives in a voyeuristic fashion.
What I’ve always loved about the Coen Brothers is their offbeat sense of humor. Here in their first film, they were still developing it, but the signs are there of something great. Two particular scenes feature the same joke--Ray’s house is on a dead end street that isn’t labeled as such, and everyone squeals tires as they drive off, then shove it into reverse as they hit the dead end, turn around, and drive back up the street. Even Abby comments on it the first time it happens--“Would have liked to have seen his face when he saw the dead end.” The use of The Four Tops’ tune “It’s The Same Old Song” throughout the movie to juxtapose against certain actions was also a nice example of their offbeat, quirky humor as well.
You might think I’m going to recommend Blood Simple as a great movie for everyone to see, but in actuality, I’m not. I believe that everyone should at least give it a chance, as you should with most things in life, but this movie is for the true fan of tightly-wound thrillers and independent films. Everyone else who doesn’t fall under that category would probably be out to lunch after the first ten minutes (I know most of my colleagues would). So, unless you’re a die-hard Coen Brothers fan and want to see how they got their start, or you’re in the mood for some murderous, double-crossing southern hospitality, then Blood Simple will satisfy that mood nicely.
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“Well, ma’am, if I see him, I’ll sure give him the message.”
--M. Emmet Walsh as Loren, Blood Simple
If there was ever a movie I had heard so much about and never had a chance to see, it was Blood Simple. The first film by the Coen Brothers, who would later go on to do Fargo, Intolerable Cruelty, and more recently No Country For Old Men, was recently released onto DVD in a director’s cut edition by MGM, and I was able to purchase it in the independent film section of Target for about ten dollars.
Blood Simple was made in Austin, Texas in 1985, and follows a seemingly simple story. Ray (John Getz) has it bad for his boss’s wife, Abby (Frances McDormand). When Loren (M. Emmet Walsh), a private detective, photographs them together doing the nasty in a motel room on a stormy night, he gives the pictures to Abby’s husband, Marty (Dan Hedaya), the owner of a backwoods bar.
Ray and Abby make plans to leave town together, while Marty decides he can’t live with his wife’s infidelity anymore and agrees to pay Loren $10,000 to kill both Abby and Ray. Typical of most characters M. Emmet Walsh gets to play, Loren has an ulterior motive--he fakes the death photographs of Ray and Abby and then shoots Marty, thereby collecting his fee and leaving the only person who could implicate him looking rather dead.
Ray, not wanting to run off with Abby poor, heads to the bar that night to get two weeks worth of pay that’s owed to him. When he opens the door to Marty’s office, he stumbles onto the crime scene...the blood...Marty’s safe standing open...and, oddly enough, Abby’s revolver lying on the floor, still smoking. Ray can only assume that Abby has killed her husband for her and Ray’s future, and does the only thing he knows to do--clean up the mess and get rid of the body.
And I’m stopping right here, because if I tell you readers anything else about this tightly scripted and tightly-wound southern suspense noir, I’d be ruining what is probably one of the best debut films I’ve ever seen from any writer/director, whether they be brothers or not (and that is taking how much I loved El Mariachi into account).
I had never seen John Getz or Dan Hedaya in a film before, and I feel terrible about that, because now I know what I was missing out on. Getz is the stoic strongman who simply can’t live with what he did to his old boss, or what he thinks Abby did to her husband, and he pulls it off with tens across the board. Dan Hedaya is a natural villain, but it’s not entirely clear why Abby and Marty’s marriage is so bad in the beginning of the film. Whatever the circumstances, you actually start to feel sorry for Marty as his perfect plan to get rid of his wife and his wife’s lover unravels around him, and ends up putting him into an early grave.
Frances McDormand is one of the most underrated actresses in Hollywood. I had seen her previously in Darkman, which was not really the most becoming of roles for her (I mean, let’s face it, folks--Darkman wasn’t really becoming for anybody), and it made me wonder what she was truly capable of. I found out by watching Blood Simple. She plays all the angles of Abby’s personality pefectly--the cheating, confused wife; the woman in love with another man; and the woman determined to get to the bottom of who killed her husband. Her reactions in her dream sequence with Dan Hedaya are particularly poignant to me, and are really the standout pieces of acting in the film.
M. Emmet Walsh is one of my favorite character actors, because he’s usually playing these low-life scumbags that you just love to hate. I first saw him in MGM’s Denzel Washington/Robert Townsend vehicle The Mighty Quinn, and I was like “Who is this guy? He’s freakin’ great!” Seeing him in this earlier role solidifies for me that he is one of the most underrated character actors in Hollywood (last time I saw him was in Surviving Christmas, I believe), and seeing him sweating like a pig in that awful yellow suit in Blood Simple with that slightly retarded southern accent was like finding a pot of gold.
The look of this film is true independent style. It represents life as life is, not the color-coordinated hyper-realism that Hollywood often portrays. While that hyper-realism can be fun at times, it wouldn’t have suited Blood Simple. This is a movie where everything was real and practical--the barely furnished studio apartment Abby and Ray move into; the backwoods bar that Marty owns with the statue of a brown bull outside; the field where Ray does the deed to Marty for his ladylove. All of it was real, making it almost surreal, like we’re peeking in on these people’s lives in a voyeuristic fashion.
What I’ve always loved about the Coen Brothers is their offbeat sense of humor. Here in their first film, they were still developing it, but the signs are there of something great. Two particular scenes feature the same joke--Ray’s house is on a dead end street that isn’t labeled as such, and everyone squeals tires as they drive off, then shove it into reverse as they hit the dead end, turn around, and drive back up the street. Even Abby comments on it the first time it happens--“Would have liked to have seen his face when he saw the dead end.” The use of The Four Tops’ tune “It’s The Same Old Song” throughout the movie to juxtapose against certain actions was also a nice example of their offbeat, quirky humor as well.
You might think I’m going to recommend Blood Simple as a great movie for everyone to see, but in actuality, I’m not. I believe that everyone should at least give it a chance, as you should with most things in life, but this movie is for the true fan of tightly-wound thrillers and independent films. Everyone else who doesn’t fall under that category would probably be out to lunch after the first ten minutes (I know most of my colleagues would). So, unless you’re a die-hard Coen Brothers fan and want to see how they got their start, or you’re in the mood for some murderous, double-crossing southern hospitality, then Blood Simple will satisfy that mood nicely.
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