Tuesday 13 July 2010
Monday 30 March 2009
The Damned United
So a second blog post and a second review of a film of an unfilmable novel: The Damned United. The Damned United started as David Peace's faction about Brain Clough's forty-four days as manager of Leeds United. Adapted to a screenplay by Peter Morgan of The Queen fame, directed by Tom Hooper and starring Michael Sheen as Brain Clough, Timothy Spall as Clough's assistant Peter Taylor and Colm Meaney as Don Revie.
Morgan has taken Peace's book and softened the edges, gone is Clough as an emerging alcoholic and in its place we get a charismatic, funny engaging Cloughie. The dark edges of Peace's Clough, with its stream of conciousness and almost magical style have been stripped out for a more linear story-telling style. And in doing so we get a much tighter more coherent narrative but we lose an important motivation for the character. In Peace's book the demons that drive and haunt Clough are dark and complex in Morgan's screenplay they are slight; a perceived insult from Revie to Clough is supposed to be enough for us to believe that this complex man could be driven to such depths of self-destruction that we see on screen. The one time Tom Hooper uses a Peace Like storytelling technique (a late night drunken call from Clough to Revie) seems out of place in this lighter, brighter simpler context.
Clough's self destructive streak here centres around the three way relationship between Revie, Taylor and Clough and for this film to work we have to believe in those three figures. And in the acting on display we get a master class in character creation. Michael Sheen is well know for his quasi-impersonations from Kenneth Williams to Tony Blair and never has he made a better job of it. The Cloughie voice and mannerisms are perfect but more important than an impersonation he gives us a man whose own hubris will bring him down like a Greek tragedy. Throughout this film he is never less than watchable and he never lets the 'impersonation' take over, there's no Mike Yarwood stylings on display here, a trap it could have been so easy to fall into. And he gets such support, the emotional heart and conscience of the film is Timothy Spall as Peter Taylor. Freed from the need to accurately impersonate a real person Spall gets to wonderfully fulfil the role of the man who knows that inevitably his love will destroy him. It's a marvellous performance never better than when he tries to lead Clough back from the brink only to have it al thrown in his face during a break on the Costa Del Sol. The third side of this triangle is Colm Meaney as Don Revie. Revie's reputation has suffered since the seventies (outside of Leeds) and Meaney could have chosen to play him as a mean spirited, nasty little man, but instead he finds a humanity. His frustrations with Clough perplex rather than drive him, we get a real human portrait of man often vilified by what happened to him after Leeds.
Using these wonderful performances Tom Hooper creates the footballing world at once recognizable as the seventies and yet never wallowing in a nostalgia. He coaxes these wonderful performances from his actors. Always allowing a space for them to fill, never boxing them in with stylistic touches but still finding his own expression. His use of open spaces in the frame gives us a cinematic dimension to what is often two people talking. Hooper's work has largely been in television and yet his work breaks out form that smaller space in a way that The Queen never did. Yet he makes television one of the motifs of the film, reusing highlights from real matches and using Clough's many appearances in the studio as a device to propel the story. Finally he achieves a real first in football films; he has put football on the silver screen without it looking stupid. One of many achievements in a charming film.
Morgan has taken Peace's book and softened the edges, gone is Clough as an emerging alcoholic and in its place we get a charismatic, funny engaging Cloughie. The dark edges of Peace's Clough, with its stream of conciousness and almost magical style have been stripped out for a more linear story-telling style. And in doing so we get a much tighter more coherent narrative but we lose an important motivation for the character. In Peace's book the demons that drive and haunt Clough are dark and complex in Morgan's screenplay they are slight; a perceived insult from Revie to Clough is supposed to be enough for us to believe that this complex man could be driven to such depths of self-destruction that we see on screen. The one time Tom Hooper uses a Peace Like storytelling technique (a late night drunken call from Clough to Revie) seems out of place in this lighter, brighter simpler context.
Clough's self destructive streak here centres around the three way relationship between Revie, Taylor and Clough and for this film to work we have to believe in those three figures. And in the acting on display we get a master class in character creation. Michael Sheen is well know for his quasi-impersonations from Kenneth Williams to Tony Blair and never has he made a better job of it. The Cloughie voice and mannerisms are perfect but more important than an impersonation he gives us a man whose own hubris will bring him down like a Greek tragedy. Throughout this film he is never less than watchable and he never lets the 'impersonation' take over, there's no Mike Yarwood stylings on display here, a trap it could have been so easy to fall into. And he gets such support, the emotional heart and conscience of the film is Timothy Spall as Peter Taylor. Freed from the need to accurately impersonate a real person Spall gets to wonderfully fulfil the role of the man who knows that inevitably his love will destroy him. It's a marvellous performance never better than when he tries to lead Clough back from the brink only to have it al thrown in his face during a break on the Costa Del Sol. The third side of this triangle is Colm Meaney as Don Revie. Revie's reputation has suffered since the seventies (outside of Leeds) and Meaney could have chosen to play him as a mean spirited, nasty little man, but instead he finds a humanity. His frustrations with Clough perplex rather than drive him, we get a real human portrait of man often vilified by what happened to him after Leeds.
Using these wonderful performances Tom Hooper creates the footballing world at once recognizable as the seventies and yet never wallowing in a nostalgia. He coaxes these wonderful performances from his actors. Always allowing a space for them to fill, never boxing them in with stylistic touches but still finding his own expression. His use of open spaces in the frame gives us a cinematic dimension to what is often two people talking. Hooper's work has largely been in television and yet his work breaks out form that smaller space in a way that The Queen never did. Yet he makes television one of the motifs of the film, reusing highlights from real matches and using Clough's many appearances in the studio as a device to propel the story. Finally he achieves a real first in football films; he has put football on the silver screen without it looking stupid. One of many achievements in a charming film.
Friday 13 March 2009
Who watches my blog?
Now I've had the chance to think about it I think I can start to come up with some thoughts on Watchmen the movie. For a start I think I might be far too close to the book to ever make any sensible judgements, as I watched the Watchmen I realised I was looking for the book version, each appearance of the policemen, the paper seller, the psychologist was met with a smile of recognition, each Hurm brought a chuckle to my throat. So as I'm talking about smiling and chuckling lets think about what was good.
The opening of the film was truly the most outstanding part. We see the history of this world in an opening credits montage that stays true to the spirit of Messrs Moore and Gibbons and yet takes a filmic approach. Reminiscent of Citizen Kane's March of Time the history of this world is laid out before us along to Dylan's Time's They are a Changing. The economical way Zack Snyder brings us up to the film's present allows us all to understand just where we are now and just who we are dealing with; Blake's assignation on the grassy knoll, the recreation of Eisenstaedt's V-J in Times Square featuring the Silhouette instead of a sailor, both really pleased me and sets up the film in the best way possible.
The use of Dylan on the opening is taken from the funny book, but one thing the comic will never do for you is sing and the choice to use tracks from the film's era(s) really worked. Each one a nod to the period and a counter point to the action helping to ground a fantasy world in our own shared reality. But this did have drawbacks; the first was the choice to use Hendrix's version of All Along the Watch Tower, obvious, out of period, and sign-posting the ending for those who didn't know it and dragging those of us who did out of the moment. The second...well I'll come to that later.
Those of you have managed to read this far will probably have guessed how this review will end up, after all I'm already onto the soundtrack as the second good thing to talk about, but before we get there let's think about the acting. What could have been the worst and most embarrassing part of the film turned out to be one of it's strengths; Jackie Earl Hurley was magnificent as Rorschach Throughout he manages to frighten, intimidate, evoke pity and sympathy in equal measure, no mean feat considering he spends most of the film behind a mask. And almost his equal is Jeffrey Dean Morgan; the terrifying face of Nixon's secret wars, raping and murdering his way through more than half of the twentieth century, Morgan still finds a much needed humanity in the Comedian.
On top of that it looked amazing. Dave Gibbons' pictures have been brought to life in a fantastic way. Archie emerging from the river, Rorschach mask and the Smiley face on the moon were all wonderful to see on the big screen, but herein lies the problems with the film; those are Dave Gibbons' moment not Zack Snyder's. The soundtrack choices are (at least partly) Moore's. The character's that Hurley and Morgan so wonderfully inhabit are the creation of Moore and Gibbons and what what I enjoyed as a Fanboy was also the film real failure. It's the comic on the screen. As a film it just doesn't work. As an animated comic giving us geeks images we love in another form it works, but that's no criteria to judge a movie.
The history of the Watchmen as a movie is long, complicated and not one to be recounted here. But throughout all this time the one orthodoxy has been 'Watchmen is unfilmable' and Zach Snyder has proven it true. He's put the basic plot and narrative up there on the silver screen but he's missed the point entirely. Watchmen was designed to not only deconstruct the superhero but to show exactly what sequential art is capable of. The book is loaded with new and unusual storytelling techniques. A film to match that level of complexity and narrative innovation should at least attempt to show us something new, it should try and honour the spirit of the source and attempt to tell that story in the most filmic of ways; so what do we get? Slow motion and lots of it. Both Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass were once attached to this project and either of those would have given us the story as a film, a film that will work on its own terms rather than a moving comic. Ultimately every film must work as a standalone artefact this film doesn't. By taking as much as he possibly could from the source, by staying so true to the novel Zach Snyder has failed to create a film, instead he's created a love letter to a writer who wants nothing to do with him. Alan Moore will not see it and he'll be right. I find it difficult to believe but my main criticism of this film stems from Zack Snyder's choice to stay so close to the text, to treat it as sacred. It make for entertaining moments but fails as a film.
When this film was being cut written across the wall of the editing room should have been Roger Corman's maxim "there's no film that wouldn't benefit from removing 20 minutes and adding an exploding helicopter" (or something like that, you look it up) and it's true. In fact it's not enough at 162 minutes it's a two toilet break film and just too long. Standing around talking can work in a static comic book but makes for an overlong and actionless film. Again a fault based on following the source so closely.
And then finally that scene. Hallelujah, and sex in Archie. In some ways the most cinematic moment in the film, I'll certainly never be able to listen to that song without thinking of Patrick Wilson's arse. It was cinematic in its attempts to create soft core porn in the middle of a superhero film. But mostly it was embarrassing. And just like when Xerxes arrives in 300 it was one of best unintentionally comic moments in my multiplex history.
Oh and the giant blue cock was a little distracting.
The opening of the film was truly the most outstanding part. We see the history of this world in an opening credits montage that stays true to the spirit of Messrs Moore and Gibbons and yet takes a filmic approach. Reminiscent of Citizen Kane's March of Time the history of this world is laid out before us along to Dylan's Time's They are a Changing. The economical way Zack Snyder brings us up to the film's present allows us all to understand just where we are now and just who we are dealing with; Blake's assignation on the grassy knoll, the recreation of Eisenstaedt's V-J in Times Square featuring the Silhouette instead of a sailor, both really pleased me and sets up the film in the best way possible.
The use of Dylan on the opening is taken from the funny book, but one thing the comic will never do for you is sing and the choice to use tracks from the film's era(s) really worked. Each one a nod to the period and a counter point to the action helping to ground a fantasy world in our own shared reality. But this did have drawbacks; the first was the choice to use Hendrix's version of All Along the Watch Tower, obvious, out of period, and sign-posting the ending for those who didn't know it and dragging those of us who did out of the moment. The second...well I'll come to that later.
Those of you have managed to read this far will probably have guessed how this review will end up, after all I'm already onto the soundtrack as the second good thing to talk about, but before we get there let's think about the acting. What could have been the worst and most embarrassing part of the film turned out to be one of it's strengths; Jackie Earl Hurley was magnificent as Rorschach Throughout he manages to frighten, intimidate, evoke pity and sympathy in equal measure, no mean feat considering he spends most of the film behind a mask. And almost his equal is Jeffrey Dean Morgan; the terrifying face of Nixon's secret wars, raping and murdering his way through more than half of the twentieth century, Morgan still finds a much needed humanity in the Comedian.
On top of that it looked amazing. Dave Gibbons' pictures have been brought to life in a fantastic way. Archie emerging from the river, Rorschach mask and the Smiley face on the moon were all wonderful to see on the big screen, but herein lies the problems with the film; those are Dave Gibbons' moment not Zack Snyder's. The soundtrack choices are (at least partly) Moore's. The character's that Hurley and Morgan so wonderfully inhabit are the creation of Moore and Gibbons and what what I enjoyed as a Fanboy was also the film real failure. It's the comic on the screen. As a film it just doesn't work. As an animated comic giving us geeks images we love in another form it works, but that's no criteria to judge a movie.
The history of the Watchmen as a movie is long, complicated and not one to be recounted here. But throughout all this time the one orthodoxy has been 'Watchmen is unfilmable' and Zach Snyder has proven it true. He's put the basic plot and narrative up there on the silver screen but he's missed the point entirely. Watchmen was designed to not only deconstruct the superhero but to show exactly what sequential art is capable of. The book is loaded with new and unusual storytelling techniques. A film to match that level of complexity and narrative innovation should at least attempt to show us something new, it should try and honour the spirit of the source and attempt to tell that story in the most filmic of ways; so what do we get? Slow motion and lots of it. Both Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass were once attached to this project and either of those would have given us the story as a film, a film that will work on its own terms rather than a moving comic. Ultimately every film must work as a standalone artefact this film doesn't. By taking as much as he possibly could from the source, by staying so true to the novel Zach Snyder has failed to create a film, instead he's created a love letter to a writer who wants nothing to do with him. Alan Moore will not see it and he'll be right. I find it difficult to believe but my main criticism of this film stems from Zack Snyder's choice to stay so close to the text, to treat it as sacred. It make for entertaining moments but fails as a film.
When this film was being cut written across the wall of the editing room should have been Roger Corman's maxim "there's no film that wouldn't benefit from removing 20 minutes and adding an exploding helicopter" (or something like that, you look it up) and it's true. In fact it's not enough at 162 minutes it's a two toilet break film and just too long. Standing around talking can work in a static comic book but makes for an overlong and actionless film. Again a fault based on following the source so closely.
And then finally that scene. Hallelujah, and sex in Archie. In some ways the most cinematic moment in the film, I'll certainly never be able to listen to that song without thinking of Patrick Wilson's arse. It was cinematic in its attempts to create soft core porn in the middle of a superhero film. But mostly it was embarrassing. And just like when Xerxes arrives in 300 it was one of best unintentionally comic moments in my multiplex history.
Oh and the giant blue cock was a little distracting.
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