Excalibur (1981)

Title: Excalibur (1981)

Director: John Boorman

Cast: Nicol Williamson, Nigel Terry, Nicholas Clay, Helen Mirren, Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart

Review:

I’ve always found the legend of King Aurthur and the Knights of the Round Table interesting because it  is a layered story that branches out into many themes. It covers many aspects of the human condition and augments how selfish we can be, how imperfect we truly are and how uncontrollable human emotions can be. This is exemplified in the story by the raging passions that permeate throughout every generation portrayed in the film. From father to son, to grandson, wild passions overtake logic and reason, leading most of the time to tragedy. It is a story that urges us to control our passions and listen to reason, because often times uncontrolled passions can destroy entire lives. This is demonstrated through the character of Lancelot, one of King Arthur’s most trusted knights. Lancelot falls in love with King Aurthur’s wife, Lady Guenevere. In this story, Lancelot cares not for the catastrophic results of his secret love affair, he only cares for satisfying his passions and lust. Every time someone falls in love in Excalibur, the results are catastrophic. In many ways, love, lust and passion are demonized in this story, which of course demonstrates how this story is meant to propagate Christian ideals and mentalities, which of course rubs me the wrong way. I’ve always hated how the bible demonizes sexuality; at the end of the day sexuality is one of humanities strongest and most natural traits. But what the hell, I still love this story, I always root for Merlin the Magician who always comes off as the wisest of the bunch. He tells one of the passionate lovers “You are not listening. Well, your heart is not. Love is deaf as well as blind” Funny how it is Merlin, a follower of the old ways, a magician, who ends up being the wisest character in the film.

This battle between the old religions and Christianity is at the crux of Excalibur. This is a story of the battle between pagan religions, which are centered around magic and old gods, and the new ways of Christianity which are centered around the teachings of the bible. It’s true, this story can be seen as Christian propaganda in some ways, yet, I find it fascinating how it has always demonstrated that Christianity wasn’t always there, it had to shoehorn its way into society. Once upon a time things weren’t about Jesus and going to heaven, a whole other slew of beliefs comforted people. Fascinating how humanity has always needed that psychological support in life, something to make us think we are not all alone in this universe. It’s the idea that something is watching over them that humanity has always found themselves lulled into. At one point in the story, when Arthur’s kingdom is in shambles and going through a particularly rough time, the solution is to go and find “the holy grail” the cup that Christ drank from during the last supper. Supposedly, this cup will bring peace and happiness to the kingdom. But of course, we all know what this cup really exemplifies: the idea that society needs religion and its established morals to function properly.  The idea being that without Christianities values and ideals, we are lost. I of course don’t agree with this side of the story because as the story demonstrates, no matter how much you have Christ in your lives, human passions are always stronger, the human side dominates. Mistakes are made, but these are mistakes we can learn from. And call me old fashion, but I like to believe we are better then that, I like to believe humanity is essentially good at heart, with the exception of a few rotten apples. But, I also recognize that no matter how idealistically we look at humanity, there’s always the ideal of what we want to be, and then there’s what we are. A continually learning, evolving race of beings.

This is also a story that deals with politics and power, and the importance of learning to hone that power properly, not abuse it.  The sword, Excalibur, represents power that when used wisely is meant to “unite all men”. I thought it was so interesting how in this film, John Boorman’s Excalibur, King Arthur actually breaks the sword in half because of his uncontrollable rage, his abuse of power. Merlin tells him “You have broken what could not be broken. Now hope is broken” showing once again what happens to people when they see their leaders abuse power; a feeling of hopelessness takes over the land. This is also exemplified in the story with King Uther, who was also obsessed with owning the sword of power. At one point Uther tells Merlin “The sword, you promised the sword! I need the sword to be king!”  and Merlin tells him “And you shall have it, but to heal, not to hack” letting us know that the true nature of power is to bring peace to its people, not to obliterate them or abuse them which is what often times happens with those in power, they end up using it against those they are supposed to protect and serve.

The story of Arthur and his knights has been told many times, each version focusing on whatever part of the story they want to focus on, some focus more on the magical side of things while others focus more on the romance between Guenevere and Lancelot, for example Jerry Zucker’s First Knight (1995) is like that. It stars Richard Gere as Lancelot and Sean Connery as King Arthur and it was more of a romantic story of how the passion between Lancelot and Guenevere destroys a kingdom. One of my personal favorite versions of this story has always been Merlin (1998). On this television mini-series Sam Neil plays Merlin the Magician and Miranda Richardson plays The Lady of the Lake and an extremely memorable Queen Mab. In this mini-series directed by Steve Barron, the story is told from the perspective of Merlin himself; we actually get to know the magicians origins. This time around, it’s his story and since it’s a mini-series, the filmmakers really elaborated on the tale and even expanded it. Merlin is an extremely fun film with great visual effects and amazing performances from an equally great cast, highly recommend you check that mini-series out.  John Boorman’s Excalibur is one of the best versions of the story as well, it’s an epic and lush production, hell, it even gets a bit surreal with its dream sequences and visions. But knowing Boorman, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, this is the director who gave us Zardoz (1974), one of the trippiest movies ever made. On this version of the story Boorman chose to diminish the focus on the magical aspects. If there is magic, it is a subtle thing and handled through the use of practical effects, which is a breath of fresh air in this CGI dominated world. A lot of the magical aspects were handled through the use of imaginative lighting and old school effects, it was a smoke and mirrors type of production.  

I have to give props to John Boorman for the look of the film, an aspect of it that got many accolades from critics when it was first released. Excalibur also gave Liam Neeson his first shot at acting in a full length feature film. Patrick Stewart also plays one of Arthur’s knights. And speaking of the knights, they all wear these shiny armors that give them a god like feel which by the way, is one of the other themes that the film also touches upon, man thinking themselves gods end up needing Christ because they couldn’t handle the power of godhood. As you can see, this is a story and a film that touches upon many relevant themes dealing with the human condition, but above all it augments the ugly side of human nature, our worst qualities, it does this to hopefully stimulate us into being better human beings.

Rating:  5 out of 5  

Beyond Rangoon (1995)

Title: Beyond Rangoon (1995)

Director: John Boorman

Cast: Patricia Arquette, U Aung Ko, Frances McDormand

Review:

Don’t know how many of you guys have seen Rambo (2008) the fourth installment of the Rambo franchise, but in that movie, a religious group decides that they want to go to Burma to help in whatever way they can the people that are there, suffering under that countries current military dictatorship. Before accepting their request, John Rambo asks them: “You bring any weapons?” Their answer: “no” Rambo’s answer: “You’re not changing anything”. My first reaction to that quote was that it made Rambo look like a guy who could only resort to violence to solve problems, and that in that way, it gave the film a negative aura. This of course showed how ignorant I was to what is really going on in Burma. I see now why Rambo would say “Burma’s a warzone”. Actually, the opening shots of Rambo, where we see video footage of all the dead children in the mud, shot down by their own governments militia, you definitely get an idea of the hellish situation that Burmese people are living in. And after watching John Boorman’s Beyond Rangoon, I see why Rambo would say that you need guns to make any kind of change in that country. There is a massacre going on over there. This is yet another government stomping and murdering its people.

In Beyond Rangoon, Patricia Arquette plays a mother who has just lost both her husband and her child, she came back one day from work and found them murdered on the floor by burglars. As a way to try and cope with this terrible situation, her sister (played by Frances McDormand) decides to take her on a vacation to Burma. Why they would want to go to a place like Burma for vacation is beyond me, considering how unstable the place is politically. Actually, the political climate is downright murderous in that country. Apparently they weren’t aware of the situation, like so many people in the world. Situation over there (in broad strokes) is that some of the Burmese are fighting to establish democracy in their country, while the rest form a part of the despotic government. Whoever doesn’t play by the governments rules gets murdered. People are forced to escape and run away from their homes to the mountains and forests. Situation hits a boiling point when the government decides to close down all airports and Laura Bowman the last remaining American tourist in Burma, finds herself trapped in this country, right smack in the middle of a military dictatorship. In the midst of all this political turmoil, she has to learn to deal with her own personal demons, the deaths of her son and her husband. Will she ever find her way back home?

Patricia Arquette plays Laura Bowman

Though films based on real life events tend to bend and twists stories around to make things more exciting and cinematic, I find myself enjoying these films more and more because they always have that extra oomph of authenticity to them just because they are based on something that happened in real life. And sad but true, a lot of what we see in Beyond Rangoon happened in real life, and you get to see just how much evil is really loose out there in the world we live in. I mean, a government that kills its people because they don’t agree with their political agenda is as low as a government can get. Whoever is at the top and decides to do this to its people is being eaten alive by greed and lust for power. These kinds of governments arent for the people at all, they are their to stomp and belittle them. Of course the people are going to reject this kind of government, it shoots whoever doesn’t agree with them. Like one gigantic bully. Only these bullies have machine guns and they aren’t afraid to open fire on the masses, or on innocent women and children. With this kind of oppression in the streets, just walking on the streets becomes something of a nightmare. It’s as if you were in a horror film, and you had a homicidal maniac stalking you. The government that is depicted on this film runs on pure unadulterated fear.

What is interesting about Beyond Rangoon is that the film adds a whole other level of emotional weight to the proceedings because it deals with Laura Bownman’s own personal grief over the death of her son. She sees them in her dreams, everything she sees reminds her of them, she simply hasn’t been able to let go. The situations that Laura gets shoved into in Burma kind of serve as a way to make her continue with her life and move forward. Laura Bowman gets literally thrown deep into the Heart of Darkness, and it serves her as a catharsis.

One of the things that makes this film special is the group of people that are trying to survive in the midst of all this madness. I mean, these people are perfect strangers at the beginning of the film but through the run of the film they form a bond that will unite them for all their lives. What I loved the most is how humanity shines through. There is this really touching moment in which the group of people are trying to make it through to Thailand so they can escape the murderous Burmese soldiers. Just as they are about to cross, a soldier confronts them with a machine gun. He starts screaming like he is going to blow everyone’s head off! But one of them calls to his humanity. He speaks in Burmese, but we understand. It’s the strangest thing, you can actually imagine what that the guy is saying “we are good people simply trying to stay alive, you are a human, we are humans, let’s stop this madness! Let us live, stop the killing” Amazingly enough, the soldier begins to cry! Its an amazing moment. There are more moments such as this in the film; where characters give a huge cry out to humanity. As if saying, behind those guns, and behind that uniform you’re still just a human being, like the rest of us.

My hats go down to John Boorman for making this film. It will serve to help the people of the world to see just how bad things are in Burma. For some reason, not a lot of information is put out in the media about how horrible things are in this part of the world. Why the media black out on this subject? This is a powerful film that depicts the true horrors of a despotic government ruling over its people with an iron fist; without any heart or soul. Honestly, I don’t see the point in wanting to turn your country into something like that. Okay, your ruling, you have the power, but what is it good for if everyone in the country is going to hate your guts? You might run away with a bigger bank account, but you will have to live in fear for the rest of your life. Pointless. But whatever. It’s incredible that certain people still get their rocks off in ruling a country this way. I just hope this sort of thirst for power never reaches the leaders of my country. Though to be honest, its been feeling more and more like it might happen someday with the way things have been going around here in Puerto Rico. This movie really got to me, probably because of that. But I think it will move and affect anyone who sees it really, Boorman made a really powerful film here, one of his best without a doubt. Highest possible recommendation.

Rating: 5 out of 5

The Emerald Forest (1985)

Title: The Emerald Forest (1985)

Director: John Boorman

Cast: Powers Boothe, Charlie Boorman, Meg Foster

Review:

Some real life stories are so outlandish that they simply beg to be made into a film. For example, John Boorman’s The Emerald Forest is a film based on the real life events of a man who worked as a lumberjack in the forests of Brazil. One day, while this man was with his family in the forest, a group of natives attacked the family and kidnapped his 10 year old son, Ezequiel. The father spent ten whole years looking for his son deep in the Brazilian jungle, going to depths where not many people dare venture. He asked about the different tribes that lived in the jungle and actually went looking for them.  His search continued  for years until finally, after ten years of searching he found him. Ezequiel was now 21 years old, and had been raised by the natives as one of their own! Would his son want to return to the modern world? Or would he stay with the tribe that raised him for the past ten years? When confronted with these questions Ezequiel answered: “I will not leave my people”.

John Boorman’s film was based on this story that appeared in a newspaper article and though its not 100% accurate to it, it has a lot of it in the film. It’s still a story about a boy that gets kidnapped by aborigines in the Amazonian jungle, but it has an added eco friendly message attached to it. To the films credit, this added element gels perfectly with the story which takes place in a forest meant to be taken down by the powers that  be. The big changes made to the original story involve Power’s Boothe character. Boothe plays the father who looses his son to the aborigines; the change is that instead of him being a lumberjack, in the film he is in charge of the construction of a gigantic damn that will enable a more effective destruction of the rain forest, in this way making room for the proverbial “progress”. Since his son ends living in the forest that he is helping to destroy, a conundrum is created. How can he help destroy the forest that has become his sons’ home?

This is a really interesting concept, and its one that has been played with before, thing is that this time it was based on real life events. Films like A Man Called Horse (1970) presented us with the premise of an English aristocrat who gets captured by Indians. He lives amongst them for various years and learns to understand and accept their life styles and traditions, going through many of their rites of passages until he actually becomes one of them. This theme has also been used in films like Dances with Wolves (1990), The Last Samurai (2003) and most recently Avatar (2010). What this type of film does is, it takes the modern man, the one always looking for progress and ‘civilization’ and puts him in the natives/aborigines shoes. It lets the modern man see what it is to be one of them, lets him see what he is so voraciously trying to destroy. By the end of the movie, the “modern man” sees the beauty of the aborigine’s lifestyle; he sees their connection with nature and the simplicity of their lives. Only by living with them can the modern man truly understand them. By the end of the film, the once modern man is now a changed man, having practically transformed into one of them. This type of film usually  emphasizes the emotion of sympathy, or putting ourselves in the shoes of another to try and understand them.

In eco friendly films like this one, the main theme is how much the modern lifestyle, with its streets and buildings and cars clashes with thae simpler lifestyle that the aborigines live in the forest, one that’s more in connection with nature. In this film,  the tribe that abducts the child is called “The Invisible People” because they live so deep in the forest that no one knows that they even live there. But civilization is catching up to them and soon they begin to realize that the ‘edge of the world’ (where the forest ends and the modern world begins) is getting closer every time. The tribe depicted in the film are a beautiful and simple society that loves to enjoy the pleasures of nature and community. They practice their own religion, and their own traditions. They also love to take their peyote! The scenes of The Invisible People going on peyote trips allowed the filmmakers to play with surreal imagery and dream sequences where the characters connect with their spirit animals.

It’s interesting to not that the kid who gets snatched away by the aborigines is played by Charlie Boorman, director John Boorman’s own son. It felt to me as I watched this movie that by casting his own son in the role of Tommy, Boorman was putting his own son through a rite of passage as well. In the film, Tommy is raised by The Invisible People to the point where he becomes one of them. And at a certain point he has to go through these rites of passage so he can become a man. The point being that if he manages to survive that ordeal, he will then become a true man, ready to take on the real world. Boorman’s son was in his late teens while making this film, so maybe Boorman cast his own son as a cinematic rite of passage. In real life, Boorman was seeing his son turn into a man, so he cast him in a film where the same thing happens to the character. Filmmakers often reflect their own life experiences in the films they make; it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what Boorman was going for with The Emerald Forest. Not a bad idea either, Charlie Boorman pretty much nails the complex role which included playing a character that spoke in the tribes language for the whole duration of the film.

This film won awards for best cinematography, and I can’t argue there, the film is beautiful to look at. The Invisible People wear very little clothes, but on special occasions they wear lots of colorful bird feathers that make for some very colorful visuals. The shots of the forest and the Amazonian landscape are amazing, especially because a large part of the film was really shot in the amazon, giving the film a bit of a Herzogian feel to it. My thanks go out to John Boorman who chose the most beautiful actresses to play the tribes females, who I might add are half naked for most of the film. So what we got here ladies and gentlemen is a very eco friendly film that was beautifully shot and acted. It has some very heartfelt moments in it. Many people hold this one close to their hearts because it’s both visually beautiful and has a great message against the destruction of the Amazonian forest which gets smaller by the day. I remember having seen The Emerald Forest as a kid and loving it, and now, many years after I originally saw it in 1985 I revisited it and loved it even more. Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 out of 5