Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Roy Schieder, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
I am not quite sure how this happened, maybe I have a deep-seated fear of sharks, but I lived on planet earth for 24 without seeing Jaws. Sure, I knew about Jaws. I knew more about Jaws than some movies I had seen. I knew Roy Schieder said "You're gonna need a bigger boat", I've heard the John Williams score hundreds of times in montages, at sports games, during awards show. I knew some details of Jaws's infamous troubled production and I knew it was the first summer blockbuster and an undeniable classic.
Despite the above knowledge, I didn't know what to expect when I actually watched Jaws. It's odd to experience art once you have seen its progeny. Many times when watching classics I find myself thinking "I understand why this is important, but it's been improved upon so much." Throughout the first half of Jaws I felt that way. The first act oscillates between first-rate shark attack set pieces and generic exposition that features clunky dialogue and overly familiar character types. Some of the latter works, like the iconic Robert Shaw nails on the chalkboard scene and some doesn't like the intimate look at Roy Schieder's domestic life.
However once the film gets into the open water, stranding our three heroes on a boat as they hunt for a man-eater the film eliminates its clunkier elements for a propulsive action sequence that is impeccably staged, shot and acted. It's one of the longest sustained pieces of action in any film I can remember, yet it feels familar because it regularly morphs into different sub set-pieces as our characters try and out power and out smart a shark using all the tricks they have available. It's a bravura sequence that is still as thrilling as anything I have seen from dozens of films and filmmakers that have been directly influenced by Jaws. I have no idea why it took me so long to see this film, but I am glad I did and its status as a classic film is well deserved.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Life of Pi - 2012 - 4 Stars
Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, C.G. "Eye" Tiger
SPOILERS BELOW
Life of Pi, adapted from Yann Martel's eponymous novel begins with the framing device of Pi, the film's protagonist, as an adult telling his life story to a Canadian journalist (Rafe Spall), early in the film Adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) tell Spall's character and by proxy the audience that his story will make them believe in God. This is a bold claim from the character, but an even bolder claim from director Ang Lee. It's such a brash proclamation that it that immediately heightened my contrarian instincts to the point that I wanted to not believe just to spite the director.
The bulk of the Khan's story is the harrowing tale of a shipwrecked Pi who must survive on a lifeboat with a tiger, hyena, zebra and orangutan. The CGI animals are beautifully designed and while I generally dislike anthropomorphic animals, these animals are dangerous and instinctual, but still have agency as characters in the story. Lee's real coup during these sequences is to generate real suspense when Pi is in peril even though the film's framing device tells that audience that Pi survives this wreck.
The film takes a while to get going and at times the first act feels like a generic Disney fable, but once Pi gets on the raft, the film is suspenseful, engaging and beautiful*. Occasionally I broke Lee's spell by asking myself stupid nitpicky questions like "Why doesn't Pi kill the man eating Tiger with his flare gun and live off tiger meat for weeks?" The film opens with a brash declaration, but what follows is an thrilling, earnest, spiritual film that didn't convince me to believe in God, but opened me up to believe the film's true message; a message about the power of storytelling and mythology and why it has been present in all of human society.
*While the CG work is magnificent, Life of Pi, a film shot largely on green screen, winning the best cinematography Oscar is bullshit.
Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, C.G. "Eye" Tiger
SPOILERS BELOW
Life of Pi, adapted from Yann Martel's eponymous novel begins with the framing device of Pi, the film's protagonist, as an adult telling his life story to a Canadian journalist (Rafe Spall), early in the film Adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) tell Spall's character and by proxy the audience that his story will make them believe in God. This is a bold claim from the character, but an even bolder claim from director Ang Lee. It's such a brash proclamation that it that immediately heightened my contrarian instincts to the point that I wanted to not believe just to spite the director.
The bulk of the Khan's story is the harrowing tale of a shipwrecked Pi who must survive on a lifeboat with a tiger, hyena, zebra and orangutan. The CGI animals are beautifully designed and while I generally dislike anthropomorphic animals, these animals are dangerous and instinctual, but still have agency as characters in the story. Lee's real coup during these sequences is to generate real suspense when Pi is in peril even though the film's framing device tells that audience that Pi survives this wreck.
The film takes a while to get going and at times the first act feels like a generic Disney fable, but once Pi gets on the raft, the film is suspenseful, engaging and beautiful*. Occasionally I broke Lee's spell by asking myself stupid nitpicky questions like "Why doesn't Pi kill the man eating Tiger with his flare gun and live off tiger meat for weeks?" The film opens with a brash declaration, but what follows is an thrilling, earnest, spiritual film that didn't convince me to believe in God, but opened me up to believe the film's true message; a message about the power of storytelling and mythology and why it has been present in all of human society.
*While the CG work is magnificent, Life of Pi, a film shot largely on green screen, winning the best cinematography Oscar is bullshit.
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