This was simply one of the very best films I have seen in years. Firstly, the camera work/special effects work is (literally) breath-taking. I only saw the film in ordinary TV mode when the film was tucked away in the afternoon schedule of a movie channel. Even so, many scenes (and particularly, of course, the final section of the film dealing with The Walk itself) have your palms sweating, your heart racing, the hairs on the back of your neck standing up etc. etc. all at once! I was not aware the film was made in 3D until I read the pages here, but seeing it in that format (or IMAX or even just on a big screen) must have been a truly awesome experience! Secondly, the direction is masterful and easily on a par with Hitchcock at his very best. Not a minute is wasted and you are dragged along from one scene to the next with the speed of an express train! This MUST be a "textbook film" for aspiring film makers/tutors in film academies? Thirdly, the acting in the main roles is very good. Ben Kingsley puts in a fine performance as the mentor/trainer/sponsor/father figure and the other leading characters are also very well played. Every award going, however, should have been given to the lead actor who displays a stunning mixture of humour, affection, endearment, fanaticism/madness, scheming and humanity which is absorbing and likewise helps you desperately wanting to know what happens next. Fourthly, and what makes this a truly great film, is what is NOT said. Form the very first, stunning shot of the Twin Towers you know precisely what happened to them on that fateful day in 2001 and yet the ONLY direct reference (and that in an "indirect" way!) to those events is made by the lead player in signing off at the very end and literally in the very last words spoken in the film and before the credits roll. These words had me on the verge of tears and made it clear that the real "message" of this film is not just about some guy walking between two high buildings but is really about what it is to be a human being; to pursue dreams, to aim at the impossible, to live life to the (very) fullest, to (as Nietzsche said) "live dangerously", even if it means standing (way) out from the crowd and being fully prepared to be asked "Why?" so many times, you lose count. What the film seems to me to be pointing out is how the events of 2001 were brought about by people motivated by the complete opposite: the desperate desire to die/annihilate themselves and to deny life to thousands of other people at the same time, to "close down" human desires for individualism and to work in favour of a monolithic, dead, uniform/totally conformist society in which NO challenging of set rules whatsoever by anyone is to be allowed. For these reasons (and as opposed to most of the films I have seen which explicitly address the events at Ground Zero and which, while obviously well-intentioned and sincere, have seemed leaden and 'flat' to me), I would choose this film as THE tribute to those who lost their lives in that appalling event, together with those who grieved and still grieve them. Film-making as pure art and enormously entertaining at the same time!
Reviews
3 Reviews
Callan
(1974)
Very good film, typical of its period but also with much relevance today
25 January 2018
The spy genre saw a (British-led) backlash in the mid-/late-1960s against the 'James Bond-led' type of upper class, super-human, perfect being spies and attention being paid in literature ("The spy who came in from the cold") and film (the Harry Palmer films) to a much more realistic portrayal of who spies were and what they actually did (often grubby little men working in atrocious conditions and for minimal recompense). In addition to literature and film, I can recall seeing the original "Callan" series on TV and of being very impressed by it. As portrayed by Woodward, Callan really was a working class thug (ex-army/ex-offender/borderline alcoholic and capable of great viciousness) doing the most unglamorous kinds of things in order to "take care" (with threats, blackmail, entrapment and, ultimately, 'termination') of people his superiors ordered him to. At the same time, Woodward gave the character a real human side who often displayed pity and empathy for his victims and who refused to turn into just the simple killing machine his masters wanted. I thought this film (which I had never seen before and found on some TV network being broadcast between 1.00 and 3.00 AM!) caught all of this very well. It was made at a time of great violence/almost seeming social melt-down (IRA bombing campaigns in Britain, the never-ending "Troubles" in Ireland, terrorism across much of Europe, the PLO terrorist attacks across the world. the Vietnam War staggering towards its bloody (and probably inevitable) end) and there are a number of places in the film where issues of direct relevance for today are also addressed (where to draw the line between 'enhanced interrogation' and outright torture, what are the limits of surveillance, how far can people 'follow orders' and still stay human?) An exciting film to watch but also one with a lot more to offer as well.
Spare the Rod
(1961)
Very realistic portrayal of what "secondary mods" in very poor areas were really like
1 January 2018
I must say I find the "6" rating awarded by all the previous reviewers of this film a bit on the harsh side and have awarded a ranking two levels higher myself. OK, so Max Bygraves was not a professional actor and his cinema 'career' is really not that much to speak about, but I still think he did a very good job in this picture. The support from consummate professionals like Pleasance and Keene also helped, of course, but he obviously established a genuine rapport with the actors playing the school pupils and he conveys the various emotions demanded by the role well, I thought. The main pleasure I experienced from watching the film, however, was in being reminded of just how absolutely appalling and brutalising so-called "secondary mods" in poor areas were, with jaded and often burnt-out teachers often resorting to brutal physical force/punishment in an attempt to maintain some sort of order and discipline. The film shows many insights, both retrospectively (e.g. how many (non-commissioned) ex-service men were herded into teaching after the second world war) and (unknowlingly) in terms of the future as well (e.g. the lad who tells Bygraves he "does not need to learn to read" as he intends to follow his dad in "working on the docks for £28.00 a week" (considerably more than a teacher like Bygraves portrays would have received at the time!) One wonders what became of the lad twenty years later when the London Docks had all gone and the entire surrounding area (as I can personally recall) had become totally derelict (until reclaimed by property developers who have now made the whole area totally beyond the dreams of the grandchildren of most of the kind of kids portrayed in the film.) A fascinating insight into a world long gone - and, one has to say, hopefully for good in some ways! The next time someone starts bleeting on about how "great" grammar schools were, the question to ask is, "And will YOU be sending your kids to a secondary mod like 'Worrell St' if the tests show they are a "sheep and not a goat" as well?
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