RUTZ Classic Movies: Pet Sematary

Directed by Mary Lambert    

Line that stays with me:  “No fair, no fair”


Essay Warning: There are no spoilers or story details. I want to offer the emotion that a film can access within us. Plus I think the best way to watch a film is by not knowing anything about it. Just Go In…So if you haven’t watched this film yet please don’t read this essay. Read it afterwards so we can enjoy the “feeling” together. 

The first time I watched “Pet Sematary” I was seven years old. I will never forget it. It gave me nightmares for 3 or 4 years. The blood-ridden face of Victor Pascow appearing in my mind every time I closed my eyes and the terrible vicious sound of those roaring trucks racing down “that road” as the most famous character from the film Jud Crandall put it. I believe this is a very special film. It is by far my favorite American horror film of 80’s or the 90’s. (Pet Sematary was released in 1989) Today it is a very hit or miss film with audiences. Like me some viewers saw the film at a very young age and it probably put the fear of death into them like nothing they have ever experienced before.  “Pet Sematary” is one of those films that you truly enjoy when you get on the film’s wave length. Meaning, the mind set you have in the sense of life and death before viewing the film will either allow you to take this tragic reality in emotionally and get caught up in the horror, or merely view the film as boring melodrama.  I’ve heard that comment from teenagers these days who have watched the film, “It’s boring” “It’s slow”.  There is defiantly a wide generational gap when it comes to horror films. Now it’s all about the frenzy, the Rob Zombie horror films, which are great in their own right. But there’s something special about a horror film that creeps up on you. It is very essential for a horror film to have great pacing, to deliver some sort of spookiness without really showing us anything at all. Horror films are supposed to mess with our heads, not just our stomachs.  “Pet Sematary” achieves this level of spookiness and so much more. It is a special film for many people for reasons better left unsaid. 

The writing of the film is the first thing I have to get into. As a young person watching the devastating scenes of honest horrible deaths in this film, and not knowing anything about the horrors of REAL life truly shakes you up the first time. The deaths you were watching were very possible; anybody can get hit by a truck. Stephen King loves to create horror stories that disrupt your sleep. This day and age a cynical young viewer watches that scene of the baby getting crushed by a truck and might not even wince. Ten years later that same person has children, will catch the film again and have trouble sleeping at night. The story of “Pet Sematary” will never get old, it is perfect. A horror story built to allow so many grand ideas of death and the horror genre itself. From beginning to end Stephen King’s story engulfs you in with the always reliable fear of death. The film opens with those perfectly unsettling shots of Pet Sematary, and Elliot Goldenthal’s creepy score settling us into the film’s very calm eeriness. The story begins with images of death and sends us into a new beginning for a nice looking family. That combination really makes you worry about that nice looking family. Throughout the film you are bombarded with some depressing truths about death. If you are emotionally in tuned with the film there are many times the film will remind you of your scars. The loss of your favorite pet or, watching your own son die; I can only imagine how horrible it would feel if I lost my son in a similar way and later watched this film. A person could really breakdown watching some of the moments in this film. It also reminds us that sometimes in life things get so nasty; we want death to happen, very terrible truths confronting you for the first half of the film and then it turns into a nightmare. 

The film gets to strike at you with the everyday real life horrors of losing a child like the classic film “M”, but when it all goes crazy; the supernatural aspect of the story takes hold showing us how hard it is for us as human beings to accept death. Early in the film Rachael Creed is scared to speak about death with her daughter, the film’s main concern is death and coming to terms with it. In the beginning of the story the parents treat death as a taboo subject but behave as they have death “under control”. Of course soon as they are confronted by death everything changes. The mother goes to pieces and the father cannot accept it. He goes insane when he loses son. Can you really blame him after what he witnessed? Watching your child get destroyed right before your eyes is the sort of event that can alter your personal ideology of right and wrong. Fairness is thrown right out the window as you become a mirror of the hell living within yourself. Watching this poor father crumble is very horrifying for we know there is no real solution to his problems. That’s why I love that scene near the end after Cage Creed gets his DEATH SHOT and starts saying “no fair, no fair”. Sometimes that’s all that can be said when death makes an appearance in our life. “That wasn’t fair” we will say but there is nothing we can do about it. The empathy this story makes us feel for its lead character Dr. Louis Creed is sad, but it also helps you take it all in. It involves you in a way that’s truly personal as you got to know the doctor before he went insane. He went insane for something that could happen to anyone of us. That’s why I think for some people this film exists as an important milestone in their horror film viewing history. It was the horror film that forced you to come face to face with death and not just cover your eyes.

Pet Sematary’s story and themes can be broken down in several ways and I am sure someone can write a great thesis on the story of the film alone.  What makes this film special is that the story is great and the filmmakers paid a great deal of attention to other areas most films just slightly care about. Now the film is not perfect, for one thing Blaze Berdahl as Ellie Creed is the only sore thumb in an otherwise perfectly casted movie. I mean there are scenes when Miko Hughes, the two year old playing Gage outshines her. There are also some improbable death scenes, which are the only real flaws I found but, the film’s energy is too strong for those small blemishes to wither this film’s overall effect. One area I think director Mary Lambert put a lot of thought into is the film’s pacing. The pacing of a film can make it or break it. It is a very delicate thing, depending on the story you are telling and the length of time available to tell that story. Like a great song a film has to get you on a steady tempo and once you get used to that tempo, it gives the director options on how to pleasantly surprise you by switching the tempo. “Pet Sematary” has a really slow pace in the sense of shots. It is slowing everything down so you can take in the reality. Perfect example, is in the beginning of the film when the Creed family arrives to their new home. The sweeping creepy score that makes you feel like you are watching someone’s twisted version of a Hallmark movie. The shots of the family getting out of their station wagon feels like someone’s photo album came to life. Big smiles of happiness and the cat in her plastic cage in the trunk, on a beautiful sunny day somewhere in Maine and baby Gage wondering about it. The filmmakers are making sure they slow you down and bring you into Louis Creed’s reality of having a family, of having  a beautiful life, so when it comes crashing down you are right there suffering with him. This slow pacing technique gives the filmmakers more room to excite us or surprise us with quick cuts or intense sequences due to the fact that you get use to the slow steady pace. When the director decides to turn things up to INTENSE MODE, as a viewer you don’t know what to do with yourself. Perfect example of this is the scene where Dr. Louis Creed fails to stop his son from getting on the road. 

One of my favorite things about this movie is Fred Gwynne’s performance of Jud Crandall. Sometimes when I watch it, it is my favorite thing. The film wouldn’t be special without Fred Gwynne’s performance. It is now a very famous performance; it has been parodied on “South Park” and other places. I think the reason people remember this performance is because it is not something we can calculate. The performance is perfect to me and I do not care to know why. I just know I think it is amazing. The way he delivers the lines, his tone of voice, his facial expressions, his body language, it is a performance of the perfect actor for the part creating classic moments and not even knowing it. Some moments make me smile like a little kid at the pleasure of watching an actor deliver a line that just sounds perfect coming out of his mouth. Fred Gwynne saying “It was the ragman that told me about the place” can put me in a hysterics of joy, I love that moment in the film, and Fred Gwynne’s grand delivery very much in the style of classic horror films, sets us up perfectly for the back story of the cursed Indian Burial ground.  Fred Gwynne saying “that road” is special, there is no other performance like it and his performance grounds the film in a very important way.  After all Jud Crandall is the lead character’s only neighbor and the man that leads Louis Creed to his doom.  It is a legendary performance. 

 The neighbor aspect is also very important to the story’s overall effect. The friendly neighbor is not supposed to tell you how to bring your daughter’s dead cat back to life. The way Louis Creed blindly follows Jud’s advice is a constant reminder to me of how easy it is for us human beings to be lead astray especially in moments of grief. I think the film is talking about something else altogether in that regard. It is talking about, the dark places we can allow to take ourselves if life only gives us a push. When Jud tells Louis Creed that a man’s heart is stonier, he is exposing Louis to a very dark side of human nature, a foul darkness that will hide the truth and lead a good man to disaster. Dale Midkiff’s performance as Dr. Louis Creed is great and at times stunning. I love how the filmmakers decided to give Rachael Creed a short haircut as it projects the image of a MOTHER very quickly to the audience. If the mother would’ve looked like a Hollywood model, it would have been way too distracting. Denise Crosby delivers a simple strong performance and I think the filmmakers casted her for that reason. You care about her as a person, and she is not eye candy but a mother who we feel terrible for. “Pet Sematary” also delivers the horror goods as it should. You get ghosts, foggy nights, great make-up effects, jolting moments involving a once dead cat, a dead rat covered in blood near Louis Creed’s feet and other moments that in real life would make you scream at the top of your lungs. I will never  forget how I felt when I first saw that devastating scene where Louis Creed loses his son, till then I never saw any film where a child was killed in that manner.  I think all those elements will give “Pet Sematary” a long shelf life. The film’s unblinking insight of what could happen if the most important person in your life is taken away and the brutal fact that there’s nothing you can do about it. It is such a natural fear. I think this film truly understood that fear at the core of the story which deals with the inevitability of death and the lack of comprehension any human being can have when death does arrive.

ABOUT RCM: RUTZ Classic Movies is dedicated on writing film essays for films that in Rutz's opinion, have not gotten the credit they deserve. Next Essay: Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers

 

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RUTZ: "Champagne"

Thanks for checking out my work! This new song is called "Champagne" Enjoy!




Lyrics


You said come over tonight

I need you by my side

I try to hide and play games

But I realize you're Champagne


Baby I feel no shame

Telling you I'm insane

When I look at your face

I see a place where my spirit can fly

FREE

Girl you comin over tonight

I need you by my side

I try to hide and play games

But I realize you're Champagne

RUTZ Classic Movies: The Black Dahlia

Directed by Brian De Palma    

Line that stays with me:  “Who are these men who feed on others?”


Essay Warning: There are no spoilers or story details. I want to offer the emotion that a film can access within us. Plus I think the best way to watch a film is by not knowing anything about it. Just Go In…So if you haven’t watched this film yet please don’t read this essay. Read it afterwards so we can enjoy the “feeling” together. 

Of all the underrated films on my RUTZ classic movies list “The Black Dahlia” is the one that mystifies me. I do not understand how anyone can label this film mediocre. The only reason I could find for this sad error is that critics always harshly review directors like Brian De Palma. Directors with filmographies so stunning critics expect them to reinvent the wheel every time.  The perfect example of this is Jackie Brown directed by one of Brian De Palma’s accidental creations Quentin Tarantino. When Jackie Brown first came out very few claimed it was excellent (which it is) and now everybody loves it. In a recent Tarantino poll it was voted his best film. So what happened? Why didn’t audiences love Jackie Brown in 1997? I think audiences and critics were too caught up by some of the nuances of Tarantino’s style. It took Tarantino 3 years to deliver another film after “Pulp Fiction”. During that time I am guessing he wanted to grow as an artist and create something new, change the canvas a bit before it gets stale. Of course people were expecting something else. I think the same goes for “The Black Dahlia”. I suppose Critics were expecting the narrative to be epic, rather than the confusing story of a poor broken down hero. Audiences were probably expecting something more straightforward or something like the film “Seven” because that’s how the studio sold it in the trailers. At the end of the day it is a film that is never going to instantly please critics or audiences. Critics were unhappily confused and audiences didn’t have the patience. I think the film is classic film noir. I love it.

First off, if you are a film nerd and you love film noir, you get very excited when you hear about a new film noir type of movie. Not many crime film noir movies are being made these days. As filmmakers we love the genre because it lets you play with so many cool elements. The cold stares with voiceovers, shadowy figures and sexy dames, and fantastic imagery all driven by basic human desire.  I love the film noir genre; it is a great playground for filmmakers who have developed their style and love genre films. That’s why I love Brian De Palma’s work; he respects every genre he’s ever worked in. He’s done almost every genre except a western, wouldn’t that be something, a Brian De Palma western.  Many critics think Brian De Palma is all style and no substance, but in films style is substance. Film is a visual medium and like any other artist producing images, creating your style is very important. Unfortunately, when these directors style make other films pale in comparison, critics will call directors like Brian De Palma or Wes Anderson “showy”. I think that sort of media criticism is really making many run to the internet for REAL film criticism. I don’t understand it. When I go watch a Wes Anderson film I am expecting to watch a film that truly cared about its production design, costumes that match their characters and basically wonderful imagery all around. If I went to a Wes Anderson film and it turns out that he decided to make his film look like a Brett Ratner movie, I would be furious! Style is substance, these filmmakers are unique because they have developed a style that fits the stories they want to tell. “The Black Dahlia” is a Brian De Palma film noir and unfortunately audiences were not ready for it. 

Right from the beginning of the film we have the marriage of film noir and Brian De Palma’s style in full force as Bucky Bleichert catches us up on the story. The opening takes us to flashbacks upon flashback as we get used to Bucky Bleichert’s voice, very effective. I can understand how people got confused by this film; I mean it is something De Palma loves to do anyway. This is a movie you have to keep up with, but not in an overly intense manner the whole way through.  The film is a first person account through the eyes of Bucky Bleichert. It may not seem that way the first time you watch it but the whole film is a first person account. That’s what surprised me in my last viewing; it really made me care about Bucky Bleichert’s journey to the Hollywood hells. Watching Bucky throw a fight so his father can have a home was a perfect way to show us the (audience) what kind of character our hero is. Now that is of course attributed to the writing, but the way De Palma handled those scenes is what makes it special. Perfect example is the Mr.Fire VS Mr.Ice boxing scene, where De Palma made sure to show Bucky blocking punches, so when we notice Bucky move his arm out the way in the knockout scene we would know what will happen next. That’s a director thinking things out; setting us up and it works, that scene is extremely effective. Another director would have just shown Bucky getting knocked out, and CUT to next scene. Brian De Palma’s style gave it weight. It is a great set piece, something not many directors do anymore but something Brian De Palma is famous for.

What is a set piece?  To me, it is a complex sequence created to be a grand moment in a film. You are not going to instantly remember every scene in a film but you are going to remember the set pieces. One of my favorite set pieces ever to show a clear example of what a set piece is comes from “Jurassic Park”. The scene where the T-Rex attacks for the first time is one of the best set pieces ever put together.  It goes from BOOM, BOOM, water in cups shaking, to kids screaming, to T-Rex chasing Jeff Goldblum, to T-Rex eating man hiding in the bathroom, to more kids screaming, to T-Rex pushes a Jeep with a kid still screaming for his life inside, EXCELLENT. Everybody remembers those ten minutes or so, it is an excellent set piece of high intensity.“The Black Dahlia” has a good amount of amazing set pieces. One of the set pieces features a sexy lesbian song and dance number. How rare is that? My favorite set piece involves Bucky meeting Madeleine Linscott’s bizarre wealthy family, that scene is hilarious. The screenplay by Josh Friedman is perfect in my opinion. The dialog feels right and there’s several moments of dark humor sprinkled throughout, which is another Brian De Palma staple that makes you reevaluate what you are watching. While I watch all these strong ideas and great execution on display, because of the film’s reputation, I continue to try and find faults in the film in any area. I couldn’t find anything truly wrong. I can understand if Brian De Palma’s style doesn’t match your interest but to call it a bad film because you don’t like its style is very cheap. The film looks amazing; the cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond is incredible, it makes your average film look like a reality show. Great production design, a perfect film noir-ish score by Mark Isham, top-notch performances and a story that develops never quite the way you thought it would.

The film’s noir-ish elements set the perfect the tone for Bucky’s tragic tale of resolution.  Knowing about Brian De Palma’s anti-authoritarian attitude I always wonder what he is truly trying to convey with this film. The first thing I noticed is that Bucky’s character is always being lied to or forced to live a lie. That theme and others throughout the film, to me, expresses the terrible reality of the American dream. What better setting than “Hollywoodland” the place where dreams are made and dreamers flock to make their dreams a reality. This is bait for girls in the middle of Nebraska somewhere with nothing to do and nothing exciting to look forward to. Poor girls like Elizabeth Short who were lead to believe that Hollywoodland is worth the trip only to find out how horrible people can truly be. That’s one of my favorite things about the film; it shows how we Americans deal with corruption. In the film Bucky’s partner Lee Blanchard uses corruption to keep a large amount of dirty money, and get his face in the papers. Mr. Linscott, corrupted the city with shoddy homes which he made a fortune from.  When Mrs. Linscott kills herself we see that the newspapers labeled her death as “accidental”. Throughout the film, Bucky becomes a man who is sick of being lied to and, sick of the dark world of lies around him. His partner Lee lied to him, the women in his life, and his boss made him lie about the death of his partner. The only explanation people give him is that there is no other way. Thus that is where we are at as Americans today; the lies will never stop because this country has deemed the truth to damaging to their position of power. The truth gets people fired and we can’t have that happening can we?  That’s why I love the ending with that terrible quick glimpse of Elizabeth Short appearing on the lawn of Kay’s house. Bucky has seen the ugly truth, a truth that he now has to live with, and even if it disappears he knows it’s there.

The film ends with Bucky entering Kay’s house, trying to find relief from the horrors he has uncovered. Not quite the standard tragic film noir ending, but “The Black Dahlia” ends on the hope of personal survival by means of not letting cynicism get the best of you.  A beautiful ending for a film that showed us awful human behavior from a time and place that would shape American dreams of glory for the next fifty years. It offers the hope and tranquility of coming home. The performances in this film are also great in every category. I think this is Josh Harnett’s best performance, Aaron Eckhart kills every scene he’s in, Scarlett Johansson makes her character work using her sultry voice and terrific facial expressions, and Hilary Swank playing a sexy role I think for the first time, is in full control of her talents. She is amazing to watch. The supporting roles are all performed by great character actors like Partrick Fischler, John Kavanagh, and Mike Starr. Plus let me not forget Mia Kirshner who played the role of Elizabeth Short, many still think she should have been nominated for an Oscar. That’s why I am scratching my head when it comes to this film’s poor rating. I mean if I read a book that’s well written but isn’t my favorite genre I am not going to say it sucks. I’ll say it was excellent writing but it’s not my thing. Unfortunately “The Black Dahlia” didn’t even get that sort of respect, maybe because it doesn’t have a grand message. Maybe because the truth the movie has to offer is too bold and the truth is something we have never been allowed to value as American citizens.

ABOUT RCM: Rutz Classic Movies is dedicated on writing film essays for films that in Rutz's opinion, have not gotten the credit they deserve. Next Essay: Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary 

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RUTZ Song: "Didn't mean a thing"

Thanks to everyone who continues to support my work. Enjoy this new song!

 " I was trying to be....just what....you wanted me to be...to bad it....didn't mean a thing "

Verse 1                                   Verse 2                           Verse 3            

                                                                                                                 

Now that                                 Things Lost                     Alone             

I'm Back                                  A Cost                            Ain't Bad

Free after                                 Too High                        Finding

A Brat                                      Too Blind                       Learning

The Lights                               The Fucks                      Calm

The Cars                                  The Fucks                      Peace

The Bars                                  The Fucks                      Me

No Time                                  Not much                       Much Done

Like                                         Nothing done                 With No One

Me Time                                  I'm trying                       I'm trying

I'm trying                                 To Find                          To Find

To Find                                    Good Times                   Good Times

Good Times                             It's not                            It's not

It's not                                      In Slut                            In Slut

In Slut                                      It might                          It might

It might                                    Be                                  Be

Be                                            In my guts                      In my guts

In my guts                               It's just a hunch              It's just a hunch

It's just a hunch                 

RUTZ Classic Movies: Day of the Dead

Directed by George A. Romero    

Line that stays with me:  “Is anyone alive out there?!!”

Essay Warning: There are no spoilers or story details. I want to offer the emotion that a film can access within us. Plus I think the best way to watch a film is by not knowing anything about it. Just Go In…So if you haven’t watched this film yet please don’t read this essay. Read it afterwards so we can enjoy the “feeling” together. 

George Romero’s Dead series is one the most underrated achievements in cinema. From “Night of the living Dead” to “Survival of the Dead” it is amazing how well these films hold up and how the images of cold reality on display draw us in. It seems that we will never get this sort of cinema on the big screen in the USA ever again.  I am not only talking about blood and guts here. I am speaking about the honesty George Romero delivered with all his characters. In a George Romero movie people are racist, people are weak and some characters are plain insane. I miss that sort of honesty at the movies. It is one thing to watch a zombie movie being slightly excited by the plot, which is usually about a group of people trying to escape their doom.  It is another sort of experience to be drawn into the plot because you are interested in the characters. You are interested in the dynamics between the characters that will surely cause a rift. That sort of execution adds a terrible sense of reality that keeps you interested not only on what the characters will do next but also excited on what they will say next. It is a very special and, difficult movie thing to do, to make audiences excited to hear the characters speak. When you watch “Day of the Dead” you are never bored to death with standard horror film dialog, like “We have to reach the lake before blah, blah, blah”. You are excited to hear the characters in this film speak because they sound like real people. George Romero did his job as a writer and gave these characters instant depth. I don’t care if one of the characters says SPICK. The character is racist, there are racist people in real life last time I checked. If the zombie apocalypse was ever to come, you better believe our race issues will be one of the reasons we won’t survive.

We rarely see racism in film, that’s why I think George Romero writes in racist characters in his films to confront audiences with dark truths and for kicks. I am Hispanic and I laugh during scenes of the movie featuring racial slurs. I find it funny because people who are racist are usually scared, immature or not very smart. They are silly people who believe somehow without proof that their race is superior to others.  How can you not laugh at a fool? That’s one aspect of it; on the other hand it makes me laugh because I am pretty sure that’s how it would happen in real life. So with one stroke George Romero has added tension to his story and comical relief. You feel you are watching a film that holds some truth and merit even though there are zombies running around eating people. It is a, hell of an achievement. Nowadays we only catch racism in movies like “The Help” which makes racism seem like some old past time called “It used to be so much worse”.  It is almost like selling the horrors of racism back to people because supposedly it is an uplifting story. Yet, racism is still alive and well. It will not be conquered if we treat it with such flimsy attitudes. “Day of the Dead” lets racism rear its true ugly head, reminding us that one day we might need each other in order to survive and if we don’t solve our petty differences before then, we will lose. That’s just one of the great layers that “Day of the Dead” has to offer. Even if you don’t get that powerful message from the film, you are still watching a classic horror film with all the guts to prove it.

George Romero and John Russo created and cemented the idea of zombies as we know it. I do not think people give George Romero enough credit. His crazy zombie idea, which on paper doesn’t make much sense, has given so many other artists a staggering amount of jobs in the last forty years. From make-up artists working on Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video, to Capcom producing Resident Evil. This one idea is a perfect example of people standing on the shoulders of a genius, yet people barely know his name. It doesn’t matter though; when you watch “Day of the Dead” you know who the man is. The remakes don’t hold a candle to his masterpieces, which have been ripped off to death.  “Day of the Dead” is a crazy mix of stunning imagery, strong characters, pulsing catchy music by John Harrison, pitch perfect performances and some of best make up effects created by the legendary Tom Savini. Right from the beginning the film sets the tone of dread and despair. No fancy credits needed, an opening of a film should set the tone of what will come next. In the opening scene of “Day of the Dead” we see our hero Sarah, stare at a calendar which represents wasted time and her sense of doom.  A beautiful opening that asks a question that most films do not ask, “Am I wasting my time in this life?” A question I am sure many of us ask during tenures in our 9 to 5 hells. John, “Fly boy”, confronts Sarah with this truth when he tells her they should leave the underground bunker and go find some place where they can enjoy life again and, raise some babies.  The film takes the stance of; if you can’t beat them, leave them the hell alone. This is better than the old mantra if you can’t beat them, join them.   

A great film to me is a film that takes you on a journey thoroughly thought out on different levels and manages to be entertaining, undiscovered even after several viewings. It must have the power to fight every art form’s true enemy, the passing of time. The only way to achieve that is by not cutting corners when it comes to the fundamentals of great film making and having visionary ideas.  The images in“Day of the Dead” keeps your eyes glued to the screen and other times makes you look away as a zombie rips a body in half. The music which was famously used in a Gorrilaz song grows on you, sticks in your head and gives the film a perfect tempo. The film’s villain Captain Rhodes is a villain you love to hate, which is important for a genre film. I cannot stand watching a genre film with a dull villain. Rhodes is a bastard, who says things like “Get your black ass out here” and “Or are you just in there jerking each other off!”  The rest of the Rhodes cronies are just as bad and racist as he is which gives the film an authenticity that helps the story progress very naturally. This is a science experiment gone wrong. You have your weak character Miguel, a man falling apart from all the horrors he’s witnessed. This is a very important character. The sort of character you rarely see in movies nowadays, a weak man. The importance of a character like Miguel goes unnoticed but it is there. Miguel’s weakness shows the audience how strong Sarah is in contrast. It makes you not hate Rhodes and his cronies for you feel that at least they are not being crybabies about the situation. Miguel is pivotal to film’s obvious declaration of humanity as a whole, the strange balance and the misunderstandings.

Miscommunication is the only real enemy for everybody in the bunker. No one is working together to solve the problem and some are broken beyond repair. I love that line that “Fly Boy” says “That's the trouble with the world, Sarah darlin'. People got different ideas concernin' what they want out of life.” The very same problems America still has today. Of course George Romero was trying to make a point and I am glad he had the balls to do it. The metaphor being that we are already zombies. That’s why Dr. Frankenstein’s scenes are very important. It lets George Romero discuss those very taboo ideas in a slight disguise. Dr. Frankenstein says people are only civil if they are promised a reward and that these zombies could be controlled. As Sarah explained he does not want to solve the problem but is merely trying to find a way to control it, which means it will never end. Sounds like a USA problem to me. Instead of trying to stop crimes from happening by discovering the source of the problem, we put people in jail, we don’t try to change their ways, and later they come out of jail with even worst ideas, plus not many prospects in getting a decent job. How do you think that story is going to end up? Same goes for our failed war on drugs which has never contemplated reaching the source of the problem. That’s why I love that Dr.Frankenstein is insane, it’s like saying America you’re nuts, you think you can control mindless zombies? With the way school funding keeps decreasing around the country I think you get my point. The fact that George Romero found a way to say this in his film without hitting you over the head is one of his many great accomplishments.

There are so many interesting themes and thoughts worth discussing but at the end of the DAY, this film is horror romp. Gross out scenes of human intestines falling on the floor, a zombie’s head ripped in half with a shovel. These make-up effects look so much better than anything digital. Excellent sequences filled with high tension. My favorite being near the end as Sarah and company follow the red lights to escape the bunker with the hue of blue lights giving the frames a very COOL look. You also have the strange story of Bub the zombie, which seems like a tribute to all under appreciated war veterans everywhere. The scenes of desperation at the end also show doom like very few pictures have. Some go kicking and screaming, one decides to take his own life and another gets delirious as he meets his end. These are all very interesting moments. We rarely see characters in films, characters that we’ve gotten to know, reach such a brutal ends and to watch them react to their death gives us an insight on how people face the end of their lives.  On the other end of the spectrum we see our heroes, Sarah and company on a beach enjoying life again. We watch Sarah X another day on her calendar, a beautiful scene which suggests that she is finally living her life. No longer underground, no longer fighting a pointless battle. It is a hard idea to come to terms with because it sounds like giving up. But when the powers that be no longer value your life and the reality of changing things proves too difficult, the question becomes how much time are you willing to lose? An unfortunate truth of this world, one Sarah finally came to terms with.  Do you want to change the world and suffer or live life while you still can? I think it is worth fighting the good fight if we can win, but if we honestly cannot I’d rather spend my last days making great long lasting memories before it is too late.  

ABOUT RCM: Rutz Classic Movies is dedicated on writing film essays for films that in Rutz's opinion, have not gotten the credit they deserve. Next Essay: Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia 

 

          

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RUTZ Web - Series "Raging Roomies" Teaser

I know my blog usually has serious overtones but I'm a comedy writer as well. I wrote 8 episodes for Hip-Hop artist Pitbull's Sketch Comedy show "La Esquina" and I've written for various sketch comedy groups. I am very silly person and I am glad this show lets me do some really crazy stuff. We can't wait to show how crazy, enjoy!

RUTZ Classic Movies: "Naked Lunch"

Directed by David Cronenberg     

Line that stays with me:  “I got my ticket”

Essay Warning: There are no spoilers or story details. I want to offer the emotion that a film can access within us. Plus I think the best way to watch a film is by not knowing anything about it. Just Go In…So if you haven’t watched this film yet please don’t read this essay. Read it afterwards so we can enjoy the “feeling” together.

             

Do you want to go have a naked lunch? The title of the book, the film, continues to rattle in my head as I try to make up my mind on what to say about this film. It brings to mind the scene when our hero Bill Lee’s friend Hank talks about how re-writing is a sin. I don’t know about that but at this point in my life and career I can understand what he’s getting at. This film is a marriage of two great artistic minds William S. Burroughs and David Cronenberg. It would probably have never existed without David Cronenberg and oddly enough David Cronenberg would have never made films if it wasn’t for Mr. Burroughs. David Cronenberg wanted to be a writer but trying to surpass the master proved to be too difficult.  So instead of being a cheap imitation he decided to move his artistic ventures towards cinema.  He moved his ventures so he could grow freely with no ceiling and still implement the many influences, lessons, and ideas he had found along the way. William S Burroughs influence in David Cronenberg’s work is very apparent, even in his commercial work like the “The Fly” where the Kafkaesque experience is in full walking display.  “Naked Lunch” to me means (Please remember that no interpretation is right or wrong) a visual meeting of two artistic minds completely “Naked” with their work and thoughts. David Cronenberg did not base this film solely on the book of the same name; he used various writings from Williams S. Burroughs career and added auto-biographical accounts as well.  In the end we have this film, which presents both artists in Full Monty, dragging us through artistic hell and quiet victories.

The work of William S. Burroughs will forever be intriguing. It is the work of a stubborn realist who’s lived enough to not be fooled again. When Mr. Burroughs work first came out during the end of the cold war and the beginning of the 60’s beatnik/counter culture revolution, it brought forth a loss of innocence so profound it transformed a whole generation of artistic minds forever. These are ideas that shake the very ground you walk on dealing with perception and reality. Many people shy away from this kind of conversations because they tend to bring to light certain natural fears all humans have about life and death. One of the reasons I think people love Mr. Burroughs is because he went to “The Abyss” for us. If you have ever been to “The Abyss” you can relate with his war stories. I know many people get excited about the film in relation to the drugs and that sort of wild lifestyle but the film offers much more than that. The film deals more with the creative process, and. The strange forever scarring moments that births it and the long road ahead. Mr. Burroughs said the reason he became a writer was due to the fact that he killed his wife Joan when trying to pull their “William Tell Routine”.  I love how David Cronenberg found a brilliant way to bookend the film with this important fact of Mr. Burroughs life. It gives the film weight so it does not come across as flimsy but as a true nightmare of the creative process.

“Naked Lunch” is one of those films everybody wants an explanation for. What does that scene mean? What did he mean with that shot? That sort of approach doesn’t work for me with films like “Naked Lunch” because this film is a prose.  This film says many things all at once and in a very straight forward manner. One of the famous lines from the film “Exterminate all rational thought that is the conclusion I have come to” makes this plain. That line of dialog sets the tone for the film. Makes me think, I mean what kind of living situation does a man have to be in order to contemplate such thoughts. After watching my local news for about five minutes that phrase is about the only thing that makes sense.  People kill each other with no disregard, and the politicians don’t care how many people they kill to get their objectives done, but they want us to remain civil. Does that make any sense?? NO! “Naked Lunch” takes us on an extreme journey of an artist who would rather live a life of debauchery, fueled by bug powder than conform to “reality” and its many paradoxes. The film is also very funny thank God!  Roy Scheider’s performance as Dr. Benway,  is comic gold. Judy Davis is perfect even though she's playing two different characters. The film is not a sad sappy story about addiction. It revels in artistic hardships and new beginnings. It finds humor in hallucinations, delivers great special effect to bring characters like the Mugwump to life and finds it center with genuine cinematic moments of obliqueness that have a strange calm to them.

Never has ugliness look this beautiful. “Naked Lunch” has a stunning look. David Cronenberg is a director that has almost no cinematic reference points. You have no idea where his shots originate. He is not trying to be the next John Ford or Martin Scorsese. David Cronenberg has a strong distinct way of framing his pictures and they leave you with the impulse to discover more on your own, hours, even days after you watched one of his films. The art direction in this film is pure spectacle an outstanding achievement, whether it’s Bill Lee’s funky green apartment or the out of wack, “where the hell are we?” Interzone scenes.  You get lost in the story due to the great job by these artists’ commitment to make those scenes time and place authentic.  Less than half-way through the film we head to Interzone and after a while you forget how the film started. I got to say “Naked Lunch” delivers one of best feelings of disorientation that I have ever experienced in a film. When Bill Lee returns from Interzone for the first time, awakened by his friends Hank and Martin, I realized how lost I was in the Interzone story.  I truly forget all about Hank and Martin. This is a great example of how artists get lost in their work and what a dangerous approach that can be.

I once thought that sort of artistic temperament was hogwash. Getting lost in your work and all that, how naïve I was. Of course it depends what kind of artist you are. Nowadays it is hard to tell. Many artists these days have nothing to offer and work more as product placement.  Luckily, we are not discussing any of today’s artists but Mr. Burroughs, he is an artist who took it to the limit and back. Today’s society looks at art as a means to make money, no longer is it a means of human discovery. To discover who we are, what our brain and heart truly want to say during this life, leaving a visible imprint on the wall of time for future generations. I took that artistic plunge four years ago.  Left my 9 to 5 behind for good, it no longer made sense to work there after a robbery that took place that could have cost me my life. I would have been killed for less than $500. I decided that night that I could no longer waste time and started to do what I love with my life FULL TIME and dedicate my time to become great in my craft. Of course hardships followed, but the experience, the writing, and the ideas that came out ever since I’ve dedicated myself to this life have been a revelation for me and have brought me happiness because I am myself. I no longer have to waste time doing somebody else's dirty work. I have gotten a chance to grow as an artist and believe me when I tell you can get lost in your work!

When the credits roll at the end of “Naked Lunch” there is not much to hold onto except the journey.  Same can be said of the creative process. It is hard trying to find that magic and hone it. “The Spirit” as the late Ian Curtis called it in my favorite Joy Division song “Disorder”. It truly comes and goes like a lost ghost. Timing is everything, when I was young I wrote about fun adventures where all the characters live happily ever after. As I got older I started to write tragedies. As an artist you want to lose yourself in order to find something new, to find some truth worth printing. There is no map for such an endeavor and we are all built differently, with the past of our parents guiding the compass. Most of our artistic heroes were on something to escape the cheap venal reality of distorted logic. From alcohol to heroin it doesn’t matter, we all got one vice. If you are a consumer you go shopping and it makes you feel better. If you are an artist you might drink till honest thoughts come pouring out and you make the song you always wanted to make. We all pay for what we want one way or another.  “Naked Lunch” was paid by Bill Lee’s guilt and nightmarish hallucinations. That’s that. It is not a pretty picture but nobody said it was supposed to be.  I love the “As is” attitude this film projects. It is not about the “truth” or “meaning”, it is simply about the crazy twists and turns some artists go through in order to get the job done.  At times the story ends unhappily but as a whole it can be quiet riveting and mesmerizing.  Worth the whole trip!

ABOUT RCM: Rutz Classic Movies is dedicated on writing film essays for films that in Rutz's opinion, have not gotten the credit they deserve. Next Essay: George Romero's Day of the Dead

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