Hey folks, Harry here with a very special spy. It's not often that we actually get relatives of quite special people writing... This time it's the grandson of Holly Martins... His pappy was one of the great authors of cheap novelettes from the late forties. A fantastic fellow, and I take it with a great amount of encouragement that his grandson is not only writing to us here at AICN, but is also pursuing a filmmaking career. HAZAR!!! Well folks, you are in luck... Holly has the utmost respect for the filmmakers and stays away from spoilers in these looks a GLADIATOR, HIGH FIDELITY and WHERE THE HEART IS. He does discuss some spoilers in his GLADIATOR review, HOWEVER... he labels them before going into it... AND everything he talks about is in the first 15 minutes or so and he does not give away the key... 'next shot' so I believe hardly anyone would feel 'spoiled' lest they be extremely touchy. So... without further ado, I present the honorable Holly Martins III
Hello Harry -
Holly Martins III here. After wandering Vienna for a bit tracing my grandfather's steps, it's good to be back in America. I returned some weeks ago, with just barely enough time to clear customs and end up in a faceless Los Angeles suburb for what may have been the first screening of "Gladiator". I wasn't going to write anything about it, but after seeing (and loving) the "Mission Impossible 2" trailer, I've started to rethink that. My reasons both ways...
First, I work in "the business" and although I'm a nobody (so far...) I'm already pushing the limits on the screenings I see. If there's even a glimmer of an idea in these people's minds that I'm starting to tell tales out of the theater, my access may well be cut off. I'd rather not have that, thank you. It's not that I take the "Harry Card" seriously; it's that I do feel that not cool to give away too much about a film too soon. Sharing the whole story, for example, can and frequently will ruin quite a bit of the fun of a film. Sadly, the idiots who run nearly every marketing campaign (and a fair number of film critics) don't understand that, and there is almost always too much footage in the advertising and by the time you see the film, you've already seen the film. That's a large part of why I like seeing movies in very early stages - I don't yet have the bias of the marketing campaign to corrupt the experience for me.
I don't wish to ruin anyone's first impression of a film. I've decided that from time to time, I'd like to give a ballpark guideline to what to expect, but I won't talk about specifics after the first ten minutes or so. You can't expect that level of respect from the marketing morons. And I won't badmouth anything unfinished unless it clearly can't be saved. As a hopeful future filmmaker, I wish to someday get the same respect from those who manage to see my work before completion. With those guidelines in place for myself, I feel okay with saying carefully selected things. In particular, I'd like to help films that may not get enough help themselves. "Iron Giant" and "The Insider" are two of the best films of the year, but the marketing morons botched it and nobody has seen them. If I can help that a little bit, great. I don't think I need to help "The Green Mile" - I think you all already know how magnificent it really is. I will say that in my heart it is fighting with "American Beauty" and "Toy Story 2" for film of the year, and since they're all so different, I wish for three awards. (No, Harry has not oversold the film in his glowing review.) I've seen a few things coming up in December that I may write about later, but today I'd like to talk about a few Y2K releases.
"Where The Heart Is" will be badly mismarketed, I'm sure, as either a tear-jerker chick flick or a cornball light southern comedy. Don't believe them. These characters are real and honest people, and the humor comes from the characters and not some sitcomish view of comedy some hack writer raised on televison believes is the key to humanity. These are people, and this story is a real section of a life. Watch for it, and hopefully the Academy will remember Natalie Portman for the March 2001 Oscars. She's that good. Stockard Channing and Ashley Judd are also award-worthy in the supporting category. Although Ashley's got the showier roll and a stunner of a scene that nearly steals the film, Stockard's human and grounded performance should not be overlooked. For those who need the TV guide log line, the film follows the travels of a young woman through a section of life that loses quite a bit of us. Don't believe that dumb plot listed in IMDB - it's $5.55, and Wal-Mart is not the whole film. It's not even a third of the film.
Stephen Frears' "High Fidelity" with John Cusack completely pulls off something that is rarely done well: Cusack talks to the camera. A lot. And it works. Perfectly. Shoving a novel into a film is frequently a hard thing to do, and for most filmmakers use voice over as a cheap cop-out that means they don't need to do the real work of trying make external the internal. Breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the audience is risky, and can leave you with the worse of both worlds. But here, it's perfect. It's something this character would do, not something the filmmaker put in his mouth. And on top of it all, this film of Cusack's character looking back at failed relationships is really, really funny. Smart funny, not this "Big Daddy" crap that pollutes the multiplexes these days. (Not that Cusack would have gotten near a project like that.) Watch the ads blow the best jokes, though.
One filmmaker who should have no fear of an audience talking is Ridley Scott. While yes, he's had a few missteps here and there, he's a confident and assured filmmaker with a steady hand. I saw him (and his brother) outside after the screening and I imagine that he were just curious how the pacing played in front of a crowd. Not the big dumb studio, really. But him. And that's fine. Because "Gladiator" plays very well. Even in a slightly rough cut with a few unfinished effects it is a hell of a film. I can only imagine how incredible it will be after any further fine tuning and with the final music in place. It really is an ancient Roman story about an gladiator, and has the giant canvas and scope you'd expect from such a story. The settings are fantastic, the story is solid, the writing is intelligent and the action is thrilling. This is what an action movie should be.
Just two sentences about the story - a Roman General (Russell Crowe, who moves to permanent A-list status with this performance and thankfully won't give a shit and let it go to his head) has a fall from power and status all the way to the gutter, thanks to the Emperor's power-hungry son. Sold as a slave, he ends up fighting as a Gladiator - and looking for vengance and justice. It's a Ridley Scott film so no, you don't automatically know everything will turn out okay. And no, I won't tell you. But for those who care to keep reading, I will help set up the first few minutes of the film for you.
Consider this spoilers below....
The Roman Army has taken all of Europe and is mopping up a few last holdout clans. Crowe is in charge of the army facing one last group of big scruffy Germans. As the film starts, they await, under grey skies at the edge of a field across from a large woods, the return of a messenger sent to determine if they'll surrender without being slaughtered. Out of the woods rides the messenger. As he crosses the field, something seems wrong. At last you realize: the rider has no head. Crowe interprets: "They say no."
He gives some quick instructions, ending with "when you see my signal, unleash Hell". He rides off to join more calvary wile the Romans prepare the catapults and pour tar in a thin ditch in front of the archers.
Then, from the woods to the side of the battle field, a single burning arrow arches across the field....
The Germans rush from the woods, screaming. The Romans light up the tar, and the archers light their arrows. Fuses of sorts are lit on the catapult balls, and sent skyward with the arrows.
The flaming arrows rain down on the Germans, and the catapault balls turn out to be full of tar - they strike the trees and explode, sending flaming tar everywhere. Crowe and the calvary ride from behind the Germans, doing mass damage as they go.
It starts to snow fairly heavily.
A German gets a good swing at Crowe, knocking him off his horse and injuring him. At this point we get a shot from the ground, Crowe's POV, looking up at the German. He's dressed sort of like a bear, lots of dark fur. He's screaming. He's got a bloody battle axe in his hand, pulling it around to decapitate Crowe. There's snow falling behind him. And from the tar, his back is on fire.
One shot. A battle axe. Blood. Falling snow. Fire. It doesn't get any better than this.
Anyway, that's long enough for now, but some stuff to look forward to next year, including two that will probably not be marketed right and deserve your attention. For those cynics who think I'm glowing and gushing, well, I've seen some crap that comes out next year too. But I don't have the energy or time to badmouth it, and since it wasn't done, they might fix it. Who knows. But I'm not here for that - I'm here to help some films that may or may not get the attention they deserve.
Until next time...
Holly Martins III
