Cinema - Reviews by BiggieTembo

Cinema - Reviews by BiggieTembo

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
BiggieTembo 15th May 2015		Cinema Local Hero (1983) (1983)	Review Ahh another great film from Bill Forsyth. All the characters are totally upfront and honest to each other. Despite the subject matter, of a multimillion dollar oil refinery coming to a small isolated Scottish fishing village, all the townspeople want the bloody refinery to come! The main character is totally straight with everybody, and they are totally straight with him. Makes you want to get into a car, drive up to Scotland, sit in a pub and just talk to people. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
BiggieTembo 15th May 2015		Cinema Gregory's Girl (1981) (1981)	Review Saw this on a double bill with Chariots Of Fire at The Astoria, Chippenham, in '81. Me Dad came too. He was being pretty vocal about the fact that watching a film about track-and field runners set in 1914 was on par with watching paint dry. They showed Chariots first, and by the end of it, he was gobsmacked about how moving it was. Regarding Gregory's Girl: Bit funny as an 8 year-old, sitting there in the cinema with me Dad, watching three Glasgow teens trying to use long-distance telekinesis to will a nurse to take her bra off in the opening sequence! He laughed his ass off though - and a great film it was. But Corrrr Mate! That Claire Grogan in a page-cut wig! Wish it was me on a date with her in that park! I always remembered that Gregory wanted to borrow Alan's white jacket for the date. Alan said no, but Gregory had it on anyway, come date-night ;-) 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
BiggieTembo 15th May 2015		Cinema Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid (1973) (1973)	Review They call movies like these Descontructed Westerns (refer also to Monty Walsh with Lee Marvin, for example) It's not about good against bad. Cops against Robbers. It's about how times change. This is a film about two friends. They make choices, and I guess have to bear the fruits of their choices. With a great director at the helm (although the shooting of any Peckenpah film was reportedly not smooth) a great cast, a great script and a great score by Bob Dylan, this film is one of the deepest, human films you may see. Yes, it's about men, but these men are tired. They see the changing of the times. One decides to give it a last shot, one decides to survive. All the characters (played by the greatest ensemble of 1950s-1970s US character actors you will ever see) are sincere, even when they make the wrong choices. All of the characters act out of their own convictions - this is a tremendous success for an actor - to accurately portray (and have the permission to/be allowed to) portray a role so honestly, and that's the key to this great film - they play it all authentic. The moustachioed Coburn is majestic; the drawling Kristofferson incredibly effective. Even Dylan's good too ("Beans!") There's such a melancholy about this film too - the music steers the viewer down this path, for sure - but the feelings involved are much deeper than any of Peckenpah's other films. Who cannot see the scene where Coburn's Garrett has to gun down the honourable Jack Elam without feeling a sense of loss? Who cannot see the scene where the stomach-shot Slim Pickens, in the middle of a gunfight, goes to the river, while Katy Jurado drops her rifle and goes to him, sits by the side of him, and watches him see the dying of the light, without feeling so much sadness and sorrow, and yet so much love between them. It's almost a transcendental scene. This is the key to Peckenpah, his films and the often misinterpreted violence he used. Anyone who can craft a piece of cinema art like this must have been walking around with a tremendous amount of sorrow, but also a tremendous amount of love. The studios hacked and edited this film upon release. Thankfully, this film was re-edited after Peckenpah's death, guided by his personal notes about how the film should be. It's a magnificent film on all levels. See it. Sample dialogue: BILLY sits in a cantina over the Mexican border with members of his band. GARRETT has just told BILLY that he is going to "run with the law", and if he sees him again, he's going to have to arrrest him. After GARRETT leaves, one of BILLY's band pipes up: BAND MEMBER: Why didn't you just shoot him? BILLY (taking a slug of whiskey): Why? He's my friend. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?