Oedipus Rex

Toronto International Film Festival
Originally uploaded by jbach

When I found out Julie Taymor had directed a version of Oedipus Rex and it was on DVD there was no doubt that I needed to find it. Enter the hero of the piece – Netflix. Thank God for Netflix, helping geeks like me find the most obscure things possible.

I had to see this because Julie Taymor has only made three feature films and has captivated me with them. The way she integrates genres, art, color and space is fascinating and astoundingly beautiful to me and knowing she’s primarily a stage director I had to see her stage work. If you’re not familiar with Titus, Frida or Across the Universe I can almost guarantee you’ve heard of the most popular thing she adapted for the stage – The Lion King.

What I didn’t realize about this version of Oedipus Rex was that it was in Japanese, done for a play festival in Japan but that makes it even more interesting. Taymor melded together Japanese dance, fashion, make-up and tradition with Greek masks, and her signature puppets and use of color and created a visually riveting production. This was a special taping, done for the camera not the audience so the recordnign is not static, but I can only imagine how beautiful this must have been to see in person.

I recommend any of Julie Taymor’s work to anyone that appreciated different and beautiful film. She’s captivating and I can only hope that another movie will come her way before too long.

Friday the 13th Part 2

After I watched Friday the 13th I remember thinking that the horror movie cliché could be overlooked because of the unexpected and exceptional character in Mrs. Voorhees; but lets be blunt – Mrs. Voorhees isn’t in the sequel so it would take a lot to elevate Friday the 13th Part 2 out of the horror movie mire it helped create. Suffice it to say that Part 2 doesn’t reach out of the mire.

I really think that the films slogan “the body count continues” perfectly sums up the plot of Friday the 13th Part 2 because that’s really all it is. Despite the grizzly murders that occurred at Camp Crystal Lake five years before another camp opens on the lake, just a few miles away. Of course the teenage counselors find out about the myth of Jason and eventually Jason slaughters most of them.

What cracks me up about the difference between the first and second movies in the Jason franchise is that remarkably I think that Mrs. Voorhees racks up a bigger body count than Jason does – but he does end up with more movies than she does.

After watching Part 2 I have one major reaction – I have been lied to by pop culture. I knew Jason popped up in the sequel but the image of Jason I am used to is the one I grew up with, the homicidal maniac with the hockey mask and chainsaw but in this movie no hockey mask and no chainsaw. Instead Jason is a deformed adult who has managed to survive by living in a shanty in the woods and his mask is merely a bag over his head. Not the Jason I know. I was totally expecting him to morph into that familiar Jason at some point in the film because a hockey reference is made at one point, and at one point another a main character (the stereotyped dumber-than-she-appears blonde) drops a chainsaw next to Jason as she flees; I assumed from these references Jason would evolve…but he didn’t.

However, until the remake comes out I really have no desire to watch any more of Jason, so I guess I won’t see more of Jason for awhile. But don’t let that fool you, I don’t feel very deprived.

Director: Steve Miner
Writer: Ron Kurz
Ginny Field: Amy Steel
Paul Holt: John Furey
Alice Hardy: Adrienne King
Mrs. Voorhees: Betsy Palmer

Deputy Winslow: Look, Holt, people say that what you do with these kids is great. You got a good reputation. But if I was you, I'd have located in the next county. You're too close. Things have been quiet for five years and that's the way we want to keep it.
Paul: So do I, officer. So do I.

Friday the 13th

mrs. voorhees
Originally uploaded by hypostylin

If you don’t want to know the end of Friday the 13th don’t read this. I cannot discuss this film without discussing the end in detail. It wouldn’t do the film justice any other way.

I didn’t have the typical lack of knowledge most people do going into Friday the 13th; I knew the ending. How? I’ve seen Scream. Anyone that has seen the first 15 minutes of Scream knows the real ending of the film – the killer asks Drew Barrymore who the killer in Friday the 13th is and she gets is wrong. Thus she dies. From that moment on I knew that Jason was not the killer in the first Friday the 13th, but I didn’t understand. Everyone knows Jason is the killer in the hockey mask that haunts those films.

However, this knowledge did not turn me off of the film. It is the ending of Friday the 13th that makes the film worth watching – the ending is one of the most unique in the genre.

On the whole Friday the 13th is your average slasher film, I would argue that it is the start of the contemporary slasher film. A bunch of kids (including a young Kevin Bacon) go to be counselors at a quaint camp with a bloody history and in one night are picked off one by one. There are some really good scares and jump moments, but for the most part the body of the movie is really standard. The kids flirt, do drugs, have intercourse, and get slowly picked off one by one.

To tell the truth, with the exception of Kevin Bacon’s death I pretty much found the movie kind of boring – but then came the ending.

In the end Alice is the only counselor left alive and she sees a jeep drive up and Mrs. Voorhees gets out and offers to help Alice…but as it turns out Mrs. Voorhees used to work at the camp, and her son Jason drowned there. She blames the counselors for not watching him so in 1958 (the year after Jason drowned) she killed two of the counselors and the camp closed. She was never caught and when Mrs. Voorhees found out Camp Crystal Lake was reopening she decided to go after the counselors again.

The ending makes the movie. If it weren’t for the twist that the killer is not some typical psycho in a costume the first Friday the 13th would be a mere blip on the radar; however, Mrs. Voorhees, the vengeful mother makes the film unique and more than memorable.

There is a remake in the works for Friday the 13th and rumor has it that Mrs. Voorhees is out and Jason is in. I haven’t seen the second film yet to know how Jason works into the plot (because he drowned in 1958), but I heavily protest Mrs. Voorhees being totally taken out of the remake – she makes the film and makes it something worth seeing.

Director: Sean S. Cunningham
Writer: Victor Miller
Mrs. Voorhees: Betsy Palmer
Alice: Adrienne King
Marcie: Jeannine Taylor
Annie: Robbi Morgan
Jack: Kevin Bacon
Bill: Harry Crosby
Brenda: Laurie Bartram
Ned: Mark Nelson
Steve Christy: Peter Brouwer
Crazy Ralph: Walt Gorney
Barry: Willie Adams
Claudette: Debra S. Hayes
Trudy: Dorothy Kobs
Sandy: Sally Anne Golden
Jason: Ari Lehman

Pamela Voorhees: Did you know a young boy drowned the year before those two others were killed? The counselors weren't paying any attention... They were making love while that young boy drowned. His name was Jason. I was working the day that it happened. Preparing meals... here. I was the cook. Jason should've been watched. Every minute. He was... He wasn't a very good swimmer. We can go now... dear.

Coming Soon: a little behind

Life is catching up with me right now and I am a little behind on my posts. Here's what you have to look forward being reviewed when I catch up.