Posts tagged Denis Menochet
“Robin Hood” The Early Years
May 20th
The Early Years
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
ROBIN HOOD, the 2010 version starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett and directed by Ridley Scott, could well be the most historically accurate of all the poems, legends, songs, movies, and television shows that have been created about the legendary English outlaw who stole from the rich and gave to the poor.
This is ironic, of course, because there is no evidence that Robin Hood actually existed.
However, the secondary characters of King John, King Richard, and King Philip of France all certainly did exist, which makes the closing title that says the characters in the movie are fictitious and any resemblance to characters living or dead is coincidental all the more ironic, if not a blatant lie.
So, this version begins in 1199 A.D. in France, and we see King Richard the Lion Heart on his way back to England with his army after 10 years of fighting in the First Crusade.
For reasons that aren’t made clear unless we just assume that the English and the French hate each other, Richard says there is one more castle to sack and then it is home to England.
Spoiler Alert! King Richard dies in the attack, and one of the king’s prize archers is Robin Longstride, a natural leader of men, who was being punished for being too honest.
Robin encourages some men to head for the coast with him, but when they complain that they haven’t been paid, Robin tells them, “Try getting paid by a dead king.”
Then through a series of circumstances, Robin and his followers end up in possession of the king’s crown when the noblemen taking it back to England are killed, and Robin also takes the sword of Sir Robert Loxley, who was protecting the crown.
They travel to England posing as noblemen, return the crown to London with the news that King Richard is dead, and then return the sword to Sir Robert’s father and Marion, Sir Robert’s widow.
A traitor in King John’s court knows the truth, Robin is declared an outlaw, and after many fights that go on so long, they become boring, we see a title that says, “And So the Legend Begins.”
ROBIN HOOD should have been subtitled “The Early Years,” and we will have to wait for the sequel to get to the good stuff.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Robin Hood – Movie Trailer
May 19th
Director Ridley Scott and actor Russell Crowe reunite for their fifth big-screen outing, a retelling of the Robin Hood legend featuring the Gladiator star in the titular role. A bowman in the army of Richard Coeur de Lion, virtuous rogue Robin Hood rises from an unlikely background to become a hero to the impoverished people of Nottingham and lover to the beautiful Lady Marion (Cate Blanchett). Cyrus Voris, Ethan Reiff, and Brian Helgeland collaborate on the screenplay for a costume adventure produced by Brian Grazer (Frost/Nixon, American Gangster).
“Inglourious Basterds” Ostentatious Self-Indulgence
Aug 27th
Ostentatious Self-Indulgence
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is intentionally misspelled, because writer-director Quentin Tarantino wanted that title for his latest movie, but also wanted to differentiate it from the 1978 Italian movie of the same name, which just shows how easily he could have given it a unique title.
I’ll tell you what that unique title could have been later on.
The film is divided into five chapters, which are identified at the beginning of each section, and Chapter 1 takes place in 1941 in Nazi-occupied France.
Col. Hans Landa, a German SS officer played brilliantly by Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, shows up with his men at a small dairy farm to question the owner in private.
Waltz has already won the Best Actor award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, and he is sure to be nominated for and to win many more similar awards for this role.
Col. Landa is charged with finding and killing Jews in France, and he suspects that the farm owner he is questioning can provide him with information about the last Jewish family unaccounted for in the neighborhood.
Chapter 2 then shows the title characters, who are a squad of Jewish- American soldiers who have been dropped behind enemy lines in France and are led by Lt. Aldo Raine, played by Brad Pitt in a surprisingly comic role.
Lt. Raine tells his men, “We’re here to do one thing and one thing only: Killing Nazis.”
Well, that’s not entirely true, because they also scalp the German soldiers that they kill in order to send a message to whoever finds the soldiers’ bodies.
Chapter 3 then jumps to 1944 in Paris, and we meet Shosanna Dreyfus, a young Jewish woman who owns a movie theater, and here is where Tarantino really starts to show off his cinematic knowledge, so much so that the audience can get the impression that this is a lecture on the history of cinema instead of a movie itself.
Col. Landa shows up again, and then later Lt. Raine and the Inglourious Basterds show up, too, but by now this is no longer a war movie, but an elaborate hoax on the audience because of Tarantino’s rewriting of well-known history.
And remember how I said that Tarantino could have given it a unique title?
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS could easily have been called OSTENTATIOUS SELF-INDULGENCE.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
