My Other Web Sites:
my
group- Subscribe to my email list and send me a note. Remember, dissent is *not* disloyalty!...
- Comments:
headlines :: music :: movies :: files :: about me :: linkscontact me :: galleries 1, 2, 3, 4, ***5***
Exxxtasy Show, July 16-18, Chicago
The King of Custom Imprinting!
www.corporategiftsand
promotionalitems.com
CINEMA SEEN - "Alone at the Top" By William Margold My history with "comic books" extends WAY back to the very early 1950's with a series of "thought disturbers" that were known as EC's. Brandishing titles like "Tales From The Crypt" and "The Vault of Horror"--- the nightmare inducing little devils totally rattled my highly impressionable sensibilities. And although my mother continued to discard them, I always managed to have a couple hidden from her industrious (and I guess, well-meaning) efforts. In fact, for this piece, I exhumed (and gently fondled) the few slowly disintegrating original copies that I've kept as mementoes of innocence shattered. and imagination ignited. Amusingly, after my infatuation with EC's ended (first they were censored off the market, and then their "new" versions, with the exception of Mad Magazine, eventually expired), I became a dedicated reader of "Little Lulu" and "Scrooge McDuck." And finally at 12, while in Central Juvenile Hall in downtown Los Angeles, I had a brief relationship with Archie and his buddies and buddiettes. What this is all leading up to is that I really never, ever, got down with any of the comic book Super Heroes that my associates were living vicariously through. Therefore, my introduction to the various empowered men and women of comic book fame has been through the cinematic medium. And with rare exception, I haven't really been all that impressed. That is until I watched director Christopher Nolan's brooding masterwork BATMAN BEGINS (Warner Bros.). Richly validating my belief that acts of true heroism must always be performed under the mask (or costume) of adulated disguise, therefore creating a pervasive atmosphere of loneliness for the good deed doer inside the wondrous wardrobe, Nolan sets up a truly compelling dark stage of despair for his star, Christian Bale, to act upon. Setting him up to learn from master trainers of not only his body but also of his mind, Nolan places Bale first at the feet (and feats) of an almost too good to be true Liam Neeson, and then in the hands of Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. And for good measure, he tosses in the villainous likes of Tom Wilkerson and Rutger Hauer, and a particularly nasty Cillian Murphy. But for me, the most impressive performance (other than Bale's) is the beautifully bewildered Gary Oldman as a law officer who benefits from Batman's noble actions. You get the feeling that their interaction is going to become the basis of crime thwarting in Gotham City for a long time to come. And for what amounts to "love interest" (which quite frankly neither Bruce Wayne or Batman really don't have the time to deal with) Katie Holmes very realistically makes her case about the futility of caring for a person who must always be a slave to his legend.in, and out, of costume. As previously mentioned, Nolan's vision of Batman's world is most certainly not rainbows and spring mornings. His is a somber world of perpetual dusk, discontentedly dwelling in endless days of dank and doom. This is what I believe "Sin City" wanted to be. What brightens all of this up however, is the thought that "Begins" is just the first sterling step for what Nolan and co-scripter David S. Goyer have in mind for Batman's next series of adventures which simply should be called "Continues." I can't wait! end NOTE: Originally published in L.A. Xpress, July 14, 2005. |