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CINEMA SEEN - "Gun Plays" By William Margold It begins in the playgrounds of our youth, with pointing fingers at each other and saying "bang, bang…you're dead." Next come haphazardly fashioned sticks, and perhaps some tongue fluttering against your teeth sounds emulating rapid fire. Finally, when you scrape together enough of your allowance, you arm yourself with a toy that makes its own sounds. Or if you are more of a purist, you load one with a roll of caps that make a loud pop, and then create a sweet smelling odor that is indelibly intoxicating when you inhale it from either the front of the barrel, or from where the hammer has repeatedly been the element of the mini-explosions. Later come BB-rifles and pellet pistols, and the desire to point them at each other and see what kind of damage can be inflicted. I learned a rather gory lesson when I was lucky enough to block an oncoming pellet from my face with my left wrist, and after digging the object out, had to wear long sleeve shirts through most of a summer in Culver City during the Fifties. For many this is where "playing with guns" ends. But there are those who graduate to the real, very deadly, objects. I was given a real rifle once, and wisely the person who gave it me took it away almost immediately as I "toyed" around with it stupidly, taking way too many random shots at the tree in front of our house in Santa Monica during the mid-Sixties. The preceding is my way of introducing a Cinema Seen that is dedicated to recent movies that deal with guns, real guns, guns that spew death, and the people who pull, or in one case, provide, the triggers. Pictorially, I couldn't find any art from the first film (of four) to be discussed here---the genuinely impressive Thomas Vinterberg/ Lars Von Trier effort DEAR WENDY---so I scrounged up a couple of shots of me "bearing arms" from adult films that I have appeared in during my cinematic carnal career. The black and white photo is from 1973's "Adventures of Peter Galore"…and the James Dean homage (shotgun as cross over the shoulders) look is from a 2002 episode of "The Sopornos."  DOMINO (New Line Cinema)---Head-ache inducing mess that made me think seriously about shooting everyone involved with the loud and empty stare at the sort-of true adventures of a Southern California bounty huntress (Keira Knightly) and her mumbling, lethally bumbling cohorts: Mickey Rourke and Edgar Ramirez. Appearing to have been edited in a mix-master, the incoherent Tony Scott-directed "bang-gang" conjures up visions of what would happen if a person ate a reel of film, and then vomited it back up all over the screen.A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (New Line Cinema)---Although very simple in its presentation, there is something very pretentious, and in fact, somewhat pompous about the way the David Cronenberg-directed production lazily (as if taking its audience for granted) plays itself out. Requested in the press-notes not to give anything about the plot away, I guess that I should abide by that wish, but the fact is, there aren't any real surprises here. Viggo Mortrensen is a "suspected" hit man pursued by a pack of hyenas, including an odd Ed Harris, and an even odder William Hurt. The magnificently sexual Maria Bello valiantly portrays Mortensen's bewildered wife. Lots of very up-close and painfully brutal-looking gun-shot wounds are created, but because I was yawning an awful lot, I must have missed almost all of the images that made the easily impressed gaggle that I saw this with, gasp and/or titter...way too much! LORD OF WAR (Lions Gate Films)---Smartly written and directed by Andrew Niccol, just the opening credits alone---wherein a cartridge is made and then tracked to its final deadly destination---are better than 90% of the movies that I have seen this year. Nicolas Cage excels as an arms dealer up to his furrowed brow in the money matters of providing big time weapons to powerful men. The business of hot lead and cold-blooded slaughters is not for those with weak hearts or complex morals. Think about playing Russian Roulette every hour of every day, and knowing that most likely all the chambers are loaded, and you can't stop playing because the addiction to danger is all-consuming…and you'll get an bullet-riddled idea of what living the life of a ‘Lord of War" is all about. end NOTE: Originally published in LA Xpress, November 11, 2005, issue. |