as a film: **
as a nail-biting thriller: *****
DIRECTED BY Paul Greengrass
STARRING Christian Clemenson, Trish Gates, Ben Sliney (as himself)
US 2006 91 mins.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST ***
DIRECTED BY Gore Verbinski
STARRING Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy
US 2006 155 mins.
Could the contrast be any greater? Stark, unadorned reality, based on the story of the ‘fourth’ 9/11 plane, vs. full-on ostentatious escapism, based on a Disneyland ride. Dark, depressing honesty vs. ecstatic feelgoodery. A lean, compact film, clocking in at just over 90 minutes, vs. a shaggy self-indulgent one sprawling over two and a half hours. Massive critical acclaim vs. disdain mixed with indifference. And of course the box-office figures: $30 million in the US, about the same as Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, vs. $900 million worldwide (and counting), currently the ninth most successful film of all time and angling for a spot on the Top 5.
All true. Yet not entirely true. Certainly, United 93 prides itself on its sobriety. Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center is the sloppy, patriotic 9/11 movie, goes the conventional wisdom; this one – directed by Englishman Paul Greengrass, who did something similar for the Irish Troubles in Bloody Sunday (2002) – is the docudrama, the dispassionate chronicle. The cast are unknowns (no ‘names’), with most of the air-traffic controllers playing themselves. The film offers facts, no cheap heroics, and tries to tell both sides as much as possible. Even the hijackers – the enigmas at the heart of the story – are individualised, afforded some humanity; indeed, we start on them, as they pray and prepare themselves for the frightful deed.
The film is brilliantly crafted. If you doubt that, there’s an easy way to convince yourself. Also made this year, and available in local DVD shops, is Flight 93, a made-for-TV account of the same events – and the two should be shown side-by-side in film schools as an object lesson in how change of emphasis, the decision to show or not show certain things, understatement and direction of actors can create radically different films from the same material. Flight 93 is maudlin, slack and offensively simple; United 93 is dry, controlled and incredibly exciting. For sheer filmmaking skills, Greengrass deserves every award.
Scene for scene, it couldn’t have been done better. The question is whether it should’ve been done at all – and this is where the docudrama, just-the-facts fa?ade breaks down a little, because United 93 is more problematic than it may appear.
In the first place, what’s the point of something like this? Bloody Sunday had an underlying reason for the detailed reconstruction, because it replayed a contested event – a clash between police and demonstrators in 1972 – to weigh up different versions of the truth. But no-one contests what happened on Flight 93; the only real controversy is whether the flight was shot down – a theory the film itself shoots down by pointing out that permission to “engage” with hijacked flights wasn’t granted till after the plane went down (which won’t be enough to convince the conspiracy theorists, but whatever). Broadly, however, we all know the sequence of events. So what’s the point of showing them?
The answer, I guess, is to ‘make us feel what it was like’ – the same justification claimed for hyper-realism in the D-Day scenes of Saving Private Ryan. I’m wary of these you-are-there reconstructions; they seem awfully close to videogames, or virtual reality – the United 93 theme-park ride, just as Ryan was the D-Day ride. And it’s even worse when (as here) the result is so exciting. After all, these were real people’s lives – is it right to turn them into nail-biting thriller? The film has sadistic touches: before the hijack, a stewardess talks of being “home with my babies” (she’ll never see them again!), while an old lady says she’ll need some water with breakfast so she can take her pills (she never did!). There’s doom-laden music, and an almost Hitchcockian interlude as we wait for the terrorists to make their move. It’s almost immoral.
But the biggest problem is that United 93 isn’t actually objective about what it shows. In fact – and rather shockingly, given all that’s happened in the five years since – it’s blatantly pro-war, though not in fact pro-Bush (the President and Vice-President are conspicuous by their absence of firm leadership). The most competent air-traffic controller is the one who says “We’re at war!” and orders drastic action to be taken. The terrorist who cracks under pressure is the one who calls his wife before the hijack to say “I love you” – implying that most terrorists (i.e. ‘good’ terrorists) are killing machines with no human feeling. The film, of course, is about fighting back, but the passengers also include a man with a German accent – the only apparent non-American on board – whose role consists entirely of counselling appeasement and telling the others “Don’t interfere” (he even tries to sabotage their plans, and has to be restrained). That’s a cheap shot – especially since there’s no evidence to suggest this really happened.
I’ve heard people say they plan to skip United 93, either because they “already know the ending” or just find it too depressing. That’s a shame; one can have major issues with the film (I know I do), but it’s still a must-see – though I guess it is a bit depressing. “Is the film a dramatization?” Greengrass was asked in American mag Film Comment. “It’s a catharsis,” he replied, “it’s a reliving, it’s a reconstruction. It’s a hypothesis.” “Is it intended as entertainment?” “No.”
It’s a relief to go from this to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which is not only intended as entertainment, it’s intended as more entertainment than one audience can reasonably handle. There’s comedy here; there’s some horror (note the ‘12’ rating). There’s a sword fight. There are cannibals. There’s a giant octopus called the Kraken. There are even – I swear I’m not making this up – two minor characters speaking unsubtitled Cypriot (not Greek, but Cypriot!) for about 20 seconds. I have no idea what that’s about, except I guess they needed some gibberish language that 99.9% of the global audience would find incomprehensible.
There’s not much to say about the film, except that (a) it’s long (very, very long; unconscionably long) and (b) it’s darker than its predecessor, more ‘scary movie’ than swashbuckler; my whole audience jumped at ‘boo!’ moments like the sudden appearance of a cannibal. Also, of course (c) it contains some superb set-pieces, notably the lengthy ensemble scene on a desert island juggling a three-way fight, the titular Dead Man’s Chest and at least four other interested parties watching from the sidelines, chasing each other and intriguing in different ways. After that, even the Kraken is an anti-climax.
Dead Man’s Chest may be called the Empire Strikes Back of this franchise; not only does it end on a cliffhanger – paving the way for a third film, due next year – but it’s slightly more troubled than the bland original, slightly more cruel and horrific. It also has slightly less of Captain Jack Sparrow (who’s comic relief more than anything), which is good news for me despite the wave of applause that greeted his first appearance. In other words, the contrast is there, but not as pronounced as it first appears: United 93 is less sober than it seems, Dead Man’s Chest less fluffy. Together, they’re a fine start to the new movie season.
NEW DVD RELEASES
Here’s our regular look at the more interesting titles released on DVD in the US and UK over the past few weeks. Som
e may be available to rent from local video clubs, or you can always order over the Internet: dozens of suppliers, but http://www.amazon.com (for US) and http://www.play.com (for UK) are among the most reliable, if not necessarily the cheapest. Note that US discs are ‘Region 1’, and require a multi-region player.
NEW FILMS
V FOR VENDETTA (2-disc Special Edition): Above-average comic book movie with copious extras, including featurettes on the set design, the original comic and the story of Guy Fawkes (you’ll know why if you’ve seen the movie). [US]
BRICK: Superb American ‘indie’, best described as a film noir played by teenagers – though that doesn’t convey its haunted, deceptively careless ambience. Extras include over 20 minutes of deleted and extended scenes. [US]
THE CHILD (L’ENFANT): Harrowing Belgian drama, winner of the Golden Palm at Cannes. Includes an interview with directors Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. [UK]
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON: Acclaimed documentary about a deeply troubled – read: borderline insane – artist and musician. No extras. [UK]
OLD FILMS
APOCALYPSE NOW: THE COMPLETE DOSSIER (1979): Dreamlike, spectacular Vietnam War movie in a ‘Collector’s Edition’ featuring both the original version and ‘Apocalypse Now Redux’, the much-longer cut premiered in 2001. Also including two hours of bonus footage, ranging from the lost “Monkey Sampan” scene to Marlon Brando reading T.S. Eliot’s poem ‘The Hollow Men’. All for just $15 plus shipping! [US]
THE JAYNE MANSFIELD COLLECTION: Busty blonde in her two best films – ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’ (1956) and ‘Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?’ (1957) – and one more, ‘The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw’ (1958). Extras include commentary and newsreel footage. [US]
LOUIS MALLE COLLECTION, VOL. 2: French director at his best, including ‘Au Revoir les Enfants’ (1987) and ‘Murmur of the Heart’ (1971), the most charming tale of incest in movie history (!). A caveat: though these are new to Region 2 they’ve already been issued in Region 1 by the excellent Criterion Collection, for viewers with multi-region players. [UK]
THE RIVER (1951): Jean Renoir’s delicate tale of expat life in India has also been issued by Criterion in R1 – but extras include seven rare Indian shorts from 1899-1945, preserved by the British Film and Television Archive. Intriguing, though the shorts are mostly documentaries on jute production and the like. [UK]
DREAMS THAT MONEY CAN BUY (1947): One for the art crowd: a collection of seven avant-garde ‘dreams’, each designed by a well-known artist including Man Ray, Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp. Not always good, but unique. [UK]
WANDA (1971): Alienated woman meets small-time crook in “an overlooked landmark of 70s American cinema”. No extras. [US]
THE PRISONER: COMPLETE SERIES MEGA-SET: 10 discs, “ultra-rare original footage” of the 1966 shoot, and oh so much more. [US]
RAWHIDE – THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON: Is that a very young Clint Eastwood? It is! [US]
PINKY AND THE BRAIN, VOL. 1: “Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?…”
