YES

UK, 2004, 100 minutes, Colour.
Joan Allen, Sam Neill, Simon Abkarian, Shirley Henderson, Gary Lewis, Samantha Bond, Sheila Hancock.
Directed by Sally Potter.

For some years, Sally Potter has directed a range of films that have been excitingly experimental (Orlando) or more pleasingly mainstream (The Man who Cried). This time she has returned to the experimental mode while offering a narrative that tells the story of the emotional changes in a middle-aged woman. It takes a few minutes to realise that the screenplay has been written in verse, iambic pentameter, more frequently than not, rhyming. It is to the credit and skills of the cast that this seems minimally artificial. Sally Potter also experiments with colour and monochrome, stop-motion sequences and unexpected angles and editing. She has also composed the score. The audience is conscious of the art and artifice, responding to the narrative thrust while reflecting on the issues and themes.

Most of ‘Yes’ seems more like ‘No’ in its outlook on women, men and relationships. Ultimately, however, the film moves to an affirmation of being alive.

Joan Allen has been one of the US’s most striking actresses (The Crucible, Nixon, Ice Storm, When the Sky Falls, The Contender). This is really her film. She portrays an Irish-American? woman, allowing herself to be trapped in a loveless marriage, infatuated by and then needing the affection of an immigrant Lebanese cook. Simon Abkarian is the cook. Sam Neill is the cold husband. Sheila Hancock is her dying aunt, with a performance that is principally voiceover.

The stylised dialogue provides modes for each character to express more philosophical reflections. The central character is a scientist, so the film offers quite a lot of thought on science, the universe, what it is to be a human being and the relationship between science and religion, the presence and absence of God. There is a very powerful conversation late in the film which raises questions of equality between peoples, where the Lebanese man expresses frustration at the condescension of Western affluent society (‘we know your songs, do you learn ours…?) However, the film has a kind of chorus of cleaners (led by Shirley Henderson) who use the mundane details of bedroom and bathroom cleaning to reflect on dirt, mortality and constant change.

This is the kind of film that critics who say they want films that go beyond the banal but, when faced with a film like ‘Yes’ dismiss it as pretentious. ‘Yes’ is not an easy entertainment but it is worth a thoughtful response.

1. The impact of the film? Its ambitions? Achievement?

2. Sally Potter and her work, experimental, independent, experience, vision?

3. The setting, authentic London, suburban homes, fashionable mansions, dinners, apartments? Lebanon, Ireland, Cuba? The blend of the realistic and exotic?

4. The musical score, the change of moods, the classics, modern music?

5. The importance of the visuals: the camera, angles, pace, stop and freeze-frame? Editing and pace, a language for this particular film?

6. The importance of the verse, the iambic pentameter,, the rhymes? The couplets? Audiences noting the verse, the recitation by the cast? Obtrusive or not? The modulation? The quality of the language?

7. The voice-over, She, Anthony, the whispers, what was real, the monologues?

8. The title, yes being the opposite of no, - for an individual, society, the affirmation of yes, the affirmation of life at the end?

9. The credits, the science background, life, creation, the preservation of life, fostering of life? She as a scientist, her lectures and her work?

10. Communication, physical presence, psychological presence, body language, talk, silence, smiles, touching and not touching, kissing, sexuality, tenderness, using others? Mechanisms: phone, mobile phones, film and video?

11. The film’s use of conventions for relationships, falling out of relationships, marital betrayal and break-up? The film being different?

12. The initial focus on the Cleaner, talking to the audience, at the beginning and end? The reality of dirt, the washing, the beds and her comments on the stains, names for the cleaners, knowing secrets, the toilet, reflection on moving dirt, knowing about people, the other cleaners – and the forming of a chorus? Moral comment?

13. She, her age, the background of her marriage, her personality being somewhat cold, the notes for each person, her dress, dinner, the watch, her being hurt? The dinner and the soup? The encounter with He, as a character, flattery, flirting, the card, the washroom, the phone? The meeting, the need, the work and the phone call, changing? The jogging, his stop? The hurt, meeting again, the talk and the truth? The background of Lebanon, the voice-over? She and her aunt, her aunt’s death? The effect? Going to Cuba, the experience of freedom? The arrival, the beach – and the affirmation of life?

14. He: flirting, his work in the kitchen, his card (*or cart??), the meeting, the sexual encounter, the other members of the kitchen staff and their verse? His Lebanon story? His being a doctor? The past? The effect on his life, coming to London? The fight in the kitchen, his being fired? His being hurt, especially as regards information and relationships? The songs? His going home, the wedding, the scalpel? His reflection? Going to Cuba?

15. Anthony, cold manner, looking in the mirror, the meals, Grace?

16. The relationship with Grace, her age, her body language, size? The talk, the affairs? The relationship between Anthony and She? The sadness?

17. The role of the jogger, dramatically, thematically?

18. The kitchen, the language, characters, their interactions?

19. The issues of God, religion, She and her visiting her aunt, the priest coming to give her the final sacraments?

20. Themes of humanity, identity, individuals, community, commitment, males and females? Life, religion, death, communication – and hope for a future?

BRAVEHEART

US, 1995, 180 minutes, Colour.
Actors: Mel Gibson, Patrick Mc Goohan, Sophie Marceau, Catherine Mc Cormack, Angus Mc Fadyen, Brian Cox, Brendan Gleeson, Sean Mc Ginley, Stephen Billington, Ian Bannen, David O’ Hara, Peter Mullan.
Directed by Mel Gibson

There is political turmoil in Scotland in the year 1280. Young William Wallace flees the highlands after seeing many of his family killed during the incursions and oppression by Edward Longshanks, king of England. The adult William returns home, a natural leader, and intends to marry his childhood sweetheart, Murron. When the local lord demands the conjugal 'rights of first night', Wallace rebels. In retaliation, the lord attacks the village and, although he is killed, so also is Murron.

There are many claimants to the throne of Scotland, including Robert the Bruce. He father, now a recluse suffering from leprosy, urges his son to fight for power. William Wallace becomes the military leader, despite the Scots squabbling amongst themselves, and begins to attack English towns.

Edward, disappointed in the ineffectual behaviour of his effete son, sends his French daughter-in-law, Isabelle, to negotiate with Wallace. She fails. After the battle of Falkirk, where Bruce sides with the English, Isabelle returns to be with Wallace. However, Wallace is betrayed and taken to London where he is tortured and brutally killed. His final word on the block is 'Freedom'. At the same time, Edward is dying, his son is powerless. Isabelle mourns Wallace. The Bruce contemplates the confusion and brutality of the wars. Later, Robert the Bruce unites Scotland.

Braveheart was the unexpected winner of the 1995 Oscar for Best Film as well as for Mel Gibson as Best Director. (He had formerly directed the sensitive movie, Man Without a Face.) Another epic of later Scots history, Rob Roy, with Liam Neeson, was also released.

Critics argued about the historical accuracy of the movie, especially the English critics. The movie is clearly partisan Scots mythmaking. Patrick Mc Goohan portrays Edward Longshanks as a calculatingly powerful tyrant. Angus Mc Fadyen is a heroic but ultimately compromising Robert Bruce.

The movie is long, a blend of more intimate sequences and extraordinary battles (with enhanced computer generated troops) culminating in the death of William Wallace. Wallace is shown throughout the movie as a kind of messianic hero who rose from among his people, leads them to victory and is then killed as a martyr. There are many visual and thematic references to the passion and death of Jesus in these sequences. The role of William Wallace suits the talents and screen presence of Mel Gibson. In many ways it is a grim, mythic parable about the fight for freedom and liberation emerging from self-sacrifice and defeat.

1. The impact of the film? Its popularity in its time, subsequently? The work of Mel Gibson? Its winning best film Oscar, director Oscar?

2. Audience response to the history? The British and their criticisms of the bias? Scottish history? An interpretation of history? Presenting William Wallace (*or Wallis?) as a hero? Fictionalising him while basing it in truth? The history of the relationship between England and Scotland? Edward I and his cruelty? The Scottish lords? Robert Bruce? The ultimate martyrdom of William Wallace – and the move towards Scottish nationalism?

3. The photography, the beauty of the Scottish settings, the highlands, the valleys? The battle sequences, the special effects for multiplying the size of armies? The re-creation of the mediaeval towns? The villages? The palaces? The military camps? The use of Panavision?

4. The musical score, Scottish, atmospheric, rousing?

5. The information given to the audiences? The background of England and Scotland? William Wallace? Audience contemporary national reactions to the story, pro and anti England?

6. The opening, the focus on the boys and their playing, Scotland in the 14th century, William and his father, his life, the training, the harsh experiences? The friendship with Murron? The friendship between William and Hamish? The gathering of the clan lords? William and his father discovering the hanged men? The later effects for William in his dreams? The harshness of the English? His grief? The arrival of his Uncle Argyle, taking him away, training him, his travel, learning Latin and its later use, a cultured man?

7. Mel Gibson as William Wallace, his age? The background of his experience, the relationship with Hamish, with Murron? His arrival in the village again after his training, the encounter with Hamish and his father, the fight? The life in the village, the shot-put competition, Murron, love for her, the secret marriage? The importance of the right of first night with the lords, their discussing it as a means of controlling the highlanders? The arrival in the village, the young man and his wife, taking her away? The build-up to the confrontation?

8. The portrayal of Edward Longshanks, tyrannical, his relationship with his son – and his disappointment with his son? His son’s homosexuality, his friend and adviser? Longshanks and his control of the nobles, his strategies, the prima nocte and its application? The desire to create a dynasty, keep his hold over Scotland?

9. The background to the prima nocte and its application, the young man and his bride? The confrontation with Murron, her being surrounded, her attempted escape, William and his trying to rescue her? Her capture, her throat being cut? William and his revenge, the gathering of the clans, their seeing him as leader, the confrontation with the English, their strategies, the noble and cutting his throat?

10. The Scottish clans and their support of William? The issue of the lords, their meetings, their personalities, their jealousies, their squabbling about land? Edward and his shrewd manipulation, offering them land and keeping them attacking each other? William Wallace as the commoner? Yet his being knighted? Their seeing him as a possible leader – but for their own ends? The significance of Robert Bruce, his potential as leader? The build-up to the battles, the deals, the delays and squabbles?

11. The character of Robert Bruce, his potential as a leader, the tradition of leadership? The importance of the role of his father, the deception about his leprosy, people thinking he was out of the country and in France, yet the reality of his leprosy, his son’s visits to him, his exercising his authority, his pressures on his son, the double-deals with Edward, forcing a strategy? Robert Bruce’s disgust with his father? His father saying that this is how politics were? Bruce and his being forced into deals with Edward – especially at the end of the battle, the capture of Wallace, removing the helmet and Wallace seeing that it was Robert Bruce?

12. The battle sequences, the preparations, the training? William as leader? The Scots painting their faces? The confrontations, the English response, the use of the arrows, charging? Wallace’s strategy and deceit? The violence of the pictorial aspects of the battles? Edward and his response?

13. Longshanks and his son, Philip as his adviser – and Edward throwing him out the window? The planned marriage with the Princess of France, her coming to England with her maid, the non-consummation of the wedding? Her fascination with talk of Wallace? The king and his using her as an ambassador, her visits to Wallace, their discussions? Her later coming to warn him, the night together, her grief at his death? Her very strong stances – stronger than her husband’s? the admiration of the king?

14. Wallace and the effect of the squabbles, his confronting the nobles? The further battles with the English, the defeat, his being arrested? His dismay at what Robert Bruce had done?

15. The torture of Wallace in prison, the visit of the princess, the night with her? The attitude of the king – yet his illness? The lonely vigil of his son? The grief of the princess? The build-up to the execution, the demands being made on Wallace, to confess? His silence? His being brought into the town, the crowds and their vengeance, Hamish and his presence and the other members of the group? The torture, the execution – and the crowd crying for mercy? William and his focus on the child, his waiting for his beheading – and his seeing Murron in the crowd? His cry for freedom? The cross-cutting to the king, his death? Cross-cutting to the princess, to the prince, to Robert Bruce and his standing on the battlements?

16. The aftermath, the role of Robert Bruce, the uniting of Scotland? The heritage of Braveheart? The role of Scottish independence – and the changes in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries?

17. The film’s length, the detailed number of characters? The English court, the advisers, the king and the prince and his friend, the princess and her maid, liaisons? The Scottage village, the parent generation, their wariness of William, the suffering and deaths of members of their village, their coming to his support? The picture of the Scottish nobles, their courts, their squabbles? Robert Bruce and his father? The cumulative effect in such a long film, the historical events, their re-creation? The overall response to the film as one of history, action and adventure? Politics and betrayal?

THE BEE SEASON

US, 2005, 105 minutes, Colour.
Richard Gere, Juliet Binoche, Flora Cross, Max Minghella, Kate Bosworth.
Directed by Scott Mc Ghee and David Seigel.

In recent years, American cinema has experienced something of an infatuation with spelling bees. There was the wonderful documentary which did so well at the box-office and on television, Spellbound, which followed the preparations of eight youngsters for the national championships and pulled no punches in showing how gruelling this work could be for the students – and the pressures from parents.

2006 saw Akeelah and the Bee with Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett.

In 2005, Bee Season was released but, surprisingly, was not a box-office winner. Given that the cast was led by Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche, this seems strange. Given that it focused on an 11 year old girl who won the local and state competitions and went to the finals in Washington, this also seems strange.

But, when you see it, you will understand why. There is much more to it than the spelling bees. It is a film about words and offers a great deal of thought about words. In fact, there are also fascinating religious dimensions to the film and a lot of God talk.

The core plot is quite straightforward: Eliza Naumann is good at spelling, wins competitions and is coached by her University lecturer father, Saul, who devotes himself to his daughter. She qualifies for the finals. The family seem devoted. Mother, Miriam, has converted from Catholicism to Judaism for her husband’s sake. The older son, Aaron, is a devout and searching young man. Richard Gere is genial and quietly controlling as Saul. Juliet Binoche is loving but increasingly bewildered as Miriam. Flora Cross (whose first film this is and whose first language is French) is completely convincing as Flora and Max Minghella (son of director, Anthony Minghella, also in his first film) is persuasive as a good young man but who is teetering on the edge of rebellion.

The background of the film is the increasing dysfunction in the family.

While the spelling sequences are exciting in their academic way, and the family troubles, subtle at first and then quite surprising, are important, audiences may find some of the religious dimensions tougher going. But they are rewarding.

Naomi Foner (who has written few but interesting screenplays like Running on Empty and is the mother of Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal) has adapted a novel by Myla Goldenberg. In the novel, Saul was a cantor at the synagogue. Here he lectures in comparative religion at Berkeley and has written his thesis on the Kabbalah. We hear part of his lecture on the ‘tukkim olan’ theme of Hebrew thought: how God could not contain his love and transmitted his loving energy into a big bang which created our world; how our work in this world is to restore the unity, to bring the shards together so that they hold the light; the restoration of the world is a reparation, a repairing of the world and any act of kindness, any altruism restores this unity.

With his interest in Kabbalah, Saul is a man of words and is delighted at his daughter’s power with words, her intense concentration, her visualising of words, seeing clues in her surroundings. He realises she could be a suitable person for Kabbalah mysticism and trains her in meditation.

In the meantime, he unwittingly relegates Aaron and his cello-playing to the sidelines of the family. In the meantime, Aaron finds his father’s control and God talk constricting and visits a church during Mass, meets an attractive girl (Kate Bosworth) who invites him to Hari Krishna meetings which seem to fulfil his spiritual needs. Miriam, we discover, has been shattered by her childhood, death of parents, boarding school, and has an obsession with collecting glass, collecting shards to capture the light. This has some devastating consequences for her and for the family.

The film was directed by Scott Mc Gehee and David Siegel who made a strong film about mother love, The Deep End and the thriller, Suture..

There is much in Bee Season to entertain. There is much to think about.

1. The impact of the film as drama? Family drama? The particular focus on Judaism, Jewish religious themes? The emphasis on the popularity of spelling bees and the role of children training and participating in such spelling bees?

2. The Oakland, California setting, the family and home, school, the world of spelling bees, mansions, the university, science laboratories? Authentic? The musical score?

3. The film as a focus on a little girl, a portrait, in herself, in the family context, in the religious context, academics? Her achievement and its effect on her life and personality?

4. The story of a family, their bonds, the opening and the bonds in the family, loving father and mother, children? The gradual revelation of pressures, expectations? The shattering of the family, the testing of the family?

5. The importance of the Jewish background? The way that it was introduced? Aaron and his lessons at home? Flora and her questions? Miriam and her conversion? Saul and his university lectures? The themes of Creation, the role of God in creating the world, the creation of light? The breaking of the world, the need for healing? The role of God in the healing? Bringing together the scattered pieces? Humans? The importance of kindness and altruism? The practice of their faith, at home? The Hebrew lessons and the Hebrew language? Classes and philosophy?

6. The theme of language in the film, the English of the dialogue, the use of Hebrew language, the importance of biblical language, the delight in the word, in words, the origins of words, the power of words? Eliza and her trances and imagining the words for her spelling? The introduction of kabbalah, the mystic aspects of words and the use of words and their meanings? The religious dimensions?

7. The theme of light, the kaleidoscope, the various shards, the jewels that Miriam stole, putting them together? The recreating of what was shattered?

8. The background of the marriage, the bonds between husband and wife, their love, her conversion? Saul and his narcissism, not realising what was happening to Miriam or the children? The expectations on Miriam? Her wanting to hold the light?

9. Saul, his being busy, a controller without his realising it, the practical dictating of what was to happen even at a barbecue, his expectations of his children, not realising what was happening in himself and to the others? His devotion to Aaron, playing the cello? Discovering Eliza’s talent and his losing interest in Aaron? Reprimanding Aaron? Alienating his son, alienating his wife, putting pressure on his daughter?

10. Eliza and her studies, Hebrew, words, her love of spelling, the local spelling bee, the further competitions, her success? The letter under the door? Pride? Saul and his changing? His decision to train Eliza, incessantly training her, every opportunity, even inopportune, leading to the mystic sense of what she was doing? Miriam being ousted from this process?

11. Eliza, her age, her experience, introverted, spelling, her mystic visions with the words? Winning the competition? The change in her? Her father ignoring her, the letter, the change? His training her, the pressure on her? The introduction of the kabbalah, her going into trances? The competitions, her winning? The family support? The final training, going to the hotel, her trying the kabbalah by herself, her collapse, the fit? Going to the competition, her decision to fail? The possibilities of normality for her? Bringing the family together after her father’s shock at her loss?

12. The character of Saul, Richard Gere’s style? The obsessions, teaching, the religious dimensions of his life, philosophical? His self-absorption but not realising it, controlling the family? The pressures on the family? His ignoring Eliza, focusing on Aaron and the cello? His change? His training Eliza and the pressure on her, her collapse? Going to the final, his shock at her loss? Aaron and his support?

13. Aaron, his skill, the cello, relating to his family, the change with his father’s interest in Eliza, his telling Aaron to be quiet? His interactions with Eliza, the tension? His own religious search, going to Mass, searching the other religions, meeting Chali, the friendship with her, the relationship, going to the Hare Krishna, the lessons, the chants, the camp? His father coming to get him and taking him away?

14. The Hare Krishna, Chali, her beliefs, her attraction towards Aaron, bringing him to the meetings, the chants, the lessons, the sexual relationship, her reaction to his leaving?

15. Miriam, Juliet Binoche’s presence, style? Her character, French background, conversion to Judaism, the flashbacks to her parents, their deaths? Her work as a scientist? A different world from her husband’s mysticism? Her distance from her children? Her belief in the Creation theories, things shattered, needing to be brought together again? Her reaction to her husband? Her absences from home, unexplained, her stealing, her collapse, the discovery of the kaleidoscope, her wanting to bring the light together again? The police? In hospital? Her watching the television and her pride in her daughter?

16. The portraits of the characters? The study of the family and its breakdown? The particularly religious, theological and philosophical focus? The mysticism? The spelling bee as a means of symbolising this?

WHERE THE TRUTH LIES

Canada, 2005, 108 minutes, Colour.
Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, Alison Lohman, David Hayman, Rachel Blanchard, Maury Chaykin.
Directed by Adam Egoyan.

Some critics will have to get over their shock (and disapproval) that Egoyan has left his serious themes and treatment for LA Confidential territory. Some of their denunciations seemed a touch hysterical. After all, a director can do as he or she pleases, not bound by academic expectations or limits. And Egoyan has done Where the Truth Lies very well indeed, a screenplay adapted from a crime novel, multi-dimensional in its creation of characters, multi-layered in its themes and use of time frames and piecing the jigsaw together.

The setting is 1972. A young journalist begins to write the biography of a stand-up comedian and his partner who played an important role in her life when she had recovered from polio and was a guest on their 1957 telethon. She is obviously interested in doing a ‘Citizen Kane’, but finds herself in deeper emotional waters than she was prepared for as well as a mystery which she ultimately solves. Egoyan recreates the showbiz world of the 1950s, its glitz, its popular celebrities and the scandal potential behind the scenes. He makes the glossy world of 1972 (pre-Watergate) a place where the truth actually lies for protection.

Kevin Bacon shows himself yet again to be a versatile performer, comedy shtick as well as deadly serious. Colin Firth relishes the opportunity to distance himself from his Mr Darcys (Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones). And Allison Lohman proves she is one of the rising stars to keep watch for. It just shows you what a serious director like Atom Egoyan can do with a genre piece.

1. The work of Egoyan? His focus on themes of relationships, voyeurism, betrayal? Introducing these themes into a film noir? With a lighter touch in the context of murder mystery and journalistic probe?

2. The adaptation of a novel, bringing the characters to life, the re-creation of the times, the situations? The various pieces of a puzzle and their coming together by the end?

3. The atmosphere of the 1950s, the world of showbiz, glamour, the Mafia as front, the Mafia and the connections with entertainers? Telethons and their conduct, the audiences and fans, celebrities and fans? Comic routines? The affluence of the entertainers? The background of sex, drugs and violence? The continued potential for scandal? The role of the police? Cover-ups? The sinister valet – who cleans up everything?

4. The contrast with the 1970s, the brighter use of colours, sunlight? The United States in the 70s, affluence, journalistic inquiries, money, cover-ups, book publication, opening up of scandals?

5. The ambiguity of the title, truth and lies – as well as where the truth does lie? Lies, protection, cover-ups? Truth and lies, good and evil?

6. The introduction to Lanny and Vince? The similarity to Martin and Lewis combination comics? The straight man and the tough man? The visualising of their routines, verbal, interactions, who controlled whom? Vince as British giving a different tone? Giving Lanny respectability? Vince and his charm giving the audience permission to like the two? Their role on the telethons? Their success?

7. The night, the opening, the ironies of that night? Karen and her presence as a little girl, Lanny whispering – and at the end his being sorry? Karen and Bonnie, love for Lanny?

8. Karen in the 1970s, her commission, the publishers? The interviews with Vince? Conditions, her research, seeing the different chapters, the discussions with the lawyers and the chapters being sent to her? Her beginning to piece together the story? The mystery of who supplied the chapters for her to read?

9. The chapters, the structure of the flashbacks, the different points of view? Audiences piecing together what actually happened on the night of Maureen’s death? The cumulative effect, the history of Lanny and Vince, their sexual activity, girls, prostitutes? Lanny and his attitudes towards women? The different versions of Maureen? Student, the interview with Lanny, the room service? A nice girl? Yet the stories of the threesome, the prostitutes, seeing her predatory? The possibility of her being a blackmailer? Her death?

10. The picture of the Mafia, Solly as the boss, dumb, rude, insistent? The irony of the dead body, it being transferred to New York, the lobster crates? The interviews with Lanny and Vince? Who was trying to avoid the interviews or not? The irony of the body and Karen realising after the refusal at the meal?

11. Vince’s story, his wanting to write a book? Lanny and his script? Their participation in the events, Karen’s interview? Alice, the hospital? Vince and his allowing the interviews with Karen, his suspicions of her, setting her up with the drugs, the lesbian sex, the photos and the potential blackmail? Her reaction, her contract, her defying Vince? His killing himself?

12. Her meeting Lanny in the plane, remembering, Irv? The discussion? The date, the awkwardness, her not telling Lanny the truth? Not watching the television, the meal and the sex, no note? The later explanations?

13. Lanny, serious, meeting Karen at Vince’s, his anger? Blaming her for Vince’s death?

14. Karen and her visit to Maureen’s mother, the suicide and Hell, her Catholic faith, theology? Her going to visit the mother at the end, not telling her the truth about Maureen? The symbolism of the tree?

15. The character of Reuben, his being in the background, quiet, dutiful? Yet sinister? Meeting him in the market? The issue of the tape, the price? His always being there? Quiet and grateful? The irony of the truth, his being the killer? The tape and Vince, his hold over Lanny and Vince? Lanny’s reaction? The locked doors, the night, his killing Maureen?

16. The piecing together of the truth – but it not being for Maureen’s mother?

17. The effect of this story? The graphic explicitness of some of the sequences? Sex and violence, language? The audience being immersed in this kind of ambiguous world of show business, the Mafia, cover-ups?

18. The relationship between Vince and Lanny, homoerotic overtones, the visualising of Vince’s crush on Lanny, the sexual encounter? Real or imagined?

ASTERIX AND OBELIX: MISSION CLEOPATRA

France, 2002, 107 minutes, Colour.
Gerard Depardieu, Christian Clavier, Jamel Debbouze, Monica Bellucci, Alain Chabat, Claude Rich.
Directed by Alain Chabat.

In the past, the well-loved comic strip characters who lightly parody Julius Caesar and co and give us mock heroic Gauls along with a great sense of visual and verbal humour were portrayed on screen in animation. This is the second of the live-action episodes. It is rather lavishly done, with Caeser at the court of Cleopatra, involved in pompous competitiveness about comparative civilisations rather than love affairs. To prove the superiority of the Egyptians, Cleopatra decrees that the world's greatest temple will be built in three months. The rather nice but dim architect, Edifis, seeks the help of the Gauls for his project which is sabotaged by his jealous rival in Egypt and then by Caesar and his troops.

While the plot is a parody of historical epics, there are some wonderful interludes of comedy (and a Hollywood song and dance routine with the workers on site). Christian Clavier is a genial Asterix, Gerard Depardieu is suitably oafish and always-hungry as Obelix (and looks like a sure thing if ever they made a film of Hagar the Horrible) and Monica Bellucci swans around glamorously as Cleopatra. The film's director, Alain Chabert, is the nonchalant Caesar.

The English subtitles for the names of the characters are always amusing, Edifis, Givemeakiss, Asterix, Brucewillix. If one joke doesn't work another soon comes along - but one of the best is the static-interrupted and half-heard delivery of her speech by Cellularis!

1. The popularity of the books of Asterix? The Gauls, ancient Roman times? Confrontations with the Romans? Going to Egypt? The illustrations, the different styles of the characters and their appearance? The text, the modern references, the jokes?

2. How well were the comic strips transferred to live action? The appearance of the characters, the appearance of Asterix and his hair and moustache, Gerard Depardieu as the large Obelix, dressed as in the comic strips? Cleopatra, Caesar? The various other characters? The puns on their names in French? With English jokes and English subtitles and dubbing? Edifis, Givemeakiss?

3. The visuals, the setting of ancient Egypt, the locations and the desert, the palaces, the interiors? Lavish styles, costumes? The musical score?

4. The introduction to Cleopatra, telling Caesar to shut up, dominating? Her beauty, audience knowing her history? Caesar and the Roman invasion? Her domination, her promising to build the palace, the wager with Caesar? Her choosing of the architects? The sabotage to the palace, her confronting Caesar, making him rebuild? The relationship between the two? The success of Cleopatra in the ascendance of the Egyptians? The reality of her character, caricature?

5. Julius Caesar, languid, invading, submissive to Cleopatra, his henchmen, wanting to sabotage the building? Dominated again by Cleopatra? The affair? The historical references?

6. The architects, the jealous architect, Arthritis? His sinister plots? The contrast with Edifis and his plans, his skills, surveying, his assistant? The plans for the palace? The scenes of the building?

7. Edifis and his need for help, his memory of the Gauls, going to Getafix, meeting Obelix and Asterix, his pilgrimage to Gaul in the snow? The sailing to Egypt, the confrontation with the pirates – and the silly pirate chief sinking his own ship? Arrival in Egypt, the magic potions? Their helping with the building? The comedy of life in Egypt, the Gauls?

8. The verbal references, the jokes, the references to films, television series, Starsky and Hutch … Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger?

9. The sabotage, Arthritis and his assistants? The Roman soldiers? The build-up to the sabotage, the destruction of the building?

10. Asterix, the dog, Dogmatix, the role of the dog in Egypt? The potion, Arthritis taking it? Speeding through the Roman lines, getting the introduction to Cleopatra, the message and achievement of the mission?

11. The saving of the project? The final success? The dance – and the French songs? The elevator – invented by Otis? The elevator music? Caesar not being allowed into the party?

12. Achievement, the Gauls and their happiness, the Romans in harmony with the Egyptians?

13. The audience needing knowledge of Roman times to fully appreciate the stories and the characters and the references? But the films as illustrations of the comic strips, and entertaining comedies for all?

JOY RIDE (ROAD KILL)

US, 2001, 95 minutes, Colour.
Steve Zahn, Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski, Jessica Bowman.
Directed by John Dahl.

Joy Ride is an effective thriller with touches of terror. It was directed by John Dahl who had a reputation for this kind of film, small thrillers with a focus on the road: Kill Me Again, Red Rock West, The Last Seduction, Unforgettable. He changed tone somewhat with his gambling film, Rounders. He also made the World War Two film, The Great Raid.

This film is in the vein of Duel, people on the road menaced by an unseen truck driver. However, the characters hear the truck driver over their CB and eventually see him as he terrorises and confronts them. The variation on the theme is that a young man plays a practical joke on the driver, tantalising him, and he and his companion pretend that they have a girl and make a rendezvous. When the truck driver doesn’t find the girl, he turns the table on them, pursuing them, capturing the girlfriend, her roommate, and menacing them.

The film is brief enough to keep the atmosphere quite tense – with some touches of macabre humour.

Steve Zahn is good as the young man just out of jail who decides on the practical joke. Zahn appeared to great effect in such films as Riding In Cars With Boys and Happy Texas. The hero is Paul Walker (The Skulls, Into the Blue, Running Scared, The Fast and the Furious). The girlfriend is played by Leelee Sobieski, a strong screen presence in the Helen Hunt vein.

The film is fairly straightforward in its presentation of character, drama, terror.

1. Entertaining B-style movie? Thriller? Terror? The road?

2. The use of the open highway, the side roads, motels, service stations? Authentic atmosphere? The photography, the score?

3. The basic premise: the two young men, the CB radio, the practical joke with the driver, his not taking it well, turning the tables, his brutality, menace, the final confrontation, the police, being saved? The ambiguous ending?

4. The two young men: Lewis, his roommate, the phone call, going to pick up Venna? Meeting with Fuller, Fuller getting out of jail? Their driving, joking, the radio, the CB, hearing the voice of the truckie? Fuller deciding to play the joke, his pretence? Lewis pretending that he was Candy Cane? The effect on the driver? Their carefree attitude, going to the motel? The noises in the next room, Fuller and his encountering the bullying man at reception? The police, the discovery of his brutalised body, the visit to the hospital? Their anxiety, the car, going down the side road? The menace of the driver? Their going to the university, picking up Venna, meeting Charlotte? Driving, their eventually telling Venna the truth? The dangers, Venna wanting to take a strong stand? The radio in the trunk of the car? The stopping at the service station, going in naked to buy the hamburgers, the hurried escape? Going to the motel, the room, the final confrontation? The capture of Charlotte? Taking of Venna? Fuller and his confronting the driver, his leg being pierced, on the fence? Lewis and his trying to handle the situation?

5. The climax, Venna and her being gagged, the gun facing her at the opening of the door? Charlotte and her being captured? Fuller and Lewis, desperate, Lewis helping Fuller off the fence? The police, the split-second timing to save Venna? Finding Charlotte?

6. The point about practical jokes, learning lessons? The terror? The film using the conventions of the road movie – with thriller variations?

DEAD LETTER OFFICE

Australia, 1998, 95 minutes, Colour.
Miranda Otto, George del Hoyo, Nicholas Bell, Syd Brisbane, Georgina Naidu, Barry Otto.
Directed by John Ruane.

John Ruane has directed two quite differently striking films: the black comedy, Death in Brunswick and the version of Tim Winton's That Eye the Sky. Now he returns to Melbourne with a rather gentle romantic comedy written by Deb Cox (Seachange).
Miranda Otto has written letters to her absent father ever since she was a little girl. Now she is actually employed at the dead letter office and hopes to locate him.

However, she finds a mixed bag of eccentric workers, the remnant before the office is relocated and modernised. She also finds that the director, a Chilean refugee, has a lot to teach her, especially about a way of life and suffering that she has no idea of. She also brings him out of himself. The film is quiet, pleasant and draws the audience slowly into its world of yearnings, friendship and the discovery of love. Gentle Melbourne story.

1. A romantic story? Nostalgia? Family? Suffering?

2. The title, the Dead Letter Office and its visualising, the space, the tables, the workplaces, the different shelves, boxes? The symbolic meaning of the title? In reference to Alice?

3. The credits, the ballet training, Alice, her voice-over? Her letters to her father? Her being a bundle of joy? His having walked out on the family, leaving her mother? The letters – and their going to the Dead Letter Office?

4. Alice as an adult, her not being able to keep a job, her applying to the Dead Letter Office, her plan, the interview with Frank, the tension? Her meeting Kevin and his being helpful? Peter, Mary? The welcome? At home, the common living, her friends? The sexual relationship with the young man – casual, meaningless to her? Her being accepted for the job?

5. At the Dead Letter Office, her work, her concern about the letters and the recipients? Frank and his control of the office, Kevin and his fussiness, Peter and the regulations? Mary and her warnings about understanding Frank? Her staying back, trying to get into the Special Case box? The illustration of how to find the recipient? The team working, the timing, their using all the clues, the photo of the numberplates etc? Their success? Alice and her looking at the picture from her father, trying to discern the numberplate? Ringing up, her breaking regulations, not succeeding? Her having to explain herself to Frank?

6. Frank, his background, in Australia, his explanation of tossing the coin, his work for the post office? Running the Dead Letter Office? Reliance on Kevin? His regulations, the speed of finding out where a letter was intended? The ten-minute limit? The discussions with Alice, bringing the food, discussions about dancing? His going to the hall, his Chilean friends? The revelation of his past, his later explaining to Alice about the death of his children, the wounding of his wife, the loss of the bond with her? His leaving? His going to the dance and practising in the office, inviting Alice to the dance? His meeting the woman that Alice had found? Dancing with her, discovering she was a fascist, his leaving her abruptly, his confrontation with Alice, telling her the story, her weeping? His work with the pigeons? His finding out where her father was, writing the letter in his name, the final discussions, Alice realising the truth? Their driving together? A future?

7. Alice, the effect of working in the office, the attraction towards Frank, talking about dancing? The finding of the letter, reading it? Realising that Frank had written it? Asking him for the address, Frank’s reluctance, his giving it to her? Her visit to her father, his sales pitch about the caravans, her revealing who she was, the talk with him, his embarrassment, his feeling edged out from his second marriage and children? A bond between them? Understated? Her telling Frank that her father wanted to see her at some other time? A hope for a relationship?

8. Peter, in training, going to Brisbane? Working with Alice, his place in the office? Kevin, fussy, the pigeons, his meticulous style, finally being put in charge? Mary, her Indian background, her nephew, discussions, collaborating in the team?

9. The office, its being dismantled and moved? George going upstairs? The sadness of the change?

10. The final effect on Alice, her realisation of a world beyond herself, Frank telling her the story about his family in Chile, this being beyond her horizons, learning to understand a life beyond her own?

11. A quirky romance, gentle, sentiment, understated?

THE MILLIONAIRESS

UK, 1960, 90 minutes, Colour.
Sophia Loren, Peter Sellers, Alistair Sim, Vittorio de Sica, Dennis Price, Gary Raymond, Alfie Bass, Miriam Karlin, Noel Purcell, Graham Stark.
Directed by Anthony Asquith.

The Millionairess is based on a play by George Bernard Shaw and has a number of his themes, especially his more socialist-leaning films with an Indian doctor serving the poor in London and being put to the test about making money out of a small amount as well as living on a small amount of money. The Indian is played by Peter Sellers – a style that he made famous with his impersonations and which was to be reprised in Blake Edwards’ The Party.

Sophia Loren plays Epifania, one of the richest women in the world. She feels she must be married, alights on the Indian doctor, puts him to the test. Alistair Sim has an amusing role as a lawyer with Dennis Price as his associate. A number of British character actors round out the supporting cast which also includes Vittorio de Sica who made so many films with Sophia Loren in Italy.

The film was directed by Anthony Asquith, a very civilised British director who made such films as We Died at Dawn, The Way to the Stars as well as The Importance of Being Earnest and The Browning Version. His final films in the 1960s were The VIPs and The Yellow Rolls Royce.

Associated with the film is the song, ‘Goodness Gracious Me’, which Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren recorded in order to promote The Millionairess. The song became far more famous and popular than the film itself.

1. What was George Bernard Shaw satirising in this comedy: a man and a woman, money, medicine, ambition, love, appreciation, buying people’s affection?

2. How was Epifania’s father’s will and its conditions satirising people’s love for money and their readiness to do anything for it? The lawyer’s attitude? Epifania? Why did she obey her father rather than her own feelings of love?

3. How spoilt was Epifania? How were spoilt children satirised in her attempted suicide sequences? How melodramatic her attitude?

4. How did the simplicity of Doctor Ahmed el Kabir contrast with this? How impressive a man was he? Did Peter Sellers play the character for sympathy or for laughs? What illustrates this best? How well did he understand Epifania and what she stood for? Was his attraction to her overdone, too comic?

5. What did Epifania want from the doctor? Why did she keep coming back to him? How did she want to gain his liking and affection? By buying it?

6. Is there any merit in the doctor’s philanthropical gesture? Why did Epifania build the hospital? Did she want to own the doctor?

7. How were lawyers and psychiatrists satirised? In Mr Sagamore and Adrian? Did they deserve the satirical treatment?

8. How sincere a man was the doctor, his humanity and his principles helping to bring Epifania to her senses? Did they have a future together? From her words, what did she really long for most? Was she prepared to give everything up to get it? Did she get it?

A MAN I LOVE

France, 1969, 118 minutes, Colour.
Jean Paul Belmondo, Annie Girardot.
Directed by Claude Lelouch.

A Man I Love is generally lightweight colourful Lelouch romantic drama, although there is the bitterness of disillusionment at the end. For Lelouch fans, this should be enough to commend it.

However, it is Lelouch’s American film of 1969, a year when several Continental directors went to make their US film. Antonioni made Zabriskie Point, Demy made The Model Shop. The background is interesting as the story centres on a film group working in the United States, a behind-the-cameras drama.

The stars are always sympathetic, music is by Francis Lai who composed many Lelouch scores especially the theme for A Man and a Woman.

1. Did the title adequately sum up the whole film? Does it sound too trite for the film? Why?

2. Was this more women’s magazine stuff or was there more point behind the film?

3. Claude Lelouch is noted for his slick and glamorous treatment of his themes. How slick and glamorous was the style of this film? Should it have been?

4. The U.S. was a 'foreign' country for the protagonists of the film. Did the film make audiences see the U.S. (Hollywood and the Southern states, at least) in a new light, or as a Frenchman would see it? What details of the U.S. way of life and style did the film pick out?

5. Did the film parody itself with its film-making background especially with Belmondo playing a composer and with the sequence showing how music is added to the images and enhances their impact?

6. Were the characters or the principals well established in the film, their lives at home, prior to the American trip, the depth and shallowness of characters, ambitions?

7. Were the principals likeable? Why? What incidents in the film communicated this? Why did they begin their affair? How much love was there? How much convenience? Did each use the other? What comment did the constant reference to each other’s family and the frequent phone calls (plus deception) make?

8. How long did their affair last? How was it affected by their moods, their works, the places they went to - Las Vegas, the lake? How happy were they?

9. What comment on modern morals and standards and styles of modern society did the film make?

10. How sincere were the attempts to break off the affair at the time? Were they just strangers in another land flung together? How did the New York sequences add to this?

11. What comment did the two homecomings make on what had happened? How did they contrast?

12. How serious had the film become by this? Why?

13. Did you expect Belmondo to go to Nice? Did Patricia really expect that he would? What future did she have ahead of her?

14. What emotions, what message, are the audience left with?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APOCALYPSE NOW

 

US, 1979, 147 minutes, Colour.
Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Robert Duvall, Sam Bottoms, Larry Fishburne, Albert Hall, G.D.Spradlin, Harrison Ford, Scott Glenn, Colleen Camp.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

 

Apocalypse Now is Francis Ford Coppola's attempt at a definitive statement about the Vietnam war. While he may not have succeeded in making the definitive cinema statement, he has created a cinema masterpiece. The film was several years in production: shooting started in early 1976 and concluded in the middle of 1977. There were many production difficulties including the loss of millions of dollars worth of equipment because of weather in the Philippines. The work on editing the material and putting it into presentable and commercial form took until the beginning on 1979. The film won the award for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival, 1979 although it was presented as a work in progress. The film achieved general release during 1979 and was acclaimed.

 

The scope of the work is vast. Coppola, who had experience in the '70s of succeeding with the two Godfather films as well as the film about surveillance, The Conversation, handles the scope of the war very well indeed. However, he used Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness as the basic framework for the plot. He himself said that when there were difficulties in filming he went back to this novel. The basic outline of the journey along the river into more remote vastnesses to find Kurtz is transferred to Vietnam and Cambodia very well. Martin Sheen in an admirable performance sustaining the film is the searcher for Colonel Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando - fat, with shaven head, mad - who appears only in the last part of the film.

 

However, the momentum of the film is towards him. The actual war is presented vividly especially in two sequences - a helicopter attack and a night encounter. The issues of the war and its madness are very much to the fore. Political background, however, is not included. The journey into madness and the darkness of the human heart are the centre. Robert Duval gives an excellent supporting performance as a gung-ho commander. There is a strong supporting cast. However, the technical credits are most impressive. Photography by Vittorio Storaro (the cinematographer for Bertolucci's Last Tango and 1900). The scope and sweep of scenery and location photography and battle is matched with the intensity of the close-ups and the isolation of individuals. There is a striking score by Carmine Coppola, the director's father, who was responsible for music for the Godfather films with Nino Rota. Apocalypse Now is a significant film of any decade but is a cinematic vision of a key period and an understanding of American involvement in the East in the late '60s and '70s.

 

 

 

 

 

APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX

 

Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War drama, Apocalypse Now, was a masterpiece of cinema art. It is certainly in my top 100 films. Coppola had taken Joseph Conrad's 1902 novel, Heart of Darkness, about an expedition up river in the Congo to find Kurz, who had disappeared into the jungle and into his own megalomaniac solitude and adapted it to explore the American involvement in Vietnam. He was taking events which were barely ten years past at the time of filming. He wanted to bring to the screen an insight into America's heart of darkness.

 

The story of the making of Apocalypse Now in the Philippines in the later 1970s has become an epic in itself. Coppola had too much money to spend and was extravagant in the detail as well as the sweep of the sets. He sacked his star Harvey Keitel and replaced him with Martin Sheen who suffered a heart attack while filming. The Philippines experienced one of the worst monsoon seasons on record with storms destroying sets and delaying action. Yet, as with the production of so many works of art, out of this chaos came a moving and insightful look at war and what it does to individuals and peoples. Coppola, who had directed three masterpieces during the 70s, The Godfather, Godfather II and The Conversation, now showed a visual skill that makes Apocalypse Now still quite breathtaking in its scope.

 

But Coppola likes to edit and re-edit. For television, he took his Godfather films and footage that was left over and edited them into a saga that took audiences through the events of the films in a chronological order. In recent years, he has been re-editing Apocalypse Now, doing a digital master copy and toying with re-inserting sequences omitted from the 1979 release. In fact, he has put fifty three minutes of unseen material back into the film and called it Apocalypse Now Redux. The principal reinserted material concerns Captain Willard and his crew crossing the border into Cambodia and encountering a French family who declare their right to be there as part of their heritage and resent defeat by the Vietnamese.

 

This gives the film a bit more political resonance. Coppola was not to know, but the re-release of the film outside the US after September 11th will make its audiences think much more deeply about the war on terrorism. I saw this version in October in Los Angeles during a film and spirituality festival whose theme was 'Touches of Evil'. It was just three weeks after the bombing raids began on Afghanistan. UK audiences are to see it in the aftermath of the fall of the Taliban. Apocalypse Now Redux has become extraordinarily topical.

 

Another reinserted sequence throws light on Marlon Brando's Kurz. He has opted out of the military system, created his own empire of death in the jungle and has a death wish. Now, Brando reads an article out of Time Magazine to Martin Sheen, asking the audience to take time out from the action, to listen to the implications of American foreign policy in Asia.

 

The new version has more content than the original, but the cinematic power of the orginal is still there. One has only to see again the helicopters sweeping in to Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and hear Robert Duvall declaiming about the smell of napalm in the morning to now that this is a classic film.

 

1. The overall and total impact of the film? Its quality of production, content? Awards, acclaim? The criticism that it was pretentious, a folly?

 

2. The work of Coppola and his career? The film as a culmination of his early work and of his films of the '70s? His skill as a writer (Is Paris Burning, Patton - for which he won an Oscar?), the production difficulties, the risk? His overall vision and capacity to transfer it to cinema? The collaboration with John Milius (and his writing and directing of mythic films of the '70s)?

 

3. The use of Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness for plot, the mythic element of the journey and the quest, the sense of mission, the establishing of the characters and their characteristics, setting and meaning? The attention to detail and the images from Conrad's book? T.S. Eliot and his quoting of Heart of Darkness for The Hollow Men and Kurtz's quotation of it, quotations from Eliot and having in the Cambodian jungle the anthropological books quoted by Eliot in the wasteland?

 

4. The impact of war, of the Vietnam war and its specific problems? The audience immersed in the experience of war as well as observing it? Vietnam and the jungle, the river, the styles of warfare in the '70s? The people involved ~ officers, authority figures, the ordinary soldier? Orders and the execution of these? The pros and cons of the people involved in the war? An American war, and American war for the Americans in South- East Asia, for the Vietnamese and Cambodians?

 

5. The impact of the film for an American audience, what explanations of the war, responsibilities, guilt? An American audience experiencing some catharsis via this visual involvement? For nations involved in wars in South- East Asia? For audiences from countries not involved? The hindsight about the war? Its impact in 1979 and later?

 

6. The technical contribution to the film: the use of Technovision, the skill of the presentation of the images, the large-scale visual scope, the intimate presentation of characters, the scope of international war and the isolation of individuals? Colour photography and its beauty and ugliness? Light and dark, shadow? The contribution of the score - its atmospheric tone? The song at the opening and the end? The use of Wagner? The various songs? The editing devices? The camera movement e.g. aerial photography, the intimate battle sequences?

 

7. The strength of the plot - the basis in Joseph Conrad? The reality and unreality as explored in the Vietnam context? The move into the heart of darkness of human nature in war? The focus on Willard, audiences identifying with him and understanding him, his attitude towards the war? Moving with him through various changes of attitude? Audience response to his mission, the urgency of the mission and the goal of reaching Kurz? The device of the journey along the river, the journey beyond boundaries? The introduction to the crew and the sub-plots with them, the sub-plots on the various attacks, the narrowing down of the plot to the voyage on the boat, the clash at the border? The continual movement towards Kurz (and audience hearing the voice of.. and seeing photos of Marlon Brando), the culmination in the final half hour at Kurz's headquarters?

 

8. The importance of Kurz as goal: the voice, the gradual filling in of his story, seeing pictures, the discussion of his military record? Marlon Brando's presence and his power to draw audience interest in him and his character? Willard's goal to eliminate Kurz?

 

9. The significance of the title - the tones of apocalypse, the end of the world, the end of the millennium etc.? The relationship to the Book of Revelation and the biblical tones? The eschatological meaning? The bringing of the end of the world into the presence in war? Apocalypse and the Vietnam war. any war? American power and its potential to destroy the world and bring it to an end in conflagration? The universal significance of the title? Images of fire, avenging angels., plagues? Death and apocalypse? The focus on Christ and the saving tones of apocalypse, Kurz as anti-Christ? The millennium and the blind and fanatic following of Kurz and the religious sect? His mystique and power? Kurz's ideas of ruthless perfection? The title as the motto at Kurz's headquarters? The phases of apocalypse: the nations, individuals, Kurz?

 

10. The film's insight into war: horror and the final words of Conrad in Brando's mouth, the madness of war and the varieties of this, the rights and wrongs in relationship to madness. evil, strategies? How well did the film involve audience in evil and madness and help it to understand them? The initial officers and their commission to Willard and their madness and evil. the evil of rules. conventions. codes. secrecy? The ordinary soldiers in relation to this, their isolation, their coping.. inability to cope - especially the Americans and their longing for home, lack of morale, use of drugs etc.? War and suspicions and fear? Madness of war and memories of the ordinary world, the transistor and its bringing news and music and tapes from how? Those involved in war and its madness compensating with power.. games, drugs, drink, sex, personal clashes, violence? Questions of tension and how much can be taken? The people involved in the war making it their own., the involvement in others? The need for finishing a war? Ruthlessness in bringing the war to conclusion - Kurz's ultimate evil and madness? Willard and his observation of the madness? His becoming identified with it, the final confrontation and decision?

 

11. The film's portrayal of madness: a mad world, national madness, individual madness, Willard's oddness in the opening sequence, the madness of the ordinary soldier, the madness of the American involvement in South-East? Asia? How did these compare with Kurz? Which madness is worse? The comparisons of the various experiences of madness?

 

12. The film's portrayal of evil: man as good, the focus on the human heart and yet a heart of darkness, the basic human values, their challenge, difficulty? Presuppositions about good and evil? The dark side of the heart and Kurz as the extreme? Willard and seeing the possibilities of Kurz's approach to madness and the war, the possibility of succumbing, the revulsion? What basically is the evil of war, what the suffering? The obvious catastrophes and the cruelty and meaninglessness of the war? How does this compare with pride and the perfection of evil?

 

13. The portrayal of violence: the aggressiveness of the war, defensiveness? How much right violence? How much wrong violence? Physical, mental, moral? Torture, invasions, killing, accidents? The role of injury and torture, blood? American aggression, Vietnamese aggression? The violence of the aerial attack, of the night at the bridge? Kurz's violence - the subjugation of the people, his torture of Willard, the death of the sailor and his beheading? Audience identification with the violence, revulsion?

 

14. The impact of the prologue - images of fire and apocalypse? The focus on Willard - as a man, soldier, American? The explanation of his civilian life -photos, letters, his discontent and inability to readjust? His need for being involved in Vietnam? His personal discontent and disorientation - how was this illustrated by his look, behaviour, moods, martial arts training, drinking, violence, smashing mirror? The background of his career - intelligence, killing, assassinations, secrecy, orders? The foreboding of his waiting, the experience of isolation? The technical devices to illustrate these moods, the visualising by superimpositions, photographing his face upside down etc.? His fantasies, songs? The blood on his face? Man within this kind of world - apocalyptic man? His readiness then when the soldiers came to get him to commission him? Audience identification with him, puzzle, revulsion? Readiness to go on his voyage to the heart of darkness?

 

15. The character of Willard: the ordinary soldier, a significant career? The American officer and his training, background, involvement in Vietnam? His feeling alienated when at home in the United States? Restlessness in Saigon? The importance of the commentary and its in formation, irony? Its influence on audience response? Willard and his alienation from family? His crisis at the opening of the film? The apocalyptic imagery associated with this? Upside down, fire? Martial arts? Blood? The crisis and his drinking? Hope and confusion? His being a military assassin? Strengths and weaknesses? The soldiers taking him to the interview? The officers and their gentlemanly giving of his mission? The meal? His orders? Information about Kurz and his gradually getting ready from confrontation? The motives for going? His need for action? Patriotism and loyalty? The many sequences of his studying Kurz throughout the boat trip? His life on the boat and his reaction to each of the crew? His puzzle over the ordinary soldier's presence in Vietnam? His experiences - the helicopter, Kilgore and Wagner? The massacre in the village? Continually moving up river? The depot and the black marketing, his demands for supply? His presence at the playgirl entertainment? The arrival at the border and the confusion? The hellish imagery? His receiving more information as he went beyond the border? Studying Kurz, his predecessor, identifying with Kurz and being alienated? The boat and his relentless living of orders, not letting anything impede his progress, the shooting? The atmosphere of his arrival, wariness, the experience of the natives, the suffering? The photographer and his raving enthusiasm? Willard at the mercy of Kurz? Imprisonment, torture? The death of Chef? The discussions with Kurz? The articulation of the apocalyptic themes? Trying to understand Kurz's behaviour and its motivation? Kurz allowing himself to be executed? The parallel with the ritual? Willard emerging from the water as another Kurz to ritually execute him? The final decisions and his taking Lance with him? Radio communication? The response of the natives in their ritual? The option for Willard to be a new Kurz or to go back to "civilisation"? The options of madness and possibilities for a sane future?

 

16. Kurz as the goal of the mission? The information given about him, tapes, press clippings? The star American officer to the Heart of Darkness? The journey of Kurz from success to madness? The plausibility of this trip in a war-torn apocalyptic world? Kurz and his playing God? The visual impact of baldness, size, shadow? Marlon Brando's impact, words, mutterings, quotations? His library of classics and recitation of The Hollow Men? Overtones of the wasteland? The response of Colby and loyalty to Kurz? The journalist and his enthusiasm? Chef's beheading? Kurz allowing himself finally to be executed? No place for him in the American world? His isolation and being almost already dead? Puzzles of motivation? His comments on the horror of it all? A human being tempted to emulate God - Genesis analogies for the knowledge of good and evil and being like good? Kurz being sacrificed and symbolically imaged by the ritual holocaust?

 

17. Kilgore and his cavalry style, jingoism, macho mentality, American officer, fighting past wars in the present, relationship with his men? Surfing as symbol of the macho image? His strategy. the smell of napalm and victory? His attitude towards the Vietnamese? The helicopters, Wagner, the attack, the landing and encampment, making his men surf? His attitude towards the body count? A telling symbol of American self-appointed presence in Vietnam?

 

18. The portrait of the crew: Chef and his memories of New Orleans, the gentle type. his talk. sensitivity. the encounter with the tiger, his presence on the mission? His support of Willard? The horror of his death? Lance as the young man and background of surfing, drugs, only a boy? The easy presence. the growing involvement? His being in the Heart of Darkness, being painted and participating in the savagery, the possibility of his being lost? His sharing the escape with Willard? Clean and Chief? Blacks on the mission? Chief and his control? Feelings of disorientation but following orders? Surviving? The incongruity of their presence in Vietnam? Clean and the ironic playing of the tape at his death? Chief and the visual impact of his death? Its feel? Its significance and his resentment? Their presence on the river, going further into remote places, the experience of the border, the boat and the shooting of the woman, the dog? Images of the dislocation of the Americans in Vietnam?

 

19. The officers at headquarters - their plans, playing God, the criteria and standards for their judgments about Kurz, the briefing and the casual atmosphere of the meal? Colby and his being converted by Kurz's experience?

 

20. The photographer - his incongruous presence in the Heart of Darkness, his vocal style. taking photos? Sharing in Kurz's madness? A mouthpiece for Kurz? His acting as if stoned? His still being a photographer in such a situation? The incongruity of his presence and discipleship?

 

21. The Americans and their immersion in Vietnam - American traditions: rock 'n roll, surfing etc. and the young American soldiers? Religious services e.g. the mass? Their attitude towards the Vietnamese - Gooks? Their being lost in another world and in the jungle? The culmination in the flamboyant show and the helicoptering in of the Playmates of the Year? R & R in the jungle? The theme of frustrated sexuality., phallic symbols? The militia being four-star clowns?

 

22. The cinematic impact of the attack on the village? The layout of the village and its ordinary way of life, precarious peace? The sounds of the helicopters and the B52s? The playing of Wagner? The waves and Wagner's melodies? Swooping on the village? "Death from above"? The villager's fleeing for safety. death? The sabotage of the helicopters? The mopping up operations - Kilgore camping, talking, his Confederate hat? What kind of war? The atmosphere of night at the border? The bridge and its defence, its being destroyed? Madness, fear, not knowing who was in command, images of hell? "The ass-hole of the world"?

 

23. The emphasis on the jungle, Americans not knowing the jungle, the sudden fright with the tiger? The huge supermarket style depot in the middle of the jungle, its lights? Black market? References to Charles Manson.. Disneyland? Limbo and hell?

 

24. Going into Cambodia and its being illegal? Standards, morality? The world of the boat and Willard shooting the woman in order not to impede progress?

 

25. The village and Kurz's headquarters: images of hell. primitive religion, heads on pikes. the spears and arrows, dancing and paint? Religion, ritual and games? A sour Shangri-La? Later images of Jonestown?

 

26. The nature of heroism? Criteria and expectations for heroism? Whose madness was worst?

 

27. The eschatological imagery: references to Eliot's world ending with bangs or whimpers? The men painted and covered in mud? Chef's decapitated head? Themes of love and hate, friend or enemy, the rules of the game, horror’s face? Primordial imagery, passion and absence of passion, prophets and avenging angels?

 

28. The build-up of frenzy, sounds, music, visuals, ritual images, motion, death and extermination?

 

29. Coppola's decision about the ending? The possibility of Willard becoming another Kurz and continuing his reign? or the reminders of records, files, typewriters, radio communication and escape back to the world of "normality"? Coppola's ending for moving back to humanity?

 

30. The achievement of the film: as cinema, representing America in the '70s, a comment on the Vietnam war and its effect in Asia and the United States? Its bringing the films on Vietnam to an end?