Messenger of Death

Messenger of Death

United States - 1988

Director J. Lee Thompson

Media Home Entertainment, 1990, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 32 minutes

Borderline

Borderline

United States – 1980

Director – Jerrold Freedman

Avid Home Entertainment, 1995, VHS

Run Time – 1 hour, 44 minutes

In the early 1980’s a whole little cluster of border films came out within a few short years. It seemed that suddenly, illegal immigration was contentious again. In Border Cop (1980) Telly Savalas, and The Border (’82) Jack Nicholson each played a jaded Border Patrol agent who threw up his hands in cynical and frustrated sympathy. He may have felt deeply for the plight of the illegals, may have even been good friends with some of them (or even fallen in love), but he still had a job to do. Borderline, which came out just a few months after the Savalas picture was a gap in my Bronson collection that I had long needed to fill, but I was worried that it might be a difficult experience.

You see, I get totally confused when we white people make movies about non-white people. I start to feel like my emotions are being intentionally manipulated, especially when white actors play sympathetic non-white characters. Steven Segal, Burt Reynolds, Marlon Brando, Telly Savalas; the list goes on and on. Even my creasy Polish-American hero Charles Bronson played Mexicans and Native Americans on occasion. Bronson’s may have been the most believable brownface portrayal, but it still felt somehow disingenuous. These characters are repeatedly robbed, abused and even killed with much handwringing, but my feelings of empathy were all too often haunted by an inkling of insincerity which I couldn’t quite place. I don’t like having to think too deeply about what’s going on on-screen, it really ruins my suspension of disbelief.

It turns out I needn’t have been so concerned. Bronson, though he may have been typecast, or facecast as it were, always manages to deliver yet another compelling performance. In Borderline he plays Jeb, a Border Patrol agent much like his cinematic contemporaries; physically and emotionally overwhelmed with the contradictions of the very system which cuts his paychecks. It is such a difficult and thankless job being the responsible, caring zookeeper. But after watching as crowds of immigrants were herded about like frightened cattle in a prison yard for the first few minutes of Borderline, I was once again feeling the early stages of nagging guilt. But moments later, when Jeb’s best friend and fellow agent Scooter (Wilford Brimley) was brutally murdered, I suddenly had a revelation.

Scooter’s killer is Hotchkiss, “The Marine” (Ed Harris), a cold-blooded, uzi-weilding Nam Vet working for a local California businessman in a grand conspiracy to rake in the cash by drowning the U.S. labor market in a sea of malleable brown servants. Now even though the complications and tensions of illegal immigration policy are central to the rivalry between the Jeb and Hotchkiss, Borderline is not about illegal immigration at all. In fact it’s never even discussed. That’s because everything troublesome about immigration is embodied in one unscrupulous and evil individual, Hotchkiss whose elimination “solves” everything. Jeb’s clear-cut moral victory relieved me of any responsibility for the active contemplation of systemic social issues that often makes watching dramatic movies so unpleasant. Pitting these two men against each-other was brilliant. Not only do they play their roles with gusto, but it utterly mystifies one of the most contentious issues in modern U.S. politics. I must say though, if I have to cheer on the retrenchment of the status quo, Bronson’s the guy who’ll get me to do it every time. It’s so much easier when complex moral issues are boiled down into charismatic and easy to digest character tropes. If it had been anyone but him I would probably still be feeling guilty.

Wait, who's the headliner here, the Subject or the Objects?

French, Italian and United States' posters from Movie Poster Shop.
The French one is my absolute favorite, maybe one of the best posters of all time. It perfectly exemplifies the misguided self-deluding quality of white-people making movies about brown-people.

German poster-thing from Movie Poster Database
Why does (almost) every poster have a giant United States' flag on it?

Once Upon a Time in the West

Once Upon A Time in the West

Italy - 1969

Director - Sergio Leone

I do so love Charles Bronson that I am almost willing to say that this is my favorite of Leone's classic westerns. Woody Strode doesn't hurt of course, even though he's only in the film for the opening scene. I recently read a nice long article in Cinema Retro which proposed that Leone's film was a response to 1962's romantic fantasy How the West Was Won. Something of a darker, more cynical vision, though I would argue no less fantastical or romantic.

This poster by artist Rudolfo Gasparri

Red Sun

Red Sun

France 1971

Director - Terence Young

I so badly wanted to like this movie and I waited with much anticipation for it to arrive in the mail. I mean, Toshiro Mifuna and Bronson! I suppose it's one of those films that I should give another chance since it's been a few years. Good posters anyway. Polish poster above comes from At The Movies, the rest from Moviegoods.

Charles Bronson Deja Vu Double Feature

The Evil That Men Do

United States - 1984

 Director - J. Lee Thompson

Goodtimes Home Video, 1989, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 30 minutes

But WAIT! Haven't we seen this same classic manly, phallic-symbol Bronson pose on the promo art for another film?

The Mechanic

United States - 1972

Director - Michael Winner

MGM/UA Home Video, 1988, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 41 minutes

An interesting story that you will find on the Wiki about The Mechanic:

"In Lewis John Carlino's original script, the relationship between Arthur Bishop (Bronson) and Steve McKenna (Jan Michael Vincent) was explicitly gay. Producers had difficulty securing financing and several actors, including George C. Scott, flatly refused to consider the script until the homosexuality was removed.

There's more too if you just click the link above.

 

Raid on Entebbe

In cooperation with some of the finest movie blogs I know, Lost Video Archive is proud to contribute this post to Kotto Week, an event focusing on the long, extensive and diverse career of this underappreciated actor. A full list of participants follows this post.

Raid on Entebbe

United States - 1976

Director - Irvin Kershner

Thorn EMI Home Viedo, 1984, VHS

Run Time -1 hour, 53 minutes

Raid On Entebbe is a made for television historical dramatization of Operation Entebbe/Thunderbolt which took place on 4 July, 1976.  Seven days earlier a group of 4 hijackers had taken over a plane headed from Athens to Tel Aviv Israel and flew it to Lybia and subsequently to a Uganda suffering through its fifth year of Idi Amin’s dictatorship. Israeli commandos flew all the way to Entebbe to pull a surprise raid on the airport where the remaining hostages were being held.

Contrary to what I’m sure was a tense situation in reality, it is pretty dull here, and at 40 minutes I feel like a hostage of a thinly scripted glorification of Israeli military valor and absolution from responsibility for violence. With an excessively hefty cast that includes Charles Bronson, John Saxon, Peter Finch, James Woods, Martin Balsam, Horst Bucholtz and yes, Yaphet Kotto, there is enough time to parade each actor across the screen, but not enough to give any of their characters depth. Raid on Entebbe is a film that is a prisoner of its precise moment in time, for without a knowledge of the events, it makes little sense. Nevertheless, Kotto manages well with his few minutes of screen time as Idi Amin.

Unfortunately this seems to be typical of the roles played by Kotto. His talents are restricted to supporting characters (where he nevertheless frequently outperforms the leads). Historians of blacks in film have repeatedly pointed out that Hollywood has had a very difficult time coping with a fully humanized strong black male lead. This may be why Kotto took to television, where the work was more frequent if not more empowering for his roles, but that’s only my theory. It’s simply sad that Kotto so rarely had a chance to apply his skill to a character with real human depth. Subsequently, I think there is an interesting theoretical connection between Kotto and his role here as Idi Amin. Amin was perhaps the perfect dramatic foil for the period in the mid 70’s. He was a crazy black man at a time when American culture had just exhausted itself on the Civil Rights movement and The Great Society. White people needed a reason to believe they had, and to be seen as having "done enough", to feel that they had atoned for their guilt, and that anyone who wasn't satisfied, who still wanted more, or who simply refused to be quiet were baaaaad niggers.

I’m not trying to recast Amin as merely a victim of bad press, he was very much a real tyrant. However, because his sociopathic egotism was largely meted out upon his own people it made him easier to dismiss in the West. He could be treated as a pitiable, posturing “martinet”, and exemplified as a "type". The white status quo didn’t (and still doesn’t) know how to deal with forceful and assertive black characters who act bigger than the britches they have been given, so it continues to disempower, mock and stereotype them, including by relegating them supporting or comedic roles in film and history.

Aside from pointing out that Israeli commandos are good (and they were, but  even that is boring in this film), Raid on Entebbe manages to not say much at all except that Idi Amin was unstable and vindictive. Any film about Amin practically begs comparison to other performances of this unique and bizarre historical figure. Joseph Olita’s in Amin: The Rise and Fall, Julius Harris’s in Victory at Entebbe, Forest Whittaker’s in Last King of Scotland, and the real deal himself in Barbet Schroeder's documentary Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait which feels as much like an elaborate put-on as any of the others. In the few minutes of screen time he is afforded as Amin (this film is really about Israels political image), Yaphet Kotto manages to better the first two and come damn close to the second two. It is ironic that Yaphet Kotto makes Amin the most interesting and complex character in an otherwise boring film.

This VHS cover (?) comes from Amazon U.K

This poster I got from The Warsaw Jewish Film Festival site is the creation of artist John Solie, his signature appears on the far left next to the C-130 aircraft. Solie was responsible for innumerable posters in the golden age of poster art. You can read my blurb about him here.

This poster courtesy NYCJunta.

Visit these other participants as Kotto Week progresses:

Monday Nov. 15th
Unflinching Eye - Alien
Raculfright 13's Blogo Trasho - Truck Turner
Tuesday Nov. 16th
Lost Video Archive - Raid on Entebbe
Manchester Morgue - Friday Foster

Wednesday Nov. 17th
Booksteve's Library - Live and Let Die

Thursday Nov. 18th
Mondo 70 - Drum
B Movies and Beyond - The Monkey Hu$tle
Cinema Gonzo - Report to the Commissioner

Friday Nov. 19th
Illogical Contraption - Eye of the Tiger 
Ninja Dixon - Across 110th St.
Lines That Make Things - The A Team (TV episode)
Things That Don't Suck - Blue Collar
Saturday Nov. 20th
Breakfast In the Ruins - Bone
Lost Video Archive -  The Park Is Mine

Cabo Blanco

Cabo Blanco

United States - 1980

Director - J. Lee Thompson

Starring Charles Bronson and his Once Upon A Time In The West buddy Jason Robards

This is one Bronson film I haven't seen yet but J. Lee Thompson usually manages to do a decent job when they work together, which they did frequently. The poster is awesome. I love the two color scheme and the vertical format, it reminds me of this Tombs of the Blind Dead poster.

Hard Times

Hard Times

United States - 1975

Director - Walter Hill

One of Hill's and Bronson's better films, this is my favorite poster for Hard Times. It reminds me of a poster and/or hand colored photograph from 1933. Maybe that was the point? I'm going to label it as drama rather than action because it's more about the relationships between Bronson and other folks than it is about the boxing. Appropriate and timely. At the moment you can watch the whole movie at IMDB, and I recommend it.
Bronson had appeared earlier as a boxing instructor, coaching none other than Elvis in Kid Galahad.

 This Japanese ad if from CinemaisDope.com

All of these posters come courtesy of IMP Awards.

The poster above looks like work by by Bob Peak, but it's too small to see any signature and it may just be a copycat. IMP Awards has a page of his artwork including the iconic Apocalypse Now and Star Trek posters here. You can also Google his name and come up with an assload of great 70's Peak art like this sweet Old Hickory Bourbon advert.

Death Wishes

The Death Wish franchise ranks right along side Eatswood's Dirty Harry series for sheer teeth-gnashing counterrevolutionary backlash. After years of social dialogue about rights and due process, the Seventies saw the advent of the rogue cop and vigilante archetypes as an answer to cries of rehabilitation and rights. If the legal system was more concerned with doing things according to procedure, these guys were willing to step outside the law to see justice done. No more cuddly talk about warrants and probable cause, time to meet Jesus, punk.

Early on the Death Wish series was remarkable for the sheer number of unknowns who made appearances in bit parts and later went on to bigger things. In the latter entries of course many of the bit parts were filled by TV actors and such, but there are still a lot of familiar faces in every installment right on back to number 1.

Death Wish 5: The Face of Death

United States - 1994

Director - Alan Goldstien

Vidmark Entertainment, 1994, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 35 minutes

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown

United States - 1987

Director - J. Lee Thompson

Media Home Entertainment, 1990, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 40 minutes
It's been years. I hardly even remember what happens in this one.

Death Wish 3

United States - 1985

Director - Michael Winner

MGM/UA Home Video, 1986, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 32 minutes

For several reasons this is my favorite film in the  series. It's the first film in the series that escalates the firepower to absurd extremes. Charles Bronson really revels in his use of a LAW rocket and refers to his Wildey in the first person. If the menacing goons in Death Wish 2 were a little silly, in DW3 they go totally over the top, starring Gavan O'Herlihy as the lead goon and Alex Winter as his second. For the longest time I confused O'Herlihy with Jake Busey, both are toothy and creepy looking, but definitely not the same.
To bring it back, what is fantastic, neigh unasailably brilliant about DW3 is that it recognizes the goofyness, the absurd extent to which it takes the already reactionary violence and trauma of the Death Wish series. DW3 is American exploitation at its finest, one of the keystones of tough-guy, post Vietnam-era sleaze, and Bronson grins and booby-traps his way through it with typical wrinkly grace. Thank you sir.

Death Wish 2
United States - 1982
Director - Michael Winner
When I bought my copy of Death Wish 2 it didn't come with a box, so I borrowed this Norwegian one from Cannon.org.uk. They have a whole Bronson Gallery you can check out here.

 Death Wish
United States - 1974
Director - Michael Winner

The classic DW image rendered in obnoxious colors. For some reason I like this better than the usual black and white version that is on my DVD. Maybe because it reminds me of the light from a bug zapper. Bet you didn't know it was based on a novel by Brian Garfield.

St. Ives

St. Ives

United States - 1976

Director - J. Lee Thompson

Warner Home Video, 2005, DVD

Run Time – 1 hour, 43 minutes

Separating the art from the artist is no easy task, particularly in the case of an artist you admire so dearly as I do Charles Bronson. His is a time when many a macho American actor went abroad to seek work in Europe or Asia when the roles for type-cast tough-guys were slim in the States. It was a time of peace, love and like, getting mellow, man. Only in places like France and Italy could craggy faced actors like Bronson get decent work, earning himself the nicknames Monstre Sacre (Holy Monster) and Il Brutto (The Ugly) in each of those countries respectively. Sadly, many of these foreign films lack the bluntness of American narrative and are pretty boring and difficult to watch. Still, this was also a time that earned Bronson several roles that would catapult him to fame; The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Sergio Leoni’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

It wasn’t until the counterrevolution of the 70's put those dirty hippies back into their proper place that tough guys could make it again in American film. It was the opening of a floodgate that resulted in some of the best films of both Eastwood’s and Bronson’s careers. But before I take this metaphor too far, this post is really about Charles Bronson’s 1976 film St. Ives. After the success of Death Wish in 1974, Bronson could not be stopped. It was to be the dawn of his golden age.

The following year he starred in Walter Hill’s classic first film Hard Times, and a year after that in St. Ives which has Bronson in a much more subdued role. Forgive me if I draw a parallel to Raymond Chandler, but St. Ives centers around a caper in the Marlowe tradition but carries the narrative and setting into a modern (1976) setting rather than trying to update the theme. Thomas wrote a series of novels centered on the Philip St. Ives character, of which the third, The Procane Chronicle was the basis for this film. If it’s any indication of the quality of Thomas’ writing (which some critics deny) It would be unfair to compare him to Chandler apart from their shared genre.

I always got the impression that in the long run, Marlowe thought he was better than everyone else, and was bitter because his lifestyle didn’t reflect it. St. Ives atmosphere is much seedier than anything Marlowe encountered. The lunch counters and residential hotels have continued to accumulate all the wear and detritus of the three decades since the 40's without repair. St. Ives himself seems much more pragmatic than his predecessor, and perfectly at home in the shabbiness.
Returning to the Chandler comparison, St. Ives is a much more tactile and working class way of re-looking at classic noir than was Altman's The Long Goodbye. Bronson is after all a the people's hero.

The still above this spanish one-sheet is from a scene in which St. Ives is attacked by a bunch of goons among whom is Robert Englund as you can see, but also Jeff Goldblum rehashing his role from Death Wish.

New Stuff

On a recent trip to my homeland I scored a good haul of video cassettes. Historically this has not been the case, but I think they are beginning to realize that it's not worth holding on to a lot of their old inventory. Even in the backwoods of New Mexico the death of VHS is being felt; nobody rents them anymore,and those few that do are probably not going to watch Lovely But Deadly or Joysticks. Some of these have already gotten the writeup, the others will soon. If you're keeping track though you know that I still haven't gotten to all the junk from the last big haul, namely To Sleep With A Vampire, I just know that's going to hurt a lot so I'm scared.
I've added a few new links to other great movie blogs so please visit those there's a reason they're there.

Here's another awesome Charles Bronson Poster I found somewhere a long time ago.

I changed the format of the posts a little bit in the last few months, adding running times which help identify the particular version of the film in question, and by going to full front and back box scans. Some of the older posts have been updated to include these additions, and a few posts have new images.
Finally, unless anyone complains I'll continue posting brief writeups of films which are outside the scope of my goal just so I can scan and post the old VHS box art under the tag Just the Box.

Laurence Fishburne Is One of My Favorite Actors

I've always respected Laurence Fishburne because he seems to have a lot of natural grace on screen and is quite a good actor. Aside from the Matrix trilogy, he's not well known for leading roles. What is the most striking about Fishburne is the combination of these features, small roles and good acting, for which he seems to get little recognition. However, I can think of very few actors who can consistently "make" a movie, often it's a combination of elements which the actor does very well in. This is how actors often get typecast. Laurence in my thinking has not been typecast, yet remains a good actor who consistently makes each film he is in that much better by his presence. So I've compiled a list of my five favorite Fishburne appearances, some of which you do, and some which you probably don't know, and why I think they're worthy of recognition.

1.) Socrates Fortlow - Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned
This one was a surprise to me. I saw it years ago on cable (it is an HBO original) and couldn't forget it. It tells the story of a guy, Fishburne, who has a dark past for which he has payed a social debt (prison) and which he continues to pay a personal debt (guilt), no matter how much he wants to be a better man, he is judged by his past. This captures a frequent dilemma faced by the homeless (though Fishburne's character is not) in which pulling oneself out of destitution is prevented by a social stereotype which one can never escape. Probably Fishburne's best role of all time, this is one case where he definitely does make the film.

2.) "Clean" - Apocalypse Now
Fishburne took this role at the age of 16 or so, and the film as a whole is epic and almost impossible to fully understand without a long course of study in post World War 2 American culture and the Vietnam War specifically. I can't stress enough that although surreal and hyperbolic, Apocalypse Now is very much a subjective American encapsulation of that war. It was co-scripted by Michael Herr whose book Dispatches I can't recommend enough. Fishburne's character is highly memorable because he captures the innocence and insanity of kids fighting a war, and of course dies tragically.

3.) Thug - Death Wish 2
The Death Wish series, at least in its early entries provided a breakthrough for numerous actors who later made a name for themselves (see also Jeff Goldblum and Marina Sirtis), usually in bit parts like Fishburne in Deathwish 2, as merely a thug in one or two scenes but making an impression nonetheless with those bitchin' cyberpunk glasses. Plus it stars my man Charles Bronson and his lady Jill Ireland.

4.) Capitan Miller - Event Horizon
I loved this movie when it came out because I love science fiction and I love gore, and this was strictly creepy and had both. Watching it years later, it's pretty dated, especially the primitive CGI which I remeber being sooooo rad, but which almost hurts now. Anyway, a great starring role for Fishburne in a forward thinking gorror-sci-fi movie that does a good job playing up the idea that man's pursuit of science has broken some fundamental barrier between natural and The Beyond.

5.) Lt. Charlie Stobbs - Red Heat
This is where Fishburne makes a dumb movie with an good plot tolerable, so I guess you could say he makes the movie in a roundabout way. Soviet cop Schwartzenegger, with an Austrian accent and no acting ability, and Chicago cop Belushi with a handful of dick jokes and sexist bigotry are almost intolerable. Fishburne (along with Peter Boyle) save a fairly interesting plot from sinking beneath the dead weight of the leads.

So there you have it. I think Laurence Fishburne is a great actor, one of my favorites and definitely worthy of respect, if you weren't sure, check out these movies, your doubts will vaporize.

Kid Galahad

Kid Galahad

United States - 1962

Director- Peter R. Hunt

MGM Home Entertainment, 2005, DVD

Walter Gulick (Elvis) returns from a stint in the army to a small town in the hills of upstate New York where he was born. There, in a sort of hunting cabin resort is Grogan’s Gaelic Gardens, a boxing training camp where a bunch of sluggos get trained by the one and only Charles Bronson, as “Lew”, though the distinction hardly matters.
Looking for a job as a mechanic, Walter finds one instead as a punching bag for Grogan’s house champ at five bucks a match. Grogan is a charming fellow to be sure, but even without the parade of character flaws that follows his introduction you would get a slightly sleazy feeling off of him.
Elvis, er, Walter knocks his opponent out in one punch, and Grogan sleazes up a quick match with a rival agent. I get the feeling he’s going to learn his lesson with a sheepish grin at the end of the movie but I’m still going to think he’s a knob.Anyway, the stupid idiot can’t quit gambling his money away piecemeal. The only thing keeping him afloat -albeit barely- are his girlfriend Dolly who for whatever reason tolerates his disrespect, and Lew who actually does something useful.
Grogan calls his kid sister Rose (Joan Blackman) to ask for 200 bucks but instead she comes home from the Bronx all woman and showing it. Suddenly there is a promising sign of life from the glazed and overfed Elvis. Assuming staring slackjawed indicates a heartbeat. Later when they’re hanging out in the driveway he warbles out a song while looking at Rose like she’s a giant package of hotdogs. (Blackman also appeared in Blue Hawaii among other stuff but what I like best is her role as the elevator mother in Cronenberg’s Shivers.)


Walter drives to his first fight singing away while ever-ready Bronson grins like a pig in shit from the backseat. Walter manages to win the match with one punch after receiving a long string of unblocked blows to the face. It does feel good to watch something beautiful get smashed. At a picnic minutes later he busts out into a song about Rose again while all the other palookas provide harmony right behind them on the picnic table. As if Walter’s hungry gaze weren’t enough he sings about getting lucky while Rose swivels woozily in a canary-yellow dress. This guy is the popular good-looking kid who’s naturally great at the stuff you’ve struggled and practiced at forever. Everybody - especially girls - think he’s the greatest even though he’s dumb as a rock. Don’t you just want to see his face get smashed?

Otherwise useless as a man, Grogan attacks Walter for those very qualities, but in a surprising moment of clarity, (I’m guessing he just drank a glass of maple syrup) Walter synopsizes the entire films prior exposition of Grogan’s flailing impotence in a few short sentences. Just as the real cock-fight is about to begin though, Dolly reappears and confirms Walter's claims in an ego busting maneuver sure to elicit that last minute recalcitrance I mentioned. Hell, Grogan’s only got 20 minutes to win back the 2nd hottest gal in the film.
In a blind rage, Grogan arranges to have Galahad fight a professional bare-handed horse-killer.

Subsequent Bronson/Elvis training scenes confirm that the rest of the boxers have stopped training and are merely waiting in the wings to pop up as backup singers when Elvis decides to slur out a song.Grogan’s mafia debtors are counting on their killer to render the well-fatted and golden brown Walter into dog food, so they smash Lew’s hands to seal the gig. Grogan walks in on the scene, and knowing the importance of Bronson he takes the goons on himself. Just as they’re getting the better of him, Walter shows up to save the day and feed Grogan some of that happy butter cream glaze that makes a man all fat and sappy.

I guess this bears some resemblance to the 1937 Humphrey Bogart film of the same name though it’s hard to tell if Bogart or Elvis singing is more entertaining. I do like both believe it or not. But in all honesty it’s a moot point because this one features Bronson, and that seals the deal for me.

Let's see, a Spanish poster, an American poster, the original Ep cover for the songs on the soundtrack and a dandy still photo of Elvis.