Companeros!
Lovers of Spaghetti Westerns Rejoice! If you have not seen Companeros recently, or not at all, check out this film. Franco Nero and Tomas Milian play off each other perfectly and who can resist a one armed Jack Palance. One armed because his companion hawk freed him from crucifixion, by eating his arm off. Jack Palance is a totally whacked oil company enforcer. Who uses every evil torture, including a big fat starving rat in a basket. This movie has scenes that will blow your mind and make your jaw drop.Spaghetti Westerns, Godzilla, and Kung Fu movies were the only reason I knew there we're any foreign films when I was growing up in a world film with 3 and a ½ TV Stations: The networks and PBS on the UHF if you got the foil wrapped, just right, on that thick wire loop screwed in to the back of the TV, just below the rabbit ears brown flat wire.
So in Junior high school, when my father was transferred to Sasebo, Japan, a whole world of cinema opened up to me. Without American TV to fill my life, I spent most of my time just wandering around Sasebo. Sometimes with some Temp friends, (When you moved as much as we did, you understand after 2 years you're never going to see the people you're hanging out with again). Other times I'd wander alone because I liked to study things and that just made me even weirder to the other military brats, so I spent a good deal of time by myself.
The crime rate was basically nonexistent, so even though I was only 12, I had free rein in the town. I took cabs, rode my bike all around town, or walked for miles exploring the city. I spent a lot of afternoons in Japanese Movie Houses. Instead of multiple screens, these theaters played different movies in a single large theater. It was possible to go into the theater at 10 o'clock in the morning and not get out until 7 or 8 at night, without seeing the same movie twice. When Enter the Dragon, with Bruce Lee, came out it was only a double feature and I sat and watched it 3 times. I can't even remember what the other movie was, even though I watched it twice, But, Enter the Dragon, I still check out that movie every year, or so. We returned to the States in the summer of 74 and it wasn't until I got old enough to drive and find an art-house theater that I was able to see foreign films with any frequency again and when VHS came down the pipe I really started exploring the world through film.
I especially like to watch good lower budget foreign films that are shot on location. The backgrounds are real and there's a lot of gabbing a handy person who actually does, whatever it is you want to get on the screen, from bull fighting, to cooking in an authentic way, or just sitting on a bench feeding pigeons. If the film is historical you get to see history from their perspective. So you get to see some reality of the country that the film came from. How they see the past. A good example of this is Marketa Lazarov̀a a 1969 Czech master piece about a feud between two rival medieval clans. It is a gritty, believable, look at medieval life in somewhere other than Britain, France, or Venice. I'll be recommending that film next.
"Companeros" poster by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Companeros.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Companeros.jpg
Movie Recommendation - JD's Revenge
There
are a lot of
reasons why a Black actor, in a 1976 Blaxploitation horror film, would
not
get nominated for an Oscar, but if such a thing were
possible, Glynn Turman would have gotten the Oscar for his portrayal
of Isaac, a man possessed by a long dead mobster, out for revenge.
The story and production values of this film are excellent. I'm sure way
over, in quality, compared to whatever budget this film got, but the
unforgettable
thing is Glynn Turman's acting. Without any special effects he changes,
right before you eyes, into an entirely different man. His face seems to
take on a new bone structure and his change in persona is epic.
It
is absolutely intriguing to see the transformation as Turman goes from a
college student working his way through college as taxi driver, to J.D
Walker, a slick hustler, from the 40s, who was killed by Theotis Bliss
after witnessing his sister's murder. As Isaac is taken over by JD he
also inherits his mannerisms, hair style, and psychopathic behavior. JD
sets out for maniacal revenge against the still living murders of his
sister.
One
of the reasons that I really enjoy a film like this, is that it's a
time capsule that shows where a brother stood in the world of 1976. It
gives me insight in a world outside my own. You get a chance to see how
things have changed and how they've stayed the same, because one thing
films do is reflect the real times they're made in. It's like, you can
look at some Sci Fi films and know they're from the 80s, because the
wardrobe people just took the clothes, kids and rock stars were wearing
at the time, right off the rack. Then sewed some extra braiding on for
the officers uniforms and spikes on the bad guy uniforms. It was an easy
time for budget cinema sci fi.
This film hits on all cylinders. If you are a fan of excellent
cinema, you owe it to yourself to watch this flick.
The film deals
with harsh themes and violence so I would not say it was appropriate
for younger viewers. Picked up at the Berryville
Public Library
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