Film-a-day: Week 5: 13-19 Feb 2011

We'll start with a film I watched purely because 65daysofstatic were doing a live re-score of the film at the Glasgow Film Festival. The rest are, as usual, behind the cut.

Silent Running (1972) ***

Silent Running [live re-score by 65daysofstatic] ****

Not that I was, but if I were in any doubt before, now I'm certain. Music can dramatically change the impact of a film and how it's ideas and messages come across. Silent Running by itself is a bit of a strange beast. The story is a little on the perplexing side for one, especially for the rating it was given. Keep in mind that this was given a U for universal in the UK and G for general audiences in the USA. The main character kills three of his crew, two of them are blown up and the other strangled. I had this argument with a friend about whether the message outweighed the reason for ratings, and to be honest I kinda felt like rating this a so low is pretty irresponsible. Still, that has more to do with the BBFC and MPAA, but it does shine a light on where the film has this character.

Bruce Dern does no wrong here as the main man, left at his wits end trying to protect the worlds last forest from everyone else in the universe, who have plans to turn this sanctuary ships into cruise liners. He shines in a film that was built to have one strong main character tell his own story, and the look of the ships is incredibly well done too, especially considering how long ago it came out. However, the plot drifts a lot in the middle when the idea falls to it's basic elements, and the soundtrack is one of the worst I have ever heard. Which is where 65daysofstatic come in. I've never been to a live re-scoring before, but this was definitely a match made in heaven. The band used their post-rock to set the scenes and used their electronic side to ramp up the sci-fi element perfectly, and left me feeling more for the issues at hand than the first viewing ever could. It was a perfect marriage, and I came out wanting that to be the final cut of the film; wanting them to record the re-score and have Universal release it on the films 40th anniversary next year. Who's with me?

After The Cut: The Terminal, Marley And Me, The Cocoanuts, Choke, Paper Heart and The Goods (Live Hard, Sell Hard).

Film-a-day 16-22 Jan 2011

Another regular feature I plan on updating every week is what film's I've been watching during the week. My plan for the rest of the year is to try and watch a film every day, or at least seven films in a week. I haven't done brilliantly this first week (this is more of the last 10 days really), but the plan is to update every week with a little review and star rating for each one. The best one of the week is here, the others are beyond the jump!

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) ****/

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) *****
Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi (1983) ****

Of course, what a way to start! While it's easy to pick out the bad parts of the trilogy, if you just let it wash over you and just enjoy it the good parts are brilliant and plentiful. Of course Empire is the best of the three, especially considering most of Jedi can be boiled down to Jabba the Hutt, Ewoks and a lot of shots of Luke Skywalker waiting to get angry enough to almost turn to the dark side. While it's not as easy to pidgeonhole A New Hope, it barely misses the five star mark and is as fine an introduction to a trilogy as there has ever been. But of course, The Empire Strikes Back is the best! It introduced Yoda, Lando Calrissian and Boba Fett and included the brilliant scenes of the battle on Hoth, the wonderful looking Cloud City and the classic training scene from Yoda on Dagobah. And that's just for starters. Superb!

This week was a bit all over the spectrum of film with Lord Of War, Safe Men, Inception and Dog Day Afternoon getting a look after the jump!