Archive
ARTICLE 99 – Danny Elfman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
With all the political furore in the United States today about drug companies, health insurance companies, access to universal healthcare, and other related issues, it’s sobering to realize that this was already part of the national conversation some thirty years ago, and that little has changed in the intervening decades. Article 99 is a film which looks at those same issues – it’s about how corrupt officials try to deny vital healthcare services to US army veterans, and how a group of compassionate doctors at a veteran’s hospital break the rules in order to provide care to their patients by circumventing ‘Article 99,’ a bureaucratic cost-cutting administrative loophole that prevents veterans from receiving the benefits they deserve by stating that a vet is eligible for treatment only for injuries incurred in actual service. The film stars Ray Liotta, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, and Lea Thompson, as the doctors willing to risk their own careers to help others; the film was directed by Howard Deutsch from a screenplay written by Ron Cutler, and has a score by Danny Elfman. Read more…
THE NORTHMAN – Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the oldest stories in all of literature is that of a son avenging the death of a father. It has driven plots in cultures all across the world, and inspired some of the greatest pieces of art in history. One of the most famous of these is, of course, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but I would hazard a guess that most people did not realize that Hamlet was itself based on a much earlier story from Norse mythology – I certainly did not until after seeing The Northman. That earlier story is the tale of Amleth, a Viking prince who sets out on a quest to avenge the murder of his father, King Aurvandill War-Raven, by his uncle, Fjölnir. This very simple story of honor and revenge is the basis for The Northman, from director Robert Eggers. It’s an epic, bloody, gory, ultra-realistic, but sometimes fantastical and hallucinatory story of what happens when a desire for revenge becomes a man’s sole purpose for existing – what that will drive a man to do, and whether this singular black-and-white view of right and wrong is justified, especially when shades of grey, doubts and secrets are revealed as the story progresses. It’s a film caked in blood and mud and sweat and shit, which pulls no punches and gives the audience an unflinching look at Viking life and culture. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, Nicole Kidman as Amleth’s mother Queen Guðrun, Claes Bang as Fjölnir, Ethan Hawke as King Aurvandill, and a luminous Anya Taylor-Joy as Olga, a Slavic sorceress who is taken as a slave by Fjölnir and eventually becomes Amleth’s lover. Read more…
THE SEA WOLF – Erich Wolfgang Korngold
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
In 1940 Warner Brothers Studios decided to bring Jack London’s 1904 adventure drama novel The Sea Wolf to the big screen, only to realize that rival David O. Selznick owned the film rights. They were not deterred, negotiated purchase, and eventually paid Selznick $15,000 to obtain them. Hal B. Wallis was assigned production, provided a $1 million budget, and Robert Rossen was hired to adapt the novel and write the screenplay. Michael Curtiz was tasked with directing and a fine cast was assembled, including Edward G. Robinson as Wolf Larsen, Ida Lupino as Ruth Webster, John Garfield as George Leach, and Alexander Knox as Humphrey Van Weyden. Read more…
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