I like the current work of Brit pornographer Dick Bush: not only did he appropriate the monicker of my favorite lighting cameraman of the '70s ("Savage Messiah", "Tommy") but he makes intl. porn with style. This early effort of the London Film School sudent is misguided juvenalia.
Instead of following in the footsteps of Lindsay Anderson and Karel Reisz with the ground-breaking British Free Cinema movement of the '50s, Bush is under the sway of hack American filmmaking, a distressing cultural shift. In the very amusing BTS short subject, replete with a Monty Python-styled voice-over narration emphasizing the importance of this gonzo exercise, Bush makes reference to John McClane (of the "Die Hard" films) and one of the five pantomime sex vignettes is titled in homage to Fred Olen Ray.
Cast of mainly blonde, low-level British femmes (star Carmel Moore an exception) is unimpressive, and violating the moratorium on mixing sex and violence in porn that has been in effect in recent decades (many videos list "Non-Violent" on their covers) results in amateur fights and shoot-outs staged on location at the level of a '50s Don Glut amateur short. SPFX are extremely poor and half-hearted, which would earn an F at NYC's School of Visual Arts but apparently are good enough for London. Michael Mann graduated from their prestigious film school and would have been a good role model for Bush had he chosen a more mainstream career path.
Also disappointing in looking at this as more of an audition tape than real movie (which it certainly is not) is the poor lighting. One sex scene is bathed in an ugly green, and murky lighting is frequently the case, not a wise move for porn of any stripe. The crummy sets are not conducive to developing atmosphere.
Instead of following in the footsteps of Lindsay Anderson and Karel Reisz with the ground-breaking British Free Cinema movement of the '50s, Bush is under the sway of hack American filmmaking, a distressing cultural shift. In the very amusing BTS short subject, replete with a Monty Python-styled voice-over narration emphasizing the importance of this gonzo exercise, Bush makes reference to John McClane (of the "Die Hard" films) and one of the five pantomime sex vignettes is titled in homage to Fred Olen Ray.
Cast of mainly blonde, low-level British femmes (star Carmel Moore an exception) is unimpressive, and violating the moratorium on mixing sex and violence in porn that has been in effect in recent decades (many videos list "Non-Violent" on their covers) results in amateur fights and shoot-outs staged on location at the level of a '50s Don Glut amateur short. SPFX are extremely poor and half-hearted, which would earn an F at NYC's School of Visual Arts but apparently are good enough for London. Michael Mann graduated from their prestigious film school and would have been a good role model for Bush had he chosen a more mainstream career path.
Also disappointing in looking at this as more of an audition tape than real movie (which it certainly is not) is the poor lighting. One sex scene is bathed in an ugly green, and murky lighting is frequently the case, not a wise move for porn of any stripe. The crummy sets are not conducive to developing atmosphere.