pullgees Reviews

Requiem (2018)

Inconclusive ending

[13 March 2018]

Don't watch this in the hope they may some resolution in the final episode, there isn't.

Soldier Blue (1970)

Hippy Chick Versus Raw Recruit

[24 November 2004]

A love story with an anti war message. Made at the height of the Vietnam War. With a growing anti war mood in America it was well received at the time. Those days gave hope for a change of methods and politics in the US but as we see today in Iraq the lessons of Sand Creek, Mai Lee and many others have been forgotten. At first I thought this was a sort of battle of the sexes buddy buddy story, not unlike the African Queen except this time the roles were reversed, the male was the prude and the female was the slap em on the back and burp type. But the ghastly history this love story takes place in becomes evident and is there simmering in the back ground all the way through. Finally we see the massacre at Sand Creek with the butchering of women and children, (civilians), sounds familiar? I thought Candice Bergen looked too Sixties and Donald Pleasance character was not nearly dangerous enough but silly instead.

Hell Drivers (1957)

Truck drivers spit gravel

[16 August 2004]

A tautly directed and tight lipped B movie done in American 50's crime genre style. This was one British film that had actors playing tough guys properly instead of the usual feeble and artificial methods of acting tough that let down scores of British films of that time. In particular the fist fight scene looked convincing and dramatic for a change. All this was very refreshing for its time. A very watchable Patrick Mcgoohan excelled in the role as the main antagonist playing a believable hard b'stard. I wish he had done subsequent roles as a leading heavy he would have been good at that. A strong cast all round. The dour realism of working class England was captured well. The crazy driving was not too far from the truth either. During the Fifties there was a massive rebuilding programme going on following the war and the blitz and you would see these ballast lorries scurrying around everywhere breaking speed limits where they could. Many looked in a bad state of maintenance. For truck geeks they were Dodge Semi Forwards with mostly Perkins diesel engines.

Vanishing Point (1971)

Soul challenger

[15 October 2003]

The best road movie ever made. To appreciate it you have got to try and see it from the culture of that era. It is totally anti establishment as was the mood of half of America. So the police are all idiots, the 'good ol boys' are either violent rednecks or passive disapproving onlookers. Kowalski is going to give those mid west conservatives something they won't forget, he's going to shake things up for a day or two. Kowalski is simply the symbol of the many disenfranchised at the time. The story starts at the end. We hear a boring stifling radio news item on the price of grain. We see dreary looking bystanders who need to be turned on. Then Super Soul takes over the airwaves with his wild DJ antics and hippy music trying to jolt these people out of their fixed ways. The old and the new are clashing. This sets the mood we know from then it is rebellious. Other aspects the stunts the music the characters have been well covered below so there is no need to say more on that. Some have said that there is no point to this story or Kowalski's motives and have interpreted the title meaning that. But all a vanishing point is an artist name for the phenomena of perspective where two parallel lines seemingly meet and in the long straight roads of the journey we see plenty of vanishing points.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

H-Bomb? more like damp squid.

[14 September 2003]

. This is flip side B-movie through and through. I like many fifties crime movies for their tight directing slick dialogue this had none of that, Chandleresque it was not. Of course it was Spillaine but even Spillaine wrote better stuff. In fact it was on the brink of parody with the obligatory bar room singer singing a forgettable song and the down beat Hammer looking fed up drooping into his glass and most of the other stereotyped ethnics doing their bit to look streetwise. You could make a good send up of the genre taking essentials from this movie. The acting was abysmal and most of the script was flat. The only lively dialogue was with the interview with the Feds but it never kept it up. I'll forgive the silly radiation effects as the fifties public had little understanding of the hazards like when Dr No fell into an open reactor.

Straw Dogs (1971)

Deliverance in Cornwall

[12 August 2003]

I saw this film when it first came out and thought it quite frightening. Today though the violence seemed nothing special compared to say 'Reservoir Dogs' oddly another 'dog' title. But conversely the rape scene was more disturbing to me than it was back then. This of course is an indication of how society has changed in relation to how women are treated on the subject of rape. I think there might have been some editing here. There was a fleeting shot of George's back with the brute behind her; it was so quick I think there was a cut there. I didn't think the yokels were at all convincing, they just did not seem that menacing especially that silly twit running around with a false nose. Was that an echo of Clockwork Orange? English heavies haven't got what it takes, they are not as menacing as American they just don't look particularly psychopathic, unlike those brutes in 'Deliverance' one of whom raped Ned Beatty. (Oh! and why wasn't that banned for twenty five years). The English always do a good suave psychopathic but can't do a working class one. This was a pre 'Deliverance' type film if Peckinpah had made it in the backwoods of Louisiana it would still have impact today.