bridgeburner99 Reviews

Nazi Love Camp 27 (1977)

Kicks ass over Salon Kitty

[7/10 · 10 August 2007]

Let me first explain that I'm giving 7 stars for those folks who are fans of sexploitation flicks NOT serious film critics. This is a Nazi sexploitation flick and it has not only plenty of nudity but explicit, hardcore pornographic shots as well.

That said, let me point out why this is a far better film than Salon Kitty. The two films are different versions of what is essentially the same story: a young Jewish woman during the Nazis' reign is sexually abused and exploited by the Reich eventually becoming the madame of a brothel that caters to Nazi officers where she spies for either the Nazi higher ups or the Resistance depending on which film you watch.

Salon Kitty has lots of sets and costumes and clearly a much higher budget and better cinematography, but it is a silly film peopled by characters you don't care much about and whose thin plot falls apart completely by the end. Oh, and SK also has "freaks". You get to see naked oddities and I suppose that's a thrill for some folks. Generally what you get is a lot of half-naked women lounging around doing not much of anything.

Nazi Love Camp 27, on the other hand, has budget sets and costumes, bad dubbing, and obligatory sexploitation scenes like whippings, the lesbian warden and several hardcore penetration shots including a gang rape. One would think that this was a thinly-veiled excuse for a porno, and to some extent it is, but it actually has a fairly coherent plot and you truly DO care about the lead character and even others. Yes, the final scene is a bit over the top, but you're still interested in what is happening right up to the end of the film --- not just fast forwarding to the next naked part.

Sirpa Lane's performance is strong and due to whatever quirk of talent or fate, she manages to convey the horror and the poignancy of her character's struggles. This is not to say that this is a great film, again know what you're getting into -- but if you had to make a choice and see only one of these films, despite its deplorable title Nazi Love Camp 27 has much more to recommend it than just the sex in terms of character development and plot. Salon Kitty only has naked boobs and dwarfs and amputees in nicely appointed settings.

Apocalypto (2006)

Interesting Failure

[6/10 · 21 December 2006]

Mel Gibson's Apocolypto is not to be avoided for historical inaccuracy or heavy-handed preachiness or any number of other intellectual reasons. The simple fact is that it's just not a very good movie from a technical and structural standpoint. The cinematography is decidedly lacking, the editing is choppy and the script is badly paced and ultimately a rather stock construction. This is a clichéd story about the young family man who avenges a wrong and in the process grows to full adulthood. I say clichéd because Apocolypto offers nothing new or insightful to this standard tale except the trappings of pre-colonial MesoAmerican culture.

The historical inaccuracies are somewhat significant, but could more easily be excused if they truly added to the film. Unfortunately, they don't. This could have been solved simply by ensuring that the city people were identified as Aztec rather than Maya. It was the Aztecs that were at their height when the Spanish arrived. The Maya civilization had crumbled nearly 500 years before to become small and non-centralized villages like the one Jaguar Paw is from. This is significant because it is one of the main reasons that the Maya managed to continue their rebellion against European colonization up through the end of the 19th century, while the Aztecs fell almost immediately.

The "look" of things is excellent. The artistic designers and researchers for Apocolypto clearly did their homework and the film is almost worth seeing simply to watch a moving picture of what we know of Maya life. We don't truly get to see enough of it, however. Most of the film is taken up with shaky camera work running through the rain forest. And running and running and running.

The message of the pitfalls of conspicuous consumption is lost through oversimplification and lack of focus. When we enter the Great City, we are overwhelmed by the filth and the shocking degree of poverty juxtaposed against the idle and lavishly rich -- and then come the bloody human sacrifices. The movie clumsily fails to articulate that the reason Jaguar Paw's simple forest people are to be esteemed over the city dwellers isn't because one group is kindly and the other is evil. Jaguar Paw's people manage to live within their environment without destroying it while the city dwellers are burning up their resources faster than they can be replaced and then falling to more and more drastic measures of trying to appease their gods. Because not enough trouble is taken to show the point of view of the city dwellers and why they act as they do, we consequently find no reason for their barbarity but to label them "evil".

It is worth mentioning that the character of Zero Wolf offers the only glimpse of real humanity among the city people. He is a man of integrity and a proud father. He is not portrayed as evil, but because he is the only city dweller who seems to have any personal integrity, his character serves as a flail for the others. He stands out as an exception that only makes his fellows look worse in comparison.

Ultimately, the film is mediocre, not because Mel Gibson had an agenda or didn't do his homework, but because it wasn't well written of filmed. Gibson is to be commended for taking on the project. Regardless of whether one likes or dislikes the film, it is inevitable that one of Gibson's aims will be reached - the legitimizing and popularizing of indigenous Maya languages. Also, it is to be expected that more people will now become interested in finding out about Maya culture and also become aware of the fact that there are still some 6 million Maya living in Central America today, mostly in deplorable conditions due to centuries of racial discrimination. For these things alone, I'm glad the film was made and is having such a big splash. It's a good thing too since it hasn't much to recommend it simply as a work of cinema.