Without superheroes or aliens, the F&F franchise has made speed, laced with rage, one of film's most beloved intoxicants
The reason for the burgeoning success of the Fast & Furious films eludes some people. This apparently humdrum franchise manages without superheroes, intergalactic conflict, aliens, zombies, vampires or 3D. What has it got? Perhaps the clue's in the title. Speed and rage have come to form an alluring combination.
Speed, said Aldous Huxley, "provides the one genuinely modern pleasure." Until the 1820s, no one had travelled faster than a galloping horse; by the 1840s, trains were zipping along at 70mph. Speed began to redefine human life, as the acceleration of output yielded previously unimaginable benefits. The Gpo documentary Night Mail, with its pulsing pistons, captured the exaltation this engendered. But if the hastening tempo of the railway age brought collective liberation, it imposed a new tyranny on the individual.
As Marxists put it,...
The reason for the burgeoning success of the Fast & Furious films eludes some people. This apparently humdrum franchise manages without superheroes, intergalactic conflict, aliens, zombies, vampires or 3D. What has it got? Perhaps the clue's in the title. Speed and rage have come to form an alluring combination.
Speed, said Aldous Huxley, "provides the one genuinely modern pleasure." Until the 1820s, no one had travelled faster than a galloping horse; by the 1840s, trains were zipping along at 70mph. Speed began to redefine human life, as the acceleration of output yielded previously unimaginable benefits. The Gpo documentary Night Mail, with its pulsing pistons, captured the exaltation this engendered. But if the hastening tempo of the railway age brought collective liberation, it imposed a new tyranny on the individual.
As Marxists put it,...
- 5/20/2013
- by David Cox
- The Guardian - Film News
He has played goodies, baddies, creeps and goblins. But Willem Dafoe's latest film posed new challenges. He talks to Steve Rose about his hits, his flops – and the perils of skinning a wallaby
It is a perennial paradox. Studios spend vast sums of money bringing together the efforts of hundreds of skilled technicians, well-drilled actors and extras – yet cinema is often at its most compelling when simply showing an individual silently going about their business. There are countless examples: James Stewart stalking Kim Novak in Vertigo, David Hemmings poring over his prints in Blow-Up, Daniel Day-Lewis scrabbling underground in There Will Be Blood. We tend not to regard "just doing stuff" as acting – but perhaps making it all so absorbing is actually the hallmark of a great actor.
In his new movie The Hunter, released tomorrow, Willem Dafoe does "stuff" very well. His character is searching for the last Tasmanian tiger,...
It is a perennial paradox. Studios spend vast sums of money bringing together the efforts of hundreds of skilled technicians, well-drilled actors and extras – yet cinema is often at its most compelling when simply showing an individual silently going about their business. There are countless examples: James Stewart stalking Kim Novak in Vertigo, David Hemmings poring over his prints in Blow-Up, Daniel Day-Lewis scrabbling underground in There Will Be Blood. We tend not to regard "just doing stuff" as acting – but perhaps making it all so absorbing is actually the hallmark of a great actor.
In his new movie The Hunter, released tomorrow, Willem Dafoe does "stuff" very well. His character is searching for the last Tasmanian tiger,...
- 7/4/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
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