Oliver Battershall

A Fistful of Dollars (1964) 3.5/5
Not sure why I waited this long to finish the Dollars Trilogy but here we are. This is decidedly the weakest of them all but there are certain Leone staples that it expectedly delivers on. Namely, the great Morricone score (one of his best), the close-ups of tanned blokes glistening with blood and sweat wearing a scowl, and a fantastic ending.

The Untouchables (1987) 4/5
I very vaguely remember watching this in Year 9 GCSE History. In many ways Year 9 is the perfect school year because you’re still young enough for watching a movie to pass as multiple lessons but old enough for your teacher to show minimal remorse in putting on something rated 15. One of De Palma’s more mainstream efforts but still has enough of his style with some great performances and my favourite non-western Morricone score. The world needs more than just two films where Kevin Costner uncovers an underground criminal conspiracy. I also now can’t stop singing ‘Untouchables’ to the tune of Mel and Kim’s smash hit ‘Respectable’.

The Longest Day (1962) 4/5
Of all the WWII films I’ve seen this is maybe the best when it comes to the care taken in its portrayals of the people of all nationalities involved in the conflict. I particularly liked how the Germans were presented, you naturally feel the necessary schadenfreude at their demise but scenes like those showing military officials getting furious at Hitler’s incompetence shows a level of understanding and means they’re not just the simple faceless enemies you’d expect. The cast is massive, and a sprawling array of personal storylines are explored with a handful of big stars to tide audiences over. The lack of any one main character makes the movie feel much less emotionally manipulative and more about the myriad experiences of those from all backgrounds and sides in the conflict. There are some great shots and little exchanges dotted throughout but it does suffer from dragging a bit.

Swamp Thing (1982) 3.5/5
The generally negative consensus on this makes me sad, I think it has a lot more heart than people give it credit for. Swamp Thing as a character feels more innately charming to me than say King Kong or Frankenstein since he avoids that slightly annoying trope of destroying everything he loves just by virtue of being a massive scary bloke. It doesn’t work very well as a thriller since there’s very little build-up of tension and the writing isn’t the best but I wasn’t expecting any of that anyway, for rubber-suited monster movie standards it’s pleasantly tender.

Die Hard (1988) 5/5
Walking into the screening of Die Hard, a movie I’d always put off seeing because I wanted my first viewing to be at the cinema, I dare say I felt a bit like an action hero myself due to my visibly very bloody left eye caused by an injection I had yesterday (which I was a very brave boy for). I’m very glad I waited. The action’s fantastic and it’s balanced out with a great sense of humour that kept me and the audience smiling for the full runtime. Everything is glorious in this from the epic shots to the brilliant Alan Rickman who does a great impression of a German doing an impression of an American. An awesome experience that wasn’t even tainted by the very drunk woman at the back of the room who was ejected halfway through. I was teetering on giving this 5 stars then the credits rolled and I heard everyone clap for the first time since Dune 2 back at the start of the year and I thought to myself, hell yeah this rocks doesn’t it.

Belladonna of Sadness (1973) 3/5
I seem to be one of the rare few who doesn’t feel a particularly polarised view on this in any direction. The undeniable draw to this is that it looks gorgeous and the many different forms of animation throughout were really beautiful when paired with the indulgent, surrealist visuals (which to be fair only sometimes worked beyond a surface level for me). The elephant in the room with this when you scroll through the top reviews is of course the depiction of rape, and I won’t act like some authority on the matter, but I think many of the very online contingent of film fans try to take a bit of a disingenuous easy route out with this. They’ll say any clear depiction of rape in film is inherently bad and can’t be incorporated into any narrative even if it seeks to show liberation or beauty. And while I can’t pretend the concept of men writing about this subject does naturally raise eyebrows, we have to treat this stuff with the nuance it deserves. This is a film about attitudes towards sin and feminism in the context of medieval society with lessons and ideas that can be transposed into modern discourse. No one enjoys seeing this in film or in any context but sometimes it’s simply a fundamental and necessary part of a film’s message, a medium that’s supposed to provoke. Anyway. As early experimental animation goes it’s definitely something, I just can’t say I felt 100% engaged especially in the middle, too many completely static illustrations in there maybe. Great soundtrack though.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) 3.5/5
Overall quite touching and very technically impressive with some lovely shots throughout. But as a consequence of hastily wrapping up the main conflict of the film so early the authenticity of the characters feels a bit flimsy. It also means the 2nd act quickly gets burnt out because when you have no stakes you need to pad for time a bit with scenes like a drunk piglet getting chased round a carnival. I couldn’t help but see missed opportunities to create complex tension that lingered throughout, instead the conflict is reintroduced right at the end in a slightly clumsy way with less depth than I’d hoped. That being said I can’t deny that at times I felt moved by the starring duo and the cinematography.