Ecklian Reviews: Corrupt Cop Movies

Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center, Lake Bruce, IN 

Growing up, I was taught to wave to farmers because they fed us and policemen because they protected us.  If I were a police officer today I would wonder if anyone believed such a thing anymore.  The public is being fed a constant barrage of negative portrayals on the big screen concerning three major groups: conservative politicians, business people, and the police.  Controlling the images we see, Hollywood can corrupt thinking about any social category.  There seems to be a cultural war against authority.  Anyone who confronts my individualistic morality becomes my adversary. 

Denzel Washington delivered an Academy Award for just such a performance in Training Day: the cops are just as bad as the robbers.  Ethan Hawke’s “good” character is caught in a malevolent maelstrom.  The only way out is to become “bad” to overcome “the bad.”  The Departed has a similar refrain: moles and leaks exist for back room payoffs.  Only killing cops gives closure.  Assault on Precinct 13 actually makes the prisoners, the heroes.  Dark Blue intimates that corruption is “the way things are done.”  16 Blocks again suggests that most uniforms are not to be trusted.  Pride and Glory recounts the travails of a family which subverts itself by silence, turning its collective back on its own vices.  Any number of films would fit the profile.  To be sure, redemptive characters do step up in some of the films mentioned.  And while good cops punctuate the conflict in movies like L. A. Confidential and S. W. A. T., the action is driven by those who cannot be trusted within the force (Walking Tall: The Payback).  

There are good lessons to be learned.  Keep your hands out of the cookie jar (The Corrupter).  A synonymous point is also true: the more cookies one eats, the harder it is to stop (To Live and Die in L. A.).  Sometimes the lesson is corruption can only be overcome by more and worse violence (Above The Law).  The viewer certainly understands that the real good guys must be better in every way than their mercenary adversaries (Kiss the Dragon).  At times, courage against all odds wins the day (Copland).  And for the movies that teach us bad people must be stopped by excellent detectives (Seven) there are ten more movies that excel at pointing out the “bad guys” are not much worse than the “good guys” (A Perfect World, Cleaner, Lakeview Terrace). 

In contrast, The Asphalt Jungle directed by John Huston sets the bar for exceptional filmmaking and elevation of the law as righteous.  Evil men and their schemes are brilliant in planning and execution.  However, “the best laid plans” begin to unravel simply because evil begets more evil.  It is only the concerted effort of dedicated police officers that stops wrongdoing in its tracks.  I highly recommend reviewing older films for their dedication to goodness in law enforcement.  While by no means am I suggesting our culture was more ethically upright then, some films lend themselves to train our sensibilities toward what is right.  As a teacher, I want to encourage students to reconsider authority in a better light.  But I may have to leave the “new release” section to find what I want in “the classics” of my video store to do it.  

And I still wave to policemen.

NOTE–Most of the movies mentioned above are rated R.  My recommendation is to view The Asphalt Jungle which would be rated PG by today’s standards.

Ecklian Reviews: An American Carol

Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center, Lake Bruce, IN 

Political conservatives unite!  In a not-so-subtle attempt to pillory Michael Moore, David Zucker (Airplane, Naked Gun) throws red meat to all the dogs of cultural warfare.  Tired of anti-Christian tirades and conservative bashing from Hollywood elites, Zucker decided to direct a film taking on the tyrants of Tinseltown.  Imagine . . . The American military is elevated to a positive status.  Preservation of U. S. ideals and ideas is sacrosanct.  John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address is Marley’s ghost, rattling the chains of freedom to Michael’s cowardly Scrooge.  And, for once, Islamo-Fascists are shown to be who they are: small minded men who simply desire destruction and domination.  The terrorist leader (played with great a palm by Robert Davi) guides his bumbling companions through their various foiled plots: a reminder that we have done a good job stopping our enemies’ terrorist strikes.  One remembers after watching such a film, that America is a good place full of good people who do good things for others.  

Political satire leaves political correctness in tatters.  A Broadway-esque number lampooning Left-leaning college professors’ tirades in U.S. classrooms scores points in every stanza.  The ludicrous nature of equating Islamic terrorism with supposed Christian “atrocities” is shown as utter foolishness via video-exposé.  “What If?” historical moments make their mark: anti-war viewpoints might have left us with continued slavery in the 21^st century without the Civil War or an Islamic state in Hollywood.  “McCarthy-ism” does not exist, even though elites want to maintain a dead body in the coffin with the makeup of making more movies on the subject.  And ACLU zombies?!  Yes! 

Various conservative and libertarian actors create laughable, laudable characters giving a point-of-view hardly ever heard from California.  Kelsey Grammar is General George Patton who marches Michael’s character through conservative basic training.  Jon Voight plays a somber General George Washington, giving a subdued performance in a movie full of hilarity.  A moving, lump-in-throat moment comes when the wreckage of The Twin Towers is revealed, with the words, “This is the dust of three thousand souls.”  Dennis Hopper, James Woods, Gail O’Grady, and other right-of-center luminaries enter the stage, adding their considerable conservative voices to the script.  Special mention must be given Trace Atkins as “the spirit of things yet to come.”  A gallery full of American servicemen serves as the backdrop for pro-American country music finale. 

As in Dicken’s A Christmas Carol the American Scrooge Michael no-not Moore (Kevin Farley) reforms his treasonous ways by movie’s end.  Repenting of his aid to our enemies, Michael finds himself on the receiving end of liberal anger and back-patting American pride.  In truth, this is a bad movie.  I am NOT a fan of the Dumb and Dumber genre.  Yet I rented this film from my local video outlet to lend my dollars in economic support of one conservative voice in Hollywood.  So, here is to all those who spurn the current “black listing” of conservatives on the Left Coast.  May their tribe increase.  May their voice be heard.  May their love of country be our own. 

Rated PG-13 for crude humor and a great deal of Michael no-not Moore slapping.

Ecklian Reviews: Henry Poole Is Here

Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center, Lake Bruce, IN

 Hope does not always come in forms we expect or can explain.  Sometimes the face of Jesus must appear in a stain on a stucco house.  Other times, the house literally has to fall on a person to wake them up.  It is no mistake that words for hope, trust, and faith are so closely aligned with each other in religious frameworks: each is dependent on a world beyond our own.  It is this outside world that we cannot see, that we cannot explain, that invades inside our world. 

Hope can come in many forms, but always from outside ourselves.  Luke Wilson stars in a movie to ponder just such an idea: Henry Poole Is Here.  The inexplicable occurs to give hope to the hopeless.  Full of Christian imagery and truly caring believers, Henry is altered when he is forced to confront that which he cannot explain.  Coke-bottle glasses worn by the grocery store check out girl are unnecessary after touching the stained house wall.  Mute no more, a child next door speaks; a result of the same.  Church-goers line up around the house because they believe what they cannot describe may transform what they cannot change.  Henry himself has been diagnosed with an undivulged illness.  Believing his own death to be imminent, “It doesn’t matter” and “I won’t be here very long” are phrases Henry uses to deflect attention away from commitments, away from people, away from life.  

Characters enliven the tale.  The won’t-take-no-for-an-answer next door neighbor (Adriana Barraza), the Catholic priest (George Lopez), Millie whose eyes mesmerize (Morgan Lilly), Dawn (Rahda Mitchell) the romantic seeing inside Henry’s shell, and the cashier (Rachel Seiferth) all add flavor to a sweet story.

Albert Torres wrote the original screenplay for Henry Poole.  After failed attempts at penning scripts in Hollywood, Torres quit trying.  He changed course.  Two years later he realized his “undefined sadness” was because he was not writing.  “Rather than write a movie I thought I could sell or one I thought others would like, I wrote a movie I wanted to see. I emerged from a desperate time, looking for a little hope and Henry Poole was born.”[1]  After suffering the devastating death of his wife, Mark Pellington created a film to reflect upon the realities of life lived after loss.[2]  Henry Poole Lives Here is an example of reflection leading to hope.

Both Pellington and Torres maintain that the movie is not “pushy” about faith.  References to Jesus’ face, miracles, and Catholicism are simply to move the story along.  Henry Poole indeed succeeds without preaching.  But there is no mistaking a movie which depends on its most prominent character, Who is invisible, other-worldly, unexplained but always there. 

Rated PG for a few uses of profane language and adult situations. 

[1] http://www.moviehole.net/200815721-caffeinated-clint-henry-poole-is-here

[2] John Anderson.  “After a Devastating Loss, A New Subtext.” New York Times 10 August 08: AR9. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/movies/10ande.html retrieved 27 January 09.

Ecklian Reviews: Swing Vote

Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center, Lake Bruce, IN

 Kevin Costner surprises audiences, playing strong men whose lives are almost spent (Bull Durham, Open Range), yet renewed by one final, redeeming act.  With one deciding vote, Costner now shows an equally expert performance of the under-whelmed, apathetic Bud in Swing Vote.  With a divided country and a photo finish election, his ballet decides who will be the next leader of our country.  Given more opportunities than most, he concedes, Bud has done little with them; a condition he now regrets.  The gravity of picking the next president eludes Bud, but not his daughter Molly (played movingly by Madeline Carroll).  Molly drags her father through the necessary guilt hoops, connecting him to what is important.

The first ninety minutes involves the viewer in an above average comedy, full of Bud’s inept, pathetic habits.  But the crowning achievement of Swing Vote is that is skewers politicians, political double-mindedness, and sound-bite happy journalists.  Even the newswoman who is most admired requires repentance (Paula Patton).  Laugh-out-loud scenes suggest Democrats and Republicans are both in need of “heart” surgery.  The satirical outrages of campaign commercials which are in opposition to party platforms to win one vote seem eerily accurate.  Outside of the CNN, MSNBC overplay, with some not so innocent placard placements, the true nature of comedy is maintained: everyone gets nailed.  So careful was Costner in husbanding this film financially and philosophically that America’s current military concerns are absent.  Or perhaps that was a statement all its own. 

After the winning first ninety minutes be prepared for twenty which are lost.  Why do directors insist on adding material that is looking for a movie?  Mare Winningham’s performance as the absent mother is wasted.  The seriousness of satire is unnecessarily interrupted by delving into a part of the characters’ lives that does not match the intention of the script.  Stanley Tucci and Nathan Lane as seared conscience campaign managers do matter to the material, playing their parts with verve.  Kelsey Grammar and Dennis Hopper as president and hopeful, actually succeed in making us believe they are having second thoughts about first priorities.  

Molly’s disgusted looks given to both party’s candidates make the message of Swing Vote clear: we have real problems believing any politician.  But we live in a country where everyone should be involved yet just over half of the electorate votes.  So Molly’s classroom report sets the tone for the film.  Practice citizenship.  Participate in the social contract.  Invest oneself in a cause.  Find solutions.  Reach out.  No matter one’s political preference or response any of America’s 21^st century’s presidents, Swing Vote forces us back into the voting booth. 

Rated PG-13 for profanity and adult situations.

In addition: for those who enjoy DVD extras, make sure to watch Costner’s band perform “Hey Man, What About You?”

Ecklian Reviews: The Lives of Others

Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center, Lake Bruce, IN

 People can change for the better even within the crucible of dictatorship.  Set in the bare, gray landscape of totalitarian East Germany in 1984[1], a state security agent named Wiesler plies his trade of eavesdropping on his own people.  Rock-like jaw, empty face, and barren soul greet the viewer as Wiesler teaches his craft to young people in the opening sequences.  Everything about Wiesler is committed to his Communist leaders including his terse conversation, searing gaze, and Spartan apartment-an apartment so bare, the Spartan’s would be seen as materialists in comparison.  

Prompted by a “higher-up’s” love interest in the actress Christa-Maria, Wiesler begins his campaign of covert espionage on Dreyman, the only successful playwright to come out of East Germany who is also heralded by The West.  In comparison to Wiesler, Dreyman has a flaccid conscience.  He wants desperately to speak out about the subjugation of his own people.  Yet, conflicted because of the physical largesse showered on him by the government, Dreyman is hobbled, not by the chains of tyranny but by the shackles of complicity.  

Separately, the two men begin their metamorphosis.  Wiesler steals a book by Brecht from Dreyman’s study.  Mind pried open by reading and the entrancing music heard during his surveillance, Wiesler, without words, begins to question the squashing of aesthetics and life itself.  The once proud interrogator is softened by the wedge of human goodness, latent in him all these years.  Given opportunity to imprison a young man’s father who deigned to call the stasi (East Germany’s secret police) the brutes they were, he suddenly refrains.  Transformed by an internal prompting, Weisler continues covering Dreyman’s new found conviction. 

For his part, Dreyman is moved to action by his recluse director friend Jerka who gives Dreyman a musical piece entitled, “Sonata for a Good Man” before committing suicide.  Knowing that he must speak out about the atrocities in his country, Dreyman writes an article for The West which points out the suicide rate in East Germany.  Dreyman’s new found courage is tested and tried in ways the movie bridges over time. 

The Lives of Others is a film for the ages; a brilliant directorial debut by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.  Looking for an idea for a class he was taking at the time, Donnersmarck uses a statement by Lenin and his inability to produce the Russian Revolution while also trying to enjoy Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata.’  Music is the catalyst of change in Wiesler, the means of nerve for Dreyman.  The Lives of Others compels the viewer from beginning to perfect ending to consider what prompts any goodness in man. 

(Subtitled) Rated R for violence, nudity, and sexuality.

[1] The reviews of this film show either historical naiveté or passive acceptance of the East German police state under Communism.  One would get the general impression sans the 20^th century record that the stasi were more of a general nuisance rather than the tyrannical arbiters of life and death they were.  One wonders if the phrase “abuse of power by the reactionary and deeply ensconced East German leadership” (Kent Turner, salon.com) is a true depiction of peoples’ freedoms trounced under the hobnailed boot.

Ecklian Reviews: Juno

Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center, Lake Bruce, IN

Authentic sensitivity meets ambiguous seriousness: life has meaning.  Juno’s confession of premarital sex and pregnancy is anything but a concession.  With fortitude and honesty little seen on screen, Juno makes a declaration of independence from current cultural pressure.  Displaying the wit of a comedienne, the wisdom of a sage, and the longsuffering of a protester, Juno communicates that no one will dissuade her from the quest to do what is right. 

Add the following ingredients and mix thoroughly: Juno’s director’s (Jason Reitman) first film was the sarcastic Thank You For Smoking; Juno’s star’s (Ellen Page) first film was the revenge-against-cyber-stalkers Hard Candy; Mateo Messina, in his first composer role, utilized Kimya Dawson’s tunes to capture the sweet spirit of the picture; Juno’s screenwriter (Diablo Cody) was once a stripper and phone-sex operator.  Such collaboration would seem a “goof” to most in Hollywood.  But like The Office, put together a group who cares for their craft and the results can be astounding. 

Each person in their freshman or sophomore credits fused with the experience of John Malkovich as producer or character actors such as J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney (Juno’s pitch-perfect parents) create a film without parallel.  Michael Cera’s performance as Paulie Bleeker captures the clueless, caring spirit of a boyfriend caught in a situation he cannot fathom with a love he cannot relinquish.  Jason Bateman, as the potential adoptive father, portrays more adolescent behavior than Juno forcing the story toward a surprising yet fitting conclusion.  

Planned Parenthood was surely outraged by the portrayal of a less than caring and still clueless response to a teenager “making a choice.”  The lone protester outside the clinic knows Juno from high school and can muster little retort to a possible abortion save “it has fingernails.”  This is all Juno need know.  Taking the baby to term, damn the response of all naysayers, is exactly what she believes to be right setting her on a course to seek adoptive parents.  Motivation for Juno’s ethical stance seems only to be inherent: something she knows to be right without preachment. 

In Roman mythology “Juno” was queen of the gods.  Thought to be the guardian spirit of females, she would appear in statuary armed, dressed as a Roman legionnaire.  When the combativeness of Juno’s character is considered, the intentionality of the name may well speak to the plotline of the story.  Uninterested in publicly blaming her boyfriend-father, Juno stands publicly alone, though buttressed by kindhearted, honest parents. 

Paulie’s training with the everpresent track team wins him the race where the finish line is the hospital.  The seasons of life, as does a nine month pregnancy, continue unabated.  Yet the final scene brings Juno to her beau broken free of monotony.  People may struggle with how to live; but life takes on new meaning as life is given meaning.       

Rated PG-13 for sexual situations, mature subject matter, and language.