Ask 411 Movies for 2.19.07: Annual President’s Day Mattress Sale Blowout!
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 02.19.2007
Blaxsploitation, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Vincent Price’s pork chops and movies so bad they never saw the light of day
On Wednesay I took the online test to qualify for Vh-1's next season of the "World Series of Pop Culture." It was done up like a fake SAT type thing. It was a little harder than I thought it would be, but I think I did ok. The only parts I know I missed was on current TV shows I don't watch. A few questions I made educated guesses on and I second guessed myself a lot. The test was timed per section, but it would have been easy to cheat and look things up. I didn't, because I wanted to test myself. If I make it on the show I won't be able to get online to find answers. I'll keep you updated.
From the Wal-Mart $5.50 bin I picked up Cliffhanger collector's series, Auto Focus special edition and Natural Born Killers director's cut. I'll buy anything for $5.50 if it has a whole slate of extras on the disc. Well, maybe not From Justin to Kelly. It depends on my sobriety at the time.
NETFLIX MOVIE OF THE WEEK: THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE
I was asked about this movie a few weeks ago and realized it was one of those that slipped through the cracks on me that I hadn't seen. Particularly I was asked about Jack Lemmon's involvement. He appears in a superfluous wraparound sequence that really doesn't do much for the movie. If you take out the bookend and Lemmon's narration it's still the same movie, so that means you don't need it. Robert Redford is an underrated filmmaker, but he's a personality full of his own hubris. It catches up to him here as the movie is overly self important and mystic. Redford understands what he's trying to do with the movie, but he doesn't communicate it well. The traumas of World War I that devastated Junuh are never clearly presented. As a viewer his mental breakdown is nebulous. Bagger Vance's advice is also overly cryptic and just sounds like faux zen bs. There is more sound golf as life philosophy in Caddyshack. Sports movies are inherently engaging, but this one left me a bit cold. Matt Damon, Charlize Theron and Will Smith were still finding themselves as actors in 2000 and if you put them in this movie today their performances would be ten times better and probably enough to overcome the shortcomings in the script. Really, Bruce McGill as the womanizing Walter Hagen gives the most fleshed out and nuanced performance of the film. The only time I got goosebumps was Hagen's shot from the seashore in his bare feet.
In our bit of YouTube insanity this week we have Vincent Price singing about pork chops and chicken livers. Seriously.
Q: Hey man,
Great column as usual. My brother and I were heading up to NYC this summer and we wanted to stop at the infamous Cherry Hill White Castle. Imagine our disappointment. Now you tell me about Hot Dog Heaven. Geez. Next thing you'll say is that there's no Burger Shack around the corner from the mulitplex.
-Mitch
A: White Castle has to be stupid for not putting a franchise there. I wonder how many others go there looking for a restaurant?
Q: This is a sorta followup question on Zyzzyx Road. Unless a movie is so bad it would embarrass a studio to put it out (lol), why would a studio not put a movie out in at least a limited theatrical run (or, at worse, do what they did to Zyzzyx Road with the one week thing) or on DVD? You would think that even if it flopped, making a little money on it is better than making no money off of it.
-James
A: Most films do get released in some form even if they sit on the shelf for years. As you said, they can make at least a little money off the worst movie, especially today when there are so many avenues to distribute a film to the masses. If a movie doesn't get released it's usually due to rights issues. For example, an original Fantastic Four movie was made by New Horizons back in 1994 simply because they would have lost rights to the property had they not began filming by a certain date. Jerry Lewis made The Day the Clown Cried in 1972. He used his own money to finish the project, but the rights had already lapsed and the original screenwriter refused for the film to be released due to the changes Lewis made to the script and the main character. In the movie, Lewis plays a Jewish clown who leads children to the gas chambers in World War II internment camps. Alec Baldwin directed and starred in an update of The Devil and Daniel Webster in 2001, which might finally see a limited release this spring. The problem there was that the FBI froze all assets of certain investors in the film due to bank fraud. Anthony Hopkins plays Webster with Jennifer Love Hewitt as the Devil. Now if she did a remake of the The Devil in Miss Jones I'd watch it. The Marx Brothers first film was an unreleased and thought now lost short film in 1921 called Humor Risk. Rumors have Groucho burning the negative after a bad test screening or it getting thrown away by accident when it was left overnight in a screening room. Al Pacino also made an unreleased short film in the eighties called The Local Stigmatic that he simply did not want out.
February is black history month and for column filler we will look at blaxsploitation films. While on the surface they may seem racist or simply playing off of black culture to make a buck, landmarks of the genre are pretty good films and some of the first that gave blacks real power in cinema in front of and behind the camera.
Watermelon Man (1970): Melvin Van Peebles made his directing debut with an adaptation of a controversial novel. Jeff Gerber (Godfrey Cambridge) is a white insurance salesman who wakes up one morning to find he has turned into a black man. Jeff deals with various degrees of racism from his white secretary now being attracted to him to police harassing him for running after a bus thinking he must have stolen something to be running. In the end Jeff accepts his fate and becomes a better and happier person. Originally Columbia Studios wanted a white actor such as Jack Lemmon or Alan Arkin to play Jeff in black face for the second part of the film. Peebles got them to change their mind by having a black actor play the role in white face for the first part. Columbia also wanted an alternative ending shot where Jeff wakes up in bed white to find it was all a nightmare. Peebles reportedly filmed the ending as requested, but then refused to let Columbia have access to it. Regardless, Peebles was offered a three picture deal with the studio, but he broke out on his own to make…
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssssss Song (1971): Peebles writes, directs, produces, scores and stars. His son Mario Van Peebles, who would go on to be a filmmaker and actor, plays Sweet Sweetback as a youth. He's an orphan raised in a whorehouse and admired for having a huge penis. Police arrest Sweet Sweetback for a murder he didn't commit simply to have someone to hang the crime on. While in custody he beats two cops to death while going to the aide of a Black Panther member suffering police abuse. Sweetback then sets out into the desert to find his freedom in Mexico. The film was the highest grossing independent film up to that time and credited by many to have created the blaxsploitation genre. Mario made a film about his father making this movie in 2003 simply called Badassssss!, which is actually pretty good and interesting.
Shaft (1971): Detective films were a popular subset of blaxsploitation as was taking traditional white genres and injecting African American characters and sensibilities. Richard Roundtree became an icon as the "black private dick who's a sex machine with all the chicks." The soundtrack by Isaac Hayes was a hit in its own right and earned Hayes an Oscar for the film's memorable theme song. Two sequels followed, a short lived television series and a loose remake in 2000 with Samuel L. Jackson playing the nephew of the original character. Along with Peebles, Gordon Parks, Sr. was the most important director and creative force of blaxploitation.
Superfly (1972): Parks produced this film with his son Gordon Parks, Jr. directing. Youngblood Priest (Ron O'Neal) is an urban cocaine dealer who wants to make one last giant score before getting out of the business and lifestyle. Priest's pimpmobile car and wardrobe were very influential on urban black culture and elements of it can still be seen today. Much like Shaft, it's soundtrack was a monster hit outside of the film itself. Curtis Mayfield was nominated for a Grammy for it.
Blacula (1972): You might know him as the King of Cartoons on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," but before that William Marshall was Blacula. Mamuwalde was an African Prince turned into a vampire by Dracula in 1780 and sealed in a coffin. He is released in the 1970's and pursues a young woman who looks like his long lost love (Vonetta McGee). It spawned a sequel and a slew of lesser blaxploitation horror films including Blakenstein and Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde. The movie is made on Marshall's brilliant performance as a tortured soul who is forced into unspeakable deeds which he would not have otherwise committed.
Coffy (1973): Pam Grier plays a nurse who wages a vigilante war on Los Angeles' gangs by night due to her sister being a drug addict. Things turn bad when her cop friend Carter is beaten into a coma for her actions and her boyfriend politician betrays her to the mafia for his own gain. This film was made by American International Pictures after they lost the rights to the similarly themed Cleopatra Jones. Jones starred Tamara Dobson and spawned the 1975 sequel Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold. A sequel for Coffy was planned and eventually turned into the more successful and influential Foxy Brown also starring Grier.
Black Belt Jones (1974): Blaxsploitation infiltrates the martial arts genre, which was also hugely popular in the seventies. Star Jim Kelly rose to fame in Enter the Dragon opposite Bruce Lee and John Saxon. In this film the mafia tries to strong arm a gym owner (Scatman Crothers) to sell his property to them. He refuses and is killed. His daughter (Gloria Hendry) and former martial arts students seek out Jones for help in defeating the mob.
Dolemite (1975): Standup comedian Rudy Ray Moore brought his jive talking character to the screen in a film so bad it's good. The fight scenes are poorly choreographed, the production values are slim, the acting is awful, the boom mic can be seen in many shots; you name it. However, the movie has a certain cheesy charm and has become a cult favorite. Dolemite is a pimp falsely imprisoned who seeks to regain his empire once he's out of jail. A sequel followed the following year in The Human Tornado where Dolemite gained superpowers. Moore would also star in several other tongue in cheek, action comedy blaxploitation flicks including Petey Wheatstraw, aka the Devil's Son in Law and The Avenging Disco Godfather.
Mandingo (1975): Boxer turned actor Ken Norton stars as the title character, a slave in the 1840's who is trained as a prizefighter by his owner (James Mason). Little does he know that Mandingo is sleeping with his young trophy wife (Susan George). Meanwhile, his adult son Hammond (Perry King) is having illicit affairs with the slaves as well. The film is filled with salacious material, not just racism, sex and nudity. While it did flop, the sequel Drum came out the following year with Warren Oates replacing King.
I'm Gonna Get You Sucka (1988): A decade after the genre had petered out, Keenan Ivory Wayans lampooned blaxsploitation. Wayans stars as Jack Spade seeking revenge on Mr. Big (John Vernon) for the death of his brother. He enlists the help of old crime fighters from the seventies in his father John Slade (Bernie Casey), Hammer (Isaac Hayes), Slammer (Jim Brown), Flyguy (Antonio Vargas) and Kung Fu Joe (Steve James). Wayans would do a more serious entry in the genre in 1994 with A Low Down Dirty Shame. The 1996 film Original Gangstas was a tribute to the genre with many of its biggest stars uniting in Pam Grier, Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Ron O'Neal and Richard Roundtree.
Don't die.
"I got feeling like a machine and that's no way to feel."
