Mad Max (1979)

Genre

Action

Director

George Miller

Country

Australia

Cast

Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Roger Ward, Lisa Aldenhoven, David Bracks, Bertrand Cadart, David Cameron, Stephen Clark, Robina Chaffey, Jerry Day, Howard Eynon, Max Fairchild, John Farndale, Sheila Florence, Nic Gazzana, Paul Johnstone, Vincent Gil, Steve Millichamp, John Ley, George Novak, Reg Evans, Nico Lathouris

Storyline

In an Australian dystopia of decaying order and violent highways, patrolman Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) cruises the squalid back road that have become the breeding ground of criminals foraging for gasoline and scraps. When his wife (Joanne Samuel) and child meets a grisly end at the hands of a motorcycle gang, Max sets out across the barren wastelands in search of revenge.

Opinion

Before watching the highly acclaimed "Mad Max: Fury Road" I thought it'd be fair watching the original Mad Max films. Seems like the franchise didn't start off too well.

Paced too fast, especially in the action sequences, Mad Max is mostly bland and surprisingly manages to be tedious.

The major problem is that the film seems like it's never going to begin. Most of the plot seems like an introduction to the real story, that basically occurs in the last thirty minutes or so of the film. 

Also I wouldn't go too far and call it a 'revenge movie' or a 'post-apocalyptic movie' because the revenge doesn't start until that last part I've mentioned before, and dusty rural roads are not enough to convince me it's a post-apocalyptic Australia or a science fiction film for that matter.

However, I have to admit that the action sequences, despite the fast pacing, are quite exciting, especially Max's revenge sequence, and quite good considering that time standards. 

In one of his earliest performances, Mel Gibson did a quite good job with his character, even thought he has to wait around for most of the film, and the writers didn't bother writing an interesting character you can care about. Aside from Gibson, everyone else seems to put on some amateurish performances. 

If flat plot, lack of decent dialogue, explosions, car wrecks and motorcycle crashes are your thing, I'm quite sure you'll enjoy this film.

Life of Brian (1979)

Genre

Comedy

Director

Terry Jones

Country

UK

Cast

Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Kenneth Colley, Neil Innes, Gwen Taylor, Terence Bayler, Carol Cleveland, Charles McKeown, Chris Langham, Sue Jones-Davies, John Young, Bernard McKenna, Spike Milligan, George Harrison

Plot

Monty Pythons tells the story of Brian from Nazareth (Graham Chapman), an unwilling prophet who wants to free his land from the oppression of Rome.

Opinion

Life of Brian is not just an incredible satire of Christian religion and Hollywood's epic films, or an extremely funny film, but pure gold. It's amazing how this 36-year-old film doesn't feel aged at all. I laughed at it most of the time - although it slows down a bit in the second part - and, at one particular moment - when Pontius Pilate speaks of his friend Biggus Dickus - I laughed so hard, tears ran down my leg.

The direction is good; the costumes are good; the acting is great, and Graham Chapman's performance is the one who stands out.

Quotes

Pontius Pilate: Wait until Biggus Dickus hears of this!

Rating

8.0/10

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Genre

Drama | War

Director

Francis Ford Coppola

Country

United States

Cast

Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, G.D. Spradlin, Jerry Ziesmer, Harrison Ford, Scott Glenn, Bill Graham, Cynthia Wood, Linda Carpenter, Colleen Camp, R. Lee Ermey, Francis Ford Coppola, Charlie Sheen

Plot

During the Vietnam war, U.S. Army Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is sent by Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford) and Lt. General Corman (G.D. Spradlin) to carry out a dangerous mission that, officially, 'does not exist - nor will it ever exist': he has to kill the renegade and presumed insane U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando).

Opinion

Apocalypse Now, besides being a film about the Vietnam war, is a film about Vietnam itself. Francis Ford Coppola's film is complex, ambitious and philosophical, and reaches the human psyche. 

Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz is a man who has reached his breaking point, and has retired in the jungle to live like a demigod, venerated by thousands of indigenous.

The closing scene of the ritual slaughter of a sacrificial bull is the most powerful of symbols.

Martin Sheen is outstanding - this is the first time I have seen him -, Robert Duvall, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!", is great and fun to be watched as Colonel Kilgore, and Marlon Brando does a spectacular job as Kurtz. 

Buy/Rent on Amazon Instant Video: Original Version - Redux Version

Quotes

Colonel Walter E. Kurtz: I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror... Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies! I remember when I was with Special Forces... seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate some children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there, and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out; I didn't know what I wanted to do! And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it... I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, my God... the genius of that! The genius! The will to do that! Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we, because they could stand that these were not monsters, these were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment! Because it's judgment that defeats us.

Rating

9.0/10