skjam | Entries tagged with politics

Lord of War (2005) dir. Andrew Niccol

Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) is not the protagonist's real name. He is a Ukranian immigrant (as a child) who grew up in a rough neighborhood infested with gangsters. On day he witnessed a mob hit, and came to the realization that he could make steady money selling weapons to people. But not just a legitimate gun shop, no, the real money was in illegal arms dealing. After his first successful deal, Yuri brought his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) in as a partner.

Yuri's got hustle, a distinct lack of moral qualms, and some amazing luck, so his business prospers. He attempts to connect with a more established gunrunner, Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm), but the older man is "respectable" and sees Yuri as too chaotic to be trusted. that doesn't stop Yuri from rising in the trade and becoming quite wealthy, despite Vitaly developing drug addiction, and Yuri attracting the personal attention of government agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke). Yuri's even able to marry the hot model of his boyhood dreams, Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan).

But a life of crime, however lucrative, has its price, and Yuri can't avoid payments forever.

This early 21st Century movie is based on actual events, with enough changed to avoid lawsuits or charges of espionage. Much of the story is darkly comic as Yuri's narration is witty and sometimes contrasts what's happening on screen in a humorous manner. But there's also an uncomfortable undertone and some pointed political commentary. It's pointed out that the United States government itself is the world's largest arms dealer, and too often just as willing to get in bed with the worst dictators as Yuri is. Andre Baptiste Senior (Eamonn Walker), a particularly repulsive warlord (though he says it "lord of war", giving us the title), specifically points to the 2000 Supreme Court decision that handed the presidency to George W. Bush as proving that U.S. elections are just as crooked as the ones he holds.

The soundtrack selection is impressive and works well. Nicolas Cage's slightly off acting style makes Yuri a chilling character when you dig beneath the surface. His few boundaries are based around what is best for him staying in business, rather than any form of ethics. At the end of the movie, while Yuri walks free from legal punishment, he's lost everything he wanted in life except his career in arms dealing.

Content note: Lots of gun and other violence, often gory and lethal. We see the results of maiming injuries. Child death. Mention of rape. On-screen extramarital sex and nudity (no genitals), Yuri cheats on his wife. Prostitution. Discussion of racism. Alcohol and drug abuse. A boatload of rough language. This is a hard "R."

This movie is a fascinating but disturbing look at an area of history many people don't want to be reminded of. The politics may be offensive to some viewers. If you've got a strong stomach for this sort of thing and are willing to accept that fictionalization has somewhat distorted the picture, Lord of War is worth seeing...once.

Current Music: "There's No Harm in Wishin'"--Isham Jones

Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (1974) dir. Toshiya Fujita

So, it turns out Yuki (Meiko Kaiji) survived the ending of the previous film, much to her own surprise. Problem is, people remember she did all that murder beforehand as Lady Snowblood. We pick up several years later after the end of the 1905 Russo-Japanese War. Random attackers accost Yuki at her family graveyard. No explanation is given, but most likely they're avenging some mob boss she took out. Yuki doesn't bother asking questions before killing them in self-defense.

The police are a more serious threat. Yuki manages to escape, but is clearly exhausted from constantly being on the run, and when she's accidentally injured by a hunter's trap, this weakens her enough to finally surrender. The court convicts her of the 37 murders they can definitely prove she did, and Yuki is sentenced to death by hanging. As a bit of cruel poetry, she's held in the very women's prison she was born in.

On the way to the gallows, Yuki is "rescued" by masked riders. They, including the mute Toad (Koji Nanbara) word for secret police leader Seishiro Kikui (Shin Kishida). He wants Yuki to resume being Lady Snowblood in exchange for not being executed. Her mission is to infiltrate the household of anarchist Ransui Tokunaga (Juzo Itami), recover a certain secret document, then assassinate him. Ransui's wife Aya (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) is "frail" and needs a maid, so Yuki is able to get a job.

Ransui is not stupid, and figures out quickly who Yuki is and why she's there. He reveals that the document in question is evidence that Kikui and his boss Justice Minister Terauchi Kendo (Toru Abe) framed an anarchist group for a treasonous bomb plot as justification for executing them. If Ransui can get this document to the press, it will cause a government shakeup, and he wants to time this release to cause maximum public unrest. Lady Snowblood has all the loyalty to Kikui and the government you'd expect from a vengeful assassin who's not getting paid so doesn't kill him and take the document.

When Ransui is arrested on the charge of harboring a fugitive (he's technically guilty, even if the government inflicted that fugitive on him in the first place), he asks Yuki to take the document to his estranged brother Shusuke (Yoshio Harada), a doctor in the slums. Shusuke, a veteran of the recent war, has reason to be upset with Ransui and Aya, and doesn't share their politics. His plans for the document are very different.

Not that the government cares; the corrupt officials want the evidence destroyed by any means necessary, along with anyone who's seen it. And hey, Lady Snowblood is already supposed to be dead.

This sequel to the first Lady Snowblood film which I reviewed earlier takes almost nothing from the manga. Yuki's primary motivation plot arc was finished, so she needs a nwe reason to be killing people. This makes the movie a bit weaker, and it's not surprising that the series ended here.

Instead of personal revenge, this movie concentrates on politics in late Meiji Era Japan. The country is not as tightly controlled as the government officials would like, with a reasonably free press, but the secret police otherwise operate with impunity. The slums are full of miserable poverty while the rich enjoy great luxury. The government makes a big show of honoring its war dead but does nothing for its living veterans.

Notably, at the beginning of the movie the regular police could be considered to just be doing their duty (Lady Snowblood is in actual fact a criminal) but we soon see that they're working hand in glove with the secret police, torturing suspects and covering up for Kikui. It's a metaphor that Inspector Maruyama (Rin'ichi Yamamoto) winds up blinded.

There's good use of color (the blood is unnaturally red) and the violence is stylish, with overall good direction and acting. And Meiko Kaiji is still perfect for the role.

Content note: lots of violence, often gory, with more than one mutilation. People are disfigured by disease. Male and female nudity and an onscreen sex scene (no genitals). Torture. Toad's muteness is framed as making him extra creepy.

Overall: Suffers from sequelitis but still very watchable; if you liked the first this one is also good.

Current Mood: ACAB

Dirty Harry (1971) dir. Don Siegel

Detective Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) of the San Francisco Police Department is not a nice man. He hates everyone equally (or at least that's what his coworkers say) and has trouble phrasing things politely. In an establishing moment early in the film, Callahan defuses a potential suicide by enraging the man into attacking Callahan instead. He's known as "Dirty Harry" because whenever the police department has a dirty job, Callahan's the man to send. Right now, his top priority is catching the "Scorpio Killer" (Andrew Robinson), a sniper who's demanding money from the city to stop killing.

With one partner dead and another in the hospital, Callahan doesn't want another partner, but that's not the way the brass operates, so he's assigned Hispanic college graduate Chico Martinez (Reni Santoni). As it turns out, sniping from rooftops is something a modern big city police department can shut down pretty well, especially if like the Scorpio Killer, you insist on leaving taunting notes telling them you're going to do it.

Barely escaping from an ambush by Callahan and Martinez, the Scorpio Killer switches to kidnapping, abducting a teenage girl and burying her with (he claims) a limited supply of oxygen. The mayor (John Vernon) agrees to pay a ransom, and Callahan is assigned as bagman. After running Harry all over town, the killer confesses that he has no intention of releasing the girl alive; he just wanted to also kill a cop. Martinez manages to save Callahan at the cost of being badly wounded himself, and the killer takes a crippling leg wound.

A doctor who treated that wound is able to tell Callahan and his new temporary partner De Giorgio (John Mitchum) where the killer hangs out. On a deadline, the police officers do not wait for a warrant and break into a local stadium. They are able to catch the Scorpio Killer and Callahan is able to extract the girl's location even as the killer screams that he has "rights."

As indeed the killer does. Even though the girl is found dead, the District Attorney (Josef Summer) says that due to Callahan's not having a warrant and having tortured the suspect, he's forced to toss out all the evidence and the killer will walk free (with a very bad limp.) For the record, the Scorpio Killer could still have been tried for assaulting a police officer (Harry) as Harry hadn't done anything illegal at that point.

The Scorpio Killer can't leave well enough alone, and hires a professional to rough him up, framing Callahan for this. And then the killer decides to kidnap a busload of children, leading to the final confrontation.

This movie was part of the vigilante justice fad in fiction, as recent court cases had seemed to give criminals more rights than victims. Thus the killer is entirely unsympathetic and it's pointed out how unjust his release is. (And the holes in the legal reasoning are ignored because movie.) Dirty Harry is surface cool, and all tough guy who likes to taunt criminals he has at a disadvantage. He does have friends, but only ones who are able to put up with his frequent barbs.

Good use is made of the San Francisco location, and I want to give a special shout-out to supervising hair stylist Jean Burt Reilly for Callahan's distinctive haircut.

The movie was hugely popular (four sequels!), though Clint Eastwood came to be uncomfortable with the role, and the last sequel The Dead Pool was only agreed to so that Mr. Eastwood could fund a film about jazz. Ronald Reagan loved it, and quoted the tagline "Make my day" at least once.

Content notes: violence, sometimes bloody; brief torture, full female nudity, mention of rape.

Very much a movie worth seeing, but beware falling for the politics.

Current Mood: lucky

I voted at the Emerson School; fairly long lines as it was used for two precincts. Afterwards, saw that the school moms had coffee and cookies for freewill donations--apparently the students are planning a field trip to Puerto Rico.

Went down to the VA to get a veteran's ID--turns out I need to fill out a full application and mail it in, then stop back for the picture taking. (But if I had a medical emergency just my DD-214 would work.)

And tonight was a LinkedIn bloggers' group meeting at Joule (which is a dedicated meeting space designed for small to medium business groups.) The main topic was look and design.

Current Mood: blah

Went to the State Fair Thursday looking for job leads (and because I haven't been in a few years.) No, not many job leads.

I was very hot, natch, so I wound up taking the Old Mill and Skyride rides, which are very reasonably priced and about as much excitement as I can handle these days.

Sat for a while in the 'CCO radio audience. The host joked that the potential record heat would make the next host's "top of the news" report basically write itself. Then they had Secretary of (Minnesota)State Mark Ritchey on to talk about the (Minnesota) Supreme Court decision to allow certain constitutional amendments go on the ballot as is. Mr. Ritchey remained calm and explained that that is, after all, the court's job, and his office needs to move forward now.

Had some rude audience members, and the host had to promise a audience questions segment to calm them down.

Missed the debate between Amy Klobuchar and the guy who's running against her for Senator. I hear it was good. While I think Senator Klobuchar is doing a good job, it's best for her not to get too comfortable about re-election. Spotted Senator Franken shaking hands, but the line was too long for the heat.

And to my surprise, the seed art exhibit in the Horticulture building was dotted with anti-marriage restriction pieces. One won Grand Reserve (second place.) Only saw one pro-marriage restriction sign, someone had plastered it on their baby's stroller.

Hope all of you are doing as well as can be expected as we go into September.

Current Mood: sore

After being shot down unanimously by the Minnesota Supreme Court, Norm Coleman has finally conceded the election to Al Franken, who becomes the Junior Senator from Minnesota.

Now we'll have to wait till after the holiday to see if Mr. Franken can live up to his hype.

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: some neighbor's stereo, lots of bass