Project A (1983)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Project A (1983) – J. Chan

Having watched Operation Condor (1991), Jackie Chan’s take on Raiders of the Lost Ark which is all big scale stunts, I thought it might be time to show the boys an earlier film with more hand-to-hand choreographed action. Back in 2011, I wrote the following about Project A:  “Jacky directs and choreographs amazing fights of 20 or more kung fu guys (playing 19th century Hong Kong police/coast guard/pirates) in one of his first big comedy-action hits. Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, old mates from the Peking Opera School are here as well and their camaraderie shows.  Not sure whether I prefer this series (more kung fu) or the Police Story series (more action) -- both are great for old school (young) Jacky fans!”  Watching with Amon and Aito was fun, especially seeing them laugh uproariously at the opening fight between coast guard and police in a bar and at the subsequent bicycle escape from gangsters. Later, I worried that things got a little too violent (when guns and hand grenades were introduced) and serious (when Jacky quit the force to go rogue) but it’s still all slapstick and stunts and the kids know that it’s all fake and outlandish. This film also contains Chan’s nod to silent comedy star Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last – he dangles from the minute-hand of a clock tower precipitously (but unlike Lloyd, Jackie falls through two awnings to crash to the ground, apparently really injuring himself in the process). An important stepping stone in Jackie’s career and one of his best films.

 

Rumble Fish (1983)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Rumble Fish (1983) – F. F. Coppola

As a fully impressionistic picture that lets style dominate substance, Rumble Fish works.  It’s evocative of a time and place (where and when are not clear) and a social dynamic – the young tough kids (possibly from broken homes) who want to belong (to a gang) and want to follow a leader and the trouble they get into.  I was surprised at how Coppola went full art-house here but I suppose this is only four years after Apocalypse Now which certainly was a high watermark for stylish indulgence.  In this film, the B&W cinematography is beautiful, as are the players it records (Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Nicolas Cage, Mickey Rourke) and there are plenty of dramatic set-pieces, plenty of amazing shots. Tom Waits and Dennis Hopper drop by to be photographed (in character, their characters). Sure, the plot doesn’t quite add up – we don’t really get to understand why all the kids look up to Motorcycle Boy (Rourke) or why the adults (and he himself) think he is insane – but as a series of moments that create a sensual feeling (perhaps for Coppola, a nostalgic feeling), it did it for me.  Perhaps you have to be in the right mood, ready for the mood it creates, ready to follow Matt Dillon’s emptiness yearning to be filled, ready to be perplexed at his adoration of Mickey Rourke, wishing he did right by Diane Lane.  I just let it wash over me. 

  

The Wind in the Willows (1983)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Wind in the Willows (1983) – M. Hall & C. Taylor

Stop-motion animation version of Kenneth Graham’s 1908 book featuring rascally Mr. Toad and his stalwart and more sensible friends Mole, Rat, and Badger.  We watched this immediately after reading the book and, although the film takes some minor liberties with the novel (mostly excluding the more poetic and bucolic chapters), the central story of Toad remains mostly intact (if abbreviated).  If you don’t know, Mr Toad develops a fetish for motor cars, steals one and ends up in jail, later to escape only to find his house has been taken over by weasels; fortunately his friends help him to secure it back and he promises never to be such a naughty fellow again (as if!).  The film captures the wistful tone of the book, casting its kino eye lovingly over the countryside and the contents of each house (Toad Hall, Mole End, the Rat’s homely abode), beautifully rendered in paper maiche (if not clay – it is hard to tell!). The kids’ attention may have wandered a bit (just as it did with the book itself) but I found the film quite enjoyable and it would probably be quite nostalgic if I had originally encountered it as a kid myself on British TV.

The Dead Zone (1983)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Dead Zone (1983) – D. Cronenberg

Put any other actor in the lead role and this becomes just another failed Stephen King adaptation – but Christopher Walken takes it to another level.  Partly, it’s his weird inflections but he also lets us feel the character’s sorrow and pain when his life gets irreparably damaged by, first, a five-year coma, and second, the manifestation of psychic premonitions that allow him to see a person’s future when he holds his or her hand.  I’ve never read the novel, but this is a great set-up for spooky horror.  However, in the hands of David Cronenberg, the film veers straight into mainstream territory, quite unlike the sick strangeness of his earlier films.  So, it’s a mixed bag but somehow I keep coming back to it.  Perhaps that early ‘80’s New England setting creates some subterranean compulsion?  Or quite possibly it’s all due to Walken, not yet a caricature of himself, but naturalistically unusual…and ready to kill Hitler for us, if it comes to that.