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Re: No Concessions: Indy (and indies)

JonCummings — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:13:57 -0000

I finally got around to seeing Indiana Jones yesterday, and while I agree with most everything you said, I thought I'd kick in my ante by praising the way the film turns '50s sci-fi/Russkie tropes on their head.

Of course, in countless Cold War B-movies the aliens (or blobs, or bugs, or whatever) stood in for the Soviets and their monolithic, thought-free, totalitarian society. Here, at a moment when the likelihood that we'll eventually see spaceships has already been established, the Lead Commie herself (Cate Blanchett) offers a chilling vision of Soviet hegemony that sounds awfully similar to what the aliens offered in films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

(SPOILER ALERT!!!!) Once Crystal-Skullworld has been breached, however, the aliens' cave markings reveal them to have been something like pro-Western humanists, and the oval-brained beings themselves prove none too interested in helping Cate fulfill her Stalinist prophesy. But then, Stephen almost always has a soft spot for his aliens (WotW notwithstanding).

(I also find it interesting that the mythical artifacts finally revealed at the ends of these Indy flicks so often turn out to be bad-guy Dustbusters, but that's another story.)

Re: No Concessions: Indy (and indies)

BobCashill — Sat, 31 May 2008 10:11:13 -0000

Pay no attention to what this man is talking about.

Re: No Concessions: Indy (and indies)

JonCummings — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:26:52 -0000

My occasionally atrocious musical taste is an open book. But Bob, get off Hall & Oates or I'll start dishing about your obsession with Pia Zadora. And I'll offer a top 10 list of your best comments made while watching porn films in a dormitory basement. (No. 3: "Now THAT's a burning bush!")

Re: No Concessions: Indy (and indies)

BobCashill — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:12:44 -0000

When I interviewed Gordon in 1986, he mentioned that he and his writing partner had a script called "The Teeny Weenies," about miniaturized kids, that they planned to do. Didn't work out that way, but I bet he made more from that deal than any of his own pictures.

[I saw his FROM BEYOND followup, DOLLS, at a Chicago grindhouse. It's a more child-like tale and the bloodthirsty audience hated it. It was a while till I saw another one of his movies, which got harder to find in cinemas as the multiplex model dug in. 1993's FORTRESS got a decent release.]

Folks, Hall & Oates is just the tip of the iceberg where Mr. Cummings' questionable taste is concerned. I promise to spill all if you make one of my entries No. 1.

[Trouble is, Jon remembers everything about our college youth, and I can't recall what I had for lunch yesterday. So he'll have to do the actual writing. But I know there has to be other skeletons in his musical closet.]

Re: No Concessions: Indy (and indies)

JonCummings — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:57:45 -0000

I just want to put in another good word for "The Visitor," which I just got around to seeing yesterday and which is a really wonderful film. I smell OSCAR!!!!

And by the way, Bob, you'll never, NEVER get past the Worst #1s of the '80s!!! It ain't gonna happen--certainly not with some mangy list of summer films, especially now that the summer movie season is half-over at the end of May. Besides, we built this website on rock and roll!!!

(Really, you're just going to have to come up with a goofier list. Top 10 body-part extractions in an indie horror film...top 10 sexual manipulations of a re-animated severed head...you know, something that says "quality" and "integrity.")

Re: No Concessions: Indy (and indies)

rsbrandt — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:41:58 -0000

He shares story credit and was originally attached to direct, back when the working title was something like "Adventures in the Backyard." I can't imagine why Disney would have had any qualms about Stuart Gordon directing one of their pictures.

Re: No Concessions: Indy (and indies)

DwDunphy — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:20:56 -0000

Didn't Gordon also have something to do with "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids"?

Re: No Concessions: Indy (and indies)

BobCashill — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:40:53 -0000

FROM BEYOND is terrific, and the uncut DVD a treat. It and the earlier RE-ANIMATOR are a great double bill. I had that hat (and a RE-ANIMATOR poster) for some time.

Re: No Concessions: Indy (and indies)

WHarrisBullzEye — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:15:10 -0000

I just wanted to speak up in favor of Stuart Gordon's "From Beyond," a film which I'd never seen until its recent DVD release but that I now view as a full-fledged '80s sci-fi classic.