New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Thursday 12/1/11

1:30 AM More Max
The Gong Show Movie (1980 USA): For those of a certain age - well, 49 or thereabouts - there are few sweeter memories than those of rushing home from school in order to catch The Gong Show, which if memory serves, aired daily at 3:30 p.m. on NBC. A variety show with a difference - it blatantly acknowledged that most of its featured acts were completely and utterly lacking in either talent or redeeming social value - the show featured a panel of Z-grade celebrities (including Jamie Farr and Jaye P. Morgan) passing judgment on the amateur artistes who trod the show's threadbare stage. Always present, of course, was hyperkinetic (some might say coked-out) host Chuck Barris, whose life story was brilliantly re-created by director George Clooney in 2002's biopic Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Barris wrote and directed this big-screen spin-off, which arrived a year or two too late and was intended either to breathe new life into the faltering franchise or put a punctuation mark on the entire exercise. Presented as a week in the life of a harried Barris, the best reason to watch the film - if you're a masochist, that is - is to hear Chuck sing his own original compositions. The film also features lots of fun cameos, including appearances by Robert Altman, Harvey Lembeck, LA Dodger Steve Garvey, Vincent Schiavelli, and regular cast members Farr, Morgan, Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, and many more.

10:30 PM Starz
City of Life and Death (2009 CHI): In December 1937, early in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army occupied the central Chinese city of Nanking (Nanjing). The six weeks that followed became known as The Nanking Massacre or (perhaps more appropriately) The Rape of Nanking - a period during which Japanese soldiers ran rampant, killing as many as 300,000 prisoners-of-war and civilians and raping tens of thousands of women. The Nanking Massacre is the subject of Chinese director Chuan Lu’s City of Life and Death (originally released as Nanjing! Nanjing!), a 2009 production that finally earned a U.S. release this year.

Lu wisely avoids the siren song of nationalism and uses characters from all sides - including the neutral Occidental inhabitants of the International Safety Zone, an area legally "off-limits" to the invaders - to tell the story. The first character we meet is Kadokawa (Hideo Nakaizumi), an IJA sergeant who continues to follow orders despite being shocked and disgusted by them. Kadokawa’s struggle to square his values with his actions becomes the film’s primary focal point.

Lu’s decision to shoot in black and white lends City of Life and Death both newsreel immediacy and intense realism. At times the film almost becomes a cinematic reproduction of the massacre: if you’ve seen photographs from the period, you will see many of them recreated here by cinematographer Yu Cao, whose obvious familiarity with the source material informs some of the film’s most shocking scenes. One could almost believe he witnessed the horrors of 1937 firsthand.

Reminiscent of Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima, Kon Ichikawa’s Fires on the Plain (Nobi), and the Chinese historical epics of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, City of Life and Death forgoes the cheesy over-emotive music, manipulative slow-mo deaths, and obligatory Tom Hanks’ appearances we associate with most American war films. It’s one of the two or three best films I’ve seen this year, and should be at the top of your must-see list this week. Also airs 12/2 at 1:30 AM.

Continued:       1       2       3