End Games: Closing the Doors on Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner'

End Games is a feature in which I discuss notable endings in film history. There will be spoilers, obviously.

As far as the audience is concerned, there is only the final product. That is probably how it should be, but with the dawn of the Internet and DVD special features people are learning more and more about what a movie could have been rather than what it is. Customers have access to deleted scenes, alternate endings and endless “director’s cuts” and “unrated versions” that can drastically alter the way they’re supposed to interpret what they’re watching. It’s especially disturbing when it comes out that the powers that be had multiple ideas for how a movie should end. The most famous example of this is likely Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, which has been released in so many different versions over the years—with a few different endings—that it feels like the darn thing is still being made. It’s an interesting sensation for a viewer to invest two hours watching something that they know isn’t the only, definitive version.

End Games: Looking on the Bright Side of Life with the Films of Monty Python

End Games is a feature in which I discuss notable endings in film history. There will be spoilers, obviously.

It is widely known that the most difficult part of sketch comedy is finding a way to finish it. Sketches are all about taking a premise, exploring it for a few minutes, and by that point the fun part is over. Once that’s done, the writers have to find a way out that’s still funny, but such a conclusion usually does not exist. They can go with a final punchline or gag, but more often than not that winds up being more cheesy than satisfying. Watch any collection of Saturday Night Live sketches and you’ll see what I mean. Even the best ones tend to go out on a flat note. That is part of what made Monty Python’s Flying Circus so revolutionary when it started airing in 1969. Their sketches completely did away with the typical structure, and they would regularly flip from bit to bit once they felt an idea had been exhausted. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for one sketch to interrupt the preceding sketch a couple minutes before it would usually end. When the legendary six-man comedy troupe made the leap to feature films, they found themselves facing the same challenge. Their films essentially amounted to piles of hilarious ideas, but when it came time to find the exit it proved more difficult then they initially expected.

The Breakfast Club: John Hughes' 1985 Time Capsule

Few filmmakers were as willing to date their films as the late John Hughes. While that may ultimately doom his long-term legacy, there’s no disputing that this is part of what made him so massively successful at the peak of his powers. His films are so incredibly of their time and place that they couldn’t help but resonate with the young people who went out to see them in droves. The problem with me is that the ’80s have never been an era that fascinated me from an artistic standpoint, and thus the films of John Hughes have yet to really click with me. He had his share of unimpeachably great films—I would agree that Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is terrific—but other movies like, say, The Breakfast Club have never really pulled me in. In this case, I cared so little about it that I never got around to seeing it until just recently.

Muppets on Film: The Henson Era

The Muppet universe is one full of diverse and complicated characters, but it’s no coincidence that the most popular character is also the simplest: Kermit the Frog. There’s not a whole lot to him—he’s simply, well, a green frog—but that also makes him the most accessible and relatable character. He’s a guy who just wants to do right by the world and succeed, and it’s a mentality most everyone can relate to. Kermit is the straight man; it’s the Miss Piggys and the Gonzos of the world that amp up the wackiness. Jim Henson was responsible for several memorable creations, but none have had the lasting impact of the one frog with the mouth of a sock puppet. It’s the spirit of Kermit that has kept the Muppets around for so long, and now with the release of the new film The Muppets coming this week, I have decided to look back at the first three Muppet feature films; the only ones released during Henson’s lifetime.

Blow Out (I've Finally Seen It!)

There comes a moment in Brian De Palma’s Blow Out when Jack Terry—a movie soundman played by John Travolta—bemoans the fact that the public is wholly uninterested in conspiracy. At this point, he possesses indisputable proof that a presidential candidate has been assassinated for political reasons, yet no one wants to hear about it. No matter what the truth is, the people prefer to live in their special, happy place. Life is hard enough without thinking about the possibility that politicians are offing people at will. Blow Out explores the possibility that ugly, ugly things could be happening right beneath our noses. Among several other things.

A Christmas Story (My Favorite Movies)

This is not a very long post, but think of it as my official holiday film recommendation.

Tron (I've Finally Seen It!)

A movie only a cult could love, Tron exists to please an audience of which I am not a part. It took a while to catch on, as its original release yielded only lukewarm box office returns and mixed reviews. Nowadays it has a strong fanbase, and as such this Friday a sequel is being released nearly three decades after the original film. The success of Tron: Legacy has yet to be determined, but if one views the original for the first time now, in the age of James Cameron, they are likely to be left cold.

Back to the Future (My Favorite Movies)

One can argue all day about what the best film of any given decade is, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a film that more perfectly defined its decade than Back to the Future, from 1985. It is so entirely of its time that it has become timeless. There are some real profound statements made here about the absurdity of our culture, and the ways even the most mundane things shape our lives. Most of all, it’s just a freaking great time. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love Back to the Future and I challenge you to sit through this film without cracking a smile. Not to mention it has the distinction of being Justin Long’s favorite film. No other movie can claim that.

Raging Bull (Summer of Scorsese)

Raging Bull is not a boxing movie. It’s a movie about an incredibly troubled man who happens to be a boxer. The same story could be told about a teacher, an accountant or any office drone. The fact that he’s a boxer adds some emotional resonance. A boxing movie would be about the process leading up to The Big Fight which the hero would win. Jake LaMotta, the main character in Raging Bull, is not a hero, and there is no The Big Fight. LaMotta is a man whose paranoia and rage leads him to alienate himself and everyone around him. The movie does not end with rousing music as he stands before an adoring crowd, but instead it ends with an overweight LaMotta about to perform bad stand-up comedy, as he shadowboxes in front of the mirror, perhaps playing this usual clichéd ending in his head.

Scorsese had nearly died of a drug overdose when Robert DeNiro finally came to him in his hospital room. DeNiro had been fascinated with the character of Jake LaMotta, and was trying to convince everyone around him that this was a film worth making. Scorsese finally agreed, seeing as his life could go nowhere but up. And up it went, my friends. Raging Bull is as close to perfect as movies get. In its day it was seen as merely very good, but by the end of the 80’s many critics selected it as the best film of the decade, and to this day many feel it is one of the best movies ever made. It is definitely one of Scorsese’s best films, and since I find Scorsese to be one of the best American directors of all time, by the transitive property it must be so.

There is no real plot to Raging Bull per se, but instead it acts as a character study of an incredibly disturbed man. The opening credits show Robert DeNiro’s Jake LaMotta in an empty boxing ring, the music making it feel more like a ballet than shadowboxing. After beginning with LaMotta practicing his comedy routine, we are thrust into the middle of a fight against Jimmy Reeves. This ends up being LaMotta’s first loss, and a riot ensues. He’s in the middle of a collapsing marriage, but soon he meets a young girl named Vickie. Jake begins to worry that Vickie is not being faithful to him, and after she makes a comment about the attractiveness of one of Jake’s opponents he destroys him in the ring.

Jake’s brother Joey (Joe Pesci) also works as Jake’s manager/agent/whateveryoucallit. He is the only person in the movie willing to stand up to Jake, and the only person Jake cares for. This makes it all the more heartbreaking for Jake when he accuses Joey of sleeping with Vickie. Jake does not use reason when it comes to women. He sees women as beautiful objects, but if the women are willing to sleep with him they must be willing to sleep with other men, at which point they are monsters. Many see Raging Bull as an incredibly accurate portrayal of what causes men to beat their wives, and he vents much of his frustration in the ring.

The performances are perfect all around, but then again so is the film. The most obvious is DeNiro, who at one point put on 70 pounds to portray a post-boxing LaMotta. DeNiro in his best years committed to his roles as no actor ever has. Part after part DeNiro completely immersed himself in the universe and personality of his characters. Just watch him work in Raging Bull for 5 minutes and at no point will it occur to you this is the same guy who did Travis Bickle, the young Vito Corleone, or the dad from Meet the Parents (a film just a notch below Raging Bull). Many actors can adapt to their parts, but few can transform like Robert DeNiro once did.

The film is stuffed to the brim with the usual Scorsesian energy and brilliance. The dialogue comes out of the characters’ mouths with the usual and realistic clumsiness. There are few poetic lines, but many that ring true. Raging Bull was filmed in black and white for several reasons. One was to set the film apart from the color film pack, another was to give it the feel of the period, and the last because of all the blood that would have been onscreen during the fight scenes. Black and white makes it all the more primal, but much less graphic. In these scenes Scorsese never focuses on the audience. We’re not here to be a spectator to the boxing, but to witness the life of LaMotta. The editing by Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese’s longtime collaborator, nearly spins our heads off as if we had just been hit by a right hook.

No words I write on this film can do it justice, which is why you may find it to be one of my less descriptive posts. All I can do is get on my knees and beg you to see this movie. There is so much I could talk about, but instead I will merely end it here. See it, and admire its energy, its passion and its tragedy. Admire DeNiro give another performance the likes of which you may never see again. This is a film that will be around for a long, long time. At least for as long as we have taste.

Summer of Scorsese
Original Post
Goodfellas
Taxi Driver
After Hours
Gangs of New York
Mean Streets
Casino
Raging Bull
The Departed (My Favorite Movies)
Shutter Island (Review)

Up next: Bringing Out the Dead

After Hours (Summer of Scorsese)

In 1985 Martin Scorsese was already an incredibly established filmmaker. He had made Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull already, amongst other things. He had begun work on a film he had wanted to make since the beginning: The Last Temptation of Christ (Not to be confused with The Last Airbender). Everything appeared in place, but at the last second the entire project was scrapped by Paramount. Scorsese said of the aftermath: “My idea then was to pull back, and not to become hysterical and try to kill people. So the trick then was to try and do something.”

Thus we are given After Hours, a movie which seems out of place on the Scorsese filmography. He was not involved with the project from its inception (three days!), and it seems small in every way. Usually Scorsese films have higher ambitions than the story of a strange night in the life of word processor Paul Hackett, but here Scorsese is directing this small little film. In the process he makes it seem more important than it really is, and one of the more interesting films in Scorsese’s body of work if not the best (and it certainly isn’t). After Hours feels more like the promising debut of a young director than the project of one more experienced.

The screenplay was written by Joseph Minion, at the time a film student at Columbia University. Originally intended to be an early feature for Tim Burton, Scorsese was given the script by actress Amy Robinson, who had previously worked with Scorsese in Mean Streets. Scorsese became interested, and saw the film as an opportunity to vent his frustrations over the cancellation of Last Temptation. Burton stepped aside, and thus began the project.

Griffin Dunne, who also produced the film with Robinson, stars as Paul Hackett, a man who leads an exceedingly normal existence. While reading in a café he meets a girl named Marcy. He becomes romantically intrigued and later that night he calls her up and heads over to her apartment. This is just the first step in a night that would soon spiral out of control.

After Hours is strange in the way it seems to be resistant to true criticism. The events happen, one after another, and we believe all of them. The characters are believable in the way that they seem rooted in reality, despite the chaos around them. However, I remain amazed at just how small it all is, and that is the only thing I feel one can pick apart about the film. The only ambition is to show what happens, and then move on. Scorsese directs with his usual energy and draws you in to the story, but at the end of the day the usual substance one expects from a Scorsese film is not there. It doesn’t leave one empty, per se, but if anyone asked me if they absolutely needed to see After Hours I might say no. But that may not even be true, because of its importance in Scorsese’s career.

The characters here are all wonderfully strange as a counterpoint to Paul, our “straight man”. Marcy, it turns out, is a much weirder girl than is originally suspected, but that is nothing compared to her roommate Kiki, who creates paper mâché sculptures in the living room and is apparently in to sadomasochism. Marcy is married, and has another boyfriend already besides Paul. Paul decides to leave the apartment, appropriately freaked out, and the night goes further downhill from there. He meets a few other women, all encounters ending badly. A rumor spreads that Paul is the burglar who has been running wild around town, and a large angry mob begins following him. There is a suicide, a couple of strange painters played by Cheech and Chong, a bartender played by John Heard, and a few adventures in Club Berlin, a place Paul decidedly does NOT belong.

To go to deep into plot synopsis would be to spoil the fun for those who have not seen it, and there is a whole lot of fun to be had in After Hours. Scorsese was able to go on and make The Last Temptation of Christ later on, but I think After Hours holds a special place in his heart. It represents one of his few adventures into the world of comedy, coming right after The King of Comedy, which is hardly a laugh-out-loud film. Neither is this, but I feel this film works better within the definition of comedy, but it is incredibly dark.

As a dark comedy it is probably incredibly influential. Various indie comedies and indie films in general probably owe a lot to this film. On top of all that After Hours stands as one of the more original in the bunch, including an attempt at making the same basic plot more hip and happening in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. To any other filmmaker this film would be a breakthrough, but when comparing it to the rest of Scorsese’s work it comes off as strange and small. Then why is it so darn entertaining?

Summer of Scorsese
Original Post
Goodfellas
Taxi Driver
After Hours
The Departed (My Favorite Movies)
Shutter Island (Original Review)

Up next: Gangs of New York