Here are some two sentence reviews of the movies I watched in June.
The “gangster film” is a true American creation. There were of course many early foreign films with elements of “crime” in them (Feuillade’s Les Vampires, or Lang’s Dr. Mabuse to name just a few), but the European crime films seemed more preoccupied with secret societies and grand Bond-villain-like master plans. American gangster films were all about one man’s rise to power (and subsequent fall) through crime, something which they merely saw as a “left handed form of human endeavor”.
The seeds of the American Gangster film can be found in the seminal crime films from the teens: The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) and Regeneration (1915) (even perhaps the hold up in The Great Train Robbery (1903) which gave audiences their first thrill at the excitement of crime). But I would say it wasn’t until Sternberg’s 1927 film Underworld that the first real “gangster” film was made. This was of course because it wasn’t until prohibition and the “Roaring Twenties” that organized crime (the backbone of the American gangster film) really rose to power.
By 1931, the huge successes of Public Enemy and Little Caeser (in addition to the even more impressive Scarface the following year) ensured that the 1930’s would be a decade full of many fine examples of the genre. The main character was usually portrayed as a product of the social conditions he lived in, and his quick and ruthless rise to power was nothing less than a subverted version of the American dream. Eventually he would rise too high and his empire would come crashing down in an obligatory last stand shootout with the police. The public ate it up since “the highwayman” has always been more exciting than the “do-gooder”. The censors hemmed and hawed about the glorification of violence and crime, but so long as the title character met (often bloody) justice at the end there wasn’t a lot more they could do about it in the face of the public’s ravenous appetite for these films.
But by 1941, with the film High Sierra, Raoul Walsh (perhaps the most important gangster film director with such fine films as Regeneration, The Roaring Twenties and White Heat to his name) signalled a new direction for the American Gangster film. It was not merely the introduction of Noir elements, it was more his modification of what it meant to be a “doomed gangster”. (more…)
The fantasy fiction community was once again rocked when more previously unreleased sections of The Lord of the Rings were discovered. This “grail” of a literary find amounted to a new lost segment cut out of the original manuscript by censors. Years of suppression by the Tolkien estate followed, but the wait for this new lost section is finally over! For those of you that want to print this out and staple it into your copies of the book, this new section takes place towards the beginning of the Chapter “The Ring Goes South” where the final roster for the nine members of the Fellowship is still being determined after Frodo’s narrow escape from Nazgul at the fords of Bruinen. I have started this monumental find with a section from the book as published in bold for context. Enjoy! (more…)
This is the fourth entry in my fairy tale series. Each entry attempts to analyze one archetypical element of myths legends and fairy tales in a short introductory essay followed by an original fairy tale utilizing some of the elements that have just been discussed. This time we’ll be talking about the call to adventure, the caller, and just exactly how much help they can give before the reader starts to wonder: “Damn Gandalf, why don’t you just go destroy that ring by yourself!” (more…)
Hello dear readers! Today you are in for a special treat: the start of a very new www.isleyunruh.com monthly feature! That’s right, the first Monday of every month shall henceforth be MAILBAG MONDAY!! On this special day I will search through my mountain of reader mail and answer the five most pressing questions!
What’s that you say? Do I really get that much mail? Well, I’ll admit…the Contact section of this website doesn’t get used that often, but, one of the perks of wordpress stats is that I can see the google search terms that people use to find my site. And I’m going to go ahead and say that these search terms will count as reader mail, since they are often entered in the form of a question. And the questions, more often than not, are basically brilliant.
So, without further ado, it is time to dig into the old Mailbag to see what kind of things have been on my reader’s minds in the last month! (more…)
Here are some two sentence reviews of the movies I watched in May.
Wolverine really seems like a pretty simple character at first glance. I mean, he can heal really fast and has extendable claws, how complicated can that be? As it turns out, pretty complicated. Like any film plot involving time travel, the more you think about this guy, the less sense he makes.
I know this post is treading dangerously close to the realm of “fan-science”, but I’ve swam those dark waters before, so I guess I won’t worry about it too much. Because, really, I have too many nerd questions about Wolverine that desperately need to be answered to not write this post! (more…)
I have to say that Mexican is probably my second favorite food of all time (right after any thai dish featuring basil and garlic as the two main ingredients. Thus, it should be no surprise that I’ve got a few ideas on how to properly cook your Mexican food. Today I’ll be focusing on Tacos and Burritos, though, to be fair, the only real difference between the two for me is that one sometimes has beans and is wrapped in a soft shell.
Still, there is nothing more satisfying than making up an entire plate of tacos and slowly demolishing them despite your stomach’s protests of “enough!” So, let’s start with the filling shall we? (more…)
It is astonishing how different Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night is from Murnau’s classic silent horror film considering it is an almost scene for scene remake. To be sure, both versions share the fixation with the natural world, the inhumanity of Dracula, and the underlying sense of terror and dread. But Herzog’s version of Dracula (the true heart of both films) is painted as more of a lost, forgotten sad spirit than the creeping juggernaut of evil and destruction that was Murnau’s version of Dracula. He is not human, but some part of him longs for those things humanity has which are denied to him. While this arguably makes him less terrifying overall, it also adds a welcome degree of complexity to his character. (more…)
Here are some two sentence reviews of the movies I watched in April.
Silent films get a bad rap. Even among film snobs there is the attitude that “yes, they are important, but come on…wouldn’t you rather watch something a bit more polished?” However, while the acting is not as naturalistic as we are used to (a style developed due to the lack of sound), the silent films from the end of the period (late 1920’s) like Napoleon, The Docks of New York, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Pandora’s Box and many more were not just artistic, but technical marvels that rival anything that has been produced since. The best silent films were daring and innovative, they took chances that seem ahead of their time even today. And F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror is undoubtedly one of the best of all silent films (and also quite early for one of the “great silent films” as it was made in 1922). (more…)
As some of you may know, I rather like (and can be rather snobby about) board games. Mostly I like the so called “designer” games from cool European countries (well, mostly Germany) that I’m always quick to explain how they are so much better than the games you’ll typically find in Wal-mart. Which I suppose makes me the asshole that complains about playing Monopoly, and when I absolutely have to I’ll then insist on playing by the actual rules (no, Free Parking is not an actual rule but a house rule that funnels money back into a game system that is designed to take the player’s money away and thus makes the game length even more interminable). I’ll point out that Sorry! would be better with a hand of five cards, Clue would be better without the random movement, and Uno would be better if we had never started playing it in the first place.
So yes, aside from occasionally ruining a well intentioned “non-designer” game night with snobbery, I really do like board games, and Magic the Gathering is one of the first “real” board games (I’m lumping “card games” in with “board games”) that I was introduced to. It is a game where each player assembles their own deck of 60 cards from over 10,000 possible cards. So there is a unique “deckbuilding” aspect of play (full of its own strategic decisions to be made before you even start playing) to go along with the actual game play where you pit your deck against the deck your opponent designed. I have to say that Magic the Gathering is actually a pretty great game–as long as you play it the right way that is; because as great as it is, it is also an extremely flawed game. (more…)
“That’s what she said” (abbreviated TWSS) is a surprisingly new cultural phenomenon for all of its comedic depth. In the literally minutes of internet research I did on the subject the earliest known example I could find of the phrase comes from Wayne’s World. Of course in recent time it has been popularized by the TV show The Office (not to discount the efforts of frat boys everywhere).
For those unfamiliar with this little comedy gem, you basically just add “That’s what she said” to the end of any phrase that could remotely be construed as something a woman would have said while doing something naughty.
For example, let’s say you ask someone a tricky math question and they respond with “that’s a hard one!” Well quickly saying “That’s what she said!” is a great way to let them know that while that might theoretically be true, it is also something that could have been uttered by any number of non specific females when confronted with an erect phallus. Then you can both sit back and enjoy a good hearty laugh at the interjection of a little bawdy humor into an otherwise mundane day!
Still, not every “That’s what she said” is quite as hilarious as one could hope. And while some may not agree with my theory that “That’s what she said” never really gets old no matter how many times you interject it into a conversation, I consider myself a master of sorts with the phrase. So today I thought we could all sit back and enjoy a few classic “That’s what she said” moments from the Isley vaults. All of these were quickly jotted down soon after they were said (all by me…with exceptions noted) and are as accurate as possible to best capture my brilliant yet subtle comedic wordplay. But enough of my yappin, why don’t I shut up and let everyone get on with it! (more…)
I’ve talked about the idea of the Western as a unique American mythology before, and the concept is important in understanding my issues with High Noon. The American Western is first and foremost about a hero. The hero of an American Western isn’t a whiny reluctant pussy like Frodo Baggins, but rather an assured, immensely capable professional (that is, someone whose skill depends on experience as opposed to the “expert” whose supposed skill depends on “booklearning”). The townsfolk of an American Western are not evil people but rather good folk who have fallen under the tyranny of bad men whose job it is for the hero to “clean up”. As a professional, the hero is never motivated by anything other than the fact that it is simply his role in the dichotomy of the old West to face down the bad men as a guardian of the good townsfolk.
Is this a restrictive, simplistic formula? Yes, of course it is, but it also connects with something deeply human and culturally American in the viewer. America is a young country and yet, as I’ve said before, already has a mythos as developed as anything in the “old world”. Thus it always leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth to see attempts to subvert and change this cultural backbone of our society into something it never was–which is exactly what 1952’s High Noon ends up doing. (more…)
Here are some two sentence reviews of the movies I watched in March, 2009.
Here we are at the final post of my GIANT-SIZED Fall Formal Crossover Special! I’m pretty sure everyone has guessed who our two streakers are, though if you missed the Jock Blog segment yesterday be sure to check it out if finding out way more than you ever wanted to know about the state of our Snobby English teacher Mr. Brinkley’s foreskin sounds like fun!
Otherwise, all mysteries should be revealed (including perhaps some first names?) in this, the final post in what has hopefully been an epic “exciting conclusion week” for everyone! (more…)
Exciting conclusion week continues with the second finale to the last three weeks worth of story lines! This time around we see what Khaine’s wacky older brother Chet has been up to. When we last left him he was determined to destroy the formal with his friend Dane and the help of a bunch of buckets of catshit and rotten milk.
Anyway, as usual, the weak stomached may want to read ahead with caution, because as always: Jocks are filthy filthy people. But in the words of that dude on Star Trek, “Don’t take my word for it…” (more…)
Here we are at my 100th blog post, which, if you only write one post a week (in a good month), kind of takes a while to get to! And it does seem like quite a while ago when I first sat down and wrote the post that would become Goth Blog 1, my very first blog post ever! So now, four and a half years later it seems only appropriate to return to Goth Blog for my 100th Blog post.
If you’ve been following along the past few weeks, there is a storm brewing at the semi fictional Center Valley High where three different semi fictional characters (I will neither confirm nor deny that the beloved Goth, Jock and Snob are in any way facets of my personality) are on a collision course for their high school’s Fall Formal.
The buildup is finally over though, and in this, the first of three epic conclusions this week we find out if goth kid Khaine will go through with his goth girlfriend Thorn’s crazy plan to light a burning pentagram over the fall formal stage or if he will call the police/city guard instead in an attempt to save them both from certain imprisonment/expulsion.
But enough of my yappin’, let’s boogie! (more…)
Once again, from the pages of Goth Blog comes the third part of everyone’s second favorite spinoff: SNOB Blog! Has that wacky high school english teacher who just wants the finer things in life…and for people to know he wants the finer things in life finally found love? Read on to find out!
(Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction; any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental)
Previously in Snob Blog:
Snob Blog 1- Our snob with no name (will his name be revealed in the forthcoming 100th post??) meets what he assumes is a fellow film elitist and potential soul mate at a movie store. But upon going to her film party he is horrified to find that her friends’ taste in cinema is not as refined as he had hoped. After hijacking her party to disasterous effect it becomes apparent to everyone that these were not his people.
Snob Blog 2- Overcoming the despair brought on by things not working out with the video store girl, our hero sets his sights on the school choir teacher that he has mistakenly assumed is a fellow music snob. But when they decide to start carpooling to work together and his cd player refuses to work it is Ms. Kockenlocker and her ipod that teach our hero a thing or two about music.
And with that let’s move on to Snob Blog 3 - The Dance Emcee! (more…)
From the pages of Goth Blog, here is the third installment of the spinoff that everyone has been clamoring for: Jock Blog 3: The Giving Tree! That’s right, more wacky adventures from everyone’s favorite jock older brother, Chet! Will someone get sprayed in the face with shit again? Read on dear reader and see! But enough of my yappin, let’s get on with the Jock Blog!
(Warning, this is not for the weak stomached. I have culled knowledge gained from years of close contact with jocks in their natural habitat into what is actually a mostly hyperbole free post based on actual events. So yeah, jocks are filthy filthy people. You have been warned.)
Previously in Jock Blog:
Jock Blog 1 - Our hero Chet introduces himself and decides that maybe writing isn’t just for homos. As it turns out he has plenty to write about when a rash of “German Situps” (a trick situp that Dane learned at wrestling camp that ends with someone’s ass in the “sit-up-er’s” face) sweeps the wrestling team. The fun is over when Chris is unable to control his ex-laxed bowels while tricking the assistant coach into doing a German Situp.
Jock Blog 2 - Eddie and Benny’s feud over who was a better runningback comes to a head when Eddie frames a rival school in Shadyville for his trashing of Benny’s sweet 1978 El Camino. The boys first decide to make a “shitbox” for revenge but when it soaks through the cardboard on the way to Shadyville they get into a high speed shitfight in Chet’s mom’s car instead. Their next plan to make a dry ice bomb full of the unpredictable substance “shitwater” also blows up in their face (literally) thus ending their revenge plans against Shadyville on a brown note. (more…)
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