Repo Man

I was pretty excited about watching Repo Man, as I had remembered seeing a couple scenes from it as a youngster, though admittedly I remembered nothing about the film other than Emilio Estevez being in it. So, when I heard the film contained a great deal of imagery related to the punk rock scene of the late seventies and early eighties (something I have a vested interest in), I perked my ears up. I actually took notes of several of my favorite punk songs that I noticed while watching the film..."Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies and "TV Party" by Black Flag being two examples (no Dead Kennedys!??!?). I think that the song "TV Party" in particular was a brilliant choice and the song suits this film perfectly. As we all noticed, Emilio Estevez's character is a bored, anti-establishment teenager with no sense of direction or purpose, and "TV Party" is a song that explores this type of American youth philosophy through the use of satire and irony, much as the film itself does ("TV Party" is a pretty visceral critique on this type of behavior). "We've got nothin' better to do, than watch TV and have a couple of brews" is the main line in the chorus from the song, and the music video features a bunch of young, bored punks (namely the members of the band) doing exactly that. Henry Rollins is the singer for Black Flag and has been noted for his use of extreme satire and often existentialist humor in his social commentaries about America, I was very fortunate to have seen him perform a spoken word routine a few months ago, and it was one of the best spoken word/comedy sets I've ever seen. Here's the video for "TV Party", note the similarities between it and Repo Man, the beer cans simply labeled "Beer", and the outlandish behavior, etc.




I'd never really thought of Repo Man as being a film of any widely-known cultural significance, or even as being a post-modern film, for that matter. After doing the reading, however, and especially with regards to the paragraphs containing short, unelaborate plot summaries of the film, I realized that Repo Man does in fact have what I consider to be some of the main aspects of post-modern expression, namely, a series of strange and loosely connected events, and a great deal of fragmentation. As a critic notes "What do a car repossession company, a smarmy TV evangelist, a handful of zoned out L.A. punks, a lobotomized nuclear physicist, a notorious pair of Hispanic car thieves and a Chevy Malibu with a trunkful of extraterrestrial aliens have in common? Not a whole hell of a lot, except that they're all key elements in Repo Man, a new comedy of staggering weirdness and originality." After reading this, the movie does seem to be exceedingly strange, but honestly, as I was watching it, it didn't really seem all that outlandish to me. The way the characters reacted to the situations they were placed in and the way the plot was structured seemed to be to be very engaging and reasonable. I'm not sure what this says about post-modern expression in Repo Man, but it was decidedly easier to follow than films like Mulholland Drive (which is one of Lynch's easiest to follow films) and Natural Born Killers.

One thing I noticed that I found kind of interesting was with regards to the blandness of the packaging of the various food products in the film, and the scenes that took place in the grocery store. The packaging of the food was all very standard, and the way things looked reminded me a lot of the scenes in Double Indemnity that took place in the grocery store. In Double Indemnity, the food and products in the grocery store were all meticulously arranged in grid-like or pyramid-shaped patterns, and the labels on all of these products were uniform, suggesting an oppressive atmosphere and a lack of expression or individuality. These devices were used in Repo Man in much the same way, and I believe that they very intentionally were intended to represent the oppression, uniformity, and lack of expression that many people felt they were subjected due to their suburban lifestyles. Interestingly, I did a bit of research on this, and it turns out that those food labels were actually used for generic product packaging at a grocery store chain in Los Angeles, and that grocery store chain donated many of the products in Repo Man for use in the film.

I know I probably sound repetitive, as I've said this before, but Repo Man is by far my favorite film that we've watched up to this point. The bizarre nature of the story, the wonderful, satirical, and oftentimes low-brow humor I found to be extremely effective and entertaining. And besides, who wouldn't want to fly all over Los Angeles in a glowing Chevy Malibu with a pyromaniac acid burnout?

Petey Wheatstraw

I was very excited to learn that we'd be watching a blaxploitation film for this class. I've been a pretty big fan of the exploitation genre for quite some time. I saw Blackcula quite some time ago and remember it being extremely bizarre, and bizarre films tend to suit my fancy perfectly. Exploitation films have everything the low brow film connoseiur wants- gratuitous gore and sex, very low budgets, forced acting with ridiculous dialogue, and absolutely outlandish and unbelievable plots are just some of those fine qualities. And I have to say, Petey Wheatstraw does not disappoint.

Petey Wheatstraw is very similar to some other films of the genre I've heard of or had experience with, films like The Mack and Dolemite come to mind. I have to say that some of the stereoptyes in Petey Wheatraw are so incredibly prominent and ridiculous I was almost surprised- I really appreciate it when actors and directors are willing to push the envelope with these kinds of things even if they may be deemed offensive by some. I think it's slightly absurd when people find exploitation films to be offensive- these types of film are basically low brow comedies, and people who take them seriously are missing something.

In terms of plot, it's a pretty standard cool pimp-like black guy with awesome martial arts skills beats up a lot of bad guys while being aloof with all the women who constantly fawn over him. When I see films like this, I wonder where all these stereotypes came from- sure there were and are some pimps out there behaving in ostentatious ways, but I'd venture to say they were, and are, a distinct minority. Additionally, blaxploitation films seem to very commonly feature people who use martial arts to defeat their foes, as opposed to the current day stereotype of urban violence being based around drugs and guns. Why is it, exactly, that all these incredibly ostentatious pimps or pimp-like characters learn or just happen to know kung fu?

One thing I wonder sometimes when watching exploitation films or blaxploitation films is with regards to the roles of the women in these films. It seems that the women, to a certain extent, are objectified or exploited in these films? Certainly that is the case with some of the films in these genres, however, in one sub-genre of exploitation film that I can think of, the rape-revenge film, the woman suffers a tragedy and ultimately becomes empowered as a result of it. This is very obviously seen in Kill Bill, and many of the inspirations for that film, Tarantino himself has said, come from exploitation films, many of which were from the rape-revenge sub-genre. It seems like in films such as Petey Wheatstraw, there are two types of women: the women who constantly fawn all over the main character but maintain a sense of decency, and the women who are very clearly looked down upon and objectified (someone was actually charged with playing the role of the ugliest woman in the world)! Now that's true objectification if I've ever seen it. (Please note that I am not condoning objectification of women, these are films, not made to be taken seriously, and I am merely exploring the intentions behind them)


Some plot related questions I have (they're not real questions I just love to examine the silliness in exploitation films)

1. Why were those guys stealing tires? Did they really think that would be the simplest and most lucrative way for them to make money? Seems pretty cumbersome to be fleeing from someone carrying those things. And who's buying?

2. Zebra print carpeting in the ambulance? (this was awesome)

3. Petey seems to be a jack of all trades. Demigod, stand-up comedian, ladies man, martial arts expert, philanthropist? What can't he do?

4. Why do the main characters in these types of film love to rhyme so much? I'm reminded to a certain extent of Jesse Jackson.

5. Is it possible not to enjoy the characters of Leroy and Skillet?

Interestingly enough there is a documentary called American Pimp about the lives of some famous and retired pimps who behave and dress in ways similar to films like Petey Wheatstraw, the entire film is available freely on youtube. It also contains clips from other blaxploitation films. Link here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y6oMsroBvU

High Plains Drifter

Another western, huh? A genre I'm somewhat hesitant to explore thoroughly, but I certainly do enjoy Clint Eastwood in these kinds of roles. In fact, one of my favorite films as a child was A Fistful of Dollars. I find that Clint Eastwood really makes the genre of the western much more enjoyable for me- his hard attitude, chiseled features, and just the general bad-assed-ness of his characters lend a nice cheesy element to these films. These types of westerns are totally unmistakable, and that's another reason I can appreciate them.

High Plains Drifter was of course, a treat. Eastwood's character was so over-the-top and stereotypical, it was hard not to enjoy watching, if even for reasons bordering on the cynical. I've always thought it interesting that many of the films sharing this genre, the Spaghetti western, are made in Italy. It seems that the Italians go through phases in their film making, from ridiculous exploitation films featuring gratuitous gore to spaghetti westerns to art films. It would seem the Italians are pretty diverse...but I digress.

In terms of analysing this film and how it relates to both American society at the time it was made, and how it relates to ideas of what the west and that time in American history in general was like. The first obvious comparison one can draw is with Stagecoach, which is an extremely over-romanticized vision of what the west was like, featuring various stereotypes of the time, from the haughty, rich artistocratic woman and the dashing man who comes to her rescue for no reason other than his apparent sense of honor to the chivalrous vagabond with the murky intentions. These are things that I find to be slightly annoying about some early westerns, and with regards to this, High Plains Drifter makes no attempt to romanticize the west in such ways. Our hero is by no means a good person- he is ruthless, and is almost ostentatious is his lack of interest in other people or other people's problems. Indeed, the hero nearly results in the demise of the entire town in the film due to the pursuits of his own selfish pleasures.

One image I really enjoyed during the film was near the end, when Clint Eastwood's character forced the town's resident to paint the town red. We've all heard the phrase "paint the town red" before, but I found it interesting to see a real, literal representation of that. Also, the type of red that was used was a very deep, blood-colored red, and the buildings stuck out from the drab surroundings in such a way that I found to be aesthetically pleasing, perhaps even artistic.

One thing I notice about westerns (this is not necessarily a critically relevant thing) is that all the characters seem to be drinking either beer or some unlabeled brown liquor, probably whiskey, at all times. These guys must have livers like steel, how are they functioning when everyone is drinking booze all day long? Even in Stagecoach I noticed it, and it wasn't just the doctor. These people never have hangovers and seem to be mentally capable more or less at all time. How's that for idyllic? Move to the wild west- drink all day long with no detriment to your health or mental state!

I really wanted to think of some ways to compare High Plains Drifter to the Vietnam war but was only able to come up with a couple of theories. The first theory is that Clint Eastwood's character can be said to be kind of like the United States' involvement in Vietnam. A country that was in serious civil unrest, the United States swept in on it's steed of liberty and attempted to act as some kind of big brother by protecting South Vietnam and defeating the Vietcong. Clint Eastwood's character's intentions were not so noble (not that I presume to know the true reason the United States got in Vietnam, but the whole stranger saves unfortunate city from destruction motif is there in both situations. Another theory is that during the Vietnam era the United States was in such internal turmoil it could be said that the country, like the town of Lago, was destroying itself. Protests, violence, and so on were common during the Vietnam era, and Lago itself was full of internal violence, condoning and turning a blind eye to a murder.

All in all High Plains Drifter was a fun film to watch. Spaghetti westerns are usually fun, at least for a while. And if you haven't seen any of them, check out some of the ones from Italy- Sergio Leone/Ennio Morricone, there are lots of classics there, and the music in those films is usually very good and very recognizable.

The Manchurian Candidate

I was looking forward, though somewhat timidly, to viewing this film. I've seen the remake with Denzel Washington and Liev Schrieber, and I enjoyed it. One of the questions I had going into the film was whether or not the film was going to contain the secret military base on an island where the soldiers were tortured and brainwashed (this was something I remember well from the remake). I really like that strange, 1950s mad scientist type imagery, and was hoping I'd get to see some of it, but alas, it was not included in the original version. I also had not known, prior to watching this film, that Frank Sinatra had an acting career, and I have to say, his performance was very well done, and I kept thinking of him singing one of his dramatic, slow paced love songs the entire time, which was slightly amusing.

One of the main things I noticed about this film was the incredible frequency of Abraham Lincoln imagery. It seemed as if nearly all of the scenes involving Shaw and the Iselins were rife with statues, paintings, etc, all containing images of Abraham Lincoln. I'd noticed this very early on in the film and was again confronted with this during the costume party, in which Mr. Iselin was dressed up as Abraham Lincoln, and acting in a buffoonish way. The sheer frequency of this imagery is indicative that it means something, though I can't pinpoint exactly what it is. I do have several theories, however. Abraham Lincoln was a president who was threatening to change the way of life for nearly half of the country, this could be said to relate to the fact that the widespread fear of communism in the film, and in the country at the time the film was made, was caused primarily because of the artocities it had lead to in many other nations, but also because Americans were starting to get white picket fences and Cadillacs, and were becoming, more or less comfortable with that way of life. One begins to see how people could fear Communism so vehemently, as it directly threatened the American way of life. Another reason I came up with for the inclusion of so much Abraham Lincoln imagery was that it was including to directly mock Mr. Iselin's selfish ways and desire for limitless power. Abraham Lincoln has been revered by many as a great man, one who loved this country dearly and made decisions to genuinely benefit it, and the fact that someone as ruthless and evil as Mr. Iselin chose to surround himself with images of what many people believe to be one of the most noble men ever to hold the seat of the US presidency is a direct mockery of Mr. Iselin's arrogance.

Interestingly, I found myself sympathising a great deal with Raymond Shaw. Though it is true that he was a bit curt and abrasive at the start of the film, it seemed to me that it was caused by his mother and his stepfather's behavior towards him. They ruined his relationship with the love of his live, and then brainwashed him and caused him to kill both his girlfriend and her father. Act every corner he was being victimized, to a certain extent even at the end of the film, when he murders the Iselins, and I genuinely felt bad for him.

The Manchurian Candidate is one of my favorite films we've watched so far, and I really enjoyed comparing it with the remade version of the film. For some reason I find that paranoia in American society can often be a great plot device for keeping one entertained, and then are many examples of this in drama and film, such as The Crucible, etc.