Change Your Image
Klausse
Reviews
Runaway Train (1985)
Manny vs Renken
A lot of previous posts give such a full account of the plot that I won't touch this question. Just a few words: two convicts made their escape from the prison. One of them is especially dangerous, a beast with a human face, etc... I don't think Manny is a beast. SPOILER ALERT First of all, he doesn't LOOK evil. I'm sure that our inner nature throws its light (or shadow) upon our faces, especially as we're getting older. Normally you can tell from the first glance whether a person is evil or not. OK, this is just my personal opinion.
But how do we know that Manny is a villain? Does he do anything terrible? We even don't know what crime he'd committed (at least me, I don't know unless I missed something.
But:
- He has a friend, and he cares for his friend.
- He agrees to take young Buck with him; if he'd been that much of a beast, he'd just have knocked Buck out after Buck had opened the hatch and would have escaped alone.
- Even more: he tries to stop Buck because he understands that Buck has what to lose.
- Even more: he shares some grease with Buck. Without it Buck would freeze to death.
- When Buck tells him about his dreams (robbing some money place) Manny tells him what he really should do if he wants to be a winner in that life (and admits he can't do this himself, AND is sorry for this).
- Yes, he seems to be ready to kill a train worker but these are only words. At the same time he defended the girl from Buck.
- Certainly the most cruel episode is when he's forcing Buck out to get into the cabin and is close to kill the boy when he refuses to do that. I don't think it shows his beast nature. I think it was an act of despair. He's had too much: unwelcome partner too talkative and childlish, wrong train, stuck door, unexpectable witness, and 9 out of 10 for dying in the train crash. He knows HE could break the glass and stop the train if his hand weren't hurt, and he can't accept Buck's weakness because he waited too much from him. He took Buck for equal while he's nothing but a frightened lad. Don't forget that he gives up his idea of killing Buck quite easy.
Manny is not a beast. Whatever got him to prison, he's paid for it. Three years in absolute isolation is pretty enough for most crimes. The fact he doesn't hate the whole world after so horrible a punishment is also in his favour. He hates only one person, and this one is worth hatred.
I think Renken is a real villain. Not because he's just cruel. For a prison warden it's a part of the job description. But he's unfairly cruel. He likes to humilate, he feels a dictator not only in his prison, just everywhere. The only good feature in him is that he's not a coward. One of the reasons Manny makes his escape is that Renken had sworn not to leave him alive and with the powers he's got he'd do that quite easily. Manny has to be cruel to defend himself, Renken enjoys being cruel.
This movie makes you think, what's not bad. Worth seeing at least once.
It's My Party (1996)
Great cast, strange plot
I am Eric Roberts' big fan and to my mind this movie shows once more that he's a very good dramatic actor and what he really needs is a good story and a good director because as an actor he can do everything. Actually, I like the whole cast, especially Bronson Pinchot as Monty and Margaret Cho as Charlene.
The music adds much to the atmosphere, too.
It might be different approach to life and different believes, but the plot itself seems rather strange to me. Yes, I understand pretty well, that "It's My Party" has little to do with AIDS problem or gay love. As most of the posters mentioned here it's about our right to pass away with dignity and in chosen time rather than to turn into vegetable, about how important the friends and family is, etc. Yes, I agree with all this. Though, certainly, I wouldn't like to come across this vegetable dilemma myself.
But I understand young Andrew (Devon Gummersall) who finds all this farewell party a sort of unfair. Could anyone of you imagine yourself as a guest at a party like this? What would you do? What would you feel? I think that only a very limited circle should have been invited to share Nick's last day. Actually, there IS a very limited circle: Nick's mother (Amanda), his best friends (Charlene and Monty), Nick's relations (Daphne, Andrew and Lina), Nick's doctor (Tony), Nick's lost-and-found father, finally. But what other people are doing there is a mystery to me. Most of them are just wandering at the background, without approaching Nick, eating, drinking, enjoying the party while poor Nick's female relatives had to spend their time in the kitchen, cooking new snacks for all that crowd. No wonder that finally Amalia got furious and asked Tony to get all these unknown to her people out before the dark because she wanted to spend his son's last minutes with him. She should have done this earlier, actually.
To people who really cared about Nick these two days must be a torture, and I think he should have thought about this. I don't think he could feel relaxed himself because every single instant he remembered of what he was going to perform. His vision which was getting worse every hour, the fact he had to explain each new guest the reason why he was summoned to the place, the food he had to reject - all these reminders must be very painful for him, too. But in any case he did what he wanted but the people who stayed after, how many months they would spend guzzling sedative to survive this experience?
And I've never cried, sorry. Yes, it was touching to see them step by step getting closer to each other. I liked Brandon's clumsy attempts to find his way to Nick's heart, I liked the admiration you can read in Charlene eyes, when she looked at Nick. Monty is just great, in every aspect! Andrew is very touching. I wasn't upset at the end of the movie, I can say I felt a sort of satisfied. He did what he wanted, no suffers, the closest and dearest friend by his side... what else?
Speaking about different approach to life... I think this situation would never happen in Russia, and here are three possible endings of a farewell party in Russian style: 1) Guests just didn't allow Nick to take his pills having persuaded him that he would be great and all these doctors are just waste of time and money. 2) Guests followed Nick's example just because of compassion. 3) Most probable: both Nick and his guests felt so involved into the party process that they kept celebrating this non stop for a week, until nobody could tell what they are celebrating, in fact.
Please, be sure, I have no intention to offend anybody's feelings.I do like the movie, I do like the acting, the music, I think it's one of Eric Roberts' best movies. But the plot is somewhat weird, in my humble opinion.
By the Sword (1991)
It's not fencing, it' life
For those who'd like to enjoy a sports competition the better choice would be probably to switch on to a sports channel. "By the Sword" has little to do with fencing technique, it's just a movie about people. Villard could be anybody - a sponge diver, a research worker, or a postman - he still would be Villard: self - sufficient, restrained, trying to create distance between himself and other people, admiring the best and strongest, considering himself to be one of the best and thinking little about other people's feelings. He isn't "a bad guy" though - he just lives according to his own rules, in his own world, a kind of performing his own show where he is always on top and never loses his face even when he happens to lose a game. Eric Roberts is great as usual and very impressive. The whole cast did a good job and I do like the music and fencing too. The weak point is the plot. I can't understand why on earth Suba came to Villard. What did he want from him? For Suba, Villard's Academy is the last place to begin a new life. And why he didn't reveal himself to Villard if he wants to be fair? To my mind sometimes the plot lacks of logic. In total I like the film. For those who prefer drama to action it's not a bad choice, for those who like perfect Eric Roberts - it's yes!