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Reviews
Death of a Ghost Hunter (2007)
Better Than I Thought
For a movie I watched (interrupted by a dozen ads) on Youtube, this was a competent effort. It definitely needed tighter editing, preferably by someone outside the director's family, to bring a degree of objectivity to the task. And there were some clunky acting moments from the four leads. However, commendations to all for the heart that went into it and those nice touches like the chair which linked past and present (and her own future, although Carter didn't know it when she first saw Colin's footage of the chair moving). Recommended.
Caddie (1976)
Forty years old and still a wonderful experience.
2016 marks the fortieth anniversary of "Caddie" and also my first viewing of this film which I've heard so much about over the years. And four decades have not dimmed the inner beauty that shines through it. I know that it rates highly on many people's list of top Australian movies and it's now near the top of my list too.
Helen Morse and Jacki Weaver give marvellous performances. Morse captures Caddie so well, from her early vulnerability (the rough environment of the working-class pub, the sense that being Ted's girl may be the best she could hope for) through her growing self- confidence as she learns to take control of her world (her outrage at the department store worker demanding her husband's name and occupation before they'd let her spend her own money). Weaver is every bit as good as kind-hearted, gentle Josie, whose life could have been Caddie's too if things had been different and Caddie had been less able to bear the slings and arrows of Australian society in the 1920s and 30s. And a special nod to Drew Forsythe for the understated way he portrayed Sonny, too shy to follow his heart.
"Caddie" is not perfect of course. Jack Thompson's Ted is rather a cliché, John Ewart does the Irish way over the top, Takis Emmanuel seems to have two settings (smoldering and smoldering) and many other characters are mere snapshots, never fleshed out. The movie's structure is also very episodic and at times is a collage of incidents, with the time between one period and the next accelerating from months to years near the end. I also found the conclusion jarring as we learn about Peter's fate while being treated to Caddie happily playing with her children.
But really these are minor points in view of the overall success of the film artistically (and financially: it made seven times what it cost). "Caddie" is ultimately an uplifting experience about empowerment, maternal love and mateship wrapped in some great acting. It's sheer joy.
The Manster (1959)
Better than I expected and worth watching
Sometimes you stumble across a movie that surprises you with what it does on a low budget; that's what happened to me when I watched "The Manster". Expecting a forgettable 90 minutes of poor acting and cliché-riddled script, it initially looked like I wasn't going to be disappointed. Here is a 1950s American-Japanese film set in Japan with not a hint of Godzilla, actors I'd never heard of and two directors credited (so often a sign of a walk-out by one and a mess left to be cleaned up by the other), all capped off by a cringe-worthy title. Yet "The Manster" entertained and left me with some memorable moments and characters. Larry's collapse into self-indulgence, apathy and eventually cruelty was quite gripping; and some of Peter Dyneley's acting moments were powerful, such as his horrified scream of despair when he sees the eye growing out of his shoulder for the first time (yes, I know how that sounds but he really did pull it off on screen). Dyneley had good back-up too from Satoshi Nakamura as the deceptively smooth Dr.Suzuki and the stunningly beautiful Terri Zimmern as the doctor's assistant and Larry's temptress Tara (who was this stunning actress? why is there nothing online about her?). Of course the special effects weren't great, Larry's alter ego looked just like what it was, a guy in a shaggy monkey suit, and the ending was somewhat abrupt. But for a movie clearly inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" it managed to leave its own particular imprint without neither taking itself too seriously nor becoming a laughable mess. Recommended.
Ride the High Country (1962)
A film gem!
Like Joel McCrea's character, "Ride The High Country" speaks volumes without raising its voice. Both he and Scott are excellent as the aging cowboys who wonder, as we all do or will, what's it all been for? Has my mark on the world been so light that it's already forgotten? Peckinpah offers perspectives on finding an answer but not the answer itself: each person must find that for him or herself. This is part of the film's greatness, that it allows the viewer to slide into the saddle along with Steve and Gil and ponder what our response would be to the temptation they face. The friendship between the two main characters is richly veined by their shared experiences and genuinely captured in the way each gently pokes fun at the other. These are both good men and Scott and McCrea capture their nobility and bond wonderfully. NB Stone clearly had a great ear for dialogue. I was also very impressed by Mariette Hartley, who provides a knockout performance for such a young actress. Ron Starr too, whose character initially struck me as shallow, managed to wrangle a lot of depth into Heck Longtree and provided a great balance to the depravities of the Hammond brothers. In the end Peckinpah's work underlines an essential truth of humanity: it's not how big the footprint of your life is but how positively it affects those you come into contact with. Lyrical, touching and memorable, "Ride The High Country" is one of those films many have heard of but few have seen. I feel privileged to have seen it.
Pathfinders: In the Company of Strangers (2011)
This ain't no "Band Of Brothers"!
For a story with such potential, this falls horribly short of the mark. A completely unknown cast isn't necessarily a bad thing and here some of the actors try some of the time, but not enough to come even close to pulling this one through. In addition, the production standards are dreadful. Muffled sound and dialogue blight much of the opening 30 minutes; and what's with all the cropped shots that miss the top of the actor's head? Even more pointless are the interminable close-ups of the soldiers in the tent before the mission briefing, which lend the scenes a claustrophobic atmosphere that has no link to the story, or the barely-there love plot. The action scenes, which should be the heart of the second half, are flat: there is zero excitement in all the creeping about through what looks like the same paddock even though there are several groups of paratroopers involved who land in separate parts of the drop zone. And I have to wonder why there are 2 directors listed. Did they do half each or did one walk away out of disgust? Perhaps the most damning thing for me, though, is that by the end I barely knew anything about the characters and care for them even less. The end credits note that some of the film's proceeds will go to preserving the memory of the real pathfinders and to building a memorial to them, so its heart is in the right place (which is the only reason I gave it 2 stars). But these brave men really deserved better than this horribly amateurish effort. Sadly, the bar has really been lowered with this one.