300 (2006, USA, Canada, Bulgaria) Director: Zack Snyder Cast: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West Running Time: 117 mins.
One year after the visually stunning Sin City, another Frank Miller comic book was brought to life and it also became an incredible visual spectacle. 300 is eye candy of the best sort; filled with spear thrusts, pierced bodies, beheadings, mounting horses, rainfalls of arrows – all shot through beautiful filters in terrific slow motion. There isn’t much of a story to be told; this is just pure macho shit. A bunch (300) of muscular Spartan warriors refuse to be overruled by Persian God king Xerxes, so they march to war, commanded by their stout king Leonidas (Gerard Butler in his breakthrough role) and supported by his formidable queen (played by a pre-Game of Thrones Lena Headey). What follows is bloodletting on a grand scale. The custom design, make-up, camerawork and editing/post production are all top notch. What has happened to this visual style since then? Zack Snyder has since made quite a few successful superhero epics, like Justice League and Men of Steel, but 300 remains his most accomplished work.
Sid: You want subversion on a massive level. You know what one of the greatest fucking scripts ever written in the history of Hollywood is? ‘Top Gun’.
Duane: Oh, come on.
Sid: ‘Top Gun’ is fucking great. What is ‘Top Gun’? You think it’s a story about a bunch of fighter pilots.
Duane: It’s about a bunch of guys waving their dicks around.
Sid: It is a story about a man’s struggle with his own homosexuality. It is! That is what ‘Top Gun’ is about, man. You’ve got Maverick, all right? He’s on the edge, man. He’s right on the fucking line, all right? And you’ve got Iceman, and all his crew. They’re gay, they represent the gay man, all right? And they’re saying, go, go the gay way, go the gay way. He could go both ways.
Duane: What about Kelly McGillis?
Sid: Kelly McGillis, she’s heterosexuality. She’s saying: no, no, no, no, no, no, go the normal way, play by the rules, go the normal way. They’re saying no, go the gay way, be the gay way, go for the gay way, all right? That is what’s going on throughout that whole movie… He goes to her house, all right? It looks like they’re going to have sex, you know, they’re just kind of sitting back, he’s takin’ a shower and everything. They don’t have sex. He gets on the motorcycle, drives away. She’s like, “What the fuck, what the fuck is going on here?” Next scene, next scene you see her, she’s in the elevator, she is dressed like a guy. She’s got the cap on, she’s got the aviator glasses, she’s wearing the same jacket that the Iceman wears. She is, okay, this is how I gotta get this guy, this guy’s going towards the gay way, I gotta bring him back, I gotta bring him back from the gay way, so I’ll do that through subterfuge, I’m gonna dress like a man. All right? That is how she approaches it. Okay, now let me just ask you – I’m gonna digress for two seconds here. I met this girl Amy here, she’s like floating around here and everything. Now, she just got divorced, right? All right, but the REAL ending of the movie is when they fight the MIGs at the end, all right? Because he has passed over into the gay way. They are this gay fighting fucking force, all right? And they’re beating the Russians, the gays are beating the Russians. And it’s over, and they fucking land, and Iceman’s been trying to get Maverick the entire time, and finally, he’s got him, all right? And what is the last fucking line that they have together? They’re all hugging and kissing and happy with each other, and Ice comes up to Maverick, and he says, “Man, you can ride my tail, anytime!” And what does Maverick say? “You can ride mine!”
I had a friend in the early zeroes who, when we would send him over to the video store to rent a movie, he would surely come back with the dumbest, most stupefying action movie sequel ever produced. I don’t see this friend any longer, but I am pretty sure John Wick: Chapter IV will now be his favorite movie of all time. The first John Wick movie was no masterpiece, but it was a decent action flick that had some of the elements needed to enjoy a movie of this kind. Elements that are completely lacking in part IV: a story, humor, tension (John Wick can fall off any building and survive) or emotion (if he would get killed, so what?). All it does have is endlessly boring video game action with the same type of kill being repeated over and over, and this for an almost insulting 2 hours and 49 minutes. Is there nothing positive to say? Some of the actors are in good shape and many of the visuals are pretty impressive. There is some talk of the death of cinema these days, and John Wick: Chapter IV certainly supports the case of the pessimists perfectly. Hollywood screenwriters that lack original ideas and producers pumping a depraved amount of money in a completely mindless sequel is definitely what John Wick: Chapter IV brings to the High Table. And with a fifth movie in the works and a television show already out, this trend is not likely to be reversed any time soon.
De man met het slechtste gebit uit de muziekindustrie is niet meer. Shane MacGowan, zanger van de legendarische band The Pogues, overleed op 30 november aan een longontsteking. Hij werd 65 jaar, wat gezien zijn levensstijl niet eens zo heel jong is.
Shane MacGowan was een in Engeland geboren Ierse muzikant, vooral bekend als medeoprichter, frontman en hoofd songwriter van de Keltische folk-punkband The Pogues. De liedjes van MacGowan werden beïnvloed door de Ierse geschiedenis, het Ierse nationalisme, de Ierse diaspora en het leven in Londen.
Hij richtte The Pogues op in 1982 en in 1991 werd MacGowan tijdens een tournee ontslagen uit de groep vanwege zijn drankmisbruik. Hij was vaak zo bezopen bij optredens dat hij niet kon performen. Daarna begon hij een nieuwe band: Shane MacGowan and The Popes, waarmee hij rock, Ierse folk en Americana speelde. In 2001 kwam de zanger, met zijn uit duizenden herkenbare, rasperige stem, ook weer regelmatig samen met The Pogues voor optredens, waarna ze in 2014 definitief uit elkaar gingen.
The Pogues heeft een aantal fantastische classics geproduceerd, waaronder ‘The Body of an American’, dat in The Wire op iedere herdenkingsdienst van een politieagent gedraaid werd, of de overledene nou Iers was of niet.
Mijn 10 favoriete The Pogues songs:
10. The Wild Rover
09. Sally MacLennane
08. Fiesta
07. Boys from the County Hell
06. Streams of Whiskey
05. Thousands Are Sailing
04. Hell’s Ditch
03. The Body of an American
02. Dirty Old Town
01. The Irish Rover (met The Dubliners)
R.I.P. Shane! Dat het bier goed mag smaken aan de overkant.
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