Tagarchief: Dungeon Classics

Dungeon Classics #32: Starship Troopers

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Starship Troopers (1997, USA)

Director: Paul Verhoeven
Cast: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey
Running Time: 129 mins.

In the late eighties till the late nineties, Paul Verhoeven – the pride of the Netherlands – had the decade of his career in which he made three science fiction classics that are both masterful and unique: RoboCop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers. All three deliver on stunning design, ultra-violence and social commentary. Starship Troopers revolves around a future human, militaristic society which is at war with an alien bug species. The film follows several recruits who join different parts of the military organization, and go on outer space missions to defeat the bugs. The social commentary against extreme policies was apparently too well hidden, so that critics and viewers missed it completely at the time and considered Starship Troopers just as a typical Hollywood action movie. Understandable, because Verhoeven’s direction is basically flawless and as a piece of suburb popcorn entertainment, the movie works extremely well. However, it works just as well as a propaganda piece for a future, fascist government, who want to dominate the galaxy through violence and oppression. The good looking cast members (check out main actor Casper Van Dien’s perfect jawline) thereby function as ultimate poster girls and boys for citizenship, a status that is reached through military service. The fact that Verhoeven took 100 million dollars from a major Hollywood studio to make this, is fantastic. Don’t expect it to happen anytime soon again. Luckily, Starship Troopers is still just as effective and enjoyable as it was back in 1997.

Dungeon Classics #31: 300

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

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.

Dungeon Classics #30: The Wild Bunch

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

The Wild Bunch (1969, USA)

Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan
Running Time: 145 mins.

Pike Bishop (William Holden) is an aging outlaw who runs a gang called the Wild Bunch in the new American West of 1913, a time of trains and automobiles in which they no longer seem to fit. They get ambushed during their latest score and flee to Mexico, while being hunted by bounty hunters led by one of their former gang members (Robert Ryan). Once in Mexico, they agree to rob a train and steal weapons for a corrupt general after which Pike plans to retire. But if you think the Wild Bunch will disappear quietly into the night, you’re in for a very noisy surprise! The Wild Bunch was controversial at the time for the graphic violence on display and immoral characters in the lead. This was new indeed and clearly an inspiration for filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino. The movie looks and feels very gritty and raw, and the bloody bullet festival in slow motion at the end is a masterful sequence: one of the all-time greatest scenes in cinema history! Fun trivia: actor Robert Ryan was constantly whining to director Peckinpah that he wanted first billing. The director punished him by listing him third on several horses’ asses.

Dungeon Classics #29: The Getaway

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

The Getaway (1972, USA)

Director: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Sally Struthers, Al Lettieri
Running Time: 101 mins.

Seventies classic with a terrific Steve McQueen as bank robber Carter ‘Doc’ McCoy who goes on the run with his wife (Ali MacGraw) after a job went awry. Both the police and criminals are on their tail. What makes this movie work is that it is in fact a love story. McCoy was in jail for five years and his wife had to have sex with a parole board member to get him out. This man – Beynon – was also the one who ordered the bank job and assigned two amateurs to Doc’s team. They are the ones who screwed it up and one of them (Rudy played by The Godfather villain Al Lettieri) is now after them. McCoy can’t forgive his wife for what she did, despite her good intentions, and this psychological drama makes the movie rise above the routine lovers on the run story. Director Peckinpah’s trademark slow motion violence is on display during the finale in a memorable sequence in a hotel.