The Getaway is a 1972 American action-crime film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Steve McQueen in lead role. Doc McCoy (Steve McQueen) and his wife Carol (Ali MacGraw), plan and operate an ambitious bank robbery with a team of criminals. A gang-member Rudy (Al Lettieri) betrays Doc . Rudy wants to kill Doc but he is shot by him. Nonetheless, his injuries are not serious as he has worn the bulletproof vest. Doc and his wife go to Mexico with the money.
Steve McQueen does good job as thief "Doc McCoy". His screen presence is immensely strong. The anti-hero Doc is not a nice guy. He hits his wife at-times and yet somehow he makes his character likable. Ali MacGraw also gives a good performance here. While she loves Doc ,he doesn't always return her affections. Al Lettieri is amazing in the negative role. He is the kind of actor who exhibits menace solely by breathing. Ben Johnson makes an impression in a short role.
Like in most Peckinpah films, it is the style and the violence that stands out. Here Peckinpah uses displaced cuts to jump ahead in time before allowing the events within the film to catch up to the present. Though this is not among the best works of Peckinpah , still it is a very well-made heist flick. The Getaway is a solid action-thriller which shouldn't be missed by film-lovers.
Shohei Imamura's interests as a filmmaker were mainly focused on the lower section of Japanese society. Vengeance Is Mine is a 1979 film directed by him. The film was inspired from a true story of a serial killer.
Iwao Enokizu is a middle aged man who loves to commit insane and violent murders.The film starts with the capture of the killer Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata). In the first sequence, we see him in the back seat of a police car, after his capture . He sings in the police car, assumes on the date of his hanging. The narrative structure of the film is non-sequential, it switches between killer’s interrogation by the police and the reenactment of the actions leading up to each murder. If we try to understand the reasons behind his murders, then this film offers a few. Vengeance is about an almost undefinable evil that seems to have no remorse . The story goes way back to when he was a child. We see him hating his father for being weak in standing up against oppressors (in truth ,there is a little he can actually do). His father is also a religious hypocrite. His father develops a relationship with his son's wife Kazuko. It seemed like his father was Iwao's most hated person on earth.
Elaborating through several flashbacks, Ogata delivers an excellent performance as a killer. Ogata handles the role with natural charm and great confidence. The flashback here is not straightforward, shifting back and forth sequentially and circling around these murders. The style of this film has an effortless minimalism and sense of dilemma.
There are no easy answers behind the murders committed by Iwao. For the most part, his crimes seem to have no powerful motive at all but if u think deeply, u can discover some reasons. There are apparent ideas of family, with the complicated relationship between husband and wife, father and son, mother and son all driving him to commit these crimes. The cultural and spiritual taboos of the post-war Japan are also themes in this film. Vengeance is Mine is a bold and disturbing work that forces the audiences to ask some serious questions.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a 2007 western drama film directed by Andrew Dominick ,with Brad Pitt depicting Jesse James and Casey Affleck portraying Robert Ford.
Outlaws Frank and Jesse James were celebrities in 1881-despised by the law ,but heroes to many people who had read about them in novels and dreamt of riding with the James gang. Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) is one such guy who have idiolised Jesse James. He wants to join the gang of James brothers with the help of his brother Charley Ford ( Sam Rockwell). Jesse is kind of amused by young Bob's hero-worship and he keeps the kid around him. Ford wants to be among close persons of Jesse and eventually he gets so close that Jesse ends up asking "Do you want to be like me? Or do you want to be me?". Robert Ford starts hating Jesse as he comes to know more about him.
The stark and amazing visuals make this film more beautiful. The work of the fine cinematographer Roger Deakins are cold,dark and bleak. It is shot in muted tones which evoke sepia-tinted photos of the old west. Dominick seems to be inspired from Terrence Mallick. He aims for epic grandeur with fields of waving wheat and moving clouds.
During that period, media was busy in creating strange celebrities like outlaw Jesse James and Pitt was perfect for that role considering his public persona. Jesse James is unpredictable. He is paranoid and dangerous but he is also a family man and faithful husband. But this film belongs to Casey Affleck . He gives a great performance as the sycophantic sidekick whose disloyal affection turns sour later. Casey Affleck's character is complex , repulsive and tragic at the same time.
The film is long and it's pace is intentionally slow . The slow pacing makes the film more interesting to watch. It creates the tension between the characters by giving the uncomfortable silences time to grow. This film is one modern masterpiece.
