Recent films - 2022

 SPOILER ALERT! The plots will be discussed.

Here are some thoughts on films recently released.

BELFAST

Written and directed by Kenneth Branagh, the story has its basis on Branagh’s childhood in the Irish city in 1969 during the turbulent confrontation between Protestants and Catholics. By centering on the upending of the world of a Protestant child and his family, the events the movie depicts gain power by personalizing the chaos and violence occurring. We sympathize with how the young boy, Buddy (Jude Hill), is shocked by the violence perpetrated by the Protestant majority on the nurturing neighbors on the street where he lives, where Catholics and Protestants were living in harmony. Buddy’s father (Jamie Dornan) is caught in the middle between the Protestants, the police, and the Catholics, and Protestant criminal/revolutionary Billy Clanton (Colin Morgan) who is trying to recruit Buddy’s Pa through intimidation. Pa works in England, and the family eventually must leave their beloved country to escape the violence tearing their city apart.

The film, shot in black and white with shades of color, has numerous camera angles at ground level to immerse the audience in the action, but also to provide the viewpoint of a child. The cinematography is beautifully done as it evokes a gritty beauty on the streets of Belfast. Branagh adds numerous pop culture elements to recreate the time and place of this period in history, and the songs by Irishman Van Morrison provide texture to the tale. The movie is a stunning accomplishment.

DON’T LOOK UP

Writer/director Adam McKay gives us an apocalyptic story that, although containing some sharp satire, tries to hit too many targets. What results is an unfocused movie. He did better in his previous outings (The Big Short, Vice) because they were based on actual events, the economic meltdown of 2008 and the political clout of Dick Cheyney, which made the satire in those films upsetting because they were real. Here he takes a hypothetical event, the planet destroying approach of an asteroid, and shows how even such a catastrophic event becomes politicized given the current divisiveness in the United States. (Of course, McKay is referencing films such as Armageddon, and Deep Impact). People want to do something to avert the disaster, others say the reaction to the threat is out of proportion, and some deny the problem exists. Climate change and also COVID come to mind. The film most likely is arguing that climate change is similar to the approach of the asteroid, but the impact of the lethal heavenly body is more immediate.

That chunk of space matter is discovered by Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence), and she and her mentoring professor, Dr. Randal Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), go on a quest to warn the world of the cataclysm that approaches. They encounter President Orlean (Meryl Streep) who only cares about how to spin facts that will increase her popularity. Her son, Jason Orlean (Jonah Hill), is her shallow Chief of Staff. He says at one point that his mother is hot and suggests that he would make a play for her if he wasn’t her son. His comment is an obvious reference to Donald Trump’s incestuous remarks about his daughter, Ivanka. As IMDb points out, when they try to get the citizens to ignore the coming crisis as a type of “fake news” they get everyone to chant “don’t look up,” which sounds like a reference to Trump’s chant of “lock her up,” referring to Hillary Clinton.

Mark Rylance’s Peter Isherwell is a nerdy tech CEO who has zero social skills and is an egomaniac. His character is a shot at Mark Zuckerberg. But the spaceships that Isherwell wants to use to harvest mineral riches from the asteroid look like Jeff Bezos’s penis-shaped rocket, linking billionaires’ arrogance with male sexual preoccupation. There is also a car pictured in space which reminds us of Elon Musk’s launching of his Tesla car, which again stresses how the ultrarich believe they are like the gods in the heavens. The worship of wealth is referenced by Jason, who says a prayer even at the imminent destruction of everything as he mourns the loss of “stuff.” IMDb points out that during the closing credits the Wall Street bull floats in space, a reference to the biblical warning about worshipping “false gods.”

There is also a jab at the public’s preoccupation with fame and celebrities as reported by TV hosts played by Tyler Perry and Cate Blanchett. Mindy has an affair with the latter, and is seduced by becoming the center of attention on TV as the spokesman for the end of times. Don’t Look Up is an interesting film, but again, it’s all over the place.

THE POWER OF THE DOG

This film, written and directed by Jane Campion, takes place in Montana in 1925. The setting is important since we are dealing with a macho-cowboy-oriented story at a place and time when being gay was condemned. Given that context, the story explores repressed homosexuality in the person of Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch, in a riveting performance).

Phil is ranch partners with his brother, George (Jesse Plemons). The two couldn’t be more different. George is softspoken, and neat, always wearing a bowtie. Phil is loud and sarcastic, and always looks like he climbed out of the mud. In fact, he prides himself in the fact that he smells. For him, that odor emanates manhood. But, appearances are deceiving in this movie. Phil has not married, and it is his brother that weds Rose (Kirsten Dunst). Rose has a tall, thin son named Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who looks as if the wind could blow him over. He creates paper flower arrangements, which to the cowboys is an effeminate activity. Phil is nasty as he says to Peter, “Ain’t them purrdy? I wonder what little lady made them?”

Phil is hostile to Rose, and can’t abide being in the next room when he hears lovemaking sounds coming from his brother’s bedroom. The hostility eventually drives Rose to becoming an alcoholic. Phil had a mentor named Broncho Henry, who he often references as being a great cowboy. He starts to teach Peter about the skills that he believes a man should know. Peter learns how to ride a horse and Phil is impressed that the youth can look at a hill and see the shape of a dog that other cowboys have not been able to discern.

Even though he may appear weak, Peter is studying to be a doctor, and is not squeamish about dissecting animals as he learns about diseases. When he and Phil are mending a post, they come across a lame rabbit, and Peter has no problem breaking the animal’s neck to put it out of its misery. The turning point in the plot is when Phil masturbates while holding Broncho Henry’s handkerchief, and Peter discovers magazines of nude men in Phil’s hiding place that have Broncho Henry’s name on them. Phil tells Peter a story about how Broncho Henry saved him from the cold by using their body heat to keep warm. Peter asks if they were naked, but Phil just smirks and says nothing. It appears as if it is an admission of his gay nature, and the two then intimately share a cigarette.

Peter, out alone, uses a scalpel to cut some hide off a steer that died due to disease. He gives that cowhide to Phil to finish a lasso he was making for the boy. Phil had cut himself earlier while skinning a rabbit, and does not wear gloves while finishing the lasso. He becomes sick from an infection and later dies. We see Peter, wearing gloves, pushing the lasso under his bed, and he sees a revitalized Rose with George outside his window. The implication is that Peter infected Phil with anthrax so that his mother would no longer be threatened by the toxic Phil.

The title comes from the Book of Psalms, which reads, “Save my soul from the sword, and my darling from the power of the dog.” The dog is considered a tormentor to King David. Perhaps the rock formation that Peter recognized as a “dog” may represent the danger in succumbing to the overcompensating masculine mentality that drove the self-denying Phil.

BEING THE RICARDOS

Writer/director Aaron Sorkin zeroes in on one episode of the hit 1950’s TV show I Love Lucy, but then does some time jumping to give us a sense of what Lucille Ball and husband Desi Arnaz were like behind the cameras. The story focuses on the adversity that Lucy encountered when she was accused of being a Communist during the McCarthy witch hunt era, and how the couple lied by saying Lucy just filled in the wrong block on a questionnaire. The truth was that she cared and respected a relative who belonged to the Communist Party. She did not want to be deceptive about what really happened. Lucy (Nicole Kidman) was a tough, shrewd woman before it was inspirational to be such a person. She is also a perfectionist when it comes to the show’s episodes. Despite the series depicting farcical situations, she argues against any illogical elements in the scripts, and adds funny material. The couple fights back at not being able to say the word “pregnant,” and the two not sharing a bed, despite their characters and themselves being married. Desi (Javier Bardem) is very supportive and respectful of his wife when it comes to the work, but Lucy does discover that he has been frequenting prostitutes on the side. The two come off as witty and intelligent members of the show business community.

Sorkin’s script is sharp, as usual, and the performances of Kidman and Bardem are very good, as are those of J. K. Simmons as the abrasive although well-meaning father figure, William Frawley, and Nina Arianda as Vivian Vance, who is close to Lucy, but who sometimes feels she must appear unattractive so as not to upstage the star.

SWAN SONG

This movie has a sci-fi context, but it is mostly an idea and character driven story. Cameron (Mahershala Ali) has a terminal illness. In this future time period, there is an innovative way to basically replace oneself with a duplicate. It is not cloning since the scientists, headed by Dr. Jo Scott (Glenn Close), upload all of one’s memories and feelings onto the double, and can make small physical variations to tell the original from the copy. Ali also plays his duplicate, Jack. Cameron agonizes over the course of the story as to whether he should go through with this action. The catch is that the family and everybody else must not know of the illness so as not to raise suspicion that the duplicate has been substituted. The purpose of this deception is to allow Jack to easily slide into Cameron’s life. If Cameron goes through with the procedure, he will live out the rest of his time at the medical facility where the swap is taking place.

The story deals with identity in a way that writer Philip K. Dick did in several stories. Questions rise as to what defines an individual, and what makes each individual unique. Another great performance by the Oscar-winning Ali.

The next film is Roman J. Israel, Esq.

The Mouse That Roared

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

The title of this farcical satire, The Mouse That Roared (1959), refers to the smallest nation in the world, the Duchy of Fenwick, located on the Swiss-French border, which is a technologically unevolved nation. It is oblivious to the current events that are occurring on the rest of the planet. It becomes, through a series of ridiculous events, the most powerful country, and the film uses the story to ridicule the arms race, the destructive tendencies of the large governments of the world, and in particular the foreign policies of the United States.

 

We know we are in for a crazy time when the Columbia Studio’s trademark, the woman holding a torch, is disturbed by a mouse under her dress, a metaphor for how the mighty can’t seem to handle the unexpected disruption of something that should not be a threat. The credits present opposing images and sounds, such as a small boat and then an ocean liner, and an animated rodent that surprises itself as it roars like a lion. These humorous contrasts stress the theme of how the mighty can somehow be unexpectedly vulnerable to something seemingly insignificant. The opening narration comically requires a magnifying glass to locate Fenwick, pointing out its supposed insignificance. It was a British colony, suggesting English imperialism, making it the only country in Europe that uses English (which also makes the movie accessible for American and United Kingdom audiences). It is a rustic, backward place, with old automobiles and residents using manual labor while wearing clothes that look like they came out of Medieval times. 

 The ruler is the Grand Duchess Gloriana XII (Peter Sellers, in one of his multi-character portrayals). She waves her hand like Queen Elizabeth II as she drives her antiquated car, possibly a jab at the outdated royal ruling class in England. There is also a parliament, as there is in Great Britain, and the Prime Minister is Count Rupert of Mountjoy (a sexual reference or haughty last name? Also, played by Sellers). The country's forest is supervised by Tully Bascomb (yes, Sellers again). He is an incompetent having been caught is his own trap as a staring fox remains free, ironic for a guy who is supposed to take care of the woods. This image adds to the reversal of what would be expected to happen. 

 

The Fenwick army consists of men in chainmail using longbows, an anachronism in the nuclear age, but also much less of a threat to others. Tully supervises the men, and when he uses a bow, the arrow splits the wood frame before it can even be launched. It’s a visual that Woody Allen might use later to show ineptitude. 

 

The country’s source of economic success is its wine, Pinot Grand Fenwick, and the inhabitants make it the old-fashioned way, of course, by stomping on grapes in large vats. The United States has been its primary buyer. But, then a California winemaker manufactured a knockoff of the beverage, called it unscrupulously “Pinot Grand Enwick,” and used the capitalist tools of “vast advertising” and discounted pricing, which ended Fenwick’s wine selling in America. So, the affluent United States has such power that it can make or break tiny sovereignties, driving them into economic crises.

 

Fenwick’s protests to the U. S. have been ignored, so Rupert says that the only way out is to declare war on the United States. But the plan is not to win, which is impossible, but to lose. He says, “There isn’t a more profitable undertaking for any country than to declare war on the United States and to be defeated … the Americans pour in food, machinery, clothing, technical aid, and lots and lots of money, “to the defeated country. He declares that shortly they will be “rehabilitated beyond our wildest dreams.” The film here satirizes the American desire for war followed by its wielding economic influence over its former enemies. Of course the policy, though overly expensive, is to win the defeated over so they can become future allies. Rupert suggests that Tully will lead their small band of twenty men, but the parliamentary opposition leader, David Bentner (Leo McKern) lists Tully’s multiple failings, such as “flat feet, sinus, migraine and claustrophobia” problems. He also is “nearsighted and dizzy in high places.” Not exactly encouraging as a leader. But, Rupert finds him fit enough to lead them to defeat, a low bar if any to reach. Bentner declares that, “War is reprehensible, barbaric, unforgivable and unthinkable. And I second the motion.” The movie is suggesting that it’s even worse to pursue a horrific course of action when one realizes its terrible consequences.

 

The document declaring war is sent through the country’s post office system with only a “special delivery stamp” added to ensure its arrival in the United States. This fact comically highlights that Fenwick doesn’t even have any diplomatic connections, so unsophisticated is its government. After turning over the document to the messenger, Rupert and Bentley drink a toast which is full of clichés and irrelevant famous lines, such as: “the die is cast;” “Our cause is just;” “To be or not to be;” “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”  It’s the kind of absurdist list that would show up in a Marx Brothers routine or an Eugene Ionesco play, both of which make fun of how language can become illogical and nonsensical by inept communicators. The final words of the toast are, “To our glorious defeat,” another ironic joining of supposedly irreconcilable terms. 

 

Tully has no desire to leave his forest for a war. Added to his list of ills is that he gets seasick on ocean journeys. But Rupert and Bentley insist. Tully speaks with his lieutenant, Bill Buckley (William Hartnell) who is to go on the journey to the U. S. with him. (Not sure if this is another bit of satire, but he has the same name as noted political conservative William F. Buckley, Jr). Tully says he will appeal to patriotism to get volunteers. Men say they love their country but if asked to enlist, they resoundingly say, “No!” The implication could be that people will give lip service to their country as long as there is no sacrifice. Or, individuals may on the surface be supportive of their nation, but realize governments are not anywhere worth dying for. However, Buckley resorts to brute commands showing how easily the timid can be intimidated, and they get their twenty volunteers.

 

The receipt of the Declaration of War is rightfully considered a joke in Washington D. C. (yes, it does get delivered there. That special delivery stamp must have done the trick). The absurdity of the enterprise is stressed by the military contingent needing to flag down a bus to get them to a small boat in Marseilles in order to sail to New York City. The soldiers woefully drill onboard as Tully is consistently seasick. These guys would lose to pacifists.

 

Meanwhile, as Stephen Colbert would say, the United States is ready to have an expansive air raid drill over the entire east coast of the country, closing the ports and evacuating the cities. This alert is received on the QE II as it sails close to the United States. The captain (Stuart Saunders) and the second officer (Ken Stanley) believe the exercise is to prepare for the development of the “Q-bomb,” which is supposed to make “the H-bomb look like a firecracker.” Apparently the further down in the alphabet an explosive device gets its letter, the more deadly it is. However, the two say no bomb will “replace the English Navy.” It's a satiric shot at the smugness of the English mentality that clings to a feeling of superiority even though there is no longer a British Empire. 

 

The Fenwick boat approaches the QE II, and the captain tells them to turn around since New York’s not open to sea craft. The QE II is greeted with a barrage of arrows. It’s like that old cliché that represents futility as throwing spitballs at a battleship. The Fenwick crew continues to New York City, finding it empty. One soldier says he saw the Empire State Building first, so he gets to keep it. It’s a joke about how some get caught up in the idea of conquest, no matter how impossible the odds are. 

 

Buckley is impatient to get captured so they can achieve their unorthodox goal. Buckley hears Tully squeaking and determines by raising Tully’s arm that his mail became rusty in the rain. It brings to mind the Tin Man from the wizard of Oz, and it fits since they have found themselves, like Dorothy and her companions, in a strange land like Emerald City, which is what New York City could represent here. The rusty sound could also imply how out-of-date their weaponry is. This out-of-touch feel continues when one man steps on some gum and calls it “germ warfare,” although they question how there could be “sticky germs.” 

 

The soldiers look into the subway and see several people making the best of their seclusion. Buckley finds a newspaper and tells Tully and the others about the air raid drill and the preparation for the arrival soon of the awesome Q-bomb. At the New York Institute of Physics we get a look at the explosive. As IMDb notes, the device is in the shape of a football, which coincides with calling the launch codes under the U. S. President’s control the “nuclear football.” Professor Alfred Kokintz (David Kossof) and his daughter, Helen (Jean Seberg) work on the bomb at the Institute. How does Kokintz secure the warning alert on the bomb? With a bobby pin from Helen’s hair. So high-tech and reassuring. There is obviously a satiric thrust at scientists that create such monstrosities without making sure that adequate protections are present. Kokintz says he must “remove the detonator. It’s sensitive.” Unfortunately no adequate fail-safes have been installed to reduce its propensity to explode. Just lightly touching it produces an annoying crackling sound like a scared animal. 

 

An American decontamination man sees the Fenwick men in their shiny armor and it is so alien-looking, he assumes there has been an invasion of Martians. Now, these decontamination guys are wearing full-body hazmat suits, so which ones really look like they are from outer space? The Fenwick soldiers think the Americans are from another planet, at least until they start taking off their outfits. Both sides lean toward paranoia when confronted with something different, and the word of an alien invasion among those in the fallout shelters spreads to the point where the supposed number of extraterrestrials balloons into the thousands. 

 

Tully thinks they are going to an arsenal but the soldiers get lost and coincidentally arrive at the physics institute. Tully remembers from the newspaper article that Kokintz is working there. He and his men enter the building while General Snippet (MacDonald Parke), a name that sounds like he’s going to perform a circumcision, calls the Secretary of Defense (Austin Willis) about the report of an invasion from Mars. One may recognize the hysteria of unreasoning, conspiracy-minded people as they react to unfounded rumors here, as they did with Orson Welles’s radio program based on the novel War of the Worlds.

 

Tully wants to take Kokintz hostage along with the Q-bomb to have more leverage in bargaining with the Americans. The ease with which Sully and his men acquire such a powerful weapon points to the danger of having such weapons in existence. When Helen raises a bottle as a weapon, her father, the maker of the most destructive device in history, ironically tells her, “no violence,” which shows his lack of insight into the ramifications of what he has created. 

 

 A military jeep containing Snippet and New York City policemen drives by and the archers stop it with their arrows. It’s a repeat of the attack on the ocean liner. The suggestion here is that despite all of the highly evolved machinery and technology, something simple can derail everything, and, thus, safety is just an illusion in times of modern warfare. Sully captures the Americans as Snippet is in denial about what is happening. Sully tells the boat captain that they won the war, given that they have the Q-bomb, and there is now a Fenwick flag flying at the U. S. Customs building at the dock. 

 

Back in Fenwick, Rupert, Bentner, and other officials are preparing for an American occupation by planning to be hospitable toward their conquerors to facilitate the aid they will receive. They will offer the visiting soldiers discounted wine, for instance, plan on getting malted milk machines, and plenty of hot dogs. Rupert says that non-fraternization should only last two days, and then he wants the young foreign soldiers to feel that Fenwick is “a home away from home.” So, he is suggesting making Fenwick females available for socializing. Why should being defeated preclude entertainment? They have the American flag flying and a band playing American songs, like “Frankie and Johnny.”

 

The precariousness of the Q-bomb is accentuated as one of the soldiers cradles the explosive like an ominous demon-child in a raging sea storm. Kokintz wants Helen to seduce Tully into letting her father dismantle the bomb, but the pathetic Tully’s seasickness spoils this attempt. 

 

The Grand Duchess, Rupert, and the other citizens are unhappily astounded to learn from Tully that they have won the war and have the world’s most destructive weapon in their possession. Kokintz warns Rupert and those present that the bomb could destroy most of Europe unless he disarms it. The Grand Duchess seems unable to sort things out and orders that the bomb be secured in a dungeon. But she is most hospitable toward Kokintz and Helen, getting them a room next to her and ensuring they have fruit juice for breakfast. This contrasting of the dangerous with the frivolous adds to the film’s humor. The Grand Duchess is oblivious to the modern world as she tells Snippet, who brings up the contents of the Geneva Convention, that she can accompany his reading of the document on the harpsichord. She later thinks the current U. S. President is Calvin Coolidge.

 

Snippet is rigid in his military way of thinking and assumes that he must fight to be treated well. He refuses to go anywhere without the basic standards guaranteed to prisoners of war. He doesn’t even look to see that the Duchess offers opulent surroundings with plentiful food and drink served by beautiful women. The policemen partake of this generosity, while Snippet sits in a damp cell eating basic fare while the theme music from The Bridge on the River Kwai plays in the background to satirize the general’s macho insistence on being treated as a suffering captive. 

 

In response to tiny Fenwick having the Q-bomb, Britain and France try to cozy up to the new superpower. Russia, however, uses the news to prop itself up and deploy propaganda by saying they invented the bomb earlier but were too peace-loving to use it, and they then condemn the capitalist countries for being aggressors. Tiny, powerless Taiwan, which has been surpassed by mainland China as the dominant nation there, says it will do what it can to help Fenwick fight the U. S. This humorous request shows how another tiny, mousy nation wants to “roar.” The top news out of the United States is the results of a World Series game, which implies that Americans are more interested in sports than the safety of the world. 

 

The irrationality of the whole affair is stressed in scenes in the United States and in Fenwick. There are many countries which are pledging military support for Fenwick against the U. S. Each wants to retain the Q-bomb supposedly to protect it but they really want to use it to intimidate the rest of the world. One of the United States military men illogically says America can pledge more military support for Fenwick than other nations. The Secretary of Defense ridiculously must remind him that we can’t send aid to the enemy. The Secretary says the President is sending him to make peace with Fenwick through surrender to prevent an explosive holocaust. 

 

In Fenwick, Rupert says that only an idiot could foul up his plan, and “an idiot did,” as he refers to Tully. The Duchess disagrees with Rupert that they should return the Q-bomb because he is worried about its danger. The Duchess says the world powers will just invent the x, y and “zed” bombs, so the danger is continuous. The movie suggests that her analysis of the arms race among nations appears to be an accurate one. Rupert and others resign leaving Tully in charge as the Prime Minister. 

 

Rupert and Benter approach Helen and promise their aid in helping her leave with the Q-bomb. Meanwhile, Tully ponders the explosive as it looks like an egg sitting on a nest of straw, waiting to give birth to destruction and chaos. He tries to be friends with Helen, a sort of symbolic joining of the two warring factions. Tully kisses Helen, and she calls him “thief,” but he is actually stealing her heart. However, Rupert and Benter whisk her away with Snippet and the Q-bomb, which is sounding agitated. They don’t know where Kokintz is. The professor happens to be stuck with the Duchess who is playing the harpsichord. Tully witnesses his “girl” and his “bomb” scurrying off.

 

The film then inserts an image of an atomic bomb detonating. The narrator reassures the audience that it is not the end of the story, but since such devastation could occur at any moment, the filmmakers wanted to prepare us for the possibility. It is a darkly humorous ploy, and it not only reminds us that we may be seeing possible catastrophe in the movie, but that same nuclear horror can be unleashed in real life, too, at any moment. 

 

The representatives from the various dominant countries attempting to find favor with Fenwick play “diplomacy” monopoly. The fate of the world is depicted as just a game to those nations jockeying for power. While playing the board game, the Russian says he gets to bomb Philadelphia, and others get to take over other countries. A joke or real life?

 

Tully runs after the escaping car taking Helen. While in pursuit, he again gets his foot caught in a trap in the forest he was supposed to manage. The car carrying Snippet, Helen, and the cops breaks down temporarily, and must be pushed. Snippet is alone in the vehicle as it takes off. He runs into a haystack and the Q-bomb gets even louder. In a sort of Keystone Cops routine, the policemen and others toss the bomb around like a football, showing that the fate of the world is literally up in the air not only here, but in real life. Tully is the last to get hold of the Q-bomb and it appears he places it just over a sort of a white-painted goal line, enhancing the football metaphor, and how lives are being played with. Despite the increasing racket made by the Q-bomb, there is no detonation. 

 

The next shot is that of Rupert and Benter crushing grapes in a vat as punishment for their careless actions. Tully asks that the peace treaty make Fenwick the sole provider of the wine brand they were prosperous at producing. He asks for a million dollars for the country. The Secretary of Defense insists it must be a billion, suggesting that the smaller amount undermines the exalted reputation of the United States, which knows how to throw money around in huge amounts to flaunt its affluence. Also, Tully and Helen are to be married, a joining of the two countries in an affectionate bond.

 

Tully says the Q-bomb will stay in Fenwick. He argues that the large countries of the world have been so negligent in protecting the world that it’s time for a sort of league of little nations to give it a try and supervise disarmament of the powerful sovereign states. Tully says that if the large nations don’t agree, Fenwick will set off the bomb. The Secretary says that will destroy Fenwick, too. But, the Duchess argues that the large countries will most likely cause a nuclear catastrophe, and Fenwick would be wiped out anyway, so why delay the inevitable agony? 

 

As Kokintz checks the bomb after its rough ride, he sneezes and drops it. It does not explode. Kokintz declares the bomb a dud. But Tully says it will be a secret shared by the professor, Helen, and Tully supposedly so that they can wield enough power to bring about disarmament. After they leave the room, a white mouse crawls out of the Q-bomb, and the device makes some noise. Is the mouse representative of Fenwick and how there has been too much power placed in the hands of powerful people that created a threat to us all? The words after “the End’ question if that is so. The implication is that there may be a disastrous detonation in our future which could really cause “The End” of humankind.

The next film is A Beautiful Mind.

A Hard Day's Night

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Roger Ebert notes in his book, The Great Movies, that A Hard Day’s Night (1964), “was in a different category from rock musicals that had starred Elvis and his imitators.” Indeed, those earlier films did not offer much more than a way to showcase their musical stars playing and singing their songs. But this Richard Lester directed movie, from a script written by Alun Owen, uses witty, surreal dialogue and situations that has The Beatles mirror the anarchic freedom of The Marx Brothers. 

 

Ebert notes that the black-and-white photography provides a “semi-documentary style” as the film follows a day in the life of the famous quartet as they evade zealous fans, rebel against those who would contain them, and eventually perform at a concert. As Ebert says, the film does not follow standard filmmaking procedures, and instead uses handheld cameras and quick cutting that make it appear as if the shots were “snatched during moments of real life.” But that realistic look is in ironic contrast to the absurd antics of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. 

 

The title of the film came from Ringo who was describing how rest was needed after a trying day being The Beatles. But it is writer Owen who created “stereotyped” versions of the band members, according to IMDb, after observing them on tour. He depicted Paul as “cute” and “sensible,” John as the “smart-ass,” George as “quiet and shy,” and Ringo as “dim-witted and sad.” In real life, the personalities of these individual musicians were more complex, so the film is a fictional version of the factual people. Larry David does the same thing in Curb Your Enthusiasm. 

 

The opening sequence, with the lively title track playing in the background, is one of movement. John, George and Ringo are fleeing from the adoring female fans. They run, jump, and ride to get away. Only Paul, in disguise with a beard and mustache sits still because he is with his grandfather (Wilfrid Brambell) on a bench. (IMDb notes that Paul was indisposed for a while because of a car accident, and William Shears was used as a stand-in. In Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Paul sings an introduction to the “one and only Billy Shears”). But they all meet up at a station to go on a train, another moving object. This sequence conveys youthful energy, but also a sense that the musical celebrities find it difficult to obtain that sense of liberation. Indeed, when they are not moving they are in confined areas, such as rooms, cars, and train compartments that symbolize how their fame, although allowing them monetary gain and the ability to express their musical abilities, also limited them as individuals.

 

On the train there is the first of many references to Paul’s grandfather being “very clean.” According to IMDb, the phrase is a reverse reference to actor Brambell’s role in a British TV series entitled “Steptoe and Son” (which was the inspiration for the American show “Sanford and Son”), where Brambell’s character was called a “dirty old man.” John says that they will probably have to look after the old man, but his response is, “I look after meself.” His attitude is unexpected since one would expect the old man to be a conservative type. But the script defies expectations, and Grandfather likes to get into mischief and is a rebel. Paul calls him “a villain, a real mixer.” Paul adds his grandfather, “costs you a fortune in breach-of-promise cases.” That type of dialogue is funny because it sounds formal coming from blokes who came off the streets of Liverpool. 

 

Shake (John Junkin) and Norm (Norman Rossington), the group's handlers, show up, and Norm immediately wants to put restrictions on the four, saying “let's not cause any trouble.” After Grandfather goes with Shake and Norm for some coffee, a proper looking middle-aged gentleman (Richard Vernon) enters the compartment. The long-haired boys seem to be an existential annoyance to the conservative man, as he views them with suspicion. He immediately tries to control the situation by closing the window (metaphorically implying he does not want fresh ways of thinking to be in his presence). Paul wants the window open, and John points out that the majority there doesn’t want it closed, stressing democracy. But the older fellow argues he has sway because he has been around longer, basically arguing that age outranks youth. He doesn’t want them playing rock music on Ringo’s radio, either. He says he “fought the war for your sort,” and Ringo’s funny response is, “I bet you’re sorry you won,” since the man is so hostile toward those he protected. The Marx Brothers influence at playing with language can be heard when the traveler says, “I shall call the guard,” and Paul says, “Ah, but what?” That response is followed by an absurd shot of the boys outside the train with a bicycle running alongside the man’s window, stressing that he is treating them like little children. 

 

The Beatles join Shake, Norm, and Grandfather in the dining car. Norm and Shake are arguing over the ridiculous point that Shake is acting taller than Norm. Paul discovers that it’s his grandfather that instigated the conflict, even though the two men never argue. Paul says that Grandfather doesn’t like “unity.” He’s being depicted as an anarchist, just the opposite of the elderly man in the compartment. Grandfather creates more chaos when young girls enter the car. Paul makes a move on them for himself and the others, but then Grandfather says the young men are convicts and the females should flee. In a way, The Beatles were guilty of defying conventional norms. 

 

Grandfather is unaccounted for, and when asked, John’s nutty comment is that he concealed him about his “person.” It adds to the film’s attack on conventional rationality. Ringo admits to George that he has an inferiority complex, and he plays drums because it’s his, “active compensatory factor.” Here we have more of that out-of-place language that sounds like curbside psychology, which the script is satirizing. John bursts into a compartment that has young girls and asks for a file to free him of supposed handcuffs, carrying on the theme of being in a confining state due to his celebrity status.

 

Paul and John find Grandfather with a much younger woman. He says he is engaged, another ridiculous moment. The next shot is Grandfather in a cage in the storage part of the train, looking like his free spirit has been imprisoned. But, the Beatles join him, so they, too, are confined by their own fame, as girls show up outside the barrier. We then have the artifice of the movie undermining the documentary feel, as the quartet plays “I Should Have Known Better,” when they are only supposed to be playing cards. 

 

The “surging” girls are waiting for them at the train station (John asks if he could be “surged,” which again echoes the Marx Brothers’ love of wordplay and also shows the plus side of being a rock star). More physical fleeing takes place suggesting an attempt to escape the suffocation of fame. Shake has to carry the band’s instruments because The Beatles don’t have the luxury of privacy to bring their own. But, for that sacrifice of privacy, they do experience adoration and the freedom to have others do work for them. The film shows the two sides of success. 

 

Ringo gets an invitation to go to a fancy club, but Norm, trying to control the band’s members so that they don’t become a publicity embarrassment, denies Ringo the opportunity to go. Grandfather steals the invitation, and even though he openly discourages attendance there, he likes the idea of being at a place that has “easy money and fast women.” Norm wants the band to stay in the hotel and answer their fan mail. After Norm leaves, John grabs his jacket to go out, which is his defiant response to being told to stay put, and they go out dancing to their own recorded music. Grandfather, exercising his own rebelliousness, goes gambling at the club. When he goes broke, he unscrupulously pretends to be a waiter and gets a large tip from a patron so he can continue to bet. There is a shot at the dance club that has a young woman resting her booted foot on the hand of a companion as John sits at the table. In Howard Hampton’s essay, “The Whole World is Watching,” this brief image conveys, “the way the cool and wry and fetishistic are all folded into everyday conversation, ordinary life.” It’s a hint of how The Beatles are in the vanguard of “a transformed social world that's being sculpted before your eyes.” However, Norm (an appropriate name for someone who wants things to adhere to the “norms” of behavior so that things appear to be “normal”), shows up and wants The Beatles to leave. 

 

Norm gets the lads back to the hotel to do the chore of answering their mail. But, they find the butler whose clothes Grandfather took to go to the fancy club, and they use that excuse to break away once more to find the old man. They get into the exclusive club because they are, after all, The Beatles, so celebrity has its privileges. Shake gets into the exclusive club by saying he’s “Ringo’s sister,” so absurdity keeps surfacing in the film.

 

The next scene has John enjoying himself as he plays like a child unencumbered by adult restrictions while taking a bath. He pretends he is a German U-Boat commander. As he sings, “Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the sea,” he then has one boat bash another, a sort of satiric jab at England’s imperialism. As IMDb points out, John holds a toy submarine and shouts out “Help!” which predicts the subsequent Beatles movies, Help! And Yellow Submarine. When Norm again tries to manage John by telling him to get out of the bathtub, he pulls the stopper, but only John’s hat and the toy submarine remain after the water drains. John walks in harassing Norm to stop fooling around. It’s an absurdist reversal of their roles. 

 

The band rides to a press conference at the theater where they will perform. When they exit the car they go through a homeless person’s tent and the screaming female fans knock the shelter away, leaving the poor man without his covering. The shot seems to stress how all this fame and money contrasts with the poor people who are left behind in the capitalistic rat race. 

 

When the musicians enter the reception room, Norm continues his restrictive role by trying to curtail the band’s efforts to indulge in any alcoholic beverages. The film also makes fun of the same tired questions that reporters ask The Beatles. Commenting supposedly about the size of Ringo’s nose, John says, “I never noticed his nose till about six months ago.” When asked how he found “America,” John’s sarcastic response is, “Turn left at Greenland.” When confronted with the extremely obvious question, “Has success changed your life,” George does not dignify the question as he simply says, “Yes.” When asked what he calls the hairstyle he has, George says, “Arthur,” again playing with language. When an interviewer wants to know with whom Ringo identifies between the two warring youthful factions in England at the time, the “mods” or the “rockers,” Ringo’s famous line is “I’m a mocker.” The response shows how he makes fun of the question and the conflicting parties, but also how he implies the best way to resolve differences is through unification. Paul has to keep saying that he is just “good friends” with all the suggestions of romantic connections, which shows how he must publicly comment on all his private social activities. Despite the supposedly factual presentation of the narrative, there are references to the mothers of John and Paul, who, in fact, were deceased at the time of the filming. So, the movie is playing with fact versus fiction.  

 

As the group goes to the stage for rehearsal, one of the crew taps on Ringo’s symbols, which upsets his sense of musical jurisdiction. George says Ringo is very fussy about his drums because “they loom large in his legend.” It’s another instance of exaggerated word usage to poke fun at the group’s own fame. Even after they perform a perfect version of “If I Fell,” the band receives flak from a snobby TV director (Victor Spinetti), another uppity older person wanting to control them after being urged on by that “mixer,” Grandfather McCartney. 

 Norm wants to lock them away until the performance, but of course they get out through the fire escape as the energetic “Can’t Buy Me Love” plays. What follows is a frenetic rambling by the four as they luxuriate in their freedom in a sports field. The shots from above emphasize the extent of the open-air lack of restrictions. The use of fast-action and slow-motion camera work adds to the playful kinetic liberation. As soon as the song is done, another old-timer enters trying to ground their flight to freedom, saying the area is private property and therefore off-limits.

 George accidentally passes by an office where people in the fashion industry work. They think his look is close enough to a real Beatle that they can use him to sell their goods. Exploitation of The Beatles brand is what is suggested here, with the company employees not able to recognize genuine talent from imitators. George describes certain shirts as “grotty,” which means grotesque. IMDb says the clothing is similar to what the Dave Clark Five wore, the inferior band that followed The Beatles in what was known in the recording industry as “The British Invasion.” The fashion executive says that no matter how “grotty” it appears, the corporate world will make kids want it or else the youths will feel diminished in the eyes of their peers. He says the new trend will be “to care passionately and be right wing.” It’s a sort of indoctrination to gain control, and the individualistic George wants nothing to do with it. He says that their “trendsetter” female spokesperson is a “drag” and people make fun of her. George is thrown out because the fashion boss only wants affirmation of his preconceived views.

 

When the band members return to their ready room, they are again chastised by Norm for wandering off. John gets on his knees and jokingly begs not to be “caned,” for being “led astray,” a jab at the English boarding school system that overreacted by using corporal punishment if a boy broke the rules. The tailor is measuring Paul who walks away, and John cuts the tape measure and mocks the Queen by using a high-pitched voice, saying, “I now declare this bridge open.” It’s another bit of rebellious humor that pokes fun at the reigning establishment. 

 

They get more disapproving and controlling static from the Director because the band isn’t on time to practice another tune and he wants them not to move “out of position” once they take the stage. They make fun of his sweater, saying he probably doesn't have a wife because he has such bad taste in clothes. Paul says that the Director’s assistant probably knitted the sweater for him, and then John says, “She knitted him.” It’s a damning line, associating the man in authority with an old-fashioned practice because he can’t keep pace with how the world is changing. 

 

After a marvelous rendition of “And I Love Her,” they go to the makeup room to make fun of the established order. Ringo is under a dryer as he wears the hairy headgear of a Buckingham Palace guard while he reads a magazine entitled The Queen as John points out that it’s an “in-joke.” Paul drapes a protective shroud around him like a classical actor and mockingly quotes from Hamlet as he says, “Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt.” John sports a beard and satirizes a proper gentleman as he mentions shopping at the famous British luxury department store, Harrods, which is situated where “you turn right at the corridor and past the fireplace.” Before going back on stage, John does some exaggerated dance moves to jokingly comment on the traditional way some dancers are performing their rehearsal. Everything about this movie is iconoclastic.

 

After another song, Norm wants the band to stay put at the theater, but John and Paul are as defiant as ever, and go off with a couple of girls. Norm assigns Ringo to look after Paul’s grandfather, who continues to stir up trouble by harassing Ringo about reading a book instead of going out in the world and living it up. Grandfather keeps playing the part of rulebreaker, as he critiques traditional scholarly pursuits. But he also exploits the teasing Ringo receives from the other Beatles, saying they are taking advantage of his “good nature.” He convinces Ringo to go “parading,” and Ringo takes off right before the show, causing the others to attempt to retrieve him. 

 As Ringo walks about, two girls recognize him and he escapes into a shop where he puts on a coat and hat so he can’t be recognized. Disguised, he then approaches a girl who calls him “shorty” and dismisses him. As an abstract celebrity he is pursued, but as himself, he is rejected, which is a cynical comment on the nature of fame. He tries to take what we now call a selfie by mounting his camera on a rock. When he uses an extension cord to trip the shutter, the camera shoots off into the river. It’s the kind of loser gag Woody Allen will later put to good use. When Ringo chucks a large brick into the river, a cop rides by on a bicycle and reprimands Ringo. It’s another example of too much control being exerted. But then Ringo becomes the old guard when a young boy (David Janson) rolls a tire and Ringo trips on it. The Beatles’ drummer then tells the boy he is causing trouble. The youth has skipped school as part of his rebelliousness. Ringo discovers the boy has three friends (just like Ringo) who also are playing hooky, and Ringo says he, too, is a “deserter.” So, Ringo sees some of himself in the young boy. 

 Ringo continues to play the screenwriter’s lame character as he has to pay for stale food and disrupts men playing some pub games. He even gets his glass of beer smashed by putting it down in the wrong place. He almost hits a parrot with a dart and spears a patron’s sandwich. He’s seen as a “troublemaker” and when he gets thrown out of the pub and kicks some trash onto the street, a policeman is there, of course, sternly observing these minor infractions. But when Ringo tries to be chivalrous by putting his coat over puddles of water for a woman to walk over, he accidentally has her fall into a manhole. Luckily, there is a worker who breaks her fall, but it’s enough for the cop to arrest Ringo.

 

Meanwhile, Grandfather forged the signatures of the bandmates on a bunch of Beatles photos and tries to pass them off as genuine to the crowd in front of the theater. After causing a commotion, he too is arrested. He rants about police brutality and kicks the policemen at the station. He says he is “a soldier of the Republic,” which IMDb notes refers to the I.R.A. So, Grandfather is associated with a radical group of Irishmen who fought against British dominance. We therefore have more insurrectionist references. The police say they just tried to protect him from the mob of girls, but Grandfather runs off, just like the band members were doing. 

 

After Grandfather sneaks into the theater and tells John, Paul, and George that Ringo is at the police station, the film has a modern version of a wacky Keystone Cops segment as the officers and the musicians run about while the appropriately fast-paced “Can’t Buy Me Love” plays. While the cops chase the four young men, they overlook a thief trying to break into a car, stressing the authorities lack of fair law enforcement, as one oblivious cop uses the crook in the stolen auto to chase the quartet.

 

The film ends with a concert that showcases what The Beatles do best, play their songs. The music and harmonies are wonderful, and their compositions continued to evolve into greatness. The uninhibited fans show that they allowed no restraints to be placed upon this younger generation. After the concert the band members are running again, as they did at the onset of the movie, refusing to be contained. They fly off on a helicopter, symbolizing their deserved place among the musical heavens.

The next film is Whose Life Is It Anyway?