The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul '26: Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984), directed by Joseph Zito

The Trailer

and

 The Appropriate Tune - "Love Is A Lie", by Lion

Originally today’s post was about the 1978 iteration of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, starring Donald Sutherland. But when I went to watch it, it decided to disappear off of all the streaming services I use. Great. So instead of writing about something I was prepared for, let’s just talk about one of the Friday the 13th movies instead.

It’s Friday the 13th yet again, and with Jason Voorhees totally dying in the last film, young adults are free to start sucking and fucking once again at Crystal Lake. Young adults like Trisha Jarvis (Kimberly Beck) and Jimmy Mortimer (Crispin Glover). Except it turns out that Jason isn’t dead at all from being killed in the last movie. He’s totally alive, and he’s out for blood. I’m not talking donations to the American Red Cross either, this is the murdery kind of blood. And there’s plenty of it to go around.

Ironically enough it’s taken until the 4th film to reach what might be called the definitive Friday the 13th movie. You’ve got Jason as the killer, he’s got the hockey mask, there’s no silly 3-D gimmicks, if you asked someone who had never seen Friday the 13th to describe a Friday the 13th movie, this is round about what they would describe. Perhaps in presenting what they market as the ‘final chapter’, the idea was to strip the concept down to the bare bones. No characters you care about, no storylines, just some dude in a mask killing people for 90 minutes. Which it pulls off quite well.

For those gorehounds in the audience, Part IV might not be as violent as they might hope. There is certainly death in the film, blood, violence and all that, but it seems very reluctant to do so, with audiences only seeing a second or two of the killshot before cutting away. Studio interference perhaps, I believe the series had a lot of issues with censorship and whatnot, nut in any case it results in this contradictory movie that feels incredibly violent but is also squeamish about it.

It turns out, The Final Chapter would not turn out to be the last Friday the 13th movie. If it had been, it certainly would have been a better sendoff than most horror franchises get, and better than the purgatory than the franchise resides in these days. As it is, it’s an alright slasher movie with much more Corey Feldman than its peers, which might be the most terrifying thing of all. Pick it up for an alright movie night.

STATUS: RECOMMENDED

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2022: Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), directed by Hugh Hudson

 

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: 'Tarzan Boy' by Baltimora

       Before the age of the superheroes was the age of the pulps, and at the dawn of the age of the pulps was Tarzan. In 1912 a man by the name of Edgar Rice Burroughs decided to write a story combining real life accounts of feral children (and likely Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” as well) and deepest, darkest Africa, which was at the height of the pop culture phase of its colonization, and created a sensation. Long before we began to look at Batman and Spider-Man as multimedia franchises Tarzan was showing folks how it was done, his string of novels eventually blossoming into comic strips, films, and so on and on. Much like the outlaws and cowboys of the Wild West, Tarzan’s popularity seemed to stem from embodying this sense of rugged self-reliance and freedom and a ‘return to nature’ primitivism that appealed to audiences of the time who were already struggling against the hell that was modern society. Every boy in the country believed that, placed in a similar situation, he too could become the king of the jungle, fighting off killer apes and discovering lost civilizations, just like they believed they could be Jim Bowie or Natty Bumppo.

       Unfortunately for the ape man the rise of superheroes, science fiction and gangster stories meant a slow but inevitable shrinking in cultural relevance, and unlike the western Tarzan (and the ‘jungle adventure’ subgenre that he spawned) never experienced the critical and commercial revival  that kept in within the minds of the public. He’s still around certainly -- a comic book series here, a low budget TV series there, but aside from a blip on the radar from when Disney tried their hand Tarzan has faded into a kind of semi-obscurity. A name your average person on the street may recognize, but doesn’t connect with in any meaningful way. Kind of like the Founding Fathers, but less racist.

Released in 1984, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (in the running for longest fucking movie title in Marathon history) was written by Robert Towne and Micheal Austin, directed by Hugh Hudson, and produced by Hudson and Stanley S. Carter, based on the novel “Tarzan of the Apes” by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The year is 1885, and Lord Jack Clayton and his wife Alice are washed ashore in West Africa after a particularly shitty attempt at sailing by the captain. The couple make a go of survival, even lasting long enough to have a son, John, but unfortunately they just aren’t cut out for the rigors of jungle life. Bad news for baby John, until he is ‘adopted’ by Kala, a female gorilla who had recently lost her own child. Years later the Belgian explorer Phillippe D’Arnot (Ian Holm) is escaping from a disastrous ambush of his expedition party by some angry natives when he is rescued by John Clayton (Christopher Lambert), now a fully fledged adult ape-man. D’Arnot quickly realizes that his strange savior is the son of the missing Clayton and the heir to the Earl of Greystoke and sets about educating him on his humanity and restoring him to his expected place in the world. As the old cliche goes though you can take the man out of the jungle but you can’t take the jungle out of the man, and the new Lord Greystoke is buffeted on all sides by the expectations of high society and some new found feelings for the lovely Miss Jane Porter (Andie MacDowell). Lord of the Apes, Lord of Men, John’s heart is being pulled in two directions, and who knows where it’ll end up? Well, everyone who has ever heard about Tarzan, I suppose.

As was the case with Love Bites, I became aware of Greystoke through Harlan Ellison’s movie articles, but unlike Love Bites and very much like Gremlins and Back to the Future Ellison raked Greystoke over the coals. His main point of contention if I recall correctly was a distinct lack of excitement; Tarzan was one of the quintessential action heroes of the early 20th century after all, and yet Hugh Hudson discards this in favor of the ‘stranger in a strange land’ drama of Tarzan in Britain. 

       Personally I lean towards Ellison’s side on this one. Tarzan had been an icon of pop culture for long enough at that point that, much like his successor Superman a few years earlier, taking things in a more dramatic, grandiose direction wasn’t a bad idea. Where Richard Donner and Hugh Hudson differ in this case is that Donner never forgot the heroic core of his film’s protagonist. Hudson is fixated on highlighting the trauma of  the story and showcasing that modern society is no less ‘savage’ than the jungle, legitimate angles to explore within the lore, but he never turns the corner and incorporates those story elements into a Tarzan story. Hell, the name ‘Tarzan’ is never uttered once in the entire film, which is probably the most damning bit of evidence that Hudson was too pretentious for his own good. Even Watchmen, the most cynical depiction of superheroes since Alan Moore’s last depiction of superheroes, still has people in costumes and secret identities. Greystoke feels like Hugh Hudson wanted to make the next Elephant Man or My Left Foot, got stuck with this ape man movie job and tried to shove a round peg into a square hole. More like Grey-mopes, am I right?

       I don’t believe Ellison cared for the casting much either, but honestly that part of the film is pretty solid. Christopher Lambert (making his Hollywood debut) doesn’t cut the same figure as Weissmuller did but he is large and intimidating when he wants to be while also managing the emotive parts of the role, easily the best actor to portray Tarzan up until that point. Andie MacDowell plays Jane Porter, and if her entire role in this movie can be boiled down to ‘the sexy woman who exists largely for Tarzan to lust over’ then at least she does it very well. Bilbo Baggins himself Ian Holm plays Tarzan’s confidante Phillippe D’Arnot, basically Poirot, and Ralph Richardson (who unfortunately died during filming) played Tarzan’s barmy grandfather the Earl of Greystoke. Not a bad cast really, it’s just a shame the material they have to work with is so stodgy.

       Another point me and ol’ Harlan agree on: Rick Baker is fucking great. Those of you in the crowd familiar with genre films will know Baker from his excellent work in An American Werewolf in London, Videodrome, Star Wars and about two dozen other movies, and he brings his magic to bare here with some incredibly impressive costuming and special effects on these apes (heightened even further by some great primate choreography). From a cynical, or Ellison’s, perspective it might be that such great work is wasted on this movie, but personally it’s Baker’s effects that really makes Greystoke. I don’t think Hudson could have really sold the tragic events of Tarzan’s childhood without the emotions that Baker manages to elicit from these apes, and combined with the location shots and the matte paintings, Greystoke manages to be a very beautiful film on a visual level. A necessary as well as an aesthetic choice, as so much of this film is done without dialogue, and listening to monkey noises for 2 hours gets old.

       Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes gets a mild recommendation. As an example of what made Tarzan appealing as a concept I don’t think it succeeds, but as far as attempts at bringing pulp to a modern audience it’s okay. Certainly better than the Doc Savage movie, although that’s not much of a hurdle to cross. If you’re interested in what Lambert was doing before Highlander then give it a shot, but if you’re looking for something with more of a kick then you might be better off with the Disney film. Or if you prefer your ape men on paper both DC and Dark Horse had long running Tarzan comic series, and he was also the subject of several novels by acclaimed science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer, including his own take on a Tarzan biography. The Lord of the Apes may not be as big as he once was, but he’s still there if you know where to look.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2021: Wheels on Meals (1984), directed by Sammo Hung

 

The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune - "The Food Truck Blues" by The Arcadian Wild

       It felt like a little bit of a copout when the time came to pick this year’s martial arts film and I returned to the Jackie Chan well yet again, but I’m justifying it because this isn’t just a Jackie Chan movie, but a Samo Hung movie as well. Most people in the United States probably aren’t familiar with the name, but Hung has been an important part of the development of the Hong Kong kung fu film as a worldwide phenomenon, not only as an actor but as a stuntman, action director, producer and film director. If you’ve ever watched Enter the Dragon or some of those old Shaw Brothers films, then chances are good that you’ve either seen him on screen or seen fight scenes that he’s choreographed, because they’d release like six of those movies a year back in the day. Although he never had the star power of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, his rotund physique combined with his impressive acrobatic skills and choreography experience made him a unique figure in the kung fu flick scene, and he was eventually able to transition that into his own successful movie career, appearing in films as recently as 2019. Pretty sure a 58 year career in the movie business qualifies as a ‘good run’.

       Originally I wanted to cover a movie where Sammo Hung was the solo lead, but the film I was going to use for that, 1980’s Encounters of the Spooky Kind, was being oddly elusive at the time. So it’s Sammo playing alongside his old buddy Jackie Chan, but he is directing the movie, which I think is a suitable compromise. Maybe next year I’ll just avoid Hong Kong entirely and cover The Last Dragon or something.

       Released in 1984, Wheels on Meals was written by Edward Tang and Johnny Lee, directed by Sammo Hung and produced by Raymond Chow (the founder of Golden Harvest, the studio which either produced or distributed pretty much every kung fu movie you ever liked). Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao star as Thomas and David, two Chinese immigrants running a food truck in what I assume is Barcelona Spain, because what other Spanish city do they set movies in? While visiting Dave’s father at the local mental hospital, the cousins come across Sylvia (Lola Forner), a woman as beautiful as she is thievish, but luckily for her Dave is into that shit. After conning the two several times, it seems like Sylvia and the cousins actually form a kinship, but things take a turn for the serious when a group of mysterious thugs enter the picture, intent on nabbing Sylvia for undisclosed but undoubtedly nefarious purposes. David and Tom must team up with their friend Moby (Sammo), a bumbling private detective who as fate would have it has been hired by someone to track down Sylvia as well, in order to keep Sylvia safe and save the day. Most of which involves kicking people’s asses.

       The Hong Kong film scene was no stranger to action packed movies back in the day, but I don’t think it was until the 1980s that the action film began to crystallize. Wheels on Meals for example has plenty of those fight scenes that made Golden Harvest such hitmakers, but a significant portion of the run time is dedicated to action set pieces such as automobile stunts. Pretty good car stunts too while we’re at it; They’ve got cars flipping over and smashing into each other, cars driving on their sides, it’s very frenetic. That might not seem all that remarkable in these modern times of perpetual Fast & Furious movies, but similar to the case in Once Upon a Time in the West with Cheyenne on top of the train, diversifying the ways in which you excite the audience makes for a more engaging film overall.

       Comedy wasn’t a stranger either to these films either, and Wheels on Meals is principally a comedy. In a similar situation to before, there’s plenty of the physical comedy that you loved in films like Drunken Master, but just as much of the humor is built around cartoonish gags and dialogue. Chan, Biao and Hung had been collaborating since their days in the Peking Opera so they’re completely at ease with one another, and that chemistry lends itself to gag-writing which feels quite fluid which comes through even in spite of the dub. With Samo directing I think there’s the assumption that his character Moby would get the best bits and while Moby is definitely the clown of the film each of the three stars get their own chance to shine.

        As I wrote earlier, while Wheels on Meals is more of an action movie than strictly a martial arts movie, this is still a film starring kung fu actors distributed by a kung fu movie studio, so there’s still plenty of fight scenes to scratch that itch. The greatest of these fights is naturally in the climax, where our protagonists are engaged in three separate fights, which manage to be not only masterful displays of choreography and the stars’ speed and skill in acrobatics but great examples of slapstick comedy as well. If the 3 Stooges were living weapons, basically. We also get some non-fight stunts as well (in case you ever wanted to see Jackie Chan ride a skateboard), nothing as complex and potentially deadly as what we would see in Jackie Chan’s later films, although there is a running gag involving leaping out of a first floor balcony onto the street that probably didn’t feel too good on Biao and Hung’s hips when they busted their ass.

       If there’s a problem with the film, it’s the same one shared with a lot of these kinds of movies, in that the story is secondary to the action. The movie begins, then we kind of meander around a bit doing whatever, until the characters finally learn what the plot is in time to stop it and save the day. I can’t even say this film has a main antagonist; Yeah there’s a guy that we see boss the thugs around who means to harm our good guys, but he gets so little focus it’s as if he barely exists at all, and when we reach the climax of the film he’s barely an afterthought. Sylvia isn’t all that memorable either; She spends most of the film not as a femme fatale con artist but as the love interest/macguffin for the characters to fight over, and her dubbed voice only serves to further increase her blandness. There’s also a number of scenes set in the mental hospital where the jokes are based on how wacky people suffering from mental illness can be, which may or may not be a dealbreaker depending on your view but is in any case a tired trope. 

        In a decade that saw dozens of amazing action films come out of Hong Kong, Wheels on Meals doesn’t stand at the head of the pack. However it’s a film that knows who its audience is, knows its stars and knows how to craft an action scene, and that is what it delivers, and I can respect that. Wheels on Meals gets the recommendation, if you’re looking to relax and want something fun and uncomplicated to watch in the 80’s style, throw this on and see how you like it.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2019: Repo Man (1984), directed by Alex Cox

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: "TV Party", by Black Flag

       Time again for another movie that I’ve put off covering over some vague uneasiness that I can’t really explain. I’ve had a copy of it for years now (Criterion Collection even) that I picked up at a book sale and has just been gathering dust until this very day, when the spur of the moment compelled me to put it on the list. Why do I do this? Is the fact that I have it so close at hand make me push it away in favor of more obscure fare, that it’s become the back up in case something goes awry? I dunno, maybe. Anyway the whole ‘begin a review with introspection thing because you can’t think of a good opening line that then devolves into referencing it far more than it’s actually happened’ is old hat by now, let’s just get to the movie. It’s Repo Man.

       Otto, played by future Mighty Ducks coach Emilio Estevez, is your standard issue punk. His job at the local supermarket sucks, at least it was before he was fired, his parents are zombies glued to the televangelist channel, and his friends are thieves and drug addicts (not in the fun way either). His life seems to be destined for a slow spiral into shit, until he has a chance encounter by a man named Bud, played Ride in the Whirlwind actor Harry Dean Stanton. Bud is a repo man, a person whose job is to repossess property from those who have missed payments on said property, in this case cars, and he wants Otto to join him. Initially reluctant at first, Otto eventually does, pleasantly surprised to learn that a life of petty thievery, casual drug use and general misanthropy has prepared him well for this career, or so he thinks. Also there’s this car that vaporizes people and everyone wants it, and maybe aliens?

       Repo Man has a lot in common with another movie covered in year’s Marathon, the infamous Tank Girl. Both movies are super into the punk aesthetic, both present a broad view of social decay and human suffering and then undercut it with cartoonish absurdism, and so on. Where they differ chiefly is a matter of execution, which Repo Man arguably has the advantage. There’s no vacillation over Otto’s moral compass; he’s a piece of shit and so is everyone around him. There’s no question of whether the problems of society can be solved, it’s all just shitty conformism anyway (complete with They Live style Drink beers. The structure is certainly more coherent in Repo Man as compared to the sloppiness of Tank Girl, gradually turning up the weirdness until the all out madness of the climax. If you were looking for one movie to bring to your punk-themed Halloween party, this should probably be your first choice.

       A movie is often made by its music, and Repo Man is certainly no exception, showcasing some of the biggest names in the punk scene at the time. Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, Fear, as well as a theme song by perennial punkster Iggy Pop, Repo Man is arguably to hardcore punk as The Harder They Come was to reggae and ska music. If you’re interested in getting into the genre, it’s as good a crash course as any other.

       That all being said, there’s just something about Repo Man that left me cold by the end. Maybe I’m just in a gray mood that the ‘everything and everyone’ sucks punk ethos feels like a broken record at this point, even when Alex Cox tries to make it silly by throwing in radioactive cars and the like. I’ve just seen movies with the same vibe done before, on this year’s Marathon even, and aside from that punk look I don’t see it as breaking any new ground. Aside from showing Emilio has the chops for a leading man role that is, and it’s always fun to see Harry Dean Stanton pop up in something.

       That it could be a ‘me’ problem means that I can’t say to skip this one, so I’ll say that if you’re into these weirdo 80s cult films, The Burbs, Frankenhooker and the like, then this should be on your radar. If you’re into punk music, then this should be on your radar. Otherwise just watch The Warriors or something.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2014: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), directed by W.D. Richter

    The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: "Since I Don't Have You", by The Skyliners 

     The 80’s were certainly a creative time for movies. Not just in the case of horror, as we’ve seen several times on just this list alone, but for the realm of action/adventure as well. Whether it was Indiana Jones fighting cultists and Nazis in a bygone age, Schwarzenegger saving peoples of a dystopian future with only his muscles, Luke Skywalker fighting the evil Empire or Warwick Davis fighting evil sorceresses, it seems like the film industry much more more willing to finance weird crap than they are today. Maybe it was the result of the new generation of directors having grown up on such weird stuff their nostalgia, or pop culture had shifted towards more fantastical projects, just as music suddenly went total synth and everything went neon and day-glo. It’s only speculation, but as weird and occasionally hokey as those types of movies seem in hindsight, I can’t help but like them. They just feel different than watching modern movies, and I don’t know if it’s nostalgia or not because I’m too young to have grown up with them. Probably nostalgia.

      One such ‘weird action’ film is a movie that I hadn’t seen in years, but often recommended  to others anyway: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th Dimension, directed by W.D. Richter. A slick 80s love note to Doc Savage and other heroes of pulp fiction, Peter Weller (Robocop, Naked Lunch) plays Buckaroo Banzai, a half Japanese experimental physicist, brain-surgeon, rock star and the subject of his own comic book. Along with bandmates/colleagues the Hong Kong Cavaliers, Buckaroo is the only guy on Earth who not only pushes the boundaries of science into strange and exciting new directions, but can also sell out any club on the East Coast while doing it. Their latest success is the actualization of a decades old experiment by their friend Professor Hikita, total and sustained entry into the mysterious plane known as the 8th Dimension. The price of discovery can be high however, and it seems like simple little experiment might have greater implications than Banzai and the HKC anticipated. Things like age-old conspiracies, Hikita’s old partner Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow), and evil Bokchoys from Planet 10, to name a few. Saving the Earth might seem like a monumental task for some people,but it’s just another day in the life of Buckaroo Banzai.

      Buckaroo Banzai is not a movie meant to be taken seriously. It’s a tribute to a time when the heroes were the idealized forms of man and sci-fi was more ‘fiction’ than ‘science’, and they have a lot of fun playing around with the concept. Of course when you have so many balls in the air it’s kind of hard to juggle, and I think the movie does stumble when it comes to character development, as well as establishing the romantic subplot. It’s a weird 80s adventure movie through and through, and if you’re the kind of person who enjoys weird 80s adventure movies (like me), then you might like to watch this movie yourself this Halloween.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2018: Dreamscape (1984), directed by Joseph Ruben

The Trailer
and
The Appropriate Tune: "Saw You in a Dream", by The Japanese House

     Much like sex, death and poop, dreams are a major part of the human experience. From the olden days when they were treated as portents and divine visions, to the days of Freud and Jung when they were symbol laden allegories to our subconscious wants and desires, to our modern day where they’re just kinda meaningless and sometimes you share them on social media. Still, meaningless though they may be, dreams have had a substantial impact in almost every aspect of human expression. From Shakespeare to Breton, Lovecraft to Varese, there is a seemingly endless amount of artistic inspiration to be found within dreams. Of course this is a film blog, so we’re going to be focusing on that.

     As a visual, progressive artistic medium, film has been better than most at capturing the ephemeral qualities of dreams and dream imagery. The German Expressionists used painted backgrounds and off-kilter geometry to induce a feeling of surreality in their audience. Filmmakers like Jodorowsky and Lynch steeped their films in symbols and dissociative narratives, who grander meaning would only be revealed after rigorous analysis (or maybe not). Wes Craven was able to build a famous horror franchise based on dreams with A Nightmare on Elm Street, Christopher Nolan was able to make a popular meme movie based on dreams with Inception, and so on. The movie we’re talking about today is also about dreams funnily enough, it even has the word ‘dream’ in the title, and as we all know the titles of movies are 100% accurate descriptors of the film’s subject matter. So let’s escape with Dreamscape.

     It’s the swingin’ 80s and Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is a young, semi-attractive stud who just so happens to have psychic powers. Typically Alex only uses his gift for simple things, like cheating at the horse races and manipulating women into having sex with him, but that all changes when he is ‘kidnapped’ and taken to Thornhill College. Seems his old friend/guy who experimented on him Doctor Paul has devised a method for allowing people like Alex to enter people’s dreams, see what they see and so on. The psychiatric benefits could be enormous, but their government sponsor Blair isn’t really interested in medicine. He’s more of a ‘if you die in the dream you die in real life’ kind of guy, especially when other people are doing the dying. When Blair’s ambitions turn towards the political, can Alex become a bad enough dude to save the President. Yeah, in his dreams.

     If that wasn’t the tagline, it should have been.

     Dreamscape is a film that’s trying to be a lot of things at once but doesn’t know how to properly budget time, so it never hits as strong as it could. It’s got a little bit of action, but Dennis Quaid is definitely not a traditional action star. It’s got a bit of political thriller, but Blair is kind of a tool who’s way into this ‘dream killing’ idea despite not being able to kill people in real fucking life. As for sci-fi, well that deserves its own little section, but the problems of time apply to that as well. There’s just no opportunity to really settle in and let things grow naturally, Alex joining the program, the Charlie subplot, the romance angle, it ends up feeling like Ruben has his eyes on the stopwatch more than he does the scene It’s especially apparent in the character of Jane Devries, who goes from friendly acquaintance to feeling violated over Alex violating her privacy to falling in love with him in what feels like seconds, and all the while feeling kind of shaky acting-wise. Give us time to breathe, let us live around the characters a little before you start throwing plot points around.

     With a name like Dreamscape, you figure that they’re gonna be doubling down when it comes to the dream sequences. For the most part it works, in particular Buddy’s nightmare and the President’s nightmare at the climax, but with the others...I dunno. I’m probably expecting too much from a 80s B-movie, but I just wish that the dreams were more dreamlike, you know what I mean? The Buddy scenes have the right idea, with the German Expressionist architecture and the staircase in the void, but some of the earlier dreams seem to be missing a certain level of dream logic, and I can’t help but feel disappointed. I mean one of the dreams is supposed to set up the romance between Jane and Alex, and it’s literally just her sitting in a train. Yes, they call back to it later in the movie, but they could have made it at least a little bit surrealistic. Whether it’s an issue of time or money, it’s still an issue.

     I’m also not a fan of Alex himself as a character. It seems like he was supposed to be something of a Harrison Ford lovable rogue, but Quaid plays as an immature tool, which is not the kind of person I want poking around in my brain. There’s a couple more recognizable names here, like Max Von Sydow, George Wendt, David Patrick Kelly and that one guy who played Hank in Twin Peaks, and they pull off the material well enough, but you’re not really picking up Dreamscape to see Norm Peterson. If it was Carla maybe, but not Norm.

     Dreamscape is a prime example of how cult films work. There are obvious flaws but also enough points of interest and entertainment that they balance out, never quite in the position to break into the mainstream but an enjoyable experience if you can accept that fact. I can, so that’s why Dreamscape is getting that coveted recommendation for this Halloween. Check it out for yourself and see what you think, but whatever you do don’t fall asleep while you’re watching. You don’t want to be trying to dream of Dennis Quaid and end up with Randy instead. Poor Randy.

     Poor, poor Randy.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2017 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), directed by Leonard Nimoy

The Trailer
and
The Appropriate Tune: "By Myself", by Leonard Nimoy

     At the time I’m writing this, things are pretty nebulous in the world of Star Trek. The latest in JJ Abrams lens-flaring, Beastie Boys-blaring, wishing they were Star Warsing film series, Star Trek Beyond, has been out for a while, and despite a decent showing at the box office it seems unlikely that we’ll see another one. The newest addition to the Star Trek TV canon, Star Trek: Discovery, seems to be suffering from a multitude of problems; Loss of its showrunner, being locked behind CBS’ streaming service, and being yet another prequel series set before TOS being just some of the more noticeable issues. Add in the general lack of supplemental material, video games, comic books and other franchise type things, and it seems like Trek’s star has definitely diminished since the glory days. Which is saying something, since that glory is in spite of Voyager and Enterprise.

     Perhaps Trek fans in the 1970s felt much the same way as we do now. After all the show had been canceled near the beginning of the decade, a rather meek ending to the show that not only helped to popularize sci-fi TV in America, but had also been saved once before from the executioner’s axe by an outstanding level of fan support. There was an animated series in 1973 which was okay, it even featured Will Shatner and the rest of the cast as voices, but it was a far cry from the Trek that we had grown accustomed to up till that point. Plus it’s a bit hard to call Ruby-Spears does ‘animation’ with a straight face. Other than that though, the future of Star Trek was far less optimistic than the future in Star Trek.

     Then in 1979, it all changed. Star Trek: The Motion Picture arrived in theaters, solidifying Trek’s position in pop culture that had begun a decade or so previous. Although a bit heavy on the philosophy and light on the action, recalling 2001: A Space Odyssey more than new competitor Star Wars, TMP was a visual spectacle and a love letter to those long suffering fans who were hoping beyond hope to see Kirk behind the wheel of the Enterprise again. It was also the first time the Trek audience got to see the new and improved model of Klingon, spikes, head ridges and all, which would later become their standard look in the franchise moving forward. No matter what your opinion of the film, the spirit of Star Trek, ‘seeking new life and civilizations, where no one has gone before’ is undoubtedly there.

     The success of Star Trek: The Motion Picture meant a sequel was more or less inevitable, and a few years later movie audiences received Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Starring Ricardo Montalban as the genetically augmented villain Khan Noonien Singh (reprising his role from the TOS episode “Star Seed”), WoK could be seen as a reaction to the criticism of the first movie. While both film feature theme of mankind’s grand aims being used against them, V’GER in TMP and the Genesis Project in WoK, Khan is dedicated much more firmly to action than its predecessor, with plenty of shooting, killing, and ship combat to go around. Which totally worked, as it turns out. Wrath of Khan not only was a huge success at the time, it has since become known as arguably the best Star Trek film in general. Certainly it has the strongest presence in our collective consciousness, with Kirk’s tortured scream of ‘Khan!’ having achieved gold-level meme status in the years since. A bit dodgy in the plot department, I mean this is Star Trek not Cervantes, but overall I found Wrath of Khan just as entertaining as The Motion Picture, and in some areas even moreso. A worthy addition to the canon.


SPOILERS BELOW


     Star Trek III: The Search for Spock takes up pretty much directly where Star Trek II left off. Spock is dead, having sacrificed himself to save the crew after the end of the last film. The Genesis Project has transformed a once dead moon into a vibrant garden of Eden, which is now the subject of scientific studies by Kirk’s son David. Enterprise and her crew manage to limp all the way back home, but what they find there is no hero's welcome. Turns out that Genesis is somewhat of a controversial issue in the Federation, and Starfleet is eager to keep a lid on it. Not only are Kirk and the crew ordered to keep quiet on the issue, but they’re being reassigned as well, pushed off to desk jobs and other such exciting tasks. Enterprise, after 20 years of service, is set to be dismantled. The dream is dead, and life goes on.

     Or so it would seem. Just as Kirk seems to accept his new fate, Spock’s father Sarek arrives and drops a bombshell. Although Spock’s body may be dead, according to Vulcan religion his katra (the equivalent of a soul, basically) is still alive, just transferred into the mind of another, in this case Leonard McCoy. The rules dictate that Spock must be taken to Vulcan so that he can be laid to rest and his katra removed from McCoy, and it just so happens that Spock’s coffin landed on Genesis. Of course, Starfleet has forbidden Kirk from going to Genesis. Not to mention that the Klingons (led by Kruge, played by the great Christopher Lloyd) have found out about Genesis, and they’re very interested in weapons that can destroy entire planets. Oh, and it turns out that Spock may not be as dead as events would imply. Still, when has something like insurmountable odds bother James T. Kirk?

     If Star Trek I was Asimov/Matheson style science fiction, and Star Trek II was the big budget action thriller, then Star Trek III is the TOS call back. It’s all your favorite cast members having one last adventure on the Enterprise (in fact it’s pretty much only your favorite cast members, apparently you only need three people to pilot a starship), fighting classic Star Trek villains for serious but largely personal stakes, all the loose ends from Wrath of Khan are all tied up with a nice little bow, and we leave off on a happy ending. Well, aside from the fact that Kirk and the others are likely headed to space prison for a very long time.

     However, although Star Trek III is pretty fun, it also feels rather superfluous. While The Motion Picture and Wrath of Khan had the benefit of being their own separate stories, Search for Spock is stuck stitching together the leftover bits from the previous movie without being given the chance to stand on its own two feet. Not to mention, honestly, those loose ends are tied up pretty sloppily. Kirk’s son,which is a nice change of status quo? Abandoned. Genesis? Abandoned. Spock being dead, the biggest bombshell of Wrath of Khan? Nah, we’re bringing him back, even if it smacks more of Doctor Who than Star Trek. Sure, bringing back Kirk vs. the Klingons is fun in theory, but they don’t really do all that much to be honest, and they’re not nearly as bloodthirsty and ridiculous as Klingons eventually became. Kruge is the only one with any sort of personality, Christopher Lloyd earning that paycheck, and even he ends up falling short as a primary antagonist. I mean compared to Khan, who was eating up as much scenery as he could every time he was on camera, blowing up ships, sticking worms in people, Kruge seems downright tame in comparison. They’re so extraneous that I believe it’s fully possible to remove them from the film entirely and there’d barely be any difference. Not so good for one of the major member of the Federation rogue’s gallery.

     That’s not to say it’s a bad movie. The visuals and the music are up to par with previous Trek films, and despite the serious events that happen on screen there’s a general feeling of humor and light-hearted adventure that wasn’t apparent in its predecessors. However, as I said Star Trek III feels like a film made specifically to appeal to fans of the original TV series, and not necessarily to build potential new fans like the first two films. Whether or not you decide to watch The Search for Spock then is dependent on how interested you are in the TOS-era, or how invested you are in the events of Wrath of Khan. The choice is yours, as it always is, but as someone who got into the franchise through Star Trek: The Next Generation, I’d say you’re not missing much by skipping out on this one.

The Long Dark Marathon of the Soul 2015: Dune (1984), directed by David Lynch

The Trailer

and

The Appropriate Tune: "Spice Up Your Life", by Spice Girls

     The word epic gets thrown around a lot these days. often by people who don’t really understand what the word actually means. ‘These french fries are epic!’, they might say, or ‘That new Taylor Swift sure was epic!’. This is, however, incorrect. Epic, or an epic as you might say, carries much more weight than some synonym for the word cool. When something is truly epic, the very earth beneath our feet changes, armies of thousands clash against each other, the sky roars with thunder at the love, the honor, the betrayal which we as the audience behold as the story plays out. The Iliad and the Odyssey were epics. Der Ring des Nibelungen was an epic. La Morte d'Arthur was an epic. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was an epic. Dune, Frank Herbert’s sci-fi treatise on religion, ecology, philosophy and science is also an epic, and in 1984, after Alejandro Jodorowsky’s grand vision for a film adaptation fell through (check out the documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune for more info on that), movie producer/robber baron Dino de Laurentiis brought in then hot young maverick director David Lynch (known at that point for his critically acclaimed 1980 film The Elephant Man) to try and salvage the project. The movie, unfortunately, was a money sink as well as a commercial failure, and Lynch vowed never to do anything nearly as coherent ever again. One of the most famous science-fiction stories of all time, forever associated with a 3 out of 5.

     We’re still going to talk about it though.

     Even attempting to summarize the events of Dune is a bit of a trial, but I will try to do the minimum to the best of my abilities. In the year 10,191, mankind has expanded into a vast galactic corporate state known as the CHOAM, or Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles, which is ruled by the Emperor Shaddam IV and the Great Houses, as well as the Spacing Guild (a private organization who hold the monopoly on FTL travel) and the Bene Gesserit (a sisterhood who have managed to clandestinely position themselves in various positions of influence through their unique powers of perception and persuasion). Although CHOAM is spread out over hundreds of worlds, the most important planet of them all is the desert world Arrakis, colloquially known as Dune. It is on this harsh world of Dune, where water is so scarce that the people (known as the Fremen) have to wear devices known as ‘still suits’ to save and reclaim the moisture exuded by the body and gargantuan beasts known as sandworms stalk the vast seas of sand, that melange (otherwise known as spice) is located. In fact, it is the only place in the known universe where melange exists, and it is the restorative, psychotropic and psychoactive properties of that spice which makes FTL travel possible. Without spice, CHOAM could not exist, and as such is easily the most valuable product on any world. It also makes your eyes

     Within the Great Houses, there are two which are locked in a blood feud, the dastardly Harkonnens of Geidi Prime (led by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen) and the relatively noble Atreides of Caladan (led by Duke Leto). The Harkonnens, as we learn at the start of the book and the movie, have formulated a plot to assassinate Leto and wipe out the Atreides once and for all. By relinquishing their own claim on Arrakis, they push the Emperor to call upon Leto to take it over, which appears to be an obvious ploy given its tremendous value. Expecting an attack from a Harkonnen assassin, Leto and his staff would never expect the killer to come from a trusted adviser, something which they couldn’t plan for no matter how many guards they have. Leto would die, the House of Atreides destroyed, and the Harkonnen would then have free reign over the mining operations of Dune and all the power and influence that control of the spice trade provides. It is destined to be.

     Meanwhile, Paul Atreides, son of the Duke Leto and his royal concubine Jessica (of the Bene Gesserit), has reached the ripe old age of 15, tempered with all the Bene Gesserit teaching and Mentat (basically clairvoyant assassins/advisors) training that his family and friends can provide. He also might be the Kwisatz Haderach, the Bene Gesserit messianic figure that is meant to lead the empire into a new Golden Age, if those prophetic dreams and the gom jabbar is anything to go by. He may not want to accept the responsibility thrust upon him (and really, what heroic protagonist does?), but once his dad kicks the bucket, it will be up to him to learn the ways of the mysterious Fremen, destroy the Harkonnens, avenge his father and reclaim the throne of Arrakis once and for all. When you control the flow of spice you control the Universe, and Paul is going to own the whole damn thing.

     If you might have guessed from just that bit of exposition, this is the biggest problem with Dune: So much shit to keep track of that none of it ever really makes sense. Frank Herbert did a fantastic job of creating an entire universe, with its own unique societies and religions and political systems, and when you can sit down with the novel and absorb it at your own pace, it’s great. Expecting an audience, most of which have likely never even heard of Dune or read the book, to take it all in is unlikely at best. There is just too much floating around for an audience to keep track of, too many ideas that lose context in the transition from text to physical performance. Even with a 2+ hour run time, which I imagine wasn’t too common with sci-fi films back then, it seems like they’re both skipping out on large chunks of the story and getting way too much information thrown at your face. Unless you’re somewhat familiar with the Dune novel, which I was before watching, it’s likely the average viewer would find it a confusing, interminable slog. Which is probably why we never saw a Dune franchise pop up after this one came to theaters.

     On the other hand, aside from the original Star Wars films, I don’t think there has ever been another science fiction movie that looks quite as impressive as Dune. The sense of scale here is just absolutely fantastic; when you see a sandworm rising from the earth, it really feels like you’re seeing a creature the size of an ocean liner moving about, and when you look at the deserts of Arrakis, it really seems like this endless, stormy wasteland..The set design, costume design, character design, special effects so reminiscent of own own world yet so utterly alien at the same time. Fantastic. I don’t know how much that were holdovers from Jodorowsky’s work and how much of it was Lynch’s (the creepy worm monster that leads the Spacing Guild certainly brings to mind the infamous baby from Eraserhead) but props either way. Dune may have been a money sink, but unlike The Island of Dr. Moreau (check out the previous entry for Lost Soul), the money was put to good. The whole movie is just beautifully, magnificently extravagant in every way, and I love it for that. Almost enough to forgive it for all it’s problems story-wise, especially with Patrick ‘Jean-Luc Picard’ Stewart in the cast. I guess an debate could be made on big movies that expect too much from the audience, like Dune, versus big movies that don’t make the audience think at all, like Avengers or Jurassic World, but I’m not going to start it. I’m just in this for the spice, man.

     This might be a bit difficult to categorize for your typical Halloween movie watchers, as people expecting a sci-fi movie might be getting more than they bargained for, and people interested in David Lynch’s filmography might be disappointed to find something a bit ‘standard Hollywood’ compared to his later, more surrealistic films. However, if you don’t mind doing a bit of reading, and I’d say it’s worth reading at least the Frank Herbert Dune novels, or you’re the kind of person who likes to ride out the weirdness in movies, then I don’t see why I shouldn’t recommend it for this Halloween. Unless you’re not a fan of Sting’s bulge, in which case I’m afraid you’re pretty much out of luck.