Change Your Image
alisonfairgrieve
Reviews
The Journey of August King (1995)
A late night gem. Contains spoiler
Someone said in 2003 that he had stumbled on this film on the way to bed. The same thing has just happened to me in December 2008 on BBC 1. Why are these little gems of films shown so late, and why do the listings fail to highlight them as worth watching?
The film could have had no other ending than it did. The fact that August told Annalee that she would meet with kindness beyond the northern ridge and the attitude of his equally poor neighbours shows that in 1815, the anti slavery movement may have penetrated to these backwoods. At least, some of the local population were incomers from Europe where slavery was virtually unknown and who relied on their own efforts to carve out a living. I feel the ground is laid for us to suppose that the neighbours will shelter August and help him to start again and that inevitably he will marry again - perhaps to the young woman who has "known her own mind since a girl" and who looks at him with admiration. Those who wanted a Hollywood style romance have no historical understanding.
The "brutal master" is revealed as Annalee's father, which is why he is so desperate to get her back - he owns her in every sense. (And her half breed status explains her beauty to both black and white). His violence is allowed by the laws of the society in which he hold some power. This does not pardon him but explains his conduct. He exacts his revenge no more than the law allows - "the house for the girl". The viewer may be invited to reflect on the shortcomings of the Declaration of Independence and remember that even Jefferson could not give up his slaves.
The film maker should be congratulated on bring ing this relatively unknown period and place to life.
Last of the Dogmen (1995)
An enjoyable film
I have just seen this enjoyable yarn for the first time on afternoon UK commercial TV - not a great showcase . I wonder why I have never heard of it and whether it was not distributed much here. The plot pedigree is obviously "Lost Horizon' and many other films on the "lost tribe " theme but this story was done simply and tastefully, making one long to believe it. I was left wondering if the female academic intended really to document her discovery and how she would do it lacking writing materials and considering the danger of revealing the tribe to the outside world. That would be another story, so the successful reunion at the end of the film was satisfying. Why are such delightful films taken so little notice of and so much Hollywood trash is hyped to the skies?
The Angry Silence (1960)
Two ways of looking at things
I remember the reviews of this film in 1960 but did not manage to see it. Now (2007) I have seen most of it for the first time on afternoon TV. It struck me at first as an anti union film, but so much water has flowed under the bridge that it might be taken as a film about the herd instinct; about how unthinking people are so easily led whether by politicians of all persuasions or union reps with agenda of their own. I deplore the near destruction of the unions by Thatcher, but one can never return to voting by a show of hands any more than we can return to the the industrial Britain of the post war era. Unions need to be rebuilt but in another form.
The young couple are too saintly by half but there is an attempt to provide a certain amount of balance. Curtis actually says he can see "both sides".
The Squid and the Whale (2005)
Parents need to be more intelligent.
I saw this film today and thought it sensitive and, ultimately, sad. The parents made pretty usual mistakes because they were normal, flawed, human beings. What they failed to realise, until it was too late, was the damage they were doing to their vulnerable sons. I tend to lay more blame at the mother's door - and i am the mother of sons now released from a marriage that was a lot more dysfunctional than the one in the film. Such middle class, highly educated people should have been much more aware of the pitfalls of divorce but chose to close their eyes for their own selfish reasons -pride, boredom, casual lust, middle aged disappointment. Bad Dad, Bad Mum. I would like to know which son became the writer -presumably Walt, and are they all alive?