Tag: Clint Eastwood

The Creator

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 28 September 2023
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Director – Gareth Edwards – 2023 – US – Cert. 12a – 133m

****

A widower finds himself protecting an AI in the form of a child as anti-AI North American forces wage a war on the Asian-Pacific countries where people have integrated with AI robots – out in UK cinemas on Thursday, September 28th

Over a decade ago, I was blown away by Gareth Edwards’ little indie British film marvel Monsters (2010) which broke all the accepted wisdom of film production. Based around a deceptively simple script concept, it was shot by a four-man crew and a two-man cast (plus anyone else who was around at the time) with lots of post-production VFX work added by the director himself.

That got him an agent and two big budget Hollywood franchise FX movies – the Godzilla reboot (2014) and the Star Wars movie Rogue One (2016). The former isn’t bad for a Hollywood movie, although I personally far prefer the Japanese-made Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno, 2016), while the latter is one of the better Star Wars films. However, neither quite possessed the quality that had got me so excited about Monsters.

I suspect Edwards feels the same way, because whilst he clearly relishes the chance to work with the palette of a huge Hollywood FX budget, on this his fourth film, as with Monsters, he has once again broken the rules – this time within a huge Hollywood FX budget film.… Read the rest

Documentary Features Live Action Movies Music

Ennio: The Maestro
(Ennio)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 22 April 2022
No Comments on Ennio: The Maestro
(Ennio)

Director – Giuseppe Tornatore – 2021 – Italy – Cert. 15 – 156m

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Documentary Ennio: The Maestro looks at the career of Italian film composer Ennio Morricone – out in cinemas on Friday, April 22nd

It’s difficult to know where to start with Ennio Morricone, whose career in film music covers some 70 years. Tornatore adopts the chronological approach, starting with his early life. The composer’s father was a trumpeter who pushed young Ennio to learn that same instrument, leading to entry into Rome’s Santa Cecilia Conservatory where he studied both trumpet and composition. His father had raised him with a strong work ethic – using the trumpet to feed your family – and much of his early work was as a trumpeter on movie soundtrack sessions, including Othello (Orson Welles, 1951).

His wife secured him a brief stint at TV channel RAI where she was working, but on being told that he wouldn’t be able to perform anything recorded there anywhere else, Morricone quit almost immediately. Inspired by seeing experimental composer John Cage perform live, he formed the Nuovo Consonanza Improvisation Group to experiment with what he called “traumatic sounds”. This approach would inform a number of his later soundtracks.… Read the rest

Tags ¡Queimada!, A Fistful Of Dollars, A Quiet Place In The Country, arpeggio, Brian De Palma, Bruce Springsteen, Burn!, chronology, Cinema Paradiso, Clint Eastwood, composition, conservatory, counterpoint, Dario Argento, documentarian, documentary filmmaker, Edda Dell’Orso, Elio Petri, Ennio Morricone, experimental music, fathers and sons, feed your family, For a Few Dollars More, Four Flies On Grey Velvet, gangster movie, Gillo Pontecorvo, Giuliano Montaldo, Giuseppe Tornatore, Glenn Phillips, Gunfight In The Red Sands, Hollywood, I Cannibali, Il Barattolo, improvisation, Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, Italy, Joan Baez, John Cage, La Scorta, Legend Of 1900, Liliana Cavali, maestro, Metallica, movies, Nuovo Consonanza, Nuovo Consonanza Improvisation Group, Once Upon A Time In America, Once Upon A Time In The West, orchestra, Orson Welles, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Quentin Tarantino, RAI, RCA, recording session, Ricki Tognazzi, Roland Joffé, Rome, Sacco & Vanzetti, Salvatore Argento, Santa Cecilia Conservatory, school, Sergio Leone, soundtrack, Terrence Malick, The Bad And The Ugly, The Battle Of Algiers, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, The Cat O’ Nine Tails, The Good, The Hateful Eight, The Hawks And The Sparrows, The Mission, The Untouchables, The Year Of The Cannibals, traumatic sounds, trumpet, tumpeter, TV, US, Western, work ethic, Yojimbo

Features Live Action Movies

Cry Macho

Director – Clint Eastwood – 2021 – US – Cert. 12 – 104m

***1/2

A rodeo star and horse trainer well past his prime is sent to bring his boss’ son back to Texas from his “abusive” mother in Mexico – out to rent on Premium Video on Demand from Monday, December 13th

1979. Mike Milo (Clint Eastwood) is late for work. Again. His boss Howard Polk (Dwight Yoakam) ticks him off. Milo verbally lays into him. Gets fired. Newsreel footage from back in the day shows Mike’s rodeo accident, when a horse threw him and he landed on his back. He’s never been the same since.

They go back a long way, though, and that isn’t the end of their relationship. Howard phones Mike for a favour. Howard hasn’t seen his son since the boy was six. He’s now 13 and living with his mother, Howard’s estranged ex, down in Mexico. Howard has heard is son is being abused, although he doesn’t clarify. He wants Mike to go down to Mexico and bring the boy back.

Mike is unsure but agrees. His attempt to complete this task will form the body of the movie. He finds the mother’s house easily enough.… Read the rest