Colin Parton's Blog, page 4

Hamlet

Hamlet - Laurence Olivier

It’s a great story – it’s Shakespeare. The performances are a bit over the top, with some very strange directions taken.

There is an odd title at the start explaining the play in layman’s terms – this feels very pointless because if they feel that you need this title card to understand then you are not going to understand.

Overall I like this story but Hamlet undermines himself by putting additional criteria on the revenge. First, he has to be sure – to show the guilt. 

Then he has to ensure that his uncle goes to hell (or purgatory) where his father is. All of these steps cause chaos and destruction around him – but I guess we wouldn’t have the play otherwise.

And it does make sense for Hamlet’s character to act this way. The intro title screen is also read out aloud – and ends with this is a story about a man who could not make up his mind.

There is a little more to it than that. Once again it is dumbing it down and I can’t understand who they think their audience is if they are watching Hamlet but also need those titles to make sense of the story.

The first time we meet all the characters is at a council meeting and Hamlet’s mother is a super bitch – wondering why he is still so upset about his father’s death.

The scene ends with them having a full-mouth kiss in farewell. This is one of the weird decisions that was made. It is not the only time that Hamlet kisses his mother full on the mouth.

The Laertes and Ophelia scene is fantastic as he lectures her on how to behave in an honorable manner with Hamlet and she gives it right back to him. Jean Simmons gives us one of the best Ophelia’s I’ve seen. 

The ghost scene was impressive because they would have had little access to anything resembling special effects. But the mist and sound design work great in creating a spooky ghost.

The hard use of Ophelia by her father to prove Hamlet’s insanity is heartbreaking to watch. Unfortunately, the soliloquy was meh.

The play within the play was good as usual but what was interesting in this interpretation was the whole court was focused on the king’s reaction rather than just Hamlet and Horacio.

The next interesting direction is during the duel at the end between Hamlet and Laertes. The king tries to serve Hamlet the poisoned cup and it looks like his mother realizes that it is suspect and drinks it herself.

It is almost as if she has decided that all is up and she will now commit suicide to save her son. But it is all in vain. This is an interesting take as most of the time she ends up with the cup in error.

I’m not sure what the goal is at the end of Hamlet to carry his body off at the end. In this version, it is way too long. We see him taken through the castle and up onto the parapet where he meets the ghost – completely unnecessary.

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Retribution

Retribution - Jilliane Hoffman

This murder-mystery thriller opens with the main character getting murdered. But she survives.

I haven’t read a lot in this genre of fiction so I’m not sure what the norms are.

There was a big time jump and we are watching the investigation of another serial killer – we assume the same guy as the first because otherwise why have they started?

But the prosecutor is the lady from the start. We don’t recognize her at first as she has changed her name and is very different from when we originally met her.

We also aren’t sure we are looking at the same guy until he is arrested and she recognizes his voice and scar in court.

Then the twists and turns began and I found them great. They fitted the writing style which was punchy, short, and easy.

It looks like they may have the wrong guy as the murderer of the body that is found in his car. CJ proceeds with the prosecution anyways out of revenge.

The characters are all well-drawn and interesting. We jump back and forth between characters’ point-of-view as required.

Photo by Hamid Tajik.

Apart from the central characters many of the secondaries appear almost caricatures.

But they aren’t. They are slightly two-dimensional but that is fine for the sort of story this is.

This is a plot-driven narrative, not a character-driven narrative. We need CJ’s secretary to be a secretary and as a possible love interest for one of the detectives, nothing more.

The whole last third of the book is an attempt to find evidence that proves Bantling is the killer.  And this arrives in the same way he was originally arrested – random tipoff.

The story is a balancing act between justice and revenge. As the reader we are upset for CJ and what has happened to her but does this give her the right to break the law herself for revenge?

CJ ends up being captured and killing the real killer & Bantling is still found guilty of the crimes.

We are pretty sure that the evidence against him has been falsified.

Great storytelling and you will either love or just like it based on how happy you are for the law to be bent.

It also has very graphic violence. So be aware if you are unable to read this sort of thing.

Photo by Farzad Sedaghat.

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Dune: Part Two

Dune: Part Two - Denis Villeneve

We pick up right where part one ended. The story starts with Paul and Jessica Atreides trying to be accepted by the Fremen.

The stories run parallel but take very different paths. Paul is trying to get them to accept him by learning their ways and joining their fighting efforts against the Harkonnen.

Jessica is trying to dominate them through fear and coercion. In her defense, she has little choice when she is offered the job of reverend mother.

It’s either that or die. So not a choice. But what she does after that is vastly different from Paul’s approach to the Fremen. We also see two other stories playing out. 

The first is Feyd taking over as govener of Dune and trying to subdue the Fremen. The second is the Emporer and the Princess trying to deal with the fallout of the eradicating House Atreides.

Both stories are interesting and give us different intrigues into the political system in the galaxy.

Through Feyd we see the Bene Gesserit looking to use him as another option for the chosen one. Easier to control.

We also see his uncle, Baron Harkonnen, explaining their positioning to take down the emperor. Through the scenes with the emperor and the princess, we see two very different ways of looking at the turmoil unfolding around the House Atreides massacre.

She feels much more pragmatic about the whole affair. Interested in what has happened to Paul and what all of this could mean. 

As soon as she sees that the emperor has lost she sides with Paul. Paul’s story amongst the Fremen is much more linear than his mother’s. 

We see him rising through the ranks of fighters as more and more people accept him. It’s not only accepting him, they are beginning to believe.

Jessica’s story is much more insidious as she takes up the propaganda role of the Bene Gesserit. She uses fear to turn the Fremen into believers of Paul as Muad’dib.

Chani can see the manipulation and faith as control and wants no part in it. This causes a huge rift between her and Paul. 

Paul starts this way but shifts when he sees that there is no further course of action. He begins to have visions of the horror he will cause if he takes up the mantel.

This is such an amazing story to see unfold. Paul can see himself becoming the villain but feels that there is no other option available to him. 

And this is exactly what happens at the end of the film as he launches the holly war across the galaxy. The use of Stilgar as a mentor figure and the face of the fundamentalists gives us a way to identify with them that we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

The visuals continued to be spectacular. Some standouts for me were the wells in the desert. The Harkonen world was great as well. 

Almost sepia with burning black and white. It has been a long time since I’ve seen colour used in such a great way.

There is one further creepy part of the film. Paul and his mum can talk to his unborn sister and it is very off-putting.

The film is very long but there is nothing that can be cut. It is all vital. Great stuff and I highly recommend watching it.

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The Bridge

The Bridge - Måns Mårlind, Hans Rosenfeldt & Björn Stein Season Four

This season’s meta-plot flows the unpredictable twists and turns of the previous ones but the writers make the mistake of giving us too many hints about the killer too early on.

These twists and turns are harder to follow and it feels like there are more sub-plots happening than in the previous seasons.

This just makes it very hard to keep track of what is happening. To make matters worse we are missing our hero for what feels like half the season – probably more like a third.

We start with Saga in jail which is just terrible given we know there is no way that she would ever do this. We have seen her destroy the relationships around her to do the right thing.

Coupled with this is her boss, unsupportive as ever. But Linn’s perspective in this case perplexes me. She is cold and uncaring but gives Saga so much space when she returns.

These two positions don’t fit. The writers seem to have forgotten that the reason we are here is for Saga.

But just putting her on screen and showing her idiosyncracies is not enough. While this sort of ham-fisted writing might have worked during the first season when we were getting to know her it does not fly now. We know her and we want to see her being an amazing police officer.

We do not get to see this until the final episode where her brilliance returns and she figures out that there were two killers and she saves Henrick’s newly found daughter’s life.

The rest of the season we see her struggle with self-doubt and panic attacks. I don’t think that this is plausible now more than in the first season.

The trauma that triggered the attacks happened before the first season and for them only to be manifesting now makes little sense. The show ends with Saga leaving the police force because her psychologist said that she did it all out of guilt.

While I don’t disagree with the psychologist per se, just because Saga’s original motivation for joining the force is guilt it doesn’t mean that there are other reasons she should now stay.

The whole episode feels like Saga is manipulated rather than helped as we have seen the same thing happen to her in earlier seasons. A person wanting to help her suggests a course of action – she does it and it blows up in her face. It also cheapens her whole character and life in the force.

The rest of the surrounding story is good and the plot is interesting if somewhat hard to follow. The great supporting characters are back and I think that they made the right decision to base this season on the Danish side of the Bridge so we didn’t have to see Linn.

The season wasn’t all that bad. It was just such a huge disappointment compared to the first three and knowing that we will see no more Saga is just really disappointing.

They did well closing off all the plots that had been bubbling along. I would highly recommend watching the first three seasons but this one is only good if you need the closure.

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Fargo

Fargo - Noah Hawley Season Two

This season is set before the first season and we immediately get the references to Sioux Falls. We are finally going to find out what they were all talking about in the first season!

This season follows a large organized crime operation attempt to take over a small family-run one.

Thrown into this is the unlikely murder of one of the family crime members by a hairdresser. Her and he hapless husband try to cover it up and if the first season taught us anything this will not end well.

The cops are great in this and we get to see Molly’s dad in action as the lead cop. I was surprised to see the two main actors from Burn Notice here. Jefferey Donovan plays the eldest son of the family crime gang and Bruce Campbell plays Ronald Regan. Jefferey is fantastic.

The characters in this are brilliant. They are all believable and complex. Even Kirsten’s crazy Peggy fits in here. 

I think that this is what makes the series so great that while you wouldn’t do what the characters are doing you can see why they think it is a good idea.

The two lead cops played by Ted Danson and Patrick Wilson are standouts for me. They carry the season.

The performance that Zahn McClarnon gives as the native American, Hanzee Dent, is unforgettable. The writing and performance of this character left me on his side as he guns down locals in the street – really hard to get onside with the villain.

The representative of the big syndicate, Mike Milligan, gets promoted to an office job at the end which just seems surreal but is fantastic as well.

Several scenes refer to UFOs and we see one for real during the last shootout. I found this very strange in a series that opens every episode with ‘This is a true story’.

Now this isn’t a question about if UFOs are real or not. The detectives felt that was exactly what they saw. My issue is that it changes the tone of the whole piece which is supposed to be the true crime schtick. 

I enjoyed getting to see Molly’s family when she was a kid. Molly is such a great character from the first season and has such a fantastic relationship with her dad that it was great to see where that came from.

The same slowness from the first season is here again and is just as brilliant. You get to see things ticking over in people’s minds. Great stuff.

Last but not least, Nick Offerman’s performance as Karl Weathers, the anti-establishment lawyer is excellent. Can’t wait to see the next season and I highly recommend that you see this one.

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The Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency

The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith

Such an easy read. The simple language should not be confused for a simple story – it is anything but.

There are many many cases in this book but it is not your typical detective story where you get stuck in the minutiae of the detail.

The lead solves a case and moves on.

The language reminds me a bit of Paulo Coelho and the sense of place reminds me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The scenes when she was a young girl near the desert put you there in a similar way that Marquez does in Love in the Time of Cholera.

The lead character is revealed slowly throughout the novel through flashbacks to her childhood and earlier life. Such an interesting way for us to slowly meet the character.

I cannot wait to read more in this series.

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Malcolm X

Malcolm X - Spike Lee

Bio-pic of the controversial spokesperson for a radical Nation of Islam group in the US in the 50s and 60s.

The film charts everything about Malcolm’s life from his early childhood; early adult years; the time he spends in prison through to his assassination.

There is so much going on in this film and to be honest, it was way too long. 

I understand wanting to be true to the source material and everything here is important but the run time is 3 hours and 22 mins.

There are six main phases to this story. The film is linear apart from the stuff when he was a kid which is interspersed throughout the film – generally in the early part.

Then we have his early life as a hoodlum. The third is his time in prison. The fourth is when he first gets out and finds his place in the Nation of Islam.

Then we have the conflict with the other leaders and the figurehead. The final is him breaking away and forming his group which leads to his assassination.

All of these phases of the story are important to inform the outcomes and have threads throughout. But when you get to this run time you have to cut something.

So first of all – the ordinary world setup is way too long. It tries to tell too much. 

The scenes when he is a child see the trauma that his family went through and his dad’s life parallels his trials. But they are probably not needed. It’s cool but unneeded.

The film also spends too much time setting Malcolm up as a flawed man in the ordinary world. We needed some of these key points but Roberry and the dispute with the head of the gambling ring could have been cut.

The underlying story with Lorna & Sophia is much more interesting.

Because of the length as I am looking at my notes so much of what I was thinking about is what could have been cut rather than focusing on what was done well.

I found the scenes in the prison some of the best in the film. The road to conversion was very interesting.

The final thing that they should have cut was the dream-like sequence as he approaches his assassination. 

This is a very cool slow-mo sequence watching Malcolm from an odd angle but right at the end when we are three hours in you just need the film to end.

The absolutly disgusting things that his family had to put up with when he was groing up were something. You can see why he wanted to get back at the white man.

The tenor of white hatred continues in jail as Baines convinces him to join islam.

There is a truly spectacular sequence when one of their congregation is brutalized by the police and then through militant control of the men of the Nation of Islam he has the brother taken to hospital and this culminates in the formation of a mob – the police are worried. 

The clinical way that Malcolm bends the police to his will in a period where they were just as likely to shoot them all was something else.

The downfall of the group and the splitting up of the leadership is so sad to see. 

The way that we can see that Malcolm is going to fall for it is set so well in the way he parrots everything Elijah Mohammad – the leader says. 

This is another great part of the film as we see a piece of information being imparted to Malcolm and then we cut to him saying it to his wife or the congregation. Great stuff.

Malcolm is a super interesting character and his story is of real significance to the US and the world. I would probably suggest reading a biography rather than watching this.

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Nicholas Nickleby

Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens

This is Dickens at his best – fantastic. This is a move away from the boy hard done by in the world to that of a young man.

The story is mainly Nicholas’ but Kate and his mother are also heroes in their own right.

The story is so long because all the main characters have full arcs and we see the ends of many secondary character’s arcs as well.

Mrs. Nickleby is one of Dickens’ best characters. She thinks she understands exactly what is happening and relates this in unending tales to anyone who will listen.

Then when she is wrong – as she often is – she makes a big deal about being hard done by and no one should ever listen to her.

This would be very sad and distressing if it was so funny. It is all delivered to Kate and Nicholas who love her very much and listen and placate her views while not contradicting unless they must.

All of the characters are on point – very funny.

It is very long so if you aren’t up for a Dickens’ epic then it isn’t for you. My copy is 934 pages.

You have to go into reading some material knowing what you are in for so I wouldn’t start my journey with Dickens here but if you are a fan you will love this.

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Betrayal At Baldur’s Gate

Betrayal At Baldur's Gate - Chris Dupuis & Mike Mearls

This game is a reskin of Betrayal at House on the Hill. The reskin works fine and game play is similar. 

It is a group co-op game until the haunt begins. At this point, a player generally becomes the bad guy.

The triggering of the haunt can take a while to figure out what exactly has changed. Generally, this is fine because the game pauses at this point and the good guys and the bad guys have to read their new rules.

In my last game, we got a haunt where there was no bad guy. This was not great as it wasn’t a simple pause of the two groups reading their rules it was a bad break in play where everyone but the people reading the rules had to sit around and wait.

If you focus on your character alone rather than what the group is doing you will have a very boring game.

It is a game on rails. Your decisions don’t matter until the haunt begins.

Before this, you are just moving your pieces around the board to a pre-generated story.

It’s a beer and pretzels game where you don’t have to pay much attention if you are familiar with the rules. So if a hands-off game where not much is happening until the haunt is your cup of tea then you will love this. Otherwise, it will be terrible.

I enjoy the story and the setting so that helps a lot. Just make sure your group enjoys it or you could be in for some groans when you take it off the shelf.

I think it is better than the original as I enjoy the setting more and I think that the tiles are more interesting as is the framing story.

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Ugetso

Ugetsu - Kenji Mizoguchi

An allegorical tale that tells two interwoven stories of two heroes. The takeaways are clear but the way these messages are delivered is very alien to Western audiences.

Our two heroes are neighbors in a small village in feudal Japan. Genjuro is a potter and Tobei is a farmer and sometimes assistant to Genjuro.

Tobei dreams of fame as a mighty samurai and Genjuro wants to become an extremely wealthy pot merchant.

We move back and forth between the two heroes but do end up spending long periods with one and then the other. There are also long sections where they are together.

This in itself makes it quite different from many multi-story films we see today as there is generally a lot more moving back and forth between the two heroes.

The whole film from start to finish feels foreign. There is very odd music over the titles to set the scene and then we are slap bang in 16th century Japan. this is all the setup we are given.

The film allows us to enter this world and understand what is happening through the actions of the characters.

We quickly learn that we are in the middle of a war but our heroes are poor peasants so the war is just a backdrop and a hindrance in their stories.

Genjuro decides to risk a journey to a larger city to get a better price on his pottery. He returns successful and this fills him with dreams of wealth. He quickly sets to work doggedly making a giant batch of pots. 

We quickly see this loving husband and father turn into a greed-driven jerk. His wife does her best to support him but he will not listen to her warnings of the coming army.

Tobei joins Genjuro in aiding to make the biggest set of pottery that Genjuro has ever fired. They just get it in the kiln and the army arrives.

Our heroes and their families just manage to escape but Genjuro quickly wants to return to check that the fire hasn’t gone out and save the pots.

The fire is out and Genjuro is initially beside himself, thinking that they have lost everything. But he quickly realizes that the pots have finished firing.

The two families decide to take a boat to an even bigger city to sell the goods.

On the journey they meet another boatman who warns them of pirates so Genjuro decides to put his wife and son ashore. They keep Tobei’s wife on board as she is a boatman’s daughter and can navigate well.

The pots sell extremely well and Genjuro is rich. During the market, a lady approaches him and asks him to deliver some pots to a fort.

Miyagi, Genjuro’s wife is killed by soldiers on the road back to their village. His son, Genichi escapes. This is brutal because we know what his greed has cost him but he has no idea.

Genjuro takes the order of pots to the fort which has lots of damage to it. It isn’t until they reach the inner sanctum that things look ok. The only people are the lady who bought the pots and her servant.

We quickly learn that things are wrong when the lady’s dead father starts singing the song they are singing. But Genjuro has deep lust for the lady.

He goes into town and wants to buy things for her but the storekeepers will not take his money after they hear where the goods are to be delivered. Genjuro refuses to see the truth of the situation.

A priest senses the evil surrounding him and tries to turn him from his path but he will not listen. The priest convinces him to let him ward the pot maker with holy writings on his body.

The wards break the spell and the servant reveals that they are both dead and they returned so the lady could fall in love.

Genjuro awakes to find the whole fort in ruin. Some guards take all his money and the sword that he took from the lady’s father during his escape – proving his guilt as a thief to the guards and the nightmare of the spirits to us and Genjuro.

Genjuro returns home and has dinner with his wife, yes the dead one, and son and they fall asleep. In the morning he learns the truth.

Throughout the early part of the film Tobei keeps trying to join up with the army but they will not have him without armour and a weapon.

So when they have made their money in the big city he immediately abandons Genjuro and his wife Ohama.

With Tobei and Genjuro gone Ohama tries to return home but she is captured a raped by the soldiers.

After buying his armour Tobei is lucky enough to come across a fleeing general who has one of his vassals cut his head off to save him the dishonour of the defeat.

Tobei then stabs the vassal in the back and takes the general’s head to the other camp for his reward.

They don’t believe that Tobei killed him but reward the peasants all the same. Tobei heads home at the head of an army.

He and his men are convinced to stop at a brothel on the way home and he finds that his wife is the main attraction there.

He sees the error of his ways gives up his samurai status and returns home with Ohama.

I think that the stories are really interesting and the film looks great. But I am still left feeling that Genjuro is hard done by. Sure he is super greedy but he does it for his family.

The action that he took to put his wife and child ashore was to protect them from the pirates. It just feels a bit rough. While Tobei is much more reckless and doesn’t work as hard towards his goal as Genjuro his punishment isn’t as bad. It’s a good film but a little disappointing in its resolution.

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