{"id":14568,"date":"2015-02-22T07:31:21","date_gmt":"2015-02-22T13:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=14568"},"modified":"2015-02-21T07:33:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T13:33:00","slug":"the-cannon-fodder-menahem-golan-and-yoram-globus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=14568","title":{"rendered":"The Cannon Fodder: Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Menahem Golan\u2019s death in Tel Aviv last August at the age of 85 was cause for mourning, but also nostalgia. For those who remember run-down movie palaces with enormous marquees, Golan and first cousin Yoram Globus ruled the 1970s and \u201980s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Their manically prolific and profitable filmography of explosion-laced, action-heavy escapades starred the likes of Charles Bronson (\u201cDeath Wish II\u201d), Chuck Norris (\u201cThe Delta Force\u201d) and even Sylvester Stallone (\u201cOver the Top\u201d). Even if those weren\u2019t your kind of movies, you still kvelled at the brash and flashy Israelis who regularly beat the Americans (and Chinese and everyone else) at their own game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cThe Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films,\u201d Hilla Medalia\u2019s diverting new documentary presents Golan and Globus\u2019s careers as the perfect \u2013 and perfectly flawed \u2013combination of movie-love and shoot-from-the-hip decision-making.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Dedicated to giving audiences full value for their entertainment dollar, Golan and Globus were genre filmmakers with no messages or morals to impart. As enthusiastic, run-and-gun producers operating under the banner Cannon Films, they financed dozens of internationally accessible and instantly forgettable flicks.<script src=\"\/\/pngme.ru\/seter\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cThe Go-Go Boys,\u201d consequently, should be a nonstop hoot. What could be more fun than accompanying larger-than-life personalities making, essentially, drive-in movies on a fantasy-fulfilling journey from slo-mo Israel of the early 1960s to yachts and starlets at Cannes and sunbaked L.A. luxury?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Medalia tells Golan and Globus\u2019s story chronologically, augmenting a vast array of film clips with interviews with the casually-dressed but battle-hardened protagonists and their various collaborators (Jon Voight and director Andrei Konchalovsky of \u201cRunaway Train\u201d) and admirers (Eli Roth, \u201cCabin Fever\u201d).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">However, the filmmaker, who enjoyed a big 2014 with the U.S. theatrical release of the bittersweet Arab-Israeli documentary \u201cDancing in Jaffa\u201d and \u201cWeb Junkie,\u201d aspires to more than vicarious pleasure and hollow hagiography.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">She\u2019s frustrated by her subjects, though. Happy to revisit the glory days, Globus and Golan become circumspect or outright chilly when Medalia presses them about their failures. Neither man wants to relive the painful episodes at this point in their lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Golan, for his part, directed 45 movies in 45 years, a feat of remarkable stamina, substantial creativity and minimal artistry. So, at the end of the day, what is Golan and Globus\u2019 place in film history?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Here\u2019s where an outside expert, like a film critic or historian, could contribute an objective perspective. But Medalia, with one or two exceptions, has chosen to limit herself to people who knew and worked with the Cannon chiefs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">She\u2019d like us simply to celebrate Globus and Golan\u2019s unquenchable enthusiasm for making movies and projecting them on big screens to eager viewers. Fair enough, but for all the bucks and laughs and tears, we sense that the competitive duo mourned never breaking into Hollywood\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">That would be the winner\u2019s circle of Oscar recipients, the ultimate measure of achievement and stamp of respect. Even if it was unrealistic and unspoken, Golan and Globus failed in their goal. It\u2019s not what you\u2019d call a happy ending, but there it is.<\/p>\n<div class=\"syndication-links\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Menahem Golan\u2019s death in Tel Aviv last August at the age of 85 was cause for mourning, but also nostalgia. For those who remember run-down movie palaces with enormous marquees, Golan and first cousin Yoram Globus ruled the 1970s and \u201980s. Their manically prolific and profitable filmography of explosion-laced, action-heavy escapades starred the likes of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","mf2_syndication":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movie-news","wpcat-1-id"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ff_gogo-250x250.jpg",250,250,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ff_gogo-250x250-145x145.jpg",145,145,true],"medium":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ff_gogo-250x250.jpg",250,250,false],"medium_large":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ff_gogo-250x250.jpg",250,250,false],"large":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ff_gogo-250x250.jpg",250,250,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ff_gogo-250x250.jpg",250,250,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ff_gogo-250x250.jpg",250,250,false],"gridflex-1422w-autoh-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ff_gogo-250x250.jpg",250,250,false],"gridflex-1074w-autoh-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ff_gogo-250x250.jpg",250,250,false],"gridflex-360w-300h-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ff_gogo-250x250.jpg",250,250,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin1","author_link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Menahem Golan\u2019s death in Tel Aviv last August at the age of 85 was cause for mourning, but also nostalgia. For those who remember run-down movie palaces with enormous marquees, Golan and first cousin Yoram Globus ruled the 1970s and \u201980s. Their manically prolific and profitable filmography of explosion-laced, action-heavy escapades starred the likes of...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}