{"id":3211,"date":"2012-06-12T14:21:17","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T20:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=3211"},"modified":"2012-06-12T14:21:17","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T20:21:17","slug":"el-stinko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=3211","title":{"rendered":"El Stinko"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Since when did \u201cpassion project\u201d become such a dirty phrase?<\/p>\n

When Andrew Stanton\u2019s magnum opus \u201cJohn Carter\u201d was released just two short months ago, you\u2019d think he had committed some kind of original sin. Just about every article or review dwelled on the fact that either A.) the film was going to lose a massive amount of money, or. B.) Disney was insane to entrust a massive studio blockbuster to some na\u00efve \u201cartist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talk about self-unfulfilling prophecy.<\/p>\n

The history of Hollywood is littered with artists going one Bridge Too Far, a distinguished field of creative carnage that began with D.W. Griffiths\u2019 \u201cIntolerance.\u201d The story is simple. Having gathered their chips through some mega-success, deranged creative types bet their stack on a personal epic. \u201cJaws\u201d begets \u201cClose Encounters of the Third Kind,\u201d a win, and then, Steven Spielberg craps out on \u201c1941.\u201d \u201cThe Godfather\u201d gets topped by a sequel, but soon \u201cApocalypse Now\u201d comes staggering from the jungle. Francis Ford Coppola was lucky enough to make it out of that casino, but then, had to return to Vegas for \u201cOne From The Heart,\u201d the opening act of the slow-motion dissolution of his career. And of course, there is Billy Wilder\u2019s corrosive masterpiece, \u201cAce in the Hole,\u201d a cynical treasure that cost him most of the goodwill he had earned from the previous 10 years of commercial success. We won\u2019t mention \u201cHeaven\u2019s Gate,\u201d as that is too damn easy. But, I will say, deep inside Michael Cimino\u2019s deranged epic there is something mesmerizing. It deserves to be taken on its own terms as an deranged vision, clearly made \u2013 if not made clearly \u2014 by some kind of cinematic idiot savant.<\/p>\n

Savant comes to mind when one looks at Andrew Stanton. And the only thing that seems idiotic about \u201cJohn Carter\u201d is its running time. The original sin of this film is that, believe it or not, it is far, far too short. I\u2019ll go out on a limb here and say that \u201cJohn Carter\u201d is the \u201cMagnificent Ambersons\u201d of insane, overproduced fantasy films \u2013 though in this case, the compression and cuts were inflicted by its own creator. The movie slowly sinks under a staggering amount of exposition and plot truncation, and the viewer is always one step behind, never to catch up.<\/p>\n

What we are left with is the Cliff Notes of what, on say HBO, could have been the first season of the greatest mini-series ever \u2013 a fusion of \u201cRome\u201d with \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d \u201cJohn Carter\u201d even shares its Caesar and Marc Antony with \u201cRome,\u201d Ciaran Hinds and James Puerfoy respectively. Both don\u2019t have nearly enough to do, but what they do do makes you long for more, never a bad thing for any movie.<\/p>\n

Still, the whole transcends the parts \u2013 though in this 2 hour and 15 minute highlight reel, one is left bereft at the stories and back stories that could \u2013 should \u2014 have been told. Stanton was praying for at least two more sequels, and I think it is safe to say that those prayers will be going unanswered.<\/p>\n

But for a movie gleefully proclaimed a disaster, so many scenes fly through your consciousness like the gossamer Martian airships. The sense of wonder that lifted Edgar Rice Burroughs\u2019 original works to the pantheon of fantasy literature suffuses every frame, and there is not an ounce of cynicism in any part of Stanton\u2019s storytelling. Yes, there are many scenes that crash land as well. But this flight of fantasy is well worth taking, if only to bask in the true creative vision of someone who most definitely suffered for his art. Now, it is Disney\u2019s turn.<\/p>\n

Let me be clear. \u201cJohn Carter\u201d is a magnificent wreck. But the wreckage is worth watching. It is precisely the movie that Stanton had in his head \u2013 and I would rather be in Stanton\u2019s mindset than caught in the Citizens United world of \u201ccorporations are people too\u201d-styled vision-by-committee that attend the other Big Summer Releases.<\/p>\n

A few weeks after the demise of \u201cJohn Carter,\u201d the mega-disaster of \u201cBattleship\u201d was released, a completely soulless piece of corporate pandering that was truly made by collective idiots. It went straight down the Memory Hole. But the outrage was muted, and except for the unfortunate (for him) fact that Taylor Kitsch starred in both films, the failure of \u201cBattleship\u201d was not taken as personally as \u201cJohn Carter\u201d seemed to be. Where was the outrage that attended the release of \u201cJohn Carter\u201d? It\u2019s tragic to see one of the good guys \u2013 and Stanton is definitely one of those good guys \u2013 getting mauled for biting off more than he could creatively chew. \u201cJohn Carter\u201d is art-house cinema with a capital \u201cA.\u201d And let\u2019s face it. It isn\u2019t like Disney was going to spend those $200 million bucks on 50 Joyce Carol Oates adaptations.<\/p>\n

Now in many ways, on many corporate \u201cdo-be\u201d lists, Clint Eastwood is the anti-Stanton. Known for instinctively shying away from any budgetary excess, Eastwood is a filmmaker who has made a cult of understatement and fiscal prudance. So for this reason, it is hard to imagine that Eastwood and Stanton would have much to talk about. But Stanton might want to seek him out. For Eastwood has managed to make the system work for him in a way that still allows him to express his visions. Sometimes they hit and sometimes they miss, but the man almost always gets the job done.<\/p>\n

The same week that \u201cJohn Carter\u201d had its DVD debut, a pristine BluRay of Eastwood\u2019s \u201cThe Outlaw Josey Wales\u201d was released. This is a film with an explicit connection with \u201cJohn Carter,\u201d an inspiration Stanton has freely acknowledged.<\/p>\n

In this revenge fantasy, Clint Eastwood plays, well, Clint Eastwood. This time, as a stoic Civil War hero, whose entire existence was truncated by the death of his wife and child, a child in this case that was played by his son, Kyle. One of the films most powerful moments is when Eastwood buries them, and collapses next to the crude wooden cross. This scene is duplicated almost shot for shot in \u201cJohn Carter,\u201d but I don\u2019t think that I will be going too far out on a limb by saying that Taylor Kitsch is no Clint Eastwood. Yet the films overlap like a kind of desert hologram, with the landscape of \u201cJosey Wales\u201d identical to that of \u201cJohn Carter.\u201d Both follow in the frames of John Ford\u2019s monumental Monument Valley travelogues. Both films are unmoored from much story logic, and both are based on pulp novels, written by self-conscious carriers of the White Man\u2019s Burden. Forrest Carter, who wrote the novel that \u201cJosey Wales\u201d is based upon, was a far more toxic racist \u2013 and thankfully, the late \u201970s school of earnest liberal filmmaking that informs \u201cThe Outlaw Josey Wales\u201d wipes that stench away. This is part revenge-fantasy, part humanistic, utopian fantasy as Eastwood builds a surrogate family at the same time as he blasts away everyone who gets in his way. Chief Dan George plays the Yoda role here, and the once and forever dean of Faber College, John Vernon, is terrific as Eastwood\u2019s conflicted nemesis.<\/p>\n

The films original director and co-screenwriter, Phil Kaufman, clashed with Eastwood over two things: Kaufman\u2019s \u201cStanton-esque\u201d perfectionist working habits, and the romantic attentions of Sandra Locke. Eastwood would win both battles, but would ultimately lose the war to Locke later on, when the two had a spectacularly messy falling out. Ironically, it was Eastwood who set Michael Cimino upon his quest for epic failure immortality, when he enlisted him to direct 1974\u2019s \u201cThunderbolt and Lightfoot.\u201d I am sure it is to Cimino\u2019s everlasting chagrin that he did not learn from the master.<\/p>\n

There is another epic fantasy besides \u201cJohn Carter\u201d that hardwires directly to \u201cThe Outlaw Josey Wales\u201d \u2014 Stephen King\u2019s lifework \u201cThe Dark Tower.\u201d If King during his acid years didn\u2019t mainline \u201cOutlaw Josey Wales\u201d whilst under the influence and incorporate its cast, setting and essence in his first and subsequent \u201cDark Tower,\u201d books, well, maybe Disney should get right on that \u201cJohn Carter\u201d sequel. Sooner or later, these eight (and counting) books will be the subject of an endlessly debated adaptation. Rest assured that most of those will revolve around fanboy wishes that Clint Eastwood be put in a \u201cWay Back\u201d machine and cast in the role of Roland Deschain. So many settings from \u201cJosey Wales\u201d are embedded in the \u201cDark Tower\u201d that the similarity cannot be entirely coincidental. The surrealistic, minimalist Ghost Towns, the relentless gathering of the Gunslinger\u2019s companions, the empty blasted landscape they navigate, all make \u201cJosey Wales\u201d seem like an earlier, and hopefully not superior, first draft of the \u201cDark Tower\u201d films-to-be.<\/p>\n

Stephen King, Clint Eastwood and Andrew Stanton are three American Artists who are warriors for their work. And all three have had to endure the flung White Ape poo of critics and audiences when their reach exceeded their grasp.<\/p>\n

This hasn\u2019t stopped King and Eastwood, and let\u2019s hope that Andrew Stanton gets a chance \u2013 and can grab onto $200 million more dollars of that money that has subsidized so many lesser filmmakers. Hey, maybe Andrew Stanton should direct those incoming \u201cDark Tower\u201d films. You do know his heart will be in it, and sometimes, heart is enough.<\/p>\n

Hmm. Now that I think about it, I\u2019d love to see 50 filmed adaptations of the works of Joyce Carol Oates. Any ideas for which book Disney should tackle first? Let me know in the comments!