Grist for the Grindhouse

We saw GRINDHOUSE yesterday. This tribute by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino to the cheap, nasty '70's movies of their youth reminded me of when I was in grade school, and kids (generally boys) who had managed to see R-rated films (probably through the expedient of the local Drive-in) would enthuse about the nastier scenes they saw -- like a POV shot of a man falling out of a window, or an ill-advised use of a shotgun on a human body. The two movies were uneven, to say the least; and did not quite capture the spirit of the '70's flicks. The Rodriguez movie was far too well photographed, and had far too nicely-done special effects, to qualify as a trash-flick. And the Tarantino movie interspersed its excellent car-wars scenes (and the tremendously-charismatic Kurt Russell) with endless scenes of women talking with each other -- scenes that went on so long that they seemed parodies of similar bits in Tarantino's earlier movies.

I had to agree with friends who told me the absolute best part of GRINDHOUSE was the faux coming-attraction trailers, by Rodrieguez (doing a satire of blaxpoitation trailers) and guest directors like Eli Roth and Rob Zombie.

Those who follow Rodriguez's films will recall that Tarantino often appears in them; and that when he does, his character usually meets a bad end. This movie continues the tradition; and Tarantino's nasty rapist mercenary meets about the worst, nastiest fate ever shown in cinema.

Parallax Parallels

At the suggestion of my friend S.R., I continued my exploration of the paranoid cinema of the '70's by renting Alan Pakula's THE PARALLAX VIEW, starring Warren Beatty and a passel of other talented folks, including a post-GRADUATE, pre-KNIGHT RIDER Williams Daniels.

THE PARALLAX VIEW likely had a big influence on comic book writers in the '70's. Comics in those days were mainly written by young men in their '20's who went to college in the '60's and who were likely receptive to stories of conspiracies and assassins.

Further, the movie itself had several comic book connections. Among them:

-- The bizarre "Parallax Test" montage in the middle of the film prominently featured panels from the Marvel comic THE MIGHTY THOR drawn by Jack Kirby.

-- One of the people credited for the montage was the late cartoonist, author, and nude photographer William Rotsler. Among his accomplishments were writing novels based on comic book characters, including one of Marvel Comics' DOCTOR STRANGE.

-- Lorenzo Semple Jr., who co-wrote the screenplay, was the main writer on the '60's BATMAN series; and also wrote the screenplays (such as they were) for the '80's FLASH GORDON and '90's SHEENA movies.