Post by ronnierocketago on Jul 20, 2009 14:23:05 GMT
"Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true."[/i][/size]
POINT BREAK (1991) - ***1/2
In film festivals around the world, Kathryn Bigelow's Iraqi war drama THE HURT LOCKER has collected acclaim and awards. People are even already talking up LOCKER for the Best Picture Oscar, which with the new ten-fold rule, is quite possible. Of course like every other yearly "big" critic's picture, it probably won't come around to East Tennessee until after the fact so yeah (THE WRESTLER came out here after Mickey Rourke lost the Oscar) the one good thing at least about LOCKER, whatever its good or not, is Bigelow's return to theatres after seven(!) years. Apparently K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER fucked her career badly in Hollywood for a long time, but this is ridiculous. Shit not even Michael HEAVEN'S GATE Cimino had it that bad (his YEAR OF THE DRAGON came out only five years after GATE.)
And yes this may sound silly, but I'm excited by the mere idea that she could be honored with a Best Director nomination, perhaps (I wouldn't hold my breath) even win it. For right now, whatever she deserves it or not is irrelevant, and I only say that because quite frankly, I'll argue that she was (is again?) the most progressive for women's cinema, more fem-lib than even Sofia Coppola, the first American woman to score a Best Director invitation. Sure Sofia's LOST IN TRANSLATION is technically better than any of Bigelow's work, but let me ask you Sofia fans: Sofia can make those small arthouse pretty character dramas, a very comfortable schtick, but could she shoot a great gunfight or car chase like Bigelow? I don't know, but would she ever try? I doubt it.
The very talented Bigelow is basically the female Peter Hyams, having tackled lots of different genres instead of the same basic auteur filmography, with horror (NEAR DARK), thriller (BLUE STEEL), murder mystery (THE WEIGHT OF WATER), bikersploitation (THE LOVELESS), science fiction (STRANGE DAYS), and the submarine melodrama (K-19.) No wait, that comparison makes no sense, since STRANGE DAYS alone was better than anything Hyams ever made. I guess a more appropriate allusion would be Ridley Scott, since she visually flair, which on the flipside guarantees criticism for more style over substance.
Undoubtedly her biggest hit was POINT BREAK, Bigelow's actioneer that I wonder if it's sustained popularity is sincere or out of some love/hate "so-campy-it's-good" cultdom much like POINT star Patrick Swayze's rednecksploitation cheeseball ROADHOUSE. Consider that the hilarious British genre parody HOT FUZZ played a POINT scene which they later re-enacted, and even MYTHBUSTERS did an episode investigating the practicality of that classic ridiculous sequence (such honored on an Empire magazine list) when the parachute-free (!) Keanu Reeves jumps out an airplane to tackle Swayze in mid-air. My favorite though is POINT BREAK LIVE!, an improv-stage play from Seattle where in each performance, a random audience member plays the Reeves part, with help of cue cards to capture "the rawness of a Reeves performance." Coming soon to Las Vegas:
Like most late 80s/early 90s John Woo-inspired American action cinema, POINT BREAK at times (which are many) is pretty damn hyperbolic to say the least. That might be its lasting charm to some people. Certainly it can't be the plot where former Ohio State Quarterback*-turned-FBI Agent Johnny Utah (Reeves) and his over-the-hill partner Gary Busey investigate Swayze and his fellow Californian surfers who the Feds think are the Ex-Presidents, a bunch of bank robbers who wear masks of former American Presidents in Reagan, Nixon, Carter, and Johnson. (Where's Ford?) This leads to a great laugh where the surfer playing Johnson moons the security camera and slaps his asscheeks. Reeves decides to become a surfer himself and infiltrate that tight clique...
Whoa whoa wait wait! Why does that sound so familiar? Duh, because it's the exact same premise of THE FAST & THE FURIOUS, which came out a decade later, replacing bank robbing-surfers for hijacking street racers. Then again, another 1991 actioneer STONE COLD (which I previously reviewed) had the same narrative too (except with a motorcycle gang), so POINT wasn't exactly exclusive to the Infiltration Formula. Nobody disputes that. That formula of course is where a cop goes undercover to join a secret (usually illegal) organization and adopts that lifestyle. While doing his without going Kurtz native, shit gets real complicated when he falls for a girl, usually tied (girlfriend/sister) to the adversary, who finds out the hero's identity and...
So why didn't FAST click but POINT BREAK did with the carbon script? It's easy armchair criticism just to say that POINT got paired with cast and filmmakers who seem motivated to bother despite the material...yeah you're right, it is...but that's what happened here. Bigelow brought along her knack for compelling action cinema and stunning (camera) looks. Like this one great set-up of Swayze on that plane saying a line and then falls out the door, with no cut. I wondered for years how that was pulled off, maybe CGI? No he actually fell out that door.
Her best unheralded shot might be of that surfer-robber who dies in the desert, and all that money he stole is blown away into the sands by the wind. You know, dying for dollars is stupid, living is wasted on materialism, etc. That imagery was like out of some early 1990s alternative rock music video overshown on MTV. In other words, good shit.
This may sound silly, but I also accepted Reeves' whole hate/admiration conflict that he has for Swayze. At first, Swayze comes off as doing this criminal stuff for the kicks rather than the ka-ching. Typical movie freak, but then he goes off on his pseudo-zen philosophy: Die living or live to die, For the ultimate thrill, risk the ultimate fate, etc. Sounds trivial, but with Swayze's physical charisma...he has some sway. This might explain the glaring plot hole about he knows of Utah's gridiron exploits, but doesn't look up his current occupation. Well if he did...that might only make things more fun for him.
Also his name is Bodhi, a Buddhist term which means an enlightened being who out of compassion forgoes nirvana to save others. That man Buddha knows his surfing. I don't know what's so enlightening about dressing up like Ronald Reagan, but I do wonder if Reagan ever saw POINT, he probably would have be honored.. Remember this was the same cinemaphile President who loved Hill's THE WARRIORS and supposedly scared straight on nuclear weapons by THE DAY AFTER. He even lifted a BACK TO THE FUTURE line for a State of the Union address.
Now I know he has a crummy wooden thespian reputation ("as wooden as my surfboard!"), but in some ways I think Reeves gets a raw deal. Sure I don't think I'll necessarily ever call him a "good actor" (safe bet), but under the right cirumstances, projects and director, he usually puts forward alot of effort in spite of his limitations and does work. Think about it, have you ever heard someone say the guy was miscasted in BILL & TED or SPEED or THE MATRIX? Well no. He was appropriately stoic shallow in CONSTANTINE and that recent THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL remake, even both pictures are a mess. And I know I'll get crap for this but...I also liked THE LAKE HOUSE. Besides, in POINT BREAK Reeves replaced the original actor: Matthew Broderick. Try to defend that alternate version, mother fuckers.
Reeves doesn't need to flex his skills much here i.e. SPEED beyond coming off in disguise as an airhead jock (which isn't hard). But I loved that one moment which he sells well where he's so gotten into the surfing mentality, he even takes his board with him to the FBI office. I read on IMDB that Reeves learned to surf for POINT, and still does it as a hobby. There are worse soveneirs a star could get from their movies, just ask Melvin Van Pebbles who contracted Gonorrhea from his iconic blaxploitation classic SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG. I pick surfing.
POINT carries your usual code of warriors bravado that I might have expected from a Walter Hill or Michael Mann or John Milius. But since this was directed by a woman, I can't help but look from that context. Does she think this is macho bullshit is goofy hyperbole worthy of a good homoerotic jab, or that there is actually something to all this perhaps? Consider that random shot where during a FBI house raid, a naked woman fresh from the showers randomly beats up poor Keanu. Or that while he (quietly) idolizes Swayze, he uses his ex-girlfriend objectively as a means to an end (as typical in such tales) except unsurprisingly she concentrates on that facet more than other directors. Just a muse.
Or that terrific ending where figuratively speaking and not literally Keanu doesn't end up with the girl on that Australian beach, but with Swayze. At this point considering all the bad things Swayze pulled (killing Buddy Holly wasn't cool), logically the movie is daffy when Reeves lets Swayze go ride that deadly monster tsunami wave, but I like it. Unlike most actioneers, the last confrontation between hero and adversary isn't solved by a bullets or cars, but out of self-termination. I don't know for certain, yet I have suspicions that Executive Producer James Cameron script doctored that finale. Consider that he had two movies released in 1991: This and TERMINATOR 2 which end with a suicide (he brags about that thematic accomplishment on his T2 commentary track) and also Cameron was married to Bigelow at the time. Only speculation.
Action fans will dig POINT BREAK, while general cinemaphiles will enjoy solid entertainment, and to watch a rare opportunity with estrogen on top of testosterone. Other than Bigelow, what other women you all know of who've helmed an action movie? Off the top of my head, I only can think of Lexi Alexander (PUNISHER: WAR ZONE) so help here please? In short, what's more fucking cool than the director of POINT BREAK winning an Oscar?
*=He also played another former Ohio State Quarterback in THE REPLACEMENTS.