betrayed ( 1988 film )
data as of: today today in 1988 jan. 31, 1988 feb. 29, 1988 mar. 31, 1988 apr. 30, 1988 may 31, 1988 jun. 30, 1988 jul. 31, 1988 aug. 31, 1988 sep. 30, 1988 oct. 31, 1988 nov. 30, 1988 dec. 31, 1988 specify date about this feature or (month jan. feb. mar. apr. may jun. jul. aug. sep. oct. nov. dec. / day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 / 1988 1989 )
film is not dead, he is just marvelously sick. film is famous. film is dead .
with the headline: review / film; costa - gavras' s' betrayed,' the world of bigotry .
direct action ,
an interview with andrew kopkind, in interview (new york), september 1988 .
in a 1996 interview, berenger named betrayed as his favorite film, shrugging off any media criticism with the retort
it was exactly what it was meant to be
.
constantin costa - gavras: politics at the box office ,
an interview with claudia dreifus, in the progressive, september 1988 .
title betrayed year 1988 formats dvd, cinema distributor (s) warner home video ltd, u. i. p. (uk), mgm home entertainment (europe) ltd classified date (s) 12 / 02 / 2003 main language english bbfc reference azf061527
costa - gavras directed joe eszterhas' script for this courtroom drama and political mystery. it was a remake (of sorts) of his earlier plot - twisting jagged edge (1985), with a holocaust background, or the costa - gavras / eszterhas film from a year earlier titled betrayed (1988) with a backdrop of white supremacy and klansmen .
maslin, janet. “a pair of sunglasses reveals a world of evil. ” the new york times. 4 november 1988. urltoken. accessed 10 june 2017 .
one pixar tradition is to create trailers for their films that do not contain footage from the released film. trailers for this film include :
carpenter, john, director. “independent thoughts – an interview with writer / director john carpenter. ” they live. 1988. blu - ray. shout! factory, 2012 .
david, keith, actor. “man vs. aliens – an interview with actor keith david. ” they live. 1988. blu - ray. shout! factory, 2012 .
there' s always a point of view ,
an interview with dan georgakas, in cineaste (new york), vol. 16, no. 4, 1988 .
reviews were positive. the film got a 92% fresh rating on rotten tomatoes, the lowest of any pixar film, until cars got a 74% in 2006 .
theatrical and video releases of this film include geri' s game, an academy award - winning pixar short made in 1997, a year before this film was released .
swires, steve. “john carpenter & the invasion of the yuppie snatchers. ” starlog, vol. 136, november 1988, pp. 37 - 40. urltoken. urltoken. accessed 7 june 2017 .
these are the most shocking episodes in'' betrayed,'' a film directed by costa - gavras and written by joe eszterhas in a scorching, irony - laden style that strives for the incendiary at every turn. when film makers play this deliberately with fire, they had better do it with a lot more skill and intelligence than are on display here .
constantin costa - gavras: an american film institute seminar on his work ,
1977 .
betrayed was met with mixed reviews, with rotten tomatoes giving it a 45 %
rotten
rating. winger' s performance was praised by some reviewers, who felt she was successful in conveying complex and mixed emotions throughout. critics of the film point to a muddled and sometimes unbelievable unravelling of the plot .
in short, my conclusion is that the religious critics who think last temptation a bad film are correct. does this mean that the fans and film critics who think it a creative masterpiece are wrong? i’ve made my case for the film’s spiritual bankruptcy, but what about its value as art ?
holy shit; aside from the bumpy conclusion, this was one incredibly tense and downright frightening film .
this film is not currently playing on mubi but 30 other great films are. see what’s now showing
michalczyk, john j. , costa - gavras: the political fiction film, philadelphia, 1984 .
martin scorsese’s controversial 1988 film the last temptation of christ is one of those perilous movies, like titanic or dogma, that the critic reviews at his own risk: it is he himself, not the film, that is really being judged. in one way, of course, this is quite reasonable; the reader naturally wants to have a sense of who the critic is, and reviews of controversial films can provide a convenient index of his approach and style .
the crucifixion was not possible without judas and while it may have hurt christ to be betrayed, it was — as i said — necessary. does that not leave you — like me — with some doubt about judas and his real motivations ?
the film noir genre generally refers to mystery and crime dramas produced from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. …
this list shows all films released in 1988, including films that went direct - to - video, or only got an international theatrical release. for each film, we use the first date on which it was made available to the public, which might include international theatrical or domestic video releases that were a few days, or sometimes more, earlier than the domestic (us / canada) theatrical release .
idiom is proud to present keith sanborn’s manifesto, “modern, all too modern, ” which remains as provocative and intellectually invigorating today as it was upon its initial publication in 1988. the author has appended the text with brief notes where necessary; it is otherwise presented in its original form .
yakir, dan ,
missing in action ,
in film comment (new york), march / april 1982 .
dreamworks animation' s similar film antz was released a little more than a month before a bug' s life. dreamworks' jeffrey katzenberg left disney in 1994 and said the idea for antz came from a 1991 story pitch by tim johnson that was related to katzenberg in october 1994. however, disney had been working on developing an ant film since 1988. pixar head john lasseter pitched a bug' s life the day katzenberg left disney in august 1994, and said he felt
betrayed
when he learned antz was scheduled for release before a bug' s life. according to lasseter and steve jobs, katzenberg offered to stop development of antz if disney moved the release date of a bug' s life, which was coming out opposite dreamworks animation' s the prince of egypt. pixar refused .
more than anything else, “betrayed” is finally just very deeply confused. costa - gavras must have considered it a political film, eszterhas undoubtedly saw it as a thriller, and winger and berenger, to give them full credit, interpret it as the complicated human stories of their characters. that’s why the film creates its turmoil; in the center of confusion, sloppy plot developments and the conflicting motivations of the filmmakers, there are two performances of such power that the characters become real, and sympathetic, despite everything .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
costa - gavras' most recent film, la petite apocalypse (the minor apocalypse), is a decidedly minor affair, a satire of 1960s radicals, capitalist greed, the demise of communism, and an overzealous media. it premiered in new york in 1995 not on a theatrical run, but as the opening film in the sixth annual human rights watch international film festival .
another well spent 25 cents. this film is about racism, conspiracy, fbi undercover, etc etc. really well done film from the 80s. nothing i' ll go out of my to buy on dvd but thankful i got to see it .
bombastic and simple - minded, costa - gavras '` 'betrayed '` demonstrates why it 's often more damaging to make a poor political film than it is to make no film at all. the director of '` z, '` '` state of siege '` and '` missing '` has here turned his attention to white supremacist groups lurking in america 's heartland, but his vision is clouded by such feverish paranoia that he ends by giving these sad little groups of sad little people much more credit than they deserve .
( 1988) a woman (debra winger) starts working on gary’s (tom berenger) farm. they become friends and fall in love. the problem is that gary is an anti - government white separatist. little does gary know that the woman he has fallen in love with is hiding a past also. debra winger gives another superb performance and has great chemistry with berenger. the plot is a little thing, but winger makes this film worth watching. my rating: bargain matinee
the film debuted at # 2 at the box office, earning $ 5, 534, 787 and coming in behind the second weekend of a nightmare on elm street 4: the dream master. the film would go on to gross $ 25, 816, 139 in the united states .
betrayed is ultimately an outsider' s view of the american heartland and the vietnam veteran. while gary and his ilk objectify blacks, jews, asians, and gays, costa - gavras and screenwriter joe eszterhaus are equally as guilty of objectifying white midwesterners. the film would lead you to believe that every last american farmer is a closet cross - burner. and gary simmons, a psycho in sheep' s clothing, is yet one more superficial celluloid vietnam veteran .
andy warhol began to make films in 1963, the year zapruder shot kennedy on film. warhol’s own five year plan for film was completed in 1968 when he himself was shot by a woman who had acted in his films. warhol survived all the shooting, but he is now permanently dead .
wood, m. ,
in search of the missing ,
in american film (washington, d. c .), march 1982 .
“betrayed” is a film that left me in turmoil, torn between the strong sympathies i felt for the characters and the fundamental doubts i had about the plot. here were people i believed in, involved in a story that no one could believe in. and that kind of conflict raises basic questions, such as: how could the characters themselves, who seem so intelligent, believe their own story? that’s the trickiest thing about creating movie characters who can think for themselves .
set in iowa, betrayed stars debra winger as an fbi agent who infiltrates a klanlike white supremacist organization. allegedly a woman of intelligence and perception, winger throws caution and logic to the winds when she falls in love with local farmer tom berenger. much to her surprise berenger turns out to be the most rabid racist of all .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
cumbow, robert c. order in the universe: the film of john carpenter. lanham: scarecrow press, inc. ; second edition, 2000 .
so far, this is the only pixar film released before disney purchased it that has neither received a sequel or prequel, nor has had one announced .
fini les émigrés ,
an interview with freddy sartor, in film en televisie + video (brussels), no. 432, may 1993 .
for the same reason that a scientist who is also a believer is drawn to address apparent conflicts between science and faith. the last temptation of christ, an ambitious film from a director of significant stature, based upon a serious novel by a talented writer, met with widespread acclaim and praise among film critics, yet drew enormous negative attention in many religious circles, often from people who hadn’t seen the film and were not in a position to frame their objections critically .
mathijs, ernest, and xavier mendik, editors. the cult film reader. new york: open university press, 2008, pp. xvii - 25 .
. rice, tom. “‘the true story of the ku klux klan: ’ defining the klan through film. ” cambridge journals. 16 dec 2008. 21 apr 2010
not all of costa - gavras' s features are
political
: the sleeping car murders is a well - made, atmospheric murder mystery, while clair de femme is the dreary tale of a widower and a woman scarred by the death of her young daughter. both of these films star yves montand. but while costa - gavras' s most characteristic works do indeed condemn governments that control other governments or suppress human rights, his concerns as a filmmaker have perhaps shifted towards the more personal. the two features made with scriptwriter joe eszterhaus, betrayed and music box, focused on the relationship between the central female character and a man (a lover in betrayed, a father in music box) who is subsequently revealed as a fascist .
the film opens with a disclaimer stating that the film is
not based on the gospels ,
but upon the novel by nikos kazantzakis (a moot point, since the novel itself is based, however distantly, on the gospels). kazantzakis’s novel is a speculative exploration of the concept of christ’s dual nature, focusing particularly on his humanity .
i’m fascinated by your interpretation of the last temptation of christ. whilst recognising the sometimes blasphemous nature of the film, i can’t help but think you are somewhat wrong about judas .
this is certainly a fascinating thriller. it certainly lacks the brilliance in terms of fresh and inventive storytelling of missing and the confession. however, it is as intense as both of them. joe esterzhas the writer of paul verhoeven' s basic instinct is the writer for this film, his style of screenwriting seems to suite costa - gavras' s direction. what is most frustrating about this film is the ending as well as the 35 minutes after the brilliant opening of the film. regardless of that the film has a portrayal of neo - nazis that is frightening and fresh to this day. to see how behind this wholesome, midwestern family image are violent murderers, as well as an organized schooling and indoctrination of young children…
this is essentially the same dilemma that eszterhas created for glenn close in “jagged edge. ” can she trust the man she loves, or is he, as all evidence seems to indicate, a two - faced killer? in that film, the audience did not know the answer until the last moment, but in “betrayed” the answer is obvious from fairly early on (even the title is a giveaway). the thriller doesn’t hinge on berenger’s behavior, but on how winger will save herself from almost certain exposure. and as that level of the plot unfolded, i began to have problems .
had a mixed critical reaction when it initially appeared. in his movie guide, leonard maltin gives the film a low one - and - a - half star rating, calling katie “the stupidest
this was such an odd, bizarre little film from a different time, where the southern, country music - lovin' white supremacists were portrayed as some kind of out - dated russ meyer / grindhouse red - necks, while the film itself wanted to be taken seriously as a prestigious oscar - contender, with real hollywood actors, and a classy director in costa - gravas .
'' betrayed,'' which opens today at the embassy 1 and other theaters, is indeed grim and unsettling, but beyond that its impact is harder to assess. that' s because the film' s effect, which is initially so overwhelming, has practically no staying power. though the premise is startling and the acting good enough to divert attention from the screenplay' s many problems, those weaknesses become clearer and clearer as the story unfolds. the final impression is that someone has drawn out an elephant gun, loaded heavy ammunition, taken aim, and somehow shot himself in the foot .
i know that there are right - wing paramilitary groups in america. i know that members of one of them were recently convicted of the murder of alan berg, the liberal denver talk show host whose murder inspired this story. i didn’t question that level of the story. and even when “betrayed” went out of its way to exaggerate the contradictions in the berenger character, i accepted that as part of the job of thrillermaking .
this was the third film in universal' s blockbuster series of pre - code horror films in the early 30s - it was suggested by edgar allan poe' s classic tale of the same name .
a bug' s life is pixar' s second feature film. it was produced by pixar animation studios and distributed by walt disney pictures. it was released in theaters on november 25, 1998 .
film is the most modern of the arts. its powers and structure have served as a paradigm for the arts of the twentieth century, from balla’s strolling dog to duchamp’s descending nude. film was fated to play a central role for modernist utopians from lenin to goebbels, from eisenstein to riefenstahl. for the first half of the twentieth century it represented something more than the degree zero of technology, it projected the fundamental myths of the new metropolis, resolving their complexities in chaplin’s sentimental “the end” or vertov’s reflexive “kinets. ” 1 as we have passed beyond modernism, film has become the victim of its own paradigmatic modernity .
the “new talkie” proudly traces its paternity to godard; in so doing it betrays its ignorance of godard’s own questionable origins. praise among english and american academics (e. g. wollen) for godard’s bourgeois sunday - maoist recuperation of the formal devices of situationist film has been possible, first, because it coincides with the impostures of those academicians and, second, because situationist film remains virtually unknown outside of paris .
director costa - gavras has always been drawn to incendiary political subjects, but in
betrayed
( citywide), which is about the white supremacist movement in the american heartland, he has apparently trusted the instincts of his american screenwriter and co - producer joe eszterhas (
f. i. s. t. ,
flashdance
). the result is a loosening of the trademark costa - gavras tension and the sogging of a relevant issue into overwrought pulp .
it' s a terrifying film, but i found it almost impossible to believe that berenger' s character could be fooled by winger' s taciturn, shifty - eyed undercover lover. no offense to the fine actors .
set in the american midwest, the film begins with the murder of a jewish radio host in chicago. fbi undercover agent catherine weaver, alias katie phillips, sets out to infiltrate a farming community, suspected of harboring those responsible .
goebbels on potemkin: “it is a marvelously well - made film, and one which reveals incomparable cinematic artistry. its uniquely distinctive quality is the line it takes. this is a film, which could turn anyone with no firm ideological convictions into a bolshevik. which means that a work of art can very well accommodate a political alignment, and that even the most obnoxious attitude can be communicated if it is expressed through the medium of an outstanding work of art. ”
'' betrayed'' begins on a chilling note, with the murder of a talk - show host in chicago. (here and elsewhere, the film falls back eagerly on real headlines to strengthen its impact; the reference to the 1984 killing of alan berg in denver is clear .) richard libertini, who makes a memorable impression as the hatred - fanning host in this brief sequence, avows that it' s all right to'' let people say what they want, as ugly as it may be,'' and indeed his call - in guests do exactly that. but the last look on his face, as he realizes he is caught in a deadly ambush, is far more eloquent in suggesting the terrible consequences of encouraging people to do their worst .
a film is like a match: you can make a big fire or nothing at all ,
an interview with h. kalishman and gary crowdus, in cineaste (new york), vol. 6, no. 1, 1973 .
the film opens as sam kraus, a chicago radio shock jock, challenges any anti - semite to call him on the phone. after his broadcast, kraus is shot while approaching his car in a parking garage. the killer then spray paints the letters
this great raymond chandler detective thriller from director edward dmytryk, was a hard - boiled tale - a superb, complex, shadowy film noir of murder, corruption, blackmail, double - cross and double identity, with witty dialogue and cynical voice - over narration .
in
betrayed ,
none of its actors' notable efforts can save the farm. the most diligent effort comes from debra winger, in a loose reprise of ingrid bergman' s character in
notorious ,
an fbi plant sent into dangerous territory. here she is supposed to follow fbi agent john heard' s hunch about the assassination of a left - leaning chicago talk show host (a fine bit by richard libertini). the letters z. o. g. at the scene of the killing make heard believe that a specific supremacist group may be behind it .
there is meant to be something daring in the film 's romantic subplot - in the suggestion that fascism and fanaticism can be attractive. it 's a phenomenon that is regrettably well documented, though the film is careful to protect its heroine. rather than put cathy to any real test, costa - gavras insists that it was only gary 's norman rockwell - ish glow that drew her to him; his dark side had nothing to do with it. honest, she didn 't even notice that he was completely insane .
yet, for me at least, the last temptation of christ is a complete wash. not because of a directorial failure on scorsese’s part, but simply because no director in the world could possibly make this material into a film worth sitting through for its own sake .
the climax of this dramatic mystery film from director clint eastwood was the resolution of the central murder case - the murder of 19 year old katie markum (emmy rossum). the main plot was very similar to amc' s episodic murder mystery the killing (2011 - 2014) .
keith sanborn is a media artist and theorist. his work has been featured at the whitney biennial, rotterdam international film festival, and centre pompidou, among many other venues. he has translated into english the work of guy debord, rené viénet, gil wolman, georges bataille and napoleon .
famed belgian detective hercule poirot (albert finney) delivered his sleuthing findings at the film' s end to the assembled group of suspects aboard the orient express, snowbound between istanbul and paris. his conclusion about the murder of callous, millionaire american businessman mr. rachett (richard widmark) was :
neither side has much use for the other’s opinion. yet i have one foot in each camp — indeed, both feet in both camps, since i write film criticism informed by faith, rather than compartmentalizing or partitioning my beliefs when i review a film. in a case like this, where critical thought and religious opinion seem irreconcilable, i feel it is necessary to offer a response that is both critically responsible and spiritually sound — if only to satisfy myself (if no one else) that such a response is indeed possible; that critical perspective and orthodox judgment are not somehow exclusive .
the film - maker sees himself in elias .
he' s discovering everything ,
gavras says .
he can' t speak the language to ask questions. it' s like a silent movie .
he likens the film' s gentle irony to that of jacques tati - though with an undercurrent of fear .
elias is used - as most illegals are. he' s handsome, so he' s used sexually. underneath, it' s a serious drama .
yet there is optimism .
even elias resists fate - the fate of where he was born .
last temptation goes way over that line. poisonous morally and spiritually, it is also worthless as art or entertainment, at least on any theory of art as an object of appreciation. as an artifact of technical achievement, it may be well made; but as a film, it is devoid of redeeming merit .
sitney has, since the writing of this text, rewritten visionary film several times and has significantly revised the films he has included and to some degree the logic of their inclusion. the current edition includes a significantly greater number of women than the edition in print at the time this text was written. [ ↩ ]
the death of the avant - garde coincides with the death of modernism. for film, that was sometime between 1973 and 1978, at the latest, though the five year span a decade earlier suggests itself as well. unfortunately, it was only in 1987 that the voice of the critics began to register any notice .
in 1988, the cinematographe is not only an invention without a future, it is an invention without history. for when the cinematographe superceded its identity as a mechanical technology, history was superceded by what frampton called “metahistory. ” but in deploying “metahistory, ” we must keep in mind our position in the labyrinth of etymology: just as “metaphysics” first meant “the works which follow the physics” [ in the writings of aristotle ], so “metahistory” first means “the work which follows history. ” in the inevitable montage of temporal successivity, metahistory will necessarily be taken as commentary on that which came before, but it should not be assumed from the outset, that its ambition is to contain its object in succeeding it. it is a question of developing a strategy for comparing the incommensurable: what comes before and what comes after .
but “betrayed” is not a love story. it is an undercover thriller, and we quickly learn that winger is an fbi agent and that berenger is suspected of being part of a secret right - wing terrorist organization that is responsible for the murder of a left - wing chicago talk show host. how can this be true? how can this honest, open - faced farmer from a world of sunday church services and apple pie be a neo - nazi killer? at first winger doesn’t believe it, and she tells her fbi contacts that they are after the wrong man. but then, after she falls more deeply in love with berenger, he decides to trust her with his secrets. his first wife left because she could not endure his world of secret paranoia, but he realizes he must be honest with winger because he loves her. his desire to share his hidden life creates some of the weirdest scenes in the film, because there is such an ironic tension between the ultraright paramilitary organization he belongs to and the pop psychology of his language when he explains that they must be open with each other and share the things that are important .
marlowe was first engaged in a film - long quest - he had been hired by love - struck ex - con moose malloy (mike mazurki) to look for a mysterious velma valento, his missing ex - lover. velma had sold him out 8 years earlier for unknown reasons, although he still remembered her :
she was cute as lace pants .
rally, gary shows remnants of his original feelings, such as when he lashes out at a neo - nazi selling photos of adolf hitler. ironically gary is infected with the same racist ideology as the nazi leader he despises. perhaps the most shocking moment in the film, however, is when katie first overhears innocent young rachel employ the same racist language as her father .
i know that your review of scorsese’s last temptation of christ is 7 years old, nonetheless i have one piece of what i hope is perceived as constructive criticism. this review is not a review of the film (i. e. screenplay, direction, actors portrayals, cinematography). it is, quite frankly, a review of kazantzakis’ book. you have reviewed and critiqued the main plot points that were created by kazantzakis almost 50 years ago. reviewing a movie such as this is like walking a tight rope to insure that you don’t review the book. you never set foot on the tight rope, though, and instead fell to the ground, into the trap of a book review. what i was really hoping for was a film critique .
nor is it only the portrayal of jesus himself that is antithetical to christian thought. virtually every characterization, every aspect of the film is deliberately iconoclastic, self - consciously contrary to traditional christian understanding, calculated for shock value. first and foremost is the reinterpretation of judas iscariot (harvey keitel) as a principled hero, a man who ultimately
betrays
jesus only because jesus orders him to do so over judas’ own tortured objections. when faithful judas demands to know whether if jesus himself, were he in judas’ place, would be able to betray a beloved master, jesus replies (in a moment typical of the film’s sensibilities) ,
no, i couldn’t. that’s why god gave me the easier job [ i. e. , dying on the cross ] .
during the question and answer period of a recent panel discussion in new york on the responsibility of representing the other, a white male european in the audience questioned what he saw as the hyperintellectuality of trinh t. min - ha’s treatment of the africans she filmed in reassemblage. he especially objected to her voice - over commentary. he offered leni riefenstahl’s book on a certain african people—he couldn’t remember their name but he said it didn’t matter—as a counterexample of a more direct, accessible practice. eye brows were raised and mouths opened by not a few members of the audience and of the panel. min - ha with some puzzlement admitted her film could be thought of as an “art film” in the context of ethnography, but had little to say about the alterative praxis offered by the example of riefenstahl’s book .
but wait! there’s more! in the best traditions of film - making, there needs to be a “twist, ” a logical proposal that’s unexpected. and the final “temptation” scenes provide that in droves. the “dual - spirit” of not only jesus but all of humanity is described and employed insomuch that the temptation - experience can be seen as both “in the mind” and “in reality” at the same time .
by the film' s exciting ending, mirakle had already committed four murders. he had sent erik to kidnap sweet' virginal' ingenue, mlle. camille l' espanaye (sidney fox), and in the process of abducting camille, her mother mme. l' espanaye (betty ross clarke) was strangled and stuffed up the chimney by the ape, feet - first - a quite grisly sight .
according to box office mojo, a bug' s life made $ 162. 8 million in its u. s. theatrical run, easily covering its estimated production costs of $ 120 million. this made it the fourth highest grossing movie in 1998. even so, it had been the lowest grossing pixar feature animated film, until the good dinosaur. its worldwide box office total was $ 363. 4 million .
but the jesus of last temptation does all of the above things, and more. the film gives us a human jesus, but a jesus of fallible, fallen humanity — a jesus who could not be god. this is evident, not just in the sequences containing obvious blasphemy, such as the scene where jesus the carpenter explains that he makes crosses for the romans and helps crucify his fellow jews so that god will hate him and leave him alone; or even in the scenes depicting jesus’ persistent doubts and confusion about the nature of his identity and mission, or whether he is the messiah at all; but everywhere you turn in the film. the fact is, willem dafoe’s jesus has hardly a scene — hardly two lines of dialogue put together — in which the falseness of the character is not the dominant fact about him .
school daze represents the opposite side of the coin from jungle fever. jungle fever skirted needless controversy thanks to its brilliant construction, school daze invited criticism with its rough edges and incomplete vision. controversy without a clear statement is viewed, rightly or wrongly, as cage rattling for the sake of cage rattling. school daze was received as a film that thought it had a lot to say but ultimately didn & apos; t .
i find myself reflecting on the significance of the fact that this film represents the collaboration of a writer of greek orthodox heritage and a filmmaker of italian catholic background. only artists so steeped from childhood in the rich profundity of christian tradition could possibly create something so profoundly antithetical to that tradition, so deeply heretical and blasphemous. it could never have been made by an ordinary nonreligious or atheistic filmmaker, or even by a lapsed protestant .
a woman (debra winger) starts working on gary’s (tom berenger) farm. they become friends and fall in love. the problem is that gary is an anti - government white separatist. little does gary know that the woman he has fallen in love with is hiding a past also. debra winger gives another superb performance and has great chemistry with berenger. the plot is a little thing, but winger makes this film worth watching. my rating: bargain matinee
throughout the movie judas acts almost as jesus’ conscience. as the film opens we find judas patriotically upbraiding jesus for collaborating with rome by his cross - making. when jesus begins his ministry, judas follows him conditionally, warning him that if he betrays his mission judas will kill him. finally, in the climactic scene, it is a stern, prophetic judas (or a dream - representation of him) that recalls jesus to the necessity of his dying on the cross .
it’s quite true that a film can be morally or spiritually objectionable and still have significant artistic or entertainment value. that’s the whole point of my specialized ratings system. i had grave moral objections to the cell, american beauty, and being john malkovich, but i gave them all high marks for artistic / entertainment value. whatever other faults these movies may have, each of them is in its own way interesting to watch. parts of them i might even want to see again .
at the same time, i have no intention of trying to stake out some sort of middle ground or happy compromise between the critics’ acclaim and the religionists’ censure. my own finding is that one of the two sides is right, and the other is wrong. i will try to show in this essay which side went wrong, and how, and to explain it in a way that should make sense both to believers and to critics and film lovers, as well as those who, like myself, fall into both categories .
alongside they live ’s classical western influences, carpenter draws from science - fiction of the 1950s. his use of black - and - white harkens back to the era of filmmaking to which carpenter pays homage, resulting in a film that, in its colorless scenes, appears very much like a classic sci - fi yarn (most of the film’s visual effects, such as the black - and - white billboards, were achieved with old - fashioned techniques such as matte paintings and stop - motion sequences). classical science - fiction tropes found alien intruders promising liberation through slavery. films such as it came from outer space, invaders from mars (1953), invasion of the body snatchers (1956, 1978), and village of the damned (1960, which carpenter remade in 1995) contain aliens that take over the minds of human beings and promise a better world through their control and the human race’s subservience. aliens from the fifties were symbols for communist intruders who threatened america’s sense of personal freedom and free enterprise capitalism that had come to define the country’s values .
tom berenger, as the forceful, widowered vietnam war veteran she takes up with, does the best he can with an even harder role - - the decent american with two young children to raise who has completely swallowed the line of the crackpot right. he has a less showy role than winger, but he gives it care and thought. so does betsy blair, a welcome figure as his protective mother, although her role is underwritten. but for all their efforts, the film begins at the implausible and works its way quickly downhill .
all these considerations are a bit wild, but that is because they correspond to the unrestrained film buff that i am and have always wished to remain—that is in a sense uncultured and fascinated. there is a kind of primal pleasure, of anthropological joy in images, a kind of brute fascination unencumbered by aesthetic, moral, social or political judgments. it is because of this that i suggest that they are immoral, and that their fundamental power lies in this immorality. ” (the evil demon of images, pp. 26 - 27. )
it' s not that the idea of broad - based right - wing political conspiracies is ridiculous; a look at any documentary on these parties will dissuade you of that. it' s the speed and the broadness of the film makers' approach that is jarring. take that whirlwind meeting and love affair between berenger and winger - - why would this cautious church - goer, of all people, hit on an itinerant combine driver he has met in a bar, taking her home and making her part of his family within days of their meeting ?
however, when passions run high enough, inevitably some readers make a litmus - test out of the critic’s conclusions, too often in the process ignoring the actual substance of the review, the reasons given for those conclusions. in particular, a critic who faults a movie like the last temptation of christ can expect to be dismissed as a fundamentalist and accused of judging the film on doctrinaire grounds rather than approaching it aesthetically and on its own terms; while a critic who defends it can expect to be dismissed as a modernist and accused of condoning blasphemy and heresy .
once again, there’s nothing wrong with trying to humanize judas to an extent, or give him understandable motivations. the filmmaker can even make us empathize with him to the point of feeling that we too would be capable of doing what he did. but what he did, in the end, has to be wrong; and keitel’s judas never manifests anything like corruption, self - interest, or pettiness. jesus is the main character and protagonist here, but a case could be made that judas is the film’s true hero, or at least its most idealized character .
now 76, he is one of french cinema' s most internationally feted writer - directors, having made some 20 films over 45 years. a student at the sorbonne in the 50s, he still lives in paris' s latin quarter, in a pink house off a courtyard hidden behind the boulevard saint - michel, where his grandchildren play around him. he is a naturalised citizen, has a french knighthood and in 2007 became president of the cinémathèque française, one of the world' s largest film archives, lavishly rehoused in a frank gehry building across the seine .
the film ended in the grayle beach house when helen admitted to marlowe that she fabricated the jade necklace robbery (marlowe :
it was never stolen? there wasn' t any holdup? you faked the whole thing .
) she also confessed that she and marriott had set up marlowe to be killed in the canyon, because he was a
nosy detective
and would interfere with her schemes. her intention was to kill both of them, but her stepdaughter ann grayle (anne shirley) had arrived at an inopportune moment, and she was only able to murder marriott .
there is also a very significant appearance by st. paul that occurs in a difficult, extended dreamlike sequence at the end of the film often been described as a vision or dream sequence. (what follows is spoiler intensive .) the sequence begins with jesus on the cross seemingly being approached by a young girl, who tells him that he has suffered enough; that he has proven himself faithful, and doesn’t actually have to die after all. (she makes an interesting case for this, citing the precedent of abraham being told at the last minute not to sacrifice isaac on mount moriah. )
a bug' s life was a much more complex film than toy story because of the more complex character models, so pixar' s computers tended to run sluggishly for the animation process. the crowds of ants were particularly challenging, with some 400 crowd shots scattered throughout the film, with many requiring the animation of 800 characters. the technical team worked around this by instructing the animators to work with 4 or 5 groups of 8 to 10 ants. the software team wrote an
ant generator
program that would duplicate the character models and motions of the ants, and then automatically and randomly adjust the character models of each ant to change physical traits such as eye and skin color, height, and weight. the ants were then randomly scattered throughout the shot. this allowed these shots to be animated much more efficiently and for ants to look different from one another, despite the fact that the programmed motions would be nearly identical. these tools were based on existing
particle systems
that allowed autonomous dust and snow, which would eventually be perfected to allow up to 2 million dust particles on wheezy' s shelf in toy story 2 and 3 million hairs on sulley in monsters, inc .
what bothered me were two other elements. one was the heavy - handed way in which the plot sets up winger for danger. an fbi man, played by john heard, becomes adept at being in the wrong place at the wrong time and acting carelessly. and the stupidity of his character would have been irritating even if the movie didn’t also create an old romance between winger and heard so that jealousy could be added to police work. over and over, i found myself asking why the winger character, who is so intelligent, makes such stupid decisions in the film, inspiring her own betrayal .
under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian 21 or older. the parent / guardian is required to stay with the child under 17 through the entire movie, even if the parent gives the child / teenager permission to see the film alone. these films may contain strong profanity, graphic sexuality, nudity, strong violence, horror, gore, and strong drug use. a movie rated r for profanity often has more severe or frequent language than the pg - 13 rating would permit. an r - rated movie may have more blood, gore, drug use, nudity, or graphic sexuality than a pg - 13 movie would admit .
despite this, in practice i myself was deeply disturbed and repulsed by the sheer visual - emotional impact of a close - up depiction of jesus christ passionately kissing a woman in bed. roger ebert, in his review of spike lee’s bamboozled, criticized that film’s use of actors in blackface makeup — even though the actors themselves were black and the device was intended as a critique of racism — arguing that the sheer racist association of the image itself overwhelms the context and dramatic purpose. watching this scene in last temptation, i had a similar reaction: i was just blown away by the wrongness of the very picture of jesus kissing a woman .
several years subsequent to the writing of this text, debord’s film were released on dvd along with his final effort guy debord, son art et son temps, a video made in collaboration with brigitte cornand and broadcast after his death in 1994 in a special soirée guy debord on canal +, during which two of his earlier films were also broadcast. around the same time the dvd’s were released, the films also circulated in newly struck 35mm prints, poorly subtitled. there were several problems with the initial dvd release, which i pointed out in an article published in artforum. the problems have now more or less been quietly addressed. [ ↩ ]
now, christian theology teaches that jesus christ was fully human as well as fully divine; and certainly there is nothing objectionable about trying to evoke or express in art the humanity of christ. a work of art, a film or novel or painting, that evokes the truth of christ’s humanity is a good and noble thing, even if it doesn’t directly address the subject of his divinity. a recognizably human portrait of jesus — for example, one that envisions him being capable of suffering weakness, loneliness, fear, exhaustion; of becoming exasperated with his disciples, or of having a good time at a wedding party — all of this can be quite valid and worthwhile .
although this strange episode occurs in what is ostensibly a dream sequence, paul’s argument seems to represent kazantzakis’s (or scorsese’s) idea of what could have or would have happened if jesus were not raised from the dead. essentially they are introducing the idea that
faith
is more important than jesus’ resurrection. what is the function of having paul say these things, even in a dream sequence, other than simply introducing these ideas into the film? if they merely wanted to show paul preaching the gospel in order to suggest the necessity of jesus completing his mission, why not follow up by having jesus’ denial of paul’s message leave paul shattered and despairing, or at least flatly disbelieving jesus’ claims ?
the plot, as it unfolds, is cleverly constructed by writer joe eszterhas (who crafted the diabolical double - reverses in “ jagged edge ”) and director costa - gavras (who has specialized in clandestine right - wing groups in movies like “ z ” and “ missing ”). winger and berenger form a sympathetic couple right from the start, and even well into the story there is a residual feeling that this iowa farmer cannot be as two - faced and racist as he seems. then, as the film’s center of gravity shifts, it becomes mostly winger’s story, and she is wonderful at creating sympathy as costa - gavras turns up the heat, trapping her between love and danger.
betrayed is a 1988 american drama thriller film directed by costa-gavras , written by joe eszterhas , and starring debra winger and tom berenger . the plot is roughly based upon the terrorist activities of american neo-nazi and white supremacist robert mathews and his group the order . 
betrayed is a 1988 american drama thriller film directed by costa-gavras, written by joe eszterhas, and starring debra winger and tom berenger. the plot is roughly based upon the terrorist activities of american neo-nazi and white supremacist robert mathews and his group the order.
betrayed is a 1988 american drama thriller film directed by costa-gavras, written by joe eszterhas, and starring debra winger and tom berenger. the plot is roughly based upon the terrorist activities of american neo-nazi and white supremacist robert mathews and his group the order.