CinemaSerf

The rights of kings may well have been divine in the fourteenth century, but that was only so long as you could carry the support of the church, your wife and the powerful nobles upon whom this whole game of political jenga was based. When Edward II (Steven Waddington) decides to tempt just about all of these pillars of support by openly parading his lover Gaveston (Andrew Tiernan) to his court, it seems to manage something that had hitherto be rare in his kingdom. It galvanised just about everyone into a position where the proper order had to be restored and the boyfriend sent into exile. Initially, the king tries to assert his authority and even reduces an archbishop (Dudley Sutton) to degradation, but with his wife (Tilda Swinton) and her powerful lover Mortimer (Nigel Terry) increasingly aware that the crown can be their's with little risk of protest from anyone, things become distinctly perilous for the king and any who support him. Derek Jarman has heavily abridged Christopher Marlowe's speculative play, and by mixing the aesthetics of the twentieth century with more contemporary ones, and by the very creative use of a soundtrack, he creates a visually stylised account of the ultimate in treason that I admit, I struggled to appreciate. I do recall seeing this first time around and being frankly rather bored. Thirty-odd years later I can probably appreciate the artistry rather better and my brain is better wired for the intensity of the dialogue, but it's still a remarkably sterile interpretation of a story of treachery, brutality and lust. Sure, there's nudity and simulated sex, but the rapport between Waddington and Tiernan was often akin to that of silent film actors working within the confines of some theatrical wings. The hybrid of production styles only really served to leave it dangling between two stools and the storytelling itself is sacrificed to the artifice too frequently, leaving us with a very skeletal take of this turbulent time in English history. Annie Lennox singing Cole Porter whilst the two, pyjama-clad, men have a dance is an intimate highlight but I'm afraid the rest is just too superficial.

With nuclear warfare having eradicated most of the population of the world, it seems that only Australia still has a population - and they know that it is only a matter of time before the irradiated dust reaches their coastline and death will follow. Just ahead of that, though, is the USS Sawfish under the command of the now widowed "Towers" (Gregory Peck) who arrives with a grateful but demoralised crew. Their hosts welcome them with open arms, and swiftly he befriends local sailor "Holmes" (Anthony Perkins) whose wife "Mary" (Donna Anderson) has just given birth to a baby and he is also introduced to a rather dejected figure of "Moira" - that's m.o.i.r.a, she explains. Now I'm not sure there are many actresses who can play a drunk better than Ava Gardner and it's after a session on the sauce that she and the captain begin to bond. She is also close friends with "Osborne" (the underused Fred Astaire) who races cars for a living and proves to be quite a useful sounding board for her as her relationship with "Towers" strengthens whilst he and his submarine set off for San Francisco to see just what is left of their homeland. Curiously enough, there is actually precious little physical damage to the cityscape when they arrive, but the only remaining trace of mankind emanates from some string and a Coke bottle! This isn't so much a sci-fi film as a touching and quite insightful look at just how people deal with grief, with loneliness and with an unpleasant inevitability that challenges much of the fabric of their hitherto ordered, structured and fruitful existence. The main thrust focuses on a gently stoic effort from Peck as his character deals with not just his own predicament but that of his sailors too, whilst Gardner makes a classy contribution with little dialogue but huge screen presence. The sub-plots offer less by way of importance, though the Perkins/Anderson theme does pose a particularly ghastly scenario when faced with what to do with the incapable occupant of the cot when the time comes, and by the conclusion the futility of the entire military enterprise is laid bare in a remarkably simple and human fashion. Sure, it can stray a little into soap at times, but on this occasion that adds a little to the realism of a situation in which there are, and can be, no winners - and for me, Gardner is at the top of her game.

With barely more than a week to go until "Murtaugh" (Danny Glover) retires, he and his now uniformed (and pony-tailed) partner "Riggs" (Mel Gibson) thwart an armoured car robbery and arrest the culprit. Before he can be rigorously interrogated, though, his brains get splattered against the walls of the interview room and our intrepid duo are charged by "Murphy" (Steve Kazan) to work with the IAD detective "Lorna" (Rene Russo) and track down the perpetrator. It takes them all of five minutes to work out that they have to track down rogue "Lt. Travis" (Stuart Wilson) who is involved in a nefarious gun-running enterprise. Finding him might have got a little easier when realtor "Getz" (Joe Pesci) reckons he has seem him somewhere so that starts them on a trail of the usual pyrotechnics, shoot 'em ups and car chases which, along the way, sees "Murtaugh" enter a depth of despair that only his pal can drag him from as "Travis" has now made everything just a little bit more personal. It is at it's best when it is just Gibson and Glover, the pithy script and some wise-cracking but I found the burgeoning romance between "Riggs" and "Lorna" a bit of a drag and the only highlight from the downright annoying Pesci is on his head. It's a solid story well executed by a director who keeps the pace moving whilst letting the two stars clearly have some high-octane fun. I reckon it is the weakest of the three so far, but it's still watchable escapism.