kokkinoskhioni

May the sun shine on the career of Christopher Doyle for many a year to come, one of the best cinematographers alive today is this guy. If this movie succeeds in one thing, then it's bringing him to the attention of the American public at large, in as much as the general public could ever be aware of him (or perhaps i could be as evangelical as to declare that it is positively an honor for the American public). It's just a shame the film doesn't really achieve anything else (except for the acting). I mean, if you're going to remake a movie, then remake it, don't just xerox it for gods sake.

This is the most shockingly religious film I've ever seen. I think i finally get the point of David Lynch after seeing this movie again (first time around i though it was a bit pointless and artsy like everyone else). The one little thing that finally made the film register for me was the Islamic tattoo on Bill Pullmans hand that you have to strain to see in the party scene, thereafter everything fell into place : The born again thing when he turns into Balthazar Getty, the introspection at the beginning when he finally discovers himself by watching the video tapes, the demon/demonic angel he meets at the party and dispatches Robert Loggai to hell after showing him his sins (on a portable TV), Gettys vision of hell in the mansion (now i know why Marilyn Manson appears in that sequence) and at long last i get the ending. It's not just a hackneyed cliche of the chase movie, he's on the run from the demons that chase us all, and again he starts to change personality right at the end of the movie. That seems to be the whole movie summed up : the human fight between attaining god and avoiding sin and evil. It's just a shame there seems to be a little bit of male heterosexual idiocy in painting women as the symbol of sin and temptation. Some things never change.

A very difficult and rare thing is achieved in this movie : Shakespeare is made entertaining and easy to understand, even in it's 400 year old dialect. Pacino does even more for Shakespeare than Orson Welles did 35 years before him. That said though, the movie seems to have been made in the editing room, quite how much of it's success is down to Pacino, and how much is to the credit of the editor is debatable. If you can't stand Shakespeare, then this is the movie for you.

(Just so you know, Shakespeare was the front man for Christopher Marlowe, a gay Brit exiled in Italy for political reasons. Don't believe me ? Go watch the documentary "Much ado about something")