romath-230-722689

Production values: First thing I notice and keep noticing: except for the aftermath of gun fights, here in the dusty, muddy high plains of New Mexico, with characters spending lots of time outside working, their clothing in virtually every scene looks like it just came fresh out of the laundromat. It also looks like it just came out of a store, vs. being well worn, well used. Next thing I notice: they're using modern American English, not 1880's language. Next thing I notice: the script tries to be 21st century liberal contemporary by including everyone, well everyone but Asians and Mexicans, the latter omission being especially strange because its story is played out in New Mexico, which has lots of Mexicans (and, rightfully, save American land grabs, should rightfully part of Mexico or the right to vote on its return).

That said, I like the acting of Merrit Wever. Michelle Dockery seems a bit miscast. And unless I missed something (possible), it's never clear how Dockery's character ends up with a Native son or how she knows the language. Or how Sheriff Bill McNue ends up seeing well enough to be a dead eye shot in the final shootout.

The whole thing seems like it had quite a bit of a corporate hand in it.

The typical American cop show goes person by person, accusing each of having committed the crime in question, usually trying to trap them, until they find one that can't get out of it (rightly or wrongly). Is Sweden really the same? Mediocre at its best.

This was the first movie I ever saw, at the age of six, when it first came out. It was a birthday party for the son of a famous tennis player, and he (or his son) had the idea of taking us all after cake and ice cream to see it. It was more than a bit much for my young psyche and I was out the door in short order, spending most of the film lieing on the floor behind the station wagon's front seat. No surprise, I had a hard time falling asleep for the next week.

Twenty years later I had a chance to watch it late one night on TV and discovered that it was every bit as scary as I recalled. The sense the movie conveys of being trapped by aliens, and the sense that all gestures to them are futile, was overwhelming. Although located in London, it came out during the McCarthy witch-hunt and I seem to recall some playing off of the the situation there, although the film is based on Orson Welles' book. The movie tends to break down a bit toward the end, since after all, this is the 1950's and the human race has to come out of this alive -- or maybe the Martians just decided humans and earth weren't worth it.