Post by klep on Jan 29, 2018 7:45:43 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/29: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
UNSEEN CLASSICS WEEK!
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" - Sally
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a movie with simple goals. No high-minded ambitions involved, it just wants to show you some terror. The opening crawl tells us what's coming - a massacre - but it's the first sequence of the film proper that sets the scene. In brilliant flashes of a CSI tech's camera, we get the first glimpses of what we're dealing with. Corpses, mutilated and exposed, then black again as we wait for the next flash and a radio report of a series of grave robbers plays in the background. We never see the investigators; this movie isn't about them. It's not even about these corpses. They're just prelude for what's to come.
Tobe Hooper's film takes a little while to get going, but that's just because Hooper is priming us. Much of the first half of the movie is comprised of a harrowing encounter with a hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) - one clearly deranged - as he terrorizes our protagonists in their van. It's a sequence that's more unnerving than terrifying, but it builds the tension effectively. Hooper eases off a bit after the hitcher is kicked out of the van, but keeps feeding us little bits until Kirk (William Vail) and Pam (Teri McMinn) find the house.
Kirk looks inside, and we see the room. It's tucked at the end of the hall. A drab, old "white" hall, faded from age. But the room is brilliant red, shining out of the dim. And on the wall is hung a multitude of trophies. The heads of animals - prey and predator alike. It's a masterfully crafted image, and it draws Kirk in to his doom. This first death is quick, perfunctory. Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) pops out of nowhere and whacks him with a hammer and Kirk drops. Just like that, the massacre has begun.
Once the killing starts the film moves along speedily, as Leatherface dispatches the teens one by one, until only Sally (Marilyn Burns) remains. But where the previous deaths were mercifully brief (or, at least, briefly on-screen), Sally's torture seems interminable. She runs, chased by a lunatic with a chainsaw, through woods, through the house, defenestrates herself through a second-story window, runs some more, finds help, is betrayed, is captured, terrorized, beaned with a hammer, escapes, defenestrates, and runs. And all the while she's screaming.
Hooper manages to magnify her terror for the viewer with some great camerawork, going close-in on her tormentors' leering gazes as they relish her fear. But the most stunning work is his repeated close-up of Sally's brilliant green eyes. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is largely devoid of brilliant color, so like the red room earlier, Sally's eyes pop out against the rest of the film. Her eyes bugging out, shifting focus as she desperately seeks for help, and all the while Sally is screaming.
It's a montage that triggers a primal fear in our hearts. And as Sally rides off in the back of that pickup truck, bloodied and laughing but still screaming, we understand all too-well the trauma she has gone through. She may have escaped death, but she hasn't escaped the massacre. Her screams may never truly end.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/5: Mudbound
2017 CATCH-UP WEEK!
Dee Rees' multiple Oscar nominee Mudbound is our next Movie of the Week as we try to catch up on acclaimed films we missed from 2017. Join us next week as we discuss the film that brought multiple Oscar nominations for Mary J. Blige as well as the first female nominee for Cinematography in Oscar history! Mudbound is on Netflix Instant.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/25: Phantom Thread
Last week's podcast concluded with a look at Paul Thomas Anderson's Best Picture-nominated Phantom Thread. Join us Wednesday for our look at this film, still in theaters!
UNSEEN CLASSICS WEEK!
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" - Sally
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a movie with simple goals. No high-minded ambitions involved, it just wants to show you some terror. The opening crawl tells us what's coming - a massacre - but it's the first sequence of the film proper that sets the scene. In brilliant flashes of a CSI tech's camera, we get the first glimpses of what we're dealing with. Corpses, mutilated and exposed, then black again as we wait for the next flash and a radio report of a series of grave robbers plays in the background. We never see the investigators; this movie isn't about them. It's not even about these corpses. They're just prelude for what's to come.
Tobe Hooper's film takes a little while to get going, but that's just because Hooper is priming us. Much of the first half of the movie is comprised of a harrowing encounter with a hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) - one clearly deranged - as he terrorizes our protagonists in their van. It's a sequence that's more unnerving than terrifying, but it builds the tension effectively. Hooper eases off a bit after the hitcher is kicked out of the van, but keeps feeding us little bits until Kirk (William Vail) and Pam (Teri McMinn) find the house.
Kirk looks inside, and we see the room. It's tucked at the end of the hall. A drab, old "white" hall, faded from age. But the room is brilliant red, shining out of the dim. And on the wall is hung a multitude of trophies. The heads of animals - prey and predator alike. It's a masterfully crafted image, and it draws Kirk in to his doom. This first death is quick, perfunctory. Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) pops out of nowhere and whacks him with a hammer and Kirk drops. Just like that, the massacre has begun.
Once the killing starts the film moves along speedily, as Leatherface dispatches the teens one by one, until only Sally (Marilyn Burns) remains. But where the previous deaths were mercifully brief (or, at least, briefly on-screen), Sally's torture seems interminable. She runs, chased by a lunatic with a chainsaw, through woods, through the house, defenestrates herself through a second-story window, runs some more, finds help, is betrayed, is captured, terrorized, beaned with a hammer, escapes, defenestrates, and runs. And all the while she's screaming.
Hooper manages to magnify her terror for the viewer with some great camerawork, going close-in on her tormentors' leering gazes as they relish her fear. But the most stunning work is his repeated close-up of Sally's brilliant green eyes. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is largely devoid of brilliant color, so like the red room earlier, Sally's eyes pop out against the rest of the film. Her eyes bugging out, shifting focus as she desperately seeks for help, and all the while Sally is screaming.
It's a montage that triggers a primal fear in our hearts. And as Sally rides off in the back of that pickup truck, bloodied and laughing but still screaming, we understand all too-well the trauma she has gone through. She may have escaped death, but she hasn't escaped the massacre. Her screams may never truly end.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/5: Mudbound
2017 CATCH-UP WEEK!
Dee Rees' multiple Oscar nominee Mudbound is our next Movie of the Week as we try to catch up on acclaimed films we missed from 2017. Join us next week as we discuss the film that brought multiple Oscar nominations for Mary J. Blige as well as the first female nominee for Cinematography in Oscar history! Mudbound is on Netflix Instant.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/25: Phantom Thread
Last week's podcast concluded with a look at Paul Thomas Anderson's Best Picture-nominated Phantom Thread. Join us Wednesday for our look at this film, still in theaters!