Criticker MOM - August 2014

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Ag0stoMesmer
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Re: Criticker MOM - August 2014

Post by Ag0stoMesmer »

Apaches
The audience for these was pretty much teachers and the kind of parents who can stay up very late at night, that's when -if ever- they were on tv. I think this explains both the cowboys & indians and humour.

It's far more likely the children of 77 would be playing 'IRA'. Having children charge around shouting 'fuck the queen' (or pope) depending which side they're playing was probably a no-go funding-wise. Cowboys and indians was what the intended audience would have played at that age though so perhaps more suitable.
[spoiler]I think conflict-based playground games in the UK went something like;
50-60's cowboys and indians
70'- early 80's IRA
80's A-team, He-Man, Transformers
90's Turtles, Power Rangers
00's Halo...
Went from hollywood to cartoon/toy lines to VGs[/spoiler]
These are effectively government-made urban myths, teachers would sombrely relay these incidents to us as fact, something that happened to 'a child at another school'. The humour -the hyper-reality- is intentional, to help the 'mythologising' of them, ram them into their subconscious so they can ram them into children. It's propaganda.

There's not much to enjoy but the poisoning was effectively creepy and I think it achieves it's aims.

ribcage
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Re: Criticker MOM - August 2014

Post by ribcage »

cabeza de vaca was fantastic, got totally immersed in it. the cinematography was beautiful, and the costumes and makeup for the natives made it all seem nearly as if it was a documentary. the story doesn't allow for any hand-holding, more like grabbing you by the wrist and pulling you along. each shift in alvar's journey both physically and emotionally/spiritually comes as a bit of a jolt, but in a good way to be sure. the film paints a detailed picture of these lost natives as not-savage, not-grotesque, just decidedly different but still completely human.

my only gripe, which is small but worth mentioning, is that even without looking into it, it's clear that ample creative liberties have been taken with both the history of cabeza de vaca's account and most likely the depiction of the tribes themselves. however, it doesn't detract from the message or themes of the film or remove it from the reality that these natives were real people whose worlds came to a brutal end. in fact, it might encourage viewers with more time and curiosity on the subject than i have to actually go learn something.

btw, for those of you without cg accounts and willing to take the risk, the film can be found on public torrent sites.

Paxton
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Re: Criticker MOM - August 2014

Post by Paxton »

Apaches:

I found it to be pretty underwhelming and was on Shogun's side as far as it being made by completely oblivious boobs unaccustomed to actual farm life. It wasn't until the final scroll that I started to reevaluate some of what I had seen. When the toll began I assumed it would consist of five children, but the absurd amount of names listed just for the machinery crushing was pretty astounding. At that point I began to wonder if the callousness of what seemed like every single human character in the film wasn't intentional. The guy on the tractor was the most mind boggling though. He ran a human child over, killing it, but he's shooting back at the kids in what seems like a few days time.
Obviously, a short film doesn't allow for long juxtapositions of each and every funeral, but I have to imagine that the abruptness is meant to be emphasis for the message. How much time actually elapsed? It felt like it could have been the very next day that they were playing with one less friend. Was this England or the island that The Wicker Man took place on?
I've never seen a PIF before, so I don't know how well made they were or how much good they served. I can't imagine that children would get much out of this, but at the time, I could see how parents would maybe get a wake up call. Farm life lends itself to free range children, and maybe this lead parents to at least evaluate what kind of dangers were around. If it started a dialogue, great! If it thought it was going to prevent anymore manure drownings, I doubt it made much progress.
I had read the description of this going in so I knew these kids were going to get picked off, but, as a father of a two year old I couldn't help my paternal instincts at the beginning of the short, right after the introductions, when they charge the farm. I immediately thought, "You shouldn't be running with those weapons," and, of course, the last kid in line biffs it and falls out of frame.
I didn't much care for this but I had a blast watching it and have been looking forwards to participating here on the thread. I am really glad this is happening and am looking forwards to watching the other movies.
Since everyone's posting their review, here's mine (even though it's smart-alecky):
It's like a slasher movie without a masked killer. So basically, it's the PIF version of Cabin Fever. It's also only the second worst thing to come out of the seventies "inspired" by the Apache Indians.This, of course, would be the worst: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6tnj7IEI0E

Bojangles
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Re: Criticker MOM - August 2014

Post by Bojangles »

Apaches: An informational film about the dangers of children playing. That the British government commissioned a film on this topic seems so humorously typical of them. Just another thing to make each and every waking day into that much more of a cloudy mass of nervous energy.

Anyway, it sucked, but that's mostly due to the content being a waste of time, and perhaps even destructive. Consider this: children will play, children will die. For every child that this film has saved from receiving a tire tread tattoo of the most lethal sort, how many times more has it caused to tiptoe around every corner, even while at play? And how many of those children carried the anxious instincts into their adult life? Every day that you wake up and face the world, something absurd and unforeseen could wind up killing you, through no fault of your own. So be smart out there kids, but be courageous as well. Today isn't your unlucky day. Go wheeling around that corner at full bore; don't worry, there probably isn't a tractor filled with loaded bear traps backing up straight into your path.

While I feel that this is basically a film to reinforce the anxious feelings of overprotective parents, there were some good aspects. The dialogue and narration were good. Multiple instances of intentional comedy were landed quite nicely. I particularly appreciated the bit of narration about the boy enjoying when his family gets drunk at parties, dances around, acts silly, and gives him money. Touching, and true. Quality writing, Mr. Scribe.

And let's not pretend like the craftsmen in charge were buffoons who didn't now what they were doing. This clearly wasn't their first rodeo. For a shoe-string budgeted informational short film with child actors, this could have been much much worse. How cool was the opening shot and title sequence? How affecting was the scroll of the victims' names at the end? And for how hilarious it could have been to watch a child drive a tractor off a cliff to his death, how well was that executed? A lesser film would have put an obvious floppy-armed-dummy in the driver's seat and called it a day. But through some well thought out camera set ups and clever editing (and yes, probably a subtly positioned floppy-armed-dummy as well), for a terrifying split second I actually believed they had a young boy from Leeds drive himself off a cliff in that tractor. Well done, Apaches. Well done.

ShogunRua
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Re: Criticker MOM - August 2014

Post by ShogunRua »

Bojangles wrote:Apaches


Fine fine, you win the award for best review.

ShogunRua
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Re: Criticker MOM - August 2014

Post by ShogunRua »

Paxton wrote: It's also only the second worst thing to come out of the seventies "inspired" by the Apache Indians.This, of course, would be the worst: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6tnj7IEI0E


Did you mean best thing to be inspired by Apache Indians? Not only is that an awesome and hilarious music video that will be laughed at and enjoyed for decades to come, but the song itself is an energetic, catchy dance tune. And I write that last part without a trace of irony.

Bojangles
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Re: Criticker MOM - August 2014

Post by Bojangles »

ShogunRua wrote:
Bojangles wrote:Apaches


Fine fine, you win the award for best review.

yaaaaay thx.

TheDenizen
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Re: Criticker MOM - August 2014

Post by TheDenizen »

haha wow.

I just watched Apaches, without having read anything about it or knowing anything about it other than the title.

[spoiler]Somehow I missed the opening credit that it was a government safety film....I thought it was meant to be an independent short film. Imagine my confusion as it unfolded. :oops:

They introduce all the kids and just as the dynamics of the group are coming into focus, BAM squaw under the wheels of a tractor. The kids stood there mute for a few seconds, and then it cuts to them carrying on playing on another part of the farm...with no comment from the kids or any parents about the dead girl. I was stunned.

The kids keep playing, and another one (hilariously) drowns in a slurry pit, which is horrific but completely ignored by everyone again. The non-reactions from everyone made them seem so inhuman, so unlike real people, that I became convinced that the whole thing was an allegory that I needed to decipher. I started trying to figure out what each kid might represent and wondering about the significance of them pretending to be Apaches vs other types of Natives. I was also trying to figure out how the boy describing his parents planning for a party fit into it all.

Next we get a poisoning and a crushing, further reducing the number of kids. I was driving myself nuts pondering the significance of the switch from Cowboys and Indians to Starsky and Hutch just before the crushing death. Then the leader kid gets up on the tractor, talking about being the last Apache and how he'd survive...as he begins to adopt the white man's technology. I could sense it crystallizing and was convinced it was all about to come together in some spectacular fashion.

Now don't get me wrong, the "runaway tractor over the cliff" bit was very well done (from an editing standpoint), but it kicked the movie over into "heavy handed message" mode. All of a sudden, I realized I was watching a farm safety film and felt like a complete idiot.

Long story short: it had some novel moments (I legit lol'ed at the kid who drowns in shit), but I guess the best compliment I can give it is that I honestly didn't realize it was intended to be a safety film until the very end. Still, I hate when a movie makes me feel dumb. 4/10[/spoiler]

hellboy76
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Re: Criticker MOM - August 2014

Post by hellboy76 »

TheDenizen wrote:haha wow.

I just watched Apaches, without having read anything about it or knowing anything about it other than the title.

[spoiler]Somehow I missed the opening credit that it was a government safety film....I thought it was meant to be an independent short film. Imagine my confusion as it unfolded. :oops:

They introduce all the kids and just as the dynamics of the group are coming into focus, BAM squaw under the wheels of a tractor. The kids stood there mute for a few seconds, and then it cuts to them carrying on playing on another part of the farm...with no comment from the kids or any parents about the dead girl. I was stunned.

The kids keep playing, and another one (hilariously) drowns in a slurry pit, which is horrific but completely ignored by everyone again. The non-reactions from everyone made them seem so inhuman, so unlike real people, that I became convinced that the whole thing was an allegory that I needed to decipher. I started trying to figure out what each kid might represent and wondering about the significance of them pretending to be Apaches vs other types of Natives. I was also trying to figure out how the boy describing his parents planning for a party fit into it all.

Next we get a poisoning and a crushing, further reducing the number of kids. I was driving myself nuts pondering the significance of the switch from Cowboys and Indians to Starsky and Hutch just before the crushing death. Then the leader kid gets up on the tractor, talking about being the last Apache and how he'd survive...as he begins to adopt the white man's technology. I could sense it crystallizing and was convinced it was all about to come together in some spectacular fashion.

Now don't get me wrong, the "runaway tractor over the cliff" bit was very well done (from an editing standpoint), but it kicked the movie over into "heavy handed message" mode. All of a sudden, I realized I was watching a farm safety film and felt like a complete idiot.

Long story short: it had some novel moments (I legit lol'ed at the kid who drowns in shit), but I guess the best compliment I can give it is that I honestly didn't realize it was intended to be a safety film until the very end. Still, I hate when a movie makes me feel dumb. 4/10[/spoiler]


LOL, I would have been even more entertained had I not known it was a PIF. This is great.

TheDenizen
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Re: Criticker MOM - August 2014

Post by TheDenizen »

always glad to amuse. ;)

Anyways, I also watched Man in the Attic. Meh. It was competent but entirely uninteresting. There was no suspense or horror, no real drama, no surprises....just...a bunch of scenes that played out with a couple of weak musical numbers thrown in. A bit disappointing, I was hoping for more from Palance, but I guess there was only so much you could do in 1953.

*shrugs* oh well...I've got a copy of Cabeza de Vaca too, I've got high hopes for this one. should get to it this weekend.

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