Uncle Buck – Best Party Planner

Perhaps the best birthday party in any film ever is in the 1980s classic Uncle Buck, memories of this party are seared into my brain from watching this film as a child. Buck is looking after his nieces and nephew while their parents are away looking after an ill family member, the nephew’s birthday falls during this parental absence. Presumably to make up for what could be an upsetting absence Buck goes all out. First, the breakfast…Buck makes pancakes so big ne needs a snow shovel to flip them, the house is covered top to bottom in decorations, it is ridiculously over the top. The party itself is not going well and when it’s announced a birthday clown will soon be arriving and Miles’ friends think this is uncool, Buck proceeds to dismiss the clown, who he realises is drunk and ends up getting in a fight with the clown.

The Game – Best Present

The answer to the question, what do you get a man who has everything? A huge days long interactive experience involving dozens of actors, kidnapping, danger and more. Nicholas’ brother buys him an unforgettable birthday experience which at first falls flat but soon strange things happen in his life and it all quickly escalates. People break into his house, his accounts are frozen, he goes on the run, and ends up in Mexico…is this part of the game? Is the game a front to simply steal from him? Or an elaborate game designed to give him thrills and appreciate life?

Full Metal Jacket – Most Memorable Rendition of Happy Birthday

In a film that has a number of disturbing scenes one of the oddest is when we find Sergeant Hartman, the deranged drill sergeant tasked with turning recruits into marines, leading a chorus of happy birthday. Whose birthday is it? It’s Jesus’. This is Christmas Day and Hartman doesn’t take a day off traumatising young men and brainwashing them with rhetoric about God being pleased about how many people marines kill. Seemingly nothing Hartman does is ever straightforward or normal so instead of a hymn or fun Christmas song he has them sing happy birthday and you can’t help but think is this another opportunity to have the recruits follow orders, even orders that don’t make sense.

The Fellowship of the Ring – Biggest Birthday Party

The Fellowship of the Ring starts with Bilbo Baggins’ 111 birthday and this is quite a special occasion for a hobbit. The average hobbit lifespan is around 100 so 111 is a long life but nothing too extraordinary. Of course, Bilbo is in excellent shape for a hobbit of 111, due to the magic ring he possesses.

Bilbo Baggins is quite a personage in the Shire, a famed adventurer (something very rare for a hobbit who prefer the comforts of home) and rumoured to be exceptionally rich from his adventures and so this is a big party. And it’s hard not to include a birthday party that includes Gandalf on this list; a wizard who spends his time-fighting dragons, and saving the world and is one of the premier magical practitioners of the age, but has a side-hustle in providing fireworks for birthday parties (which sounds incredibly shady). It is also Gandalf who has convinced Bilbo to leave his home and give everything to his nephew Frodo, rightly worried about the effect this ring has had on his friend, so in reality, it is a combined birthday and leaving party, but none of the guests know the second part.

The Godfather Part II – Most Tense Party

Not many birthday parties feature the dividing up of a country by the Mafia but there is such a party in this film. Whilst the various mobsters have gathered in Havana to celebrate the birthday of Hyman Roth (longtime criminal partner of the Corleone family) they are really there to discuss Cuba – even the birthday cake features a map of the island and we see it being sliced and handed out. The Mafia has huge business interests in the country and has a “friendly” government that will support and protect them. Michael Corleone sits amidst the guests never looking entirely happy and casting doubt about this friendly government in dealing with the communist rebels (the audience well-aware that this government will fall to the communists soon and that moment is seen in the film). Not only is this birthday party about dividing Cuba it is also part of the ongoing war between Michael and Hyman, although both pretend they are the best of friends.

Also Read: Let’s Celebrate Film: Five Movies With a Special Birthday in 2020

Your contribution to Big Picture Film Club will allow us to continue to produce content. No matter the amount your contributions are greatly appreciated.

The post Film Scenes & Movies About Birthdays appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

World War Two – Enemy At The Gates

World War Two dominates this genre, not only is it the largest military conflict ever it is relatively recent and happened whilst movies were being made – Casablanca was released whilst the war was still going on. Saving Private Ryan’s opening of the assault on Normandy is often held up as the one of the best examples of film accurately depicting actual combat and is genuinely harrowing. Enemy at the Gates is one of the few English language World War Two films that looks at the conflict and doesn’t include any Americans or British forces. The film is about the terrible siege of Stalingrad in which the German and Russian forces fought for control of the city for nearly seven months with around 2 million casualties. The film focuses on the story of a sniper battle between Russian soldier Vassili and German soldier Major Konig. Vassili becomes a hero to the Russians, at a time when they badly need any good news, and Konig is brought in to kill him. As well as showing the utter devastation the battle caused the film portrays the propaganda battle going on behind the front lines. It is an interesting film as well in that neither side is shown as the good guys – certainly the Russians are defending against the invading Germans but the Soviet government is heavily criticised. On Vassili’s arrival in the city he is immediately thrown into combat but without a weapon, told to take one when the soldier next to them dies, then as they prepare to charge the Germans they are told if they retreat other Russian soldiers will shoot them – not exactly inspiring. There are glimpses into what Stalinist Russia is like and they are very unpleasant.

The Vietnam War – Full Metal Jacket

Stanley Kubrick has made more than one contribution to this genre but perhaps most famously with Full Metal Jacket – damning not only the Vietnam War but much of the idea of war. The film is essentially in two halves – the first half shows marines in boot camp, the second half following one of the marines – Joker – to Vietnam. Certainly the first half is the more famous, showing the inhuman treatment of the marines by their drill sergeant and military authorities in general. The drill sergeant was played by R. Lee Ermey (a real-life former drill sergeant) and has become the default of drill sergeants in popular culture. The punishment inflicted on the recruits is truly astonishing – ranging from cruel mockery and psychological torture to effectively encouraging recruits to beat their comrades. The worst of the cruelty is focused on Pyle, one of the less able recruits, who ultimately loses his mind and kills the sergeant who has tormented him. The film The Men Who Stare At Goats cites an interesting statistic – only 15 to 20 percent of new recruits will actually fire on the enemy when entering combat (despite their own lives being in danger), seemingly showing that people don’t want to kill other people. Full Metal Jacket is a film that understands that lesson and Ermey’s sergeant is trying to beat the humanity out of the recruits. The second half of the film showing Joker in the war demonstrates what comes of this treatment, for example, at one point a gunner on a helicopter randomly shooting Vietnamese people as they fly by, making jokes whilst he kills them.

Science Fiction – Starship Troopers

War films are not just confined to historical conflicts or even semi-fictionalised ones that have a very real-life setting, you get sci-fi and fantasy war films too. I watched Starship Troopers at a young age and a lot of what was going on with that film went over my head, I thought it was a cool sci-fi film. Watching it subsequently it is a satirical gem about the awfulness of war. In this film it’s humans versus alien bugs and so any idea of coming to terms with the enemy is abandoned – this is pretty much extermination. Populated by a cast of extremely good-looking people living in what is revealed to be something akin to a fascist society saturated with government propaganda. We follow three school-friends as each goes into a different branch of the military – infantry, navy (meaning spaceships) and intelligence. The film has sensational battle scenes and excellent special effects for the time making the alien bugs very believable. There is an awful grinding relentless to the fighting and you get the feeling that this is a war that is never going to end. The most memorable scene, however, is when the new recruits discuss why they joined the army, some wanting a career, some to do good, but what it comes out is one character wants to have children and another wants to go into politics – and without joining the army, neither of these goals are possible. This reveals a chilling insight into their world, especially as this passes without comment from anyone else.

Why Do We Make War Films?

So war films are big business – huge commercial successes and often hailed as some of the best films ever made. But what is the point of war films, why do we make them? That war is hell is a cliche but it is also true, why we do we want to watch hell? Something like Saving Private Ryan which can show the horrible savagery of what happens can be very useful. Most films on the Vietnam War are very critical – questioning why America joined the war, their use of chemical weapons, the impact on innocent civilians. Set during World War One Wonder Woman did an excellent job of capturing the absolute futility and pointlessness of it all – generals who did not care for the lives of their soldiers, regiments that had spent years fighting barely advanced. Sadly though things aren’t that simple and not all war films portray war in these terms. There is often a romanticism of war, of the nobility of warfare and conflict, and in some films war is simply cool.

Top Gun famously lead to a recruiting boom for the US navy with recruitment booths set up outside cinemas, now whether you see that as good or bad is a matter of opinion but what I think is perhaps the most striking thing about Top Gun is the people the pilots are fighting are never identified. The enemy aircraft are MiGs, a Soviet design, but they aren’t Russians, if the enemy in a war film is not even identified, then there is an awful feeling that “our side” must always be in the right.

Even if films are explicitly antiwar things can get complicated – Apocalypse Now is a damning critique of the Vietnam War but the famous Ride of the Valkyries scene has been referenced numerous times in other films and culture and it’s interpreted in different ways – in Gulf war film Jarhead, the marines have a screening of Apocalypse Now in which there is almost a standing ovation for this scene, with cheering and yelling as innocent civilians are killed. There is a famous quote usually attributed to French filmmaker Francois Truffaut “There is no such thing as an anti-war film” in which he seems to be saying that whatever the motivation of the filmmaker they will inevitably make war look heroic and be glorifying the conflict.

War films can tell huge, epic and tragic stories and they can be everything from summer blockbusters to indie think-pieces. They have been, and will continue to be, a huge part of cinema, not every war film needs to be an angry denunciation of war but a filmmaker should think carefully about the story they are telling.

Also Read: Da 5 Bloods (Review)

More: Hollywood & The Military: A Special Relationship

The post War Films: Horror and Glory appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Big Picture Film Club took a trip to one of the most talked about art exhibitions this summer: Daydreaming With Stanley Kubrick, held at London’s Somerset House. The exhibition featured a variety of paintings, installations, videos, and sculptures inspired by the late cinematic genius Stanley Kubrick. Much like Quentin Tarantino, George Lucas & Ridley Scott after him, Stanley Kubrick’s impressive body of work has given him a cult-like following, particularly after his death in 1999.

Curator, James Lavelle, has done an excellent job in putting together this mix-media exhibition. The 45 works on display flow effortlessly together and make for a seamless and captivating experience. While there were many great pieces of work on display, in no particular order here are some of our favourites from the exhibition:

1) Life, by Dexter Navy

This piece was distinct, in that it references current social commentary of civil unrest, as opposed to directly taking from Kubrick’s films. However, the intricate use of colour in this piece was inspired by the work of Kubrick.

2) Various Works, by Philip Castle

Airbrush artist, Castle, who designed the original poster’s for Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange & Full Metal Jacket, gave the iconic posters a contemporary redesign, and showcasing a never used alternative design for Full Metal Jacket.

3) Camera A, Scene 136, Take 1, by Thomas Bangalter

Bangalter, one half of electronic duo Daft Punk, exemplifies what Kubric’s work is about with his simple, yet powerful video piece. The slow-mo clip features a person walking calmly through a pitch darkness engulfed in flames – the fire providing the only source of light, illuminating the ground below.

4) In Consolus – Full of Hope and Full of Fear, by James Lavelle & John Isaacs ft Azzi Glasser

Immediately the senses are treated to an overload of sight, sound and smell. The clearly recognisable, Lolita inspired giant teddy bears gives a sense of fun and playfulness whilst the darkness of the room and the juxtaposed neon love sign hints at sinister undertones. Empty pantry boxes reference The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired scent from perfume designer Glasser fills the room, whilst the soundtrack comes courtesy of: Detroit techno pioneer Carl Craig, Italian dance ensemble Planet Funk – Domenico “GG” Canu and Marco Barani, spoken word artist and designer Michele Lamy, and UNKLE collaborator Elliott Power.

6) Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums, by Norbet Shoerner

Norbet created a 360° virtual reality recreation of the Discovery One space. Breath taking in its redesign, fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey will feel as if they have been dropped right into the movie. Definitely one of the key highlights of the exhibition!

7) History Painting, by Marc Quinn

Quinn draws from media reportage of social unrest, amplifying the sense of violence and unease with the contrasting use of colour.

8) The Shining Carpet, by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin

Immediately recognisable, no Kubrick exhibition would be complete without the iconic print carpet from the Overlook Hotel. The print continues to inspire artists of all mediums.

9) Clockwork Britain, by Paul Insect

Famous for his street art, Insect alludes to violence and the alienated youth in A Clockwork Orange by fusing 60s pop art and contemporary street art with the use of bold colours and the Union Jack motif.

10) Metanoia, by Polly Morgan

Morgan explicitly exhibits the implicit sexual imagery we see from Alex and his Droogs in A Clockwork Orange. The downward pointing triangle is traditionally referred to as the chalice, symbolising the flow of water, the grace of heaven, and the womb – an ancient symbol of female divinity. Seeing this stuffed uncomfortably with a serpent, provokes very real feelings of disturbance just as when we watched those awful scenes in the film itself.

The post Daydreaming With Stanley Kubrick appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.