Drama | Big Bearded Bookseller

Bamboo Gods and Iron Men (1973)

Day four of #Junesploitation and it’s Blaxploitation time with a little bit of martial arts and I love a good 70s martial arts film, this wasn’t a good 70s martial arts film…

The opening credits made me think I was in for a bit of treat, a funky soundtrack over a kung-fu montage is just the perfect opener, especially if it includes a bald bloke head butting a load of breeze blocks.

But unfortunately this was the high point of the whole film.

This really feels like it was jumping on the bandwagon of martial art films that were beginning to make a mark on Western cinema and especially Bruce Lee films and this had certain tropes that were similar to Enter the Dragon but my god could two films be so different!

Pace was way off with another terrible script where there was no real feel of where the film was going, the first third felt like a serious crime caper with a possible world threat, then it sort of descended into a bit of a farce, with a Clouseau type character as the police officer investigating the case in Manila.

The fight sequences and choreography were lacking so much.

So much, it was actually quite painful to watch the mugging of the actors as they were going through the paces and fumbling everything, again I’m comparing this to other films of the time which did it so well.

I think this was my least enjoyed of the four I’ve watched so far, made a bit worse by the obvious black-face right at the end with big grins.

Bamboo Gods and Iron Men | January 1974 (United States)

4.7

Summary:

The Lighthouse (2019)

This is going to be the first of the reviews that I’m going to be putting out there, learning how to write about film (and writing words down in general). I’ve always been a huge film/TV fan and never really felt I was allowed to have an opinion, but you know what? I do and I’m going to be sharing it through semi-regular posts on this blog.

The format of the review may change as I go along and gain more confidence and skill in writing but I thought if I don’t get one out now I never will.

You can always follow me over on Bluesky for the occasional live watch through of TV series as and when I do them and various ramblings about whatever seems to take my fancy.

Shot in (almost) square format which gave an old-fashioned feel to the film, though the black and white was crisp and had none of the greyness associated with older films. The deep black tones of the film matched the deep tones of the constant fog horn setting a mood that got darker and darker as the film progressed.

“The light is mine”

The darkness is so oppressive that the counterpoint and beat of the lighthouse light felt alive, a heartbeat, a seductive creature in itself, maybe the real inhabitant of the island.

Both Patterson and Dafoe portray their characters brilliantly, this is emphasised with stunning direction and camera work, every frame is redolent with depth and meaning, with the solitude being carefully crafted and counterbalanced with foreboding and foreshadowing.

There is a definite Lovecraftian feel to the oppression, the sea, and madness. This tone then ups a gear a third of the way into the film changing from a pure portrait of solitude to something else as the wind changes.

The slow creeping horror builds throughout the first part of the film to what became a necessary conclusion.

Touching on a lot of different themes this is a great, though harrowing, watch with stunning performances from both actors and I’m sure it will improve from multiple watchings.

A well-crafted portrayal of a bleak existence and descent into alcohol-fuelled madness where myth and reality blend into one wind-swept and rain-lashed nightmare.

The Lighthouse | November 1, 2019 (United States)

7.4

Director: Robert EggersWriter: Robert Eggers, Max EggersStars: Stars, Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe, Valeriia Karaman, Summary: