The Edge ( * * * * * )
I remember telling my friend Eric (who introduced me to David Mamet when he showed me Glengarry) that I'd seen a movie poster that looked like a great cast. And he got really excited, until he learned that "The Edge" from U2 wasn't actually in it.
The Acting: Anthony Hopkins is world famous for playing a great villain/anti-hero in of Silence of the Lambs, but here he plays another smart resourceful character who happens to be good. Originally entitled "Bookworm" he plays Charles Morse, a billionaire with his own plane and Elle McPherson as his well-cast supermodel wife. He reads voraciously and retains a lot of facts but can find no practical use for them. Until he's stranded in the wilds with his wife's photographer and his assistant and they meet Bart the Bear, a vicious mankiller with the taste of human flesh. Harold Perrineau has since been typecast as the token black guy who survives a plane crash and later hurts his leg (see ABC's Lost) and the fact that he's absent from many of the scenes in the trailer seems to suggest he's bear-food, which he of course is. You almost have to admire them for having the token black guy die first, a horror tradition on the wane in Hollywood, even back in 1997. Alec Baldwin, who had a part in Glengarry Glen Ross specifically written for him, is pitch perfect as the "other man" Bob, a scheming fashion photographer who, along with Hopkins, has to survive hunger, the elements, and a man-eating bear--as well as each other.
The Story: I'm not sure why but I love this story. I have a soft spot in my heart for survivalist stories, and I love sharks and often enjoy shark movies. This, to me, is the ultimate shark movie/survivalist story, even though it has no sharks, only a bear, and isn't just about surviving the wilds, but one's own nature. David Mamet is a god of writing, and this was probably his first movie that was distinctly unplaylike, that really played up to the strengths of the medium. I love the footage of Alaska, and I think my heart belongs to the mountains and lakes of the Pacific Northwest and areas that look like that, dating back from my youth where I would summer at a cabin in McCall, Idaho. I've sometimes wondered if I'm swayed towards liking movies that have guys who look like my dad, such as Alec Guiness in Star Wars and Anthony Hopkins in this film, but I doubt that's a major factor. My favorite scene is the one in which the two survivors realize that they're being methodically hunted and have to kill the bear, so Hopkins tosses Baldwin his knife and makes him repeat three times "I'm gonna kill the bear" and then he makes his repeat three times "what one man can do another can do!" Then, feeling that Baldwin's character is sufficiently pumped up for their suicidal plan, Hopkins adds with relish, "Good, cuz today, I'm a-gonna kill the motherfucker." If you're ever lost in the woods, bring a copy of this on DVD with you to get you through it. I'm not sure what good that would do without a player, but better safe than sorry.
The Direction: Lee Tamahori is a Maori director who discovered Temuera Morrisson when he cast him as Jake The Muss in the great New Zealand film Once Were Warriors, one of the most emotionally powerful films I've ever seen. The Edge has a lot of raw emotion too, but almost none of the depressing pathos. Everything is perfectly managed, from the tricky bear fights to the gorgeous locations to the rich, rewarding acting performances. After shitty Mulholland Falls, his first U.S. feature, I thought Tamahori was one of these directors like John Woo who couldn't survive in the Hollywood system, but here I was proved wrong.
Overall: Taste is by definition subjective, but this film has everything I value in movies--incredible visual style, a story with stakes that continue to grow almost all the way up to the end, and memorable heroes and villains. Bart the Bear, I honestly think, without a trace of hyperbole, should have been considered for best supporting actor. When he sticks out his lower lip menacingly, he is fucking insane. And Anthony Hopkins plays a character with high intellect, courage and integrity that is unlike any other I've seen. One reviewer who just didn't get it called him an "emotional cipher." But like the character Bob that reviewer didn't see past the exterior of a rich older white man, who himself often admonishes others to "never feel sorry for a man who has his own plane." By the end, his selflessness could be said to approach sainthood, but the credits roll just in time. This is my favorite movie.
Tredekka Rules:
The Acting: Anthony Hopkins is world famous for playing a great villain/anti-hero in of Silence of the Lambs, but here he plays another smart resourceful character who happens to be good. Originally entitled "Bookworm" he plays Charles Morse, a billionaire with his own plane and Elle McPherson as his well-cast supermodel wife. He reads voraciously and retains a lot of facts but can find no practical use for them. Until he's stranded in the wilds with his wife's photographer and his assistant and they meet Bart the Bear, a vicious mankiller with the taste of human flesh. Harold Perrineau has since been typecast as the token black guy who survives a plane crash and later hurts his leg (see ABC's Lost) and the fact that he's absent from many of the scenes in the trailer seems to suggest he's bear-food, which he of course is. You almost have to admire them for having the token black guy die first, a horror tradition on the wane in Hollywood, even back in 1997. Alec Baldwin, who had a part in Glengarry Glen Ross specifically written for him, is pitch perfect as the "other man" Bob, a scheming fashion photographer who, along with Hopkins, has to survive hunger, the elements, and a man-eating bear--as well as each other.
The Story: I'm not sure why but I love this story. I have a soft spot in my heart for survivalist stories, and I love sharks and often enjoy shark movies. This, to me, is the ultimate shark movie/survivalist story, even though it has no sharks, only a bear, and isn't just about surviving the wilds, but one's own nature. David Mamet is a god of writing, and this was probably his first movie that was distinctly unplaylike, that really played up to the strengths of the medium. I love the footage of Alaska, and I think my heart belongs to the mountains and lakes of the Pacific Northwest and areas that look like that, dating back from my youth where I would summer at a cabin in McCall, Idaho. I've sometimes wondered if I'm swayed towards liking movies that have guys who look like my dad, such as Alec Guiness in Star Wars and Anthony Hopkins in this film, but I doubt that's a major factor. My favorite scene is the one in which the two survivors realize that they're being methodically hunted and have to kill the bear, so Hopkins tosses Baldwin his knife and makes him repeat three times "I'm gonna kill the bear" and then he makes his repeat three times "what one man can do another can do!" Then, feeling that Baldwin's character is sufficiently pumped up for their suicidal plan, Hopkins adds with relish, "Good, cuz today, I'm a-gonna kill the motherfucker." If you're ever lost in the woods, bring a copy of this on DVD with you to get you through it. I'm not sure what good that would do without a player, but better safe than sorry.
The Direction: Lee Tamahori is a Maori director who discovered Temuera Morrisson when he cast him as Jake The Muss in the great New Zealand film Once Were Warriors, one of the most emotionally powerful films I've ever seen. The Edge has a lot of raw emotion too, but almost none of the depressing pathos. Everything is perfectly managed, from the tricky bear fights to the gorgeous locations to the rich, rewarding acting performances. After shitty Mulholland Falls, his first U.S. feature, I thought Tamahori was one of these directors like John Woo who couldn't survive in the Hollywood system, but here I was proved wrong.
Overall: Taste is by definition subjective, but this film has everything I value in movies--incredible visual style, a story with stakes that continue to grow almost all the way up to the end, and memorable heroes and villains. Bart the Bear, I honestly think, without a trace of hyperbole, should have been considered for best supporting actor. When he sticks out his lower lip menacingly, he is fucking insane. And Anthony Hopkins plays a character with high intellect, courage and integrity that is unlike any other I've seen. One reviewer who just didn't get it called him an "emotional cipher." But like the character Bob that reviewer didn't see past the exterior of a rich older white man, who himself often admonishes others to "never feel sorry for a man who has his own plane." By the end, his selflessness could be said to approach sainthood, but the credits roll just in time. This is my favorite movie.
Tredekka Rules:
- Rule 1: No Movie Can Get More Than 5 Stars, Not Even Deadfall. Be Careful of the Deadfall, Bob. (Yes, after all of these reviews, I can finally review a movie with the word "deadfall" said in it.)
- Rule 4: Sweet Actor Bonus--Alec Baldwin, +1 star.
- Rule 5: Spitting = Good Acting--what is it about Mamet movies and their one drop of spit? +1 star. Ahh...rule 5. You so dumb.
- Rule 6: Over The Top Acting Award--Oh yeah, baby, all FIVE stars go to Bart the Bear. Don't tell me he wasn't acting up a storm in this movie, I don't give a shit if he is just a bear in the woods. +5 stars.
- Rule 12: Dodged The Pretentious Bullet Award--and not the easy way, either. This movie deals with big issues of mankind, survival, fidelity, bravery, honor...and pulls it off by being big enough of a movie to tackle those issues head on, through character development and not diatribes. +1 star.
- Rule 22: The Great Entrance Award--when Bart shows up, you know things are going to get bad. Some birds also have a pretty cool, not to mention bloody, entrance on the propeller of the plane, in the birdstrike scene that fucks up their day to begin with. +1 point.
- Rule 25: The Windy City Award--Any Movie Written By David Mamet Gets +1 star. I wish I could write lines like, "Grrrr! Rarrr!!"
Tredekka Score: ( * * * * * )
posted by Tredekka at 5:28 PM
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