Wednesday 26 September 2012

The Most Dangerous Running Battle Games

A dystopian future in which people are ruled with violence and lies, a t.v show in which people are forced to run and fight for their lives with contestants picked against their will and touted as volunteers, their win a mere deception and the result, two winners when there should only be one. What's this I'm talking about then?

The Running Man! I finally got round to watching it and The Most Dangerous Game, but more about the latter later. Loosely based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King writing under pseudonym Richard Bachman, set in 2017 it follows Ben Richards a military pilot turned convict. For refusing to gun down innocent people, Ben was betrayed by his own crew and then framed for the massacre, nicknamed the Butcher of Bakersfield, kept in a labour camp, secured by collars that detonate if you cross the perimeter he flees with others and goes to his brother's apartment. His brother however has been taken for re-education and instead he finds Amber, a network composer, he effectively kidnaps her and tries to use her and her travelling pass to escape to Hawaii but at the airport Amber escapes from him and draws the guards' attention to him.


Ben finds himself not in prison but instead talking to The Running Man host, Damon Killian, who blackmails Ben with the lives of the two inmates he escaped with- Weiss and Laughlin. Ben complies but it turns out to be a lie as Weiss and Laughlin are submitted into the arena with him. When Ben is shown to the audience to have massacred the airport security guard as well as the people of Bakersfield Amber grows suspicious, knowing he did not murder the guard. She hunts through secret files and finds out that there is edited footage and real footage, caught in the act she later becomes a surprise contestant on the show.

The arena is largely a wasteland, varying between large roads where men on motorbikes chase them, an ice rink, a wide road with slanted walls covered in rubble, moving fences that imprison them in a box and a locker room where Amber finds the decaying corpses of the previous winners, men who the show claims were living it up in Hawaii.

Weiss and Laughlin die, victims of stalkers Buzzsaw and Dynamo respectively, but not before Weiss deceiphers the network code enabling a random hidden group of rebels to hack ino the network and broadcast the true footage of the Bakersfield massacre. To avoid a scandal, the deaths of Ben and Amber are faked only for Ben to show up before the live audience and ruin the ruse.


It's not a bad film, very much 80s in style despite being sent in the future with a lot of humour and plenty of one liners. It doesn't take itself too seriously and the gore is kept to a minimum. The ice rink was a nice touch and the stalkers varied- an ice hockey sumo wrestler, a motorcylist with a large chainsaw, an electrifying opera singer, a man with a flamethrower, and a retired stalker who is a wrestler who believes in the thrill and honesty of the fight. It's easy to guess the outcome of the film but still nice to watch it happen. Amber is alright for a female lead, jumping from damsel in distress to armed rebel who does successfully take out stalker Dynamo. Weiss and Laughlin are forgettable, and Laughlin is taken out too quickly.

It's no surprise that THG is considered a rip-off of this as well as Battle Royale, they're all set in the future with media involvement and people killing people. Of course the idea in The Running Man is not to kill the stalkers, indeed Ben is the first to do this to the horror of the audience who initially are not entertained by it, but to simply outrun them. Also, despite my opening paragraph there's no confirmation only one winner is allowed or expected. Battle Royale of course evidently bears similarities with it too, the mentioned ones plus the idea of exploding collars, Stephen King himself noted similarities with Battle Royale and his work The Long Walk, coincidence or not who knows, it didn't stop him from recommending it, he was less favourable about THG. Additionally the town the BR students come from is called Shiroiwa, which translates to Castle Rock, potentially a shout out to Stephen King who used the fictional Castle Rock as a setting for several of his works.

Also, Damon Killian could certainly give Caesar Flickman a run for his money, though Caesar Flickman was a little more stylish and futuristic and Damon had the advantage of being portrayed by real gameshow host- Richard Dawson.


Moving swiftly on, one man who boasts of being a hunter and avoids the question of how he would act if he was hunted finds himself stranded on a madman's island where he has no choice but to answer that question. Bob Rainsford finds himself the guest of proud Russian hunter Count Zaroff who owns the island Bob finds himself on. Also there are Eve Trowbridge and her brother Martin, and as Eve informs Bob, two sailors who have not been seen for a while.

At first Zaroff seems the perfect host, a little eccentric but certainly welcoming, he talks over drinks of his boredom with the hunt and of even switching from guns to bows and arrows just to make things more exciting, all until he found the most dangerous game on his island. Bob guesses in vain over what it is while Martin gets drunker and drunker. Eve persuades Zaroff to play the piano and while he is doing that she confides in Bob about the absence of the sailors, how Zaroff claims his only boat is broken thus hindering their escape and how he takes people to see a trophy room before they disappear.


It is only the next day when Martin has disappeared and Eve and Bob look for him that they find the trophy room and the horrible truth. Down there is a man's head (and presumably unseen others), Zaroff then returns with his men and his latest trophy- Martin. Zaroff confesses that he tampered with the markers meant to warn people of the rocks thus deliberately causing shipwrecks so he can have new prey. As a fellow hunter Zaroff expects Bob to join him but when Bob refuses he says he will hunt him next, promising him and Eve freedom if Bob can survive until sunrise. Bob agrees and Eve insists on going with him, which he complies with once Zaroff assures him that Eve will not be killed because he does not hunt women.

So the pair head off across the island, attempting to outwit the count by setting booby traps, hiding in caves and clambering up trees. At first the count hunts them with a bow and arrow, then a gun and finally hounds. Cornering them at the waterfall he sends a dog to face Bob, then another and then he shoots and Bob and the dog go over the waterfall. Eve is recaptured and taken back to the house only for Bob to appear unharmed. Zaroff gives Bob the key to the boatshed seemingly honouring his promise before he tries to shoot him, after wrestling for the gun, Bob kills a manservant and then after Eve's warning he wrestles the count for his bow and arrow and impales him on his own arrow.

After killing the rest of the servants Eve and Bob escape on the boat. Zaroff tries to shoot them with his bow and arrow but falls out of the window thanks to his wound and is devoured by his dogs.

Based on Richard Connell's short story of the same name there are many adaptations of this on film but this 1932 version seems to be the most accurate. Pity the quality is so poor by today's standards as it's a great film with an excellent cast (Joel McCrea, Fay Wray and Leslie Banks). If any film really warrants a remake it should be this instead of just varying adaptations.

This, in fiction, seems to be the earliest case of people hunting people for sport and entertainment, perhaps we can say it's the grandfather of the genre, though obviously it's not dsytopian. Simply put it's man against his greatest prey and enemy, man.

The film itself is brilliant, Count Zaroff is terrifying and quite insane, Bob and Eve are decent leads and believable characters and Martin brought the entertainment with his drunken buffoonery. Thankfully no time was wasted on romance, Bob and Eve were more concerned with their lives realistically, having to duck and dodge over an unfamiliar landscape dealing with swamps, cliffs, waterfalls, guns, arrows and hounds. It's a short but exciting film, graphic for when it was made with grand sets. Also, thanks to the amazing Ray Harryhausen there is a colour version in celebration of its 75th anniversary.

Interesting trivia, this film was shot alongside King Kong and shares sets and cast members Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong. King Kong was shot during the day and The Most Dangerous Game at night.

For fans of this sort of fiction/film special mentioning to The 10th Victim, 1965 French/Italian film which stars Ursula Andress and Marcello Mastroianni as two people in the near future participating in the Big Hunt, a popular form of entertainment during which contestants must spend five rounds as the hunter and five as the hunted with the winner becoming wealthy and famous. The two leads find this complicated by a desire for fame and wealth, a need to survive and romance. Also Series 7: The Contenders, a 2001 film spoofing reality shows in which contestants are picked by lottery to participate in reality show The Contenders. There are six constestants who must hunt and kill each other with guns on television. If you're wanting more simple google.

Monday 24 September 2012

Off With Your Cloak or Head



It's surprising the similarities between The Company of Wolves and Alice in Wonderland, on the surface it's easy to see them as completely different films (in this case focus on the animated Disney feature of Alice in Wonderland), but when you analyse them the affinities show.

We have two young girls wandering in a fairytale, dreamlike world that may or may not be a series of dreams. They are children and yet on the beginnings of adulthood, confronted by many new beings who may be friends or foe, something they must decide for themselves. Additionally there are characters called Alice in each, though a minor similarity, Alice is Rosaleen's sister in The Company of Wolves, driven into the forest by wolves and attacked by her own toys, one theory is that she was actually shrunk down to their size, it is because of her death that Rosaleen is sent to her grandmother's. In Alice in Wonderland, Alice's older sister too is a minor figure who is trying to teach her, she is credited as Mathilda, and bored of her stories, Alice falls asleep in her lap and dreams of Wonderland.


The key difference is that Alice awakens from her dream when she is being pursued by the characters of Wonderland whilst Rosaleen awakens and finds the wolves have come into the real world to pursue her. For Alice there is an end to the madness but for Rosaleen there is only a beginning.

Whilst The Company of Wolves goes from story to story, framed by Rosaleen's own adventure, Alice goes from character to character, Rosaleen learns her lessons from her granny and mother, and so Alice learns hers from the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat and the Queen of Hearts, of course it's up to the two leads to decide which lessons are right to follow. Ultimately, both take a proactive role in the end, Alice stands up to the Queen and King when she is put on trial whilst Rosaleen chooses to leave her family to join the huntsman in wolf form after his pack abandon him despite earlier shooting him for the murder of her granny. Alice depends on the mushroom to give her height and strength to stand up to the Queen whilst Rosaleen briefly relies on the rifle before she chooses to join the Huntsman, Alice chooses to flee when she shrinks and her strength fails her.

So Alice flees from the madness and her own possible execution whilst Rosaleen chooses to join the Huntsman and risks death at the hands of her own people, saved only by her knowing mother's intervention.

Both films are chock full of weird and wonderful imagery, Wonderland offers up literal bread and butterflies, dog and caterpillars, a dog with a broom for a face, umbrella vultures, an accordion owl and more. The Company of Wolves gives us tiny models of babies hatching from eggs, mirrors and lipsticks lying in nests, giant toys coming to life and more.

Both girls are dealing with growing up but whilst Alice seeks to run from her sister's lessons in a boring book without pictures, Rosaleen seeks to plunge head first into adulthood, which earns her, her sister's scorn when she borrows her lipstick. So we have Alice's sister trying to encourage her to learn and grow whilst Rosaleen's sister is only outraged by her sister's curiosity driving her to use Alice's private belongings. Rosaleen and Alice are both curious, young and in need of advice, Rosaleen is unsure which path is the right one, nor is Alice and as they wander along it they find themselves swayed in numerous directions by the characters they come across. At one point Alice finds her path literally swept away and she cries until the Cheshire Cat shows her a door to the Queen's gardens, but when Rosaleen's path/guide is taken from her with the death of her Granny she does not cry, but instead challenges the Huntsman who did this to her before choosing to follow his path as a wolf. Rosaleen finds freedom in her choice whilst Alice only finds herself in a more difficult situation.

In the end Alice can still be a child, though the madness of Wonderland might have curbed her of using her imagination too wildly, perhaps schooling her that reality is sometimes best, whilst Rosaleen must now be an adult, she has learned too much to ignore it and when she tries to escape the dream crosses over into reality and absorbs her. Alice's adventures can be accepted as a whismical dream on a golden afternoon, easily fading from the mind but Rosaleen's cannot, her journey was too gritty and her ultimate choice to join the wolves too clear for her to go back on it simply because she awakens.

Thursday 13 September 2012

Once Returns


So Once Upon A Time returns and judging from the spoilers it's going to be less fairytales and more live action Disney. We can expect Ariel, Jafar, Aladdin, Mulan and Captain Hook to all make an appearance along with Sleeping Beauty and her prince in their Disney forms- Princess Aurora and Prince Philip. In addition to this there's also going to be Sir Lancelot and there are rumours of Merlin, and I guess with Hook we should expect Peter Pan as well. Alright so Sleeping Beauty is a fairytale as is The Little Mermaid, though it was by Hans Christian Andersen not the Brothers Grimm, and I suppose you could say the King Arthur myths could be considered fairytales in a fashion, still it's stretching it a bit. A pity Sleeping Beauty has to go the way of Beauty and the Beast by following the Disney versions rather than bringing us something knew as Snow White and Charming did, I mean we're going to have them in the live action film Maleficent, so why not do something different? They're both Disney so they're not in competition, so give us something new not two versions of the same thing.

I mean Snow, Regina and Prince James aren't exactly like their animated counterparts, the animated Snow was fourteen, she barely knew her prince, she never showed anger and she certainly wouldn't have wielded a sword, and Queen Grimhilde is not as humanised as Regina, who found love with a stable boy, murdered by her disapproving mother and who despised Snow not for her beauty but because it was Snow who betrayed the secret of her love to her mother. Thus her bitterness and hatred is more understandable. She also extends her rage by cursing everyone, taking away their happiness so that only she has joy, Queen Grimhilde seemed to keep her hatred to Snow but hey it's a movie versus a series, maybe with a series we would have learned more about her and the others. Still Snow, Regina and Prince James are a lot different to their counterparts and it works, so why couldn't it be this way for Beauty and Sleeping Beauty, especially with all the movies coming out?


Why also when there is such a strong interest in fairytales now can Once not strive to bring more fairytales to its show and instead has to adapt Disney characters instead? Now I do love Disney and I'm intrigued to see how the characters will be in live action form in this world but still, this was advertised as being a fairytale show not just Disney. What about the Princess and the Pea, the Six Swans, and many other fairytales that could be brought into it?

Also, are we ever going to see more of Cinderella? I respect that a show has to have its leads and these are Snow, Charming, Regina, Mr. Gold and Emma, but shouldn't some characters get more than a fleeting appearance? We've seen the Hatter twice with promises of more appearances, there's to be more of Belle, Red Riding Hood/Ruby is going to be a regular and Pinnochio/ Augustus got his fair share of episodes, so why not give some other characters the limelight for a while?

I want to know what happened to Prince Thomas when he disappeared and what Cinderella did to get him back. I want to see who the Queen of Hearts really is and I want to see more of fairytales not Disney. Disney has its Maleficent movie coming out and promises of a Cinderella one too, and there are three Beauty and the Beast movies that I'm aware of it plus at least one t.v show, so come on, give some of the lesser known tales a chance.

Daughter of the Forest


I just finished this book and despite it's length I had it read in under a week because honestly, I just could not put it down. Loosely inspired by the Six Swans fairytale by the Brothers Grimm, it is set in early Ireland and Britain, referencing Celtic myths combined with early Christianity.

It is about Sorcha, the seventh child of the lord of Sevenwaters, and his only daughter, when her six brothers are turned into swans by their evil stepmother the Lady Oonagh, Sorcha must sew them each a shirt from the spiky plant starwort in silence to free them from the spell. It is not so simple though as she must flee from her home and finds herself in the wilderness vulnerable to men and nature alike. Later she is captured by the Briton known as Red, he rescues her from drowning but keeps her convinced by a talisman she holds that she is the key to finding his lost brother Simon. So Red takes her back to his home in Britain where it turns out he is a lord, Hugh of Harrowfield and his people are none too welcoming of an enemy they fear to be a sorceress.

This story is full of tragedy and horror but also romance and happiness, told from Sorcha's POV every character gets a moment of development, the villains are easy to loathe and the good attach to your heart so quickly. You cannot help but feel for Sorcha and her brothers' plight as they begin to lose sense of themselves whilst she becomes confused over who is the enemy and who is the friend.

There is not a lot of action as this is more about Sorcha's suffering and development and a budding romance, it centres of Sorcha's devotion to her brothers and her developing relationship with the Briton in a world where she is very much unwelcome.

Truly beautiful and heartbreaking I would highly recommend this, you will not be disappointed. Be prepared to be saddened, shocked and taken on a rollercoaster of emotions as this novel is highly realistic in terms of human relations, loss, treachery and love.

The first in a trilogy known as the Sevenwater Trilogy, it is simply a beautiful book, with light touches of fantasy and magic and a hint of Celtic folklore, inspired by one of my favourite fairytales.