On the basis of doing as I say and not as I do this blog has been neglected while I have been encouraging students to maintain their own contributions. However with a new cohort of students it seems reasonable to take virtual pen in hand once more.
Looking back on this summer has been a discouraging cinematic experience - there were so few films that I felt I wanted to see and with those for which I did express mild interest, the feeling soon passed. I find myself more and more waiting for the joys of Sky Movies, especially Sky Movies Classics.
Just this week I found myself in something of an Eighties nostalgia fest in watching Point Break and 48 Hours back to back. A couple of things occurred to me. First, how watchable Patrick Swayze could be when he was on top form, second how Eddie Murphy squandered the potential to be one of the greats, and finally why does no one rave about Walter Hill.
Hill is a writer turned director who also does a bit of producing - a sort of two-fisted Renaissance man. As a director his work includes The Warriors, The Long Riders, Southern Comfort, and The Driver - each of them a masterclass in economy of narrative and providing the maximum bangs for the studio's buck . 48 Hours is in the same mould; tough, red-blooded and unremittingly macho but at the same time capturing a fundamental sweetness at the heart of the relationship between tough cop Nick Nolte and released convict Eddie Murphy.
Relationships are also at the heart of Point Break with FBI agent Keanu Reeves torn between surf guru Patrick Swayze and petite Lori Petty. But we know which one he really loves - he didn't travel halfway round the world for her! Like Hill's work on 48 Hours, Kathryn Bigelow directs the action scenes in Point Break with commendable and almost reckless vigour, especially surfing scenes which even now are jaw-dropping in their spectacle. It's interesting to consider what a modern director would have made of either of these movies. I suspect they would have taken comfort in digital technology but the physical effects of the pre-digital era take a lot of beating.
Looking back after almost thirty years these films seem cheesey but it is important to remember that we are looking back through a window that they created - the buddy movie may seem tired now but these two films along with Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon franchise created the genre.
As for Bigelow, her time has come again with The Hurt Locker - still on my must-see list - which is being touted as an Oscar contender. Hill hasn't directed a film for ten years but he did give us Deadwood as a producer and for that alone we should be grateful.
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