MY 4TH FAVORITE MOVIE VILLAIN (PART 1)

MAX CADY

PLAYED BY ROBERT MITCHUM


AND

ROBERT DE NIRO



FROM "CAPE FEAR", THE ORIGINAL AND REMAKE

 This is where I couldn't decide which performance I liked better. These two both bring a spectacular and scary performance. I'm going to break this into 2 parts. Let’s start by talking about the original Max Cady played by Robert Mitchum. Before I start talking about the character, let me just say right off the bat that this is my favorite performance done by Robert Mitchum. I get chills when I watch him in "Night Of The Hunter" as well but this performance and character left a huge impression on me. Why, let’s find out.

WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
 
Max Cady is a sleazy con artist, who smokes cigars and wears a Panama hat. He has been in prison for 8 years for rape and now that he's out, he seeks revenge on the person who stopped his attacked and testified against him Sam Bowden. We first see him in the films opening credits as the scary theme to the movie plays. He starts off by stalking his ex lawyer as he watches him in court; takes the keys away from Sam's car to give him the word that he's out; and then follows him and his family to the Bowling Alley. These scenes are creepy as hell  because you don't know what he's thinking or what he's up too, he just sits there watching Sam's family as he smokes his cigars and hits on young girls.




A concerned Sam has Max go through a strip search. During the search, Max tells Sam that he's been studying law in prison and that he'll be settling in the town where Sam lives. Max also hires himself a lawyer to make sure Sam doesn't try anything on him. One of the many reasons why I chose Max is because he's a very smart villain. He knows the law system and if Sam makes one wrong move he can not only use it against him but also have Sam lose his job.

 Max's first attempt on Sam's family is to poison the family dog. He does it by sneaking into the backyard and putting rat poison in the food. The scary part is we the viewers see no evidence of him poisoning the dog but we know for a fact that he did it. However, since Sam didn't catch him in the act there's no way of convicting him. What a sneaky guy. Max then meets a young girl and goes out with her. As he takes her home, he brutally beats her off screen. He leaves and tells her that the beating "Was only a sample". The young woman was found scared and bruised refusing not to testify against Cady. The fact that this villain can pull off a crime and get away with it is one serious skill as well as making him one intelligent villain.

Max then makes eyes on Sam's young daughter and tells him that she's as juicy as Sam's wife, what a pervert. A pissed off Sam punches him in the face, but Max doesn't do anything to defend himself but instead threatens Sam and tells the crowd of witnesses about Sam's unnecessary action. After the assault, Sam's daughter Nancy sees him with a frightened face. A day or so later, Max then approaches the car that Nancy is in (While her mother makes a quick run to the store) and Nancy runs out of the car and into the closed school to escape from Cady. Throughout this sequence we are lead to believe that Max is chasing after her but instead he's just standing outside of the school watching Nancy run. She then runs into Max at the same spot he's standing and as she runs away she gets hit by a car. The cool thing is Max doesn't do anything but his presence can lead to some serious chaos. That's what I call a good villain.

 

After the incident Sam tries to bribe Max to leave town. Max refuses the offer and gives him a powerful speech of the loss of values. He tells him the story of losing his wife because of going to jail and his kid doesn't even know him because of the amount of years he spent in jail. This speech goes from something sounding sad and tragic to something twisted about him meeting his wife again and about breaking out of prison and finding ways to slowly hurt a man. The transition and flow to the speech is really good. After refusing the offer, Sam hires a couple of thugs to beat up Cady and scare him off. The plan however backfires when Cady decides to fight back. Not only beating up the thugs but also scaring them away. Max true colors are shown when he calls Sam and threatens him.

This then leads us to the films climax. Sam hides his family on a houseboat on the "Cape Fear" river, while he pretends on showing up to court in another state. He knows Max will be after his family while he's away, so Sam hires a protector for the family and Sam hides in a house on land to make sure Cady is killed. Cady quickly figures out Sam's plan and has plans of his own. He first sneaks into the area where the family's hiding and uses stealth to strangle the family's protector to death. He then unties the boat where Sam's wife is in and then hops aboard and tries to rape her while he rubs a raw egg around her chest and than beats her up to keep her quiet. The acting from Robert Mitchum and the reaction to Sam's wife as she's being felt up makes the scene very uncomfortable and disturbing. Max then leaves the boat and goes after Nancy who is hiding in the house on land. He takes away Nancy's weapon and drags her into the woods so he can rape her. What a sick bastard. Luckily, Sam saves his daughter and tells her to "Run and hide". This then leads to the films epic duel.

  

Cady tries to strangle Sam but Sam breaks free and fights back. The two of them begin to fist fight but Max pushes Sam in the water and tries to drown him. After thinking he succeeded, Sam is still alive and hits him with a rock. Sam then runs into the woods and hides but Max then grabs a giant piece of wood with a nail sticking out and hunts after Sam. This whole fight scene is so intense that you fear that Cady will win. The way how Max fights and acts in this fight makes him seem like a wild animal that’s after it's pray. This villain than gets the punishment he deserves. Sam shoots Max but instead of killing him he decides to nurse him back to health and put him back in jail for the rest of his life until the day he rots. 

"I got somethin' planned for your wife and kid that they ain't nevah gonna forget. They ain't nevah gonna forget it... and neither will you, Counselor! Nevah!"
Max Cady


STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 AS I TALK ABOUT DE NIRO AS THE ROLE

THE BIRTH OF A NATION

The silent era, the age when films were being developed. I've reviewed landmark silent films such as..
"A TRIP TO THE MOON"


And

"THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY"
 


Well now it's time to review the film that didn't just bring in new film techniques but also is one of the most controversial films of all time (Even to this day).

This is a two act movie, so I'm going to review it based on each act.

ACT 1
 

The film centers around the history of the "Civil War" through the point of view of two families. The first act shows America during slavery, the "Civil War" battles, the loss of friends from the effects of the war, and the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln.

Our main characters are so far good but believe me once we hit act 2 you'll hate most of them. This act really shows the struggles of the effects of them during war. The fact that they were good friends but then turn on each other or die from war is really sad and captures the struggle most people had at the time. The scene when our hero comes home and sees his home destroyed captures the sadness of  war beautifully. The battle scenes are shot really good and bring those pictures we see in history books come to life. It's intense, graphic and looks like actual documented war footage. Just watch some of these sequences and notice not just how realistic it looks but also the many new techniques it did for film.

Taken from website "Greatest Films" (Which I recommend for any film nerd to check out)  here's a list of techniques that the film gave us...

1. The use of ornate title cards
2. Special use of subtitles graphically verbalizing imagery
3. Its own original musical score written for an orchestra
4. The introduction of night photography (using magnesium flares)
5. The use of outdoor natural landscapes as backgrounds
6. The definitive usage of the still-shot
7. Elaborate costuming to achieve historical authenticity and accuracy
8. Many scenes innovatively filmed from many different and multiple angles
9. The technique of the camera "iris" effect (expanding or contracting circular masks to either reveal and open up a scene, or close down and conceal a part of an image)
10. The use of parallel action and editing in a sequence 
11. Extensive use of color tinting for dramatic or psychological effect in sequences
12. Moving, traveling or "panning" camera tracking shots
13. The effective use of total-screen close-ups to reveal intimate expressions
14. Beautifully crafted, intimate family exchanges
15. The use of vignettes seen in "balloons" or "iris-shots" in one portion of a darkened screen
16. The use of fade-outs and cameo-profiles (a medium closeup in front of a blurry background)
17. The use of lap dissolves to blend or switch from one image to another 
18. High-angle shots and the abundant use of panoramic long shots
19. The dramatization of history in a moving story - an example of an early spectacle or epic film with historical costuming and many historical references (e.g., Mathew Brady's Civil War photographs)
20. Impressive, splendidly-staged battle scenes with hundreds of extras (made to appear as thousands)
21. Extensive cross-cutting between two scenes to create a montage-effect and generate excitement and suspense 
22. Expert story-telling, with the cumulative building of the film to a dramatic climax

Wow 22 new techniques that this film brought to the art of film making; that's really incredible!

What also brings the historical feel to the film is the recreation of key events during the war. Not just the battle scenes but also the Presidents point of view on the war and Robert E Lee surrendering. I think the best recreation of the war is the assassination sequence of Abraham Lincoln. The actor who plays Lincoln actually looks exactly like him; the death of Lincoln and the shock reaction from people looks realistic; and to make things sadder our main characters are at this tragic event in history. Also the music really captures the suspense and sadness. Speaking of Music, the score has to be one of the best scores that I’ve ever heard. It really brings you into the films atmosphere. It never at all sounds out of place in scenes; it actually helps give the film its flow and knows how to make the scenes happy or sad. I'm still amazed that the score is part of the new techniques that this film brought.

The Slavery scenes however aren't played in an intense way, they're played out in a stereotypical way. We don't see them get bossed around, but we do see them work while the classy white man watch, see them dance to amuse their master and on top of it they all look like stereotype caricatures. I guess the reason why they resemble more of a ministerial show than hard working slaves is because most of them are played by white actors in black face. If you think that's racist wait till you see what Act 2 has to bring.

ACT 2


Act 2 takes place during Reconstruction and shows the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. This is where things go from being historical to insultingly historically inaccurate.

The blacks in this act aren't just portrayed like a ministerial show; they're now portrayed as demons. Ever since the former slaves were free, you see them now as sleazy violent animals instead of regular human beings. In reality most of them didn't take revenge and tried to live a simple life or go back to serving the white folk not knowing where to go, but here they take some serious revenge. They kill and torture white people; invade the white people’s homeland; try to control the white people; and even try to rape the young white woman. What were the director and the writer thinking? Not only are blacks portrayed as evil people in this movie but so are the white people that support them. This film is just messed up as hell.

I think the most horrible racist scene in the whole movie is the death of Flora. In the first act we see Flora as a sweet little girl who grows up to be a fine young lady. While we see her merrily walk in the woods to fetch a pail of water, we see a creepy black man following her. He acts nice and asks to marry her, she responds by slapping him in the face and running away. The black guy then chases after her and now wants to rape her. The chase then leads to her standing on the edge of a cliff and commits suicide. That scene  shows the racism of the film, but it gets worse.

Since the blacks are portrayed as villains, guess who the heroes are...The Ku Klux Klan. I'm not kidding; the Nazis of the south are portrayed as heroes. That's like as if the Jewish people during the "Holocaust" are portrayed as greedy villains and the Nazis are portrayed as classy heroes. The KKK's look and act heroic in this film; the trial they give to a black man before they kill him is suppose to make you cheer for the Klan; and there's an epic battle where the KKK kill off most of the black man to save the white people and in the end they control the rest of the blacks. If this isn't shocking enough, we see Jesus and different gods blessing the KKK. This isn't just racist; it's evil, misleading and disgusting. Even the hero who we were rooting for in the "Civil War" becomes the creator of this gang of evil late trick or treaters.

This film is perhaps the most racist film that you’d ever see! It's stereotypical; and it's insultingly historically inaccurate.  This film didn't just change film, but it also gave re birth to the freaking KKK. What I really find shocking is, it was made in 1915 and it's still shocking to look at today. I don't highly recommend it but for those who love film it's worth at least one viewing. Yes, the films disgustingly evil but it plays a major important part in film history and without it we would have none of these techniques today.

RATING 2/5

MY 5TH FAVORITE MOVIE VILLAIN

Well we're now at the top 5!

NORMAN BATES (ANTHONY PERKINS)

FROM ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S "PSYCHO"

This is the master of all slasher villains. He was actually the start of them all. Why is he so great, well lets talk about him.



He owns a Motel called the "Bates Motel" where guests check in but never usually check out. He lives in a creepy old house with his mother who he obsesses over and has a hobby of taxidermy. Norman's a man who looks friendly but every time you see him you feel uncomfortable. He twitches from time to time and has a smile that looks friendly but seems menacing. You don't know what he's thinking or what he's up too, he just keeps you guessing and guessing until the end.




Norman is also the definition of a momma’s boy, who spends most of his time with her arguing and taking care of her. The scary part is we never see her until the end and its better that I don't go any further when talking about her. All I'm going to say is she is more than not well. Norman’s hobby sounds like a normal thing but believe me he has a better use for that hobby. Just by looking at the house he lives in, it not only looks creepy but also looks like the king of all haunted houses.


 This villain is even responsible for killing off the main character in the first act of the film. We're not even sure if it's Norman or his Mom who is killing the victims. All we see is a shadowy figure and after the kill we see a frighten Norman hiding the evidence. This movie and villain has inspired so many villains and slasher films that we owe it all to this creep.

I'm not going to go into too much detail with this villain because he has the best plot twist in cinema history. Throw in a creepy performance; a twisted back story; clever writing; great direction from a great director; and some slasher moments and you get a great film and villain.

"A BOY'S BEST FRIEND IS HIS MOTHER"
NORMAN BATES

MY 6TH FAVORITE MOVIE VILLAIN

Well since I reviewed a film about time travel, I figured now would be a good time to release my 6th favorite villain. Why, because he's from the future.

This is a difficult choice choosing which Terminator villain I love and had effected me the most. The choice is between

THE T-800


AND

THE T-1000















They're both really great villains but sadly I have to make a decision. I don't want to put too many ties on the list. I have to confess the one that left a huge impression me is...

THE TERMINATOR T-800 (ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER)



FROM THE FIRST TERMINATOR FILM

I know what a lot of you are thinking, "What the first Terminator? Come on the T-1000 is a lot scarier, threatening, and superior than the evil Arnold Terminator." It's true on so many levels and even though I love the T-1000 and "Terminator 2", Arnold still left a bigger impression on me than the T-1000. Why, well lets take a look!

The Terminator is a cyborg who looks human on the outside but underneath that living tissue is a mental exoskeleton machine.  It feels nothing, no pain, no remorse, no emotion, it can't be reasoned with nor can it be bargained, it only has one purpose and that's to terminate mankind.  The Terminator was created by a computer company called "Cyberdyne Systems" and is controlled by an artificial intelligence system called "Skynet". One day, the system saw all humans as a threat and nuked them. The survivors were taken to prison camps to work and build machines. There was one man who stood up for the human race and his named was John Connor. He led a group of survivors to destroy those machines and "Skynet" sent The Terminator to the year 1984 to Terminate Sarah Connor before she had John. The Resistance sent a human protector for Sarah.

The Terminator travels to 1984 naked because nothing dead will go and even though it's made out of metal, it's surrounded by living tissue. The Terminator finds three punks hanging out, drinking and using a telescope. He approaches them repeating what they say and then demands them to give it their clothes. They all take out their switch blade knives and The Terminator pushes one of them aside; knocks one of them out; and rips through a guy’s chest with its bare hands. The now frighten teenage punk that was pushed gives The Terminator his clothes. This is one of the best entrances for a villain because right off the bat you know it's menacing.

The Terminator now has clothing and steals a vehicle. Its next objective is to get guns. It goes to a gun shop and gets a 12-gauge autoloading rifle, a .45 longslide with laser-sighting, and an Uzi 9mm which I have to admit is a badass choice of weapons. After it receives the weapons, it loads one of them with bullets and blows away the salesman (Played by one of my favorite character actors Dick Miller). This is what I call a badass and cold robbery.

Now that it has its weapons, it can now destroy the target. However, "Skynet" didn't know too much about Sarah, it only knew the city and time she lived in. The Terminator had no choice but to wipe out all the Sarah Connors living in Los Angeles. It finds the Sarah Connors in the phone book after it coldly pushes away a biker using the phone. Its first victim’s death is played out in a very eerie and cold way. It runs over a little kids toy truck and slowly walks on the lawn as a dog viciously barks at it (Because Dogs can spot a Terminator). It first knocks on the door asking if the woman is Sarah Connor. She replies "Yes" and the Terminator bursts open the door and shoots her down with its 45 long-slide with laser-sighting. In the scene that follows, we find out that she was a mother of two children, that’s makes the kill more than scary. Its next victim is killed off screen but we see a picture of her dead body.

The Terminator goes after it's final victim and kills her room mate and her room mate's lover. Just when it thought it killed the last Sarah Connor, the real Sarah calls for help leaving a message telling her friend where she's hiding and fearing that she'll be killed. The Terminator hears the message and finds Sarah's ID. The Terminator goes to the place she's hiding and just as it aims it's gun at her in breath taking slow motion, Sarah Connors protector Kyle Reese appears and shoots it down with a shot gun. The Terminator then gets up and start shooting up the club and killing innocent civilians. This then leads up to a thrilling chase. Kyle shoots at the gas tank of a car but the Terminator jumps out of the explosion, landing on the hood of the car, breaks the windshield with it's own hand and tries to strangle Sarah. Kyle knocks it off, but the Terminator steals a police car. It finds them and tries to shoot them, Kyle shoots it a few times and the car crashes into a wall. As a cop looks in the car, the Terminator is gone.



In a thrilling and gory sequence with good use of special effects. The Terminator goes into an abandon room and performs surgery on it's self. This is the first time we see a bit of the machine behind the skin. We see it's mental arms in its open skin and see its cyborg red eye. Yeah, we can tell that the Terminator is a puppet in that scene, but as obvious as it is, I still think it's cool, making him seem more robotic than he already looks with that one piece of flesh being removed. However, I will admit, while bringing a huge sense of his robotic self, I do indeed prefer how they improved the effect in the 2nd Movie.

















The Terminator puts on a pair of shades to hide it's cyborg eye and proceeds on it's mission.  In this memorable action sequence, The Terminator goes to a police station telling an officer behind the counter that it's a friend and was told to pick her up. The officer says no and tells it to wait. The Terminator scans the walls to see how strong they are and then tells the officer his famous line, "I'll Be Back". It then drives through the door and runs over the officer at the desk. Then kills nearly every cop in the building (Including two of our supporting characters) while looking for Sarah. Another reason why I choose this Terminator over the T-1000 is the T-800 actually kills more people than the T-1000. Instead of just blending in, it actually just kills every target it comes across that's a threat and the fact that it killed dozens of police officers in that building makes it a lot more evil and vicious.

 

A couple of other reasons why I choose the T-800 over the T-1000 is because of its target. Sure the target is a grown woman instead of a kid, but comparing her to John she's a lot more vulnerable.  She doesn't think of ways of outsmarting the machine; she spends most of her time running and hiding; and nearly gets killed at the club. John maybe a kid but you knew he can handle himself, Sarah on the other hand can't (At least until the next film). The Terminator is also killing John before he is born which makes the situation a lot more scary. My next reason why I chose the T-800 is also because of the guy it is versing. Instead of being old machine versus superior machine, its man versus machine. When the T-800 was protecting John in the second film, it didn't feel pain; it was a learning computer and survived every abuse it took from the T-1000. Kyle on the other hand is a human which makes the situation more thrilling. He's smart, he can fight but he is just as vulnerable as Sarah. He feels pain and can't handle every abuse from The Terminator. The strange part of it all is the fact that this model Terminator is protecting John in the next couple of films gives this whole situation a bit of a twist. By the way, the same model Terminator (With a few upgrades) is also the one that kills John Connor in the future. That's another one hell of a twist.


 
Sarah and Kyle escape and hideout in a motel. Meanwhile the Terminator is in it's apartment room looking for the location of Sarah's mom. It is interrupted when the janitor knocks on the door which makes the Terminator say one of my favorite film insults "F--k You Asshole". The Terminator also has more quotable dialogue then the T-1000 and every time it speaks it not only sounds like a machine but also sounds extremely vicious and threatening. The Terminator finds Sarah's mom and kills her offscreen but we do see the wreckage from the attack.Sarah calls her mother telling her where she is, but the person she's talking to is The Terminator with the voice of Sarah's mom.



Knowing where Sarah is, it goes to the motel and shoots up the room where Sarah and Kyle are hiding. They escape by stealing a car and the Terminator chases after them on its motorcycle. In this great chase sequence, Kyle throws bombs (That he made) at the machine but the Terminator keeps getting closer and closer, shooting at the car and switching weapons. The car tips over and the Terminator steals a truck trying to run over it's target. Kyle throws a bomb at the truck and it explodes and the Terminator brutally burns to death,or is it dead?



The Terminator rises out of the ashes of the fire and it's exoskeleton is fully exposed. It then chases after Kyle and Sarah in the factory. What can I say, the design, special effects and stop motion is really cool. Kyle gets brutally beat up by the machine with a pipe but manages to put a bomb inside the machine which destroys the machine and Kyle. The explosion wounds Sarah and as she cries at Kyle's dead body, The Terminator appears without legs and crawls after her to strangle her. Sarah cages the machine and destroys it with a crusher after saying another great line "You're Terminated F--ker!"



After the battle, the factory owners find the remains of the Terminator and use it as their inspiration to create "Skynet". This Terminator wasn't just there to kill Sarah, it was also the reason why "Skynet" was invented and if it wasn't for that visit in time none of this would have happened. It's remains also become the key in destroying "Skynet".

Even though the T-1000 is superior and as scary as the first Terminator, I still find the Arnold Terminator more threatening than the T-1000. The T-1000 will always have a place for being one of the great cinema villains but the T-800 will have the place that started it all.

"I'LL BE BACK"
The Terminator