In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree : Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man: Down to a sunless sea.” –Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan, or A Vision in a Dream. A Fragment.”

Perhaps the biggest crime Xanadu, the 1980 Olivia Newton-John/Gene Kelly musical is guilty of is its attempt to serve many masters. Capably directed by Robert Greenwald (who later enjoyed success with the liberal documentaries Outfoxed and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price), the film certainly had a respectable provenance. It’s based on Down to Earth, a 1947 Rita Hayworth musical that happens to be the sequel to the highly successful 1941 comedy Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Incidentally, Here Comes Mr. Jordan was remade by Warren Beatty in 1978 as Heaven Can Wait, so in a weird, roundabout way, Xanadu is really a sequel to Heaven Can Wait… but I digress).

The plot’s fairly simple: Michael Beck plays Sonny, an idealistic young artist who dreams of opening an art-deco nightclub cum roller disco. Just when he’s at the end of his inspirational rope, he runs into Kira (Newton-John) who turns out to be his muse (no, like a real muse). Kira introduces him to Danny (Kelly), a land developer who just so happens to be a former nightclub owner himself. A couple of dance numbers, a couple of arguments, a couple more dance numbers, and it all ends up nicely like a classic Hollywood musical should (Right down to “The End. Made in Hollywood, USA”). Despite The Warriors star Michael Beck’s uncomfortably wooden performance (he once said of Xanadu, “The Warriors opened a lot of doors in film for me, which Xanadu then closed.”) the rest of the cast acquits themselves fairly well.

The real problem with Xanadu is it tried to be too many things to too many people. There’s a musical number about midway through the film where Sonny’s idea of what the club should be clashes with Danny’s idea, and instead of picking one, they attempt to shoehorn a punk band and swing band together. This, I feel, stands as a metaphor for the entire film. I believe the filmmakers’ intention was truly to show how opposite styles can blend together elegantly to create something novel, but the execution more often than not ends up muddled. Beginning with the basic premise, the jazz club/roller disco, this is evident throughout. John Farrar’s tender ballads are an awkward match for the Birmingham disco/rock of the Electric Light Orchestra. For the most part, Gene Kelly looks horribly out of place amongst Newton-John and Beck. The entire fifteen-minute finale is a schizophrenic mess, with Greenwald throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us, from Zoot Suit-wearing poppers to leopard-skinned rock to faux country in a relentless assault to the end.

In spite of all this, there are some pretty distinctive, memorable touches throughout, whose pros definitely outweigh their cons: the unique transitions and visual effects by R/Greenberg, the cool animated sequence by Dragon’s Lair animator Don Bluth,  Kenny Ortega and Jerry Trent’s outstanding choreography. And the film’s main saving grace: everybody genuinely looks like they’re giving this labor of love their best effort, and are having fun doing it. There are glimmers of genius– and I’m thinking in particular of the highlight of this film for me, the fantastic “Whenever You’re Away From Me” number between Newton-John and Kelly– when you see the potential this film had to be a legitimate addition to the canon of great MGM-style movie musicals. And it’s this display of heart that draws the film to be imminently rewatchable to me.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. Immediately below is the the entire film from start to finish, via Hulu. Check it out for yourself. If you watch it directly from the Hulu site you have the option to expand the window to full screen.

Special thanks to HULU for allowing us to present Xanadu in its entirety.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that I am certainly not the only Xanadu fan out there. Douglas Carter Beane was such a fan that in 2007 he staged a live musical version based on the movie that opened to incredible success, and subsequently was nominated for 4 Tony awards, including best musical. Here’s the live performance of “Don’t Walk Away” from the 2008 Tony Award broadcast.

So, now that you’ve seen Xanadu for yourself, what did you think?

We at Cineleet really appreciate a good title sequence, as can be seen in our showcase of designer Saul Bass. A truly effective title sequence should act as a microcosm of the film, delivering all the basic themes in a matter of a couple of minutes, and mentally preparing the audience for what lies ahead. So imagine our delight when we stumbled across Art of the Title.com.

Art of the Title is a film blog solely dedicated to terrific title sequences, in a simple, yet well-designed fashion, with still frames to each sequence presented in a matrix that illustrates their progression. They currently have profiles on about 50 movie title sequences and nearly 20 TV title sequences. I have no idea who runs the site or any additional background, but the site owner’s passion for good title sequences is apparent. I’m going to add it to my bookmarks, and if you like titles as I do, I hope you will as well.

I leave you with Danny Yount’s opening titles to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) which I discovered on this site.

This is a guest post written by Greg Davies. Greg is known in social media circles as cGt2099, and runs the sites The-TrukstoP.com and DayoftheJedi.com

With Universal Day of Jedi set for May 25, Star Wars fans around the globe will be celebrating the legacy of George Lucas; his creative and pioneering vision of what happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Day of the Jedi is, undeniably, specifically a Star Wars celebration; but in many ways it is more than that. It is a reflection of how much impact Lucas’ saga has had upon pop culture around the world. Think about it: can you imagine a world without Star Wars? The movies, books, comics, toys, cartoons, video games, and countless forms of other types of media connected with millions over a few generations. Clearly, what Lucas had accomplished with the series, did more than just touch a nerve.

There was definitely, at one point, a world without Star Wars. Before May 25, 1977, the mythical universe created by Lucas was simply a work-in-progress; something that many in the business-side of Hollywood found challenging to comprehend. The whole concept was weird to them. What the hell was a Wookiee and why did he not have any pants on? What is this Force and who or what is a Jedi?

In spite of the difficulties many of the execs had with understanding the story, the ancestry of Star Wars come from many different sources. Lucas often quotes Joseph Campbell and his studies into and publications about mythology to be a key influence. But it was more than that. While “the suits” thought that Sith Lords and Death Stars were just too peculiar, there were numerous films that Lucas used as inspiration for the Star Wars saga; inspirations that assisted him in molding the saga into a multigenerational story.

Kurosawa is conceivably George Lucas’ biggest influence in the realm of film-making. He has explicitly confirmed this in countless interviews over the years. More significantly, he has also used scenes in his movies that “give the nod” in tribute to the classic Japanese director.

The Hidden Fortress tells the story of a soldier, General Rokurota Makabe, who is transporting a Princess to a safe locality. The royal family has been defeated by their enemies, and the two make a strategy to rebuild the Princess’ military and take back her land.

The plot, in and of itself, is particularly similar to the concept of Star Wars: of a Princess leading a Rebellion and re-establishing order to her domain by taking down ‘the evil empire’. But perhaps the most unequivocal influence of Star Wars is not the plot, but two characters called Tahei and Matashichi.

Tahei and Matashichi are the initial primary characters in the film; and the entire story is fairly much told from their perspective. They have a habit of getting into trouble, getting in the way, and the dynamics of the rapport between the two is a key element of the film. These two characters were a thorough influence for the creation of C-3PO and R2-D2: two characters that have a tendency of getting into trouble, with which Episode IV: A New Hope is fairly much told from their viewpoint.

While The Hidden Fortress is in all probability the more renowned Kurosawa film known to have influenced Star Wars, Lucas has evidently been inspired by a majority of the works by the Japanese master, inserting references to a variety of Kurosawa’s films. Examples include severed limbs (as seen in Yojimbo), and Yoda slowly moving his hand over his head in Episode III (faithfully like Kambei in Seven Samurai)

Being a space-based saga, Star Wars was clearly influenced by several science fiction films. Perhaps the biggest influence was the classic Flash Gordon film serials made during the thirties. With Buster Crabbe fulfilling his defining role as the space hero, the Universal Pictures chronicle became popular among young film fans.

While the basics of spaceships, laser guns, and a young space hero facing off against a wicked emperor are clearly large influences on the Star Wars saga, there are some other characteristics of the serials that Lucas used for both the original and prequel trilogies.

Firstly, Lucas imitates the naming convention of the classic sci-fi serials – naming his films “Episodes” in place of Flash Gordon’s “Chapters”. Additionally, the opening crawl for which Star Wars is so renowned is almost shamelessly ripped off from the Flash Gordon serials; particularly the style used in Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. In essence, Lucas’ utilization of these elements is his way of saying that his saga is the contemporary interpretation of these classic serials.

Star Wars has long been known for being inspired by classic Westerns, such as Once Upon a Time in the West, as well. Scenes (such as those in the Mos Eisley Cantina in Episode IV and the Outlander Club in Episode II) resonate elements of the old classic Saloon scenes in some of the more well-known Western movies of years gone by. In fact, the Han Solo/Greedo scene in Mos Eisley is directly taken from a comparable scene in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Perhaps the one Western that influenced Lucas was The Searchers, featuring John Wayne. The plot focuses on Ethan Edwards (portrayed by Wayne) spending years searching for his niece, who had been kidnapped by a Comanche tribe during a raid on the family’s home.

Lucas refers to The Searchers in several scenes throughout the saga. In A New Hope, the burning of the Lars Homestead is story-wise and visually very similar to that of the burning of the family home in The Searchers. The scene from The Searchers when Edwards observes the Comanche camp to save his niece is almost identical to the way Anakin Skywalker looks over and into the Tusken Raider camp to save his mother (from Star Wars Episode II).

Tuco shoots first.

Films about World War II were also clear influences on the Star Wars saga (the dogfight scene from “Episode IV: A New Hope“ was based upon a visualization created by Lucas taken from countless WWII films; and the historical tale of the Nazis was a huge influence on the development of The Empire). Visually, The Guns of Navarone, a classic in its own right, was a big inspiration on how the Death Star’s functionality was portrayed on-screen. The scenes in which the engineers and gunners prepare to trigger the primary weapon(s) in both films is very close; in fact it is more or less identical.

Plot-wise, the heroes’ attempts at attempting to destroy the formidable weapons are also mirrored in both Episodes IV and VI. While the journey to the end-goal differs between the two films, it is the idea of unlikely heroes accomplishing the impossible that Lucas was clearly fascinated with.

Compare the scene below to the scene in Episode IV where the Death Star is about to fire upon the rebel base on the moon of Yavin.

Lucas has acknowledged that there are several allusions to this film in the Star Wars saga. The most apparent one are the scenes from the Theed Palace in Attack of the Clones with Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala, which were shot at the Plaza de Espana. The Plaza de Espana was used as the Cairo Great Britain Army Headquarters for Lawrence of Arabia. The Star Wars scenes were shot in a similar style to the technique used when Dryden and Allenby discuss the issue of providing ammunition to Lawrence and his troops.

Below you can see the entire extended scene shot on location at the Plaza de Espana for Star Wars Episode II.

Another World War II film, The Dam Busters has long been considered by countless film fans as an absolute classic. Released in 1954, the flick comes to a climax in the scene where Rebel pilots are to fly towards a target and release a single shot of a special weapon at a specific distance in an endeavor to destroy the enemy base with one explosion.

Sound familiar? It should, because the conceptualization is the exact same one used by Lucas during the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Moreover, some of the lines spoken by several of the X-Wing pilots in these scenes are duplicated from The Dam Busters. The assault on the Death Star is also heavily influenced by another film called 633 Squadron.

The parallels with The Dam Busters do not just end there. The final march scene at the end of Star Wars, in which Luke Skywalker and Han Solo are awarded their medals, features music very similar to the Elgarian-style march them used in the timeless 1954 film.

These similarities have not gone unnoticed by fans. In actual fact, one ambitious fan put together his own version of footage from The Dam Busters overdubbed with sound effects, music, and lines from Episode IV.

There are, absolutely, countless films that have influenced George Lucas over the years as he produced the Star Wars saga, besides the ones listed above. The opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan have been seen as an influence on the Kashyyyk battle in Revenge of the Sith, while others have pointed out some inspirations evident in other scenes in movies ranging from Casablanca to Zatoichi. The list could potentially be inexhaustible, which highlights one major factor in all of Lucas’ works: not only is he an accomplished film-maker, but he is most certainly a fan of films and enjoys paying homage to some of the finer moments in film history within his own works.

So, this May 25, as you swing your Force FX Lightsaber about on Universal Day of the Jedi while imitating Yoda’s backwards talk, save a thought also to many of the films that came before Star Wars became such a social impact across the world. Take some time to check them out, because who knows? You might truly end up enjoying them as much as that saga from a galaxy far, far away…

On a final note, I’d like to close out with a parody film that focuses on what influenced George Lucas and the creation of Star Wars. In 1999, an independent film was made by Joe Nussbaum as a homage and spoof to both Star Wars and Shakespeare in Love. The short film is called George Lucas in Love and was very popular on the web “back in the day”. It’s one of my personal favorites, and it fits nicely with this subject. Enjoy, and Happy Universal Day of the Jedi for May 25.

This is a guest post written by Darius Monsef. Darius is the Creator & Executive Editor of COLOURlovers.com. He is a creative consultant, entrepreneur and Internet Astronaut.

When a new viral video pops up on the internet it can reach upwards of 20,000,000 views… that’s more than can be said about any of Eddie Murphy’s latest films. Advertising agencies and major brands have begun to tap the creative class for commercials and funny sweded movie remakes… but how far off are we from a completely user generated feature film?

Spike Lee doesn’t think we’re too far off. He has teamed up with Nokia to direct a film made with mobile phone footage from every day people. “You are seeing first hand the democratization of film,” Lee said in a statement on Thursday. “Aspiring filmmakers no longer have to go to film school to make great work. With a simple mobile phone, almost anyone can now become a filmmaker.” More on this project at Nokia Productions [Be warned, auto loading annoying video + sound]

Not slow to embrace the latest trend MTV is running a User Generated Video Contest right now for the MTV Movie Awards. Kids grow up even more and more immersed in this internet rich, user generated content world. It was not too long ago, I was part of the MTV generation, but the camera phone enabled, video & music on demand teenagers are quick to embrace the new technologies that may be creating the next wave of entertainment content. Some teenagers would bury your body in the desert for a chance to go to the MTV movie awards… and now all they have to do is shoot a good 3 minute video.

Feature Films About Making User-Generated Films

Even though Hollywood hasn’t quite fully embraced user generated feature films… they seem to be embracing making movies ABOUT user generated feature films.

Son of Rambow is the name of the home movie made by two little boys with a big video camera and even bigger ambitions…

Be Kind Rewind stars Jack Black who unintentionally erases all the tapes in a video store where his best friend (Mos Def) works. He then devises a plan to satisfy the store’s few loyal customers by re-creating and re-filming every movie they decide to rent.

The Faux User-Generated Genre

While you can look back a few years to the smash hit The Blair Witch Project. Shooting in a handy cam style got some major attention with the recent release of Cloverfield. Both were very successful films despite their nausea inducing camera movements. If Hollywood can make a feature film about people making an amateur film… why not amateurs actually making an amateur film?

Cloverfield

The Blair Witch Project

The Fan Film Epic

And then there is Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, a shot-for-shot remake of the Spielberg-Lucas blockbuster by three 12-year-old boys in Ocean Springs, Miss. It ended up taking 7 years, between 1982 and 1989 to complete the project. (So a full length feature film can be shot by amateurs… if we can only speed up the process 5-6 years.)

A $6278 Feature Film

$1,500 Camera. $3,000 Macbook Pro. $1,300 Final Cut Pro. $478 Coffee. Granted there are a lot of other costs involved with creating a full length film, but make some talented friends with some free time on their hands and creating a 100 minute film isn’t impossible. And make any trip through the aisles of your local video store and you’re sure to find hundreds of films that you and your handy cam easily could have produced with more quality… and with any luck your film might just be horrible enough to become awesomely bad.

Do you believe Hollywood’s future lies in user-generated content? If not, what does? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.

When Swede Warner Oland was hired to play Asian characters Charlie Chan and Dr. Fu Manchu in the 1930’s, it was because at the time Hollywood was reluctant to hire authentic Asians as leads. You’d think in the years since, casting agents would leap at the chance to prove how much progress we’ve made. You’d be wrong. Let’s look at a few examples where, for better or worse, you have to ask, “Why?”

Note: this post isn’t criticizing the acting performances (some, like Pacino’s and Montalban’s– inspired, others…not so much), it’s merely commenting on the casting choices themselves.

10. The Teahouse of the August Moon
Actor: Marlon Brando, from Nebraska, USA of mixed Dutch, Irish, German, Huguenot and English descent.
Character: Sakini, from Okinawa, Japan
Attempt at authenticity: Not as bad as you’d expect. But considering Brando was a student of famed ‘Stanislavski system‘ teacher Stella Adler (whose school was also responsible for actors such as Robert DeNiro, Warren Beatty, and Martin Sheen), I’d expect nothing less.


9. Scarface (1983)
Actor: Al Pacino, from New York, USA of Italian-American descent
Character: Tony Montana, a “Marielita”– a Cuban refugee
Attempt at authenticity: As representative of Cuban refugees as Super Mario is to Italian-Americans. However, Pacino’s performance is so incredibly over the top and scenery-chewing it actually overshadows the bad accent (”Say hello to my leetle friend”).


8. Touch of Evil
Actor: Charlton Heston, from Illinois, USA of English/Scottish descent
Character: Ramon Miguel ‘Mike’ Vargas, a Mexican.
Attempt at authenticity: I honestly don’t think Heston read the part in the script where he was supposed to be Mexican, and wondered why the makeup girls kept putting shoe polish on his face. Ironically, one of the other Mexican characters in the following clip, Joe Grandi, does a far better job considering he’s played by Akim Tamiroff– who is an Armenian from Russia.

7. The Usual Suspects
Actor: Pete Postlethwaite, British. You don’t get more British than Pete.
Character: Kobayashi (an Indian? Pakistani? WTF?)
Attempt at authenticity: Not much of an attempt at all, but at least it’s not as bad as, say, Apu from The Simpsons. I’m willing to let this performance pass considering the entire character (spoilers) may or may not be a complete invention in the mind of Verbal Kint/Keyser Söze and named after a coffee mug.


6. “Space Seed” and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
Actor: Ricardo Montalban, from Mexico City, Mexico
Character: Khan Noonien Singh, a Sikh from Northern India
Attempt at authenticity: Brown skin and a mild accent do not an Indian make. This is a case where an Apu accent would actually be a benefit. Not to slam Montalban’s formidible talent as an actor, but considering he originated the character in 1967 (in an episode of ‘Star Trek’ called “Space Seed”), pickings were probably slim for an English-speaking native Indian actor.

Fifteen years didn’t improve Montalban’s non-attempt at an Indian accent.


5. Highlander
Actor: Christopher Lambert, of French Heritage (though oddly enough, born in Great Neck, New York)
Character: Connor MacLeod, a scot from, uh, the Highlands
Actor: Sean Connery, born in Edinburgh, Scotland
Character: Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, from Spain.
Attempt at authenticity: I honestly don’t know what’s worse, a Frenchman pretending to be a Scot or a Scot pretending to be a Spaniard (who’s really an Egyptian). And while the script makes a valiant attempt, all the “haggis“es or “pendejo“s in the world aren’t going to convince me Lambert and Connery are something they’re not.

3. Little Buddha
Actor: Keanu Reeves, a Canadian of English, Portuguese, Irish, Hawaiian and Chinese descent
Character: Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), The Enlightened One, from India
Attempt at authenticity: Come on, it’s Keanu. Whether he’s playing a pre-Christ era spiritual teacher from India or an 18th-century Englishman in Transylvania, it’s still Keanu! Time-traveling valley boys, surfing FBI agents, OK…but an Ancient Indian religious figurehead?! I’m really not sure what Bertolucci was smoking when he made this casting choice. Whoa.


2. The Conqueror
Actor: John Wayne, a American original (of Irish and English descent)
Character: Temudjin (aka Genghis Khan), a Mongol from Asia
Attempt at authenticity: Okay, same note as before. This is casting 101. John Wayne has one acting style. If you want a tough American cowboy or a tough American Green Beret, or a tough American boxer, Wayne’s your man. Ruthless Mongolian leader…not so much. I swear I keep expecting him to say “pilgrim” in this film. Film critic Bob Harris said, “One of the most jarring moments in the entire film arrives about halfway through, when two actual Chinese guys appear briefly as extras. After a full hour of trying to convince yourself that John Wayne and this weird menagerie of Europeans, Mexicans, and American Indians are all from Mongolia, actual Asians look positively otherworldly”


1. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Actor: Mickey Rooney, from Brooklyn, of Irish descent
Character: Yunioshi, from Japan
Attempt at authenticity: Words fail me. Watch the clip. Seriously this performance is so car-wreckingly embarrassing, producer Richard Shepard has said, “If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I’d be thrilled with the movie.” If Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is to be believed, this performance so enraged Bruce Lee, that it motivated him to pursue acting, if only to counter the stereotype. If there’s anything positive to be taken away from this, I guess we have Mickey Rooney to thank for Enter the Dragon.

I’m certainly not saying that talented actors can’t stretch out and play roles beyond their range. But sometimes it just goes to prove that to find the best person for the job you may not need to look farther than the character’s own heritage.

This post is dedicated to Brit Peter Sellers, who with brilliant comic aplomb played Frenchmen, Germans, Indians, Americans, and yes, even Dr. Fu Manchu. And to Canadian Mike Myers, who seems to be following hotly in his footsteps.

Are there any other outrageous examples we missed? Leave a comment in the thread below and we’ll add them to the list.

Update

Cineleet reader John Weeks was kind enough to point out this one:

Mary Poppins
Actor: Dick Van Dyke, from Danville, Illinois, of Dutch descent
Character: Bert, a Cockney chimney sweep (and screever and one-man-band)
Attempt at authenticity: John Weeks puts it best: “It’s as if Dick Van Dyke NEVER even heard a person from England before he made Mary Poppins! It’s like Walt Disney NEVER even heard a person from England before he made Mary Poppins! It’s like Julie Andrews NEVER heard Dick van Dyke during the filming of Mary Poppins!” Notice at the end of this clip, when he says, “I’m sorry, where was I?” there’s not the slightest trace of cockney whatsoever in his accent.

We apologize for the recent dearth of entries on Cineleet, but Cineleet staff has been busy recently with our “real” jobs. Updates are coming soon, however, so stick around, it’s gonna be a fun summer. In the meantime, I’d like to point some traffic towards my personal favorite film podcast, Filmspotting, featuring Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson, two wonderful blokes from Chicago.

Adam and Matty are focusing a series of podcast segments on great sci-fi movies of the 1970’s, a couple of which are featured in our tribute to Charlton Heston. I’m going to be listening along, and I recommend you do as well. Here’s their lineup:

• The Omega Man (’71)
• The Andromeda Strain (’71)
• Silent Running (’72)
• Soylent Green (’73)
• Logan’s Run (’76)
• The Man Who Fell To Earth (’76)

Filmspotting #208: Iron Man / The Omega Man / Top 5 Box Office Bombs (That We Like)

Yeah, I’ll admit it. I hate westerns. Oh, there are a small handful I truly enjoy, classics like John Ford’s The Searchers or revisionist Westerns like Unforgiven, but in general it’s hard for me to get enthused about dusty plains, cowboy hats and country music. But what if we consider the Western genre as one not confined to a certain era or locale? Westerns are generally defined as morality tales that take place in an untamed wilderness, featuring a antihero with a vague, often shady past, who adheres to a code of honor more powerful than the code of law. Villains are often entirely ruthless and cruel (even sometimes when working as a representative of the law). And the populace is typically completely subjugated by the villain to the point where they call upon the hero to rescue them. I have no problem with stories containing the characteristics I’ve just described…just not Westerns. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few Westerns where the basic tenets of the genre have been taken out of the crusty, dusty old west.

Yojimbo (1961)

This film, along with Seven Samurai, is the prototype for what would be known as the Spaghetti Western. Both are directed by Akira Kurosawa, a master at his craft. Kurosawa himself was inspired by the classic westerns of John Ford, (and also in part by film noir and Dashiell Hammett novels) so in a way this could be considered an “Eastern”. The hero is a nameless wandering swordsman (Toshiro Mifune) who happens to wander into a village where two rival gangs are feuding over who gets to subjugate the local villagers, and take their resources. Perhaps acting out of a sense of justice (though he would never admit it) this bodyguard, or yojimbo, decides to pit the two gangs against each other, to the benefit of the villagers. The two gangs inevitably destroy each other, the villagers are saved, and Mifune’s nameless swordsman wanders off into the sunset.

Imagine the best aspects of a western, but with awesome swordfights instead of gun battles and you have an idea of why I like this film. Incidentally Yojimbo was later remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars. In this scene, the swordsman taunts a few gang members to the inevitable point of conflict. See if you can spot the influence this scene had on George Lucas’ Star Wars…

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

The basic structure for George Miller’s 1981 Mad Max 2 (aka The Road Warrior) is Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (which was, of course remade as The Magnificent Seven). In the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Australian desert, fuel is a rare and highly sought commodity. A small band of settlers cling to one of the last working oil refineries in the area. They are constantly attacked by gangs of punk-clothed marauders intent on stealing the refinery (and all the refined gasoline) for themselves. Enter Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky , “a burnt out, desolate” shell of a man whose family was killed by marauders. In the settlers he sees a chance to save these desperate settlers and perhaps regain his own humanity.

I love how this film takes classic western conventions and allows them to exist in this dystopic future. Take a settlers vs. Indians film, but instead of horses, the Indians ride souped-up motorcycles and ATVs, and are dressed in leather and chains, and you get the picture. In this scene, the leader of the marauders, Lord Humongous, delivers an ultimatum to the fortressed settlers, who still manage to get a few swipes in their own defense.

Escape from New York (1981)

In John Carpenter’s 1981 Escape From New York, Kurt Russell is Snake Plissken, an outlaw sentenced to death, but given a last minute reprieve to be recruited on a succeed-or-die mission to rescue the President of the United States (who somehow happens to have a British accent) from the Duke of New York, a super thug who rules the town with an iron fist.

Carpenter has always said he felt Escape was a western, and the western influences are apparent, from the tough-as-nails loner with a shady past, to classic recurring lines like “I heard you were dead” (taken directly from John Wayne’s 1971 Big Jake), right down to the casting of spaghetti western veteran Lee Van Cleef as warden of Manhattan Island Maximum Security Prison (filling in the role of the sheriff in a classic western).

In this scene Lee Van Cleef as police commissioner Bob Hauk meets Snake Plissken for the first time and briefs him on his involuntary mission. Note the western motif of Hauk’s office, all done up in rifles, swords, and leather.

Space Westerns

Space Westerns are a very specific subgenre where all the typical elements of the Western genre are transferred over the backdrop of outer space. Here are a couple of prime examples:

Outland (1981)

Peter Hyams’ 1981 Outland is essentially High Noon, set in space. Sean Connery is William T. O’Niel, the newly appointed marshal of a rough mining colony on one of Jupiter’s moons. When miners start mysteriously dying one by one, Marshall O’Niel investigates. He uncovers a lucrative drug smuggling ring run by Sheppard, the manager of the mining town. When O’Niel threatens to expose the ring, Sheppard sends a couple of hitmen to kill O’Niel. O’Niel attempts to recruit deputies to assist him, but everyone systematically abandons him, leaving him to face the killers single-handedly.

While it may not be the best film in the world, it’s still fun to see Sean Connery playing a Gary Cooper-esque lawman, in a space setting that clings so close to its western roots, the weapon of choice is still a shotgun and even the saloon has swinging doors. Here’s the trailer:

“Firefly” / Serenity (2005)

“Firefly”, the Joss Whedon cult hit TV series, and Serenity, the feature film based on that series, is possibly the most intendedly blatant space western ever. Whedon created a setting straight out of history. Picture the American Civil War, but set 500 years in the future. Instead of the North vs. the South, it’s the Alliance vs. the Independent Faction. The crew of the Serenity is comprised of “Browncoats”, those who fought for the Independent Faction, the losing side in the war. They take smuggling jobs and engage in heists deep in the wild rugged frontier…except the frontier are frontier planets. Guns and rifles still rule, and the horse and coach is still the primary mode of ground transportation. But some guns are laser pistols and space battles go hand-in-hand with shootouts.

If you’ve never seen “Firefly” or Serenity (and shame on you if you haven’t), here is the pilot episode of “Firefly” for your enjoyment:

No Country for Old Men (2007)

This is probably the closest thing to a legitimate western on this list. The Coen Brothers’ tale of a drug deal gone bad and the greed and violence that follows, like traditional westerns takes place in the western US, specifically Texas. Our protagonist, a sheriff intent on setting things right. But being that this IS the Coens, there’s certainly nothing traditional about this western. It’s set in 1980, and the times are changing for Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). Bad guys aren’t quite what they used to be and the hitman sent to retrieve the cash from the botched drug deal takes the cake. He is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), the devil incarnate, a cold, ruthless machine of a man who dispenses with guns in favor of a bolt pistol, a weapon used to stun cattle. In the hands of Chigurh, deaths are both quick and excessively violent.

Here’s a scene in which Chigurh asks a storekeeper to choose between heads or tails on a flipped coin. The storekeeper was probably completely unaware of how close he came to his own fate.

So as you can see, just because it doesn’t look like a western, thanks to screenwriters who still seek to place the timelessness of the western aesthetic against their own imaginative settings, I can still enjoy a western without the cowboy hat and the saddle sores.

What’s your favorite Non-Western Western? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.

Legendary actor Charlton Heston passed away April 5th, 2008 at the age of 84. He will be remembered fondly by many for portraying scores of epic, larger-than-life characters ranging from Judah Ben-Hur to Michaelangelo to John the Baptist to Moses, as well as countless nameless (and often shirtless) stoic paragons of heroism.

However, I’ll always have a special memory of Charlton Heston in three films in particular. These films represent the rare, yet notable occasions Mr. Heston delved into the world of science fiction, and brought his larger-than-life heroism with him.

In 1968’s Planet of the Apes, Heston plays astronaut George Taylor, whose capsule crash-lands on a planet that could only spring from the mind of screenwriter Rod Serling (based on a book by Pierre Boulle). In the face of this topsy-turvy world where anthropomorphized apes walk, talk, and carry on every aspect of civilization like humans, George Taylor handles the situation in the only way a scientifically trained astronaut could do: with sheer animal brute force (”Take your stinking paws off of me, you damn dirty ape!”). Here’s a clip from the famous, much parodied ending where Taylor discovers the nefarious secret of the “alien” planet he’d been held captive on. I’d put a “spoiler” tag on this, but, c’mon… we all know how this ends.

1971’s The Omega Man is most notable as the second adaptation of Richard Matheson’s seminal last-man-on-earth novel, I Am Legend. In the film, a global biological war has managed to extinguish most of the planet. Heston plays Army Colonel Robert Neville, who has survived by injecting himself with an experimental vaccine he had been developing. The only people left alive (so he believes) are The Family, a cult of albino vampires who see Neville as a monster for a) representing the world of science that brought Earth to extinction and cursed them to a zombie-like fate and b) trying to kill them every night (though mainly b, probably). Heston is, as always, swaggering and cocksure, an unrepentant symbol of civilized white man’s minority domination over the “heathen” majority. This, to date, is still my favorite adaptation of I Am Legend. It is truly a product of its early ’70s era. Get a taste of the swingin’ trailer here:

1973’s Soylent Green is an ecological parable that is frighteningly prescient. The year is 2022 and Earth is overpopulated and scarce of vital resources. The Soylent Corporation– the major food manufacturer on earth– has just rolled out a new product to sate the starving masses, Soylent Green, purportedly made from seaweed and plankton. When a high-ranking member of the Soylent board of directors is killed in a supposed burglary attempt, New York City police detective Robert Thorn (Heston) is sent to investigate. Thorn discovers the killing was an assassination, which leads him on an investigation that would eventually uncover the mortifying (literally) secret behind Soylent Green.

Heston approaches the role of police detective in the dystopian future of 2022 exactly the same way I imagine he’d play a police detective in 1973 or 1963 or 1953: beating up thugs, sleeping with women, and generally strong-arming his way to the bottom of the case. Throughout, Heston shares some terrific, heartfelt moments with legendary co-star Edward G. Robinson. During the shoot, Heston was the only cast member who knew Robinson was dying of terminal cancer, and while filming a scene where Robinson is euthanised, the on-screen tears Heston sheds for him were supposedly real. Robinson died a few days after the shoot. Here is that scene:

Charlton Heston’s cinematic legacy is indeed vast, spans decades, and will be remembered for as long as we honor the bold and gutsy archetype of the hero. For me, however, I will always be thankful that he brought that archetype to the genre of science-fiction. Good-bye, Chuck. We’ll miss you.

What are your fond memories of Charlton Heston, either from these movies or others? Feel free to leave your comments below.

For whatever reason, be it a deep-seated desire to act, a lack of a casting budget, or just “if you want something done right, do it yourself”, many directors at some point in their careers have stepped out from behind the camera to act. This is typically in a smaller, cameo role, and often with varying degrees of success: sometimes they’re completely natural and sometimes they bring the film to a screeching halt. And sometimes you’d never even know they were there.

The criteria for the examples below is that for the most part, acting is not their first career, so you won’t see Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, or Rob Reiner on this list. So, in no particular order, here we go…

Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction

Here’s one most people recall right off the bat. Quentin’s few minutes in Pulp Fiction as Jimmie Dimmick (who’s claim to fame was that he just happens to live in the 818 area code) may not be the highlight of the acting performances in this film, but thanks to QT’s sharp dialogue, it’s easily one of the more memorable.

Martin Scorsese in Taxi Driver
In this clip from Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) picks up fare Martin Scorsese, who plays a stalking cuckolded husband bent on revenge. Amazingly, Scorsese manages to outcreep even Robert DeNiro! No wonder Travis Bickle went mental!

Martin Scorsese in Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

When the great Akira Kurosawa asks you be in one of his films, you say “yes”, regardless of the role. Here’s Scorsese once again, playing Vincent Van Gogh this time, in a segment from Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams.

M. Night Shyamalan in Signs

I don’t quite understand M. Night’s motivation to act in his films. By comparison, he’s a much better screenwriter and director than an actor, and the parts he plays would be far better served by nearly anyone else. In this scene from his 2002 film Signs, he plays Ray Reddy, Mel Gibson’s neighbor, who’s wracked with guilt for accidentally causing the death of Gibson’s wife.

Sydney Pollack in Tootsie

Sydney Pollack is in that gray area of qualifying to be on this list, as according to IMDb, he has as many acting credits as he does directing credits, going back to the beginning of his career. However, most know Mr. Pollack as the acclaimed director of The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, and Out of Africa. Here he plays Dustin Hoffman’s harried agent George Fields, in Tootsie, which he also directed.

François Truffaut in Close Encounters of the Third Kind

François Truffaut is best known of course, as the father of the French New Wave movement having directed films such as The 400 Blows and Jules et Jim, and chief proponent of the auteur philosophy of cinema. He also happened to be Steven Spielberg’s idol. When Spielberg cast him to play ufologist Claude Lacombe (loosely based on actual ufologist Jacques Vallée) in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, legend has it that Spielberg was so intimidated, he couldn’t bring himself to direct him. on a side note, Truffaut’s translator in this clip, Bob Balaban, has since gone on to direct as well.

and speaking of Spielberg…

Steven Spielberg in The Blues Brothers

John Landis is notorious for casting his director pals in cameos in his films. In The Blues Brothers, Steven Spielberg plays a clerk at the Cook County Assessor’s office where Jake and Elwood Blues bring a tax payment to save the orphanage where they were raised.

Oliver Stone in The Doors

Here Oliver Stone plays Jim Morrison’s UCLA film professor in Stone’s 1991 biopic of the leader of L.A. rock band The Doors.

Francis Ford Coppola in Apocalypse Now

In Apocalypse Now, Director Francis Ford Coppola plays, appropriately enough, a director, albeit for news journalism, in this clever jab at the treatment of the Vietnam conflict as spectacle.

Roman Polanski in Chinatown

Here’s one of my favorite cameos, Roman Polanski as Claude, a swarthy French gangster who misfigures Jack Nicholson’s nose as a warning to keep his nose out where it doesn’t belong in his 1974 Chinatown. Incidentally, director John Huston has a major role in this film as unscrupulous land developer Noah Cross.

Alfred Hitchcock

And last, but certainly not least, the man who made a cameo appearance in thirty-seven of his own films, mostly in inconspicuous walk-on parts, The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Here’s a compilation of most of his cameos:

Update

Peter Jackson in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Director Peter Jackson was generous enough with cameo appearances that he also gave cameos to Director of Photography Andrew Lesnie, Richard Taylor- Head of Weta Workshop, Gino Acevedo- Prosthetics Supervisor, and producer Rick Porras. See the making of the cameo appearances below:

It’s irresistible sometimes for a director to want to jump in front of the camera and immortalize himself on film. But whether it’s to fulfill a larger role in the plot, or just to walk by as an innocent bystander, it’s even more fun for audiences (who recognize them) to see their favorite auteurs in front of the cameras than behind them– as long as it doesn’t pull them out of the film, that