Only now does it occur to me... HEAVEN'S GATE

Only now does it occur to me... that I'm not sure if a movie has ever been packed with as many beloved character actors as HEAVEN'S GATE, and I'll even include THE LONGEST DAY, COP LAND, THE EXPENDABLES, THE PLAYER, and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS in consideration.

There's so much to say about HEAVEN'S GATE.  Probably too much.  From its tumultuous production that basically destroyed United Artists to its hideous reception to its latter-day critical re-evaluation to the Johnson County War on which it is based– one could fill a volume.  (And people have.)  In the end, I'd say it's an ambitious film which flirts with genius, is bogged down by poor pacing, but consistently holds the viewer spellbound with gorgeous Western imagery (courtesy of master cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond) even when the narrative begins to dawdle. 

So set aside nearly four hours and give it a try– I'd say it's worth the time for the curious, the Western fan, the cinematography aficionado, or the character actor die-hard.  But more on that in a minute.  Then, see FINAL CUT: THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF HEAVEN'S GATE (available in eight parts on YouTube here), and go ahead and read this interview with Cimino himself for a little taste of the outlandish (and possibly insane) creature who lurks beneath the surface of this genuinely talented and occasionally virtuosic director.

But for now, fasten your seatbelts, and prepare for a whirlwind tour of character actors, the sheer magnitude of whom may even give you whiplash: 

Coming up on the left here is Eastwood crony Geoffrey Lewis (10 TO MIDNIGHT, MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, DOUBLE IMPACT, BRONCO BILLY, 'SALEM'S LOT, MAVERICK) looking like the live action mountain man version of "Pigpen" from peanuts.

Attached to Geoffrey Lewis is a hand.  And in that hand is a tongue.  And that tongue is attached to...

...Mickey Rourke?  

 

Lookin' pretty young there, Mickey!  Good show.

Down the road a spell is Terry O'Quinn (THE STEPFATHER, BLIND FURY, THE X-FILES, SILVER BULLET, THE ROCKETEER, "John Locke" on LOST)

He's got his hair still, and is playing a baseball-luvin' member of the U.S. Calvary.  In a strange tie-in with his character on LOST, he's got an injured leg and is carrying an important and mysterious "list" of names.

Continuing on with our journey, here's Richard Masur (IT, THE THING, LICENSE TO DRIVE, MR. BOOGEDY, RENT-A-COP, RISKY BUSINESS, MY GIRL)

chomping on a corn cob pipe, giving his all to his colorful brogue, and looking about as intense as he's ever looked (no small feat for a man generally typecast as "suburban dad").

Over on the right here, to the left of that presumably 19th Century malt liquor is edgy queen of French cinema Isabelle Huppert (THE PIANO TEACHER, AMOUR, I HEART HUCKABEE, COUP DE TORCHON, LA CEREMONIE, Hal Hartley's AMATEUR).

Up here behind the beard is Brad Dourif (CHILD'S PLAY, WISE BLOOD, ALIEN: RESURRECTION, DEADWOOD, THE TWO TOWERS, DUNE, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, THE EXORCIST III, BLUE VELVET, GRIM PRAIRIE TALES)

and sure he doesn't have much to do, but it's a modern-day Western, so we had to have Brad Dourif in some kind of old-timey spectacles.  I think it should be written into the SAG paperwork.

Around the bend in the proto-pimp costume is Bronson heavy Paul Koslo (THE OMEGA MAN, VANISHING POINT, THE STONE KILLER, MR. MAJESTYK, CLEOPATRA JONES, FREEBIE AND THE BEAN, LOVE AND BULLETS).

Then, over in that train with the fur hat and the lip carpet is Sam Waterston (THE KILLING FIELDS, THE GREAT GATSBY, SERIAL MOM, LAW AND ORDER, CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, CAPRICORN ONE)

who finally gets to play a bad guy, and to great effect!

Over to the side there, you can see a Kris Kristofferson (PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, CONVOY, FLASHPOINT, BIG-TOP PEE-WEE, BLADE, and star of CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT, the only feature Arnold Schwarzenegger ever directed) in his natural habitat.

And wait– who's that in the shadows behind him?  Why, it's the film debut of Willem Dafoe (THE LOVELESS, WILD AT HEART, ANTICHRIST, SPIDERMAN, TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, EXISTENZ, BODY OF EVIDENCE, BOONDOCK SAINTS, THE ENGLISH PATIENT).  He's just an extra, but, hot damn!

Down the path a spell is none other than Jeff Bridges (TRON, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, CUTTER'S WAY, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, KING KONG '76, STARMAN, THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT).

He's got a great intensity here in a supporting role– and supposedly when production wrapped, one of the many "cabin" sets were up for grabs, so Bridges swooped in, disassembled it, and reconstructed it on his ranch property!

Over in this glen is Christopher Walken (THE DEER HUNTER, ANNIE HALL, KING OF NEW YORK, THE DEAD ZONE, A VIEW TO A KILL, MCBAIN, BATMAN RETURNS, WAYNE'S WORLD 2, NEW ROSE HOTEL, KANGAROO JACK)

and I'll yes indeed shut my big mouth, shitpoke!  Another fine Walken badass role.

And then right here, if he'll put down the flask long enough for you to get a clear look– is none other than John Hurt (THE ELEPHANT MAN, I CLAUDIUS, ALIEN, THE HIT, 1984, THE STORYTELLER, KING RALPH, DOGVILLE, MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, DEAD MAN, HELLBOY, TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY '11)!

He delivers an eccentric performance, dripping with pathos.  Like every other John Hurt performance!  The man is never anything less than superlative.

Then, upon examining the end credits, I realized that one of my favorites, Tom Noonan (MANHUNTER, HEAT, THE MONSTER SQUAD, THE LAST ACTION HERO, ROBOCOP 2, THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, DAMAGES), was in the film as "Jake," and I didn't notice him!  To be fair, he may have been standing around the back with a beard and hat on, and I'm sure I would have seen him if I'd been looking in advance, but allow me to repeat this sentiment:  there were so many character actors that I missed Tom Noonan.

Whew!  I'm impressed.  I hope you've enjoyed this breakneck tour of character actors.  And perhaps in closing, it begs to be asked:  where the hell was Harry Dean Stanton?

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Film Review: BLIND FURY (1989, Philip Noyce)

Stars: 4 of 5.

Running Time: 86 minutes.

Tag-line: "He may be blind, but he don't need no dog."

Notable Cast or Crew: Rutger Hauer, Terry O'Quinn (Locke on LOST, THE STEPFATHER, SILVER BULLET), Nick Cassavetes (son of John, FACE/OFF, QUIET COOL), Meg Foster (THEY LIVE, LEVIATHAN, STEPFATHER II: MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY), Noble Willingham (THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, THE HUDSUCKER PROXY), Randall 'Tex' Cobb (former heavyweight, RAISING ARIZONA, DIGGSTOWN, the WALKER TEXAS RANGER finale episode), Rick Overton (Franjean the Brownie in WILLOW, GROUNDHOG DAY), Sho Kosugi (REVENGE OF THE NINJA, ENTER THE NINJA, NINE DEATHS OF THE NINJA).

Best one-liner: "I also do circumcision."

Despite the fact that Japan's ZATOICHI series had persisted for 26 films and 112 television episodes, it took seven years of shopping the script to American studios in order to make this re-imagining actually happen. And the straw that broke Tri-Star's back? "He may be blind, but he don't need no dog." Yes, it was the profound utterance of that sheer Miltonian poetry which secured the funding: not a script, not Rutger Hauer, not Terry O'Quinn (or should I say 'Terrance O'Quinn,' as the credits do?). At least that's how the story goes. Maybe that's a good starting-off point: "He may be blind, but he don't need no dog." I guess I'm okay with that. Written by Charles Robert Carner (GYMKATA) and directed by Philip Noyce (PATRIOT GAMES, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER), this movie is pretty much exactly what you'd expect. Closest in structure to the 17th Japanese film, ZATOICHI CHALLENGED, BLIND FURY is nonstop rip-roaring-Rutger Hauer-blind swordsman action.

He lost his vision on the battlefied in 'Nam. Bloodied and abandoned, he stumbled into a village where they healed and trained him for the next several years in the Vietnamese (?!) art of blind swordsmanship.

(All of this plot is finely condensed into the opening five minutes, though we do receive some additional 'Nam flashbacks as the story proceeds.) Cutting to the present-day, Rutger is wandering around with his walking stick, looking like a real goofball. Headphones, trench coat, backpack, sunglasses, and a silly red ball cap. It's quite an ensemble.

His stick strikes an alligator on the side of the road. "Nice doggy," says Hauer as he steps across the reptile and he continues on, apparently oblivious to his brush with death.

As events later in the film will later confirm, Hauer's character, Nick Parker, is so finely attuned to his surroundings that, even without sight, he can gauge how many men are in a room, envision what sorts of weapons they might have, predict a projectile's trajectory, and then kick/kill their asses with the blade hidden in his cane. This leads me to believe that of course Hauer knew that he was stepping over an alligator, and only said "Nice doggy" for his own personal amusement (and for the gator's as well?). We get a sense of Hauer in action as soon as he steps into a ramshackle Floridian bar and grill.

A local punk pulls the old "switch the blind man's mild sauce with the hot sauce" routine, and he and his buddies soon find themselves curled up in the corner, grasping their balls in pain, and wishing they'd never fiddled with cinema's most dangerous Dutchman.

A plot soon emerges: Vegas mobster-types dangle Terry O'Quinn from a great precipice (an image which may be of interest to LOST fans.)

Terry O'Quinn (as Frank Devereaux) incurred a vast gambling debt at a crooked casino, and the local criminal empire would like Devereaux, who happens to be a chemist, to basically cook up an obscenely large batch of crystal meth for them, presumably to sell on playgrounds or convents or wherever the most evil place to peddle illegal drugs happens to be. Well, right at this moment, Hauer- his old war buddy– happens to be visiting his Florida home. O'Quinn is in Vegas being tortured by mobsters at the moment, but since Hauer is a big fan of the drop-by, he decides to have some tea with his old lady and his kid. O'Quinn's wife here is played by Meg Foster (a.k.a. The Evil Chick from THEY LIVE), and oddly this isn't the first time they've played spouses (also see: STEPFATHER II: MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY).

She's also in possession of some of the most eerily striking eyes in film history. Maybe she shoulda played the blind person. Tragedy strikes in the form of Randall 'Tex' Cobb (as the redunkulous villain, 'Slag'), and despite Hauer's best limb-slashing efforts, he's unable to completely avert calamity.

Now Hauer is on the road with O'Quinn's kid, and the side-splitting antics– set to what sounds a lot like the score from DRIVING MISS DAISY– begin to ensue. As always, Hauer really delves deeply into the role. There's a hell of a lot of lip-pursing and brow-raising and eye-squinting, but instead of coming across as over-the-top, it's simply a means for Hauer to externalize our key suspension of disbelief– that a blind man can achieve near-supernatural feats of swordplay.

You feel the weight of it, too. While this film is certainly no stranger to slapstick (a statue gets Venus de Milo'd, etc., etc.), occasionally the script decides its time for a stock 'emotional scene.' Frequently Hauer and O'Quinn elevate these scenes to levels of truthful artistry which I can't imagine the makers actually intended (more on that in a bit).

Anyway, Hauer is en route to Vegas with the kid. They're pursued by mobsters who want to kidnap the child in order to more easily coerce O'Quinn into freebasing those mountains of crystal meth I was talking about earlier. Their dynamic is fun to watch, and will make you yearn for a less politically correct era of filmmaking. The kid is a dick. Always ribbing Hauer, trying to steal his seat on the bus, poking fun at him for being blind. But, as many a great Golan-Globus film has shown us, there's a great catharsis to be had in the depiction of a bratty kid getting his comeuppance. Just take this scene, for instance:

It's fantastic! Hauer and the kid facing off through a series of dangerous pranks tempered by vaguely offensive schadenfreude. Note the gleeful enthusiasm with which Rutger relishes the idea of the kid perhaps breaking his kneecap, the petulant gusto with which the kid tries to asphyxiate Hauer, the reversals of derisive laughter, and the natural joy we feel as an audience when Rutger regurgitates the rock and thwacks the kid on the temple.

Is it wrong to feel this way? No! It's in the service of a growing paternal bond between Hauer and the kid. How can that be wrong? It's beautiful! In fact, how dare you question their heartwarming relationship!

I will now pontificate on some brutal low blows of note.

Yeah, there are certainly quite a few of them in this flick. And most notably: an excruciating, skewering, sword-delivered stab to the nuts. I call it- the "Shish Ke-Lowblow."

YAHHHHHHH

More villains join the fray. Nick Cassavetes and Rick Overton, in a nod to Peckinpah, play Lyle and Tector Pike, two nefarious, bickering brothers who are essentially couple of Keystone Kowboys. "I'm gonna put that blind man in a wheelchair!" They kind of feel like they should be villains in a WAYNE'S WORLD movie, but since they're already here, let's just go with it.

Rutger Hauer- not a fan of THE NOTEBOOK.

Along the way, there's the best cornfield chase since NORTH BY NORTHWEST (or at least since PRIME CUT), a nettlesome wasp is sliced in two, a vexing eyebrow gets the cane sword treatment, and Rutger gets to blind-drive a van the wrong way down a one-way street ("Billy, navigate!").

Note the juxtaposition of Rutger's glee and the screaming passenger's terror.

Angered by the lack of progress by his dunderheaded minions who "can't even catch a blind man and a kid," the head of the criminal empire (played by Noble Willingham) demands Bruce Lee. "Bruce Lee is dead!," his flunky retorts. "Then get me his brother!" Suddenly, the one and only SHO KOSUGI shows up in his employ!

His origin is never adequately explained, so, as an audience, you're kind of wondering if he's actually supposed to be Bruce Lee's brother. Hauer recognizing him as Japanese after touching his eyes (yikes) would seem to debunk this idea, but this is BLIND FURY, so it's still hard to say.

Oh, didn't I promise to talk more about some real emotional stakes here in BLIND FURY? Well, here goes. The film begins to flesh out some back story for Hauer and O'Quinn.

They were best buds back in Da Nang, but a case of apparent heat-of-the-moment cowardice on O'Quinn's part may or may not have something to do with Rutger's sightlessness.

There. Now with that baggage, rethink Rutger's drop-by. Not having seen each other since the incident in question, one could imagine that their reunion would be a minefield of pain, regret, and introspection. But can you imagine that reunion in the context of a movie which has more in common with ENTER THE NINJA than THE DEER HUNTER? Well, I would say- never underestimate the indescribable pathos of Terry O'Quinn or the emotional intimacy of Rutger Hauer.

These freeze frames don't exactly do it justice, but you probably have an inkling of the virtuosity on display.

Anyway, it ends with a sword fight over a hot tub.

I feel like I say this a lot, but – shades of REVENGE OF THE NINJA? I mean, that movie packs in more jacuzzis per minute than any comparable martial arts film. Did Sho ask for the hot tub's inclusion, or was Noyce merely tipping his hat to Golan-Globus?

Anyway, that really sums it all up. Utter absurdity and poignant, impassioned characterizations collide. See it all in BLIND FURY.

-Sean Gill

Junta Juleil's Summer '10 Movie Series
1. HELL IN THE PACIFIC (1968, John Boorman)
2. KUFFS (1992, Bruce A. Evans)
3. THE OUTFIT (1973, John Flynn)

4. FOR Y'UR HEIGHT ONLY (1981, Eddie Nicart)

5. A*P*E (1976, Paul Leder)

6. BLIND FURY (1989, Philip Noyce)
7. ...

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