Predator

Recently, 'The Predator' (2018) has been showing in the cinemas, leading to a renewed interest in this iconic monster from the cinema. The whole story of 'Predator' started with John McTiernen's 1987 film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his most famous roles. Now is the brilliant opportunity to look at the iconic film that starts it all!

As you may have noticed, the name 'Arnold' has already been mentioned a number of times in my previous articles. Well, I would always admit that Arnold Schwarzenegger is my favorite actor of all time. Ever since I have started watching most of his key films in my teenage years, Arnold has always been a sort of cinematic superego (in the Freudian sense) for me. True, I will never be as muscular as him - though I do go to gym often - I want to be someone as humorous, open-minded and charismatic as him. Personally, I think Arnold is an underrated actor - because people tends to focus on what he cannot do as an actor instead of what he has achieved. While I will never compare his performance to the greatest actors in cinema, there is no doubt that Arnold has chosen and starred in some of the most iconic films in the 20th century  - The Terminator series, Total Recall, Predator, True Lies, Conan the Barbarian, Commando, even comedy like Kindergarten Cop and Junior. Not only these films have shaped the way we look at modern action cinema, they have buried so deep into the culture of our generation. Arnold is the god of 'cheesy one liners', and I definitely love them! If you think they are silly, then just observe how many time you hear quotes like 'I'll be back', 'Let off some steam' and the joke 'Phased Plasma Rifle in the 40 watt range' recurs in so many comments on the web. If you still need one more example of Arnold's intelligence, dodge this - when he was in politics, in one occasion a commoner threw an egg onto his face, expecting him to be embarrassed. 'Now you owe me bacon', that was Arnold's response. With such a simple and improvised 'cheesy one liner', Arnold defused the whole situation with a sense of humor. He will always be remembered as someone significant in the history of cinema.

Indeed, 'Predator' (1987) turned out to be one of Arnold's most iconic films. In the film, he had to fight with something beyond human - an extra-terrestrial organism known as 'Predator'. I believe some of you may already have heard of this alien before, but I will give the most important info about this species. The predators are advanced organisms with a high intelligence, and they possessed a number of advanced technologies, have camouflage ability, and are comfortable with space travel. They have advanced visions, based on infrared and detect the thermal signature of other species. One of their most sophisticated equipment is a bio-mask which helps them to visualize things with a higher resolution and aids their mission. It also serves as a portal to relay data back to the Predator clan, to the head quarter’s server so they can analyze the information and experience of the individual members - that kind of cloud computing.

Their most signature aspect, however, is their innate aggression and the strong will to fight. The predators have pride in their ability to hunt other organisms, and they are even proud of the fact that they can hunt down those they believe are worthy opponents. I wonder that if there is a UFC in the universe, the predators would probably be like the Gracie family in this universe MMA championship. In fact, for many young predators, a successful hunt is a rite of passage for them, their way to show to the others they have grown up. Believing in a strong sense of honor, if a predator failed in a hunting mission, or was severely wounded by their enemies, they would commit a honorable suicide by activating the self-destruction program on their portable computers, an idea quite similar to seppuku in the culture of Bushido. Able to travel around space in their spaceships, predators have come to various parts of the universe for hunting trips, to hunt down various kinds of species they find challenging. Humans, unfortunately, have always been one of their targets, and the story of the 1987 film is about Jungle Hunter, a predator who attempted to kill a number of soldiers and military officers.

When the story commenced, a spaceship was seen travelling close to Earth and ejected an object through the atmosphere. That was not a mere dot - it was Jungle Hunter, a predator who planned to conduct some hunting trips on our planet. Finding a paradise in a tropical Central American forest for his violent rampage, Jungle Hunter has haunted many villagers around that area, because of both his brutality and the added advantage he could render invisible to human vision during his hunting attempts, making him an unseen and threatening enemy. Soon after, a military rescue team, led by a veteran major Dutch (Schwarzenegger), arrived there for a rescue mission. It turned out that Dutch's supervisor, Dillon, has further intentions than using them as a rescue team - they are used as instruments to carry out assassinations on a number insurgent fighters around that area. After learning the truth of their mission, Dutch was really upset because he could not believe Dillon, an old friend of his, has such a nefarious purpose. But that's not the end of the story. Because an invisible enemy - the Jungle Hunter - has already set his sight on this team of worthy opponents and started stalking on them. Very soon, the platoon was aware that they have been followed by some unknown enemy. The jungle became an arena for a game of elimination, and eventually who could become the equal match to this warrior from another universe?

Predator is certainly a film about plenty of action, yet people often overlook the cleverness of the plot. John McTiernen's heroes are not only strong, but they are also very intelligent when they deal with crisis, especially when they are alone. The more you look at a film like 'Predator', you start to see the intelligence behind the film. Dutch is not only a muscular man with brawn, he also possessed leadership skills, problem-solving skills, and a tremendous ability of resilience. These aspects are what I will concentrate on here (sorry, not the muscle!).

As I have pointed out before, while individualism is often celebrated in McTiernen's films, the filmmaker does not undermine the effectiveness of team work. The hero will often have to blend in nicely to the team to bring the action forward. At the point an unknown enemy was identified, Dutch called into the action an organized hunt to find out their enemy. It was clear that Dutch's team worked as an effective one, because they have successfully killed all the insurgent in a very short span of time. Thus, when the body count started to increase in Dutch's side, it was not necessarily their incompetency. At the starting part of their encounter, the Predator had a number of advantages against Dutch's team. First, he was rendered invisible during their first encounters, and the Jungle Hunter has successfully killed two members in the platoon before a massive fire fight broke out between the 2 parties. By hiding and jumping effectively through trees, he successfully sniped a number of Dutch's men with his advanced plasma weapon. True, someone can argue this is an unsportsmanlike behavior (see later), yet from a military and pragmatic point of view, the Jungle Hunter won this round because he would let the environment become his advantage, and Dutch's men was stranded by Jungle Hunter's control of the situation.  The heavy gun fire wounded the Predator on his arm, and he bled with some luminescent green blood. Later when the team investigate this weird material, Dutch uttered the one of the most iconic one-liners in all of the Schwarzenegger cinema:

DUTCH

If it bleeds, we can kill it.

This line has become an iconic line and it has been parodied or distorted by many. To me, we don't need to over-analyze this, because the meaning is plain and simple. Dutch was showing his neat problem-solving skill. The only way to crack a problem is to identify the key point that leads to the solution. Isn't that the way we are often taught when dealing with exams? There is a certain point that you have to identify the keywords and the implications behind that. Then comes the Eureka moment that will lead you to the direction for the solution. This is not simplistic or silly, indeed Arnold has used such a simple and memorable statement to show us the golden rule of solving problems. If bleeding is the key, then just make him bleed more! Yes I know it sounds like a trash talking line from John Travolta's character in 'Broken Arrow', but that's the case.

After this realization, the team played with their next strategy - setting traps around the forest to catch their enemy out. Not only the attempt led to the demise of a wild pig, more characters were injured or eventually killed. Dutch soon found himself alone in this ordeal, and he also came to the recognition that his enemy only picked worthy men as opponents, hence the girl they have captured have never been targeted throughout the process. Soon after the Jungle Hunter got his hands on Dutch and wounded him. Desperately Dutch asked the girl to 'gettttt to the CHOPPERRRRR!!' and he had to face this other-worldly enemy alone.  While in the hot pursuit, Dutch accidentally fell into a river and the mud has covered Dutch. Because that reduced his thermal signature, the Predator could not see Dutch clearly through his infrared vision with the bio-mask. Escaping the Predator, Dutch immediately picked up this knowledge and knew the mud would be useful for him against the Predator.

Now utterly alone, Dutch has already learnt a lot from his experience. He understood that the firearms the team has got was not effective enough to deal with the Jungle Hunter, and he had to play the game with stealth because that was a strategy the Predator has been using a lot during the encounter - a face to face encounter would not give humanity any advantage in this case. Dutch started to get prepared for the final showdown and he made a lot of traps and more primitive weapons to deal with this situation. Knowing the mud would provide camouflage, he covered himself with mud. He went as far to set fire and give a war cry - a signal of challenge. Yes that might sound a bit corny but at least the Predator liked it that way.  

The final showdown broke out between the two and that was as intense as any skirmish. Dutch has successfully disabled Jungle Hunter's portable device, but to the Predator, Dutch was just a piece of cake. Soon the alien gained an upper hand and cornered Dutch - literally nowhere to run. Seeing the whole situation as a matter of honor, Jungle Hunter decided to give Dutch one last final round. He took off all the weapons that could give him advantages and engaged Dutch in a hand-to-hand combat (that's why I mention UFC before). Clearly Dutch was no match for this alien and he was knocked around by the Jungle Hunter. The affirmative thing, though, was that even facing with such an unsurmountable rival, Dutch had plenty of perseverance and resilience to come back, and he was calm enough to see that the Jungle Hunter might step into the trap. With a sense of ego and hubris, the Predator certainly thought he could squash Dutch like a grapefruit, and he started to be over-confident and made careless mistakes. Indeed, Jungle Hunter could have easily defeated Dutch using his advanced weapons and sniping skills, yet the inflated ego of the alien meant that he saw all these unsportsmanlike, and he wanted to beat Dutch in a fair fight. From these, Jungle Hunter underestimated humanity’s potential and led to his own downfall. Dutch eventually saw an opportunity and released a counterweight onto Jungle Hunter, and that completely destroyed him! Bleeding profusely and dying on the floor, Dutch inquired 'What the hell are you' to this ugly motherfxxker (that's a fair statement sadly), but Jungle Hunter refused to comply. Displaying a final sense of honor, he activated his self-destruction device and committed suicide - yet he decided to die with Dutch together. Sensing an out-of-proportion explosion was brewing through the Predator's creepy laughter, Dutch dashed away the faster he could manage and escaped from the mushroom cloud that resulted from this massive explosion.   

Humanity has affirmed themselves by defeating such a formidable opponent from another universe. This feat has then inspired more Predators to try their luck on the Earth, yet we know that humanity will be up for the challenge!

by Ed Law

Film Analysis

Otto Preminger

This gentleman from Austria boarded on a ship, and arrived in the United States in the mid-1930s. Here, he worked his way into the Hollywood system, directing a number of iconic films from the 1940s into the late 1950s. His work, for his era, was seen as ‘provocative’ - only because he was willing to expose ideas which were too controversial for the conservative epoch he found himself in. He fought for his right to make the films he wanted to show the public, and he often clashed with the committee which was more than happy to accept ‘feel-good’ and ‘escapist’ movies in an era of conformity and McCarthyism. He was rumored to be mean and a tyrant, which he believed it was due to his occasional casting as Nazi Officers, and, in one occasion, Mr. Freeze in the Batman Series. Yet, he was cherished as a man of integrity and his films would have influenced the French New Wave and many other directors. His name is Otto Preminger, the director I will talk about this time!

Recently, Preminger’s masterpiece, ‘Anatomy of a Murder’, is released again in cinemas in Hong Kong. This is a great opportunity to explore his unique style, and how his preferences shape the themes he has explored in his films. As I have stressed before in previous articles, the greatest filmmakers do not feel there is a need for compromise between style and content – the style often reflects the content they want to express.

Preminger’s background might have influenced his worldview and style. His father was a lawyer, and Preminger studied law at university, yet it was only a compromise as his real passion has always been in drama and acting. Nevertheless, these experiences have certainly impacted his way of looking at the world, and he has always believed that an objective and unsentimental viewpoint was the best tool to understand the world through cinema. Thus, Preminger can be seen as a realist, and many of his techniques were committed to enhance the realism in his film. For example, he favored the use of long take in many of his work, and he has made attempts to minimize the number of editing cuts in his films. The fluid camera movement and long takes he preferred were also curiously similar to many other filmmakers of his era – Renoir, Welles, Hitchcock, Mizoguchi and Ophüls. When a change of character perspective was required, Preminger would tend to use a zoom, a suitable camera movement, or having the character moving closer to the camera, because he felt that an abrupt cut would compromise the realism he has cherished so much. Preminger’s use of deep focus photography, like that of Welles, Renoir and Wyler, also enhanced the impartiality and realism of his films. This classical approach to cinematography has also be championed by later critics such as Bazin. His style can be labeled as impartial and impersonal, and he has committed to an emotional detachment to the themes he has portrayed in his work. He encouraged the viewers to observe, not to actively participate nor to get too close to the action. And, he wanted to divert the audience from those easily-accepted perspectives, which were the intentions behind the authorities and the powerful ones.

To me, an analogy to describe Preminger’s style is a circle – yet one that does not close itself up. Through the well-defined and carefully planned scenes, the characters play out their roles and reveal their contentions, yet Preminger’s eyes did not pass any value judgment or sentimental feelings on any of them. He was like an impartial judge, showing us the world as-it-is.

  

Obsession is a significant theme in Preminger’s work, which is a key theme in many of the Film Noirs. Take ‘Laura’, Preminger’s iconic film noir of the 1940s. The whole film is about the mystery of a beautiful woman known as ‘Laura’, and how the different male characters are obsessed to her through different degrees and means. While the photographic style was highly stylized, the composition of the various scenes also addressed the theme of obsession. One thing that comes up to my mind is related to Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’, where James Stewart’s character is spying on Kim Novak’s character, who she is looking at a portrait in a gallery. The portrait, in turn, is looking at the audience! Thus this leads to a cyclical connection between the characters and viewers, reality and fiction! This is also evident in Preminger’s ‘Laura’:  when Dana Andrew’s detective character is looking at Laura’s portrait, the seductive image of Laura is looking at the audience, bluffing the viewer to look closer. We can easily identify with Andrew’s character, because we are just as obsessed with Laura as he did in the film. Preminger understood our psychological design, and exposed our unconscious through connecting us with the characters.

  

In Preminger’s films, the feminine characters are often significant for the plot and motivations of the male characters. Preminger portrayed his male characters in a very realistic manner. Rather than showing these characters as heroic, they are often portrayed as underdogs and desperate men, much like the style of Nicholas Ray and Anthony Mann from the same era. Thus, many of these were film noirs, or at least other genre films with a heavy noir element. The male characters, for whatever causes, possessed greed and fought for their aims ruthlessly. ‘Anatomy of a Murder’ is the prime example, and I believe it is highly recommendable because it provides an extremely realistic look at the justice system. Rather than pursuing for the so-called ‘justice’ as in many of those sentimental films, ‘Anatomy’ provides an objective look at the process of the legal system, and how ruthless one can be to twist facts in order to fit into one’s purpose. ‘Twelve Angry Men’ may be an inspiring film, but it is not a realistic film because the director wants to instill a moral message behind the movie, so Henry Fonda’s Mr. Nice Guy will win at the end no matter how. ‘Anatomy’, on the other hand, challenges the viewer – is justice always granted in the legal system? Is that possible that there will be a ‘wrong judgment’, so the ‘bad’ guy will walk away free? This black-and-white film emerged at an age when color films were getting popular, and it was black-and-white for a good reason, because the style had a film-noir sensibility. If you want to understand what the legal system is about through cinema, ‘Anatomy of a Murder’ is the real deal.

  

Preminger was not afraid to present thorny and controversial issues to the public, as he believed that an impartial portrayal of these issues would lead to a fairer judgment from his audience. His films dealt with many provocative themes – drugs, sexual violence, legal system, homosexuality, mental problems and the controversial historical matters. His films concerned many of the alienated characters who suffered from all the above misfortunes, and he provided an impartial look of how the mainstream society interacted with these outcasts. ‘The Man With the Golden Arm’ was a famous one from Frank Sinatra, regarding heroin addiction (which was super controversial at the time of release). Mr. Sinatra has delivered a smashing performance, and his realistic portrayal of a ‘cold turkey’ was sort of a pinnacle. Other less known, yet worthwhile examples include ‘Fallen Angel’, ‘Whirlpool’, ‘Exodus’ and ‘Advise & Consent’.

  

Mr. Preminger’s controversial image appeared to come from some subjective and personal feelings from certain personalities around the film industry of his time, yet, looking at what he has left for us, I can see him as an honest gentleman with confidence and integrity, and has possessed a mastery of film techniques. His films were ahead of his time, and are still highly relevant today.

by Ed Law

Film Analysis

The Other Side of the Wind

How far are you willing to go to realize a dream, because you are certain that what you do will benefit and inspire the future generations to come? Orson Welles, the director of 'Citizen Kane', has a new film to show the audience this year. Wait a minute - didn't Welles pass away long ago, back in 1985? No, this is not a joke nor the prelude to a ghost story. Because Welles' unfinished final film, 'The Other Side of the Wind', is coming to the lovers of cinema this year. It has already had a premiere in the Venice Film Festival, and it has received a positive and enthusiastic response from the audience and critics so far. The Welles film will be shown on Netflix and selected cinemas in November this year, and that will give our generation a chance to experience the mighty power of the 'Wellesian' style. I will definitely write an article on this final Welles film after I have watched it, because as you may see, I have already written a few articles to celebrate Welles' unmatched genius. The story of Orson Welles will never finish if we have not considered 'The Other Side of the Wind'. Now, let me share with you my enthusiasm on this new film from Welles.

Why would I be so happy about a new film by a dated filmmaker? Let me put it this way - if you can see an unrealized and impossible dream finally comes true, just how much gratifications you can get from that? I suppose this is also a sentiment shared by so many film lovers who admire Orson Welles and cinema as an art in general. 'The Other Side of the Wind' has almost become a myth throughout the 50 years of so since its inception. Welles started filming his final feature film at around the early 1970s, and he was committed to make it his comeback film, because he has been marginalized by the Hollywood System since the 1940s. Most of the greatest films from him were heavily edited or altered without his consent, and they often suffered severe criticism because of these alterations. For the second half of his life, Orson Welles has always wanted to make so many movies, yet every single one was a painful experience for him - due to the termination of funding and studio interference. Either the film was not in his realized form, or he had to abandon projects during production. I suppose one of the reasons why Welles can become such a legend is because he was both a genius and a sympathetic figure. Welles revolutionized the way of filmmaking through all his greatest films, yet the institutions of film production prevented many of his genius moments from happening at all.

Going back to his final film, the production went reasonably well between 1970-1976, until a lack of funding stopped the production process. By that time, Welles has already edited more than 40% of the footage, yet he could not continue to work on the film. The things became even more complicated because of the conflicting legal rights to the film. This controversy continued all the way after Welles' death oin1985. There are many committed filmmakers, including Peter Bogdanovich and Frank Marshall, to name a few, who want to put together the film to realize Welles' dream project, yet they all understand there are loads of issues to settle - from the whereabout of the footages to the legal rights of the final  film. That is why most people think that the film is a pipe dream and predict it will never be shown. Fate and Netflix have proven us all wrong. Because the footages were discovered in 2017, and Netflix is willing to support and fund the project, so that the filmmakers can assemble and complete the film, by reference to Welles' script. And now, the film is all ready and the film genius is back!

A great thing about the film is that it is a historical collaboration between two of America's greatest filmmakers - Orson Welles and John Huston. Welles casted the director of films like 'The Maltese Falcon' and 'The Treasures of Sierra Madre' as his protagonist, who was an aging filmmaker wishing for a comeback. Many critics have already pointed out that Huston’s character reflects Welles’ life experience, and indeed the larger-than-life temperament of the character also resembles that of Huston and Welles, whom the former has been acclaimed as the ‘Ernest Hemingway of cinema’. The realization of this film leads to the Huston-Welles collaboration, which is something the audience from their era will never even imagine or be able to see. 

That is why any lovers of cinema will find blessed by this film. The ultimate irony about the whole thing is that the film, which is supposed to be a film of the 1970s, actually crash-lands to the cinema world in 2018 – our era. We turn out to be the ones who has first-hand experience by a film from a number of cinematic legends who appear to come from another century. Isn’t it deeply ironic that Welles, Huston, or their contemporaries, actually do not have a chance to watch this film because it has taken half a century to complete the work? I suppose the reason why everyone is fighting so hard for ‘The Other Side of the Wind’ to finish is because of their admiration and gratitude to Welles, an inspiring genius who has shaped the way we look at film as an art form.

If you love cinema, or want to know more about film art, you should definitely go and watch ‘The Other Side of the Wind’ - because if there is one more Orson Welles film out there, humanity deserves one more chance.   

Film Analysis