Celluloid Snaps - Wedlock (1991)

Dir: LEWIS TEAGUE
Country: USA

Ladyhawke (1985)

Dir: RICHARD DONNER
Country: USA

With the success of such films as Hawk the Slayer (1980), Conan the Barbarian (1982), The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982), and Krull (1983) fantastical and mythical movies of sword and sorcery enjoyed an hitherto unseen commercial success in the early 1980’s. The cycle wasn’t to last long, but proof of its appeal was confirmed when the Italian’s got in on the act with a series of low budget rip offs such as the Ator series (1982, 84, 86, and 1990), Lucio Fulci’s dreadful Conquest (1983), and almost unwatchable crap like Throne of Fire (1983). As an index of box office appeal and success there was none greater in the 1970’s and 1980’s than the inevitable cycle of cheap Italian imitations. In many ways Ladyhawke (which strolled to No 1 in last month’s film review poll) is one of the most atypical of the cycle. There is no doubt in my mind that it would not have been made, were it not for some of the films previously mentioned, yet in an act of craven gutted cowardice, the filmmakers behind it chose to jettison the violence, and the special effects in favour of a soporific, sickly-sweet, saccharine, gag-inducing romance aimed at teenage girls. This is low calorie sword and sorcery (the sorcery element is also non-existent), but the filmmakers and producers are not beyond drawing from the genre (or should that be jumping onto the bandwagon) in order for their sugar coated medieval yarn to appeal to the widest audience. I can only imagine how mystified and disgusted male sword and sorcery fans were when they went to see this in theatres back in 1985.

The Hitcher (1986)

Dir: ROBERT HARMON
Country: USA

The Hitcher is a film I find incredibly difficult to be objective about. Notwithstanding the dismal and desultory remake that appeared in 2007, the original 1986 production has for some years been challenging as my favourite film of all time. In the dark days of university when I had to endure endless drinking sessions in which Eisenstein or Jean-Luc Godard were toasted, I did my best to trumpet the brilliance of Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Wicker Man (1973) or The Hitcher. One such evening saw a painfully serious young chap wax lyrical on the montage editing favoured during the 1920’s by a number of Soviet filmmakers. It was summer, it was hot and stuffy in the bar, but this didn’t stop the guy from wearing a scarf indoors. Anyway I digress (but what is a blog for, if not for digression?). I was left cold and unimpressed by The Man with a Movie Camera (1929), and instead I pointed out a scene in The Hitcher in which C. Thomas Howell is being chased down the desolate highway by a couple of cop cars. This scene is a marvel of editing, it includes a moment in which a helicopter is shot out of the sky, and ends with the cops managing to blow the tyres out of both cars. I also mentioned a sublime low angle tracking shot which glides towards Rutger Hauer after he has been thrown out of Howell's car. The low angle giving Hauer a malignant menace that haunts the film. Academic theories are merely models to aid a certain interpretation. They cannot answer the question of what makes a film good, or why we like a film. These questions are shrouded in a veil of subjective mystery. I cannot say whether The Hitcher is a good film or not, and I’ve seen it twenty times. Yet my colleagues that evening convinced themselves it was rubbish without ever having seen it. I prefer to embrace the mystery, to accept the unknowable…I should have known then that a career in academia was probably not for me.