Diversions
Twelve Films Not to Miss
If the 1986 year in cinema is
notable for anything, it must be
for display of sheer profes
sionalism without vision, a
distinction between the director
as artist and the director as ar
tisan. Most of the ’86 releases
were entertaining, well crafted
and worth a few hours of our
time, a sure sign of a skilled ar
tisan. yet this spelled a poor year
for brilliance, the territory of the
artist.
The year 1986 was con
spicuous for its display of film
making competence. On the one
hand this made for. in some
respects, a good year Most ol
the films that came out were
entertaining, well made and
worth a few hours of our time.
On the other hand, 1986 was a
bad year for brilliance. A few
films took stabs at greatness,
notably “Blue Velvet.” “Han
nah and Her Sisters,” * * Fool
For Love” and “Brazil” (osten
sibly a 1985 film but released
locally in 1986). but minor flaws
or failings kept these films from
attaining the levels they aspired
to. The foreign cinema was
responsible for the best films of
1986, but even those came in
smaller numbers than in
previous years.
Of course, a number of
critically acclaimed features that
number on many 10-best lists
across the nation have yet to
make it to Eugene. Notable
among them are “Platoon,”
“’Round Midnight,” “The
Sacrifice,” “Sid and Nancy.”
“Vagabond,” “The Mission"
and “The Decline of the
American Empire.” In their
place we got late '85 releases:
“Ran..rhe Color Purple.
“Sheer Madness,” “A Great
Wall,” “28 Up” and “Shoah,”
among others.
Two films in particular seem
to capture the tone of 198b
American cinema Francis Cop
pola’s “Peggy Sue Got Mar
ried” and Martin Scorcese’s
“The Color Of Money." These
two features have a lot in com
mon: neither Coppola not
Scorcese had had a popular hit in
a number of years; both had
snubbed Hollywood for forays
into other modes of production
(Coppola created the now col
lapsed Zoctrope Studios and
Scorccsc made the independent
ly produced “After Hours");
and both found themselves hack
in Hollywood making films that
needed to lx* popular successes if
they hoped to continue their
directorial careers.
They succeeded at their
primary goals, but something
was lost on the way Neither pic
ture reached the standards they
hail set in previous features.
Coppola’s in particular. High
gloss and Hollywood sheen did
little to replace the personal vi
sions that tiHik a backseat. The
! 11 ms aren’t bad, mind you. but
like some of American cinema in
1486 they aren’t great.
Scorcese has since signed a
four-picture contract with
Disney’s Touchstone Pictures
(the producers ot “Money”),
and Coppola is already at work
on his next film. There's a
lesson to be learned from all of
this: there is no reason to risk
greatness when the merely go«xl
is much safer.
i he nest ot «n cinema wasn t
found in Hollywood’s “class”
productions, where production
values and pretension were trad
ed for sensibility and in
telligence, but for the most part
arose from the middle tier of
production. These smaller pic
tures. many of them made by the
new generation of film makers
who trained in low-budget pro
ductions, reflect personal sen
sibilities that give traditional
productions a little personality
and a sense of character.
Unpretentious, stylish and
quite clever, these films in
variably looked to classic
genres, classic directors and
classic (or near classic) films
There were remakes — David
Crononberg's fabulous “The
Fly,” “Tobe Hooper's crazy,”
“Invaders From Mars" and
Frank Oz’s musical parody
“Little Shop of Horrors,” a
remake twice removed. There
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were classic genre produc
tions— James Cameron’s
“Aliens” (asequel to the '70s'
hit), which displayed the sense
of ethics of a Hawks or an
Aldrich military adventure,
Jonathon Demme’s “Something
Wild,” which had resonances of
Hitchcock (and in particular
“North by Northwest"), and
John Carpenter's “Big Trouble
in Little China,” a spoof of
kung-fu costurm adventures.
And there was the just plain odd.
in particular Alan Rudolph’s
enigmatic “Trouble in Mind”
and John Bender’s w ild comedy
“UFOria.”
Continuing on down the list
were more standard Hollywood
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products that nonetheless pro
vided solid entertainment.
Leading the pack was “Star
Trek IV: The Voyage Home”
(possibly the most fun film of
the year), followed by “Heart
break Ridge,” “One Cra/y
Summer,” “Running Scared.”
“Ferris Beuller’s Day Off,”
“Ruthless People,” “FX” and
Eugene’s own “Stand by Me.”
None of these films were
brilliant, but they all did what
they needed to — entertain —
and an unpretentious picture that
does its job is worth five
“serious” productions that
don't.
The major aesthetic disap
pointments of ’86 weren’t
numerous but were conspicuous.
“The Color Purple” led the
pack, proving that rich, white.
urban male Stephen Spielberg
had about as much chance to
sincerely understand and portray
the poor, black, female ex
perience as a poor, black female
has of making a Hollywood film
that could do just that. “Heart
burn" gave me just that. “Gung
Ho" proved to be both racist and
unfunny, Walter Hill’s
"Crossroads" went nowhere
and "The Golden Child" prov
ed that, whatever else he can do,
Eddie Murphy can't turn lead in
to gold.
Like the year in review, my
"best" list covers films that
premiered in Eugene between
Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 during 1986.
Once again my top-10 numbers
12 and is foiled by a slew of
notables. Even if the American
Continued on page 12
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