Montreal Magnum

“The Road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can. . .” – a beautiful, and perhaps slightly ominous passage by J.R.R. Tolkien. . . it is also a quotation that speaks to the post-apocalyptic film simply titled The Road (2009). Based upon Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name, John Hillcoat transports us into a bleak, dying land – with frequent earthquakes and mass fires, it is as if every tree had burned and volcano erupted, an ashen world that no long shines. All animals are extinct, bugs are now almost mythical creatures. Less driven by plot than a credo, our main characters, a Man (Viggo Mortensen) and his Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee), follow a well worn road to the coast. Though it is likely that there is no more hope there than where they came from, it is their goal, the thing that drives them forward, their lifeblood.

There is a fascinating duality to the old west. Still mostly unsullied, the natural landscape was peaceful, serene, carrying with it an almost quiet solemnity (a new life filled with hope), yet, in the blink of an eye, violence could rear its ugly head, leaving behind a long lasting wake of pain, hurt, melancholy, and anger. An existential study of the clash of cultures, and the grey areas that sit in the large milieu between war and peace, Scott Cooper’s 2017 western Hostiles is a film that pays tribute to the past whilst speaking to the present unrest found in the world today. Centred around a man of conviction, stoic military veteran Capt. Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale), he has made his living off of slaughtering the native hordes that disrupt America’s Manifest Destiny. Called into the office of his superior, Col. Abraham Biggs (Stephen Lang), early one morning, he is less than pleased to learn that his final assignment (before retiring) will be to transport a cancer-riddled Cheyenne war chief, Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi), and his family, including son Black Hawk (Adam Beach), from New Mexico to his homelands of Montana – at the bequest of President Harrison. At first willing to disobey orders on his principles (Yellow Hawk was responsible for killing many of his colleagues and friends), the Colonel threatens to court-martial him and remove his pension – basically forcing him to take the job.

Camping: a dream to some. . . a nightmare to others! For all of the beautiful vistas, calm lakes, and age-old trees that bring you closer to nature, the nights are the pitchest of blacks, hiding not only mosquitos the size of vampire bats (that hover around looking for a scrumptious meal), but also a throng of wild animals that lurk in the shadows – only their glowing eyes seen in the ominous dark. . . and soon, once you’ve meandered off the beaten track, those towering hardwoods all start to look the same. No one can hear you scream when you’re in the middle of nowhere. . . okay, perhaps laying it on a bit thick, but this is the basic premise of the high reaching, low budget 2014 Canadian horror tinged dramatic thriller, Backcountry. Written and directed by first time filmmaker Adam MacDonald, he transports us to a provincial park in northern Ontario during the last days of autumn. The rush is over, people have returned to the big city, but young couple Alex (Jeff Roop) and Jenn (Missy Peregrym) are making the trek to the picturesque natural locale before it closes for the winter. The stomping grounds of Alex for many a summer, it is not high on the to-do list for urban-loving Jenn – a cell-phone addicted lawyer. So confident is Alex that he tells the Park Ranger (Nicholas Campbell) that he does not need a map. . . the employee also informs the camper that the lake he was planning on bringing his gal to is off limits (as kids have been sneaking up there and partying – destroying the pristine, unpolluted loch. . . expect a grand in fines if caught – the horrors of government rules and regulations).

With the “based on real events” thing getting a bit old, some recent films have started to have fun with this oft-used opening – American Hustle introed with “Some of this actually happened”, while today’s film, Doug Liman’s American Made, was described by the director as “a fun lie based on a true story”. . . a clever way to accentuate the addition of many fictional plot points to enrich the narrative. Tom Cruise plays Barry Seal, a seemingly staid airplane pilot secretly looking for a thrill in his exhausting, routine-driven life. Married to Lucy (Sarah Wright), they have what a traditionalist would coin – the middle class dream – family, home, and solid income. Yet, a well informed CIA agent, Monty ‘Schafer’ (Domhnall Gleeson), tracks Barry down at the end of one of his flights – it does not take much to convince the pilot to sign up, and he is soon working questionable missions for the agency all over Central America.

The English language has so many fascinating and underused words: conundrum, copasetic, and, most importantly, at least to this review, phantasm. . . a term that I would likely not even know if it wasn’t for two distinct sources – the works of Edgar Allan Poe as well as the title of the 1979 horror film Phantasm and its sequels. Defined as a figment of the imagination or disordered mind, as well as an apparition of a living or dead person, Poe often used it in reference to his characters, who wandered around in a fugue state, while writer/director Don Coscarelli visualizes this word, concocting a fantastical dream-like (or should I say, nightmarish) horror landscape. Seen through the eyes of thirteen year old Mike (A. Michael Baldwin), he is a boy who fears so much. Losing his parents to an accident, he constantly trails his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury), worried that he too will leave him. To flash back for a moment, the movie actually opens with another death, that of a family friend who is killed after climaxing in a graveyard. . . the mysterious Lady in Lavender (Kathy Lester) finishing him off after she is satiated. Made to look like suicide, it is another unpleasant reminder of how death has haunted Mike’s short life. The only other person in their circle is Reggie (Reggie Bannister), a loyal, oft present friend of Jody’s.