Forsaken.

When you have an actor of Brian Cox standing introducing the UK Premiere of a Canadian western at the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival you know your in for a treat and this genre classic was certainly that. All right I admit I am a lover of westerns and Forsaken (2015) is certainly a good old-fashioned tale of good verses bad. Directed by Jon Cassar, who will be best known for his work on the first seven seasons of the TV drama 24, it tells the story of a reformed gunslinger who attempts to resist violence to appease his preacher father.

 

Will John Henry use his guns again?

John Henry Clayton returns home after ten years away following the end of the civil war in 1865. He has become a man that never hesitates to kill another in a gunfight. The problem with John Henry's return is that since his departure his hometown is now jointly controlled by a vicious gang boss and corporate businessman James McCurdy (a very evil Mr Cox) who are terrifying the local farmers into selling their land. If they refuse extreme violence occurs normally ending in a funeral. Gang boss Frank Tillman (Aaron Poole) seems to relish the violence he is employed to carry out. Also employed by McCurdy is a famous gunslinger known as Gentleman Dave Turner (the wonderful Michael Wincott who played Philo Grant in one of my all time favourite movies 1995's Strange Days). McCurdy knows that if John Henry decides to take the side of the farmers and pick up his guns again then the eloquent Gentleman Dave is the only man capable of facing him in a gunfight. Now married with a young son Mary Alice Watson (Demi Moore) is another temptation for the troubled preachers son as she was the woman he left behind. Will or won't he pick up his guns to help the brutalised farmers, what would entice him back to kill men again after the promises to his father? I think we could all guess the answer to that and by the end of the film you will be gagging for that good fashioned gun battle.

 

Will he have to face Gentleman Dave Turner in a fight to the death?

The film's real strength is in the partnering of father and son Kiefer and Donald Sutherland who play father and son in the movie. Brian Cox gave us some background to their relationship informing us that the turbulent association they had on screen was very much like the relationship they had off screen, both men had not got on very well and this film was a chance to put that right. Tears were shed, voices were raised but all was well in the end. Interestingly the two actors have only previously appeared in two films together, but never in the same scene.

 

Will John henry live long enough to rekindle his affair with Mary Alice Watson?

Shot in the province of Alberta in Canada it had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015 but has not had a general release in the UK but can be found on DVD and believe me its very good example of the western genre and is well worth sourcing.

Rob Roy.

By all accounts Robert Roy MacGregor was quite a character, born in 1671 and dying in 1734 at the grand old age of 63. During his lifetime he was seen as an outlaw, a folk hero and a Jacobite.  At the age of eighteen Rob Roy joined with his father in support of the Stuart King, James the Second of England and fifth of Scotland. But as history has taught us the Stuart Kings and their supporters were not successful loosing out to the German House of Hanover. This led to Rob Roy’s father serving two years for treason and his mother who was in bad health not surviving to see her husband released. 

 

Portrait of Rob Roy MacGregor.

Even before his death Rob Roy became a legend in his own lifetime due to the publication in 1723 of a fictionalised account of his life called The Highland Rogue. In 1817 the great Scottish author Sir Walter Scott published his novel Rob Roy, although the ‘outlaw’ was not the main subject of Scoots historical novel the book formed the loose adaptation for the 1995 movie of the same title. The film stars Liam Neeson as Robert Roy MacGregor, Jessica Lange as his wife Mary, Tim Roth as the evil Englishman Archibald Cunningham and John Hurt as Montrose. Helming the movie was the Scottish born director of Scandal (1989), Michael Caton-Jones.

Our story starts in 1713 and we are in the Highlands of Scotland. When we first meet Rob Roy he is a well-known and respected cattleman and works for the Duke of Montrose chasing down rustlers of his lordship cattle.  With ambitions to be an entrepreneur and to this end he arranges a loan of £1000 to buy cattle and hopefully selling them at a good profit in the market at Carlisle. Sending a trusted friend Alan MacDonald (Eric Stoltz) to collect the coinage but unbeknown to both Roy and MacDonald, Montrose’s houseguest Archibald Cunningham and his Lordships Factor Killearn (Brian Cox) have hatched a plot to steel the money on route to Roy and make all and sundry believe that MacDonald has absconded to America with his newfound wealth. As a result of all this and because Rob Roy has no chance in paying back his loan he is branded an outlaw with burnings, violent death and rape the order of the day.   

 

John Hurt and Tim Roth.

Liam Neeson as the man himself. 

Once you get the lovey dovey nonsense out of the way the movie settles down into a great swashbuckling tale of violence and intrigue, the climactic sword scene is well worth waiting for and certainly stirs the blood.  Tim Roth stands head and shoulders above all the other fine acting won a BAFTA for his role as Archibald Cunningham.  One of the main supporting stars is the Highland landscape that includes Glen Coe, Glen Nevis and the Loch’s Morar and Leven and not forgetting the rain and the midges.  The main music was composed by Carter Burwell best known for his work with the Coen Brothers. We also not only get the hear her singing but we also have the pleasure of seeing Karen Matheson whose group Capercaille I have enjoyed in concert.

They even named a cocktail after him!

 

The Anomaly.

Director:	Noel Clarke
Country:	UK
Year:	2014
Running Time:	95mins
Principle Cast:	Noel Clarke	Ryan
	Ian Somerhalder	Harkin Langham
	Brian Cox	Dr Langham
	Alexis Knapp	Dana

Noel Clarke is a busy man! Not only is he the producer on another of 2014’s EIFF World Premiere’s, We Are Monster (2014) but he is the director and lead actor in the Sci-Fi thriller The Anomaly (2014). This genuine British cinematic jack-of-all-trades was also in attendance to introduce and take a Q&A following the screening of this ambitious attempt at that rare animal – a well-made British science fiction drama.

Clarke plays Ryan, a traumatised ex-soldier who we first see in the back of a moving van with a young boy called Alex who apparently is also held captive. Ryan’s life seems to be subjected to disorientating bursts with a short duration of nine minutes and 47 seconds! Now what you have got to remember is that your watching a sci-fi drama that is set in the future (5 to 10 years according to Clarke, though at times it seems more) and one that’s extremely complex which means that this blogger did not completely follow what’s going on – but then this genre is not something I always appreciate?

That busy man Noel Clark.

During the Q&A it was explained that the basic premise behind the story is the mind control of people through fear - fear, bio-technology and the fight between good and evil, again I’m not sure who represents good and bad because the father and son team of Brian Cox and Ian Somerhalder who I thought were the villains were really not evil after all but only wanted to save the world – but I suppose there are a lot of evil people about that want to save the world, at least their own version of it!

But don’t get me wrong this low budget movie with its big budget feel, is well made and I would agree that it does give the mega budgeted American genre movies a run for there money. It’s both fascinating and entertainingly physical with some great slow motion fight sequences, which have been choreographed and are as good as any you will see using computer-generated imagery and as Noel Clarke explained he used trained fighters in the film to capture the reality of the situation. He also explained that he prefers to work with people he can trust, a cast that produces a certain quantity of acting and from his own experience as a director allows him to stretch a ‘budget’. Its obvious that Clarke and his cast worked very hard, bringing us a movie that involved working a six day week for a five week shot, but they ended up with a piece of work that has a lot going for it and one that its director can be proud of.

Rise of The Planet of The Apes.

The original Planet of The Apes was released in 1968 and told the story of how a space ship crash-landed on a strange planet in the distant future. The planet appeared at first to be uninhabited but the three surviving crewmembers stumble upon a society in which apes had evolved into intelligent creatures. These human like apes are now the dominant species with the original humans dressed in animal skins and mute! This story was based on a 1963 French novel La Planete des Singes by Pierre Boulle and the movie was directed by Tokyo born Franklin J Schaffner whose oeuvre includes Patton (1970) and The Boys From Brazil (1978). The main recognisable face in this original movie was the gun loving Charlton Heston who was mainly known for appearances in historical epics like Ben-Hur (1959) and The Ten Commandments (1956). After re watching this film I can’t imagine why it’s ranked as a “classic”? It has a slow plodding story line that seems to take for ever to get to the point, its completely devoid of excitement in fact it’s tedious, the budget appears non existent and as for Heston himself, a wooded post would have more personality and come to think of it have more acting prowess. Four more films followed in this particular franchise and judging by the trailers were worse than the initial film.

They have now rebooted the franchise with the recent release of a prequel Rise of The Planet of The Apes (2011). Directed by the 38 year old British born American resident Rupert Wyatt whose previous film was his debut Escapist (2008) it starred Brian Cox who played a convict 12 years into a life sentence with no hope of parole.  He develops an ingenious escape plan to allow him to regain contact with his estranged daughter who has fallen ill, recruiting a desperate band of fellow prisoners to help in his endeavours.  That film had a brilliant structure and a clever narrative.

Andy Serkis!

Wyatt’s new film challenges the reason for the downfall of mankind intimated in the original 1968 version. This time it’s not an arms race that places the apes in the ascendancy but mankind’s quest to discover a drug to cure Alzheimer’s. Scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) develops a gene-therapy drug to repair the human brain. His main guinea pig is an ape called Bright Eyes and when she runs amok every one assumes it’s the effects of the drugs and the trials are cancelled. Rodman soon discovers that Bright Eyes is pregnant and that she was only protecting her newly born child. He then proceeds to take the infant home and names him Caesar. As the youngster grows up he begins to show a high intelligence level and this is when our story really begins.

Freida Pinto and James Franco.

Using modern technology known as performance or motion capture which refers to recording actions of human actors, and using that information to animate digital characters meant that Andy Serkis could play Caesar without resorting to an hairy ape costume. The same technology allowed him to play King Kong (2005) and Gollum in the Lord of The Rings Franchise. What a difference 43 years makes? We now have an example of first class escapist entertainment with never a dull moment. The movie’s just the right length, has some decent acting from our two main stars also from Freida Pinto and Brian Cox, obviously a sizable budget and a very engaging storyline. It may be too late to see it at your local cinema but I imagine it we be available on DVD fairly soon.