Editor’s Pen

Hi…

Well, T20 WC on roll and Angels ‘n’ Demons… Tom Hanks has this habit to make you feel wow about his performance. If there is no Meg Ryan, you will simply fall in love with him.

This week I wanted to start something serious and postponed it for some good time, just for you… our readers. Kolkata and world around is mad about Ray, so we decided to bring up an entire bi-weekly on him. Since the concept is based on your involvement, delay depends on you… when we will have our number of stories, issue will be on…

Waiting for your mails…

Love

Sujoy Ghosh

The Eyes Read It: Wait Is Over Now

With movies coming soon; expectation soar high. Welcome to the bad world of Box Office.

First news… Tom Hanks rocks again. A’n’D is fabulous.

Another news… SRK is the actor of decade! We are surprised!! IIFA bestowed upon the honors to geniuses of the decade. Shah Rukh Khan, Aiswarya Rai Bachchan, A.R. Rehaman and Rakesh Roshan were the prime faces who were revered for their success and compassion towards the Indian Cinema. Congratulations.

Salman is awesome in his show Dus Ka Dum. He straightforwardly told Mika to respect Rakhi Sawant and made us laugh with his antics with TZP and SDM kids. Kudos to him. Next; Kambakht Ishq rushes are disappointing. Guess, it can be as bad as C2CC or Tashan. Stallone is a prize to watch but who can digest movies like Tashan. On anyday, we would like to watch Rocky or Rambo.

Kaminey… ummm. Fa ko Fa bolta… Vishal Bhardwaj will definitely bring out another stunning movie to the celluloid. Atleast, the promo suggests so. Jail (starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, directed by Madhur Bhandarkar) seems to be good. So, likely to get some good watch by monsoons.

The Critique: Apocalypse Now

“I want to take the audience through an unprecedented experience of war and have them react as much as those who had gone through the war"- Francis Ford Coppola.

These lines pretty much sum the experience of “Apocalypse Now”. Starring Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L Willard in lead roles.

Captain Willard is back to Vietnam War after a trip to home, where he’s just had a divorce cause of the strain from the war. He knows that things will never be the same again for home as “home didn’t exist”.
Willard is commissioned to terminate a rebel officer, Colonel Kurtz. Colonel Kurtz has gone insane, is in deep jungle and considered God by the local tribe. It is a mission that officially does not exist.

Willard sets of in a boat up the Nung River on the way to Kurtz, with a crew of 5 people. Along the way he sees places that American are senselessly bombarding places and latter mopping up to quote Willard “offer a band-aid after ripping into half”

Along the way Willard keeps getting information about Kurtz history. Kurtz has been top of his class had served in Vietnam, was being groomed for post of General. Suddenly he returned to Vietnam again and won a major fight with help from locals. Willard put together what Kurtz had gone through, and begins to understand that war had pushed Kurtz to the edge of sanity- and beyond it.

Finally he reaches to Kurtz den where he finds his followers and his enemies’ bodies, their severed heads lying around. He meets the man and days later in a dramatic climax manages to butcher Kurtz, when the tribe is busy butchering a sacrificial animal.

The film has moments that will stay with you forever. It has great performances, complex storyline. The redux version is about 3 hours and 13 minutes long, but the movie indeed is about darkest side of war and indeed it does in mere 3 hours make us feel the true Horror of War.

For The Reel; Written By: Ali 'Rosebud' Naqvi

Statesmen: Francis Ford Coppola

He was the creator of the cinematic myth of Dons. His marvelous effort ranks 3rd at AFI 100 Years 100 Movies list, just behind Citizen Kane and Casablanca (in order). He is Coppola- the director of Godfather.
Coppola directed some of the greatest movies of all times but his career is overshadowed by one big name- Godfather. More people remember Marlon Brando as Don than Mario Puzo, the creator of the character. Godfather is one of few novels that are overshadowed by the celluloid Xerox.


Godfather was his destiny. He was born in Detroit to a family of Italia ancestry. As a child, Coppola suffered from polio. Unlike hundreds of thousands who surrender, he fought and chased his dreams. With his father’s 8 mm camera, he started making movies (homemade puppet theatre) at age of ten. That was just a beginning.

His career started off with a low budget movie- Dementia 13. That was early 1960s. But his big kick was in 1971 when he bagged an Academy Award for Patton (Best Screenplay). He followed up with highly acclaimed Godfather (1972), The Conversation (1974) and Godfather II (1974). His next venture was Apocalypse Now (1979). It was the pinnacle of his career. His paid a lot for this venture and returns compensated. Like Citizen Kane, the movie achieved fame exponentially. Today, some critics rank it over Godfather.

His next few ventures were failure including an acclaimed cinematic effort- The Cotton Club. In late 80s, people considered him to be a jinxed demigod. He was desperate to prove people wrong. He returned with a bang- Godfather III. Though it did not win critical accolades, it was a blockbuster giving Coppola a much deserved success.

Even today, Coppola is a big Hollywood name. For some people, box-office doesn’t mean success or failure. Coppola is one of them.

For The Reel; Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Hammers High: The Hoax

Howard Hughes was a personality of billion shades. This world knows him as a pioneer in cinema and aviation, a multi-billionaire and an exclusive case of schizophrenia who died of kidney failure. He was a phenomenon for Hollywood.

Famed saga Citizen Kane was loosely built (as personality, not characterization) on Howard Hughes. Caprio made a mark as Aviator based on his life. Melvin And Howard showed how low a man can fall to take advantage of a sick billionaire. But apart from the league, there is a movie that shows the real fame of Howard Hughes. The movie was The Hoax, directed by Lasse Hallstrom and starring Richard Gere based on a true incident.

From year 1966 to 1976, Howard led a very nomadic yet recluse life. He stayed in hotels and stayed away from public due to his fear of contracting with germs. Lack of social life led to spread of rumors and a writer Clifford Irving took advantage of the scenario.

He created sensation by claiming that he co-authored the autobiography of Howard Hughes. Howard didn’t respond with a counterstatement at that time. He was at pinnacle of his reclusion. Silence was taken as a nod. That was 1972. The autobiography was heavily booked as people took it for a genuine book. However, just before the publication of the book, Howard finally stood against the fraud and as a result of his crime, Irving was sentenced to jail for 17 months.

In 1977, Clifford Irving released a book titled The Hoax. It was an account of the events. Thirty years after the release, the movie starring Richard Gere was made. Howard Hughes had a very complicated story. He was a businessman, but more interested in art of cinema and aviation. A man who had a scrambled life.

For The Reel; Written By: Sujoy Ghosh

Under Lens: Genesis From Paper To Screen - 3

This edition of genesis features movies that are hugely successful, and even we didn’t know many of these were based on books.

Short Story-“The Sentinel” Movie-“2001-A Space Odyssey”: This is considered to be the greatest science fiction movie by rottentomatoes. Directed by legendary Stanley Kubrick, “2001…” was based on Arthur C. Clark’s “the Sentinel”. The author and the director collaborated on the script; author came out with the complete novel “2001: A Space Odyssey” around the same period.


Short Story-“The Minority report” Movie-“Minority Report”: This Tom Cruise starrer, was loosely based on a short story by Phillip K Dick. This Science fiction set in 2054 where criminals are caught by Pre-crime system. Minority Report is touted as one of the smartest movies of Steven Spielberg had a thrilling script.



Short Story-“Memento Mori” Movie-“Memento”: This Psychological thriller was based on Memento Mori written by Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan’s brother. In the story protagonist manages to kill his wife’s murderer, the movie though is ambiguous about this. The movie is about what the protagonist becomes after his head injury, how he gets used and not about the killer’s discovery.



Novel-“The Silence of the lambs” Movie-“The Silence of the lambs”: This Pscyhological Horror flick directed by Jonathan Demme, was based on the novel by Thomas Harris. The novel is one of four novel of “Hannibal” series. The movie stars Sir Anthony Hopkins in his academy winning role of Cannibal “Hannibal Lecter”. The movie is one of the most chilling that Hollywood has to offer


Novel-“First Blood” Movie-“First Blood”(better known as Rambo): Definetly it is surprising to find Rambo based on a novel. This Ted Kotcheff movie propelled Sylvester Stallone to world wide fame. Stallone plays unstoppable Vietnam war veteran pushed to the edge. The book focused the effect of long wars had on the soldiers, their perspective and how Vietnam war turns Rambo into an efficient killing machine.
We’ll return next time with more novel-to-movie adaptations.


For The Reel;Written By: Ali ‘Rosebud’ Naqvi

Hammers High: Arnold - Stallone rivalry

Arnold Schwarzenegger versus Sylvester Stallone is every action lover’s wet dream. Well they already have had a face-off, albeit in real life. They have been bitter foes at one time. Want to know when? Why? Read on.
Both Arnold and Stallone tasted their first critical acclaim in the movie industry the same year. 1977 was the year when Stallone won Best Actor Award (Rocky), and Arnold won Best Debut (Stay Hungry) at Golden Globe Award.
In early 80’s Stallone had the initial edge, starring in two hugely successful franchisees Rambo and Rocky.
By 1982 (Arnold: Conan the Barbarian, Stallone: Rocky III, first Blood(Rambo)), both emerged as international action movies stars and started keeping an eye on each other, starting a fierce competition. By 1985 (Arnold: Commando Red Sonja, Stallone: Rambo II, Rocky IV) competition breached personal front. They both dated Brigitte Nielsen (star of Red Sonja). Brigitte married Stallone but was seeing Arnold behind Stallone’s back. Brigitte and Stallone later divorced for the same reason.

Both promoted any negative publicity regarding the other. Arnold would in his signature style make snide comments on Stallone, even mocked Stallone in his movie Twins when he sees a Rambo III poster and feels his arms an laughs over Stallone’s physique Stallone is reported to have promote a tell-all book on Arnold based on wild pre- stardom days.

In late 80’s Arnold edged out Stallone, delivering hits like Total Recall, Twins, Terminator II.
It was early 90’s that saw Arnold and Stallone becoming friends. They collaborated on the famous restaurant chain “Planet Hollywood” along with other biggies of Hollywood. Both of them are rumored to star in the movie "The Expendables" to be released in 2010. Can’t wait for them to kick some ass, again, together!!

For The Reel; Written By: Ali ‘Rosebud’ Naqvi