"Paths of Glory" (1957)

France cannot afford to have fools guiding her military destiny

Stanley Kubrick was an anti-war person and he found a right way to express his views. He didn’t shoot films with boring explanations of war horrors, he made films about the real war – with filth, cruelty, blood, destruction, suffering and death. All those elements were present in the fourth Stanley Kubrick’s film – «Paths of Glory».

After a German’s army defeat in the First Battle of Marne, the Western Front became entrenched all the way from the Swiss border to the English Channel. There were a lot of battles, where tens and hundreds of lives were sacrificed for a few hundred yards. In 1916, the both sides were looking for a way to get out of this trench warfare.

In the beginning of the film, General Georges Broulard, a member of the French General Staff, orders General Mireau to capture a well-defended German position called the «Anthill». At first, General Mireau, understanding the high casualty rate of his regiment and the suicide character of the attack, refuses, but changes his mind after General Broulard promises him promotion. Colonel Dax is ordered to execute the attack, who also understands it’s suicide character, but order is an order. The attack is a bloody disaster and furious generals are setting up a court-martial in order to execute three soldiers for cowardice.

 During the Battle of Passchendaele (1917) there was a tale about a furious colonel of the British General Staff, who arrived at the field in order to understand, why soldiers are not eager to execute his plans. After witnessing the horrible battle conditions, the colonel… cried. Despite such sentiments, the Allied casualty rate for this battle was about 508 800.

The film depicts staff officers, who are living in the chateaus, drinking cognac and preparing plans for the glorious final battles. For them front-line soldiers and officers are just merely units, who could be sacrificed for the sake of plans. From the other side, the front-line troops are suffering from typhoid, hunger, dehydration and enemy artillery, but they forced to execute suicidal attacks and tolerate the allegation of cowardice from clean-shaven aides of generals.

When new suicidal attack becomes a bloody disaster, the staff officers will never take the blame, they would shift it to executors. In order to punish, they would court-martial three random soldiers. The staff officers don’t care about past accomplishments of the executed soldiers, they just to show their resolve to politicians, newsmen and the French nation in general.

The war is an ideal plant for all low, cruel and mean. Especially for low-lives, who become commanders with ability for death sentences. The incoming trial gives certain officers an opportunity to get rid of the soldiers, who saw their cowardice. Nevertheless, the officer corps includes officers, who care about their soldiers, including Colonel Dax.

Colonel Dax lives in trenches and leads his soldiers in a battle. An ex-criminal attorney Dax is willing to do anything in order to save his soldiers from injustice. He becomes a defender in court martial, but this court is not legal. This court is not fair and it doesn’t have the presumption of innocence; those judges have already sentenced those three soldiers to death.

The real world is not very rich with justice, and there is no justice during the wartime. The determined loner cannot break the military-political system; he could just break one little interchangeable element. After such pyrrhic victory, he, along with the troops, would be sent back to the front lines, where, in the best case, they would be killed, or, in the worst case, they would by gravely injured.

The refrain of «La Marseillaise» urges citizens to arms, to form battalions, and water the furrows with impure blood. In the XVIIIth century, France was invaded by the neighbors, so that war was, at least at the beginning, just. Most of the other wars are made for other people’s interest and the wasted soldiers are forgotten as old cars. If more directors made such films as «Paths of Glory», than the viewers wouldn’t be too receptive for military propaganda.

"Avengers: Endgame" (2019)

Endgame

I am fond of a few superhero films, including «Batman» of Tim Burton. I also have a high opinion of Sam Raimi’s «Spider-Man». As we remember, in the late 2000s, Marvel started producing quite a high number of superhero films, including cool «Iron Man» with Robert Downey Jr. Also Marvel produced good «Thor».

Any moneymaking theme is milked until the full dry and the same words could be applied to Marvel movies. The producers started financing films about all superheroes and after some time quantity began to dominate over quality. In opinion, the first failure was a reboot of «Spider-Man» with Andrew Garfield, but then Marvel produced funny «Venom».

When I saw, that the last «Avengers» is a three-hour film, I began experiencing doubt, because it is quite hard to make an interesting 3-hour superhero film. The last «Avengers» were an exception, or not?

Well, not exactly. The film was slightly boring because of the three-hour duration. I am not against long films, but in this case the directors are making unnecessary long scenes and not packing them with enough action, and the real action kicks in only in the third hour. Of course, the second hour also have some action, but it was not entertaining enough and you might feel a need for a few yawns.

The film’s atmosphere is also a bit fake. Thanos have killed a lot of people and the mood is quite mourny, but it is a bit farcical. The quotes from famous films, so well used in the previous parts, are also resemble not-so-good self-repetition, especially the quotes from «Back to the Future, Part II».

Nevertheless, the film has strong sides. I enjoyed a few humorous moments, including the line of Thor the depressive alcoholic. Also, on the third hour the real action starts kicking in and the end is quite good and catchy, but you have to wait for it.

In closing, the authors haven’t finished «Avengers» on a high note. I hope, that the authors would understand, that the superhero theme is burned out, and they would take a few years break.  

"The Hitcher" (1986)

Guess

Rutger Hauer, how could you act in second-rate films? You could have won all major film award; you could have acted with the best directors! Remember Roy Batti, Eric and Martin – in all those roles he was 146% authentic. Instead of following this path, Rutger Hauer torpedoed himself with second-rate films. Despite that, if a great actor takes his job seriously, he could make a second rate film shine like a diamond.

Jim Halsey got an easy job – to deliver a brand new Cadillac from Chicago to San Diego. The ride a rather joyful, until Jim picks in West Texas a hitchhiker, who goes under a name of John Rider.  For a first few minutes, everything goes smoothly, but then the hitcher starts acting strangely and threatening Jim with knife. The hitcher tries to make Jim say «I want to die», but Jim is able to dump him on the road. On the next day, Jim again spots the hitcher and he realizes, that it won’t be an easy trip…

The 1980s were an age of supernatural creeps, as Freddie Kruger and Jason Voorhees.  Those film paid a lot of attention to explanation of the creep’s past and modus operandi. The American folk, especially the Southern, is full of stories about maniacs and maniacs families. Such folk was a ground for some rather creepy films. Remember the original low budget «Texas Chainsaw Massacre», which was scarier, than both Freddie and Jason.

In real life, you wouldn’t know a damn thing about a creep and no nun would tell you about his Achilles heel. In real life you would be left alone again a scary maniac and you would be left only to decide, whether he would be merciful enough to kill you instantly or he would like to play. The best thrillers and horror movies won’t spend much time on pseudo-psychological side (quoting Stanley Kubrick), they would leave all fantasies to the scared viewer.

A Rutger Hauer’s creep – is a creature without past and name. He doesn’t belong to no database and he perfectly spots weak-spirited victims. From the beginning, the man with a strange accent radiates an aura of ruthlessness and disregard for any constraints. He perfectly feels the impotence of John and he wants to play. He is like a street smart big cat, who is bored with merely eating a mouse, instead of that he would play and even let the mouse ran, but he would jump and catch the mouse again.

The mouse is trapped on the cat’s territory, who perfectly know the terrain of West Texas. The cat would all Texas against the mouse, and from every corner mouse is in constant danger. But this mouse belongs to the cat and if someone else would get close to the mouse, the cat would slaughter him and continue his sadistic and unpredictable game. Only in «Tom and Jerry» mouse is able to beat the shit out of a cat, but in real life mouse have almost no chances. Or naïve viewer is an optimist?

Coolness of «Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man» was a result of Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson, and following their lead, Rutger Hauer turns «The Hitcher» into a creepy thriller, which keep you tense until the last second. After watching this films, I am willing to beg Rutger Hauer on my knees to show us again his capabilities. Come on, Rutger, show us what you are capable of!

"Pet Sematary" (1989)

Sometimes, dead is better

In teenage years, I admired the prose of Stephen King and even now some of his books makes a rather pleasant read. There were many screen adaptations of Stephen King, including too overrated («Shawshank Redemption), great («The Dead Zone»), average («The Tommiknockers») and below the average («The Shining» TV series). After watching an ad for a new screen adaptation of «Pet Sematary», I have decided to revisit the old version, which gave me some creeps after first watching (when I was 10).

The Creed family moves out of Chicago to a small town in Maine, whose main «attraction» is a pet cemetery for animals, who were killed on a nearby highway. Everything goes on as usual, until a favorite cat of Ellie Creed called Church is run over by a truck. Louis Creed is planning to bury the cat, but a neighbor Jud takes him to a Native American part of the cemetery and tells Louis to bury Church there. After some time, cat reanimates and goes back home.

Marcus Aurelius in his «Meditations» agitates us to treat death as a natural thing and not to be afraid of it. It is good and wise words, but most of the people are afraid of death. It is tough to explain to the children, what death really is, and some starts to lie to children that their beloved cat would come back. Also fear of death is carefully exploited by some founders of sects, who are promising eternal life in exchange for blind adherence to their teachings.

And what, if there is a certain supernatural thing, which would bring back our loved ones to life? It could work and reanimate someone, but what would be the price? Any used supernatural power would require more sacrifices and it would wake the hidden fears of humans, so they would sacrifice it the additional material. And the new reanimated creatures would not be sleepy and slow cats.

The good horror films don’t accent on latex monsters; they accent on internal struggle of characters (remember the first «A Nightmare on Elm Street»). Every film character is a separate hero with their internal fears and worries. Racheal Creed is deadly afraid of death; Louis Creed would do anything in order to spare his family from tragedy; Ellie Creed is too little in order to understand death. The supernatural force is starting to exploit those weaknesses.

Mary Lambert is one of those music video directors who has successfully transitioned to a mainstream cinema. She doesn’t use «pianos in the bushes» and flying monsters; she uses simple methods to grow the atmosphere of fear, hopelessness and despair.  Some scene could still cause shivers, and in the end we would encounter some great action scenes. Also the Director shows the illogical nature of a man, who are behaving as junkies, despite the experienced negative effects.

Summarizing all of the above said, I must say, that there is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. «Pet Sematary» is a smart horror film, which keeps the tense from the first to the last second. I don’t even feel the desire to watch the new version. Let’s hope that other Mary Lambert’s films would be as good.

"Year of the Dragon" (1985)

The Chinese eat the head

The United States were found by the Protestants and in the beginning all of the major political and business places were occupied by WASPs. For a long time, the Catholics were not allowed into the major positions, but being white, they were able to occupy the middle posts. The Chinese were quite different. They died massively during railroad construction of the XIXth century, but were not allowed to be photographed, unlike the Irish labor.

The Chinese were constantly kicked out of the US, but they methodically gained small territories in almost every major American city – Chinatowns. There, they methodically raised money and, after some time, started to outplay Americans on their own fields: entering and sponsoring the major universities, buying up real estate, entering prestigious funds and clubs, and sponsoring political parties. The same words could be said about Chinese organized crime.

Nevertheless, the Chinese en masse were not fully integrated into American society. They were ready to deal with «The White Devil», but were still living into their neighborhoods, where there were no American laws or customs. Americans take a refusal to accept their values as a major insult. You could easily be Polish American, Russian American, African American, Chinese American and etc., but if you refuse to add American to your nationality, then you would never become a trustworthy member of an American society.

In the 1980s, all American movies and news were full of panic, that the Japanese are buying up the US. Yes, for some time the Japanese economy almost succeeded in overtaking the US economy, but we all now the final result. Conversely, the «yellow n…...s» were quietly expanding in the US for a long time, and their effort began to bear fruit in the 1980s. The Chinese are masterfully playing the dumb and their truce with NYPD able them to do business smoothly. But one day the Chinese youth gangs are starting to terrorize the city and one of the most respected Chinese bosses is brutally murdered.

The explosion of violence leads to appointment of the toughest cop – captain Stanley White – as the chief of Chinatown police. He is a stereotypical Blue-collar American: impulsive, intolerant and disdainful towards anyone, who is richer/smarter/more educated. Also he is a member of the lowest White American class – Polish Americans, who are always heroes of the American jokes – and, even more, he is a Vietnam veteran.

He, as a lot of other veterans, is sure that the war was lost because of the lousy politicians and Stanley White is obsessed with idea to prove his toughness, by turning Chinatown into another typical American neighborhood. Captain Stanley White starts to recreate the Vietnam War into one particular neighborhood: insulting Chinese top men, conducting Search and Destroy police operations and, generally, «bombing Chinatown into the Stone Age».

On the other hand, the top men of Chinese Triads are also changing, because the new generation of Chinese are starting to take over, who had contacts with the US and partly absorbed the American values. Such, as young and ambitious Joey Tai, are no longer to content to wait for «4000 years» and they are starting a brutal passage to power and bloody war to overtake the drug operations from the Italians.

Chinese Americans, who are trying to become full Americans, are in the middle of the «battle theater». The Chinese consider them traitors and the Americans treats them, in the best situation, as sexy toys (reporter  neighborhood) and, in the worst situation, as low level servants and objects for racist jokes (young police officer Herbert Kwong). But there are no neutral sides in the total war and soon all would become a meat for the grinder.

These total war would be a full clash between Chinese and American mentality: «4000 years» against «history void»; patience against impulsiveness; numbers against fire power and, the most important of all, ability to sustain high casualties against fixation on short-term goals. Even remember, that B-52 bomber jet was perfectly able to turn jungles into deserts, but was unable to cut Ho Chi Minh trail.

And Stanley White, as 18 years ago, would lose everything and, perhaps, would be able to cut one out of one thousand heads of the Chinese «Lernaean Hydra». After edgy «Heaven's Gate» (I consider a not-so-good glued mosaic of some outstanding pieces), Michael Cimino made a great film about cultural clash in NYC, spicing it up by good action and charismatic actors. I recommend to watch «Year of the Dragon» in a pair with «Black Rain» by Ridley Scott.

"Highlander" (1986)

There can be only one

When we were kids, we all watched «Highlander» TV-series and played in Duncan MacLeod. It were fine TV-series, which quality, nevertheless, depreciated (I don’t remember after which season). Before the TV-series, there were two «Highlander» movies. The second part I watched long time ago and even back then it didn’t impress me too much. Rewatching the first «Highlander» was a bit of cautious experience.

Why? Because there are so many examples, when our favorite childhood/teenage film do not pass the time test and after rewatching them we have only one question – «What was so special about this film». On the other hand, certain films, as my favorite «The Last Boyscout» pass the time test and you want to rewatch them again and again.

What a makes a banal action movie cool? Perhaps, a hero’s charisma. Remember the black humor and philosophical dialogues of Bruce Willis and his verbal clashes with Damon Wayans, and also charismatic villains. «Highlander» also passed a 33-year test. What makes a story about immortals, who chop each other heads, so attractive?

The story becomes attractive, if you add here some fine actor, including, sadly, underperformed Christopher Lambert. Only a year ago he played a thief, hooligan and vagabond Fred in «Subway», which enabled him to get a first main billing in the English-speaking film. His Connor MacLeod is not an unnatural superhero; he is a man.

The Immortal is a creature with superpower and immortality doesn’t brings out a joy. Such life leads to sadness, because you cannot have children and you will always lose your loved ones. Some Immortals turns into monsters, but Connor MacLeod saved his humanity. He helps people, saves children from the SS and kept an ability for love and compassion, but he would pay anything in order to become human again.

His nemesis – Kurgan, - is a complete antipode. He lost his sanity because of the immortality and superpower and turned into the monster, which could kill anyone and crash anything. If he wins, the humanity would enter the Dark Age. Clancy Brown also did an outstanding job in creating a villain, which terrified all kids.

Another characters also did a good job. Sean Connery is tantamount to a nice Scottish single malt, which you could keep for ten years in your bar and it would get better and better. Sean Connery did a good job in portraying Ramirez – a tutor of Connor, which taught him new rules and the main thing – always to stay human and apply your new power responsibly.

While rewatching all films you could expect a disappointment with old special effects. Yes, multiplication is not so cool in computer age, but sword fights and stunts are still quite impressive, so just don’t pay attention to old special effects.

You should not forget the music. Queen wrote a music, which enabled to make the fight atmosphere. While listening Who Wants to Live Forever, the spectator would feel sadness with Immortals, who can’t keep their loved ones; Don’t Lose Your Head prepares you for the battle scenes and etc. It is very sad, that Freddie Mercury died, but his music lives forever.

The Director did an outstanding job in assembling the spare parts, which resulted in a great and rewatchable film. Don’t afraid to be disappointed and rewatch «Highlander» and after that, to make it even better, listen to A King of Magic by Queen!

"Green Book" (2018)

The world is full of lonely people afraid to make the first move

My first experience with Academy Award winner in this year was not too good. I tried to watch «Roma», understood that I am too stupid for this film, decided not to shame myself and turned it off. It killed off any desire to watch another winners, but everybody kept saying good words about «Green Book», so I have decided to give the second chance to Academy Award.

In 1962, in New York, an average Italian-American man Frank «Tony Lip» Vallelonga is forced into two months’ unpaid vacation, because his place work (the club) is closed for renovation. He got a recommendation to work as a driver for a black piano player, who is going to give a two-month US tour. Tony is not too tempered to work for a black man, but pride is an unaffordable luxury for a father of two, and he accepts the job…

We should not hide, that Hollywood has gone too far with political correctness. Don’t judge me wrong, I am not against tolerance as a whole, but when Asian people are cast in films about the XVI-century England, this is too much. Such films, along with teary and judging dramas, teach us quite differently (remember the great quote from Carnage: « I saw your friend Jane Fonda on TV the other day. It made me want to go out and buy a Ku Klux Klan poster»).

Forcing down the throat, especially concerning moral and ethical norms, almost never works. In order to cultivate «saint out of nature» and not «saint out of fear» (quoting Bertrand Russel) you should subtly teach about importance of thinking, that you should not judge a man only on a basis of her class, race and etc. And the most important – never to think, that «this filthy plebe» would never teach you anything.

In this aspect, «Green Book» is much better, than politicized ads. In the beginning, none of the heroes draw too much sympathy. Tony is a stereotypical blue collar American, who is more used to punch his way out of problems and to sweet-talk people. Don is a stereotypical smart ass, multiplied by his lower class achiever arrogance, who is pointing out his intellectual superiority and looks above to such plebes, as Tony.

Despite that, you cannot stay silent for two months and the heroes are forced to communicate. In this, the author made a right point – he shows how two different men are learning from each other. Tony learns from Don literacy and diplomacy; Don learns from Tony street wise skills and drops snobbery.

Yes, the film take place in the early 1960s US, the Southern States are still full with bigotry, and the heroes sometimes gets into trouble, but author doesn’t divert unnecessary attention on this. He shows, how two men drops internal stereotypes and learns to see the real sides of themselves and, finally, they become friends.

The right tolerance is that you shouldn’t automatically judge someone only on the basis of his class, race and etc. «Green Book» teaches us the right tolerance and it makes a rather pleasant watching experience. One minus – a little bit long, but it doesn’t kill the joy from watching the film.

"Fight Club" (1999)

Where is my mind

I first watched «Fight Club» when I was 15 and I developed fixation on this film. I thought that Tyler Durden was unbelievably cool and his quote «Self-improvement is masturbation» became my motto. Nevertheless, a little part of my subconsciousness realized, that I will follow, one way or another, the Narrator’s path and there will be too little anarchy in my life.

After 12 years and five years of office work, I could judge this film more maturely. And I have decided to have a little David Fincher marathon. Experiencing huge pleasure after rewatching «Seven» and «The Game». When I have heard the opening titles music, I have tuned myself for pleasure. Have I felt it?

The Narrator always followed the guidelines. He graduated from college with some not-so-personally-desired degree; he took a not-so-favorite job. He doesn’t have his own tastes and preferences and he merely follows the IKEA trends. Lack of any personal joy leads to an insomnia.

Sometime he is able to battle insomnia by visiting support groups, but another faker Marla Singer ruins it all. They are able to «split up the world», but one of these flights the Narrator meets a weird soap salesman Tyler Durden. After acquaintance, the Narrator’s combo blows up and he moves to Tyler. Since that, he life takes a drastic U-turn…

Almost everybody, when he steps up to adult life, tells himself that he will live as he likes and he won’t work some detestable job, he won’t serve some boss, he won’t worry about bills and debts, he won’t take part in some collective stupid recreations and he won’t try to pretend to be a good member of society. The reality turns out quite different and the most of us will end up as the Narrator.

Permanent insatisfaction steps out and the people are trying to cope with it. The society offers million way of pseudo-happiness as booze, online games, massage parlors and interest clubs. Someone gets lucky and he will find his true happiness, but the most will find only temporary relief. And someone goes even further.

Tyler Durden is a quintessential dream of an average office worker or a Russian school kid, who grew up in the 1990s. He is not bound by societal norms, he always has his own opinion and doesn’t try to suppress it for the society’s sake. He loathes the modern society and commits himself to small acts of sabotage. That is why Tyler Durden is an ultimate fantasy buddy almost for everyone.

Everyone dreams sometimes to punch somebody. Everyone sometimes dreams to smash a face of colleague, who is reading us morals about work ethics, accuracy and discipline. But the modern society banned such forms of dispute resolutions. Nevertheless, the dream lives on and sometimes we some wonderful dream pictures.

Fight Club is a place, where you could feel like a «real man». Every Saturday you could give way to your aggression and fight someone. It doesn’t matter, if you won or not, you have found a way to put an end to all disputes. After taking a part in one Fight Club session, you could tolerate the reality more freely, but you develop almost a drug addiction to these meetings.

Fight Club becomes a totalitarian sect. Sects are one of the ways to fill up the internal void. Clever sect managers are playing on human weaknesses and offers an easy way to get a meaning in life and internal freedom. In reality, sects are mental prisons, but voluntary non-freedom is not so painful, as compulsory non-freedom.

Such «liberated» people are ready to do anything to please their leader. With such loyal army, Fight Club transforms into Project Mayhem and the latter’s activities are far beyond the weekend’s punching club. The Project’s acolytes are turned into zombies and nothing can close this Pandora’s Box. The only thing, which you could do is to remember David Bowie’s lyrics -  It's too late to be late again.

In 27 years, you discover these extra elements in «Fight Club» and you’re no longer consider it a story about cool guys, who are leaded by the coolest of them all – Tyler Durden. Also you understand, that you should find some authentic source of joy and not one of the numerous surrogates.

That is why, friends, doesn’t abandon your internal Tylers or they will overtake your usual profiles. Blogging helps me to control my internal Tyler. And if you envision yourself as a sect leader, doesn’t miss «Fight Club» - it is a perfect guide for any totalitarian leader.

From the art point of view, the film is also excellent. «Fight Club» is a schizoid film, which is unpredictable until the last second. I hope that David Fincher would wake his internal creator and would please us with some cool film on the level with his «creative trilogy» («Seven» - «The Game» - «The Fight Club»).

"Seven" (1995)

I can't tell you whether or not to keep the baby

After disastrous experience with «Alien 3», David Fincher pledged never return to filmmaking and he returned to his beloved music videos. Happily, New Line Cinema mailed him a script of Seven and David Fincher have decided to give filmmaking another shot. This time, he was given more artistic freedom.

1. The city is an evil force

In the mid-1980s, Andrew Kevin Walker went to New York City to find some fame as a screenwriter. He wasn’t too successful, but the Seven’s script perfectly captured the atmosphere of good old filthy NYC of the 1970s-1980s. I think the only director who was able to pull it was Martin Scorsese in Taxi Driver.

Nowadays, NYC is a decent city, where you could walk freely all day long. But in the 1970s-1980s NYC was a disgusting place with spiraling crime, even in the fanciest parts (back then, only the weirdos walked in the Central Park, because it was a perfect place to get mugged). Times Square, now a place for restaurants and tours, was a place with adult theaters and drugs.

Most of the NYC residents are living in tiny flats and the luckiest ones are living near the Metro rails, so they get an extra vibration and no sleep for free. Such lifestyle cancels any mutual feeling and the people are just strolling the streets, ignoring each other and criminal acts. The new inhabitants could nether get used to, neither get mad or neither run away.

The Anonymous City of Andrew Kevin Walker is a quintessential good old filthy NYC. The decadence and indifference is fueled by never-ending rain, bust out buildings and violent crimes.   And now remember, how Travis Bickle wanted «flush it right down the fuckin' toilet».

2. «Wanting people to listen…»

In a city, plagued by violent crime, you need to put some effort in order to get some attention. In one of these Mondays, the police discover a dead obese man, who was literally forced to eat until death. Next day, the police discovers Downtown a corpse of a lawyer with mark «Greed».

Sometime after, police deduce that these are not episodic crimes, this is carefully planned and executed series of crimes. Such crimes don’t produce informers and the police cannot use the usual methods.  The police is left powerless and they only can guess who is these man and could you they get even the slightest hint.

This murderer doesn’t make deliberate mistakes, he is very well versed in medicine, anatomy and classical literature. His every crime is a punishment for the sinner according to the classical texts and in order to understand it, the one should have such level of education, which is mot attributed to your usual police officer. It makes all his «hints» practically useless and the murderer doesn’t leave any admissible evidence.

3. «Ernest Hemingway once wrote…»

William Somerset has to wait exactly one week before the retirement. He lives in the City for a long time and he should already get the thick skin, but the meaningless violence of the City has choked him and he wants to run away to some humane place. Are there any such places left? He might never find out this, because the City have given him the final «gift» - a few brutal murders.

His colleague David Mills is a complete opposite of a quiet intellectual William Somerset. He absorbed the nervous energy of the City and it made him even more impulsive and incapable of long and methodical work. On the other side, his wife is unable to breathe the contaminated City’s air and she quietly fades away.

Only William Somerset is able to understand the motives, but all «hints» are just traps, who are directing to the wrong ends of the murderer’s twisted mental labyrinth. The only way to trace the murderer is to break the law, but it makes the criminal case shaky on technical grounds and the murderer is always a few steps ahead.

4. «I'm setting the example»

Will the City become a better place after murderer’s capture? In order to find an answer, you should watch the film, because you would find out until the last seconds. If David Fincher got the same carte blanche for «Alien 3» it would have been a masterpiece.

Sadly, there are no «ifs» in history, but David Fincher got the classical American «second chance» and used it fully. «Seven» is a great and tense thriller, which keeps you until the last second. Sadly, in his later films the great creator stepped away and the great craftsman took over. That is why, let’s all enjoy his earlier masterpieces.

"The King of Comedy" (1983)

Better to be king for a night, than a schmuck for a lifetime…

In 1976, after the release of Taxi Driver, John Hinckley Jr. became obsessed with Jodie Foster. He unsuccessfully tried to stalk her at the Yale University. After that, he decided that a murder of the US President would properly impress Jodie Foster. So, on the 30^th of March, 1981, there was an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan.

Such extraordinary stories go way out of the normal boundaries and they become a subject of the wildest discussions. There are a lot of «normal» events, like the celebrities being stalked by obsessed autograph hounds, would-be lovers and would-be celebrities.

A 34 years old Rupert Pupkin is a classic loser. He is courier, who lives in some New York slum and nobody ever pays any serious attention to him. In his other life, Rupert is an avid autograph hound and the King of Comedy. One day, he is able to impose himself on the famous Jerry Langford and Rupert hopes, that his success is within the reach. When the reality disappoints him a bit, he decides to take some radical actions…

The 1970s in the US was an era of the harshest economical-moral crisis caused by, among other, by the Vietnam war defeat and Watergate. In the US, there were a lot of veterans, as Travis Bickle, who were willing to perform their own justice. That is why, Ronald Reagan said in his first inaugural address that «we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams» and pledged, that he would do anything to fight the crisis of the 1970s.

In the 1980s, Americans were again persuaded that they could anyone they want to be. The TV was full of glamorous soap operas, comedy shows and success stories of some inner-city kid. Cinema also took a U-turn – instead of depressing dramas, stepped out action movies with tough guys.

A lot of inspired people, took out loan on luxury things and unaffordable fancy homes, but nobody would give a loan to Rupert Pupkin. Despite that, Rupert never wanted a Mercedes, he always wanted to be together with Lisa Minnelli and Jerry Langford.

In his dreams, he and Jerry are old buddies, and he would get married with Rita right on the show. Rupert doesn’t care about differences between reality and fantasy and he really believes, that they will mix together. When he is a bit wrong, Rupert would do anything to mix it together.

Sounds a bit familiar, eh? All of you wanted to be famous in order to snub your childhood bullies and haters? All of you wanted to smile sinisterly to those, who always said that you will not achieve anything and nobody will never look at you? Well, we consider ourselves an adequate people and we are trying to achieve our goals by a rather traditional means.

Despite that, there is an old fact that the most bullied man is the most dangerous, because no one can predict his moves, especially when he is psychologically unstable. And as one critic have rightly pointed out, that the main danger of Rupert is that ordinary viewer could easily identify himself with the hero.

Happily, the state has not taught Rupert to handle weapons and murder people, but there are other ways to reach your «fifteen minutes of glory» and, maybe, become a celebrity afterwards. In closing, let me say that Martin Scorsese made a good film about negative aspects of a «celebrity culture». You could even say, that a hero of the 1970s was Travis Bickle and a hero of the 1980s was Rupert Pupkin.