1/2
THE INCIDENT One of the featured attractions during this week's Project
Lovelight event (check out See&Do for details), this hard-hitting film from
1967 proves to be the sort of raw drama that, sad to say, never loses its topicality.
So constricted that it's hard to believe it wasn't a stage play first (the script
was penned by TV series vet Nicholas E. Baehr), the film stars Tony Musante
and Martin Sheen (in his film debut) as two NYC street thugs who corner several
passengers on a subway car and proceed to brutalize and humiliate them. Someone
like Dirty Harry (or even Billy Jack) would only need 10 seconds, tops, to lay
waste to these punks, but most of the passengers adopt a mind-my-own-business
passivity that not only allows the abuse to continue indefinitely but also encourages
some of the victims to turn on each other. Director Larry Peerce establishes
a mood of jangly tension by allowing several of his actors to play to the rafters
(or, in Musante's case, to the stratosphere), and during its best moments, the
film's gritty efficiency brings to mind early Scorsese or Cassavetes. The actors
playing the passengers are an eclectic bunch: A baby-faced Beau Bridges, Thelma
Ritter (winding down a stellar career as Hollywood's favorite supporting actress),
Ruby Dee, and The Tonight Show's Ed McMahon are among the many familiar
faces.
Current Releases
THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON / THE WOODSMAN Nixon, inspired
by actual events of the mid-70s, centers on an ordinary joe (Sean Penn) who's
a failure both professionally and personally. Tired of being constantly beaten
down by life, he decides to murder Nixon, the man he feels best exemplifies
everything that's wrong with America. The Woodsman, meanwhile, casts
Kevin Bacon as a former convict trying to adjust to life on the outside after
spending years in prison for molesting young girls. He does his best to stay
clean, but discovers it just might be a losing battle when those around him
aren't willing to give him a chance to start anew. Nixon focuses on a
man succumbing to sickness while Woodsman centers on someone who's trying
to escape it - both films dole out the will-he-or-won't-he? tension in comparable
doses. Both movies:
ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 A favorite of critics and cultists alike, John
Carpenter's 1976 Assault On Precinct 13 was a nifty little "B" flick
about an LA street gang that descends upon a police station with the sole purpose
of wiping out everyone inside. This flashy update is a competent but entirely
generic action opus in which it's a group of rogue cops who attack the precinct
in order to kill a captured crime lord whose testimony would put them behind
bars. Laurence Fishburne plays the cool-under-fire kingpin, who reluctantly
teams up with an honest officer (Ethan Hawke) to ensure his own survival. Expect
few surprises from yet another needless remake.
THE AVIATOR This sprawling biopic about Howard Hughes (played by Leonardo
DiCaprio), the notorious billionaire-industrialist-producer-flyboy, employs
all the cinematic razzle-dazzle we've come to expect from Martin Scorsese, yet
there's an added layer of excitement as the eternal cineaste finally gets to
step back in time via his meticulous recreations of the sights and sounds of
Old Hollywood (look for Cate Blanchett in a show-stealing turn as Katharine
Hepburn). Still, the behind-the-scenes movie material takes a back seat to other
aspects of Hughes' life - namely, his adventures in the field of aviation and
his lifelong battle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. At its best, the film
is a stirring tale about a man whose inner drive allowed him to climb ever higher
and higher, grazing the heavens before his inner demons seized the controls
and forced the inevitable, dreary descent. 1/2
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