Five Essential... Hollywood Remakes (The Remake)

Simon Moore selects his Five Essential Hollywood Remakes...

Remakes are easy targets. Anyone who wants to make Tim Burton cry, for instance, need only whisper ‘Planet of the Apes’ in his pale, elfin ear. Even seeing Conan the Barbarian rehashed with an Easter Island statue in the title role gets film buffs nostalgic for Arnie’s bouncing biceps. Bear in mind though, if you go to see a film about a guy in a loincloth, you’re getting all the homoerotic mental images you deserve.

Ho there, pilgrim. Let’s be sensible here. Conan is only the tip of the iceberg. The absolute worst remakes are like the worst sequels; it’s the same old story, same old beats, usually even the same bloody sets if they can manage it. So it follows that the remakes that work... aren’t remakes at all. They start over. They look at the whole story in a new light. If you know the original you can spot the similarities here and there, but somehow those beat checklists become irrelevant. The new film has become something else entirely. Inventive. Inspirational. Incomparable.


The Mummy (1999, dir. Stephen Sommers), remake of The Mummy (1932, dir. Karl Freund)

1926. An ancient evil is awakened because some British types get a bit giddy in the city of the dead and start reading hieroglyphs aloud. Now a decrepid, malevolent mummy is putting himself back together by stealing body parts from glorified grave robbers. And only a gun-toting American, a foxy librarian and her Hooray Henry brother can stop it. Bedouin George Harrison lends a hand too.

Everybody saw this. It was high spirited slapstick; it was jaw-dropping horror; it was Indiana Jones for the ‘90s with pyramids and curses and a foxy Egyptologist. Sommers took Freund’s original stark, slow-release horror and gave it a new lease of life, introducing some of the first really convincing CGI sequences in a live-action film at the same time. Tell me you weren’t completely blown away by that sandstorm shaped like Imhotep’s face chasing a biplane through the Saharan desert. Go on. I dare you.


Outland (1981, dir. Peter Hyams), remake of High Noon (1952, Fred Zinnemann)

How do you top Gary Cooper facing down dusty, sweaty goons in the New Mexico desert? Easy. Don’t go back to the desert. Go to the moons of Jupiter, and hire Sean Connery as your Marshal. Marshal William T. O’Neil. He spots a connection between three recent deaths in the mining colony, and he smells a cover up. Nobody on the colony but a crabby doctor will so much as give O’Neil the time of day, so it’s up to him to fight off assassins and corrupt officials with nothing but his wits and a shotgun.

Hyams isolates O’Neil totally; the only light is artificial; his world is the claustrophobic white corridors inside, or the vast infinities of nothingness outside. It takes a hell of an actor to rivet our eyes to one man for nearly two hours of screentime. Luckily, Sean Connery happens to be the first entry in the dictionary under ‘badass’. Now you know why he wasn’t in Alien. He’d have let John Hurt have both barrels before he even started feeling queasy at the dinner table.


True Grit (2010, dir Joel and Ethan Coen), remake of True Grit (1969, dir. Henry Hathaway)

This one threw us for a loop. The Coen brothers remake a John Wayne classic? Except that, no, they didn’t. They squeezed right past John Wayne back to the original Charles Portis novel, immersing us in Indian Territory and eyepatches and aggressive horse trading, to astounding effect. This film is shot through with the puritanical and the profane, the extremes Americans have lived and died by for centuries, never more so than in the Wild West.

You know the story, mostly. Revenge and a precocious girl named Mattie Ross. Rooster Cogburn is a drunk and a slob and probably the most honourable human being little Mattie Ross will ever meet, if she lives to be a hundred. True Grit is everything it ever promised it would be; it’s Biblical blood and thunder and it’s friendship tested to limits this crusty old marshal never knew he had. Fun as John Wayne was, there was never half as much danger and strangeness as the night the Coens came to town.


The Thief of Bagdad (1940, dir. Alexander Korda et al), remake of The Thief of Bagdad (1924, dir. Raoul Walsh)

You read that right. This remake con is nothing new, not by a long chalk. Still, in the 40s, sound and certainly colour were new. Douglas Fairbanks’ silent version was all good and thrilling, but firebrand producer Alexander Korda was much more ambitious. Nothing could stop this man. Don’t like the director? Hire five more. London Blitz hampering production schedule? Move the shoot to America.

Even today, The Thief of Bagdad seems light years ahead of its time. It takes such an obvious and infectious joy in its fantastic story, the viewer can’t help but be swept along. It’s got it all; adventure, flying carpets, palaces that stretch on forever, true love, and a giant spider in the heart of a Buddha statue in a mountain-top temple. It’s a whole other world, ablaze with Technicolor, trilling with the clashes and flashes of daring swordplay and the genie of the lamp laughing fit to burst a man’s eardrums. They’ve remade it again a dozen times since, but for ambition and sheer madness aforethought, Korda’s version is the one that goes down in history.


A Fistful of Dollars (1964, dir. Sergio Leone), remake of Yojimbo (1961, dir. Akira Kurosawa)

Chances are you’ve seen one and never knew the other even existed. Yojimbo (Japanese for ‘Bodyguard’) is the culmination of Kurosawa’s fascination with films of the West. For anyone starting out on Kurosawa, or even Japanese film, it’s probably the most accessible film to jump in on. Sergio Leone seemed to think so too. But, he decided, it needed more Clint Eastwood. And the soundtrack, that needs to be weirder, simpler, better than anything anyone’s done before.

And so he made A Fistful of Dollars; a wry, brutal film, smeared head to toe in blood and trail dust, swathed in the rattling, snarling, stirring electric opera of Ennio Morricone’s music. Westerns were dangerous again. They were bigger, cooler, dirtier than ever. The soundtrack mixed whip cracks, whistles and Fender Stratocasters into something bold and exciting and different.

So Leone poached the story from Kurosawa, who (possibly) poached it from Dashiell Hammett. Okay, slightly lazy and a bit sneaky. On the other hand, A Fistful of Dollars and the films it inspired changed the landscape of cinema throughout the 20th century and beyond. So maybe remakes don’t deserve their usual sweeping dismissal after all. It doesn’t matter whether we call it a re-imagining or a re-visitation or a re-gurgitation, the question we ask is the same of any film – is it worth 90 minutes of my time? The answer given, of course, is the same as always: you won’t know until you watch it.


Check out the original Five Essential Hollywood Remakes here.


Agree? Disagree? We'd love to hear your thoughts on the list...

Simon Moore is a budding screenwriter, passionate about films both current and classic. He has a strong comedy leaning with an inexplicable affection for 80s montages and movies that you can’t quite work out on the first viewing.

Essentials Archive

Ten Essential... Christmas Films

Jess Barratt selects her ten essential Christmas films...

Here are my top 10 festive treats to get you through the Christmas hangovers. Expect snow, sparkle and choir-lead soundtracks...

10. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Although this is not typically considered a true Christmas film it does however have rather Christmassy themes and a beautiful festive score written by the talented Danny Elfman. The latter half of this eerie Tim Burton film is entirely set at Christmas time and includes the unforgettable scene where Winona Ryder’s character dances in the snow falling from Edward’s ice sculpture. With fantastic comedic performances by an incredible cast, Edward Scissorhands is sure to get you edging towards the eggnog.


9. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Chevy Chase and Randy Quaid doing what they do best in this wacky 80s comedy. With some questionable SFX and strange impromptu group singing, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is the perfect nostalgic Christmas feature.


8. Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

Arguably one of the best depictions of Santa, this 80s Christmas classic presents a rich storyline and engulfs its audience in sheer Christmas euphoria. Along with the lovable elf Patch played by Dudley Moore, Santa Claus: The Movie will fulfil all your Christmas wishes.


7. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

Arguably one of the best modern Christmas films, this Finnish thriller puts a dark twist on the Christmas genre. Set in the snowy hills of Finland with an evil satanic Santa on the loose, little Pietari staples his advent calendar shut as he dreads what awaits him on Christmas day. A great film for those looking for something a little different this holiday season.


6. The Grinch (2000)

Jim Carrey at his best; this Dr Seuss classic will not fail to get even the biggest Scrooge singing festive carols. With some utterly stunning Christmas scenery and hilarious acting from the King of comedy, The Grinch is fast becoming a festive family favourite.


5. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Forget Alfie, The Muppet Christmas Carol is definitely Michael Caine’s finest hour. A charming twist to the A Christmas Carol classic, with great sing-a-longs and lots of Kermit the Frog, what more could you want at Christmas time?


4. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Although there is a strong Halloween theme to The Nightmare Before Christmas, it is the Christmas scenes that make this film so memorable. With stunning animation, musical masterpieces and the ultimate children’s fantasy of Christmas Town, this Burton classic will not fail to submerge you in Christmas joy.


3. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Arguably one of the best made sequels, Home Alone 2 has made tourists from around the world flock to New York for the festive season. Little Kevin McCallister plays out every child’s fantasy of going on a spending spree in a huge toy shop and still has time to outwit two grown men.


2. Home Alone (1990)

Accumulating $533,000,000 internationally, Home Alone embodies the Christmas season for this generation. With a wonderful soundtrack and arguably one of the best child performances on Macaulay Culkin’s behalf, as he epitomises what it is like for a child at Christmas time.


1. Elf (2003)

Will Ferrell plays the loveable Elf in this hilarious festive comedy, with creative scenes using optical illusion to show size differences between Buddy and his much smaller elf co-stars. This film boasts outstanding wit and fantastic physical comedy, not to mention lashings of Christmas charm.


Merry Christmas and happy viewing everyone!

Be sure to let us know your favourite Christmas movies in the comments below...

Jess Barratt

Five Essential... Gary Daniels Films

Following on from his interview last week, Tom Jolliffe selects his Five Essential Gary Daniels films…

When a plethora of martial art specialists were foist upon audiences in the late 80s and early 90s, there were a few who managed to find an audience and maintain lengthy careers in the video realm. One such star was Gary Daniels, who flew the British flag before anyone had heard of Jason Statham. Daniels major selling points were his excellent on screen fighting abilities and willingness to really throw himself into the action. Daniels performs most of his own stunts, whilst a hands on approach to action choreography, combined with a distinct MMA style has delivered plenty of excellent mano-a-mano brawls in his films.

Daniels continues to go at full pelt, and despite being near the big 5-0, he’s still in immense shape and barely looks a day over 30. He’s stood toe to toe (on film!) with Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson, Lorenzo Lamas, Steven Seagal, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Jackie Chan, Wesley Snipes and bizarrely former WWE legend, The Ultimate Warrior. Here is the essential Gary Daniels…


5. City Hunter (1993)

The film where Gary Daniels first really gained recognition. Jackie Chan was the established star, well known for his high intensity fight sequences and Daniels proved to be a memorable foe for the Hong Kong legend. The film is highly entertaining and very funny, whilst Chan’s benchmark action sequences are typically thrilling. Daniels makes an intimidating henchman, even despite sporting a pony-tail and doing the splits in nothing but a pair of budgie smugglers (quite the introduction to action movie fans). The film’s defining moment is when Chan and Daniels transform into characters from the classic video game, Streetfighter. Daniels of course, with the long blond hair, is the ideal Ken.




4. Rage (1995)

One of several collaborations between Daniels and PM entertainment. PM (now sadly defunct) have garnered a cult following amongst video action fans, thanks to the time and care spent on the action. They made a concerted effort to bring blockbuster level action, to a low budget world. The films acted as showcases for a lot of the best stuntmen and stunt co-ordinators in the business, either before hitting it big, or just to stay in the mind of the big Hollywood studios. What you got in the best PM movies were lots of action, lots of variety and some often breath-taking stunts. In the same way as they shoot action films in Hong Kong, it was the action that came first and was given the time to deliver the goods, whereas generally in the direct to video world, action films ration their carnage, and often don’t spend the money to get the quality of stunt team to deliver good stuff. Rage is ample example of PM at their best. Forget the silly plot, just switch off your brain and enjoy the show. Its action packed!


3. Recoil (1998)

Another PM classic. The film almost literally jumps from one action scene to another. The car chases, which tend to be a PM speciality, are brilliant. Spiro Razatos, who’s one of Hollywood’s premiere stunt co-ordinators (recently responsible for Fast and Furious 5) is the man to thank here. Daniels, as normal, throws himself into the action. He’s amongst it all and the film offers ample opportunity amongst its vehicular carnage, for him to deliver some high kicking beat-downs.







2. Cold Harvest (1999)

Martial arts expert turned director, Isaac Florentine delivers this enjoyably cheesy post-apocalyptic western. Gary Daniels does a Van Damme here and plays twins. One has glasses and is thus not hard. The other is a bounty hunter who’s an expert in martial arts and weaponry, and is thus very hard. The fight scenes are brilliantly done, whilst the stunt team offer plenty of impressive physical feats. As per normal Daniels leads the line well, maintaining a breakneck pace that puts the action in the league of the Hong Kong action cinema.





1. Riot (1997)

Probably PM’s best work. Daniels must enter a cordoned off riot zone to rescue his ex from kidnappers. The bad guys in the movie tick about every cliché you can think of in the book, particularly the Irish terrorists (with woeful Irish accents). The film's pace is brisk and it’s loaded with really imaginative action and eye catching stunt work. The film is a strong endorsement in the case for live action stunts over CGI fakery. Standouts include Daniels fighting off a gang of stunt bikers, and being chased down by a car in a multi-storey car park. The late Charles Napier co-stars, as does legendary boxer Sugar Ray Leonard (he’s not quite as adept in front of the camera as he was in the ring!).



Honourable Mentions

Fist of the North Star (1995)
White Tiger (1996)
Bloodmoon (1997)
Spoiler (1998)
Fatal Blade (2001)
Hunt to Kill (2010)
The Expendables (2010)

Agree? Disagree? We'd love to hear your comments...

Be sure to check out Tom's interview with Gary Daniels, which you can read here.

Tom Jolliffe

Ten Essential... Movie Adaptations of Classic (Pre-20th Century) Novels

With Andrea Arnold's take on Wuthering Heights about to arrive in U.K. cinemas, Adam Hollingworth counts down his favourite movie adaptations of classic pre-20th century novels...

This week sees the release of Andrea Arnold’s latest film Wuthering Heights: an affecting and starkly beautiful film which contradicts the old adage that great novels don’t translate into great films.

However, the two principal reasons for the success of this disturbing, gritty and highly idiosyncratic adaptation are Arnold and screenwriter Olivia Hetreed’s willingness to liberate themselves from the letter of the text, and to achieve the same ends as Bronte’s brooding, melancholic yet hauntingly beautiful prose through filmic techniques, rather than linguistic ones. The tender naiveté of Heathcliff and Cathy’s doomed romance is portrayed through physicality and gesture, such as their heavily symbolic wrestling in the mud, and her sensual licking of the wounds on his back. The wild otherness of Heathcliff is enhanced by the transition of the character into a North African slave taken into and later reviled by a community of shallow Christianity. Poetic and highly stylised dialogue is in its sparse materialisations made more powerful by the coarse vulgarity of the often savagely profane dialogue of the piece. Most importantly of all, the dense pathetic fallacy of Bronte’s North Yorkshire Moors setting, a place of wild beauty and misted darkness, is made flesh by Robbie Ryan’s simultaneously sumptuous yet barrenly saturated cinematography, eschewing widescreen framing in favour of 4:3, creating a hypnotic string of far more grimly naturalistic images of the land.

It is the boldness to take liberties, and the intelligence to replicate the effects of a novel through cinematic means, which defines the following list of films I consider to be the most successful adaptations of canonical literary classics to the screen…


10. Frankenstein (dir. James Whale)

Kenneth Branagh’s early nineties, melodramatic take on Mary Shelley’s classic gothic romance may be more faithful to the letter of the novel, but James Whale’s iconic ur-text of the horror genre is still arguably more in keeping with the spirit and thematic resonances of the book, as well as managing to be a famed creation in its own right. Removed from the sanity-preserving framing device of surgical/biological study, Colin Clive’s Frankenstein becomes the epitome of misguided human ingenuity attempting to supplant the God-impulse to create life, whilst Boris Karloff’s portrayal of the creature is both a triumph of memorably macabre make-up and the realisation of a horrific yet sympathetic monster. The uncomfortable scene when he throws a girl into a lake to her death is quietly harrowing, yet we never lose touch with the Creature’s ignorance of the repercussions of his actions. Replacing Shelley’s technological vision with a kitsch laboratory inspired by German Expressionist cinema assures the film its unique identity as an early touchstone of literary adaptations.


9. Nosferatu (dir. F.W. Murnau)

One of two adaptations of Bram Stoker’s 1897 epistolary quest into superstitious fear and the dark sexual repression of the Victorian era on this list, many would still contend that Murnau’s silent masterpiece remains the greatest film treatise on Vampirism. Boasting an Expressionist aesthetic unmatched by any film of the period save The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, this is an unapologetically cinematic, visual reimagining of an unashamedly verbose book, generating a chilling sense of the other-worldly within a recognisable historical Europe through colour-tinged monochrome, heavy-set shadows and gothic art direction. Max Schreck’s Count Orlock is not the imperious, charismatic aristocrat of Stoker’s imagination, but a twisted and demented figure as harrowingly physically creepy as he is unquenchably lonely, and Murnau cuts to the root of the metaphor of venereal disease in the novel with sombre processions of coffins, in escalating numbers, parading through a Bavarian town centre: an idea Herzog’s remake borrows with knowing irony.


8. A Cock and Bull Story (dir. Michael Winterbottom)

How on earth does one set about filming what is commonly thought to be unfilmable? Laurence Sterne’s seminal comic novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy is both a daringly hilarious experiment with the form and an unwieldy mess: in attempting to narrate an absurd history of his own life, the eponymous protagonist proceeds to spend seven hundred pages meandering through tangential anecdotes, even interspersing blank and black pages into his prose. The inspired solution found by this film is to show not an attempt to tell a life story, but an attempt to make a movie through a witty cross-breed of mockumentary and parody. Just like in Sterne’s novel, the film constantly moves away from its central idea and into the peripheries of the narrative crux, formally challenges the line between fiction and reality, and is never beyond raising a cheap laugh (Steve Coogan dropping a hot walnut down his costume pantaloons springs to mind.) By being so irreverent and disregarding of the source it perfectly captures the spirit of the original, and pre-empts the even greater collaboration between Winterbottom, Coogan and Rob Brydon in The Trip.


7. The Jungle Book (dir. Wolfgang Reitherman)

The final feature length animation film Walt Disney personally oversaw before his death, this jazz-inflected piece of pure entertainment is surely one of the very best horses in the impressive Disney stable. Rudyard Kipling’s original is collection of whimsical short stories boasting a menagerie of memorable anthropomorphic personae, many of which have translated beautifully to family animation with the addition of Disney’s imaginative flavour. King Louis becomes a swinging scat singer who still possesses the ape-like lust for human knowledge, Shere Khan as voiced by the caddish George Sanders makes for a fearsome cad of a vicious predator upon man, and Balloo the Bear becomes both protector and mentor to the impressionistic Mowgli. However, Disney doesn’t neglect the undercurrent of Kipling’s tales of India under Imperialist British rule, as a phalanx of Empiric elephants drive forcefully and persistently through the jungle, nor does it ignore the coming of age dimension overt in the Kipling: the difficult transition from wild boyhood to uneasily civilized manhood. The Jungle Book hints at this is perhaps the most emotionally resonant scene in any Disney film: entranced by a beautiful young water carrier and her simple song celebrating manual labour and cosy domesticity, Mowgli thoughtlessly abandons his reluctance to depart from the adventure and vitality of the heavily symbolic jungle.


6. The Last of the Mohicans (dir. Michael Mann)

A still underappreciated gem that stands as arguably Michael Mann’s greatest film, this is a work which, despite the director’s claims to have been more a remake of a silent Hollywood epic than an adaptation of James Fennimore Cooper’s novel, exquisitely expounds upon the idea of a dying people in a dying world. The Native American traditional melody is expanded by rich orchestral treatment into a soaring and deeply affecting score, whilst the lush, rich cinematography perfectly captures a lost frontier forgotten by the land America would become: and both music and images combine to achieve the sense of a civilization torn apart by racial Civil War and the destructive, opportunistic greed of colonial white Europeans. Though it is his adoptive father who becomes the titular stalwart of a people cruelly hunted to extinction by both aliens to the country and their own kind (in the form of Wes Studi’s fiercely unfeeling villain Magua), it is Hawkeye (Daniel Day Lewis in one of his most uncharacteristic yet brilliant roles) who metaphorically ends the Mohican way of life through union with the white invaders (in the form of his romance with Cora Munro), and who is also at the centre of the romantic adventure which drives the narrative. Mann handles both the spiritual and the dramatic with supreme gusto, from Hawkeye’s impassioned “I will find you” speech before his leap through a waterfall, to the bravura final battle on a cliff precipice, yet the poetic, emotive dialogue of the novel survives to spine-tingling and provocative effect: “Our whole world’s on fire” Munro tells Hawkeye as he awaits execution.


5. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

Whilst Murnau’s Nosferatu may stand as the peerless transition of the macabre, creepy atmosphere and pervading sense of spreading venereal disease in Stoker’s great novel to the screen, it is this underrated Coppola gem that best transcribed the sumptuous Victorian melodrama and seething sexual and romantic tension of the book onto film. The production design is gaudy and extravagant, with Coppola basking in the rich red of dawn and blood, and the heavily stylised hyperbole of Eiko Ishioka’s costumes adds a further element of vibrant, fantastical Nineteenth century gloss. The performances are similarly over the top, yet the larger than life nature of the characters seems to demand such interpretation, leaving the fetishistically porcelain figures of Winona Ryder and Sadie Frost between Hopkins’ Grand Guignol Van Helsing and Oldman’s by turns snarlingly monstrous, by turns desperately heartbroken Count. It is ultimately Coppola’s treatment of love and sex in the film which so closely relates to that outlines by Stoker: their exposure to the deadly desires and lusts of immortality and the exchange of bodily fluids crucial to vampirism acts as a sexual awakening for repressed and naïve Victorian women, whilst Dracula here is a tragically doomed figure, walking the night both damned and alone.


4. The Red Shoes (dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)

A thrillingly theatrical and inventive spectacle from the Powell and Pressburger collaboration that so dominated British cinema in the forties, the film is also a rare achievement in adaptation in that it re-imagines Hans Christian Anderson’s titular fairy tale not once but twice: in the dreamlike balletic centrepiece of the company’s actual dance interpretation of the story, and in the definite allegory of the narrative proper. It is, after all, when wearing the anti-Oz red shoes that Moira Shearer’s tormented prima-ballerina is seized with physical fervour and psychological meltdown, and leaps to her death. As seen through the eyes of Powell and Pressburger, Anderson’s tragic tale is less a cautionary tale about desire and more a damning deconstruction of the superficial perfection of fine art, offering us a relentless peek at the strain and self-destructive elements of performance lying just under the surface. As always, the filmmakers mask the dark profundity of their work with the gorgeous and primal cinematography of Jack Cardiff and the fable-like simplicity of their whimsical narrative, offering a film which is both aesthetically beautiful and philosophically thoughtful.


3. Barry Lyndon (dir. Stanley Kubrick)

Being that every single one of his films after Killer’s Kiss was adapted from a pre-existing source, one would expect Kubrick to make an appearance on this list, yet it was when working from flawed and unspectacular novels that the director tended to make his finest work, in this case rejecting the polished satire and expansive moral universe of Thackeray’s masterpiece Vanity Fair in favour of this earlier and much lesser piece. Thackeray’s novel is a first person picaresque adventure of a boastful and unpleasant Irish rogue who cruises through various environs of eighteenth and nineteenth century European society before acquiring and squandering security and ignorance. It is important, having just employed the device so well in A Clockwork Orange, that Kubrick should choose to reject the novel’s first-person narration and shift the whole emphasis of the book. Kubrick removes the control of the narrative from his protagonist, and coupled with an intentionally blank performance from Ryan O'Neal creates the sense instead of an ineffectual, cowardly and ignorant upstart blundering through life completely overwhelmed by the world he occupies until his ridiculous lucky streak runs dry. Kubrick modelled the visual imagery of the film upon contemporary painting, and as such inhabits the universe of a classic novel with greater verisimilitude than ever seen before.


2. Apocalypse Now (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

Between this magnum opus, The Godfather and the aforementioned Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Coppola could easily lay claim to being cinema’s greatest adapter of literary material. Taking Joseph Conrad’s turn of the century post-colonial odyssey through Africa, Heart of Darkness, and transferring the episodic structure, moral seriousness and mysterious yet stricken protagonist of the novella to the inferno of the Vietnam war, Coppola drew uncomfortable anti-nationalistic parallels between the two situations. Conrad’s Marlowe is horrified by his merciless exposure to the savage unknown of Africa, yet he knows that it is the destructive impact of his own country’s involvement with the land that has warped the untouched beauty of what he sees into a nightmarish horror. So too does Coppola’s Captain Willard come to be shattered by “the horror, the horror” as seen through the eyes of the deranged Kurtz, and both men harbour the burden that it is America, not Vietnam, that has made the land like this. Beyond this thematic link, Coppola also fashions a surreal jungle draped in thick black smoke, swirling white mists and the haze of acid and napalm that perfectly evokes the terror and confusion of the American experience in Vietnam, and contributes immensely to one of the most visceral of all war films.


1. Great Expectations (dir. David Lean)

I began this countdown by saying that in general one had to take a certain amount of liberty with a source text in order to successfully translate a classic narrative to film and maintain the resonance and impact of the original work, and that often the strengths of the page are not the strengths of a film and must therefore become a necessary casualty. There is an exception to every rule, and in this case the exception happens to be the greatest and most faithful adaptation of a canonical classic to the screen. In making a film of Dickens’ finest, most moving novel, David Lean’s absolute mastery of narrative filmmaking is at its most flawless: the bleak beauty of Dickens’ Fenlands and the urban murkiness of London is picture perfect on screen, his antiquated and idiosyncratic dialogue is translated with unfathomable naturalism, his extraordinary cast of hyperbolic characters are all vividly brought to life by the actors, and every emotional and narrative twist and turn is effected with exquisite aplomb. The film is as funny, frightening, exciting, haunting, romantic, heartbreaking, tragic and moving as Dickens originally wrote it, and the iconic scenes of the book become the iconic scenes of the film: the graveyard encounter with Magwitch, Miss Havisham’s dusty parlour and grotesque wedding dress, Estella’s proud cruelty in mistreating Pip as a young boy, his appeal to her as an emotionally damaged adult, and the extent to which he has become a snob when Joe Gargery visits London. A note-perfect translation of a wonderful book into a magical film.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to leave your thoughts on the list...

Adam Hollingworth

Movember Special - Ten Essential Movie Moustaches

D.J. Haza selects the top ten movie moustaches...

This month is Movember... the month when gentleman grow a range of moustaches in order to raise money for men’s health charities, raise awareness for men’s health issues such as testicular cancer and also have a bit of fun. As I am myself growing a tash and raising money for Movember I thought why not compile a list of the 10 finest moustaches ever seen on film. Whether you agree or not please click the link at the bottom of the page and give as little or as much as you can to charity...


10. Salma Hayek in Frida (2002)

Hayek plays the lead role of Mexican painter Frida Kaylo and in doing so sports a very fine little wispy moustache. It’s not often a woman grows a good moustache and wears it in public and so for that reason Hayek makes it into the number 10 spot.





9. Charlie Chaplin.

The comedy king of early cinema was not only a great innovator of his art, but also sported a nice, thick, black toothbrush moustache. In the early days of cinema the toothbrush moustache was linked closely with comedy and despite the best efforts of Adolf Hitler to sour the stylish tash for all of us I think that we should remember its comedic roots.




8. Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind (1939)

The character played by Clark Gable in the classic and award winning film of 1939 was the purveyor of a classic pencil moustache that was thin, stylish and debonair. Butler’s pencil moustache was the tash of choice for many fine actors back in the day, but none wore them as elegantly as Gable.





7. Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules in Pulp Fiction (1994)

The Bible quoting hit man donned a horseshoe moustache with some very fine sideburns and just like his facial hair he meant business! Jules’ facial hair, although looking rough and ready, were obviously well groomed and the perfect compliment for his thick curly haircut. Jules makes it into number 7, despite looking a little like a cheap 70s porn star. Or maybe because of it?




6. Dr Arliss Loveless in Wild Wild West (1999)

Despite the film being an absolute shower of bodily secretion one good thing did come of Wild Wild West – Kenneth Brannagh’s moustache. Dr Loveless was the proud owner of a very well trimmed and audacious English moustache and some equally as impressive chin hair. A facial style such as this takes time and effort each morning and so deserves its spot at number 6.




5. Ming The Merciless off of Flash Gordon (1980)

Ming had clearly spent plenty of time growing his facial hair and only time can give you such a great Fu Manchu Moustache. The long thing strands of hair grow around each side of the mouth and down beyond the chin. Not only does this look great, but works beautifully for evil bad guys who can sit and ponder their world domination plans as they stroke them endlessly. A must for any evil dictator.



4. Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls in This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

Smalls’ thick and bushy horseshoe moustache is the rock ‘n’ roll of all tashs! It means business, says I do what I want and screams with craziness. The fact that this moustache isn’t ideal for someone whose diet composes of beer, cocaine and not washing just goes to emphasise the legendary status of the tash. Only real wild men and party animals should consider a thick black horseshoe tash!



3. Borat (2006)

The crazy Kazakh journalist storms into the number 3 spot with his thick, black and bristling extra wide Chevron moustache. Borat’s wonderful facial hair spreads across his upper lip and spills out onto his cheeks giving him that extra width that not all men can grow. For many the hair stops at the edge of the mouth, but Borat’s is the tash that keeps on going. Only a man who can grow some serious body hair is able to achieve such depth and width.



2. Ron Burgundy. Anchorman (2004)

Burgundy’s thick brown Chevron tash is neat, tidy, well groomed and frequently used to its potential with a smile. Burgundy obviously realised that a tash isn’t just hair on your lip and can be used to emphasise a point or to add that extra bit of manliness to a good smile. Burgundy makes it to the dizzying heights of number 2 for the practical and everyday use of his moustache and it’s abilities to enhance a moment. Burgundy’s legendary status is enhanced by his tash!



1. Bill the Butcher in Gangs Of New York (2002)

At the top of the tash tree is the legendary Bill the Butcher, played by Daniel Day Lewis. Day Lewis has sported some very top-notch tashes throughout his career, but none as great as Bill’s. His handlebar moustache grows beautifully across his top lip from the middle spreading either side and with some very fine curls at either end. The handlebar tash must be cared for and well groomed to avoid falling into disrepair and should only be worn by a man who is fearless and possibly a little bit mental. With wild eyes and a handlebar moustache a man commands fear and respect from those around him. Bill’s tash is a sign of his character and a warning to anyone considering crossing him. Bill the Butcher’s handlebar moustache is the best tash on film! Well done, Sir. Good growth.


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D.J. Haza

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Five Essential... Nicolas Cage Films

Rohan Morbey selects his Five Essential Nicolas Cage Films…

Nicolas Cage is unlike any other leading man in Hollywood. His films choices are anything but ‘safe’ and he doesn’t choose the same predictable, boring characters time after time. His films are undeniably hit and miss, and his last few pictures have not done his talent any justice.

However, true Cage fans know he is much more than Season of the Witch, Bangkok Dangerous, and Next, and when he is on form, there is no other actor who can deliver the intensity, unpredictability, and passion he brings to a role.

Now a huge player in Hollywood, it took 13 years and 24 films before Cage became an A-list regular, commanding the big budgets and even bigger money with frequently collaboration with producer Jerry Bruckheimer. However, although only one of my choices are from 1995 onwards, his run of films from The Rock to World Trade Center (both narrowly missing out on this list) are as diverse and entertaining as anybody working in Hollywood today.

5. Raising Arizona (1987, dir. Joel Coen)

It represents Cage’s best comedic performance, as H.I McDunnough, the bumbling thief with a good heart who steals a baby when his wife can’t conceive. Cage has always been able to bring a sense of comedy to a lot of roles, even his action pictures, but here we see just how good he is a light comedy. Cage brings McDunnough to life in true Coen brothers fashion, and it remains one of their best films to date, too.







4. Red Rock West (1993, dir. John Dahl)

In my opinion, John Dahl’s small, no-frills neo-noir represents the best picture Cage made (aside from my #3 choice) in his pre-Oscar winning years. Although I must add Birdy comes mighty close to that honour as well.

Only a relatively small number of people have probably actually seen Red Rock West (and it’s no longer available on Region 2 DVD) but that almost adds to its charm. It is a small film, but with that comes a tight script, a femme fatale, a great villain, and a reluctant hero (Cage) all perfectly held together by the director which deserves it place on this list, and any list of neo-noir pictures.

Played mostly straight, but with some dark humour throughout, Cage plays a drifter who arrives in the small town of Red Rock and is mistaken for a hit-man. The plot gets complicated and, like any good noir, the lines between good and bad and blurred but it represented a new level in quality of production and script for Cage.


3. Wild at Heart (1990, dir. David Lynch)

Cage is kind of talent that seemed to be born to star in a David Lynch film. Both star and film maker do not conform to conventions and ‘normal’ performances or directing styles. This violent road and darkly comic film is no exception, and although it is one of Lynch’s more accessible stories, it still has all the trademarks of his work and is not for the faint of heart.

Cage excels here as Sailor, the Elvis obsessed protagonist. Not many other actors would sing ‘Love Me Tender’ and ‘Love Me’ with the straight face he does, whilst all the time remaining menacing and on the edge.

Wild At Heart shows Cage’s ability to create a dark, brooding character who is both erotic and passionate whilst prone to bursts of immense violence and rage. Not all actors could pull of both, but Cage shows it can be done, and at the same time.


2. Face/Off (1997, dir. John Woo)

Cage burst on to the action scene in 1995 with The Rock (still the only good film Michael Bay has directed, in my opinion) and followed up with the high-octane Con Air in 1997. But he completed his big budget, big box-office trilogy with my number 2 pick, Face/Off.

Back in ‘97 this film had all the ingredients to be one of the best action films of recent years, but it far exceed that. Released 14 years ago, it represents one of the last truly great pure action films made and is easily the best of director John Woo’s Hollywood entries.

Cage plays the bad guy, John Travolta plays the good guy. In these roles, Cage is having all the fun as the deliriously unhinged terrorist-for-hire Castor Troy. Then, in the second act, the actors switch roles, and it’s Travolta’s turn to have all the fun and one-liners. But Cage really gets to grips with the emotional challenge the FBI agent has brought upon himself by swapping faces with his sworn enemy. Amongst all the explosions and gun play, there lies a splendidly understated performance from Cage. Watch again the scene when he tells his wife the story of how they met to make her believe he is the man underneath the ‘mask’. It’s a brilliantly acted scene for such a ridiculous premise.

Of course where the film does excel is in its action set pieces. John Woo brought his ‘gun ballet’ from Hong Kong to America in 1993, but it wasn’t until Face/Off that audiences sat up and paid attention to just how good his style was. He had the right actors to do it for him as well, and this marks the best in ‘big budget Cage’. A slightly more accomplished film than the excellent The Rock, and cemented the star as one of Hollywood’s A-List.


1. Leaving Las Vegas (1995, dir. Mike Figgis)

This, more than any other film in his 30 year career, defines Nicolas Cage’s talent. Not his star power or his ability to rake in the money, but his true and outstanding talent.

The winner of Best Actor at the 1995 Academy Awards, Cage’s portrayal of Ben, an alcoholic who decides to go to Las Vegas to drink himself to death, is as good a performance from any actor in any film at any stage in film making.

This is a a bold statement, I know. But anyome who has seen the film knows this to be true. The performance was what had been bubbling away under the surface of Cage over the years, just waiting for the right script and film to let it shine. In doing so, Cage went from top strength to strength in terms of success and popularity, but he will probably never be as good again as he was here. That’s not a criticism on the actor, I would say it about any one else who delivered this performance, too.

It has to be the number one choice because it is his number one role, the role which will define him for the rest of his career. He deserved the role and the chance to make it big after all the hard work he put in from the beginning years as Nicolas Coppola. My only hope is he will return to such quality again, because talents like his are so rare in Hollywood now. He only has to choose the right film.

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Rohan Morbey - follow me on Twitter.

Essentials Archive

Five Essential... Tom Cruise Films

Rohan Morbey selects his Five Essential Tom Cruise Films…

In a career spanning over 25 years, Tom Cruise has been one of the top grossing stars at the global box office throughout the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, with his films topping $2.8 billion in worldwide ticket sales. He became the first actor in history to star in five films to consecutively gross $100 million or more at the US box office. He reached iconic status long ago and has a career and lifestyle to rival anyone working in the film industry today.

But Tom Cruise is far more than the money making machine some people label him as.

Nominated for three Academy Awards and the winner of three Golden Globes, Cruise has proven himself to be much more than the star of blockbuster movies, or a just another actor trading on his looks or appeal. The list of directors who have chosen to work with him reads as a who’s who of legendary film makers; Scorsese, Spielberg, De Palma, Mann, Coppola, Kubrick, both Scott brothers, Oliver Stone… the list goes on. The actors who have worked alongside him include Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, and Paul Newman - a list to rival that of his directors.

He commands and has earned respect from his peers both in front and behind the camera, and his body of work is proof in itself that Tom Cruise was, is, and remains one of the industry’s most valuable and iconic talents.

It is a difficult choice to select just five films form his career, but I believe these perfectly define the essential work of Tom Cruise:

5. Top Gun (1986, dir. Tony Scott)

Cruise’s most popular and iconic film to date, Top Gun is one of the quintessential films of the 1980s and the film which catapulted him into super stardom.

The very definition of a high-concept picture, Top Gun became one of the first mega hits for now-legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer (working with the late Don Simpson at the time) and was the most successful film in the US that year. So successful in fact, the US Navy had its highest application rate in years from young men wanting to be the next Maverick!

Certainly not Cruise’s best film, but deserves its place on the list for the future roles he landed as a result.

Key Scene: Maverick and Goose hi-five and utter the classic line “I feel the need, the need for speed!”


4. Collateral (2004, dir. Michael Mann)

The first and only time Cruise has played the villain in a movie and the role of Vincent is one of his most memorable to fans. Cool, cold, and calculated, Cruise takes to the as if he’d been playing the bad guy all of his career. Yet again, Cruise chose a screenplay which gives him something different to add to his CV and a director in Michael Mann who shot the film in glorious hi-def, making it one of Cruise’s most gritty film to date.

Key Scene: Vincent and Max stop in the cab to watch a Coyote cross the road. Both men are hypnotised by the animal’s presence. No words are spoken, there is nothing which can be said.



3. Magnolia (1999, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

After the run of box offices smashes in the mid to late 90s, Cruise made two of his best pictures to date in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, and P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia.

Magnolia joins the list as it marked Cruise first true ensemble piece. The posters didn’t focus on his name or face, the trailers didn’t sell the film as a Tom Cruise vehicle, and his screen time is evenly shared with the other star names across the film’s 3 hour duration.

Here Cruise gives arguably his best performance. His portrayal of T.J. Mackey shows us a side we’d not seen before - a range of emotions and subtle nuances perhaps not required in previous films or scripts. Both nasty and strangely compassionate, Cruise does so much in a relatively short space of time, it must be viewed as masterclass in character acting. The Academy Award nomination was well deserved.

Key Scene: Mackey talks to his dying father - a three minute rant which ends with him torn and conflicted, crying the words “Don’t leave me, you fucking asshole. don’t leave me.” Watch the scene on You Tube here.


2. Minority Report (2002, dir. Steven Spielberg)

2002. The biggest director in the world directs the biggest star in world. It doesn’t get much more monumental in Hollywood partnerships than Spielberg and Cruise.

The film is one which gets better with each viewing. At first perhaps it’s a great looking sci-fi thriller, but you soon realise Minority Report is much more than that, there are so many layers and themes, I won’t even try to list them all here.

A neo-noir, detective story, and sci-fi adventured rolled into one, the picture delivers on many levels and is enjoyable for audiences looking for just action and thrills, as well as those of us wanting something to think about long after the film has ended.

The collaboration proved so successful that the actor and director teamed up again just 3 years later for War of the Worlds. But it is the film, Cruise’s first in any of the aforementioned genres, that stands out as arguably his most entertaining and rewarding blockbusters.


1. Rain Man (1988, dir. Barry Levinson)

My number one choice for the essential Tom Cruise film is the 1988 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Original Screenplay; Rain Man.

This, out of all of his films, shows Cruise at his very best. At only 26 years of age, Cruise gives a performance in character acting well beyond his years. The accolades went to Hoffman for his role as the autistic savant, Raymond Babbitt, and no one can argue the genius of his performance. But to understand and appreciate the film, you must understand the role Cruise plays as his brother, Charlie, and how important it is to the film’s over riding success.

Charlie is the only one to change in the film - his character is the only one with an arc. Raymond remains the same at the end as he does when we first meet him, but the adventure we go on is with Charlie; it is his anger, pain, frustration, and ultimately, his love we feel throughout the film’s perfectly paced and executed picture.

Followed immediately after by Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July, Rain Man opened the eyes of any critics of the young star’s potential to be more than just another flash in the pan actor. It is his finest hour, a film of true class throughout, and one which reminds us of Tom Cruise at his very best.

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Rohan Morbey - follow me on Twitter.

Essentials Archive