Whatever happened to.. movie tough guys?

Today's update from the Borderlines Film Festival (or at least the films I'm seeing there!) has a theme, of sorts - albeit entirely accidental. The last three films I saw there were NEDs, Of Gods & Men, and True Grit; each examine the nature of what it is to be a man in a particular kind of society, and in each case they are found wanting, in one way or another. 

NEDs feels at least slightly autobiographical, though I've no idea if it is: director Peter Mullen is probably best known for the often harrowing Magdalene Sisters, and this new piece is no less grim, despite several moments of mordant humour.  NEDs are Non-Educated Delinquents, the kids who, for whatever reason, manage to drift through the school system having made no visible progress in academic areas or in their ability to function as 'normal' members of society - at least that's what Mullen's depressing vision portrays.  The main protagonist is John McGill, a  young lad who starts off keen and bookish, and almost by accident slides into a downward spiral of violence and what is now known as anti-social behaviour.  In the film's 70's setting it is simply thuggishness.  This descent is almost inevitable: the boy's father is a drunken bully, and the older brother he half-idolises is well on the way to being a local legend as a 'hard man'.  The portrayal of a bleak and inescapably tough life on Glasgow estates is painfully realistic and involving.  The fight scenes (and there are lots) occasionally invoke Scorsese's 'Gangs of New York' in the way that casual brutality is depicted in an almost fantasy heroic way.  It'd be remiss of me not to mention that this dour, hard-bitten film does end on something of a hopeful note, of sorts.  It ended up reminding me (in a good way) of Shane Meadows - 'This is Scotland', perhaps?

A much more contemplative experience is had in Of Gods and Men, a French film that feels surprisingly apposite in light of the ongoing upheavals across much of the Arab world and especially North Africa at the time of writing.  Set in a Cistercian (no, I don't know either, Google it if you're interested) monastery in Algeria, the story (based on real events) revolves around a small group of monks faced with a dilemma that goes to the root of their faith.  The area is being terrorised by fundamentalist extremists who are punishing behaviour they view as 'out of line with their beliefs' with horrific violence.  When a group of Croatian aid workers are murdered in cold blood the monks realise that it is only a matter of time before their peaceful community is threatened.  Should they leave, as the French and local authorities insist?  Or should they stay and complete 'God's mission' in the area?  The arguments are far from simple, and the portrayals of the various characters is one of the best parts of this intelligent and thoughtful film.  It doesn't fall back on simple 'good vs evil' depictions, nor of the monks as simple martyrs: they and their 'enemy' are portrayed as very human.  One or two of the monks want to leave. Their leader, brother Christian, is convinced that they should stay and face whatever comes.  As with NEDs, there is a depressing inevitability of violence in this story, but it is counteracted here by the depiction of the monk's own lives: quiet contemplation and simple - often surprisingly humorous - conversations, and a lot of singing of religious chants.   The toughest tough guy in this story isn't the man with the AK-47, it's the elderly but jovial brother Luc, the monk's medical expert, defying the violence around him in his determination to continue treating the women and children who need his help. This sounds like a totally depressing film on paper, but for some reason it didn't leave me feeling that way at all.  Beautifully made and acted, and quite moving, perhaps it's not really about religion at all, but about humanity.

Proper movie tough guys, of course, don't come any tougher than John Wayne.  So I was in two minds about the Coen brothers' remake (which of course they insist is not a remake at all) of True Grit, one of Marian Morrison's most memorable 'leathery old coot' films.  Joel and Ethan don't have a terrific track record (despite some fabulous work overall) when it comes to remakes of films they loved - stand up 'the Ladykillers', a film that, despite being made in 2004, probably still has Alec Guinness spinning in his grave.  But I needn't have worried - the Coen's True Grit deserves all the praise it has had from audiences and awards committees alike.  Many have described this as the brothers' most accessible film ever, and this certainly makes for an easier watch than many of their earlier films - but it retains the characteristically quirky ear for dialogue that has marked out films from Fargo to O Brother Where Art Thou.  Yes, this is a frequently very funny film, as well as a rollocking good adventure story. 

The central performances are all letter-perfect: Hailee Steinfeld is simply terrific as young Mattie, the girl bent on seeing justice done for her murdered father.  The early scenes where she completely outmanouevres a local businessman to get a good deal on some horses shows her as a wily negotiator despite her tender age.  An almost unrecognisable Matt Damon turns in a terrific performance as an ever-so-slightly narcissistic Texas Ranger, continuing to confound those critics who say he can't laugh at himself. 

But acting honours here have to go to Jeff Bridges in the Wayne role of Reuben 'Rooster' Cogburn, the drawling, whisky-loving marshall who, in a hilarious court scene early on, "can't rightly remember" just how many suspects he may have killed while trying to apprehend them.  Loveable but clearly slightly demented, there are hints of a much darker side to Cogburn's character that are never explained fully: reference is made to his having possibly been one of the notorious Quantrill's Raiders, allegedly responsible for atrocities during the American Civil War.  He's not a conventional Western good guy, that's for sure, and the character clearly has seen enough bad things in his life to make him a very thick-skinned individual; but, as per the original movie, you just know that he's going to come good in the end. "Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!"

Whatever happened to.. knitting and watching Bergerac?

..that's what old ladies should be doing all day, surely - not spending hours in the dark at the Courtyard Theatre Hereford, 'whispering' loudly to their friends while I'm trying to watch a movie? One of the good things about being self-employed is that when something like the Borderlines Film Festival comes around I can take some time out and see a few films during the day. But of course that's also when all the seniors choose to go too. I'm not really moaning - at least they're not playing Angry Birds through the credits!

So, continuing my run-down of films I've seen at this year's Borderlines, let's move on to Gerard Depardieu. He's made a bit of a career in small to medium French films in which he essentially plays a slightly exaggerated version of himself - and why not, it's worked well for people as diverse as Steven Segal and Woody Allen for many years? In 'My Afternoons with Margueritte' he plays a slightly simple man in a small town, who is befriended by an elderly lady who reads to him in the park. It's not a film in which a whole lot happens, but that really doesn't matter. The performances are sharp and well-observed, the relationships between all the bar-room buddies and acquaintances are finely depicted and often laugh-out-loud funny, and the whole thing reeks of charm. When I checked today this film was topping the ratings for the festival, and frankly I'm not surprised - it's a hard film to dislike!

Next on my must-see list was Finnish documentary 'Into Eternity'.  Precious few laughs here, but instead a film so thought-provoking that I came out thinking that it should be shown in every school in the UK. The world. Then to all the politicians. Blimey, it's depressing stuff.  It looks at Finland's ground-breaking attempt to solve the problem of what to do with its nuclear waste.  Their solution is to create an unimaginably vast underground chamber called Onkalo (literally 'hiding place'), which will be filled with spent plutonium rods and the like, and then simply sealed up and forgotten about.  For at least 100,000 years, which is the minimum period we currently believe this material will remain dangerous.  The film is a beautifully shot piece, even though much of it is little more than 'talking heads' discussing the issues and the reasons for their approach.  One of the scariest sections considers how (or even whether) the builders should 'mark' the site for future civilisations in case it is discovered.  Comparing this huge radioactive dump with the great pyramids, the thinking seems to be that if we mark it in any way as a special place that must never be opened, human curiosity almost dictates that some future society will find it and wonder what treasure it might contain.  They even considered marking the site with the image of Munch's 'The Scream'.  Imagine how different we are as a race from the oldest humans we know about - then imagine how different again the people of 100,000 years time might be.  Should we really be leaving this awful time bomb in the hope that they simply never find it, or open it?  Scary stuff.

Almost as soon as Into Eternity ended, I had to rush to my seat for 'Black Swan', a film that had far more than its fair share of elderly ladies in the audience, even for this festival. Far, far more. I felt a bit like Tippi Hedren in The Birds, surrounded by all this white hair and sensible woollens.  Somebody had obviously told all these nice ladies that this was a lovely film about a ballet dancer. And I suppose, at its most basic level, it is.  But it's also a shocking psychological thriller about identity, psychosis and sexual repression.  It's also frequently quite viciously violent.  None of which bothered me in the least, but there were frequent and widespread gasps and murmurings from large parts of the audience at some of the more 'made you jump' moments.   The performances are fabulous, as everybody knows already of course. Natalie Portman, who's had a special place in my heart ever since Leon (not in a sleazy way!) is terrific, but so are pretty much all of the supporting cast. Her 'never quite as successful as I should have been because I had you' mother, in particular, is a great creation.  Overall, as studies of the nature of people driven by the desire to excel physically, Black Swan comes pretty close to Aronofsky's The Wrestler. I wouldn't like to guess who'd win in a drag-em-out battle between Portman and Mickey Rourke, that's for sure.

Tune in tomorrow for ultra-violence, 70's style, in NEDs, and muslim-extremist style in Of Gods and Men.  And John-Wayne-style, I suppose, in True Grit! Something for everyone :)