Shout at the Devil

Do you know the author Wilbur Smith? If you're an action fan, like your tough guys as tough as nails mercenaries, like Africa serving as a backdrop to action-packed stories, then he may be the author for you. One of my favorite action movies is based off a Smith novel, 1968's Dark of the Sun, and in the same vein is a mercenary story in Africa flick, 1976's Shout at the Devil.

It's 1913 in Africa and international tensions are mounting with war potentially on the horizon. In Tanganyika, a region in East Africa, an Irish-American poacher, Flynn Patrick O'Flynn (Lee Marvin) has a plan in place to poach several tons of ivory, netting a huge profit. The region is part of German-controlled territory, so Flynn would like to pose as Brits...but he needs a Brit, tricking a down-on-his-luck Englishman, Sebastian Oldsmith (Roger Moore), to accompany him, the profit providing quite the incentive. The expedition proves fruitful, but they also find themselves in some trouble with Herman Fleischer (Reinhard Kolldehoff), the German commissioner in the area tasked with keeping the region "German safe." Fleischer has been after O'Flynn for years, and he's right within his grasp now. Can O'Flynn and Sebastian get out in time? Can Fleischer finally catch up with his target?

My biggest issue over the years with this movie was....well, finding it. It has been heavily cut so depending on the version you're missing anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. And finally on MGM-HD, I found the full version, clocking in at 150 minutes and looking good in a pristine print. Director Peter Hunt tackles a lot with this pre-World War I mercenary adventure story, 'Devil' covering about a year and a half or so in its leisurely running time. It was filmed on location in Malta and more shockingly, in South Africa, a no-no at the time considering that whole apartheid thing. To each their own I guess, right? Some on-location issues aside, there's much more to worry about here. When 'Devil' is good, it's decent. When it's not good, it can be painfully slow-going with some odd shifts in tone.

And that becomes the biggest detriment to the movie. I haven't read Smith's source novel, but Hunt's film simply tries to tackle too much. Did this movie really need to be 150 minutes long? Episodic is a fair description, but one episode aimlessly transitions to another. There's no real unifying link. Killing elephants, ambushed, running, a river chase, shipwrecked, brief interlude for love, robbing taxes from poor African villages, it goes on and on. The tone is ridiculously all over the place, an uncomfortable sequence of shooting elephants (I'm not sure if they really shot elephants but it sure looks like it) followed by a goofy knock-down fight later between Marvin and Moore. Composer Maurice Jarre's score is equally schizophrenic, hurting the effort too, goofy and dumb followed with bloody and dark and twisted. Pick one or the other and go with it, or at least find a better balance between the two. As is, the movie struggles to find that good, watchable and mindless middle ground.

What originally caught my eye was the casting, especially Lee Marvin and Roger Moore as the Odd Couple partners working together for some cash in 1913 Africa. Without any recognizable names in the rest of the cast, the success here depends on almost solely on the duo. Unfortunately, it never clicks here. Lee Marvin is one of my favorites in everything from The Dirty Dozen to The Professionals, but this isn't his best work. His O'Flynn is an archetypal character, a hard-drinking, hard-living mercenary of sorts, but it is such a broad character that it never resonated with me. It's not a particularly likable character, Marvin hamming it up too much. Moore is better, but the Sebastian character is dealt the Action Movie Killer....a love interest in the form of O'Flynn's daughter, Rosa (Barbara Parkins). The potential for the two main characters is really there, potential for the movie to take over, but like much of the rest of the movie, it falls short.

Some extended sequences do work, much of them coming in the second half as things take a darker turn for good. One quick action scene has O'Flynn, Sebastian and their men ambushing a German convoy on the delta's flatlands, brutal and quick. The finale too is pretty cool, an extended sequence that's about a half-hour long, Moore's Sebastian sneaking onto a German battleship and planting a bomb only to realize an hour later he's got to stop the explosion. An exciting, action-packed finale. It just takes too long getting there. Is it funny or really dark? Is it neither? A more pointed story would have gone a long way, but as is, 'Devil' is a big disappointment. Also look for Ian Holm in a fun part as Mohammad, O'Flynn's mute assistant, always ready with a soothing bottle of gin.

Shout at the Devil (1976): **/****

Alien

Earlier this year, I saw and liked 2012's Prometheus a lot....if I was a little confused. From director Ridley Scott, it was a quasi-prequel to his 1979 sci-fi classic Alien. I'd never seen Alien in its entirety in one sitting, having seen pieces here and there. Well, apparently I wasn't the only one trying to catch up with the 1979 film. Netflix had it on 'Long Wait' for the last four months. I waited it out, finally catching up with it this weekend.

In the near future, the Nostromo, a deep space towing vessel, and its crew is returning to Earth with an immense shipment of ore mined on a far-off planet. The crew, including Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Kane (John Hurt), the executive officer, and Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the warrant officer, are awakened from a deep slumber. The Nostromo's computer has sensed a message -- possibly an S.O.S., possibly a warning -- from a nearby planet. Following orders, the ship sets down on an Earth-like planetoid, but one of the search party brings something back aboard the ship. The crew debates what to do, but it's too late. The creature is free and loose. With improvised weaponry, the Nostromo's crew now finds itself fighting for survival.

This is a movie that is hard to review. Why's that? Well, for one, that's a compliment. Released in 1979, Alien has basically influenced every horror-science-fiction-thriller made in the 30-plus years since its release. Having seen Prometheus just a few months ago, it's obvious how similar the "new" movie was to the original. We're talking spot-on. So through no fault of its own, this 1979 original does feel -- for lack of a better word -- familiar. It doesn't take away from the quality, but some of the scares and twists are somewhat predictable. Still, it's a gem. Anything that influenced so many movies since is worth a recommendation.

Directing just his second feature film (and three years prior to another classic, Blade Runner), Scott does an admirable job here. There's nothing quite as scary as deep space for me. Who knows what kind of horrors are out there? Oh, and there's nowhere to run...not quickly at least. Scott's vision of the future is just that, very visual. The Nostromo is both well-lit and furnished, but in its depths is claustrophobic, dank, damp and hiding all sorts of fear. In other words, plenty of space for our Alien to hide in. The scares are slow-burns, long scenes with little movement or sound suddenly broken up by quick GOTCHA! bursts that will have you jumping (okay, I did). While it is scary, it's more importantly smart scary. Most of the scares from the unsettling mood; the quiet and foreboding. At its best, this is an underplayed scare fest.

The focus is on the scares and the Alien that starts to dispatch members of the crew. 'Alien' doesn't have time or room for anything else. We're introduced to the characters, but know nothing about them more than what their duties on-board are. It strips away everything superfluous and maintains that focus on the survival aspect. The crew -- fodder for the Alien -- include the always cool Tom Skerritt, the similarly cool John Hurt and Weaver. Also included are Yaphet Kotto as Parker, the engineer, Harry Dean Stanton as Brett, the assistant engineer, Ian Holm as Ash, the medical officer, and Veronica Cartwright as Lambert. There really isn't a weak performance in the bunch, Skerritt, Kotto and Holm especially standing out. The real standout though is a young Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, the intelligent, reasonable-thinking heroine, a part that would help make her a star. A female star in an sci-fi movie was something new, and Weaver is a great lead.

Did I love this movie? No, but I liked it a lot. Seeing it in 1979, Alien would have no doubt had a different impact on me than it does now. It did influence countless movies since -- a credit to its power -- but viewing it now, it does affect the viewing. The surprises are solid, but they're not completely out of left field. If you're paying attention, you'll see them coming. On the other hand, it's still a gem 33 years later. A very pointed story with no dead weight anywhere in sight. Still well worth a watch.

Alien <---trailer (1979): ***/****

Juggernaut

The formula for disaster movies is pretty simple. Put together an all-star list of celebrities and movie stars and basically start throwing all sorts of apocalyptic measures of death at them. Sounds fun, doesn't it? That formula is improved when these casts are in a place they can't escape; a building in The Towering Inferno, a plane in Airport (and its sequels and knock-offs), or a boat like The Poseidon Adventure or 1974's Juggernaut.

On board the ocean liner Brittanica, Captain Alex Brunel (Omar Sharif) is in charge of 1,200 passengers traveling from England to New York City. The ship is only a day or so removed from port when a message comes in. A terrorist identified only as Juggernaut has placed seven bombs on-board the ship. He's demanding a ransom of half a million pounds to be delivered by dawn the next morning. If he doesn't receive the money, the bombs will explode. Working against a clock, a bomb disposal team led by Lt. Commander Anthony Fallon (Richard Harris) and right hand man, Charlie Braddock (David Hemmings), are flown in to defuse the bombs. Can they disarm them in time?

My usual picture of disaster movies is chaotic throngs of nameless individuals running around like their hair is on fire, old people and children trampled underfoot. Then Gene Hackman or Paul Newman steps to the forefront and saves the day, calming the masses with one soothing speech. In a lot of ways then, director Richard Lester has created the anti-disaster movie. A somber falls over the ship when the news of the bomb is released, the passengers realizing they can do nothing but sit back and wait, and hope. There is an almost documentary-like feel to Juggernaut, and a general low-key feeling of high-tension situation. It isn't the chaos or violence that erupts, but that sense of doom and dread knowing death waits with the sunrise. A disaster movie doesn't have to be aggressive and in your face to be effective. It just has to hit you emotionally in some way, and it does here. How would you respond in this dire situation?

Maybe Juggernaut doesn't have the huge names other disaster movies do, but it's still a memorable cast listing. More on Harris and Hemmings later, but let's start with Mr. Sharif, calmly cool as the Britannic's captain. He's given little to do other than try and stay calm, but because it is Omar Sharif it is at least watchable in its ho-hum ways. Anthony Hopkins plays Superintendent McCleod, a police officer leading the investigation to find the bomber back in England, also working with some extra motivation, his wife (Caroline Mortimer) and kids are on board. Ian Holm is Porter, the Britannic's company owner trying to fix the situation as best as possible. Shirley Knight plays a single woman who hooks up with Sharif's captain, trying to figure the man out. Roy Kinnear and Jack Watson play two members of the crew while Clifton James has a good part as an American politician with a unique outlook on the situation.

With a story that focuses on the horrific situation more than the personal aspect of the characters, something has got to keep you interested at that individual, person-to-person level. For me, that part came through with Harris and Hemmings as the leaders of the bomb squad. An early introduction shows them disarming a bomb in a London museum only to be called away to another rescue mission. We learn little about them other than Harris' Fallon has yet to meet a bomb he can't defuse, but because of the horrifying aspects of their job, it becomes personal. They live on a day-to-day basis, surviving one day at a time because honestly, they have no idea when their end will come. Harris is a scene stealer and the best thing going for Juggernaut, confident, cocky and ready with a joke because that's the only way he knows how to cope. His brotherly relationship with Hemmings is spot-on, a friendship that could only be a product of years of working together in this death-defying situation.

As mentioned before, what sets Juggernaut apart from so many other still entertaining movies is the bomb aspect. Much of the second half of the movie is spent with Harris, Hemmings and their team sitting in front of these seven bombs placed in oil drums that will explode if moved even a little. Harris' Fallon goes first, experimenting to see what will work, his team following suit. If something goes wrong (i.e. the bomb explodes), the team picks up where he left off. Tension doesn't begin to describe these scenes. The camera is right there on the ground with them in the dark passageways of this immense ocean liner. That documentary feel gives you the sensation of being there with them. The clock keeps ticking down, and what do you think happens? It's a cliche, but a good one. A blue wire and a red wire. Which one do you cut?

Is it possible for a disaster movie to be low-key and still be effective? Juggernaut proves that it can. Not remembered with some of the classic disaster flicks, but it is a good one nonetheless. Good cast, unique twist on a familiar formula, and tension and adrenaline to spare. Well worth checking out.

Juggernaut <---trailer (1974): ***/****