The wife and I have taken to watching a good movie most weeknights, a guilty pleasure. (In a meeting the other day she was asked why she’s creating a new nonprofit; at the words “under 50” and “kids out of the nest” they told her to please stop rubbing it in.)
So: what to watch? My wife and I have similar tastes in most things. James Lafond has an interesting list, which led us to Valhalla Rising, and from thence somehow we found The Dead Lands, both excellent examples of what I’d call the Terse subgenre of Man Movies.
Valhalla Rising feels like you’re watching an Ingmar Bergman action movie. It’s got long stretches without dialogue, but there’s meaning in every frame. There are intriguing touches throughout that would be the basis for subplots in lesser fims, but this film has too much going on to bother with such things. For example, the protagonist’s sliding-into-third-base trick move to attack the Achilles is critical to his success, but it’s rarely used, never discussed, and so adds interest and depth to the character. So much is unsaid in this film, an observer with an active brain will be entertained and engaged. Others will be bored.
The Dead Lands is slightly more verbose, but it’s all in the Maori tongue, and nearly as much tongue is shown as is heard. (My nephew, of Pacific Islander descent, was taught a Maori dance for a friend’s birthday party; why, he asked, all the bug-eyed, tongue-flapping, teeth-baring grimaces? “Tradition,” he was told. Traditional and brutally effective combat posturing to freeze the blood of the enemy, they should have said.)
And… Tropes galore, and fighting axes made from wood paddles and teeth, and other combat tools made from what look like shoulder blades! And more… Awesome film.
Tonight, it’s on to 13 Assassins….