A Texas Funeral (1999) - Stars shine in Herron's under-seen and underrated dramedy

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+ Best Box Office Disaster + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best Texas Movie of the Year + Most Under-Appreciated Movie of the Year  

 

A Camel and an old Buick on the flat plains of Texas on this sepia-toned poster for William Blake Herron's A Texas Funeral

The patriarch of the Whit family has past away, so the family gather in the house in Texas around the time of the funeral with their time there and engagement with the old man's will laying bare some secrets, resentments and envies - among the family's virtues.

A Texas Funeral is written and directed by great Illinoisan filmmaker William Blake Herron (Skin Art (1993)).

It is a refreshing, thoroughly well-made, Texan yarn, which both has the child's perspective (the boy is enormously well acted by Quinton Jones (Walker, Texas Ranger (2001, TV-series))) on the incidents in the strange family, along with adult issues concerning race, wealth, abortion and sexuality. From being a realistic drama about a colorful family, A Texas Funeral turns into a condensed boiler-room type story in the vein of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), when all the characters stay together one night, but it is still managed to feel natural, when dawn breaks, and Herron ties several very satisfying ends together on his funny and moving, worldly story.

There's outstanding performances from the fine cast: Robert Patrick (Kill Speed (2010)), Chris Noth (Crossing Jordan (2001, TV-series)), Grace Zabriskie (Psycho Sushi (1997)), Jane Adams (Wonder Boys (2000)), Isaiah Washington (Hurricane Season (2009)), Martin Sheen (Badlands (1973)); and particularly Patrick and Sheen are masterly. Michael Bonvillain (Felicity (1999-01)) has done the excellent photography. A Texas Funeral is a thoroughly pleasurable nightcap kind of movie.

 

Related post:

 

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Watch a 2-minute scene with Chris Noth from the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain - likely a box office disaster

[A Texas Funeral premiered 7 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place in October 1998 - ? in Texas. It was released in Italy and Germany in 2000 and 2001, and it is unclear whether the film was ever released more widely than at a couple of minor film festivals in the US. Its gross is unreported. Most likely this points to the independent film being a box office disaster. Herron withdrew from directing but did return as a screenwriter with The Bourne Identity (2002). Patrick returned in The Angry Beavers (1999, TV-series) and theatrically in Shogun Cop (1999); Sheen in 3 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in A Stranger in the Kingdom (1999). 678 IMDb users have given A Texas Funeral a 6.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of A Texas Funeral?

The Dead Zone (1983) - Eerie sci-fi horror King-adaptation

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The eerie, well-composed poster for David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone

QUICK REVIEW:

Our school teacher hero is set to be married, as he gets involved in a traffic accident that puts him in a five-year coma. When he awakes to a reality that has moved on, he has a new ability: He sees horrific things ...

The Dead Zone is a good Stephen King-adaptation (Misery (1987)). Jeffrey Boam (The Lost Boys (1987)) adapted King's same-title 1979 novel, and Canadian master filmmaker David Cronenberg (Naked Lunch (1991)) has directed it. Fans of Cronenberg might be a bit disappointed with the film, because there are only a few Cronenberg touches to it, and it feels a little novel-like; this happens, then that happens and so on.
But Christoper Walken (A Late Quartet (2012)) and Martin Sheen (The West Wing (1999-06)) are good in it, and it is still a well-done and exciting film.

Related reviews:

David Cronenberg: Cosmopolis (2012) - Cronenberg/DeLillo/Pattinson's speculative limo lullaby
A Dangerous Method (2011) - Cronenberg's rather disappointing waltz with the fathers of modern psychology 
A History of Violence (2005) or, Who Is Tom Stall? 
Spider (2002) - Cronenberg takes us to the tormented (and slightly dull) mind of a schizophrenic 
Dead Ringers (1988) or, Brothers and Their Instruments 
The Brood (1979) or, Marital Fury and Craze!  

In lieu of a trailer, not currently on Youtube, watch the opening credit sequence of the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 20.7 mil. $ (North America only)
= Unknown
[The Dead Zone was released October 21 and runs 103 minutes. Stanley Donen, Andrei Konchalovsky and John Badham were contacted to direct before Cronenberg was set. King wrote a screenplay himself and originally wanted Bill Murray for the lead, but his script was rejected, and he reportedly ended up complimenting Boam and Cronenberg's changes to the story, saying that [they] "improved and intensified the power of the narrative." The film was shot on location in Cronenberg's native Ontario, Canada during a deep freeze winter, which contributed greatly to the freezing atmosphere in the film. Dead Zone opened #2 in North America with 4.5 mil. $, behind Never Say Never Again. Without foreign box office numbers, it isn't possible to say whether the film crept up into profitability theatrically, although it probably became a small success. The Dead Zone is fresh at 90 % with a 7.6 average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Dead Zone?

The Departed (2006) - Scorsese's Boston-set wildcat of a capital letter Movie

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+ Best Boston Movie of the Year + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Best Comeback Actor of the Year: Matt Damon + Best Remake of the Year + Best Ensemble of the Year: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, Alex Baldwin, Kevin Corrigan, James Badge Dale

Jack Nicholson lurks in the background behind the young leading men on this poster for Martin Scorsese's The Departed

QUICK REVIEW:

In Boston, Massachusetts, it isn't Italian Americans who control the city's criminal underbelly. Frank Costello does; an Irish crime king who has a guy on the inside of the city's police department, but who also has an 'infestation problem' of his own. In Boston you just have to deal with your problems...

Master filmmaker Martin Scorsese (Casino (1995)) does it again with The Departed; creates a unique crime blast of a movie. The Departed is a remake of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Infernal Affairs (2002), a very successful Hong Kong movie which got 2 sequels, written by William Monahan (Kingdom of Heaven (2005)), who won an Oscar for his adapted screenplay.
The movie offers juicy parts for an exciting ensemble cast that all bring their very best to the film. - And for once, at this stage in his career, Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting (1997)) also has a fully fledged part. - His star was back on the rise, after about 5 years of more or less dubious movies, with his performance in Departed.
The film features a cool music side; both lots of great source music and a great score by Howard Shore (Doubt (2008)). The Oscar-winning editing, by Scorsese regular Thelma Schoonmaker (Goodfellas (1990)), and Michael Ballhaus' (Air Force One (1997)) cinematography are unmatched. SPOILER Martin Sheen's (Apocalypse Now (1979)) death scene is very exciting, and the film's ending, in which nearly everyone 'departs', is great.
I only withhold the 6th ♥ from Departed because the characters, and especially Jack Nicholson's (The Shining (1980)) Frank Costello, seem at times exaggerated in an almost circus-like way. It is truly a great movie nevertheless.

Related posts:

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess  
Martin Scorsese: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - One helluva movie!  
Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject)
Hugo (2011) - Scorsese's critically acclaimed, magical 3D family adventure/financial disaster 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Boardwalk Empire - 1st season (2010) - Luxurious 1920's ensemble gangster treats  
The Aviator (2004) - The grand American biopic 
Casino (1995) - Scorsese's sumptuous Vegas gangster tale has the wingspan of a Greek tragedy   
The Age of Innocence (1993) or, Stayin' IN the Pants
Cape Fear (1991) - Scorsese adds lots of stuff to remake but loses the balance   

Martin Scorsese directing The Departed

Watch the totally kick-ass trailer for the movie here

Cost: 90 mil. $
Box office: 289.8 mil. $
= Big hit
[The Departed was shot on locations in Boston with interior scenes shot in New York. The film was highly anticipated and became one of Scorsese's biggest hits to date, both commercially and critically: Departed broke Scorsese's decades-long Oscar jinx and earned both Best Picture, Director as well as Adapted Screenplay and Editing Oscars. Mark Wahlberg (Ted 2 (2015)) was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Many have commented that Scorsese won for a lesser film than he has previously been nominated for. He has himself said that he won for Departed because it is his first movie "with a plot." It opened #1 in North America with 26.8 mil. $ and grossed 132.3 mil. $ there (46 % of the total gross).]

What do you think of The Departed?
Any thoughts on Scorsese and Co.'s Oscar wins for the film?

Badlands (1973) or, Kit and Holly in Love

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This original poster for Terrence Malick's Badlands has a provocative tagline that was referred to by the San Francisco Zodiac killer in one of his letters at the time

In late-50s Texas, a 15 year-old, simple-minded girl begins to talk to a local garbage man. He loses his job, they fall in love, and before they know it, the girl's father is shot, and the young couple are outlaws on the run.

 
In my 'book', Badlands beats the topically similar classic Bonnie and Clyde (1967), - and all director Terrence Malick's (The Thin Red Line (1998)) other films, - because it is sharper and more pungent in its social realism, and its characters are more easily recognizable and credible, less iconographic and larger-than-life, and also, the film is simply incredibly enveloping to watch. The moods created in the film and its poetic quality is breathtaking. The story is based on a real couple on a killing spree in Dakota in 1959.
Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now (1979)) could be termed the ultimate American as Kit here, pressed to the edge, fighting his own fight for himself; and Sissy Spacek (The Straight Story (1999)) plays as strongly as the adorable opportunist Holly, whom he sweeps off with. Badlands also portrays American society's mixed feelings of fascination and contempt for the renegades and outlaws with great precision.
SPOILER Especially the scene of Sheen's Kit-character's visit at a job center got to me.
But Badlands has countless strong and incredible scenes.
It is a marvelous, strong, vibrant cinematic masterpiece.

Related post:

Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

 

Watch the film's awesome, original trailer here

Budget: 0.5 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain

What do you think of Badlands?
Why does America have this infatuation with murderous outlaws?

Apocalypse Now (1979, redux version) - Coppola's dizzying whirlpool epic of the horror of war

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An all-time great in poster art; this evocative, dark work full of depth and atmosphere by Bob Peak and Tom Jung for Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now

Vietnam War-traumatized US Captain Willard receives a new mission: Sail up a Vietnamese river into Cambodia during the flaming grandeur of the Vietnam War and terminate an insane, rogue US colonel by the name of Kurtz. With "extreme prejudice."

An adaptation of Joseph Conrad's (Victory (1915)) classic masterpiece novella, Heart of Darkness (1899) written by John Millius (Red Dawn (1984)), Michael Herr (Full Metal Jacket (1987)) writing narration and Michigander master filmmaker and in this case co-writer/producer/director/co-composer Francis Ford Coppola (Tonight for Sure (1962)) changed a lot of Conrad's dark story to fit it into their current Vietnam perspective, (it originally takes place on a river in the Congo.) This is a review of the 2001-released 49-minute extended Redux-version of Apocalypse Now.
From being a story more exclusively about the darkness in the human soul, it grows in their hands into a horrifying Vietnam-tale, and a forecast of the apocalypse of the entire American system, its way of thought, or of the war effort in Vietnam at the very least, depending on the interpreter. A moral and human apocalypse of endless proportions.
Most of all, though, it still concerns itself with the savage, the uncontrollable, and the evil; the indefinable and incurable darkness in man.
Right from the first shot of helicopters rising in a cloud of napalm to the doomed sounds of The Doors' The End, the movie spellbinds its viewer in visual and sheer scope-of-production awe, fascination, and transformative despair.
Martin Sheen (The 3 Wise Men (2003, voice)) and Marlon Brando (The Formula (1980)) are majestic, and we have the sense all through the film that we so deserve this apocalypse that we are witnessing the journey towards.
The incredible near 300 day-shooting of the film in the civil war-plagued Philippines at the time with Sheen suffering a heart attack, choppers loaned directly from war there, Brando's troubling obesity, mumbling and refusal to prepare, tropical, disastrous storms, deaths, near-insanity and everything in between are portrayed by Coppola's wife Eleanor Coppola (Paris Can Wait (2016)), in her Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991), a great and very recommendable documentary on extreme filmmaking.
Apocalypse Now may be the best war movie ever made, and it is arguably one of the greatest 10 or 20 films of all time. An incredible achievement and experience that is never forgotten.

Related posts:

Francis Ford Coppola: Twixt (2011) - Coppola's dreamlike Gothic is a late-night gem

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Coppola goes for the jugular with unsubtle, overlong adaptation

Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date

Dementia 13/The Haunted and the Hunted (1963) - Coppola's gothic AIP castle horror 
 

Watch a teaser for the film here

Budget: 31.5 mil. $
Box office: 150 mil. $ + 12.5 mil. $ (Redux)
= Big hit (returned 5.15 times the cost)
[Apocalypse Now premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, in competition) and runs 153 minutes/202 minutes (Redux version). Coppola paid Milius 15k $ to write the screenplay, which he finished a first draft for in '69. He eventually reportedly wrote10 drafts, more than 1,000 pages. George Lucas was engaged to direct for a period, and had in mind a low-budget approach, but was overtaken by work on Star Wars. Instead Coppola himself took the helm with a budget of 12-14 mil. $. He personally dined with the dictator of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos to arrange the use of his country's military in the long Philippine shoot. Several stars turned down offers to play Willard due to the long jungle shoot. Brando was contracted for 1 months shooting for outrageous 3.5 mil. $. Harvey Keitel started out playing Willard, but Coppola was unhappy with him and replaced him with Sheen. Shooting took place in the Philippines and in California from March 1976 - May 1977. The budget ballooned during the enormously long production, which suffered countless problems. Editing took 2 years. The film won the Palm d'Or in Cannes together with Volker Schlöndorff's The Tin Drum. It was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning for Best Cinematogrpahy (Vittorio Storaro (Caravaggio (2007, TV movie))) and Best Sound, losing Best Supporting Actor (Duvall) to Melvyn Douglas in Being There, Art/Set Decoration to All That Jazz, Director to Robert Benton for Kramer vs. Kramer, Editing to All That Jazz, Picture and Adapted Screenplay to Kramer vs. Kramer. It won 3/4 Golden Globe nominations, 2/9 BAFTA noms, a César award nomination, won a David di Donatello award, a Grammy nomination, a National Board of Review award and other honors. It grossed 78 mil. $ domestically (52 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert has called it the finest war film ever made and given it a 4/4 star review, equal to its rating here. It was nominated for  The 2001 Redux release added 12.5 mil. $ to the total gross. It currently sits at #49 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250, between The Prestige (2006) and Memento (2000). Coppola returned with One from the Heart (1981). Sheen returned in Blind Ambition (1979, miniseries) and theatrically in Eagle's Wing (1979), Duvall in The Great Santini (1979), and Brando in The Formula (1980). Apocalypse Now is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

Share your personal experience with Apocalypse Now here