This 1993 Joel Schumacher film explores the banality of everyday life, in a world exposed to the most intense of media saturation and the effect it has on those already being pushed over the edge.
Michael Douglas plays the dangerous anti-hero as he attempts to get to his daughter's birthday party, having to overcome various delinquents and societal problems in his path. Whilst Douglas' character William Foster appears at times to be mentally delusional, he oftens utters remarks regarding the state of the world's economy and takes a vigilante approach which many would deem fair and understandable. Though when picked up on the vigilante theory, Foster looks to flatly deny the remark. Douglas plays Foster well, giving off an aura of confusion, frustration and loneliness which is meant to define the everyday man in a world destroyed by advertising, political correctness and fascism.
There are various themes at work in Falling Down. Not only do patriotism, racism and homophobia get a mention, but family values also appear. Foster's only goal seems to be to rid the world of meaningless bureaucratic processes, criminals and everyday dangers, whilst trying to see his daughter on the happiest day of her young life. Thinly veiled though, is the depression and powerless existance which Foster finds himself living. Having separated from his wife, presumably due to his sporadic behavioural problems, and having been fired from his job, he has nothing to live for in life other than the wellbeing of his daughter. Except the only way he can leave her with any kind of life is to end his.
Having spent two years in production and licence-limbo, Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity is a unique entry in the newly-coined Found Footage genre, which takes advantage of POV shots and jump edits to deliver a realistic and limited perspective of a film’s events; normally employed to give a sense of claustrophobia and of being involved within the scenes.
The film follows Katie and Micah, a well-off couple in San Diego, CA., as they encounter spiritual and paranormal activity over a period of three weeks. The attacks begin in tame fashion, with walls being tapped and other strange goings on bringing out emotional reactions in Katie, who it is revealed has a history with similar activity, having attracted such phenomena since the age of 8.
The film’s latter scenes certainly work well in providing enough jump scares for the audience to delight in, and special effects create an eerily realistic sense of entrapment for the inexperienced couple, upon whom the haunting clearly take effect. For relative newcomers to the professional acting stage, Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat do a decent job of portraying the ordeal they are put through by the ongoing activity though Sloat’s tone of voice and inability to scare easily means he doesn’t always come across as the right man for the job; often laughing at or teasing his girlfriend for being haunted by a demon.
Two scenes in particular stood out as potential film ruiners, namely the nod to The Exorcist and the film’s ridiculous finale, in which common sense doesn’t seem to be involved when it comes to the policemen who arrive on the scene.
However, these are not enough to ruin what is in fact a very decent film. On a shoestring budget, Oren Peli has managed to piece together a Blair Witch Project-esque which has already had a significant impact on the Independent film circuit and will undoubtedly prove a hit on the mass market scene. Use of the handheld camera is never overused and the audience is always kept in the loop regarding the film’s key moments, meaning the pieces in the puzzle are all there for the audience to enjoy. Add to this that Sloat and Featherston combine to make a realistic and likeable couple on-screen, and Paranorma l Activity proves a solid and genuinely engaging (for the most part) hit.
One of America’s (if not the world) finest drama series came to an end in May, bringing to a close a seventh series of Golden Globe-winning quality. Without A Trace followed the lives of six FBI Missing Persons Unit Officers, as they traversed America in the hopes of finding troubled victims of abuse, neglect, kidnap and other such struggles.
Whilst many would have been put off by the highly polished visuals and presentation style which can dictate many primetime television shows in America, Without A Trace, with award-winning CSI producer Jerry Bruckheimer on board, focuses more on the details that mattered and left the gloss and glamour of the high rise offices as a secondary party when producing the show.
Where the series was different from its few rivals was the relationships which grew as the series moved on, with romance and tension hitting the office in one way or another, confrontations spicing up the professional lives, and the unorthodox methods of the characters provoking action from their superiors whenever hostile tactics were introduced in order to garner information from suspects.
With so many excellent episodes being produced, it’s hard to pick out any favourites though two that come to mind are ones which not only pull on the heartstrings but also force the viewer to rethink how they watch a television drama and what television can provoke from an audience.
The first episode that springs to mind is White Balance, unusual in the sense that it involves two victims; one black, one white. The audience not only sees the institutional racism in the higher-ups telling Jack the white family is to be given more press coverage because they want more help to be given to said family over the black victim’s family, but also in the presentation of the finale. Though the audience is party to hearing confirmation of two bodies being found, one alive one dead, the anxious wait shared by parents of both missing persons, is also offered to the audience, who never discover which person survived their ordeal, leaving it completely open to suggestion. Whilst the ending is abrupt and somewhat frustrating, it provides the audience with an innovative conclusion. Not only are we forced to share the heartbreak of both families before the result is heard, we must understand and appreciate the ordeal which ensues for that of the victim’s family. Taking away that final sense of relief or at the very least assurance of a loved one’s death which the viewer is always given at the end of each episode draws us further into the world in which the characters live, whilst fully taking on board the trauma of thousands of families who will never know what has happened to their loved ones.
When Darkness Falls is a truly emotional episode for it is when Jack decides to revisit his ageing father, in the knowledge that he is suffering from Alzheimers and is due to die very soon. When Jack returns to find his father dead in his apartment, moments after a heartwarming conversation, the audience is invited into Jack Malone’s personal life, well aware of the emotional rollercoaster he experiences not only at work, through his divorce proceedings but also through the anxiety and emotional ordeal of his own father’s death. A stubborn and once cold-hearted man, Jack is broken by his father’s passing and throughout later series the audience notices moments whereby his emotions enter the fray and take over his rational. The show’s final season also uncovers his personal side, as he decides to potentially leave his job to take better care of his daughter, knowing full well she could become like one of his missing persons cases should she full foul of poor parenting.
In hindsight, I would list Without A Trace in the higher echelons of television drama, alongside CSI Vegas and The Sopranos as personal favourites and excellent pieces of episodic drama. Whilst the show will be sadly missed, it has provided me with some of the best moments in televisual history and for that there is nothing else I can do but to appreciate what has gone before.
