As Satuday Night Live banks on Adam Samber and a reduced cast pulling in higher ratings this season, Wenzel sits down to catch up on some movie watching this Thanksgiving weekend.
First off, Battle for Algiers played during our Friday matinee sessions, and the office audience was enthralled. Perhaps it is because we are all more cynical than we'd like to believe, but after seeing this fictionalized account of the French battle to quash the Algerian revolution, we find ourselves giving credence to rumours that it is shown as the "How to find a modern, urban, guerrilla war" film. Very disturbing how it matches up with our expectations and images of American involvement in the Middle East.
Once more, we find ourselves admitting our bookish tendencies. Long have we admired Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai but only recently have we sat down to watch the cowboy classic, The Magnificent Seven, the American homage to the Japanese master. Steve McQueen and Yul Brenner are excellent, though the drama was undermined by one Wenzel stafferr inadvertently blurting out, "Hey this is just A Bug's Life!".
Perhaps the highlight of the weekend however, was the office outing to Martin Scorsese's The Departed, which opened this weekend. After The Aviator and Gangs of New York we were all looking forward to Scorsese getting back to basics, although The Departed centres around Boston cops and corruption. Almost Shakespearean in its twists and turns, unblemishing in its violence, the film draws stellar performances from sources as unlikely as Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin. Jack Nicholson is fantastic as he finally escapes the fetters of his recent romantic comedy roles and gives full rein to his darker side.
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That thought crossed our minds as we were watching it, but we couldn't remember what Internal Affairs had been called. As you suggested we're in the process of acquiring the three movies. Fittingly enough, Internal Affiars has been described to us as an homage to Scorsese, causing us to be reminded of a scene from Almost Famous:
"What do you think of the new Lou Reed?"
"I think he should stop trying to be David Bowie."
"Yeah but, if Lou's doin' Bowie, and Bowie's doing Lou, then Lou's still doin' Lou . . ."
We have! We've asked Zip.ca to send us the copies. If they didn't have copies though, we were prepared to go to just such a video store as you suggested. There's one beside the Second Cup on 12th Ave and Centre St. North that actually once had a poster for Infernal Affairs.
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