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JKlugman
Reviews
Pokrajina St.2 (2008)
Strong, unconventional thriller
Pokrajina St.2 is an unusual thriller by conventional American standards. There are only a few acts of violence portrayed in the film, but what we do see is fairly graphic and the film shows a real empathy with the victims and their struggle to live. The showdown between the villain and hero is also quite subdued.
***BEGIN SPOILER*** Without completely spoiling the ending, let us just say that the hero does not kick ass. ***END SPOILER***
The premise of the film is that a couple of small-time thieves in post-communist Slovenia burgles a retired general's house and stumbles upon some documents that show the general was culpable for a mass killing of civilians committed by Communist partisans after World War II. The retired general asks one of his loyal formal attendants to retrieve the documents and kill the thieves. The younger thief, Sergej, does not quite realize the danger he is in even after his mentor, Polde, is found hanged.
Pokrajina St.2 poses an interesting contrast between the younger Sergej and the actions of the partisans after World War II. The partisans' rigid adherence to their ideology were willing to kill anyone remotely suspected of betraying the cause or the nation (the film makes clear to us that the "traitors" were killed without any kind of trial). In the present day, the attendant goes on a killing spree to protect the image of his cause (the film makes clear he was no self-interest at stake). On the other hand, Sergej does not seem motivated by anything other than his shallow desires. He does not spend any time with his fiancée because he spends his nights burgling with Polde and entire days in sexual trysts with Jasna. (we see him at one point masturbating while watching a documentary about World War II atrocities). In a perverse way the villains are more noble than the hero.
This is a strong film with good performances by all of the actors involved and strong direction by Vinko Moderndorfer. Its major flaw is an ending that hits us over the head with its denunciation of its Strelnikov-like fanatical villains.
Failan (2001)
Mawkish and forgettable
"Failan" has very little going for it other than the good looks of the cast. The story (bad boy learns to appreciate life and love) is trite, the Failan character has no depth and while the hoodlum played by Min-sik Choi is a little more interesting, his transformation was ultimately unconvincing. The movie is a real drag, and instead of submitting myself to its shallow sentimentality, I spent the second half checking my watch to see when it would be over.
Witchfinder General (1968)
Thoroughly unpleasant
Terrible exploitation film. The director seemed to take joy in highlighting executions, torture, and cruelty, which maybe is the whole point of the 1960s horror genre. Nevertheless, much of the depicted sadism was gratuitous, with female characters bearing much of the brunt of it. This aside, the interesting historical context also cannot make up for paper-thin characters and plot. To top it off, HBO Video apparently contracted some fourth-rate synthesizer composer to replace Paul Ferris's soundtrack. The new music is terrible and distracting. I would prefer a good soundtrack to distract me from the bad quality of the film, but we are not even afforded that.
Wolfen (1981)
Disgusting and pretentious
Wolfen is a police-procedural/horror movie that pretends to be intelligent--it tacks on a New Age environmental/anti-colonial message to make it appear more profound than it actually is. The Wolfen are portrayed as noble creatures, driven underground by Western imperialism who hunt down society's "sick and abandoned," in effect sanctioning killing black homeless people. The film-makers show little respect for human life in general--the Native American characters are shamefully portrayed, are given a mystical gloss and a wisdom that comprehends the Wolfen's ghastly logic, thus essentializing an entire ethnic group. On top of that, the movie is boring and uninteresting, and I didn't give a damn about any of the main characters, who are generic movie-policemen. Not even Finney can make his character at least mildly engaging.