Joyous documentary from the man who made Not Quite Hollywood - and actually much better than that film, because it is more focused (centering on two principals), has a stronger narrative drive (being a rise and fall) and more critical. There are some excellent interviewees - not just the usual actors, actresses and directors, but also writers, editors and music supervisors... which means the comments are more varied, interesting and (to be blunt) smarter (editors especially always seem to have super insightful things to say about films and studios, but they get overlooked in favour of the more glamorous directors and stars).
Like all Mark Hartley movies it looks great and bangs along at a fair clip. His sense of story is improving too - he's not as distracted by anecdotes as in Not Quite Hollywood - helped by the fact Golan and Globas are such engaging protagonists, even if they didn't appear in the film: hucksters who adored movies and making deals, with a great flair for getting money out of banks and distributors but with nil taste.
Their passion and skills saw them explode in Hollywood in the early 80s, helped by the VHS revolution which saw a market for their movies and their general lack of shame. I don't think Cannon pioneered pre-selling off the poster - wasn't AIP doing that in the 50s? - but they perfected it to an artform.
In a weird way, Cannon's taste was ahead of the curve of some issues - they made films out of toys (eg Masters of the Universe) and were big on super heroes and comic book franchises (eg King Solomon's Mines, Superman IV, they had the rights to Spiderman and Captain America) but could never crack a big hit because the films were made ineptly. They made a mistake reaching for the big leagues and overreaching themselves in terms of budget and stars (eg Over the Top), like many a feisty independent, and went bust. Golan and Globas broke up, competed with lambada films, then retreated to Israel. (Both are still wheeling and dealing but are no longer the international players they were; neither wanted to participate in this film)
What to make of Cannon's legacy? A lot of violence, sex, and misogyny, and awful lot of crud. But they were no orphans on that score during that decade: Frank Yablans is bitter about the junk they foisted on MGM in the 80s, but Metro was hardly kicking goals around this time; Bo Derek's recollections on how they ruined Bolero is laughable (in an enjoyable way).
And the fact is Cannon did make a bunch of good films - 52 Pick Up, Barfly, Otello, Runaway Train - as well as some first rate exploitation flicks - Breakin', Missing in Action, Delta Force - plus others which were engagingly bad - Lifeforce, King Solomon's Mines, The Wicked Lady. They made a stars of Chuck Norris, Michael Dudikoff and Jean Claude Van Damme, gave regular employment to Charles Bronson, perhaps unwisely extended the career of Michael Winner, financed works by Cassevetes and Goddard.
What they seemed to lack was an ability to make solid, mainstream, commercial movies - they knew there was a market for a new Superman movie, or a film based on a popular toy line, but couldn't satisfy it due to their lack of talent. Roger Corman managed to keep going all this time by keeping his costs super low and not getting into areas he couldn't control.
It makes for highly entertaining viewing and a fun film. Not sure if the Australian tax payer should have funded it, but it is better than most recent Aussie films.
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