WASTE LAND: Cops Crossing The Line

Pieter Van Hees' Waste Land premieres tonight with a story of a cop "spiral[ling] into the abyss of his own darkness, haunted by the question of whether he'll be able to claw his way back."

And the VBPD is spiralling with him, as Dets. Leslie and Carol stake out movie police who are tempted, who cross the line, who go too far. And by the end, maybe we'll lose our badges and our guns. But we'll slam them on the captain's desk with pride, because we're so far gone we're doing this just because it's right. It's what this blog needs. Maybe it's what this movie needs. Hell, maybe we can't tell the difference between right and wrong anymore when all we care about is justice, justice and writing about movies. Now give us the damn bottle. No, we don't need glasses.

We each chose three film cops. Here are their stories.



Forget it, Leslie, it's Vanguard, or, Leslie's collars.

Hot yoga is great. You should really try it sometime.

Blade Runner

Rick Deckard is a retired police officer who grudgingly agrees to "one last job" for the police department (yeah, how many times have we heard that before?). But this isn't a regular job; it's a skin job. Three skin jobs, to be precise, and they're all deadly assassins. Deckard gets his ass kicked, falls in love with a replicant whose time is running out, and learns he might be one, too (depending on which version of the movie you prefer).

Don't worry, they can't tell you're from
Australia.

L.A. Confidential

While Edmund "Ed" Exley seems like a square with his police pedigree and fancy glasses, he's not above sleeping with a prostitute to further his agenda. That prostitute is not only involved in a murder investigation but also sleeping/in love with fellow cop Wendell "Bud" White. Exley and White already hate each other so when White finds out Exley moved in on his woman, fists fly. Eventually the two realize they're on the same side and work together to solve a case. Friendship!

Does this hat make my nose bandage look big?

Chinatown

Jake  "J.J." Gittes (what is it with cops and nicknames?) is investigating an extramarital affair when he uncovers some mysterious goings-on in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. At one point, Roman Polanski shows up and slashes the tip of his nose with a knife! Ouch. Then Gittes gets romantically involved with the dead guy's wife and her crazy dad and uncovers some nasty family secrets. Lesson: stay away from Chinatown if your name is Jake. Or Marge.


Do you feel lucky, Carol? Well, do you? or Carol's collars.

Orson Welles was carefully coated in 3" of grime for the role of Cap. Harry Quinlan.

Touch of Evil

Mexican narcotics detective Miguel Vargas and his wife Susie are on their honeymoon when they witness a car bomb explode. Vargas is out of his jurisdiction, but offers his help to the magnificently corrupt local police captain, Hank Quinlan. Seriously, Quinlan just makes me feel grimy. In fact, this whole film makes me feel grimy as Quinlan plants evidence to convict a young Mr. Sanchez, who had married the victim's daughter secretly because of the victim's racism. Vargas investigates Quinlan's case history and Quinlan has Susie kidnapped, shot up with heroin and frames her for murder. And it's even worse when it turns out that Quinlan's hunch about Sanchez was probably right. It's not explicit, but the palpable corruption presented Touch Of Evil always makes me feel like I need a shower afterwards. That and Charleton Heston's brownface.

"Oh, I can't stay mad at you." "Jinx."

The Killer

Actor Danny Lee has made a career of playing cops on the edge. In The Killer, he's Inspector Li, pursuing Chow Yun-Fat's hitman with a conscience, Ah Jong. At first, Li is relentless, driven to stop Jeff after Li's partner is injured while pursuing Jong. But Ah Jong has charming eyes and saves a little girl from a crossfire. And then Jong starts caring for a chanteuse accidentally injured during a hit. And Li just can't help liking him. I know I couldn't help it. Li's suits go from white with black pinstripes to full on black as he wavers between the law and Ah Jong. In the end, Li just can't quit Ah Jong.

Maybe we should form a gang where we listen to sweet speakers and be handsome all the time.

Infernal Affairs 

Lau Kin-Ming (Andy Lau) is a Triad member who infiltrates the police academy and becomes a detective, but remains loyal to his gang and his Triad boss, Hon Sam, played by an unusually frightening Eric Tsang. Lau discovers that there is an undercover cop spying on Hon Sam and reporting back to one particular police inspector (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang). To things worse, the police totally stole Hon Sam's idea and the mole is a made Triad member, Chen Wing-Yen (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai). One day it's all listening to crystal stereo speakers together. The next thing you know, Anthony Wong's body is on top of a car, Andy Lau and Tony Leung are out-handsoming each other on a rooftop, and Lau has to make a choice about whether he'll be a bad triad member or a bad cop.

WASTE LAND screening times:
Sat., Sept. 6th, 9:30 PM, BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Mon., Sept. 8th, 4:30 PM, TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 2
Sat., Sept. 13th, 6:30 PM, SCOTIABANK 13

This Gun For Hire: Get Ready for BLUE RUIN with some Hitman Movies!

Hitman movies are one of my favorite genres. So to get you in the mood for Blue Ruin, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite films.

Adjust your suit so the body armor doesn't ruin the line, put on your shades and get ready to explore moral ambiguity and conflicted loyalties.

This Gun For Hire (1942) directed by Frank Tuttle.

Based on Graham Green's A Gun For Sale, This Gun For Hire stars Alan Ladd as Raven, a hired killer who fulfills a contract and then is betrayed by his employer William Gates (Laird Cregar), who tips the police off and who might be a spy. Raven flees the police while attempting to take revenge. Meanwhile, nightclub singer Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake, who headlined) is spying on Gates for the police. Inevitably, Raven and Graham end up on the road together.

Le Samouraï (1967) directed by Jean-Pierre Melville

Le Samouraï has profoundly influenced all subsequent hitman films, with its emphasis on style and the almost monastic discipline and control of hitman, Jef Costello, played with near arctic sang-froid by Alain Delon. Melville re-imagines the wandering ronin of films like Yojimbo and Sword of Doom with fedora and trenchcoat Noir into a smooth Parisian contract killer.

Alain Delon is only happy when it rains.

The Killer (1989) directed by John Woo

Chow Yun-Fat's Ah Jong/Jeff is a contract killer after Jean-Pierre Melville's own heart: handsome, beautifully dressed, and a homage to Le Samourai. But Ah Jong has a conscience. And Woo brings in the sensibilities of Shaw Bros. "heroic bloodshed / bloody brothers" to his film. After accidentally blinding a chanteuse, Jennie (Sally Yeh), during a restaurant hit. Ah Jong falls in love with her and takes one last contract to try to repair the damage he has done. Unfortunately, Danny Lee's Police Inspector Lee is on to Ah Jong, and is, in many ways a much stronger candidate for romantic interest. One of the things I love about this film is that you can track the moral position of the characters based on the evolving colors of their suits.

Chow Yun-Fat is even handsome crying tears of blood.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) directed by Jim Jarmusch

Jim Jarmusch's forays into genre are always intriguing. Forrest Whittaker plays the titular character, a man who attempts to live his life in accord with Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure, a book written in Tokugawa Japan dictating how a warrior and a man of honor should live. Of course, both Yamamoto and Ghost Dog lived in times of peace. And their created lives reflect nostalgia for a time when men could fight and die with honor. Ghost Dog reveals the deep appeal of living according to a code of righteous conduct, at the same time that the films demonstrates exactly how violence begets violence.

What tragedy could possibly stem from this?

Exiled / Fong Juk (2006) directed by Johnnie To

I have a theory that Ang Lee wants to make movies about anything that focus on things that are green (The Green Destiny sword, the Incredible Hulk, the green hills of England and Missouri) and that Johnnie To has a plans to make a in the style of each of his favorite directors. Exiled is To's Peckinpah Western set in Macau during its handover to China. Boss Fei (the incomparable Simon Yam) sends Blaze (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang) and Fat (Lam Suet) to kill their old Triad brothers, Wo (Nick Cheung) for betraying him. Wo had fed but returned to raise his family in Macau. Meanwhile, Tai (Francis Ng) and Cat (Roy Cheung) want to save Mo's life. The film played TIFF in 2006 and reunites the cast of To's The Mission, which played at Midnight Madness in 1999.

I'm sure everything will work out just fine.

Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon (1977) directed by Yukeo Noda
Sonny Chiba travels to Hong Kong in this splendidly Seventies and unapologetically hyper-violent Hong Kong/Japan co-production. Chiba plays Duke Togo, a hitman created by the mangaka, Takeo Saito. American drug lords send Duke to Hong Kong to eliminate some competition. While there, he is pursued by Det. Dirk Chang Smith (Callan Leung) and gangsters who don't care to be taken out. Meanwhile, Chiba's real life protege Etsuko Shiomi (aka, Sue Shiomi) plays Lin Li, who is busily infiltrating the Hong Kong drug operation.

Director Noda, this is a masterful composition.

Naked Killer (1992) directed by Clarence Fok Yiu-leung

Naked Killer is a Category III film, which is sort of Hong Kong's version of an X-rated film. They have graphic violence and nudity, although about the same level of nudity and violence that a film like Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon has. Naked Killer stars Wong Jing's muse, Chingmy Yau as Kitty, a young woman chosen to be trained as an assassin by Sister Cindy (Wai Yiu) along with other lady assassins, Princess (Carrie Ng) and Princess' girlfriend, Baby (Madoka Sugawara). They are found out by Tinam, played by the King of Category III films, Simon Yam Tat-Wah. Tinam has a lot of issues, including vomiting when he tries to use his gun and also, in case that wasn't subtle enough, impotence. (Naked Killer also screened at Midnight Madness 1994).

The life of a lady asssassin.

Grosse Pointe Blank (1998) directed by George Armitage.

John Cusack's hitman Martin Blank has a lot of problems himself. He's just not enjoying his job like he was. The union is after him to join. And his ten-year school reunion coming up. He talks to his therapist Dr. Oatman (Alan Arkin), who he has intimidated into listening to his problems. I love this film for lots of reasons. I love that Martin never really understands that his fundamental problem is that he's killing people and that scares people. And I especially love Joan Cusack as Martin Blank's administrative assistant, Marcella.

Martin makes sense of life and death in a very literal way.

No Country For Old Men (2007) directed by the Coen Bros.
No Country For Old Men is one of the most harrowing films I have ever seen. Llewellyn Moss finds a bag full of money and tries to keep it. Two hitmen try to get it back from him. The first, Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) is pleasant and reasonable. But Javier Bardem's disturbing Anton Chighur has turned himself into an implacable force of fate in a terrible and terrifying haircut.

So wrong. So very, very wrong.

So that was more than I meant to share and there's still so many more. Share yours in the comments!
 

BLUE RUIN Screening Times:

Monday, Sept 9th, 8:00 PM THE BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

Wednesday, Sept 11th, 12:00 PM TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 1