Much like the scrawny, bespectacled nerd that you and your punk buddies perpetually used as a lunch money-ATM throughout elementary school, movies have a way of eventually coming back to haunt you. The monotonous biopic you couldn't take seriously after watching "Walk Hard" ends up sweeping the Oscars and becoming the film of the year. The overblown action flick you watched while in a popcorn-and-candy induced stupor breaks all box office records.
I experienced this phenomenon to a horrifying extent just last year, after walking out of "No Country For Old Men" thinking that this spiffed-up Western with an air gun gave me nothing more than severe flashbacks to the recently concluded "Sopranos" in terms of ambiguous endings. I vividly recall shaking my head in disbelief as "No Country" arose as the frontrunner for Best Picture instead of what I considered to be the vastly superior "There Will Be Blood." Usually though, this mind blowing cinematic retribution can take years to ferment. Two of the most notable examples of this phasing are the much-loved "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Fight Club," both of which were passed over by critics and audiences upon original release but have gone on to grace nearly every "Top 100" list in recent publications and change the lives of the millions who have given the films their much-needed second chance. For your consideration, here are another two movies of a more recent arrival, which I propose will eventually come to claim their own places in the pop culture spectrum of truly great films.
"SPEED RACER"
I originally walked out of the Wachowski Brothers' blockbuster flop, "Speed Racer," with nothing more than a splitting headache and a not-so-faint concern that I would somehow develop motion-induced epilepsy from the intimidating barrage of images and colors that had just invaded my spectrum. I complained to all my friends about Christina Ricci and Emile Hirschs' respective falls from grace, and how the Wachowski Brothers would never make a movie to meet the quality of "The Matrix."
However, to my immense surprise, my gripes began to be met with passionate resistance from those who had also seen the film. They extolled what they called its "cleanness" and overall sense of visual perfection. Well, fine - there's nothing wrong with eye-candy, but if I want something that just looks pretty, I'll go look at a painting or a still picture. Films should encompass the range of all the senses and still manage to make some sort of statement beyond just physical splendor. But then I got to thinking; maybe "Speed Racer" did have something to say beneath its shiny exterior.
Upon a grudging second viewing, I realized that "Speed's" perspectives on executive control and consumerism with a focus on the power of the individual were far beyond what many Hollywood products were willing to make in a corporate nation. Mixed with what I can only call minor overtones of fascism throughout, these elements create a futuristic and adult-minded commentary I fear will only become more relevant in years to come.
"BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN"
In my lifetime of passionately involved television watching, I've only ever cried two times while watching a show on the small screen. When Charlie met his watery doom in "Lost," and in March of 2005, when "Crash" was given the Academy Award for Best Picture. Admittedly, it wasn't just tears that came. My typically pacifist ways were thrown to the wind as my 14-year-old self took up the remote control and threw it at the TV set's power button before angrily stomping off into my bedroom to sob myself to sleep. While I was only in ninth grade at the time, I still feel my reaction was somewhat justified, especially considering that this was "Brokeback's" second major loss of the night, after Heath Ledger unfairly lost out to Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Capote."
I stand by my opinion to this day that "Crash" was, and is, still nothing more than an expensively produced Lifetime movie, making a washed up and weak statement on racial relations compared to films such as "American History X" and "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" before it. Where "Crash" was all about exterior perceptions and appeal, "Brokeback" showed itself to be a more nuanced film, which required viewers to instead look far beyond the surface. As in "Speed Racer," the numerous metaphors, such as those involving the sheep as society, didn't hit me upon first viewing, and I'm sure passed over many other viewers as well. "Brokeback" was a movie greatly hindered by the hype surrounding it at the time. With excessive focus lying on the much-discussed sex scene and "erotic" content, it was difficult to accept Ledger's subdued performance and Ang Lee's understated direction.
"Brokeback" is already showing up on more forward thinking movie critics' lists of the greatest films of all time and should continue to build in legacy with Ledger's untimely death and Lee's inability to again produce a product to equal it. "Speed Racer," however, may take a more extended leave of cultural importance; though something within me says that, like in the case of "Brokeback," audiences and film fans will eventually learn that you can't judge a car by its body but need to put forth the effort to look beneath the hood and at the engine to really see how powerful it can be.
You can reach this columnist at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
