Movies I've Never Seen finally returns with EVENT HORIZON!

Almost exactly ten years ago I launched a new series on The Knight Shift: Movies I've Never Seen.  It's just what it suggests.  I would watch a movie that until now I've not beheld before and write about it.  It would be an attempt to fill in the many gaps that exist in my personal motion picture database.  It would be contributing to the cultural dialogue.  And it would be a lot of fun.

Well, that new series until now has had one... and only one... entry: my viewing of The Big Lebowski.  And then like with so many other things at the time the wind was just lacking in my sails.  It was a few months after Dad passed and I was still reeling from that.  I was also trying to maintain some income as a freelance technical writer.  And failing miserably at writing my book (which was only completed in the past two and a half months).  Writing about movies that until now had escaped notice enough to finally view them was something I very much wanted to make a regular feature out of.

Maybe things have gotten better enough that I can commit some time toward that.  It's rare that I find myself enjoying a new movie anymore.  Perhaps doing this will be a good thing for me in other ways.

So in rededication of Movies I've Never Seen, here is the the second film in the series.  A motion picture that I have heard various things about over the past few decades...

Event Horizon (1997)

Fifty years into the future, the rescue ship Lewis and Clark is dispatched from Earth to investigate the sudden reappearance of the Event Horizon.  The massive starship vanished seven years earlier after embarking on humanity's first attempt to venture out beyond the confines of the solar system.  Now it has been discovered, in orbit around the planet Neptune.

Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) and his crew have escorted Dr. William Weir (Sam Neill) - the engineer who created the Event Horizon - to the wayward vessel.  They are tasked with finding out what happened to the ship and its personnel.  Weir explains to his colleagues that the Event Horizon was an experimental ship designed around a gravity drive that would fold spacetime between two distant points: where a normal spacecraft would take tens of thousands of years to reach neighboring Proxima Centauri, the same voyage with such an engine would be able to be accomplished in a matter of days.

But things went wrong on the Event Horizon.  The people who made it envisioned the starting point and the end point but unfortunately they didn't seem to consider what was between the two.  Where the craft was going to be traveling through.  And that's where the ship went to and is now back from and as the crew of the Lewis and Clark come to discover, the Event Horizon didn't return alone.

This movie is all over the place.  I can understand why it has become a cult classic, for the most part.  But it's too disjointed for me to really say that I love it.  I like the general premise of Event Horizon the film: that a spacecraft has gone to nowhere less than Hell itself.  But there was a lot missing in the execution that keeps it from being a true horror classic on par with The Thing and Alien.  I did like the performances by Fishburne (before his iconic role in The Matrix and there is a little bit of Morpheus peaking out from his portrayal of Captain Miller) and Neill, still on a crest following Jurassic Park.  The film also stars Sean Pertwee, who has become an actor I appreciate.

The real star of Event Horizon however is the titular spaceship.  It evokes some reminiscing about the U.S.S. Cygnus, the gigantic vessel from 1979's The Black Hole. Each of these ships is in a subgenre all its own: the "haunted house in outer space".  When done right it could be amazing.  Unfortunately I can't think of any examples where any film has stuck the landing on that particular milieu.  But design-wise the Event Horizon is certainly imposing enough of a superstructure to darken the thoughts of any who would dare trespass aboard her deck plates.

Now a few hours after having watched it, I find myself thinking that Event Horizon is a high-concept film that misses the mark.  I won't say that I can't recommend it however.  It's worth catching at least once, and who knows: it may interest others enough that they would want it in their own personal library of movies (please Lord let physical media last a long loooong time still, I am not ready to have everything streamed from a remote server).  Director Paul S.W. Anderson swung for the fences with this movie, and it shows.  And that's also admirable.  This plot and execution needs a bit more finesse though.  Maybe in another few years the time will be ripe for a remake, because it's certainly a notion worth visiting anew.

I believe that every film should be judged by the standards of the time it was released in, as much as anything else.  As it is, 1997's Event Horizon is a model example of Nineties sci-fi filmmaking, and there is some respect to be had in that.  So for anyone who considers himself or herself a scholar of that era, I will heartily suggest Event Horizon as something to complement your broader knowledge of that decade's culture.

One last thing: I had heard, several times in fact, that Event Horizon could serve as a distant-era prequel to the Warhammer 40,000 franchise.  Having finally seen this movie, I can say that I absolutely understand why!  Maybe Anderson needs to be extended an invitation to direct something from the upcoming Warhammer 40K projects in production at Amazon.  If that happens, I definitely believe he could nail it.

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Movies I've Never Seen: First edition has Chris abiding THE BIG LEBOWSKI

This is the first installment of something that I've had in mind to do for a few years now.  I think this is going to be a fun new feature of The Knight Shift.

Here's the deal: my DVR is loaded... and I mean loaded... with movies that for some reason or another I've never watched before in my entire life.  They've just been sitting there, waiting for me to take the time to partake of them.  And as time goes by and especially as I find my knowledge of films has some significant gaps in it, I increasingly find myself wondering "what the heck's in there?"

So I'm finally going to see what these movies are about, and then share my thoughts about them here on this blog.  This is going to be an ongoing if irregular feature, but I'll try to do it at least once a month (the next few movies have already been selected.).

So without further ado, kicking it all off is a movie that a lot of people were abjectly shocked that I had never watched before...

The Big Lebowski (1998)

I had to watch this three times before I felt confident enough to write about it and even now, I'm wondering if I "get" it on a level comparable to that of others.

Now, I did enjoy The Big Lebowski.  It's a Coen Brothers film, with all of the quirkiness that I've come to expect of them.  No, more than that: it's their signature style all cranked up on high-octane crystal meth, and it makes for a hella fun ride.  But my biggest problem with The Big Lebowski is that there is not one character - other than Donny and The Stranger - who I felt any measure of sympathy or empathy for.

Take Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) f'rinstance.  The central character to this mad tale of mistaken identity, bowling, and absconding trophy wives.  I liked The Dude.  He is, as The Stranger puts it, a man for his time and place.  But I didn't particularly feel moved by him.  He's someone to watch, not to be become attached to.  Like a lab rat running around trying to navigate a maze... or doing its damndest to not be devoured by a rattlesnake.  That, to me, is The Dude: a slacker out of his league (though certainly not by his own free will) who finds himself a pawn in a larger game.  But that is all that he is to me: a pawn in a larger game.  Although just as in chess, the pawn that reaches the final row can become a greater piece... and that is what The Dude is in the end.  That's all that we know of him after that, what The Stranger tells us.  I like to think that The Dude finally grows up and becomes more than the person we've spent two hours watching in this mad manic adventure.

And then there is Walter (John Goodman).  Again, no real attachment to this character.  In some ways he's more pathetic than The Dude.  Stuck in the past, unable to move beyond his failed marriage.  Still trapped by his ex-wife.  Using his unresolved anger about the Vietnam War as a cover (barely) for his frustrations.  Am I supposed to feel anything for Walter?  I lost any possible sympathy for him when he whipped his piece out at the bowling alley and threatened poor Smokey.  And he was already blowing whatever goodwill he may have had with his torrent of F-bombs at Donny (Steve Buscemi).

Like I said, these aren't characters that I particularly "liked".  With two exceptions.  One of them is Donny, who is suffering all of this nonsense with an extreme amount of grace.  Donny seems to be the only one of this trio of bowling buddies who I had any sense of appreciation toward.  Which makes what happens to him later so tragic, even heartbreaking.

And then there's The Stranger (Sam Elliott, wonderful as always).  The character who I found myself relating to the most.  In large part it's because of his aversion to the harsh language throughout this movie (and in all sincerity, there is too much of it).  But even that is an aspect of a larger dimension to The Stranger.  He's the cypher, the framing device that puts the glorious mess of The Big Lebowski into proper perspective.  The Stranger is the keystone of the entire enterprise.  Without him as the bookends of this film, there is not much more than a barely-coherent mess populated by this Greek chorus of colorful if not likable characters.

This is not an enviable set of circumstances at all, from start to finish.  I mean, The Dude gets his head plunged into a toilet, fercryinoutloud.  And then his quest to replace his rug (it really tied the room together) runs afoul of hostage situations, drugged-up visions and ninja-esque nihilists.  Again, all involving more characters that I didn't have any sense of empathy toward.

Maybe that's part of the point of this movie.  It's to be witnessed, not to have any feelings of associating with.  It's to be enjoyed, not to necessarily be understood and much less embraced.  It's kinda like a comedy out of the Sixties.  Yes, this is the Coen Brothers paying homage to Blake Edwards, as only they can.

All of that said, I did enjoy The Big Lebowski.  A lot.  It is a Coen Brothers movie, and true to their style it's a work which is greater than the sum of its parts.  Taken apart and divvied-up, there is not much to really enjoy.  But mash all of those characters and situations together, and it's well-orchestrated hilarity flying past the retina in connected episodes of mayhem and Chandler-esque mystery.

So, I finally watched The Big Lebowski, and I find my knowledge of movies all the more enlightened for it.  I'm wondering if it's too early to put this film on the National Film Registry, as happened recently.  But maybe with more viewings I'll come to understand and appreciate that more.  And I do plan to watch it a few more times, at least.

Anyway, let's go bowling...

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