Al's Omniflick: Guardians of the Galaxy

Monday, August 4, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: James Gunn/Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel (voice), Bradley Cooper (voice), Glenn Close, John C. Reilly, Benicio Del Toro, Djimon Hounsou and Michael Rooker

It's not often summer blockbuster films meet the promise of preview-hype but with the Guardians of the Galaxy, we have one that delivers. One part action, one part comedy to two parts smart-ass make for a pretty heady concoction. And why shouldn't it? Mixing comic book science fiction with comedy isn't your typical summer fare. The odd genre-alloy offers a departure from the dreary, self-serious sci-fi operas we've become accustomed to choking on.

Director James Gunn assembles an oddball cast that in many ways isn't unlike the misfit mercenaries portrayed onscreen. Peter Quill/Starlord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (wrestler Dave Bautista), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) are a ragtag group who all are brought together from different parts of the galaxy to search for an orb that contains uspeakable power.

Peter, group leader by default, was abducted by a blue-skinned alien named Yondu Odanta (Michael Rooker) when he was 6 years old. Yondu leads a fortune-hunting organization that operates outside (and sometimes within) the reach of the law. Peter becomes an operative of said organization, maturing into a Han Solo-like outlaw with a contempt for the law and authority. Gamora, an alien beauty whose parents were killed by a merciless creep named Ronan, seeks revenge though her blue-skinned sister allies herself with him to seek and obtain the orb for an even bigger creep named Kraglin. Gamora hopes to find the orb before Ronan and her sister can appropriate it for evil ends, which brings her into Peter's orbit.

Joining Peter and Gamora is a genetically-engineered raccoon named Rocket, whose outsize attitude is inversely proportional to his bodily proportions. His travelling companion and partner is Groot; a tall, tree-like being whose limited vocabulary solely consists of I am Groot though his subtle inflections allow Rocket to translate the alien's one phrase. Rounding out this motley crew is Drax, a bald, strong-man with a strange array of patterns on his skin. While Rocket and Groot's interest in the orb is strictly monetary, Drax joins the search because it is a means to confronting Ronan, who murdered his family. Together, the group hopes to stop Ronan from using the orb's power to menace the galaxy, hence the group's appellation as Guardians of the Galaxy. Their roles as unlikely saviors is kind of a running gag.

Though the orb is directly or indirectly the reason for their assemblage, the loss of family, the betrayal of family and the search for something like a family are what partially unifies the group.

The banter that passes between the group members is often funny as are the hapless situations they can't seem to avoid. Rocket barely endures teasing about being a Raccoon, while Drax's literal interpretations of expressions like "it will pass over your head" can be pretty amusing. Peter always carries a music cassette; a prized keepsake his mother made for him which creates a kind of soundtrack to his life. It's also makes up most of the soundtrack to the film, as 70s' pop tunes like Hooked on a Feeling and The Runaways' Cherry Bomb serve as light, comic counterpoint to the interstellar mayhem playing out onscreen.

Chris Pratt establishes his leading man bona fides in his career-making role; showcasing his comedic aptitude while Zoe Saldana's sex appeal and bad-ass martial arts are sometimes checked by the weary exasperation she often feels for the group. Bradley Cooper gives Rocket a tough but funny personality while the unrecognizable voice of Vin Diesel lends some sensitivity to the character of Groot.

The film always works best when its tongue is pressed firmly in cheek. Action scenes are wisely leavened with the humor, which is really the source of the film's appeal. The comedic moments always seem to make an appearance when we need them, keeping the film from degenerating into mere space battle racket and dreary, overly serious gun-play.

The titles before the closing credits herald the beginning of a franchise, which renders the film's explosive weekend box office returns almost irrelevent. How many will follow is always the question but as we all know, corporate Hollywood never troubles itself with such concerns; it just sends the blueprint to the assembly line. If the film's offspring can match Guardians of the Galaxy's irreverence and light-hearted charm, then I won't mind a bit.

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On DVD

Fury (1936)

Director: Fritz Lang

Though we might normally think of the films M and Metropolis when director Fritz Lang becomes the topic of conversation, less known is the legendary director's work in Hollywood. Having fled the ever-growing menace of Nazi Germany for America in the early 1930s', Lang eventually found himself under contract for MGM.

Though his work in Hollywood is very uneven, one standout is Fury, from 1936. Starring Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney, the film's condemnation of mob justice seems spectacularly daring now, considering lynching was still a reality in Depression-era America. We don't see one black person in the film entire but we know precisely for whom Lang film is sympathetic.

Spencer Tracy plays Joe Wilson, who is arrested in a small town while en route to meet his fiance, Katherine (Sylvia Sydney). Suspected of being part of a kidnapping of a little girl, Wilson is arrested on the flimsiest evidence. While he sits in cell; angry and indignant, Katherine is puzzled as to why her fiance hasn't arrived at their prearranged meeting place.

But Wilson's fortunes take a darker and more dangerous turn when a mob--already on edge--is roused to anger. Egging one another on, the mob moves on the jailhouse where Wilson is being held. As the angry gathering becomes a mass, drawing citizens of the town into their swelling numbers, a lynch-mob begins to form. The sheriff, determined to see due process take its course, refuses their forceful demands. Becoming angrier and angrier and bolder and bolder, the crowd storms the jail, overwhelming the sheriff and his deputies. Unable to unlock the cell doors to reach Wilson, the mob sets the jailhouse ablaze as an alternate method of lynching.

Katherine, having arrived on the scene, faints when she sees flames engulf the cell where her fiance is held.

In spite of the mob acting as a faceless entity, its principle members are brought to trial though the town and the defendants maintain a conspiracy of silence, hoping to escape convictions and censure.

A sure acquittal seems imminent until damning evidence assures their guilt. When the majority of the members receive death sentences, Wilson turns up at his brothers, having survived the fire. Knowing the public is unaware of his survival, he vows to stay in hiding to ensure the mob conspirators are executed.

The scene where Katherine, nearly insane from grief, comes face to face with Joe is a powerful moment in the film. As she slowly recovers from her state, she realizes Joe's vindictive determination to see the mob hang is in itself a great injustice.

The story climaxes during a stirring courtroom scene that brings the fascinating story to a close.

I would have never expected Hollywood to make a statement as powerful as Fury made in 1936. Given the fact that lynchings in America at the time went unpunished, the movie railed bravely, in spite of the main character being white rather than black, against what was then the status quo. The Oxbow Incident would make a similar and commensurately powerful statement seven years later.

The film's willingness to peer into the darker side of American life could be partly attributed to Lang, who co-wrote the story and who was no stranger to exploring the darker side of humanity. Having seen evil flower in his home country, it makes sense Lang would choose to tell this story.

Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sydney give wonderful, emotionally layered performances. Katherine's near descent into madness is depicted touchingly by Sydney. To see Tracy's mild-mannered Wilson become angry and vengeful is heartbreaking.

Even watching Lang's film on a small screen does little to diminish its power. Weeks after the viewing, I still can't shake its indelible images or its angry indictment of one of America's great crimes. One couldn't devise a better title than one it was given eighty years ago. Fury indeed.