I saw Horizon: An American Saga (Chapter 1)

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 is the latest from actor/producer/director Kevin Costner, who cowrote with John Baird and Mark (Silverado) Kasden. It captures the sprawling terrain of John Ford/Henry Hathaway/George Marshall's How the West Was Won and Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate, set for the long haul in a pre-and-post Civil War America, which spans from Wyoming to Kansas during a twelve-year span.  

The tiered format works like a gritty soap opera in its episodic, Wagon Train start, holding interlocking segments, with the following, supporting individuals segueing into various moments: Abby Lee's Marigold; Sienna Miller's Frances Kittredge; Georgia MacPhail's Lizzie Kittredge; Will Patton's Owen Kittredge; Sam Worthington's Lt. Trent Gephart; Michael Rooker's Sgt. Major Thomas Riodan; Owen Crow Shoe's Pionesay; Jena Malone's Ellen Harvey; Danny Houston's Col. Albert Houghton; Jeff Fahey's "Tracker"; Tom Payne's Hugh Proctor; among an inexhaustible host of others. (Horizon isn't considered an epic without good cause; its hearty cast only reinforces its reputation.)

Costner's Hayes Ellison arrives an hour into the monumental chapter, a saddle-tramp/businessman, who gets involved in a family dispute he didn't foresee. The situation brings out his alpha/sigma traits, as he's a man who doesn't back down from trouble and is willing to help others. In this respect, he's like Alan Ladd's Shane of George Steven's movie of the same name: aloof, autonomous and brave enough to slug it out.  

Luke Wilson's Matthew Van Weyden helps keep the peace, as well. His presence is as palpable as Ellison's, as he grants a comparable, shrewd and paternal patience in what unfolds during his wagon-train segment.  

The story's standout antagonist is Jamie Campbell (Stranger Things) Bowers' Caleb Sykes, a sneering, Northern Territory frontiersman, who along with his domineering family members, wants comeuppance for an attack that left his father incapacitated. For the second phase of the movie, his bloodthirsty motivation prophesizes the saga's mounting tensions and drives home that Shane element all the further, with Sykes being comparable to Jack Palance's steely gunslinger, Jack Wilson, only much more taunting and erratic. 

This antagonistic strand continues throughout the picture, though it's most unsettling episode isn't Sykes-prompted. It occurs when a band of Apaches burns down the fledgling, Horizon community. The sequence is vivid and frightening, perceived as an act of vengeful survival by its perpetrators and one that'll leave audiences impacted long after it ends, though does it ever truly end? Even after the dust clears, the slaughter ebbs and flows within the adventure's related portions.    

There's also a ensnaring consistency to the movie's look, thanks in large part to cinematographer, J. Michael (Titanic 1997) Muro. John (The Passion of the Christ) Debny's score enlivens Muro's photography, which though not as expansive as the Cinerama range of How the West Was Won, still invokes an evocative, old-school naturalness that Costner fans will recognize from Dances with Wolves, Open Range, Wyatt Earp and The Postman.

Horizon has already gained criticism (and this has come even among those who haven't yet seen it) for not taking decisive sides in its depicted conflicts, namely what occurs between the settlers and the Native Americans. Even so, the content defines that which is bad, no matter who or what side commits it. This allows Horizon to be an objective, historical piece of fiction, based on the documented accounts of the period, thus presenting a painstaking dramatization of how the U.S. grew and strengthened. 

I've no doubt that Part 2 will bring much the same worthy, equivocal additives (and no doubt come nearer to the Civil War). For such, I'm most anxious to experience it.  

Horizon: An American Sage - Chapter 2 hits theaters this August. 

FOR THE FUN OF IT:

TERRIFIC TEAM-UP IMAGE: SUPERMAN & MISTER TERRIFIC (SNEEK-PEAK PHOTO)

 

I saw Billy the Kid: the MGM + Series

The legend of Billy the Kid, aka William S. Bonney, aka Henry McCarty, is a vast and varied one. Many interpretations and exaggerations have appeared on film and in literature and comics, with the lines between good and bad often getting blurred when it comes to the seminal, Old West figure. 

The latest, Billy the Kid incarnation has run two seasons on MGM + (the same studio behind Sam Peckinpaugh's classic, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid). Billy the Kid: the Series is a swell one, even if it was disrupted by an infuriating, six-month, second-season hiatus. 

In structure, the series follows the Kid's known life, but as with any legend, the fictional fodder pads the tale. All the same, one gets a view into Billy's early life and for a substantial chunk of the series, his involvement with the Regulators in New Mexico's Lincoln County War. 

Some of my acquaintances believe that the seasons, in particular the second, act as a parallel to current events, due to Billy's Mexican ties and tastes, but I'm not prone to accept this notion, any more than I'm inclined to place stock in Billy's Irish roots causing him uncertainty in the John H. Tunstall conflict. It's all historical melodrama in any case and therefore, a mere, speculative sequence of cause and effect.

The series' events, whether accurate or embellished, are strengthened by Tom Blyth's titular performance. He looks the part, especially if one compares his features and stature to the famous photo we all know, or even the "croquet" and "poker" ones that some call genuine and others call bull. Blyth also has the right intensity for the long-alleged left-handed lad, though for the series' sake, he's ambidextrous since that validated photo was, as later discovered, printed backwards. 

The rest of the cast is good, too, in particular Alex Roe as Sheriff Pat Garrett (another example of an actor matching photos). Daniel Webber as Billy's wily friend-turned-foe, Jesse Evans (based on the true-life desperado with whom Billy rode for a spell) also adds lots of spunk to the plot. Shaun Benson, Eileen O'Higgins, Luke Camilleri, Dakota Daubly, Benjamin Sutherland, Sean Owen Roberts, Linus Roache, Vincent Walsh, Reilly Coleman, Horatio James, Nuria Vega, Ian Tracey, Brendan Fletcher, and Gary Kanin (et al) are comparably effective, solidifying the mounting melees. 

The series excels, above all, because it's character-driven, but not to the extent of distilling the action. That's thanks to producer Michael Hirst and his cohorts, who never bog the saga down with unnecessary romance or verbosity. There's just enough of both to fill the occasional gap, with the Kid always sticking to his guns (pun intended) to get the job done. 

I don't know if there will be a Season 3, though there should be. That dang hiatus hurt the flow, so with the momentum broken, it's hard to say if those who got hooked early on returned for the rest, thus justifying an extension. I sure hope there's a Season 3, since there's so much more to tell, and it would do viewers, as well as its eponymous outlaw, a great disservice if his legend was left dangling. 

L.E.A.D. FEST STATE FAIR 2024: MERCER COUNTY FESTIVAL GROUNDS, W. WINDSOR, NJ

 

MERCER COUNTY FESTIVAL GROUNDS, 1638 OLD TRENTON RD, WEST WINDSOR, NJ (6/28-7/7)

ALMARK THAOLEN'S CRUNCHING MATRICES: A CRACKLING GOOD, MATRIX TRIBUTE

The cyberpunk phenomenon won't be squashed, as another excellent example surfaces from Almark Thaolen, in a mind-expanding sojourn that he composed in 2013.  

Crunching Matrices holds an amazing, audible impact that mirrors the works of William Gibson and the franchise they inspired: The Matrix. Crunching Matrices consists of seven, rotated parts, "crunched" from the initial movie, with sublime dialogue sampled straight from the source, in synch with the harmonic dossier of Don Davis, Graeme Revell, Rob D (et al), but with ample, original, drum/synth content (filtered by simultaneous DAWS & Renoise accompaniment), as only the talented Almark could concoct. 

"The First Matrix" is the album's lengthiest segment (running a half hour). It forges a resurrected verve from the Matrix movies and even those science-fiction productions that came prior, where mad machines ran amok. The track's circuited scratching and intermittent beeping are catchy for this elongated excursion, forming a cut-up "run your ass off" modulation that's energized by a "little piece of advice" before it goes full-blown Neo-vs-Smith. 

"The Second Matrix" continues the jiu-jitsu translation, using a "How did you know?" loop to generate its slap-happy earworms; and "The Third" is soldered to it and is, therefore, just as transmissible, but a wee more vibrational in its ascent, as it catapults one through an illuminating, parallel portal. The tapping computation is still tuneful, but from the palette, a cavernous responsibility waits, sown by an anxious, firearm loop that offers far "more than you can image." 

"The Fourth" becomes more Morpheus-idyllic in its spoon-less, "back door" draw, rather like a lullaby in reverse, waking one to see what's beneath the sleight-of-hand surface. The track is mirthful in its percussive development, but it gets austere down the line, projecting a self-actualizing mission that (though daunting) mustn't be forsaken.  

"The Fifth" & "The Sixth" submissions are led by telephone bells that ring a sweet, tug-of-war convolution to make Gil Gerard's Buck Rogers wanna get down and boogie. On the whole, "The Fifth" snaps like an electrocuted rubber band, underscored by a chilled, dripping succession, whereas "The Sixth" is a sheer, hot-footed prance, teeming with war-torn horns.

The seventh track, "Infinite Futures" epitomizes its label on every orchestral level. It's tenuous yet fierce at its contradictory outset, but then asks one to open the door, to see all the more, its pitch Faustian, though in the best, possible way. What lies outside is the truth. The finale's shuffling steps remind one (again) that "There is no spoon." One can only bend oneself to achieve eternal enlightenment.  

That enlightenment (that cerebral ticket to unplug and be free to see) is only a copy-and-paste away: 

https://synthoelectro.bandcamp.com/album/crunching-matrices-show-1252013?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1wS341F3t2JmTcfuI0gU0771aM6fsg_sCJy_2eQMEOiVzSYM9oWT2aFxU_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcwv

And for further, revolutionary adulation, behold Almark's Matrix-crunched video at  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvih6ny9xTs

PIN-UP TIME: CAROLINE MUNRO IS NAOMI (007)

 

I saw The Exorcism

I had no idea until this weekend that Russell Crowe was in another exorcist movie. As such, Joshua John Miller (little Homer of Near Dark and son of Jason Miller, aka The Exorcist's Father Damien Karras) brings us The Exorcism, a stand-alone effort where this time Crowe is the one who becomes possessed. (BTW: The film was shot prior to The Pope's Exorcist and was produced by Kevin Williamson of Scream fame.)  

Crowe plays Tony Miller, an actor who's struggled with his wife's death and beaten subsequent drug and alcohol addictions. He now has the chance to redeem himself by enacting an impassioned priest in an implied, Exorcist redux coined The Georgetown Project. The thing is, his predecessor died on set from an undefined cause, with weird, technical glitches ensuing, in line with the "urban" legends of such horror classics as The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, Poltergeist and The Omen.  

Though the rusty Miller attempts to extinguish his qualms to give a stellar, comeback performance, he begins to exhibit several alarming quirks, including catatonia, bleeding and violent outbursts. Considering his renown addiction, it seems to others that he's relapsing in a most detrimental way, which only makes his situation more dire, in particular when signs of genuine, demonic infiltration rise to the surface. 

David Hyde Pierce's calm, consulting Father Conor hopes to quell the personality-warping circumstances, though Miller's memories of abuse when he was a choir boy don't make that easy. Sam Worthington, Adam Goldberg, Tracy Bonner, Marcenae Lynette, Chloe Bailey Blake and Ryan Simpkins, who plays the frantic actor's disquieted daughter (and carries a substantial sum of the melodrama) also engage Miller's predicament, and a few of them even try to get him clear and adjusted, but since this is a horror picture, the odds of success are at best precarious, though would fans of the genre have it any other way? 

Joshua Miller's script, cowritten with M.A. Fortin, is pretty streamlined, meaning that it never beats around the bush and allows Crowe to go to town, as he lifts some of his Jekyll/Hyde mannerisms from The Mummy 2017, as well as the forthright dignity of Father Gabriele Amorth from The Pope's Exorcist.

I like stories where poor blokes get messed up (plagued and/or cursed) due to no fault of their own. Heck, I even hold The Brain From Planet Arous in high regard since it lets John Agar show off his acting chops. The Exorcism is no different for Crowe, and in the hands of such an accomplished actor, the subject matter can't help but excel. 

Yeah, some may dismiss The Exorcism as an abbreviated, demonic also-ran, but that doesn't mean it ever drops the ball. As an allegorical, psycho-shocker (and for Crowe connoisseurs), it hits the hellbent ball right outta the park.