Shame, a film by Roger Corman, is really a startling piece of cinema. Corman is well known as a schlock-meister. It was a strong business model, he would hand some young director a small budget and have them create a cheap, marketable B movie. This was how he paid the bills, but, beyond the B horror and exploitation movies, he was also a truly skilled filmmaker, and more than a few movies beyond on your queue the next time you sign into your movie download service.
The film is shockingly courageous when you take the context into consideration. Shame is about racial relations and tensions in small southern towns. Now, when people were making movies like this in the eighties and nineties, decades after the success of the civil rights movement, that's one thing. Corman took a crew down to a real small southern town during the civil rights era and actually filmed on location, where he and his team were constantly subjected to harassment and threats from the local populace.
William Shatner really owns the role of the villain in this film. It's his boyish charm that makes it work.
The concept of the charming racist villain may have been inspired by Adolf Hitler. Corman could have hired a villain actor to play the villain, but the inspired choice of casting someone who seems innocent on the outside exemplifies a primary theme of the film, that being that you need a handsome spokesman to sell ugly ideas.
Corman and his crew were run out of town by the local police when it became clear what sort of a film they were creating, and that it could mean trouble for segregationists. The final shots were literally filmed "on the run". As in, Corman was filming at one end of the street while a virtual lynch mob was closing in from the opposite end of the street, so Corman had to grab the shots and flee.
At this year's Oscars, the lifetime achievement award goes to Roger Corman, and there has been remarkably little coverage of his life and his work. It's too bad, because few filmmakers have contributed so much to the world of cinema for so little thanks.
Yes, Corman made a name for himself as a schlockmeister, but he also directed some real American classics and he launched the careers of Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and Martin Scorsese, to name a few. The modern cinematic landscape wouldn't be the same without Corman's incredible contributions to the industry.
If you've never bothered with Corman, start with Shame, then watch X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. These are two of his best, and Shame in particular is an example of what the artist is truly capable of when he's willing to take a break from his more marketable B movies and really put his heart into a film that takes courage to write, direct and release.
The film is shockingly courageous when you take the context into consideration. Shame is about racial relations and tensions in small southern towns. Now, when people were making movies like this in the eighties and nineties, decades after the success of the civil rights movement, that's one thing. Corman took a crew down to a real small southern town during the civil rights era and actually filmed on location, where he and his team were constantly subjected to harassment and threats from the local populace.
William Shatner really owns the role of the villain in this film. It's his boyish charm that makes it work.
The concept of the charming racist villain may have been inspired by Adolf Hitler. Corman could have hired a villain actor to play the villain, but the inspired choice of casting someone who seems innocent on the outside exemplifies a primary theme of the film, that being that you need a handsome spokesman to sell ugly ideas.
Corman and his crew were run out of town by the local police when it became clear what sort of a film they were creating, and that it could mean trouble for segregationists. The final shots were literally filmed "on the run". As in, Corman was filming at one end of the street while a virtual lynch mob was closing in from the opposite end of the street, so Corman had to grab the shots and flee.
At this year's Oscars, the lifetime achievement award goes to Roger Corman, and there has been remarkably little coverage of his life and his work. It's too bad, because few filmmakers have contributed so much to the world of cinema for so little thanks.
Yes, Corman made a name for himself as a schlockmeister, but he also directed some real American classics and he launched the careers of Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and Martin Scorsese, to name a few. The modern cinematic landscape wouldn't be the same without Corman's incredible contributions to the industry.
If you've never bothered with Corman, start with Shame, then watch X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. These are two of his best, and Shame in particular is an example of what the artist is truly capable of when he's willing to take a break from his more marketable B movies and really put his heart into a film that takes courage to write, direct and release.
About the Author:
Don't give away your own cards by your facial expressions or your body language. the movie downloads site The tale behind the song and the Words are frequently as entertaining as the vocal itself. This is a disastrous policy for a musician if it hurts, it should be checked out!
No comments:
Post a Comment