DVD Collectors Online

The Last Wave, a review by Danae Cassandra

Where We Are: Australia
wikipedia

What We Watched:  


The Last Wave
Year of Release: 1977
Directed By: Peter Weir
Starring: Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, Gulpilil, Nandjiwarra Amagula
Genre: Mystery/Suspense, Fantasy

Overview:
Richard Chamberlain stars as Australian lawyer David Burton, who takes on the defense of a group of aborigines accused of killing one of their own. He suspects the victim has been killed for violating a tribal taboo, but the defendants deny any tribal association. Burton, plagued by apocalyptic visions of water, slowly realizes his own involvement with the aborigines...and their prophecies.

My Thoughts
Richard Chamberlain has long been one of my favorite actors. He might have the distinction of being the first actor I would have said was a favorite. I had such a crush on him in the 80's. It's thirty years later, now, but he's still a favorite of mine, and movies like this show why.

This is a really interesting film. It's very slow moving, which doesn't work for a lot of people, but to me helps build the growing atmosphere of mystery, and the pervading feeling of impending doom.

Doom here is the future that David (Chamberlain) foresees, but does not believe in his own power. Mystery here is meant as in religious mysteries, the mysteries that the aborigines Chris and Charlie hint at to David, and that David's dream-visions open to him.

Spirituality is the heart of the film. David comes from a completely secular background, even though his dad is a minister. Discovering there is more to the world than he has been taught, he feels betrayed and lashes out at his dad with "Why didn't you tell me there were mysteries?" When his dad says that his whole life has been dealing with them as a priest, David retorts that he stood at the pulpit and explained them all away.

This is, to me, what Chris & Charlie mean when they say that David has forgotten what dreams are. He - we - have lost the mystical in the world, the mysteries of life that surround us.

It also has something to say about what white attitude toward aboriginal peoples, especially in how David's colleagues are so quick to dismiss the idea that city-dwelling aborigines may not have held onto their culture, that they are just like 'poor whites.' Maybe they are, and David is being romantic with his ideas about tribal peoples, and maybe they aren't, but who are we, as outsiders, to decide either way.

Vastly interesting film, very well done, for all of me. Both Moira and I enjoyed it immensely.

Bechdel Test: Fail

Overall: 4/5

(From Around the World in 86 Movies on January 5th, 2015)

Bedlam, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Bedlam
Year: 1946
Director: Mark Robson
Rating: NR
Length: 79 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Boris Karloff
Anna Lee
Billy House
Richard Fraser
Glenn Vernon

Plot:
St. Mary's of Bethlehem Asylum in 1761 London is the setting for Bedlam. Karloff gives an uncanny performance as the doomed overseer who fawns on high-society benefactors while ruling the mentally disturbed inmates with an iron fist.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:
I have now watched all the movies in the Val Lewton Horror Collection (except for the 2 documentaries which I am not in much of a hurry to watch). I usually have a bit of a problem with many period pieces. And I must admit the period this movie is set in did set me off a bit. I really had a hard time keeping my attention on this movie. By the time I got half way into the movie I felt that this is the first movie in this collection I really don't care for. Sure it had a decent scene or two but not much more then that. Then I got to about the last 20 to 30 minutes of the movie. Here it picked up some more for me. It somewhat kept my interest at this point. But still this movie turned out to be my least favorite of the set.



(From Weekend Movie Marathon: Anything Goes on January 3rd, 2010)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Star Trek: Voyager: Season One (1995/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Paramount Home Entertainment (Germany) Length: 802 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: German: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Subtitles: Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish

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Star Trek: Voyager
1.01 Caretaker
Writer: Michael Piller (Screenwriter), Jeri Taylor (Screenwriter), Rick Berman (Original Material By), Michael Piller (Original Material By), Jeri Taylor (Original Material By)
Director: Winrich Kolbe
Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Biggs-Dawson (B'Elanna Torres), Jennifer Lien (Kes), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), Basil Langton (The Caretaker), Gavan O'Herlihy (Maje Jabin), Angela Paton (Aunt Adah), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Alicia Coppola (Lieutenant Stadi), Bruce French (Ocampa Doctor), Jennifer Parsons (Ocampa Nurse), David Selburg (Toscar), Jeff McCarthy (Human Doctor), Stan Ivar (Mark), Scott MacDonald (Rollins), Josh Clark (Carey), Richard Poe (Gul Evek), Keely Sims (Farmer's Daughter), Eric David Johnson (Daggin), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice (voice))

The first two seasons of Voyagers suffered a lot by poor writing and bad villains. But it picked up for me in season 3 and 4. But this may be because I became a fan of the Paris/Torres relationship (as you may know when you followed my Random Star Trek Episode Review thread). I was only mildly interested in the series during the fifth and sixth season though. My interest picked up again in season seven. A friend at the university was a Voyager fan and we started to watch the new episodes together.
The pilot is okay. The quality is about the same as for other early episodes. Too bad the beautiful original pilot had to die. I would have been interested to see her as a regular. Even though she would have replaced Tom Paris. But I wouldn't have minded if she instead of Paris started a relationship with B'Elanna

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on July 25th, 2012)