European Vacation 4: The American on a "working vacation"

The American (2010)
Okay, so George Clooney (as Jack Clarke) is on a “working vacation” rather than just a European vacation. He tells a priest that he's a photographer taking shots for magazines and tourist guides, which is not completely true. He is taking shots, but as a gunsmith and assassin. But he's still, you know, taking in the sights.

When The American (directed by Anton Corbijn) came out, many were surprised that it had a big first weekend at the box office. People went to the theaters to see a George Clooney espionage film full of sex and violence. Audiences soon discovered that though there were moments of gunfire and nudity, this was pretty much an art film with long, slow passages where we see first Sweden and then Italy -- along with large helpings of existential angst.

The few bright, lively moments in the film are supplied by a local priest. I don't think that was ever the case in, say, a James Bond movie.

While trying to place a call on a pay phone (this was way back in 2010) in a small town in Italy, Jack is approached by a priest who asks, “Can I help you?” The priest recognizes a stranger in town and isn’t at all shy.

He asks Jack if he speaks Italian, and the response is “Poco.” So most of their conversation in the film is in English. The priest asks what Jack in doing in the town, which is when Jack first lies to him about his profession. And the priest asks many more questions about Jack’s job, leading to Jack lying all the more. The priest then makes an invitation, “You must share a glass of wine with me tonight. You want to know the truth about Abruzzo?” (Abruzzo is the region where the village is.) “You must talk to me. A priest sees everything.”

It is true Jack is in Italy only partly for an assignment (to provide a weapon for an unspecified killing). He is also there to hide. When in the small town of Dalarna, Sweden, men tried to kill him for reasons he can’t determine. He is hiding from those who may wish him dead. Meanwhile, Jack does spend time with the priest.

The priest, Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli), doesn’t just offer wine, “The quality of the brandy is good.” The priest asks Jack if he’d studied the history of the area, and Jack says, “No.” Father Benedetto responds, “You come to Italy to make a guide book and you don’t care about history. Of course, you are an American. You think you can escape history.”

Later, the priest makes a meal for Jack. (He crosses himself before eating, but doesn’t say grace aloud.) Jack asks him, “Have you ever wanted to be anything but a priest?”

They discuss vocation and calling and the priest notes that “A man can be rich if he has God in his heart.”

Jack responds, “I don’t think God’s very interested in me, Father” The priest chuckles.

But the priest has secrets of this own. Jack notices a photograph in the priest’s apartment of the priest with a young man. Jack later meets that young man, who runs a small town Italian chop shop, working on stolen vehicles. Jack sees the same photo from the priest’s apartment in the chop shop. He sees a resemblance between the two men and speculates there is a relationship between the two.

Jack finds the priest on an early morning walk in the woods. The priest says during those walks, “I thank God for certain favors He has given me. And I ask him to look out for those of my friends who are sinners.”

“All men are sinners,” Jack responds.

The priest says, “But some men are greater sinners. You have done much sinning, Mr. Clarke, and you still do.” (The priest may not know the full extent of Jack’s sin, but he knows they’re great.) “Do you wish to confess for your sake?”

Instead of confessing his own sin, Jack asks the priest whether the “car doctor” is the priest’s son. The priest confesses it’s true, “Perhaps I have no right to wear these robes. But I have a heart full of a father’s love. Something close to His heart. And for that, I am grateful and happy.”

Jack and the priest part, and they don’t see each other again until Jack is involved in a shootout at the end of the film in the midst of a parade in honor of the Virgin Mary. The priest finds Jack by the body of a dead woman, and Jack says, “I’m sorry, Father.” A short confession, but a confession nonetheless.

Father Benedetto is not without faults, but he can spot a troubled stranger and finds a way to befriend him and point him to redemption. For this, the priest receives a Three Steeple rating.

(This film, featuring a couple of small European villages, provides a nice transition to next month’s theme of small towns -- but I believe they’ll all be American towns.)

Michigan films on the small screen

In the Ben Rector song, “Brand New,” the lyrics include, “I feel like a young John Cusack, like making big mistakes, I feel like the first time in a long time I am not afraid, I feel like a kid, never thought I’d feel like this.” There was a time, in the last decade and a half of the previous century, when it seemed John Cusack could do no wrong. Guys of a certain age wanted to be the guy in Better off Dead and Say Anything because he expressed our doubts and insecurities in such a charming way that he would win the girl. That's what movie stars do, they make you want to be them, even if it's just for a couple of hours. 

Sadly, age happens, and Cusack couldn’t keep that boyish charm forever, but he still had it -- even playing a contract killer* in the Michigan film, 1997’s Grosse Pointe Blank. This film was made toward the end of Cusack’s golden age. It’s like Lloyd Dobler of Say Anything made a tragic turn, say, killed someone kick boxing, and didn’t know how to turn back.

The film is set at Martin Blank’s (Cusack’s) high school reunion in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Though the film is violent and full of dark humor, it’s ultimately about whether God offers redemption to the worst of sinners, which is not a bad theme for Movies Churches. Like all of the films discussed later in this post, Grosse Pointe Blank was chiefly filmed in MIchigan. (A recurring joke in the film is people driving foreign cars in the nation’s car capital.)

There are some movie stars who keep their charisma as they age, perhaps even add to their appeal. John Wayne was like that. Clint Eastwood is certainly like that. In 2008’s Gran Torino, Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a cranky, charming, but bigoted old man who befriends a Hmong neighbor boy. A classic American car plays a key role in this Michigan film, but so does a priest and a church (the film deserves a post of its own someday).

Like Eastwood, Jack Nicholson managed a long starring career until his apparent retirement in 2010. For nearly half a century, he was considered one of the greatest actors on the screen. In 1992’s Hoffa, Nicholson played the notorious labor union leader, Jimmy Hoffa, whose career and disappearance had a great impact on the Detroit automobile industry.

Eddie Murphy’s heights of stardom were more short lived. Like Cusack, his best regarded films were in the 1980’s and 1990’s. But for a time, people went to his films sure they would laugh and spend time with a very fun guy. Perhaps he reached his peak in 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop, which you might guess from the title, doesn’t all take place in Michigan. But the opening scenes are in Detroit, and the whole point of the film is what a fish out of water a Detroit cop is in the posh world of Beverly Hills.

The woefully uneducated might not realize that Peter Weller is one of our great movie stars, but he played the hero of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, one of the greatest films ever made, so I rest my case. Weller’s great Michigan film is 1987’s Robocop, in which he plays a Detroit cop of the future who is almost killed in the line of duty. What is left of his mind and body after a shooting is made into a robotic police officer. There is an ongoing campaign to place a Robocop statue in Detroit.

Weller might be considered more of a cult star than some, and the same can be said of Gary Oldman and Christopher Walken. Both of actors appear in the 1993 noir film, True Romance, along with an actor whose career was just beginning, Brad Pitt. The violent and darkly humorous film was written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott. It begins in Detroit but moves on to Los Angeles.

Richard Pryor was one of the most influential stand-up comics of all time, but he was also a box office power for a time (particularly for his films with the late Gene Wilder). 1978’s Blue Collar is a film about a car factory worker who, with friends, robs the local union. Written and directed by Paul Schrader, it was filmed in Detroit and Kalamazoo.

Also written and directed by Paul Schrader is 1979’s Hardcore starring Oscar winner (for Patton) George C. Scott as a businessman looking for his daughter. He becomes entangled in the world of pornography. Schrader fought to get Scott in the film, calling him “one of the greatest actors in the world.” The film begins in Grand Rapids but moves to California (where some church locations were used).

George Clooney is one of the few actors currently working that fits Hollywood’s old standards of movie stardom. 1998’s Out of Sight is based on an Elmore Leonard novel and won that year’s best film award from the National Society of Film Critics. Locations in a number of states were used for filming, including Detroit and Bloomfield Hills in Michigan.

Finally, one of my all time favorite film actors was Jimmy Stewart, who starred in 1959’s Anatomy of a Murder. The film was based on a novel by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John Voelker which was based on a case he argued as a defense attorney. Stewart plays a defense attorney battling (in court) against a prosecutor played by George C. Scott. Most of the film was shot in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, using such locations as Ishpeming, Marquette, and Big Bay. The film pushed boundaries of the time, especially the language used to discuss sex and rape.

*I look over this list and see that none of these films would be first picks for family viewing. Maybe there is a reason that Detroit is called the “Dirty D.”

Kauai, Hawaii, Films on the Small Screen

Last week I feigned bafflement about why films which were set in Alaska were often filmed elsewhere. But really, I get it. The logistical challenges of filming so far from Hollywood, in often inclement weather, where the sun rarely shines, pose problems that are difficult to overcome.

Hawaii, on the other hand, is a place that’s been popular for location shooting for a long time. Sure, it’s pretty far from Hollywood, and at times it must be a challenge to transport equipment to shooting sites. But I’m sure it’s easier to talk talent and technicians into spending months of their lives near beaches rather than tundras, so there are many Hawaii-made films to choose from.

I decided to narrow things down to the island we went to, Kauai (thus ruling out all the World War II films set at Pearl Harbor. Sorry, Michael Bay.). Even by selecting films made on this one island, I had to eliminate many films. It’s a popular place.

Nonetheless, I’m going to start with a movie that wasn’t filmed on Kauai. In a sense, it wasn’t filmed anywhere.  Lilo and Stitch (2002) was part of the new wave of Disney animation that continues to this day. The film, about lonely little girl who befriends a mutant creation from outer space, is set on the island of Kauai and uses many local landmarks, such as the Kilauea Lighthouse. Stitch, the mutant alien, manages to make chaos cute. Lilo is his equal, reminding audiences both how horrible and wonderful little girls can be. There is no church in the film, but the theme of community (which we’ve returned to again and again in our posts about churches and bars) is represented here in the idea of ‘ohana, family, where “no one is left behind. Or forgotten.”

If you’re a fan of a certain Jimmy Cagney gangster film, you might be surprised to see White Heat mentioned here. But I’m writing about the 1934 melodrama about love between whites and natives on a Hawaiian sugar plantation. I haven’t seen the film, but it looks like it would not have been made after the Hayes Code of censorship were enacted.

"Bali Hai" - Kauai North Coast

I have seen South Pacific,  the 1958 film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s hit Broadway musical about star-crossed U.S. Navy personnel and South Sea Islanders during World War II. Though not set on Kauai, the island was used for location filming and signaled to Hollywood the possibilities for location shooting on what was about to become the 50th state.

Elvis Presley actually filmed two musicals on Kauai, 1961’s Blue Hawaii and 1966’s Paradise, Hawaiian Style, but the first film is much more remembered and beloved. The Coco Palms Resort Hotel in Kapa’a used for Blue Hawaii was the height of elegance at the time, but is now closed awaiting destruction. And yes, that is Murder She Wrote’s Angela Lansbury co-starring in the film.

The worst of the three major films made about the famous giant ape, 1976’s King Kong, used Kauai for the location of Skull Island. (The 2005 version used New Zealand for Skull Island and the best version from 1933 used a miniature model in Culver City.) While the first version of the film used stop-action models to bring the Beast to life, and the more recent version used CGI, in 1976, Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange were terrified by a man in a gorilla suit.

There are a number of films that compete in my head for greatest film of all time, but one that’s perhaps the most fun is 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. And the awesome opening sequence that introduced the world to Indiana Jones in a booby trapped temple in “Peru” was actually filmed on Kauai.

Jurassic Park, unlike Peru, is not a real place. But in 1993, Raiders director Steven Spielberg returned to Kauai to create a world where prehistoric dinosaurs came back to life. One can look out on the lush greenery of the island and imagine it all coming true, even though you are little more likely to see chickens than dinos.

In Ben Stiller’s 2008 comedy, Tropic Thunder, Kauai is (again) not allowed to play itself but instead is playing the role of “the Golden Triangle” playing the role of Vietnam. Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black play spoiled Hollywood actors who must find a way to survive when they are abandoned in the jungle without their massages and cappuccinos. The actual film (as opposed to the film within the film) is said to have been the largest production in the island’s history.

Kauai is allowed to play itself in 2011’s Soul Surfer, which was featured previously here at Movie Churches.

George Clooney drank here in The Descendants 

Kauai is also allowed to play itself in 2011’s The Descendants, a dramatic comedy or comedic drama from writer/director Alexander Payne. George Clooney plays a realtor attempting to connect with his daughters after his wife is seriously injured in a boating accident. Many Kauai locations and locals are featured prominently in the film.

Our visit to Kauai made us understand very clearly why Hollywood continues to film on this beautiful island.

Movie Churches during the Great Depression: O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) and Emperor of the North (1973)

 Sometimes technique very much matters. For instance, today in Movie Churches we have two movies with scenes of baptisms. We never learn the name of pastors or the churches in either film. But one pastor has an effective method of baptizing, while the other gets so much so very wrong.

Now let’s get some technical details out of the way. We are talking about believer’s baptism here. Many churches, particularly mainline denominations, practice infant baptism, like you see in The Godfather, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. These films show the baptisms of people who choose to be baptised.

There are also different ways that churches apply water in baptism. There is “aspersion” which applies to the sprinkling of water on the head (which is suitable for babies, but surely isn’t a real man’s baptism). Closely related is baptism by “affusion”, the pouring of water on the head; which is closely related to “immersion” when water is poured over the head and body. But the kind of baptism practiced in these films is “submersion” where in a person is completely immersed in a body of water (a lake, river, swimming pool or baptismal tank.)

Submersion baptism has the advantage of being cinematic, especially since both films have baptisms in the open air in beautiful places.

In the Ethan and Joel Coen’s comedy,O Brother, Where Art Thou, three escaped convicts stumble upon a church baptism. A large congregation, all dressed in long, white robes, are in line to be baptized in the middle of the lake. (The scene was filmed on location in Alligator Lake near Vicksburg, Mississippi.) The congregation is singing “Let’s Go Down to the River to Pray” even though, as I mentioned, they’re at a lake.

One of the convicts, Delbert, the least bright of the three (not that any of the three is at all bright) cuts to the front of the line and is baptized. The pastor in the film has good baptismal technique. He covers the mouth and nose of the person baptized. He makes sure the person is secure and lowers the person into the water.

Another of the convicts, Pete, is also baptized. But Everett (George Clooney) doesn’t follow along, calling it all part of foolish superstition.

The event changes life for Delbert and Pete, but especially Delbert. Both are excited about the pastor’s assurances that baptism washed away all their sins. Delbert is excited to be cleared of guilt for the robbery of a Piggly Wiggly that sent him to jail, but Everett gives him the sad news that although he might be square with the Lord, he's not right with the state of Mississippi.

But Delbert does change. When the men meet Baby Face Nelson, Delbert knows he can’t join him on his spree of bank robberies even though Delbert thinks it sounds like good fun. (The famous bank robber says, “Jesus saves, but George Nelson withdraws.”)  And when Everett steals a pie from a window sill, Delbert leaves some cash behind to pay for it.

Though we only see the baptizing pastor and his congregation briefly, his ministry has a real impact on the film’s central characters.

The same can’t be said of the baptizing pastor in director Robert Aldrich’s Emperor of the North. In a situation rather similar to the scene in O Brother, Lee Marvin (as a hobo called A#1) joins a baptism in progress to escape the railroad bulls that are pursuing him.

I was not impressed with the technique of this pastor, who's baptizing his congregation in a river in Oregon. There are dozens of congregants, and Marvin also cuts in line to the pastor. But this pastor dunks his people face forward and doesn’t properly cover their mouth and noses, practically drowning people.

No wonder Marvin isn’t transformed and refers to the congregation as “Jesus shouters”. (As he drags another hobo away from the river he makes the baffling statement that he's doing it to "save [him] from the Presbyterians." It seemed more like a Baptist congregation.)

The greatest problem of baptismal planning in the film is in the matter of wardrobe. One of the women in the congregation is only wearing a thin, white robe. The woman is quite, um, well endowed, and after her robe becomes wet… Well, let me just say her presence is the one part of the service A#1 seems to appreciate.

So, based solely on how they conduct their outdoor baptisms, I’m giving the church in O Brother Where Art Thou three steeples and the church in Emperor of the North one steeple.