Collision Course

Price: 75 centz
Year: 1989 (shot in 1986)
Length: 100 minutes
Director: Lewis Teague
Cast: Pat Morita, Jay Leno, Chris Sarandon, Tom Noonan, Randall "Tex" Cobb, Ernie Hudson, Soon-Teck Oh, Mike Starr

The precise moment that I knew I would love this movie forever came during the opening credits, before a single line was spoken or even a single character spotted on screen: a camera opens steadily on the fender of a speeding muscle car, a saxophone squeals relentlessly as an equally relentless synth line tries to catch up, and the text "Starring Chris Sarandon" appears in big, metallic letters as the camera pulls up and away from the fender to reveal the skyline of an urban wasteland we later learn is Detroit. I giggled ecstatically and started taking notes from which I will try to relate why this forgotten career footnote is perhaps the most important movie I have ever blogged about. And that's motherfucking important.

In any other movie, the sax-fender-Mr. Sarandon trio would be the sort of pinnacle that the rest of the movie hopelessly flounders behind while the viewer impatiently twiddles his or her thumbs while texting their weedman (or weedwoman) every 17 minutes asking if now is a good time or not, but no, Collision Course just takes that opening as a dare for greater glory that it keeps ramping up until the very last frame, which is the most poignant still image this side of both Truffaut and Verbinski.

This is a film that embodies all the tensions that made the 1980's so much fun: xenophobia against the wily Japanese and their intrepid electronics, disturbingly glib treatment of rationalized police corruption and brutality, the effects of white flight on formerly vibrant urban centers, and, of course, the immortal pairing of bushy mustaches and bazookas. To say that this is nothing but a merely a proto-Rush Hour is to do a great disservice to the subtle moments that really make Collision Course thrive, some of which I will recount in list form below.

1. Chris Sarandon's goons are played by Tom "Evil Drug Cult Leader Guy in Robocop 2" Noonan and Randall "Tex" Cobb of "some say I'm part hound dog" fame. Also, Sarandon wears a suit that looks like it's made of dollar bills at one point. Also, his mustache is a dead ringer for John Oates. Crucial.

2. The synth and sax score takes on decidedly Eastern flavors every time as Asian character is onscreen! It really helps keep everyone's race and ethnicity clear!

3. Pat Morita tries to escape from a hotel by placing a garment bag over his body and running, eventually being foiled by the dastardly tactics of a revolving door.

4. At one point, Jay Leno waves a gun in some guy's face and says "Hey Hey We're the Monkees" for reasons never clarified.

5. The main plot concerns a prototype for a supercar that will revolutionize the car industry for some reason that Detroit is trying to steal from the Japanese. The guy who owns the evil American car company trying to rip off the Japanese is named Darrett Jarrett. That's D-A-Double-R-E-Double-T J-A-Double-R-E-Double-T. He resembles the glistening whiteness of deposed former governor Gray Davis, right down to the bureaucratic incompetence and halting speech patterns. Remarkably prescient on the filmmaker's part, if I don't say so myself.

6. From Pat Morita's sensitive portrayal of a Japanese cop we learn the important lessons that Asians both respect their elders and are unfamiliar with the concept of door bells. I found this very helpful and hope to apply it to my own travels in the land of the wise bearded sage. Thanks for the heads up COLLISION COURSE!

7. At some point, someone yells "KARATE THIS!", which I personally think would have been a better title for the movie, but so it goes . . .

8. Pat Morita gets down on a dancefloor.

9. Also, apparently Asian cars are cheap and shoddily put together whereas American cars are sturdy and resilient. I'll make a note of it next time I'm buying. Thanks!

10. 8 mile is a real place where crime happens and stuff. Now I respect that Eminem even more than I did when he made that song about fucking and/or killing his mom.

And that's just ten of 'em!

I could relate so many more, but then I'd just be ruining all the fun for you. Apparently, Jay Leno disowns this movie, but he's a shit head these days anyway.

But really all you need to know is that at one point, Pat Morita reenacts Chuck Norris' immortal windshield kick-thru from GOOD GUYS WEAR BLACK and it is breathtaking. He over comes the prejudices placed before him to steal back that Japanese super car prototype and save Japanese industry and for that, I am eternally grateful!

Lilli Marleen

Price: free (it came with a $160,000 education, however)
Year: 1981
Run time: 120 minutes
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Hannah Schygulla, Giancarlo Giannini, Christine Kaufmann, Udo Kier

Although there aren't really any rules that we've made about it, on this blog I generally try to stay away from RWF and other cannonized, and arguably overrated, directors of European art cinema. Its not that I don't enjoy these movies. Many of them are worth every bit of the hype, and many of them... not so much. If it isn't obvious, I write about movies like Gold Diggers, and Out of the Wilderness because they are seldom given a critical treatment of any sort beyond the time surrounding their release, while movies by the Rainer Werners, and the Werners, and the Jean Lucs of this world are continuously written about, and will likely continue to be written about long after I am gone (if the world still exists!). However, to mix it up a little bit, I've decided to give in to Fassbinder's Lilli Marleen, a film I really loved, that I was lucky enough to find in a box of movies that were being given away for free in my department's building.
While I'm no Fassbinder fanatic, there are moments when his aesthetic really appeals to me. When he's restaging Sirk films as a venue to talk about otherness and old age, I don't really feel it. I'm more a fan of highly aestheticized, glossy fever dreams, many of which Hannah Schygulla stars in. This preference stems more from my doubts in RWF's ability to tell a convincing story about people of color or old women than from my preference for "sexy" looking films. Not that I don't like "sexy" looking films... In any event, Lilli Marleen is full of glamour, and it uses this in a most productive way.

Like one of my favorite films (Bob Fosse's Cabaret), Lilli Marleen tells the story of a female singer during the third reich. Like Sally Bowles, Willie starts as a torch singer in a night club, who is nice to look at, but not exceptionally talented. An immigration issue keeps her away from her lover Robert (Giannini), whom she lived with in Switzerland, so she gets work at a cabaret in Munich. By the sheer force of luck, she is able to wrap her voice around the "Lilli Marleen" song for which this film is named. The song, which is a narrative about love and war, enchants everyone who hears it. When she does a recorded version, it becomes a national sensation. Soon Willie and her star struck pianist are invited to stay at Hitler's mansion. Before she knows it, Willie has become a poster girl for the third reich.
Meanwhile, Willie and Robert (who is a jew) pine away fro eachother in seperate countries. Robert eventually marries a beautiful Jewish woman, but his love for Willie plagues that marriage, as he can never really let it go. Although in the time they are estranged Willie is too sought after to have much time for pining, they scenes when they (briefly) reunite show that she too is not past that love. It is her devotion to Robert, in fact, that leads her fall from grace in the eyes of the SS.

One of my favorite aspects of this film is that it gives the characters humanity, despite their support of the Nazis. It does this without condoning the Nazis (and in fact, as a whole condemns them). When looking back at that time, it is important to remember how normalized it must have been in German society to support the ruling party. Like in any state, more informed citizens probably dissented, while the lesser informed probably supported the ruling party, or were indifferent. Those supporters perhaps were swept up in the ideology so much, to an extent that it was the climate, rather than their own evilness that allowed them to support the nazis. Willie falls into this category. She irresponsibly puts on an identity, without much thought or care to its implications.




Like the rest of her countrymen, Willie is eventually maligned for her actions, or inactions. Her rise and downfall, is chaotic, glamorous, and altogether problematic. We enjoy the glamorous ride along with her, but can't help but criticize the place she carved out for herself.

On a purely aesthetic level, the film is visionary. Everything feels very set-like, in a way that compliments the way the story is told. The colors are evocative, and the images look like they could have been pulled from a Nazi Vogue. When the film portrays the violence on the battlefield, it provides a nauseating but enticing viewing experience that supports and contradicts the overall gloss of the film.

The movie stays away from many of the traps that such a film could fall into. For one thing, while it is implied that Willie interacts with Hitler on a fairly regular basis, he is not portrayed by an actor here. That would have been rather distracting and hokey. Also, the concentration camps are referred to, but not shown. Some might view this as irresponsible, but since the film is portraying members of German society who lacked real knowledge about the full atrocities of the SS, it frames the story well.

Overall, Lilli Marlene is a gorgeous, and thoughtful film. It exemplifies the mix of ideology and aesthetic grandiosity that make Fassbinder an important film maker.

Macon County Line

Price: 75 cents
Year: 1974
Length: 89 minutes
Director: Richard Compton
Cast: Alan Vint, Jesse Vint, Cheryl Waters, Max Baer, Geoffrey Lewis, Leif Garrett, Doodles Weaver, Joan Blackman

Macon County Line is the type of weird, shaggy, ramblingly ingratiating film that the 1970's found incredibly easy to shit out. Pitched somewhere between accidental art film and subtle exploitation picture, MCL deals with so many shades of gray in regards to its characters that it might as well be a Walker Evans photograph (because his pictures are old and in black and white and I couldn't think of a better metaphor on the fly, dig?).

It opens with our ostensible heroes , Chris and Wayne Dixon (played by real life siblings Alan and Jesse Vint respectively) doing a bunch of rascally shit like stealing money from hookers, ditching out on paying for meals, and destroying some police cars in the process. Eventually they pick up a female hitchhiker (Cheryl "100% Pure Love" Waters) and then they kind of amble about trying to get their car fixed or whatever.