Screenhead

Continuing in our look back on the last decade, Screenhead examines the major movie events of the year 2006. For previous years, click  to visit the article: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005.

Reboots and Kickstarts

“If at first you don’t succeed, then reboot it” became the motto of the major Hollywood studios in the latter half of this decade. 2005 saw Christopher Nolan take on the ever-popular Batman character and reboot him in Batman Begins, a film that couldn’t be any more different from the horrendously camp Batman and Robin. Audiences were impressed and so it was time to reboot one of the most successful franchises of all time. Even though Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond was earning more and more bucks as the series progressed, it was felt that a new super-spy was needed, someone who tied in more with modern action-audience sensibilities. That man was Daniel Craig, whose craggy face seemed to suit the harsher action of Casino Royale, an adaptation of the original Bond novel. The film was a critical and commercial success, and was the biggest Bond movie to date, earning nearly $600 million worldwide.

But not all reboots were a success. Bryan Singer dropped the X-Men trilogy to make Superman Returns, another look at the origins of a character. Only this over-long and preposterous film didn’t sit well with the worldwide audience. Despite making almost $400 million, even that couldn’t cover the huge production and marketing costs the film accrued. Subsequent reboot budgets were more modest, such as Ed Norton’s The Incredible Hulk, or this year’s high-earning Star Trek, not the mention the countless horror reboots.

Seeing the dollars roll in through rehashing old stories, movie studios were also willing to allow aging stars to attempt to regain former glory. In 2006 Sly Stallone huffed and puffed his way through another Rocky Balboa movie, which actually did quite well. He followed that up with another ridiculous Rambo flick. Bruce Willis donned the stinky vest and destroyed any semblance of believability in the franchise by driving a car into a helicopter in Die Hard 4. And apparently another Beverley Hills’ Cop film is in the works (aptly so, considering the bombs that were Eddie Murphy’s last few movies). And while there are no bounds for the original effects-based crap that we see most summers, at least the occasional reboot has proven its worth, such as The Dark Knight or Star Trek. So roll on Lethal Weapon: the Beginning, Conan the Governator, and Jaws in Space!

Borat

Every year has its “little movie that could”, a movie that defies expectations and goes on to delight audiences, and even win a few awards. Call them Slumdog Multi-Millionaries. In 2006 no one thought that a feature-length movie based on a British comedy show would impress audiences. Borat, who was part of the Ali G Show (the Ali G character had his own movie first, which was a disaster on all fronts), was a Kazakhstani TV show host with no knowledge or understanding of the social norms of the Western World, and naturally ended up embarrassing those who weren’t on to actor Sacha Baron Cohen’s joke. The movie, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, was Borat’s attempt to comprehend the US. Initial trailers showed promise, but Hollywood was fearful about whether the film would have an audience, and distributors 20^th Century Fox scaled back the amount of cinemas Borat would be released in significantly. They soon realized the error of their ways when the film stormed the box office on its opening week. Well reviewed, the film was a crude yet deeply hilarious insight into America’s social norms and how funny it was to see them being broken.

The film went on to make $260 million worldwide, even being embraced by the government of Kazakhstan who felt the film drew awareness of the country (even though it’s portrayed as a backwards nation where it’s common to have sexual relations with your prostitute sister). Many of the real people tricked in the movie attempted to sue, but none were upheld. Sacha Baron Cohen went on to bring another of his characters to the cinema, releasing Bruno this summer. Sadly, it seemed as if Cohen had already used up his best materiel, and the adventures of the outlandishly gay Austrian only mustered up $137 worldwide, disappointing for the execs but still impressive.

Youtube Becomes a Household Name

With this decade seeing internet bandwidths expanding exponentially, it was obvious a resource was needed for people to post video clips. Youtube, in which people can post videos of up to 10 minutes each, was created in 2005 but became a phenomenon in 2006, with each day seeing thousands of new posts. Office workers shared amusing Youtube clips, one of the highlights of 2006 being a man who takes us through the history of dance in 6 minutes. Many used Youtube as a video blog, sharing and arguing with others about contentious points, reducing Andy Warhol’s famous phrase to merely 5 minutes of fame. And of course, celebrity culture was immediately accessed. Youtube reports on Mel Gibson’s DUI came flooding it, and months later a clip in which Seinfeld actor Michael Richards spouts racist insults in a comedy act gone wrong were proof that you couldn’t hide from the click of a video upload.

In terms of cinema, Youtube became a repository for film trailers. But some would attempt to upload entire movies and TV shows onto the site, which naturally cheesed off studios and distributors. With Google purchasing the site in 2006, many feared that any clip featuring copyrighted music or film would be removed, reducing the site to a collection of home videos. But it wasn’t long before the power of Youtube was embraced by the media. Some companies uploaded viral marketing videos. Others allowed shows with lagging ratings to remain up as it was believed they would promote the show. And this year Sony made a deal with Youtube to upload full-length movies (such as Taxi Driver, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, etc.) free of charge, for a limited period of time. If ever there was proof of the old adage “If you can’t beat them, join them”, Youtube is it (unless you’re in Pakistan, where the site is supposedly blocked)

Dealing with 9/11

Considering the amount of time to make a movie, from the gestation of an idea to scripting to financing to production and finally distribution, it’s no wonder that it’s many years until we see fiction films that deal with recent events. With the exception of one or two arguably propaganda films, it wasn’t until 1977 (Heroes) and 78 (Go Tell the Spartans) that America saw the first films dealing with the Vietnam War. For the 9/11 attacks it took 5 years (excluding the allegorical Spike Lee joint 25^th Hour) to see movies dealing directly with the event that changed the meaning of the term ‘terrorism’ for the average person.

In April Paul Greengrass (who left the stagnant Watchmen project) directed United 93, dealing with the only plane in the attacks that failed to reach its target (probably the White House). Greengrass used his shakey-cam of The Bourne Supremacy to create an ultra-realistic imagining of what happened in that plane, as passengers seemingly decided to fight their captors, leading to the plane crashing in a field in Pennsylvania. It was a powerful film, also criticising the lack of military response and the bureaucratic indecisiveness that could have saved lives, which took us into the final moments of the flight’s passengers. And although some claimed the film to be sensational, and abusing a real-life tragedy to make an action film,  the film’s direction and use of tension denies the viewer any aggressive delight. It was a well-reviewed film that had a mediocre box-office intake.

Later in the year, the antithesis of United 93 was released. Many expected Oliver Stone’s take on 9/11 to be controversial, but what we got in World Trade Centre was much more upsetting.  This tale of one of the few police officers who managed to survive the buildings’ collapse is as sentimental and sappy as you can get. Full of tears and an overpowering score, this film turned the very real and very painful event into a dire melodrama. Despite being so very insulting, the film made a sizeable amount of money (over $150 worldwide), although to poor reviews. Stone claimed that all of his past movies were failures as they did not motivate people to get political, but this film turned an important event into forgettable crap. It even makes the despicably erroneous claim that the government of Iraq were responsible: the film’s final moment shows a marine who was involved in the rescue standing up and claiming he’ll avenge the atrocity, followed by text which says he fought in Iraq! In one abysmal swoop, Oliver Stone went from political reactionary to political amnesiac.

Smells like Tween Spirit

When I was young(er) we had children, teenagers, and adults. When my grandfather was younger, they had people who were able to work in mines, and people who weren’t. Well, not really, but the 1990’s saw an emergence of another subdivision of life’s progression. When marketing met music the hideous love-child were acts that targeted the teen and pre-teen market, with boy groups like Take That and Boyzone (embraced by older women who wished they were young enough to ravish these fit lads) and girl groups and acts like The Spice Girls and Britney Spears. They were sold like the latest toy or fashion item, and people spent ridiculous amounts of money on merchandise. Tweendom grew in the naughties, the almost-worldwide economic boom ensuring kids could spend lots of money on pointless products. Music “talent” shows like American Idol and the X-Factor convinced kids to vote for their favourite bland performer (with the exception of Kelly Clarkson, have any of the winners actually gotten anywhere?). And in 2006 the Tween market hit the world of movies. The Disney Channel released High School Musical as a TV movie. It was a mistake at the time, as popularity was disturbingly immense, and it quickly became the biggest-selling TV movie of all time, selling over a million DVDs in its first week. The sequel performed even better, so much so that the third film got a cinema release earned over $250 worldwide, making it a force reasonable adults couldn’t ignore, as much as we tried to.

Tween-only music acts emerged, such as Hannah Montana and the eunuch group The Jonas Brothers, who send girls into torrents of tears but mean nothing to anyone beyond 15. These acts seem to promote a chaste world of light-love, happy to run to first base and slink back. It’s interesting (if not scary) to realise that with the right marketing money, anyone can convince young consumers that something natural can be something evil, and not deal with it in an open manner.

We Said Goodbye to: Robert Altman

Self-indulgent or fanatic of the fringes, Robert Altman may not have been a household name, but he is without doubt one of America’s best independent directors. Starting his directorial career making industrial films, a young Altman was spotted by Alfred Hitchcock and used him for his TV show. Altman’s TV years were fraught with clashes as Altman attempted to impose the unconventional (whether acting methods or political subtext) on “regular” shows. But in 1970 MASH was released. While most of us know the sitcom more than the movie, Altman’s first major film was a deeply satirical look at military life, and despite being entirely episodic, was a huge commercial and critical success (interesting factoid: the theme tune Suicide is Painless was written by Altman’s 14-year-old son). The film contained many of the traits that Altman was associated with: improvised or naturalistic dialogue, ensemble films focusing on character more than plot, and political criticism.

The 70’s was Altman’s best period of films. McCabe and Mrs Miller is one of the finest examples of the revisionist western. The Long Goodbye is perhaps his greatest film, a complete re-imagining of the Philip Marlow detective figure, complete with inarticulate mumblings and general inefficiency, and played brilliantly by Elliot Gould. Nashville was a wry look at country music’s relationship with politics. But for some bizarre reason Altman decided to direct the live-action musical of cartoon series Popeye, starring Robin Williams. The nightmarish result was panned, and was considered an utter bomb (even though it made back its budget). The 80’s saw Altman as a sort of Hollywood outcast, directing small drama, mostly adaptations of plays.

But Altman soon regained some form of glory, starting with his satirical political satire mini-series Tanner 88. Several years later his assault on Hollywood hotshots The Player won the right kind of awards. Altman continued to make films of varying quality across the rest of his years, winning an Oscar for the sadly unambitious Gosford Park. Altman’s life as a director can be defined as someone who was fascinated with the subjects the mainstream didn’t seem to follow. His prioritising of character over plot, realism over the fantastic, and subject matter that included country music, politics, fashion (Pret-a-porter) and ballet (The Company), made him the kind of director that didn’t make movies that made hundreds of millions, but rather inspired generations to look beyond the dull conventions of the mainstream.

Films of the Year

Pan’s Labyrinth
United 93
Borat
The Fountain
Brick

By Eoin O’Faolain

Future Years: 2007, 2008, 2009

Anything you think we’ve missed? Anything you disagree with? Let us know on the comments below!

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