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 idea of casting Shatner as a vile, disgusting villain may have been inspired by the charisma of Adolf Hitler: You need a charming man to sell evil 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.
Corman may have his lifetime achievement Oscar by the time you read this. It's about time. Corman's reputation as a schlockmeister has always seemed to invalidate the immense contributions he's made to the world of American film.
Corman primarily made his name producing and directing schlocky monster movies, girly flicks and so on, but he also directed some real classics, and launched the careers of many cinematic legends, including Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Dennis Hopper. His studio taught many young actors, writers and directors the ropes, showing them how to produce a good movie on a limited budget and schedule, and he truly was one of the key figures in shaping the world of the modern American cinema.
If you haven't really given Corman his day in court yet, watch Shame, and then check out X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. By creating low-profile B flicks on low budgets, Corman was able to get away with pretty much anything by simply flying under the radar and making every film as a low-risk investment, opening up several doors for creativity and the ability to deal with sensitive issues.
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 idea of casting Shatner as a vile, disgusting villain may have been inspired by the charisma of Adolf Hitler: You need a charming man to sell evil 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.
Corman may have his lifetime achievement Oscar by the time you read this. It's about time. Corman's reputation as a schlockmeister has always seemed to invalidate the immense contributions he's made to the world of American film.
Corman primarily made his name producing and directing schlocky monster movies, girly flicks and so on, but he also directed some real classics, and launched the careers of many cinematic legends, including Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Dennis Hopper. His studio taught many young actors, writers and directors the ropes, showing them how to produce a good movie on a limited budget and schedule, and he truly was one of the key figures in shaping the world of the modern American cinema.
If you haven't really given Corman his day in court yet, watch Shame, and then check out X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. By creating low-profile B flicks on low budgets, Corman was able to get away with pretty much anything by simply flying under the radar and making every film as a low-risk investment, opening up several doors for creativity and the ability to deal with sensitive issues.
About the Author:
In order to create your DVD, you'll need to have a dvd burner on your pc. movie downloads for the psp Believe it or not, this happens more often than you might think! With this new interest in vinyl, the online community has responded.
No comments:
Post a Comment