The other thing about Excalibur is the Uther-Igrayne shagging scene at the beginning. What with the grinding and tit-sucking and all, as a kid it used to turn me on and freak me out in equal measure. (Dude, this is King Arthur. But I shouldn't be watching this! Etc.) Uther, it just so happens, was played by the aforementioned Gabriel Byrne. But it's only when one bears in mind that the Igrayne in question was actually Boorman's daughter that the real freakiness of the scene starts to emerge.
And just to, er, top that, here's beautiful Charley Boorman (who appears in Excalibur in his undies, being oiled up by Helen Mirren) in The Emerald Forest.
It's a fairly recognisable syndrome - doting dad decides that his kid (female or male) is the most gorgeous thing in the world and gets her or him a plum part in some little remembered movie (or, in the case of Excalibur, in a well remembered one). Danny the Champion of the World, for example, is actually a sweet enough film, but it's still little more than an Irons family home movie.
Boorman's home movies would presumably have been along the lines of not just Hope and Glory (which really is glorious) but also I Dreamt I Woke Up (which is weird and interesting, but not quite so interesting as I wanted it to be). Taken together though, Excalibur and The Emerald Forest make Robby seem positively normal.
I finally got round to watching the first half of the silly but enjoyably stimulating new documentary about Kubrick's version of The Shining (on YouTube) the other day. Yesterday I re-watched the film itself (with some Bavarian beer and some reheated Catholic pizza). And of course today I bought the American version (half an hour longer and hence unsuitable for us ADHD European types) on Blu-Ray. (Let's hope it really is "all regions".)
There are some nice plans of the whacky Elstree Studios set here. And there's an unbelievably nerdy site about "that sort of thing" here.
There's also some stuff on the making of from the Grauniadistas here.
UPDATE: The "background of my mind" is now working on my own theories about the film, and the way Kubrick seemingly reversed the racial culpability from the Red Man to the White Man.
UPDATE II: In any case, the "Indian burial ground" is such a standard trope it's hard to imagine Kubrick not wanting to subvert it - even if he ended up doing so unconsciously.
Castle Rock Entertainment, which was founded in 1987, was named by Rob Reiner in honour of the Maine town that serves as the setting of several stories by Stephen King, after the success of Reiner’s film Stand by Me, which was based on The Body, a novella by King.
And King of course named his town Castle Rock after the Castle Rock in Lord of the Flies.
It was Steven Spielberg's first "serious" mainstream film.
For me, Empire of the Sun was far and away his strangest and most haunting work for almost two decades, before it was finally superseded by A.I. The comic-book clarity of the director's vision, coupled with the mesmeric and surreal prose of J G Ballard's original, autobiographical novel, makes for a heady, at times disturbing and ultimately deeply moving piece of cinema. At one level it's Hope and Glory on acid: at the same time, it is shot through with pain and loss and beauty, all of which its director has brought to the screen with a quite uncompromising sincerity. It's not perfect, but then neither are any of Spielberg's films, and it certainly paved the way for Schindler's List a decade or so later.
Of course it also launched on the world an enchanting, chilling young actor in the shape of a preteen Christian Bale. In time Bale would weather both kid-flicks and period dramas (not to mention the more-than-occasional bit of sci-fi) to take his rightful place as one of Hollywood's most phenomenal talents, in blockbusters and artsy-fartsy stuff equally. In Empire though there is a simple, full-blooded intensity to his performance that is partly Spielberg, partly his own, and partly down to the sheer energy of a 12-year-old boy. More than Spielberg's cinematography or Tom Stoppard's typically strange, thoughtful screenplay, it is Bale's performance that really makes Empire of the Sun.
That, and of course John Williams's BAFTA-winning score! The words (with Bale lip-synching, as it happens) in the above clip are those of a traditional Welsh lullaby - though it sounds as if they may have been sung to make them sound more Japanese. For me the sheer incongruity of it says more about the chaos and stupidity of war than any number of Saving Private Ryan sequences ever could.
Huna blentyn yn fy mynwes Clyd a chynnes ydyw hon; Breichiau mam sy'n dynn amdanat, Cariad mam sy dan fy mron; Ni cha' dim amharu'th gyntun, Ni wna undyn â thi gam; Huna'n dawel, annwyl blentyn, Huna'n fwyn ar fron dy fam.
Paid ag ofni, dim ond deilen Gura, gura ar y ddôr; Paid ag ofni, ton fach unig Sua, sua ar lan y môr; Huna blentyn, nid oes yma Ddim i roddi iti fraw; Gwena'n dawel yn fy mynwes Ar yr engyl gwynion draw.
Sleep my baby, at my breast, ’Tis a mother’s arms round you. Make yourself a snug, warm nest. Feel my love forever new. Harm will not meet you in sleep, Hurt will always pass you by. Child beloved, always you’ll keep, In sleep gentle, mother’s breast nigh.
Do not fear the sound, it’s a breeze Brushing leaves against the door. Do not dread the murmuring seas, Lonely waves washing the shore. Sleep child mine, there’s nothing here, While in slumber at my breast, Angels smiling, have no fear, Holy angels guard your rest.
As for the explosions, it's worth bearing in mind that this was before the days of CGI.
Looking back on the film in 2009, Leslie Phillips reminisced:
It was my 85th birthday on Monday, which was also the day I heard that J G Ballard had died. The more people you've known through your life, the more the obituaries begin to pile up. It's one of the tragedies of growing old.
The news rekindled memories of acting in the film adaptation of his book Empire of the Sun in 1987. Ballard played a cameo role: he was such a marvellous writer, and a very gentle man, terribly sweet and friendly.
I spent most of the film with the little boy who played the main part, the semi-autobiographical character who becomes a Japanese prisoner of war.
I had no inkling then that that boy, named Christian Bale, would become such a huge star. The director, Steven Spielberg, took as much care of him as if he was his own son.
Everyone of my generation will know him as Perry White from the ("original") Superman movies (above). But Jackie Cooper was clearly one of those small stars of the big screen who'd been around for a very long time.
Back in the days when the world was still in black and white, in fact before anyone had heard of Shirley Temple or Mickey Rooney, Jackie was Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island. It's a fairly standard role for up-and-coming screen moppet-boys - a sort of Hamlet for boys - but one that virtually every grown-up former child-actor one can think of has had to get under his belt, from Kevin Zegers to Elijah Wood (or was he just Huckleberry Finn?) to Christian Bale (obviously!). His co-star, sharing the top billing (Ah, those were the days, before paedophobia!) was Wallace Beery, which gives you some idea of how the importance of a star's name has changed since then.
Jackie and Wallace were also together in the black and white version of The Champ, which was later remade by Franco Zeffirelli with Ricky Schroder as the little blond cutie. And of course Schroder too has gone on to "grown-up" stardom. Unlike Ricky, who is now "Rick Schroder", Jackie just carried on being Jackie. Clearly it was quite a different generation where it didn't hurt one's career to be associated with the glories a golden childhood.
I must admit, I'd be lying if I said I didn't admit to a certain wry pleasure at Robert Downey Jr's congratulatory declaration to Tom Holland 'Spider-Man is English again.' After all, not so long ago, deliciously (and however briefly!) all three of America's top three comic-book superheroes were played by Englishmen. (Christian Bale's Welsh, but who's arguing?)
Henry Cavil for his part comes across for all the world as just a really nice, normal, grounded, educated young man - and yes, he's rather handsome and seriously ripped with it. And personally I think he's also nailed Superman, but what do I know?
It also very hard to resist the charm of a blockbuster actor who likes to spend his spare time reading a good book. (It wasn't just the tight trunks that made me warm to Daniel Craig. And Ewan McGregor is on the record as having said the same about reading.)
And as for lines in interviews like 'My first acting role was in prep school, when I was about 11.'? Just toooooo cute, by half!
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