Frankenstein (1931)

Director: James Whale
Country: United States

Frankenstein is the ultimate gothic scifi classic, a legendary novel that has reached the levels of the Greek mythology among contemporary scientists, filmmakers, writers and musicians, the mad scientist "playing God" and the monster who turns against its own father.

Many films have been inspired by this piece of work such as Blade Runner, Terminator 2, Re-Animator, Robocop, Body Parts, Frankenhooker, Frankenweenie and even TV comedies like "Weird Science". In the music department we can find Edgar Winter's song "Frankenstein" or Eddie Van Halen's custom guitar made with different guitar parts and named after the monster. In the science and techonology area we are living in a Frankenstenian-era: robots, drones and computers rule the manufacturing world, and according to some experts they soon will fight in warfields making their own decisions just like in fuckin Terminator 2: the Judgement Day. 

We also can see crazy scientific stuff since the cloning of Dolly the Sheep in the 90's to nowadays manipulation of genetic information in embryos and plants. Humanity and some scientists have gone crazy just like Victor Frankenstein, and society in itself is another version of him, we have created monsters through history either ideologically or physically and curiously enough, Victor and the Monster happen to be identified with the same name: Frankenstein, because the line gets blurred and we don't know who is the real villian here. 

Why do "Frankenstein" gets killed? and why does society kill him? Ironically that turns society into what the monster is, in other words, a ruthless murderer. Did Hitler create stone-cold Germans or the Germans created a crazy-murderer such as Hitler?; Whose gotta be judged by trial? autonomous killer machines or their creators behind a computer? These and more questions will be answered in the short run, but in the meantime in 2018, we are commemorating two hundred years since Mary Shelley wrote this fantastic novel and it is beautiful and terryfing at the same time how the story itself as the Monster in the film IS ALIVE!

                            
                 

Duck and Cover (1952)

Director: Anthony Rizzo
Country: United States

The other day I was reading The Economist which happens to be my favorite and the only newspaper I read every week, and I found an interesting article about what to do in case of a Nuclear Attack. Along with the information provided it cited this goverment-funded propagandistic short-film with a picture of Bert the Turtle which represents the steps to follow in case the real thing occurs, this caught my attention and I went to see it.

The film, which has been inducted in the Library of Congress for its historical importance and whatnot, is a combination of animated images and reenactments portraying people in a nuclear-attack scenario in America, the vibrant America of the 50's where happy white kids used to play baseball and drink CocaCola; adults used to organize picnics at the park; and suburbs were clean and free of illegal aliens. 

This world reminded me of the America in the Norman Rockwell’s beautiful paintings (an artist I also knew about because of reading The Economist), which at that moment its only enemy was the evil Communism but Bert the Turtle was there to help and to educate the public to survive a deathly nuclear attack expected with or without warning and to show you how to prevent serious burnings. 

Before the apocalyptic scenarios of Terminator, 28 Days Later or The Walking Dead we had real scary shit during the Cold-War and its missile crises, now we have North Korean nukes pointing Alaska and Hawaii, so you better Duke and Cover!

                            

Macbeth (1948)

Director: Orson Welles
Country: United States

Some years ago I saw Roman Polanski's adaptation of Macbeth but I overlooked the one made by Orson Welles, I thought that I did not need to see it in the first place since Polanski's version is a memorable film, however, I finally did it and it really surprised me because Macbeth is another tour de force in Welles' filmography, he produced it, wrote it, directed it and acted on it and by the way his performance is pure gold.

Macbeth is a very rich story about human condition, it is full of poetry, metaphors and symbolism, and in times of political turmoil like the ones we are living in (Brexit and the Election of Donald Trump) it is the perfect time to watch it. Welles offers a minimalistic film in black and white which helps the audience to focus on the story. 

Macbeth who is influenced by his wife, Lady Macbeth, is manipulated through his basic human flaws such as pride, greed, fear and jealousy, Macbeth also corrupts himself when killing the king but stills unsatisfied because Banquo and his family are the ones who will own the throne of Scotland. To revert this, Macbeth disobeys the Witches’ prophecy and orders the assesination of Banquo and his son Fleance, who avoids being killed.

Macbeth starts to lose his mind the moment he kills the king, he becomes a doble-crossing bastard who is thirsty of power, blood and brute force,using cheap rethoric to convince people that Banquo is responsible for their poverty and misery (sounds familiar?). Orson Welles' performance is powerful and we can see the transformation and the different textures of Macbeth's on his face: fear, violence and ultimately madness.

Welles was without a doubt a genius, he was like the Leonardo Da Vinci of cinema, too bad Hollywood hated him and many of his projects were unfinished or not even pre-produced. Macbeth is definitely a must see for anyone interested either in William Shakespeare or in Orson Welles and this movie in particular is available on YouTube for free!.

And last but not least Orson Welles is well-known for having made Citizen Kane, a film which inspired a whole generation of masters of filmmaking such as Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich and many more, so if you want to be either a GREAT filmmaker or a screenwriter you gotta see Welles' work, otherwise get the fuck outta my blog!