Top ten movies for lockdown

Surfer Dude Studios presents its top ten movies for getting you through lockdown.

Surf's Up
The Count of Monte Cristo
Black Dynamite
A Fistful of Dynamite
The Duellists

Dune
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Local Hero
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

Like for the vast majority of the world's population things at Surfer dude Studios are a little different at the moment. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has placed us, like many, into a state of lockdown in an effort to prevent transmission of this very deadly virus. Like many of us, we've been forced to work from home, and with great and sincere reverence applaud the work of those critical workers keeping the world going, particularly those in the health and care professions.

Whatever disruption to our lives, that Surfer dude studios is without surfing, rugby and kayaking for the current future, is little to compare to the current trepidation and fear our healthcare and medical practitioners must be experiencing. But with undeniably admirable dedication, they continue to put themselves at risk to see us through this crisis.

For some of us the best we can do is to stay out of the way, safely at home, in an effort to slow, stall, and stop the spread of this virus.

This time has given us at Surfer dude studios the chance to re-visit a couple of movies. None of these are ever going to appear on a list of greatest movies, but we felt they're the kind of movie that can lift a low lockdown mood. So take our advice, stay home, stay safe, and try to fit in a few of these guilty pleasures.

Surf's Up

Year:: 2007
Director(s):: Ash Brannon and Chris Buck
Studio:: Sony Pictures Animation

Animation - PG

So it was inevitable that we'd pick a surfing movie to start with. But owing more to the documentaries like Billabong Odyssey, Riding Giants, and Endless Summer, than to fictions like Point Break, and Big Wednesday (although they do get a tongue in cheek look in) comes this surprising addition to the genre from 2007.

What initially comes over as a copycat addition to the run of penguin themed animations like Happy Feet (2006), March of the Penguins (2006) and Madagascar (2005), is a surprisingly acerbic critique of the sports entertainment industry animated in a faux documentary style. The microphone can be seen in a few shots, directors Ash Brannon and Chris Buck provide the voices of the documentary makers, the animation can be shaky at times in a cinema verite style of film-making (remember this is an animation it's deliberately animated this way).

Most telling of all is a montage where real surfers, including the surfing professionals Kelly Slater and Rob Machado, brought in to assist the motion capture, discuss their feelings about the sport. Underneath the impressive ocean animations this is a movie with a witty and thought provoking take on sport, winning, mentoring, and friendship.

The film was a surprise contender in the 2008 academy awards, losing out to Ratatouille for best animated feature, but receiving a nomination in place of The Simpsons Movie to great surprise. It was the 2008 Best feature winner at the Annie's (the animation industry awards). Awards aside, it's worth it alone for Jeff Bridges basically playing himself in animated penguin form.

A 2017 direct to video sequel was co-produced by WWE studios, which feels in direct conflict with the ethos of the original, and no one round here has ever got round to watching it for fear of tarnishing a beloved original. Some films should just be left alone.

The Count of Monte Cristo

Year:: 2002
Director(s):: Kevin Reynolds
Studio:: Touchstone Pictures / Spyglass Entertainment

Historical adventure - PG

It's also inevitable that a film with a theme of imprisonment would make an appearance. It's also ironic that this film marked the return of Director Kevin Reynolds after a five year hiatus. Kevin Reynolds was the director of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), and Waterworld (1995), but disappeared after One Eight Seven (1997), re-emerging in 2002 with The Count of Monte Cristo.

Plot wise it does not differ too much from the book by Alexandre Dumas. Edmond Dantes a somewhat naive sailor is wrongfully imprisoned for sixteen years, takes the time to upskill, learning to fence and fight, read, write and speak in several languages, avoids going mad due to the four falls closing in, escapes with a map to find the treasure of Spada, and swears revenge on those who wronged him (including his one-time best friend Count Fernand Mondego, the deadliest duellist in all France, who has stolen his one true love, the beautiful Mercedes), and does so by re-inventing himself as the wealthy Batman, sorry, Count of Monte Cristo.

So let's face it, who right now does not dream of what they're going to do once they escape lockdown, and the metaphorical treasure of Spada we'll all be looking for? There will be relationships to repair, old friends to see, and a lot to rebuild and re-invent.

But in terms of movie escapism, well this is it. It's got revenge, swordfights, treasure, smugglers, Richard Harris in one of his last roles, Guy Pierce being a dastardly villain, Jim Caviezel being wooden, a female lead who's only really there to enable some sort of primal male rage, Henry Cavill, Parisian high society, Napoleonic scheming, all in a gloriously old fashioned adventure mov... Wait! Henry f%@!=#g Cavill?!

Black Dynamite

Year:: February 2009
Director(s):: Scott Sanders
Studio:: ARS Nova

Comedy - 15

Black Dynamite is a parody of the classic Blaxploitation era movies. Think films like Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, and Shaft (both 1971). The genre was subject to criticism for it's over reliance on stereotypical characters or motives, but is largely the first time that black characters and communities are centrally depicted and not sidekicks, villains or victims. This is one of the genuinely funniest movies ever, but also a rich critique and observation of the genre. Let's face it, we could all use a good laugh right now.

Actor Michael Jai White claims to have come up with the idea while listening to James Brown's "Super Bad", and after attending and hosting Blaxploitation themed parties. After discussing the idea with Byron Minns, who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the genre, the two made a trailer to present their idea to producers.

Filmed over twenty days, with a low budget on inexpensive Super 16mm film stock to give it a poor quality, high contrast look, it also used footage from similar era films (such as Missing in Action, Charlie's Angels, and Police Woman) to supplement the shoot, before converting to digital for editing.

The films genius was in the knowledge of the mistakes that occurred during production, and the pursuit of a one-take mantra. It's as if no dailies were produced to check the quality and for obvious errors. The boom mic drops in noticeably, actors require prompting and read stage directions aloud; the framing of shots has random zooms and movement, unscripted goofs are retained (in one scene a driver takes his foot off the brake without putting the handbrake on and has to stop to sort this before carrying on with the scene), the film looks like it was a paniced disaster to make.

One of the great things was that our budget was so low that we actually had to think in the same ways that they had to think in those movies on a twenty day schedule. A lot of it was just that we had seen enough of those movies. The scene with the boom mic, that happens in Dolemite quite often in the fight scene. Mostly for us, it was just trying to make it look like those movies and have the same feel of those movies. If something was seventies era, then that's okay.
Scott Sanders

The film had a limited release and run time of only two weeks, therefore did not perform significantly at the box office. However it seems to have been a commercial success due to its low budget, and continuing cult status. It also went on to win the Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival, beating The Hurt Locker among other films.

A short lived animated television prequel series, voiced by the original cast (Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson, Byron Minns, and Kym Whitley), was produced for the Adult Swim network, and a web series, but frankly, nothing is going to live up the original.

A Fistful of Dynamite

Year:: 1971
Director(s):: Sergio Leone
Studio:: Rafran Cinematografica / Euro International Film / San Miura / United Artists

Western - PG

The second of Leone's Once Upon a Time trilogy (and the second of our films with dynamite in the title) the follow up to Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), and followed itself by Once Upon a Time in America (1984), though the films do not share any characters in common. This was the last western film directed by Leone, and considered by some to be one of his most overlooked films.

Once Upon a Time in the West had been a box office success in Europe, but for the US release it was edited down by Paramount and was a financial flop (the film developed a greater standing among critics as well as a cult following in the years that followed, and was preserved by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant").

In that context, A Fistful of Dynamite, was marketed as a light-hearted spiritual successor to the Dollars Trilogy. It's original name of "Duck you sucker", was changed to A Fistful of Dynamite (and sometimes marketed as "Once Upon a Time...the Revolution"), not at all as Leone intended.

A Fistful of Dynamite very much adheres to the saying about true art never being recognised in its time. Leone, who had used his previous films to deconstruct the romantic notions of the American Old West, wanted to deconstruct the romanticized nature of revolution, and to shed light on the political instability of contemporary Italy, still a mere 25 years removed from its fascist rule. Political riots had broken out in Paris, and the ideals of revolution and left-wing nationalism had become popular among university students and filmmakers across Europe.

This divergence in vision between Leone the film maker, and his US Distributors, combined with the fact that this is the second of a very loosely thematically related trilogy is probably what has pushed the film to a level of obscurity. While now the theme of the death of the Old West has been very much explored in a range of media to the point of a neo, revisionist or postmodernist approach (for example Unforgiven (1992), and games Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II), US audiences, and thus the box office, were far less willing to accept what amounted to socialist desecration of their founding legends and myths.

So why is this a lockdown movie? Well it feels like a classic waiting to get out of lockdown. This is a polished, high end production like Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America. It feels like it needs to take its rightful place to bridge the story about how the Old West became America. This is no lazy, little thought, dime a dozen, studio western. This is a thought provoking tale about revolution and violent change bursting to get out. It's an exploration about why change is required, and the cost of it to those who deliver. But mostly, this is a film waiting for its moment.

The Duellists

Year:: 1977
Director(s):: Ridley Scott
Studio:: Paramount Pictures

Drama - PG

Set during the Napoleonic wars, The Duellists is based on the the Joseph Conrad short story "The Duel", it tells the story of two men's frequent bouts to prove honour during the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Hang on! Didn't we just cover this movie above?

Well thematically and scenario wise yes this is a very similar film. Watch the DVD release special features, and Kevin Reynolds, the director of The Count of Monte Cristo, pops in for a mug of tea, and an informal viewing, chat and discussion about The Duellists with director Ridley Scott, comparing both films for the reason that they are so similar.

But while The Count of Monte Cristo is pure escapism adventure, The Duellists is art-house fare. This was the feature directorial debut of Ridley Scott, and you can see that this highly visual director was keen to make a strong impression, and his interest in art history is very clear.

There's a heavy influence from Baroque painter Georges de La Tour, and the final shot of the film is staged to resemble Napoleon Bonaparte musing at St. Helena by Benjamin Robert Haydon. The mise-en-scene (the costume design, hair and make-up, stage design, production design, dressing, props, everything built or purchased to be on the screen) all blend with cinematographer Frank Tidy's photography to suggest a living, breathing painting.

The movie, set during the Napoleonic Wars, uses its beauty much in the way that other movies use soundtrack music, to set mood, to complement scenes and even to contradict them. Sometimes it's all too much, yet the camerawork, which is by Frank Tidy, provides the Baroque style by which the movie operates on our senses, making the eccentric drama at first compelling and ultimately breathtaking.
Vincent Canby, New York Times

The film won the Best Debut award at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival (again the DVD special features contain contemporary interviews with Ridley Scott, and screenwriter David Putnam in Cannes), and it's easy to see why.

It would be easy to sit back and see this as a lockdown movie due to its nature as a spiritual predecessor to The Count of Monte Cristo, but it's more that The Duellists is a story about obsession and the necessary patience to see something done and delivered.

Dune

Year:: 1984
Director(s):: David Lynch
Studio:: Dino De Laurentiis Corporation

Science fiction - 12

Dune almost became Ridley Scott's third film. After directing Alien (1979), he was offered the chance to direct, but ultimately passed, after the death of his older brother Frank, to direct Blade Runner (1982), science fiction's loss would be, well, science fiction's gain.

There had been an earlier attempt to produce a Dune movie, based on the seminal 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis acquired the rights for a nine year period starting in 1976, the same year when Star Wars: Episode IV was released, leading to a flood of populist, space opera films and television.

A French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon, with Alejandro Jodorowsky attached to direct, had attempted a production in 1974. Jodorowsky approached future Alien collaborators Dan O'Bannon for the visual effects, and artist H. R. Giger for the production, but ultimately, and famously the project was abandoned just before the release of Star Wars.

In 1981, the nine-year film rights were set to expire. De Laurentiis renegotiated the rights from the author, adding to them the rights to the Dune sequels (written and unwritten). The influence of the release of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) justified that there was a market for episodic space opera that hadn't existed since the 1930's.

Ultimately the final 1984 movie, pitched as Star Wars for grown-ups to audiences, was rushed, and a critical and box office failure. Upon release, Lynch disowned the final film, stating that pressure from both producers and financiers restrained his artistic control and denied him final cut privilege. At least three versions have been released worldwide. In some cuts, Lynch's name is replaced in the credits with the name Alan Smithee.

This movie is a real mess, an incomprehensible, ugly, unstructured, pointless excursion into the murkier realms of one of the most confusing screenplays of all time... The movie's plot will no doubt mean more to people who've read Herbert than to those who are walking in cold
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

So why is this a lockdown movie, let alone why would anyone want to watch it? Well I could lie, and state that Surfer Dude Studios, is that latter that Ebert mentions who have read the book first. Truth is, the book was read after. The conversation would go something like this;

"What was that about? That was terrible."

"Have you read the book?"

"No."

"You should read the book."

Frank Herbert's novel is far more complex, and visionary than a two and a half hour, eighties, space opera movie can hope to ever be. There's commentary on the nature of technology, of the evolution of religion, human nature, family and relationships, legacy, the scale and scope of the human mind, of capitalism and socialism.

A new version has been in production, with the aim of a Christmas 2020 release. And this is why the 1984 version is a lockdown movie, it's a reminder that a better version is hopefully within touching distance. Dune (2020) is directed by Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Arrival (2016) director Denis Villeneuve, so already has significant science fiction credentials.

Promisingly he has described the movie as akin to The Godfather (1972) in space, where surely the temptation for the studio Warner Brothers must have been to pitch it as Game of Thrones in space, with the hopes that a cinema audience is still accommodating to episodic formats (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Marvel et al). But until Christmas, we'll put up with this version, and hope that our confidence in the story is validated.

Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai

Year:: 1999
Director(s):: Jim Jarmusch
Distributor:: Artisan Entertainment

Drama / Action - 15

A 1999 crime film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, Forest Whitaker stars as the titular character, "Ghost Dog", a retained hitman in the employ of a senior member of a dysfunctional mafia family, who follows the ancient code of the samurai as outlined in the book Hagakure.

At times this comes over as a post-modernist, Blaxploitation movie. This feels like a commentary of the genre, but on the opposite end of the comedy / tragedy spectrum to Black Dynamite, in that the central character is black, and "giving it to the man" in the form of his white, mafia employers. However that would require the central character to be not a victim, sidekick, or villain, and by the nature of the set up Ghost Dog can be considered to be all three.

The film is probably more closely related thematically to Twelve Years a Slave (2013), in that this is the story of Ghost Dog's realisation that his employers will (metaphorically and literally) work him to death. He has to escape the bondage he himself has sworn to under the Hagakure.

Herein lies the reason this is a lockdown movie. For many of us the disruption has forced us to live, much like Ghost Dog, detached from others, and requires a level of discipline, routine and dedication. But this is not at all without a negative impact, alienation and loneliness are now a daily feature for a lot of us.

In a quiet, sweet way, he is totally unhinged and has lost all touch with reality. His profound sadness, which permeates the touching Whitaker performance, comes from his alienation from human society, his loneliness, his attempt to justify inhuman behavior (murder) with a belief system (the samurai code) that has no connection with his life or his world.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

And, much like what happens to Ghost Dog during the course of the film, a lot of us will not only have to decide what is truly important in life (work, and standing, or health and family), we will have to find the courage to apply our convictions accurately to a post lockdown world.

Critical response to the film was largely positive. On the Rotten Tomatoes review site, the film received an 82% "Certified Fresh" rating, based on reviews from 95 critics. The website's critical consensus was that the movie is "An innovative blend of samurai and gangster lifestyles."

Local Hero

Year:: 1983
Director(s):: Bill Forsyth
Studio:: Goldcrest Films

Comedy - PG

Local Hero stars Burt Lancaster as Texas oil baron Felix Happer, who sends employee MacIntyre as an emissary to a remote Scottish fishing village to negotiate a real estate deal to buy the local area with the aim of turning it into a vast oil and gas terminal. Surprisingly, the wily Scots are more than eager to sell, and MacIntyre's trip becomes progressively stranger, as he takes to the area and the off-the-wall locals.

David Puttnam originally approached his regular backers Warner Brothers and Goldcrest Films to fund Local Hero, but they initially turned him down. When Puttnam won a BAFTA (which was presented by Burt Lancaster) for Chariots of Fire in 1982 this immediately convinced Goldcrest executives to fund the movie.

Puttnam always wanted Burt Lancaster to play Happer, but the casting proved problematic because the Hollywood star's salary. However, upon learning of Lancaster's potential involvement in the project, Warner Brothers offered Puttnam a US distribution deal and provided the additional funding to secure Lancaster.

After negotiations, Puttnam ended up having an additional $200,000 in the film's budget. Michael Douglas and Henry Winkler both actively pursued Bill Forsyth for the role of MacIntyre (which ultimately went to Peter Riegert).

The photography is sumptuous, and the music by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits a thing of movie legend. The movie was so well critically acclaimed it is one of the few movies to have ever reached a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

After making the grade internationally with the sleeper hit, Gregory's Girl, Scottish writer-director Bill Forsyth has broken the sophomore sesh jinx the only way he could, by making an even better film ... Given a larger canvas, director Forsyth has in no way attempted to overreach himself or the material, keeping things modest and intimate throughout, but displaying a very acute sense of comic insight.
Todd McCarthy, Variety

It's the sense of positive optimism about change that makes this a lockdown movie. Like Ghost Dog, this is a film about questioning the established order and why it matters, but it's optimistic, upbeat, and revels in the absurdity and contradiction of human nature. This film is a long hard look again at what is truly important in life, and a reminder to find yourself.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Year:: 2003
Director(s):: Robert Rodriguez
Studio:: Columbia Pictures / Dimension Films / Troublemaker Studios

Comedy / Western - 15

Once Upon a Time in Mexico is the third and final film in Rodriguez's Mexico Trilogy, and it is a sequel to El Mariachi (1992) and Desperado (1995). It was the first "big budget" film to be shot in high definition digital video (on a Sony Sony HDW900 at 24 frames per second), but not the first released.

Director Robert Rodriguez's primary influence was Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy, specifically The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Rodriguez said shooting digitally saved time and money, simplified the filming process, and rendered 35mm film obsolete for him.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico received positive reviews but was criticized for reducing its protagonist to an almost secondary character in his own trilogy. Rodriguez explained this was intentional, as he wanted this to be his The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the trilogy, with much more of an ensemble cast.

The film languished for two years, having completed filming in 2001, before being released in 2003. Around the same time as Johnny Depp was breaking box office records as Captain Jack Sparrow in the film franchise that shall not be named here. It's almost as if Distributor Sony pictures were looking for a quick release that jumped on the bandwagon, and oh! Look what got found down the back of the Sony couch.

So, why is this a lockdown movie? Well first of all we'd encourage you to plant tongue firmly in cheek. Once Upon a Time in Mexico is not meant to be taken seriously to start with, it's a pulpy throw-back to the Dollars Trilogy, this film is intended to be fun and entertain. It's also helped by Johnny Depp successfully stealing the film, much like he did with the franchise film that shall not be mentioned earlier in the year.

It's a masterclass in making a fun, irreverent, and just loopy at times, over-complicated, Good Guy, Bad Guy, Wildcard escapist adventure. We don't always want to watch something sophisticated and inspiring. Sometimes the journey is worth it for its own sake.

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

Year:: 2010
Director(s):: Eli Craig
Distributor:: Magnet Releasing

Horror / Comedy - 15

Rounding up our top ten lockdown movies is Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, a 2010 comedy horror. Dale Dobson, and Tucker McGee, are a pair of erudite, well-meaning, and misunderstood hillbillies, who have just bought their dream vacation home, a run-down lakefront cabin, deep in the woods.

Unfortunately they get mistaken for killers by a group of clueless college students camping at the lake, and find themselves having to get out of several farcical, horror-film situations, convinced that the students themselves are all part of some suicide cult.

The film premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and received a limited release in the United States. It was well received critically, but under-performed at the box office, just failing to make back its production costs. Never the less a possible sequel was discussed between 2014 to 2017, but ultimately never materialised.

Ultimately this is a lockdown movie, not just because of its firmly tongue in cheek twisting of the classic horror film tropes, even outrageously turning them on their head times, but also because under the Horror / Comedy skin is a movie with a big heart.

This is a movie where prejudices will get characters killed, and where those that are kind and supportive to each other get by with a greater appreciation and understanding for how others live. Maybe that's the biggest lesson to be learned at this time, to not judge, and support each other, lest you end up going headfirst through a wood-chipper.