#robert bralver

[countesspetofi]

Today in the Department of Before They Were Star Trek Stars, Grace Lee Whitney guest stars in "Reprisal," episode 23 of the seventh season of Gunsmoke (original air date March 10, 1962).

Whitney plays a saloon girl who has an older man and a younger man fighting over her. When the older man pulls a gun on the younger man, Marshal Dillon shoots and kills him. (De-escalation, anybody?) His widow vows revenge on Dillon, and enlists a young drifter who also has beef with the Marshal to help her. Dillon also shoots and kills the drifter. (Sensing a pattern here.)

Other Trek connections:

The young drifter is played by Jason Evers, who also played one of the sped-up aliens who invade the Enterprise in the Star Trek episode "Wink of an Eye."

Robert Bralver did uncredited stunt work on "Reprisal," and was DeForest Kelley's stunt double in Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He also did stunts in multiple episodes of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.

[aschenblumen]

David Ferino y Robert Bralver, Cure of pain: The Mark Sandman Story (2011).

[wazafam]

By BY GLENN KENNY from Movies in the New York Times-https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/27/movies/moby-doc-review.html?partner=IFTTT The movie is directed by Robert Gordon Bralver, but it’s a late-life self-realization project for the musician. ‘Moby Doc’ Review: He Understands How He’s an Unlikely Pop Star New York Times

[nitrateglow]

Halloween 2017 movie marathon: Midnight Ride (dir. Bob Bralver, 1990)

“Cut the crap, doc-- I’m still killing people!”

Russian immigrant Laura (Savina Gersak) takes off in the middle of the night to leave her workaholic cop husband Lawson (Michael Dudikoff), much to his chagrin. She plans on bunking with a friend until she can come to a final decision as to what to do about her miserable marriage, but unwisely picks up a seemingly innocuous hitch-hiker. His name is Justin McKay (Mark Hamill) and it turns out he’s recently escaped from a mental hospital where he was being treated for his erratic behavior and homicidal urges. Enamored with Laura because she reminds him of his dead sister, he kidnaps her and plans on taking her to his shrink Dr. Hardy (Robert Mitchum—yes THAT Robert Mitchum) so she can be “made better” via frying her brains out with electroshock equipment. However, Lawson is in pursuit of them all the while, intent on getting his wife back. Knife murders, car chases, bad dialogue, synthesizer music, and explosions ensue.

Why isn’t Midnight Ride a cult movie? I always ask myself this question when I watch this 1990 masterpiece of action-horror schlock. Goodness knows it has everything a so-bad-it’s-good cult classic should possess: over-the-top action scenes, cheesy but quotable dialogue, mostly terrible acting, and none other than Mark Hamill at his Mark Hammi-est playing a gleefully homicidal slasher villain on the lookout for love. How can you read that sentence and remain able to resist seeing this movie? HOW?

Midnight Ride can be viewed either as a genre-mash-up or as suffering from an identity crisis. Several action scenes are peppered throughout the movie, particularly car chases since the primary setting is the night road. Some might question my classification of Midnight Ride as a horror film, considering how enamored it is with action set-pieces, but there are tons of classic slasher elements at play here: the stalking, the murder sprees, the fact that no matter how many mortal blows you deal him Justin just won’t freaking die! To be fair, the horror scenes are far less scary than anything you could find in a darker Disney film like Pinocchio because they are so ineptly handled, but hell, you can tell the filmmakers were trying to frighten the audience. Take for example that glorious moment Justin kills a woman with a fake eye and steals said fake eye to give to Laura as a present. This should be pretty grisly, but all the murders are kept offscreen. And that is a trend here. For a slasher movie, we sure don’t get that much blood or gore or much explicit nastiness at all.

Don’t get me wrong: a movie does not need to have eye-gouging or much onscreen violence in order to be frightening: The Night of the Hunter never shows anyone being murdered onscreen, yet it is one of the scariest movies I have ever seen! The same could be said of several of the movies I’m reviewing this month, which often suggest the nastiness of their killings without showing much outright. But the thing is, in a slasher film, you expect a bit more, well, slashing. Or at the very least for the murders to appear like they were nasty or horrifying. But the thing is, a lot of the suspense should come from us fearing for Laura’s life, which might have happened were she likable and not a dim-witted non-entity with all the charisma of that plastic eyeball Justin pilfers. The only scary scene in the movie doesn’t involve Laura at all, but a young woman who hitches a ride with Laura and Justin after Justin defends her from an abusive boyfriend. When they drop her off at her house, Justin follows her inside, toys around with her, and then kills her in what is truly an uncomfortable scene. In the ten minutes or less this minor character is onscreen, we feel more sympathy for her and sorrier to see her get knifed than we ever feel for Laura. I imagine this has a lot to do with this scene perhaps feeling more realistic and less comic-book-ish than much of the other horror and action set pieces in the movie. Hamill is also truly frightening here, lending a disturbing sexual touch to the murder; after he flicks open his knife, Justin seems overcome with an agitated ecstasy.

Let’s be real, this movie is the Mark Hamill Show as the other characters are mostly morons, especially Laura and Dr. Hardy. At least Lawson has some enjoyably cheese-ball lines, like when he reprimands a trash-talking trucker by shouting, “Look man, I’m tired, I’m pissed, and I’m ready to kill!” in the most gloriously hammtastic manner. Dudikoff was a B-movie icon of the 1980s; however, I haven’t seen the American Ninja movies or other projects he was involved with, so I cannot comment if this is one of his better moments as a thespian. As it is, he makes the character more charming than he probably deserves. Lawson is ostensibly the hero of the piece, but he comes off as slightly less creepy than Justin. At the beginning of the movie, his wife is unhappy and begs him to leave her alone, at least to give her time to cool down, but nope! Lawson cares not a bit about her boundaries and appears insensitive as hell. Then again, if he wasn’t following her around, I guess no one would have saved Laura from certain death. Hooray?

Needless to say, Dudikoff and Hamill are Olivier and DeNiro compared to everyone else in the cast list. Poor Laura can’t seem to make a rational decision to save her life (literally); her demeanor is that of a total ditz. Her dialogue recitation straddles this strange gap between flat and laughably melodramatic, making an act as simple as tearfully begging for her life unintentionally funny since she seems to not care that much whether she gets away from crazy old Justin or not. She is so annoying that this is one case where you root for the heroine to get blown up.

And what can I say about Dr. Hardy? Oh man, does Robert Mitchum not give a damn in this movie. He looks bored and like he wants to pass out. Not a single line of his is read with even an ounce of what you might call conviction or enthusiasm. Case in point, when Justin ties Hardy to a chair and tries frying Laura in front of him, he looks at the horrific turn of events the way one might look at a screening of The Last Airbender: slightly surprised at how terrible it all is, but mostly bored and wondering when it’ll be over. If the characters in a movie don’t seem that affected by the crazy horror stuff, then why should the audience be?

Midnight Ride is saved from being an irritating experience by Mark Hamill as Justin McKay, the sociopathic photographer with sister issues. I once came across a review that claimed Hamill’s performance isn’t that wonderful because “playing a crazy person isn’t hard.” What inane logic! While I’m not so sure if Hamill’s performance is “realistic,” it is very entertaining and a lot of that entertainment value comes from Hamill. Some of the time, he feels like he’s doing a campy impersonation of Norman Bates with his puppy-dog look and incestuous fixation on a female family member. The other part of the time, he’s straight-up Joker, cackling madly and enjoying the mischief he causes. Hamill’s line readings of choice dialogue like the sing-songy, “I’m not goin’ till I get a pic-ture!” when he insists Laura let him take photos of her while she drives or “Don’t you ever run away from me!” are so deliciously over-the-top that if you re-watch this movie as I do, you’ll be reciting them as they come up. (My favorite Mark moment is when Laura offers herself to Justin in exchange for her freedom and Hamill just says in the most disappointed tone possible, “You’re acting like a slut!”) And as I mentioned previously, there is that one fleeting scene in which he is allowed to be scary. So, Hamill definitely wasn’t phoning this one in and he is a joy to watch throughout.

And in no scene is Hamill a greater joy to watch than in the film’s insane climax. I cannot do this climax justice with mere words and I won’t dare give any of its pleasures away to those who have not experienced this classic. Let’s just say Justin somehow gets hold of a four-wheeler and chases Lawson around. In a hospital. There is much punching and appropriation of scary surgical instruments. And the film’s final scare is pure magic. Also notice how seconds after that last horrific moment, the credits come up accompanied by smooth, cheesy jazz music.

Since the film is only available on VHS, the image quality isn’t so good. Everything is smudgy and the already dark look of the movie can sometimes make it hard to see what’s happening. Even with a better transfer, I’m not so sure this movie’s look would rank among the likes of Kubrick or Kurosawa. Being that deadly combination of extremely low budget and incompetent on a technical level, Midnight Ride is not exactly a cinematic feast. The editing in particular is BAD, particularly during the action scenes, where the editor chose to cut to things that only disrupt the kinetic energy that should be building, like when Justin has Lawson tied down to the front of a vehicle and he’s driving like hell. On more than one occasion, the editing is so amateurish that you have to wonder if the editor was trying to sabotage the movie. It’s kind of impressive.

If this movie sounds like your idea of a good time, then I want you to do something: watch it with as many people as possible. Share it with your family. Tell all your friends too! Among my admittedly limited social circle are people with varying tastes in cinema; they do not always dig the movies I recommend and vice versa. But Midnight Ride is one movie that unites people regardless of taste, creed, race, sexual orientation, gender, or where you fall on the Marvel versus DC debate. You might not laugh at Some Like It Hot or Blazing Saddles, but you will laugh your ass off at Midnight Ride. Forrest Gump or Brokeback Mountain might not make you cry, but you’ll cry with laughter at Midnight Ride. This movie unites us, binds us, could be the path to world peace. No one will fight any longer, because we can all agree that Mark Hamill chasing Michael Dudikoff on a four-wheeler while Robert Mitchum in a doctor’s coat looks on with disinterest is the height of cinematic absurdism. God bless all the people involved in the making of this gem.

[lisaflor-blog1]

Cure for Pain - Robert Bralver & David Ferino | Documentary |553299689

[cherylgar-blog]

Cure for Pain - Robert Bralver & David Ferino | Documentary |553299689

[lefilmdujour]

Cure for Pain: The Mark Sandman Story / Robert Bralver & David Ferino / USA / 2011

[totalsubjektivni]

Ukraden zvezdni prah, ki te posipa s pomembnostjo iz druge roke

Ne spomnim se veliko bendov, ki bi uspeli z nenavadnimi rokovskimi inštrumenti zavzeti prestol in požeti slavo. Enemu je to bržkone uspelo na vrat na nos. Bas z dvema strunama, baritonski saksofon in bobni. Vse kar si potreboval je bilo na mestu, popoprano z bitniško poezijo in žalobno, a nalezljivo zmesjo jazza in rocka. Ali bolje – to je bil noir-low-key-jazz-rock, ki je zasedel najvišja mesta glasbenih lestvic in polnil manjše in večje koncertne dvorane ter štadione. Kot si najbrž že ugotovila, so bili to nepozabni in kultni Morphine, ki so v 90-ih marsikomu pognali kri po žilah, police pa so gostile njihove vznesene plošče, ki so bruhale energijo in voljo do življenja. A naj že takoj pristavim podatek, ki je za vedno povezal glasbeno sceno in jo strnil v žalovanju. Konec 90-ih let prejšnjega stoletja je na koncertu v majhnem mestecu blizu Rima v soju žarometov preminil njihov frontman Mark Sandman in podlegel srčnemu infarktu. Nepričakovano in nenadoma. Star le 46 let. Usoda je pač hotela, da je umrl tam, kjer se je „rodil“. Med publiko. Ni lepše smrti – če lahko smrt sploh proglasimo za lepo -, kot če umetnik umre med početjem nečesa, kar ga je izpolnjevalo in bodrilo vse njegovo življenje. Na odru. Pod zvezdami. Med igranjem komada, ki je bil značilen za njihovo potenco – Super sex. Pač. Glasba je bila njegovo zdravilo proti bolečini. Zdravilo, ki ga je držalo na nogah in iz njega naredilo eno najbolj enigmatičnih in posebnih person v svetu glasbe. Vse to in še več odkriva izjemen dokumentarec Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story (letnica 2011, režija Robert Bralver in David Ferino). Mark Sandman je namreč že s svojim imenom poosebljal žalost in bolečino. Zaprt pred svetom, saj ni veliko govoril o svojem življenju. Popoln ponotranjeni moški, ki se je izražal počasi in premišljeno. Za nekatere nadut, aroganten in hladen, za druge „king of cool“, ki je izžareval posebno avro in miselnost, ki se je odražala predvsem preko besedil, ki so bila včasih naperjena, drugič spet biografska. Popolna zloženka življenja, ki ga je zavarovala pred bolečino in tragedijo. Intervjujev sicer ni bojkotiral in namensko sprevračal v farso, temveč le poskrbel, da se mu „drugi“ ni pretirano približal. Da ni drezal tja, kamor ni hotel stopiti. Vedeti moramo, da je bila družina Sandman rojena pod nesrečno zvezdo. Mark je izgubil dva brata, njegova mati pa je morala pospremiti na dolgo pot v nebesa kar tri svoje sinove. Koliko tragedije pa lahko ena družina sploh prenese? Zatorej sta bila Dana Colley (saksofon) in Billy Conway (bobni) njegova nadomestna brata dvojčka, s katerima je gradil uspešno kariero in bil bolj povezan kot s svojo družino, ki je delovala odklonilno in nerazumevajoče, ko je beseda nanesla na svet muzike. Morphine so namreč svoje navdihe črpali iz različnih virov – knjig, filmov (njegov najljubši režiser je bil Robert Altman) in zgodb, ki so jih pobrali na poti okoli sveta. Mark Sandman je bil nasploh vandravskega, popotniškega duha, saj je že v mladih letih zapustil dom in potoval po vseh koncih in krajih Severne in Južne Amerike. Le zato, ker se ni mogel odločiti med redno službo in odhodom na univerzo. Raje je bil brezdelnež in sanjač, ki je vse svoje sanje usmeril v glasbo, ki ga je izpolnjevala. In če misliš, da ga ob tem dokumentarcu bolje spoznaš, premisli še enkrat, saj ohranja določeno distanco, pogled na minljivost in bolečino, a človeka še vedno prikaže kot skrivnost, ki se je ni dalo brati kot odprto knjigo. Redki so bili tisti srečneži, ki jim je razlil svojo dušo, še redkejši pa tisti, ki jih je spustil v svoje življenje. Kar je privatno, naj ostane privatno. Tu pa tam izveš kakšno prigodo in zanimivost, a zdi se mi, da ga niti družina, niti glasbeni sodrugi (npr. Mike Watt, Josh Homme, Les Claypool (Primus)) niso poznali dovolj, da bi lahko zanesljivo pričali o njegovem življenju. Mark Sandman je bil pač človek, ki je z lučjo svetil v temo in v njej iskal svoj navdih.

Koliko podzemnih bendov se lahko že na svojem prvem koncertu ponaša z nekaj tisoč obiskovalci? Malo, zelo malo. LCD Soundsystem so jih imeli toliko in še več. Koliko bendov se lahko na svojem slovesnem poslovilnem koncertu ponaša s tem, da razproda in do zadnjega kotička napolni newyorško areno Madison Square Garden? Malo, zelo malo. LCD Soundsystem so jo. In da ne bo pomote. Kdor še ne ve – teh je najbrž res malo. James Murphy – ustanovni član - se je aprila 2011 odločil, da se upokoji. Razpusti razvpiti bend in se posveti drugim projektom v življenju. Kaj pa bo počel? Marsikaj. Na primer zelo rad pripravlja kavo. Hahaha. Geg, ki je pomenljiv, a ga hkrati v dokumentarcu Shut Up and Play the Hits (letnica 2012, režija Will Lovelace in Dylan Southern) velikokrat ujame pri pitju tega poživljajočega napitka. Film je namreč razdeljen na dva dela, ki se med seboj prepletata. Prvi prikaže prav posnetke iz zadnjega koncerta, ki se je zdel trajajoč v večnost. Kot sam naslov ponazarja – sestavljen iz hitov. Prereza njihove kariere, ki je bila izpolnjujoča in polna. Uspešna. Več kot uspešna. LCD Soundsystem so namreč uspeli postati velik, priznan bend, kar mnogim elektro-pankerjem in post-pankerjem nikoli ni uspelo. Še danes se spomnim mnogih zgodb o sodobnih bendih, ki so se napajali na zapuščini s konca 70-ih in začetka 80-ih, a prehitro postavili kitare v kot. Nekateri nezadovoljni s sprejemom publike in kritike, drugi zaradi praznih koncertnih dvoran, ki so se simptomatično končale v breznu pozabe (lep primer so na primer kultni Gogogo Airheart in Beautiful Skin). Pač. LCD Soundsystem so imeli to srečo, da so bili ob pravem času na pravem mestu – pa čeprav niso z mešanico glasbenih žarov nikoli odkrili novih glasbenih svetov, temveč le izčrpali bogato dediščino preteklosti (Konk, Liquid Liquid, The Stooges, Joy Division, Birthday Party, Chk Chk Chk, Erik B. & Rakim in podobni so bili le eni od vplivov na elektro-pank-funk-soul-karkoli mineštro, ki se je kotalila od albuma do albuma, iz koncerta v koncert). A kar jim je prekleto dobro uspevalo, je bil plesni element glasbe, ki je bil namenjen predvsem diskotekam in dancehall dvoranam – nikoli pa ne pravim koncertnim odrom. In v tem kontekstu je seveda perverzno, da kariero zaključijo prav v športni areni pred več tisoč glavo množico, ki jim je iz roke. A celota je lep dokaz, da je bolje končati na vrhuncu, kot pa utoniti v pozabo ter leta in leta pred publiko, ki se nezadržno s teboj stara, igrati ene in iste hite (ne morejo biti vsi The Rolling Stones in za milijonske vsote vedno znova preigravati komade izpred 50-ih let!). In prav koncertni del je najzanimivejši kos tega dokumentarca, ki ga dopolnjuje tudi zaodrje, prekomerna količina poslavljanja in objemanja, zaključnega intervjuja v malem kafiču in neobveznih posnetkov dneva potem. V kadrih, ki jih naseljuje Murphy, odmaknjen od koncertnega odra in ujet v lastni intimi, se zdi skorajda melanholičen in obupan lik iz kakšnega romana. Vsi prostori so prazni, on pa v njih sedi kot kup nesreče, ki bo vedno znova žaloval za svojo odločitvijo. Zdi se osamljen, z nekakšnim jutranjo-dnevnim bluzom, kar praznina prostorov le še poudari in razkrije v svoji veličini. Da ne omenjam nepotrebnega izpraševanja o karieri in odločitvah, uspehih in porazih, ki si sledijo kot intermezzo med koncertnimi posnetki. Soliden dokumentarec, namenjen ljubiteljem glasbe in sledilcem zapuščine LCD Soundsystem, a preveč površno sestavljen in zmontiran, brez prave narativne tolažbe in jasnega sporočila. Bolje bi bilo, da si zavrtiš kar samostojen posnetek koncerta, ki ti ponudi več užitkov in veselja ob opazovanju glasbenega hedonizma in labodjega speva.

Leta 1995 je kultni Craig Baldwin, režiser in ustvarjalec filmskih kolažev, priskočil na pomoč svojim sobratom Negativland, saj je posnel sijajen dokumentarec Sonic Outlaws. Film, ki si za središče zanimanja priskrbi že ikonično tožbo založbe Island Records in zvezdnikov U2, ki so hoteli „uničiti“ Negativland iz preprostega razloga, saj so si sposodili njihov znani napev in iz njega naredili novo obliko umetnosti. A pozor! Vsi odraščamo v medijskem stoletju, kjer informacije in kulturne dobrine k nam pritekajo kot voda iz pipe. Pa naj bo to preko knjig, ki jih beremo, filmov, ki jih gledamo, glasbe, ki jo poslušamo, televizije, ki je požiramo, časopisov, ki jih listamo, interneta, po katerem brskamo, ali reklam, ki nas bombardirajo z vseh strani. Sporočilo je pač postala duševna masaža. Propaganda je vsepovsod, vsiljena ideologija manjšine pa posiljuje večino s podobami svetovne ureditve, ki naj bi ali ne bi bila kritično povzeta po preteklosti. Mar originalnost oziroma avtorsko delo dandanes sploh še obstaja? Mar ni vse že en sam velik in pompozni kolaž citatov, povzetih po rečem in mislih, ki so že v preteklosti odmevale v glavah ljudi? Zakonik o avtorskih pravicah bi morali spisati na novo ter se prilagoditi času, ki ga živimo. Kot pravi sam Craig Baldwin: „Kolaž je sodobna oblika umetnosti. Teče proti toku avtorskih pravic. Obstaja veliko dvomov o uporabi dobrin, ki jih je ustvaril nekdo drug, ti pa bi z njimi lahko zaslužil denar. „Kolažerji“ vzamejo majhen delček celote in ga pomešajo z veliko količino drugega materiala, kar kreira novo celovito obliko stvaritve. Ne pokušamo ukrasti tvoje publike. Avtorske pravice morajo bili prilagojene času, da bodo lahko razumele ali uravnavale to obliko umetniškega izražanja.“ Kakor koli mu že rečem – culture jamming, bootleging, sampling ali cut-up tehnika. Mnogokrat je razvoj novih oblik človeškega izražanja izhajal iz kraje, povzemanja, predrugačenja obstoječih tendenc in pravil. Kot nekakšna fotomontaža obstoječega material. Ali filmska montaža obstoječega materiala. Ali zvočna montaža obstoječega materiala. Saj je vseeno. Piratstvo ima svoj namen – pa naj se nekateri še tako upirajo sodobnim družbenim trendom. Nihče te ne more tožiti, če povzameš že obstoječo obliko umetnosti ter iz nje narediš satiro, parodijo, jo kritično na novo osmisliš ali komentiraš obstoječi sistem dogodkov in dejstev. To je sodobni folk art, ki jemlje stvari iz konteksta, da bi zgradil nov kontekst, ločen od originalne misli, a podložen z inovacijo in radikalizmom. V glasbene kontekstu tega niso počeli le Negativland, temveč tudi The Tape Beatles in John Oswald. Vsi z namenom širjenja posameznikove zavesti in odpiranja perečih tem sodobne in pretekle družbene ureditve. Kot satiričen pogled na medije in pop kulturo. Copyright ali copyleft? Odločitev je povsem tvoja.

[lisaflor-blog1]

Cure for Pain - Robert Bralver & David Ferino | Documentary |553299689

[lisaflor-blog1]

Cure for Pain - Robert Bralver & David Ferino | Documentary |553299689

[cherylgar-blog]

Cure for Pain - Robert Bralver & David Ferino | Documentary |553299689

[cherylgar-blog]

Cure for Pain - Robert Bralver & David Ferino | Documentary |553299689

[lisaflor-blog1]

Cure for Pain - Robert Bralver & David Ferino | Documentary |553299689

[cherylgar-blog]

Cure for Pain - Robert Bralver & David Ferino | Documentary |553299689

[lisaflor-blog1]

Cure for Pain - Robert Bralver & David Ferino | Documentary |553299689

[lisaflor-blog1]

Cure for Pain - Robert Bralver & David Ferino | Documentary |553299689