Stuff I did a couple of weeks ago · 11:19pm Sep 7th, 2015
Life goes on.
A couple of weeks back, in the midst of having a panic about life, the universe and filthy lucre, I went to see a film with my wife. It wasn't quite the sort of film she normally enjoys (she's more of a horror fan), but she enjoyed it nonetheless. A lot. I enjoyed it a lot. We both thought it was probably one of the better films released this year.
Back when I was a kid I used to watch The Man From UNCLE almost religiously. This wasn't the original run of course - I'm not so old as that - but the repeats on ITV in the early afternoon, because this show that had once been a primetime viewer magnet was now something for kids to watch before the after-school childrens' programming came on. It must be said that Peter Schofield could not compete with The Man From UNCLE, no matter how cheerful he pretended to be, and Blue Peter had nothing on it.
Yes these are BBC things and I was watching ITV... such heretical behaviour.
But I digress. I used to love this show. It was an absolutely magnificent piece of television. Humorous, campy, but adventurous and exciting. A remnant of a bygone age, when you could be noble and upstanding and fight the bad guys without hours of introspection about whether you had become the monster you were trying to destroy. It was innocent. Often hilariously so. And yet despite that, despite the campy childishness, it was sensual and erotic, intimate and... well, it was James Bond on a budget, which means it shouldn't be a surprise to learn that Ian Fleming was consulted on the initial development of the show.
Illya Kuryakin and Napolean Solo were two halves of a whole; two parts of a single entity. Kuryakin was the blond-haired, blue-eyed innocent , the stoic and noble fighter, the drive and determination behind the duo, the upstanding moral centre and the spine that kept them on the straight and narrow. Solo was the dark eyed suave, sophisticated lover, the drinker, the provocative cad, the thief and the villainous undercurrent that gave the team depth and breadth. They functioned perfectly as a team, and each completed the other.
The film I saw was Guy Ritchie's adaptation of that series, The Man From UNCLE, starring the perfectly cast Henry Cavill as Napolean Solo, and the surprisingly adept Armie Hammer as Kuryakin.
I say perfectly cast. Cavill is probably better known for his recent role as Superman, in which he played the noble boy scout very well, but there was always an edge of darkness to him in that role. An edge that was very effective in the first Supes film he starred in, but an edge that needed a more immediate outlet.
When you look at a photo of Cavill and a photo of Robert Vaughn, you see a certain similarity. A certain set to the eye, a charming smile that almost but not quite becomes a sneer,. A look that says "I could seduce you six different ways before sunday and you'd love me for every one of them". Granted, a decent actor could pull that off without even trying, but there's something about Cavill and Vaughn both that just clicks. He is Solo. He is the loner, the lover, the dark side of Bond.
The real difference in this film from the source is Armie Hammer and his portrayal of Kuryakin as a Terminator, as the thing that the KGB send in when all other options have failed. He is the mirror of Solo; unsubtle, blatant and violent, without charm of sophistication. A simple weapon. A walking Kalashnikov.
The most telling scene of the two is in the trailer, where Solo is carefully cutting his way through a fence... but let me show you instead.
Here's the trailer:
And here is the relevant moment. Kuryakin's straightforward solution - the apparent brute force - is an intelligent reaction to the problem at hand, yet when you examine it, it is still brute force. Earlier in the film his same brute force sees him tear the boot off a car in pursuit of his quarry, when a more subtle approach - as favoured by Solo - might have won him the day.
Neither of these men is a stereotype, it must be said. Kuryakin is not merely an angry tank; he understands fashion, he is a quick thinker and he can plan ahead to an alarming degree. Solo is methodical but intuitive, and he can fight his way out of a situation if he needs to - he just prefers to arrange events so that he doesn't need to.
Together they are... well, perfect isn't the best word, but if you aren't grinning like a madman at the way their relationship concludes then you probably aren't human. The interaction between the two, the slow growth toward acceptance and companionship, is just glorious.
And all this is before I get onto the cinematography, which was excellent, or the plot, which entirely ignored the heroe's journey. Or... no, that's probably a lie. It was not a simplistic Hollywood plot. It was several different plots woven together - different journeys brought to a single whole, something that can't be boiled down to a bunch of clichés and selling-points.
And it was split into five acts. I may at some point blog in more detail about this.
But I'm rambling now...
The cinematography, I need to say a little more about that. It was brilliant, in a word. I'm fairly certain it was all filmed digitally, but it felt like it was filmed on 35mm stock. The colours were vibrant and punchy - bright. It felt like watching a film from the 70s, which is entirely appropriate for the content. The editing was archaic... or perhaps classical is the better phrase, concerned with a form and a vision that is treasured but rarely employed in this age. There was none of the modern obsession with a million actions cuts in a single scene or shaking cameras that confuse the viewer. Instead there were long facing shots, long pans and dollies, long everything. Where they wanted the impact of fast cuts they used the old, old technique of simply inserting multiple shots into a single frame, which worked so beautifully that I wonder why films don't use it any more.
Then I remember that it was a gimmick and, like the gimmick of bullet-time, it was one that was so overused that it was entirely abandoned after little more than a decade because people grew to hate it with a supreme passion. But what was old is new again and by god, as an evocative return to the era the film and the series was set, it fucking worked.
The best part though? One of my favourite ships, the HMS Ark Royal appeared, with the correct markings and conformation for the era, and with the correct fighter squadrons on deck (though I was disappointed, because if they'd set the film six months later I would have got to see the Sea Vixen in flight, but alas). It was that attention to detail that transported this film from from good to great, from Just Another Spy Film to something that I fully expect will be a cult classic in a few years. Everything, from the sets, to the costumes, to the vehicles... they went all out, even to the point of including "futuristic" technology as envisioned by the era they were aiming to replicate.
This was a film that in hindsight obviously needed to be made. I had pretty high hopes from the trailer, but coming out of it I was pleased as punch. It was my childhood reborn, rendered in glorious technicolour and splashed across the silver screen. It was beauty, it was truth, it was a slash-writer's wet dream, and in its myriad flaws and carefully chosen film scratches, it was perfection.
If you get the chance - and I'm not sure if it's still in the cinemas - go see it. Enjoy it. Revel in its simple, authentic innocence. There are no attempts to subvert or deconstruct the genre here. It is straightforward, it is forthright, and it is honest. It is The Man From UNCLE, and it is beautiful.
I just love it when they portray women as stronger than men in movies. I get that guns are the great equalizer, a woman's mind is statistically on par with a man's, and women tend to be far more flexible, but there's no spinning it to where a 110 pound woman will be stronger than a 200 pound man when they're both in similar physical shape.
Thanks muchly for this: I enjoyed your analysis! And now I have to see the movie, which fortunately is still out...
I agree with you on every point. It was an excellent film! I wish it got more recognition.
You sold me on it. Even though I'm not a fan of spy films.