![]() ![]() Check out Roger Ebert's review of "I Spit on Your Grave" (the 1978 version) and you'll see what I mean. ![]() (Context and intention: More on that later.) Tolerances and sensibilities may vary, but every critic has seen a film that appeared to have been written and directed by sociopaths. I've seen violent movies that earned my disgust because (1) the context of the violence was as abhorrent as the violence itself and (2) the intentions of the filmmakers were clearly indefensible. ![]() If you really love movies - and especially if you've been lucky enough to make a career out of watching them - you have undoubtedly seen a violent film that was unquestionably vile, unjustified and miles beyond the boundaries of all human decency. But it's the depiction of authentic, real-life violence - in everything from the "CSI" TV franchise to prestige projects like HBO's "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" - that pushes previously unrated levels of gore into the mainstream.ĭon't get me wrong: I'm not praising this progression so much as acknowledging its inevitability. Jackson's spectacular death in "Deep Blue Sea"). Horror films will always be the testing ground for the art of gore, and it would be a crime against cinema to cut the "chest-burster" from "Alien" (or, for that matter, Samuel L. A more relevant discussion now is how the new, seemingly unlimited gore FX should be used and justified. Movies and violence have always been inextricably linked, and once opened, that Pandora's Box could never be closed. If you're looking for a rant against milestone achievements in the depiction of graphic violence, you've come to the wrong place. That's where movies like "Ironclad" and "Black Death" come in, but more on those later. Over the ensuing decades, that conversation has become a moot point as movie violence proceeded apace, from Sonny Corleone's death in a hail of Tommy-gun fire in "The Godfather" (1972), to the slasher cycle of the late '70s and '80s (when makeup artists Tom Savini and Rick Baker reigned supreme as a master of gory effects) and into the present, when virtually anything - from total evisceration to realistic decapitation - is possible through the use of CGI and state-of-the-art makeup effects. The same held true for "The Wild Bunch" in 1969, by which time the debate over movie violence had reached a fever pitch in our national conversation. ![]() I remember being innocently intrigued by the furor over "Bonnie & Clyde" in 1967, but they would never have taken me to see it with them (to their credit, since I was only six). When I was a kid growing up in the Seattle suburb of Edmonds, WA (aka "The Gem of Puget Sound"), my parents did everything that good, sensible parents should do to shield their kids from violence, both real and reel. "Black Death" is available on Netflix (streaming, DVD and Blu-ray) and Amazon Instant Video. Further TV work on crime thriller "Legends" (TNT 2014-15) and "The Frankenstein Chronicles" (ITV Encore 2015- ), as well as roles in films ranging from Ridley Scott's "The Martian" (2015) to notorious flop "Pixels" (2015), kept him in the public eye."Ironclad " is now available on DirecTV and other on-demand providers (check your service listings) and from Netflix (DVD and Blu-ray) starting on July 26th. By the time of his starring role as Ned Stark on "Game of Thrones" (HBO 2011-18) began, Bean was a well-known actor, which made his character's sudden death early in the show's run that much more shocking. From there, he had supporting roles in large scale features like "Troy" (2004) and "The Island" (2005), while offering compelling turns in smaller movies such as "North Country" (2005) and "The Hitcher" (2007) displaying a versatility that stood Bean apart from his contemporaries. But it was his supporting turn as the proud warrior, Boromir, who falls prey to temptation in "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001) that exposed Bean to his biggest audience and turned him into a widely-recognized figure. Meanwhile, he was a former 00 agent-turned-traitor in "GoldenEye" (1995) before playing an inexperienced spy in the thriller "Ronin" (1998). The following year, Bean was featured as a tough 19th century British officer, Richard Sharpe, in the long-running made-for-television movie series "Sharpe" (ITV, 1993-2008) that gave him steady work over the next couple of decades. feature debut as a vengeance-minded IRA terrorist in the hit spy thriller, "Patriot Games" (1992), which opened the doors for the actor to play a wide range of bad guys. After spending the latter half of the 1980s making smaller films, he made his U.S. A charismatic screen presence who proved equally effective in romantic leads and as a villain, actor Sean Bean carved his path through the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before making a name for himself on British television and in American films. ![]()
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