Shame, a film by Roger Corman, is really a startling piece of cinema. Corman is well known as a schlock-meister. It was a strong business model, he would hand some young director a small budget and have them create a cheap, marketable B movie. This was how he paid the bills, but, beyond the B horror and exploitation movies, he was also a truly skilled filmmaker, and more than a few movies beyond on your queue the next time you sign into your movie download service.
The film is remarkably brave, focusing on racial hatred and tension in the south. This may not sound like a big deal, and civil rights movement films have since become a genre. However, you have to consider... It's easy to make a movie about tolerance in the 1990's, filming on Hollywood sets designed to look like towns in Georgia and Alabama. Corman actually took his crew to a small southern town at the start of the movement. It's not hyperbolic at all to say that he really risked his life for this movie, as he and his team received death threats.
William Shatner turns in one of his finest performances as the charming villain, a political agent who has arrived in town for one purpose only: To incite racially motivated violence so as to sway the vote in favor of his segregationist employers. He enjoys doing this, and he uses his boyish good looks and innocent charm to deliver a villainous performance that really crawls under your skin.
The concept of the charming racist villain may have been inspired by Adolf Hitler. Corman could have hired a villain actor to play the villain, but the inspired choice of casting someone who seems innocent on the outside exemplifies a primary theme of the film, that being that you need a handsome spokesman to sell ugly ideas.
The final shots of the film were literally grabbed on the run. The shots used at the start of the film were actually recorded while the police were literally, physically closing in and chasing Corman out of town, forcing him to hurry up and wrap the shoot, throw all the equipment in the trucks, and get the heck out of there.
At this year's Oscars, the lifetime achievement award goes to Roger Corman, and there has been remarkably little coverage of his life and his work. It's too bad, because few filmmakers have contributed so much to the world of cinema for so little thanks.
Corman primarily made his name producing and directing schlocky monster movies, girly flicks and so on, but he also directed some real classics, and launched the careers of many cinematic legends, including Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Dennis Hopper. His studio taught many young actors, writers and directors the ropes, showing them how to produce a good movie on a limited budget and schedule, and he truly was one of the key figures in shaping the world of the modern American cinema.
If you still haven't seen any of Corman's good movies, start with this one, then check out X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. Yes, he made a lot of cheap monster movies, he made the sort of sci-fi flicks where you could see the zippers on the alien's suit, but he also made some true classics both in the horror and sci-fi genres, and outside of his familiar territory, and Shame is an example of what gifts the man has when he can step away from the marketable genres and really put his heart and daring into a project. - 40729
The film is remarkably brave, focusing on racial hatred and tension in the south. This may not sound like a big deal, and civil rights movement films have since become a genre. However, you have to consider... It's easy to make a movie about tolerance in the 1990's, filming on Hollywood sets designed to look like towns in Georgia and Alabama. Corman actually took his crew to a small southern town at the start of the movement. It's not hyperbolic at all to say that he really risked his life for this movie, as he and his team received death threats.
William Shatner turns in one of his finest performances as the charming villain, a political agent who has arrived in town for one purpose only: To incite racially motivated violence so as to sway the vote in favor of his segregationist employers. He enjoys doing this, and he uses his boyish good looks and innocent charm to deliver a villainous performance that really crawls under your skin.
The concept of the charming racist villain may have been inspired by Adolf Hitler. Corman could have hired a villain actor to play the villain, but the inspired choice of casting someone who seems innocent on the outside exemplifies a primary theme of the film, that being that you need a handsome spokesman to sell ugly ideas.
The final shots of the film were literally grabbed on the run. The shots used at the start of the film were actually recorded while the police were literally, physically closing in and chasing Corman out of town, forcing him to hurry up and wrap the shoot, throw all the equipment in the trucks, and get the heck out of there.
At this year's Oscars, the lifetime achievement award goes to Roger Corman, and there has been remarkably little coverage of his life and his work. It's too bad, because few filmmakers have contributed so much to the world of cinema for so little thanks.
Corman primarily made his name producing and directing schlocky monster movies, girly flicks and so on, but he also directed some real classics, and launched the careers of many cinematic legends, including Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Dennis Hopper. His studio taught many young actors, writers and directors the ropes, showing them how to produce a good movie on a limited budget and schedule, and he truly was one of the key figures in shaping the world of the modern American cinema.
If you still haven't seen any of Corman's good movies, start with this one, then check out X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. Yes, he made a lot of cheap monster movies, he made the sort of sci-fi flicks where you could see the zippers on the alien's suit, but he also made some true classics both in the horror and sci-fi genres, and outside of his familiar territory, and Shame is an example of what gifts the man has when he can step away from the marketable genres and really put his heart and daring into a project. - 40729
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He steals their lights, their ribbons, and their bows. movie quiz quote With its user-friendly controller and a $249 price tag, its a booming success. He became a victim of Dexter because he was a serial killer of children.
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