Word: hawksian
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...coincidence there are a dozen major menacing situations in Raiders. Each time there appears to be no way out for the hero, Indiana Jones (named after Lucas' beloved Malemute dog, whose "character" was previously borrowed for Star Wars' Wookie), or the heroine, Marion, a reincarnation of the "Hawksian woman," that sexy, spirited lady the late director Howard Hawks always included among the boys in his action films. At one juncture it appears that Marion, played by the lovely Karen Allen, 29, may have been killed in an explosion; at another she faces a choice between dishonor (offered...
...fall; in Palm Springs, Calif. "For me, the best drama is the one that deals with a man in danger," said Hawks, and the endangered men of his movies included such giants as Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, James Cagney and Gary Cooper, matched with sexy, strong-willed Hawksian discoveries such as Lauren Bacall, Rita Hayworth, Carole Lombard and Jane Russell. When French cineasts made a cult of the tall, quiet director, claiming for example that he "incarnates the classic American cinema," Hawks commented: "I get open-mouthed and wonder where they find some of the stuff they say about...
ANDREW SARRIS correctly analyzed Bogdanovich's inability to mix cinema of contemplation with that of tight Hawksian storytelling. His camera is constantly pulling away from the action to examine the locations or pause on details. Consequently Bogdanovich gives us more visual information than we need to enjoy a crisp narrative, or (take your pick) too much narrative to enjoy a reflective stylistic bent normally associated with Mizoguchi or Rossellini. It is hard to determine what director has influenced Bogdanovich, but the outcome exists largely in terms of meaningless tracking shots which bear down on their subjects. In any case, Targets...
...plot, characteristically Hawksian, tells of the rough-and-ready guys who race stock cars and their turned-on track followers who cry, cheer and deliver romantic ultimatums that any dewy-eyed dropout might treasure. Scene after scene, brand names-Ford, Omega, Honda, Revell, Firestone, Grey-Rock brake linings-are dragged in like spare parts, as if to guarantee the authenticity of all that happens between location shots of screeching wheels and fiery crashes. "That was a close one . . . oh-oh, there's another one!" cries the agitated track announcer, valiantly promoting the idea that death lurks at every curve...
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