Extra Credit - Triple feature - Love in the 90's (True Romance, Natural Born Killers, & Doom Generation)

When I saw the first two movies on our syllabus this semester, I had to go to my bosses and no matter what I wanted this day off! I hadn't seen these movie on the big screen when they came out and really wanted to see them as they were and are intended. On the big screen! Love in the 90's was an amazing trio of one liners and action sequences that was tough to compare to when they were made. As far as I'm concerned, True Romance (written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott) and Natural Born Killers (again written by QT but directed by Oliver Stone) were a constant in my VHS player in my room. I would have the door shut and the volume way up, pissing off my mom to no end watching these movies after work at the video store where I was turned onto these films in the first place.



Flash forward 15 years, I was standing outside after the last of these killer 90's movies played (which was Doom Generation before I forget). There were so many different discussions going on about the outcome of the finale film, which sounded like most of the audience hadn't seen before that night. Nobody seemed to have seen the ending coming and were totally shocked, many with jaws still to the floor after ten or so minutes outside. I love going to the movies where I've seen them before JUST to see the people's reactions to something shocking or out of place in todays film going experiences. Sure, there's a time and place for the truly shocking like some of the stuff in Doom Gen., but that was what the director was feeling at the time, as was most of the youth of the 90's. Gregg Araki wore many hats working on this film, as he has done on all of his films, writing, producing, and directing every single one he's worked on.

Homework Movie - Midnight Cowboy

“Hey, I’m walkin’ here!”

I never knew what movie it really came from until I watched Midnight Cowboy. This was by far the most difficult movie for me to watch this semester. I had to try watching it several times throughout the week. Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman play the worst best friends in this “Buddy” picture I’ve ever seen. It took them two thirds of the way through the movie to even become somewhat nice to each other. Even when they were nice to each other, Joe Buck still had to jab at “Ratso” Rizzo about his name. As the saying goes, “With friends like that, who need enemies.”

The realness of Dustin’s character trying to keep hustling even the hustler, shows that his character would do anything to survive. The reluctant hero then becomes Joe Buck after he finally makes his hustling career true and then he has to go even further down the path into dangerous territory where he doesn’t want to by stealing to help his friend get to Florida. They never faltered from their characters ideas about who they were. I’m sure over time had the movie not ended the way it did, would the two guys be friends because of all the things they had done for each other. I’ve had some friends that, even though I don’t see them as often anymore, I would still do whatever it takes to help them out of a bind like Joe’s character does.

Some of the interesting scenes were the flashback scenes of Joe’s mother and girlfriend towards the middle of the movie. They showed what Joe wanted to believe and then what actually happened. And the final “dream” sequence in the party was a real well put together “drug trip” scene for the time when the movie was made. Several of today’s directors take example from this scene or have incorporated parts from this into their own, like Terry Gilliam in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

And come to find out, on of my favorite bands of the 90's Faith No More covered the song on their third album, Angel Dust.