Reviews

The heavily commercialized, by Spielberg to direct a segment of his blockbuster-centric Hollywood of the 1983 Twilight Zone: The Movie, after which Reviews 1980s was not a very welcoming place for came the smash Warner Bros. hit Gremlins artistically daring filmmakers. Notoriously (1984) and then a steady series of financial ushered in by such 1970s tentpoles as Jaws disappointments, among them Explorers Books and Star Wars, this new, more corporatized (1985), Innerspace (1987), and the hectic, film industry effectively put an end to the no-holds-barred Gremlins 2: The New Batch small-scale personal filmmaking that thrived (1990). As box-office returns for his movies Joe Dante, Nil Baskar under the radar in classical Hollywood and dwindled, Dante found his creative authority and Gabe Klinger, eds., that became pre-eminent in the so-called increasingly challenged by industry higher- New Hollywood that emerged from the ashes ups, culminating in the tortured production (2013), FilmmuseumSyn- of the old studio system in the late 1960s. of Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), a emaPublikationen Vol. 19 It is within this unlikely environment that film that succeeds as a love letter to 1940s Joe Dante – B-movie connoisseur, irreverent and 1950s screen comedy only in spite of satirist, and auteur in the Cahiers du Cinéma extensive studio tampering. Vienna: SYNEMA – vein – made his first subversive mark on Although Dante’s oeuvre is ripe for Gesellschaft für Film und American pop culture. analysis, his films frequently reveling in the Ever the manic id, as critic Dave monstrous underside of mass-marketed Medien, 256pp. (in English), Kehr once put it, to Steven Spielberg’s movie fantasy, he has only rarely been ISBN: 9783901644528 conscientious superego, Dante’s first major considered as a worthy candidate for critical film, Piranha (1978), was an exploitation or academic scrutiny. Published a decade (pbk), $32.50 movie send-up of Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) after Dante’s last studio production, Nil made for Roger Corman’s New World Baskar and Gabe Klinger’s Joe Dante, the Pictures. Five years later, he was recruited first comprehensive study of the director in English, arrives as a belated corrective to decades of neglect. Structured as a critical anthology – though also serving many other useful functions – the book begins with a definitive 70-page interview with the filmmaker, whose frank discussion about his movies and their production stands in illuminating counterpoint to the heavily analytical essays that follow. The enlisted contributors – a motley assortment of old- guard American film critics, pop culture analysts, film industry acquaintances, and various international film writers – offer a wide array of approaches to Dante’s work, everything from his TV films to his special effects collaborators receiving due consideration. The common arguments for Dante’s artistic importance focus on his status as one of the rare subversive filmmakers allowed entry into the Hollywood machine during the 1980s. Too often the conversation ends with the fact that Dante’s films are “riotous” and “satirical,” but the essays in this volume radically expand the conversation. Bill Krohn’s appraisal of the director as an avant-gardist who has appropriated the syntax of ‘slasher cinema’ to his own aesthetic ends is particularly provocative, and J. Hoberman, ever the most perceptive of critics when it comes to cult cinema and its pop culture ramifications, provides the definitive analysis of the Gremlins movies and their garish, horror-movie send-up of the Reagan-era status quo. It is Klinger who finds Dante’s work charged with leftist political intensity, arguing that the films in

85 Film Matters Spring 2014 ➜ Reviews Books

The Music of James Bond, Jon Burlingame, (2012)

New York: Oxford University Press, 304pp., ISBN: 9780199863303 (hbk), $35.00

In The Music of James Bond, Jon Burlingame’s research captures the questions of who, what, where, why, when, and how a b ov e An image from Piranha the music for each of the Bond films came to be. Through the use of anecdotes, interviews, and other background stories, Burlingame tells the tales of all the hit Bond theme songs through his findings and even some of the stories that were left out of mainstream knowledge and release of the songs/films. This book is what any Bond fan or music fan would enjoy reading. The book, to me, is about the James Bond theme songs for each film and their back stories. Through the decades, many famous artists stand out during their time. Those performers include: Tom Jones, Louis Armstrong, Paul McCartney, Carly Simon, Duran Duran, Tina Turner, Sheryl Crow, Madonna, and Chris Cornell. All of whom have been sought out to perform a James Bond theme. Burlingame puts years of work a b ov e An image from Matinee and interviews into this book that gathered the stories and composers’ experiences for his unofficial “war trilogy”– Matinee (1993), Stuart Collier is a recent graduate of the each Bond song, and although released The Second Civil War (1997), and Small Soldiers Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in before Skyfall (Mendes, 2012), featuring Adele (1998) – were “UFOs, failing to dent the media studies. Passionate about cinema since high as the lead singer, he does an exceptional job administration’s body armor, but important school, Stuart currently channels his love of film into of putting his findings on paper for readers to those who saw them as a necessary riposte his job as an on-air production trainee for Turner and fans alike. to the numbing war spectacle represented by Classic Movies. The author says the book is about contemporary examples such as Forrest Gump “celebrating the remarkable legacy of (1994), Independence Day, and Saving Private James Bond films and songs” (4). More Ryan” (134). specifically, he says it “marks the first attempt Baskar and Klinger’s volume is especially to chronicle the entire 50-year saga of Bond triumphant in light of Joe Dante’s continued disreputability within the world of serious film discourse. Any doubt as to whether the director of such critically lambasted movies as The ’Burbs (1989) and Small Soldiers warrants a slot in the Austrian Film Museum’s series of director studies dissipates entirely upon delving into the impassioned writing contained therein. Given the book’s surfeit of theoretical entry points into Dante’s rich body of work, it can only be hoped that there will be many more publications like it to follow.

a b ov e An image from For Your Eyes Only

86 Film Matters Spring 2014 Reviews Books

a b ov e An image from Quantum of Solace

I think the author follows his own description of what the book is about clearly and thoroughly. The book is original. It includes several new interviews with composers and untold stories, such as Eric Clapton’s work being shelved and Amy Winehouse nearly co-writing the Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2008) theme. Overall, I think Jon Burlingame puts a great book on the music making with all of its ups and downs, shelves, full of new stories and interesting surprises, and disappointments, disasters reviews on the Bond films’ music. and triumphs” (4) and he does this in just / e n d / 24 chapters. Each one is chronologically placed in order of the films/songs released by year, starting with earliest to most recent. Jason Zim – a student at University of North Each chapter, dedicated to each film, gives Carolina Wilmington – is an aspiring Film Studies the history of that film and corresponding major. Zim graduated with a BS in Communication, theme song, complemented by anecdotes and with a concentration in Broadcast Journalism and a interviews, some never-before-heard. minor in Business Administration from East Carolina His strengths are highlighted throughout University. He is constantly working on films and the book. One of them is its easiness to hopes to find success in the industry. The following is read and understand. It’s not difficult to a link to his videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/ comprehend the line “In 2006, however, Ian hoperunZdeep. Fleming’s seemingly timeless hero underwent the biggest makeover of all” (236). Another aspect that makes the book so relatable is the ability for the reader to envision the images and songs from the films. Along with pictures, Burlingame includes “Score Highlights” in each chapter. They discuss the music in each film as well as the main song and where they fit in the film. One example is “That two-note ‘Eyes Only’ signature appears almost immediately as Bond visits his wife Tracy’s grave” (151). Burlingame simply writes when the first note of the music appears in the film and how it fits, which allows any fan, like myself, to relive that nostalgic part of the film with the hit song. Although it is difficult to find a weakness, one might be that the reader is taking in all sorts of information on dates, names, and quotes. This information is important to the story and understanding of each film, but can be a lot to take in.

87 Film Matters Spring 2014 ➜