The 5th Inductee Into The Thin White Dude's Hall Of Shame - Katherine Heigl

This year’s inductee to the Hall of Shame is perhaps a bit left of field, but hear me out. In 2007, the first year of my blog, Katherine Heigl’s star was on the rise. She had an Emmy award winning role in a hit television show (Grey’s Antatomy) and was one of the two leads in Knocked Up, Judd Apatow’s hilarious hit comedy. Heck, I nominated her for Best Leading Role by a Female Actor for that very part. Talented, funny and beautiful (tall, full-figured blonde completely fits Hollywood's star profile), it seemed like Heigl was about to break through and join Hollywood’s elite. And then things started coming out. First off, her public comments about Knocked Up being “a little sexist” didn’t help matters, then she withdrew her name from the 2008 Emmys list of TV contenders, not happy enough with the quality of the material she was given to justify a potential nod and from there one thing after another. Despite building up an unsavory reputation (“She can cost you time every single day of shooting… Wardrobe issues, not getting out of the trailer, questioning the script every single day. Even getting her deal closed at Warners was hard. She hit that point of ‘no.’” – Hollywood Reporter), there are reports of her making extreme salary demands. Allegedly, she asked to be paid $3 million for a minor part in the ensemble comedy Valentine’s Day, which also had higher-profile stars Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx working on smaller salaries. This is a shame especially, not only because I think she is legitimately talented and has reduced herself to taking mediocre lead roles in crap rom-coms and minor parts in ensemble films. With the recent debate on women not getting good enough parts in Hollywood, and in her mid-thirties, Heigl, by burying herself, may have lost the best years of her career in doing so. 

Katherine Heigl on Being a Diva

The 4th Hall Of Fame Inductee Representing Films Beyond Definition - El Topo (1970) - Alejandro Jodorowsky

It’s hard to know where to start when it comes to El Topo. How do you describe a film whose scope stretches one’s imagination as far metaphorically as the titular protagonist’s quest for enlightenment? Alejandro Jodorowsky, the Chilean psycho-magical one-man-band (he writes, directs, produces, stars in the lead role and composes the musical score), through the heavy use of imagery and symbolism, deconstructs the typical Western archetypal tropes (in many ways one of the first Acid Westerns). Jodorowsky does it so well in fact that it remains a deliriously entertaining, sexy and at times outrageously funny film, despite his bucking of traditional genre trends. In the process of this deconstruction he turns the genre on its head, showing the fantasy of violent delights as an illusory pursuit, that self-discovery is to be attained a life of pious modesty, meditation and, should it come down to it, martyrdom. Indeed, if I may be allowed to make a personal confession, it is a major influence on my own upcoming short film. Many of Jodo’s oeuvre, including his recent film The Dance Of Reality, follow the same line as El Topo, and the man himself, at eighty-seven years old, remains set upon, through his psychomagic and art, his own pursuit of enlightenment. 

El Topo - Original US Trailer

The 5th Hall Of Fame Inductee Representing Short Film - Scorpio Rising (1963) - Kenneth Anger

After having meant to so for a while, I decided one day last month to sit myself down and watch some Kenneth Anger’s short films. I thought that I would watch them over the course of two or three days. Well, instead, aside from a short interval walking the dog, I spent most of an afternoon and the early evening watching through his Magick Lantern Cycle (by way of BFI’s excellent 2011 Blu-Ray + DVD release). Now while there are four or five others I could quite easily put in, I decided to go with Scorpio Rising. Like much of Anger’s work, the film is silent as regards dialogue, instead featuring a soundtrack of contemporary music by the likes of Elvis Presley, Bobby Vinton, Ray Charles, The Angels, The Crystals and many more. Notwithstanding the music, Anger, a filmmaker who understands the essence of montage, creates a brilliant work whose thematic content references his interest in the occult, biker subculture, Catholicism, Nazism and homosexuality. So controversial at the time, in fact, that the American Nazi Party protested that it offended their flag, and it was brought to the California Supreme Court on obscenity charges (not Anger’s first dance with the Supreme Court. Sixteen years earlier, his film Fireworks got him arrested on the same charges). It remains a startling and provocative work to this day.

Scorpio Rising (full film)

The 10th Hall Of Fame Inductee For Contribution To Directing - Akira Kurosawa

1943-1993 saw a fifty-year creative period in the life of a filmmaker, which, though some no doubt would be envious to re-create, would fail to replicate. Akira Kurosawa, considered by some to be the cinematic equivalent of playwright William Shakespeare or his favourite writer, the great Russian Fyodor Dostoyevsky, directed thirty films, including Drunken Angel, Stray Dog, Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, I Live In Fear, Throne Of Blood (an adaptation of Macbeth), The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, Red Beard, Dersu Uzala, Kagemusha and Ran (an adaptation of King Lear). Even though I’ve listed a fair amount of films, there would be some who think I’ve left something out there. Kurosawa was a master, innovative in his methods as a writer, his attention to detail in his film’s mise-en-scenes, the extensive level of material he would shoot on set, the staging of his film’s battle sequences, as an editor of his own pictures and for his the depth of their thematic content. Even through times of his own personal trials, Kurosawa remained the consummate creative artist. With much room for audience exploration and enjoyment, Kurosawa’s oeuvre is a treasure for a prospective viewer to discover, and for those of us already acquainted, to re-discover. 

Rashomon (full movie)

The 6th Hall Of Fame Inductee Representing Documentary Film - Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) - Michael Moore

Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how much of a stir Fahrenheit 9/11 caused when it came out in 2004. A lot has happened in both American and world politics since then, but this polemical document on the Bush administration, corporate media and the War on Terror is still a powerful political work. Winning the Palme d’Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Michael Moore’s film is challenging and thought-provoking, and in an election year in the United States was released to a controversy bordering on hysteria. This media storm, along with the critical acclaim the film received, caused it to end up becoming the highest-grossing documentary of all time, making over $200 million at the box-office. Although it did not stop George W. Bush from being re-elected later that year, it doesn’t change the fact that the film, in the words of the late Roger Ebert, “is less an expose of George W. Bush than a dramatization of what Moore sees as a failed and dangerous presidency.” Michael Moore may have his share of negative criticism, but one cannot deny his pertinence as a filmmaker. 

Fahrenheit 9/11 Trailer

The 8th Hall Of Fame Inductee For Contribution To Producing - Toshio Suzuki

Considered by many, including Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, to be the driving force behind the creation of Studio Ghibli, Toshio Suzuki is one of Japan’s most successful and acclaimed producers. It was he who encouraged Miyazaki (in his capacity as editor of Animage magazine, upon writing an article on the director), to create and publish his Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind manga, and helped to adapt it into an anime, which itself is considered the forefather preceding the later work of Ghibli. He backed up some of the harder sells of the company (he got Miyazaki’s My Neighbour Totoro and Takahata’s Grave Of The Fireflies made and released in 1988 by proposing them to distributors as a double feature) and was the producer behind Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, to date the only Japanese animated film to one the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Not only that, he put his production clout behind helping bring projects by Kunihiko Yuyama, Mamoru Oshii and Hideaki Anno to fruition. Despite retiring as a producer in 2014, no doubt he will continue to be a driving force in the industry in his new role as Ghibli’s General Manager.

Spirited Away: The Films of Studio Ghibli Trailer

The 7th Hall Of Fame Inductee Representing Action/Adventure Film - Seven Samurai (1954) - Akira Kurosawa

As far as setting the benchmark for the now popular epic action/adventure franchises in film and television (a trend began with the success of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings, continuing today with the likes of Game Of Thrones), Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is the archetype. By no means is that to be construed as a negative comment, for the reason it is seen as such is because on just about every front is it a solid film. The screenplay is richly dense, both in terms of plot development and the complexity of the central characters, technically the film is a marvel (the use of telephoto lenses, a rarity in 1954), there is an atmospheric, rousing score from Fumio Hayasaka, and each of the actors (but most specifically Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura) portray their characters wonderfully. At the centre of it all is the genius of Kurosawa-san. It was on this film he perfected his technique of shooting with multiple cameras for battle sequences, now common practice in blockbuster cinema, and it was a troubled production shot on location (Kurosawa insisted on a period-authentic constructed village, as opposed to a studio lot) which saw it go over-budget, a shooting schedule stretched out over a year and being shut down twice by Toho. Despite this, Kurosawa weathered the storm, spending the time off fishing, reasoning that they’d invested too much in the picture to not finish it. For our sake, I’m grateful that this classic is here to stand tall as an example on how to make a epic action/adventure film, and is a gripping watch to boot.

Seven Samurai: Three Reason (Criterion Collection)