GOTHIC (1986)
Director: Ken Russell
Staring :Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson
Viewed Streaming on Prime-Great transfer
Man, this was a very strange movie. I started off sort of hating everything about this flick for the first 15-20 mins and then suddenly I started to see the beauty of the camera work, the cool locations, the cool lighting etc. The story then really started to get me enthralled and into the flick. I mean, to be able to create a story that is based on how Marry Shelley’s Frankenstein was conceived is pretty awesome in itself. It’s done in sort of a compilation style where everyone staying at Lord Byron’s mansion are to come up with a ghost story to share with the others. The stories are all told not in the traditional sense. Its all just one story fueled by and discovered by the use of hard drugs (opium), and sex (free love). Oddly enough it is the acting that might keep me from thinking this is a brilliant film. It feels to me as though everything is just over acted, and over dramatized. Perhaps that was intended to make the viewer feel as though they were seeing it as a dream like story that wasn’t real? Or perhaps I’m reading into things too much, I don’t know. What I do know is that I went into this hating on it (almost turning it off), to then getting so wrapped up in the story and the twisted personality of Lord Byron that I didn’t want to turn away. Not the greatest film in the world, but it’s one I’ll never forget. The ending is pretty awesome. The title Gothic is pretty lame, and cheesy in my opinion. It’s not clever, and just seems obvious. If you can get past the negatives that I’ve played out here you’ll most likely enjoy Gothic. (NW)
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Nate Wilson: NW Devon Cahill: DC Matt Average: MA
BAD TRANSFER 