2014-10-10 Gorky Park

2014-10-10         Gorky Park

 

                'So that's why', Homer Simpson says it better before during and after finding out that his wife Marge is 1/16 th / black - misinterpreting / the findings, and his next leap / of logic both -  'I get paid less than my white / counterparts'.  It's a funny joke, trading off an offensive premise, a funny joke playing off an offensive premise is all / we gots.

                'We come from a long line,' Homer says it better earlier in the same 'family-tree' episode, 'of horse thieves, horse traders, thieving horses, and' - and here his voice drops to a conspiratorial whisper for effect, this next one by far the worst of the nefarious occupations / so far - 'alcoholics'.  It's a funny joke, trading off an offensive premise, but if you think that 900 pages of this Take This Thing Back to Baltimore (f) / (s) / (b) log is too much to try to overcome the stigma of an accusation of an occupation whose name that even Homer Simpson drops his voice / to utter, think / again, ©inspiratorial whispers is all / we gots.

                Far easier / better to be / a criminal, or a lawyer, 'what I mean is that in America,' Lee Marvin's character Jack Osborne says it better in Michael Apted's great film adaptation of Martin Cruz Smith's 'Gorky Park' - by way of explaining to his Russian (Soviet -id.) hosts the Golden / Rule, i.e. those with the gold make / the rules - 'defense attorneys are very well / paid.' 

                'No dessert ?'  Chief Renko's subordinate / colleague askes it better of William Hurt's Chief Inspector Arkady Renko as they finish their meal at what is 'assuposed to be a disco-era Moscow / cafeteria – with all the patrons standing up at lunch counters, both dessert and the main course, though never videed, are assumedly variations on boiled cabbage, or perhaps just boiled  cabbage - to which Arkady in reply simply looks down at one of the said desserts, again not videed in the film, and then just / leaves..    

                'You're all alone', Brian Dennehy's New York Police Department detective, aka NYPD the world / over, even in Moscow, innit Mo, akses Arkady better upon finding him rifling the detective's hotel room, 'aren't you, Boris?'

                'Even the poet lays down his pen,' Arkady's boss says it better to Arkady after being advised that Arkady's been up / all night, 'the killer / his axe'.  It's this flavor of Russian (Soviet -id.) humour that makes the film a great one, 'a coil that's pushed / too far ' your man Vladimir rararaPutin updated another Russian proverb better as of late, by way of explaining your man the Russian bear's new-found 21st century rambunctiousness, 'will always / recoil', this too is one of Cin's (only -id.) line of self-defence against all of the allegations and accusations made against him as of late, no less facile for being / true and no less true for being / facile.

                'He was a big ape' the actor playing the /Moscow used-car dealer and KGB pimp says it better in Gorky Park , of one of the three victims found in the snow in Moscow's Gorky Park at the beginning of the film to start it all off, 'from / Siberia'.  Like the NYPD detective played by Dennehy, who either speaks flawless Russian and needs no translation as he talks to Hurt's Renko, or understands Renko's English flawlessly - this used-car dealer speaks with a cockney accent before buying it from a KGB goon.  These linguistic hurdles somehow are forgiven in this film where normally Cin would cry 'nyet' - movie was filmed entirely in Finland and Norway according to the end / credits - though the total lack of any Russian on-screen talent, other of course than the minx who plays / Valeria (Irina -id.), is of more / cincern to this horroreviewer.

                Still, it's a great story, well-told and well-acted, the scenes between William Hurt and Lee Martin'as Jack Osborne are along the lines of the scenes between Al Pacino's Michael Corleone and Lee Strasberg's Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part Two, the next generation of Hollywood actors, young senseis - or perhaps young gun-slingers, in Lee Marvin's / case - learning their craft on-screen tricks from their koheis, even as  / we watch, it's one of the pleasures of videeing, and horroreviewing, these films of this Take This Thing Back to Baltimore edition up on out on up on out up here in the cindominium of a TGIFF®iday evening, innit G.

                'I met Stalin when I was young', Lee Marvin's Jack Osborne askes it better to Hurt's Renko after Renko more-or-less accuses Osborne / of murder, 'did you know / that?  Now does the fact that I knew Stalin mean / that I killed him?'  It's great dialogue, it allows Osborne to intimidate Renko by showing his life experience, though Renko like Cin is not so easily / cindimidated.  'Everything I told you' Renko says it better later to Irina, just before during and after they make the bear (beast -id.) / with two backs, 'is either all an elaborate lie, or the simple / truth.'  'It's' Irina takes the hard answer, 'a lie', and later in the film delivers her best line, "I believe nothing / nobody / never', ellipses are Cin's but line is verbatim, and is grammatically correct as far as he is concerned, or at least /effective, grammatically correct as far as he is concerned, or at least /effective is all / he gots.

                What is it is that nefarious American businessman - 'I'm not a businessman,' Jay-Z sings it better of having wide-ranging nefarious / pursuits, "I'm a business, man' - Jack Osborne is selling rare sables, those little furry rodents, and American passports, to hot babushkas from Tuctyuctuk (hooker please -id.) to St. Petersburg, killing everyone and anyone who gets / in his way.  It's no wonder the Soviets at the time of filming (assumedly) said 'nyet' to the film-makers' request to film in the motherland, as the various Soviet state apparatchiks in the story - KGB, militia - come off as universally inept, 'you see Renko', Marvin's Osborne says it better to Hurt's Renko, this time in Stockholm before the film's grand / finale, 'corruption is part of us / all of us / the very heart of us', though Westerners, in the form of Osborne and the great Brian Dennehy do not fare much better, Dennehy's detective a brute of an Irish cop, the rare big man as an actor and a menacing presence, the character to which (to whom ?) of course as a result your man ©in the humble(d) narrator of this Take This Thing Back to Baltimore relates / most.

                                'In Stockholm' the KGB droog says it better in the airport bar as Renko is escorted by the same and his fellow agents, before the grand / finale, 'every luxury / is indulged'.  KGB goons order stingers at the airport bar, 'a stinger' Dennehy's cop later dismisses the choice / of cocktails - a line that Hurt's Renko later repeats to his incomprehending KGB handlers to great effect, at least for the audience - 'that's a whore's drink.' 

Whoring as a way of life and as analogy of choices made in a complicated world - for freedom, for money, for expediency, for political reasons - is a motif of the story, "I am', Hurt's Renko says it better, after Dennehy drops his line about stingers, above, 'a whore.' 

                'Arkhasha', Irina pleads with Hurt's Inspector - soon to be Chief / Inspector for honouring his nefarious side-deals with the Party / bosses - Renko, to defect with Irina to the West (of course the U. S. of A., everone and their sables and their sisters willing to do anything to get / a green card, our Southern neighbors enjoying their 15 minutes still now, as in 1987,) after the Grand / Finale.  'Some day Arkasha' Irina ends the film and this TGIFFriday movie review edition  of this Take This Thing Back to Baltimore (f) / (b) / (s) log both, 'some day.'  Happy Thanksgiving, turkeys.