08/27/2002 Entry:
"Juggernaut - Richard Lester (1974)"

I realized recently that I have like four movie channels which broadcast interesting films to varying degrees, and decided to start taking advantage of it. Of the four (IFC, American Movie Classics, Turner Classic Movies, Fox Movie Channel) TCM is by far the best. Its lineup is heavy with older films and noteworthy directors, and barely a day goes by when I don't find something worth taping. Additionally, I have yet to see them broadcast a film in anything other than its original aspect ratio. This is more than I can say for IFC, whose programming is almost as interesting as TCM's, except they consistently show pan and scan versions of films, which I refuse to watch. AMC is also bad in this regard, but their lineup is less interesting so it doesn't really bother me as much. FMC tries to balance things, showing both pan and scan and letterboxed versions of widescreen films so that you can watch according to your preference. This actually doesn't bother me really, except when I discover something like Visconti's The Leopard being shown after the letterboxed version has already been broadcast. That one hurt. Anyways, I already have like two weeks worth of viewing on tape now, and thats cool by me.

While flipping through last weekend I noticed that Richard Lester's Juggernaut was about to play on TCM and settled in to watch it. I was pleased to fill in this gap in my Lester viewing, since it was letterboxed and otherwise only available on pan and scan video. I guess I should point out that my Lester viewing is almost nothing but gaps, since the only other films of his I've seen are The Knack and Superman II. Regardless, I really enjoyed this film. It was a very well made thriller, made more amazing by the knowledge that Lester was brought on two weeks before principal photography was to start and he rewrote the script from scratch. I have no doubt that it turned out for the better.

While watching this, I kept noticing Soderbergh-isms and it made me realize how much he has copped from Lester's style. A lot of handheld work and hand zooms. There's a certain type of shot that Lester uses in this film during the dance scene, that Soderbergh uses all the time. Basically its a long shot on some action taking place, usually handheld. It produces this feeling that you're actually in the room watching because it includes so much information which is ancillary to the center of the action. For instance, there's a scene with two people dancing. It is shot from far away, and its not zoomed in. So these two people are dancing sort of carelessly placed in the middle of the frame, and you can see everyone else sitting down just watching or being bored or whatever. Its kind of voyeuristic, but not really. Its more putting the POV right in one of the chairs off to the side. Then there are cuts to seemingly carelessly framed handheld shots of people sitting around being bored. It all seems very off the cuff, and knowing that Lester liked to work quickly maybe it is. I see this all the time in Soderbergh's films.

The only thing which really didn't do it for me was the ending, the whole "which wire do i cut, lets get in the mind of the bad guy" thing seems a little hackneyed, although that is probably because its been ripped off from films like this one so often. I enjoyed Richard Harris in this quite a bit, he was a lot moire laid back than usual. The sequences where he is cutting apart the bomb, tracing wires and stuff were really well done. Knowing something about electronics, I really enjoyed the sequence with the relay because it was so true to life. The gags with the tape and the false back were perfect too. Just a really well done film I was pretty pleased to have caught.