Reviews
DVD
Rocky IV
Directed by Sylvester Stallone, starring Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren
If it had all ended with the third chapter in the ongoing saga of heavyweight slugger Rocky Balboa, we may have still had cause to look back on the franchise fondly. Unfortunately, the financial temptation from stretching the series out proved too big a dangling carrot for its star Sylvester Stallone to ignore. Once again, Stallone takes the directorial reigns as well, just as he did with the second and third films, both of which were inferior to the original. Nearly a decade has passed since Rocky first sprinted up those Philadelphia steps, but not a lot has changed.
Rocky's still up to his old tricks, recklessly flaunting his wealth by showering gifts on his family and living in a domestic bubble, which we know will be burst by someone with a predictably silly name. That someone is a Russian uber-fighter named Ivan Drago who beats Rocky's old pal Apollo Creed dead.
A think tank need not be employed to predict the outcome, as Rocky IV is principally Rocky III, albeit with a different villain and different venues. Large chunks of the dialogue give way to a gaudy 1980s soundtrack, which overlays montages of our oiled-up protagonist working himself back into shape. Also, the marriage between Rocky and Adrian seems devoid of passion by this point, but it's hard to keep the fire burning at home when your fists are busy doling out bursts of international diplomacy.
Ben Davey
Pale Rider
Director Clint Eastwood, starring Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty
This is not the first time that Clint Eastwood has played a character whose identity remains a mystery. In his first westerns with director Sergio Leone, he starred as the Man with No Name and later in High Plains Drifter he played a gunslinger known simply as the Stranger. In Pale Rider, he's known as the Preacher, a figure who suddenly appears out of nowhere to help a bunch of terrorized gold diggers. He's given this religious title due to his habit of wearing a white turned collar.
This is a holy man bent on brute force, not forgiveness, and the bad-guy bodycount escalates as soon as he decides to protect some hardworking prospectors who are being forced from their land by a ruthless mining magnate (Richard Dysart). Seemingly summoned by prayer, the Preacher appears like a figure from the Book of Revelations ready to deliver vengeance to those who prosper from the suffering of others. After a few run-ins with local thugs, the Preacher soon shows that he has no rival in combat - be it with fists, hammers or cold steel.
And it is the hero's very omnipotence that strips the narrative of any real tension. Because we suspect that he is some kind of divine power, how can any mere mortal pose a threat to him? Pale Rider is, however, an exercise in mythologizing; how the story unfolds seems less important than the style in which it is told. In any case, who doesn't want to watch Death, or someone just like him, unleash heaven's hell on a bunch of nasty miners? BD
(China Daily 07/06/2007 page20)
