Wednesday 3 October 2012

An Inch Above Sand [Them (1954)]

From http://imagecache6.allposters.com/LRG/40/4058/AMKLF00Z.jpg

Dir. Gordon Douglas
USA
Film #2, for Tuesday 2nd October, of Halloween 31 for 31

While we may laugh at the saucer-tin saucers and the effects, modern film viewers forget that the American science fiction B-movies of the 1950s are all inextricably connected to the culture they came from. Following an outbreak of giant ants that have grown because of nuclear radiation and may become a threat to human life, this is completely threaded into fears of the nuke and nuclear fallout  of the period, after the atomic bombings of Japan and the after-effects, and in the middle of the Cold War and the fears around it. The film also admits that for most human beings, insects are disgusting creatures to them. Completely different to mammals with their exoskeletons and their mandibles, insects along with other invertebrate species are unsettling in their differences to us.

Considering all the other giant/killer/mutated animal films throughout cinema, from giant shrews to sharktopuses, rabid dogs who were once loving companions to our (potential) evolutionary ancestors the ape, humanity fears even its own fellow mammals, and all other species, subconsciously. Despite our apparent higher consciousness, and souls depending on your spiritual beliefs, we still cannot stand that the ‘mindless’ animals may survival long after our species perishes or that, if the favour was tipped to the other’s side, the chances of staying in the top rungs of the ‘survival of the fittest’ would be 50/50. As one of the characters points out directly, ants have intelligence and are a species with a concept of war and hierarchy, and if they developed higher intelligence, or grew to the size of the ones in Them, it would make them difficult competitors in a conflict with us. All genre films, even if it involves accepting many are made for money only and having to either improvise or pull ideas out of your backside, show metaphors and fears of humanity within them regardless of the quality of the product itself, or at least show a perspective on social anxieties and thoughts. And it doesn’t have to descend into pretentiousness either as many can be read immediately and sometimes just before watching the film, only adapting it afterwards and the actual material redevelops the establishing thoughts. The films so far for my Halloween viewing all have layers even if one was paper thin. Vampyrs (1974), the aborted first film for my work which is still useful to pull from and as a scapegoat until I get over it, continues vampirism as a metaphor for libertine, alternative sexuality viewed as evil and degenerate by stereotypical Western, heterosexual, Christian society, and yet secretly is titillating and tempting, keeping with Christian issues of temptation and sin, especially if it involves nubile lesbianism. Even with the open minded liberals, including myself at my dumbest, they can see alternative sexuality as merely exotic titillation and nothing else, especially if it involves nubile lesbianism. Footprints On The Moon (1975) depicts a metaphor of how psychological breakdown can be viewed as completely alien, sending sufferers into places of their mind different from the world around them, and something that merely exists on another planet to certain members of society who wish to ignore it. Them shows how, despite our apparent love for animals (usually the cute ones), most of us subconsciously hate the fact that we’re animals like the untamed ‘them’, part of the food chain, and would want them removed, or eliminated with fire, from our human society. Also the fact that, if one grew to the size of a small skyscraper, we would fall to the bottom of the food chain immediately. That Godzilla has ‘God’ in his name may have more metaphorical significance then we all thought...that and the fact that, considering their history of Kaiju films I’ve still to dive into, the Japanese still show utter respect and understanding to nature and animalism even if its rampaging through Tokyo nearly every week and scaring the tourists.

Them does suffer when the ants are finally seen. It is solid, nuts and bolts filmmaking which does suffer from its constant expeditionary dialogue, and desire just to show mechanically created ants menace the cast and not go further with it, far from the opening segment where there is quite a menace that the preconceived notions of this film did not inform me of. Destroyed, isolated areas, bizarre noises in the vast emptiness of the desert setting where it starts in, traumatised children, all established by considerably striking black and white cinematography. As invisible menaces, even if you know what to expect and what they look like, they are sinister, hidden in the outdoor landscape despite their size and yet able to create vast amounts of casualties and damage. When the awkwardly moving, but visibly impressive ants do appear, the film sits a little on its laurels onward afterwards around them. That said it was still solid, good entertainment that gets over this problem, one of the few films in a while that was able to find humour in itself and yet, impossible to do now unless someone was brave enough, taking itself seriously and was matter-of-fact within its world. Almost every character accepts the concept of giant, radiated ants as true and get on with their work, while most genre films in the sixty or so decades afterwards would have the protagonists spending whole chapters of a film convincing people they are not crazy and this is actually happening. It’s refreshing when most of us horror and sci-fi fans are probably excruciatingly sick of the cliché, and I am surprised by a more ‘naive’ film from a ‘naive’ era cutting through the cop-out pretences and getting on with things. Also despite its flaws, Them still has the advantage in that, combining its premise with practical effects, it has the sense of the icky fantastic; the scenes likely to stick in my mind are within the ant’s nest in the desert near the beginning, vast isolated tunnels in the earth full of giant ants and egg sacks. I can’t help but reference videogames with one of the few I’ve played in years, and the rare one I actually loved, called Earth Defense Force 2017 (2006), whose primary enemies were huge swarms of giant ants and had countless levels in repetitive, claustrophobic mound tunnels; the game has probably made the already great Starship Troopers (1997) more entertaining as well as a satirical gem, and as a B-movie game probably influenced by this and Japanese cinema, it has made films like this for more joyfully engaging in their imaginative pulpiness. That it has the seriousness too and explicitly weaves ideas of the Cold War, atomic power and our fear of primitive animalism within its B-movie story adds to its charm. Eventually I may encounter a ‘bad’ film and have to review it, unlike Vampyrs, but two days in there is this great optimism that even the films like this - which despite its classic status and Oscar nomination for effects is a true B-movie at heart and is unapologetic about it like true art - will stick out and not waste time with laziness. It helps that, in reference to the introductory post I wrote before the reviews that, when talking about films you find in your local library that give you something different, this was a DVD I kept seeing in my local city library and was not disappointed by when I finally rented it. While most of the films the library stocks are new releases, regardless of the few eclectic choices, it’s nice to see a fifties film, an old timer, snuggled just above the children’s section and near films like Who’s Your Caddy? (2007) waiting for someone to catch it out of their eye out of intrigue. 

From http://s3.amazonaws.com/auteurs_production/images/film/them--2/w448/them--2.jpg?1289438382

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