| Product: |
Army of Darkness (DVD) |
| Date: |
26.02.05 (298 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Hilarious, entertaining and immensly enjoyable!, Great direction - a visual treat!, Bruce Campbell -legend!
Disadvantages: If you're looking for something serious, this will not be your cup of tea!
The quality of the third part in a trilogy of films is a peculiar thing. Reserved with cynicism by many, usually prescribed by critics that each successive part is merely a cash-in on the original’s popularity and success, the third act does seem to conform to a universally held perception of something much, much weaker that undermines what has preceded. Movies with the fatal “part 3” attached to the title, invariably stand little chance against the wrath of overzealous critics. Terminator 3, lacking James Cameron’s artistic flair and tight direction from the previous two movies, is an obvious example. Audiences could have done without sitting through what has now been hailed as a great disappointment. The same can be said for Alien 3, The Godfather: Part 3, Matrix Revolutions and Return of the King – all equally disappointing considering the heights scaled by their predecessors. Hell, even Return of the Jedi suffers from the above syndrome thanks to those bloody Ewoks!! Few films succeed in maintaining the clarity and originality of the director’s initial vision throughout a series of films.
Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness, however, is one of the minorities that bucks the trend. Whether the studios decision to remove all acknowledgements from the title and subsequent advertising campaign that this is, in fact, Evil Dead 3 had any bearing on the films fortunes, is questionable. As a stand-alone movie Army of Darkness/The Medieval Dead/Bruce Campbell verses The Army of Darkness (it was entitled everything but Evil Dead 3) would have been exceptional in it’s own right. As the continuing saga of Ash (Bruce Campbell) fighting against deadite hordes in order to save his own idiotic and selfish soul, it simply adds to the overall status and cult of the Evil Dead Trilogy. With that in mind, Army of Darkness is an unquestionable work of genius.
The plot is simplistic yet silly. A short prologue re-treads events from Evil Dead 2, highlighting how Ash arrived in thirteenth century Britain and explains why he is now chained up awaiting to be flung into “the pit!” After a super-heroic turn in defeating the deadites in said dungeon with his trusty chainsaw and “boomstick”, the wise-men of Lord Arthur’s castle proclaim that Ash is the “hero who has fallen from the sky” who will reclaim the Necronomicon (the book of the dead) and save them from the current scourge of deadites that are plaguing Arthur’s lands. Not only that, Ash is informed that the book has the power to return him to his own time. Sent on his quest, Ash receives a number of various beating’s from mini-Ash’s, a doppelganger, the Necronomicon itself and, in one of the films highlights, a posse of skeletal hands, before returning to the castle with said book. But the wise-men hadn’t realised that Ash was actually a certified self-serving idiot. They reveal that because Ash failed to pronounce the words “Klatu, Barada, Nicto” correctly (a nod to the line that stops Gort in The Day the Earth Stood Still) before picking up the book, he had inadvertently awoken the Army of the Dead. The hordes of darkness have a terrible hunger for the book and sure enough, led by Evil Ash, they head to Arthur’s castle to reclaim there property. With the Army of Darkness sitting on the doorsteps of the castle, can Ash defeat the deadite hordes with a little bit of the future? Will he live to make the journey home to His beloved S-Mart store? More to the point, can he save his medieval girlfriend, Sheila (Embeth Daviditz)?
By all rights the above should not work. A romantic lead in a film with medieval content would not normally be employed with the name Shelia! Banal, ludicrous, daft – whatever pejorative you wish to use, its bloody ridiculous. Yet, having made Evil Dead 2 with a quasi-slapstick nature, mostly lifted from old Three Stooges sketches, Raimi had come to understand the core element to entertaining an audience – the ridiculous and the absurd is key. Evil Dead 2 was certainly entertaining, with just the right balance between the scares and comedy. While the scares have been mostly removed from Army of Darkness, that same banality in comedy value shines through. In many ways it is sublime, holding true to what the audience wants to see and, indeed, it is the comedy aspect that lifts the film above the quagmire of ordinary films and mediocrity. Anyway, a man with a chainsaw for a hand, a shotgun as a side arm and falling into the past along with a 1970s olds mobile, is much more ridiculous than calling a medieval love interest Shelia.
Skits to the Three Stooges remain, employed most beautifully and hilariously when Ash is held to the ground by bony appendages and then given a couple of slaps round the face by each in turn. Of course Ash being beating up and pummelled throughout the entirety of the movie is essential to winning over the audience. It’s also the essence of what makes the trilogy cherished by so many. Chased, harassed, beaten, humiliated (by miniature versions of himself) burned (internally and externally), slapped and stoned are the order of the day. And if its not physical torment being dished out, then mental anguish is the weapon of choice, specifically in Ash’s giving birth to Evil Ash (“oh god, it’s getting bigger”) and in the wonderfully crafted apocalypse ending.** The audiences enjoyment of the film is determined by the amount of suffering inflicted upon Ash, and I’m happy to say that the same standards applied to the previous films are also applied to our hero here.
Indeed, there is a certain continuity in Army of Darkness that follows noticeably on the footholds established by Evil Dead 2. In many ways its a case of “don’t fix what isn’t broken,” which was much more difficult to achieve seeing as this was studio rather than independent money financing Raimi’s vision. But the leash he was put on couldn’t have been that long due to the number of elements shining through the film that are pure Raimi. Ash getting the shit kicked out of him worked well beforehand and it’s a quality well used again. Nods to the three stooges in the style of certain set pieces remained a central facet to Raimi’s filmmaking process. Army of Darkness’ best moments are established in a half hour segment featuring Ash battling against the Evil on his own whilst searching for the Necronmicon, similar to Evil Dead 2’s master-stroke of having Ash fighting the evil spirits off in the cabin for a good portion of the film before more victims arrive.
Most importantly, Raimi’s own filming style remains ever his own. For one, the pace simply does not let up, keeping to Raimi’s modus operandi of cramming everything into a slight running time to perturb audiences from losing interest. Before the film can turn dull, Raimi introduces an original circumstance in which to place Ash, rather than building on a situation with excessive exposition that drags a scene to a more logical, yet lengthy conclusion. Raimi’s technical prowess is also present bringing that same visual eye and inspiration with the camera to create some truly imaginative shots. The kinetic energy and franticness behind the roaming POV (point of view) shots of the unseen evil are magnificent as the camera crashes through Styrofoam trees in chase of Ash. It’s also a fantastically realised element as the POV camera is used effectively as an arrowhead flies in search of a skeletal target. Raimi also shows prior restraint in the camerawork, often focusing on close-ups of Campbell and distilling the energy of the film from his performance instead. The close ups on Campbell’s features during the graveyard punch-bag scene is a real scene-stealer, unceremoniously funny as it is.
However, Army of Darkness is slightly different in other facets, no doubt to give the film a certain freshness, negating any concerns the studio might have had that the audience has seen it all before. The script is much more expansive, giving Ash a more fleshed out character. Whereas he was previously a man who reacted to the circumstances he was caught up in, he now has enough background in deadite bashing to be a leader of men. Luckily, Raimi also has sense to keep Ash firmly as the idiot he is, for the audience’s pleasure. Campbell has much more dialogue, yet it is written in such a fashion as to undermine Ash’s misplaced heroism. It makes Ash’s arrogance and cockiness towards the medieval primates around him much more comic when he then goes on to mess up in the simplest of tasks set for him. It’s also hilariously funny dialogue, and some of the most quotable from any film. The obligatory “groovy” is there, but add this to “give me some sugar baby,” “what’s that you’ve got on your face” and “this is my BOOMSTICK!” (made all the more funny by Ash highlighting where you can purchase a double-barrelled Remington – as if Arthur’s people care) and you have a script full of treasures.
The biggest change though is the big set piece finale. Whereas the previous movies dealt mostly with spirits and demonic possession, Army of Darkness confines itself with, well, an Army of Darkness. Awoken by Ash and led by his evil alter-ego (also Campbell, wearing some hideous prosthetics) the army is a mixture of stop-motion technology in the Ray Harryhausen vein, stunt-men in suits and mock-ups of a variety of zombies and skeletons, move into action with the sound of Danny Elfman’s impressive “March of the Dead” score. Nothing out of the ordinary, but what makes the army of the dead a success is the character that is instilled into otherwise lifeless models. For instance, most of the mock-ups (except for the highly impressive stop-motion sequences), to be honest, are crap. There is one segment where you can imagine Raimi himself throwing a skeletal body to attack Campbell from just off screen. What makes the scene work, though, is the way Campbell interacts with the skeleton (by snapping it’s spine) and the way the skeleton bad mouths Ash in a comedy high-pitched voice. Indeed, high-pitched squeals of “let’s get the hell out of here” and “I’ll gut your gizzard out” give way to an army that is actually camp in nature and pythonesque in stature. All the more funny when such characters start killing Lord Arthur’s men mercilessly.
If the army of the dead is something of a hilarious curiosity then their leader is the anarchic despot with a healthy dose of malevolence the films success depends upon. Featuring a jawbone that keeps falling out of place and an equally misplaced belief in his own piety, he is Ash’s matched equal. Pitted against Ash on the castle walls, the sword-play and athleticism between the two, along with a healthy dose of verbal sparring (“you’re starting to piss me off, you ugly son-of-a-bitch”), is the visceral climatic, good versus evil battle the film so thoroughly deserves to conclude upon.
Army of Darkness is certainly a film that follows successfully on Evil Dead 2’s coat tails. Whilst it may not reach the same heights as its predecessor, Army of Darkness’ originality and ridiculousness, complemented by an individual style maintaining what made Evil Dead 2 a successful enterprise in the first place, whilst adapting the sequel for a fresh new audience means it will have a fond place in the hearts of many. Entertaining in all respects, this knocks the spots off all third parts in a trilogy like almost no other film. A resounding victory therefore for Ash and the greatest trilogy ever filmed.
Overall – Met with small success on its original release, Army of Darkness has grown in stature, much like it’s predecessor. Endlessly rewatchable due to its conciseness, entertainment value and the fact it has few misgivings about taking itself seriously, the film put Sam Raimi on the road map to success (with the Spiderman franchise) and completed the cult of Bruce Campbell. The same and yet entirely different, this is a perfect example of how to end a trilogy. Put in it’s most simplest of terms, Army of Darkness is just damn good fun!
** This obviously depends on the ending that you see. After original test audience screenings (the bane of a director’s craft) were unimpressed with Raimi’s superior Apocalypse ending, the studio called for another ending to be shot. The S-Mart ending, as brilliant as it is (featuring the now immortal “Hail to the King” line) provides the film with an ending slightly out of sync with what has gone before. Ash is an all out hero, and his idiocy has been laid to rest and I for one prefer the original ending. The VHS version of Army of Darkness features both ending.
DVD Extras (for those interested in the DVD) - The Anchor Bay stand alone version of Army of Darkness (as opposed to the version in the Evil Dead trilogy package) is an excellent DVD package. A two disc special edition, each disc contains alternative versions. Disc One is the U.S Theatrical version, complete with the hilarious S-Mart ending. Disc two is Raimi's original cut of the movie featuring the superior Apocalypse ending as well as many deleted scenes. The length of the film is increased by some ten minutes with this version and its nice to see what was originally cut out at the studios wishes, even if the quality of these scenes has degraded in quality compared to the rest of the film.
On top of this the director's cut also features another excellent audio commentary. Like the Evil Dead 2 commentary before, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell return to reminisce about their film, providing an astounding amount of detail behind the films production and explaining why scenes were cut, whilst generally having a laugh. Highly informative, as well as superbly enjoyable and funny, it's a great compliment to the package and recommended listening.
There are also the usual features such as biographies of Sam and Bruce, the theatrical trailer, director's storybards and a featurette detailing "The Men Behind the Army" but the package as a whole is worth the effort simply for the commentary and two seperate versions of the film.
Director: Sam Raimi
Screenplay: Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi
Bruce Campell – Ash/Evil Ash/ Mini Ash
Embeth Daviditz – Sheila
Marcus Gilbert – Lord Arthur
Ian Abercrombie – Wiseman
Richard Henry – Duke Henry the Red
Timothy Patrick Quill – Blacksmith
Michael Earl Reid – Gold Tooth
Bridget Fonda – Linda
Ted Raimi – Store Clerk
Certificate – 15
Running Time – 81 minutes
Genre - Adventure / Fantasy / Action / Comedy / Horror
Summary:
|
Last comment:
 |
Mauri - 02.03.05 I loved this film and the DVD sounds worthwhile. Nice review and well done on getting a crown!
|
View all
3
comments
|
