Change Your Image
jcgdcj
Reviews
Left Behind (2014)
Left speechless
"Left behind" has me struggling to find words to describe it. "Bad", "ghastly" or even stronger language all seem so inadequate.
First of all, there is no Biblical basis for this "Rapture". Although Rapture fundamentalists claim that more than 20 verses in the Bible support the concept of "Rapture", examination of these verses (eg Romans 8: 18 - 19) shows they only use phrases such as the "eager expectation" of the second coming or, more unnervingly, refer to "multitudes in the dust who sleep will awake" (Daniel 12 v 1 - 2; see also Revelations 20, verses 4 and 5) which sounds like zombies rising from the grave (a scenario fortunately missing from this truly appalling movie). I am not sure which verse in the Bible is the basis for the rapturees' clothes remaining behind, although 1 Corinthians 15: 51 - 6=53 does refer to them being clothed with "the imperishable". There is a reference to "gathering" of the elect in Mark 13 but not even Revelations speaks about people vanishing as they are being lifted from the ground with their clothes behind them in the manner shown in this film.
Second, the script and acting are terrible (I know Nicholas Cage has tax problems, but really..) and the special effects are laughable - the plane was a different make in each of its scenes, as one of the other reviewers has pointed out, the storms etc looked fake and the big city on fire at the end (spoiler alert!!) looked like a painting, and a bad one at that. Even the props are off, like the air hostess's crazy shoes, and what is wrong with Nicholas Cage's hair??? And nobody was on social media - how real is that.
Third, the ethics and morals are questionable. The real missing people seem to be blacks - where are they all? There is a token Asian who is a nerd; does this mean that all Asians are going to hell? You can be a good religious person but if you are Moslem (like the guy on the plane), too bad. And the rapture only seems to happen to people who speak English. It is not even clear if this is happening outside America.
There are intelligent, insightful films made about the Rapture. In fact, "The Rapture", starring Mimi Rogers and David Duchovny, is one of the most compelling and insightful films I have ever seen on any subject. The reason fundamentalists don't like this film is because it exposes the flaws in Rapture thinking, especially the extraordinary ending, which I won't reveal because I don't want to spoil it for others.
I see "Left Behind" was nominated for awards - for the Razzies, that is. I am surprised it did not win. How could any other film in 2014 have been worse?
In terms of general comparison with other "worst films ever made", this film has none of the low-budget problems producers like Ed Wood had, or the political stench of Nazi films like Jew Suss. What it is, however, is a propaganda film, rather like the propaganda ballets promoted like Qiang Qing which were used to destroy ballet and opera during the Cultural Revolution. Like all truly frightening propaganda, it is designed to terrify the audience into agreeing.
On another topic, I have a complaint to make. Why does IMDb require all reviewers to put at least one star? To give even one star to a film of this kind is too generous.
Murder at the Windmill (1949)
Windmill Theatre mystery is a Time Warp experience
Known in the United States as "Mystery at the Burlesque", "Murder at the Windmill"'s story is told in voice-over, first by a theatre staff member and then by the stage hand, Gimpy (Eliot Makeham), whose role in the events turns out to be significant.
A Scotland Yard Detective Inspector (Garry Marsh) is called in to investigate when cleaners find that an audience member in the front row stalls at London's Windmill Theatre has been shot dead. As the murder appears to have occurred during the performance, the Windmill Girls are told by the manager, Vivian Van Damm (the real name of the proprietor, but played by Jack Livesey), that they have to stay back while the police investigate.
The plot thickens when it turns out the murdered man was Jack Balfour, a regular visitor to the theatre who sold cosmetics to the show girls and showed particular interest in one, Patsy (Jill Anstey). The Detective Inspector realises the shot was fired from the back of the stage, meaning a member of the theatre company is most likely the culprit, and demands a repeat performance of "Kensington Gardens" by the theatre players which he and his bookish assistant (Jon Pertwee, named in the credits as Jon Pertwer) sit through, although in assumed boredom. After the Mexican musical number is performed, the suspect appears to be singer Donald (Donald Clive), who had a gun for his role. However, an alert Windmill Girl, Frankie (Diana Decker), points out that the cast sang "God Save the King" at the end of the show, as did the audience, and that the dead man would have been noticed immediately if he had not stood up. The murderer turns out to have been the second of the voice-over narrators, Gimpy, who had noticed the deceased making advances to his favourite Windmill Girl, Patsy and endangering her relationship with Jack Balfour.
The film ends with a musical number, "Go with the Swing." Gimpy is arrested and in a final voice-over tells a "Padre" (presumably while in gaol) the reason for the murder, namely his wish to protect Patsy from Balfour's villainous advances. The film closes with yet another musical number, but among the audience are both the investigating police officers who, despite their previous boredom, are now aficionados of the Windmill Theatre.
The rather feeble story line is largely an excuse for the performance of song and dance numbers by the nubile and at times lightly clad Windmill Girls for the Detective Inspector (the theatre's motto "We never closed", seen in the opening and closing shots in the film, was often humorously paraphrased as "we never clothed" ). One such number is "I'll Settle for You", where the male and female leads reject Veronica Lake, Dorothy Lamour, Danny Kaye and other star lookalikes for each other, followed by a disappointingly discreet solo fan dancer.
While, due to theatre censorship by the Lord Chamberlain (which remained in place until 1967) the Windmill had a struggle to keep its burlesque numbers out of trouble, the musical numbers in the film are likely to be much more prudish than what Windmill theatregoers actually saw.
The first film to be shot on the theatre's premises, it offers valuable shots of backstage as well as theatre décor.
A running gag in the film is the cast correcting each other's English. The Detective Inspector complains about his assistant's description of murders as "slaying" and a crying Windmill Girl who fears she has been accused of being a murderer is corrected by Gimpy for not using the word "murderess".
This was Val Guest's first film after the Second World War . Many of the cast are actual Windmill regulars, and the film also features comedian Jimmy Edwards as himself. He had made his stage debut at the Windmill in 1947 and his name is on the list of stars who got their start at the Windmill which is seen in the opening shot. (The last two names on the list are Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers). Edwards' stand-up routine about how to play the trombone is somewhat dated but his closing line (about the theatre producer who got married and absent-mindedly issued tickets for the first night) still has some zing.
This film is a valuable record not only of the long-vanished Windmill Theatre but also of attempts to deal with the prudish sex standards which bedeviled English stage and film productions until the late 1960s. The Windmill Theatre shut in 1966; a telling indication of the profound changes to social values at this time can be seen from the fact that the Rocky Horror Picture Show film was released in 1975, less than a decade afterwards.