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Egon Spengler looks at Bob Clark's I'LL REMEMBER APRIL
Hey folks, Harry here. Kid movies... Ones that are set way back when... Well, they are a special and tough genre to nail dead on. Often times the kids seem forced, the writing feels too cute and the issues are never quite tough enough. Kids deal with parents that beat them, they deal with an adult world where alcoholics and drug users exist. They deal with money issues and the inability to dress as well as those kids in school. And while it can be a wonderfully innocent and happy world, it can also be tough as hell. The best of these films lay somewhere in the midst of this. Bob Clark's A CHRISTMAS STORY is absolutely fantastic, as is the recent THE IRON GIANT and THE SIXTH SENSE. Some of my faves include STAND BY ME and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, but those are awfully high company with which to guage all kid films. But... it seems this film is attempting that level of flick and while it seems Egon feels the movie isn't everything those other films are... It does succeed in telling a good story. There are spoilers below, and yes this is a movie of spoilers. Though with the kid from THE SIXTH SENSE in it, I will be there opening day. He is wonderful in that film!
Harry, my good man, it's Egon Spengler again with a review of Bob Clark's new
offering I'LL REMEMBER APRIL (no, it's not a remake of an earlier film by the
same title-but because of that, this one could get a new name by the time
it's released).
THE GOOD NEWS: Clark has returned to what he does best, working with kids
(though not babies as in BABY GENIUSES) in a period film set in a more
innocent time. They don't make enough flicks like this anymore and I'm sure
that everyone was hoping the director would recreate that old A CHRISTMAS
STORY magic.
I'LL REMEMBER APRIL is a comedy-drama about four boys who live in a small
California coastal in April 1942, so everyone is on alert about a possible
Japanese invasion. The kids are group leader Duke (Trevor Morgan), his
neighbor and best pal Willy (Yuki Tokuhiro), sorta dimwitted Tyler (Richard
Taylor Olson) and cute little Peewee (Haley Joel Osment fresh from being
numero uno at the box office with THE SIXTH SENSE…and yeah, I thought at
first his named indicated that he was a nod to the main character of Clark's
PORKY'S, but he has a different last name). Real-life couple Mark Harmon and
Pam Dawber play Duke's parents, and Pat Morita plays Willy's grandfather.
The kids, being typical kids, take their role in the war far too seriously
and patrol the shores on their bikes-until one day they actually find
somebody, a Japanese sailor who has been accidentally washed overboard from a
sub and now, injured, is hiding out in an abandoned factory near the beach.
They debate what to do with him, but start to warm up to the guy when he
saves Duke from drowning. In the meantime, Willy's family, Japanese Americans
who have lived in America for several generations, is facing anti-Japanese
racism and waiting to hear about their relocation to an internment camp.
After it's set up, the film follows a predictable path, which isn't too
upsetting for a film that's obviously geared toward kids. The racism element
heats up while Duke faces a touch choice about his Japanese "prisoner" when
his older brother is badly hurt in Bataan, casting a different light on a war
that up to now has been a lot of fun for the kids.
THE BAD NEWS: It seems the filmmakers are purposely drawing obvious
comparisons in order to get people interested in it, but I'LL REMEMBER APRIL
suffers by comparison to A CHRISTMAS STORY. It's nowhere near as sharp.
A CHRISTMAS STORY is justifiably considered a classic because it contains so
many dead-on observations of being a kid and even the comedy (like the kid
getting his tongue stuck to a frozen flag pole) is more effective because it
rings so true…every scene leaves some audience member saying, "Hey, that
happened to me!" A CHRISTMAS STORY feels like (and is) authentic.
I'LL REMEMBER APRIL, on the other hand, is too forced and artificial.
Particularly grating is a scene where Mark Harmon addresses the town after
Pat Morita's fishing boat is burned. You can really feel for the filmmakers
here, they are trying to create a scene that will stand with Gregory Peck's
closing summation in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD but the writing is just nowhere
near that level and Harmon comes across as a strident, preachy know-it-all.
It would have worked better and felt more real to have him say the same
things privately to his son rather than the whole town.
There is only one element in this whole film that reminded me of Clark's best
work, the fact that everyone in the neighborhood tenses up and runs home when
a military vehicle is spotted coming their way…the "death cars" usually bring
news of the war-related demise of a loved one. The film needed a lot more
spot-on remembrances like this, for instance where are the gold stars that
used to grace the front windows of houses where a family had lost someone in
the war? Maybe the film's set too early in the war for those, but it's the
general type of thing this movie needed a lot more of.
The tone of the film is also likely to cause problems for modern viewers, but
didn't bother me. It's a very innocent, naïve little movie-but it's
portraying children in a time that really was a lot more innocent and naïve,
so I was able to go with it…my problems with it were mostly script
problems…but a lot of people might not be able to suspend their disbelief in
a more cynical, seen-it-all time.
No matter what your take on I'LL REMEMBER APRIL ends up being, you've got to
admit that Clark really pulls great performances out of kids and teens, he's
done it in enough films at this point that he's either a great director of
young people or he has a casting person who knows what they're doing.
Egon Spengler
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If it's the same Bob Clark, he pre-dated Halloween by 4 years with Black Christmas. I watched it on Xmas Eve last year, and it gave me the willies...
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Yup, you're right, same Bob Clark. Didn't he also do... ahem... "Porkys"?
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Yep, it's the same Bob Clark then.
Talk about underrated, the guy is a fucking trendsetter to some tune... -
It was fiction. Fiction. Fiction. FICTION!
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Bob Clark's wonderful "A Christmas Story" was indeed based on humorist Jean Shepherd's memories of his midwestern childhood. Embellished with fantasy sequences, to be sure, but more delightful fact than fiction. On the subject of Bob Clark, however, who could forget his 1972 low-budget zombie-fest "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" (directed under the name Benjamin Clark)? They don't make living dead movies like that anymore...thank god!
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The stars in the windows, as best I can recall, were not to indicate a family member who was killed in the war, it was to show how many family members were in the Armed Forces.
Some one mentioned Russkis, and I do remember that film (though it was unremarkable). I haven't seen this new film yet, but even if it doesn't come up to Clark's work on A Christmas Story, it sounds better than some of the stuff that's been out this summer. If the writing doesn't ring true, then that just goes to show how important it is to have a good writer and a good story, which A Christmas Story had. Lastly, I was a bit confused by Harry's term 'kids movie'. At first I thought he was talking about movies made for kids. I don't know that I could classify a movie that has kids in it or is about kids, a kids movie. Frankly, movies like To Kill A Mockingbird and A Christmas Story a geared toward the adult audience, with an "oh lord, I remember doing that!" kind of feeling. Having said that, I have no idea how I would classify the films if I had to call them something, so I guess Kid film will have to do. -
BOB CLARK's A christmas story, BOB CLARK'S porkys,
BOB CLARK's baby geniuses, BOB CLARK'S from the hip .....Who cares about a third rate movie director. His films in the last 15 years have barley grosses any money compared to the big contenders such as Lucas, Speilberg or Cameron.
Imagine GEORGE LUCAS'S
star wars, or STEVEN SPIELBERG'S e.t., their name was theresomewhere but never as a posesive. I suggest when Mr . (third rate) bob clark can come up with a first class contender in hollywood again, then put you name above the title. Most of the general public doesnt know or care who the &*%@ bob clark is. ps yes A Christmas Story is a classis but that is far as I go with bob clark -
Man, some people should watch the caffeine & sugar intake (see above) before posting...!
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