Thursday 12 August 2010

Stone
(Sandy Harbutt, 1974)



“All law is based on violence, man, and any cat who breaks the law gets clobbered. Only difference is, our law only applies to us. Your law sends young blokes to somebody else’s country, to fight people they know nothing about. As long as you keep on shootin’ em, they hang medals on you. When you won’t shoot ‘em any more, they shut you in jail. And now somebody’s knocking off our mates, and you tell us we’re not supposed to do anything about it? That’s bullshit man.”
- The Undertaker

“Stone is a trip”, the ads promised, and for once they weren’t kidding.

I watched ‘Stone’ for the first time last month, at the end of a pretty exhausting day spent lugging a heavy backpack & guitar-case around the outskirts of Cambridge in relentless mid-summer sunshine and making my way home via rush hour public transport.

After dinner and a much-needed shower, I still had a couple of hours of the evening left for a movie, and figured something pretty fun and easy-going with just a bit of a kick to it to keep me interested was the way to go. What’s that you say? Cult Australian biker flick from the early ‘70s? Sounds like just the ticket! So I poured myself a tumbler of whisky for slow sipping, and settled down for some quality time with “Stone”.


The movie opens, in hilariously literal fashion, with a close-up of a stone – a boulder engraved with a plaque commemorating the founding of New South Wales. An eerie, high pitched vocal drone plays as the camera shakily pans out, revealing an over-saturated, hyper-real landscape as two kids on bicycles cycle past in background. Panning close to 180 degrees across a deserted, windswept bay, the camera hones in on a bright, red sign reading “NO SWIMMING – EXTREME POLLUTION”, and stays there, as ear-splitting electronic feedback floods the soundtrack. We’re not in Kansas anymore.

Twenty minutes later, I paused the movie, went to the kitchen and got the rest of the bottle. It was gonna be that kind of night.


In those twenty minutes, I had witnessed:

• Hugh Keays-Byrne (Toecutter from ‘Mad Max’) freaking out on LSD (trippy camera-work on overdrive) amid a maze of brutalist imperial architecture and stumbling upon a sniper preparing to make a hit.

• Said sniper bloodily gunning down an environmental campaigner as he addresses a rally – slo mo, screaming faces of fleeing hippies as the body falls.

• A classic wire-stretched-across-the-road biker decapitation, like the one in HG Lewis’s ‘She Devils On Wheels’.

• The most extrordinary piece of driving-over-cliff-edge stuntwork I’ve seen in my life.

• An awe-inspiring biker funeral procession, in which about one hundred riders in mirror-visor helmets ride in precision down a deserted highway, following a specially converted low-rider/sidecar thing bearing the coffin… with the dead man’s helmet sitting on top of it.

• A funeral service in a bucolic cemetery full of bright yellow poppies, that begins with a bikie priest in a top hat, cape and an eye patch yelling “SAAAATAAAN!!!” at the top of his lungs…

• …. before he explains that they’re burying the poor guy upright, “so that ya won’t have to take anything from the evil one lying down”!

• All of the above accompanied by the wildest, most disjointed collection of noise-saturated acid rock-meets-avant garde soundtrack music I’ve ever heard.


Clearly, one shot director Sandy Harbutt must have approached ‘Stone’ in either complete ignorance or conscious denial of David Friedman’s famous ‘sizzle not the steak’ maxim for exploitation filmmaking. Instead, he seems to have been determined to make a meteor-strike sized impression on the nascent Australian film industry by any means necessary, delivering a movie so loaded with hyperkinetic action, raging counter-cultural fury and audio-visual overload that it not only lives up to the hyperbole of it’s ‘70s drive-in style publicity campaign, but actually surpasses it, roaring off into unknown vistas of two-fisted lunacy, leaving the poster designers standing.


I probably won’t be mortally offending many movie fans if I suggest that the glut of American biker movies that emerged in the genre’s golden age in the late ‘60s were, by and large, pretty crappy. That’s not to say I don’t still find them endlessly entertaining and wouldn't happily watch pretty much any of them at a moment’s notice of course, but y’know what I mean. Even the best ones were pretty bottom-of-the-barrel fare in the wider scheme of things, and god help anyone who sits down to watch ‘Hells Angels On Wheels’ or something with high expectations.

We can probably safely assume that whoever it was who once declared Al Adamson’s “Satan’s Sadists” to be “the Citizen Kane of biker movies” (see: every DVD release of that movie ever) must have been either an abject simpleton or stoned out of their freakin’ mind, but nonetheless, the fact that an Al Adamson movie could ever conceivably be hailed as the Citizen Kane of ANYTHING probably tells you something about the overall level of quality within the biker sub-genre.


If there is to be a “Citizen Kane of biker movies” though, then fuck it – I vote ‘Stone’. It may have been made a few years too late on the other side of the world, but if the aforementioned critic is still out there somewhere searching for a film that applies the audacity, innovation and artistic vision of a young Orson Welles to the tale of a bunch of unwashed guys in leather riding around and getting wasted… well this is about as close as you could hope to get. Throw in the fact that ‘Stone’ is also just plain mad as a bag of snakes, and we have a movie that almost challenges Don Sharp’s immortal ‘Psychomania’ for the coveted position of the Number # 1 All Time Weirdo Biker Movie.

Which means I should try to tell you more about it I suppose, but where to begin…?


Boiled down to humble plot synopsis level, ‘Stone’ doesn’t really differ that much from yr average biker flick, I suppose. Our protagonists here are The Grave Diggers. Led by Harbutt himself as formidable leader The Undertaker, the gang also includes Keays-Byrne as loose cannon Toad, Vincent Gil as ‘spiritual advisor’ Dr. Death (he was the one conducting the funeral), and a whole troop of other salty dogs from weirdo central casting (ozzie division) portraying such lovable rogues as ‘Stinkfinger’, ‘Zonk’, ‘Pinball’ and ‘Captain Midnight’. And in essence, The Grave Diggers basically spend most of the movie doing what convention dictates biker gangs are supposed to do - riding around aimlessly, hassling squares, giving the cops the runaround, starting brawls, getting high, carousing with their ‘mamas’ and waxing lyrical about the outlaw lifestyle and the freedom of the road.


It appears that, for reasons that still kinda elude me after two viewings of the movie, some high-powered bad guys are trying to kill off The Grave Diggers. I’m not sure whether they’re sorta gangster property developers who want to claim the gang’s hideout, or whether it’s got something to do with the members of the gang who witnessed the assassination of the environmental campaigner in the opening sequence, or a little bit of both? Anyway, as a result of all this, the local cops send Stone (Ken Shorter), their resident suave, maverick man of action guy, to infiltrate the gang and find out what’s going on. Surprisingly, the Diggers decide to let Stone ride with them after he saves some of their lives during an explosive-tipped cross-bow attack (?!), and he soon finds himself learning the ways of the outlaw bikie.


We know Stone must be a suave, maverick man of action guy, partly because he’s a cop with long hair in 1974, and partly because he lives in a beach house with a hot international supermodel who expresses her displeasure at his “always pissing off on these boy scout adventures”. But sadly, Shorter lets the film down pretty badly, sleepwalking through his scenes and appearing utterly devoid of the charisma his character demands. (It’s just as well the rest of the cast cover for him by going so overboard it scarcely matters.) And as it turns out, I’m not sure Stone really ever DOES find out what’s going on, as from this point on the film more or less degenerates into a long series of disjointed escapades and violent showdowns with coherent plotting but a distant memory… but everybody has a wild old time, and that’s what matters, right? It’s hard to get too hung up on plot deficiencies when watching a movie in which the entire cast get stoned and go skinny-dipping together at dawn, with the director, co-writer and composer leading the pack.


Probably not the most enthralling plot synopsis you’ve ever read I’m guessing, but beyond that, what can I say…. every detail of “Stone” is just so different, so much more lively, crazy, ENGAGED (mm, good adjective) than any other biker movie I’ve seen. Beyond Sandy Harbutt’s obvious dedication to the cause of making a fucking good movie, perhaps the key to ‘Stone’s singularity lies its emergence from a culture and set of circumstances far removed from the other entries in the genre.

I mean, is it just me, or has Australia always fostered a certain element of eccentricity and extremity in it’s manifestations of youth sub-culture? Maybe it’s something to do with the harshness of the landscape, the relative isolation, I dunno, but just watch this footage of Melbourne ‘Sharpies’ hanging out the same year ‘Stone’ was being filmed over in Sydney, and you’ll see what I mean. It’s perhaps not too much of a stretch to see movements like that as a precursor to the random punkoid lunatic gangs seen in ‘Mad Max’ and the subsequent rash of dystopian desert flicks, and even Richard Lowenstein’s celebrated Melbourne punk scene drama “Dogs in Space” gives a distinctly post-apocalyptic air to the lifestyles of its teen drop-out characters.


‘Stone’ fits proudly into this outsider lineage, presenting its own unique take on the biker – sorry, BIKIE – mythos. Unlike the uniform Harleys and unprotected heads of their American counterparts, the bikies in ‘Stone’ ride sleeker, more modern Kawasakis (hey, cheaper to import I guess) painted in bright primary colours, and wear black, mirror-visored helmets, giving them a menacing, anonymous look that would go on to be echoed by whole legions of warriors and bad-asses in subsequent action and sci-fi movies.

Within the limited visual palette of the biker movie, these minor aesthetic differences play a huge role in creating ‘Stone’s visual impact, instantly setting the movie apart from its genre contemporaries, just as much as the art-damaged directorial style and lunatic soundtrack.


Speaking of which, I can’t go any further without a few words on the soundtrack, which is… how best to put this? ‘Absolutely fucking bananas’ just about covers it, I think. Queasy, assaultive assemblages of multi-layered noise and howling echo chamber mentalism that sound more like a ‘90s Japanese noise record than a ‘70s movie soundtrack; blazing, jazz-infected heavy psyche blowouts; sweeter, more biker-flick appropriate bar-room rock grooving; swirling, psychedelicised folk guitar picking; utterly indescrible mixtures of shuddering bass feedback, lurching electronic farting and droning didgeridoo; a deranged hard rock reworking of Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle"; you name it, ‘Stone’s got it.

Music credits are limited (rather awesomely) to “rock n’ roll by Billy Green”, but assuming Mr. Green was indeed responsible for all the noises herein, he certainly expanded on his stated remit pretty considerably, even given the widest possible definition of ‘rock n’ roll’. In addition to all of the above, there are even moments (such as the funeral procession) where he changes tack entirely, laying down some beautifully austere, modernist string pieces and faux-classical vamps, each time letting them gradually slide back into the realm of whacked out rock, as bass and drums slowly cleave into the mix – a neat trick that’s utilised several times over.



To think that all this madness is the work of one man frankly boggles the mind, but hey: rock n’ roll is by Billy Green. Who are we to argue? (Green also turns up in the movie, playing ‘69’, the silent biker who is often seen strumming a guitar, and sleeps next to his amp.) To call this soundtrack - recently reissued on the endlessly amazing Finders Keepers label - ‘innovative’ or ‘eclectic’ would be something of an understatement, and the music’s unhinged bravado matches Harbutt’s style of film-making perfectly.


Whereas most American biker flicks pay lip service to an ‘outlaw’ philosophy whilst simultaneously portraying their characters as simpleminded stoners and layabouts, Undertaker’s gang are a little more, well, committed to their chosen lifestyle. Sure, the Grave Diggers do their fair share of getting stoned and lazing around, but rather than just roaming around aimlessly and avoiding the fuzz, these guys are more actively concerned with maintaining a situation that allows them to exist on their own terms.


The gang live together in a fortress – some kind of ex-military clifftop bunker? – and keep armed guards on duty. In fact, they seem to have a pretty formidable arsenal, and a willingness to use it when threatened. They live communally under the joint guidance of Undertaker’s strict anti-authoritarian philosophy and Dr. Death’s semi-serious Satanic rituals, and, as they repeatedly state, they’re not going to take any shit from the pigs, gangers or anyone else. A more can-do bunch of post-‘60s radicals you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere in movies, let alone in real life; Abbie Hoffman and John Sinclair would be proud.


Actually though, there’s something slightly uncomfortable about the film’s relentless idealisation of the bikie lifestyle. This idealisation continues even as they give people a hard time, casually man-handle their ladies, beat the shit out of complete strangers etc, and at several points even sees the gang’s victims/enemies grudgingly admit that they’re ‘cool guys’, denying the film even a routine b-movie level of conflict or ideological question-raising.

Perhaps it’s no surprise to learn that Sandy Harbutt himself was a dedicated bikie, and that ‘Stone’ can be seen at least in part as a wildly exaggerated celebration of the lifestyle he was immersed in at the time. I mean, I’m assuming that Harbutt and his mates probably didn’t actually go around trashing bars, worshipping Satan, staging elaborate funeral processions and orchestrating climatic machine gun battles with criminal gangs, but the real key to what makes “Stone” such exhilarating viewing I think is Harbutt’s unique, almost contradictory, mixture of bizarre pop art excess and ground level realism.


The former aspect we’ve already covered in detail, but how often do we find a film in which such garish and outlandish situations are presented in such a no bullshit, shot-from-the-hip fashion?

Obviously most of the film’s principals (Shorter, Keays-Byrne, Gil) are professional actors, but when we get to the second tier bikies and assorted extras, it’s pretty hard to tell who’s a professional and who’s.. y’know, just a dude essentially playing him/herself. In the excellent Ozploitation documentary Not Quite Hollywood, interviewees recall that for the ‘Wild One’-esque sequence in which the Grave Diggers scuffle with a rival bikie gang, Harbutt did actually get members of two rival gangs together, waited until they got juiced up, and had his crew filming as things naturally kicked off.


All of the stunt and bike-racing footage meanwhile has a brilliant, unfakeable seat-of-yr-pants quality to it that speaks of cameras wedged on dashboards, wielded by passengers, swung across the road etc, as guys genuinely speed around like loons.

You know that incredible bike stunt I mentioned earlier, in which we see a guy driving a bike over the edge of a hundred foot high cliff straight into the ocean at top speed? Well there’s no dummy or trick editing there. What we’re seeing is legendary Australian stuntman Peter Armstrong, driving a bike over the edge of a hundred foot high cliff straight into the ocean at top speed.


Interviewed in ‘Not Quite Hollywood’, he says he passed out on impact with the water and nearly broke his back, but he reckons the shot was worth it. And not that I’m any cheerleader for reckless endangerment of life, but I’m inclined to agree – the result is more jaw-dropping than any amount of CGI-heavy action movie goonery.

I probably don’t even need to point out what a vast impact this combination of wild n’ woolly automotive carnage and bright, flawless cinematography had on Australian cinema in the decade following ‘Stone’s release, and on George Miller’s ‘Mad Max’ in particular. (Perhaps there was even more crossover between the two films than merely sharing a visual style and a few actors – I couldn’t help but notice that ‘Stone’ features a character called “Bad Max” who’s referred to several times but never appears on screen..?)


Action scenes aside though, EVERYTHING in Harbutt’s film is shot with a try-and-fucking-stop-me intensity that speaks of a genuinely driven director, from crowd scenes and brawls that play out like extracts from one of Peter Watkin’s quasi-documentaries to mind-raping psychedelic freakouts, to vistas of the kind of serene, terrifying beauty that directors like Nicholas Roeg and Peter Weir have also been able to capture in the Australian landscape.

However vague and unsatisfying ‘Stone’ may be on an intellectual or narrative level, you won’t notice whilst watching it. As a piece of pure cinema, it’s an absolute knock-out - self-defined, punk rock film-making at its finest.

19 comments:

JRSM said...

This was on Australian TV last Saturday night, and I hadn't seen it until then--can only concur with your great review. There are a couple of other historical and extreme Oz youth movements someone needs to make movies about: see the larrikin mobs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocks_Push) and the razor gangs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_gang) for starters.

RandyX said...

cool stuff

Ben said...

Thanks!

Fascinating stuff there JRSM - there's a whole world of underground Australian lore out there I suspect. Reminds me of a really interesting interview I read recently with an Australian crime writer who specialises in stuff set in Sydney in the 1940s... the accompanying extract was pretty impressive too, and I made a mental note to track some of his stuff down, then proceeded to instantly forget the guy's name... oh well.

Scubloke said...

Haven't seen the Japanese poster before - what is the BMW representing?
The Gravediggers colours are being used these days by the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club and their headquarters in the movie are gun emplacements built to keep the Russians out in the early 1800s.

Emily @ Bentobloggy.com said...

Congrats on being a fellow Blog of Note!

TommyMac said...

This is a very fascinating entry. I wish the template you are using would allow you to wrap text around the photos, it would be easier to read. Otherwise, I was indeed intrigued.

Congrats on being a Blog of Note, by the way. It's a wild ride. Hope you enjoy it.

My Blog: The Virtual Sink

film izle said...

quell, and quarrel. and for X,

Anonymous said...

Hello Ben,

Sandy Harbutt sent me the link to your very impressive blog on Stone.....Even though I am now legally called: Wil Greenstreet, I am aka: Billy Green....I am so pleased to read such a positive response to my music of so far back.....it almost feels like another lifetime ago.

I am now living in New York....I moved to the USA in 1975 (shortly after Stone was released) and have been playing the sax since 1981....not much guitar anymore. I have been playing solo sax on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building observatory (that's right, outside w/a gloriously inspiring view) for the last four years.

I just had to respond to your blog, as the old Stone music rarely gets a crit as wonderful as yours.....you are most definitely a fan and I thank you for that Ben!
Cheers,
Wil XXX

Anonymous said...

Hello Ben.
Thanks , I enjoyed your review - but you were a bit harsh on Ken Shorter , mate !
I see what you mean , but Sandy Harbutt did a great casting job.
Pity the snobbery of the time meant he never made another film.
I think the critics completely failed to understand this film.
Do they REALLY think the cheeseiness was amateurish and accidental? Clearly it was intentional.

To me , Sandy is a genius.
I'd LOVE to meet the bloke.

For all fans , I suggest you do the tour - Middle Head fort is wonderful location.
Underground scenes though were filmed at a place called the Beehive Casemate.

Gore Hill Cemetery is a beautiful,peaceful place.
I did have trouble spotting the exact filming areas , though.


HELLO BILLY !!
STONE wouldn't have been so good without the freaky music , used intelligently at the right points.
You and Doug Parkinson were bloody brilliant !
I never tire of watching the film , nor of enjoying your music.

Cheers

Marcus

Ben said...

Hello Marcus - thanks for your comment!

For the record, I don't think 'Stone' is cheesy at all - I kinda wish *all* movies were like this.

And you're right, Sandy H. comes across as a truly amazing guy here - I would LOVE to have seen the other films he might have made in a fairer world.

And yeah, the more I listen to Billy G.'s soundtrack, the more mindblowing it gets. (Oh, and for the record, I replied to his comment above via email - wouldn't want folks to think I was ignoring such an esteemed visitor...)

Thanks for the info on the locations too - the chances of my visiting Sydney any time soon are sadly pretty slim, but it's always good to know this stuff.

Anonymous said...

Hey Ben !!

I guess by "cheesy" , I mean some of the wonderfully exaggerated dialogue , EG :

1)Undertaker to Go-Down :
"Them that got you are gonna get got , too!"

2)Undertaker to the Gravediggers :
"No-one's to know this CAT is a PIG!"

3)Nightclub bloke to Stone :
"Don't lay that hard-talkin' jive on me, man !"

No doubt the "critics" thought it was poor screenplay , when of course it was brilliant humour.

As for Billy - what original creativity to turn the Dylan Thomas poem (Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night) into a rock song !!


Sorry you cannot get to Sydney but for you - and all fans of this masterpiece of a movie - there is a Facebook page called
"STONE - TAKE THE TRIP!"
Apart from Billy , Jon Ifkovitch (Zonk) posts there , too .
And "Buzzard" is trying to find Sandy Harbutt.

Sadly , Sandy has no myspace or facebook page , but after 36 years of questions and compliments from fans , maybe he's getting fed up !

A bloke has a Flickr page showing 37 photos of the location tour he did with his mate :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/desiwombat/sets/72157603445835392

Thanks Ben for giving me and others the opportunity to wax lyrical about this truly outstanding cinematic jewel.

Margaret Russell said...

GLAD, so glad I stumbled across this site tonight! I was one of the "extras" in the funeral scene - am still riding (just notched up 44 years on bikes!) and my kids are ever so proud! Although my footage ended up mostly on the cutting room floor, Sandy Harbutt was a true gentleman as well as a cinematic genius of the time and we stayed in touch by phone for years and true to his word he sent me the very first VHS copy of the documentary that was made for television, in which I can at least be seen! (I was overseas when it aired on Channel 7!)I wish I could meet up with Sandy now and take him for a spin in my sidecar! - Margaret Russell (nee Fieldus) P.S Loved your review!

edgar kale said...

having just found this box , a long , short-story , must say it has triggered a pleasant memeta-memory of a nothing-like-it-ride as pillion passenger to the immortal ifko ............here comes the cahill express tunnel , neuuly lit-up in fluro-and the B.S.A. 650 is approaching the ton in 1968 , it's late-nite and i leaned over the the shoulderlike
hands closed-perfect round pillion-strap and suggested an acting-exercise for tomoro's acting-class at drama-school---ok , so , let's consider that the tunnel is a rifle-barrel...i'll feel the hammer at the tunnel- opening and dont you for get the ' rifling;thread at the other end.........so , then the pure Sandoz-sunshine peaked brainfold bloodbeat and , i vouchsafe that johnny ifko rose in one of very feuu true hallucinations i've had , contrary to 'legend' , and proceeded to turn to face me in a lotus position and then to descendand turn back into himself in black leather , blu denim and long , raith-like arms delicately tapering to fingers featherlight around throttle and tuuistgrips clutch accelaerater and then the TUNNEL.......... and the
' rifling '....and as i stopped running to fall on face and topple back uprite HE HAD STOOD STEELSPINED AND ALREADY IN PROCESS OF MANHAULING SAID BEEZA TO ITS FEET and gesturing humbly that the beast is functional again ...ON , ON , ON , FURTHER ALL OF YOU IN
21ST SENTRY-CENTURY FREETERNAL
GREYTINGS AND HEARTFELT LOVE FROM
KHALIL DA GIBBRRAANN mess-age
all best in health happiness success

Mike said...

Killer Movie Im from the Midwest in the USA. I just got lucky seaching the internet for cool 70's biker movies and found this gem I loved it . I have 4 Harleys 2 750 hondas and a 650 lightning all from 1948 to 1980 I love old bikes and and hope to visit Austrailia soon. heck I was ready to move there till they took all you guns away. anyway stay cool and party on. Mike

Ben said...

Thanks for your comments guys!

I think I must have missed your comment when you first posted it Edgar, but cheers for such a heartfelt appreciation - really enjoyed reading it.

It's nice that so many bikers/bikies dig this film - I've never been near a bike in my life, but as a film fan I know it kicks the ass of just about every other biker movie ever made - so much love and effort went into it; a great movie.

Anonymous said...

What a great review that was , almost enjoyed it as much as the film itself. So many aspects of this film are unique and ahead of its time , George Miller must have thought so , equally Tarranrino has discovered it also which doesn't surprise// As a 40 something Australian who has ridden bikes since his teens Stone has always been a marker in my life/ At least once a year I watch it and enjoy it, Hard to believe that Sandy was shunned by the industry afterwards ( as I understand it ?) What might have been ? or maybe that was his like ' final expression' his ultimate statement after which no more needed to be said ? The music I agree is awesome sort of acid -blues- rock. Can't believe billy plays sax at the empire state lol. My favorite australian film and one of my favorite films of all genres . You either get it or you don't

adri said...

I kinda can't believe you missed why they were trying to kill off the bikies.
Granted, you were drunk, but at the beginning it's obvious toad witnessed the hit on the politician guy and the hitman saw only the "grave diggers" emblem on his jacket.
Since he couldnt tell WHICH bikie saw them, the hitman went to kill all of them before they talk.
What's not to get?

adri said...

I hate moderated comment sections - I always remember other stuff I wanna say later -.- XD

Anyway, to piggy back on my previous comment, at the end of the movie toad gets shot by a guy he chases, and when asked why is the guy important he actually explains he saw that guy kill the politician and reckons thats why he was killing off the bikies. When the undertaker asks him why didnt he say something, he says he was too stoned to prevent the hit and was afraid he'd kick him (out of the gang, I suppose).

Now the bit at the beginning is done purely visually (the hit, you see the hitman turn, the camera shows you toad's back and the vrave digger's logo), and you have to sorta put it together - but at the end you get a full verbal explanation and I'm really surprised you didnt get it. Maybe it got drowned out in all that music, style, acting, stunts, talk..?

Who knows.

Anyway, wanted you to know - tho I also realized my comment is one big spoiler, so.maybe you wanna not publish it at all...

Ben said...

Hi adri - thanks for your comments!

Your points re: my failure to pick up on this movie's plot points seem entirely fair ones.

All I can say by way of an excuse is that I wrote this review six years ago, and now have absolutely no idea what I was thinking at the time. I'll give my 2010 self a slap for you.