In 1969 the first comic book version of G.O.T.G. was born into the Marvel universe. Then in 2008 they were rebooted and the main protagonists (and villains) that became the team, containing previous and new members, were brought together to protect the galaxy. We’ll call them the modern team. These are the Guardians that are featured in this fantastic film version of the comics.
Casting is key here, Chris Pratt is perfect as the Starlord, Peter Quill as are the rest of the team. Zoe Saldana, always excellent, is Gamora, Dave Bautista is Drax, Bradley Cooper brings the voice of a fantastic character, Rocket Raccoon and Vin Diesel uses his dulcet tones to bring to life another great character, Groot. The original serial killer, Michael Rooker is on tough guy duties as Yondu, the sometime collaborator of Quill. Lee Pace delivers the bad guy, Ronan the Accuser to life. Bringing up the support are John C. Reilly, Peter Serafinowicz, Djimon Hounsou, the beautiful Laura Haddock and the irrepressible Glenn Close. Special mentions go to Karen Gillan as Nebula and Alexis Rodney as Moloka Dar.
Now, with a cast like this, your acting duties are well taken care of. All you need is a great story, directing, soundtrack and the elements are all in place.
James Gunn directs this wonderful addition to the Marvel canon with aplomb.
Marvel just seems to be getting better and better at delivering brilliant, entertaining superhero films. The last venture being Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which showed that they are beginning to make films worthy of their pedigree. Although the previous films have made a shed-load of money, they have fallen short of artistic quality. With Guardians they are establishing a real understanding of how to do it properly.
This film ticks so many of the right boxes, the set ups, the characters, story, the humour and effects and one would surely be looking forward to the next film in this series.
This is a big budget film with great low budget sensibilities.
The Guardians are Iron Man and the Hulks geekier, less cool, younger cousins.
This one has come out of the gates racing ahead of the race with a rag tag group of reprobates truly kicking the door of the hinges of the Marvel film universe.
This film has been with me for many, many years. I was 15 when I saw it and was just blown away by it. It contains my favourite soundtrack of ALL TIME, De Niro in his prime, the volatile James Woods, the first sighting of the beautiful, Jennifer Connelly, the time jumps, the kids, Bugsy, Pesci, Burt Young, opium, gangsters, loyalty, betrayal, New York, Dominic slipping, the cake scene, Elizabeth McGovern, Tuesday Weld, Danny Aiello, the babies scene, going for a swim, Fat Moe, William Forsythe, Treat Williams and the unions all brought beautifully together by the mighty Italian director, Sergio Leone. This was his 10th and final film.
I have seen it countless times and it gets better with every viewing. Always the 229 minute version, thanks goodness I never got to witness the abomination that was the American cinema release, the butchered 139 minute chronologically ordered version cut by the studio. This version was described by Roger Ebert as a “travesty”.
This is probably one of the main reasons it isn’t as well known as it should be. Had it been released in America in its original version (Leone still had to cut it down from his 269 version to 229 to appease the distributors).
The Europeans got it. It became a critical hit but commercial flop, thanks to the Ladd Company who felt it was too long and had no commercial value. When the film premiered at Cannes in 1984, it received a 15 minute standing ovation.
Set in New York spanning the 1920’s to the 1960’s it tells the tale of four Jewish friends, Noodles, Max, Patsy and Cockeye and their journey from two bit punks to bona-fide gangsters. It takes in along the way, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, greed and loss as it charts their exploits in the world of crime and prohibition.
The music is as big a character in the film as the actors, sweeping the audience along.
Ennio Morricone has rarely been better, it is a score that works from beginning to end and adds the epic, operatic touch that helps make the film what it is. Morricone had completed the score about 10 years before filming and there were times when the music was played during the scenes while they were being filmed. Leone had used this technique previously in Once Upon a Time in the West.
The new scenes are all great, no duds, from the inclusion of Louise Fletcher as the director of the cemetery where Noodles’ friend are buried, to the extra Treat Williams scene in the 1960’s are all worthy of inclusion. What as shame that the 6 hour version, Leone originally wanted to release the film in 2 parts, is lost to us.
It’s worth noting that the title gives us a clue of what the film may be. ‘Once Upon a Time’ indicates a story, a fairy-tale, a fantasy. Is the whole future an imagining that Noodles creates in his opiated state? One interpretation is that the whole thing is Noodles’ dream, the film begins and ends with him in an opium den in 1933; remembering his past and envisioning his future.
It’s based on the novel The Hoods by Harry Grey (real name Herschel Goldberg) and is meant to be semi-autobiographical. The novel is different from the film as Leone felt that the childhood aspects of the book were more interesting and original than the later sections.
Leone met Grey in 1968, which shows that he was planning on making the film for a long time before filming began in June 1982 and finished almost a year later in April 1983.
After the American studio spliced his film into chronological order and took the majority of his film and left it on the editing floor, Leone was heartbroken and never made another film.
He passed away in 1989.
The pace of the movie is incredibly dreamlike, shots are held for a long time, lengthening moments. Take for example the telephone ring at the beginning of the film; it goes on for a long time with extended silences between the rings.
Brian Bloom, who played the young Patsy, has gone on to make a successful career for himself, in voice-over work and television acting work. A jobbing actor until the 2000’s when he became very successful in the video game voice-over world. He appeared in a couple of episodes of HBO’s Oz. With eyes like that, you’d have thought he would be in front of the camera more than in a booth using his vocal skills.
Not so lucky was James Hayden, who played the older Patsy. He died of a heroin overdose whilst playing an addict in American Buffalo starring opposite his pal, Al Pacino on Broadway, thus denying him the chance to hit the big time when this film was released.
Here is a two part documentary about the making of this magnificent film:
This film is a testament to the genius that was Sergio Leone.
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