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Gremlins
Retrospectives
- December 2003
USA, 1984. Directed by Joe Dante. Written by
Chris Columbus. Photographed by John Hora. Edited by Tina Hirsch. Music by
Jerry Goldsmith, Noel Regney. Released by Warner Bros. 106
minutes.
Starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt
Axton, Dick Miller, Polly Holliday, Frances Lee McCain, Keye Luke, Scott
Brady, Glynn Turman, Judge Reinhold, Corey Feldman.
I feel obliged to pick a Christmas movie, and
I don't want to go down the obvious road of "It's a Wonderful Life". Still,
this is a time of year to reflect on that which is close to the heart, and
so we come to "Gremlins", which is a holiday essential for
people of a certain age. We watch it and we're surprised by how well we know
it. We smile when "Do You Hear What I Hear?" starts on the record player,
and mouth along instinctively when it conks out. We remember with fondness
little details, like the notes that Gizmo sings to on Billy Peltzer's keyboard,
or the grin on Mrs. Deagle's face when she says "I want your
dog!"
Oh, some may not understand this, and may be too
old to grasp its classic status. But out there are many who know what I mean.
They think the Bathroom Buddy is one of the coolest of movie props, even
if it does spit toothpaste all over. They too dreamed of having a Mogwai
as a pet; a cute little furry thing like Gizmo, who waddles along so sweetly,
and has big open eyes, pointy ears and a babyish sing-song
voice.
Gizmo being the strange little animal that is
given to Billy for Christmas, and Billy being played by Zach Galligan as
the hard-working, straightforwardly likeable hero of the story. Billy and
Gizmo play fun little games, but Billy's dad (Hoyt Axton) has been informed
of three important rules: Don't let him see bright light, don't get him wet
and never, ever feed him after midnight.
Yes, it quickly occurs to us that this makes little
sense, as it is always after midnight. But the point is that something is
lurking in the dark, and the wink is that any movie that starts with three
rules is going to see them broken very soon. So, we quickly learn that Mogwais
are afraid of bright lights. Droplets of water make them multiply; furry
little balls fly off of their bodies, and hatch into newborn animals. Feeding
them after midnight -- by accident, of course -- makes them enter the pupil
stage, and transform into evil goblins who will cause a rampage all around
town.
"Gremlins" is a movie that lives inside our memories
of movies, and tramples all over them with a crazed, subversive joy. It takes
place in a town called Kingston Falls, an idyllic movie set of a place which
reminds us more than a little of Bedford Falls. Indeed there is a scene where
we glimpse "It's a Wonderful Life" on TV, and George Bailey runs down a main
street that looks just like the one we have here. There are quick cinema
references thrown around in almost every scene: When the Axton character
visits a technology convention, we can see the robot from "Forbidden Planet"
as one of the exhibits, and Steven Spielberg has a cameo as an excited guest
riding around in a dune buggy. Townsfolk caricatures help us get our bearings:
Scott Brady is the arrogant, complacent sheriff; Polly Holliday plays Mrs.
Deagle, the crusty old witch who is owed money by everyone in town, and isn't
going to waive the debt; the great Dick Miller is Murray Futterman, a cranky
old WWII veteran who drinks a lot of beer and warns everyone about foreign
machinery.
The first half introduces this stuff, the second
half dances on it. The movie is a horror and a comedy, not exactly scary,
but startling; we jolt back and we laugh at how Joe Dante creates sweet or
classic images and puts a nasty spin on them for effect. Gizmo gets hung
up on a board while his evil counterparts play darts; Billy's mom finds her
kitchen invaded, and has to defend it by disposing of gremlins in the blender
and the microwave. One monster hides himself in a Christmas tree, and when
he strikes, it looks like Mrs. Peltzer is being attacked by, well, a squealing,
giggling Christmas tree.
At the time, not everybody knew how to react --
whether to share in the movie's sense of humour, and take "Gremlins" as a
funny play on beloved iconic imagery, or think of it as an admittedly skilful
B-movie that went too far with its offensive black comedy and would likely
give nightmares to kids. The reviews were divided, and for the American ratings
board, this was one more step, along with "Indiana Jones and the Temple of
Doom", that pushed them to create the classification of PG-13.
But most people enjoyed the wild ride, and the
picture was a success. It explodes impressively, as the gremlins run around
town invading the local bars, playing with electrical equipment, hiding in
mailboxes and multiplying themselves by jumping in the YMCA swimming pool.
They look ugly, satanic and slimy, with crooked sharp teeth and psychotically
amused eyes. Their appearances are gruesome enough that they don't have to
have some kind of grand villainous plan -- the audience doesn't need to hate
them, we just need to recognise how disturbing they are, and then we're free
to laugh as they loot, destroy, throw themselves about and do a lot of
high-pitched cackling. The thrills and the comedy come from the way these
things are just malevolent little bastards who want to get off on chaos;
they wreak havoc, and laugh about it like drunken hooligans.
It is right and proper, of course, that not all
holiday entertainment be sweet and benign. We're going to get enough of that
on Christmas TV; phoney TV presenters in thick layers of makeup, faking smiles
when they really wish they were at home, telling us little holiday messages
because they're in the script. Satire, and comedy in general, do better to
help us see who we are than sentiment and platitude. Even something as sick
and bizarre as this. It's got the snow and the tinsel and the colour down
right. It would be nice to look at by the warm glow of the fire and the mess
of the leftover food and decorations. At home, watching this movie with my
family, I would imagine some interesting second-level fun: My mother wanting
to change the channel and finding it all quite disgusting, getting flustered
in the way that mothers do, and the rest of the family has to learn to be
amused by. My dad falling asleep on the chair, waking up occasionally to
laugh at the movie and fall back to sleep. Me loving the fact that it's
"Gremlins", a film I grew up with. And my dog snuggling up on the couch,
every bit as cute as Gizmo.
COPYRIGHT©
2003 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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