Moviedrome

84 Charlie MoPic (1989) (1994x18)

Fecha de emisión: Ago 08, 1994

Next in tonight’s double-feature of cinematic experiments is a little-seen Vietnam movie, making its terrestrial premiere. ‘84 Charlie MoPic’ is the name of the unseen cameraman, who is one of the characters in this film; making a continuous record for the US Army Motion Picture Division - hence 'MoPic’ - of a platoon on a highly dangerous patrol. It’s the first feature of director Patrick Duncan and it was made for very little money in 1989. While most Vietnam War films seem to get made in the Philippines, this one was shot in Southern California in Super-16mm. What’s principally interesting about it is its style: it’s all shot as if it were documentary footage of an actual event in progress. Unedited news-reel material, in fact. Thus, as long as we remember that the cameraman is a participant in the story, the film functions as a stylistic experiment such as Lady in the Lake: a film noir in which the camera was also the protagonist. The actor, Robert Montgomery, being glimpsed occasionally in mirrors during the course of the film. This was also to have been the style of Orson Welles’ first feature, based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. In fact, Welles was to have appeared at the beginning of his projected but unfilmed production explaining to the audience that they were the eyes of the protagonist. Given Welles’ grandiloquence and lack of experience in the medium, perhaps it’s for the best that Heart of Darkness foundered and that he went on to make a more conventional film, Citizen Kane, instead. The concept of 84 Charlie MoPic is excellent and it’s often quite an interesting film. Its big failure is in the appearance of the actors, who no matter how desperate their situation always look as if they’ve freshly emerged from the bath and coiffure salon. Of course, the same can be said of Platoon or the Rambo movies, but they were at least shot in the tropics rather than in somebody’s back garden in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles. The style is so good, in fact,