Red alert! Realistic films need realistic blood effects

Dann checks his email

Dann: I enjoyed your review of "Logan," although reading "R-rated" and "Marvel Comics" in the same sentence was a little weird. I liked your remark about the digital artists not being able to create realistic blood. My daughter gave me the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series on Blu-ray as a Christmas gift and I just finished the last film. Now those guys knew how to create some serious arterial spray! Give me blood bags and prosthetic limbs any day. - Tim McGlynn, Palatine.

Tim: You are a true connoisseur of high-quality, graphic, cinematic bloodletting. Nothing diminishes Grand Guignol artistry more than phony-looking, digitally created blood spurts, especially in an action movie like "Logan," a film anchored in stark realism, even though it's based on a superhero comic book.

Highly stylized action thrillers such as "John Wick 2" can get away with cartoony digital blood effects. Hyper-realisitic movies such as the World War II drama "Hacksaw Ridge" cannot. (One reason I could not give it a full four-star rating.)

In 1980, "Shogun Assassin" came out in the USA telling the gory adventures of an exiled Samurai warrior and his little son, riding around in a wooden baby carriage that functioned as the world's first tricked-out, 007 Aston Martin DB-5 from "Goldfinger."

This cart concealed all sorts of weapons, including razor blade hubcaps that could lop off the legs of opponents in its path. Cue the ultrarealistic crimson spray.

That feature combined two Japanese movies, "Baby-Cart at the River Styx" and (12 minutes of) "Sword of Vengeance," both part of the Lone Wolf and Cub series your daughter so graciously gave you.

Dear Dann: I thought I might add some perspective on your thoughts on Matt Damon as the white hero who can only save the Chinese people from the beasts (in the period action film "The Great Wall").

I don't think the issue is racism as to the casting. The reason for the casting decision? The money.

Matt Damon is a bankable movie star. Studios spend millions of dollars to produce these films and the only way they can hope to make a profit is to have a star who will make the moviegoing public buy tickets.

Should the studio have cast an Asian actor in the lead role? Maybe. But fair or not, today's Asian stars do not have the charisma of Bruce Lee. It's going to be the same reasoning when "Ghost in the Shell" comes out starring Scarlett Johansson instead of an Asian girl.

Now, Japanimation purists will object, but the general public isn't going to care. To them, it's a Scarlett Johansson action movie and they will pay to see it. It's all about the money, my friend. - Brian E. Skol, Bensenville.

Dear Brian: You make an excellent point about why Hollywood studios continue to churn out "white savior" movies. I can't speak for all film critics, but I am less interested in examining why a movie radiates vibes of white supremacy than simply pointing out such racist subtexts exist and should be stopped.

As I previously reported, the real game-changer now is "Hidden Figures," a historical drama that last month topped "La La Land" as the biggest moneymaker among the nine nominees for the Best Picture Academy Award.

No longer can a white, middle-age male studio head simply kill a production because it has A) female main characters B) nonwhite main characters C) heavy math and/or science. Studios viewed these elements as box-office poison and were used as easy excuses to sandbag minority productions.

Director/co-writer Theodore Melfi stood his ground on "Hidden Figures," otherwise, the movie would have starred Kevin Costner as a white NASA supervisor who bravely sacrificed his career advancement by standing up for three needy African-American female mathematicians.

(Costner should be good at that. His white army officer saved the entire Lakota Native American nation from extinction in "Dances With Wolves." His white bodyguard proved to be a better man for Whitney Houston than all the black men in "The Bodyguard.")

I guess it's a good thing that Matt Damon's white hero saved all the Chinese in "The Great Wall," Sam Worthington's white hero saved an entire planet of blue people in "Avatar" and Alexander Skarsgard's white hero saved a jungle full of African natives and apes in "The Legend of Tarzan."

Or is it?

WWII doc returns to Woodstock theater

"The Carrion Vine," a documentary from Front Row Productions of Woodstock, will be presented at 1 and 7 p.m. Monday, March 13, at the Woodstock Theater, 209 Main St., Woodstock.

The doc opened the theater's new Second Monday Film Club in November, and is back by popular demand. Admission for matinees and seniors costs $6. Evening admission costs $8.

"The Carrion Vine" follows 90-year-old Woodstock resident Erane Elizabeth Scully who, while vacationing in Poland at 14, was captured by Russian soldiers and sent to a Siberian labor camp during World War II. Scully will attend both screenings and conduct Q&As. See more at classiccinemas.com.

After Hours 'Neruda'

The After Hours Film Society presents "Neruda" at 7:30 p.m., Monday, March 13, at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. The drama details how Chilean cops tracked down dissident artist Pablo Larrain (Luis Gnecco), whose work struck a chord with the working classes of Chile. General admission costs $10. Go to afterhoursfilmsociety.com.

• Daily Herald film critic Dann Gire's column runs Friday in Time out!