Sam Fuller S/D

I think that film's very explicit intentional camp.

I'm willing to consider any argument along that line, but if Forty Guns was intentionally 'camp', such as Rocky Horror Picture Show and many other clearly 'camp' films, then it misses the mark more often than not. otoh, watching Fuller talk about his movies and his methods on the video interview included on Criterion's Pickup on South Street DVD, he struck me as decidedly not the sort of director to openly embrace a 'camp' sensibility. He seemed more of the proud tough guy to me.

By way of comparison, Duel in the Sun, another overly stylized western, is considered high camp these days, even though it was never directly conceived or promoted as such.

There's a whole cycle of these melodramatic campy 50's westerns - Johnny Guitar would be another clear example, there was just something in the air. I think there's a lot of queerness in Fuller - House Of Bamboo has a lot of it - and considering his egalitarian stance on much else it makes sense. Also think that in his era that could co-exist with being a "proud tough guy" to some extent.

OTM

Eddie Muller claims all of Sam Fuller's films are at heart war movies, focused on the local equivalent of the grunts in the foxhole and with a certain contempt for the commanding officers and gloryhounds. That would be consistent with emotionally deep brothers-in-arms type relationships.

The Naked Kiss was just so tough and lurid, and the characters seemed to want to exit from it and go into another film altogether. It was memorable though

My first viewing of Forty Guns. My god! A helluva picture. Aimless, what makes you think this is camp or like Johnny Guitar? While it's hyperrealist in moments, there's nothing phony about the emotions. When Bonnell guns down his own brother on his wedding night, Fuller fades to his bride in long shot standing mute beside the funeral train next to the chansonnier singing a ballad. It's so austere that I teared up.

When packing up books recently I discovered I still have Fuller's autobiography. When I unpack the boxes again I'm gonna reread it.

Um, I was explicitly quarreling with Daniel Rf's idea that Fuller intended the film to be 'camp'. I used Johnny Guitar as a counter-example, not as a complementary one.

Actually, it was Daniel who cited Johnny Guitar. I cited Rocky Horror Picture Show and Duel in the Dust. I think Fuller knew he was making a highly stylized film. The cinematography and staging are not reaching for realism. Your terms were hyper -realism and austere. I'd agree with that.

Sure! I wasn't quarreling. I wondered what you found ridiculous. Like I wrote, much of the film Fuller pitches at an operatic level to match its wide compositions, but I didn't laugh.

Characters and plot raised to an operatic pitch can easily be viewed as ridiculous if you aren't feeling in synch with it.

Every Fuller movie I've ever seen has gotten the tone exactly right. Lurid but never so over-the-top that it breaks the mood.

I think my favorite might be House of Bamboo. It's amazing-looking.

I think the fourty gunmen parading in front of Stanwyck is pretty high camp, yes.

^

Well, wouldn't you have volunteered?

Who do you think you are, Houdini?

Some very Lynchian moments in "The Naked Kiss"

Finally got around to watching Dead Pigeon On Beethoven Street - the made-for-German TV movie Fuller made in 1973. It's...well - directionless French new wave. There is a plot about a international extortion gang who funds political black mail traps, but it's mostly us (via the anonymously acted american PI) vicariously surveilling Christa Lang (a.k.a. the future Mrs. Samuel Fuller) around 70s West Germany. Co-stars include a very obviously placed Zappa 200 Motels posters. Objectively, it's not a good movie, but it is a weird one (MST3K would never have the guts).