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Nomads (1986) is quentessencially 80s Citizen Kane
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by Troler
Free Software fundamentally misses the point. It fails on a practical, ideological, economic, and political level. Let’s examine precisely how (in a slightly different order for the purposes of presentation).
Rosebud ↩ Reply
That's the mystery word in Citizen Kane. That's the dying words of the titular character. 'Tis the setup for a grand payoff. But before you get it, a story must unfold. ↩ Reply
And 'tis interesting how John McTiernan's debut film Nomads (1986) feels like a horror Kane. It also has a dying character say mysterious words. It also is told through flashbacks. It also feels like an art film, just from all the various slow motion, cuts with same person, talking to different people at different times and other myriad of intriguing shot decisions. Yet 'tisn't a Orson Welles' picture, this is the sociopathic, further be criminal McTiernan. And the movie is very much like the director, unhinged, and more than one way at that! ↩ Reply
The film starts out with quite an effective dramatic and bloody death of the film's protagonist Jean Charles Pommier (Pierce Brosnan), which already sets the expectations of some thrills. ↩ Reply
Unlike Citizen Kane, the movie is not told by walking to various unreliable witnesses. The second protagonist, Dr. Eileen Flax (Lesley-Anne Down) just gets the pieces of the visions, as if this was some sort of Edgar Wright film. ↩ Reply
As the pieces stack in to place, the French protagonist Pommier gets more and more suspicious, until he takes out his suit case, ready to defend his and his lovely wife's (Anna-Maria Monticelli) life. ↩ Reply
![[embedded image]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/0TEF7CLNXBM297P8.png "Taking out the big guns")
Taking out the big guns. ↩ Reply
A subversion of the expectations occurs, the metal suit case actually holds cameras. The protagonist is a research photographer, after all! But after consideration that wasn't supposed to funny. The viewer was supposed to expect there to be a camera, or were they? I cannot say, but I saw it as a gun case and for that I found amusing when I was proven wrong. ↩ Reply
There was a shot where Pommier scribbles intensely something down about the people he's tracking down. And yes, the movie has multiple layers of mysteries. Each getting closer and closer to the kernel of truth. So he writes down some words and they're just "SLEEP????" ↩ Reply
![[embedded image]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/K3ZZFEC75RLD2Y3T.png "I'm too tired to comment this picture")
I'm too tired to comment this picture ↩ Reply
I burst out laughing when I read that, since for me it seemed like the character was questioning whether it is a good idea to sleep. Later it is said he did not rest for 2 days, so it makes sense. But now I have reconsideration. Maybe the text actually meant that the anthropologist was considering whether the phenomena he was experiencing was caused by insomnia. ↩ Reply
Not all shots are this ambigious on second consideration. When action is about to rise, the camera is in full swing to show that. And the composition by the Rocky composer Bill Conti. So let your 80s long hair down and get those rad arm warmers, because the jog is about to turn into an action-horror marathon. ↩ Reply
![[embedded image]](/pictures/user_upload/Troler/U60UJHWI92F07ULU.png "Out in the valley")
Out in the valley. ↩ Reply
I got all hung up on talking about the various parts and parcels of the movie and totally forgot to speak about main word, or words to be exact — Sont des innois, sont des innois. ↩ Reply
The fact that the sentence is in French and that characters just start speaking in the language of Franks, quite frankly, makes it difficult to understand the movie. But once you do, once you pay attention and view it like a Christopher Nolan film, then it becomes one hell of a hell ride. I'd argue coming to the film and expecting the 1987 Predator is not the biggest mistake, but it is still more of a mystery-horror and less so an action film, due to the budget constraints. The tokusatsu wouldn't have likely worked, for that it better be viewer of its worth: a great start to a nutjob director. ↩ Reply
Fin ↩ Reply
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