Charity Shop Challenge #1 - FTW (1994)

Director: Michael Karbelnikoff
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Lori Singer
Genre: Crime/Western/Romance
Charity shop: It was a present so I’m cheating before I’ve even started.  Sorry reader(s?).

Way back in the mists of time, before the advent of internet acronyms that needed googling to be deciphered, when Mickey Rourke’s face was still more flesh than plastic, FTW stood for F**k The World.

Rourke plays Frank T. Wells (see his initials?  How clever), a cowboy who has just got out of prison.  He killed a man but it wasn’t really his fault.  He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  With a knife.  But anyway.  He’s a loner who just wants to be free from the shackles of his past, like the wild horses that run in slow motion across the prairies of Montana.  I think this was a deep bit, but all I could think of was Susan Boyle.  Frank T. Wells just wants to make enough money to buy a ranch, so he competes in rodeos.  Lots of rodeos.  In slow motion.

Scarlett (Lori Singer) is a damaged woman.  She’s the victim of some completely unnecessary incest which only seems to be in the film to be a bit controversial.  She meets Frank T. Wells when she’s on the run from the police, after robbing a bank (in slow motion) and watching her brother get shot.  She has FTW tattooed on her hand, and she and Frank T. Wells realise they’re destined to be together.  They have quite a lot of sex: in the rain, on the car roof, in a hot spring in the middle of a field (do you get hot springs in Montana?).  But their dark pasts, and the police, are always catching up with them.  There’s a beautiful moment where they point guns at each others’ heads, such is the intensity of their love, and the dark pasts are revealed, and it’s very emotional.

Will they be able to evade the police?  Will Frank T. Wells win the rodeo championship?  Where else can they fit in some slow motion?

Highlight:  Frank T. Wells’ Native American friend gives him some advice: ‘We do what we do because something inside tells us to.  And that’s that.’

Interesting fact:  Apparently Mickey Rourke turned down Bruce Willis’ role in Pulp Fiction to write and star in FTW.  Oh Mickey, what a pity.

Conclusion: Glorious nonsense.  FTW  For The Win!

Why Should You Care That I've Seen Things?

I have been wondering, what reason can I give you to read this over the thousands of other film/culture blogs that are out there (unless you‘re my friend or family and you take pity on me)?  Well, I don’t have the contacts to get previews or exclusives (apart from the Goodnight Sweetheart musical revealed below, news I must admit I am pretty excited by).  If you don’t live in Oxford I can’t imagine you’ll be enticed by the theatre reviews (though they are of the utmost quality and are certainly worth a read).  And so, for something a little bit different, I proudly present…

THE CHARITY SHOP CHALLENGE

From time to time I will, for the sake of science, or culture, or truth, or beauty, or something, purchase a random DVD from a charity shop, and tell you all about it.  Thus will we learn about films we would probably never otherwise have heard of, and I will become a good, charitable member of society.

The Rules:
1. I will not spend more than £2 (unless charity shop DVDs are more expensive than I think they are).
2. I will not limit the choice by genre, age, perceived quality, or whether or not I have heard of anyone in it.
3. If I realise that watching random films that no-one has ever or will ever see is a massive waste of time and I should be watching something better, then I am allowed to stop.