Shame, a film by Roger Corman, is really a startling piece of cinema. Corman is well known as a schlock-meister. It was a strong business model, he would hand some young director a small budget and have them create a cheap, marketable B movie. This was how he paid the bills, but, beyond the B horror and exploitation movies, he was also a truly skilled filmmaker, and more than a few movies beyond on your queue the next time you sign into your movie download service.
Shame is a truly courageous film. It deals with the issue of racism in the south, but it did so at the dawn of the civil rights era. It was easy to make a movie about racism in the eighties or nineties. Making a movie about racism in the early sixties, that's another story entirely. Corman actually made this film in the south, in the early sixties, and he was constantly threatened and harassed by the populace of the small rural town where the film was set.
The real star of the film is William Shatner as a villainous political agent. He's currently working for a segregationist running for office, and he moves into this town with one purpose in mind: Stir up racially motivated violence. It's a dark, disturbing character, and Shatner is incredible in the role. He usually plays the sort of roles that play off of his boyish charm and good looks, his uniquely friendly sense of machismo and his humor. To see this reversed in this early role is something like seeing Henry Fonda as the villain in Once Upon a Time in the West.
The idea of casting Shatner as a vile, disgusting villain may have been inspired by the charisma of Adolf Hitler: You need a charming man to sell evil ideas.
The final shots of the film were literally grabbed on the run. The shots used at the start of the film were actually recorded while the police were literally, physically closing in and chasing Corman out of town, forcing him to hurry up and wrap the shoot, throw all the equipment in the trucks, and get the heck out of there.
Corman is earning a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars in 2010, but there has been sadly little coverage of his life and times in cinema. For as much as he's contributed, Corman's Oscar is long overdue.
Corman primarily made his name producing and directing schlocky monster movies, girly flicks and so on, but he also directed some real classics, and launched the careers of many cinematic legends, including Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Dennis Hopper. His studio taught many young actors, writers and directors the ropes, showing them how to produce a good movie on a limited budget and schedule, and he truly was one of the key figures in shaping the world of the modern American cinema.
If you've never bothered with Corman, start with Shame, then watch X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. These are two of his best, and Shame in particular is an example of what the artist is truly capable of when he's willing to take a break from his more marketable B movies and really put his heart into a film that takes courage to write, direct and release.
Shame is a truly courageous film. It deals with the issue of racism in the south, but it did so at the dawn of the civil rights era. It was easy to make a movie about racism in the eighties or nineties. Making a movie about racism in the early sixties, that's another story entirely. Corman actually made this film in the south, in the early sixties, and he was constantly threatened and harassed by the populace of the small rural town where the film was set.
The real star of the film is William Shatner as a villainous political agent. He's currently working for a segregationist running for office, and he moves into this town with one purpose in mind: Stir up racially motivated violence. It's a dark, disturbing character, and Shatner is incredible in the role. He usually plays the sort of roles that play off of his boyish charm and good looks, his uniquely friendly sense of machismo and his humor. To see this reversed in this early role is something like seeing Henry Fonda as the villain in Once Upon a Time in the West.
The idea of casting Shatner as a vile, disgusting villain may have been inspired by the charisma of Adolf Hitler: You need a charming man to sell evil ideas.
The final shots of the film were literally grabbed on the run. The shots used at the start of the film were actually recorded while the police were literally, physically closing in and chasing Corman out of town, forcing him to hurry up and wrap the shoot, throw all the equipment in the trucks, and get the heck out of there.
Corman is earning a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars in 2010, but there has been sadly little coverage of his life and times in cinema. For as much as he's contributed, Corman's Oscar is long overdue.
Corman primarily made his name producing and directing schlocky monster movies, girly flicks and so on, but he also directed some real classics, and launched the careers of many cinematic legends, including Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Dennis Hopper. His studio taught many young actors, writers and directors the ropes, showing them how to produce a good movie on a limited budget and schedule, and he truly was one of the key figures in shaping the world of the modern American cinema.
If you've never bothered with Corman, start with Shame, then watch X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. These are two of his best, and Shame in particular is an example of what the artist is truly capable of when he's willing to take a break from his more marketable B movies and really put his heart into a film that takes courage to write, direct and release.
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