Movie 78: Army of Darkness

Starring: Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, Richard Grove, Bridget Fonda.

Director: Sam Raimi.

When I started this blog, I was wary of doing much in the way of horror-comedies.  To say that I don't like them would be unfair and incredibly inaccurate, but at the same time you end up going down an unfortunate path of asking what actually qualifies as horror and what doesn't.  If nothing else, Army of Darkness needed inclusion only because of its connection to the Evil Dead series, even if has nearly nothing in common thematically or stylistically with the rest of the series.

Ostensibly, I like the film but at the same time haven't been a huge fan of it.  It's a perfectly fine film, it's just...well, I'm a horror guy.  Always have been, always will be.  But in the tradition I've come to observe with this blog I will be objective with it and try to distance my preference for the other films from my mind.

Even if the character becomes grating more often than not, Campbell plays Ash with so much conviction and affection for the character that he remains charismatic.  Not sure where his rude behavior and unmatched arrogance actually came from-it's not an organic development-but I suppose it was necessary to subvert the "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court" subversion the film strives so hard to present.  If nothing else, the choices made in this film might not speak to me specifically, I can understand why each choice was made and what function it serves...and they all DO serve a function.

I kind of look at this film as the training wheels for Sam Raimi's ability to handle a mainstream film...there's a good chance Raimi never would have gotten the opportunity to make his mostly-decent Spider-Man franchise without Army of Darkness.  Darkness proved to studio heads that he could make a quality movie when given a little bit of money and the ability to innovate, after all.  It also plays to Raimi's greatest strength: his sense of humor.

Richard Grove as Henry The Red might be one of my favorite things ever.

Y'know, it might be possible that one of the biggest reasons this movie leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth is that everybody quotes it so frequently, usually without any real reason to.  There's only so many times I can listen to a fan talk about "boomsticks" and the like before it just grates on me. 

The whole film does a nice riff on the old-school sword-and-sorcery stuff...even the jerk, square jawed hero hooking up with the Woman after the standard misunderstanding and mutual dislike.  His chainsaw doubles as a magic sword.  Even his selfish attitude warming to heroism...it's all in the old days of Errol Flynn and the like.  Hell, even a lot of the effects are straight Harryhausen Clash Of The Titans stuff.

 Other than Campbell's mugging and slapstick abilities-which are very formidable-I really never found the "little Ash" scenes funny or interesting.  Campbell is very, very good at what he does, though, and it's impressive.  Even his hammy performances as the little versions show some extraordinary talent.

The Director's Cut has the much better "I ain't that good" line in place of "Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun."  It's just...it's so much better, guys.  Nobody quotes it.

Even when the gags feel flat, they still look great.  The effects work in Army of Darkness is very, very good. And not every gag fails: The skeletons doing Three Stooges gag is undeniably funny, especially when he puts the fan up to keep them poking him in the eyes...and so they poke him from the sides instead.  I laughed.  Couldn't help it.

Raimi has a lot of fun with a lot of fantasy tropes in general...Ash's "are you with me speech" and subsequent training/preparation montage is all pretty standard stuff but Raimi plays it with a sense of nostalgic, affectionate comedy that works pretty well.  The invading horde stuff plays largely the same way, along with one of Danny Elfman's better scores, to strong effect.  The Director's Cut is largely superior to the theatrical version...some of the sillier line reads get ditched in favor of more dramatic reads...it lends far more credibility to the proceedings.  

The scope of the battle is handled very well, primarily by keeping a lot of the action to smaller, digestible bits.  That compartmentalization doesn't diminish how well the sheer amount of extras and stunt men that Raimi had to wrangle is handled.  

I do feel like Embeth Davidtz isn't as strongly utilized as she could be, especially since she's literally the only female character in the film whatsoever.  There is next to no characterization for Sheila.  There's a brief bit about her Brother, and then she becomes the assigned love interest for Ash, then she's captured by the villain and turned into a monster and...well, that's about it.  But, there really aren't any actual characters in any of these movies except for Ash, so I suppose it's a moot point.

Oh, right, The Director's Cut had the alternate ending with the Rip Van Winkle thing.  It's not a bad ending, might even be preferable to the cartoonish S-mart ending.  It's a little bleak, but the endings of the previous ones were, too.

Final Thoughts:  In Summation?  It's still a little too silly to my tastes.  It wears its immaturity proudly and stylishly, though, and it's definitely a fun film.  Campbell showcases his talents quite well throughout, and Raimi proves he has the capability to handle a larger-scaled production.  

Final Rating: Three Stars.