martin (cinema history class)

Session: Halloween Month / Fallen Filmmakers, week 3
Movie: Martin (1978)
Directed by George Romero
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Eighteen-year-old Martin is really an 84-year-old Vampire living and drinking on the mean streets of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Hilarity ensues.

Background and Reaction:
Just as Romero had modernized the zombie narrative with Night of the Living Dead, he tried to update the vampire story. Now Dracula -- well, Martin, anyway -- would be living in the urban decay of the greater Pittsburgh area.

Romero did a good job of capturing the gritty feel of that late-70s environment of urban decay. The feel reminded me of other urban movies such as Death Wish and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. And I don;t imagine that it's easy to capture that; for example, The Warriors, as great as it was, didn't manage. In particular, I was fascinated by the scenes in the supermarket parking lot. Somehow they really captured my imagination. Part of the success was, I think, the grainy quality of the film -- which could, in some peoples' eyes, be a drawback. I don't know if this was a purposeful choice that Romero made, or if he was simply limited by budget. But it really worked.

Some of this movie is done remarkably well. For example, the home invasion scene may be the best in movie history, and it is only one of several very intense, edge-of-the seat scenes. The ending in particular was heartbreaking in its irony, and was probably the best part of the story.

But, despite the good things Martin had to offer, I really couldn't work up a whole lot of interest in this film. I was actually all set to rate this a 7*, but the ending was strong enough in its irony that it brought the movie up to an 8.

Ratings:
Joe: 9.9
Dave: 9.1-9.2
Sean: 3 out of 4
Me: 8
Ethan: 7

Bechdel:
Martin fails the Bechdel test.

Tangentially-Related Anecdote:
There are scenes in supermarket parking lots, where vaguely-threatening teens insist on carrying customers' bags in exchange for an extorted tip. These remind me of the New York of my youth, where we had the same problems. And don't get me started on the Squeegee men.

*Maybe this is an example of grade inflation. In the context of this class, a 7 rating from me is not good. Of course, a 9 rating from Joe is really bad, since (in his rating scheme) all scifi and horror films start with a 9. For him, ratings lower than 9 are reserved for other genres such as romcoms.