Saint Jack

Rating:
Summary: Casablanca in the Far East (Time capsule of Singapore)
Review: "Saint Jack" is a character movie, revolving around Jack Flowers (Ben Gazzara), an American hustler trying to make his fortune in 1970s Singapore in small time pimping. He dreams of building a fortune by running a brothel himself and returning to the States to lead a life of luxury. Savvy but not unsavory he strikes up a friendship with the character played by Denholm Elliot, a genial and decent auditor who travels to Singapore every year. (Elliot's character is not unlike his role in the Indy Jones movies, except less bumbling)

Bogdanovich does a wonderful job of weaving the web of relationships around Jack - the girls, the hotel owners, the madam and the expatriate Americans and English who form Jack's clientele. Through their interactions with Jack, we get a rich character sketch of a fundamentally decent and loyal man beneath the worldly and pragmatic exterior. Not unlike Bogart in Casablanca.

The setting of Singapore in the 1970s deserves a mention because it is as much a star of the film as Gazzara. This film was shot without the permission of the Singapore government and is still banned in Singapore for it's not necessarily flattering portrayal of the country. But it is a surprisingly successful attempt to capture the look and feel of Singapore in that lost era - in that transition stage after its days as an exotic colonial outpost visited by the likes of Somerset Maugham but before it cleaned up and catapulted into wealth. For this alone the movie is something of a rare gem, both in craft and content. Singaporeans who lived through the 70s will recognize the remarkable authenticity. "Casablanca", which merely offers a caricature of Casablanca, doesn't even come close in this regard.

Ultimately, the background of the Vietnam War comes into the picture as Jack is offered the opportunity by the CIA to run a brothel for the R&R activities of US soldiers on leave in Singapore. The movie weaves in deeper issues here which are not as clearly communicated as in the book (are they ever?). The soldiers are not altogether themselves - psychologically damaged as it were. In a scene where a CIA operative and Jack survey the frolicking soldiers and comment that they are leading the happy lambs to the slaughter, the more sinister nature of the R&R operation is made clear.

The anti-war theme continues as Jack is offered wealth, and the opportunity to leave Singapore to return to the States that it confers, if he assists in photographing an anti-war US congressman (played by George Lazenby - incidentally an early striptease scene in the movie plays to Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" as a tongue in cheek reference to Lazenby's role as Bond 10 years prior) in a compromising situation. The moral dilemma of going against the greater good by hobbling the anti-war effort versus obtaining one's personal desire to leave Singapore is again, redolent of "Casablanca".

There is no Ingrid Bergman to provide glamour and no French police chief to provide comic relief, but "Saint Jack" offers a more satisfying Bogart in Gazzara - a "Casablanca" for the real world and all it's complexities.

Rating:
Summary: Overlooked marvelous movie
Review: In fact at some moment after veiwing the film for the 15-th time one starts to notice that Gazarra is in effect playing a role, one notes with critique that "this could have been done differently" and "that could have certainly been done better". But tell me what movie will pass this "perfection" test after 15 reviews? In fact there are too few films that are worth numerous re-veiwing and Saint Jack is one of the few.

The movie is balanced, slow-pace and absolutely nostalgic for the 60-s and the old world order. Especially for those who were in South-East Asia in the 60-s and early 70-s.

DVD sound seemed a bit strange - as if from a different source. Pic quality is O.K.

This is truly a once a rare stuff that was absolutely impossible to get 3 years ago (I had been actually looking for it and the best I could get was a second-hand 13 years-old VHS tape on an e-auction - untill they made a DVD earlier this year)

Rating:
Summary: Overlooked marvelous movie
Review: In fact at some moment after veiwing the film for the 15-th time one starts to notice that Gazarra is in effect playing a role, one notes with critique that "this could have been done differently" and "that could have certainly been done better". But tell me what movie will pass this "perfection" test after 15 reviews? In fact there are too few films that are worth numerous re-veiwing and Saint Jack is one of the few.

The movie is balanced, slow-pace and absolutely nostalgic for the 60-s and the old world order. Especially for those who were in South-East Asia in the 60-s and early 70-s.

DVD sound seemed a bit strange - as if from a different source. Pic quality is O.K.

This is truly a once a rare stuff that was absolutely impossible to get 3 years ago (I had been actually looking for it and the best I could get was a second-hand 13 years-old VHS tape on an e-auction - untill they made a DVD earlier this year)

Rating:
Summary: Saint Jack-Gazzara Par Excellence
Review: Saint Jack is a renarkable character piece directed by Peter Bogdanovich. He made the film while still working for Roger Corman(Corman produced-and it's one of the best films he has his name on). Ben Gazzara plays Jack Flowers, a Korean War Vet living in Singapore. He's a pimp/wheeler dealer of sorts, but a kind hearted one. Gazzara's performance here is one of the best of his career. When Jack is faced with a crucial decision, one that could make him a lot of money, he finds himself in a rather precarious moral position. Great, great film from Bogdanovich-ranks right up there with PAPER MOON and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW.

Rating:
Summary: Saint Jack-Gazzara Par Excellence
Review: Saint Jack is a renarkable character piece directed by Peter Bogdanovich. He made the film while still working for Roger Corman(Corman produced-and it's one of the best films he has his name on). Ben Gazzara plays Jack Flowers, a Korean War Vet living in Singapore. He's a pimp/wheeler dealer of sorts, but a kind hearted one. Gazzara's performance here is one of the best of his career. When Jack is faced with a crucial decision, one that could make him a lot of money, he finds himself in a rather precarious moral position. Great, great film from Bogdanovich-ranks right up there with PAPER MOON and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW.

Rating:
Summary: Character study with a great character actor
Review: Saint Jack is unique among Peter Bogdanovich's films in that it is more than any other focused on a single character, Jack Flowers, played by the great character actor Ben Gazzara. What comes out in the film is that living in Singapore, Flowers gets to strut his stuff as an American, taking advantage of the totally loose environment of Singapore in the 70s to run a fancy whorehouse. He knows and calls many native residents by their first name, wears Hawaiian shirts most of the time, looks relaxed and doesn't even flinch much when his place is ruined.

Befriending William Leigh, one of the several Brits who hangs out in this strange metropolis, Flowers is both amused and touched by Leigh's conventional stiff upper lip "Brit-ness". As Flowers encounters Singaporean thugs, young, horny American soldiers (the setting is the early 70s during the VietNam conflict when Yanks were given a respite in Sin City aka Singapore), dissolute Brits (it seems all they do is drink, sing, and complain), and his beloved hookers, he keeps his calm--one thing Gazzara is great at portraying--and banters with the best of them.

The question really is, Why? It's never actually answered, but we do have a lot of fun encountering these various people and seeing what Singapore looked like back then (it's changed so much, says Bogdanovich in an intriguing interview included with the DVD, that you wouldn't recognize it now if you knew it from back then). Flowers makes his way through it all unruffled, joking, shrugging off tragedy when it occurs, until, near the end, it hits home and he sobers up--for a short time. And then it's back to being Saint Jack, the go-to guy for all high rollers, gotta-have-fun people, and those who just want to drift through life.

This is a lot more than a travelogue; it's a way of life that has sadly passed us by in our current terrorism-wired world, and for that--combined with the fascinating portrait of a bygone era in a city that no longer exists as it did--it's definitely worth seeing.

Rating:
Summary: Tedious trip down memory lane
Review: The most outstanding part of this movie was seeing Singapore in the 1970s, a bygone era of roadside eateries, straggling Englishmen and safari suits in the stifling tropical heat.
Singapore today -- with all the bumboats cleared from a once stagnant, dank Singapore River and its prostitution now corralled into neat neighborhoods -- has gained and lost much in that time.
As a Singaporean who was still in kindergarten when the movie was filmed (and was not even born during the time period the movie was based in), it is a fascinating visit to a half-remembered time that previously existed only as tinted memories in my mind. Alas, that visceral, seedy but very atmospheric Singapore no longer exists as openly.
Set against this backdrop, the story -- as it were -- seems almost incidental. Ben Gazzarra plays John "Jack" Flowers, a men ultimately of deep conscience, who aspires to and briefly operates a succession of brothels that cater to American GIs on R&R from a diminishing Vietnam war (and gets paid for his effort by a motley crew of bell-bottomed gangsters with the creation of some impromptu tattoos).
Along the way, he encounters a series of colorful characters, including a parade of prostitutes and transsexuals, the CIA and George Lazenby.
Of particular enjoyment and a foil to highlight Flowers' humanity is William Leigh (Denholm Elliot), a sweet Hong Kong-based accountant who tragi-comically dies of a heart attack (preceded by a short generalized seizure and immediately followed by a half-hearted attempt at CPR).
The movie is fairly weak on narrative, dialogue is often mumbled in a thick Singaporean accent even I occasionally had difficulty with and Peter Bogdanovich plays hard and fast with chronology (a time period of about a year passes unannounced at one point between one moment and the next).
Ultimately, you should see this movie if you are interested in Singapore or South-East Asia in the 1970s, the amorality of a moral man or the cinematic representation of the business practices and stealth abilities of local gangsters.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Film, Tedious Commentary
Review: This is a really great film if you want to watch something that's tremendously atmospheric and realistic. It was shot in Singapore in the late 1970s, and was intended to portray the country in the early 1970s, when the US war was still raging in Vietnam and US soldiers roamed throughout East Asia looking for some "R & R" (which usually meant prostitutes and booze).

Peter Bogdanovich shot the film almost entirely in the back-lots and alleys of Singapore, and the realism is astounding, since he used 99% genuine locations, and 95% local non-actors playing supporting roles. This was the "old" Singapore, teeming with life and seething masses of people who moved through the markets and shops and alleyways, making transactions and interacting. The realism is so palpable that I could almost feel the steamy tropical mugginess, and the swarms of people milling about the city. I could almost smell the good (and bad) fragrances that mingled in the air, and I could certainly hear the cacaphony of noises that the movie recorded in the background. This was the pre-sterile Singapore, which has now been completely obliterated in the name of "progress". What is now an island of relentless skyscrapers was, twenty-five years ago, a jumbled metropolis of terraced wooden houses, shops, and hovels, along with some magnificent older architecture (like the famed "Raffles" Hotel).

The story of "Saint Jack" is that of an American pimp, played by Ben Gazzarra, and his attempt to run a successful business catering to the relentless flood of American GIs who traveled around searching for a quick "good time". The secondary character is a British businessman, played by Denholm Elliott, who visits Jack three times in the course of the movie, each visit constituting an "act" in the plot. Both Gazzarra and Elliott are fantastically natural performers, and one can hardly differentiate between the times when they are speaking written dialogue, or when they are improvising.

I had a huge problem with the commentary by Bogdanovich - it is mind-numbingly boring and repetitious. The vast majority of it is: "this (setting) was real", over and over again. Or else "this (Chinese store-keeper/clerk/prostitute) was not a professional actor". Or "this dialogue was improvised/written by the actors". DO NOT waste your time listening to the commentary. Instead, watch the interview with Bogdanovich - he says it all there, and he says nothing in the commentary that he hasn't already said much more succinctly in the interview. I was actually considering using one of those "clickers" to COUNT every time he used the word "real" in the commentary, but then I realized it would be an exercise in futility, since I am certain that he said it at least 250 times in the course of the commentary.

This was definitely a case where my great admiration for the director based on the movie itself was decreased by hearing the director's monotonous and unimaginative commentary.

And I could have used a "helpful" commentary, since this DVD does not include close-captioning, and there was often dialogue that I couldn't quite catch or understand. Thus, there were some aspects of the movie that I couldn't appreciate, since I wasn't quite sure what was happening in the plot.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Film, Tedious Commentary
Review: This is a really great film if you want to watch something that's tremendously atmospheric and realistic. It was shot in Singapore in the late 1970s, and was intended to portray the country in the early 1970s, when the US war was still raging in Vietnam and US soldiers roamed throughout East Asia looking for some "R & R" (which usually meant prostitutes and booze).

Peter Bogdanovich shot the film almost entirely in the back-lots and alleys of Singapore, and the realism is astounding, since he used 99% genuine locations, and 95% local non-actors playing supporting roles. This was the "old" Singapore, teeming with life and seething masses of people who moved through the markets and shops and alleyways, making transactions and interacting. The realism is so palpable that I could almost feel the steamy tropical mugginess, and the swarms of people milling about the city. I could almost smell the good (and bad) fragrances that mingled in the air, and I could certainly hear the cacaphony of noises that the movie recorded in the background. This was the pre-sterile Singapore, which has now been completely obliterated in the name of "progress". What is now an island of relentless skyscrapers was, twenty-five years ago, a jumbled metropolis of terraced wooden houses, shops, and hovels, along with some magnificent older architecture (like the famed "Raffles" Hotel).

The story of "Saint Jack" is that of an American pimp, played by Ben Gazzarra, and his attempt to run a successful business catering to the relentless flood of American GIs who traveled around searching for a quick "good time". The secondary character is a British businessman, played by Denholm Elliott, who visits Jack three times in the course of the movie, each visit constituting an "act" in the plot. Both Gazzarra and Elliott are fantastically natural performers, and one can hardly differentiate between the times when they are speaking written dialogue, or when they are improvising.

I had a huge problem with the commentary by Bogdanovich - it is mind-numbingly boring and repetitious. The vast majority of it is: "this (setting) was real", over and over again. Or else "this (Chinese store-keeper/clerk/prostitute) was not a professional actor". Or "this dialogue was improvised/written by the actors". DO NOT waste your time listening to the commentary. Instead, watch the interview with Bogdanovich - he says it all there, and he says nothing in the commentary that he hasn't already said much more succinctly in the interview. I was actually considering using one of those "clickers" to COUNT every time he used the word "real" in the commentary, but then I realized it would be an exercise in futility, since I am certain that he said it at least 250 times in the course of the commentary.

This was definitely a case where my great admiration for the director based on the movie itself was decreased by hearing the director's monotonous and unimaginative commentary.

And I could have used a "helpful" commentary, since this DVD does not include close-captioning, and there was often dialogue that I couldn't quite catch or understand. Thus, there were some aspects of the movie that I couldn't appreciate, since I wasn't quite sure what was happening in the plot.

Rating:
Summary: Crystal clear memories and fuzzy DVD
Review: Who knows why a movie makes an impact? I traveled a lot in SE Asia during the period that the movie depicts and I was thrilled to once again "visit" the Singapore of my memories: the markets, the alleys, the old neighbourhoods and the old, faded Raffles. I was thrilled to roam these locations once again with Ben Gazzara. The music by Satchmo actually drove me into a buying frenzy to re-acquaint myself with his fabulous music, so moody, so atmospheric, so perfect in this movie. Yes, yes! My memories weren't all wrong, I remembered this movie for good reason. It is indeed one of these overlooked special movies that you can watch many times over and enjoy every single time. Very similar in fact to traveling to Singapore on numerous trips. I remember clearly that I thought that Ben made a huge mistake when he let his ladyfriend walk out - "stupid" was her last comment. Ah, it was the right thing for the movie, but being a romantic at heart I was hoping for a happy end. I will defer to the "professional" reviews of this movie - I agree with them.

Now, the reason why I rate this DVD only 3 stars. I thought that the picture quality was at times poor - looked occasionally like a poor copy of an overly used movie-reel - and on a number of occasions there was very abrupt cutting. Was that the case with the original? I don't recall and I don't know. It just was rather jarring. And, somehow, I didn't feel that the soundtrack featuring Armstrong's marvelous music was up to par. This is DVD and the music should be of appropriate quality. So, I got this uncomfortable feeling that this DVD looks and sounds like a low budget conversion. Maybe it is a curse that sometimes memories are crystal clear and unfortunately this DVD features some fuzziness and nicks and scratches.