Retro Film Review: This World, then the Fireworks (1997)

In the obituary for Charles Bronson, one of the world's most respected magazines claimed that the films today are more violent than they were in Charles Bronson's days. The author of this review disagrees with that notion, at least in the case of Hollywood films; their content today is much cleaner and more suitable for "family" audience than some quarter of century ago. But there are always exceptions to give ammunition to those moralists who complain about celluloid filth. One of such examples is This World, then the Fireworks 1997 period thriller directed by Michael Oblowitz.

Protagonist of this film, based on the novel by Jim Thompson, is Marty Lakewood (played by Billy Zane), who earns his living in 1956 Chicago as newspaper reporter. When he uncovers too much of political corruption, he is forced to leave city, his fat wife and fat son. He finds shelter in small coastal Californian town where he rekindles incestuous relationship with Carol (played by Gina Gershon), his sister and local prostitute. He also starts relationship with sexually frustrated policewoman Lois Archer (played by Sheryl Lee) in order to take money from sale of her house.

This World, then the Fireworks, apart from showing great amount of graphic violence, deals with despicable people doing despicable things. Films burdened with that can at times be entertaining or at least captivating in their own morbid way. Unfortunately, This World, then the Fireworks failed to do that, mostly thanks to director Michael Oblowitz who obviously didn't have word "subtlety" in his dictionary. Desire to shock the audience at any cost reflected in a film with poor editing and many events and subplots that are either unexplored or insulting to the viewers' intelligence. The characters are unattractive and viewers would hardly care for them, partially due to otherwise capable actors succumbing to overacting (like Billy Zane) or making their characters even less attractive than in script. Sheryl Lee, on the other hand, manages to be one of few bright spots in this film (together with Pete Rugolo's jazz-centred music score) but her efforts didn't improve generally negative impression. Films today are less violent than they used to be, but films like this one give graphic on- screen violence a bad name.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on October 21st 2003)

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