CONSTANTINE
August 18th 2010 05:02
Category: Videos
Based on the DC/Vertigo Comics graphic novel series Hellblazer
Director: Francis Lawrence
Story by; Kevin Brodbrin
Screenplay by: Kevin Brodbrin & Frank Cappello
Producers: Lauren Shuler Donner, Benjiman Melniker, Michael E Uslan, Erwin Stoff, Lorenzo DiBonaventura & Akiva Goldsman
Starring: Keanu Reeves (John Constantine), Shia LaBeouf (Chaz), Rachel Weisz (Angela & Isabella Dodson), Tilda Swinton (Gabriel), Pruitt Taylor Vince (Father Hennessey), Djimon Hounsou (Midnite), Max Baker (Beeman), Jesse Ramirez (Scavenger). Francis Guinan (Father Garret), Jose Zuniga (Detective Weiss) Gavin Rossdale (Balthazar) & Peter Stormare (Satan)
Released by: Village Roadshow
Running Time: 116 minutes Rating: M
Heaven and Hell, Salvation and Redemption, God and Satan, dualities that have throughout the last two thousand odd years which have had a significant impact upon the Peoples of the Book; be they Muslim, Jewish or Christian, so what is the relevance to this movie adaptation of the Hellblazer graphic novels? It’s very much of relevance to this particular flick as these issues are very much at the heart of what is going on in Constantine, they’re are the bricks and mortar that comprise the story that propels along the movies drama and action. Without this trinity of dualities chances are that the story wouldn’t have any real significant impact or meaning. I can remember seeing this in the local cinema a fair while back and being impressed, although this was before I had become better acquainted with the character of John Constantine and his escapades.
Now in the graphic novel on which this film has been based the title character is an occultist/magus born from working class stock in the Merseyside city of Liverpool which is better known for its rock bands and football club than being a centre of occult significance. In this film adaptation the shores of the Mersey have been well and truly left behind, and our protagonist is an American not an Englishman, in other words there has been some serious reworking done no doubt to make it appeal to an American audience. Still it’s interesting that they kept the look of the character though, a cigarette smoking trench coat clad individual roaming the mean streets. In fact it’s surprising to see so much smoking going on in a film, made five years ago I doubt if you could get away with that now.
Constantine begins with two scavengers picking around in some kind of ruined church in the outskirts of Mexico, other than that the specifics of the actual place is not given. One of the two discovers an old hidden cache beneath what would have been the ruined floor of the original church. Reaching into the stygian depths he pulls out an object wrapped in a flag of the German Third Reich, the object is a spear head of unusual and ornate design – the Spear of Destiny no less which pierced the body of Christ as he hung on the cross. How did such a relic end up in the backwoods of Mexico? Who knows, this is not something that is revealed with any clarity in the story – all that matters is that the spear has been found and its finding is one of the key elements in a truly diabolical plot...
Meanwhile in the City of Angels we find John Constantine has been summoned by his friend and accomplice, Father Hennessey, to deal with the case of possession of a young girl. Nothing unusual there, the trouble is that this is not your usual run of the mill possession, if there was anything usual about such cases. The demon possessing the young girl is a soldier demon and it isn’t interested in really possessing the girl but using her to cross over from the infernal realms into our world in all its power and malevolence. Apparently this is very peculiar, demons can’t physically cross over and Constantine is puzzled as to why they would even make the attempt. Something is up, something that stinks with the smell of sulphur and brimstone.
And whilst Constantine and his comrade Chaz are dealing with affairs a young woman, a mental patient in one of the city’s major hospitals jumps from the rooftop crashing into the waters of a pool in the ground level via a skylight in the building’s roof. Her exodus is naturally a terminal one, but like a stone being tossed into the still waters of a mill pond it has repercussions, its ripples echo across the surface of the water and touch others, affecting them and bringing them into contact. The unfortunate suicide, Isabella Dodson, because of her act is doomed to suffer eternal torment in Hell – such is the fate of those who commit suicide. She cannot receive a Catholic burial because of her mortal sin. It seems that the Lord and his minions are very much strict entities, relying on the exact letter of the lore and the Ten Commandments as laid down in the Bible. Forgiveness and redemption are hard to achieve in this world, as Constantine himself has learnt down through the years.
This incident brings the world weary and somewhat cynical occultist into contact with Angela Dodson, the police detective sister of the dead woman who seeks answers to why her sister did what she did. She needs closure, although she has little idea what this simple objective is going to cost her or what kind of consequences it will have for the world at large. Constantine does, he realises that something bad is afoot, the exorcism involving the young girl was evidence of that, as was an attack on him by another malevolent entity just outside of Midnite’s, a nightclub that proclaims itself as a neutral ground between the various forces and powers of darkness and light. What is going on and just who is behind it? The identity of the perpetrators of the grand diabolical plan unfolding is surprising as are the means that Constantine employs to bring about a resolution. Constantine might not be true to the original graphic novels but it retains their atmosphere and frankly I found it an enjoyable movie, well worth taking the time out to watch.
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