{"id":3287,"date":"2011-07-25T12:44:12","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T16:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=2256"},"modified":"2011-07-25T12:44:12","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T16:44:12","slug":"women-in-prison-part-ii-red-heat-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=3287","title":{"rendered":"Women in Prison, Part II: Red Heat (1985)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just uploaded is a review of Linda Blair’s second Women in Prison films, Red Heat<\/strong><\/a> [M<\/a>], made in 1985, and often confused with the 1988 Arnold Schwarzenegger-Jim Belushi buddy cop film – a fine comic book film, but largely missing the social wrongness that permeates every frame once Blair in thrust into a dank East German jail in spite of her vocal American citizenship declaration.<\/p>\n

Red Heat<\/strong> (Panik House) is silly, but there is a strong anti-East German (aka the GDR) sentiment running through the film, making it much more political that prior WIP films. There’s also the valid question of what would it take for a government to distance itself from an incarcerated citizen instead of doing everything within its diplomatic reach to secure the release of someone, if not demand proof a genuine transgression had been committed.<\/p>\n

From a Canadian perspective, just from observing & reading news reports over the past 10 years, if an American citizen is wrongfully arrested or tossed in jail under grey circumstances, the U.S. Government – at least via its media persona – does everything it can to rescue its own; if a Canadian falls into unfortunate circumstances, that person is on his \/ her own. Media-wise, bureaucrats are cold & indifferent, and if you get out, you might be required to pay for a new passport and plane ticket home, as happened not long ago when a Canadian citizen was snatched by Afgan terrorists, assaulted, and eventually made her way to the Canadian Consulate after a lucky escape.<\/p>\n

There may be a preponderance of happy endings out there, but whenever a Canadian appears on TV after making his \/ her way home, when asked about the Canadian Government’s positive role in the drama, they tend to be more diplomatic, if not terse.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

See how Sylvia wields her special baton with amazing calm and concentration?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/strong>Red Heat<\/strong>‘s basic premise still works because we also hear of naive (bonehead?) figures wandering close to, attempting to test, or hiking into an area within the border of a dangerous nation such as North Korea. However, being a WIP film, credibility dwindles once nudity, abuse, nudity, abuse and much jiggling fills the screen; it’s fair to say that when Blair’s shoved into a shower stall in her birthday suit, it’s clear Red Heat<\/strong> has formally disrobed and revealed its true colours.<\/p>\n

Panik House’s DVD features a 94 mins. cut, which is apparently longer than prior Region 2 DVD editions (including the German release), but it’s still missing footage, so in addition to reviewing the film, I’ve cited a trio of deleted scenes that apparently remain exclusive to older VHS transfers. This new release contains a superior transfer, but it lacks the Blair commentary track that accompanies the Canadian VSC release – perhaps the only time anyone associated with this film will ever sit down, watch it (stomach it?) after decades, and ruminate on its colourful qualities.<\/p>\n

In Part 3 of this splendid series, I’ll look at the third and final film in Panik House’s WIP triptych, Jungle Warriors<\/strong> – a silly, ridiculous film featuring one of the worst title songs ever.<\/p>\n

This week I’ll have more Kubrick, soundtrack reviews + this month’s upcoming release tally, and horror from Anchor Bay.<\/p>\n

I’ll also have a tribute to Elwy Yost, the Canadian broadcaster who pased away last Friday at the age of 85. The Star<\/a> offers an unfortunately brief obit, whereas the CBC<\/a> piece is more rich in factual details, but I’ll chime in more personal reflections, because the reason I got into film, went to film school, and write about movies is due to his influence. He was a genuine treasure, and is probably responsible for instilling a broad appreciation for classic films – American, Canadian, and foreign – in maybe a quarter to half a million viewers in Buffalo and Ontario between 1974-1999.<\/p>\n

That is a helluva legacy.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just uploaded is a review of Linda Blair’s second Women in Prison films, Red Heat [M], made in 1985, and often confused with the 1988 Arnold Schwarzenegger-Jim Belushi buddy cop film – a fine comic book film, but largely missing the social wrongness that permeates every frame once Blair in thrust into a dank East […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-R1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}