THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (UK CERT: 12A)
Director: Guy Ritchie
Music: Daniel Pemberton
Starring: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander
REVIEW AUTHOR: Rob Stoakes
Copyright: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Themes and analogy have never been that far away from blockbuster films, even if you don’t think that they have, and this year has been a prime indicator for that. Kingsman was on the surface a Bond parody and homage, but had strong themes of class warfare. It Follows seems to follow the old horror tradition of monsters murdering sexually active teenagers, but the monster can also be seen to represent STIs, maturity and death. The film doesn’t even need to be particularly complex; Mad Max: Fury Road is essentially a feminist outline of the dangers of worshiping hyper-masculinity and one of the most unflinching looks at people as property in recent cinema history.
So what’s on Guy Ritchie’s mind? If The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is any indicator, it would be opposites. When you notice the theme, it suddenly becomes inescapable. There’s obvious stuff, like how the capitalist U.S.A and communist U.S.S.R are working together and how everyone in the film seems to not be at all bothered about the threat of a nuclear holocaust, but it goes deeper than that. Continue reading
