THE FIRSTS. “Django.” / “Planet of the Apes.” / “The Stepford Wives.” / “Lord of the Flies.”

“Django” (1966, Plex) spaghetti Western film directed, produced and co-written by Sergio Corbucci. Stars Franco Nero in his breakthrough role as the title character. Do you remember him? I do. But only when we talk about Django.

       The film follows Django, a Union soldier-turned-drifter and his companion, a mixed-race prostitute, who become embroiled in a bitter, destructive feud between a gang of Confederate Red Shirts and a band of Mexican revolutionaries. 

       Like Sergio Leone's “A Fistful of Dollars,” Signor Corbucci's “Django” is considered to be a loose, unofficial adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's “Yojimbo.” 

       Are you still wondering what was inside the coffin that Django drags around? Corpse? Guitar? Assortment of pasta dishes? Go watch Django. Reminds me as well of old Filipino action movies, especially the cartoonish laughter of those sinister villains. Bwahahaharhar! Also, I bet the idea of women mud wrestling came from this movie. 🎥💻📽

“Planet of the Apes” (1968, Tubi) science fiction film, loosely based on the 1963 novel by Pierre Boulle, and directed by Franklin J. Schaffner from a screenplay by Michael Wilson and Rod Sterling (yes, the twilight zone guy).

       In the film, an astronaut crew crash-lands on a strange planet in the distant future. Although the planet appears desolate at first, the surviving crew members stumble upon a society in which apes have evolved into creatures with human-like intelligence and speech. The apes have assumed the role of the dominant species and humans are mute primitives wearing animal skins.

       This first of the iconic franchise had Charlton Heston as George Taylor and Roddy McDowall as Dr. Cornelius. The two are familiar faces in my childhood's movie-watching madness. The storytelling here is very fluid and structured although the dialogues are talky and sound cliché. But this is cinema before the awesome computerized effects, chroma key screen or “green screen,” and CGI. And I enjoyed watching it again like it was the first time. 🎥💻📽

“The Stepford Wives” (1975, Tubi) satirical psychological thriller, based on Ira Levin's 1972 novel of the same name. The film stars Katharine Ross as a woman who relocates with her husband and children from New York City to the Connecticut community of Stepford, where she comes to find that the women live lives of unwavering subservience to their husbands.

       Although this movie was praised by many critics then and now (I am not very impressed), it'd be more compelling to read Mr Levin's “feminist horror” book. Let a picturesque imagination supply the visual version and physical drama of the thriller. But Ms Ross’ performance as Joanna Eberhart, paranoid and trapped, especially in the last 20 minutes of the less than 2-hour feature, is worthy of a thumbs-up. 

       And yes those big hairs of the 1970s! 🎥💻📽

“Lord of the Flies” (1990, Plex) survival drama film based on the 1954 book “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. It is the second film adaptation of the book, the first was in 1963, which I didn't see.

       Critics say that this 1990 version differs in many ways from both the 1963 film and the novel. I agree. Director Harry Hook and scriptwriter Jay Presson Allen departed from the novel although their version still centers on Ralph mainly as the children try to initiate a society after crash-landing on an uncharted island. The ending is kinda corny, simplistic. 🎥💻📽