We’re all familiar with the
expression “smooth as silk” (even the titular character in Cirio Santiago’s film
knows it; “Because I’m so fuckin’ smooth”).
We’re all familiar with how the material is produced, as well (from the
butts of caterpillars, amongst other creepy crawlies, just in case you
weren’t). For the life of me, however,
I’ve never understood its appeal. Sure,
it looks nice and shiny and supernaturally wrinkle-free. I get that it’s considered a luxury due to
the arduous process of harvesting it (have you ever tried to milk a
caterpillar? Me neither, but I can’t
imagine it’s easy). I get that it’s
exotic due to its origins in ancient China (at least to Westerners; Do people
in the East just think of it like we do polyester?). Thing is, I don’t particularly care for the
feel of it. It’s too smooth. Despite its organic nature, it feels
unnatural (again, like polyester, which I would, frankly, prefer). I wore a pair of silk boxers once. Once.
The constant, smooth sensation it provides just made me very
self-conscious about how things were rearranging themselves down there every
time I moved. I can’t even imagine how
much this gliding would irritate my nipples were I wearing a shirt made of the
stuff. I could see its worth in the
ascot department, but I think that’s as far as I’m willing to go. If you dig on silk, more power to you. Give me cotton any day of the week. Nice, plush, sweat-absorbing, snug cotton.
After massacring a bunch of
thieves, intrepid cop Silk (Cec Verrell) finds herself following the trail of
head gangster Austin (Peter Shilton) as he smuggles something somewhere. Meanwhile, a couple of Nam vets run around
killing and mutilating people.
Silk, the character and the film, is practically a carbon copy of
George P Cosmatos’ Cobra, the main
differences being that the protagonist is a woman, and she doesn’t cut her
pizza with a pair of scissors. Silk also
borrows heavily from the Dirty Harry
playbook (at one point, she has a villain dead to rights and says, “How do you
feel, Slick? Feel like takin’ the big
ride?”; Of course, he does). She wades
into action in a heartbeat, climbing trestles, jumping on trains, leaping from
rooftops, and shooting the shit out of bad guys with unerring accuracy. And Silk is as disassociated with the
violence she causes as any male action star ever was. Maybe moreso.
In the opening sequence, she watches as the thieves’ car explodes into
flames. Santiago shoots Silk’s reaction
in slow motion, her ice-blue eyes peering satisfactorily and disinterestedly at
the deaths she brought forth. The loss
of life means nothing to her, because criminals, from the pettiest to the
vilest, don’t deserve to live. Her first
rule of dealing with the lifestyle of a cop is “Don’t let it get to you.” On the one hand, this makes sense, because
there are surely a great many things about the livelihood that could
desensitize a person. On the flip side,
though, it also means that one must be desensitized in order to kill crooks. They must be dehumanized in the eyes of
justice, unworthy to exist.
Silk, the cop, is, in effect, a
macho hero with female genitalia (which we don’t get to see, in case you were
wondering). She wears her hair slicked
back. She pauses before working to don a
fingerless glove, but she doesn’t balk at getting her hands dirty. The filmmakers, simultaneously, enjoy showing
off Verrell’s female attributes. Pulling
herself over a ledge, we get a nice view of her hard nipples poking through her
tank top (I guess it wasn’t made of silk?).
The camera also delights in focusing on her butt in various tight pants. You can’t fault the filmmakers or the
audience for this stuff. Both know what
they want, and both get it (plus, Verrell is strikingly beautiful). For all of her testosteronic attributes,
there are attempts to feminize Silk. As
the police celebrate a solid bust (you know, the kind where most of the perps
are dead), Silk sits to the side, aloof.
Fellow cop Tom (Bill McLaughlin) approaches her to join in on the fun. Silk tells him to meet her at her place. This romantic relationship with a fellow
officer carries tones of a teacher/student affair, Tom being a bit older and
Silk’s superior. When they go out, Silk
wears dresses and does her hair up in curls, the opposite of her masculine
appearance at work. She needs Tom to
provide a grounding against the rough life she leads, even if only
physically. Their romance never comes
across as being between equals. Tom
leads the dance, and Silk follows, taking away some of her badass cred. Part of the problem lies in the fact that
Verrell is simply not a very good actress.
She can swing the deadpan delivery necessary for wasting bad guys, but
she’s incapable of changing it up and actually showing emotion when it’s called
for. She tries to act everything with
her piercing eyes, and it just doesn’t work (this is not helped at all by her
covering them up with sunglasses in several scenes; Instead of playing
enigmatically cool she’s simply inscrutably wooden).
The film’s plot is incredibly
convoluted. I’m sure it made sense on
paper to Santiago and company at some point, but it’s confusing on screen. For this film, however, it’s also
unnecessary, and Santiago understood this.
All we need to know are these are the good guys, those are the bad guys,
and there are a lot of punches, gun shots, and explosions between the two. The stuntwork is well-handled, and it appears
that they actually allowed Verrell to do quite a bit of it, which helps sell
the copious action. I suppose on the one
hand it’s unfair to criticize Silk
for being so devoted to its action aspects, as it delivers on them so
well. That being said, without a strong
story to hold the set pieces together, it becomes little more than a highlight
reel. Granted, a slick (dare I say,
smooth as silk?) highlight reel, but one, nonetheless. For the undiscerning action junkie, this movie
will work a treat. For everyone else, it’s
more like a snack you’re unsure if you regret or not after the fact.
MVT: Santiago’s direction is
tight and slick. It’s his writing that
needs to catch up with this skill set here.
Make or Break: The opening
action scene sets the table for the film, both good and bad.
Score: 6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment