THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)

Loosely based on the Sawney Bean cannibal family folktale, THE HILLS HAVE EYES is the mildly entertaining story of a family of six idiots (and a baby) who take a detour on their road trip from Cleveland to California to go explore an abandoned silver mine out in the middle of the desert.  Of course, being idiots, they soon get lost and wreck their car.  To make matters worse...they happened to break down next to a cave full of cannibals who have a hankering for human meat.  Especially fat little baby flesh!

The best thing THE HILLS HAVE EYES has going for it is that title.  It's just straight up awesome.  The rest of the movie though is disappointing.  The family sucks, the cannibals are boring (although Michael Berryman has a very memorable look about him), zero nudity, zero gore, mild violence, slow pace, goofy normal family vs the fallout family parable that probably has a meaning if I cared enough to think about it, Dee Wallace lookin' good, ugly photography.  Oh!  And let's not forget Susan Lanier's screaming.  Jesus fucking Christ was it was annoying!!!  I actually had to turn down the volume during the end scenes because her screeching non-stop was ripping my ears apart.  It was horrible.

THE HILLS HAVE EYES might be considered a "cult" film, but honestly it's just boring.  Maybe back in 1977 it was impressive, but nowadays it's dated and lame.  I sat there in a daze the entire movie waiting for something cool to happen...and it never did.  Worth a watch for horror buffs only.

Part 2 - THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II (1984)
Remake - THE HILLS HAVE EYES (2006)
Remake sequel - THE HILLS HAVE EYES II (2007)

LAND OF SILENCE AND DARKNESS (1971)

LAND OF SILENCE AND DARKNESS is an early Werner Herzog documentary that centers around a deaf-blind woman, Fini Straubinger, who (from what I saw in this film) is a saint, stronger than a thousand bodybuilders, endlessly inspirational and a perfect example of the human spirit.

When Fini was 9 years-old she fell down a flight of stairs and afterwards began to lose her sight and hearing.  By the time she was 18 she was deaf-blind.  Then for whatever asshole reasons, her family neglected her and she remanded in her bed for 30 fucking years!!!  Eventually, she made it out of that Hellish situation and by the time Werner captured her in this film she had somehow (there was a brief mention of a charity) became a goodwill ambassador for deaf-blind people.  In this film, she briefly recalls her own story and then for the remainder of the film goes around hanging out with other deaf-blind people.  Some stuff is spoken to the camera, but for the most part, it is just Fini interacting with other people and her surroundings.

Fini is amazingly well adjusted to her situation.  It's extremely impressive, but then we meet some of the other deaf-blind people who are nowhere as well adjusted and it's heartbreaking.  I think the saddest to me was the young man, Vladimir Kokol, who was born blind-deaf (and with an apparent mental problem?) who had been neglected from birth.  This dude was all kinds of jacked up and it broke my heart watching him.  At least, by the time he appeared in this film, he was living in a facility that would take care of him, but still it was sad knowing that his poor soul would live his entire existence in silence and darkness and most likely never even be able to grasp what's going on.

LAND OF SILENCE AND DARKNESS is emotionally draining, but it is very thought provoking and it will give you pause the next time you feel like bitching about something in your life. Also, I would love to see an update on the people featured in this film and know how the rest of their lives turned out.  I hope they all found some form of happiness.

THE SUM OF US (1994)

"Our children are only the sum of us.  What we add up to.  Us and our parents and our grandparents and theirs.  All generations."

Set in Sydney, Australia, THE SUM OF US is about a dad (Jack Thompson) and his grown up son (Russell Crowe). They both have full-time jobs and live together almost like roommates instead of father and son. Jack loves his son dearly...even though he's gay!!!  Gasp!  It's sad that that was noteworthy in 1994 and even sadder that it's was still noteworthy in 2016.

Anyway, Jack and Russell are very close.  Both are single (Jack is a widower) and THE SUM OF US is the simple slice of life story about the two of them trying to find a successful relationship.  Russell has his eyes set on a cute local guy, but when the young man sees how relaxed Russell is with his father, it really messes with his head (since his home life is the opposite) and for whatever reason this causes him to quit seeing Russell.  Russell is heartbroken.  At the same time, Jack meets a woman and they are very happy...for awhile.

I really enjoyed THE SUM OF US.  The performances by the entire cast are great, the Sydney locations are beautiful and the two main characters are a joy to watch.  I've seen THE SUM OF US a number of times over the years and always enjoyed it, but if I had things my way: the story would have been lighter; the flashbacks about the grandmother would have been dropped completely and replaced with more stuff about both Russell and Jack's dating adventures; the medical thing would have never happened and the runtime increased to accommodate the extra dating stories.  But that's just my two cents.

As it is, THE SUM OF US is still a very enjoyable film.  Highly recommended.