August 1999 smoking jacket by Gregory Alkaitis-Carafelli |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ode to Whoopi
Who can turn the world on with her smile? No, not Mary: Whoopi. In the
Internet-related film arena, Whoopi Goldberg suddenly makes it all
seem worthwhile. I know, it's easy to forget, since Internet-themed
movies are a dime-a-dozen now, that Whoopi was first, setting the tone
with her leading role in the eerily prescient instant cult classic
"Jumpin' Jack Flash," last seen on the big screen thirteen years ago
this fall. Thirteen years! That sets it straight in the era of Trapper
Keepers and bracelets made from the tabs off of aluminum coke cans,
when arbitrage was hot and so was Erik Estrada's career. Visions of
spiked hair and denim jackets, collar up, filled every schoolboy's
mind, wedged in there with the televised visuals from the explosion of
the space shuttle Challenger.
Now yes, technically the Internet did not exist in 1986, at least not
in its present form. But that didn't stop director-cum-futurist Penny
Marshall from skillfully working with the far reaching plot elements
in the script, namely people meeting via a network of computers to
have sex and also saving lives. It's like Marshall was born with a
GEnie account and 9600 baud modem!
For Goldberg, "Jumpin' Jack Flash" was a natural beginning to the long
series of hard-hitting dramatic roles she would later have, in such
chillingly memorable films as "Fatal Beauty" (1987, Goldberg as
bitch-ass cop out to find some drug dealers gone bad, featuring a
great - no just GREAT - shootout in a mall sporting goods store),
"Soapdish" (1991, soap opera satire; saw this one in the theatre three
times! I mean, Robert Downey Jr. and Whoopi: pure cinema gold), and
"Sister Act" (1992, bad Whoopi makes good God music while hiding from
the mob in a convent: that scene where the nuns are in the casino,
that's all that need be said).
But while these later roles garnered box office and critical acclaim
for Goldberg, it seemed to me that there was something missing - I
wanted the upbeat, technically savvy yet tough woman who donned a blue
sequined dress and lip synched to Dianna Ross in front of a bunch of
stuffy Brits at the consulate. Where was she? Bring her back! Were
blue sequins the secret to success for "Jack?" No, that was just one
small part of a complex whole.
In the film, it's winter in New York City, and Terry Doolittle (Whoopi
Goldberg) works for a bank, which somehow still leads her to start
each day with a wave and a smile. A good stress management tip is
found right in the opening minutes of the film: instead of taking her
anger at missing the bus out on passers-by, Doolittle just steals some
flowers from the local Korean market. Kudos to director Penny Marshall
for not sparing us the details! Doolittle's chatty computer style is
popular all over the globe, but not with her boss, and she's
reprimanded for abusing the linked system of computers to swap
(besides money) recipes and chit-chat. With Doug (Jon Lovitz) and Fred
(Phil Hartman) as her cube-mates, it's a wonder she even bothered with
computers! Those are some funny guys.
Anyway, working late one night she gets a come on from "Jumpin' Jack
Flash," who wants her to come over to a secure channel. How many times
have we heard that line before? Another directorial innovation: Jack
suddenly has a personality, in that we the audience don't have to
strain to read his words on the screen - he just says them in a voice
over as he's "typing."
"Find the key and sing with me," Jack says, and so Whoopi goes home
and plays Rolling Stones albums late into the night, finally realizing
that Jumpin' Jack Flash's sly intent was the key the Stones song of
the same name was in, namely B-flat. It's all downhill from there,
"crossfire hurricane" style, as we're taken on a madcap ride full of
intrigue and adventure to try and get Jack -- brother of James, both
in British Intelligence (OK I made that up, the James part, but Jack
is a spy) -- safely out of Eastern Europe, since someone back at the
Home Office is trying to kill him. And for a while there, they're
trying to kill Terry Doolittle too! In one classic scene, Carl the bad
guy (Vyto Ruginis) hooks a tow truck up to the phone booth Doolittle
is in and drags her on a wild ride uptown. "I'm a little black woman
in a big silver box," she says into the phone as they near the Upper
West Side. Classic Whoopi.
Eventually of course everything ends well, although there is a tense
moment when Jack stands Terry up at a fancy restaurant - their first
face to face meeting. Did Penny Marshall have a crystal ball in which
to see the future of the Internet or what? Jack finally meets Terry at
work in a touching scene he starts by typing on her keyboard. She's so
overcome she can't turn around, but then she does, and there's Jack!
Roll credits.
It is this sensitive yet action-packed style that will be replicated
into the early nineties and straight through to today, coming to
represent the classic formula for Internet-themed films, encompassing
as it does technical savvy, action and adventure, and sex. Sure the
technology will change and the plot twists will get twistier, but the
basic formula is the same, thanks to Whoopi. I know I'm in awe, and
I'd love for you to tell me you are too.
|
|
·feature·
·net worth·
·ac/dc·
·smoking jacket·
·ear candy·
·feed hollywood·
·target audience·
·back issues·
·compulsion·
·posedown·
·the biswick files·
·mystery date·
·and
such and such·
·blab·
·kissing booth·
·contents·
·freakshow·
·fan club·
·archive·
copyright © 1996 - 1999 fearless media