X

****

For whatever reason (I don’t think this is intentional) while watching X: Night of Vengeance (a title I think doesn’t do this film justice, turning it into some sort of action-revenge tale which it is anything but), I kept thinking, Midnight Cowboy. Maybe it is the way the film shows a “newbie” on the streets (think a sheep trying to survive with wolves all around her) joining up with a “street call girl pro” who has successfully survived in the seedy environs of Sydney, Australia, for quite some time, turning her tricks among wealthy clientele, having learned how to use her stunning beauty and allure to keep from being gobbled up by those within the belly of the beast often devouring innocence. Smart enough, brave, and wise in how to dodge destruction, Viva Bianca’s Holly Rowe is a seasoned ace in the ways of prostitution. A youngling left to fend for herself after her beloved mother passed away from a terrible, painful illness, Shay Ryan (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) is now on the streets trying to figure out how to keep from starving and make it on her own without much moral support; Holly notices her and as a type of sex trade surrogate, helps Shay during a night before she plans to retreat from the city for a new life. However, fleeing the city will prove quite difficult as Holly and Shay must continue to contend with a psychopathic drug thug and eventually a lover (a cop she met during her time in the city as a prostitute) unaware that she was preparing to get out of Sydney.

The film reminds me of Midnight Cowboy in the basic outline of naiveté finding innocence (Lawrence in this film, John Voight in Cowboy) encountering a nightmarish experience in the darkside of a city. While Dustin Hoffman’s Ratso Rizzo doesn’t have the seductive striking presence of Viva Bianca, the two have made it on the streets and serve as reluctant confidants to Lawrence and Voight in their respective movies. The unfortunate history for both of them (for all four, actually) has lead to their meeting one another, an unusual bond developed out of strife and pity. By film’s end both Voight and Lawrence are stronger and more mature after their experiences alongside their friends. Bianca’s fate also reminded me of Rizzo…while Rizzo eyes Miami as his “fresh start”, Bianca sees Paris are her clean slate. This was sadly not to be. Both Voight and Lawrence are left devastated and alone. X is a movie that many might balk as undeserved of even a slight mention with Midnight Cowboy, a film that has accolades and praise holding it in high esteem as an important and relevant film never soon forgotten. X might not even be a blip on the landscape of film a few years from now. How many “cinema elite” actually knows it exists today? 

An Australian film I just happened to discover on late night cable, X hasn’t really trailblazed a path of recognition, but I think it is quite good, with performances that comment on how the bleak harshness of life leaves its effects. The sheer terror Bianca is able to quietly convey held behind a slight veneer of resolve is quite impressive…this isn’t the flashy part of the oft-campy Spartacus that seemed to require a bit more theatricality. Lawrence is the perfect example of a lovely flower left to absorb a battle against the elements…whether she can make it thru her trial, protection will need to preserve her. Sometimes on her own, and meeting many left worse for wear because of the rotten treatment of the street to those trapped within its hellish prison (junkies, young hookers, sex trade workers in red light clubs), Shay may have wound up in similar shape had it not been for Holly. Voight’s Joe was often in similar shape, but was motivated by Rizzo to leave behind the idea of being a socialite gigolo for the sunnier (or so they feel) “paradise” of Miami. That hope of something better drives many of us; Shay will follow Holly’s example, even if it wasn’t hers to begin with.

Something I distinctly was aware of was how "alive" and "active" the film feels in its cinematography and how areas in King Cross of Sydney are captured. Traffic, both in auto and foot, show quite a city bustling and busy. The city is as much an ingredient in the film's allure as the characters/performances and evocation of sex and its use in all strata of Sydney's society. It was quite eyepopping, Mark Pugh's photographic lensing, that there was so much, at times, to attract the eyes and attention. I think I could see myself watching this film over and over just to take in all that happens as the characters interact within the surrounding city. It is an attraction I imagine I feel I'm not alone in noticing. The classics do this well. See how Paris is visualized in the French New Wave, or New York City in the 70s. The "shot on site" feel of movies adds a grit and realism, helped extensively by characters that don't feel phony. X, I think, has these qualities that should ingratiate itself to those this is important to.