You Don't Know Shat !?! : Impulse (1974)

Through a lifetime of Shatner fandom and four years of running the You Don't Know Shat !?! feature in honor of The Once and Future Kirk's birthday, I felt like I had seen every wild and wacky thing that William could throw at me. I've seen him fight with Andy Griffith, play paintball, teach kids about sex, and fight invading spiders, but I don't think I've ever seen William Shatner quite so gloriously in the throes of doing that thing, which can only be described as Shatner-ing, all over today's film. Like many stars of the 60s whose fame had waned, Shatner took on a great many TV film roles to provide work, and I've covered a number of those over the years. What I didn't know is that he ever starred in a grindhouse style picture from the director of Stanley, The Hooked Generation, and Mako: The Jaws of Death. So join me as William Shatner gives in to his impulse to be involved in a strange plot, his impulse to overact in an astounding way, and his Impulse to murder. 

You Don't Know Shat !?!: Naked City: Portrait Of A Painter (1962)

It's the last week of You Don't Know Shat !?!, and that means it's also a very special day, the birthday of William Alan Shatner. Born in Montreal in 1931, The Shat has reached his 81st birthday and is  still growing strong. In the last year Shat has appeared on USA's Psych, his own sitcom (the failed Shit My Dad Says), and killed off his popular Priceline Negotiator making for the first time, I know of, that a commercial character died as part of their plot. I expect in years to come there will still be plenty of Shat to look forward to, and there's still so many of his films that I haven't got to go back and watch. In case you missed the other entries this month, go back and check out Shatner as a worried Dad in Broken Angel, a hepcat teacher in The Explosive Generation, and a cheating cad in Secrets of a Married Man, and of course, all the previous years' Shat-tastic goodness. For the last entry, I chose to look at an early Shatner TV role. William was already a veteran actor by the early Sixties, with ten years of experience under his belt, when he was cast as a troubled painter who just might have killed his wife. There's eight million stories in The Naked City. This is just Shatner's.

You Don't Know Shat !?! : Secrets of a Married Man (1984)

Over the last few weeks of the Shatner celebration, we've seen the Shat as a crusading father rescuing his daughter from gang life in Broken Angel and talking turkey about the birds and the bees is The Explosive Generation. This week finds Shatner on the other side of the ethical coin as a cad gone mad in Secrets of a Married Man. This made for TV film feels like prehistoric version of a Lifetime offering, but spun on it's head in a fever of Iron John induced melodrama. It becomes a tale of middle class male ennui where Shatner, playing for sympathy, comes up well short. Secrets of a Married Man  is a slice of of 80s yuppsterism that shows off just how flawed the free love generation became as they moved into the self centered, costumer driven decade. Plus, you get to see Captain Kirk picking up hookers on the corner.

You Don't Know Shat !?! : The Explosive Generation (1961)

Last week I talked about Shatner in the '80s "teens out of control" flick Broken Angel where he played a concerned Dad who wondered what was the matter with kids today. Today's film put The Shat on the other side of that equation. The early Sixties may well have been more of a time of chance than the latter part of the decade. With the rise of Rock and Roll (even in this pre-Beatles era) and "race" records, the conformity of the 50s was beginning to wane in the youth of the nation. As we all know by the mid to late 60s the pendulum had swung in favor of the hippie free love movement and anti-war protests. The makers of The Explosive Generation fashioned a movie that was prescient of the changes in youth culture, and even though the actions the teens take might not seem so "explosive" to us now, these were the kind of events that lit the fuse of the cultural explosion. Of course, as always, and I'm sure he'd be the first to say, William Shatner created that spark of revolution.

You Don't Know Shat?!? :Broken Angel (1988)

Today March officially begins and with it brings a longstanding tradition here at The Lair, the celebrations of the works of William Shatner that I like to call " You Don't Know Shat!?!". This is a feature I've run for the last two years, and I've been eagerly awaiting March for it to swing around again. Shatner, while often belittled and denigrated, is really an acting treasure with roles that spans over 50 years and include iconic performances, side trips into other cultures and languages, documentaries, dramas, and comedies. Even saying all that barely begins to recognize the vastness of the body of work that Bill Shatner has amassed by 2012, the year of his 81st birthday. Today I' m going to start with one of his lesser known features. During the 70s and 80s, while Bill was running around as Kirk on the big screen and T.J. Hooker on the small one, he also made more than his fair share of made-for-TV films. In the past I've looked at Disaster on a Coastliner and Pray for the Wildcats, but today's film, Broken Angel, is a far cry from either of those action oriented movies. Instead it melded Shatner's over-the-top performance with a story that was equal parts Afterschool  Special and proto-Lifetime movie.

You Don't Know Shat?! Birthday Edition! : Star Trek: The Misunderstood Picture

Today friends, William Shatner turns 80 years old. The year Shatner was born The Star Spangled Banner was just adopted as our National Anthem, construction of the Empire State Building was being completed, and Dick Tracy had only made his first appearance in newspapers. In the intervening years, Shatner has become one of the most recognizable actors in the world, and Star Trek, the series that made him famous, has gone from being the stuff of fiction to feeling like it could be just around the corner. (Or perhaps that’s just how I feel every time I hold an iPad.) I thought about looking into many corners of Shatner’s catalog to find something special for his birthday, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew which film I wanted to talk about. After the cancellation of the Star Trek series, William Shatner was adrift. He faded in and out as a regular on several series and appearing in an ungodly number of made for TV films. As the ‘70’s drew to a close, Paramount, who held the rights to Star Trek, was looking into starting a new television station with Star Trek: Phase II as its marquee show.

 As the project continued to develop, Paramount ended up with cold feet about getting into mass broadcasting, and plans for Star Trek to lead the charge of a new network were shelved. Instead, thanks to the success of some other movie with “Star” in the title, science fiction in the theaters was hot, and so it wasn’t such a leap for Paramount to change their focus from the small screen back to the big. In a nutshell, that’s how we ended up with the much derided film Star Trek: The Motion Picture (often referred to as "The Motionless Picture" by Trekkies who only believe in the existence of even numbers.) There’s much more to the story, and anyone interested can find several expansive books on the subject. I should know as I’ve read them. However, for our purposes today, it doesn’t matter how it happened as much as that it did. Because Star Trek: The Motion Picture is not only the movie that gave Star Trek a second chance, it also is the movie that saved the career of one William Alan Shatner.

Before I talk about that, let me talk a little bit about the picture itself. In a way Star Trek: The Motion Picture is the genesis (weapon?) that would spawn so much throughout the movie series. The crew of the Enterprise is thrown back together (Treks I, V, VI) because a strange space object is closing in on Earth (Trek IV) seeking a higher power to give its life meaning (Treks IV, VI). At first, Admiral Kirk (Shatner. Is it necessary to specify now in a post J.J. Abrams world?) is supposed to be merely visiting the newly outfitted U.S.S. Enterprise before a shakedown run, but with the threat to Earth, he convinces Starfleet to give him command of the ship presumably to save the world one last time. Of course, he would save the “world” a.k.a Starfleet (or ultimately the universe), four more times before his appearances in the series were done (II, IV, VI, Generations). The Motion Picture also began the plot thread that Kirk is past his prime, useless, washed-up, and outmoded. This idea (despite the fact that he continues to save the world), began when Shatner (and presumably Kirk) was 48 years old in 1979, and carried on though all six of Kirk’s continued cinematic adventures.

Think about William Shatner’s career this way. Nathan Fillion starred in the short lived series Firefly, which faded for a short time before it got the movie treatment. Fillion now stars in a TV series, and he has occasionally appeared in films. Now imagine that over the next 10 years his star fades while Firefly steadily builds its cult following. Then in 2021, when Nathan would be at the half centennial mark, Firefly somehow comes back to the big screen. His career, whose course had been all but written, changes paths, and Fillion becomes a visible, hugely recognizable face for the next 30 plus years. This little tale has warmed the hearts of Browncoats everywhere, but the chances that Nathan will have the same luck as William, seem pretty slim. One of the reason’s Shatner’s career reignited post Star Trek: The Motion Picture is Shatner’s acting was rarely better.

Seriously, from the affable, charming off the cuff remarks of lines like, “Bones, there’s a thing out there.” to the ability to make Star Trek psychobabble such as,” What it needs in order to evolve... is a human quality. Our capacity to leap beyond logic. “ sound compelling. Shatner’s line delivery is on point from end to end in this film. Sure there are plenty of instances of Shatner’s pausing delivery, but at this point shouldn’t we all have to suspend our disbelief and just assume that Kirk talks that way. The dynamic of Star Trek’s three main characters, Kirk, Spock and McCoy, has long been the linchpin of the series. McCoy is guided by pure emotion. Spock (especially in this film) is pure logic. James T. Kirk should be nestled somewhere night in the middle, and Shatner hits that sweet spot giving Kirk the perfect division of idea and feeling. The problem really comes down to this. William Shatner wasn’t the only thing going on in this film.

When I say going on, I mean going on… and on… and on. Every time I sit down to my DVD of the director’s cut, I forget that Robert Wise brought Star Trek: The Motion Picture in at a bloated two hours and fifteen minutes. While I like trippy visions of particle clouds or whatever V’Ger was full of, the lengthy shots bring to mind more thoughts of Kubrick’s 2001 channeled though The Filmore West than Star Wars. It wouldn’t be until Trek II: Wrath of Kahn that the writers got out of their head, got some action going, and figured out that if you’re writing a space opera you better have a space battle somewhere along the line. The whole V’Ger plotline even feels like a holdover from the proposed television show. It has a Twilight Zone-ish ending (ooh, V’Ger is Voyager) that should have been able to be wrapped up in less than an hour. Still, I find this first outing of the Star Trek movies to be enjoyable for its faults. From the maddening uniforms (everyone seems to be wearing something different, and most have belt buckles but no belt) to the pop philosophy to the new, bald female lieutenant whose sex is just way too good and way to strong for Earthlings to resist (talk about a milkshake bringing all the boys to the yard), it is impossible not to watch The Motion Picture and not crack a smile.

So the popular opinion (or perhaps legend) is that Star Trek films are only good on the even numbers. Well, I know quite a few who like III: The Search for Spock and even one or two who like Generations (the 7th and final appearance of the original cast on film). Admittedly, I doubt I can find anyone to champion V: The Final Frontier, but I’m sure I’m not the only one with a soft spot for The Motion Picture. (Possibly because my wife also likes it.) If for nothing else, fans of William Shatner should thank their lucky stars that the future star of T.J. Hooker and Boston Legal, future singer behind Has Been, and future paintball maniac behind Splatt Attack got a chance to make this film. Otherwise, there is severe doubt that today I would be writing about a man who starred in a series that went off the air eight years before I was born. Instead, here I am, and wherever you are Mr. Shatner, I want to wish you a happy birthday. I hope you’re around for many, many more.

Kidnapping of a President (1980): Shatner to the Rescue!

When I first saw that Stacia from She Blogged By Night was hosting a William Shatner Blogathon, I was really excited to take part in it. As longtime readers will know, for the last two years, I have done a salute to Shatner each March to celebrate the great man’s birthday. So when it came time to find a film to add to the Blogathon, I was a little stumped until I remembered that there was one I wanted last time I did You Don’t Know Shat that I couldn’t get, 1980’s Kidnapping of a President. Thankfully, after much finagling, Netflix came though for me and delivered a copy of this lesser known and little seen Shatner film to my door. Released only one year after the bloated epic Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Kidnapping of a President stars a Shatner in transition. The success of The Wrath of Kahn and T.J. Hooker was still two years away, and the late seventies had found him stuck in the mire of made for TV films. Kidnapping brought Shatner to the multiplexes with a film that hints at his later, famous cop role and proves that William is a man of action even without a starship.

Shatner stars as FBI agent Jerry O’Conner. While he is second in command of the FBI, many people think he’s a paranoid crackpot who can’t get over the assassination of JFK twenty years earlier. Making his job more difficult is populist President Adam Scott (Hal Holbrook), a folksy Jimmy Carter type that wants to wave to the crowds from open top cars and shake the hands of the people. O’Conner ends up in charge of the President’s security during a diplomatic mission of Canada, but his paranoia of assassination attempts is circumvented. South American Marxist revolutionary Roberto Assanti (Miguel Fernandes)  snatches the President and tosses him in an armored car which is rigged with explosives. If Assanti’s demands aren’t met by midnight, the impenetrable truck with the president inside, will blow up. It’s up to Agent O’Conner and Canadian cop Mackenzie (Michael J. Reynolds) to come up with come way to get the President out in time.

For a film that made its debut seventeen years after JFK’s assassination, it was interesting to see how the specter of his killing along with those of Bobby Kennedy and George Wallace hung over the proceedings of this film. From the opening credits, the idea of the Presidency and the men who are charged to protect it are forefront as a montage plays out highlighting the faceless agents of the FBI. All of this is set to the tune of ‘Hail to the Chief’ which becomes the major musical theme of the film. If it ever happens to slip your mind who has been kidnapped, you don’t have to wait too long for the President’s theme song to pop up again. To the modern viewer, the thought of Kennedy’s assassination being so prescient might seem odd (especially in the scenes where Shatner’s O’Conner refreshes a room of top brass on it and other politically motivated violence), but I would imagine for the men charged with protecting Gerald Ford (who survived an attack by Squeaky Fromme) and Jimmy Carter, the idea was never too far from their minds.

Of course what brought me to Kidnapping of a President was Shatner, and he does not disappoint. During the first fourty minutes that lead up to the titular kidnapping, Shatner establishes his FBI agent as a maverick who has been marginalized due to his perceived paranoia. His acting is actually pretty reserved in this part of the film, but watch out. After the President gets taken, Shatner ramps up the intensity and he plays out the rest of the film just under the line of shuddering mania he exhibited two years later while screaming “KAAAAAAHHHNNNN!” As always the Shat is lots of fun to watch, and in particular his scenes with veteran actor Hal Holbrook stand out. He also has great chemistry with Miguel Fernandes who plays the Che Guvera inspired revolutionary. Fernandes, who also appeared in films such as Ghost Story and Trancers, provides a menacing counterpoint to Shatner’s crusading agent. Kidnapping of a President also features performances from a couple of Hollywood legends, Van Johnson as the crooked Vice President and Ava Gardner as his power hungry wife.

The main thing that struck me while watching Kidnapping of a President was how well it was filmed. From the crazed confusion of the crowds crushing down on the President to wonderful shots of downtown Toronto, there are some really striking visuals that elevate the film far above the schlock it could have been. Director George Mendeluk only had one feature film under his belt, 1979’s Stone Cold Dead, and would spend most of the rest of his career in television, but he and cinematographer Mike Molloy (Shock Treatment, Mad Dog Morgan) gave the film a feeling that worked well to heighten tension throughout the film. The same can’t be said of the score by Paul Zaza (Porky’s, A Christmas Story) and avant-garde composer Nash the Slash. Alternating between versions of ‘Hail to the Chief’ and a cross between Tinto Puente and Phillip Glass, the score detected from much of what was being done visually.

As a Shatner fan, Kidnapping of a President was an interesting addition to his body of work. I had a great time watching the Canadian actor play an American FBI agent who has to save the President when they go to Canada, but I don’t know that outside of hardcore Shatnerites if it would hold many people’s attention. As a political thriller, it is no Manchurian Candidate or Three Days of the Condor, but there is enough to like in the acting and performances that I definitely think even detractors of The Shat would find something to like here. That about wraps it up for me, but head on over to She Blogged by Night for more Shatner goodness, and I can’t wait to see what other goodies folks have to add about the man, the myth, the Shatner.

Bugg Rating

Sadly no trailer for this one, but here's a political commercial for the Shatner-Hasselhoff ticket.