Music to Save the World To

Maybe I’m the only one, but when I get into a game, really into it, I start imagining what it would be like if I were the hero of my own “fate of the world hangs in the balance” saga. Of course, important concerns are that I look bad ass while saving the world, and we all know that nothing helps set the tone for this sort of thing like a good soundtrack. With that in mind, I present my collection: Music to Save the World To, for your pleasure and consideration.

Track List:

1.    Combat (Afro Season II) – RZA
2.    This Blood – Black Lab
3.    The Day the World Went Away – Nine Inch Nails
4.    The Little Things – Danny Elfman
5.    The End is the Beginning is the End – Smashing Pumpkins
6.    Storm Center – Shiro Sagisu
7.    When the Smoke Clears – RZA
8.    Prayer of the Refugee – Rise Against
9.    Reach out to the Truth – Shoji Meguro
10.    Hero – Hans Zimmer
11.    Stone Eyes (The Great Warrior) – Shnabubula
12.    Divinity II (Cloud vs Bahamut) – Nobuo Uematsu
13.    Shifu Faces Tai Lung – Hans Zimmer
14.    One Winged Angel – Nobuo Uematsu
15.    My Number is 47 – Geoff Zanelli
16.    Dance of the Yi People – Min Xiao Fen
17.    The Lonely Shepherd – Georghe Zamfir
18.    Baker Street – Gerry Rafferty
19.    Cloud Smiles – Nobuo Uematsu
20.    Together We Will Live Forever – Clint Mansell

Combat (Afro Season II) – RZA

You May Have Heard it In: Afro Samurai Resurrection

This awesomely bad ass track has stalking killer seeping through its beat, melody and lyrics. In its aforementioned use, it’s played during the first real combat sequence of the film, where Afro slaughters a gaggle of challengers who are trying to kill him for the number one headband. If you’re caught in a series of dark, gory and extreme battles on your quest while you tear through your opponents with vicious precision and skill, this is the track to have over it.

This Blood – Black Lab

You May Have Heard it In: Blade III Trinity

Just like in Blade, this song begs to be played when you come back, fueled by adrenaline and rage to tear through hordes of enemies. Since sometimes, in saving the world, you’re going to have to turn up the adrenaline and let fly your fury, this track is definitely perfect for those moments.

The Day the World Went Away – Nine Inch Nails

You May Have Heard it In: The Trailer for Terminator Salvation

So, Terminator Salvation may have been a bit of a disappointment for most of us (it was for me), but the trailer used it very effectively. This is a song for the darker times of your struggle. For when the tide is pushing against you and you’re seeing allies fall before the onslaught. Nine Inch Nails’ dark tones and chaotic sonic qualities perfectly accentuate this mood and that point in a conflict.

The Little Things – Danny Elfman

You May Have Heard it In: Wanted

Danny Elfman’s Wanted theme is expanded to a power chord driven rock track complete with complimentary nihilistic lyrics. Just as it is applied in the movie, something about this song just screams: a duo working together to take down their opponents.

The End is the Beginning is the End – The Smashing Pumpkins

You May Have Heard it In: Its complementary slower version (The Beginning is the End is the Beginning) is used in the trailer for The Watchmen, and was also on the soundtrack for Batman & Robin.

This song is about more than just struggle, but loss, the all consuming casualties a battle for the fate of the world is bound to have and how that kind of struggle can consume you and drive you mad. The melody and the sneering singer’s voice all carry you to this place in your battle against that world, nay, universe ending evil.

Storm Center – Shiro Sagisu

You May Have Heard it In: Bleach (used particularly whenever Captain Hitsugaya fights)

This track is pure instrumental and begins with low distorted guitar chords that almost seem lyrical in themselves from their challenging tones. Finally, a louder guitar comes in, and the song takes off into its slightly off tempo rage, screaming of a furious fight that is still a display of collected discipline and skill (which would roughly be why Hitsugaya is the character its usually associated with).

When the Smoke Clears – RZA

You May Have Heard it In: The Afro Samurai Video Game

This i a sympathetic action track. It’s an amazing beat, but the whole idea of a hero who is conflicted inside about the pain driving him isn’t quite thematic of the Afro Samurai (he was fairly certain of what he was doing), but it drives a moment where the hero may be conflicted about having to commit the actions and feeling as if he’s locked into the battle at this point and has no point to draw his sword now if only because he drew it so many times before.

Prayer of the Refugee – Rise Against

You May Have Heard it In: Guitar Hero III

Prayer of the Refugee is a song that screams of the kind of struggle and determination that one would rise from the darkness of the Nine Inch Nails track towards. A bit more mainstream than the other tracks on this list, but definitely a great fit.

Reach Out to the Truth – Shoji Meguro

You May Have Heard it In: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

Because this is what it looks like when four teenagers decide to beat the shit out of someone.

Though not mainstream, this track definitely has the most pop music feel of anything on this list. Taking a step back from the darker tones of some of the previous tracks, this one serves beautifully as a battle theme (just as it does in the game) for the group dynamic battle against baddies.

Hero – Hans Zimmer

You May Have Heard it In: Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu wha? If you missed this one, you missed out. I’m mainly recommending the first half of the song which is set to Po’s introductory fantasy of the “legendary warrior of legend” (the rest of it is just a cutesy plucking melody as he helps his father in the noodle shop). The song feels classic and, well, legendary. The sort of thing a hero of the world has playing when he displays his incredible skills against the minions who he is vastly superior to.

Stone Eyes (The Great Warrior) – Shanbubula

You May Have Heard it In: It’s an adaptation of Uematsu’s “The Great Warrior,” you can find it here for FREE on OC Remix)

Stone Eyes is a beautiful take on Uematsu’s theme for Red XIII’s sadness from Final Fantasy VII. It begins tragically, with a strong tone of grief but eventually builds to a beautiful crescendo of hope and determination to carry on with the fight. A must for the warrior in his moment of doubt.

Divinity II (Cloud vs. Bahamut) – Nobuo Uematsu

You May Have Heard it In: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Don't Stop Believin' (Hold onto that Fee-eee-lin').

Cloud’s renewed passion and determination in the face of what feel like impossible odds leads up to the first of the three climactic battles against one of his stolen summons: Bahamut. Hebraves the beast that all his other friends were barely keeping at bay together by himself. The song’s powerful tones and chorus drive any sort of pivotal battle, and the interlude over which Cloud briefly sees Aerith’s hand in the film captures a similar moment of digging deep into yourself to find the final drive to finish the fight. The song’s closing invokes the peace and relief of a battle finally ended against all odds.

Shifu Faces Tai Lung – Hans Zimmer

You May Have Heard it In: Kung Fu Panda

One of the final battles of the film, the master Shifu must (again) face his villainous pupil who has come back for revenge and the legendary Dragon Scroll. The song is the more desperate side of Divinity’s tones. It’s clear this fight is also against impossible odds, but is leading to a more tragic end for our hero. The pain and imminence of death at the hands of evil loom very close throughout this song.

One Winged Angel – Nobuo Uematsu

You May Have Heard it In: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

I’m sticking with the Advent Children thing here. Uematsu’s remastering of the classic song from the game for the final battle between Cloud and Sephiroth in the film is masterful. The song captures perfectly the kind of living nightmare Sephiroth is: relentless, inhuman (super human more like), ruthless, and twisted evil. The blending of rock guitar and orchestral music is a brilliant move, conveying the dark chaos that is the villain you’re trying so desperately to take down that it takes everything out of you as the song finally ends.

My Number is 47 – Geoff Zanelli

You May Have Heard it In: Hitman (the movie)

Zanelli’s soft song comes in at the final farewell of our anti-hero and the woman he has fallen in love with (at least as much as it’s possible for the inhuman 47 to fall in love). It’s sad tones convey the length of a journey that is at a crossroads, and it clearly ends with the building resolve of the hero that has to go on alone.

Dance of the Yi People -Min Xiao Fen

You May Have Heard it In: A Tea Shop (I’ve never heard it used in any media before)

Dance of the Yi People is a song traditionally played on the Pipa, and is a slow mournful song that eventually, and suddenly, transitions to a frenetic and passionate whirlwind of string plucks that comes when the song seems to be withering to its conclusion. Perhaps it’s the song that plays as our hero calmly tries one last time to talk things out with his nemesis only to have it devolve to a tragic fight to the death. Perhaps it’ll convey something different to you, either way, it’s beautiful.

The Lonely Shepherd – Georghe Zhamfir

You May Have Heard it In: the Kill Bill flicks

This pan flute melody is the kind of slow yet dedicated tune you play to send off the “pops” hero; the guy who everyone thought was just the old dog too tired to have any fight left in him, but made it to the end and made a difference. This was a close tie with Auron’s Theme from Final Fantasy X for similar reasons, but I decided Uematsu is getting plenty of love on this list as it is.

Baker Street – Gerry Rafferty

You May Have Heard it In: An episode of The Simpsons, or any dive bar generally populated by 40-somethings

I hate Lisa Simpson and didn't want a photo of her with her stupid sax.

Gerry Rafferty’s ballad is a song that always conveys more a sense of goodbye to me. The final huzzah for a person who knows it’s time to cash in and get out with one last honorable fight with everything he has in him. Personally, I see it being set to another “pops” type of battle, where he refuses the help of his comrades, knowing it’ll be his last fight one way or another, and somehow pulls the win out at the very end, just before he rides into the sunset to leave the war to the younger heroes, content to know he’s done his part and served as an example for them. The Foo Fighters version was a close contender for this spot, but Rafferty’s original version hits a more poignant crescendo (as opposed to just rocking out) for the emotional moment I’m looking for.

Cloud Smiles – Nobuo Uematsu

You May Have Heard it In: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Like I said, Uematsu is a heavy hitter on this playlist, claiming three spots (a fourth if you count the rearrangement of his Final Fantasy VII song “The Great Warrior”) and mostly his Advent Children work no less. Cloud Smiles functions as the happy ending for our heroes. Coming out of the war  to find not just victory, but even more to look forward to and be grateful in the peace to come in the aftermath.

Together We Will Live Forever – Clint Mansell

You May Have Heard it In: The Fountain

Clint Mansell’s track punctuates the moments of dawning comprehension for Jackman in the film. The things  that are worth the most to us are things that we have to be ready to lose since having them for only a limited time is what makes them truly special. The theme of Jackman’s tragic lesson is the perfect theme for the bittersweet ending of any adventure.

Your Mom Wants You Playing Final Fantasy

I know she doesn’t say it directly, mom’s are tricky like that, but take it from me, it’s all just an elaborate psychology game she’s playing with your feeble childish mind. Why? Because that’s what moms do, they throw their invisible psychological strings of guilt and weird motivations, playing you against yourself to turn you into who they want you to be, who, if your mom is like any other mother will simultaneously never be good enough, and always will be better than she’d be happy with.

Your mom wants you to play Final Fantasy.

Do I know your mom? Not as well as I’d probably like to (she hasn’t gotten back to me about that seafood dinner), but I know moms (lots of ‘em, oh yeah), and they all want the same thing. Have they ever said so to me directly? Of course not, how often do mothers ever say anything directly? No, just the same way she wants you tuck your shirt in, and gets you to do so by asking sly questions like “Don’t girls appreciate cleaner boys?” she’s trying to spin your psyche to get you to play Final Fantasy and is hoping it’ll someday work.

Maybe all the hype leading up to XIII’s release next year is working on you, but God forbid you’re one of those anti-marketing cats who gets turned off by that kind of hype. Shame on you. You really should make your momma proud and get ready to spin this disc in your PS3 or 360 (depending on how you roll).

Why? Well let’s see: your mom probably wants you to be a good little (nerdy) boy and stay home rather than getting into trouble. Even if she doesn’t approve of video games in general, Final Fantasy is a lesser of all the other evils, and comes with some unique benefits:

Morals

Final Fantasy always has a  love story at its epicenter, and this sort of thing gives us the example of fealty and lasting love that we should work to find and honor in our lifetimes. Whether you’re Cloud, pursuing the preservation of the memory and mission of the girl you lost, or Squall, finding himself and becoming a true hero for Rinoa, or Tidus, willing to face his own mortality and being for the sake of his love, you’re finding a powerful story about heroes and their devotion to their loves and how far they’re willing to go to honor and protect it.

The game’s most recent trailer from TGS (which you can view here at IGN) shows the love story between Snow and the main character’s sister. It’s clear that this will function as a major pliant and motivator for Snow throughout the conflict and fight for their world.

Even beyond love though, you’re given examples of honor, friendship, and integrity. Every Final Fantasy has had their role models and everyone who has played a Final Fantasy game has a character they, in some way, look up to. That’s just your mom trying to slip some role models your way.

Intellectual Stimulation

Yes, the games can be played by little kids, but there’s a lot of depth in any Final Fantasy for people to pick up on. From the strongly Marxist overtones of VII’s story, to the commentary on religion and political conflict therein of X, all the Final Fantasy’s bring a narrative with deep themes that, strangely enough, allow for a good amount of intellectualizing in themselves, but also for an interesting commentary on the world we know.

Shinra’s capital control of the world and Midgar specifically, even over the Mayor Domino is a frightening example of the capitalist system gone unchecked. X’s Al Bhed vs. Yevon conflict bears evident parallel between Christian and Islamic cultural and societal conflicts, but also bears a fascinating ethical commentary on the associations of ignorance with religious practice, as well as allowing religion to dictate ethics and policies in society with regards to useful technology and other advancements.

Aesthetic Appreciation

Finally, all mother’s want their children to have a touch of class and taste for the finer things about them. From good writing and plot structure (compared to a lot of movies and especially among video games), to production value, artistic style and even music, Final Fantasy brings a lot to the table, and does so superlatively.

Nobuo Uematsu’s musical contributions to the series are timeless classics that regularly sell out concert halls when orchestral concerts are put on for them. The art styles for character designs are directly influenced by artistic periods and movements that, if you take a stroll through your local art museum(s) may strike a chord with certain artists and movements.

Creativity and Imagination

Every mother wants her boy to be a beautiful and creative snowflake, and sure, there’s nothing unique about playing a game that millions of other people are bound to play, but these are the kinds of games that inspire people. Some in more poignant ways that others, but there’s nothing to deride about someone’s imagination being enlivened by something like this (even if it leads to hordes of poorly written Fan Fiction).

Trust me, make your mom happy and put Final Fantasy XIII on your little wish list. That way I can tell her what a good influence I’ve been on you over that seafood dinner.

I’m Too Old For This $#!% – Moving Forward Means More When You Look Back

“Eight year old me is very disappointed right now,” my friend Andrew said. I had to agree sadly. I had, on a whim, bought Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, and my friend and I were passing the afternoon working our way through Sonic the Hedgehog 2. We reminisced of the old days, where the games had to be beaten in a single sitting, with just the number of lives you were given (and managed to earn). Aside from not being able to save progress between levels in the old days, the Collection allows you to use a quick save function to save a file to the HD at any point. Considering how often we found ourselves dying, without this feature Andrew and I would have found it impossible getting past the second levels in any of the Sonic games.

Was it that games have simply gotten easier? It seemed that, for only occupying two dimensions, the classics were throwing a lot at us. We had no idea how to reasonably get through the game without relying on the quick save function, far less how we used to survive these games without such functionality. We recalled our younger days, racing through Sonics 1-3 at the top speed the Hedgehog managed, getting Super Sonic in parts 2 and 3 with ease and never having trouble building up my store of rings to activate the Super Saiyan hedgehog. These days, I’m lucky to hold onto enough rings to make it to the emerald bonus stages, far less actually win them all.

So have games begun holding hands more these days? Definitely. Sonic is, by today’s standards, unforgiving. 3 failures and you get a game over? One hit and you lose all your hard earned rings (more or less), one more hit and you’re dead? Compare this to any game you’re played recently: Uncharted? Restart from a checkpoint one episode before where you died. Prince of Persia? No death, just Elika saving you. Fallout 3? reload from the last autosave.

Then again, I’m a founding editor of POWSO. Maybe that doesn’t mean much compared to the bigger dogs out there like IGN and PSM, but I haven’t encountered a game in some time I can’t manage to work my way through on Hard. So what is it about those old games I can’t get these days? My brain is definitely not too old to handle video games. What is it then?

Bear in mind, I have nothing but respect for the games of yore, but everything is all about progress, especially where art is concerned (that should let you know where I stand on the whole “games as art” debate if my previous feature didn’t already). Those classics were fantastic for their time, but where technology and design has progressed, and our minds have kept up with those advances, and we’ve gotten used to a standard of responsiveness and control that modern game technology has afforded us.

Not to say that Sonic was a horrible game that we were too young to realize back in the day, far from. It was as good a game as a game could be. I’m looking forward to a day when Uncharted 2 and God of War become offensively clunky by standards of where the technology moves in years to come. If anything, looking back on that classic collection served not as a means to groan dismissively at a past that should be packed into an attic, but to enjoy nostalgia that shows us how far we’ve come. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get onto some Uncharted 2 multiplayer and appreciate just how far we’ve come.

Halloween Music

Halloween…it’s that glorious time of year again when it becomes acceptable to obsess over all things horrific and grotesque. When your super Christian neighbors glare at your satanic candy munching and begrudgingly pray for your soul a little harder.

So in honor of this grand annual tradition, I’m giving you a list of some of my personal favorite spooky tunes to set the scene for ‘Ween. Much to the chagrin of your Emo little brother with the Jack Skellington backpack, there are no Nightmare Before Christmas songs to be found here (although I am quite partial to “This Is Halloween”). But hopefully the tracks listed below will be sufficient for his and your ravenous Halloween cravings.

1) “Nosferatu” by DJ Krush featuring Mr. Liff

Every musical genre seems to have its own healthy fascination with the dead…or the undead. Rock music has Black Metal and Death Metal, Folk music has murder ballads, and Hip Hop has Horrorcore. Truthfully, I’m none too well versed in the ways of Hip Hop’s death-centric sub genre. I know I’ve heard Grave Diggaz and Insane Clown Posse, but I can’t recall any songs off the top of my head.

“Nosferatu” by Japanese producer DJ Krush and rapper Mr. Liff, however,  has been a longtime seasonal favorite of mine. Featured on Krush’s otherwise earthly and meditative record, Jaku, “Nosferatu” is a dark detour into an after-hours noir Tokyo. Krush’s soundscape here is flawless: an ominous nocturnal Vampire lounge. Cinematic, subtle, and atmospheric. Check this track out, as well as the rest of Jaku: an extraordinary album that far too few are aware of.

2) “Light Years” by 311

311 proves that Reggae music can be spooky too with this Voodoo Dub track off of their 1997 disc, Transistor. Many of Nick Hexum’s songs on the album seem to focus on a “beautiful disaster” with whom a relationship went awry; a drugstore cowgirl who can’t stay sober. Nick’s final lines in the song are some of my favorite, “You waited on pins for but needles never ever love. What did you think of?” This song is an October favorite for both 311 and their fans, particularly in live shows and in New Orleans for Halloween.

3) “Pretty” by Korn

Like most of us during our youth, lead singer of Korn, Jonathan Davis, worked in a morgue, and saw some pretty disturbing stuff. In one particular instance, Jonathan allegedly witnessed the corpse of an infant girl brought into the morgue who had undergone unspeakable abuse by her own father. Jonathan is quoted as saying, “it was the most heinous things I’ve ever seen in my life and I still have nightmares about it.”

Apparently, the nightmares were somewhat abated when he wrote the song for Korn’s 1998 album, Follow The Leader. The song is included on this list not because it’s “cool” or “fun” to listen to at all, but because of its sheer disturbing nature, and its immensely haunting lyrics.

4) Almost anything by Tom Waits post 1992.

Tom Waits used to sing about bad livers, broken hearts, and the relatively low quality of Los Angeles diner food when he was a young artist. After getting married though, almost everything about his music changed. With the release of his masterpiece Bone Machine in 1992, Waits’ music sauntered into Death Valley like a zombified corpse and struck up a tune with an orchestra of skeleton soldiers. Bone Machine reeks of mortality, fatalism, and the apocalypse.

Some of Waits’ ensuing album’s like 1999’s Mule Variations are far more upbeat, but nevertheless contains a healthy dose of Voodoo-infested songs and Appalachian witchcraft.

Waits’ 2002 album, Blood Money, once again returned to themes of corporeal torment in album perhaps even darker than Bone Machine. In describing the album, Waits said, “Blood Money is flesh and bone, eartbound…the songs are rooted in reality: jealousy, rage, the human meat wheel.”

Check out “Misery Is The River Of The World,” “God’s Away On Business,” “The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me,” “Earth Died Screaming,” “What’s He Building,” “Don’t Go Into That Barn,” and many, many others—and just remember: the Army Ants will leave nothing but your bones.

5) “Pink Maggitt” by Deftones

Everything is wrong and depraved with this song. To paraphrase Deftones bassist Chi Cheng as he spoke of lyricist Chino Moreno “Chino’s lyrics are often about violence…and often about sex. And sometimes the lines between the two can be a blurred.”

The Deftones’ 2001 album, White Pony, climaxes with this disturbing and cryptic song, which can be thought of us a reprise of the song, “Back To School” or “Mini Maggitt.” It’s a dark and haunting close to an album that already features images of bathtub electrocution, prostitution, knife parties,

Through distorted and heavily affected vocals, Chino begins the song almost whispering “I’ll stick you…then I’ll take your oxygen” above Stephen Carpenter’s haunting and droning guitar, and Frank Delgado’s ethereal sampling. When the song hits full stride, he mimics “Mini Maggitt’s” refrain of “pushed back to square, now that you need her, but you don’t,” altering it to “pushed back to square, now that you knee’d her…in the throat.”

The song if reminiscent of the Deftones’ earlier song, “MX,” in which a conversation with a girl turns into a drunken Chino belting, “shove her over railing.” Intense love/hate relationships have long been a topic of Chino’s writing, but fear not, Chino is no Ike Turner. Lyrics are the outlet for reality, but also fantasies, no matter how dark and grisly they may be.

6) The Bioshock soundtrack: “Steinman”

“That one! Too fat!! This one! Too tall!! This one…Too symmetrical!!”

Ahh, Dr. Steinman. One crazy mothertrucker. His insatiable desire to perfect the human form has driven him batshit insane, and makes him one of the most delightfully frightening bosses in Bioshock. His musical theme perfectly captures his personality and the anticipation you feel as a player when you first see him. A Trans-Atlantean plastic surgeon in an orange butcher’s outfit who operates with meat cleavers and no anesthesia is scary enough. But his theme composed by Gary Schyman, makes this crazy quack truly horrifying.

7) “Jetstream” by Thom Yorke

This minimalist Electronica romp through what can only be described as a bad dream is one of my favorite songs of Thom’s. Thom Yorke is trapped in a driverless coach racing through the night until he jettisons himself from the window and sails away. My favorite lyrics are “we need a rubber man, we need a stretchy man. I’m not sure I am welcome. You are a fool and this is over. Over the cliffs of Dover.” This is a great song to play out on the highway in the wee small hours when the lights are few and no one else is around.

Free Run House – Panic in the Streets

An increasing number of folks are tapping into the multimedia possibilities which bandwidth offers with the likes of YouTube and Pandora. So too the long form medium of the feature film has begun to reach with increased frequency the monitors of film fans looking for a quick–and free–movie hit. Most major motion pictures, if they are offered online at all, are restricted to pay services, leaving most free and legal streaming video sites like Hulu with significantly limited options of forgotten studio backlog pictures and copyright-orphaned public domain films. However, within the greater body that makes up the catalogues of such sites remains a multitude of great films. This column is devoted to separating the wheat from the chaff, and discovering some of the cinematic gems that may be viewed for free by anyone with an internet connection.

Panic in the Streets (1950 dir. Elia Kazan) 95 Minutes

Where You Can Find it for Free:

Easily streamed from several sources at both Google and YouTube, the sound matches throughout the picture on this link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7012875438126526365&hl=en#

But I highly recommend spending the time to download a higher resolution version over at Archive.org, a site which hosts many public-domain films:

http://www.archive.org/details/PanicIntheStreets1950RichardWidmark

The films of Elia Kazan hold a privileged place in American cinema for good reason. It is a rare filmmaker that could so deftly handle the vastly different lyrics on the human (and American) character. In his hands are comfortably woven Tennessee Williams’ lyric poem of urban hopelessness (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951), Budd Schulberg’s pressure-cooker of straining blue collar words and fists (On the Waterfront, 1953), and the Californian Gothic of Steinbeck’s angst (East of Eden, 1954). History has borne out that Kazan’s filmic output shall transcend the difficulties of his involvement with HUAC, regardless of one’s sentiment regarding his naming of names.

A lesser known film from Kazan is Panic in the Streets (1950), starring Richard Widmark, the ill-fitted Zero Mostel, and (in his feature film debut) Jack Palance. The story reads something like a prequel to a disaster film. A strain of the bubonic plague has been detected in the murdered body of an illegal immigrant who was involved with the mob. Our underpaid and overqualified Doc-in-Uniform (Widmark) has the dual burden of convincing New Orleans’ city hall of the magnitude of danger posed by another outbreak of plague, and of hunting down the identity of the dead immigrant to quarantine anyone else he may have had contact with, including the small time organized crime operation run by the chisel-faced and all-around bad guy gangster (Palance).

If that sounds like a lot of story to run through in 95 minutes—well, that’s because it is. Ultimately, Panic in the Streets is too many good ideas, underdeveloped in all directions. First and foremost it’s a ticking time-bomb detective story, and in this respect it is most successful. Kazan has a natural touch for the subtle graduations between plague illness and the illnesses saddled with living under on the poverty line. The themes of immigration, crime, and urban labor lifestyles would become familiar (and better fleshed out) Kazan trademarks. Here these themes both make the film more interesting than its initial story intends to be and to unfortunately obfuscate the pace of the plotting.

Panic in the Streets is decades ahead of its time. You will be surprised at just how mature this film feels addressing a topic like public health and mobilizing a city to prevent catastrophic destruction (the film is set in New Orleans). The performances are quite good—even if Mostel is miscast—and the eternally relevant suspense story is only marred by having a few too many genuinely interesting paths flirted with but underexplored.

If you get to the movie then leave some feedback below, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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