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'TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES' (1990) RETROSPECTIVE.  ACT 2.

18/1/2021

1 Comment

 
by Dave Scrimgeour and Kevin McCluskey
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​Golden Harvest presents
A Limelight Production
in association with
Gary Propper

A Steve Barron film
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Starring
Judith Hoag
Elias Koteas

Based on characters created by
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird

Music by
John Du Prez

Production Designer
Roy Forgre Smith
Executive In Charge Of Production
Thomas K. Gray
Executive Producer
Raymond Chow
Co Producer
Graham Cottle

Story by
Bobby Herbeck
Screen Play by
Todd W. Langlen and Bobby Herbeck

Produced by
Kim Dawson, Simon Fields, David Chan

Directed by
Steve Barron


​Dave
Nice establishing shot here.
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"I can't walk through the park, 'cause it's crazy after dark. Keep my hand on my gun, 'cause they got me on the run."

​Kev
Yeh.  Is that over Central Park?  It looks like it.  I like the little details, like Michaelangelo sleeping with the panda toy, they really help sell the idea that the four of them are essentially still just kids themselves.


Dave
Ha, ha!  Yeah, I forgot about that.  What’s that in the background there?


Kev
An Elvis Presley bust, or something.  I suppose, she lives above an antiques store, so she’s probably taken certain things upstairs to decorate her flat, sorry, her apartment with, which give it that eclectic look.


Dave
Yeah.  She’s a good lead, Judith Hoag.  ‘Cause she is essentially the lead in the movie.


Kev
Oh, yeh.  She's definitely the lead in this.  That’s a good way of having Danny see the Turtles in her apartment, when he sees Michaelangelo hiding under the table in the mirror.  It plants that plot point for later on as well.
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"Ready or not. Here I come. You can't hide. Gonna find you....."

Dave
Yeah.  Y’know what’s been good?  The way they’ve been building up to the reveal of the villain’s lair.  I mean, it’s obviously coming up now, but they’ve let it be part of the story.


Kev
They’ve not rushed it.  It only comes into play when necessary, doesn't it?


Dave
It’s just another part of the story.  They’ve not forced it.  You’ve got all the father and son themes playing out now.


Kev
Right enough.  With Danny and his dad, April and her father, and those four and Splinter as well.


Dave
Yeah, because they’re going for a younger audience.


Kev
Yeh, your late 80s/early 90s youth market.  Hence the MC Hammer.


Dave
Did you not have MC Hammer albums back then?


Kev
You know what, man, I just found his second one, on cassette tape, up at my mum’s, along with the cassette tape of this soundtrack and the novelisation of this film and the Batman movie.  They were all sitting in a cupboard up there.


Dave
Did you have the novelisation, yeah?


Kev
Yeh.  The thing with the novelisations back then was, often they were the only way you could get certain still pictures from the film before it came onto the cinema.  There’s Sam Rockwell again.


Dave
Yep.  That’s a good thing, they’ve got a great cast.  They’ve got supporting actors like Sam Rockwell, Elias Koteas, Judith Hoag.


Kev
Yep.  All people, quite early in their careers that…..


Dave
…..are good, good actors.


Kev
And well cast too.


Dave
Yeah.  People that you instantly take to.  Toshishiro Obata for example.


Kev
Exactly.  People that are convincing in their roles, that are good character actors.  Even that bit, with Tatsu's dismissive little hand gesture there, with the fingers, “Go.  Play.”  That’s great.


Dave
The lair looks quite smart.  It’s like a runaway home, isn’t it?
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The Foot Clan community centre was clearly not subject to the same local council budgetary cuts as many of its ilk.

Kev
Yep.  It’s basically a ninja version of an Isis recruitment camp.  These kids are being completely indoctrinated into this life of crime, and are being radicalised.


Dave
Haha.  That’s a good point actually, yeah.


Kev
“Never lower your eyes to an enemy.”  That’s the Bruce Lee thing, isn’t it?  “Never take your eyes off your opponent.”


Dave
Yeah.  Tatsu’s even got the knife to this kid's throat too.


Kev
Yeah, you’re right, to a kid who looks all of what, fifteen, sixteen?  Barely an adult, if that.


​
Dave
Yeah.  I remember they kind-of stole this look for The Flash TV pilot, that kind of underground lair.  


Kev
Did they?


Dave
Yeah.  This is a great introduction for Shredder here.


Kev
Yeh man, with the light coming through the doorway like that.


Dave
It’s kind-of just the Darth Vader sort of thing, but it’s really well done.


Kev
Oh yeh, I mean look at that.  That’s a great shot, with the shadow coming off the cape like that.
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The Shredder casts a long shadow.

Dave
It’s a proper intro to your villain, with the menacing music as well.


Kev
Yeh, the soundtrack’s great again here, isn’t it?  You’re right, this is the first proper reveal of Shredder, isn’t it?


Dave
Yeah, we had a little hint of him earlier on, and now here he comes.


Kev
And they’ve kept that traditional Japanese look to the headgear.


Dave
It’s a proper samurai look, yeah.  I always remembered that he had trouble taking the cape off, you’ll see it here.


Kev
Oh yeh, ‘cause he’s got the blades on the shoulders as well.


Dave
Yeah, it gets caught.  Ha,ha.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yeh, it’s the bladed shoulder pads that let you know he’s Shredder, I suppose.  Just in case you weren't one hundred percent sure.
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I know shoulder pads were big in the '80s, but Oroku Saki is taking them to ridiculous extremes here.

Dave
Oh, he's even getting the red carpet treatment.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Now, in the cartoon, was Shredder purple, is that right?  Did they have him in more of a purple?


Dave
I think he was, yeah.  This is more of a cherry red.


Kev
Yeah.


Dave
That’s the thing, you wouldn’t really have noticed Sam Rockwell, hanging back, in the background there.  Unless you were looking for him, that is.


Kev
Yeah.


Dave
What age would he have been here?  About 20, or something?


Kev
Yeh, he couldn’t have been much older than that.  “This is your family.  I am your father.“  The fathers and sons theme at play again here.  The fact that he’s giving these kids, that are probably in and out of group homes and stuff, a “family” of sorts, is how he manipulates them.  And here he comes, here’s Danny, just messing it up for everyone, with his Sid & Nancy t-shirt on.  He must be a Sex Pistols fan, ‘cause he had his Sid Vicious one on earlier as well.
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Never mind the bollocks, here's Danny Pennington.

Dave
Yeah.  


Kev
To get those facial expressions on those masks is great.  The animatronics are amazing.


Dave
Oh yeah.  That’s another mistake there.  I’m pretty sure there’s a crew member that you can see here, at the table.


Kev
Oh yeh.  Ha, ha!  Just hiding behind that chair.


Dave
He was obviously like, “Oh fuck!”  'Cause that’s what I thought.  “Pork rind.”  That must’ve been the actors in the suits saying that line.


Kev
Could've been, yeh.  See, I love these rooftop shots.  They look great with the vents and everything.


Dave
The rooftops, yeah.  Again, proper, real locations.  None of your studio set nonsense.  They were just getting out there and making it in the streets.


Kev
Totally.  All those water towers and everything look great.  They add so much production value.
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Rooftop kata.

Dave
It reminds me of ‘Spider-Man: The Deadly Dust,’ when he fights Benson on the rooftop.


Kev
Yeh, that's true.


Dave
And this is a great bit where The Foot clan all just appear out of the background.  This is building up to another big fight scene.


Kev
Yeh.


Dave
Haha!  ”Ninja kick!”


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yeh.  It’s interesting just how lost they are without Splinter.  They’re all just sitting around her apartment, waiting.  They’re really passive.


Dave
Yeah.  Well, there’s the sais gone.


Kev
Yep.  I love the way that Foot guy just dumps them over the side of the roof.  Just dead nonchalantly.
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"Ooops!"

Dave
Interesting, Raphael has had all the fight scenes so far, hasn’t he?  You never really see the rest of them in the fight scene at the start, because it's in complete darkness, whereas he’s had the three, so far, that you’ve actually seen.  Great choreography though.


Kev
Yeh, man.  The choreography is superb.  This bit, where he does the front kick, into the back thrust kick is great.  And the cuts between these two scenes are good as well.
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Superturtle punch.

Dave
Yeah, rather than just having one, long fight scene.  And it ties in to what else is happening in the rest of the film, thematically, as well.


Kev
Yeh, and it’s building tension too.


Dave
Yeah.  This is the sort of scene where you’d be looking out for complaints here.


Kev
About the violence, yeh.  It's Raph essentially just getting beaten-up by a gang of thugs now.  This is a great as well, when he gets thrown through the skylight here.
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April should've ponied-up for double glazing on that skylight.

Dave
Oh yeah.  I’m sure this is the bit where you see the rubber shell.  You see his hand on it?  Donatello.


Kev
Oh yeh, right enough.  Ha, ha!


Dave
This is great too, the way The Foot all burst through into the room here.


Kev
“And I thought insurance salesmen were pushy.”  Ha, ha!  That’s a good line.


Dave
This bit with the nunchakus was cut.
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James Ferman's favourite scene, allegedly.

Kev
Yeh, you’re right, these were all the bits that were cut from the original cinematic and VHS releases over here, weren't they?


Dave
Look, this guy’s lens has come off.
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"This is gonna be the new look for the '90s. You're gonna be the first pirate." "But I don't wanna be a pirate."

Kev
Yeh, this dude’s missing a lens.  I suppose, this is some of that same style of humour that’s in a lot of kung-fu movies as well.


Dave
Yeah, that’s it, isn’t it?


Kev
And I love this piece of the score here.


Dave
Yeah, ‘cause it takes more of a comedic tone.


Kev
Yeh, it’s comedic here, but then it turns very dramatic in a minute.


Dave
Yeah, the humour is kind-of slapstick, but not overly stupid slapstick.


Kev
No, but it's slapstick enough to appeal to kids.


Dave
Yeah.  That was a good move.  With the front kick into the back thrust kick.


Kev
Yeh, and a bit of Turtle breakdancing here, with the ol’ backspins.
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Mikey breaks out the Street Sounds Electro cassette tapes and the lino.

Dave
“California roll.”  Ha, ha!  That's funny, but then the use of, “Spaz?”  Hmmm.  Not so much.


Kev
Yeh.  That’s not aged well, at all.  Although, in saying that, I never liked the use of that word back then either.  I always wondered what Donatello’s rub of the head here was all about.  Other than it just being a bit of “business.”
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Turtle Wax the dome.

Dave
This is where it gets a bit more gritty.


Kev
Yeh.  Good use of the cymbals, and I like the way they are establishing that it’s the sheer weight of numbers that’s overwhelming them here, ‘cause they’re essentially a man down.  Which, of course, brings in…..the equaliser.
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Zildjian, the cymbal of excellence.

​Dave
Haha.  Casey Jones.
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Ice hockey is for wimps, shinty is a real man's game.

Kev
Judith Hoag’s reaction to the “Oooh!  Who is the babe?” line is brilliant.


Dave
Yeah, I know.  Haha.


Kev
I love the soundtrack here.  The score is fantastic as it gets into this fight scene.


Dave
Yeah, that piece of the score is great.


Kev
Casey Jones has got a bit of a Bane voice with the mask on.  It’s a bit muffled.


Dave
Yeah.


Kev
I like this bit, with the cord of the phone burning out, just as Charles has finished recording that message.  And that’s another little nod to the cartoon with the van as well, isn’t it?
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The Mystery Machine.

Dave
Yeah.


Kev
This is a really good character beat for April, I think.  After all, she’s just watched her apartment, and her dad’s store going up in flames.  And it’s all Danny fault.
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"Burn, burn. Yes, ya gonna burn. Burn, burn. Yes, ya gonna burn. Burn, burn. Yes, ya gonna burn."

Dave
Yeah.


Kev
Big reverb on the Shredder drums.


Dave
Yeah.  This is the shame issue here.  The Japanese are big on shame, and not losing face.


Kev
Yeah.  This is quite brutal this bit actually, isn’t it?  ‘Cause Tatsu really takes his shame out on this kid, doesn’t he?


Dave
Yeah.  He really takes this poor kid out here.  He gives him a hiding.


Kev
It's heavily implied that he's actually killed this kid here, isn't it?  


Dave
Yeah.


Kev
And, this is where the kids start to realise that The Foot isn’t going to all be fun and games, and that there are going to consequences if they fail.


Dave
Yeah.  Well, they all come from broken homes, and this is just another example of a broken home that they’ve fallen into.


Kev
That's a good point, man, true.  I suppose, with this being released in the cinemas in the UK in November, you’re getting into that Christmas release schedule period, which is always a good time to release a kids film.


Dave
Yeah.  Well, it kind-of is a family film, ‘cause it’s all about family values.


Kev
Yeah, this line here.  “All fathers care for their sons.”  That's such a well delivered line.  I love the tears in Splinter’s eyes as well.  They’re really good.  It looks like he’s in pain.  Not only the emotional kind, as he’s talking about missing his sons here, but also the physical pain from the torture that’s been inflicted upon him by The Foot.
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Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 5.

Dave
And we’ve got the start of the sexual tension between April and Casey here.


Kev
Yeh.  Elias Koteas is pretty lean in this.  He looks like he’s in good shape.
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And people say Casey Jones has no superpowers, well, what about his magical finger guns?

Dave
Yeah.  This is quite funny, the way this scene plays out, how he breaks the news to her that she’s lost her job.


Kev
Is this Han and Leia style of sexual tension that they’re going for here, do you think?


Dave
I suppose it is, yeah.  Ha, ha!  “Moonlighting.”


Kev
Again though, how many kids would’ve got that 'Moonlighting' reference?  There couldn’t have been that many, I wouldn’t have thought.


Dave
No, I certainly didn’t watch 'Moonlighting' as a kid.


Kev
That’s interesting that she’s talking about the Turtles having suffered their first defeat as well.


Dave
Yeah, it’s like the narrative for them.


Kev
Yeh, and their growth as "people," and as a team.  That artwork’s great.  I wonder if it was Eastman or Laird that did that?  I think I remember reading somewhere that it was one of the two, now that I think about it.  I love the sketch of Leonardo, and of his leg, in a slightly different position, before she decided on the final version.  And the transitions into the actual shots are great as well.
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Eastman?
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Laird?

Dave
Oh yeah, the scene is basic and simple, there’s not a lot in it.  It’s almost just an empty room.


Kev
Yeh, you’re right, it’s essentially just an empty room with a couple of characters in it.  I always found the fact that they’re keeping Raphael in the bathtub, as a way of taking care of him, quite amusing.


Dave
Yeah, that’s their way of looking after him.
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He's not an amphibian, April. I think you may be over-subscribing to the healing properties of water for him here.

Kev
I wonder why they chose to do the journal entries here.


Dave
To provide a bit of narrative, I reckon.


Kev
Yeh, you’re right, I suppose.  A little bit of exposition, eh?


Dave
Yeah.  Do you think that this was meant, this bit with the chain on the swinging chair breaking?


Kev
I dunno.


Dave
His reaction is really comedic there.


Kev
Yeh, that reaction looks pretty genuine.  Good bit of business from Koteas, if it wasn't.


Dave
Raphael’s sounds like a proper Brooklynite.


Kev
Yeh, he’s got that Brooklyn accent, alright.  I like the fact that, on the costumes, each of their musculature is different as well.


Dave
Oh yeah.


Kev
They’re all unique, like you were saying.  Raph’s the biggest, he’s got that bruiser look, Leo’s a bit leaner, Michelangelo almost looks a bit younger, and that’s why he’s not as muscular, and Donatello kind-of somewhere in between.


Dave
Right enough.  Ha, ha!  This is where you can see the guy’s face in the mouth of the costume here.
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"The horror. The horror."

Kev
Ha, ha!  Oh yeh.


Dave
You can even see the guy’s mouth.


Kev
Yeh, he’s opening his mouth as well.  That’s actually quite terrifying.  It’s like something out of Alien, with the second, smaller, mouth inside the bigger mouth.  It’s like you’re just waiting on it to attack you.


Dave
Is that the guy’s eyes?


Kev
I’m not sure.  They don’t look like they’re in line with his face, with his mouth, or anything else, if those are his eyes?


Dave
No, it can’t be his eyes.  It looks like it, but….


Kev
Nah.  Is it maybe part of the structure of the mask?  Maybe they're metal pins, or something?


Dave
Yeah, ‘cause you can see the rest of the inside of the turtle mask.  That’s what it is.  If they didn’t have those pins or whatever they are, it probably wouldn’t look so bad, but because of them, it looks like a person’s eyes.


Kev
Yeh, you’re right, it does look like a person’s eyes.


Dave
It’s actually quite disturbing.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yeh, it really is.


Dave
This is a bit like a Rocky-style montage here, isn’t it?


Kev
Yeh, Mikey’s even on the heavy bag.
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1. 1-2. 1-1-2. 1-2. 1. 1-2-3. 1-1-3. 1-1-2. 1-1-4. 1-5. 1-6. 1. 1. 1-1-7. 1-1-8.

Dave
I suppose, there’s a little bit of Stallone in there with Raph yelling, “Splinter!”


Kev
Yep, that’s like Rocky shouting for Ardian.


Dave
Oddly enough, they dubbed Tatsu’s voice.


Kev
Did they?


Dave
Yeah, they dubbed it.  I love the darkness in these scenes.  The lighting and the colours and the tones and all that.


Kev
Yeh, it looks really good.  I like the soundtrack here as well.  Very fight montage-esque sort of stuff.  Again, a bit like a Rocky flick.


Dave
Has this been edited?  This is the full version, isn’t it?


Kev
I don’t know.  I’ve seen that many different versions of this film over the years, between cinema, home video and all the TV cuts, that I can never tell which one’s which.


Dave
I’m pretty sure that, nowadays, you get the full, unedited version, because the censors are past caring about it.


Kev
And there’s nobody kicking off about it these days now either, I suppose.


Dave
Yeah.  I like the fact that he’s using a sword to prepare dinner.
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Casey is preparing a rustic vegetable stew, with bell peppers, eggplant and katana sliced carrots.

Kev
Ha, Ha, yeh.  Using the big katana sword, just to cut up some carrots.  Michaelangelo’s little giggle is great.


Dave
You’re right, the muscle definition is different on each of them.


Kev
Yeh, and even the shades of green on their skin are all slightly different as well.  They’ve definitely put a lot of thought and work into how each of them look.  It's some achievement, for as little as they were working with.


Dave
Yeah, the costumes are fantastic, for what they were able to do at the time.


Kev
Is Donatello maybe the most underwritten of the four Turtles in this?  Because they don’t show much, if any, of the intellectual and engineering side of his personality, that he has in a lot of the other versions.


Dave
Yeah, he’s definitely made more of an intellectual later on.  And they changed the voice as well, didn’t they?  ‘Cause it was Corey Feldman here, but they got someone else in for the later movies.


Kev
I keep forgetting that it was Corey Feldman who did Donatello’s voice in this one.


Dave
Yeah, it’s Corey Feldman.


Kev
A bit of astral projection stuff going on here, with the channelling of Splinter.
Picture
Force ghost Splinter. Whoops. Wrong franchise, again.

Dave
​Yeah.  More traditional martial arts movie stuff.


Kev
Yeh.  Good score again for this bit.  It underpins the emotion of the scene.


Dave
Yeah, definitely.  I keep looking at those masks now, looking for the actor’s face.


Kev
Ha, ha!


Dave
This is the second act being wrapped-up, and we're moving into act three.


Kev
Yeh.  How far into the film are we here?


Dave
One hour, two minutes.


Kev
Yeh, you’re right then.   We’re pretty bang on for your standard three act structure.
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

(D) & (K)

Next: Act 3.  Where a man gets crushed (seemingly to death) in a trash compactor.  In a film aimed primarily at kids.
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1 Comment
Get Laid in Rowlett link
2/2/2025 07:48:00

This waas great to read

Reply



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