Pick-A-Day

May 2006
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  

Archives

Wednesday: Blood Ties

I could, I suppose, spend a great deal of time describing how MT and I traveled from Weimar to Prague. However, I’ve taken the trip three or four times and MT has taken it once: I shall leave it to MT to describe the way. It an ICE, connecting in Dresden to an EC, no coins, a Metro ride followed with walking to the pension offices.

Instead I am going to talk about Blood Ties.

Some of you may recall that a few months ago I waxed poetic about Night Watch, a Russian film about Vampires. I really liked the film, IUMike less so.

At the time I wondered aloud about the name of a movie I recalled once watching on Fox in the early 90s. After a bit of research, I was fairly certain it was “Blood Ties.”

However, it was only for sale in the United States, so I substituted my interest in the movie with Buffy the Vampire Slayer—borrowed from one of my colleagues at the office. I now love the show and anybody who reveals to me what happens after the 11th episode of the 3rd season will be permanently disabled.

Once I realized that MT could bring stuff from America for me, I ordered four movies off of Amazon.Com and had them shipped to her.

Blood Ties was one of the four.

The movie was the one that I remembered from days of yore. It featured Carpathian-Americans struggling to be a part of society—although in the opening scene a husband and wife are brutally murdered, complete with stakes through their hearts, in the rural south. Their surviving son, who is rather sexy (Jason London???), makes his way to California and his rich Uncle, where he becomes a full fledged member of the family.

The movie details the Carpathian-American’s struggle with a group of murderous Vampire haters, showing their ultimate victory. Once the murderers are captured, there is a quick “trial” and the murderers are sentenced to be a feast.

My vague understanding from what I’ve read is that Blood Ties was not meant to be a one-off movie of the week, but was actually the pilot for a television series that never made it onto the air. Viewed through that lens the movie makes a great deal more sense—for it feels like we are being set up for a long term relationship—we have the trusty, decent, hardworking Carpathian-American reporter—the one who wants to integrate with society, the district attorney cum girl-friend, the rich Uncle, the group of teen-aged Carpathian-American troublemakers, and many others.

However, as a stand-alone movie it is a bit suspect. There are more than a few disjointed moments. This probably stems from the fact that the movie was adapted from being a television pilot to being a television movie—so all the loose ends that normally would have been fodder for future episodes needed to be addressed.

1 comment to Wednesday: Blood Ties