I ran an errand for an accordion-playing friend this week, and as I drove down Route 116 past Mount Sugarloaf—Sunderland being the unlikely home of a world-class accordion shop—the majestic views reminded me that this was the week that we locals would finally get to see Edge of Darkness, the Mel Gibson thriller shot in and around the Valley a little over a year ago.
When I returned home, I tracked down the trailer online, and sure enough, we're treated to a glimpse—it helps if you're always staring at the backgrounds—of the winding Connecticut River, seen from Sugarloaf's peak while Gibson interrogates a corporate villain in the foreground. Soon after, a busy intersection of downtown Northampton takes center stage, and for a moment it's hard to tell if the crowd of demonstrators on display are actors or just business as usual in the protest-heavy town. Many more details no doubt await; eagle-eyed fans of local color can catch Edge of Darkness at Hadley's Cinemark theater.
Meanwhile, both Cinemark and the Memorial Hall Theater in Shelburne Falls bring live opera back to area screens with Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. Simulcast from the Met's New York home, the Saturday afternoon show features Giuseppe Verdi's "political thriller" Simon Boccanegra. Starring legendary tenor Pl?cido Domingo in the title role (originally written for a baritone), Boccanegra may prove the capstone to the 69-year old performer's career. James Levine conducts, and the curtain goes up at 1 p.m.
On Friday night, two one-night-only screenings pop up in the area, starting with the 7 p.m. showing of USA vs. Al-Arian at Northampton's Media Education Foundation. The film looks at the case of pro-Palestinian activist Sami Al-Arian, a university professor arrested in 2003, charged with supporting terrorists, and held in solitary confinement for over two years. While one might expect the focus to be on by-now familiar abuses of the Patriot Act, director Line Halvorsen instead zeroes in on the toll Al-Arian's detention places on his family. Melva Underbakke, a friend and colleague of Al-Arian, will be in town to give her eyewitness account of the events. For more information, visit www.northamptoncommittee.org.
Later, Stanley Kubrick's 1987 classic Full Metal Jacket runs as part of Cinemark's Friday Night Rewind midnight-movie series. An unforgettable film that balances dark comedy with a horrifying look at the effects of a desensitized military, it's worth seeing for so many reasons; R. Lee Ermey's oft-quoted and foul-mouthed drill instructor is only the most memorable.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
