Talk:Barb Wire (1996 film)

Image:Barb Wire.jpg
This publicity still of Pamela Anderson as Barb Wire is currently tagged as unsourced and without a fair use rationale for this article. I originally uploaded it, but I am not very familiar with this topic, and I believe this article's regular contributors are in the best position to provide the missing source informatin and a fair use rationale, should they decide that it is worth keeping here. Cheers, Postdlf 02:23, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Original research?
I added this template since the article is filled with unverified claims and OR. for example; "...a plot based on Casablanca..."? Or; "...was considered a box office disappointment...", "...it is mainly remebered for...". All such unsourced material should be deleted. 129.16.49.8 (talk) 14:39, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

That's ridiculous. You wouldn't require verification for the "claim" that the earth revolves round the sun, would you? The fact that the plot of this movie is a direct rip-off of Casablanca is just as obvious. And besides, I had provided a link to the article on Casablanca, which also contains a plot synopsis. You should read that before you decide that my claim is unverifiable. The only significant changes this picture makes to the Casablanca plot are the setting and the gender roles.

I will concede that perhaps the way I presented this fact was insensitive. Perhaps it should be mentioned differently, but I think it's crazy not to point it out somewhere. Like I said, a cursory reading of the two plot synopses should make the point even to anyone whose hasn't seen either movie.Berberry (talk) 00:32, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

I've been reading over the plot synopsis of this film again, and to make my point I'll annotate it here, with notes that are verifiable from the Casablanca plot synopsis:

Barb Wire (Anderson) (one of several gender reversals - Rick Blain in the original, played by Humphry Bogart) owns the Hammerhead (Rick's Cafe Americain), a nightclub in Steel Harbor (Casablanca) — "the last free city" in a United States (Europe and parts East) ravaged by the Second American Civil War (Second World War) —and she brings in extra cash by hiring out as a mercenary (to the Free French, as it turned out in the original) and bounty hunter. Her club is raided by Chief of Police Willis (Xander Berkeley) (Captain Louis Renault, played by Claude Rains), who is looking for the fugitive Dr. Corrina "Cora" Devonshire (Victoria Rowell) (Victor Lazlow, played by Hans Conreid. In Barb Wire, there was some mixing of this character with the original's Ugarte, bearer of the letters of transit that will allow someone to get out of Casablanca and to America.  The letters of the original, fulfilling a function Hitchcock referred to as that of a "maguffin", are changed in the newer film to some sort of special lenses). Devonshire, a former government scientist (Lazlow was a Czech Freedom Fighter), has information about a bioweapon being developed by her former superior, Colonel Pryzer (Steve Railsback) of the Congressional Directorate; she is trying to escape to Canada in order to make this information public (the exact information Lazlow wants to get to the Allies is never made explicit in the original).

Meanwhile, Cora Devonshire (Victor Lazlow) has turned up at the Hammerhead (Rick's Cafe Americain). She is accompanied by Axel Hood (Temuera Morrison) (Ilsa Lund, played by Ingrid Bergman), a "freedom fighter" whom Barb had known (and, it is implied, loved) at the outbreak of the war, but the two were separated soon afterward (Rick and Ilsa had Paris. Need we go on with this?  Let's skip to the end, how 'bout it?)

In the end, the party makes it to the airport (the airport? really?  was there fog?  was it rainy and icky?  did they go out on the tarmac?  let's see...), where Barb reveals that she still has the contact lenses (and Rick still has those letters). She gives them to Cora (Hans Conreid), and Cora and Axel (Hans and Ilsa) get on the plane to Canada (America) while Willis and Barb (Louis and Rick) remain on the rainswept tarmac. Willis: Where will you go? Barb: Well, I hear Paris is nice this time of year. Willis: I do believe I'm falling in love. Barb: Get in line!

(from the Casablanca article: "They both walk off into the fog as Rick says one of the most memorable exit lines in movie history: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.")

Seems pretty darned similar to me. Berberry (talk) 02:39, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

I see that someone has put the information about Casablanca back in, and it's very well worded.

I was reading over those closing lines again - the one about "Paris this time of year" being I think the most explicit reference this picture makes to the original - and I'm somehow reminded of another parody of this Casablanca scene, from a black and white episode of the otherwise color TV series Moonlighting with Bruce Willis and Cybil Sheppard. Seems like that entire episode was a parody of 40s film noir, as I also seem to remember elements of Gaslight and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Among tens if not hundreds of other parodies of that airport ending (another one by Woody Allen comes to mind), the one from Moonlighting was at least a little more clever than average. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Berberry (talk • contribs) 14:57, 26 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah I'm removing the original research tag. As the article stands now I can't see any. Feel free to contact me if you disagree, I volunteer to work on any issue with the article. Freikorp (talk) 18:45, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Sorry guys, but WP:Original research does not permit exceptions. I appreciate the effort with the source, but a critic saying that a film is a rip-off of Casablanca is not the same as the film being based on Casablanca.--Martin IIIa (talk) 17:11, 7 December 2017 (UTC)

Dead external links to Allmusic website – December 2010
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 * http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3zfyxqwhldsee

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