Add this one to the list of movies that could have/should have been better. No problems with the cast, Clint Walker and Vincent Price and Anne Francis are all as good as ever, but the concept of the story suffers from poor writing and direction and meanders all over the place. The movie opens with a failed prison break that feels and looks more like a spaghetti western and adds little to the slow, dramatic story of a gunfighter who wants to leave his past behind. This sort of story has been done before, most notably in The Gunfighter with Gregory Peck where we sympathized with the gunman and his friends and family. When the past finally catches up with Walker at the end, we're left to wonder who and why and where the past came from and not sure where our sympathies should be, it's just a means to an end.
Reviews
31 Reviews
Avatar
(2009)
Cowboys and Indians in the 23rd Century!
18 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I love westerns, I love sci-fi, but as a student of history and film, I've seen this before. Yes, the technology is mind-blowing, the film is entertaining to say the least, but the story is a blatant rip-off of the history of the Indian Wars and the Custer saga of the last half of the 19th Century with a little of Dances With Wolves thrown in to make it more palatable.
This time around, rather than gold, humans find an extremely rare and powerful element on the planet Pandora already populated with a native life-form called the Navi. They proceed to try to peacefully move the inhabitants out of the area, all the while preparing for war, if necessary. The avatar program is nothing more than a revamped Indian agent/missionary program trying to educate and relocate. If not blue and ten feet tall, the Navi would be American Indians riding astride their six-legged horses and their dragons or mythical thunderbirds.
The story alludes to previous encounters with the Navi that might parallel the Sand Creek massacre, the destruction of their giant tree village might as well be the battle at Washita, and the final great battle that sees the destruction and death of most of the human forces is certainly their Pandoran Little Big Horn.
The Navi, whose name sounds Indian, fight with bows and arrows, ride into battle on their horses and dragons screaming war whoops and cries that come right from every Indian battle on film, and they share a bond with nature much like the mythical Indian of American lore. The chief of the Navi is even played by Wes Studi with a computerized distinctly American Indian face.
Once the humans have been defeated and sent packing at the end, Pandora is left peaceful and tranquil once again. Really? If history repeats itself, as it so often does, the humans will be back one hundred times stronger, wear the Navi down by shear numbers and decimate them and get what they want anyway. The happy ending of the film is a joke if reality pokes in its ugly head.
Technically it's great film making, but it's a rehash of history and previous movies with nothing new to add to the storytelling.
This time around, rather than gold, humans find an extremely rare and powerful element on the planet Pandora already populated with a native life-form called the Navi. They proceed to try to peacefully move the inhabitants out of the area, all the while preparing for war, if necessary. The avatar program is nothing more than a revamped Indian agent/missionary program trying to educate and relocate. If not blue and ten feet tall, the Navi would be American Indians riding astride their six-legged horses and their dragons or mythical thunderbirds.
The story alludes to previous encounters with the Navi that might parallel the Sand Creek massacre, the destruction of their giant tree village might as well be the battle at Washita, and the final great battle that sees the destruction and death of most of the human forces is certainly their Pandoran Little Big Horn.
The Navi, whose name sounds Indian, fight with bows and arrows, ride into battle on their horses and dragons screaming war whoops and cries that come right from every Indian battle on film, and they share a bond with nature much like the mythical Indian of American lore. The chief of the Navi is even played by Wes Studi with a computerized distinctly American Indian face.
Once the humans have been defeated and sent packing at the end, Pandora is left peaceful and tranquil once again. Really? If history repeats itself, as it so often does, the humans will be back one hundred times stronger, wear the Navi down by shear numbers and decimate them and get what they want anyway. The happy ending of the film is a joke if reality pokes in its ugly head.
Technically it's great film making, but it's a rehash of history and previous movies with nothing new to add to the storytelling.
Lady Against the Odds
(1992 TV Movie)
Should have been better, but missing something.
2 December 2008
This one rings true as a good Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe) sort of period mystery with the interesting twist of the PIs being gals rather than guys. Probably done as a Crystal Bernard vehicle early in her Wings popularity, it goes out of its way to try to bring 1943 southern California alive and show the home front horrors of WWII as the murders are being solved. Bernard is more than adequate in her role as a soft boiled PI, as is most of the cast, but the one weak showing is her partner in investigations Annabeth Gish. One wonders just what her character adds to the detective agency, Bernard seems to do all the work. Gish has done much better stuff since, as in The X-Files, but here falls flat and leaves all the work for Bernard. The one performance that sizzles is Barbara Luna as a local madame. She evokes the memory of Rita Hayworth in looks and dress and expressions, has never looked better, and steals the few scenes she's in. I was hoping for something along the lines of the excellent A&E Nero Wolfe series, it certainly has the period look down well, but it never rises above your typical movie of the week quality. Blame it on some underdeveloped characters, maybe Bernard being too cute for a PI role, but there seems to be something missing that could have taken it from being a pleasant 95 minute diversion to something far better and noteworthy.
To Please a Lady
(1950)
Forget the defects and go for the stars!
9 May 2008
I've gotta be honest. I never cared for racing films till I saw Cornel Wilde's "Devil's Hairpin" at a Saturday matinée a long time ago. It seemed like the start of 'modern' racing to me, where cars looked like cars and not bathtubs on wheels, and guys like Newman and Garner and McQueen were behind the wheel. Stuff made before that seemed too old and dated and creaky. So it was with some trepidation that I stayed up to watch this Gable/Stanwyck vehicle race around my TV screen for the first time. God knows it had to be creaky. They were making it while I was being conceived, and showing it in theaters while I was learning about baby formula! Yeah, there's a similar theme of drivers killing drivers like in "Devil's Hairpin", but there's Stanwyck going from being too hard-nose to sappy in love just a little too fast, Gable knocks her over way too quickly with no reason shown why he's even attracted to her, and the stars of the film look like they should have made this movie ten years earlier. But then, these stars were at the top of their game. When Stanwyck's assistant swoons over Clark Gable, she should. He's still the king! There were still plenty of women in the audience who would. And let's face it, Gable just had to dig Stanwyck because she was the best tough cookie with a soft center to come out of Hollywood ever. Gable slapping her, and some lines of dialogue stand out, especially Stanwyck saying, "You're nobody till somebody loves you," which had to predate Dean Martin's first recording of that by five years! There are lots of scenes of auto racing history for fans who appreciate that sort of thing to enjoy, but there's also the stars themselves to enjoy. Unlike today, there was a time when faces and personalities meant more to a film than the story itself, and it's watching these two stars go through the motions that really make this film worth watching even after all these years have passed.
The Satan Bug
(1965)
Forerunner to 24
20 February 2008
Just as Forbidden Planet was a forerunner to Star Trek so too was Satan Bug a forerunner to 24 and Jack Bauer. Forty some years later and it still has a look ahead of its time as well as a storyline as current today as it was back then. Though not filled with major stars of the time, Dana Andrews was near the end of his career, all the actors came from supporting roles in movies and TV, all were familiar faces and competent actors and a few would move on to bigger things like Anne Francis as Honey West, Frank Sutton as the sergeant on Gomer Pyle and James Doohan as Scotty on Star Trek. The storyline may be spread across a couple of days, but it's constantly moving in a 24 fashion, 2 hours versus 24 hours to be sure, but like today's 24 it never lightens up. Agent George Maharis is pulled back into the agency by a national emergency over the theft of a biological weapon and he's as disillusioned with the government as Jack Bauer can be and yet determined to do his job and save not only our country, but possibly the entire world. And though the story wraps up all too suddenly, like 24, the ending isn't all neat and tidy, perhaps a bit more real than more Hollywood, and it makes you wonder, what's next?
Doctor Zhivago
(1965)
Wasn't worth the wait!
4 January 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Over the years there have been movies and actors/actresses that have held no interest for me, ones that I instinctively knew I wouldn't appreciate at the time, and that I haven't seen or learned to appreciate until I've gotten much older and perhaps a bit wiser. I'm always amazed when I finally sit down to watch something I've avoided for years or decades, discover a real gem, and know that the only reason I appreciate it is because I'm older and wiser.
The other night, with the winter cold seeping through the windows and doors, I sat down to watch Dr. Zhivago for the first time. It was like sitting down in the middle of a summer heatwave to watch Lawrence of Arabia for the first time about fifteen years ago. Great cinematography, the perfect atmosphere, and a great cast. And that's where it ended. Unlike Lawrence, Zhivago, for all of its fine qualities, is a tragedy from beginning to end, with an ending so weak and lame-brained, that the events in the Soviet Union 20 years ago make it seem even worse today.
As much as I've enjoyed Omar Sharif in many other movies, here he's an unsympathetic wimp, just a leaf blowing in the socio-political winds of time, with a wife (and actress Geraldine Chapman) who is as unexciting and he is spineless. As much as I don't appreciate Rod Steiger, he usually seems to be the man I most like to hate in a film, his villainous character here is appreciated because it has the most life of any of the movie's other performances. So many of the other fine actors are wasted in parts that seem only to be part of a beautiful cinematic canvas and little else.
I was constantly being annoyed by Russians using the French term "monsieur" all the time. It was almost as annoying as Hemingway using "thee" and "thou" in the novel For Whom the Bells Toll to describe the Spanish use of the formal and familiar "you". "Thee" and "thou" didn't work there and "monsieur" doesn't work here.
On the other hand, the use of "comrade", a term often associated with Communists, is as plain as day, even though I can't recall Communists mentioned once in the movie. When the story of Dr. Zhivago ends, we're lead to believe that the tragic destruction of families, a way of life, and a country by a political movement that caused the meaningless deaths of tens of millions of people, forced poverty and suffering on even more for several generations, and eventually lead to a miserable failure of a "grand experiment" in less than 75 years, has somehow been rationalized by the common man building and operating an energy generating dam at the end, though being supervised and frightened by a fatherly military/political presence in the form of Alec Guinness. Talk about propaganda!
If you have to chose between some quality time with your family or watching this movie, please choose the former. Spending at least five minutes with the family is worth more than 200 minutes with Dr. Zhivago.
The other night, with the winter cold seeping through the windows and doors, I sat down to watch Dr. Zhivago for the first time. It was like sitting down in the middle of a summer heatwave to watch Lawrence of Arabia for the first time about fifteen years ago. Great cinematography, the perfect atmosphere, and a great cast. And that's where it ended. Unlike Lawrence, Zhivago, for all of its fine qualities, is a tragedy from beginning to end, with an ending so weak and lame-brained, that the events in the Soviet Union 20 years ago make it seem even worse today.
As much as I've enjoyed Omar Sharif in many other movies, here he's an unsympathetic wimp, just a leaf blowing in the socio-political winds of time, with a wife (and actress Geraldine Chapman) who is as unexciting and he is spineless. As much as I don't appreciate Rod Steiger, he usually seems to be the man I most like to hate in a film, his villainous character here is appreciated because it has the most life of any of the movie's other performances. So many of the other fine actors are wasted in parts that seem only to be part of a beautiful cinematic canvas and little else.
I was constantly being annoyed by Russians using the French term "monsieur" all the time. It was almost as annoying as Hemingway using "thee" and "thou" in the novel For Whom the Bells Toll to describe the Spanish use of the formal and familiar "you". "Thee" and "thou" didn't work there and "monsieur" doesn't work here.
On the other hand, the use of "comrade", a term often associated with Communists, is as plain as day, even though I can't recall Communists mentioned once in the movie. When the story of Dr. Zhivago ends, we're lead to believe that the tragic destruction of families, a way of life, and a country by a political movement that caused the meaningless deaths of tens of millions of people, forced poverty and suffering on even more for several generations, and eventually lead to a miserable failure of a "grand experiment" in less than 75 years, has somehow been rationalized by the common man building and operating an energy generating dam at the end, though being supervised and frightened by a fatherly military/political presence in the form of Alec Guinness. Talk about propaganda!
If you have to chose between some quality time with your family or watching this movie, please choose the former. Spending at least five minutes with the family is worth more than 200 minutes with Dr. Zhivago.
Blue Light
(1966)
Really great show in a terrible time slot!
31 October 2007
As pointed out in previous comments, Blue Light was part Counterfeit Traitor, part Operation Crossbow, part James Bond, and all Robert Goulet. Goulet was perfect, an earlier version of Pierce Brosnan in many ways, as "traitor" David March, double agent extraordinaire, trying his best to help win the war in WWII Europe almost singlehandedly. He was in his prime, handsome and virile, and convincingly charming and deadly, and his romantic interest and partner in spying was the exciting French actress Christine Carrere. Don't get me wrong, I came back week after week to see how David March could outwit the Nazis and advance the war effort, but I also came back to see Christine who, along with Diana Rigg as The Avengers' Emma Peel, was one of the sexiest European ladies on American 60's TV. Though historically inaccurate, the episode, which I believe was a larger part of the movie culled from the series, involved the destruction of the V-1 and V-2 rocket base at Peenemunde. It was for all intents and purposes an American James Bond taking on a Nazi version of a Spectre plot and great fun and adventure. Though I don't recall what was opposite it in its time slot, I was hooked, I know some veterans of WWII laughed at some of the plots, James Bond could be fantastic, but not David March in WWII, I still think, even today, that it was very underrated and Goulet should have been used more in roles like this. Today his voice is silent, most of his music is out of print, and this series is all but forgotten. Sadly, now that Robert Goulet has passed away, perhaps they'll resurrect his albums and put this short-lived series out on DVD. What a voice! How the heavens must sound today!
Never So Few
(1959)
Director Sturges underrated, so is this film
31 May 2007
I bought the DVD the other day and found it associated with Warner Brothers. While I watched I wondered how I would describe this film when I came here and thought, "A Warner's movie with all the slick and polish of an MGM film of the 50s/60s". In that rare and confusing arrangement with Turner Entertainment, it was an MGM film distributed by Warner's! Somehow I'd missed the lion at the beginning.
This film may not rate up there with the likes of Twelve O'Clock High or They Were Expendable, but neither it or its director John Sturges should be as underrated as they are. Since seeing it for the first time in the mid 60s, I've come back to it like an old friend, year after year since then, and there has always been something about it I liked.
While I can't help but feel that this movie is more about Sinatra than his character Tom Reynolds, I find it easy to put that aside when I watch the likes of Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and Dean Jones, stars on their way up, working alongside the pros like Peter Lawford, Richard Johnson, Paul Henried, Philip Ahn, and Brian Donleavy. Hollywood sets blend well with all sorts of location shooting, and the story seems evenly broken up between the horrors/adventures of war and the romance with Lollobrigida. And when Sinatra's character has to break the rules, face insurmountable odds, and endanger his career in seeking justice for fallen friends, his personal smart ass attitude seems to fit the role. He even finds an ally in Brian Donleavy's General Sloan, who runs away with the film near the very end.
Everybody in this film seems to live up to the slick and polish of 50s/60s MGM, even Hugo Friehofer's melodic and haunting score, and if there are a few times Sinatra is more Sinatra than Tom Reynolds, the rest of the stellar cast makes up for it. Its not a great war drama, but it is great war entertainment with a conscience!
This film may not rate up there with the likes of Twelve O'Clock High or They Were Expendable, but neither it or its director John Sturges should be as underrated as they are. Since seeing it for the first time in the mid 60s, I've come back to it like an old friend, year after year since then, and there has always been something about it I liked.
While I can't help but feel that this movie is more about Sinatra than his character Tom Reynolds, I find it easy to put that aside when I watch the likes of Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and Dean Jones, stars on their way up, working alongside the pros like Peter Lawford, Richard Johnson, Paul Henried, Philip Ahn, and Brian Donleavy. Hollywood sets blend well with all sorts of location shooting, and the story seems evenly broken up between the horrors/adventures of war and the romance with Lollobrigida. And when Sinatra's character has to break the rules, face insurmountable odds, and endanger his career in seeking justice for fallen friends, his personal smart ass attitude seems to fit the role. He even finds an ally in Brian Donleavy's General Sloan, who runs away with the film near the very end.
Everybody in this film seems to live up to the slick and polish of 50s/60s MGM, even Hugo Friehofer's melodic and haunting score, and if there are a few times Sinatra is more Sinatra than Tom Reynolds, the rest of the stellar cast makes up for it. Its not a great war drama, but it is great war entertainment with a conscience!
Flags of Our Fathers
(2006)
Heartfelt and Old Fashioned Movie
29 October 2006
Clint has done it again! With the exception of some of the early westerns and thrillers he directed, every other film he's done has come from the heart and makes you feel a wealth of emotions before the closing credits. As someone who's watched war films for almost 50 years (my earliest recollections of late night TV were the scenes with PT boats attacking the Japs in They Were Expendable), I've come to appreciate those older ones, ones made closer to the time of the story, and this Eastwood film has the comfortable feel of a much older movie. It takes a little time to get used to the semi black and white / semi color used during the time spent at sea and on Iwo, and the story does jump back and forth in time and place to tell its story, but it ends up being a story worth telling and told well. I've always maintained that truly good war films are the ones that make you empathize with the characters, gives you at least one thing for each character that makes them likable and human so that you have the same investment in their surviving that the characters have when going into combat. Unlike Saving Private Ryan where most of the characters were either unlikeable or distant, this film makes you care about the fates of the men who raised the flags and their families and ends up being much better than Private Ryan. What's more, it's a true story more historically accurate than what Hollywood usually gives us.
Iwo Jima was taken by the Marines so that two airfields on the island could be used for shot up B-29s and P-51s returning from attacking Japan that might might not make it back to their bases in the Marianas Islands. The movie depicts the first B-29 emergency landing while the island is still being taken by the Marines. As someone whose father was a flyboy in one of the B-29s in the 20th Air Force, my father was always grateful for what the Marines did on Iwo Jima, I'm particularly grateful for the sacrifices of all of those Marines!
Iwo Jima was taken by the Marines so that two airfields on the island could be used for shot up B-29s and P-51s returning from attacking Japan that might might not make it back to their bases in the Marianas Islands. The movie depicts the first B-29 emergency landing while the island is still being taken by the Marines. As someone whose father was a flyboy in one of the B-29s in the 20th Air Force, my father was always grateful for what the Marines did on Iwo Jima, I'm particularly grateful for the sacrifices of all of those Marines!
Who Was That Lady?
(1960)
I Just Love This One!
10 August 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I was always a Dino fan, still am all these years later, and this film makes me wish he and Tony Curtis had made a couple more of these in the 60s. Conventional wisdom says the real talent in Martin and Lewis was Jerry, and the real talent in Some Like It Hot is Jack Lemmon and not Tony Curtis, but when these two straight men, or at least straighter men, get together, this story gets as wacky as any Hope and Crosby, Martin and Lewis, or Abbott and Costello vehicle. Both guys can be as charming as always and as goofy and funny as their other partners, with Dino running away with a little more of the comedy than Tony. This one is strictly a guy flick, a boy's club guilty pleasure about two friends conspiring to repair a marriage with a made up story of FBI agents and Russian spies and beautiful women, and just has to be funny, especially when the real FBI, James Whitmore and John McIntire, and the real KGB, Simon Oakland and Larry Storch, get wind of it and turn up. Throw in the ever lovely Janet Leigh as Tony's wife, and the pre-silicone/saline implant miracles of Barbara Nichols and Joi Lansing as two blond bimbos Dino wants help schmoozing, and this becomes every post-pubescent boys dream come true comedy of the 60s. It looks like so much fun that you have to believe these people weren't even working when they made it. And just when you think they can't go any farther or get more ridiculous, they set off to "sink" the Empire State Building. These guys could have gotten Kong down without a shot! Without apologies to anyone, I just loved this one!
Odds Against Tomorrow
(1959)
The Movie That Had To Have A Different Ending
8 July 2006
As a country, as a people, we were beginning to move into the racially charged and conscious 1960s when a similarly themed movie The Defiant Ones with Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis came out the year before this one. In that movie, two criminals trying to escape to freedom, have to come to grips with each other's race and humanity if they are to succeed and survive. The ending is perhaps bittersweet, but there's still that sweetness at the end with this and Stanley Kramer's other race conscious film Quess Who's Coming to Dinner. When Odds Against Tomorrow came out after The Defiant Ones, they could not use the ending from the book because in spite of all of its differences it was thematically the same as the previously released movie that garnered an Oscar for writing the year before. The result was to make a grittier movie with a harder edge where rather than find some redemption in their actions, the main protagonists must face possible destruction and a final irony because of their racism, hatred and bigotry. With its on site shooting during a bleak New York winter, this movie has an almost documentary look. Shot in glorious black and white as they say, its a hard movie to watch because the characters and their lives are as bleak as the scenery and the racism and hatred feels real, but sometimes the things hardest to do are some of the most rewarding. When older Robert Ryan takes out Wayne Roger's younger soldier demonstrating his karate moves with one punch he's one of many older or smaller movie protagonists who take out a potential threat with "the snap of a finger" like Bogie as Sam Spade taking the pair of .45s away from Elisha Cook Jr. in the Maltese Falcon or Indiana Jones shooting the large turbaned Arab with the swinging scimitar in Raiders of the Lost Ark. And if you have seen the characters of Ingram and Slater as being consumed by hatred, be that hatred based on racism or something else, than the final irony is so deservedly perfect as to be almost laughably funny. Over the years I've learned to appreciate this movie more and more and may yet give it higher rating as I get even older and wiser!
Magnum, P.I.
(1980–1988)
This was the show I wasn't going to watch!
16 June 2006
It's happened over the years at least a few times. Something becomes so popular that I decide it just can't be anything worthwhile, and then I find myself doing a complete 180. This guy Selleck was too good looking in an old Hollywood way (Clark Gable), his voice seemed an octave too high for a man of his size and looks, so damn many women were positively orgasmic when they talked about him and women are notorious for going after some really shallow males, and the few times I caught a scene or two flipping through channels, he seemed smug, or at least that's how I perceived him. And then one Thursday evening there was nothing on the network channels and nothing on any cable channel and I flipped on CBS just as Magnum P.I. started. It was the first two hour episode that introduced Michelle and had a spectacular gunfight at the end on the streets of Little Saigon. My two favorite movies have always been Rio Bravo and Casablanca, and this episode seemed to be an updated melding of the two. Like Duke in Rio Bravo, Magnum had loyal friends to back his play as he tries to set things right when no one else will help him, and like Bogie in Casablanca, Magnum has an ill-fated love affair he is going to have to give up to a higher duty. And then there was the gunfight at the end. After years and years of so-called do-gooders trying to get violence off the TV, and somewhat succeeding, there was a real hero like Duke or Bogie, who wasn't going to apologize for putting a few well deserved .45 slugs into a few bad guys. Women liked Magnum because he was so charming and good looking and mischievous like a little boy. I liked him because, like Duke and Bogie and Gable, for all of his faults, he was a man!
The show seemed too good to be true, a good looking old Hollywood sort of guy who carried my favorite pistol and wasn't adverse to using it, a show at times filled with humor, sometimes filled with drama, and Magnum, like Selleck, was just the sort of guy you always wanted for a friend in good times and bad. And then the next season or so there was the two hour episode that introduced Magnum's and T.C.'s old Soviet torturer and nemesis from Vietnam, Ivan, who just happened to be on the islands for a long weekend to "look up some old friends" and assassinate a world leader. Magnum and friends have to relive their haunted unresolved past in Vietnam, prevent an assassination, not only in Hawaii but also in other areas of the world, and seek justice and retribution when the powers that be can not put Ivan in jail. In the final 30 seconds of the show, Magnum with his .45 became as powerful an image on screen as Clint and his big .44, even it was only a curved 23" TV set!
I remember reading an article that discussed the types of TV shows popular during certain Presidential administrations. There was the straight forward, safe, family values sort of programs that reflected Eisenhower's quiet dignity in the '50s. In the early '60s during the Kennedy administration, Jack and Bobby's determination to right wrongs over missiles in Cuba or in mob-controlled unions gave us The F.B.I. and Robert Stack as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables. Later, having shamefully abandoned Vietnam for purely political reasons, our Presidents like Nixon and Ford and Carter seemed rather impotent, like the always wimpy Alan Alda (Hawkeye) in M.A.S.H., and the always intimidated and beat up James Garner in The Rockford Files. Reagan got into the White House and suddenly his no nonsense, straight shooting philosophies, his search for right and wrong and black and white, and his jovial sense of humor was reflected in Thomas Sullivan Magnum or Magnum P.I. And just as suddenly TV had, in Selleck and Magnum, as good a character, if not better, as anything Hollywood had come up with for the larger screen in the previous 20 years.
Today I have four seasons of Magnum P.I. on DVD, and whenever I want something to watch and can not decide on something from my library, I pull out the private investigator in Hawaii and go back to a time not all that long ago, when life seemed somewhat more clear and safe, and certainly younger, and a tall man in a Tiger baseball hat and Hawaiian shirt, with a red Ferrari and a Colt .45 auto, went out to do the decent thing and right the wrongs of the day.
George Clooney or Vince Vaughn as Magnum P.I.??? You've got to be kidding!
The show seemed too good to be true, a good looking old Hollywood sort of guy who carried my favorite pistol and wasn't adverse to using it, a show at times filled with humor, sometimes filled with drama, and Magnum, like Selleck, was just the sort of guy you always wanted for a friend in good times and bad. And then the next season or so there was the two hour episode that introduced Magnum's and T.C.'s old Soviet torturer and nemesis from Vietnam, Ivan, who just happened to be on the islands for a long weekend to "look up some old friends" and assassinate a world leader. Magnum and friends have to relive their haunted unresolved past in Vietnam, prevent an assassination, not only in Hawaii but also in other areas of the world, and seek justice and retribution when the powers that be can not put Ivan in jail. In the final 30 seconds of the show, Magnum with his .45 became as powerful an image on screen as Clint and his big .44, even it was only a curved 23" TV set!
I remember reading an article that discussed the types of TV shows popular during certain Presidential administrations. There was the straight forward, safe, family values sort of programs that reflected Eisenhower's quiet dignity in the '50s. In the early '60s during the Kennedy administration, Jack and Bobby's determination to right wrongs over missiles in Cuba or in mob-controlled unions gave us The F.B.I. and Robert Stack as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables. Later, having shamefully abandoned Vietnam for purely political reasons, our Presidents like Nixon and Ford and Carter seemed rather impotent, like the always wimpy Alan Alda (Hawkeye) in M.A.S.H., and the always intimidated and beat up James Garner in The Rockford Files. Reagan got into the White House and suddenly his no nonsense, straight shooting philosophies, his search for right and wrong and black and white, and his jovial sense of humor was reflected in Thomas Sullivan Magnum or Magnum P.I. And just as suddenly TV had, in Selleck and Magnum, as good a character, if not better, as anything Hollywood had come up with for the larger screen in the previous 20 years.
Today I have four seasons of Magnum P.I. on DVD, and whenever I want something to watch and can not decide on something from my library, I pull out the private investigator in Hawaii and go back to a time not all that long ago, when life seemed somewhat more clear and safe, and certainly younger, and a tall man in a Tiger baseball hat and Hawaiian shirt, with a red Ferrari and a Colt .45 auto, went out to do the decent thing and right the wrongs of the day.
George Clooney or Vince Vaughn as Magnum P.I.??? You've got to be kidding!
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
(1974–1975)
It's all about Carl!
31 May 2006
Weak scripts at times? Yep! Cheesy special effects at times? Yep! Deliciously guilty pleasure most of the time? Yep! More about Carl Kolchak and Darren McGavin? Yep! I always enjoyed science fiction as a kid, but found so much of the Dracula/Frankenstein/Mummy/horror stuff as just so much crap. It took Abbott and Costello to give me a new perspective on the classic Universal monsters, and it took Carl Kolchak to win me over to the "dark side" of entertainment. The Duke had Rooster Cogburn, Eastwood had Dirty Harry, Garner had Maverick and Rockford, Selleck had Magnum, and Darren McGavin had Carl Kolchak. Mixed in with all those weak scripts, cheesy special effects, that baroque group of supporting characters and actors and guest stars, there was Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak. He had a wry sense of humor in spite of the danger, was an idealist in his pursuit of the truth, and a realist when it came to accepting the obligatory incompetence and eventual cover-up by government officials. Additionally, unlike 98% of us, Kolchak was willing to stick his neck out and do what needed to be done, even if it meant his demise, the end of his journalistic career, or jail time. For all his faults, including no taste in clothes, Carl Kolchak was a man of charm and wit who drove a beautiful classic yellow Mustang (which was an old used car at the time) on his way to save the day for humanity. As good as any other fictional hero Carl Kolchak was the everyman hero brought to life every week for one season thanks to Darren McGavin. Now that he's passed on and his show is on DVD, I hope he's having as much fun watching me watch him have fun playing Kolchak The Night Stalker all over again!
Zulu
(1964)
The Movie Industry Gets One Right!
17 May 2006
This without a doubt is one of the finest historical combat films ever made by the film industries of the world. It's attention to detail is better than most, and just enough legend is put in to round out the story and not take it over.
I unfortunately never had the opportunity to see it first run on the big screen, only TV, first as black and white and then in color, but those images of outnumbered men in battle have stuck with me for the last 35 years.
In reading more about the actual battle over the years, I have always likened it to Custer's Last Stand, it's roughly the same time in history, except that it's set in Africa and the story turns out a bit different, and the reason it does is solely on the shoulder's of Lt. John Chard who lets the hordes come to him on his terms, rather than riding hell bent for leather into annihilation. There isn't a bad performance in this movie, not one poorly delivered line, though Jack Hawkins' drunk preacher gets on your nerves after a while, and all the good stuff associated with this film is there thanks to it's star and producer, Stanley Baker.
Though the violence doesn't seem as real as it did so long ago, and a little legend gets in the way of the truth, nowadays I watch this movie to see how very different ordinary men can join together under extreme pressure, rely upon each other, and accomplish seemingly impossible things. It's great history and a great movie!
Also, at my age, I have some regrets for roads not taken, things not done. One of the biggest regrets I have came from something that happened in the mid '70s. A shipment of almost 100 year old Martini Henry rifles came to the U.S., all were rifles the British government claimed were used specifically at Roark's Drift. $125 for each one. That was 30 years ago. I had gotten married the year before, and that seemed like an awful lot of money back then. It was the British equivalent of a Springfield or Sharps used at the Little Big Horn and would have made a wonderful wall hanger worth many times more today. Married, I couldn't come up with the money. Never got my Roark's Drift rifle or old Thunderbird convertible, and I never regretted divorcing her later!
Simply said, Stanley Baker's Zulu is probably the best thing he ever did, and it's been one of my personal favorites for the last 35 years.
I unfortunately never had the opportunity to see it first run on the big screen, only TV, first as black and white and then in color, but those images of outnumbered men in battle have stuck with me for the last 35 years.
In reading more about the actual battle over the years, I have always likened it to Custer's Last Stand, it's roughly the same time in history, except that it's set in Africa and the story turns out a bit different, and the reason it does is solely on the shoulder's of Lt. John Chard who lets the hordes come to him on his terms, rather than riding hell bent for leather into annihilation. There isn't a bad performance in this movie, not one poorly delivered line, though Jack Hawkins' drunk preacher gets on your nerves after a while, and all the good stuff associated with this film is there thanks to it's star and producer, Stanley Baker.
Though the violence doesn't seem as real as it did so long ago, and a little legend gets in the way of the truth, nowadays I watch this movie to see how very different ordinary men can join together under extreme pressure, rely upon each other, and accomplish seemingly impossible things. It's great history and a great movie!
Also, at my age, I have some regrets for roads not taken, things not done. One of the biggest regrets I have came from something that happened in the mid '70s. A shipment of almost 100 year old Martini Henry rifles came to the U.S., all were rifles the British government claimed were used specifically at Roark's Drift. $125 for each one. That was 30 years ago. I had gotten married the year before, and that seemed like an awful lot of money back then. It was the British equivalent of a Springfield or Sharps used at the Little Big Horn and would have made a wonderful wall hanger worth many times more today. Married, I couldn't come up with the money. Never got my Roark's Drift rifle or old Thunderbird convertible, and I never regretted divorcing her later!
Simply said, Stanley Baker's Zulu is probably the best thing he ever did, and it's been one of my personal favorites for the last 35 years.
Lost in Translation
(2003)
$7.50 DVD and I was cheated!
5 March 2006
The wife tried getting me to go see this at the show. We're big Bill Murray fans. Nominated for Oscars? I had a bad feeling and stayed home back then and bought the DVD on sale last week. Sure do wish I could get my money back. I kept wishing it was Stripes or Ghostbusters. Would it become as funny as Caddyshack or What About Bob? I would have been elated if it had been as enjoyable as Murray's Razor's Edge. On the back of the DVD some critic said it was hilariously funny. He had to be on drugs! Ebert and Roeper gave it two thumbs up. I have a feeling I know where their thumbs were!
I've been on business trips where I've felt lonely and in another world and reflected back on my less than satisfactory life at home. I've been in a position where a young woman and I shared a common attraction but I couldn't come up with the courage to overcome an age difference, and I've been in similar positions with women my own age and chosen not to pursue the relationship because either I thought she was "too" married or I was "too" married or she deserved more than being just the "other" woman. And I can understand how someone might "stray" for a night with someone who also wants to "stray" for a night.
I identified with Murray and his various predicaments throughout the movie, but found myself looking at perhaps eight lines of dialog and the scenes in the strip bar as all there was to appreciate. Murray was beautifully deadpan, but perhaps too much so, and Scarlett Johansson and Giovanni Ribisi were just boring, which is rare for Ribisi and typical of Scarlett. The only real standout for me was Anna Faris as the "Britney Spears" style actress.
Though it seemed to want to tackle some poignant issues and situations, this film seemed to be a home movie on a big budget, and like most home movies, it just seemed to go on forever and ever. I want my money back!
I've been on business trips where I've felt lonely and in another world and reflected back on my less than satisfactory life at home. I've been in a position where a young woman and I shared a common attraction but I couldn't come up with the courage to overcome an age difference, and I've been in similar positions with women my own age and chosen not to pursue the relationship because either I thought she was "too" married or I was "too" married or she deserved more than being just the "other" woman. And I can understand how someone might "stray" for a night with someone who also wants to "stray" for a night.
I identified with Murray and his various predicaments throughout the movie, but found myself looking at perhaps eight lines of dialog and the scenes in the strip bar as all there was to appreciate. Murray was beautifully deadpan, but perhaps too much so, and Scarlett Johansson and Giovanni Ribisi were just boring, which is rare for Ribisi and typical of Scarlett. The only real standout for me was Anna Faris as the "Britney Spears" style actress.
Though it seemed to want to tackle some poignant issues and situations, this film seemed to be a home movie on a big budget, and like most home movies, it just seemed to go on forever and ever. I want my money back!
Avanti!
(1972)
A comedy, a romance, a satire, a jewel!
20 January 2006
Years ago I thought I was familiar with all of Billy Wilder's movies and as I thumbed through what might have been an old copy of Playboy, perhaps a Sex in the Cinema article, I came across a picture of a nude Juliet Mills and Jack Lemmon sitting on the rocks in an unknown Billy Wilder film, and was determined to one day see that film and much more of the Nanny from The Nanny and the Professor. VCRs were just coming on the market, so I had to wait a few years till Cinemax showed it in the early morning. I stayed up most of the night to satisfy my prurient interest and what I ended up with was a film I didn't want to end, a tune that played over and over again in my head for days, and one of my most favorite movies.
Yes, this movie is a comedy, sometimes a very black comedy, and sometimes a satire filled with irony. Yes, it's a romance, all about a wonderful romance that sparks up between two seemingly opposite people in the strangest of places at the strangest of times under the strangest of circumstances, the way romance quite often does. And at times there's sadness and pain to tug at your heart. It's all about discovering who you really are when you've lost your way in all life's confusion, and also about perhaps being better than your parents when you get older and more like them.
Lemmon is the consummate cad, Juliet Mills the most charming Englishwoman to grace a celluloid comedy, Clive Revill is perfect in his most Oscar-deserving role as the hotel manager Carlo Carlucci, the Italian cast members never fail to entertain, and the music is as catchy and memorable as any Bernstein or Tiomkin or Goldsmith score. The movie may be 2-1/2 hours long, but the time passes quickly as Lemmon and Mills rediscover love and youth and passion, and I always find myself wishing that I could see the two lovers returning a year later like their parents.
Billy Wilder may have given us dramatic gems like Stalag 17, Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, and Sunset Boulevard, given us comedic gems like Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot, and romantic gems like The Apartment and Irma La Douce, but it wasn't till the end of his career that he could take qualities from all of those and give them a magical, lyrical feel and atmosphere and come up with a jewel like Avanti!
Yes, this movie is a comedy, sometimes a very black comedy, and sometimes a satire filled with irony. Yes, it's a romance, all about a wonderful romance that sparks up between two seemingly opposite people in the strangest of places at the strangest of times under the strangest of circumstances, the way romance quite often does. And at times there's sadness and pain to tug at your heart. It's all about discovering who you really are when you've lost your way in all life's confusion, and also about perhaps being better than your parents when you get older and more like them.
Lemmon is the consummate cad, Juliet Mills the most charming Englishwoman to grace a celluloid comedy, Clive Revill is perfect in his most Oscar-deserving role as the hotel manager Carlo Carlucci, the Italian cast members never fail to entertain, and the music is as catchy and memorable as any Bernstein or Tiomkin or Goldsmith score. The movie may be 2-1/2 hours long, but the time passes quickly as Lemmon and Mills rediscover love and youth and passion, and I always find myself wishing that I could see the two lovers returning a year later like their parents.
Billy Wilder may have given us dramatic gems like Stalag 17, Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, and Sunset Boulevard, given us comedic gems like Seven Year Itch and Some Like It Hot, and romantic gems like The Apartment and Irma La Douce, but it wasn't till the end of his career that he could take qualities from all of those and give them a magical, lyrical feel and atmosphere and come up with a jewel like Avanti!
Hard Contract
(1969)
Much Ado About Nothing
19 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I remember 1969. I graduated from high school, moved on to college, and was introduced to love, both emotional and physical, by an extremely charming and voracious blonde in my homeroom. I don't remember this movie being around at all! If I had taken that blonde to a regular theater rather than a drive-in and paid to see it back then, I would have felt cheated. But today I was introduced to it on AMC, and being all these years older now, found much to enjoy, even if it left me wanting something more at the end.
This is the story of a lone hit-man, considered the best in his field, who travels to Europe for a multiple hit job that includes his predecessor, and meets an American woman who makes him question his life, his job, his very existence. Watching this group of fine actors and actresses, most of whom are now dead, reminded me of a time that seemed somehow cleaner and more innocent and more promising than today. James Coburn as the hit man was at his zenith in looks and charm, and it was as if he were playing a serious version of Derek Flint. Lee Remick, one of Hollywood's three most beautiful women which includes Grace Kelly and Rhonda Fleming, was as lovely as ever and a joy to watch here, especially in her peach bra and flowered panties as she masquerades as a hooker! Burgess Meredith was as mischievously entertaining as ever, and Lilli Palmer was as flawlessly charming in this role as any of her others. Karen Black, a year before Easy Rider and a couple of years or so before Five Easy Pieces, appears as a hooker early on and steals the camera's attention in spite of taking off her clothes. And finally, Sterling Hayden, an actor I've seen often but with whom I've never been impressed, gives perhaps the most endearingly natural performance of his career as the "retired" assassin. The actors are simply marvelous, the overlapping dialog as scenes change quite interesting, and the scenery is almost as beautiful as Lee Remick. However, somewhere along the way, this movie loses its direction.
As Leonard Maltin says in his review of this film, it's more about making a statement than telling an exciting or moving story, and though on an intellectual level I can appreciate a movie like that, this one seems to blow it at the end. Perhaps it's the casting of James Coburn. After watching two Derek Flint movies time and time again over the years, I kept waiting for him to flash his teeth and deliver one-liners. He dispatches one of his victims during a riot, and while most of it is off screen, you can't help picturing in your mind how Derek Flint might have done it and laughing just a little when the deed is done. When you finally get around to taking the film seriously, it starts to have an updated tragic feel reminiscent of Alan Ladd's This Gun For Hire. It seems to have only one way to go. Burgess Meredith tells Coburn that if he doesn't complete his assignment he(Meredith) will have to assign someone to kill the other targets and Coburn. In the serious world of killers, kill or be killed, there really is no room for choice. Coburn fails the test, reality is ignored, and the movie fizzles out like a bad firecracker.
I felt cheated at the end, the actors and the audience deserved better, but I will go back and watch this film again at least one more time if for no other reason than to watch these marvelous actors and actresses work at their craft and remember a brighter and more promising time in my youth. Besides, where else can you go to see a young Karen Black take off her clothes and a radiantly beautiful Lee Remick cavort around in her underwear!
This is the story of a lone hit-man, considered the best in his field, who travels to Europe for a multiple hit job that includes his predecessor, and meets an American woman who makes him question his life, his job, his very existence. Watching this group of fine actors and actresses, most of whom are now dead, reminded me of a time that seemed somehow cleaner and more innocent and more promising than today. James Coburn as the hit man was at his zenith in looks and charm, and it was as if he were playing a serious version of Derek Flint. Lee Remick, one of Hollywood's three most beautiful women which includes Grace Kelly and Rhonda Fleming, was as lovely as ever and a joy to watch here, especially in her peach bra and flowered panties as she masquerades as a hooker! Burgess Meredith was as mischievously entertaining as ever, and Lilli Palmer was as flawlessly charming in this role as any of her others. Karen Black, a year before Easy Rider and a couple of years or so before Five Easy Pieces, appears as a hooker early on and steals the camera's attention in spite of taking off her clothes. And finally, Sterling Hayden, an actor I've seen often but with whom I've never been impressed, gives perhaps the most endearingly natural performance of his career as the "retired" assassin. The actors are simply marvelous, the overlapping dialog as scenes change quite interesting, and the scenery is almost as beautiful as Lee Remick. However, somewhere along the way, this movie loses its direction.
As Leonard Maltin says in his review of this film, it's more about making a statement than telling an exciting or moving story, and though on an intellectual level I can appreciate a movie like that, this one seems to blow it at the end. Perhaps it's the casting of James Coburn. After watching two Derek Flint movies time and time again over the years, I kept waiting for him to flash his teeth and deliver one-liners. He dispatches one of his victims during a riot, and while most of it is off screen, you can't help picturing in your mind how Derek Flint might have done it and laughing just a little when the deed is done. When you finally get around to taking the film seriously, it starts to have an updated tragic feel reminiscent of Alan Ladd's This Gun For Hire. It seems to have only one way to go. Burgess Meredith tells Coburn that if he doesn't complete his assignment he(Meredith) will have to assign someone to kill the other targets and Coburn. In the serious world of killers, kill or be killed, there really is no room for choice. Coburn fails the test, reality is ignored, and the movie fizzles out like a bad firecracker.
I felt cheated at the end, the actors and the audience deserved better, but I will go back and watch this film again at least one more time if for no other reason than to watch these marvelous actors and actresses work at their craft and remember a brighter and more promising time in my youth. Besides, where else can you go to see a young Karen Black take off her clothes and a radiantly beautiful Lee Remick cavort around in her underwear!
Quigley Down Under
(1990)
My personal favorite of all of Selleck's movies
13 January 2006
I have always loved and always will prefer a nineteenth century story of a man with a gun and a horse riding to destiny in search of justice. It may be set a few thousand miles or so farther west than normal, but Quigley Down Under quickly became and has remained my favorite Selleck film of all time. The story gets a little slow, or long, about half way through it, but when it picks up again it takes off like a racing stallion. Selleck is as charming as Quigley as he was in Magnum, P.I., with none of the occasional cloying silliness that was found in some of the Magnum shows. Selleck here is the embodiment of all great American western heroes; he is Duke Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Gary Cooper all rolled into one neat package and stamped with Selleck's personal charm and roguishness. It's the rousing story of a man hired to kill varmints who changes his mind when he finds out the varmints are Aborigenes, almost pays with his life, and then seeks justice from the villainous Allan Rickman for all the wrongs done to him, his female companion played by Laura San Giacoma, and the local Aborigenes. Along the way, Quigley battles with the Australian army, Rickman and his desperadoes, San Giacoma's mental illness, the Australian desert, and anyone wanting to collect off his wanted poster, in a story so well written that a rather innocuous statement at the beginning of the film becomes not only one of his best lines in the movie, but also the haunting last line delivered to Rickman near the end. The Australian scenery is as grand as Monument Valley or Sedona, Arizona, and the music by Basil Poledouris is as memorable as anything done by Elmer Bernstein for any of Wayne's westerns. And with a great eye for detail, the makers of this film gave it a very realistic look by using only weapons and equipment that would have existed during the time frame of the story. I spent quite a few years remarking that no one in Hollywood was making films like this anymore, and then Selleck had to show up and make a liar out of me. I, and anybody else who loves westerns, owe Tom Selleck and the cast and crew a debt of gratitude for making this one come alive.
The Book of Daniel
(2006)
Formulaic story by committee
7 January 2006
I love a good edgy story that spears some sacred cows every now and then and takes some chances, but this show seems to have wanted to put everything it could into the first hour or two for the best possible shock and awe effect against Christianity and good taste rather than letting the story and all its quirks unravel slowly so every week there was something new to discover. I can see the staff or committee that put together the idea for this show combining political correctness with an effort to offend and giving these rules or guides to a bunch of Hollywood secularists to write the stories. I was intrigued by the idea of a minister having conversations with Jesus and that in and of itself drew me to watch the show, but there was little if any spirituality shown on the part of Jesus or any of the clergymen portrayed on this show. Don't get me wrong, I'm a bit of an agnostic, especially after experiencing a lot of hypocrisy on the part of many religious people I've known, but good satire or comedy is only good when it has a basis of truth behind it, and this show seems to lack that. It seems that a cast of very competent actors is being sadly wasted on a show that needs more understanding and heart and spirituality to truly succeed. Looks like I'll be sticking to NUMBERS on Friday nights and taping Battlestar Gallactica in the same time slot. Well done escapism always trumps poorly done satirical dramedy!
Wanted: Dead or Alive
(1958–1961)
Great fun despite the impossibilities/improbabilities
7 January 2006
I'm just old enough to remember when Wanted Dead or Alive was first run, when I first went to the show to see The Magnificent Seven, and when I first realized Steve McQueen was on his way to being a "star".
I received the boxed set of the first season of this groundbreaking show this past Christmas and have been having great fun with it ever since. McQueen is the real star of the show, honing his craft for later career moves, with the truly offbeat story lines and resolutions coming in a close second.
Forget that it's 1877, he was in the Union Army in 1864, which would make him 8-10 years older than his real age at the time. Forget that his sawed off Winchester 1892 didn't exist in this time frame, that it fired short pistol ammunition like .44-40 and possibly .45 Colt, that it couldn't possibly accept the long .30-30 cartridges on his belt that weren't developed until the Winchester 1894 came along. In the first episode he has to bury a murdered doctor and he pulls a U.S. military shovel circa 1944 from under his saddle. While he puts 19th century cuffs on some prisoners, ties some with rope, on one occasion he puts old fashioned leg irons on a prisoner's hands, way too dangerous and way too stupid for a pro like Josh Randall. In a feat too fantastic to believe, an outlaw takes away his sawed off Winchester and removes the firing pin without the aid of tools and without so much as removing the bolt from the receiver. Of course there's also that sawed off rifle of his that sometimes has a D-ring on the lever and sometimes a teardrop ring, a gun barrel that changes from round to hexagon, and a gun barrel that always has a bigger bore than the .30 caliber slug in a .30-30 shell. And let's not forget that the outdoor scenes seldom match the geography of the story lines and that more times than not they use the same western street sound stage for towns ranging from Wyoming to Arizona to Texas with just the store front names changing! All this in just the first half of the first season. LOL
The show is all about watching McQueen, watching the offbeat stories that sometimes beg for more time for storytelling, and watching for all the goofs. It's great fun and well worth the time even 50 years later!
I received the boxed set of the first season of this groundbreaking show this past Christmas and have been having great fun with it ever since. McQueen is the real star of the show, honing his craft for later career moves, with the truly offbeat story lines and resolutions coming in a close second.
Forget that it's 1877, he was in the Union Army in 1864, which would make him 8-10 years older than his real age at the time. Forget that his sawed off Winchester 1892 didn't exist in this time frame, that it fired short pistol ammunition like .44-40 and possibly .45 Colt, that it couldn't possibly accept the long .30-30 cartridges on his belt that weren't developed until the Winchester 1894 came along. In the first episode he has to bury a murdered doctor and he pulls a U.S. military shovel circa 1944 from under his saddle. While he puts 19th century cuffs on some prisoners, ties some with rope, on one occasion he puts old fashioned leg irons on a prisoner's hands, way too dangerous and way too stupid for a pro like Josh Randall. In a feat too fantastic to believe, an outlaw takes away his sawed off Winchester and removes the firing pin without the aid of tools and without so much as removing the bolt from the receiver. Of course there's also that sawed off rifle of his that sometimes has a D-ring on the lever and sometimes a teardrop ring, a gun barrel that changes from round to hexagon, and a gun barrel that always has a bigger bore than the .30 caliber slug in a .30-30 shell. And let's not forget that the outdoor scenes seldom match the geography of the story lines and that more times than not they use the same western street sound stage for towns ranging from Wyoming to Arizona to Texas with just the store front names changing! All this in just the first half of the first season. LOL
The show is all about watching McQueen, watching the offbeat stories that sometimes beg for more time for storytelling, and watching for all the goofs. It's great fun and well worth the time even 50 years later!
Wagon Master
(1950)
One of the Best of the West
5 January 2006
What can you say about a short little film filled with secondary actors and no "stars", with absolutely no bad performances, not one poorly delivered line of dialog, and with the cold violence on one hand being balanced by the warm "heart" of the protagonists in the story?
It's a jewel, a diamond, a little valuable gem of a western that evokes the spirit and legend of the American West. A West not settled by grand heroes like Hickock or Cody or Masterson or Earp, but by the spread of the everyday man and woman, farmers and ranch hands, merchants and miners and lumbermen, whores and barkeeps, and entertainers of the day, some looking for riches, some for peace and quiet, some for religious freedom.
It is, perhaps, a very spiritual story, though not promoting any particular religion, for even the non-Mormon cowboys portrayed by Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr. act in kind and noble ways toward everybody in the story, regardless of religious affiliation and beliefs, and go out of their way to promote tolerance and charity when the wagon train comes upon the stranded medicine show people. And in true biblical fashion, like David and Goliath or Samson and the Philistines, they are the guardian angels sent to the wagon train who eventually have to go head to head with the evil incarnate Clegg clan, likening them to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and regretting what it is they have to do afterward. It's a sweet folkloric tale of the West that hits every target John Ford takes aim at.
Nowadays I have a western Santa Claus whose red outfit is covered with a denim drover coat, whose red stocking cap is replaced by a brown Stetson, who carries a burlap bag of presents and a coil of rope. To my Santa I added a Winchester rifle with a sling to put on one of his shoulders and a Colt revolver to tuck into his waistband. When people at the office ask why my Santa has to carry guns, I simply reply, "Snakes!" After all, isn't the spirit of the Christmas season one where everybody should get what they deserve?
Fifty five years later, especially post-911, the philosophies and attributes demonstrated by the characters and story of this movie are still as relevant today as they were back then.
It's a jewel, a diamond, a little valuable gem of a western that evokes the spirit and legend of the American West. A West not settled by grand heroes like Hickock or Cody or Masterson or Earp, but by the spread of the everyday man and woman, farmers and ranch hands, merchants and miners and lumbermen, whores and barkeeps, and entertainers of the day, some looking for riches, some for peace and quiet, some for religious freedom.
It is, perhaps, a very spiritual story, though not promoting any particular religion, for even the non-Mormon cowboys portrayed by Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr. act in kind and noble ways toward everybody in the story, regardless of religious affiliation and beliefs, and go out of their way to promote tolerance and charity when the wagon train comes upon the stranded medicine show people. And in true biblical fashion, like David and Goliath or Samson and the Philistines, they are the guardian angels sent to the wagon train who eventually have to go head to head with the evil incarnate Clegg clan, likening them to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and regretting what it is they have to do afterward. It's a sweet folkloric tale of the West that hits every target John Ford takes aim at.
Nowadays I have a western Santa Claus whose red outfit is covered with a denim drover coat, whose red stocking cap is replaced by a brown Stetson, who carries a burlap bag of presents and a coil of rope. To my Santa I added a Winchester rifle with a sling to put on one of his shoulders and a Colt revolver to tuck into his waistband. When people at the office ask why my Santa has to carry guns, I simply reply, "Snakes!" After all, isn't the spirit of the Christmas season one where everybody should get what they deserve?
Fifty five years later, especially post-911, the philosophies and attributes demonstrated by the characters and story of this movie are still as relevant today as they were back then.
Mighty Joe Young
(1998)
Great try, falls short, especially after the new Kong
2 January 2006
A few years back I would have rated this film higher, easily a 9, perhaps a 10, but after viewing the new King Kong, it drops a notch or two. Okay, I admit it. When I was a kid back in the late '50s or early '60s, sometime around the Christmas season, I shed a few tears at the end of my first viewing of the original Mighty Joe Young, and as a middle aged adult back in '98 I shed a few tears again. It was a good heart wrenching story in the '40s as well as in the '90s. The new Joe Young looks and feels and sounds real, and Charlize Theron is a great replacement for Terry Moore though Terry was endearingly naive. But where I think some filmmakers go wrong when making a remake is in updating the story in an attempt to appeal to a modern audience. If the new King Kong teaches anything, it shows that telling the same great story in the same time period, with greater detail and better effects will bring an audience in and pay homage to an old classic. Charlize is great to look at, but she's too hip and savvy for a gal living back in the jungle. In the original, Terry Moore and cowboy Ben Johnson were as out of their element in the big city as Joe Young was and it was no accident that all three joined together to escape civilization and attempt to return to the jungle. As remakes go, this one is better than most and worth watching again, it just falls short of what it might have been for being a bit too modern.
Mighty Joe Young
(1949)
Kong with a heart!
2 January 2006
I remember seeing Mighty Joe Young before I ever saw King Kong, and for the longest time I preferred it to Kong because it seemed newer, with better effects, and more familiar actors, while Kong seemed older and a little creakier with a less familiar cast of characters. Over the years I've come to appreciate both as great movies, the same basic story or premise, but with a slightly different spin, one as a grand thrilling epic, and one as a heartwarming story with laughs and thrills. Where Kong is the tragic violent figure meeting his fate for the love of a woman, Joe Young is a warm cuddly teddy bear of a creature trying to stave off that wild beast that lives inside of him for the affection of a woman. Where Kong wouldn't expend a drop of sweat helping a human, except for Ann Darrow, Joe Young appears more than human in that he would sacrifice himself to save the children and adults in an orphanage engulfed in flames. And although Robert Armstrong doesn't play the same character in both movies, just the same type of character, it's kind of nice to see him learn from his mistakes in the previous film and early on in this one so that he can make a determined effort to have this story end differently. While King Kong may have been a grand slam out of the park, Mighty Joe Young still comes out as a solid home run.
King Kong
(2005)
More than my money's worth!
2 January 2006
It doesn't happen very often, especially in the last 20 years or so, but this time around I got more than my money's worth. The original was a phenomenon, the 70's and 80's versions celluloid trash, and this latest version comes across as the movie Merrian C. Cooper and Willis O'Brien would have loved to have made if they had had today's technology. Most of the cast is pretty much as good as the original cast, but Naomi Watts seems to put a more personal, human spin on the Fay Wray role, and this Kong is both more the vicious beast and the lamented lover than the original. With all the T-Rexes, raptors, brontosaurs, triceratops, monster bats, creepy giant insects, and the scariest natives in movie history, I can envision the creators of the original movie sitting in a darkened viewing area and gasping a low, "Yeah!" Great effects, great fun, going back with my grandson this time!
The Law and Jake Wade
(1958)
If only a different composer
31 December 2005
How can a movie go wrong with a hero like Robert Taylor, a villain like Richard Widmark, glorious western scenery, and a director like John Sturges? It can't, until they put the music to it. I can't recall who the composer for this was, but he had definitely done better work. Music can make an excellent film a great one, take a marginal film and make it a memorable one, but occasionally the music drags it down. Sadly, this is the case with this one. For more than thirty years I've wished this was scored by Bernstein or Tiomkin or Goldsmith. They're all gone now. If there was a way to strip the music out and replace it with something by the likes of Bruce Broughton or James Newton Howard this could be one of the great westerns of the '50s!
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