The Dredge Report

Has Anbody Here Seen My Old Friend...

2007-04-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

Movie: Bobby (2006)
Setting: Ambassador Hotel, Los Angels California; June 4th & 5th 1968.

Bobby will probably be remembered for assembling one of the most impressive casts this decade, in fact it harkens back to the tradition of the all-star drama, such as Grand Hotel which the movie actually references by name. It is a series of vignettes so varied that none will suffice as an example to represent the others, okay maybe the Freddy Rodriguez, Laurence Fishburn one, I really liked the Freddy Rodriguez, Laurence Fishburn one. While pretentious in concept, and overly idolatrous of its title character, the film still manages to be effecting despite an overly long denouncement. Emilio Estevez's mustache deserves to be pointed out for its hideousness. Good period atmosphere goes without question.

Danger

2007-04-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

Movie: Hatari (1962)
Setting: 'East Africa', probably Kenya; contemporary

Hatari is Swahili for danger. Howard Hawks directed adventure film is mixture of lite comedy and wildlife scenes. John Wayne is the leader of a multi-ethnic group who capture animals for zoo's and circuses, Elsa Martinelli is the Italian photographer who intrudes on their men's club existence. Red Buttons somehow wins the only other girl in the picture (Michele Girandon). The movie is often slow and repetitive, but fun enough to make good video wall-paper. Henri Mancini's 'Baby Elephant Walk' was introduced in this picture.

Jack Valenti: 1921-2007

2007-04-26T18:28:00.000-07:00

Jack Valenti died today at the age of 85. A former aid to the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Valenti became president of the MPAA in 1966, a position he held for roughly 38 years. It was during Valenti's tenure in that office that the current (and now widely criticized) film rating system was developed. While if you image search Valenti on the google you'll find just about every picture there makes him look mean, angry, and crazy, but he in fact had a good sense of humor about himself. I don't think I'll ever forget the total randomness of his showing up on Freakazoid.

On Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel

2007-04-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

This man is officially going to make the Democratic debates fun to watch. To the left of Dennis Kucinich he's like a hyped up James Stockdale. Though interestingly he's not entirely without his points, he just makes them kind of crazy-like. He's crazy like a fox, who also happens to be crazy.

The Candidates: Some Brash Reflections on Mitt Romney

2007-04-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

The first in what I hope to be a series of articles on those contending for the presidency in the 2008 election cycle.

Well despite the fact that tonight's candidate debate is between the Democrats, I thought I'd start my 'serious' campaign coverage' with a discussion of a man whose the definite elephant in the room when your talking about Mormons and Republican presidential politices, yes I am referring to four term Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson (four terms, doesn't anything ever happen in Wisconsin?). No I'm talking (writing) about Mitt Romney.

Now much of what I have to say about Mitt, in terms of my concerns regarding his candidacy, is ground I have already covered in an extended MySpace conversation with Jenn. I will attempt to repeat my main points here:

First off) Flip-Flopper: Like his fellow Massachusetts resident John Kerry, Mitt Romney has changed his position on a number of major issues concerning voters. However unlike Kerry, whose "I voted for it before I voted against it", brew-ha-ha was rooted in the nuance of legislation, Gov. Romney now advances political positions on the opposite end of the spectrum from those he gave in his 1994 race for the Senate and 2002 race for the big job in Boston. Now as a Mormon Republican running in Massachusetts I'll give him some leeway for soft pedaling the party platform, but Mitt's basically switched sides from what he said he stood for as little as two or three years ago. Here are some examples:

-Mitt said as Governor of Massachusetts he would do nothing to interfere with a women's right to chose and that he was pro-choice, now Mitt talks of appointing the type of justices that would overturn Roe v. Wade, and claims to have been always pro-life. Now there is a way that these statements can be read as semi-consistent, or as demonstration of personal ideological (though political well timed) growth. I however will leave these points to be made by others in the comments section.

-Mitt Romney was for the social equality of Gays and Lesbians, post the Massachusetts state supreme court ruling of '03 that mandated the recognition of same sex marriage, he proclaimed himself in favor of a national constitutional amendment defining of marriage as between a man and a women. In fairness though, Mitt has said that the federal government was within its rights in opposing and (most would say) putting and end to LDS Church sanctioned polygamy in the 19th century, which was of course another form of alternative marital relationship.

-Mitt Romney said that his views and those of the NRA don't often match up (i.e. he supported toughter gun control laws). Now Romney has made dubious claims about being a life time hunter, and purchased a life time NRA membership last August.

Honestly its only fair for Republican voters to hold Romney to the same standards of ideological and policy consistency that they heaped upon John Kerry in 2004. That being said, it's probably not going to happen. I also recognize that Reagan was once an FDR Democrat, so Romney's traveling less far ideologically, but much faster.

2) By even running as a conservative Republican, Romney is going against the national grain. The nation is turning left as he turns right, maybe that will help in the primaries, but for the nationals it seems kind of stupid.

3) Businessman-Romney's abilities as an effective administrator are probably his greatest real asset as a candidate. However, after what will have been eight years of corporate governance, a bottom line approach to government will be a mixed bag at best. While I obviously agree that we need to get this governments spending in check, that doesn't necaserly mean cutting taxes, it might mean raising taxes. Plus a good argument can be made that we should be extending social services not cutting them, possibly paying for this by a military draw-down overseas (which doesn't sound like a Mitt position to me), or a tax increase on (at lest) the wealthiest Americans (which I know isn't a Mitt position). Am I the only one who doesn't think the government should be run as a business, its not a profit making venture.

4) The Mormon Issue- Of course to most in the media this means will enough evangelical Christians be willing to vote for a Mormon, one of there chief theological competitors. For me the Mormon issue is a little broader, this follows because I am a Mormon as well. I've recently been reading a book (a 23 year old one, but still relevant) called America's Saints: The Rise of Mormon Power. In chapter five of this book, on the international church, is an extended discussion of Mormon support (both of individuals, and in some cases at least indirectly of people in Church leadership) for various dictators, military junta's, and unsavoury aspects of American corporate and government policy in Latin America. I'll tell you that chapter was extremely disappointing reading, and the last thing I want is my church tied any further with the excesses and crimes of this government then it already is. If tough now for some abroad to differentiate between the American government, and this most American of Church's, it will be almost impossible with a Mormon sitting in the Oval Office. I have a very real fear that the Church missionary's, members, and facilities could be targeted in efforts to get back at the American president. Now I'm not saying I'd never vote for a Mormon, in fact I'd even like to, but this Mormon is just two establishment for me, he will be read as tying church and state together to an unhealthy degree. Also while were on this subject, and to barrow a term from Joe Vogel and Free Speech 101, Mitt Romney is to thoroughly Osmondized. He represents a slimmed down, overly PR obsessed strain with in the church that I'd rather not represent me, and believe me if the President of the United States is LDS, he'll represent the church more then Thomas S. Monson (the likely church president during a Romney administration) ever could to the world at large.

Well I could actually write more but I think I'll stop now. Comments are welcome and I'm willing to expand on any point made here upon request. Next time I'll try and write about a Democrat.

Enjoy tonights debate.

Romney Links:

Wikipedia

Romney for President

Mormons Against Romney

Cat House

2007-04-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

Movie: Walk on the Wild Side (1962)

Setting: Texas, New Orleans; early 1930's.

A conservative Texan (Laurence Harvey) goes looking for his lost love (Capucine) only to find her working in a whore house. Melodramatic story never really brought me in, despite some good character parts for Anne Baxter (as a Latina) and Jane Fonda (as a teen aged temptress). Barbara Stanwyck plays the house madam. The best thing about this movie is its much remarked upon opening title sequence.

What Do These Two Video's Have to Do With Each Other?

2007-04-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

When I finished this video of LDS Church leader Ezra Taft Benson talking about conspiracy's in the early 1970's, YouTube then proceeded to recommend this clip of a folk song from the 2003 mockumentary A Might Wind. My question is, what on Earth could possibly be the connection here, that these clips would be linked together? Also, there are no David O. McKay related video's on YouTube, someone should fix that.

BYU Protest

2007-04-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

There are a number of video's relating to the BYU anti-Cheney protest on YouTube. Check them out, especially the 1st one by This Divided State.

Robert Spencer

2007-04-24T21:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to hear a lecture by Robert Spencer, a Catholic theologian and critical student of Islam who has been threatened by name by al-Queda. At first I thought Spencer was going to be something of a bomb-thrower, judging by the titles of some of his books such as The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion, as well as his visit being sponsored by several conservative campus organizations which have a reputation for being provocative. To my surprise I found Spencer to be extremely knowledgeable, well-spoken, and reasonable. He was however quite firm, which I fear some of the middle eastern and liberal members of the audience (these two groups are of course not mutually exclusive) may have found to be off-putting or contentus. Anyway I learned some things and now kind of wish I'd gone to the dinner with him before hand. My companion for the evening and I did however get out of the Lookout Room as quickly as possible after Spencer had completed his Q & A session, as a couple of old men and a bunch of young Muslim people had begun what was bound to be heated and most likely futile effort at communication. Spencer's blog is Jihad Watch.

September Dawn

2007-04-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

Coming soon to theaters is this romance story set against the backdrop of the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre. Click here for the preview. Anyway this thing is just bound to cause controversy in Mormon circles, as evidenced by this KSL story. In case your wondering I don't think Brigham ordered the attack, but agree with the historians that he did try to cover it up. While many books and articles have been written about Mountain Meadows, it has had scant visual representation, though by its very nature it is one of the most dramatic stories in Mormon history. I have read that in the early 1950's the Church successfully blocked 20th Century Fox pictures from making a movie about Mountain Meadows. Fox head Daryl F. Zanuck had a friendly relationship with the LDS leadership, and had in fact been instrumental in the production of the mostly pro-Mormon film Brigham Young Frontiersman in 1940. A documentary about the massacre appeared in 2004.

Flash Back Ad # 1

2007-04-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

Click Here

Some Film Blogs

2007-04-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

The Ongoing Cinematic Education of Steven Carlson

Black & White World- Decorated with a scene from my favorite film by the way.

Filmscreed

James' Mad Grasp for Relevancy

cinematic threads-Nicely formatted site.

Potrzebie- Not exclusively film related, infact kind of odd.

A Blog from Kyle

2007-04-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

This video may be worth a comment or two.

Okay One Last One

2007-04-24T10:04:00.001-07:00

My inner European is Spanish.

What's Your Political Persuasion?

2007-04-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm also a conservative Democrat. A little picture of Joe Lieberman came up when I finished my survey.

Are You a Socialist or Capitalist?

2007-04-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

What!? I'm a Socialist!? Well I'll be. Click here.

Dutcher Vs. Merrill

2007-04-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

I put off writing this post for awhile and now the very contours of the story have changed. Richard Dutcher, the filmmaker generally described as having ushered in the 'Mormon cinema' movement of the early 21st Century, has left the church. Dutcher has said that his personal spiritual journey has lead him away from Mormon orthodoxy, and that while he will continue to be a 'defender of the church', he will no longer be a practicing member or make films for a primarily Mormon audience. This brief summation of his current situation, along with a critique/encouragement to current Mormon film makers appear in a Daily Herald article that can be accessed here.

A short time later active Mormon Keith Merrill, a two time Academy Award winning documentarian, and for many years the go-to-guy for making official Church motion pictures, issued a blistering and heated rebuttal to Dutcher's farewell address (which contains a lot of ill-will directed at Martian Scorsese's The Departed). I was all ready to attack Merrill his blatant hypocrisy's, but then he issued this apology, and I find I really respect him for it. Man if only more arguments could end like this. Anyway, I just netflxed The Great American Cowboy in his honor.

Note: I should maybe mention that Merrill family members attended the same Cupertino area ward as my mothers family in the 60's, and that my mom worked for Keith's brother while attending BYU in the early 70's.

DVD MIA

2007-04-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

Have a movie your looking for on DVD but just can't find it? Click here and see if your film is on the digital video disc missing in action list.

Boris Yeltsen Died

2007-04-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

1931-2007

Oh, Brother Where Art Thou, or: Chain Gangs Stink

2007-04-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

Movie: I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)
Setting: New Jersey, Boston, New Orleans, Wisconsin, St. Louis, Kentucky, Chicago; 1919-193?

Famed story of a man wrongly sentenced to ten years on a chain gang, his escape, subsequent reinvention of himself as a successful Chicago area engineer, and later re-imprisonment by the state of Kentucky. Movie makes you angry at perverted hick justice. Paul Muni stars. Based on a true story.

Other films featuring Southern Chain Gangs: Sullivan's Travels, The Man Who Broke A Thousand Chains (same story), Oh, Brother Where Art Thou.

The Poet From the North

2007-04-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

Movie: Hamsun (1996)
Setting: Norway, Germany, Austria; 1935-1952

Powerful bio-pic of Nobel Prize winning poet Knut Hamsun (1859-1952), his rocky relationship with his wife, and the consequences of his largely ignorant embrace of the Nazi cause. Max von Sydow is amazing as Hamsun, a stubborn cranky old man, a misguided patriot whose embrace of the Germans was rooted more in a historic resentment of British arrogance, then a support for National Socialist ideology (referring to Hitler: "I don't understand his anti-sematism."). Ghita Norby is equally excellent as Hamsun's wife Marie, who simultaneously resents her husband for not supporting her own writing, and costing her a career on the stage, while struggeling even after he disowned her to clear his name. These characters, no these people, are rich and deep, and imposable to sum up in any superficial manner. You never fully understand why Knut continued to support Hitler, even after it became clear to him in a personal interview with the man, that he had no intention of ever giving Norway back its true independence. However you must admire his insistence that he pay for his mistakes there after, going so far as to hire a lawyer to sue for the right of trail. There was even an attempted to have him declared insane to save the nation the embarrassment of having a national hero stand trial for treason. In the end Hamsun had his trial, but being that he was in his late 80's was given only a hefty fine rather then prison time. Anyway this was a quite and effecting movie, and Leonard Maltin was correct in writing that it should be more widely known then it it.

Monkey Movie

2007-04-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

Movie: Curious George (2006)

Setting: New York?, Africa; contemporary

Pleasant but unremarkable kiddie feature taken from the books by Margret & H.A. Ray. Glossy animation style and Jack Johnson soundtrack more memorable then stock plot about saving a museum. Fun casting of Dick Van Dyke as museum head. Ed O'Ross gets to voice another Russian. Current PBS series, and even the minimally animated shorts I watched as a kid, are better then this.

Oh My Goodness

2007-04-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

In Review: Grindhouse (2007)

I decided that I wanted to see Grindhouse for two reasons (after initially not knowing what to make of the poster). First off, I like to support creative efforts to expose a mass audience to forgotten or perhaps dis reputed sub-genera's of film, and Sergio Leoni and the Infield Fly Rule got me excited about exploring this type of filmmaking. Secondly, I wanted to see Rose McGowen with a machine gun strapped to her partly amputated leg blasting zombie solders lead by Bruce Willis. In addition to all this you get some fun send up trailers, Machete, Werewolf Women of the S.S., Don't, and clever plays on genera conventions such as reuse of many of the same performers, and a recurring gage of reels gone missing at convenient points in the story line (i.e., sex scenes). But Grindhouse isn't really one film, it's two and I'd like to discuss each of them briefly:

Movie: Planet Terror (2007)
Setting: Rural Texas, Mexico; contemporary

The overarching plot device of planet terror is that of a zombie movie. In this case the zombie faction is accomplished by way of a gas, a biological weapon developed by a scientist/illicit business man with a decidedly nasty hang up about taking a certain male body part as a trophy from his enemies. Anyway this gas is captured and released by a group of wronged military men, as part of roundabout effort to find a cure for the effects it had on them when exposed in Afghanistan. This however is just the gimmick of the story, the story itself is actually a number of stories, the primary one being that of former lovers Rose McGown (a Go-Go Dancer), and the wonderful Freddy Rodriguez (a wreckage hauler with a secret past). These two reunite as they attempt to save them selves and a handful of apparently immune survivors (who the solders I guess want to use to find a cure) from the bloated, boil covered cannibals. Another notable plot concerns Marley Shelton (who is not Anna Faris), a doctor trying to run away with her lesbian lover from her sadistic doctor husband, played by Josh Brolin who gives one of the movies most intriguing performances in only about a dozen minutes of screen time. While this film is suppose to look like B grade type stuff, it is a finely done homage that pays off on every little thing it introduces. The better of the two films.

Movie: Death Proof (2007)
Setting: Austin Texas, rural Tennessee; contemporary

The second feature itself is like two movies in one, the first half being slow, atmospheric and talkie, the second being less slow, but also talkie, and containing two really cool extended car battles, which is what you'll end up remembering most about it. Kurt Russell is just hands down great as the at first seemingly charming yet ultimately disaffected former Stuntman Mike ("I was Robert Urich's driving double on the third season of Vega$, then Bob did another show called Gavilan and he took me with him"). The first sequence in which Mike stalks and kills a group of young women, anchored by the strangely appealing Vanessa Ferlito, becomes almost hypnotic in its slow passed living-in-the-movie sensibilities. The group stalked in the second part of the movie, headed by Rosario Dawson, is less appealing; however they do get into some really wild games of chicken with Russell, who provides the topper to movie by showing his demented crazy man to be in fact a complete and total cry-baby (delicious scene in which he attempts to tend to a gunshot wound in his car). While this does in fact constitute my first Tarantino flick, I am aware of his propensity to certain degree of self-indulgence, which is on display here (he even casts himself in bit roles in both films, as a bar owner in Proof, and an infected solder in Terror), however when the very concept of your double feature is self indulgence, I say go for it. In the end Grindhouse is event viewing, the type of which where unlikely to see again soon given its lack-luster box office performance thus far. It's sure to be a cult hit though.

Factoid: Marley Shelton's character of Doctor Dakota Block is one of several to appear in both movies.

Old Man Nebbercracker's Place

2007-04-19T23:11:00.000-07:00

Movie: Monster House (2006)

Setting: unspecified suburban; possibly early to middle 90's judging by circumstantial evidence.

I watch parts of a lot of kids movies with my nephew, but seldom do we make it through an entire feature. Monster House is one such exception. This was just fun, in fact I'd say it was the funnest CG animated movie I've seen since Over the Hedge. Simple story about a group of kids who come to believe that a house in there neighbourhood is possessed by an evil spirit, which turns out to be Kathleen Turner's spirit, the late wife of old man Nebbercracker Steve Buscemi (only in animation would those two get paired up). Anyway its old school animated, coming of age fun, with a surprisingly dark yet empathetic back story. Appropriate bit part for Jon Heder. Also Maggie Gyllenhaal was the babysitter, it took me a while but I knew I knew that voice.

2007-04-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Classic Campaign Commericals

2007-04-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

Musical ad for Adeli Stevenson-1952

I Like Ike-1952

Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy-1960

Actor Raymond Massey for Barry Goldwater-1964

Johnson's famous "These Are The Stakes" Ad-1964

Nixon on Vietnam-1968

Almost reluctant ad for McGovern-1972

Jimmy Carter 4 President-1976

Reagan's Morning in America-1984

Infamous Bush Anti-Dukakis "Willie Horton" ad-1988

Democratic Party promotional video for Bill Clinton-1992

Bush Prescription Drug ad-2000

Anti-Kerry "Swift Boat Vets" ad-2004

Vote Different anti-Hillary, Pro-Obama ad-2008 election cycle

Kitty Carlisel Hart: 1910-2007

2007-04-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

While she was an acclaimed singer, television personality, and wife of one of America's most successful play writes, Kitty Carlisle Hart liked to say that her grandchildren thought she was cool because she was in A Night at the Opera (1936) with the Marx Brothers. Active into last year with a traveling show about her reminiscences of some of the great figures of the 20th century, Ms. Carlisle Hart was well recognized for her personal charm and graciousness. With her passing goes a once vital link to a bygone era.

Potentate

2007-04-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

Movie: The Last Mogul: The Life and Times of Lew Wasserman (2005)

Documentary probing the life of Lew Wasserman (1913-2002), super-agent, studio head, and financel force behind presidents from Kennedy to Clinton. One of the more interesting aspects of Wasserman's life was his association with Ronald Reagan, one of his very first clients whom he helped segway into his leadership position in the SAG, and whose later political ambition he extensively underwrote. The movie makes the point that Wasserman and Reagan broke many industry rules in the early 50's when transitioning from film to television dominance (at one point Wasserman's company's produced 60% of the programs on network television), but in so doing enabled both Lew to outlast the other moguls, and (quite likely) Reagan's eventual presidency. Lew's story is especially interesting to hear given his ironic media shyness and failure to leave any substantive writings behind, however the documentary itself is unremarkable save for getting Jimmy Carter to be one of it's talking heads.

Your Grandma's Grandma's Boy

2007-04-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Movie: Grandma's Boy (1922)
Setting: unspecified semi-rural, possibly the South (Dabney county); contemporary

Harold Lloyd's first feature length comedy has no great standout gages, yet is generally amusing and representative of his work as a whole. Harold here is his trademark 'glasses character', a 19 year old attempting to woe Mildred Davis. However Lloyd has a competitor in his efforts, a bully played by Charles Stevenson who consistently gets the upper hand, that is until our hero's grandma (Anna Townsen) presents him with a "magic" charm that supposedly helped her late husband become a Civil War Hero (this is depicted in a sort of flashback sequence, with Lloyd playing his own grandfather). In the end LLoyd must capture a feared local vagrant 'the Rolling Stone' (Dick Sutherland) and defeat Charles Stevenson to get the girl. The result, a decent hours worth of entertainment.

Must See: Harold Lloyd's 1923 opus Safety Last, regarded by many as his greatest film, it features his famed free-climbing race up an office tower.

Two Interesting Mormon Video's for Coment

2007-04-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

First off I should say that I'm probably one of Bill Maher's few active Mormon fans. A number of interesting points are brought up in this video that I'd be willing to discuss, so feel free to start a thread in the comments section. Secondly we have this video from Robert Millet, a man who has devoted a great deal of the last decade or so to promoting interfaith understanding. Here we catch him speaking to a Mormon group and promoting a gospel sharing principle, one I practiced on my mission, that seems averse to direct answers to questions. It is hard to get a direct answer to deeper doctrinal questions from any official or quasi-official establishment voice in the LDS Church. While I understand the PR, and doctrinal 'building blocks' approach this represents in getting across Mormon beliefs, I agree there is some dissonance here. I'm especially interested in Non-LDS responses to the last video, or attempts at LDS apologetics towards it.

Cartoonist Brant Parker Dead at 86

2007-04-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

The other half of the Wizard of Id team passes on eight days after Johnny Hart. For some reason no pictures of Brant can be found on google images.

An Introduction to Pam Grier

2007-04-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

Movies: Coffy (1973), Foxy Brown (1974)
Setting: Unspecified, southern California?; contemporary

She is the Queen of blackspoltation, a living legend for an ill reputed genera. Though probably best known to current audiences for her role on The L Word, the cultural presence of Pam Grier's 70's work is still very much alive, as witness Beyonce's embodiment of her in Goldmember. As I try to brace myself for a possible viewing of the 70's cult film homage Grindhouse, I thought I'd take a look (courtesy TCM late nights), at some actual examples of the periods sensationalized and exploitive fair, and one of its most well known performers.

There is a definite formula, or perhaps its just a shared world view between these two films. While they entertain with flash, and a gory over the top violence, they also capture something of the African American zeitgeist of there era. Black has become beautiful, and there's a definite racial pride and sense of superior hipness here, but recognition of a collective situation that is far from ideal is also apparent. The destructive powers of drugs and prostitution are simultaneously condemned and exploited, but hey there's a reason these are called exploitation films. I find it interesting that both films posit an exploitation of poor blacks by rackets controlled by rich and powerful whites, aided by corrupt cops (mostly raciest), and pushed retail by turn coat members of the black community. This no doubt rang true to the film intended audiences then, and in good part still rings true to white bread Mormon me 35 years later. Ethnically these rackets my now be more spread out, and I remain (perhaps in my white denial) ambiguous about the extent of a corrupt government presence therein, but the institutional racism can not be denied, the black community still pays an unproportionit share of the price for this system.

Now that I've hit on the social implications, I'll write briefly on these works as films. I know there suppose to be a kind of schlock now, and were kinky and low-brow even at the time of there release, but I must admit I kinda liked 'em (more so Coffy). I just enjoyed seeing Pam Grier get revenge on those who wronged her. In the first film its about avenging her little sister, who had been forced into an institution to recover from the effects of the drugs that ratfink thugs had pushed on her eleven year old self. In Foxy Brown, she's out to avenge her boyfriend, a sort of DEA agent who was gunned down by those he had investigated, after her brother sold him out. Actually both films feature an upstanding young black man and Grier love interest being killed or horribly maimed early on. In both movies Pam quickly decides she needs to go undercover as a call-girl, and we get to see her turn on a surprised client, as well as get involved in a brawl with a bunch of other women (at a party in Coffy, at a Lesbian bar in Foxy). Yes it sex and violence, but its also social justice (vigilantly social justice), so you get to finish the movie feeling okay about yourself. I can see what Tarentino sees in these films. Finally Kathryn Lodars madam comes across as Carolyn Jones meets Joan Collins by way of Annette Bening.

Barry Nelson Dies

2007-04-16T21:19:00.000-07:00

Actor Barry Nelson, who those in the know recognize as the true original James Bond, has passed away at the age of 89.

"You're Tearing Me Apart!"

2007-04-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

Movie: Rebel Without A Cause (1955)

Setting: L.A.; contemporary

Iconic movie of teen angst and 50's juvenile delinquency. The kids are troubled but wise, the parents dysfunctional. Notable performances for Jim Backus and Sal Mineo. Also Natalie Wood was hot. There is much in this film to be analysed, but I think I'll pass on the amature sociology and psychology tonight. Let's just say this is one of the essentials, and you should probably see it. Now that I've seen all three of James Deans staring films, I still like Giant (1956) the best.

The Good, The Bad, The Inbetween

2007-04-15T16:45:00.001-07:00

Movie: The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Setting: France, New York; 1918-Dec 31, 1933

It's amazing how quickly a decade can by mythologized. The full nostalgia treatment is given this Raoul Walsh directed love letter to the entire gangster genera. This is not to say that the movie has nothing new to offer, or that it isn't an accomplishment in it's own right, because it really is. Based on a story by Mark Hellinger, himself a rather well known crime reporter of that era, we have here one of the more well developed, near Shakespearean efforts offered in this particular type of film pre-Martin Scorsese. We have the three great movie types in the good and principled young lawyer Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn), the bad and subtly sadistic George Hully (Humphrey Bogart), and the conflicted Eddie Bartlett (as essayed by James Cagney). All three characters meet up in France during their service in the first world war, only Bartlett has the toughest time getting on upon his return home. While Lloyd has his law practice, and George slips into the vague recesses that lead to organized crime, Eddie tries desperately to get work in an economy already overrun with returning G.I.'s.

Eddie's descent is tragic and identifiable because he is the everyman character here, he's on the whole a good an honest guy, but he's frustrated by a run of bad luck and a desire for the good things in life. A cabbie, he is wrongly convicted of running liquor during prohibition, only to get into actual bootlegging after his release, a release facilitated by speak easy madam "Panama" Smith (Gladys George), who has the hots for Eddie. Eddie however is taken by young Jean Sherman (Priscilla Lane, who I'm sorry but she's not a great singer), who as a high schooler wrote Eddie during the war, and who he runs into again by accident (having meet her once briefly upon his return from the war, only to be disappointed upon learning how young she was) while collecting late liquor money from the producer of a theatrical show. Jean however is an Innocent, even as she so easily seems to accept the criminal lifestyle of her one time "dream solder". But in the end she falls for straight arrow lawyer Lloyd, who had tried in vain to set poor Eddie straight. Lurking again in the background off all this is clever George, just waiting to make his move.

This movie quickly grew on me upon reflection, though I actually only finished it several hours ago. It didn't strike the emotional gut, lest not mine, but it was so well executed that I'm appreciative. Don't make this your first Cagney gangster picture, but rather save it for a sort of epilogue after you've finished both his early entry's in the genera, and his valedictory White Heat (1949). Like the sense of nostalgia it was designed to solicit, this feature brought back many a memory of the great mobster films of Jimmy Cagney.

Note: DVD contains (among other things) a decidedly unfeminist short called The Girls Takeover, in which acting mayor June Allyson sings "We've Got to Make the City Pretty", and somehow sells it.

Don Ho Died

2007-04-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

Don Ho: 1930-2007

Spooked

2007-04-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

Movie: The Ghost Breakers (1940)

Setting: New York, cruise ship, Cuba; contemporary

Re teaming of Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard in vehicle designed to mimic success of the previous years similarly themed The Cast and the Canary. The ridiculous plot involves Lawrence Lawrence (Hope) a New York City radio personality who specializes in underworld gossip, who thinking he killed a man (Anthony Quinn), finds refuge with young Mary Carter (Goddard), who herself has just inherited a supposedly haunted Cuban castle; told you it was ridicules. Hope is accompanied in all this by his valet Alex (Willie Best), who plays the kind of retrograde (and in this case comic) black stereotype that could cost Don Imus his job. Not much to this movie, but its likable, Hope gets to crack a lot of jokes and Goddard gets to look gorgeous. The creepiest thing in the movie are that the corpses of Mary's ancestors are kept in glass coffins on display in a room in the castle, I mean really, your just asking to gross-out your descendants when you make that kind of arrangement for your dead body.

Roscoe Lee Browne Dead at 81

2007-04-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

He was pretty cool in Topaz, and he narrated Babe! Therefore I pronounce Roscoe Lee Browne as having been awesome.

The Music Loving Bandit

2007-04-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

Movie: Stingaree (1934)
Settling: Australia, locations throughout Europe; 1874-187?

Re teaming of Richard Dix and Irene Dunne, stars of the 1931 best picture Oscar winner Cimarron. Dix plays Stingaree (outback for 'the Stingray'), a dashing ozzie bandit who posses as a visiting London composer. Dunne is the servant girl whose singing career Dix helps launch. I would classify this film as part of the middle 30's operetta craze. Andy Devine provides comic relief as Stingaree's sidekick.

God's Politics

2007-04-12T08:21:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write just a few words about the last book-on-tap (or rather CD) that I finished. It's titled God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong, and the Left Doesn't Get It. It was written by a man named Jim Wallis, a Reverend deeply committed to social justice who I believe identifies as Evangelical, and who also serves as editor of Sojourners magazine. The book criticizes both extreme leftest secularism and hard right religious exploitation, and proposes a new Christian 3rd way (actually according to the book its a 4th way, Libertarianism is the 3rd way) in politics. Perceptive and thought provoking, it offered some real word solutions for harnessing the energy of the religious feeling in politics for productive purposes. As such its a good follow up for American Theocracy, the audio book on the dangours of fundamentalist religion (among other things) to American politics, that I started listening to on my previous trip to Utah in August (I listened to about half of this one on my Utah trip of a couple of weeks back). Anyway this material combined with the book on Quakers I'm currently reading, has me thinking about a form of progressive faith-based politics that I'm becoming quite enamored with. Next time you see me, this might be a good topic for conversation.

The Passing of Some Noteable Veterns of the First World War

2007-04-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

There are now less then 80 veterans of the first World War (1914-1918) left alive in the world today. I want to take a moment to note the passing of a few who have crossed over lately.

First Lloyd Brown, who was the last living person to have joined the U.S. Navy before the German Armistice.

Charlotte Winters, the last surviving American female veteran of the war.

The British Philip Mayne, thought to be the last surviving 'officer' of the first World War.

Kurt Vonnegut

2007-04-12T07:58:00.000-07:00

1922-2007

Lost Remaks

2007-04-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

TCM continued with its lost film series tonight, I will briefly review the two remakes presented, and will cover the original film (Stingaree) which I have taped but not yet watched, at a later time.

Movie: Living on Love (1937)
Setting: New York City (seemingly implied); contemporary

Remake of Rafter Romance changes some details (the apartment here is in the basement, not the attic), but maintains basically the same plot (man and women who share a room in shifts fall in love). Mixed bag compared to the original, though I'm starting to think this would make a good stage play. I would have liked to have seen it made once again in the late 40's with Alan Young and Priscilla Lane.

Movie: A Man to Remember (1938)
Setting: 'Westport County'; 1919?-1938

More polished remake of One Man's Journey, departs from the original in many ways, but stays true to its sentiment. Interesting framing device having the story of Dr. Abbots life (Edward Ellis, who is great in this) told in flash backs inspired by old bills in his 'safety' box, as they are examined by his creditors after his death. This films association with blacklistie Dalton Trumbo, and its evident socialistic undertones, might explain why only existent copy was located in Holland. Budding romance between brother and adopted sister kind of creepy.

Rod, Tod, This Is God

2007-04-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

Movie: The Next Voice You Hear (1950)
Setting: Los Angles, California; contemporary

Existential horror and redemption story has the voice of God emanating from the worlds radios. Plot concerns the reactions of the financely struggling Smith family(James Whitmore, Nancy Davis (Reagan), & Gary Gray) to this earth shattering event. I must complement the movie on what I would call a very realistic depiction of period family dynamics for a movie of the time, you see the vague resentments of the characters to their situations, yet their is a warmth there that mostly avoids sitcom saccharine.

Observation: In the 2003 TV movie The Reagan's, Ronald proposes to Nancy while she is making a movie that requires her to were a fake 'pregnancy bag'. Now she wears such a device in this movie, but its production is chronologically off from the date of the couples real-life marriage. In addition I thought I saw actor George Murphy's name on display on a 'directors chair' in the background, while Murphy was not in The Next Voice, he did play Reagan's dad in the 1943 musical This is the Army.

Cartoonest Johnny Hart Dead at 76

2007-04-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

Creator of B.C. and co-creator of The Wizard of Id, Johnny Hart died Saturday at his isle of a stroke. Harts signature strip, B.C. began appearing in papers in the late 1950's, in the early 1970's the author/artist came into a renewed intensity of his childhood Christian faith, which carried over into the content of the strip, providing for many anachronistic instances over the ensuing three and a half decades. Read the Wiki entry linked above to learn more about his more controversial strips. I'm primarily posting this obit, because the Christian message of B.C. always struck me as a little strange, not unlike the Flintsone's Christmas special, or the following. Though considering some of the traditionally anachronistic features of Book of Mormon theology, maybe I shouldn't be talking.

Cheney to Speak at BYU Graduation

2007-04-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

Those who know me know I just loved the documentary This Divided State, which is about Micheal Moore's 2004 visit to Utah Valley State College. Well a sequel of sorts is taking place on the campus of Brigham Young University, as the flagship Mormon educational institution has invited the extremely unpopular (though less so in LDS circles) Vice President Richard Cheney to speak at their upcoming graduation exercises. Now the University's stance on this is that they invited Cheney in his capacity as Vice President of the United States, not as partisan political figure. Now I don't have a problem with this line of reasoning, I thinks its an honor to have anyone who holds a high office like this speak at a graduation, because lets face it when your the V.P. you've been successful (though not quite as successful as the man whose the P). College is about success, academically and otherwise, so its totally appropriate for successful people to come and speak. The issue at hand though is two fold: 1) How BYU is handling another completely appropriate University practice, which is to protest when you don't like someone/something. I am heartened to see some real opposition to the Cheney visit in Americas most Republican county, I think its good for the University, though I'm not sure everyone in charge there would agree. 2) Given the cultural association between mountain-west Mormons and even the LDS Church in general with the Republican party, argumentation could be made that on at least some level, the invatation reflects explicit or implicate support of the GOP and its policy's, particularly Iraq. Or as some would argue, this mearly brings forward the moral failing of the LDS Church in not opposing the Iraq War from the start, as most major American Christian denominations did. Anyway all of this is being covered in great detail on the blog This Divided State, and I'd encourage anyone interested to check it out. I'm looking forward to the movie.

Tricked

2007-04-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

Movie: Deceived (1991)
Setting: New York City; roughly contemporary the film covers about seven years.

This is a great example of strictly b-grade material made truly entertaining by two strong lead performances. Goldie Hawn in a New York City art restorer, John Heard (in what is probably his best performance ever) is her to good to be true husband. After Heard's character dies in an auto accident following an argument with Hawn, his widow starts to uncover things she never know about his past. Because of the title of the film, and the fact that the first scene is Goldie meeting John, you pretty well know where its all going from the start. However its fun, and maybe just a little over the top, reminds me of some of the crime programmers from the 40's. Good entertainment in a pinch.

See also: Laura (1944), The Women in the Window (1944), Murder 101 (1991).

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

10/19/07

2007-04-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

Movie: Death of a President (2006)

Controversial fake documentary on the assassination of President George W. Bush, in Chicago on October 19th 2007. An intriguing concept this moderately well executed film is strongest when depicting the day of the assassination. I found I wanted a more fully developed sense of the world after such a definitive event then this movie gave me (espically in terms of what the public response would have been), but that may have well been beyond the scope intended and budget here available. That a Syrian was convicted on circumstantial evidence, while the father of a solder who died in Iraq was the more likely candidate to have committed the murder, seemed an overly easy narrative choice to me. Like last years CSA, I loved the concept of this mock-doc, but was perhaps inevitably disappointed by the finished product. Still I liked this movie.

Man of the People

2007-04-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

Movie: The Great McGinty (1940)

Setting: Unspecified

Screenwriter Preston Struges first time behind the directors chair isn't the type of screwball comedy that would mark his five year Renaissance. In fact McGinty is more the sort of social consciousness picture that the director vicariously longed to make in Sullivan's Travels. Brian Donlevy is elevated from the bread lines to the governors mansion by way of an eastern European born political boss (Akim Tamiroff). A dishonest man all his life McGinty is inspired by his wife (Muriel Adams in her last screen performance, though she lived until 2004) to change his ways and really try to help people with his political power. However a bridge built on graft while he was serving as mayor comes back to haunt him. Jailed McGinty determines he simply can not risk a life in prison, and escapes with his former political boss to a Latin American country. This film starts out with a suicide attempt and somehow manages to leave off on an even lower emotional note, dispite some mostly unsuccessful comedy in between. Well at least Sturges got better, much better, and don't let this review turn you off from his work.

Factoid: Donlevy would play McGinty again in a cameo in the later Sturges comedy The Miracle of Morgans Creek, though technically this doesn't jive with the chronology of the earlier film.

Christmas Story Director Bob Clark Dies in Car Crash With Son

2007-04-04T21:41:00.000-07:00

I first caught this story this afternoon. Something of a shocker isn't it.

Lost Films

2007-04-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight Turner Classic Movies presented a real treat as part of their periodic efforts to showcase rare or seldom seen movies. A few years ago they presented a number of Howard Hughs produced films from the 20's, including a picture called The Mating Call, which featured a surely rare instance of silent era rear nudity. Tonight, and again next Wednesday night, the channel is featuring a total of six films that have not been shown on television in roughly 50 years, all of this steaming from a dispute between RKO studios and producer Merian C. Cooper in the middle 1940's. All of tonight's films were released in 1933, and ended up in the film archive at Brigham Young University.

Rafter Romance
First up is a New York City based romantic comedy staring a pre-Fred Astire Ginger Rogers, and Norman Foster. The two share loft-like apartment in shifts, he's a struggling artist and night watchman, she's a, get this, telemarketer. Robert Benchley plays Rogers boss and would be suitor, but as in The Major and the Minor nine years later, he fails to get her. (Must see's: The Benchley shorts How to Sleep and How to Wake Up, the apparent inspirations for a number of Disney cartoons).

Double Harness
A largely downer drama about how jaded and deceptive people stand in the way of there own happiness. Ann Harding gives an intriguing performance as a women who traps a consummate bachelor into marrying her, while William Powell gets to be his trademark sophisticated self. It took me a while to figure that Harding and Powell had slept together, due to the nature of some period films in talk around such things. (Excerpt from my thoughts while watching the film: Why is Henry Stephenson so upset that his daughter was at Powell's apartment at night? ... Oh!). Subplot concerns Ann's sister's (Lucile Browne) overspending, film culminates in dinner party for Post Master General. Why was this movie at the BYU archives?

One Man's Journey
The treasure among the films shown tonight. An earnest doctor movie staring Lionel Barrymore. He's raising his son as a single parent, he takes in the baby daughter of an ungratefull farmer after the man's wife dies, he fights Small Pox and Typhoid, and cares for poor country folk who don't entirely trust him, and all in the first half hour. Man anything Barrymore did in the 30's was just meant to pull at your heart strings. Oh, and God wastes no time punishing pre-martial sex in this movie, no wonder it was in the BYU archives.

Men's Doubles

2007-04-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

Movie: Blades of Glory (2007)

Setting: Oslo, Colorado, Montreal; roughly contemporary

You get about what you'd expect with this figure skating comedy staring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. The latter actor is sure to have his relevance extended by virtue of the sure-fire box office that any Will Ferrell comedy generates now (thou time will tell how lasting either performers vogue is). Anyway its funny, never takes its self to seriously yet maintains a consistent internal logic, at least until the last 10 minutes or so. Lots of jokes involving issues of the varied sexuality of professional skating, including those creepy brother/sister teams (here Amy Poehler and real-life husband Will Arnet). Ferrell and Heder have some funny arguments, mostly in the first half of the film. Jenna Fischer is rather fetching as Heder's love interest. Finally Craig T. Nelson as the coach, need I say more.

The Wayne Palmer Story

2007-04-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

I was thinking, if they where to make a TV movie in the world of 24 about President Wayne Palmer and the events of day 6, Montel Willimas is who I'd cast for the part. I was also thinking maybe Tony Todd could play David in flashbacks.

Confrence Weekend

2007-04-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd just post a few words on this last weekends LDS General Conference. Well I made it down to the Salt Lake area to attend what will be my last mission reunion for the next five years (the president and his wife decided to cease the reunions as yearly practice now that were about five years on from his release). Anyway it was fun to see some of the Elders again, I can't believe Eggli named his daughter Yazzi. Also Shout out to Cam Palmer for reading my blog. Anyway I stayed with the Hortons as I usually do, and we made it down town on Saturday to visit one of my favorite places in the world, and I know I should be referencing Temple Square here but I'm actually talking about Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore. We did walk around Temple Square while we where there though, just prior to the conference meeting in which they rededicated the Tabernacle. As for the talks, I listened to the broadcasts a little sporadically as I was traveling or doing other things, but the ones that stick out to me include Elder Oaks on divorce, and Elder Wurthlin talking about High School football games he played in the 1930's. Also whats an LDS General Conference without excessive speculation on President Hinckly's health, notice how he said 'goodbye' at the end of the Sunday afternoon session and not 'see you next confrence'. Finally I must say that while I have grown cynical about a lot of things as regards to the Church, Presidents Monson's story about the little girl in the Tabernacle balcony really touched me. Despite subscriptions to The Nation ans Sunstone I remain a sentimental Mormon.

Brothers Keeper

2007-04-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

Movie: East of Eden (1955)

Setting: The Monetary to Salinas area of northern California; 1917

This Elia Kazen helmed adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel represents 1/3 of the James Dean cannon. Dean's performance in the film is ample demonstration of his talent, had he lived he could well have dominated cinema for decades as a cross between Paul Newman and Marlon Brando. However it seems the young man may have been destined to pass early, troubled and moody he is rumored to have been both a promiscuous bisexual and a masochist prone to cutting himself. However all of that may have been why he was such an intense performer, and why he worked so well in this clever twist on the story of Cain and Abel. As for Raymond Massey, in addition to a memorably strong performance, he would not be surpassed in cinema as a man obsessed with refrigeration until Harrison Ford in The Mosquito Coast. I loved the look of this film.

Included among the special features is a cheaply made 1988 documentary entitled: Forever James Dean, that uses the same tribute song three times.

Factoid: Dean tormented religious conservative Massey on the set with profanity's, so as to illicit a more powerful performance from the oft staded actor.

Spitting Image/Robot Chicken

2007-03-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

I can't remember how exactly I first became aware of the eccentric British satire program Spitting Image, though I think it might have been on some fluff news piece about the show in the mid- eighty's(I've watched the nightly news since I was about 3). Then in 1991 there was a prime time Spitting Image special on American television in conjunction with the Gulf War, I begged my parents but they wouldn't let me stay up for it. My last encounter with the show until recently was in the middle 90's, when part of a program on TLC about Jonathan Swift (and by extension satire), featured a segment on how they made the unique fleshy/muppet characters featured on the program. Anyway I recently came across some segments from the show on youtube, which I thought I'd share due to their high 80's British weirdness quotient:

Sir John Gielgud

Thatchers Grantham Anthem

Ronald Reagan Gets a Haircut

Genesis Land of Confusion Video

Images distant cousin is the current Adult Swim program Robot Chicken, which comes from the mind of Seth Green. The Chicken does a lot of satire on children's programing from my childhood, so I thought I'd share some examples, the first two being my favorites:

Super Mario Brothers- Honestly one of the funniest things I'd seen in a while.

Charlie Brown-For some reason I love Peanuts satire.

Movie Marathon

2007-03-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

I'm going to take a slight break from the review formatting style I've been using, due to the shear amount of movies I'm likely to watch in the next week. You see my parents and my sister went out and rented a bunch of movies, and usually when they do that there's maybe one among them that I actually want to see, but this time I wouldn't mind watching all of them (including a few I've seen before). In addition I've got the netflix and saw a movie with some friends tonight, ect., so I don't really have a lot of time for lengthy reviews. So that all being the case I best get started:

3/27

World Trade Center (2006): I generally find it kind of hard to write about 9/11 movies, the story and subject matter are generally so straight forward that there's not a lot to analyze that hasn't been made clear during the films proceedings. I have the sense that there is more to Oliver Stone's take here then might appear on the surface, though I've not yet been able to sort out what that might be in detail. The movie is more cinematic then United 93 but feels less real. 24's Mike Novak (Jude Ciccolella) has a small role.

3/26

The Illusionist (2006): One does not often get to see a film set in turn of the century Vienna, so to start off with the setting's cool. But even cooler then the neat atmosphere, flash-bulb cinematography, and Philip Glass score, is the central 'illusion', one that really pulled me in and fooled me. Even the presence of Jessica Beil can not diminish this movie.

3/25

The Holiday (2006): Each December requires at least one Christmas themed romantic comedy for me to watch out of season, and The Holiday is serviceable in this role. The Kate Winslet story was likable enough, but I didn't really care about Diaz. In fact the only strong reason to watch this movie, at least for me, was the Eli Wallach subplot. I applaud the producers for taking the risk of casting the then 90 year old legend as elderly screenwriter of the 'Billy Wilder school'. Also while this movie is strictly average in most ways, it at least recognizes what good movies are, as evidenced by repeated references to various classics throughout the film, that alone bumps this up from a C to a C+.

Stranger Then Fiction (2006): I was with this movie from conception to nearly through execution. This is a spoiler but I have issues with the ending, as my first instinct would have been to kill Harold. Not killing him lessened the dramatic impact and irony of his transformation, as pointed out by the Dustin Hoffman character (in a performance I really enjoyed by the way). However when the film cheats, it at least acknowledges that its cheating, when trading in greatness for an okay but more likable alternative. This acknowledgment is what saves the film and makes it work in a perhaps less artistic but more populist form. Maggie Gyllenhaal becomes more likable with each performance.

3/24
Rocky Balboa (2006): I confess that I had only seen the first one of these films about ten years ago, but that's really all you need to have seen to enjoy this final entry. Balboa surprised me in its being so sad and sentimental, really one of the most unexpectedly moving films I'd seen in some time. Kudos for the casting of Milo Ventimigilia as Rocky's son, and some totally engaging boxing action. Totally satisfying.

2007-03-24T16:15:00.001-07:00

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." - John Wayne

2007-03-24T16:12:00.000-07:00

"History is the best antidote to illusions of omnipotence and omniscience. It should forever remind us of the limitations of our passing perspectives. It should strengthen us to resist the pressure to convert momentary interests into moral absolutes."- Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

Do'in What Comes Naturally

2007-03-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

Movie: Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Setting: Ohio and locations throughout the midwest (espically Minnasota), the great cities of Europe and New York New York; the story plays it all a little lose with actual history, so it should probably be in the 1870's but sevral refrences place it in the 1880's.

Beatty Hutton was actully substituing for Judy Garland in a role that now seems taylor made for the recently departed actress ("Were always looking for a good Betty Hutton"-Sheldrake). Based on the popular musical by Irving Berlin, this film is esstenally a rather unconvinicng love story between dandy sharp shooter Frank Butler (Howard Keel) and the rough necked shooting prodgany Annie Oakley (Hutton). With some good songs, enjoyable character actors and a fun visual style, this film mostly makes up for what it lacks in real plot. You could probably get young children to watch this its so colorfull.

Note: The story of actor Brad Marrow, who played little Jake Oakley in the film is kind of sad.

Factoid: There are many plot and tonal simularites between this film and a movie Ms. Hutton did two years later called The Greatest Show on Earth.

Vasquez Speaks at BSU

2007-03-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

Well just got back from hearing Robert Vasquez a former Canyon County commissioner and candidate for 2008 Republican Senate nomination speak about the issue of illegal immigration at Boise State University (not at Boise State University but 'at' Boise State University). Vasquez is well known for his strong opposition to illegal immigration, and once while serving as Canyon County commissioner billed the nation of Mexico 2 million dollars for the local health services care of unlicensed aliens. A flier for the event, sponsored by the college Republicans, was viewed by some including University President Bob Kustra as ethnically disrespectful. This controversy heightened the protest regarding the event, and a mostly silent vigil was kept outside around the student union building where Mr. Vasquez was to speak.

Robert Vasquez is not a great speaker, but demonstrated tonight a strong ability to stoke the fires on both sides, though the anti-Vasquez faction was by far the more vocal during the evenings events. I ended up sitting among a contingent fairly angry young Hispanic students, the young women next to me was visibly shaking early on, and dismissively laughed off some of the candidates more inflammatory or poorly worded remarks throughout the speech. On the whole the evening was a demonstration of our collective inability to hold a real discussion on this issue. Most of the questions asked during the Q & A that closed out the event where loaded, many only barely qualifying as questions, being in intent attacks upon Vasquez's views, not open inquires. Of course Vasquez himself came off as rather self involved individual nay perhaps even a jerk, but he did have some good points, and even he commented that if you don't agree with him your likely not going to really hear anything he has to say. The perception held by many that being anti-illegal immigration is some how equivalent to being anti-immigrant of any sort, and anti-Latin culture, is obviously a wrong one. There are cases where these things go together, perhaps to many, and perhaps those who hold these views are to predominate in the larger immigration control movement, but we've got to look beyond the provocateurs on both sides of this thing, and actually work towards a just solution.

Deep Blue Something

2007-03-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

Movie: Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Setting: New York City; contemporary

I have recently been reminded just how many people I know (especially women) really love this movie. I however was disappointed in the picture, perhaps this is a case of impossible expectations. I understand how the romantic aspects of the film can be attractive, heck I'd love to spend a day doing stuff I've never done before with a lovely young women. The thing is this picture is much more melancholy then romantic, leaving me a little perplexed as to its near universally beloved statues. It does have John McGiver in it though, and John McGiver was awesomely ubiquitous in the 60's and 70's. Suffice it to say I still prefer to get my Audrey Hepburn fix by way of Sabrina or Charade.

P.S. Name the cat already!

Factoid: Paramount exec's originally wanted to cut the Mancini/Mercer song "Moon River", feeling it too hokey. Ironically "Moon River" is now considered one of the all time great songs from a motion picture.

Happy 95th Karl Malden

2007-03-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

Karl Malden

The Amnesic Psychiatrist

2007-03-21T21:25:00.000-07:00

Movie: Crime Doctor (1943)
Setting: 'Kings County' unidentified state; 1932-1942

First in a series of films taken from the radio. Warner Baxter is an amnesia victim, who unable to remember his past, becomes a psychiatrist. Ten years after losing his memory Dr. Robert Ordway is appointed head of the state parole board, around this time some men show up claiming he is really 'Phil Morgan' a man who helped organize a hist of $200,000 dollars. This money was hidden by Morgan in an attempt to cheat his associates, it was in their attempt to beat the information out of him that Phillip lost his memory. Of course Dr. Ordway is able to recover his memory, apprehend the criminals and return the stolen money, only to be granted a retroactive ten year sentence for his crimes, thus enabling him to remain a free man and have further adventures. Enjoyable and relatively short, I wouldn't mind seeing other entry's in this series. Crime Doctor also features a never fully developed sub-plot about the rehabilitation of a decorated World War One vet who committed manslaughter.

Factoid: Female characters repeatedly comment on how 'attractive' Dr. Ordway supposedly is. This is probably due to the fact that actor Warner Baxter was in his 50's when he played this part, probably to old for the role, and the studio wanted to remind audience that the character was suppose to be viewed as dashing.

Also recommend in films about men with thin mustaches and amnesia: Random Harvest

Calvert DeForest, Letterman's "Larry 'Bud' Melman" Dead at 85

2007-03-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

1921-2007

The New Eleven

2007-03-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

Movie: Ocean's 12 (2004)
Setting: Rome and Lake Comeo Italy; East Haven, Connecticut; Provo, Utah; Miami, Florida; East Orange, New Jersey; London, England;Chicago; East Hampton, New York; New Orleans; Las Vegas; West Hollywood, California; Amsterdam; Paris, France; 2001 & 2004

To be honest I only watched this movie so that I can better enjoy 13 (which looks real good) when it comes out. My expectations were not high which I'm sure factored, but I enjoyed 12, it was a fun if inconsequential vanity project. Cathrine Zeta-Jones makes a fine addition to the Ocean's pantheon. I have mixed feeling about the Bruce Willis cameo.

The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever

2007-03-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

See what Premier magazine considers the 25 best movie posters ever. I am particularly fond of this poster from the Preston Sturges comedy Sullivan's Travels, because it has next to nothing to do with the movie, its just banking on the then current popularity of leading lady Veronica Lake, and her iconic hairstyle.

Seldom Seen

2007-03-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

Movie: An Ace in the Hole a.k.a. The Big Carnival (1951)
Setting: New Mexico; contemporary

While well received by the European intelligentsia, this Billy Wilder film was both a critical and box office flop at home, resulting in its current seldom seen statues and lack of DVD release. Having now seen the film I find it surprising that it has not had more of cinematic rehabilitation, I mean its a fine example of Wilder at the top of his game. The plot concerns a once hot shot city reporter (Kirk Douglas) reduced to working for an Albuquerque paper. In a cynical attempt to reestablish a name for himself, the reporter conspires with a corrupt sheriff (Ray Teal) to keep the victim of a cave-in at old Indian cliff dwelling (Richard Benedict) trapped underground for days so they can milk the story for publicity. The area outside the cave-in quickly becomes a media circus complete with a real carnival (hence the alternate title), which the victims loveless wife (Jan Sterling) is more then ready to cash in on. A happy song about efforts to rescue the trapped World War Two vet, "Leo, Leo, Leo", adds further surreality to the proceedings. A bleak ending to this cynical story may have further put off 50's audiences.

Factoid: Many obvious parallels to this movie exist in the 1997 feature Mad City, which I must say failed where Ace succeeded.

Airport 54'

2007-03-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

Movie: The High and the Mighty (1954)

Setting: (TWA?) flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, with a few scenes at both locations; contemporary, 1950's.

Prototypical airplane/disaster flick, featuring John Wayne as a co-pilot who doesn't lose his cool, and a bunch of lesser-known actors in subplots aplenty. Claire Trevor does her shtick, William Schallert and Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez have bit parts. Enjoyable but kind of lengthy, with an exposition heavy first twenty minutes.

Factoid: Robert Stack, who players the nervous pilot, also had a part in the later genera send-up movie Airplane!

Stardust Memories

2007-03-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

Movie: 8 1/2 (1963-Italian)
Setting: An Italian spa community; early 1960's + flashbacks

I was worried that I wouldn't like this film, that it might be portentous (which of course it was) and mostly of value in terms of being able to say that one had actually seen it. I was pleasantly surprised, I really liked this movie, it grew on me quite a bit over the course of my viewing. Stylistically this film is something of a milestone, like Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, and many famous directors have been noted to drool over this work. Beyond the stylistic inspiration provided, it is probable that many of the movies director fans, like it so much because it's about the stress of being a director, and having ones private life bleed over into the screen. A good example of this is the sequence in which director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is casting for characters obvious based on people in his life, down to having one actress asked to put on glasses so as to more closely resemble his wife (in the movies context this scene is rather cruel). I would be remiss not to mention a fantasy sequence which starts with all of the women in Guidos life (past and present) living together with him in harmony, only to have them rise up against him in the end, this guy can't win even in his fantasy's. Finally I must recommend this film because any chance to see Claudia Cardinale on screen is simply worth it, one of the most beautiful actresses of all time.

Factoid: 8 1/2, particularly the ending sequence, is referenced in a number of films including Woody Allen's Stardust Memories and Tim Burton's Big Fish.

Nate's Favorite Italian Films (in order of theatrical release): The Bicycle Thief, The Leopard, and Life is Beautifull.

...As When You Were A Baby

2007-03-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Movie: States of Grace (2005)
Setting: Santa Monica California; present day

Director Richard Dutcher is considered by many to be the 'father of Mormon cinema', a statues he's not as comfortable with now as he might have been back in 2000, when his breakthrough picture God's Army first came out. Dutcher has come to reject the label of Mormon filmmaker, as his life's journey has lead him both creatively and spiritually away from such a boxed designation, and because so much of what calls itself Mormon cinema just really isn't that good. Of course even from the beginning Dutcher was a controversial figure in LDS circles, his portals of deeply flawed and spiritually hurting Latter-day Saints, including characters who where missionary's and Bishops, presented a level of ambiguity that many in audiences raised on propagandistic church produced educational films, where decidedly uncomfortable with (so they went to see Charlie and The Singles Ward instead).

In States of Grace (billed in some Mormon markets as God's Army 2, though that label can only very loosely be applied), we find what is in my opinion, the most spiritually satisfying 'Mormon' movie ever made, and Dutchers best work to date. It is a mediation on the atonement, a story of spiritual pain, growth, and lose, sin as well as forgiveness. It is a movie that demonstrates its directors frustration with Mormon dogmatism, and sense of moral superiority. While not rejecting the structures of the institutional church, in fact arguable accepting them in near completeness, the director pines for the superiority of 'spirit' not 'law' based approach to Godly living. This idea is typified in the film when the Mormon Elders Lozano (Ignacio Serricchio) and Farrell (Lucas Fleischer) take a homeless Pentecostal street preacher into their apartment, after finding him lying drunk and sick behind a dumpster. That action is against the missionary's rules, but it is what Jesus would do. While that event may prompt a low level reassessment of proper spiritual behavior on the part of some LDS viewers, Dutcher is not content to let the audience off with only a procedural sense of ambiguity. Rather later in the film Elder Farrell sneaks out of his apartment at night, to comfort Holly, the troubled young neighbour women the missionary's have befriended (Rachel Emmers, whose face and light blue eyes are a treasure to gaze upon), which before sunrise leads to sex between the two (don't worry moralists, he pays a high price).

The boundary's between grace and behavior, law and love are what Dutcher is grappling with in this film, and he wants his audience to know that there aren't always easy answers. Fornication born of compassion, of all the right desires. How is an LDS audiance to deal with that? The pain that follows may be necessary and proper, but when Elder Farrell's father won't journey to see his recently hospitalized son (he slit his wrists in shame about having to go home), holding to his early statement that he'd rather see him come home in a coffin then dishonorably, we must ask isn't this level of pain to sever to be warented. I love this film, I think it really gets it, not just about being Mormon, but being Christian, being human. Forgive this film its trespasses, its unmaskabley indie and has its contrivances, watch it, and you'll find something there about how we can all stand to be a better person.

Factoides:

During its original theatrical release, a California movie theater started warning potential customers that States of Grace was not a "Christian" film. It seems some Evangelical viewers felt they were mislead by the movies title and had not expected it to be a 'Mormon' film. As a result of this, a protest by some Mormons and there sympathisers was held outside of the theater, despite director Dutchers pleas to just let it be.

An Evangelical minister protested that the advertising for Dutchers 2000 film God's Army was misleadingly targeting Evangelical youth. The reason for this charge stemming from the supposed resemblance of God' Army star Matthew A. Brown to born again actor Kirk Cameron, then appearing in a series of Left Behind films.

You Can't Go Home Again

2007-03-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

Series: The 4400; season 2 (2005)
Setting: Mostly in and around Seattle; contemporary, 2005-2006.

Did I even mention that I'd watched season 1 of this show? It's a very interesting premise, from the middle 1940's until the early 21st century, 4400 people were abducted from all around the world, only to be returned to Earth on August 14th 2004. None of these people had aged a day, and after there return some started to develop special powers. The reason why only some developed powers, and not all, is one of several major mystery's explored in the second season. The big mystery reveled in the truncated mini-series like first season, was that the 4400 had not been abducted not by aliens, but rather by future humans who wanted to use them to stave off some kind of disaster that threatened the future of the planet. In terms of show structure this paved the way for everything, even the most minor seeming of subplots, to prove over the course of a few episodes, to be intemently connected to some vast future plan. Thus there isn't a lot of filler on The 4400.

The major characters on the show are two agents for the National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC), a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, that has been tasked with monitoring the 4400, largely because they reappeared near its Seattle headquarters, and most have chosen (for an unknown reason) to remain in that general area. Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch, who was just excellent as a very different character in the somewhat similar Taken), is a former FBI agent now NTAC operative whose son Kyle (Chad Faust) was left in a comma for three years after witnessing the abduction of his best friend and cousin Shawn Farrell (Patrick Flueger). Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie, who is very attractive in this role), is Tom's partner and a former CDC employee (shades of X-Files). The primary 4400's that are featured in most every episode are Maia Rutledge (Conchita Campbell) a little girl abducted in 1946 who can now see the future, Richard Tyler (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) a black fighter pilot taken from 1951 Korea, and Lily Moore Tyler (Laura Allen, who looks like a cross between Sherlyn Fenn and Kristin Bell) a 1993 abductie who returns miraculously pregnant with Richards child, who turns out to be a disturbingly powerful little lady.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of the show is the way it deals with religion. Jordon Collier (Bill Campbell) a powerful young real estate tycoon abducted in 2002, starts a Scientology type group called The 4400 Center upon his return. This group believes that the 4400's powers come from the simple unlocking of parts of the brain we don't normally use, and that everyday Jane's and Joe's can be taught to develop such powers through a seven staged (or seven key'd) process they must pay to learn. While Jordan has no powers of his own, he eventually finds a powerful portage in Tom's nephew Shawn, who has the power to heal any illness. Anyway I watched this shows second season while also watching the current 6th season of 24, and well, this stuff is better.

Factoid: Actor Jeffery Combs, DS9's Wayone, has a recurring role as an eccentric neuro-scientist.

The Logans

2007-03-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

While watching the latest episode of 24 on Monday night, which reunited season 5's first couple of Charles and Martha Logan, I was struck with just how much I enjoy watching those two together. Honestly the interplay between Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart was far more engaging then the terrorist goings on in the six o'clock hour. So it struck me, here we have the perfect candidate for 24's first spin off: The Logan's. I'm thinking it would be a lot like Dynasty, with Charles and Martha, Aaron Pierce, Mike Novak, the Suberovs, and a host of wacky relatives constantly plotting against each other and causing all sorts of trouble. Of course this can only work if the former President survives his stab wound and gets some king of pardon. But hay, if Kim can work as a computer analyst at CTU with out ever attending college, or showing any indication of skill at the job, then Surnow and his writing crew can make anything happen.

Why Spartin is a Good Team Name

2007-03-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

Movie: 300 (2007)
Setting: Greece; in um, ancient Greek times

Normally a movie like 300 is not something I would go and see, but I wanted to see a movie and that was what Mandy was gonna go see, so I went. 2007's first blockbuster contains a bizarre mix of eroticism (homo and straight), and neo-conservative politics. It is the political twinge of the film, more even then its sex and violence, that make 300 a largely repellent film (not to mention a ridiculous one). The Spartans were Greek Texans I suppose, not to blanket all citizens of the lone star state, but most readers know what I'm talking about. Sparta was a prideful and arbitrary society, one which liked to cloak things in a rhetoric of freedom and tradition, but ultimately contained little or nothing worth saving. I must admit that the movie has some pretty cool fight scenes, and the two or three minutes of film in which Gerard Butler is totally channeling Sean Connery just made me happy, but on the whole... Here's where I run into trouble, like some Texans, the Spartans can get one excited by, or at least deadened to, mass killing. While I hated the first half hour of the film, after that point I found myself enjoying it more and more. I can appreciate the film for what is (minus the politics) as action spectacle, but I simply can not respect 300 or recommend it. Gladiator this is not. What was with the goat musician?

Note: While filling my car up with gas after seeing this film I meet Tiffany the cologne sales lady. Best of luck getting that hotel room Tiffany.

Gold Digging 101

2007-03-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Movie: Baby Face (1933)
Setting: Erie Pennsylvania, New York City, Paris France; Depression era.

Barbra Stanwyck is commanding in this story of a girl with a troubled background, who literally sleeps her way to success within a major New York City based bank. This movie was made just as a moral backlash against Hollywood product was resulting in a stricter policing of film content. As a result the original version of Baby Face was cut up, and not available to the general public until fairly recently. Looking at those blatantly coded scenes of sensuality reminds the viewer of how risque early 1930's film making could get. Of course the year after this picture was made you couldn't have Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert sleep in the same room without the benefit of the 'Walls of Jericho'.

The film contains a nice Vidorian visual motif in depicting Stanwyck's Lily Powers rise to the top of Courtland Trenhoms (George Brent) banking empire. The film however sells out some of its subversiveness with the redemption ending, which I felt should have been more, for lack of a better word, mean. Kudos for having Stanwycks character inspired to her wicked ways by the philosophy of Nietzche.

Factoid: John Wayne appears in this movie for all of 20 seconds as one of Lily's suitors.

Sebastin

2007-03-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

I've recently become taken by a blog known as 'The Ongoing Cinematic Education of Steven Carlson', which has inspired me to change my format for movie reviews, at lest for a trial run. So here it goes:

Movie: Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Setting: New Orleans, Louisiana 1937

Any movie based on a play by Tennessee Williams, particularly if that play is set largely in a mental institution and the home of an eccentric widow who wears white in mourning, is not going to be full of sunshine. Suddenly, Last Summer certainly has a creepy aura to it, from the early scenes of a lobotomy preformed in a mental hospital that used to be a children's school, to the final confrontation in Sebastin's primeval garden. Sebastin himself is the source of most of this black aura, though those in his inner circle where doubtlessly a little battyl even before the tragic events of the previous summer. You see, suddenly, last summer, the aspiring poet was struck dead, of what is claimed to have been a heart attack, while vacationing with his cousin Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor) in Spain. Cathy went a little crazy after that, and her aunt (who was also the late Sebastins Oedipaly devoted mother, played by Katharine Hepburn), has had her put up in a Catholic crazy house. The Nuns however wont keep the shapely young women on account of her lustful ways, which is why its so lucky for the venerable Mrs. Venable that the Polish-American doctor Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift) form Chicago can do a mean lobotomy.

Dr. Cukrowicz however is a good, sane, and reasonable man (unlike everybody else in this film), who won't just mesh up Liz's Brian because the town dame, and the hospitals money desperate administrator (Albert Dekker) want him too. You see Dr. Cukrowicz likes Cathy, and is sure her psychological problems steam from having witnessed something horrible, no doubt suddenly, last summer. The truth is all bound up in how Sebastin really died, and the secret that he and his mother had protected so long, a secret the audience will probably pick-up on fairly early on, however the performances that it takes for the story to get there makes the time spent well worth it. A little stagy, but that's more then made up for by the creepy atmosphere.

Factoides:

Katharine Hebrun reportedly didn't get along with director Mankiewicz, but loved producer Speagle.

Screenplay by Tennesse Williams and Gore Vidal.

The last name of the hospital administrator, Hockstader, is the same as the folksy former President in Vidal's The Best Man.

Finally despite what the advertising says about 'six big stars', I'll give them Dekker and McCambridge, but Gary Raymond is pushing it.

Actress, Singer Betty Hutton Dead at 86

2007-03-13T09:52:00.001-07:00

Betty Hutton, musical comedy star of the 40's and 50's, best known for her booming voice and talent with novelty songs, has passed away at the age of 86. Hutton is largely identified with the light comic material in which she excelled (If you see one Betty Hutton film make it The Miracle of Morgans Creek), but actually she came from a troubled family background that included suicide and bootlegging. Ms. Hutton herself was laid low by the booze, and eventually found herself doing laundry and janitorial work for some Catholic monks. However she was eventually able to overcome her addictions, and spent much of her later life lecturing on the dangers of the drink. Betty Hutton's music was the subject of an episode of my late radio show 'The Ghostwood Development Project' in August of 2005.

'Platypus Man' Richard Jeni Dies in Apperant Suicide

2007-03-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Richard Jeni: 1957-2007

Wilford Woodruff at 200

2007-03-10T20:34:00.000-08:00

This month marks two hundred years since the birth of Wilfrod Woodruff, 4th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Woodruff (effectively) served in that office from 1887 to his death in 1898 (while on a fishing trip in California). President Woodruff presided over the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, and issued the 1890 Manifesto which publicly announced that the Church had discontinued sodomizing polygamous marriages (however that practice was not effectively stamped out among members of church leadership until well into the following decade). President Woodruff is an interesting man, one of my favorite church presidents for his farsightedness and willingness to change. Now might be a good time to learn more about him.

Camptastic Voyages

2007-03-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

I recently completed my viewing of the DVD release of Star Trek: The Animated Series (thank you netflix), which I watched for its great camp/nostalgia value. As children my brother and I used to watch reruns of this 1973-74 program on Nick-at-Night, I think it aired on Sunday evenings right around 1989 or 90'. Anyway the both of use thought that Mr. Arex, the orange, tri-pedal bridge officer who served as Checkovs replacement was real cool. We want to know more about him, and were saddened that he was never the focus of an episode. This no doubt was do in part to the extremely thin budget the series apparently had. The programme was a production of Filmation Studios, which used a process called 'limited animation' (as well as a highly repetitive musical score) to save on costs. So alas our Mr. Arex, with one additional foot, would have been cost prohibitive to strike out on his own and have adventures. Now that we have CGI however, I'm ready to pitch my Mr. Arex television program to anyone who will listen.

We're Really Safe

2007-03-08T10:55:00.000-08:00

Farmers Insurance names the Boise-Nampa area the safest metropolitan area in the United States. Eat that Bismark!

Captian America Killed by Sniper!

2007-03-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

First President Palmer, and now Steve Rogers, I don' know if I can take the sniping death of another fictional character.

One Sad and Angry Man

2007-03-07T19:55:00.002-08:00

Twenty-five years after directing the seminal 12 Angry Men, Sidney Lument returned to the field of courtroom drama with The Verdict, a film that is even better then the aforementioned Henry Fonda classic. Paul Newman plays a once great lawyer, scapegoated more then ten years previous in a jury tampering scheme, in which he was not even involved. Now a down on his luck lawyer with a truly sad looking office, Newman's Frank Galvin has a chance to redeem himself in a malpractice suit involving a hospital owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Charlotte Rampling plays a potential love interest for Newman, while the under-apricated Jack Warden is Gavens old law school instructor who helps him out on the case (shades of Walter Brennan assisting James Stewart in Anatomy of a Murder). James Mason plays the opposing lead lawyer. A powerful, excellent, surprisingly underplayed movie. Nominated for five Academy Awards.

The Humanist

2007-03-07T17:16:00.000-08:00

I missed making an entry in the filmscreed sponsored Billy Wilder Blog-a-thon this weekend, but thought that I'd take some time now to reflect on the work of my favorite director. I'm hard pressed to say exactly why Wilder is my favorite, save to say that I've never been truly disappointed in a Billy Wilder movie. Even personal favorites of mine such as Capra and Preminger have their misfires (A Hole in the Head, and The Man with the Golden Arm, respectively), but Wilder didn't, at least not that I've seen. Granted much of his work, especially post The Apartment, might be seen as less ambitious then the work of other great directors, or even the output of Billy's golden age at Paramount. However, beyond consistently delivering entertaining and well-crafted work, Billy Wilder also prompted thought from his audience, and brought his highly developed sense of cynicism to bear, in stories that challenged their contemporary conventions. The hub-ub surrounding the now relatively inaqueus Kiss Me Stupid is a prime example of this latter phenomena. Yet Wilder still managed to make a comedy about French prostitutes the biggest money maker of his career ( Irma La Deuce), and receive great accolades from the mid-century American press for films about alcoholism (The Lost Weekend), coded homosexuality (Some Like it Hot, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes), moral corruption in the insurance industry (The Apartment), Hollywood (Sunset Blvd.), and the newspapers (An Ace in the Hole, admittedly not appreciated in its time), as well as lots and lost of work dealing with the problems (both serious and comic) of sexual infidelity (see almost any Wilder film for an example). As a contranarian though, Wilder also made some wonderfully light pictures like The Major and the Minor, Sabrina, and Love in the Afternoon, not to mention the almost Capra-esque Spirit of St. Louis.

Some found Wilder at his most extreme to be rather off-putting in his cynicism, feeling his world view to be overly dark and unforgiving. I however find Wilders work to be the opposite, it's all very human, and being human it means the characters are both greatly flawed and yet endearingly compelling. Perhaps the most consistent thread in Wilders story telling is 'the tale of the sell-out' (which is all of us to one degree or another), someone whose doing wrong, knows it, struggles with it, but do to any number of circumstances, has a difficult time working his way out of it. Sometimes the sell-out redeems himself (The Apartment), sometimes he dosen't (Double Indemnity), sometimes he must die to be redeemed (Sunset Blvd), sometimes the point is to go on living (Stalage 17). But the characters have to make choices, important choices that determine who they are. But even when they make the wrong choices, we see them as being of value, and empathise with them. What demons if any Wilder was working out in his films is hard to say, but while he effected a somewhat crusty persona, I think it's evident that he was a man who felt deeply, someone who understood intemently mankind at both our most repulsive and charming extremes. Billy Wilder was a writer, a director, and a person who lived up to and embodied his famous mantra, "Nobody's Pefect", and that's why his films nearly where.

Thomas Eagleton: 1929-2007

2007-03-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

Thomas Eagleton

More Recent Deaths

2007-03-04T09:05:00.002-08:00

World War One veteran and Dick Cheney rhetorical aid Howard Ramsey has died at age 108.

Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who popularize the concept of the 'imperial presidency' and presidental ranking lists, has passed on at age 89.

Hollywood actor and Olympic silver medalist (1928, short put) Bruce Bennett has been failed by a broken hip at the age of 100.

Miami Vice

2007-03-04T08:56:00.000-08:00

Last night a friend of mine and I went out to celebrate his recent engagment. We decided to go see a stupid movie, which we found in Reno 911: Miami, a feature length version of the Comedy Central TV show. I don't normaly watch R rated comedys, and this movie will likely only enhance that genral policy. It's not that I hated the movie, in fact I kind of enjoyed it in a 'I can't belive I'm watching this' sort of way. However I'm glade I have church today, because I kind of feel I need to give back to God double time for this 90 minutes of comic vice.

Inspired by Actual Events

2007-03-03T18:20:00.000-08:00

The international production Joyeux Noel tells the inspiring story of the famed 'Christmas Truce' of 1914. The movie uses three fictional storys to depect events from all sides, each presented in the language of the participents. In English we have the story of two Scottish brothers, and their parish priest who accompanys them to the front as a medic. The French story concerns the son of a career military officer, whose pregnant wife is traped behind enemy lines. The German storyline depicts a famous tenour, bound by a sense of deuty to serve the German people, despite the pledings of his Danish wife for them to leave the country. Kind of weak in the first half hour to fourty minutes, the film becomes truely inspirng from the moment the German tenor starts to sing along to the Scottish priests bagpipe music. Rated R for about 15 seconds of film that barley registers as nudity. Ian Richardson appears briefly in his second to last film role.

Forest Whitaker won a well deserved Oscar for playing crazed yet charismatic Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, a motion picture based on the novel of the same name by Giles Foden. The story is historical fiction inserting a young Scottish doctor 'hungry for adventure' ( James McAvoy), into the inner cirlce of Scottophile Amin. Both actors are extrodanarly good in this film, which also features a nice role for Gillan Anderson of all people. The Last King of Scotland introduced me to a horrifiying story I'd never heard before, and further cemented my desire never to go to central Africa.

Also recently finished The Presidents, an eight part History Channel documentary narrated by Edward Herrman, that gives an average of 7-9 minutes air time to each of our countrys chief executives (love that Chester A. Arthur). Also included on set is an hour and a half long doc All The Presidetns Wives.

Post Oscar Post

2007-02-27T09:08:00.000-08:00

Well I got 14 out of 24 right in my Oscar predictions, which is about average for me. The one I'm really proud off is picking Alan Arkin over Eddie Murphy for best supporting actor, one of the big upsets of the night. Speaking of which, I guess having 3 songs from your movie nominated is the best way for your musical to have its vote split, and then lose the obvious award. Also, the minute I learned what West Bank Story was about, I instently wished I could have changed my vote in best live action short film. I'm also happy that The Lives of Others beat Pan's Labyrinth for best foreign language film. Though the fact that Letters From Iwo Jima is a foreign language film that was nominated for best picture, but not best foreign langauge film is a little odd.

Some other things I've been watching:

The Three Faces of Eve broke ground and won Joan Woodward an Oscar for playing a women suffering from multipal personality disorder. All but maybe the last half hour pales in comparsion to Sybil, a late 70's mini-series that covers a more serve case of the phenomina, and also features Joan Woodward. Eve is also a prime example of Nunnley Johnsons tast for odd openings and narrations (why Alistair Cook? Not that I'm complaining, but why Alistair Cook? I mean the movies set in Georgia!), and foundness for casting Lee J. Cobb as a virtuous authority figure.

The Pledge is the best movie my brother ever recomended to me. I'm not going to say much about the film, only that it is definatly worth seeing, and you spend the last half of the movie just waiting for things to blow up in Jack Nicholsons face. This movie also compelts my long belated list of the 5 best movies of 2001, listed below in alphabetical order:

1. A. I.: Artifical Intelligence
2. A Beautiful Mind
3. Mulholland Drive
4. The Man Who Wasn't There
5. The Pledge

Finally finished season 5 of Gilmore Girls, which really did feel like an improvment over season four.

2007-02-25T09:36:00.000-08:00

"Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: Where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless."- Eric Hoffer

2007-02-25T09:34:00.000-08:00

"Every revolutionary idea evokes three stages of reaction: 1) It's completely impossible 2) It's possible but it's not worth doing 3) I said it was a good idea all along."-Arthure C. Clarke

Oscar Picks 2007

2007-02-22T10:10:00.000-08:00

Well the time has come for me to post my Oscar perdictions for the annual Oscar poll. I do however reserve the right to change my predictions up until the time of the Oscar broadcast, thought that seems unlikely. While I have modertly strong opinons on most of the major catagories, I'm really mostly guessing when it comes to some of the more minor ones.

Best Picture- I'd be voting for The Departed if I belonged to the Academy, and that is my prediction for winner. However I have a sneaking feeling that highley commited Little Miss Sunshine fans might be able to push their movie over the top.

Directing- Martin Scorses for The Departed, finally.

Best Actor- Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland. Though if I where an Academy member I'd be highley tempted to cast my vote for Peter O'Toole, who should have one a best actor Oscar 45-years ago.

Best Actress- No brainer, Helen Mirren for The Queen.

Best Supporting Actor- Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine.

Best Supporting Actress- I'm gonna play it safe and go for popular favorite Jennifer Hudson of Dreamgirls, though I'd have voted fro Adrina Barraza from Babel.

Best Animated Feature- Happy Feet

Best Documentary Feature- Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth seems to have a lock on the Zitgiest.

Best Foreign Language Film- Pan's Labyrinth

Best Art Direction- Dreamgirls

Cinematography- The Prestige

Costume Design- Marie Antoinette

Documnentary Short- The Blood of Yingzhou District (vote based on only on title)

Film Editing- Babel

Makeup- Pan's Labyrinth

Original Score- Babel (though I might have voted for The Queen)

Original Song- I only know one of the songs on this list, so I'm just going to pick something from Dreamgirls at random, how about: "Listen"

Animated Short Film - Maestro (because it just sounds like the name of a best short film winner)

Live Action Short Film- Binta and the great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)

I'm spliting my vote on the next two catagories, because both film choices need to win at least one Oscar:

Sound Editing- Letters from Iwo Jima

Sound Mixing- Flags of Our Fathers

Visual Effects- Superman Returns, because I don't want Pirates to win an Oscar (sorry Dane).

Adapted Screenplay- Could Borat pull a 3-6 Mafia? No I vote for The Departed.

Original Screenplay- The Queen.

Nates awards rankings:

Most wins: Tie- The Departed and Babel with three each.

The Queen, Dream Girls and Pan's Labyrinth each get two.

While The Last King of Scotland, Little Miss Sunshine, The Prestige, Marie Antoinette, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Flags of Our Fathers each get one award.

Two From '39

2007-02-21T08:58:00.000-08:00

Sunday evening I enjoyed to semi-neglected films from the classic movie year of 1939. The first up was the non-musical version of Goodbye Mr. Chips. Star Robert Donat beat Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith, and Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind, to win the best actor trophy at that years Oscar ceremony. The movie is based on the novel by James "Everything I Write is Designed to Make You Cry Like A Baby" Hilton, and concerns the six decade association of a 'classics' teacher with an English boys school. Greer Garson plays the love intrest. While I feel the English boys school sub-genra has been done better (To Serve Them All My Days), this is a moving film with a highley relatable lead and too much Terry Kilburn.

Second feature of the evening was Dark Victory. I read a piece in Films of the Golden Age, that talked about how the children of a military officer who had raised his kids on black and white films, liked to call this movie "Bette Davis Dying". "Bette Davis dying" is actully a pretty good description for this film, as the story involves said actress as an heiress with a fatal brian condition, and George Brent as the brain surgon who falls in love with her, despite being unable to save her. High melodrama. Ronald Reagan and Humphrey Bogart also via for Ms. Davis's romantic attentions, playing a play boy and horse traner respectively.

Getting to Know Mitt Romney

2007-02-21T08:53:00.000-08:00

Get to Know Mitt Romney here.

2007-02-20T14:40:00.000-08:00

"I say if you're a senator and you've got a drinking problem that's got you in trouble, don't use it as an excuse. Come out like a man and say I've done some things I'm not proud of . . . and then simply leave it up to the people of Massachusetts."
— Al Franken

Mormons, George Reeves and Alan Ball

2007-02-17T19:10:00.000-08:00

With the upcoming releasse of the Howard Hughs releated film The Hoax, it seemed time to view the film about the other famous Hughs forgery (or supposed forgery depending on who you belive), Melvin and Howard. This quarky film by Jonathan Demme tells the story of Melvin Dummar, who in the late 1960's gave a late night ride to a man claiming to be Howard Hughs, only to have a will bequething him millions of dollars from the late billionare, deliverd to his Utah gas station in 1976. Known as 'The Mormon Will' this document was later determend by a court to be fraudulent, though some belive it was simply repressed by Hughs buisness associates who disagreed with where the money went.

The movie H ollywoodland takes a look at the mysterious death of television superman George Reeves. All of the three major theorys regarding his death are explored. First, that he was accidently killed by fiance Leonore Lemmon. Second, that his death was orderd by the reportedly ruthless MGM vice-president Eddie Mannix. Third, that Reeves shot himself over desperation regarding what he perceived as his failed career. Ben Affleck gives what may turn out to be the most well regarded performance of his career, picking up on Reeves every little subtelty of vocial cadiance and movment. This is a good but far from great film, that made me want to re-watch the superior 50's crime drama L.A. Confedental.

My recent complition of the series Six Feet Under inspired me to the see the film that made its creator, and my personal writing god, Alan Ball famous. That movie is American Beauty, the much deserving winner of 1999's best picture award. The movie, well its pretty awsome, not for all tastes, but pretty awsome. Lot's of truth in there. Anyway back in the fall of 99' me and my friend Jackson traveld down to Salt Lake City to visit his then girlfriend Megan. There I meet a friend of Megans who told me that this movie was awsome, but I was dismissive (I was more prudish then). I just want to say I'm sorry Megans friend whose name I can't remember, you where right, American Beauty is awsome.

Some Recent Deaths

2007-02-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

A couple of deaths I wanted to mention, first off Ray Evans. Mr. Evans was a composer, often in partnership with Jay Livingston, who wrote such classic film songs of mid century as 'Mona Lisa' and 'Que Sera Sera'. My favorite Ray Evans fun fact is that he cameos with Jay Livingston in Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd., preforming a varent of their Oscar winning song 'Buttons and Bows' at Artie's New Years party.

Second Robert Adler, credited as 'co-inventor' of the television remote control has died here in Boise Idaho. He was 93.

Lastly, and I don't know if you've heard, but apperently a rather obscure figure named Anna Nicole Smith has died as well.

2007-02-16T21:05:00.000-08:00

"The Mussulman condemns the heathen, the Jew, and the Christian, and the whole world of mankind that reject his Koran, as infidels, and consigns the whole of them to perdition. The Jew believes that the whole world that rejects his faith and are not circumcised, are Gentile dogs, and will be damned. The heathen is equally as tenacious about his principles, and the Christian consigns all to perdition who cannot bow to his creed, and submit to his ipse dixit.

But while one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard; He views them as His offspring, and whitout any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of men, causes 'His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust'"- Joseph Smith, 1842 (original spelling retianed).

Mount Carmel

2007-02-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

I found this CBS morning show fluff piece on Mount Carmel Tennessee, one of the hamlets I coverd on my mission. Oh the memorys it brings back, Skips Dinner, the Holstin Ordinance Works, "bloody" 11 W, and the railroad bridge with "Jimmy Loves Rena" spry painted on it.