tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236037032024-03-07T02:01:02.902-08:00Go-Go-Rama"All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece but not too much."
-- George HarrisonJackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.comBlogger4832125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-17619661612943239202020-11-19T19:04:00.000-08:002020-11-19T19:04:33.882-08:00Is This Finally Curt Schilling's Time?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLwzUV-ZmnsNGcSrfECpYJaDovJbqblT_RLANFKoAExqWzrEiU1h-whnFM-HBtWTw2bSRElHF8wLwLSDYrub0qlkP3F7hC8rH7uPiBimKRzQDseIyroqPHif2kzQKxhBykNHxQuA/s1440/curt.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">S<img border="0" data-original-height="997" data-original-width="1440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLwzUV-ZmnsNGcSrfECpYJaDovJbqblT_RLANFKoAExqWzrEiU1h-whnFM-HBtWTw2bSRElHF8wLwLSDYrub0qlkP3F7hC8rH7uPiBimKRzQDseIyroqPHif2kzQKxhBykNHxQuA/s320/curt.jpg" width="320" />S</a></div>Some might be nervous about the next Baseball Hall of Fame election--Curt Schilling just might gvt in. Based purely on numbers, this is not a problem. Schilling is a marginal Hall of Famer in my book. He won 215 games over twenty seasons, but his gaudy post-season numbers, 11-2, including three outstanding World Series performances with three different teams, has made his candidacy more appealing. The '"bloody sock" game in the 2004 Series was an iconic moment in the sport.<div><br /></div><div>What may have some nervous is what Schilling will say in his speech. Over the past few years he has revealed himself to be a reactionary conservative, using social media to jokingly call for the lynching of journalists and expressing transphobic memes. A player should not be blackballed from the Hall because of their political beliefs, but Schilling has shown a repugnant side that may have kept it out. Until this year.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Hall recently announced the 25 players on this year's ballot for consideration by the baseball writers. Of the returning men, Schilling had the highest vote total, 70 percent last year (it takes 75 percent to be enshrined). This would put him in a good position, but it's made even better by a list of new names on the ballot that does not contain one likely inductee. In fact, none of these new players may get the necessary five percent of the vote to come back the next year.</div><div><br /></div><div>Looking over that list, I'm hard pressed to make a case for any of them. They include good but not great players: Mark Buehrle, A.J. Burnett, Michael Cuddyer, Dan Haren, LaTroy Hawkins, Tim Hudson, Torii Hunter, Aramis Ramírez, Nick Swisher, Shane Victorino, and Barry Zito. I suppose Hudson could get some support, but this lack of obvious inductees makes it more likely that players returning to the ballot will move up.</div><div><br /></div><div>Schilling could take advantage of this. Also, it will be interesting to see if the steroid group, led by Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, move up. They are no-brainer Hall of Famers, but due to suspected use of performance enhancing drugs, have languished a bit short for several years (Manny Ramirez and Sammy Sosa are also in this group, but have never come close to election).</div><div><br /></div><div>Other returning players who may see a bump are Omar Vizquel, who is known for his defensive prowess but also had over 2700 hits, Scott Rolen, an excellent third-baseman, Gary Sheffield, who did have over 500 home runs, and Jeff Kent, who has some of the best offensive numbers for a second-baseman. These last two may be hurt by the number of teams they played for, an indication that they may have been clubhouse poison. Sheffield played for eight teams, Kent six.</div><div><br /></div><div>My guess is that Schilling will get in by a whisker, but Bonds and Clemens will be kept out. Because of COVID-19, the ceremony for last year's inductees, Derek Jeter, Larry Walker, Ted Simmons, and Marvin Miller, will be combined with this year's (it doesn't appear the Hall is doing a veteran's vote this year--they usually would have announced candidates by no2). </div><div><br /></div><div>I also suspect that Schilling will not go off on a political rant. As others have pointed out, other Hall of Famers have had whacky views, particularly Steve Carlton, but very few knew about them back then, and he gave an uncontroversial speech. Let's hope Schilling is humbled by the experience and sticks to baseball.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-22598044725956124262020-11-18T19:25:00.001-08:002020-11-18T19:25:21.814-08:00The Others<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipwc3T6qSPgBYajTOdl4hTgOplsy51I-_3EQF-Tdr_GxZjuIxiV8GRH16AL-oLqeWvJJTDo-WiM_iHG30AJVwJu3-PjF2ebPjSOsyNQ69wP5DlI7WH-WEKkPYv4UnnJvRc3Cqm-A/s326/others.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipwc3T6qSPgBYajTOdl4hTgOplsy51I-_3EQF-Tdr_GxZjuIxiV8GRH16AL-oLqeWvJJTDo-WiM_iHG30AJVwJu3-PjF2ebPjSOsyNQ69wP5DlI7WH-WEKkPYv4UnnJvRc3Cqm-A/s320/others.jpg" /></a>As long as I'm looking at ghost stories, I thought I'd revisit one of my favorites, <i>The Others,</i> releasd in 2001, directed by Alejandro Amenabar. Now, to discuss this film I need to talk about it in its entirety, which involves a huge spoiler. So if you don't want to know the ending, stop reading here.<div><br /></div><div>The film is set on the isle of Jersey just after the end of World War II. Nicole Kidman lives alone with her two children, whom she must keep in dim light because they are allergic to bright light. One day three servants come along. The spokeswomen, played by Fionnula Flanagan, says that they used to work there years earlier. Since Kidman's previous servants left without a goodbye, she hires them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Soon it becomes apparent that something is amiss. The daughter insists she sees a boy, Victor, who says they must leave the house. Kidman is reluctant to believe her, but soon hears noises and thinks there are intruders in the house. When her husband returns from the war, he seems very disoriented.</div><div><br /></div><div>The servants know what is going on. They keep hidden some gravestones. When I first watched this film I was completely taken aback at the twist--the characters we have been seeing are all ghosts, including Kidman and her children and all the servants. The Intruders are living people who bought the house and have hired a medium to try to get them to leave. Turns out Kidman killed her children and shot herself. The servants died many years earlier from tuberculosis, and Kidman's husband had died in the war.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've seen this film three times now, and of course it's a different experience watching it knowing the twist, but still highly enjoyable. One looks for hints--of course the servants left, and the priest doesn't come around, and there's no mail delivery, because no one is alive there. But Amenabar creates such a spooky atmosphere that it works no matter how many times it's seen.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kidman is also very good, a woman on the end of her string. I guess since <i>The Sixth Sense</i> we've had a few movies about ghosts who don't know their dead, which is a good plot device because if you believe in that sort of thing I suppose that's why they may hang around--they don't know their dead.</div><div><br /></div><div>Many ghost stories are about fake ghosts--the Scooby-Doo syndrome, so I like films that actually have real ghosts. This is one of the best, if not the best. It's frightening, but also makes you think, especially when you learn the secret and play it all back in your head.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-39357666633806664542020-11-17T14:13:00.001-08:002020-11-17T14:13:09.629-08:00The Canterville Ghost<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzP9NGv9xgj2tZm5u1G2gZdem_j1GP65xZ-QDaOc7P6dsgIFwtKYz0zFkYUJf1f6CB3MnjlFkv9pwtVEMuoBq5NWC3K_xHe4c_AWl5EwEGVpelDKePaFhxINlPhw3VYnuq1QeRQA/s385/Cantervilleghost.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="259" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzP9NGv9xgj2tZm5u1G2gZdem_j1GP65xZ-QDaOc7P6dsgIFwtKYz0zFkYUJf1f6CB3MnjlFkv9pwtVEMuoBq5NWC3K_xHe4c_AWl5EwEGVpelDKePaFhxINlPhw3VYnuq1QeRQA/s320/Cantervilleghost.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><i>The Canterville Ghost </i>is a 1944 film that is at once a ghost story, a war film, and a comedy, and it doesn't always work. It is held together by a wonderful performance by Charles Laughton in the title role. It is directed by Jules Dassin, who would make much better films like Night And The City and Rififi, and would be exiled to Europe during the Hollywood Blacklist.<div><br /></div><div>Laughton is Sir Simon de Canterville. At the outset of the film, he is called upon to duel for his family's honor. Instead, he flees, and hides in an alcove. His father, ashamed, has it bricked up, and curses him to roam the halls of the castle until a kinsman does a brave deed in his name. For three hundred years he waits, but the Cantervilles are a cowardly lot.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cut to the present day. The castle is empty, except for the ghost, who is famous as a terror. The heir to the family name is a little girl (Margaret O'Brien), who is afraid of the ghost. The castle is lent to American troops, who see the ghost but humiliate him, revealing that he is more scared of them. </div><div><br /></div><div>Among the soldiers is Robert Young, who turns out to be a Canterville. So Laughton hopes he will do him his brave deed and free him from his bonds. Of course he will, but he does struggle with cowardice.</div><div><br /></div><div>The film is okay, but a little disjointed. To have what is essentially a comedy then depict war scenes is a little jarring (also, the film rewrites history and has German troops on the ground in England). As long as Laughton as on screen it is a joy to watch. He tries to scare people in various situations, such as hanging himself or holding his severed head.</div><div><br /></div><div>The film is based on a short story by Oscar Wilde, which I have not read. Obviously he did not include American troops.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-81290863216038364522020-11-16T15:20:00.002-08:002020-11-16T15:20:17.941-08:00The Haunting Of Bly Manor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dfXDcrFNk_UoRGlCLmdV0ghwAYJji3zvOJZ9_c-GW-pdAz3cEhhkTSnJPvaa8oYyfPSeC2nW9xlGKS6X7x98X0Rx7SczS2QHzVu4eB2SI1icuWfqv1XvhmhAVYzWNQfZVAjhyQ/s1200/haunting.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dfXDcrFNk_UoRGlCLmdV0ghwAYJji3zvOJZ9_c-GW-pdAz3cEhhkTSnJPvaa8oYyfPSeC2nW9xlGKS6X7x98X0Rx7SczS2QHzVu4eB2SI1icuWfqv1XvhmhAVYzWNQfZVAjhyQ/s320/haunting.jpg" /></a></div>How iI got started on this <i>Turn Of The Screw</i> business is Netflix's series <i>The Haunting Of Bly Manor,</i> which is a modern interpretation of the story, with a few other Henry James stories thrown in. It is the follow-up to <i>The Haunting Of Hill House, </i>with the same creator, Mike Flanagan, and some of the same cast, but has nothing to do with the first series.<div><br /></div><div>The series is laid out as a story being told by a woman (Carla Gugino) at a party the night before a wedding. The beginning is much like <i>The Turn Of The Screw</i>, as a young woman (Victoria Pedretti) is hired by a man (Henry Thomas) to be an au pair for his niece and nephew, who have been orphaned and live in a country house called Bly Manor.</div><div><br /></div><div>The difference is it is 1987, and the young woman is American. The boy, Miles, has been expelled from school. The girl, Flora, has an unusual attachment to the dolls in her dollhouse. There is a housekeeper, a cook, and a gardener (Amelia Eve). Pedretti starts seeing a strange man around the grounds, and is told it might be Peter Quint, the childrens' father's valet, who disappeared after absconding with funds. As in the book, he had a relationship with Pedretti's predecessor, Miss Jessel, who drowned herself in the pond.</div><div><br /></div><div>What this series does is greatly expand the story, so that all the characters get their own story. For example, Thomas, whose character only appears at the opening of the book, is given a backstory--he had an affair with his sister-in-law, and Flora is his daughter. He also is visited by an alter-ego, This is partly based on a James story called "The Jolly Corner." Pedretti brings her own ghost with her, an ex-fiance who got run over by a truck.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the most part I enjoyed this series, but like T<i>he Haunting Of Hill House</i>, is takes a literary work that suggests ghosts and goes crazy with them. By the end of this series there are too many ghosts to count, and they are definitely real. The penultimate episode, based on a James story called "The Romance Of Old Clothes," gives the background of Bly Major, stretching back hundreds of years. I don't want to give too much away but there is a "lady of the lake." This brings up questions about the physiology of ghosts, because this ghost can definitely touch physically.</div><div><br /></div><div>The second half of the series gets quite convoluted. It does have a sweet love story, as Pedretti and Eve fall in love and open a flower shop in Vermont. But the dead don't stay dead.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-33234801795597977702020-11-15T18:27:00.001-08:002020-11-15T18:29:44.752-08:00The End Of The Myth,<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPRhE-Dt7MgjZWpnbryspikXG5SnmA7UIFgzTBNyfotD7TUnLfbabEa-ppWhF7CgqxvVdqepj0m2Edgnbbfx_OCIJcoNA_RX53ANVFshVB6BewCzjOwnd_0JREY6I-TWw-wxax0A/s475/end.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="314" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPRhE-Dt7MgjZWpnbryspikXG5SnmA7UIFgzTBNyfotD7TUnLfbabEa-ppWhF7CgqxvVdqepj0m2Edgnbbfx_OCIJcoNA_RX53ANVFshVB6BewCzjOwnd_0JREY6I-TWw-wxax0A/s320/end.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><i>The End Of The Myth</i>, by Greg Grandin, winner of the Pulitzer Prize this year, baffled me a bit at first, as I wasn't quite sure what it was about. The subtitle is "From The Frontier To The Border Wall In The Mind Of America," so essentially this book is how the myth of the front<i>i</i>er and the fetishism of our border, particularly the Southern one, has shaped our identity.<div><br /></div><div>The United States began incomplete, with thirteen colonies on the east coast. Over the course of the nest hundred or so years, white Americans pushed West, despite the people who already lived there. It started with the removal of Indians from the Southeast, sent to Oklahoma on a Trail Of Tears. But it wouldn't stop until the Pacific was reached. "But throughout the 1800s, as the United States executed one “removal” operation after another, driving Native Americans west and freeing up their land for settlers and speculators, “frontier” came more frequently to mean the line separating Indian Country from white settlement."</div><div><br /></div><div>Grandin also writes, "By the end of the 1800s, though, there was no more Indian Country, at least apart from fragmented reservations, and the word “frontier” had come to mean not a line but a way of life, synonymous with freedom." Indeed, we see that eyes were trained elsewhere. Ulysses Grant wanted to annex the Dominican Republic. After the Spanish-American War, the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba came into the U.S. orbit. Grandin argues that adventurism all over the world, from Vietnam to Panama to Afghanistan was America pushing the concept of the frontier to basically everywhere.</div><div><br /></div><div>A central part of the book is a speech given by historian Frederick Jackson Turner, a key moment in any discussion of the American West. "In the last decade of the 1800s, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner emancipated the concept “frontier,” unhitching it from its more mundane, earthbound meanings—used to indicate a national border or a military front—and letting it float free as an abstraction." The argument that Turner made was that the settling of the West made America great, a view that is disputed by those who pause to consider the violence involved in taking that land. "Turner’s main argument, which he advanced in his 1893 essay as well as in subsequent writings, is straightforward: America’s vast, open West created the conditions for an unprecedented expansion of the ideal of political equality, an ideal based on a sense that the frontier would go on forever."</div><div><br /></div><div>Gtandin gets angry in his last few chapters, when he discusses the immigration issue and the border with Mexico. He points out that Ronald Reagan cracked down on immigrants coming from Central America who were fleeing because of the wars he started there. Bill Clinton doesn't get much love, either, as he believes NAFTA did irreparable harm, and that Clinton carried out the immigration policy of Reagan. "NAFTA, though, didn’t help the country rise above the border but rather hardened the border, transforming the line—and all the hatreds and obsessions that go with it—into a permanent fixture in domestic politics and a perennial source of nationalist grievance.."</div><div><br /></div><div>In his discussion of the border patrol, the facts are horrifying. "The border patrol, for its part, continued being what it had been since its founding: a frontline instrument of white supremacist power. Patrollers regularly engaged in beatings, murder, torture, and rape, including the rape of girls as young as twelve." And, "Officers in the patrol’s parent agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, traded young Mexican women they caught at the border to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for season tickets, and supplied Mexican prostitutes to U.S. congressmen and judges, paying for them out of funds the service used to compensate informants."</div><div><br /></div><div>Grandin ends with Donald Trump and his wall, which since last week's election is now a thing of the past, but a useful metaphor for the end of the myth of the frontier. "Trump’s cruelty takes many such forms, but it is most consistent in its targeting of Mexicans and Central American migrants. We can think of his wall as refashioning the country into a besieged medieval fortress, complete with its own revered martyrs’ cult."</div><div><br /></div><div>This is clearly not a book for those who voted for Trump, who harbor a belief in American exceptionalism or who unironically call themselves nationalists. For the rest of us, it's an eye opener. We knew about the brutality of U.S. expansion, but to have it all in one volume is like a punch in the solar plexus.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-30683422039516757592020-11-12T21:13:00.002-08:002020-11-12T21:13:50.327-08:00Blonde Crazy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8w1VVwWMQg-BXPWZRqK4DAKb6QrBQbWZGhMeWZQnKG6MCXqGBK90PU48DODMDyTk_JqcxfbOrJAGAAqW7HiVvp9Mhb8ch8hyk7p03qrnrRqQNmSZvgN2CyfdGmMHnGUm3HInaHQ/s389/Poster_-_Blonde_Crazy_01.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="255" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8w1VVwWMQg-BXPWZRqK4DAKb6QrBQbWZGhMeWZQnKG6MCXqGBK90PU48DODMDyTk_JqcxfbOrJAGAAqW7HiVvp9Mhb8ch8hyk7p03qrnrRqQNmSZvgN2CyfdGmMHnGUm3HInaHQ/s320/Poster_-_Blonde_Crazy_01.jpg" /></a></div><i>Blonde Crazy</i> is a mildly enjoyable 1931 fi\lm that highlights the immeasurable talent of James Cagney. It reminds us that he was a great comic actor, as he plays a con man with a zest for life, particularly money. Also he has great chemistry with co-star Joan Blondell, who was a big star in the '30s but isn't all that well remembered.<p></p><div>Cagney stars as a bellhop who helps Blondell get a housekeeper position. He expects some sugar in return, but she's not that kind of girl. He gets his face slapped many times. But they form a partnership to pull cons, starting with an amorous traveling salesman, whom they extort. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some of these schemes are rather clever, as they get revenge on a crook (Louis Calhern) with a horse-racing scam, and Cagney manages to steal a necklace without anyone realizing it's been stolen..</div><div><br /></div><div>He never stops pining for Blondell, but she marries an upright businessman (Ray Milland, very young) who turns out to be an embezzler. He is the person whom Cagney refers to as a "dirty doublc-crossing rat," a line that would be used by his impersonators for decades.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Blonde Crazy,</i> directed by Roy Del Ruth, is not a great film, but you can't take your eyes off Cagney, and it's easy to see how he became a star. The way he moves, his facial expressions, the way he draws out the first syllable of the word "honey," all are cinema magic.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-39757628881749806322020-11-09T21:25:00.000-08:002020-11-09T21:25:11.430-08:00The Scarlet Pimpernel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGR0fTwDNxqQMBes6mF3ttIzAE-uCtopERBejgjV1_NFHw_0qUT25FonEGmPbPsiGrQsLHIVC8qdDFNX0GBj-N70_ev55nwGhz7BGumV7DRduXA8YMni-uHLZWldeI70EZMhCsmA/s360/Scarletpimpernelfilm1934.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGR0fTwDNxqQMBes6mF3ttIzAE-uCtopERBejgjV1_NFHw_0qUT25FonEGmPbPsiGrQsLHIVC8qdDFNX0GBj-N70_ev55nwGhz7BGumV7DRduXA8YMni-uHLZWldeI70EZMhCsmA/s320/Scarletpimpernelfilm1934.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i>The Scarlet Pimpernel,</i> released in 1934 and directed by Harold Young, is a charming film that is about a man of great adventure but there's very little adventure in the film. It's mostly people talking in drawing rooms, but it's good talk, especially when the lines are spoken by star Leslie Howard.<p></p><div>Based on a play and then novel by Baroness Orczy, the story is set during the French Reign of Terror, when aristocrats were being beheaded by the dozens. Howard, playing an English nobleman, adopts an alter-ego called The Scarlet Pimpernel (in a way, he's the first superhero) and helps aristocrats escape. We first see him posing as an old woman, his wagon full of fugitives.</div><div><br /></div><div>The French ambassador, a wonderfully oily Raymond Massey, is on the trail of the Pimpernel, but Howard adopts the persona of a fop, like the twits in the Monty Python sketch, so no one could imagine he could be the man. His own wife, Merle Oberon, doesn't suspect. Howard is cold to her because she denounced some nobles and they were guillotined.</div><div><br /></div><div>Massey uses Oberon's brother (who is secretly part of Howard's crew) as a bargaining chip to get the Pimpernel's identity. At the end of the film it looks like it's curtains for Howard, but of course there is no doubt that he will escape.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is very little action in this film, I guess because it started as a play. It could have used a little swashbuckling--guns are drawn, but no one is shot, and there isn't even a swordfight. Instead viewers can just marvel at how good an actor Howard was--I've admired him in everything I've seen of his. This is the first time I've seen Oberon in a film, and she was quite stunning, and gives a fine performance,</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-37401618662244363162020-11-08T12:10:00.003-08:002020-11-08T12:10:36.770-08:00The Turning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqn_spEuTYsrKJ8gEMnMA1wzv-bFXkECzlOgrFnGpfCTHrCAzQohvzK0nrOhm7qKqKl4qa9VmRDW98Pk_bjisMblV8UBqgw8M8SOwlBEu8FSmKng47oRht_yvhWarHweKPx3zx3A/s397/The_Turning_poster_2020.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="251" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqn_spEuTYsrKJ8gEMnMA1wzv-bFXkECzlOgrFnGpfCTHrCAzQohvzK0nrOhm7qKqKl4qa9VmRDW98Pk_bjisMblV8UBqgw8M8SOwlBEu8FSmKng47oRht_yvhWarHweKPx3zx3A/s320/The_Turning_poster_2020.jpg" /></a></div>As I look at <i>The Turn Of The Screw</i> and its adaptations, I turn to <i>The Turning</i>, which was released early this year. Directed by Floria Sigismondi, it has excellent Gothic atmosphere, but the script is horribly muddled. Stick with <i>The Innocents.</i><p></p><div>In this version, set in the U.S., the new governess is played by Mackenzie Davis. The character of the uncle is gone, so we're not sure who hired her. The only other people in the house are the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (Barbara Marten), who is openly antagonistic toward her, and the daughter, Flora. Later the boy Miles will show up, expelled from school. </div><div><br /></div><div>Almost immediately Davis sees things and is reduced to constant panic. There is no subtly to this film, and extra things, like disembodied hands, are thrown in for shock effect. <i>The Turning </i>succumbs to the modern problem with horror movies--it relies on the jump scare.</div><div><br /></div><div>The ghosts are the previous governess, Miss Jessel, who left suddenly (of course she's dead) and Peter Quint. Like <i>The Nightcomers,</i> they had a sexual affair that was sado-masochistic. But the scenes don't add up. The very opening shows Miss Jessel trying to escape, but we never go back to that scene, instead we are led to believe that Quint strangled her in her bed. Then a whole sequence showing Davis escape with the kids is revealed to be some kind of fantasy, with an ending that is confusing.</div><div><br /></div><div>The actors playing the kids are terrifc. Finn Wolfhard, of <i>Stranger Things,</i> is Miles, and he is most effective as a creepy kid who Davis can't control. Flora is Brooklyn Prince, so good in <i>The Florida Project. </i>I'm glad to see she's still acting, I hope she gets better films in the future.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-11762344225279079102020-11-07T16:03:00.002-08:002020-11-07T16:03:39.145-08:00You're Fired!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEier6xL5TCEIROlWQ2ZWF2021ytNVnzDwveurmBYUZDaJaHwTXsiD3sM0CkXzRMvG7mKDRGNHA7sZdsVsUHvIhjWKLZadpV4ILcivNKD7K-8g1G4ma_QRISe5kc8nLxXTPMyq1fiQ/s395/Trump-crybaby.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="395" data-original-width="382" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEier6xL5TCEIROlWQ2ZWF2021ytNVnzDwveurmBYUZDaJaHwTXsiD3sM0CkXzRMvG7mKDRGNHA7sZdsVsUHvIhjWKLZadpV4ILcivNKD7K-8g1G4ma_QRISe5kc8nLxXTPMyq1fiQ/s320/Trump-crybaby.jpg" /></a></div>After the longest tease since Salome, I awoke this morning to learn that finally, finally! the presidential race had been called in the favor of Joe Biden, with Pennsylvania putting him over the top. For three days I watched MSBNC, with the heroic Steve Kornacki at a computer board discussing counties in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada. If I never hear the name Maricopa again I'll be glad.<p></p><div>The fantasy was a blue wave, but it was a squeaker. Biden did win the popular vote comfortably, about four million votes, but it took four days to secure the electoral vote. Meanwhile, Donald Trump acted like a cry-baby, knocking over the chess board after seeing he was losing. Several lawsuits were filed, but apparently none of them has merit, as there is not one scintilla of evidence that there was any voter fraud. We saw the spectacle of Trumpsters, in different states, chanting either "Stop the count!" or "Count the votes!"</div><div><br /></div><div>Ordinarily we'd be thinking about how Joe Biden will lead, but since the enfant terrible will be president for about ten more weeks, a nation must shudder imagining what he might do. He is defiant, stating that he won, and claiming acts of malfeasance. In a stunning pair of speeches, he sounded like the generalissimo of a banana republic, stopping only at calling for executions.</div><div><br /></div><div>But it's too late for Trump. He will soon be yesterday's news. Celebrations are taking place everywhere, including the White House. Certainly those who sport Confederate flags on their trucks are despondent--let's hope they don't take to their guns.</div><div><br /></div><div>After the result was called, it was now verified that Kamala Harris will be the first woman to win national office. That's huge. Wv heard the names Fanny Lou Hamer and Shirley Chishom invoked today.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, this vote didn't go down ballot, as it appears that Republicans will still hold the Senate. The only way that can be prevented is if the two run-offs in Georgia both come up blue. It's a long shot, but it's possible.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is like waking from a nightmare, as a narcissistic psychopath has been dethroned through our beloved democratic process. A man of decency, integrity, compassion, and a concern for the common man has prevailed. It feels good to be an American again.</div><div><br /></div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-66014708519585554562020-11-06T16:49:00.000-08:002020-11-06T16:49:23.274-08:00The Man Who Would Be King<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXTk03P8YiahtEI3i22kq-iYkBwRY3Kbv_7FkHaohFywcJ6A-jKpa6uZLNnN3QOZEB2TAa7RuCEjsj__TnRGief9DQpkHFr0GBWFD02mKepUayAD5D9kVjc3pP1WYk1u5DNCUg5w/s387/The_Man_Who_Would_Be_King.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="256" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXTk03P8YiahtEI3i22kq-iYkBwRY3Kbv_7FkHaohFywcJ6A-jKpa6uZLNnN3QOZEB2TAa7RuCEjsj__TnRGief9DQpkHFr0GBWFD02mKepUayAD5D9kVjc3pP1WYk1u5DNCUg5w/s320/The_Man_Who_Would_Be_King.jpg" /></a></div>In honor of Sean Connery I revisited one of his best films, <i>The Man Who Would Bb King</i>, an old-fashioned adventure film, directed by John Huston and released in 1975.<p></p><div>Huston had wanted to make this film for years. At first it was planned for Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart. Then Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole, and then Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Newman suggested that these British characters should be played by British actors, and further suggested Connery and Michael Caine, and that's who ended up in the film.</div><div><br /></div><div>The film is based on a book by Rudyard Kipling, and the script has Kipling as a framing device. He's played by Christopher Plummer, and meets Caine when the latter steals his watch, but gives it back because he realizes Kipling is a Mason, as is he. He then meets Caine's friend, Connery. The two are former soldiers who have been hanging around India as ne'er-do-wells, but have a plan to take twenty rifles into Kafiristan (which is today a part of Afghanistan) and make themselves kings and abscond with treasure.</div><div><br /></div><div>This sounds ridiculous to Kipling, and indeed one has to really suspend disbelief to believe the events of this film, They traverse desert and snowy mountains, and then, in a great bit of luck, discover a gurkha, Saeed Jaffrey, who not only has a penchant for serving the British, but also acts as an interpreter (one would have thought an attempt to take over a people would entail learning their language). </div><div><br /></div><div>During a battle Connery is shot with an arrow but it strikes his bandolier, and he is not wounded. This leads the locals to believe he is a god, the son of Alexander the Great, and he is given a huge treasure. Connery and Caine have to stay until a spring thaw, and Connery starts to like being treated like a god, and wants to stay and marry a beautiful young wife. This turns out to be hubris.</div><div><br /></div><div>Huston directs with brio, and Connery and Caine hold nothing back (Caine, who is given to overacting, chews the scenery with sharp teeth). It's adventure in the true meaning of the word, a kind of film that isn't much made today or back in '75.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a problem with the film, viewed with modern eyes. The local people are depicted as simple-minded, like children, dazzled by rifles and superstitious. Kipling's work is rife with this kind of colonial thinking, and it does diminish my enjoyment of the film.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-25037481963754152352020-11-05T20:16:00.001-08:002020-11-05T20:16:28.496-08:00The Lord Of The Flies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBmbMZO0XHpnvU3vj1KmvXu49h9YgNg-I6fSyK4ucZbB9-7XuXFNqqXbSLQbCwcpa8UC1LDhabowIqAZ6MLTj7rZfjlLkBXj3eZqYRYKoeIiSOqFZgm1xnShWPOyFqIRAgdEQflA/s325/Lord_of_the_Flies_%25281963_film%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="212" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBmbMZO0XHpnvU3vj1KmvXu49h9YgNg-I6fSyK4ucZbB9-7XuXFNqqXbSLQbCwcpa8UC1LDhabowIqAZ6MLTj7rZfjlLkBXj3eZqYRYKoeIiSOqFZgm1xnShWPOyFqIRAgdEQflA/s320/Lord_of_the_Flies_%25281963_film%2529.jpg" /></a></div>"We're not savages! We're English!" says a school boy in <i>The Lord Of The Flie</i>s. He is one of several boys who have been marooned on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. They become a society in miniature, and by the end savagery has taken hold.<p></p><div>Based on the classic novel by William Golding, directed by Peter Brook and released in 1963, <i>The Lord Of The Flies</i> reminds me of Thomas Hobbes' statement that life was "brutish, nasty, and short." The film qualifies in all those categories. It's not a bad film, and in some ways is quite gripping, but it certainly isn't a feel good movie.</div><div><br /></div><div>The film starts with still images of idyllic school life--choirs, cricket matches, etc., but then there are shots of planes. The implication is that there is a war on. The action starts with the boys already on the island. They are from different schools, and introduce each other. The early leader is Ralph, who is elected chief and is the voice of reason. His friend and supporter is the unfortunate Piggy, known only by his nickname.</div><div><br /></div><div>Soon there is a schism, as a boy named Jack leads a group of hunters and declares the rules do not apply to him. He forms a tribe who are only interested in hunting, and when they kill a pig chant, "Kill the pig! Slit her throat! Bash her in!" Their bloodlust increases, and they believe their is a beast that needs to be appeased by a sacrifice. They set up a pig's head, but when a boy named Simon goes to look at it he is mistaken for the beast and killed.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>The Lord Of The Flies</i> is a declaration that the core of humanity is savagery, and that left to our own devices we will resort to our animal natures. Whether that's true I'm not sure, but certainly boys of a certain age are at heart cruel. </div><div><br /></div><div>Brook, renowned for his stage work, shapes the film beautifully. It is in black and white, which might have been a financial decision, but that a film set in the jungle is without vivid colors makes a statement. The cast were nonprofessionals, and some are better than others, but on the whole it works because they don't seem like actors.</div><div><br /></div><div>One touch that I think sums up the film: a small boy, when asked his name, responds with his name, address, and phone number. Midway through the film he has forgotten his phone number. By the end of the film he's forgotten his name.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-23248339033912000112020-11-04T14:43:00.004-08:002020-11-09T21:25:59.349-08:00In Lonely Places<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifPTqm94k8e_wIUcOy0tHmcdNj7b9ANS43_aJiZh71gnFMSQ3eiAXKqNHdBBj8mhfCz_PWp9WrkF31SnDg50fi83mZfILQVRP2jE-OAAI5cctGRl71vRS8rMgOtZ6ypBuelO1V6g/s454/lonly.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifPTqm94k8e_wIUcOy0tHmcdNj7b9ANS43_aJiZh71gnFMSQ3eiAXKqNHdBBj8mhfCz_PWp9WrkF31SnDg50fi83mZfILQVRP2jE-OAAI5cctGRl71vRS8rMgOtZ6ypBuelO1V6g/s320/lonly.jpg" /></a></div>Noir films are often set in cities, but that is not universally true, Imogen Sara Smith points out in her study, <i>In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond The City</i>. For fans of noir it's an essential read, as she discusses dozens of films in certain categories. I've seen many of the films, but a lot I haven't but can be put on my list.<p></p><div>Smith states some generalities about noir, which is a genre that many cinephiles argue about. </div><div><br /></div>"Noir was born from the mating of American pulp fiction, which came of age during the Depression with sordid tales of desperate lives, and German expressionist cinema, which developed in the turbulent Weimar era and was imported to Hollywood by immigrant directors, many fleeing Hitler." That's a standard description of noir. But she also has some more striking observations, "Noir found its fullest expression in America because the American psyche harbors a passion for independence, an impulse to be, in the words of Walt Whitman, "Loosed of limits, and imaginary where I list, my own master, total and absolute." With this desire for autonomy comes a corresponding fear of loneliness and exile."<div><br /></div><div>Smith divides her book in chapters in various categories, such as noir in the suburbs, or in small towns, on the Mexican border, in the desert, or on the beach. She discusses so many films that I can't remember them all, but some of them get more discussion than others. <i>Out Of The Past,</i> which I think is the best noir film, gets a lot of ink: "Jacques Tourneur's <i>Out of the Past </i>(1947), an essential film noir, opens with images of serene, rugged wilderness, framed in the style of Ansel Adams. Like the corpse-filled Raymond Chandler story sarcastically titled "No Crime in the Mountains," it proves that the stain of noir can be found anywhere."</div><div><br /></div><div>For the Mexican border chapter, there is a long discussion of Orson Welles' <i>Touch Of Evil.</i> The desert chapter has a discourse on Ida Lupino's <i>The Hitch-Hiker</i>. A chapter about trapped women includes <i>Human Desire,</i> with Gloria Grahame (a familiar face in noir) as a battered wife. The small town chapter discusses Alfred Hitchcock's S<i>hadow Of A Doubt. </i> "Film noir is full of or small cities in the grip of omnipotent bosses; where the police are a private army rather than upholders of the law, where prostitution and gambling go on openly, and anyone who rocks the boat is asking for a beating or a bullet. But towns like Bedford Falls turn up in film noir, too, sometimes merely as clean-cut backdrops for menacing intruders, but also as false fronts concealing grubby secrets, bigotry and mob violence."</div><div><br /></div><div>Smith also, controversially, includes a chapter on Western noir. Some film people think there's no such thing. She discusses the films of Anthony Mann, many of which starred James Stewart (<i>Winchester '73, The Naked Spur, Bend In The River, The Man From Laramie</i>) and several starring Robert Mitchum: </div><div><br /></div><div>Smith also, controversially, includes a chapter on Western noir. Some film people think there's no such thing. She discusses the films of Anthony Mann, many of which starred James Stewart (Winchester '73, The Naked Spur, Bend In The River, The Man From Laramie) and several starring Robert Mitchum: This core of mystery is Mitchum's gift to his movies. He's always holding something back. Trying to figure him out is like dropping a stone into a well and listening for the splash. It falls and falls, and you never do find out how deep the well is."<div><br /></div><div>Another actor who keeps popping up is Robert Ryan, an actor who isn't well remembered today. It seemed like every time she brought up a film he was in it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Smith's passion for noir is evident, but she doesn't claim that every noir film is a classic, calling some of them overwrought or just silly. She also points out that the endings also betrays the theme, due to the censorship of the time: "Great noir endings are rarer than great noir films, since the Production Code and the studios' insistence on pandering to audiences usually mandated a moral lesson, a tidy resolution, and a last-moment lurch into optimism."</div><div><br /></div><div><i>In Lonely Places</i> is a fun book for film buffs, lucidly written and above all, a great list of films to see.</div></div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-78059657456893980342020-11-03T20:57:00.001-08:002020-11-03T20:57:42.054-08:00It: Chapter Two<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXP_6ReyJ9NsBy4VHM804EW-cqMVHWvGk2tt24W60wcqKr7KjUPtmvSl4ilDRmduf73YzuWCsqrMkxa1Fn5mRXczRII-S8QZRqHLy6rAGDxqD3ZIxs6mR38g2botqaBSqRqIJ5Q/s383/ItChapterTwoTeaser.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="258" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimXP_6ReyJ9NsBy4VHM804EW-cqMVHWvGk2tt24W60wcqKr7KjUPtmvSl4ilDRmduf73YzuWCsqrMkxa1Fn5mRXczRII-S8QZRqHLy6rAGDxqD3ZIxs6mR38g2botqaBSqRqIJ5Q/s320/ItChapterTwoTeaser.jpg" /></a></div>Stephen King's novel <i>It </i>was so long it took two movies to make. The first film dealt with a group of middle school kids, outcasts who called themselves "The Losers Club" battling an evil entity that most often took the form of a clown called Pennywise. <i>Chapter Two</i> has the same group reuniting twenty-seven years later, as Pennywise is back.<p></p><div><i>It: Chapter Two</i> was directed again by Andy Muschietti, and the trouble with the film is it's structure. While the book cut back and forth between the kids and adults, <i>It: Chapter Two</i> deals almost entirely with the adults, with a few flashbacks to the kids. So we get each character on their own, looking or an artifact from their past to perform a Native-American ritual to kill Pennywise. This episodic structure slows the momentum, as each character confronts Pennywise in some form. </div><div><br /></div><div>These scenes are okay as stand alones--Jessica Chastain visits her old apartment and an old lady invites her in for tea, but of course it's really It. This is repeated five more times, and stretches the length to an ungainly two and a half hours plus (watching on home video helps, as I can pause it). </div><div><br /></div><div>The cast is fine, particularly Bill Hader as Richie "Trashmouth" Tozier, who has become a stand-up comedian. He is the comic relief in the film, and also brings a poignant depth to the character as it seems he has a romantic interest in Eddie (James Ransone). </div><div><br /></div><div>The climax, with the Losers battling Pennywise in a dank cavern, just like the first chapter. This time they put away Pennywise for good, but it's kind of anti-climactic: they kill him by wounding his self-esteem. But I have to admit that Pennywise with the head of a clown on the body of a spider, is an excellent doubling down of common fears.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>It: Chapter Two </i>just doesn't have enough scares to make it worthwhile. I recommend reading the book.</div><div><br /></div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-46663837496581379252020-11-02T21:11:00.002-08:002020-11-02T21:11:52.697-08:00The Innocents<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXGR8DxBZ249i5PxNegQTUeQibtXgjmtf1bxxAL6kaJo4e5JK9uAVjupAVc43reyDlOdQWQkfd08v9gsgXnGNCGrskORjYGlcFsoRXmIADh55_jTDYvfKlUjvpiRCn0wiYjTzKrQ/s381/The_Innocents_Poster.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="262" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXGR8DxBZ249i5PxNegQTUeQibtXgjmtf1bxxAL6kaJo4e5JK9uAVjupAVc43reyDlOdQWQkfd08v9gsgXnGNCGrskORjYGlcFsoRXmIADh55_jTDYvfKlUjvpiRCn0wiYjTzKrQ/s320/The_Innocents_Poster.jpg" /></a></div><i>The Innocents</i> is a 1961 film, directed by Jack Clayton, that is based on Henry James' novella, <i>The Turn Of The Screw. </i>Somehow it had taken me this long to see it, and wow was I impressed. It's one of the best ghost stories ever filmed.<p></p><div>But does it have ghosts? As I mentioned in the article about the novella, whether or not the spirits shown in the film are real or the hallucinations of its main character, Miss Giddens, is up for you to decide. </div><div><br /></div><div>As with the book, Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr, who is wonderful but a generation too old for the part) has been hired to watch over two orphan children. The uncle (a delicious cameo by Michael Redgrave) wants nothing to do with them, and puts her in charge. </div><div><br /></div><div>She meets Flora first (Pamela Franklin) and then Miles (Martin Stephens) is expelled from school (just what he did to get him kicked out is another mystery we can ponder). All is well until a game of hide and seek leads to the attic, where Kerr finds a picture of a man. Just minutes later, she will see that man as a ghostly vision through a window.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kerr grows more and more possessed by what she sees. Later, she will see a woman standing in the reeds of a lake. She imagines this is Miss Jessel, her predecessor, who killed herself after the death of Peter Quint, who was the man in the window. Kerr badgers the housekeeper for details, and finally gets out of her that the two departed had had a relationship. They treated a room like the "dark woods," the housekeeper puts it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Clayton, with a script written mostly by Truman Capote of all people, creates a world of disorientation and menace. Capote adds some Southern Gothic, as there is a sense of decay about the place. When Kerr first walks into the house, she touches some white roses (an image that will resound through the film) and the petals fall off. She sees a beetle climbing out of the mouth of a cherub statue. When she meets Flora, one of the first things the little girl asks her is "Are you afraid of reptiles?" For in this garden lurk creepy-crawlies.</div><div><br /></div><div>The cinematographer is Fredd<i>ie </i>Francis, and he is key to this film's success. He often darkens the edges of the screen, so the viewer seems to be looking down a tunnel. The depth of focus is used so two characters are often shown conversing, one in the background, the other in the foreground, and both facing the camera. A scene that has Kerr wandering the halls holding a candelabra, hearing whispers, the laughter of children, and strange knocking noises, is one of the spookiest I've ever seen. And the images of the ghosts, especially the still, black-clothed figure of Miss Jessel just standing in the lake, is the stuff of nightmares.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I only wanted to save the children, not destroy them," is the first spoken line of the film. Of course it doesn't turn out how Kerr wants it. <i>The Innocents</i> is a masterpiece of terror and madness.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-80485411811622473412020-11-01T17:51:00.002-08:002020-11-01T17:56:39.013-08:00Sean Connery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfzi_zwb1MNJMekpeaLix4vK1jsrYtiSBv7YdeSNwVB6Rn9BHG5InYyaLXTVsMLMvmX7vWko47zoGXdoFBUi3Xj09_eqHzLSNb3T7fVeXDmvM8JdJ8qOmIkcR5qWZo70HmJfs6Pw/s1824/sean-connery.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="1824" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfzi_zwb1MNJMekpeaLix4vK1jsrYtiSBv7YdeSNwVB6Rn9BHG5InYyaLXTVsMLMvmX7vWko47zoGXdoFBUi3Xj09_eqHzLSNb3T7fVeXDmvM8JdJ8qOmIkcR5qWZo70HmJfs6Pw/s320/sean-connery.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The first James Bond movie I saw was <i>Diamonds Are Forever</i>. I was ten, and I was over the moon about it. I saw it twice. I was inspired to try to write my own spy novel, borrowing my dad's typewriter. I wrote one page.<p></p><div>Looking back, <i>Diamonds Are Forever</i> is somewhere in the middle of the quality of Bond films, and I'd say it was the worst Sean Connery made in the role. I dutifully saw all the Bond movies as they came out, with Roger Moore, and while I enjoyed them, when I saw his first five-film run as Bond: <i>Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger</i>, <i>Thunderball </i>and <i>You Only Live Twice</i>, I realized that he is and always will be the best to play the character.</div><div><br /></div><div>He had a problematic time with it, as many actors do when they play a role several times, like Leonard Nimoy with Spock Connery quit the role twice, only to come back twice (<i>Diamonds Are Forever </i>was the first comeback, and the impishly titled <i>Never Say Never Again</i> was his seventh and last). I'm sure he wanted to be recognized as an actor who could do more than play Bond, and he did, as he was a very busy actor during the 70s and 80s and worked with top directors. </div><div><br /></div><div>Connery's first starring role after playing Bond was in Alfred Hitchcock's <i>Marnie,</i> and he would go on to make films for Sidney Lumet (<i>Murder On The Orient Express)</i> and John Huston (the highly entertaining <i>The Man Who Would Be King)</i>. He made some cult films, like <i>Highlander </i>and <i>Zardoz</i> (he might regret that one, if only for the costume_ In 1988 he won an Oscar for his role as a tough cop in <i>The Untouchables,</i> which must have been very satisfying for him. The great scene he did with Kevin Costner explaining "the Chicago way" is a classic. He was also Indiana Jones' father in <i>Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade,</i> and his only foray into comic book films was one of his last, the regrettable <i>League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen,</i> which flopped so badly that Connery retired afterward.</div><div><br /></div><div>The camera loved Connery. That first moment, pictured above, when he says, "My name is Bond, James Bond," was enough to make him a star. He benefits because those first five Bond films are the best, capturing the zeitgeist of the '60s with the girls and the gadgets. Other Bonds have been respectable--I put Daniel Craig second, as his Bond films have given a psychological profile to the character that Connery or Moore never had to play. But Connery, with his roguish Scottish accent, suave behavior, and penetrating gaze, made him the spy we either wanted to be or sleep with. Could anyone else have pulled off that scene in <i>Goldfinger </i>when he pulls of a wetsuit to reveal he's wearing a white tuxedo?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-61900258106351139832020-10-28T20:24:00.003-07:002020-10-28T20:24:53.406-07:00The Second Guess<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZiFARGrZAEFu9wtryGGqKf4dgZbS-cBkQolFF_Wm_ZaAf87tpGahDVbemBwQsICE6JaqvFCmqS7mbxuWhn-UUgksKGJ-YHW_bLf8BeElDKMErqf4LtzU1VAL613l1cUbWtGX4-w/s1024/Dodgetrs-World-Series-2020-AP.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZiFARGrZAEFu9wtryGGqKf4dgZbS-cBkQolFF_Wm_ZaAf87tpGahDVbemBwQsICE6JaqvFCmqS7mbxuWhn-UUgksKGJ-YHW_bLf8BeElDKMErqf4LtzU1VAL613l1cUbWtGX4-w/s320/Dodgetrs-World-Series-2020-AP.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The Los Angeles Dodgers won their first World Series in 32 years last night, a fitting ending to the weirdest baseball season on record. They were clearly the best team, with depth on the mound and at the plate. The Tampa Bay Rays gave a good fight, but their bullpen got beleaguered and their offense was too reliant on solo homer runs.<p></p><div>The post-game chatter on game six, which the Dodgers won 3-1, centered around a classic sports conversation, the second guess. It happens in all sports--who can forget in Super Bowl XLIX, when Seattle coach Pete Carroll chose not to use his dominant running back, Marshawn Lynch, to score from the goal line, and instead called a pass play that led to an interception that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.</div><div><br /></div><div>In game six, Tampa's Blake Snell was cooking with gas. He had gotten into the fifth inning allowing only one hit, striking out nine, and walking none. In the fifth he gave up a single to Austin Barnes, and was immediately lifted by manager Kevin Cash, much to the amazement of everyone, and the delight of the Dodgers. Cash's reasoning was that he didn't want the Dodger hitters to see Cash for a third time, which has become a sort of magical threshold for starting pitchers these days. To someone my age, who remembers when complete games were a thing, this seems nuts. Cash, a new school manager who relies heavily on analytics and new-fangled ideas, like a four-man outfield, was ignoring what he was seeing and followed a script. It cost him. He brought in Nick Anderson, who had been lights out during the regular season, but faltered as the post-season wore on. He promptly gave up a double to Mookie Betts, and the Dodgers quickly erased a 0-1 deficit to take the lead.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was all anyone could talk about after the game, and everyone and their sister decried the move. Of course, we have no way of knowing what would have happened if Snell had stayed in. The Rays never added another run, shut down by the Dodgers' bullpen, led by Jose Urias, he of the space age white goggles.</div><div><br /></div><div>The other thing people were talking about, which brought back the specter of the pandemic that forced this season down to sixty games and had teams playing in a bubble, was Justen Turner, who was lifted <i>in the midst of a game</i> after a positive test for COVID-19. This was surreal--did we realize they were running tests during a game? No positive tests had been found for several weeks in Major League Baseball, and here was one in the seventh inning of the last game of the World Series. When the Dodgers got the last out, the usual body piles of celebration were curtailed--social distancing applied even then. Masks were worn during the celebration, mostly.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Rays did give us the storybook ending of one of the best Series games ever played, game four. Both teams scored in a record eight straight half-innings, the lead changing hands in a blink of an eye. In the bottom of the ninth, the Rays were down 8-7, but got two runners on off Dodger closer Kenly Jansen. With two outs, Brett Phillips, the last man on the Ray bench, who is usually only used for pinch-running and defense, was the Rays last hope. Almost everyone, perhaps even Phillips, thought the game was over. But he lined a single to right-center. Chris Taylor booted the ball. The tying run scored easily, but now Randy Arozerana, the great star of the Rays, came pell-mell around third for the winning run. But he stumbled, doing a somersault, and jumped up to retreat to third, a certain out in a rundown. But Dodger catcher Will Smith, assuming Arozerana was still barreling toward home, went to make a swipe tag before he had control of the ball, which scooted away. Arozerana slid into home hands first, slapping the plate with his hand, lying face down, grinning.</div><div><br /></div><div>That game was a reminder of baseball's greatness Few people were watching, and who can blame them? Sports this year have been an afterthought. It's sort of like, "are they playing a season?" It's funny that the Dodgers also won the championship in 1981, when a middle chunk of the season was cancelled due to a work stoppage.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I have no trouble believing the Dodgers would have won it all after a complete season, they were that good. And they would have had David Price, who opted out this year due to the pandemic. Nothing should be taken away from their victory.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-49201022213616759282020-10-26T17:48:00.001-07:002020-10-26T17:48:18.114-07:00The Night Porter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPPoIhojd6OhrkJx-OUPHqzbr8lfgbXXmvmFazkyzsWtf7EyUNeto75jN6_DFFr1fBida_um5ZfcR4US11REOb0qpKGecyadfGvZPGONX86UlluGtxmxPufBJGcOGlPV8IxiEaKQ/s374/Thenightporter.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="267" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPPoIhojd6OhrkJx-OUPHqzbr8lfgbXXmvmFazkyzsWtf7EyUNeto75jN6_DFFr1fBida_um5ZfcR4US11REOb0qpKGecyadfGvZPGONX86UlluGtxmxPufBJGcOGlPV8IxiEaKQ/s320/Thenightporter.jpg" /></a></div><i>Th<span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">e Night Port</span></i><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>er i</i>s a 1074 film that was notorious in its day, with sharply divid</span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">ed critical opinion. 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A group of gu</span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">ests arriv</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e at th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e hot</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">el wh</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e h</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e works </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">and among th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em is an Am</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">erican conductor and his wif</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e (Charlott</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Rampling)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> whom Bogard</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e r</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">cogniz</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es. W</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e will </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ev</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">entually l</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">earn that h</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e was an SS offic</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er and sh</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e was a prison</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> in a conc</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">entration camp, wh</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ey had a v</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">y kinky affair.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">In a far-f</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">etch</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed coincid</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">enc</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e, a group of oth</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er Nazi war criminals hav</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e d</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">estroy</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed docum</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ents and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eliminat</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed witn</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ess</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es to hid</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eir guilt. Bogard</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e is on</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e of th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em, and th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ey ar</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e putting him on mock trial. Th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ey b</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eli</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ev</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e ar</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e no living witn</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ess</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es to his h</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">einous crim</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es, but th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ey g</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">et wind th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e might b</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e a woman still aliv</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">But Rampling is not going to turn him him n, inst</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ead th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ey r</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ekindl</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eir affair. Bogard</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e r</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ef</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ers to h</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er as his "littl</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e girl," and hol</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es up with h</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er, in his apartm</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ent, whil</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e oth</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er Nazis try to g</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">et to th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em, cutting off th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eir food and th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eir </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">el</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ect4idiy.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e ar</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e flashbacks, and p</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">erhaps th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e most iconic imag</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e of th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e film is Rampling, w</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">earing pi</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ec</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es from an SS uniform but topl</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ess, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ent</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ertaining th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e guards with a Marl</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Di</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">etrich song. I think what is so off</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ensiv</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e, or daring, d</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ep</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ending on your point of vi</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ew, is portraying a s</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">exual r</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">elationship b</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">etw</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en prison</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er and guard as cons</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ensual, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">esp</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ecially wh</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en it conc</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">erns Nazis.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">B</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eyond th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e controv</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ersial plot th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e m</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ovi</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e is only so-so. Th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e l</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ead p</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">erformanc</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es ar</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e good, but th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e film isn't </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">erotic, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ev</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en to fanci</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ers of S&M. It's also a sluggish film, poorly pac</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed (th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e is a long, strang</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">sc</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e in which on</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e of th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Nazis, who is a danc</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er, p</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">erforms a ball</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">et in his hot</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">el room whil</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Bogard</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e watch</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es).</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Night Port</span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>er,</i> so Wikip</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">edia t</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ells us, is now a cult film, but I wouldn't want to b</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">elong to that cult.</span></div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-72484579839770186532020-10-25T19:49:00.007-07:002020-10-25T19:49:57.146-07:00Love Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrnadZp3C_1iyZMtT2nM4r-TRaX2-KgyKD5XSh14m1QElVlvl4iOHuPw0aQdys_mm0Frt2zyNsEtkfwYzsJMCSlB6qcs5AAfk6LIkI-uJVhbeqvRR6CqPsqpSMQmhwc74MevBJbA/s388/Love_Story_%25281970_film%2529.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="256" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrnadZp3C_1iyZMtT2nM4r-TRaX2-KgyKD5XSh14m1QElVlvl4iOHuPw0aQdys_mm0Frt2zyNsEtkfwYzsJMCSlB6qcs5AAfk6LIkI-uJVhbeqvRR6CqPsqpSMQmhwc74MevBJbA/s320/Love_Story_%25281970_film%2529.jpg" /></a></div>The fourth of the five films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar fifty years ago is y,<i>Love Story </i>which I had gone all this time without seeing. I watched it today and perhaps it's just the passage of time, but I don't see what all the fuss was about.<p></p><div><i>Love Story</i> was the highest grossing film of 1970, and made huge stars of Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw (strangely, their stardom didn't outlast the decade) and was based on the most popular book of the year, written by a classics professor, Erich Segal.</div><div><br /></div><div>It tells the simple tale of two college students at Harvard and Radcliffe (Harvard didn't accept women in those days) who meet, fall in love, get married, and then she dies. We know this from the opening line, when O'Neal, in voiceover says "What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died?"</div><div><br /></div><div>He's the son of a millionaire and plays hockey, she's a working-class girl who is studying music. They are antagonistic at first, as she calls him "Preppy" and he calls her a "Radcliffe bitch," which seems a little harsh. But they are attracted to each other, and when she tells him she's going to Paris to study piano, he objects and proposes to her. She takes a teaching job while he goes to law school, so fifty years ago it was still acceptable for women to give up their careers for their husband.</div><div><br /></div><div>O'Neal's father, Ray Milland, objects to him marrying so quickly and cuts him off. Her father, played by John Marley, is completely accepting, even when they don't have a church wedding. I found the most interesting part of <i>Love Story</i> to be about fathers and adult children--the relationships between these two fathers and the leads is more honest and authentic than the love story. A moment late in the film, when McGraw is dying, between O'Neal and Marley outside her hospital room is the only time I felt any emotion.</div><div><br /></div><div>Arthur Hiller directs, and he manages to make it visually interesting. The problem is the script, also by Segal, that has ridiculous dialogue, the kind that only exists in novels. Both O'Neal and McGraw seem like idealized characters, fantasies for both men and women. They're not very well developed characters, and are in love only because the script says so.</div><div><br /></div><div>The death of McGraw is also something only in movies. She still looks gorgeous, with long black hair, even on her death bed. It's never stated what she has, though it sounds like leukemia, but she obviously didn't have chemotherapy. I liked critic Judith Crist's comment that it was "<i>Camille </i>with bullshit."</div><div><br /></div><div>I have one film to go, <i>Patton,</i> which I'll get to later this year. But it's fascinating that two cutting edge films, <i>M*A*S*H</i> and <i>Five Easy Pieces</i>, sat alongside two relics like <i>Airport </i>and <i>Love Story.</i></div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-25500881532586433382020-10-24T19:31:00.002-07:002020-10-24T19:31:18.332-07:00The Nightcomers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHsrVcjJiaA-7YDd3iVp67lXsfDssrbutuCUD0jtJzy_4j3wypQe0TFB-UGrtKf7d7TAM16_0dT4wmf7utOVyJJPJe2zHnSpp5-unwf_4pIGBXekKO1L01j32lJWDWHWjToeZY9Q/s386/The-nightcomers-movie-poster-md.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="258" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHsrVcjJiaA-7YDd3iVp67lXsfDssrbutuCUD0jtJzy_4j3wypQe0TFB-UGrtKf7d7TAM16_0dT4wmf7utOVyJJPJe2zHnSpp5-unwf_4pIGBXekKO1L01j32lJWDWHWjToeZY9Q/s320/The-nightcomers-movie-poster-md.jpg" /></a></div><i>Th<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Nightcom</span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>ers is</i> a 1971 film, dir</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ect</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed by Micha</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">el Winn</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er, that is a pr</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">equ</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">el to H</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">enry Jam</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es' <i>Th</i></span><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Turn Of Th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Scr</span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>ew.</i> I'm not sur</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Jam</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es would approv</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e, but it's a mostly </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">engaging film that f</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eatur</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es on</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e of Marlon Brando's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ecc</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">entric p</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">erformanc</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es and som</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e v</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ery kinky s</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ex.</span><p></p><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">In <i>Th</i></span><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Turn Of Th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Scr</span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>ew</i> a gov</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ern</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ess s</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es (or imagin</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es) th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e ghosts of h</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er pr</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ec</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">essor, Miss J</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">essup, and a groomsm</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en, P</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">et</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er Quint. <i>Th</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>e Nightcom</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>ers</i> (not sur</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e wh</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e titl</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e com</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es from) posits just what happ</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed to th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em. It turns out th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e childr</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en murd</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">Brando, sounding lik</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e a l</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">epr</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">echaun, is th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e val</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">et</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> of th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e lat</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e mast</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er of th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e hous</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e. H</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e is k</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ept on, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">exp</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ect</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed to work on th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e grounds. H</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e is a rak</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e, but also charms th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e childr</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en, Mil</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es and Flora, with his stori</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es and tricks, such as ins</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">erting a cigar</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ett</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e into th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e mouth of a frog until it bursts.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">H</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e is also having a torrid, sado-masochistic affair with Miss J</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">essup (St</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ephani</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e B</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eacham), compl</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">et</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e with rop</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es. I don't know that I'v</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ev</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er s</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en, in a nonpornographic movi</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e, a woman hog-ti</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed. Th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e childr</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en spy on th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em, and imitat</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em. Wh</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e hous</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ek</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ep</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er finds th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em tying </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">each oth</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er up and asks just what th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ey ar</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e doing, Mil</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es answ</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ers, "W</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e'</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">r</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e doing s</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ex."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">On</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e thing that Brando impr</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ess</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es upon th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e kids is that lov</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ers ar</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e r</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eunit</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed in d</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eath. Wh</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e hous</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ek</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ep</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er writ</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es to th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eir guardian to hav</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Brando and B</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">eacham sack</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed, th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e childr</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en don't want th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em to go, and figur</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e only way to mak</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em stay is to kill th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">em. So w</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e g</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">et a littl</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e <i>Childr</i></span><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">en Of Th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e Corn.</span></i></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e film is most notabl</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e for its trying to cl</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ear up ambiguity in Jam</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">es' work, which som</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e critics sniff</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed at, and Brando. This was just b</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">efor</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e his car</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er was r</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">esurr</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ect</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">ed by <i>Th</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>e Godfath</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><i>er</i>. His work from th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e lat</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e '50s, starting I think with <i>Sayonara, w</i>as quirky, to say th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e l</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">east. But h</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e's always int</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">esting to watch, as h</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e is h</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">er</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">e.</span></div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-36471701576079116312020-10-23T16:34:00.000-07:002020-10-23T16:34:02.709-07:00The Turn Of The Screw<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdk-79prG_Ek5cd5dw344DJeq8R2qgdP1hVPD6xUIF1q1A8HPvA9yfbF_ufZW62dhIuhHf_AnTwwV0ZrEsso_gD5j45qaz3ZCh1TXhYP1YRfVTDGZ-y97MZSSL53ozIbw2ZsNQJA/s475/turn+of.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="310" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdk-79prG_Ek5cd5dw344DJeq8R2qgdP1hVPD6xUIF1q1A8HPvA9yfbF_ufZW62dhIuhHf_AnTwwV0ZrEsso_gD5j45qaz3ZCh1TXhYP1YRfVTDGZ-y97MZSSL53ozIbw2ZsNQJA/s320/turn+of.jpg" /></a></div>I'm watching the Netflix series <i>The Haunting Of Bly Manor</i>, which is loosely based on Henry James' novella, <i>The Turn Of The Screw.</i> So I thought I'd actually read the book, since it's so short. I managed to read it one day, but I'm not sure I understood everything.<p></p><div>I have somehow avoided James throughout my education. I did take a course in college on Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and James, but I don't remember having read anything by him. He's not easy. His excessive verbosity makes reading him like cutting one's way through a jungle of words.</div><div><br /></div><div>From what I gleaned, the book is about a governess who is hired to watch two children who have been orphaned. They live in a mansion in the country, called Bly Manor, which the governess describes as "a big, ugly, antique, but convenient house, embodying a few features of a building still older, half-replaced and half-utilized, in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was, strangely, at the helm!" Their guardian is their uncle, who wants nothing to do with them. The previous governess died, and was thought to be having a relationship with another servant, Peter Quint, who also died.</div><div><br /></div><div>The governess starts seeing their spirits, and she's convinced that the children are seeing them, too. The housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, believes the governess, but never sees the ghosts themselves. So the central question of the book is whether the governess is crazy. She narrates the story, from a manuscript read by someone at a gathering, so she thinks the ghosts are real: "Was there a “secret” at Bly—a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement?"</div><div><br /></div><div>In today's terms, the book is not frightening, but psychological. Some have theorized that the poor governess is suffering from sexual repression. As I read the book, I assumed the ghosts were real, as that makes a more interesting story. </div><div><br /></div><div>In addition to the Netflix series, <i>The Turn Of The Screw</i> has been adapted many times into visual media, and I'll be looking at a few of them upcoming.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-74197084846491391692020-10-22T16:25:00.000-07:002020-10-22T16:25:25.428-07:00Evita<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqlGi0tKNttdf-GjhnX10BNuXdcokQv1zts3pDdeKwk4oYJqf6bTaw2I72S1HmMw8im6ClT4qdPap6kimRKq9oe_id_z671Qbh5f3CQUEAhyphenhyphenEELtRdKX7MomGC8MhPT18YWtMqA/s387/Evita_%2528poster%2529.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="257" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqlGi0tKNttdf-GjhnX10BNuXdcokQv1zts3pDdeKwk4oYJqf6bTaw2I72S1HmMw8im6ClT4qdPap6kimRKq9oe_id_z671Qbh5f3CQUEAhyphenhyphenEELtRdKX7MomGC8MhPT18YWtMqA/s320/Evita_%2528poster%2529.png" /></a></div>Next up in the Alan Parker filmography is <i>Evita</i>, a lavish adaptation of the Broadway hit, covering the life of Eva Peron, the first lady of Argentina and a hero to the people who is revered there even today. It knocked around in development Hell for well over a decade--in fact, Parker had passed on it in 1980 after he made <i>Fame</i>, not wanting to make two musicals in a row. Fifteen years later he did make it.<p></p><div>The film is a grand spectacle. The sets, costumes, and photography by Darius Khondji are all first-rate. But I found it unmoving, and as with so many of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals, melodically tedious. It hits its high point when Madonna, in the title role, sings the signature number, "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina." Unfortunately, the film still has about an hour to go. I couldn't wait for it be over.</div><div><br /></div><div>Eva Duarte Peron was born in a provincial town, the daughter of a man who had another, legitimate, family. At fifteen she latched onto a tango singer, who reluctantly took her to Buenos Aires, then dumped her. She slept her way to the top, becoming a model and then a film star, even though she couldn't act. She met Colonel Juan Peron, a man high up in government, and seduced him. He was elected president on a platform of workers' rights, and the film suggests that she was the one behind it.</div><div><br /></div><div>As first lady she was immensely popular, and eventually aimed to be vice-president. But she had cancer, and died in 1952 at the age of 33. The film opens with a movie theater full of people told of her death, and their instant gr<i>ie</i>f. She is given<i> </i>a grand funeral, attended by the masses.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's an interesting story, but I'm not sure the film has anything to say about it. It is narrated by a Greek chorus, Antonio Banderas, who takes a cynical approach, calling the funeral a circus and not quite buying Evita's hype. There is a suggestion that during the Peron presidency there was corruption, so is the film saying that the empress had no clothes? I'm left wondering.</div><div><br /></div><div>To this day this is Madonna's biggest film role, and I have to admit she's great. She didn't become famous because of her voice, but it's lovely here. A few of the numbers stand out, such as the one named, a rhumba-style one called "Buenos Aires," and "A New Argentina." Jonathan Pryce is fine as Peron, and Banderas has a surprisingly good singing voice.</div><div><br /></div><div>I just couldn't see why this film was made, except that it was a big Broadway hit. Neither Parker nor his co-writer, Oliver Stone, seem to have any point of view. Did Eva Peron really care about the people, or was she a social climber with overweening ambition? I still don't know.</div><div><br /></div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-49878809136525298772020-10-21T16:57:00.002-07:002020-10-21T16:57:35.441-07:00The Trial Of The Chicago 7<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4V_7QmBOaNwNy3jP4jfuKtr3_rVJ1l3yn5Z6eQXqn6DQDqXQcVyN6VW8kKXI-4P-rpY9ViBluxnDPrC_G0snMJ6Gvj42LZTzRTZBhbMpMM4agWnV0TnrJqNUsT4nKKeI_iQKHw/s384/TrialChicago7poster.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="259" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4V_7QmBOaNwNy3jP4jfuKtr3_rVJ1l3yn5Z6eQXqn6DQDqXQcVyN6VW8kKXI-4P-rpY9ViBluxnDPrC_G0snMJ6Gvj42LZTzRTZBhbMpMM4agWnV0TnrJqNUsT4nKKeI_iQKHw/s320/TrialChicago7poster.jpeg" /></a></div>I've been waiting for this film for a long time. It's been gestating for years--at one time Steven Spielberg was going to do it. But it ended up in good hands--Aaron Sorkin, who wrote another trial film, <i>A Few Good Men</i>, and can stitch together dialogue like nobody's business. This is his second directorial effort, and it is most accomplished.<p></p><div>I'm a little biased, as this topic fascinates me. It concerns a trial of eight, and then seven men in 1970 for conspiracy to cross state lines to incite a riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. It was a flimsy charge, as even the lead prosecutor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) realizes when he is given the case by Attorney General John Mitchell. The Johnson administration had declined to indict anyone, and came to the conclusion that the riots were caused by the Chicago police</div><div><br /></div><div>But the Nixon administration wanted some scapegoat, and also didn't like radical liberals, so they put a kind of all-star lineup of left-wing activists on trial: Students For A Democratic Society's Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp); Youth International Party's (Yippies) Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong); pacifist organizer David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch) ; Black Panther Bobby Seale (Yanya Abdul-Mateen II) and two others, John Froines and Lee Weiner, who aren't given much screen time, almost as a joke, because the two always wondered why they were there.</div><div><br /></div><div>The lawyer for seven of them is William Kunstler, who was famous for representing radicals (I once saw him on the subway), and he's played by Mark Rylance. The judge was the old and clearly biased Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella), and the resulting trial was a circus from the beginning.</div><div><br /></div><div>To start with, Seale had an attorney that was in the hospital, and thus had no counsel, which Langella ignores. So Seale makes several protests. He was only in Chicago for four hours to make a speech, and was nowhere near a riot. Finally Langella has enough and has him bound and gagged, which shocks even Gordon-Levitt, who motions for a mistrial. Seale is removed from the trial and thus it's down to seven.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sorkin includes a lot of the trial, which mostly consists of Cohen clowning (he and Rubin wear judicial robes one day), Kunstler objecting, and Langella overruling, while also citing numerous contemtp charges. This is entertaining but also troubling. Though this happened fifty years this abuse of power by the government still rankles.</div><div><br /></div><div>We also see behind the scenes, at a house which serves as the defense's headquarters. There is tension between Redmayne, who is clean cut and believes in the democratic process (Hayden would later be a state legislator in California and, more famously, would marry Jane Fonda). Cohen is a provocateur, a comedian at heart (much of the story is told as he regales an audience--I saw him speak when I was in college and can testify to his chops as a comic). One of the juicy details left out of the film is that the Yippies nominated a pig to run for president.</div><div><br /></div><div>Redmayne believes that Cohen just uses the war (that's what everyone is protesting) to grab the limelight. Cohen actually finds this accusation hurtful.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a wonderful film, and Sorkin is to be commended for juggling this many characters from this many points of view. The editing is crisp and makes for a suspenseful film--forget what you know about the result of the trial and let yourself get lost in the mystery. It's also a wonderful reenactment of a time long gone, when long-haired freaks and beret-waring black men scared white America, and the idea of revolution was in the air, and taken seriously.</div><div><br /></div><div>A couple of things bothered me, One scene has Cohen and Strong run into Gordon-Levitt at a park. The prosecutor has his two daughters with them. It gives the participants a chance to talk to each other like humans, but I didn't buy it, and I doubt it happened. The ending is also problematic. It's a feel-good ending that seems out of some other movie, like <i>Miracle on 34th Street</i>. I'm also sorry Sorkin didn't include the testimony of poet Allen Ginsberg, who recited his poem "Howl" on the witness stand.</div><div><br /></div><div>The acting is superb. If there is an Oscars this year, the Best Supporting Actor category could be filled from this movie. Cohen is the standout--he stuck with the project for ten years, and of course playing a larger-than-life character like Hoffman gives him the juiciest bits Rylance and Redmayne (interesting that so many British actors are here) are terrific, as are Langella, who convincingly plays a grotesque monster, and Abdul-Mateen II as Seale.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm so happy that this long-awaited film satisfied my expectations. The only people who should avoid it are old crabby white guys who hated hippies.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-29240100301652293612020-10-20T20:27:00.002-07:002020-10-20T20:27:49.913-07:00Closely Watched Trains<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_XctImPmE7wllZB8ZOibUVVp9YVdX6xCQlyWE7qYyJTyZFAuysJ5aVSKDm-isDCM3ByJtc898vjAZwt1sm63Y3LXQYIRmLqLE_1ngi8ZOnClk1TvX4jd5Dm36-qdDmLkmr4XYQ/s374/Closelywatchedtrains.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="265" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_XctImPmE7wllZB8ZOibUVVp9YVdX6xCQlyWE7qYyJTyZFAuysJ5aVSKDm-isDCM3ByJtc898vjAZwt1sm63Y3LXQYIRmLqLE_1ngi8ZOnClk1TvX4jd5Dm36-qdDmLkmr4XYQ/s320/Closelywatchedtrains.jpg" /></a></div><i>Closely Watched Trains</i> is a 1966 Czech film, directed by Jiří Menzel, that manages to be both bleak and funny. It won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film, and was a key film in the Czech New Wave.<p></p><div>The film is set during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Milos (Vaclav Neckar) is a teenager who has just got a job as an apprentice dispatcher at the train station. He narrates that he comes from a long line of men who preferred idleness. His grandfather was a hypnotist who tried to stop the German tanks with his hypnotic powers, but was run over by a tank. Nackar is glad to have a job where he doesn't have to work hard.</div><div><br /></div><div>The station master is a kindly fellow who raises pigeons but has a dim view of the morals of others, especially the dispatcher, a Casanova who gets in trouble when he seduces the pretty young telegraph operator and uses rubber stamps on her bottom, which her mother spots.</div><div><br /></div><div>Neckar is in love with another pretty girl, a conductor. When they go to bed he has a premature ejaculation. Mortified, he tries to kill himself by cutting his wrists. He is saved, and his doctor (played by the director) advises him to find an older woman to show him the ropes, and also to think of football during the act.</div><div><br /></div><div>The war intrudes when they are visited by a Nazi functionary who keeps talking about pleasing the Fuehrer. Later, Neckar will be introduced to the ways of love by a member of the resistance, and he and the dispatcher will plot to blow up a train full of ammunition.</div><div><br /></div><div>The film is shot in grim black and white, and has a sense of fatalism about it. None of the characters seem to have any interest in leaving town or doing anything great--they are resigned to just doing their jobs. The plan to blow up the train becomes a grand adventure.</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite this, the film is consistently funny. Neckar, looking for an older woman, actually approaches the station master's wife, who is middle-aged. He makes his proposition while she is plucking a goose, and politely declines, as if he had asked her to get him a drink of water.</div><div><br /></div><div>As with some of the early films of Milos Forman, the Czech New Wave showed the humor in ordinary life.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-52895318455764861542020-10-19T13:35:00.000-07:002020-10-19T13:35:30.407-07:00The Asterisk Series<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCJpQa0MwimPN2ZGKNMlJEUagvjQIKEr3GPGjy7CyL7luztb8PArFmPwa5kauYCXZsrgdpdCGhwijeUKDvTtPhI6QjbjuSpCfwhl6AFmGhcSF_P8HKDV_6fr06Xv0AGLMFb-mRNw/s874/randy.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCJpQa0MwimPN2ZGKNMlJEUagvjQIKEr3GPGjy7CyL7luztb8PArFmPwa5kauYCXZsrgdpdCGhwijeUKDvTtPhI6QjbjuSpCfwhl6AFmGhcSF_P8HKDV_6fr06Xv0AGLMFb-mRNw/s320/randy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The World Series will start tomorrow night, and the teams are set: the Tampa Bay Rays will represent the American League, the Los Angeles Dodgers the National. They have never met in a World Series before, due to the youth of the Tampa franchise--this is only their second World Series. The Dodgers just won their twenty-third pennant, but have only won six world championships, their last coming in 1988. That thirty-two year gap is their longest since they won their first world title (playing in Brooklyn) in 1955.<p></p><div>This post-season has been unlike any other, coming off a season unlike any other. Only sixty games were played, so there may be a tendency to write this thing off and put an asterisk beside it. But I don't think that will happen, as the two best teams, record-wise, managed to make their way to the final. No one can possibly know for sure, but it isn't out of the realm of possibility that these are the two teams that would have made it even if there was a full season.</div><div><br /></div><div>It wasn't easy for either team. After jumping off to a three game to none lead, with some timely hitting, great pitching, and sterling defense, the Rays let the Houston Astros back in the series by dropping three straight. It was only the second time a team had evened a series after going down 0-3, and the first to do it, the 2004 Red Sox, finished off the Yankees.</div><div><br /></div><div>But the Rays proved resilient, winning 4-2 in game 7. They have walked a tightrope, winning mostly close, low scoring games, scoring most of their runs on homers (seven by new star Randy Arozerana, whose name is fun to say) and dominant relief pitching. The key question for the World Series is can they keep that up against a better team, the Dodgers?</div><div><br /></div><div>The Dodgers also displayed some legerdemain, falling behind 0-2 and then 1-3 to the Atlanta Braves. But the Dodgers had more depth and better discipline at the plate. The two big home runs in game seven, by Keke Hernandez and Cody Bellinger, came on the eighth pitch of the at bat. The Braves made some key baserunning mistakes, no more so than in game seven in the fourth inning. With runners on second and third and no outs, they were poised for a big inning, but on a hard grounder to third Dansby Swanson broke for home, and got in a run down. He was tagged out, and the trailing runner, Austin Riley, who made a real bonehead play, hesitated on running toward third and was tagged out. Double play. The Braves didn't get another hit the rest of the night.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Dodgers are now in their third World Series in four years, but have no championship to show for it. Who knows how long this window will be open for them? The pressure is on them--they have to be a prohibitive favorite--and the Rays are playing with house money, but I think this is finally the Dodgers' year. I'll pick them in six games. After all, the last time a huge chunk of the season was not played, in 1981, they won it all.</div><div><br /></div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23603703.post-10280511001694395112020-10-18T18:33:00.000-07:002020-10-18T18:33:10.144-07:00Buck Privates<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwnTFV9yqHtJ8DD2ERACFHTjWVAQk0CCTSfOMqNaiHWDZBT-LQy0gs-2r6onN-wGfUMaTzuvakEAZa3e67c_2kFc-NvfKVLWJ-1dfiChrBEjqgSPbJ2zLs8PqGGVaWAFllGhFcUg/s390/Buckprivatesposter.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="256" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwnTFV9yqHtJ8DD2ERACFHTjWVAQk0CCTSfOMqNaiHWDZBT-LQy0gs-2r6onN-wGfUMaTzuvakEAZa3e67c_2kFc-NvfKVLWJ-1dfiChrBEjqgSPbJ2zLs8PqGGVaWAFllGhFcUg/s320/Buckprivatesposter.jpg" /></a></div>Though Bud Abbott and Lou Costello made their last film before I was born, I, like many of my age group, are well acquainted with them. When I was growing up, one of my local TV stations played an Abbott and Costello film every Sunday morning, playing them all in sequence. Therefore, I don't know how many times I've seen <i>Buck Privates</i>, but I hadn't seen it in many years until last night.<p></p><div>Unlike Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, or Charlie Chaplin, I don't think A&C have weathered the test of time. Aside from the "Who's On First" routine, I don't laugh much at their antics anymore. Watching <i>Buck Privates</i> again I didn't laugh at all--just a few mild smiles. </div><div><br /></div><div>But they were huge in their time, and <i>Buck Privates,</i> released in 1941, made them stars, transitioning from radio. While watching it I was more interested in viewing it in context, as it's about army life just before the United States entered World War II.</div><div><br /></div><div>The film begins with a newsreel showing the beginning of the peacetime draft in 1940. Bud and Lou are selling ties illegally on the street and get chased into what they think is a movie theater, but is actually the draft processing center. Faced with a choice of jail or the army, they pick the latter.</div><div><br /></div><div>The film plays almost as a recruiting film. The Army is presented as a means to turn boys into men. The main plot features Lee Bowman as a pampered playboy who expects his father to get him out, but he is forced to stay, and learns the value of duty and comradeship. It makes the Army seem like fun, and except for a sergeant who has it in for Lou (played by Nat Pendleton, a former body builder who a frequent foil) the officers are all kind.</div><div><br /></div><div>The comedy bits seem tired even by 1941 standards. There is a boxing match, with Lou facing a hulking monster, but boxing bits had already been done, and better, by Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. There is more physical comedy with Bud drilling Lou and the chubby man mistaking right face and left face (this also brings out Bud's meanness. Unlike Laurel and Hardy, there is no evidence that the men actually liked each other.</div><div><br /></div><div>I like the wordplay comedy better, such as a bit when Bud asks to borrow fifty dollars from Lou. Lou only has forty, so Bud says okay, I'll take that and you owe me ten, and soon Lou has no money left. There's also a dangerous bit with Bud presenting Lou with a math problem about the age difference between Lou and a girl.</div><div><br /></div><div>I feel like I'm being hard on the boys but watching their films today just doesn't do it for me. I think the highlight of this film is the Andrews Sisters singing "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy From Company B." I could watch that over and over.</div>Jackrabbit Slimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17641819123960519573noreply@blogger.com0