Movies | dual personalities

February 9, 2015

When the storm of life is raging / Stand by me

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? We enjoyed a glorious mid-winter weather break this weekend with record-breaking temperatures in the low 70s. Wow. After church the OM and I headed down to Ted Drewes only to find it closed with a sign saying it would be open by Valentine’s Day! Why? I have no idea. Confused and let down, we drove back to our flyover town and settled for Andy’s frozen custard, which was good, but just not the same.

Otherwise the weekend was pleasant enough. I did some more work on the basement re-organization project and went to lunch with some girlfriends. Again, we were thwarted in our plans, due to our chosen restaurant being too busy. Everyone and his brother was out and about this weekend!

Since I had finally gotten the DVD back from the boy, I watched Road to Perdition (2002) and enjoyed it a lot.

I was quite struck by the cinematography, so I looked up the cinematographer, Conrad Hall who, it turns out, won his third Oscar for this movie. I found out that he was the son of James Norman Hall, who along with Charles Nordhoff was the author of Mutiny on the Bounty. He was born in Tahiti and studied filmmaking at USC. Nominated ten times, he won Oscars for American Beauty (2000) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1970) and the aforementioned Road to Perdition, his last film. He was nominated for one of my favorites, The Professionals (1966), but not for another favorite, Cool Hand Luke (1967). Indeed, he was a great cinematographer.

The beautiful musical score is by Thomas Newman, who is the son of the great Alfred Newman (How the West Was Won and many others) and the cousin of Randy Newman. Thomas has been nominated twelve times for an Oscar, but has never won. He composed the music to Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Oscar and Lucinda (1997) among many others.

Considering that The Road to Perdition is a movie about Irish-American mobsters, there is not an overabundance of violence. (But it is directed by Sam Mendes and not Martin Scorcese.) Bad things happen, terrible things, but first and foremost it is a very low-key film about fathers and sons. Tom Hanks plays the anti-hero who is so screwed up by his upbringing that he cannot escape perdition, but he does the best he can to save his son.

Daughter #1 sent me the link to Bob Dylan’s speech accepting the MusiCares Person of the Year Award. Read the whole thing, because it is quite the speech. Bob is just the Best.

I can not tell you how much I love it that he quotes the old hymn “Stand By Me” in front of all those unbelievers! Testify. When I do the best I can / And my friends don’t understand / Thou who knowest all about me / Stand by me.

The Old Testament reading on Sunday was the wonderful passage from Isaiah 40:21-31:

²¹Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

²²It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

²³That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

²⁴Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

²⁵To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

²⁷Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

²⁸Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

²⁹He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

³⁰Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

³¹But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

So do not faint and grow weary, Kiddos. All will be well. Have a good Monday.

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January 30, 2015

WWDD

by chuckofish

How is it that I missed this wonderfulness?

And this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYaPXeFVbKs

Do you have big plans for the weekend? My only scheduled event is an annual church dinner which raises money for the youth mission trip in June. It is billed as “The Elegant Italian Dinner,” but it is anything but that.

Last year’s big event

They hang twinkly Christmas lights around Albright Hall, turn the lights down very low and serve lasagna. The youth group members wear bow ties and are the waiters. The cool dads serve as the bartenders. (This is an Episcopal Church–there is always a bar.) You get the picture. But it is always fun and the OM even goes.

I’m sure Dolly would too.

Besides this special event, I will be forging on with the basement clean-up. The OM cleaned off his workbench last weekend. Onward and upward.

Friday Movie Pick: Last night TCM featured movies starring Rod Taylor who died earlier this month.

They showed The Time Machine (1960), The Birds (1963), The Glass-Bottomed Boat (1966) with Doris Day, and a few other movies of his. My favorite Rod Taylor movie is, of course, the original 101 Dalmations (1961).

Rod Taylor was the voice of Pongo! I loved that movie! My friends and I in kindergarten “played” it during recess for a long time. Everyone wanted to be Pongo. I would watch it tonight, but I only have a VHS copy!

Oh well. I have a solution. Rod, who was good friends with John Wayne, made one movie with him: The Train Robbers (1973).

Rod is the one in the red kerchief.

It isn’t a particularly great movie, but it works for me! (And, yes, I have it.)

Have a great weekend, y’all!

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January 29, 2015

This and that

by chuckofish

Today we raise a toast to actor Victor Mature, born on this day in 1913 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Not really my type, but not bad, right?

Victor is not one of my favorite actors, but funnily enough, he is in two of my favorite movies:

John Ford’s My Darling Clementine (1946)

He played Doc Holliday to Henry Fonda’s Wyatt Earp

and The Robe (1953).

Here he is being bought as a slave by Richard Burton.

Richard Burton buys a slave–Demetrius, the Greek.

In both movies he was given wonderful opportunities to flex his acting muscles in memorable scenes, such as the “Hamlet” scene in Clementine and the “Jungle Animals” scene in The Robe. Indeed, when given the chance (and the right director), we can see that Victor was pretty darn good.

Today is also the birthday of one of our favorite St. Louis Rams, Aeneas Demetrius Williams. He turns 47.

Aeneas Williams, you will recall, had an illustrious 14-year NFL career with the Arizona Cardinals and St. Louis Rams that included eight Pro Bowls and four All-Pro selections. Last year he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Williams is now a regular on local TV as a color commentator during the football season–but all is secondary to his job as Pastor of The Spirit Church here in town where he has garnered respect as a leader and role model because of his tireless and extensive outreach in the community. He is married and has four children: daughters Saenea (Aeneas spelled backward ), Tirzah, Cheyenne, and a son, Lazarus. Who doesn’t love Aeneas Williams?

Today is also the anniversary of the day in 1907 when Charles Curtis became the first Native American U.S. Senator. A member of the Kaw Nation, Curtis served as a U.S. Representative and Senator from Kansas and then as Vice-President of the U.S. under Herbert Hoover.

The cool fact that a Native American has served as V.P. of the U.S. was news to me.

Why do you suppose he is not held up as an icon–because he was a Republican?

Well, high fives all around for Victor, Aeneas and Charles! And have a great day.

4 Comments

January 23, 2015

Friday movie pick: “Well, they’ve got a very good bass section, mind, but no top tenors, that’s for sure.”*

by chuckofish

On this day in 1879 the Battle of Rorke’s Drift ended.

The Defense of Rorke'e Drift by Alphonse de Neuville

The Battle of Rorke’e Drift by Alphonse de Neuville

Just over 150 British and colonial troops successfully defended the garrison in Natal, South Africa against an intense assault by 3,000 to 4,000 Zulu warriors. The Battle of Rorke’s Drift lasted 10 hours, from late afternoon till just before dawn the following morning. The massive Zulu attacks on Rorke’s Drift came very close to defeating the tiny garrison. By the end of the fighting, 15 soldiers lay dead, with another two mortally wounded. Surrounding the camp were the bodies of 350 Zulus. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the defenders, along with a number of other decorations and honors.

You can read all about it here. I am more interested in watching the movie Zulu (1964), which is one of our all-time favorites.

My dual personality and I were, of course, too young to see it when it came out, but my parents did and so did my older brother. They all loved it and we heard all about it in vivid detail. When we eventually got a chance to watch it on television, we were not disappointed.

My heroes: Bromhead and Chard

It has all the elements of a great battle yarn. As Victor Davis Hanson writes, “…in the long annals of military history, it is difficult to find anything quite like Rorke’s Drift, where a beleaguered force, outnumbered forty to one, survived and killed twenty men for every defender lost.”

So my movie pick for this Friday is Zulu (1964). The film stars Stanley Baker and introduces Michael Caine (“Well chin-chin…do carry on with your mud pies.”)–in his first major role, with a supporting cast that includes Jack Hawkins (“You’re all going to die!”), James Booth (“I’m excused duty.”), Nigel Green (“Because we’re here, lad. Nobody else. Just us.”), and Patrick Magee–a veritable who’s who of 1960s English actors. The film begins with a narration by the famed Welshman Richard Burton and ends with his reading a list of the eleven defenders who received the Victoria Cross for the defense of Rorke’s Drift, the most awarded to a regiment in a single action up to that time.

I should also note that the soundtrack by John Barry is one of the greatest. We had the LP when I was a child and we loved it. It includes the narrated parts by Richard Burton.

Zut alors! This movie is over 50 years old! Can you believe it? Well, chin-chin, have a good weekend!

*Private Owen

5 Comments

January 20, 2015

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening

by chuckofish

Did you enjoy your long MLK weekend?

We celebrated (belatedly) the birthday of daughter #3

and I celebrated (belatedly) the birthday of an old friend with my pals.

The OM and I watched American Sniper

with Bradley Cooper and–this is the last thing I thought I would be saying–he was awesome. He really deserves the Oscar. This movie is really, really good. Clint Eastwood–and I am not a big fan of his directing–knocked one out of the ballpark. I also have to say kudos to Clint, who is eighty-four, for even being able to attempt this at his age. (I know a lot of guys in their eighties and it is hard to imagine any of them making a movie in the desert.)

Put this movie on your “to do” list!

According to Forbes, American Sniper blew past all reasonable predictions and crushed the January record books with a scorching $90.2 million Friday-to-Sunday and an estimated $105 million Friday-to-Monday debut frame. Well, no kidding. This is a movie with an actual (non-comic-book) HERO in it, with a plot, characters, action, tension–the whole nine yards. Of course, people are going to go see it. Duh. Wake up, Hollywood.

In between bouts of reading Middlemarch, I read a Louis L’Amour oater, Ride the Dark Trail, about one of the innumerable Sacketts. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I am also enjoying Middlemarch, which is full of passages like this:

“My mother is like old George the Third,” said the vicar, “she objects to metaphysics.”

“I object to what is wrong, Camden. I say, keep hold of a few plain truths, and make everything square with them. When I was young, Mr. Lydgate, there was never any question about right and wrong. We knew our catechism, and that was enough; we learned our creed and our duty. Every respectable Church person had the same opinions. But now, if you speak out of the Prayer-book itself, you are liable to be contradicted.”

It is a sure sign that I am really getting old, that I identify with the minor, comic characters, I suppose.

Oh, lordy, life is good, right?

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January 16, 2015

Friday movie pick: “I once was lost, but now am found”

by chuckofish

Considering that this is the long MLK weekend and we will be celebrating the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, I think an appropriate film to watch tonight is Amazing Grace (2006)–a really good movie about the wonderful British saint William Wilberforce, who headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. (I have blogged about him previously here.)

Directed by Michael Apted, it stars a bevy of British hotties, including Ioan Gruffudd as Wilberforce, Benedict Cumberbatch as William Pitt and scene-stealing Rufus Sewell as Thomas Clarkson. Former hottie Albert Finney is John Newton, who, you will recall, though once the captain of a slave ship, experienced a spiritual conversion, became an evangelical Anglican priest, and wrote the much-loved hymn “Amazing Grace.”

I watched it again the other night and was quite impressed with the screenplay, the beautiful production values and the acting. It is a rare movie where the Christians are the good guys!

P.S. It is interesting to note that everyone–from Alan Jackson to Celtic Thunder and everyone in between–has recorded the hymn “Amazing Grace.” I like it played on the bagpipes myself.

We had a piper at my mother’s funeral and he played “Amazing Grace.”

Have a good weekend!

5 Comments

December 16, 2014

Lest old acquaintance be forgot

by chuckofish

It is that time of year when “TCM Remembers”. Here is the 2014 edition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIDUHFso6Uk

We lost so many wonderful actors and actresses and directors et al this year from James Garner and Lauren Bacall to Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney to Robin Williams. In fact, there were so many that no one really gets much of a spotlight. I’m glad they put Shirley Temple at the end singing “Auld Lang Syne” from Wee Willie Winkie.

Lest we forget, watch it and remember. Remember Angus Lennie in The Great Escape? Rosemary Murphy in To Kill a Mockingbird? Marc Platt in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters? Juanita Moore in Imitation of Life? Martha Heyer in The Sons of Katie Elder?

Enjoy your Tuesday!

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December 12, 2014

Friday movie picks–Christmas edition

by chuckofish

It being that happy season of Christmas movie viewing, I thought I’d just remind you of my favorites. Here are my top five:

1. White Christmas (1954)

Oh, I do love this movie and have blogged about it here. I just watched it last weekend for probably the 50th time. It never gets old.

2. The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

A wonderful film with a stellar cast–and it’s about Episcopalians!

3. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Here’s another one that never gets old. I watched it over the Thanksgiving holiday and enjoyed it anew.

4. Home Alone (1990) This one still makes me laugh out loud. Do not, however, waste your time on Home Alone 2 (1992).

5. 3 Godfathers (1948) This John Wayne classic is my all-time favorite Christmas movie!

Other favorites include Scrooge (1951), It’s a Wonderful Life (1947), and A Christmas Story (1983).

Other movies I like a lot which can’t really be categorized as Christmas movies, but include a Christmas element are Edward Scissorhands (1990) and The World of Henry Orient (1964).

Here’s a blast from the past that is available on YouTube: A Smoky Mountain Christmas, which was first aired on TV in 1986. It stars Dolly Parton, Lee Majors and John Ritter, and, although admittedly a bit hokey, I liked it then and I still do.

Have I left out anything? I think I’ll hunker down this weekend and get in the mood. It sounds like a plan to me.

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December 3, 2014

“Who Sir? Me sir?”*

by chuckofish

I have been very busy at work since Thanksgiving and yesterday I had an allergy attack that sent me into a tailspin of sneezing and nose-blowing. Zut alors! And I had two meetings off-campus. It was not pretty.

So, as you may have noticed, my blogposts are somewhat lacking in content this week. Today I will just note that the TCM star of the month is Cary Grant! So go crazy setting your DVR in December.

They will be showing a few of my favorites: Gunga Din (1939), The Awful Truth (1937), The Philadelphia Story (1940) and Houseboat (1958).

I’m not sure why they don’t seem to be showing one of the best Christmas movies ever, which also happens to star old Cary Grant: The Bishop’s Wife (1947)–but you can be sure I’ll be watching it sometime this month.

What is your favorite Cary Grant movie?

*Cary Grant in Houseboat

5 Comments

November 28, 2014

Friday’s child, joyeux anniversaire!

by chuckofish

Today the boy turns 28 on the 28th! We wish him a glorious birthday. He was actually born on the day after Thanksgiving, shortly before midnight.

And now a this-is-how-my-mind-works side-note. Recently I watched The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) on TCM and the host noted that Errol Flynn was 28 years old when he made this film seventy-six years ago. I paid attention, because I was thinking about the boy turning 28. Errol, of course, is at the top of his game at age 28–handsome, athletic, smart–before he started that early slide precipitated by drugs and alcohol and a reckless lifestyle. Sadly, there has never been anyone quite like Errol Flynn in the movies since.

Anyway, I highly recommend watching this great film tonight. I really think it is one of the all-time best movies ever made and one of my top-five favorites.

The cast is perfect.

Melville Cooper, Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains

Herbert Mundin, Errol Flynn and Alan Hale

Cooper, Rathbone, Olivia de Havilland, Rains, and Flynn.

The script is tip-top–so witty and sophisticated, yet action-packed. The sets and costumes are un-paralleled and designed for technicolor which is–and so early in the game–vibrant and dazzling. The music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold is terrific and oft-copied. At the time, it was the most expensive movie ever made, and it shows. The studio’s money (for once) was not wasted. The director Michael Curtiz (one of my favorites) is the best.

It won Oscars for Art Direction, Editing and Score, but lost the Best Picture Award to You Can’t Take It With You. Please. You’ve got to be kidding.

It really is perfect on every level. I should also note that this movie boasts one of the all-time great female characters–Lady Marian Fitzwalter.

As portrayed by Olivia de Havilland, Maid Marian is beautiful, smart, brave, and chaste. Buttoned up in high-necked gowns at all times, she is also undeniably sexy. She stands up bravely to the villains in the film and does not run off with Robin when things start to get dangerous. No, she stays in the castle where she can do the most good spying for the good guys. She is wonderful. Please note: this is a type of woman Hollywood is completely unable to get right anymore.

So happy birthday to the boy

Robin and Marian circa 1991

and have a great weekend!

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