dual personalities

Tag: Films

March 25, 2025

Tuesday this and that

by chuckofish

Yesterday was Steve McQueen’s 95th birthday–how did I miss that? Mea culpa for not reporting that in a timely manner. When I remembered I watched several episodes of Wanted Dead or Alive, the show that kick-started Steve’s career. It’s Steve before Steve was super-cool.

Today we toast British director David Lean who was born on this day in 1908. Lean was nominated for ten Oscars, winning seven, including two for Best Director.

Lean remains the only British director to win more than one Oscar for directing. He has seven films in the British Film Institute’s Top 100 British Films (with three of them being in the top five)–which seems rather over-indulgent. They include: Brief Encounter, Lawrence of Arabia, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, Oliver Twist, and In Which We Serve. Before he became a film director, he was a film editor. He edited Pygmalion (with Leslie Howard), Major Barbara, 49th Parallel, and One of Our Aircraft is Missing. Anyway, you might want to pick one of these movies to watch. I’m afraid it would take me at least three nights to watch Lawrence of Arabia! But I could probably handle Pygmalion.

It is also the 100th birthday of the author Flannery O’Connor. I was never a big fan of her writing. She is primarily known for her short stories which are a little too weird for my taste. I think I was seriously scarred by reading “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” in high school. You can visit her Andalusia farmhouse in Milledgeville, Georgia if you are so inclined.

And lest we forget, today is Medal of Honor Day in the U.S., created to honor the heroism and sacrifice of Medal of Honor recipients and celebrated every year since 1991. Over 3,500 Medals of Honor have been awarded, including two to Frank Baldwin (1842-1923) who is one of only 19 servicemen to receive the Medal of Honor twice and one of only 14 to be awarded the United States’ highest military honor for two separate actions. 

Baldwin received his first award for his actions during the Atlanta Campaign where he led his company in battle at Peachtree Creek and captured two commissioned officers in the Civil War. He received his second for conspicuous bravery in 1874 during the Indian Wars. On November 8, 1874, while commanding a scout company on escort duty, he led a surprise attack on the camp of Grey Beard, rescuing two young sisters whose parents and brothers had been killed by another Indian band. His second citation reads “Rescued, with 2 companies, 2 white girls by a voluntary attack upon Indians whose superior numbers and strong position would have warranted delay for reinforcements, but which delay would have permitted the Indians to escape and kill their captives.” Baldwin also served in the Spanish-American War and in World War I. Let’s all take a moment.

This is a wonderful ‘Ask Pastor John’ from John Piper: seven promises God has used to keep me from drifting away. 

So enjoy your day! Get out in the spring sunshine, watch an old movie, read some history, and remember that all the promises of God find their Yes in Christ.

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January 24, 2014

Friday movie pick: “A man oughta do what he thinks is right.”

by chuckofish

As I mentioned earlier, daughter #2 sent me two Josh Ritter CDs to get me all set for the concert I am going to in February. I have been listening to them non-stop for a week or so and the song that has stuck with me is “Make Me Down”.

All that talk of making me down a pallet on your floor, has also given me an idea for this week’s movie pick: Hondo (1953) with John Wayne. You will recall that the Duke makes a pallet on Angie Lowe’s floor and, well, you can guess what happens.

John Wayne in the iconic Hondo pose with Dog

John Wayne in the iconic Hondo pose with Dog

This is a movie that would have benefited mightily from a better director, but it is still a good western, based on a solid story by Louis L’Amour. Directed frenetically in 3-D by John Farrow with a sometimes snicker-inducing screenplay by James Edward Grant, it is carried forward by the inestimable effort of the Duke who swings manfully through the movie, chopping wood, shoeing horses, fighting Indians, etc. There is a lot of action in this movie–really too much for the simple love story it tells. You can see that they are trying to use the 3-D to its optimum effect and that they overdo it. What a shame.

3-D already. We get it.

3-D already. We get it.

The great stage actress Geraldine Page stars here in her first movie as Angie Lowe, a woman living alone with her young son in the midst of hostile Apache territory. Cast for her non-Hollywood looks, she is unfortunately not terribly appealing. Louis L’Amour wrote a compelling female character–unusual for mid-century movies–but somehow Geraldine, even though she was nominated for an Academy Award, doesn’t quite pull it off, which is also a shame.

hindo20_

Hondo is a movie that has received some criticism for its portrayal of Native Americans. Some of it is deserved. The white actors who play Indians look Italian and wear way too much body make-up. They say idiotic things like, “You have good man. Treasure him.” Really? (This is what I meant by “snicker-inducing”.) John Wayne-haters often cite this role, but his famous line–“Everybody gets dead. It was his turn.”–is always taken out of context. Hondo is part Apache and has lived with the Indians and respects their way of life. One wonders if these critics have even seen the movie!

Bottom line: this movie could have been so much better. John Ford did not direct it. Noted. But there is still a lot of good in it and, for me, any movie with John Wayne is worth watching. It is easy to see why Angie makes up that pallet on the floor for old Hondo. Who in her right mind wouldn’t?

hondo (1)

There is also a great dog in this movie (see photo above)–really one of the great movie dogs of all time. His name, of course, is Dog.

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