Steve McQueen | dual personalities

July 28, 2020

“I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”*

by chuckofish

We all have our coping mechanisms. People tend to credit me with being a very calm person, but let me tell you, that is only because I have been practicing/pretending to be calm for years. Indeed, I have become quite good at controlling my blood pressure, and if watching Steve McQueen drive very fast keeps me from crossing the line, so be it and yay me.

The thing is, metaphorically speaking, if SMcQ is the green Mustang, I am the green VW Bug that keeps turning up in this scene. Men like the OM wish they could be the Mustang, but I am content and happy to be the VW.

Lately I have been entertaining/calming myself by watching British war movies from the 1950s, mostly black and white ones starring John Mills and a host of great British supporting actors. I watched Dunkirk (1958) and The Colditz Story (1955), the latter which I had never seen. It is the true story of allied prisoners in Colditz Castle who made many attempts to escape captivity from the arrival of the first British prisoners after Dunkirk in 1940 until the liberation of the castle by the Americans in 1945. Colditz was a “special” camp, designed by the Nazis to hold high-risk and politically important prisoners.

Next on my list** is Reach For the Sky (1956), the amazing true story of RAF Group Captain Douglas Bader who, after losing both legs, flew a British fighter plane during WWII. He was also, coincidentally, a POW at Colditz.

Anyway, these are all good movies and I recommend them. Of course, if you prefer the Big Hollywood rendering, there is always The Great Escape (1963) which boasts a British cast and SMcQ.

Well, the point of this blog is to say that we all need to find our coping mechanisms during this more than usually difficult year and indulge in them. Hopefully you find some equally innocent and healthy way to deal with your stress. The following scene just says it all.

If that doesn’t help, maybe this little story from Henry Ward Beecher will:

I remember when I was a young person attending school in the vicinity of Mount Pleasant. One day I sat on the side of the mountain and watched a storm as it moved through the valley. The skies were filled with darkness, and thunder began to shake the earth. It seemed as though the lush landscape were completely changed, and its beauty gone forever. But the storm passed quickly and soon moved out of the valley.
If I had sat in the same place the following day and said, “Where is that intense storm and all its terrible darkness?” the grass would have said, “Part of it is in me.” The beautiful daisy would have said, “Part of it is in me.” And all the other flowers, fruits, and everything that grows in the ground would have said, “Part of the storm has produced the radiance in me.”
Have you ever asked the Lord to make you like Him? Have you ever desired the fruit of the Spirit and prayed for sweetness, gentleness, and love? If so, then never fear the fierce storms that even now may be blowing through your life. Storms bring blessings, and rich fruit will be harvested later.
(Henry Ward Beecher quoted in Streams in the Desert)

*Psalm 4:8

**These films are all available to rent on Amazon Prime for $2.99.

3 Comments

February 11, 2020

Hoopla and more

by chuckofish

Well, the Oscars hoopla is over. Thank goodness. Sunday night I watched The Sand Pebbles (1966)–a movie which should have won Best Picture but did not.

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It is such a good movie–and not just because Steve McQ is in it. Even though it veers from the original novel in strange ways, it still has a very strong and effective screenplay. It has great performances, great cinematography, great music. And Steve was never better. He gives a measured and sensitive performance. I really enjoyed it.

It is interesting to look back at the year 1966 and the movies that were popular:

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I have also seen some lists that include The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Blow Up in the top ten. I have never seen the Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. starring Dick Van Dyke, have you?

Interestingly, there is no John Wayne movie in the top 10 (or top 20). The only movie he made that year was Cast a Giant Shadow, which coincidentally I also watched this past weekend in memory of Kirk Douglas. It is about Col. Mickey Marcus (Douglas), a former U.S. Army officer, recruited by the Jews in Israel to reorganize the Haganah in 1947, following the U.N. decision to split British Palestine into separate Jewish and Palestinian states. Not a big hit, I guess. I enjoyed it and I learned a few things.

Here are the first 15 minutes of the 1967 Oscar show, which honored the movies of 1966, including the monologue by Bob Hope. Governor Reagan, who was in the audience,

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gets some good humored ribbing, but the political jokes are pretty mild. Take a look:

It was a different world, for sure. What would they have made of Joaquin Phoenix back then?

Not surprisingly the 2020 Oscar show brought in its lowest ratings ever–a decrease of 20% from last year’s show. Hollywood’s biggest night–not so much.

Well, since we are feeling a bit nostalgic, we will also note the passing of Robert Conrad, who starred on such television shows as ‘Hawaiian Eye’ and ‘ Wild Wild West’ and ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ and on the miniseries ‘Centennial.’ Back in the day we were big fans of James T. West in his short jackets and tight pants…

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…and our father loved ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep.’ Conrad was also featured in those classic 1970s commercials for Eveready Batteries, with a battery on his shoulder, a menacing stare and the catchphrase, “I dare you to knock this off.”

Sunrise, sunset…

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4 Comments

November 8, 2019

The checkered game of life

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) who was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with the Milton Bradley Company.

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The Checkered Game of Life, Bradley’s first big success, was originally created in 1860 and like many 19th-century games, such as The Mansion of Happiness by S.B. Ives in 1843, it had a strong moral message. In 1960 the modern version, The Game of Life, was introduced. The Game of Life was updated several times through the years. In 1991 the ‘moral message’ contained in the game was players being rewarded for good behavior, such as recycling trash and helping the homeless. They were virtue-signaling even then!

I remember playing board games and card games with my siblings–

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Mille Bornes, French for a thousand milestones, referring to the distance markers on French roads, in particular–but I was never very good at games. There are too many rules to remember.

I remember playing riotous games of Hearts, and Categories was always a favorite of ours.

What games do you remember from your childhood?

So regarding a Friday movie pick…it might be time to watch Jumanji (1995) or Jumanji: Return to the Jungle (2017) in honor of old Milton Bradley.

Screen Shot 2019-11-07 at 2.25.28 PM.png This is how my mind works after all…

Of course, since yesterday was the anniversary of the day Steve McQueen died in 1980, we might want to go in that direction.

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(@john.wayne.fans Instagram)

Well, decisions, decisions…

Have a good weekend!

4 Comments

November 7, 2018

“Like Steve McQueen underneath your radar screen”*

by chuckofish

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Well, it’s been 38 years since old Steve McQueen died on November 7, 1980. Sigh.

Tonight I’ll drive (pretty) fast in my Mini Cooper in his memory. (He owned a Mini, among many other two- and 4-wheeled vehicles.)

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And I’ll watch one of my favorite S. McQ movies.

I guess “The Magnificent Seven” is in the Westerns section.

Sounds like a good plan.

*Sheryl Crow

3 Comments

August 28, 2018

#Momhasanopinion

by chuckofish

I really hate reviews like the one of the re-make of Papillon in the Wall Street Journal where the reviewer manages to insult the current actor (Charlie Hunnam) and the original one (Steve McQueen) both without really knowing what he’s talking about.

Steve McQueen…was among the last of a species cultivated by classic Hollywood, an icon of cool and a performer who enjoyed an ineffable on-screen charisma that translated into an intimacy with his audience—they were all in on this joke called movies…McQueen was the furthest thing from a Method actor. In fact, he wasn’t even considered a great performer…But his particular kind of stardom made it possible to actually enjoy something like “Papillon,” with its bleakness and violence, its constant reversals of fortune, and the injustice at its center.

As if it was his “particular kind of stardom” that made him good, made him watchable. As if the system did it. The system was long gone when McQueen came to town.

Anyway, someone in Hollywood got the bright idea that Charlie Hunnam could be the new Steve McQueen, and they do have some things in common: handsome blond looks and the ability to ride a motorcycle. But it is a disservice to Hunnam, whom I really like, because let’s face it, there is no one like Steve. Let Charlie be Charlie.

Screen Shot 2018-08-27 at 5.31.02 PM Re-making Steve McQueen movies is like like trying to re-make John Wayne movies. It is a Bad Idea.

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But what really triggers me is when reviewers label Steve as the “King of Cool” as if that was something he tried to do. He just was cool, something those nerds don’t have a clue about. Hollywood didn’t make him cool. And, hey, he was a good actor! “In fact, he wasn’t even considered a great performer”–give me a break.

We know better.

Few things trigger me, but, as my children know, this is one of them.

8 Comments

January 22, 2018

Snowmen prophets of doom

by chuckofish

I kept getting interrupted every time I sat down to write this post yesterday, which was par for the course as my plans kept changing all weekend. But c’est la vie.

I had a good weekend even though I ended up not doing much. I watched a couple of great movies–Allegheny Uprising (1939) and To Have and Have Not (1944)–and the OM hooked up the new DVD player so we could finally watch Hell Is For Heroes (1962) which he got in his Christmas stocking. (It would not play on our old DVD player.) It is not the greatest movie–it is kind of like an extended Combat! episode–but beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to SMcQ movies. And Bobby Darin was pretty great too.

I went to church on Sunday and read the Prayers of the People. The temperature got up to 63-degrees (not a record) and everyone in town was out and about. It smelled like spring! The old January Thaw.

The wee babes came over for dinner with their parents on Sunday night.

And here’s a song from ol’ Tom Petty that I like:

Have a good week back at the salt mine.

5 Comments

November 8, 2017

“CAPTAIN Hilts.”

by chuckofish

Today we remember Steve McQueen who died on November 7 in 1980. (I’m a day late.)

We miss Steve.

This poster was on the door of the Senior Room at my school in the late sixties.

It represented all things cool to me in the middle school. Indeed, this is still as cool as it gets. I am not wrong.

Although there are many posers out there, no one these days comes close to Steve. The actor who reminds me the most of Steve is Charlie Hunnum.

He can even ride a motorcycle. And wait a minute, he is, in fact, starring in the remake of Papillon. Clearly I am not the only one who sees the similarity. However, I am sure this attempt to remake this movie will end badly.

There is only one Steve.

Tonight we will toast old Steve and watch one of the classics:

The Magnificent Seven

Bullitt

The Sand Pebbles

…or any of these you can get your hands on. I have to admit, I’m kind of in the mood for The Blob.

And, okay, this made me smile/LOL. I mean, I could certainly relate to the two Irish women in their late 60s – one with a “walking aid” – who were able to make off with a 6 ft portrait of Steve McQueen from a Belfast hotel. They were only foiled in their attempt when they couldn’t fit it into their car. How great is that?

No update on whether they caught the “not-so-magnificent-two”.

BTW, the little dude got his first haircut the other day.

I think we know how he felt about that.

8 Comments

September 28, 2017

Keep letting your light shine

by chuckofish

“Those who love much, do much and accomplish much, and whatever is done with love is done well…. Love is the best and noblest thing in the human heart, especially when it is tested by life as gold is tested by fire. Happy is he who has loved much, and although he may have wavered and doubted, he has kept that divine spark alive and returned to what was in the beginning and ever shall be.

If only one keeps loving faithfully what is truly worth loving and does not squander one’s love on trivial and insignificant and meaningless things then one will gradually obtain more light and grow stronger.”

―Vincent Van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

By the way, I am going to see this tonight:

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This documentary is directed by Jon Erwin (who directed Woodlawn (2015) which I recommended) and is focused on shedding light on the actor having become a born-again Christian late in his life. I remember that Billy Graham visited him when he was dying, so this should be interesting.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

3 Comments

May 9, 2017

Death of a sidekick

by chuckofish

The New York Times headline reads, “Don Gordon, Steve McQueen’s Sidekick Onscreen and in Life, Dies at 90.” Kind of rude, I think. And not really true, guys.

Don enlisted in the Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor when he was only 15, having convinced his mother to sign a statement saying he was 18. He went on to receive 11 battle stars. After the war, he went to drama school. He was never a star, but he was a working actor for many, many years–and long after Steve died in 1980.

It just seems to me that he deserves a little more respect than the brush-off designation of sidekick. And it’s not as if he were in a ton of films with Steve–he was in three. He wasn’t Gabby Hayes.

Well, “respect” is not something that is in great supply these days.

So anyway, I suggest we toast Don Gordon tonight and watch Bullitt (1968). Sounds like a plan to me.

3 Comments

February 27, 2017

“More and more thyself display shining to the perfect day”*

by chuckofish

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Although spring seemed to be busting out all over our flyover town on Friday with forsythia, magnolias and all manner of flowering trees in full bloom, it (of course) turned downright cold on Saturday. I think it went down into the 20s on Saturday night–brrr!

So staying home was the order of the day this weekend. And you know me, I am always looking for an excuse to stay home. I vacuumed.

The OM and I went to see the wee babes on Saturday, but the little guy was not feeling well. We found out the next day that he had caught a cold (!) and now both twins are in isolation–probably until they go home. Sigh.

I had planned to skip church (and stay home), but I remembered that I had bought the altar flowers in thanksgiving for our two darling grand-babies. I thought I should go and check out the fleurs.

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I thought they looked nice.

The boy and daughter #3 came over for meatloaf (her favorite) on Sunday night. After they went home I did not watch the Oscars, which used to be one of my favorite things back in the day. Instead I watched The Sand Pebbles (1966) which was nominated for eight Academy Awards, won none, and Steve McQueen was notably robbed.