Looking for something patriotic to watch for this year’s Independence Day? Looking for movies that tell us where we have been as a country & a people while also showing us where we have to go? Then you can’t get any better than these: 1776 (1972) ****stars Sherman Edwards’ Tony-winning musical has been adapted to the screen with its Broadway cast mostly intact (a rare thing indeed) and original stage director Peter Hunt at the helm. William Daniels and Howard Da Silva are brilliant as John Adams and Benjamin Franklin trying like heck to wake up the Continental Congress and pass the Declaration of Independence. The movie entertainingly shows how the divisions we lament in this country have been there from the very beginning. It also shows how we must learn to overlook those differences if we wish to accomplish a greater good. The songs are fun. The debate pretty much follows how it all went down. George Washington’s dispatches from the front capture how on the edge the Continental Army operated. And I fall in love with Blythe Danner every time I watch this. (For those of the younger generation, she is Gwyneth Paltrow’s mother). Virginia Vestoff is all strong and resilient as Abigail Adams (she died of cancer shortly after the film was made). A shout out as well to Donald Madden as John Dickinson, the tireless opponent of all things relating to independence. The film makes us realize what a close shave getting independence declared actually was. It is all here: deathly ill Caesar Rodney’s midnight ride through the night to cast a Yes vote, James Wilson’s last minute change of heart. It makes you realize in this age of filibusters and 60 vote minimums, that many of the greatest laws we’ve passed in this country did so by the skin of their teeth. Be sure to watch the restored 164-minute version readily available on DVD. It was cut by half an hour when released in 1972. President Nixon, friends with producer Jack Warner and busy orchestrating the Watergate cover up at the time, thought some of the dialogue and the song “Cool, Cool Conservative Men” liable to anger the country and send the population into the streets. So Warner cut them. Fortunately, the cut footage has mostly been restored. Frankly, I find it all prescient on where the country was going to go. Of where we find ourselves now. TRIVIA: This was the last movie filmed at the original Columbia Pictures studio before it was torn down. PET PEEVE: Director Peter Hunt restored all of the footage except the complete version of John Adams’ song “Piddle, Twiddle, & Resolve”. I got a chance to ask him about that once and he confessed that he didn’t restore it because he always hated how he shot the song. Daniels is standing there singing how it is “hot as hell in Philadelphia” and steam can be seen coming out of his mouth (because it was really a chilly night in L.A.). You can watch the complete song HERE. GETTYSBURG (1993) ***1/2 stars
Ronald Maxwell’s sprawling recreation of the Battle of Gettysburg (which took place July 1-3, 1863) is definitely long at 4 hours 14 minutes (the director’s cut is even longer). There may be a bit too much speechifying (though much of it is moving). But the movie is a once in a lifetime experience: a thrilling recreation of the actual battle on the actual battlefield (the only time the National Park service allowed it). It is the closest we will ever come to actually being there at the most important battle of the American Civil War. The movie does a beautiful job of capturing both the North and South points of view going into the battle. Points of view that are still valid today. The large cast is excellent. Jeff Daniels makes a moving and heroic Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Tom Berenger is a conflicted James Longstreet. Richard Jordan (in his final role) is a tragic Lew Armistead. Stephen Lang is perfect as the too trusting and naïve George Pickett leading his men into a bloodbath. If the length bothers you then watching it in 3 parts on July 1, July 2, and July 3. See it to get a better understanding of who we are as a country. And see it for the grand splendor of Pickett’s Charge: a total folly of a maneuver but a brave and beautiful thing. It makes us appreciate how close the North came to losing the war; it makes us realize how close the South came to winning. TRIVIA: The actor playing the British observer is George Lazenby, famous for his one off appearance as James Bond in ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE (1969). TOMORROW: 4 MOVIES FOR THE 4TH PART II
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Some of my faithful readers have been sending in some questions. Some have left their names and some have been anonymous. But Monday seemed a good time to answer some of them.
Terry writes regarding John Wayne: I would argue with THE ALAMO. I don't dislike it (even though the story has almost nothing to do with the history of the battle, which annoys me), but I think Wayne had better performances. I would suggest, for instance, IN HARM’S WAY, the Otto Preminger war picture. Wayne shines as a naval officer demoted after Pearl Harbor, who redeems himself in battle. It also has an incredible all star cast. Thanks, Terry. I like IN HARM'S WAY (1965) but think it’s much too long and Wayne is just average in it. The ending is pretty downbeat too. Kirk Douglas plays an interesting character with a very dark side. And it is fun to see the grown up Brandon De Wilde from SHANE as well as the grown up (and rather sexy) Jill Haworth from EXODUS. Wayne and Patricia Neal don't seem to have any chemistry though. Anonymous writes: Did you see JAWS when it first came out? What do you think of the sequels? I did not see JAWS when it came out in 1975. Because of the violence, the MPAA’s ratings board wanted to give it an R. Universal appealed and the MPAA allowed the PG rating as long as the posters and commercials carried the warning “May Be Too Intense For Younger Children.” That was good enough for my mother to say I could not see it. I finally saw JAWS when Universal re-released it in the summer 1979. As for the sequels (all totally unnecessary IMHO) I like JAWS 2 (1978) (***). It isn’t great but still entertaining. I like the personalities of the teenagers. JAWS 3-D (1983) (**1/2) is fun in a cheesy kind of way. I like Dennis Quaid and Bess Armstrong. And this is the movie that made me a lifelong Lea Thompson fan. So I can forgive film’s many flaws. JAWS: THE REVENGE (1987) (**) is just horrible. I hope they’ve permanently closed the books on JAWS. Even though rumors persist that they want to remake the original. NO! Lisa asks: Have you ever fallen asleep in a movie? Have you ever walked out of a movie? Yes and yes. I used to never fall asleep in films until I had to start taking my son to family movies. The first movie I slept through was SHARK TALE, though I have also slept through BACK TO THE BARNYARD, and DOOGAL. Did manage to nod off for parts of ALIENS IN THE ATTIC and PARANORMAN. The only movie I have walked out of was ISHTAR (1987) only because I was on a date and I knew if I did not leave, the date would be ruined. So, yes, that night I picked love over movies. Anonymous writes: How can you like XANADU (1980)??? That movie is BAD BAD BAD!!!!!!!! First off, there are no rational explanations for liking a Guilty Pleasure. You realize how horrible it all is but you like it anyway. That’s why it is a GUILTY pleasure. But in terms of the movie XANADU, as I wrote in my Friday column, I love the soundtrack, hate the movie. I saw it on opening night in 1980 with a full house at the Clarkston Cinema and the audience just sat there saying nothing for the whole screening. It was one of the first shockingly bad films I can remember seeing in a theater. Where to begin? Michael Beck is miscast as the lead. Director Robert Greenwald doesn’t seem to know how to direct a musical. Olivia Newton-John shows none of the talent and promise she had in GREASE. The only thinks it has going for it are: 1) Gene Kelly making his final appearance in a musical. His dance number with Olivia is one of the few highlights, 2) Don Bluth’s animation. He and his associates had just been fired by Disney (that’s another story) and they do a good job here, 3) Olivia Newton-John is very beautiful. A movie can be forgiven a world of sins if the leading lady is gorgeous. Thanks for writing. And leave your name next time! Don't be a stranger. Several of you have written in: Love the site. How can I subscribe? Why aren’t you on Facebook or Pinterest? Funny you should ask. Today marks my first day on both Facebook and Pinterest. Thanks to my good friend Lisa for helping me get started. I’m still getting up to speed but stop by and check me out at both sites. You can also now subscribe by clicking on the link at the bottom of the main page. And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter as well. Do you have a question????? Please send it in!!!!!! Guilty Pleasures. We all have them. We rarely admit to them. Only in the privacy of the internet do we come clean! So far this summer, I find myself listening a lot to XANADU. No, not the movie. The movie is absolutely horrid. One of my nominees for worst movie ever made. Only thing noteworthy about it is that it is Gene Kelly’s final musical (what a depressing movie to end a great career on). It also features Don Bluth (THE SECRET OF NIMH, AN AMERICAN TAIL, THE LAND BEFORE TIME) doing feature animation right after getting fired by Disney. There is a fascinating, multi-part installment on the movie that you can read HERE. No, I am referring to the soundtrack album which did a lot better than the movie (I hesitate to call it a film). I picked up the LP back in the 1980s. I finally got it on CD two years ago. The album was originally a two-part collaboration. Side One featured songs from Olivia Newton-John, the titular star of XANADU and red hot coming off her debut in the smash hit GREASE (1978). Side Two was the domain of Electric Light Orchestra, one of the biggest groups in the world and still one of the greatest groups of all time. Olivia’s side was handled by her regular producer John Farr. It leads off with the ultra-hit “Magic”. It seemed like every radio was required to run this constantly in the summer of 1980 and yet I never got tired of hearing it. There are two duets. Olivia sings with Cliff Richard on “Suddenly” which still works as a lovely love song. That song was all over the radio in the Fall of 1980 when I was just starting college. I would head to classes with that song in my head. The other duet is “Whenever You’re Away From Me” – notable only for Olivia singing with Gene Kelly. The other two songs on Side One are the underrated “Suspended In Time” and the mish mash “disco meets big band” tune called “Dancin’”. “Suspended In Time” should rank up there with the rest of Olivia’s best work. The ELO Side Two features three classic songs (despite the group insisting that songs from XANADU not be included on their greatest hits collections). “I’m Alive” and “All Over The World” are loud rocking tunes that slide in perfectly beside the ELO oeuvre like “Do Ya” and “Sweet Talkin’ Woman”. Both “The Fall” and “Don’t Walk Away” are lesser songs and yet just as fine. The whole album wraps up with Olivia and ELO together on the classic title song, “Xanadu”.
So why am I listening to XANADU so much this summer? Probably because it is summer. And listening to the record takes me back to the summer of 1980. I had just turned 18 and graduated from high school. College lay ahead in the fall. But between May and August was a chance to begin spreading my wings with the big huge world of dreams and adulthood just ahead of me. I was writing my first novel. Reading a lot of William Faulkner. Reading E.L. Doctorow’s LOON LAKE. My heart got broken for the first time. I was both scared and hopeful about the future. And despite the fact that 33 years have passed since then, I still feel that way today. XANADU takes me back to those feelings and times. Is it a great album? No, but it certainly is a fun and breezy one. It leaves me feeling hopeful, romantic, and up! Isn’t that what the best albums should do? What are some of your guilty pleasures? Last Friday, my son Ben and I went to the movies. He saw WORLD WAR Z while I took in THE BLING RING. Our reviews are below: THE BLING RING (****) By Richard Rothrock THE BLING RING marks a return to form for director Sofia Coppola after 2009’s low-key SOMEWHERE. Her new film relates the true tale of a group of fame-hungry California teens who began burglarizing the homes of stars they admired: Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson, and others. Coppola’s detached, observational cinema is always best when profiling young people still trying to find their roles in the insular world of the rich and famous. MARIE ANTOINETTE (2006) found Marie (Kirsten Dunst) and her husband Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman) learning on the job what it means to be rulers of France with little guidance from the courtiers and ministers around them. Unfortunately, by the time they got up to speed, it was too late to avert the French Revolution. They lived such self-absorbed lives in Versailles that they looked genuinely startled when the mobs came looking for their heads. Oblivious as to what they have done wrong. The characters in THE BLING RING reside in the self-absorbed American version of Versailles: Hollywood, California where everyone is either famous or aspiring to be. These teens have no inner self. The media and their own parents have taught them that being famous is all that matters. If you can’t be famous then at least have the stuff of the rich and famous. And that’s what they start to do. Marc (Israel Broussard) is a troubled teen at a new school befriended by Rebecca (Katie Chang). She at first appears fun and daring but soon leads him into a string of petty thefts that escalate. They are joined by Chloe (Claire Julien) and the equally detached Nicki (Emma Watson) and Sam (Taissa Farmiga). All are from upper middle class families. None seem to have any inner life. Life is about being seen: at clubs, on Facebook. They are constantly taking photos of themselves. These are individuals so wrapped up in the outer trappings of fame they have no idea they are already dead inside. Nicki and Sam are homeschooled by Nicki’s fame obsessed mother (Leslie Mann) whose curriculum is based on THE SECRET. I loved the scene where they make posters discussing women they admire. Mom picks Angelina Jolie. Why? Because of her great face, her butt, and the fact that she has Brad Pitt. The kids want to be famous and yet the people they admire are famous for not really achieving anything. Fame is achieved by having things. The girls seem to think that by spending time in the stars' homes, by taking their stuff and proudly displaying it on Facebook and wearing it around town, they can buy fame too. And I guess in today’s culture they are not completely wrong. Performances are riveting. Much of the press has been devoted to Emma Watson and she is amazing as Nicki, the shallow beauty who only lives when she is the center of attention. Loved the scene at the end when VANITY FAIR comes to interview her and it turns into a limelight wrestling match between she and her mother – enabled by Nicki’s newly acquired press agent and lawyer. But the rest of the cast is just as good. Israel Broussard makes a sympathetic Marc, the lone male of the group and the only one who senses this is wrong yet fears taking any action to stop it because he knows he’ll be exiled from the group. And the group is all he has. Katie Chang is fascinating as Rebecca, the amoral leader who callously manipulates everyone to greater and greater crimes under the guise of friendship and almost gets away scot-free. Taissa Farmiga, Vera Farmiga’s youngest sister, is even more terrifying as Sam: the member with the least scruples and yet the one who escapes punishment. When the cops come to take them away, they all look genuinely perplexed, incapable of understanding that they have done anything wrong or transgressed any laws. In this brave new world, the well off always escape punishment, right? It is only the poor and the unknowns that have to suffer jail and consequences. THE BLING RING starts out being mildly amusing. By the end, it becomes genuinely scary. When we find ourselves staring eye to eye with the craven, unrepentant, and, yes, delusional Nicki – who has learned nothing and, in fact, been rewarded for her crimes – we understand at the final fade out that we are not staring into the eyes of some deviant malcontent. We are staring into the dark abyss of our future. WORLD WAR Z (***) By Ben Rothrock I thought WORLD WAR Z was very good. It had good characters, a good storyline, and a good musical score. Marc Forester (QUANTUM OF SOLACE) was the director, and I now think he is a good director. The film was very fast paced. Right off the bat, the zombie outbreak gets started, and the fall of civilization happens immediately. It starts with Brad Pitt and his family stuck in traffic while moving somewhere else. They begin to hear reports of an outbreak that has gone international. Unknown to them, the zombie outbreak has already reached them. Within seconds, thousands of people are infected and start to go after others.
One problem that I had was that Brad Pitt was just too lucky. Throughout the entire film, he narrowly escapes zombie attacks without getting bitten. Another problem was that in Israel, the zombies got into a walled safe zone by climbing over each other and created a tower to the top of the wall. Instead of forming an ever-growing pile of zombies, they formed a tower that never broke formation. Something like that couldn't happen unless they were climbing through a tube on the wall. Besides the zombies being so fast that they could knock over anything, the film was pretty good. I thought the effects could have been better, but that wasn't enough to ruin the film. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is in love with zombie films. It is now my favorite zombie movie. They have planned it to be a trilogy, so I can't wait for parts 2 and 3. CLOSER (2004) Jude Law meets Natalie Portman in Mike Nichols' searing drama. Just goes to show how much of the characters can be set up before a word is ever spoken. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942) Orson Welles' follow up to CITIZEN KANE (1941) is every bit as brilliant despite being cut by 40 minutes by RKO. The opening shows how much narration (brilliantly read by Welles) can set the mood & conjure a bygone era. Summer has officially arrived! Today is the summer solstice which also means, yes, this IS the longest day of the year. Normally, I am like Daisy Buchanan and miss this day. Mostly because every year it feels like summer has arrived long before the official start date. Winter has a habit of doing the same thing. Amazon So as we enjoy this first official day of summer and wait for the summer heat to come calling, here are a couple things to help you though to the fall: MUSIC I am currently constantly listening to two new CDs. They sound like the perfect soundtracks for summer, 2013. She & Him VOLUME 3 - Yep, I am a huge fan of Zoey Deschanel and M. Ward. Have both of their previous volumes. This one is not quite as good as VOLUME 2 but I l love the bubbly 1960s sound they have going here. It’s the perfect “drive around town with the top down” record. I like all of the songs really but if I had to pick… Favorite tracks: “I’ve Got Your Number, Son”, “I Could’ve Been Your Girl”, “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me”, “London”. Oh heck, play the whole thing!!!! The Melody Room Iron & Wine GHOST ON GHOST – Another fun drive around in the car record. I thought they never surpass WOMAN KING (2005) but they have done so here. Their lyrics take you to so many different places in just one song. Favorite tracks: “Caught In the Briars”, “Joy”, “Low Light Buddy of Mine”. Oh heck, I like them all! Wikipedia If you’re looking for something more classic to listen to: Brian Wilson’s SMILE (2004) is perfect. His finally completed rock and roll symphony is guaranteed to make you do just that. Love the original version of “Good Vibrations”. CLASSIC SUMMER MOVIES You can’t do better than STAND BY ME (1986). Rob Reiner’s perfect coming of age tale makes you feel young (and old) all over again. SUMMER OF `42 (1971) doesn’t get much due these days but take a look. Set on a New England island during World War II, Herman Raucher’s Oscar-winning, autobiographical script sets just the right tone as Hermie (Gary Grimes) discovers love for the first time. Jennifer O’Neill as the out of reach object of his infatuation is just right. Michel Legrand’s Oscar-winning score is a classic. Directed by the always brilliant, ever underrated Robert Mulligan (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD). GUILTY PLEASURE SUMMER MAGIC (1963). - Yes, I know it is Walt Disney at his most sentimental. Yes, I know the story is old-fashioned and from the lady who gave us MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944). I love it anyway. Hayley Mills is gorgeous, Deborah Walley is fetching. The humor is spot on. And the Sherman Brothers songs elevate the whole thing. Burl Ives singing “On The Front Porch” is one of my favorite movie moments. Watch them all with the windows open and the air conditioner off! So what is getting YOU through the summer??????? SUMMER MAGIC (1963) – what summer is all about. Read my 1995 interview with Susan (Chrissie) Backlinie HERE. The remains of Chrissie Watkins’ body were found washed up on Amity Island’s South Beach on this Thursday morning back in June 1974. We all know what happened after that. How Amity’s summer and reputation was ruined by the reoccurring attacks of a Great White Shark. How the shark was eventually hunted down and killed. How Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) became the island’s hero. How JAWS became the biggest movie of all time. Steven Spielberg became the hottest director in the world. Amity Island was never quite the same. Heck, even movies haven’t been the same. But I want to take a moment today to remember the QUINT-essential sacrificial maiden who unknowingly triggered these events and paid the ultimate price for our entertainment. For men of my generation, JAWS’ Chrissie Watkins holds a special fascination. For many of us, she was the first naked woman we’d seen in a movie even though we really don’t see much flesh in the film’s day for night footage: a naked back here, a side boob there, the silhouette of her lithe form gliding through the water. We know precious little about Chrissie herself. In the 1970s, the name Chrissie was synonymous with bimbo or airhead. Peter Benchley could not have chosen a more demeaning first name for the shark’s first victim. She is an anonymous woman. Easy to pick up. Easy to take advantage of. Easy to forget. She is a college student who seems to have wandered out to Amity Island on a Wednesday June afternoon in the early days of summer because she had nothing better to do. Maybe she tagged along with some friends who knew some boys renting a house on Amity for the summer. Tom Cassidy (Jonathan Filley) being one of them. Cassidy tells Chief Brody that he met Chrissie when she got off the island ferry as part of a group though she was apparently not memorable enough for him to remember her name. Perhaps the group of guys and gals all palled around town for the afternoon. Perhaps they ended up at the house for a while. We definitely know they eventually got a keg and some clams and all headed down to the beach. The sun went down. The beer flowed. The weed came out. There was laughter and music and the beginnings of making out. Partners getting chosen. Chrissie sits alone away from everyone. Maybe she doesn’t drink. Maybe she doesn’t do weed. She appears to not be having fun. Her chin is on her hands. Her hands rest on her knees. She looks bored. She doesn’t really know anyone here. And if she does, I somehow think she is not on good terms with the other girls at the party. She appears to be having doubts about even coming out here. The evening is starting to wind down. Midnight is approaching (Brody’s accident report ID’s the time as 11:50pm). Soon, boys and girls will become couples and couples will begin sneaking off: back to the house or off behind a dune. That’s how college parties used to work back then. I know because I used to be the guy left alone by the fire, not chosen just like in gym class. It is the worst feeling in the world. Chrissie doesn’t want to feel that way. A boy is looking at her. It is the cute boy that met them at the ferry. They’ve traded half a dozen looks (and a few smiles) over the course of the afternoon and evening. He probably doesn’t remember her name but she remembers his. Tom. Others call him Tommy. She stares dead on at him now. Eyes to eyes. No point in being subtle. He stares back. She smiles. She knows that is one of her best features. Her hair and her smile. She can feel her heart starting to race. Her breath increasing under her turtleneck sweater. He takes a drink of his beer and looks again. She has him. She looks away, a knowing smile on her face. The ocean looks beautiful with the moon and the sound of the waves. She can very easily imagine herself out there. Wet. Making love. He gets up and walks over. Asks her name (she knew he didn’t remember). No problem. He will. She tells him. He asks what she is doing over here alone. She cuts in. Does he want to get out of here? She doesn’t wait for a reply. She grabs her purse and scampers up the dune: away from the fire and away from this boring party. He asks her name again. He appears to be drunker than she thought. No matter. She knows how to fix that. A bracing swim and he’ll be ready. She runs along the dune. Away from the fire. Off by themselves just the two of them so if they get too loud no one will hear. She peels off her clothes one by one: jacket, shoes, sweater. He follows though he seems pretty slow. She reaches the beach, steps out of her jeans just as he tumbles down the dune and onto the sand. She laughs and runs toward the water. Her legs are her best feature. Her legs and her hair and her smile. She dives straight in. The water is colder than she thought but it feels really good. Like the lake she used to swim in back home in the summers before her parents got divorced. She considers swimming out to the buoy but soon realizes it is further out than she thought. She rolls over and backstrokes parallel to the shore. The feel of the water traveling across her skin makes her shiver. She stares up at the moon. It’s full overhead. That means it’s a night for passion and unexpected meetings. She doesn’t really know what she wants to do with her life yet. She wants to be a dancer but she can’t dance. She wants to be singer but she can’t sing. She wants to write great poetry but she never finds the time to write. More than anything, she wants to be remembered. She stretches her right leg high into the now chilly night air. Feels the goose pimples on her wet thigh. Let’s herself slip under. Alone underwater, she remembers when she was a little girl, she wanted to be a mermaid, have a tail instead of legs, and live at the bottom of the sea. The memory makes her giggle. She surfaces and smiles. For the first time today, she is having fun. For the first time in awhile, she won’t be spending the night alone. Where is he? She looks back toward shore. He’s still on the beach! She calls for him to join her, cursing the impatient tone in her voice. How drunk is he? She starts to swim back in. Making it easier for him to reach her. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Maybe a swim is all she is going to get tonight. No poke. No grab. That’s OK, she thinks. There’ll be other chances. She’s only 22. She pauses and waits, treading water. He’s laying on the sand now. She peers into the darkness trying to better see what he is up to. He appears to be falling asleep. Her left foot brushes against something just below her. A sharp pinch around her calf and she gets yanked down hard… Social scientists say that the emotion most in decline these days is empathy: the ability to relate and understand the feelings of another person. When I look at the insane number of characters killed off in today’s movies and video games, I can understand why. We are never asked to connect or relate to any of the victims. If anything, we are supposed to get some kind of cheap thrill from how they die. It makes me think of Chrissie. A fun loving girl just looking for a good time who had to pay the price for our own selfish entertainment. I wonder if we aren’t all going to end up like Chief Brody: standing on the beach holding her bag. For Father’s Day this year, my son gave me a collection of old Saturday morning cartoons on DVDs. I realize the concept of “Saturday morning cartoons” is alien to most of you but there used to be a time when cartoons were ONLY on Saturday mornings. I have strong memories of most of these shows: THE HERCULOIDS, SHAZZAN, FRANKENSTEIN JR., SPACE GHOST, JONNY QUEST, et al. Most of them went off the air before I even entered elementary school. Yet they remain very fresh in my mind. One in particular is YOUNG SAMSON & GOLIATH (1967). Of all the shows listed above, that was the one show I used to play by myself. Samson was a teenage boy (way before Ben 10) voiced by Tim Matheson of JONNY QUEST, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE and THE WEST WING – talk about a wide-ranging career -- who rode around on a cool motor scooter with his dog, Goliath. His only bling was a pair of gold rings around his wrists. Wherever they went, Samson & Goliath inevitably ran into bad guys: evil witch doctors, scientists bent on conquering the world, monsters etc. When things got tight, Samson would clang those gold rings together over his head and turn himself into Young Samson (Tim Matheson again sounding like he was now standing in an echo chamber). A clang of the rings in front transformed Goliath from a yappy mongrel dog to a roaring lion. You could tell they were the same animal because both had a matching gray front paw. Their superpowers (great strength, lasers shooting out of the eyes) varied from episode to episode depending on what was needed to defeat the villain of the day. And defeat them they did! Before moving on, just a boy and his dog. Before I wanted to be a writer. Before I wanted to be a racecar driver. Before I wanted to be an astronaut, I wanted to be Young Samson. Naturally, gold wrist rings were rather hard to come by in the 1960s (for boys) so I did what I always did when I could not find a toy: I made it! I drew them out on notebook paper, colored them with my Crayola gold crayon, cut them out with my Lefty scissors, wrapped them around my wrist, and Scotch taped them on! I was ready to go. My favorite stuffed animal, Puppy, filled in for Goliath. Once I clanged my gold paper wrist rings together, he transformed into a large brown teddy bear. Villains beware! The motor scooter had to be left to my imagination (I wasn’t riding a bike yet). I wore those rings ALL summer one year. I distinctly remember running around the yard of my cousin’s grandparents’ house in Scott, Indiana: banging my wrist rings together and battling all the imaginary monsters who came in from their field. “What is HE doing?” I remember Grandpa blurting out. “Oh, well,” my Aunt Donna stammered, “He’s playing, ah, well, he’s got these rings, you know. And he bangs them over his head [Aunt Donna banging her wrists over her head]. I don’t know. He’s playing.” And Grandpa shook his head like it was the dumbest thing he ever saw. I remember feeling really embarrassed. I took the rings off not long after that and never put them on again. Unless I was by myself in my room. Almost half a century has gone by since I last watched that show but if I were going to be any kind of superhero, it would still be Young Samson. I’ve got the rings. I’ve got the dog. I’m still working on the motor scooter. And that transformation changy thing.........(smile)....... H.G. Wells: Do you still maintain this is all poppycock? Amy Robbins: That wasn’t quite the word I had in mind. It was probably inevitable that I would fall for TIME AFTER TIME (1979), Nicholas Meyer’s stunning debut thriller. Back then, it had all the elements I had come to adore in my 17 year old heart: time travel, H.G. Wells (BIG fan of WAR OF THE WORLDS), alternative history, a gentle satire of today’s fads, and even Jack the Ripper. Yep, I am an amateur Ripperologist (when my family visited London last fall, I made us go on one of those tours). I first heard about TIME AFTER TIME while watching Siskel & Ebert. They used to highlight hidden gems: movies they felt were getting lost at the box office. One week they picked TIME. When it opened soon after at the nearby Clarkston Cinema, my all-time favorite movie theater, I was there for opening night. TIME AFTER TIME tells the fanciful tale of author H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) traveling through time from 1893 to modern day -- well, 1979 -- pursuing Jack the Ripper. It tries to answer questions that history can’t. How did Wells seem so knowledgeable about the future? Did he really build a time machine while writing the classic novel of the same name? Why did Jack the Ripper seem to vanish from history? TIME answers all those questions and more. It is a neat thriller with an inventive script, solid performances, and some knowing social commentary slid in amongst the thrills and humor. After Wells discovers that his best friend, John Leslie Stephenson (David Warner) is really Jack the Ripper – and that he has used Wells’ new time machine to escape the authorities, Wells follows Stephenson into the future. They both find themselves dropped in 1979 San Francisco and both soon discover that the future is not what either expected. Wells expected a harmonious utopia filled with peace and understanding. Stephenson discovers that he has to up his game: “Ninety years ago I was a freak. Today, I'm an amateur.” I’m not going to give away the film’s many clever twists and reversals. They are better experienced without much prior knowledge. What continues to stand out for me three decades later are: Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells. He strikes just the right balance of nerdy inquisitiveness and debonair charm. He is shy in public but worldly in private. He has a child’s sense of discovery but he is also a man out of step with whatever time he is in: too modern for 1893 and too old-fashioned for 1979. (I can relate!) As he tells Amy in one of their first heart to hearts: “You’re very perceptive. Lost is what I am.” Events in the film force him to change from a man of thought to a man of action. From a man alone to a man who’ll do anything to win the woman he loves. Sorry CLOCKWORK ORANGE. This is McDowell’s finest performance. This is the film that made Mary Steenburgen a star and she is still a major revelation in it. (Steenburgen went straight from this to winning an Oscar for MELVIN & HOWARD (1980) – another forgotten movie gem). Sexy and funny, feminine and resourceful, Amy uses her brains to figure out the situations she finds herself in. She is Wells’ dream girl -- the only part of the 20th century that actually worked out the way he hoped back in 1893. The romance between them is deeply affecting and the chemistry between the two actors is palpable (McDowell and Steenburgen fell in love during the film and married soon after). Their romance is perfectly balanced by David Warner as Jack the Ripper. He is sadistic but never wholly unsympathetic. Despite his courtly charm, Stephenson knows he will never be anything but a heartless killer with mommy issues -- symbolized by the brandishing of his pocket watch shortly before he kills. He may be a demon but he knows he is. Part of him wants to keep killing and part of him wants this to end. Meyer also turns a wry eye on progress. How things have changed and not changed in food, movies, notions of honor, and the battle between the sexes. Many of his observations have only gotten funnier since 1979. In the end, Wells realizes that, “Every age is the same. It is only love that makes any of them bearable.” In short, the movie blew me away from the get go. This was the age before films regularly came out on VHS/DVD six months later (chronicled here) so I did the next best thing. I saw TIME 4 times at the Clarkston in the span of one week. I bought the novelization. I still regularly listen to the soundtrack album by the great Miklos Rozsa. Wells’ phrase “To be quite candid” has unconsciously entered my common expressions. There are a few clunky things. Wells seems too smart to pose as Sherlock Holmes when talking to the cops. The film’s 1970s roots make it feel rather dated at times. Many of the locations they visit (the rotating Equinox restaurant, the Hyatt Regency hotel) have since been torn down. It gives the movie a bit of a time capsule feel. But what continues to hang with me and become even more relevant the older I get is the film’s views on violence. How no society can hope to thrive as long as the population embraces it. As Stephenson says earlier on: “You haven’t gone forward, Herbert. You’ve gone back. The future is not what you thought. It’s what I am.” When the Ripper starts closing in and the two men clash for possession of the time machine as a symbol of how the future will be, Amy advises Wells to buy a gun. Wells’ response continues to stick with me down through the years. It came back in spades earlier this year when the NRA started arguing after Newtown that we all should start packing heat:
WELLS: I wouldn’t purchase a weapon now even if I could. AMY: Oh what is this? Victorian chivalry or something? We’re playing for keeps here. WELLS: Exactly. And Stephenson was right about one thing. Violence is contagious like measles. And the trouble with progress is not that things are more efficient. The trouble is they’re the same things. World War This. World War That. Oh, we’re obviously killing much more efficiently but we’re still killing. Well, I’m not going to stoop to that man’s barbaric level. The first man to raise a fist is the man who's run out of ideas. [Pause] AMY [first time she says it]: I love you. And I love this movie. It is suspenseful, romantic, funny, and insightful. To be quite candid, it is one of the movies that changed my life. Check it out! Yes, I know Father's Day was yesterday. I spent it being a father to my son. And I spent it being a son with my father. For me, the best movie example of the complex feelings shared between fathers and sons is FIELD OF DREAMS (1989), Phil Alden Robinson's masterpiece about baseball and fathers and sons and dreams and regrets. This scene makes every man I know (including myself) cry. "If you build it, he will come........." WARNING: SPOILER ALERT -- THIS IS THE END OF THE MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DAD!!!!!!!
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