The next couple of entries probably aren’t going to be of any interest to anyone except me — and isn’t it cute that I think any of my entries are of interest to anyone except myself? — but these are housekeeping-type things that I feel obligated to do in order to satisfy my own OCD-fueled mania for lists and historical accounting, and I need to do them pretty damn quick, too, since the first month of 2011 is already gone. Anyhow, if for some reason you are interested in reading on, here’s everything on which I wasted my meager leisure time during the previous year…
A number of blogs have already commented on yesteday’s passing of film-music composer John Barry, aged 77, and I have little more to contribute except to note that a number of his scores rank among my all-time favorite music of any genre. (Yes, this formerly mullet-wearing rock-and-roll fan does have other musical interests, believe it or not!) Everyone seems to be focusing on Barry’s work for the James Bond films, but personally I love the moody atmosphere he brought to The Black Hole and the languid romanticism of both Out of Africa and Raise the Titanic (a near-universally panned film, but a lovely soundtrack).
Barry’s music was big and sentimental and it often took its time to develop a theme, making it perfectly suited for epic movies that wear their emotions on their sleeves — sadly, a type of film that nobody seems interested in making anymore. It’s therefore fitting that his last truly great work (in my admittedly biased opinion) was the soundtrack for one of the last great sentimental epics, Dances with Wolves. Oh, stop sneering. I know Dances has never been appreciated by the hipster movie-snob crowd, but for me it has always been and still remains deeply moving. It came along at just the right time in my life, I guess, to fully resonate with me on every imaginable level. And Barry’s music for the film — from the brutal staccato that accompanies the Pawnee attacks to the tender innocence of Two Socks’ theme to the blood-thumping grandeur of the buffalo hunt — is nothing short of sublime.
My favorite music from the movie, though — my favorite Barry piece, period — is listed on the Dances soundtrack album as “Journey to Ft. Sedgewick,” comprising Lt. Dunbar’s travels across the Great Plains with the grubby muleskinner Timmons early in the film. This piece evokes so much for me: an undefined yearning, a restless curiosity, wanderlust, the excitement of someplace new, the nobility of open spaces, the physical sensation of gazing upon beauty and feeling very small but in a satisfying way… I find this piece immensely uplifting, and of course it brings back a lot of memories of a long-past time in my life when Dances with Wolves was the big event and it was always the golden hour. If you want to know what I was like at the age of 21 — what I hope I’m still like in my better moments — it’s all right here:
Inspired by a conversation with my coworkers, here’s Harrison Ford’s big-screen debut, in a 1966 crime thriller called Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round:
Dead Heat starred James Coburn as a criminal who’s pulling various con jobs as he gears up for a bank heist. It actually sounds like a pretty good flick, based on the plot summary, but I suspect the only reason anybody talks about it today is because of Ford’s somewhat ignominious debut. It is available on DVD, it appears, so maybe I’ll throw it in the Netflix queue, just for kicks.
Harrison was a contract player for Columbia at the time, earning $150 a week and going uncredited for his walk-on part in Dead Heat. He would struggle along in this bottom-rung position for a few more years, appearing in forgotten movies and random television episodes, mostly westerns. His big break finally came in George Lucas’ American Graffiti, in which Ford played the badass hotrodder in the black ’56 Chevy, Bob Falfa.
So, I’ve been taking four-day weekends ever since Thanksgiving in an effort to burn up some unused vacation time. My corporate overlords subscribe to the “use-it-or-lose-it” philosophy, apparently buying into some misbegotten notion that if you forbid your overworked, stressed-out staff of type-A personalities (and the type-B drones who support them) from rolling unused vacation time over to the next year, you will somehow force people to actually, you know, take vacations. Sounds great in theory, but in real-world application, we in the advertising industry still don’t take as many vacations as we’re theoretically entitled to. There’s always this implicit (and sometimes an explicit) message that it’s just not a good time, because the current project is too big and/or too critical, or the deadline is too near, or management simply can’t spare us right now. Basically, we all suffer from delusions of indispensability. And because of that wholly unhealthy way of thinking, we always end up, as December looms, with a whole bunch of people trying to schedule time off around everybody else’s scheduled time off. The result is a short-staffed agency for the final six weeks of the year, and, for me personally — this year, at least — a string of long weekends to accommodate all my coworkers’ vacation plans. Yeah, I’m a good guy that way.
(For those who would remind me that I did, in fact, take a vacation already this year, you are correct, I did: my Great Pennsylvania-Ohio Road Trip. However, I’m in the perverse position of having enough leave time available — but so little opportunity to actually use it — that even after taking a vacation, I’m still forced to do the end-of-the-year calendar dance with the drudges who never go anywhere.)
Anyhow, as fate would have it, I’ve spent most of these free Fridays and Mondays on various chores and errand-running, so they haven’t really felt like days off per se. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve been very productive and much appreciated, as I’ve finally gotten on top of a lot of stupid crap that needed doing. But I haven’t simply lounged on the couch and read a book, or watched a DVD from beginning to end without interruption, or killed the afternoon in a coffee shop enjoying the feel of a warm cup in my hand — in short, the relaxing things that people usually do when they’re not at work. (God, could I actually be turning into one of those workaholic type-As who doesn’t know how to unplug and simply be? That’s a terrifying thought!) This past Monday, however, an intestinal complaint of some kind left me feeling distinctly not in the mood to leave the house or do another chore. And so I finally sat down and put on a movie. And that’s when it all got interesting…
I’ve been dubious of a sequel to TRON — one of the touchstone films of my childhood and a minor classic in my book — ever since I first started to hear whispers about the project a few years ago. I don’t quite understand what’s motivating it after nearly three decades, and the emphasis in the early promotional materials on the awesome new effects and the 3D presentation did little to ease my mind. TRON: Legacy has always smelled more like a unnecessary remake than a proper sequel, and y’all ought to know by now how I feel about remakes to movies that still work for the sake of flashy new FX. However, my resistance to T:L has been weakening with each new trailer, and with today’s release of the third and final one before the film opens next month, I am feeling cautiously optimistic:
Maybe it’s just my sentimentality for beloved characters getting the better of me, as it likely did when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was coming out, but this looks like it might be all right after all. I got a big old grin when I glimpsed Flynn’s Arcade, and the ENCOM touch-screen control panel, and the familiar silhouette of the dematerializing laser rising into position behind Flynn’s son Sam. And of course seeing Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges in this universe again delivered an exquisite little zap of pleasure… I’m really hoping Boxleitner gets more to do than just the expository scene we see in the trailer. Perhaps Alan Bradley’s alter ego, the movie’s namesake character, puts in an appearance somewhere in the computer world? And if Cindy Morgan cameos as Lori and/or Yori as well… but that’s probably too much to hope for.
To be honest, the movie does appear to be aping the major plot points of the original, but I’m willing to overlook that if it’s otherwise done well. (Referring to Indiana Jones again, Last Crusade was in many ways a remake of Raiders, but I enjoyed it just about as much as the original.) My biggest concern right now is that TRON: Legacy looks like it takes itself very seriously, maybe too much so. The original was pretty light in tone, for the most part, but I’m not seeing a lot of wonder or humor in this trailer… and this is the most fun-looking of the three! Filmmakers these days seem to mistake thoughtfulness for grim broodiness, but like the title character in Sullivan’s Travels, I’ve come to see the value of escapism in difficult times, and I’d really rather just revisit the Game Grid without some big heavy (but ultimately superficial and unsatisfying) theme being ladled over my lightcycle races. At least the Apocalypse Now angle that would’ve had Flynn playing an around-the-bend villain along the lines of Brando’s Colonel Kurtz seems to have been nothing more than a rumor. I hate it when characters who were heroic in an earlier film turn bad in a sequel; it’s not dramatic, it’s lazy sensationalism, and it’s a slap in the face to fans who grew up admiring the original vision of the character.
Anyhow, TRON: Legacy is set to open December 17, if it looks like your sort of thing…
It’s the legendary character actor Peter Lorre… with cats!
I don’t have much to say about this, it just warmed my heart. I can almost hear him saying in his distinctive voice and cadence, “Yes, that’s a good kitty, you don’t despise me, do you? Not like that nasty Mr. Bogart…”
I pulled this from here, an excellent photo blog that comes up with a lot of wonderful and rare images of all sorts of mid-20th century subjects. If it’s a dark and rainy Saturday morning where you are, as it is here, and you’re looking for something to do for an hour or three, give it a look…
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not much for anime, those Japanese-made animated films that typically feature characters with enormous eyes (or hardly any eyes at all), bizarrely stylized facial expressions, and utterly insane hair-dos. I’ve sampled several of the acknowledged classics of the form over the years, but despite my genuine interest in Japan and its culture, I’ve just never been able to warm up to this stuff. In general, anyhow. There are two notable exceptions, a pair of anime for which I do have genuine affection, both of them television series that showed up in America right around the time I was absolutely crazy for anything that included spaceships and rayguns (i.e., the fifth grade).
The first was a show I think most people in my general age demo will remember, Battle of the Planets, which followed a team of five teenage superheroes known as G-Force.
I’ve been thinking I really shouldn’t leave the weekend to start on such a sour, ranty note as the previous entry (even though I don’t regret one word of it!), so here, enjoy this image of the lovely Rita Hayworth:
As crotchety old men have been saying for eons, they don’t make ’em like this anymore!
Here’s something extremely nerdy to ponder while you enjoy whatever snack you’re having for elevenses, a video compilation of “going to warp” scenes from all the pre-J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies, from 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture to Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002. (I saw a similar montage a couple days ago that included the 2009 reboot flick, but it seems to have vanished. My guess is some copyright nazi got wind of it. Clips from all those old movies? No problem. But don’t go posting so much as five seconds of our shiny new Star Trek, you damn Internet bootlegging fanboys!)
Anyhow, it’s interesting to me that the effect actually became less spectacular over time. You’d think the opposite would be the case as visual effects technology advanced and this stuff (presumably) became easier to create. Of course, the Trek movies did see their budgets whittled away over time, so that may have been a factor. In any event, I give you… Warp Speed!
Since all Trekkies have a genetic imperative to offer unsolicited opinions on meaningless stuff, I’d like to announce for the record that my favorite warp effects are the “disco-tunnel” from The Motion Picture and the Wrath of Kahn “rainbow streak.” The TMP effect is the most spectacular of all of them, the most cinematic. The sound effects and the slightly drawn-out timing impart a sense of drama, as if massive energies are being harnessed and something truly extraordinary is about to happen. And of course, if you consider the historical context of this being the first time we’d seen the Enterprise on the big screen, and the desire (at that time) to make a Star Trek that really was something more than just a two-hour television segment, that’s exactly what the jump to warp speed was supposed to be.
The Kahn effect (seen at 0:17 and 0:22, if you don’t recognize them all on sight) wasn’t as spectacular or as “big” — I suspect it was cheaper to produce — but it was impressive in its own right, and probably better for story-telling purposes, since it could be placed in context with other objects and backgrounds. (I can’t quite imagine the TMP tunnel effect against the Mutara Nebula, the backdrop in the second Kahn clip; it seems as if it would only work if the Enterprise were alone in the frame.) Some variant of the rainbow streak would, of course, appear in all the rest of the movies derived from the original series, but for my money it was never as nicely done as in its first appearance.
As for the effect seen in the Next Generation movies, I was never a fan of the “rubberband” effect introduced in the Next Gen TV series, i.e., the way the ship seems to stretch out, then snap forward into the starburst/sonic boom thing. It always looked cheap and silly to me, and the big-screen version didn’t improve upon it…
Okay, pop culture, I get it. You have finally beaten me. Your insatiable entertainment juggernaut held me in its warm embrace for a brief, glorious moment of my youth, but then predictably, inevitably, churned onward toward newer and flashier things, leaving me stranded on the side of a one-way road that’s rapidly diminishing into the rear-view. So I guess it’s time for me to surrender to the obvious and admit that my day is past, my sensibilities are out of touch, and I am no longer even remotely cool.
At least that’s how I felt about ten minutes into the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
First, though, a bit of backstory to explain how I came to be watching a film that hadn’t previously drawn so much as one iota of my interest…
