tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85456617339808372632024-03-13T23:38:14.014-07:00Icebox MoviesAdam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.comBlogger118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-28064035549687224382014-07-21T18:18:00.001-07:002014-07-21T18:18:58.925-07:00"A Thousand Deaths" wins 3 awards at the 2014 St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<li>Best Actor - John Bratkowski, <i>A Thousand Deaths</i> (Adam Zanzie, director) </li>
<li>Best Sound Design - <i>A Thousand Deaths</i>, Max Barnett (sound mixer), Ford Fanter and John Xeno (composers), Adam Zanzie (director) </li>
<li>HONORARY AWARD: Best Up-and-Coming-Filmmaker, Adam Zanzie</li>
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A complete list of this year's awards can be found <a href="http://www.cinemastlouis.org/sites/default/files/downloads/2014/SHOWCASE+AWARD+WINNERS.pdf">here</a>.</div>
Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-32325054105791591772013-12-23T15:23:00.005-08:002013-12-23T15:37:59.794-08:00A Call for Donations to My Senior Film!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D2QoiaXMh-M/UrjGSae0NXI/AAAAAAAAA6k/XQw1FRDNwFM/s1600/AThousandDeaths500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D2QoiaXMh-M/UrjGSae0NXI/AAAAAAAAA6k/XQw1FRDNwFM/s320/AThousandDeaths500.png" /></a></div><br />
Hello, everyone! Next February, I will be shooting my senior film for Webster University: an adaptation of Jack London's <i>A Thousand Deaths</i>, a story about a mad scientist obsessed with killing and resurrecting his own son.<br />
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Last week, I officially launched <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-thousand-deaths--2">our IndieGogo campaign</a>. Our goal is to raise a budget of $2,500. As of now, we've raised $410, but we still have a long way to go.<br />
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Please give what you can! To find out more about <i>A Thousand Deaths</i>, you can read the original Jack London story <a href="http://www.jacklondons.net/thousanddeaths.html">here</a>. <br />
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For a window into my expertise as a filmmaker, check out the trailer for my previous film, <i>Mark Twain's Bad Boy Without Grief</i>, <a href="https://vimeo.com/69126527">here</a>.<br />
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Thank you, everyone, for your support. Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!<br />
Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-19186409911697438722013-12-16T08:33:00.001-08:002019-03-26T00:59:52.988-07:00Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“Can I help you?” <br />
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Those are the first words spoken by Steven Spielberg in his memorable cameo as a mustached Chicago tax collector in John Landis’ <i>The Blues Brothers</i> (1980). Munching on a sandwich during his 5-minute break, he pokes his head through the door and asks if he can help our heroes. With no time to lose, the Blues Brothers grab him, drag him to his desk and plop him down. <br />
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“This is where they pay the taxes, right!??” frantically asks John Belushi’s Jake.<br />
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“…Right,” Spielberg replies.<br />
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Dan Aykroyd’s Elwood takes out a thick wad of cash from a briefcase and holds it up: “This money is for the year’s assessment on the Saint Helen of the Blessed Shroud Orphanage in Calumet City, Illinois.”<br />
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“Five thousand bucks! It’s all there, pal!” Belushi adds.<br />
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As hordes of hotheaded Chicago PD blast their way to the top of the building, Spielberg patiently signs, stamps, and completes the Brothers’ transaction. “And here is your receipt,” he concludes, attempting to hand it to the Brothers—just before their wrists are suddenly handcuffed and they slowly turn around, faced with the disconcerting sight of an untold number of rifle barrels pointed right at them. <br />
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Sure, the Brothers wind up going to jail. But at least Spielberg was able to help them first. And what’s more, he got to help out John Landis with a witty little cameo. Must’ve been his way of returning the favor after Landis’ own cameo in Spielberg’s <i>1941</i> (1979), where he played a dust-covered motorcycle messenger yanked off his ride by Belushi (and distracted when Belushi literally cries wolf—“baby wolf!” to be exact).<br />
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A couple of years later, Spielberg and Landis would help each other again on <i>Twilight Zone: The Movie</i> (1983), for which they would both serve as producers and for which they would each direct one of the film’s four ambitious segments. It seemed like a marvelous attempt to combine their respective talents until Landis made a fateful, pre-dawn telephone call to Spielberg on July 23, 1982, informing him that the worst possible thing had happened: under Landis’ watch, actor Vic Morrow and child actors Renee Shin-Yi Chen and My-Ca Dinh Le had been decapitated and crushed by a helicopter on the film’s set.<br />
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“Do you have a press agent?” Spielberg asked Landis over the phone.<br />
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It would be the last time Spielberg ever helped Landis. And <i>Twilight Zone: The Movie</i> would destroy their friendship.<br />
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The long headache which followed began when a truck driver from the set began claiming that Spielberg had been present on the set that night. Landis called the allegations “preposterous”, and defended Spielberg. The truck driver later admitted he might have confused Spielberg with Frank Marshall, and Spielberg himself swore to the NTSB that he had not been on the set that night—“or at any other time.”<br />
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But the tension between Spielberg and Landis didn’t end there.<br />
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As the investigation dragged on, Landis’ attorney publicly demanded that Spielberg be investigated for his possible involvement in the hiring of the two children who had been killed alongside Morrow. When the DA’s office did nothing (the statute of limitations had already expired on the matter of the children’s’ employment), Landis’ attorney accused Spielberg of trying to be above the law: “What other major witness could avoid questioning by signing a piece of paper?” A couple of the films Spielberg would later make in the 1980’s (<i>Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Empire of the Sun</i>) afforded him the luxury of being out of the country for much of the time and, thus, the luxury of dodging all attempts at being questioned during the investigation, as well as Landis’ involuntary manslaughter trial.<br />
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Landis was finally acquitted in 1987. By then, Spielberg had already gone to great pains to distance himself from him. Irreparable damage had been done to their friendship, and there was no avoiding it. When Joseph McBride tried to interview Landis, in 1995, for his Spielberg biography, Landis simply declared, “I haven’t talked to Steven in years,” and heatedly refused to answer questions about <i>Twilight Zone: The Movie</i>.<br />
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So, what of the movie itself? Is it any good?<br />
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I’ve always had mixed feelings about <i>Twilight Zone: The Movie</i>. I basically agree with the general consensus: that Landis and Spielberg’s segments are sometimes-interesting but mostly thin, whereas Joe Dante and George Miller’s segments are fun and imaginative—the way a <i>Twilight Zone</i> episode ought to be. Roger Ebert summed this up in his original review of the film: “The surprising thing is, the two superstar directors are thoroughly routed by two less-known directors whose previous credits have been horror and action pictures.”<br />
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Some critics believe that Spielberg’s segment is the least successful of the four. I think Landis’ segment is the least successful; it’s hurt not so much by its weak script as it is by the way it was butchered by the real-life tragedy that burned down its production.<br />
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Landis’ segment begins promisingly, with Vic Morrow’s bigoted William Connor introduced by Burgess Meredith’s narrator as “a sour man—a lonely man—who’s tired of waiting for the breaks that come to others, but never to him.” He enters a bar, miserable about a job promotion he lost at work to a Jew. He’s rejected by the waitresses. He goes on a tirade about black people and Asians, but reserves his most revealing discriminatory comments for Jews: “Them kikes. They always get more money, you know that, don’t you…What else the hell they want, for Christ’s sake? They own everything as it is!”<br />
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“Come on, Bill. Jews don’t own <i>everything</i>!” nervously laughs one of Connor’s friends, played by Charles Hallahan, from John Carpenter’s <i>The Thing</i>.<br />
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“The A-Rabs won’t <i>let</i> ‘em!” adds the other friend, played by Doug McGrath, most famous as the dopey cop from <i>Black Christmas</i>, and who later appeared as a dying bus driver in Spielberg’s <i>Always</i> (1989).<br />
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Morrow goes on one racist tangent after another. His character isn’t meant to be likable, but, as Landis’ dialogue begins to make clear, we are meant to at least empathize with him. “I love this country, dammit!” he roars. “And I fought for it in Korea!” Such dialogue suggests that this man is not entirely bad, that he’s done good things in his life but has been blinded by prejudice along the way. He is clearly meant to undergo some kind of redemption at the end of the segment by overcoming his prejudice. <br />
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And so he would have… had the helicopter incident not happened. <br />
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In the segment, the Twilight Zone takes William Connor to task for his prejudices by transporting him to Nazi-occupied Paris, a torch-lit Ku Klux Klan rally in the Deep South, and war-torn Vietnam. Along the way, he is chased by Nazis, Klan and U.S. soldiers who all mistake him for some kind of ethnicity and try to kill him. By the end of the segment, Connor was supposed to be so flustered by experiencing so much prejudice all at once that he finally overcomes his prejudices, and attempts to save two small Vietnamese children from an exploding compound while a U.S. helicopter flies overhead.<br />
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And so he would have… had the helicopter not crashed on the set, and claimed the lives of Morrow and the two children.<br />
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Unable to film the segment's original ending, now that his star had been killed, Landis and his editor, Malcolm Campbell, were forced to re-arrange the segment during post-production so that William Connor now suddenly (and rather abruptly) ends up back in Paris, is captured by the Nazis, is thrown into a boxcar with Jews and sent off to a death camp. For added insult to injury, the Twilight Zone contorts things so that he even spots his two friends from the bar standing aimlessly outside the train; his screams for them go unheard.<br />
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This is such a disgusting way to end the segment, for a number of reasons. For one thing, it trivializes the Holocaust. It’s also dramatically confusing; Landis' script has already made it clear to us that William Connor is a Korean War veteran, and Burgess Meredith’s narrator has made it clear to us that Connor is a “lonely” man and, therefore, something of a complicated, tragic figure. <br />
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What, then, has William Connor ever done in his life that is bad enough to merit a fate as ghoulish as being shipped off to die in a gas chamber? You’d think he’d have learned his lesson by the end of the segment, so… what is the Twilight Zone trying to prove, exactly, by not only disciplining him, but then proceeding to <i>kill</i> him as well? The other Jews in the boxcar are, of course, even more innocent than Connor is, which begs the question: If the Twilight Zone truly possesses the extraordinary power to catapult a perplexed bigot into three hateful periods of time, then why can’t it also, you know… somehow rescue all those Jews in the boxcar? Or, here’s an idea: reverse history completely and stop the whole Holocaust from happening? (The show would later try to do just that, of course, in the 2002 episode “Cradle of Darkness”). Furthermore, I also wonder what the hell must have been running through Landis' mind when he realized that by editing the segment this way, he would, essentially, be horribly killing off Morrow on-screen -- after Morrow had already died horribly off-screen.<br />
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All of these issues are just a lead-up to the very thing that killed this segment’s chances for success: the helicopter accident. It should never have happened. It was the worst possible thing that <i>could</i> have happened. It ruined post-production. It ruined the careers of everyone who worked on it. It even ruined Vic Morrow’s performance, which had so much potential. <br />
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On that last criticism, the filmmakers would disagree with me. At Morrow’s memorial service a few days after his death, Landis eulogized, "Tragedy can strike in an instant, but film is immortal. Vic lives forever. Just before the last take, Vic took me aside to thank me for the opportunity to play this role." And the film's associate producer, George Folsey, added, "If there is any consolation in this, it is that the film is finished. This performance must not be lost. It was Vic's last gift to us." <br />
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But the truth is that Morrow’s performance would have been far more affecting and cathartic had the segment ended as originally planned: with William Connor rescuing the two children, and becoming a better man in the process. Without that ending, the segment merely ends with a bigoted man getting shipped off to be gassed. It leaves us cold and disoriented. We don’t understand the point of it all, and we don’t understand why the segment was made in the first place.<br />
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Consequently, there is a kind of disturbing emotional detachment to the segment which colors my opinion of Landis as a filmmaker. I’m of the opinion that when Landis does screwball comedy, he can be brilliant (<i>National Lampoon’s Animal House, The Blues Brothers</i>), but that when he tackles a project that involves big emotions, he chickens out. <i>An American Werewolf in London</i> (1981) is, in many ways, his most well-directed film, but it is nevertheless compromised by a mean-spirited ending that shies away from the emotion that’s been building throughout the whole thing. We become so wrapped up in the romance between David Naughton and Jenny Agutter that when Naughton’s demise at the end of that film is followed abruptly by Landis’ tongue-in-check decision to play “Blue Moon” over the end credits, we feel hurt and betrayed by the director; the ending is not given the delicate attention it deserves. When Landis recently <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLpB1V6BEPA">appeared</a> on a European show alongside Terry Gilliam, another emotionally-frigid director, to discuss what they both think of other films and filmmakers, I was surprised that they never once discussed Spielberg, a far more emotional filmmaker whom they both have chilly relationships with (Gilliam has criticized Spielberg’s directorial style on countless occasions). <br />
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Spielberg’s own segment of <i>Twilight Zone: The Movie</i>, a remake of the episode, “Kick the Can”, is, predictably, a far more emotional segment than Landis’, though not without problems of its own. Originally, he had been scheduled to remake a different episode from the show—“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”—but, after the helicopter accident, he wisely elected to avoid directing a segment involving young children and frightening special effects. In fact, Spielberg, according to Joseph McBride, “tried to abandon the entire project, but Warner Bros. lawyers, fearing that cancellation of the film could be construed as an admission of guilt, insisted he fulfill his contract.”<br />
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Of Spielberg’s “Kick the Can” remake, Roger Ebert was onto something when he suggested, “Spielberg's visual style in this segment is so convoluted and shadowy that the action is hard to follow; the master of clear-cut, sharp-edged visuals is trying something that doesn't work.” A more simpler way to put it is: The segment suffers from dull pacing. The tale of magical wanderer Mr. Bloom, who grants the gift of youth to a group of retirement home residents, just doesn’t benefit from the exuberant imagination that one expects from a <i>Twilight Zone</i> story (and which flowers beautifully in the Dante and Miller segments which follow Spielberg's). <br />
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There are three great moments in Spielberg’s segment, however, that make it worth seeing. The first is when sad-eyed Leo Conroy (Bill Quinn) waddles out of Sunnyvale Rest Home, a briefcase hand-in-hand, and attempts to hitch a ride with his son, a real estate agent.<br />
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“You said… maybe you think I could come visit,” Conroy pathetically asks his son, with deep sincerity. “Come visit?” The son is evasive, claiming “bad timing” and half-heartedly suggesting, “Maybe next week?” while he’s egged on by his wife to get going. The son departs with a quick, indifferent kiss and waves goodbye, while Leo Conroy walks miserably back into the rest home.<br />
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From inside, old playboy Mr. Agee (Murray Matheson) has been watching the whole thing, and informs a newcomer, Mr. Bloom (Scatman Crothers), that this is not the first time this has happened: “Every second Saturday, he carries those cases down to his kid’s car. And every second Saturday, he carries them back upstairs, here, and unpacks them.”<br />
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It is a surprisingly-moving way to begin the segment, and in some ways feels like Spielberg’s tribute to Yasujiro Ozu and <i>Tokyo Story</i>. An old man wants to spend time with his adult son, but is politely refused. In all its simplicity, this is an achingly visceral moment, one in which Spielberg makes us recognize the feelings of isolation that come with old age—all the more startling because it occurs in the Twilight Zone, where intimate, human emotions are rather uncommon. <br />
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The second great moment in Spielberg’s segment is a beautiful speech by Mr. Bloom (Spielberg described Scatman Crothers in this role as “the Black E.T.”), after the now-young retirement home residents tell him that they don’t want to remain children forever, and would rather return to their older lives. “Well,” sighs Mr. Bloom with a pearly smile, “you can always go inside, and go back to bed. Maybe, if you old folks had a little of that magic still left in you, you could wake up back in your old, nice bodies. But, with <i>fresh, young minds</i>.” Jerry Goldsmith’s music during this scene is particularly wonderful.<br />
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The third great moment in the segment comes close to the end, when Mr. Conroy, who had earlier refused Mr. Bloom’s gift of youth, witnesses a young Mr. Agee (Evan Richards) fleeing out the rest home’s window. He stops him—not to try to get him in trouble, but because he, too, now longs for the gift of youth.<br />
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“Please...” Mr. Conroy begs, “Take me with you. I wanna go, too.”<br />
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The young Mr. Agee replies by paraphrasing Hamlet: “You can’t come with me, Leo. You’ll have to stay with yourself. There’s a destiny that shapes our ends, rough hewn though it may be. I’m sorry. Well… let’s AWAY!” before flying off into the night.<br />
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“I’m ready, now,” pines Mr. Conroy. “I’m ready.” The other residents comfort him with hands on his shoulders, as they all stare out into the night. The following morning, Mr. Conroy is found on the front lawn gleefully playing kick-the-can. Off to the side, Mr. Bloom observes Mr. Conroy at play, then looks into the camera and grins, “He’ll get it.”<br />
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These are the three great moments that make “Kick the Can” worth watching. For the most part, it’s a fairly tedious segment that drags during the long passages of the residents bickering in the rest home and, later, goofing around after they’re transformed into little kids. But every now and then, that invaluable Spielbergian magic kicks in during the segment and shows its face. “Although filmed in an excessively whimsical manner that blunts some of its emotional potential,” agrees Joseph McBride in his Spielberg biography, “”Kick the Can’ represents a further step in Spielberg’s maturation process. Under the sobering influence of the events of the previous summer, he made a bittersweet film about the need to turn one’s back on childhood and accept the coming of age.”<br />
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So, from my perspective, Spielberg’s segment, while problematic, is superior to Landis’ segment, mostly because it’s the more cathartic of the two and because it wasn’t butchered by real-life circumstances during its production. It is, of course, unfortunate that <i>Twilight Zone: The Movie</i> ultimately destroyed Spielberg's friendship with Landis, and the mystery behind Spielberg's possible involvement in the hiring of the two children will probably never be solved, but, at the end of the day, it cannot be ignored that three people died in a horrible accident. And Spielberg’s own subtle criticisms of Landis’ conduct during that accident are a painful reminder of the responsibilities of being a filmmaker:<br />
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“A movie is a fantasy—it’s light and shadow flickering on a screen. No movie is worth dying for. I think people are standing up much more now than ever before to producers and directors who ask too much. If something isn’t safe, it’s the right and responsibility of every actor or crew member to yell, ‘Cut!’”Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-79020129871852926962013-09-04T09:29:00.000-07:002016-07-14T16:59:59.934-07:00Small Soldiers (1998)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Towards the end of Joe Dante’s </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, a band of pacifist toys make the crucial decision to put away long-held ideals and spring into action. The Gorgonites were designed to be kind, peaceful and educational to kids, but now the evil Commando Elite toys are taking over the neighborhood, and the life of Alan Abernathy, the kid who has been sheltering the Gorgonites all along, is being threatened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Archer, emissary of the Gorgonites, steps forth. He cannot abide the cruelty of the Commando Elite any longer. He attempts to rally his comrades. “Gorgonites,” he commands, “we must help Alan.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The Gorgonites are appalled by this idea. One by one, they make one desperate protest after another: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“But if we fight, we will lose!”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“Last time we fought, I woke up with AMFM!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“I tell ya: War is nuts! And I know what I’m talking about!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“We shouldn’t fight! We should hide!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Archer listens to all of these protests. No doubt he understands their concern—for, being a Gorgonite, he knows what it means to run away from violence, to survive at all costs. But now the Gorgonites’ nonviolence may very well cost the life of the kid who trusted them and provided them safety. If they don’t act, Alan will die. Archer doesn’t particularly want to fight, but he has to. Hiding will no longer do them any good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> “If we hide,” Archer concludes, “…we will still lose. <i>No more hiding</i>.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">At age 7, when I saw </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> during initial release in the summer of 1998, it was these words spoken by Archer that led me to realize what a great movie this was. Up until then, I was enjoying </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> merely as gleeful, escapist entertainment, pumped full of big action, bad toys, dopey parents, a hot teenage Kirsten Dunst and an insecure teenage hero I immediately identified with in young Gregory Smith. But by the time Archer gave his speech, rallying the Gorgonites to fight, something about </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> appealed to the grade-school warrior in me, and I realized that this was a very intelligent film, treating me like an adult with its focus not just on the issues of growing pains, but the issues of warfare.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Watching it today, I still stand by what I felt at age 7: </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is a great movie, perhaps even Joe Dante’s best movie, and this is the director who has also given us </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Gremlins</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, <i>The Howling</i>, <i>Innerspace</i>, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The ‘Burbs</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> and </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Matinee</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">. That being said, I don’t always agree with interpretations posed by the film’s various fans. I sometimes hear the film described as “antiwar”, for example; I couldn’t disagree more with that assessment. One of the film's fans whom I disagree with is Jonathan Rosenbaum, who reviewed the film around the same time when Steven Spielberg's <i>Saving Private Ryan</i> was in theaters.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> In his <a href="http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/cutting-heroes-down-to-size/Content?oid=896882">review</a>, Rosenbaum dismissed <i>Saving Private Ryan</i> as jingoistic propaganda, then added, "One of the finer virtues of <i>Small Soldiers</i> is that it cuts through this kind of crap and makes the very idea of a war film look ridiculous."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I disagree enormously with Rosenbaum's dismissal of Saving Private Ryan, and even with some of his theories about <i>Small Soldiers</i>, although I do agree with him that </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is partially constructed as a satire of war movies. Certainly, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> does take a bit of pleasure in lampooning war movies in general. The members of the jingoistic Commando Elite, for example, are all voiced by cast members from Robert Aldrich’s </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Dirty Dozen</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, a hardcore war/action flick so celebrated for its jingoism that, even before Dante, Nora Ephron was already making fun of it in </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sleepless in Seattle</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">. The war-movie satiric agenda of </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is also announced when the Commando Elite first come to life in the film: Major Chip Hazard (voiced by Tommy Lee Jones) rips his way out of a plastic box and gives a warmongering speech in front of a giant American flag, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Patton</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">-style. On the film’s soundtrack, we hear Edwin Starr's aggressively-pacifist <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeF0jZY6daQ">“War! What Is It Good For?”</a> And in a later scene, a drunken Phil Hartman (in his last film role) is heard to mutter the infamous line, “I think World War II was my favorite war” (Rosenbaum, in his review, wittily muses: “It seems like a line Steven Spielberg might utter”).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">All of this is considerable, and yet I’ve always believed that the screenplay for <i>Small Soldiers</i> (written by Adam Rifkin, Gavin Scott, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio) has a lot more on its mind that just satirizing war and war movies. For example: In an early scene, when young Alan (Gregory Smith) has come into possession of Archer (voiced by Frank Langella), he wonders why all the other Gorgonites have fled into hiding. “Monsters shouldn’t be hiding,” complains Alan. “They should be out fighting Commandos.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“We would lose,” Archer mutters. “It is what we were programmed to do.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Alan is flabbergasted. “Hide and lose? <i>Those</i> are some great options!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In scenes like this, I’ve always felt that as much as <i>Small Soldiers</i> lampoons the mindlessness of violence, it also recognizes the consequences of simply ignoring violence. What good can “hiding and losing” do anyone, the films asks, after violence has already landed in your own neighborhood, on your front doorstep? When next-door neighbor, Kristy (Kirsten Dunst), is captured and tortured by the Commando Elite, the film’s attitude towards violence drastically changes with a key line of dialogue spoken by the film’s hero, Alan: “Major Hazard wants a war. We’ll <i>give</i> him a war.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The character of Kristy is, like the Gorgonites, initially a pacifist herself. Her bedroom wall is plastered with a poster which reads, “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” We have no reason to disagree, at first. But when the Commando Elite transform Kristy’s “Gwendy dolls” (voiced by Christina Ricci and Sarah Michelle Gellar) into devilish little Bride-of-Frankenstein freaks, they rebel against Kristy and even attempt to decapitate her; Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown” plays on the soundtrack, as a way of signifying that Kristy’s peaceful ideals have no way of reaching her at this point—let alone saving her. It’s no wonder that when Alan comes to the rescue, not only does he wipe out some Gwendy dolls in the process, but even Kristy herself gets a taste for blood and finds herself actually taking pleasure in killing. “This is </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">fun</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">!” she squeals, chopping up her once-precious dolls with a club.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">At age 7, I have to admit that I found all of this very exciting. That doesn’t mean that I think </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> works simply because of the visceral kick I got out of watching toys get clobbered</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">. I just mean to say that for all of the film’s points about the ridiculousness of warfare, nevertheless, the cathartic thrill experienced from such an incredible variation on warfare as toys destroying each other was never lost on me, even at such a young age.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rosenbaum himself confessed in his review that the Gorgonites yielded an “emotional response” from him, and he added, “The fact that they’re programmed to hide as well as lose is poetically apt given the way such icons are routinely swept to the margins of a pop media culture that places a higher premium on the ‘action’ of explosive killing machines.” It’s this aspect of the film that first appealed to me, as a young kid often bullied in grade school; no doubt </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, if not outright antiwar, is at least making heroes out of the side that generally loses in war, while rejecting the history of war as told by the side that usually wins. In the film, this manifests not only as Denis Leary’s hawkish CEO but also as Kristy’s macho biker boyfriend, who jeers at Alan for being a high school dropout but later chickens out when faced with the Commando Elite threat, his pants literally catching on fire as he screams hysterically out into the night (leaving the presumably-wimpy Alan to finish off where he started).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Joe Dante's work has been celebrated by Steven Spielberg ever since Spielberg stood up for his film <i>Piranha</i> (1978), preventing Universal from having the film removed from theaters when it was initially perceived as just another <i>Jaws</i> ripoff. He offered <i>Gremlins</i> to Dante after being further impressed with his work on <i>The Howling</i> (1981). One pleasure of Dante's work is that it is full of sly parodies of Spielberg; when Joseph McBride once asked him if </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Gremlins</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> was meant to be “</span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">E.T.</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> With Teeth,” Dante <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=cbbJgbdwUFkC&pg=PT252&lpg=PT252&dq=%22yes,+and+steven+cooperated%22&source=bl&ots=EdWfM0BlYo&sig=4OvrwCnpJSPpxpgrB0ChGrEH0SA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VVwnUu7LIMKEygGHx4DYDA&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22yes%2C%20and%20steven%20cooperated%22&f=false">replied</a>, “Yes, and Steven cooperated entirely with it. He got the joke right away</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">." Dante's films <i>Innerspace</i> and <i>Gremlins 2: The New Batch</i> were Amblin productions as well, and after </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Small Soldiers</i> lingered in development hell for 10 years</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">, Spielberg was the one who finally selected Dante to direct, making it one of the first films made for DreamWorks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The film did not do very well at the box office. Perhaps that was because most parents that summer were too concerned with Clinton’s impeachment to take their kids to see it. Or maybe because Roger Ebert, in his 2 ½-star <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/small-soldiers-1998">review</a>, scared parents away with his dubious opinion that it was too scary for kids. I actually think Rosenbaum was more accurate on audience responses to the film when he observed, “I can’t think of a Hollywood entertainment I’ve enjoyed as much all year, and both audiences I saw the movie with seemed delighted as well.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Rosenbaum further argues, “Spielberg’s encouragement of Dante’s anti-Spielbergian projects goes beyond tolerance.” But I would argue that Spielberg did, indeed, recognize the subversive elements of <i>Small Soldiers</i>, and didn’t greenlight it for Dante merely under the assumption that it would be another big hit like <i>Gremlins</i>. Spielberg himself is hardly an alien to films satirizing the ridiculousness of warfare; when <i>1941</i> (1979) was released, it inspired a Heavy Metal/Arrow spin-off comic book that opened with an introduction by Spielberg in which he stated, “I felt that after the war in Vietnam and the disillusionment the nation experienced, it was important to remind people that war doesn’t have to be a trip up the river to hell; it could also be a lot of laughs.” A film like <i>Small Soldiers</i> appeals to a similar philosophy, and it is difficult to believe it could have been lost on Spielberg, even during his more serious attitude towards war films by the late 90’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">But the argument in Rosenbaum’s review that I disagree the most with is his assertion “that </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> ridicules the agenda of films like </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Saving Private Ryan</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">.” In my opinion, the philosophy of the two films is actually quite similar. In </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Saving Private Ryan</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, Spielberg reaches the conclusion that war is hell, but that it can also inspire decency and heroism. In </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">, Dante reaches the conclusion that war is hell, but that it can also be fun—not just in Kristy’s exclamation of, “This is fun!” while chopping up her dolls, but also when Chip Hazard wryly asks, “Ain’t war hell?” while shooting at Alan in the climax, provoking Alan to roar, “Have I got a shock for you—you STUPID TOY!” before electrocuting Hazard to death. And by the time Kristy finishes off the rest of the lot by running them over with a lawn mower, she excitedly asks Alan, “Is this going to be a pattern for our relationship!??” which seems like nothing if not an indication of the sexual high she gets out of killing (no wonder Pat Benetar’s “Love Is A Battlefield” occupies its own special place on the soundtrack).</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Small Soldiers</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> leaves us with the realization that war is a lot of things. Yes, it’s “hell”, and yes, it’s “nuts”—but it can also be “fun”, and it can make heroes out of wimpy kids and societal misfits, and sometimes it can be liberating as well. “Gorgonites, we’re free!” declares Archer, after his comrades have emerged from the carnage unscathed. I never do fail, either, to get a little teary-eyed during the film’s touching final sequence, scored beautifully by Jerry Goldsmith, when the Gorgonites decide it’s time to go carve out a land of their own in the world (Dante seems to be alluding to the ending of <i>Schindler’s List</i>), while Archer leaves Alan with parting words of wisdom: “Even if you can’t see something, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” For Alan, it means finding the strength within himself to fight for the things he loves, and by the time the movie is over, we are convinced he’s achieved just that. His own days of “hiding and losing” are over.</span></div>
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Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-58487905044044909092013-08-25T18:07:00.001-07:002013-08-30T09:14:32.008-07:00Happy 83rd Birthday, Sean Connery!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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He's my favorite living actor, and he's retired. It sucks to be going to movies nowadays and not be able to look forward to Sean Connery's next big vehicle. I remember going to see <i>Finding Forrester</i> in theaters in 2000 with my grandfather (a Sean Connery look-a-like) and treasuring it as if that would be a year-long tradition. Then something really horrid called <i>The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen</i> came out 3 years later, and that was it for Sir Connery: He'd had it with Hollywood (thanks a lot, Stephen Norrington!) and was quitting acting. It made me sad to learn he was done. I remember how, from 2006-2007, I mounted a relentless campaign on IMDB in hopes of making sure Connery ended up somehow in the fourth Indiana Jones movie, and how crushed I was when he turned down the offer in favor of continuing his enjoyment of retirement. Interestingly, when he himself finally saw <i>Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull</i>,<i> </i>his <a href="http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/03/31/sean-connery-reviews-indiana-jones-and-the-kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull/">opinion</a> of it was right on the money: "Did I see the latest? I thought it was rather good. Rather long."<br />
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It's difficult to explain why Connery is my favorite actor. I guess every man wants to be him. Sure, not everything he's said in the past reflects well on men; his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo0d1zTAFKA">pro-slapping comments</a> in that infamous Barbara Walters interview are just painful, though I do at least understand what he was trying to get at. I think the problem with those comments was not so much that he suggested slapping as an approach to insanity, so much as that his comments were directed only at <i>women</i> getting slapped and nobody else. Had he said that it's okay for PEOPLE EVERYWHERE to perhaps get slapped once in awhile in order to get calmed down, his points would have been better-taken, I think.<br />
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But enough about slapping.<br />
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In honor of the lad's 83rd birthday, I'll list each Connery vehicle I've seen in chronological order and say what I think of each of 'em. There are a lot of goodies here.<br />
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<i>Darby O'Gill and the Little People</i> (1959)<br />
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This was the first Connery movie I ever saw. Which is fitting, since it's the earlier film in his career that I've seen as well. One of Disney's best live-action films (it was directed by Robert Stevenson, who later went on to direct <i>Mary Poppins</i>), it's got leprechauns, big Irish landscapes, a ghoulish banshee and a wonderful lead performance by Albert Sharpe as Darby. As a child, I didn't instantly take a liking to Connery's character, Michael -- perhaps because, hey, I was just jealous that he got to romance someone as hot as Janet Munro. But Connery at the very least earned my respect in the film's climactic bar fight with the oafish Pony Sugrue (Kieron Moore), a fight he initiates by reminiscing about what a leprechaun king once advised him to do: "If I were you, I'd poke the blackguard in the face."<br />
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<i>The Longest Day</i> (1962)<br />
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Not a fan of this movie, (I once <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/12/saving-private-ryan-1998-what-is.html">debated</a> its depiction of D-Day with Tom Carson and Craig Simpson), but Connery makes a memorable appearance in one scene, jumping out of a Higgins boat and yelling a goofy line: “Come out, ya dirty slobs! FLANAGAN'S back!”<br />
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<i>Dr. No</i> (1962)<br />
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What's better than Ursula Andress' mangoes? Sean Connery, in his first appearance as Bond, singing "Underneath the Mango Tree" to get her attention. I actually found this 007 flick pretty forgettable and only saw it once, but the screen sure fires up whenever Connery and Andress are together onscreen.<br />
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<i>From Russia with Love</i> (1963)<br />
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Another 007 flick I only saw once, but I remember it being one of the better ones. Connery's fight on the train with Red Grant (Robert Shaw) is unforgettable. Shaw and Connery, duking it out... what more testosterone could you ask for in a movie!??<br />
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<i>Marnie</i> (1964)<br />
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The first great, truly matured performance of Connery's career is his portrayal of the charming, if morally-dubious, Mark Rutland in this: Hitchcock's most fascinating modern movie, if not quite his best. I've seen this movie twice, and each time it messes with my emotions. Connery and Tippi Hedren have amazing chemistry together, but I always feel like a bad person for always been happy that Mark and Marnie end up together. For one thing, Mark cures Marnie of her insanity by basically raping her as a form of shock treatment -- which, for all we know, he probably enjoys. It's all the more troubling when you think about Connery's comments in the Barbara Walters interview. Knowing how much trouble he got into by suggesting slapping as an antidote to insanity, imagine how fast his career would've sank if he had suggested rape -- that's what Hitchcock seems to be doing in this movie, after all. Whatever you think of <i>Marnie</i>, it sure does encourage interesting discussion.<br />
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<i>Goldfinger</i> (1964)<br />
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Naturally, this is the Connery 007 flick that I've watched the most. Some say it's his best. Some even say it's the best 007 flick of them all. Can we all at least agree that it's pretty damned good? Under the direction of Guy Hamilton (John Huston's assistant director on <i>The African Queen</i>), this is the movie that proved the 007 series was worth continuing. Roger Ebert's <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-goldfinger-1964">Great Movies piece</a> is a must-read.<br />
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<i>The Hill</i> (1964)<br />
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When I <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/06/hill-1965_23.html">reviewed</a> this film for the blog 3 years ago, it took all my strength to watch it twice. It's quite simply the most harrowing movie about the military ever made. If Hitchcock was the one who proved that Connery could be a subtle antihero, then Sidney Lumet was the one who proved that Connery was an actor with Oscar-calibur talents. He could convincingly play a character pushed over the edge into madness. This movie is in my school library, and I'd watch it for the sake of Sidney Lumet (RIP), but I'm afraid to revisit it. It's intense.<br />
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<i>Thunderball</i> (1965)<br />
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When I watched this 007 flick as a preteen, I liked it; when I tried watching it again in college, I turned it off after the first half hour. It's duller than I remember.<br />
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<i>You Only Live Twice</i> (1967)<br />
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As for <i>this</i> 007 flick, the only thing I remember about it was that the opening scene was set in space. That's it. I remember nothing else. Not even this^^ scene, which you would think would stick in a teenager's memory. Guess not.<br />
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<i>Diamonds Are Forever</i> (1971)<br />
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On certain days, this, not <em>Goldfinger</em>, is my favorite 007 flick. A lot of 007 fans hate it and say it's one of Connery's worst outings in the series; I say such fans are nuts. This movie is just-plain fun. And no wonder: Guy Hamilton came back from <em>Goldfinger</em> to direct it. It's dopey, but so what? You could hardly ask for a more entertaining Bond. Bruce Cabot from <i>King Kong</i> has a memorable death scene, sausage-king Jimmy Dean is there to witness it (Bert Saxby!?? Tell him he's fired!), Jill St. John is a hot Bond girl... but seriously: it's all about Plenty O'Toole (Lana Wood) and Connery's witty reply to her introduction: "But of <i>course</i> you are."<br />
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<i>Zardoz</i> (1974)<br />
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I could just feel my own manly code of honor being threatened when I first saw this movie as a teenager. "Goddamn it John Boorman," I thought, "you do <i>NOT</i> make Sean Connery run around in a movie wearing nothing but a red speedo!" I was very disgusted by the whole thing as a teenager, but once I reached college age, I caught parts of it again on the Fox Movie Channel and found myself enjoying it in all its ludicrousness. I'd watch it again in a heartbeat, if only so I could appreciate it more.<br />
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<i>Murder on the Orient Express</i> (1974)<br />
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This was the first Sidney Lumet movie I ever saw -- following his Lifetime Achievement Oscar -- and probably not the best introduction to the man's career as a director, let alone his collaborations with Connery. I remember being bored stupid by it. I don't know if I'd appreciate it more today, but I doubt it; it's weak tea compared to what Connery and Lumet achieved with <i>The Hill</i>. And in retrospect, the twist ending is fairly predictable. I do remember liking Albert Finney's portrayal of Poirot, though.<br />
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<i>The Wind and the Lion</i> (1975)<br />
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Every time I see this movie, I admire parts of it but am largely disappointed in its bad pacing, its lack of focus and squandered opportunities. Connery's portrayal of the Raisuli is magnificent, but the movie surrounding him is not; John Milius missed a huge opportunity by not making the heart of the film the similarities between the Raisuli and Teddy Roosevelt (Brian Keith), a la <i>The Godfather Part II</i>. Instead, the film alternates uncomfortably from Roosevelt's scenes in the White House to scenes of implied romance between Connery and Candice Bergen that finally never quite blossom into anything meaningful. The battle sequence are well-done, there's a witty cameo by John Huston, and this is probably Milius' most interesting title as a director... but that's not saying much.<br />
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<i>The Man Who Would Be King</i> (1975)<br />
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Okay. This might very well be the greatest of all of Connery's films. Not necessarily his best performance, but arguably the best movie he ever starred in. Few directors make films this exciting, this beautiful very late in his careers, but that's exactly what John Huston accomplished with <i>The Man Who Would Be King</i>: silence his most ferocious critics and effectively ending years of his own bad box-office luck with a grand, sweeping Hollywood masterpiece. This movie has everything. Adventure. Fortune. Glory. Tragedy. Connery's Danny Dravot and Michael Caine's Peachy Carnehan are two of the most appealing characters ever to lead a Hollywood movie. The chemistry between these two stars is unbelievable. Their adventures are breathtaking. Their downfall is devastating. John Milius could've learned a thing or two from his old mentor Huston about how to balance spectacle with emotion; maybe then, <i>The Wind and the Lion</i> would have been somewhere near the high level of this film. When Connery, as Danny, takes that finally walk across the bridge, you just want to cry out for him. A classic.<br />
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<i>A Bridge Too Far</i> (1977)<br />
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Forgettable. I saw this on AMC years ago, and AMC is probably not the best channel to watch a long war movie, but this movie isn't much. I don't really remember Connery's scenes. I like Richard Attenborough, but I wish he and Connery could've worked together on something a little more fruitful.<br />
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<i>The Great Train Robbery</i> (1978)<br />
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People never talk about this movie today, but I think it's underrated. Good old-fashioned fun, with memorable rapport between Connery and Donald Sutherland. I haven't seen it since I was a teenager and if I watched it today, I might find it less-interesting, but it's certainly entertaining, and the fact that Michael Crichton (yes, <i>that</i> Michael Crichton) directed it is no small feat in itself. My favorite scene is when Connery is put on trial, and is asked by the judges why he would ever do such a foolish thing as rob a train. His deadpanned response: "I... wanted the money."<br />
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<i>Time Bandits</i> (1981)<br />
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Not being the biggest Terry Gilliam fan, I only saw this once, but I remember liking Connery's scenes as King Agamemnon... whatever they were.<br />
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<i>Five Days One Summer</i> (1982)<br />
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Fred Zinnemann's majestic final film is one that I plan to write about for this blog someday -- hopefully, real soon, if I can clear enough time for myself. This film was a huge flop when it came out, and it's obvious that after Zinnemann's death in 1997, people essentially stopped talking about it and Warner Bros. never even bothered to give it a DVD release in the U.S. I don't want to go into too much detail, because I'm sure I'll save it all for a future review, but to put it briefly: This is one of my favorite movies, flaws and all. Zinnemann somehow makes characters out of mountains. The main storyline involves a dubious relationship between Connery's Douglas and Betsy Brantley's Kate, and Lambert Wilson plays the young mountain-climbing guide who grows suspicious of them, but ultimately Zinnemann orchestrates a message that the personal problems of three people don't really amount to a hill of beans up in the Alps. Some of the mountain-climbing sequences are truly terrifying. As he did in <i>Marnie</i>, Connery plays a control freak of young women, but this time, such macho tendecies are actually taken to task instead of glorified. I really do hope this film will eventually get the respect it deserves; Zinnemann poured so much of his heart and soul into it, and Connery, too.<br />
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<i>Never Say Never Again</i> (1983)<br />
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Diehard 007 fans hate this movie even more than <em>Diamonds Are Forever</em>, but for me, it's always been a guilty pleasure. It's a remake of <i>Thunderball</i>, but way more entertaining thanks to Irvin Kershner's solid direction; if he doesn't quite bring as much grace to this movie as he did to <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i>, well, no matter. It's still a lot of fun. There's something amusing about seeing an aging Connery romancing Kim Basinger. And don't even get me started on Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera), who might've been the first villainous femme fatale I ever became infatuated with as a preteen.<br />
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<i>The Name of the Rose</i> (1986)<br />
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Here it is, folks: My pick for Connery's best performance ever. He plays William of Baskerville, the most badass monk who ever lived. I haven't read the Umberto Eco novel this is based on, but I trust that Jean-Jacques Annaud and Gerard Brach knew what they were doing by streamlining it down into a dark, gory, sexy, compelling, masterfully-done thriller. This is another one I hope to write about for the blog someday, although -- unlike <em>Five Days One Summer</em> -- it's actually developed a pretty healthy cult following, probably because of the sex scene between Valentina Vargas and a young Christian Slater. Which is part of the movie's appeal, no doubt. But this movie is all about Connery. He dominates. Deservedly, he won a British Academy Award for it. William of Baskerville might be the role which (other than 007) he was born to play.<br />
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<i>The Untouchables</i> (1987)<br />
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This is an effortlessly-watchable movie and I've seen it probably half-a-dozen times, but it's not one of my favorite Connery vehicles -- or even one of my favorite Brian De Palma films. The limits and conventions of the David Mamet script keep it from being the powerful mob picture it could've been. Still, as an action movie, it's rock-solid, and Connery is one hell of a great Jimmy Malone. Some people say the Academy Award he won for his performance was a career Oscar, which may be true, but that doesn't mean it was undeserved.<br />
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<i>Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade</i> (1989)<br />
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Unsurprisingly, this is the Connery movie I've watched the most, and I never tire of it. I'd recommend you watch it, but let's face it: you already have. Henry Jones is a tailor-made part for somebody with Connery's sensibilities. "I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne. 'Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky'."<br />
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<i>The Hunt for Red October</i> (1990)<br />
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One of the best genre pictures of the 90's. The pleasant thing about <em>The Hunt for Red October</em> is that even though it's anti-Communist, it is not anti-Russian; the portrayal of Connery's Ramius is sympathetic, and one can enjoy the movie without Tom Clancy's right-wing politics getting in the way. Part of this is due to John McTiernan's careful, professional direction. If you listen to his DVD commentary during Ramius's confrontation with the ship's political officer, McTiernan mentions the pained expression on Connery's face when, as Ramius, he's going to have to murder the political officer for the sake of his mission to defect to the U.S. Any doubts about Connery playing a Russian are automatically forgotten once the movie begins. He disappears remarkably into the role.<br />
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<i>The Russia House</i> (1990)<br />
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I read the John le Carre book before watching this, and although it takes certain liberties with the text, I remember being very happy with it. Just as he did with his adaptation of Thomas Keneally's <i>The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith</i>, director Fred Schepisi cuts right to the chase -- in this case, the love story between Connery's Barley Blair and Michelle Pfeiffer's Katya. Unlike the book, this movie has a happy ending, but was done in such a way that I found myself <i>wanting</i> it to end happily, which, I suppose, shows how involved I was. An underrated, under-appreciated gem.<br />
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<i>Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves</i> (1991)<br />
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Probably the most gratuitous last-minute cameo in a movie ever, but it's impossible to imagine this fun movie without it. Come to think of it, I wish director Kevin Reynolds had worked with Connery on another movie; Connery certainly would have been a more effective lead in <i>Waterworld</i> than Kevin Costner. Come to think of it, he would have been a better Robin Hood in *this* movie than Costner; I say this knowing Connery already played Robin Hood in the earlier Richard Lester movie from the 70's, which I haven't seen in its entirety.<br />
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<i>Medicine Man</i> (1992)<br />
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I rented this once when I was a preteen, and don't remember much about it except that Connery played some environmental activist who got into fights with people threatening the rain forest. I know it was a huge flop and that critics didn't take it seriously, but I couldn't tell you why. I would kind of like to revisit it, since it was another collaboration between Connery and John McTiernan, and because at the time I saw the movie, I didn't know who Lorraine Bracco was (<i>Goodfellas</i> was a few years away in my future), and her performance had made no impression on me for that reason. Or maybe it was because her performance wasn't good. Or maybe even Connery's. I don't know.<br />
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<i>Just Cause</i> (1995)<br />
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Awful movie. It starts off with a great scene between Connery and Ruby Dee that makes you think it's going to be a film stressing an anti-death penalty message, which it does for awhile -- that is, until its atrocious conclusion, when it decides to go for a <i>Witness for the Prosecution</i>-style twist ending instead. There's something uncomfortable about a movie that champions the execution of black criminals, especially considering that this movie was released around the time of the O.J. Simpson trial. Connery is fine, as are Laurence Fishburne and Ed Harris in supporting roles, but Kate Capshaw probably gives the worst performance of her career as Connery's wife. Interestingly, a <i>very</i> young Scarlett Johanson plays their daughter.<br />
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<i style="text-align: center;">First Knight</i><span style="text-align: center;"> (1995)</span><br />
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Gee whiz, 1995 sure wasn't a good year for Connery, was it? As always, he gives a good performance -- in this case, he's King Arthur -- and Julia Ormond is fine as Guinevere, but Richard Gere as Lancelot is the very definition of the term MISCASTING. What annoys me about this movie is the mockery it makes of the Arthurian legend. Yes, Lancelot and Guinevere had an affair, but in the original tale, they were all roughly the same age; in this movie, Jerry Zucker stacks the decks against the character of King Arthur from the moment he cast somebody of Connery's age. Basically, Zucker implies that Guinevere's affair with Lancelot happened not because Lancelot seduced her, but because Arthur comes across to her like a tired, sexless old man by comparison (more like a father to her than a husband). At any rate, I probably wouldn't have minded so much if Lancelot in this movie had been just as appealing as Arthur. But that's where the problem of casting Gere came in. He simply doesn't hold a candle to Connery.<br />
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<i>Dragonheart</i> (1996)<br />
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What's more awesome than Sean Connery as a dragon? Not a whole lot. Watching this movie, it sounds like he was having a lot of fun providing the voice for the dragon Draco; when Dennis Quaid's character sneers that he kills dragons "for pleasure," you can just hear Connery's wicked delight in Draco's response: "Perhaps less pleasurable and more costly than you <em>THINK</em>!" Dopey, but enjoyable entertainment.<br />
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<i>The Rock</i> (1996)<br />
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Probably the only Michael Bay movie I can sit through, even if I don't care much for it. "Your <i>best</i>!?? Losers always whine about their 'best'. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen!"<br />
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<i>Entrapment</i> (1999)<br />
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Although this was only the second Connery movie that I ever saw, after <em>Darby O'Gill and the Little People</em> -- yes I saw it before any of his 007 flicks -- this is without question the movie that made me a Sean Connery fan. I guess what drew me to his performance in <i>Entrapment</i> was the way his character, Mac, comes across; apparently, even when you reach your 60's, you can still be charming enough to romance a sexy babe like Catherine Zeta-Jones. And seriously: talk about the most random screen couple in modern times. Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones!?? Amazingly, their chemistry in this movie absolutely works thanks to Jon Amiel's assured direction. He makes the movie all about Connery and Zeta-Jones' characters, Mac and Gin, how they're constantly double-crossing each other and then simultaneously falling for each other. Count this as another movie that I plan to review someday for this blog, if I ever have time. And remember: "Rule #2: Never trust a naked woman."<br />
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<i>Finding Forrester</i> (2000)<br />
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Growing up as a teenager, this was one of my favorite movies; I watched it again recently, and it's held up pretty well. In retrospect, it's probably not one of Gus Van Sant's greatest films; it follows the exact same formula of <i>Good Will Hunting</i> and lacks the fire and energy of <i>Drugstore Cowboy </i>and<i> Milk. </i>F. Murray Abraham essentially plays the same bad guy to Connery's good guy that he played in <i>The Name of the Rose</i>, but this time the villainy is heavy-handed, his character far too racist and over-the-top to be truly believable. But what finally makes this movie work is the camaraderie between Connery and Rob Brown, who I've always said would make a great Jim in a <i>Huckleberry Finn</i> remake. You really do believe Jamal Wallace would go to somebody like William Forrester for writing advice, and quotable Internet memes aside ("Punch the keys, for God's sake! Yes... YES!!!!! YOU'RE THE MAN NOW, DAWG!"), this movie inspires me to want to write more often. Considering what he did afterward, it doesn't mean much to say it, but this was Connery's last top-notch achievement as an actor.<br />
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<i>The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen</i> (2003)<br />
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I missed this in theaters, and never did realize how lucky I was until I saw it on DVD. It's such a mess of a movie, with not a lot going on in terms of story and even less in terms of characterization. Which is a true shame, since Connery is really quite a good Alan Quatermain. If only they had built a meaningful film around his performance. This movie fails for a number of reasons. The plot is incomprehensible. The literary adaptations are laughable. Tom Sawyer, action hero? Dorian Gray, invincible as long as he doesn't see his own painting? It's like no thought went into any of it. Before this movie, Connery reportedly turned down <i>The Matrix</i> and <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> for not "understanding them," but then chose to be in this movie despite not "understanding" it, either. Yeah... that's because *nobody* did. A waste of money, waste of talent, and especially, a waste of time for Connery. Working with director Stephen Norrington <a href="http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,390701,00.html">allegedly</a> pissed Connery off so much that it made him quit acting in movies for good, and the fact that this was his last movie is painful on so many levels.<br />
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<i>Sir James Bond: From Russia With Love</i> (2006) - Video Game<br />
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I never beat this video game, but I remember having fun playing it until getting to a super-hard level in which you're supposed to steer a boat underground without getting shot. Connery was brought back to be the voice of Bond, and although he clearly doesn't have the voice of the strapping young man he once was, it was good to hear him as Bond one last time. Particularly his delivery of a key line that was used in the original movie: "Things are turning up rather nicely."<br />
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STILL REALLY NEED TO SEE:<br />
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<i>A Fine Madness</i> (1966)<br />
<i>The Molly Maguires</i> (1970)<br />
<i>The Anderson Tapes</i> (1971)<br />
<i>The Offence</i> (1972)<br />
<i>Robin and Marian</i> (1976)<br />
<i>Cuba</i> (1979)<br />
<i>Outland</i> (1981)<br />
<i>Wrong Is Right</i> (1982)<br />
<i>Highlander</i> (1986)<br />
<i>Family Business</i> (1989)<br />
<i>Rising Sun</i> (1993)<br />
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Happy 83rd Birthday, Sean Connery. If you can, please return to Hollywood for at least one more movie. A good one, this time. You're the man now, dawg.<br />
<br />Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-36549105706807792322013-04-05T23:47:00.000-07:002018-02-06T13:44:11.825-08:00Ebert's Influence On Me<a href="http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/c0.22.293.293/p403x403/553927_10151830090807586_1281893788_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/c0.22.293.293/p403x403/553927_10151830090807586_1281893788_n.jpg" /></a><br />
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The best way for a Roger Ebert fan as young as I am (22 years old) to begin a remembrance of the man is to recall the time in my life when I first found out who he was. <br />
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Most kids in elementary school are not familiar with the concept of film critics, but for me, I think, it must've been a discovery I made in the late 90's, when I was looking around the shelves of a Schnucks video rental store and began noticing the caption "'Two Thumbs Up - Way Up!' - Siskel and Ebert" on the front covers of certain VHS titles in the store's family section. I actually remember feeling a bit irritated, because usually this caption appeared on the front covers of films I never managed to finish (like <i>The Education of Little Tree</i>), or on the front covers of films that I wouldn't see until several years later, but assumed I would dislike at the time (like <i>Simon Birch</i>). <i>When are they going to give 'Two Thumbs Up' to a film I actually *like*?</i> I wondered. I finally had to ask my parents who in the hell Siskel & Ebert were, and why their endorsements mattered at all.<br />
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"They're movie critics. Gene Siskel died, though."<br />
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I think this must've been around 1999-2000, when I was in 3rd grade, considering that this was indeed a year after Siskel passed away. Sometime afterwards I remember when <i>October Sky</i> came out on VHS, and on the back cover (or at least, I think it was the back cover... I can't find a photo of it for some reason), the caption "'Thumbs Up!' - Roger Ebert & The Movies" appeared.<br />
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<i>Hmm</i>, I thought. <i>Guess it really is just this Ebert guy from now on</i>. <br />
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The years passed. I went through the remainders of elementary school and middle school, still seeing Ebert's "Thumbs Up!" endorsements on the occasional movie cover, along with the endorsements of other critics I assumed, wrongly, were just as important. I heard some riff-raff about him having a new TV partner, but I didn't really care. I wasn't reading critics just yet. The only opinions about movies that mattered to me, at this time in my childhood, were my own. I stuck only to what I knew, what with the limited resources I had: a) that I loved movies; b) that if a theatrical trailer interested me enough, I would go to just about any movie; and c) that filmmakers like George Lucas, Tim Burton, Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg were the best in the world. It wasn't long before I would gradually lose interest in just about all of those filmmakers -- Spielberg, of course, being the exception. It happened around the time when I began choosing my movie titles more carefully and expanding my knowledge of movies.<br />
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And that started happening in Spring 2004, when I finally made it a habit to begin watching <i>Ebert & Roeper </i>every Sunday. <br />
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Oh, it was amazing. I was learning something new every weekend. Learning about not just what makes a great movie, but a great movie debate. I was staying on top of the new titles coming out every month. This went on for 2 straight years. It was hands-down my favorite show. Although I learned very quickly that Ebert was the better of the two (he was the more literate cinephile, his arguments were generally more convincing), I still believed that Roeper had good chemistry with him. Off the top of my head, the only time where I truly feel Roeper had a stronger argument than Ebert was in their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYvxIbBifKA">review</a> of <i>War of the Worlds</i>, but even in that review I admired Ebert's response to Roeper's complaint of, "Would you honestly recommend <i>The Honeymooners</i> and <i>The Longest Yard</i> over this movie?" that it was an apples and oranges situation, and that he and Roeper's "thumbs" -- in all honesty -- reduced the format of movie debating itself. As Ebert made it clear, there is more to a movie review than simply saying that "this is better than that, this is worth seeing and this is not," and so on. <br />
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Beginning on Christmas 2004, during my final year of middle school, I began asking for Ebert's movie yearbooks as gifts. They were not only fascinating reads that I memorized by the mile, but they encouraged me to read his older reviews on suntimes.com. I instantly became obsessed with them. In particular, I was obsessed with studying the specifics of the style in which Ebert wrote; I longed desperately to figure out the magic behind what made his sentences, his way with words, flow so well. And this I would continue to do, extensively, all throughout high school.<br />
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I was not so satisfied by the fact that the suntimes.com website only archived Ebert's reviews from the late 80's to the present day. <i>He wrote reviews *before* then, didn't he</i>? I wondered. When Ebert finally launched his own website, RogerEbert.com, an archive of every review he had ever written, I was overjoyed.<br />
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But as much as I loved Ebert's reviews of each new movie released every waking week of the year, what I loved more were his Great Movies pieces. It is because of Ebert that I <i>quickly</i> became a diehard fan of the old masters: Kubrick, Welles, Bergman, Fellini, Truffaut, Ford, Hawks, Capra, Huston, Kurosawa, Ozu, the list goes on. Certain obscure classics that most people wouldn't know about or, at the very least, care to see, I managed to check out in high school because of his recommendations in those Great Movies pieces. Read this paragraph of his Great Movies <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011028/REVIEWS08/110280301/1023">piece</a> on <i>Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia</i>:<br />
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<i>Now I approach it again after 27 years, and find it extraordinary, a true and heartfelt work by a great director who endured despite, or perhaps because of, the demons that haunted him. Courage usually feels good in the movies, but it comes in many moods, and here it feels bad but necessary, giving us a hero who is heartbreakingly human--a little man determined to accomplish his mission in memory of a woman he loved, and in truth to his own defiant code.</i><br />
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Look at how easy and lovely to read that is. It does not feel like it was written by some highbrow film academic. You don't have to strain your senses to figure out what Ebert is saying there. Nor do you feel insulted by his simplicity like you would reading the review of somebody as boring and template-reliant as, say, James Berardinelli. It's simple, <i>and</i> it's smart.<br />
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Also, it is right. About the movie, I mean. It really *is* that fucking good of a movie, and the critics in '74 who hated it... well, they were all wrong. Ebert understood it from the very beginning. Peckinpah would have been proud.<br />
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Then, Ebert was hospitalized in mid-2006, and it felt to me like the world was ending. Ebert himself, as a result, missed reviewing a lot of essential titles in 2006 & 2007. I remember thinking, "Well, at least he got to review the new Spielberg (<i>Munich</i>) before checking in. But he didn't get to review the new De Palma (<i>The Black Dahlia</i>)!" OH, HORRORS!!!!!<br />
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<i>Ebert & Roeper</i> continued, but with Roeper now discussing the films with guest-reviewers like Jay Leno, Michael Phillips, A.O. Scott, Lisa Schwarzbaum and (shudders) John Couger Mellencamp. Sometimes the debates were interesting, but overall it didn't make for great television. The electricity of the debates with Ebert was gone.<br />
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Of the movie-reviewing shows that followed, I was even less impressed. The two Bens just weren't on their level. Scott and Phillips were an improvement, but dull. But it was Ebert's own show with Christy Lemire and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky that I was disappointed with the most. I sensed that Vishnevetsky had an impressive knowledge of old cinema, but was not a very charismatic TV personality. Lemire was appallingly incompetent at both.<br />
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So, what do you do when the present shows are a letdown? Consult the past for comfort, that's what I did. And a youngster like me eventually realized that as much as I knew about Ebert & Roeper, I knew very little about Siskel & Ebert. I went back and watched their reviews. And suddenly I felt like I had been behind the times. *This* was great television. *This* is how you do great TV debating.<br />
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But that's all for another post. This one is supposed to be about Ebert. I will get right to the important part.<br />
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In summer 2008, I visited Chicago, having not been there since a family reunion years before. Now that I actually knew about what was *in* Chicago, I resolved to at least visit the place where Ebert worked. And so I did. I thought this^^ would be the closest I would ever get to Ebert. I was wrong.<br />
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In May 2009, the month that I graduated from high school, I found that I had nothing to do. Nothing but spend the next two years at a community college and get some kind of job to help pay my way into film school. Wanting to help pass the time, I noticed that Ebert had begun blogging a lot. And so, I began attempting to get his attention. The first time I ever did was in <a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/05/cannes_10_and_at_last_the_winn.html">this</a> blog post, when I asked him (at literally the very end of the blog post) about his thoughts on Coppola's <i>Tetro</i>, and he let me know what he thought of it. There were other comments I left on some of his other blog posts, but I still need to locate them.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_j4twdnk8ZvI/StKKpSrD8AI/AAAAAAAACRY/tPqAwTPyu4g/s400/other+twin.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_j4twdnk8ZvI/StKKpSrD8AI/AAAAAAAACRY/tPqAwTPyu4g/s400/other+twin.jpg" /></a><br />
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Then, in October 2010, I decided to write a <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/10/other-1972.html">blog piece</a> on a film Ebert had <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19720706/REVIEWS/207060301/1023">reviewed</a> in 1972: Robert Mulligan's cult horror classic <i>The Other</i>. Anticipating that the film was going to be on Turner Classic Movies later that month, I wanted to blog about the film in order to recommend it to friends of mine. I am assuming that after the review caught the attention of Matt Zoller Seitz on Facebook, it got the attention of Ebert.<br />
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But I didn't know about any of this until I saw this post on my Facebook from my friend Craig Simpson:<br />
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"Ebert liked your review, Zanzie. Props!"<br />
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Which, in turn, led me to discover <a href="https://twitter.com/ebertchicago/status/29109379551">this</a>...<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k3MqJlGpCbs/UV-4bjOH6NI/AAAAAAAAA0s/gViqnRGkAPk/s1600/best+review.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k3MqJlGpCbs/UV-4bjOH6NI/AAAAAAAAA0s/gViqnRGkAPk/s320/best+review.jpg" /></a><br />
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...and <a href="https://twitter.com/ebertchicago/status/29118624175">this</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pW-wskimjec/UV-41Fw3HqI/AAAAAAAAA00/bVUPYiX0ALc/s1600/RIP.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pW-wskimjec/UV-41Fw3HqI/AAAAAAAAA00/bVUPYiX0ALc/s320/RIP.jpg" /></a><br />
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And before I knew it, Ebert's review of <i>The Other</i>, which originally was a review without a photo to illustrate it, was suddenly <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19720706/REVIEWS/207060301/1023">headlined</a> by the same photo I had used to headline my own piece on the film:<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_j4twdnk8ZvI/StKKpSrD8AI/AAAAAAAACRY/tPqAwTPyu4g/s400/other+twin.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_j4twdnk8ZvI/StKKpSrD8AI/AAAAAAAACRY/tPqAwTPyu4g/s400/other+twin.jpg" /></a><br />
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Wow.<br />
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I was 19 when Ebert read my piece on <i>The Other</i>. Since then, I've gone back and re-edited that piece several times to ensure that it truly is "the best review you're likely to find" about the movie, as Ebert declared it, so, well... if there are times when it now reads like it was written by somebody older than 19, that's because it kind of is. But the structure of the piece is still exactly the way it was when I wrote it at 19. And Ebert's praise encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing, and keep that passion I had about movies (while still maintaining some kind of outside life, with a job and school) all the way up to my entrance in film school the following year. <br />
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But here is primarily what got me so excited about all of this. It wasn't just that my work had suddenly been read and praised by the writer whom I still consider to be the greatest film critic of all time. It was that I had written the piece merely to promote a horror film (by a sorely underrated director) that very little people knew about. Because Ebert knew about the film, and apparently liked what I had to say about it, he ensured that the film <i>was</i> promoted. I like to think more people are now aware of the film because of those two tweets he created in October 2010. Never mind the brief popularity my blog enjoyed -- besides, I rarely post on Icebox Movies anymore. Just that a film I loved got more attention through my piece on it getting so much attention. That was pretty incredible. <br />
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And two months later, in December 2010, when Ryan Kelly and I hosted our Spielberg Blogathon, Jim Emerson's <a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/2010/12/making_contact_spielbergs_clos.html">piece</a> on <i>Close Encounters</i> & <i>E.T.</i> was briefly featured on the front page of Ebert's website, yet another instance of my efforts to promote a certain film/filmmaker being supported thanks to Ebert (even if this time, it was done by his website's editor, rather than himself. Still, Ebert gets credit for the website existing, so there you go!).<br />
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<a href="http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/countygrind/rogerebert-736078.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/countygrind/rogerebert-736078.jpg" /></a><br />
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When Ebert's death was announced yesterday, a lot of thoughts ran through my head, many of them selfish realizations. For example, the realization that he had lived to praise my work as a critic but would not live to a review a film I made, in case I ever one day had a successful career as a filmmaker. Much like Wes Anderson fantasized about Pauline Kael reviewing one of his films, so did I long for the day when Ebert would not only see a film of mine, but write a damned well-written review describing what was good or horrifically awful about it. I also got upset about other really trivial things; again, as it was in 2006, he had been conscious long enough to review the new Spielberg (<i>Lincoln</i>) but not the new De Palma (<i>Passion</i>). Or that now, we can never expect him to revisit films like <i>Clockwork Orange</i> that he trashed upon release but kept hinting that he would go back, reconsider and write about some more. No: that Great Movies piece on <i>Clockwork Orange</i> has to be written by somebody else now.<br />
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Aside from some of the posthumous goodies he left us behind that we'll be getting in the next month -- most excitingly, his review of <i>To the Wonder</i> -- this is it. That's all. There will be no more Ebert reviews. Worse, I simply cannot think of another working film critic whose writing excites me nearly as much. And considering that the concept of working film criticism is getting less and less popular these days, what with critics getting laid off (i.e. fired) and all, I'm not so sure there will ever be another published critic who writes as passionately and as emotionally as he did. <br />
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Whine, whine, whine. Jim Emerson is <a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/2013/04/thinking_of_roger.html">correct</a>: I did not truly know the man, and should not act as though I did. Those two precious tweets notwithstanding, he would not have remembered me. My loss, though arguably personal, doesn't measure to what Chaz and others in his family suffered. <br />
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<a href="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Ps.OeeqyQvV.x_3uAckIHA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYwMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2013-04-04T224626Z_1_CBRE9331K7700_RTROPTP_2_LEISURE-ROGER-EBERT-STAR.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Ps.OeeqyQvV.x_3uAckIHA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYwMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2013-04-04T224626Z_1_CBRE9331K7700_RTROPTP_2_LEISURE-ROGER-EBERT-STAR.JPG" /></a><br />
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But, to paraphrase what I said about Ebert on Facebook the day before he passed away -- when he announced his "leave of presence" -- I owe a great deal of who I am to him. I am a better writer because of him, and my outlook on all cinema in general is better because of him. From this point on, I will try to be a better filmmaker because of him, too. And I pity the filmmaker who doesn't.Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-5878553210288506092013-01-14T07:00:00.000-08:002013-01-14T07:00:08.934-08:00Golden Globes, January 13, 2013: My Live Twitter Feed <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/09/Golden_Globe_Trophy.jpg/220px-Golden_Globe_Trophy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="288" width="220" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/09/Golden_Globe_Trophy.jpg/220px-Golden_Globe_Trophy.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Tweets<br />
2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I still remember Grant Heslov as Tom Arnold's right-hand man in @JimCameron 's "True Lies". #GoldenGlobes<br />
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10:00 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
The HFPA blessed "Argo" with multiple noms in hopes it'd be blessed with many (and sweep many) on Oscar night. Awkward... #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:59 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Give it to "Lincoln". #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:58 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri<br />
That Day-Lewis tribute to Kushner was worth about a hundred drunken, babbling Tarantino victory speeches. #GoldenGlobes #andiLIKETarantino<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@BilgeEbiri Exactly.<br />
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9:57 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Richard Dreyfuss @RichardDreyfuss<br />
The Golden Globes just played off Daniel Day-Lewis while he was talking about Steven Spielberg. I am speechless.<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Okay, that's it. Seen that Diet Pepsi ad for the 6th time, and I gotta say: Sofia Vergara's cleavage. Had to mention it. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:55 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h ckoh @ckoh<br />
Nice shout out to Kushner in what's a pretty eloquent speech especially for this drunken Globes<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@ckoh Yeah, loved that shout-out to Kushner!<br />
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9:54 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz<br />
DDL is going with the play-off music rather than being rushed by it. Treating it as his heroic underscore.<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
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9:53 PM - 13 Jan 13 from Queens, NY · Details<br />
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2h Sam Adams @SamuelAAdams<br />
@mattzollerseitz Totally.<br />
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2h Mary-Colleen Tinney @mctinney<br />
@mattzollerseitz DDL does whatever he wants. Walkoff music? He is impervious to hearing it. He's awesome.<br />
from Petaluma, CA<br />
2h Richard Roeper @richardroeper<br />
That's right, play off Daniel Day-Lewis so we can go to another one of those cutting edge Target commercials.<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
They played the music on DDL right when he got to thanking the director. #GoldenGlobes #douchechill<br />
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9:53 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
Do not play off Daniel Day-Lewis. Come on.<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
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9:52 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Lucas Geisler @GeislerLuc<br />
@NickGass It was beautiful background music for his ode to Spielberg.<br />
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2h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
@GeislerLuc I suppose it was. Remember when the #Oscars did that for everyone in 2006?<br />
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2h Ryan A. Williams @Ryan_Williams21<br />
@NickGass @GeislerLuc omg I will never forget that. Most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen.<br />
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2h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
@Ryan_Williams21 Actually, just remembered the music was only on TV...people in the house couldn't hear it.<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
First time Tony Kushner shows up on-camera tonight. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:52 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Lincoln @LincolnMovie<br />
Congrats to Daniel Day-Lewis on winning Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama! #GoldenGlobes<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
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2h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
Abraham Lincoln wins for "Day-Lewis."<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
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9:51 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhh boy! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:51 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Give it to Daniel Day-Lewis. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:50 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
*Weiz<br />
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9:48 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Rachel Wise, in a movie about sharks. #GoldenGlobes #unoriginaljokes<br />
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9:48 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Young George Clooney? As in "Return of the Killer Tomatoes" young George Clooney? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:47 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Maren Hogan @marenhogan<br />
@adamzanzie No, as in when he was on Roseanne "young" #goldenglobes<br />
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2h Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri<br />
Nobody gets Dustin Hoffman's joke because nobody saw his movie. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:40 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Amanda Seyfried... mmmmmmmm. Gotta watch "Chloe" again. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:43 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Benjamin Kramer @benjaminkramer<br />
@adamzanzie Not a bad choice...<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I find it very hard to believe Les Miz is better than "Moonrise Kingdom". #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:41 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
@adamzanzie Oh, it isn't.<br />
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2h ckoh @ckoh<br />
@adamzanzie it isn't by any stretch of the imagination.<br />
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2h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
@adamzanzie I think you're confusing the #GoldenGlobes with something else.<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@NickGass Haha. He was just in a commercial.<br />
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3h Stacia @stacia_jones_<br />
I won't tell you what movie I just watched last night, but I can safely say I will never eat fried chicken again.<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@stacia_jones_ Killer Joe ;)<br />
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9:40 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Stacia @stacia_jones_<br />
@adamzanzie YOU DON'T KNOW THAT. But yes.<br />
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3h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Mike Bush is still anchor of News Channel 5/.Have you met him, @NickGass?<br />
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9:36 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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3h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
@adamzanzie I have not. Why?<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@NickGass Haha. He was just in a commercial.<br />
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2h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
@adamzanzie Ah, I see.<br />
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3h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Les Miz, Django and Argo ruling tonight. 2 movies I haven't seen and don't really want to, one that I did see and liked, but didn't love.<br />
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9:33 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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3h Richard Dreyfuss @RichardDreyfuss<br />
Jodie Foster is one of the most amazing actresses of all time. More than that she’s one of the most amazing people #goldenglobes<br />
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3h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@edcopeland True, true.<br />
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3h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
The HFP seems to be honoring movies tonight that aren't even major contenders at the Oscars. #GoldenGlobes #django #argo<br />
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9:19 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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3h Edward Copeland @edcopeland<br />
@adamzanzie It's all due to the sped-up Oscar calendar. The Globe votes probably were all in before Oscar noms announced.<br />
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3h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@edcopeland True, true.<br />
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3h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Why did they cut to Spielberg when Affleck thanked PTA? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:19 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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3h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Best Director. Here we go. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:17 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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3h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
"Value all privacy." That must've been her middle finger to John Hinckley. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:09 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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3h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Jodie Foster is unusually young for this award, but she has been in movies for awhile. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:07 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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3h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
So, I'm allowed to tweet again after going "over the limit", Twitter? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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9:06 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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3h Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz<br />
Music in that Jodie Foster clip reel made me expect the curtains would part to reveal the cast of SHOWGIRLS.<br />
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9:05 PM - 13 Jan 13 from Queens, NY · Details<br />
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5h Michael Haneke @Michael_Haneke<br />
jst bumpd in2 mel gibson in the toilets. he sed i was his 2nd favurite austrian person ever!!1! how cool is that lol<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@edcopeland Hmm.<br />
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4h Jake Cole @notjustmovies<br />
Michael Hannukah? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:35 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
The only Haneke film I've seen is "Cache", which I admired. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:35 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Wait... was Stallone not born in America? Why is he co-presenting this? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:35 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Two old macho Hollywood Republicans. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:34 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@edcopeland Is it not a good movie? I like some of Hallstrom's work... especially "My Life as a Dog".<br />
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4h Lincoln @LincolnMovie<br />
Bill Clinton introduced #LincolnMovie for the Best Motion Picture-Drama nomination at the #GoldenGlobes! http://huff.to/UJO40l <br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
This is the part where I admit I didn't know Lasse Hallstrom made a movie last year. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:27 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Edward Copeland @edcopeland<br />
@adamzanzie What's sad is that Salmon Fishing was less of a chore to sit through than Les Miz.<br />
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4h Benjamin Kramer @benjaminkramer<br />
@adamzanzie I saw it and I forgot he made a movie this year.<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@edcopeland Is it not a good movie? I like some of Hallstrom's work... especially "My Life as a Dog".<br />
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4h Edward Copeland @edcopeland<br />
@adamzanzie It's harmless. Kristin Scott Thomas is the best part, but gets more predictable as it goes on. Better than when Harvey owned him<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@edcopeland Hmm.<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Oh, how I miss when Jeremy Irons starred in films. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:27 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I haven't seen "Django" so I don't know how much it's changed, but the script I read in 2011 was *not* worthy of a Globe. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:25 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Fuck this shit. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:23 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Give it to KUSHNER!!!!!!!!! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:23 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
If Disney buys the rights to "The Wizard of Oz", it would allow Raimi to begin his prequel with an MGM lion roaring.<br />
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8:21 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
The new Sam Raimi movie. #greatoz<br />
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8:20 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Josh Taylor @Josh_Taylor82<br />
At least Anne Hathaway gave a great speech and recognized Sally Field.<br />
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8:18 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I don't think Sofia Vergara will enjoy that Diet Pepsi if half of it was poured into the bride's glass. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:19 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Before "Les Miz", Hathaway hasn't been nominated for an Oscar since Rachel Getting Married? Huh. Didn't realize. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:18 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Josh Taylor @Josh_Taylor82<br />
Sally Field should have won! #lincoln #GoldenGlobes<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@Josh_Taylor82 Agreed. *sigh*<br />
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8:17 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Has Anne Hathaway won an Oscar before? I'm blanking. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:16 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
The song they play in the "Les Miz" trailer... #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:16 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@avaznz 'Cause he's good friends with the director lol<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Confession: I have never seen any of David O. Russell's movies. Should I start with "Three Kings"? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:07 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Cut to Tommy Lee Jones' craggy face. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:05 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick<br />
The deal is that Bill and Hillary are both going to introduce LINCOLN at the Oscars #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:04 PM - 13 Jan 13 from Manhattan, NY · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
This is like when Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin were overlapping each other before introducing Altman's Honorary Oscar.<br />
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8:04 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I don't know why Wigg and Ferrell are so funny right now, but I can't keep a straight face. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:03 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I think I'd like to go see "Lincoln" for a third and (possibly) final time while it's in theaters. Anyone wanna go with me? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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8:02 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Richard Dreyfuss @RichardDreyfuss<br />
Kevin Costner is a fantastic actor and a very nice man. This is well deserved! I once sold my house to him, I should know #GoldenGlobes<br />
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4h Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz<br />
.@rosmance As a kid, I never imagined an ex-president would show up at the Globes to kiss Steven Spielberg's ass.<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I KNEW IT! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:59 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Ava Zanzie @avaznz<br />
@adamzanzie how did you knoooooow?<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@avaznz 'Cause he's good friends with the director lol<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Clinton's introducing Lincoln. I'm calling it. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:58 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
A beautiful speech by Kevin Coster, who I don't even like much as an actor. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:58 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
God, I REALLY wanna see "Hatfield & McCoy"!!! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:56 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
*Gellhorn<br />
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7:56 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Was "Hemingway and Gelmore" any good? I miss Philip Kaufman. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:56 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
It took me a moment to process that they said "Golden Globe Winner" Kiefer Sutherland, not "Academy Award winner". #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:55 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Richard Roeper @richardroeper<br />
Did Tina Fey and Amy Poehler go home? Come back!<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
And like I said, I'd rather watch that commercial 5-10 more times than go see "Machete Kills". Only 4-9 more viewings to go. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:53 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
"It looks so deleeeecious..." -Sofia Vergara, Diet Pepsi #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:52 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz<br />
Adele is so adorable and sexy. I'm having dirty Dickens fantasies hearing her talk.<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Glad "Skyfall" won for Best Original Song, but I still sort of wish Judi Dench had been nominated for the same movie. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:50 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Give it to Adele. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:48 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
A song from "Act of Valor", the recruitment video, got nominated??????????????????? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:48 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Kenji Fujishima @kenjfuj<br />
Ah good, at least neither John Williams nor Alexandre Desplat won Best Original Score. #goldenglobes<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@kenjfuj Why is that good...?<br />
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7:47 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Kenji Fujishima @kenjfuj<br />
@adamzanzie Sorry if you liked the scores they wrote for their respective films, but I didn't.<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I admit I wanted Williams to win, even while acknowledging that there's very little music in "Lincoln", beautiful as it was. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:46 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Man, I wish I could have seen "Life of Pi" while it was out. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:46 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
There was a long-take in "Argo" that made me wonder if Affleck is a fan of De Palma's "Mission to Mars". #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:44 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick<br />
Tony Mendez? Is "Maya'' going to introduce ZERO DARK THIRTY? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:43 PM - 13 Jan 13 from Manhattan, NY · Details<br />
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4h Quinn Vincent Hough @quinnhough<br />
@LouLumenick What if Maya is more heavenly than Chastain?<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
*Mendez<br />
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7:43 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
The real Tony Menendez! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:43 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
That "Gotta Wonder About A Man Like That" song was in a Skyfall/Heineken commercial, I think. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:42 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@BilgeEbiri I thought that music sounded familiar. What did Glass compose it for?<br />
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5h Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri<br />
If you do something accompanied by Phillip Glass music, you are contributing to both the advancement of mankind & its eventual extinction.<br />
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7:40 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@BilgeEbiri I thought that music sounded familiar. What did Glass compose it for?<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Didn't hear the spoiler. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:39 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@NickGass exactly lol<br />
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5h Harold Itzkowitz @HaroldItz<br />
#GoldenGlobes So apparently the crew drinks, too<br />
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7:35 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Quinn Vincent Hough @quinnhough<br />
@HaroldItz Booze & Salma Hayek. Bad combo (if you're working).<br />
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5h Harold Itzkowitz @HaroldItz<br />
@quinnhough indeed<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Paul Rudd: "Hello... how's everybody doing............................"<br />
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7:36 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I thought Paul Rudd was just making a joke about trying to look good next to Hayek. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:36 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Bad teleprompter.<br />
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7:35 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
What the hell...<br />
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7:35 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
@adamzanzie That was the essence of the Globes.<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@NickGass exactly lol<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
And then a giant grey alien came out of Damian Lewis' back. #GoldenGlobes #lonelydreamcatcherfanboy<br />
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7:35 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Speaking of "Darling Companion"... Damian Lewis should thank Lawrence Kasdan for giving him his start. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:33 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Loud applauses for Cranston, Hamm and Lewis. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:32 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Salma Hayek. She should have been nominated for "Savages"! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:32 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Unless "Darling Companion" deserves that honor instead. That one I actually saw. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:32 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" = geriatric movie of 2012? Sorry, had to say it. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:31 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@egallion Ehh. I wasn't too fond of the script... Is the movie exactly like it?<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I hope I used "rectify" right just then.<br />
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7:28 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
IMDB allows me to rectify that last tweet. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:28 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
There is no easy way to look up who all the nominees are. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:27 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Truth be told, I miss the CZJ of "Entrapment" and "The Terminal". #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:26 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I love Catherine Zeta-Jones, but why did they have to waste her on a "Les Miz" intro? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:25 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
The last time Julianne Moore won one of these things was Short Cuts!!!??? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:22 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
"Three impersonations of Sarah Palin... counting Sarah Palin's." Ouch! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:20 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I haven't seen Game Change, but I was rooting for Hatfield & McCoys. It would've allowed Kevin Reynolds to make another film. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:19 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Always thought Maggie Smith should've been nominated for playing Granny Wendy. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:14 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h ckoh @ckoh<br />
I like Waltz & he was good in DU. But I was pulling for Tommy Lee Jones.<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@ckoh Me, too :(<br />
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7:12 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h ckoh @ckoh<br />
@adamzanzie maybe at the Oscars? But honestly, I had no idea who was favored this year. All of them are pretty strong & have won before.<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Fun fact. Dennis Quaid is onstage right now. His "Breaking Away" co-star Dennis Christopher is apparently in Django Unchained. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:12 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz<br />
That's a bingo!<br />
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7:09 PM - 13 Jan 13 from Queens, NY · Details<br />
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5h Miguel Delaney @MiguelDelaney<br />
@mattzollerseitz Hans Landa?<br />
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5h Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz<br />
@MiguelDelaney Ja.<br />
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5h Miguel Delaney @MiguelDelaney<br />
@mattzollerseitz some performance. Steals that film from Pitt, who is excellent in it.<br />
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5h Mark Greenbaum @mark_greenbaum<br />
@mattzollerseitz A very well-deserved award. He was the best actor in Django, and I think better than Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln.<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I've heard a lot of bad things about "Django", but Waltz is one of the few things that makes me consider going to see it. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:10 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Elliot Gallion @egallion <br />
@adamzanzie You need to see Django. The negative stuff is not unfounded but the positive stuff is very, very true, too.<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@egallion Ehh. I wasn't too fond of the script... Is the movie exactly like it?<br />
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5h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
@adamzanzie The script is a little different from the final cut.<br />
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5h Elliot Gallion @egallion <br />
@adamzanzie There are new things and things left out. It's Tarantino! Cinema compels you.<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Waltz won? That was unexpected. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:10 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Young Daniel Day-Lewis was E.T.? Wouldn't doubt it. He was in "Gandhi" the exact same year, after all... #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:09 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Yooooooooou betcha. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:07 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
"Quentin Tarantino star of my sexual nightmares." Tell that to Tom Carson: http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/111501/tarantino-chained … #GoldenGlobes<br />
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Tarantino, Chained<br />
The release of Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained has kicked off the gnarliest round yet of a debate that never gets old. What are we supposed to make of his alternately frisky and convoluted relati<br />
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7:06 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details Flag media<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Franco diss was gold. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:04 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri<br />
LEAVE JAMES CAMERON ALONE! HE MADE "ALIENS"...[sniffs, softer voice] "Aliens"...<br />
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7:04 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Watching the show tonight, @JimCameron?<br />
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7:03 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Ok... that Cameron diss was gold. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:03 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
These jokes are... okay, I guess. Why do Poehler/Fey need to rely on a teleprompter? It makes them less funny. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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7:02 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@NickGass Oh, yeah...<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Remind me again who's hosting the Oscars?<br />
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6:59 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
@adamzanzie That would be Seth MacFarlane. #seriously<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@NickGass Oh, yeah...<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Sofia Vergara is a hot tamale, but knowing Rodriguez I'd rather watch that Diet Pepsi ad 5 or 10 more times than go see "Machete Kills".<br />
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6:59 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@CraigatPorlock BTW, I forgot to mention: I loved your review. It might be the best thing you have ever written. You should write books!<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@CraigatPorlock Haha. Heard about her "motherfucker who blew up the house" line.<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Jessica Chastain = luminous. Maybe I'll go see "Zero Dark Thirty" next weekend. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:48 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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5h Craig @CraigatPorlock <br />
@adamzanzie She's luminous and with a potty mouth in ZD30.<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@CraigatPorlock Haha. Heard about her "motherfucker who blew up the house" line.<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@CraigatPorlock BTW, I forgot to mention: I loved your review. It might be the best thing you have ever written. You should write books!<br />
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5h Craig @CraigatPorlock <br />
@adamzanzie I've seen that line misquoted a few times. It's "I'm the motherfucker who FOUND this place." Spoiler, hope that's okay.<br />
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5h Craig @CraigatPorlock <br />
@adamzanzie Ah, thanks, man. That means a lot to me. I am writing a book, actually. Co-writing one, on oral hist, nothing to do with movies.<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I heard "Hitchcock" was horrible because it was more about an affair Hitchcock's wife had than about the making of Psycho. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:47 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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6h Nick Gass @NickGass<br />
I wonder if @goldenglobes will be once again tweet the winners 5 seconds before they're announced. #GoldenGlobes<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
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5h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Wow. When Ewen McGregor first appeared, I thought he was Branaugh. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:43 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Denzel Washington is old enough to have a daughter who's a senior in college??? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:37 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Jon Hamm. Remember @richardroeper said after watching Romney's GOP speech: "Looks like Don Draper's running for president." #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:36 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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2h Don Draper @DonDraper_NY<br />
Maybe I should give that a go someday ...LOL @adamzanzie @richardroeper @GoldenGlobes @BeverlyHilton #MadMen<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Richard Gere's best performances were in the late 70's: "Bloodbrothers" and "Days of Heaven". After that, it was all downhill #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:33 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Julianne Moore!!!!! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:32 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@NickGass In the same skit: "George Clooney's nominated for Michael Clayton? Well, my son H.W. calls it 'Michael Gay-Ton'."<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Kevin Costner nominated for a Kevin Reynolds miniseries I still need to watch -- and I love Kevin Reynolds. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:31 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@NickGass I'm reminded of David Spade doing his Daniel Plainview impersonation on SNL: "Johnny Depp can sing -- who gives a fuck!"<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
@NickGass The song she sings in the trailer???<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Who the fuck fractured the Aflac duck's beak. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:27 PM - 13 Jan 13 · Details<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I haven't seen "Les Miz", but why is Anne Hathaway the front-runner for supporting actress? Is she better than Sally Field? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6h Joe Carnahan @carnojoe<br />
Hey, who's gonna watch the Globe arrivals with me! WAIT-- no, I just remembered! I wanted to see what a shotgun barrel tasted like instead!<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
It's George Clooney, and... that one lady! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Fey: "We do get pretty naked on our girls." For no real reason, I wish Poehler would make a Teamosil joke. #GoldenGlobes #tobiasandlindsay<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
I used to get Al Roker (?) and Randy Jackson (American Idol) confused. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Lucy Liu is still around? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Zooey Deschanel is very easy on the eyes. Not news, really. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Jimmy Fallon: "I think Lincoln will win, right?" #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6h Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri<br />
Buffalo Bill from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS arrives on Red Carpet, asked who he's wearing, replies, "Some great big fat person." #GoldenGlobes<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Hey! Damian Lewis! Loved you in "Dreamcatcher"! #GoldenGlobes #lawrencekasdan #darlingcompanion<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Wait... Nicole Kidman is still with that, uh... that one dude? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Too bad the flopping of "John Carter" would prevent Andrew Stanton from showing his face there tonight. And it's a great film! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Hayden Panettiere sure has a come a long way from the voice of Dot in "A Bug's Life". #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie<br />
Tonight I'm live-tweeting the Golden Globe Awards.<br />
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quoteAdam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-85998249130985730152012-07-13T20:43:00.001-07:002021-04-24T14:59:43.217-07:00Savages (2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Oliver Stone’s <em>Savages</em> is a powerfully visceral moviegoing experience: a gritty, gorgeous story about pot growers in California, crime lords in Mexico and the perversion of the modern-day drug wars. It’s a tailor-made subject for Stone, who knows all about drug-themed Hollywood thrillers and set the standard for them in his early years as a screenwriter-for-hire; he dealt with hashish in <em>Midnight Express</em>, cocaine in <em>Scarface</em> and heroin in <em>Year of the Dragon</em>. Now comes this movie, packed with sexy leading stars and slam-bang action sequences. Unusually youthful in point-of-view for a film made by a 65-year old director, it’s a masterful Hollywood entertainment, as well as a refreshing directorial comeback—this is Stone’s best movie since <em>Nixon</em>.<br />
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<em>Savages</em> has been described by some critics (including <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/so_bong_it_right_wwgnADuX7jls1kb324Cx7J">this critic</a> and <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2012/0706/Savages-Oliver-Stone-s-mayhem-feels-like-Quentin-Tarantino-movie-video">this critic</a>) as a departure for Stone—a conventional genre picture with “no message”. Nothing could be further from the truth. The movie is a single-minded assault on the drug wars, which, Stone argues, hurt more than they help; they lend assistance to power-hungry drug lords (and greedy servants of the law) while addicts and manufacturers are jailed, raped, tortured and decapitated. “This is not a war on drugs,” Stone <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2012/07/oliver-stone-on-savages-and-the-war-on-drugs.html">told</a> Matt Zoller Seitz. “This is a war for money. It’s being fought in Mexico for money, and it’s being fought in the United States for money — the United States being the biggest sap of all, because we give the most.”<br />
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The movie is based on the novel by Don Winslow, which I read at the beginning of the summer and finished in a couple of weeks, finding it damn-near-impossible to put down. Part of my interest in reading the book stemmed from the fact that I had never gone into one of Stone’s movies with prior knowledge of the source material before; I was curious to see how well Stone’s vision of the story would match up with my own. The book is a highly-recommended page-turner that raises serious moral questions about torture, drugs and the occasional necessity for violence in the world, and while the film doesn’t quite broach the deepest depths of its source material, Stone (who co-wrote the screenplay with Winslow and Shane Salerno) comes closer to it than perhaps any other filmmaker could have.<br />
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The heroes of <em>Savages</em> are three California pot-growers in their 20’s: Ben (Aaron Johnson), Chon (Taylor Kitsch) and Ophelia (Blake Lively). They are the three greatest pot growers in the world. Ben is the botanist, the brains behind the science of marijuana growth. Chon is the Iraq War veteran with military connections enabling him to import the highest-quality weed all the way from Afghanistan. Ben is the Buddhist who takes 99% of the violence out of the weed business. Chon is the other half—the backup who always deals violently with anyone left who’s refusing to cooperate. And Ophelia, nicknamed “O.,” is the playmate sleeping with both of them—the glue holding their business partnership together, so to speak, and quite possibly the only thing maintaining their sanity as they continue to operate in an increasingly dangerous business. In opening voiceover narration, she summarizes the two boys’ worldviews on the basis of their sex lives: “Chon fucks. Ben makes love.”<br />
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Then, one morning, an email is sent to Chon’s laptop, and it changes everything. It’s a video of eight decapitated Mexican heads all in a row, and a message warning them that they have one last competitor standing in their way: the Baja Cartel of Mexico. They’re demanding Ben and Chon come and work for them, or else. A meeting is held, the boys turn down the offer, and the cartel quickly makes plans to teach them a lesson. “I found their weakness,” determines Elena (Salma Hayek), and pretty soon Ben and Chon are once again staring horrified at the screen of Chon’s laptop—this time, because O. has fallen into the clutches of the cartel’s right-hand man, Lado (Benicio Del Toro), while a synchronized voice threatens decapitation unless the boys reconsider their answer.<br />
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At the time I was reading Winslow’s book, I found this to be an irresistible premise for American fiction. We still live in a country that frowns upon marijuana as a taboo substance, even despite the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpBzQI_7ez8">admissions</a> of our current president to having experimented with it during his youth ("I inhaled frequently. That was the point”). The genius of <em>Savages</em> is that it’s impossible for us <em>not</em> to sympathize with Ben and Chon; their line of business makes them criminals according to the law, and yet we expect this law to be overturned in our generation any day now. The timing of this movie is a key factor in its success. If pot were legal in America, we would have gotten a much different movie, in which Ben and Chon summon the help of the U.S. government as they handle negotiations to free O. (a convention we’ve seen in just about every hostage thriller). But because marijuana is still illegal in the U.S., Ben and Chon’s only option is to take matters into their own hands; for them to consult the authorities would be out of the question. Indeed, out of all of the film’s villains, perhaps the most evil is Dennis (John Travolta), the slimeball federal agent who accepts a bribe from the boys every week and is the only thing keeping them from doing time in prison just because of the plants they grow.<br />
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The film does for the drug cartels what Stone’s <em>Any Given Sunday</em> did for professional football, portraying it as a system so brutal a man’s eye can literally pop out of its socket at any given moment. These people will kill for money and for love. If Ben seeks nonviolent solutions, then Chon is far more trusting of his primitive instincts. He’ll do whatever it takes to get O. back, even if it means sticking a gun in his own mouth. While I would have liked more of the back-and-forth arguments about violence waged between Ben and Chon in Winslow’s book, Stone adapts enough of them to make his point. As Ben, Aaron Johnson has a great scene where he sobs hysterically after watching the blood of a Mexican thug blow up in his face; he absolutely nails the paralysis of a Buddhist watching his own system of values come crashing down before him. Kitsch, as Chon, is cool and quiet in a Steve McQueen sort of way; those who complained of his “uncharismatic” performance earlier this year as the hero of Andrew Stanton’s <em><a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2012/03/andrew-stantons-women.html">John Carter</a></em> (which I loved) will find him more agreeable here, in a role where he earns charisma by playing an antihero instead. But the film’s most jaw-dropping portrayal of a savage is delivered by Demián Bichir as the cartel’s messenger, Alex, for reasons I will not divulge here, except to say that he has a scene so painful and harrowing, I was on the verge of tears watching it.<br />
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I have never bought the argument tossed around by Stone’s most fervent detractors that he’s too masculine a filmmaker to write strong roles for women; such critics ignore Hiep Thi Le as Le Ly Hayslip in <em>Heaven and Earth</em>, Joan Allen as the First Lady in <em>Nixon</em>, Cameron Diaz and Ann-Margaret as the Miami Sharks’ owners in <em>Any Given Sunday</em>, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as a 9/11 survivor’s pregnant wife in <em>World Trade Center</em>. It should be said, however, that <i>Savages</i> is Stone’s finest hour to date for female roles; there has never been this many interesting women in a Stone film before. As Elena, Salma Hayek is not merely playing an entertaining femme fatale cartoon (as Jennifer Lopez was in <em>U Turn</em>). No, Hayek brings out the humanity of Elena; this is a woman constantly looking over her shoulder in macho Mexico, struggling to remind her male enemies who’s boss, coping with the lack of attention her teenage daughter (Sandra Echeverría) pays to her ("She is ashamed of me, and I am proud of her for it"). Blake Lively makes O. not an annoying bimbo, but a street-smart girl who learns from her nightmarish experience in captivity. The fact that Lively has a reputation as a posh actress makes her all the more appropriate for the role as opposed to somebody like Jennifer Lawrence, who is a fine actress herself and was originally intended to play O., but would have been less effective; her roles in <em>Winter’s Bone</em> and <em>The Hunger Games</em> suggest the charisma of a tomboy, rather than somebody as glamorous as O.<br />
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Del Toro, as Lado, plays what is unquestionably the most fearsome gigantic Latino in any American film since Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurgh in <em>No Country for Old Men</em>, and you can feel the dread enveloping the audience whenever he appears onscreen. In one scene, he is tasked with the duty of slowly feeding bits and pieces of steak to O. on the sharp prongs of a fork; it’s a moment so simple and yet so terrifying, we fear he might jam it down her throat. Another of the film’s most amusing scenes has Del Toro and Travolta, as Dennis (the actor’s greatest role in years), alone together in a luxurious kitchen while the two middle-aged men decide to strike a deal—one because he can, the other because he doesn’t have a choice.<br />
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For a $40 million film, <i>Savages</i> appears to be doing pretty well at the box office despite some truly nasty criticisms being mounted against the film on IMDB, The Huffington Post and the like—many of them over the film’s controversial ending (which is only half-faithful to Winslow’s novel). I won’t outright spoil how the film ends, except to say that it took me completely by surprise watching it in the theater, where I wondered if Stone was paying homage to his old <em>Scarface</em> pal Brian De Palma’s 2002 film-noir <em>Femme Fatale</em>, which employs a similar climactic technique. But I have no way of knowing at the moment if Stone ever even saw that movie, so in the meantime I’ll come up with a theory of my own.<br />
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I think Stone is making a point that Shakespearean tragedies don’t always get to end in, well… tragedy. That sometimes reality can be harsher, even when nobody has died. Think about it: the drug wars are a form of prohibition. What does prohibition do? It sends the crime rate skyrocketing. It punishes customers and rewards figures in positions of power (on both sides of the law). Stone feels the need to emphasize this, and so he ends the film in an unconventional way—in which villains profit, “good guys” are disgraced and justice is not served. The ending of <i>Savages</i> has been criticized by some as “sentimental”. I think it is anything <i>but</i> sentimental. While I’m not entirely sure what influenced Stone’s decision to play a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l1bW0QyOD0">cover version</a> of “Here Comes the Sun” by Yuna in the end credits, consider this line in the song’s lyrics: <em>Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces</em>. And then retrace back to the ending. Who is smiling at the end of the film? Who isn’t? <br />
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<i>Savages</i> has restored Stone’s rightful place in Hollywood as one of America’s most important filmmakers. Looking back, his career since the late 90’s brought forth some decent movies and some lesser ones, but nothing like this that was worthy of his earlier, stronger work from the late 80’s and early 90’s. <em>U Turn</em> was goofy genre fun. <em>Any Given Sunday</em> was a fascinating mess, and so was <em>Alexander</em> (although the 2007 Final Cut is worth watching). <em>World Trade Center</em> was noble and uplifting. <em>W.</em> had its moments. <em>Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps</em> was entertaining, but slight. All of these films were either gems or failures, but none of them achieved greatness. This one does.Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-89389653291754776322012-07-06T10:26:00.002-07:002021-03-26T11:25:29.655-07:00Natural Born Killers (1994) And What It Achieves<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SBA3Z5WatpU/T2cypkcaNXI/AAAAAAAACLE/byZvDHbRj84/s1600/natural-born-killers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="322" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SBA3Z5WatpU/T2cypkcaNXI/AAAAAAAACLE/byZvDHbRj84/s1600/natural-born-killers.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />
I’ve been a casual Oliver Stone fan since I was a young teenager, but I didn’t get around to seeing <i>Natural Born Killers</i> until 2010, when I was 19 years old. Looking back, it was the one movie in Stone’s filmography that I was simply too afraid to see, despite my strong admiration for many of his other films. Some had told me it was one of the worst movies ever made. Others told me it was a masterpiece. Now, after three viewings of the film, I have to say: I agree with the latter.<br />
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Stone’s latest film, <i>Savages</i>, is all set to be released in the U.S. this weekend; having read the book by Don Winslow, I can pretty much guarantee that it’s going to resurrect age-old debates about Stone’s approach to cinematic violence, and whether or not he has a problem with pushing it too far. I suspect critics’ personal feelings about Stone as a whole have tended to be a factor in their perception of the ways he handles violence in some of his movies. Because I always try to go into a Stone release with a clear understanding of what he is trying to achieve (even when the end result is a failure, such as the botched 2005 "director's cut" of <i>Alexander</i>, quite inferior to the 2007 Final Unrated Cut), I wonder if maybe I’m guilty of a bias, in that I largely notice only the good things about the ways he handles violence in a film like <i>Natural Born Killers</i>, and very little of the supposed flaws to his approach. Indeed, for some, <i>Natural Born Killers</i> was an exploitative and gratuitous film, so irresponsible in the way Stone handled violence that many critics lost faith in him soon afterward.<br />
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Jim Emerson, one of my favorite film critics, is among them, and, in a 2008 <a href="http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=229478">piece</a> captioned, "Why doesn't a new Oliver Stone release matter any longer?" seemed undeniably pleased that Stone's more recent films have no longer been getting the attention they used to. Emerson's <a href="http://jeeem.tripod.com/reviews/nbk.htm">three-part-dismissal</a> of <i>Natural Born Killers</i>, published for his Cinepad site in the mid-90’s, was the first negative review of the film that I began to think seriously about (up until then I had spoiled myself only with the more positive reviews by such critics as <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19940826/REVIEWS/408260302">Roger Ebert</a> and <a href="http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117902971?refcatid=31">Todd McCarthy</a>). Emerson opened his three-part piece with this argument:<br />
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<i>A lot of people still consider Oliver Stone to be a serious political filmmaker. I used to -- up until I saw Natural Born Killers. Then I saw him for what he really is: a sensationalist -- an exploitation filmmaker who, instead of making movies about zombies and bikers and big-busted women in prison, applies his exploitation-film sensibility to fragments of American history or pop culture. His style was perfect for Platoon as a way of immersing you in the disorienting sensations of combat. And even the senseless hodge-podge of film stocks and techniques that Stone applied to JFK seemed appropriate for a movie about piecing together a crazy quilt of conspiracy theories.<br />
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But with Natural Born Killers, Stone revealed his true nature -- not just in his relentlessly pandering and derivative "stylistic" doodling, but in the way he took all the satirical energy and purpose out of Quentin Tarantino's original script. In Stone's hands, Natural Born Killers was no longer about the way society (and particularly Hollywood filmmakers) glorify murderers and then sell them back to the public as celluloid rebels; it's about Oliver Stone striking back at the press who have begun to see through him, and a desperate (and apparently successful) attempt to cash in on the middle-brow, MTV-bred youth market by force-feeding them trippy visuals -- and by riding Tarantino's "hipster" coattails.</i><br />
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I have to disagree with Emerson’s argument that Stone’s film lacks the “sale and glorification of murderers” theme that was present in the original Quentin Tarantino <a href="http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/natural-born-killers_early.html">screenplay</a>. Consider the following: about a quarter into the film, Stone introduces us to Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr.), a news reporter with a Robin Leach accent who hosts the tabloid TV show <i>American Maniacs</i>. True to Tarantino’s original screenplay, this television show is shown doing precisely what Emerson argues Stone’s film shies away from exposing: the glorification of serial killers who are sold back to the public through entertainment. <br />
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In one <i>American Maniacs</i> episode, for example, Wayne Gale sensationalizes the murder of a police officer by the film’s infamous serial-killing duo, Mickey and Mallory Knox. The episode grossly dramatizes the murder, portraying the ensuing police chase of Mickey and Mallory (who are played by <i>American Maniacs</i> actors) as though it were an action sequence straight out of a Roger Corman picture. Another cop, also played by an actor (Dale Dye—Stone’s military advisor on <i>Platoon</i>), recalls his partner’s murder outside a donut shop as he was carrying out a cup of coffee and “my bear claw.” He chokes up as all-too-obviously fake tears begin streaming down his face—a moment which Stone, on the film’s DVD commentary, describes as demonstrating “the sentimentality of television tabloid.” When one of Gale’s American crew members, David (Evan Handler), complains that the episode “raped and pillaged” a previous episode, Gale shoots back, “Repetition <i>works</i>, David. Okay? Do you think that those nit-wits out there in zombieland remember anything? It’s junk food for the brains. It’s, you know, filler. Fodder. Whatever. Just build to the interview.”<br />
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Gale does not realize his mistake until the second half of <i>Natural Born Killers</i>, when he finally gets a rare opportunity to meet Mickey and Mallory Knox themselves after they are caught by the law and sent to prison. Mickey (Woody Harrelson) is doing time in the deepest, darkest region of the prison and Mallory (Juliette Lewis) is being salivated over in another region by officers of the law. Mickey has agreed to do an interview with Gale on Super Bowl Sunday. The interview (which Stone modeled after Geraldo Rivera’s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Xw5Dc_vWs">interview</a> with Charles Manson) goes pretty smoothly until Mickey debunks the artificiality of Gale’s scare tactics: “You’ll never understand, Wayne. You and me? We’re not even the same species. I used to be you, then I evolved. From where you’re standing, you a man. Where I’m standing? You’re an ape. You’re not even an ape—you’re a media person. Media’s like the weather, only it’s man-made weather. Murder? It’s pure. <i>You’re</i> the one made it impure. You’re buying and selling fear. You say, ‘Why?’ I say, ‘Why bother?’”<br />
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So even though <i>Natural Born Killers</i> is not specifically an attack on the selling and glorifying of mass murderers by Hollywood filmmakers, as Tarantino’s screenplay was (to <i>some</i> extent—though not entirely), this does not mean Stone ignores the “sale and glorification” debate entirely. Still, Emerson expresses annoyance at Stone for ignoring Hollywood movies that allegedly commit such a fallacy, particularly because Stone cut out a movie-within-a-movie excerpt in Tarantino’s original screenplay, entitled <a href="http://jeeem.tripod.com/reviews/thrillkill.htm">"Thrill Killers"</a>, that gave weight to that argument. Emerson <a href="http://jeeem.tripod.com/reviews/nbk.htm">writes</a>:<br />
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<i>Tarantino's script was done like a documentary, and featured a hilarious excerpt from a Hollywood exploitation movie about Mickey and Mallory called Thrill Killers. As you can see from reading this excerpt, there's nothing in Stone's movie that makes fun of the media's perceptions of Mickey and Mallory (or of Mickey and Mallory themselves) as much as this movie parody. Why did Stone cut it out? Probably three reasons: 1) he's notorious for having no sense of humor; 2) it has a satirical point of view that the rest of Stone's film lacks; 3) the movie Stone actually made is much closer to Thrill Killers than it is to Tarantino's send-up.</i><br />
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</div>Emerson makes a valid point when he accuses Stone of making a movie that’s actually a lot like the “Thrill Killers” excerpt from Tarantino’s screenplay. Indeed, <i>Natural Born Killers</i>, much like “Thrill Killers”, puts a lot of emphasis on the love that binds Mickey and Mallory together; the director in Tarantino’s “Thrill Killers” excerpt describes the tale of Mickey and Mallory as “an operatic love story,” which certainly sounds like the sort of thing a filmmaker like Stone might say. <br />
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But here’s my question: why is it such a problem if Stone <i>did</i>, indeed, make a movie closer to “Thrill Killers”? Wouldn't that make the movie a more empathetic study in the lives of these two people? You have to remember that <i>Natural Born Killers</i> was released at a time when the American public, aside from being obsessed with mass murderers, was also obsessed with thinking up grotesque ways to punish them. Our justice system back then was founded on a “three strikes, you’re out” rule. Stone was worried about this, and longed for the public to do a little more in the way of empathizing with the situations and backgrounds of these mass murderers, horrific as their crimes may have been. In the age of the Willie Horton political ads, I’d say this was pretty ballsy on his part. <br />
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“None of us,” Stone explained in a Charlie Rose <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5650441931731679022">interview</a>, “should feel ourselves superior to another person for having committed a crime, because in us is the ability to commit that same crime. We are united, we’re linked… we must have the humility to understand our brother and sister. <i>In the murderer goes I</i>. The little black kid that kills somebody in the park tomorrow, and—you know—kills a nice, respectable person? You hate that kid, right? I mean, you wanna kill him for what he did. You want to throw him away in jail… but, you know, he has a reason, and you gotta go back through his life, and his pain, and his suffering. And you begin to understand.”<br />
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Perhaps because <i>Natural Born Killers</i> provides a more intimate window into Mickey and Mallory’s lives than the harshest of satire would permit, Emerson <a href="http://jeeem.tripod.com/reviews/nbk.htm">charges</a> that Stone’s own filmmaking approach is indistinguishable to that of Wayne Gale: <br />
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<i>Stone is very big on how "the artist" just can’t help but "reflect society." He contends that to say that NBK is part of the problem it half-heartedly pretends to criticize is like trying to "kill the messenger." But how, exactly, does Stone's "message" significantly different from Hard Copy's or Wayne Gayle's? Stone doesn't, or can't, say. In claiming that NBK is but a mirror, simply reflecting the violence in the media and society at large, Stone is virtually admitting that his movie has no point of view that would give satirical context to the violence it portrays. I'd argue that the artist's mission is not just to reflect, but to imagine, transform, interpret, comment.<br />
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And then Stone says: "Natural Born Killers comes from a very emotional moment in time, those two years that I really felt disgusted. Everything was coming up. I just felt sick, disillusioned – and I just expressed myself the way a kid would by just throwing paint on a canvas. And I just let it go, I didn’t censor myself at all." Somehow, throwing paint on a canvas (or blood on a screen) like a kid and then labeling it "satire" is equated with not censoring oneself. You know, I'll bet Wayne Gayle (or, for that matter, John Wayne Gacy) could say the exact same thing about reporting for tabloid TV or serial killing. Gosh, they were just expressing their disgust with society and not censoring themselves.</i><br />
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Again, I have to disagree with Emerson here. In my view, Stone, as a filmmaker, differs from Wayne Gale in that he believes violence can be eliminated by not exposing potential mass murderers to the greediness of mass media. A figure like Wayne Gale would say that mass media can be a deterrent to crime because a show like <i>American Maniacs</i> alerts at-home viewers to the actions of nearby criminals. Stone, however, believes that the environments of most mass murderers are actually shaped by mass media (demonstrated, for example, in the film’s notorious “I Love Mallory” sequence), and that the only way to escape such artificial hostility is to escape the system and disappear in a media-free underground. As Patti Smith <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1o68h4Usqs">sings</a> in the film’s opening credits: “Outside of society—that’s where I wanna be! Outside of society—they’re waiting for me!” <br />
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Furthermore, it is untrue to claim that Stone is merely “reflecting” media violence. Stone is also interpreting it; specifically, he interprets media violence as an insult to the audience’s intelligence (“Repetition <i>works</i>, David!”). And where Emerson takes issue with Stone’s “uncensored paint on a canvas” quote, dismissing it as the confession of a sloppy artist with nothing to say, I see nothing wrong with it; Luis Bunuel, after all, specialized in “uncensored paint on a canvas” long before Stone, and in several instances (<i>Un Chien Andalou, Simon of the Desert, The Exterminating Angel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgoisie</i>) the results worked beautifully. Stone is more or less following his lead.<br />
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Stone is also interpreting misogyny in the media, which he first exposes in the “I Love Mallory” sequence when Mallory imagines being fondled by her father (Rodney Dangerfield) while a laugh track howls at her abuse, ignorant to what is really going on. Ironically, Quentin Tarantino revealed in an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWtm3Un8skA">interview</a> with Opie and Anthony that this sequence drove him out of the theater and provoked him to demand that Stone cut his screenwriting credit out of the film (although Tarantino says that he and Stone are on good terms now, and admits that the one thing he likes about the scene is its interesting interpretation of what Rodney Dangerfield might have been like in real life). Why Tarantino disliked the scene, I am not sure, but to me, it is an important scene because it establishes Mallory’s violent home life, which includes being derided by her father as a “stupid bitch”; thus, she is reasonably upset when Mickey calls her this later on in the film. Misogyny in the media is further emphasized when a psychologist (Steven Wright—who worked with Tarantino on <i>Reservoir Dogs</i>) informs Wayne Gale he is unmoved by Mallory’s death threats against him, because “I never really believe what women say to me.”<br />
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But herein lies a possible problem: by focusing more on the villainy of the mass media than on the villainy of mass murderers, is Stone not committing some type of moral fallacy? Emerson <a href="http://jeeem.tripod.com/reviews/nbkreview.htm">writes</a>:<br />
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<i>In the end, the only idea in the movie is Stone's assertion that tabloid TV reporters are a lower form of humanity than mass killers. That may be a provocative (if morally questionable) position to take, but it's just thrown out there; the movie doesn't even try to back it up.</i><br />
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Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to conclude that the film portrays the mass media as “a lower form of humanity” than mass killers. I just think that Stone wants to take a more unusual approach by showing us more of the media’s villainy. After all, we walk into the movie knowing, from the opening scene in the diner, that Mickey and Mallory are evil people. It is a given. But in the 1990’s, it was not a given to charge the mass media with some of the blame as well.<br />
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</div>Along with the media, Stone also goes after right-wing law enforcement. This is represented by Detective Jack Scagnetti (Tom Sizemore), who, like Mickey and Mallory, was bred by violence; as an 8-year old, he witnessed his mother’s chest exploding on the day Charles Whitman fired shots from the University of Texas Tower. Because Scagnetti wants nothing to do with Wayne Gale, you would think he’s anti-media, but no: he’s written books about his ruthless crime-fighting exploits. Like Wayne Gale, he sells fear to the public, as does McCluskey (Tommy Lee Jones), the prison warden who believes that the best way to run a prison is to strike fear into inmates by twisting their noses with pliers. Neither Scagnetti nor McCluskey ever once consider that their ruthless crime-fighting tactics will come back to haunt them; this explains clips in the film’s end credits featuring the recently-departed Rodney King, a distant echo of a real-life incident tainted by brutal law enforcement and its consequences.<br />
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Stone scores another point against the media when he argues that it’s hypocritical to criticize figures like Mickey and Mallory when we all have a Mickey and Mallory hidden deep within the recesses of our souls, a universal theme that is emphasized at a moment (very late in the film) when Wayne Gale suddenly finds himself fighting alongside Mickey and Mallory in the wake of an escalating prison riot. The riot has made Gale feel pure and alive for the very first time in his life; anyone who’s ever at least played a game of paintball can certainly attest to what he’s feeling. It’s not until this point in the film when <i>Natural Born Killers</i> truly begins to qualify as satire, and, as fellow blogger Jake Cole <a href="http://armchairc.blogspot.com/2009/11/natural-born-killers.html">writes</a>, “Gale is so consumed in his own hype that he, too, begins to gun down prison guards in a frenzy. As TV destroys itself in rapid montage, Mickey and Mallory emerge the evolved ‘natural born killers,’ the idols of a world that has finally come to celebrate its evil side.”<br />
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But does the movie <i>itself</i> celebrate this kind of evil? Emerson <a href="http://jeeem.tripod.com/reviews/nbkreview.htm">argues</a>:<br />
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<i>This movie does exactly the same thing it pretends to be criticizing -- and gets off on it. Stone wants to have it both ways -- to condemn violence and its exploitation, and to acknowledge that it's fun to groove on that violence after all. In 1969, Stanley Kubrick tried to show the same sort of thing in A Clockwork Orange… But Kubrick's film, whatever its other faults, captured that ambivalence and communicated it to the audience; it got you to feel sorry for a pathetic monster but never urged you to applaud his cruelty.</i><br />
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True, <i>A</i> <i>Clockwork Orange</i> didn’t urge us to applaud Alex’s cruelty. I don’t believe <i>Natural Born Killers </i>urges us to applaud Mickey and Mallory’s cruelty, either; in retrospect, both films can be accused of practically the same offenses. Both <i>Clockwork Orange</i> and <i>Natural Born Killers</i> begin with their heroes launching into a series of brutal acts, show us how they’re punished by establishments, and then proceed to reveal the flaws in those establishments before ending with the heroes essentially beating the system. The Ludovico Treatment is conquered in <i>Clockwork Orange</i>, and the mass media is pumped full of lead in <i>Natural Born Killers</i>. Alex is a rapist and murderer, and in the end he’s rewarded with his Beethoven music. Mickey and Mallory are mass murderers, and in the end they escape underground and get away with it. We come away from both films convinced that these are, yes, monstrous people, but then again so are the systems controlling them. Kubrick and Stone each get to make their case to explain why. <br />
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For me, the strongest section in Emerson’s critical piece on <i>Natural Born Killers</i> is his <a href="http://jeeem.tripod.com/reviews/nbk.htm">analysis</a> of Stone’s own interviews explaining the film’s intentions, and it is here that one does have to admit some of Stone’s statements appear to contradict each other:<br />
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<i>Oliver Stone may be the first, true "spin director" – a filmmaker who continually uses the media to manipulate impressions and put spin on his movies. Stone undoubtedly feels this is necessary because his movies themselves are so muddled and confused. As I've noted many times before, Stone talks a much better movie than he actually makes. Here are some examples of Stone talking out of both sides of his mouth, from the NBK video documentary:<br />
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"The irony is that, in cutting these three minutes, I think that much of the black humor in the film was lost. A shot of a knife going through a window, a bullet going through a hand and creating a hole in it, take the edge off and make the film, in a way, more comfortable and easier to watch, because you realize it’s ridiculous. And I think that by cutting some of that stuff it makes it grimmer and allows certain people to not completely grasp the attitude of the movie." -- Oliver Stone; intro to NBK<br />
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And then: "A lot of the, you know, younger filmmakers – I’m surprised that they think violence is cool and hip. And they play it that way – which is fine, you can make a couple of films like that, but I can’t see making a career out of it. Morally, it’s a repugnant point of view to me, because I’ve been in Vietnam, I’ve seen the effects of guns, and it’s pretty terrifying....<br />
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"There’s no question that movies, by the standard of real violence, are a pale approximation, almost a joke. So I think a lot of the younger filmmakers, because they can’t get the realism, just go the other way, and they dismiss the consequences of violence. You kill someone and it’s fun, it’s hip, it’s cool. I could never take part in that, personally, because of my own experience in life." -- Oliver Stone, in the interviews accompanying the director’s cut of NBK.<br />
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OK, my head is spinning (though not as fast as Ollie’s, apparently). Let’s see: The original version of NBK lacked some of the black humor – like the bloody see-through gunshot wound in the hand – that should make the film less grim and easier to watch. Those kinds of things allow you to better grasp the movie’s attitude because they are supposed to be funny and ridiculous, although Stone himself (the director and co-author of the screenplay) finds that attitude morally repugnant because he’s seen the real effects of violence in Vietnam and violence should not be portayed as fun and cool and hip, the way those younger filmmakers do. Right. But, uh, how again does the "black humor" and making the violence fun/funny different from what Stone is accusing those younger ‘90s filmmakers (a direct slap at Quentin Tarantino, who hated what Stone did to his script?) of doing? And how does this "black humor" clarify the film’s "attitude"? Who does the film encouraged to laugh at, the killers or the victims of their violence? Whose side is the film really on? What consequences do Mickey and Mallory -- embodiments of Violence in Society -- face because of their violence? Why are the killings presented from the killers’ point of view, and the victims always made comically loathsome and somehow "deserving" of their deaths -- oh, except for the racist stereotype of The Indian, that is. It's "bad bad bad" to kill those noble Native Americans, isn't it? (See Mississippi Burning for more examples of this kind of extra-perverted racism.)</i><br />
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Emerson is correct that Stone’s comments about “black humor” are odd. The scene Stone refers to—in which Mallory takes Wayne Gale hostage and then shoots a hole into his hand—is not a scene that I find particularly funny. To the contrary, I think this scene works for the exact reason that Stone tries to argue against: it’s supposed to be grim, horrific, and uncomfortable to watch. When Mallory shoots Gale in the hand, he lets out a painful, bloodcurdling scream that puts an end to his brief fantasy as a killer; it’s a jolt to the audience as well, because it reminds us—just as it no doubt reminds Gale—that violence is not all fun and games. It HURTS. Oddly enough, Stone even confirms the raw power of this scene on the DVD commentary (“It’s <i>real</i>, in its weird kind of way. It kind of centers you… and that became one of the symbols of the film”), so perhaps even Stone has come around to realizing the ridiculousness of his previous claim that the scene is meant to be funny. I do, however, think that Downey’s performance as Gale provides the basis for many funny lines of dialogue in the film (“Ming is not a fucking restaurant!”), so I disagree with Emerson’s separate point in <a href="http://jeeem.tripod.com/reviews/nbkreview.htm">Part III</a> of his piece that the film has “no humor”.<br />
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I understand where Stone is coming from when he expresses uneasiness about the younger filmmakers in the 90’s who made careers out of “cool and hip” violence. It’s a redundant trend in moviemaking that continues to this day. There’s no denying that his comments are partially a slap at Tarantino, and I would deem them a little unfair; to be sure, <i>Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction</i> and <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/08/inglourious-basterds-2009-two-years.html"><i>Inglourious Basterds</i></a> all make occasional attempts to cut through the ugliness of violence. Still, there’s no denying that Tarantino, as a filmmaker, is way more interested in making violence exhilarating in his movies (<i>see Kill Bill Vol. 1</i>) than Stone, who is generally more interested in making violence disturbing in his movies, being a Vietnam veteran who’s witnessed human atrocities first-hand. That doesn’t necessarily mean Stone is clean in this regard; at one point in <i>Natural Born Killers</i>, Mickey is griping about violence in Hollywood (“I been thinking about why they making all these stupid fucking movies. Anyone out there in Hollywood believe in kissing anymore?”) while the chainsaw clip from the Stone-scripted <i>Scarface</i> is played in the background through rear projection—Stone’s clever way of acknowledging his own hypocrisies. <br />
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As for the Navajo Indian (Russell Means from <i>The Last of the Mohicans</i>) who takes Mickey and Mallory into his home, I am confused by Emerson’s assertion that the character is “a racist stereotype.” Stone presents him as a man whose family has endured the pain of violence (it is implied that his son died in Vietnam), and who determines instantly that Mickey and Mallory have been bred from violence as well, although theirs is dictated by media instead of government; from the Navajo’s point of view, the words “too much T.V.” are projected on Mickey and Mallory’s clothes. The Navajo is not necessarily “noble,” either, which he reveals when he tells his grandson a story about a woman who died from the bite of a snake that enjoyed her hospitality (“Look, bitch: you knew I was a snake”). The Navajo laughs at this story, even when he knows he is violating its principal moral. Mickey and Mallory are, in a sense, snakes, yet he is willing to offer them his hospitality anyway. When Mickey accidentally shoots the Navajo dead and is reprimanded for it by Mallory, we are happy to see them coming to their senses for once, even while we sense the irony that they still haven’t realized their mistake in murdering scores of other innocent people.<br />
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I question Emerson’s claim that the movie’s victims are made out to “deserve” their deaths. In <a href="http://jeeem.tripod.com/reviews/nbkreview.htm">Part III</a> of his piece, Emerson elaborates on this a bit further, describing the murder of Mallory’s mother (Edie McClurg) and father:<br />
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<i>Mickey and Mallory kill Mallory's parents, stuffing dad's head into the fish tank and setting mom on fire in her bed. The movie's visceral message is: These people deserve to die -- dad because of what he did and mom because she didn't try to stop him. But is anything else going on here? Is the film pulling the old "blame-the-parents-for-the-sins-of-the-children" routine and saying this is the reason Mickey and Mallory turned out to be indiscriminate murderers? Does this excuse their behavior in any way?</i><br />
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Well, while it is certainly true that <i>Mickey and Mallory</i> believe Mallory’s parents deserve their deaths, (Mickey says in his interview with Gale, “I know a lot of people who, uh… deserve to die”), I am not so sure the movie agrees with them. Stone has indicated that <i>Natural Born Killers</i> is partially a study in the reasons why mass murders happen; I don’t think this is the same thing as excusing the murders just because of the reasons why they occurred. As Stone himself put it in his interview with Charlie Rose, “Everybody’s out there, you know, ripping, shredding. And I’m not for it! It <i>is</i> a Darwinian world, but it’s also a world capable of love. And this is the big conflict in our lives. Love and aggression.”<br />
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So, then, one might ask: Why doesn’t Stone judge Mickey and Mallory too harshly for their definition of “deserved deaths”? If I had to take a wild guess, I’d say it’s because the point of this film is to attack the <i>media’s</i> perception of deserved punishment, not the concept of deserved punishment itself. At one point, the film even briefly addresses the thorny issue of capital punishment when Scagnetti tells McCluskey, “Fry the pricks!” He views the death penalty as a convenient way to deal with killers, and God knows this was a persistent view held by many law officials in the 90’s (Timothy McVeigh’s execution comes to mind). Aside from Mallory’s parents, practically all of Mickey and Mallory’s victims are very obviously <i>undeserving</i> of their deaths, including: a rape victim (Corinna Laszlo), a waitress (O-Lan Jones), a druggist (Glen Chin), a gas station attendant (Balthazar Getty), and a hostage cop named Duncan (Joe Grifasi) who is a family man and pleads for his life, but is shot anyway (reminding us of the hostage cop in <i>Reservoir Dogs</i>, another Tarantino script).<br />
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The killings in the film are <i>not</i> always seen from Mickey and Mallory’s’ point of view. When a girl, taken hostage, is raped by Mickey in a motel room, we experience it from her POV; there is a terrifying moment when Mickey sneers sinisterly into the camera. When Scagnetti is dying on the floor of a prison cell, gurgling blood while a fork is stuck in his throat, we see everybody else in the cell from his POV, and the scene is made all the more repulsive by Wayne Gale’s roar for Scagnetti to shut up (because his gurgling is ruining a romantic moment) and by Mickey pointing a shotgun barrel at him (i.e. us, the audience) as if to fire. Eventually, it is Mallory who shoots him dead, and again, we experience the death from Scagnetti’s POV; Mallory is pointing the gun at <i>us</i>, and Scagnetti’s final scream of terror is like “the throwing up of a life badly lived, a life of insanity and madness” (as described by Stone on the commentary). We even feel scared for McCluskey when he dies at the end of the film, when we are locked in the prison along with him as an unimaginably large mob of prisoners bears down on him and a handful of innocent prison guards—whom we feel even <i>more</i> sorry for.<br />
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In fact, for me, one of the most harrowing murders in the entire film is the murder of Wayne Gale—in some way's, the film’s nastiest villain, but nevertheless one whom we hate to see go. Tarantino’s original screenplay had ended with Gale screaming in terror while Mickey and Mallory proudly pumped him full of lead. It is safe to assume that Stone found this ending to be too cruel, and that some of the poison needed to be taken out of it in order for audiences to accept such a grisly finale. He and co-writers David Veloz and Richard Rutowski rewrote it significantly, and the end result is my single favorite exchange of dialogue in the film, in which Gale begs for his life, and Mickey decides to do the decent thing and explain why he and Mallory feel the need to kill him: <br />
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Mickey: “You’re scum, Wayne. You did it for the ratings. You don’t give a shit about us or anybody except yourself.”<br />
Gale: “Wait a minute, you fucking hypocrite. What about the Indian? You said you were done with killing—you said love beats the demon! YOU SAID THAT LOVE BEATS THE DEMON!”<br />
Mickey (putting down gun, walking over): “I <i>am</i>, and it <i>will</i>. It’s just that you’re the last one, Wayne...” <br />
Gale (crying): “No, man. Don’t fucking kill me.”<br />
Mickey (consoling him): “This is not <i>about</i> you, you egomaniac. I kind of like you. But if we let you go, we’d be just like everybody else. Killing you—and what you represent—is… a statement. I’m not so sure exactly what it’s saying, but… you know. Frankenstein killed Dr. Frankenstein.”<br />
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I love this exchange for a number of reasons.<br />
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First of all, whenever I watch this scene, I always find myself agreeing with both Mickey and Gale. Mickey has a point that Gale is a ratings whore, and that if he is released he’ll probably return to his life of covering Mickey and Mallory’s exploits. He’s the one thing that’s still standing between them and a media-free underground.<br />
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On the other hand, Gale has a point, too: Mickey is a hypocrite, despite his firm belief that love beats the demon, which he himself outright confesses (“I <i>am</i>, and it <i>will</i>”). Even when Gale tries to make a run for it, Mickey doesn’t shoot him at that point; he and Mallory cock their shotguns instead, as a warning to convince him to stay put. They intend to kill him, yes. But they want him to “have some dignity” upon death, too; hence, their allowance for him to take a deep breath, spread his arms and let out an Eastern chant before getting shot dead. “I’m gonna miss him,” Mickey confesses. And, damn it all, so will we.<br />
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If there’s one major thing I differ with Stone on, it’s the way I respond to the movie’s ending. In a new documentary on the film’s 15th Anniversary DVD, Stone is optimistic that it’s possible for mass murderers to escape into a media-free underground: “I believe there is an underground that doesn’t watch necessarily Internet, or has a different approach to life, and I think there’s a lot of people out there who don’t go along with the system as it is, you know? But I would love them to get away with it—and I think they could.”<br />
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Stone would see such a thing as a cause for relief. I don't think it's a cause for relief at all. Stone, apparently, is happy that Mickey and Mallory succeed in getting away with their crimes, perhaps because he’s confident that a life free of a bloodthirsty media and devoted more to love and family (they’re shown raising children in the end credits) would effectively end Mickey and Mallory’s chain of violence. Well, it’s nice to think so, but I’m not so sure I’d be as happy about such an occurrence as Stone. After all, O.J. Simpson is among those featured in the film’s end-credit clips; what would Stone think if he, too, had escaped into the underground? If Simpson had somehow taken up a life of love and family after being acquitted in his trial, would it make people any less angry about the murders he seems very likely to have committed? I doubt it. <br />
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The film’s DVD includes an alternate ending, in which the “guardian angel” character of Otis (Arliss Howard from <i>Full Metal Jacket</i>) escapes prison along with Mickey and Mallory, and then murders them from the backseat of their car. Would this scene have worked better than the present ending? Or would it have detracted from Stone’s reminder that he wants the movie to be about an escape from crass yellow journalism? I, personally, think that the alternate ending is interesting on its own terms, but then again, it probably wouldn’t have suited Stone’s interests because it’d have been a more conventional ending. It reeks of the influence of <i>Bonnie and Clyde</i>. And it does detract from Stone’s message that love beats the demon, even if I’m not so sure I agree entirely with such a message. But, as with <i>JFK</i>, this is not necessarily a film where you need to agree with Stone’s personal beliefs in order to sense the brilliance of what he is achieving. He’s laying out all the options for you, and then leaving you to make up your own mind.<br />
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The final shot of <i>Natural Born Killers</i>, set to the tune of Leonard Cohen <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D97OxHZzBeQ">singing</a>, “I’ve seen the Future, brother: it is Murder,” is something unexpected: a close-up of a rabbit. We recall, in his interview with Wayne Gale, that Mickey had mentioned he used to have nightmares about a creature named “Mr. Rabbit,” and that those nightmares led to his accidental killing of the Navajo Indian. This is one instance in the film when Mickey is in no position to blame his acts of violence on the influence of the mass media. No—this time, something of <i>purity</i> did it. A rabbit. A creature of love and aggression.Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-65165127218329800042012-06-29T21:36:00.000-07:002014-01-03T13:18:26.999-08:00Darling Companion (2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.petside.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/fullsize_article/kevin-kline-darling-companion-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://www.petside.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/fullsize_article/kevin-kline-darling-companion-4.jpg" /></a></div><br />
If there’s one thing Lawrence Kasdan’s films have in common, it’s dogs. The most famous is “Edward” in <i>The Accidental Tourist</i>, who bites strangers and whimpers at ghosts in the basement. The most iconic is the wounded dog in <i>Silverado</i> whom the Kevin Kline character is said to have tended to, much to the amusement of his old gang buddies. The funniest is the German Shepherd in <i>I Love You to Death</i> who won’t let Kline make love to his mistress. The saddest is the German Shepherd in <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2012/05/dreamcatcher-2003-lawrence-kasdans.html"><i>Dreamcatcher</i></a> who dies after ingesting a creature from another world.<br />
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Dogs play an important role in Kasdan’s films, and one of the great disappointments of his most recent film, <i>Darling Companion</i>—his first film in 9 years, after <i>Dreamcatcher</i> flopped in 2003—is that it introduces us to an unforgettable dog in its opening sequences and then relegates it to the background, never to be seen again until [spoiler warning!] a tearful reunion with its human owners at the end. Imagine if <i>Pinocchio</i> had been told from Gepetto’s point of view; it’s touching to see the old man wandering out in the dark, calling out for his missing puppet, but at the end of the day we’re simply more interested in the adventures the wooden boy is having on his journey to return home. This is the essential problem with <i>Darling Companion</i>, and by making a lost-dog movie about the dog’s owners instead of the dog itself, Kasdan misses the real story.<br />
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Kasdan and his wife/co-writer Meg based the screenplay on an <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/2012-04-19/film-tv/Lawrence-Kasdan-interview/">incident</a> that occurred in their lives shortly after the release of <i>Dreamcatcher</i>, when their adopted dog “Mac” got lost in the Rockies only to be found three weeks later. The dog in <i>Darling Companion</i> is named Freeway (played by the adorable mutt Kasey), and makes such a lasting impression on us in the opening scenes that I wish the Kasdans had figured out a way to structure the film around Freeway’s adventures in the mountains, rather than around the old, tiresome humans who are searching in vain for him—when they’re not bickering with each other, quarreling with the locals or complaining about the trials of old age, that is.<br />
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That the Kasdans would prefer to stick to the humans’ point-of-view is understandable; they cannot speak for what their own lost dog experienced on his mountain journey, and can only speak for the pain they endured during his disappearance. But surely this is where the imagination of cinema could have stepped in and lent a hand? I shudder to think of the limp, uninspired film Kasdan’s old <i>Raiders of the Lost Ark</i> buddy Steven Spielberg might have come up with if his animal-movie masterpiece from last year, <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/12/war-horse-2011.html"><i>War Horse</i></a>, had stuck only to Albert’s search for Joey, and not shown us any of the profound encounters experienced by Joey during his sensational wartime odyssey.<br />
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There is only one scene in <i>Darling Companion</i> in which Kasdan offers a trace of what might have been: an animated dream sequence in which Freeway is shown fleeing from red-eyed mountain coyotes before tumbling off a cliff. An “entirely unexplained and unnecessary” scene, <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120425/REVIEWS/120429994/1023">claims</a> Roger Ebert in his sorely-negative 1-star review. Actually, I found it to be one of the most inspired scenes in the film, and I wish there had been more scenes of this kind. What if <i>Darling Companion</i> had been half a movie about the humans’ search for Freeway, and half an animated movie told from Freeway’s point of view? Oh, what a grand opportunity Kasdan missed.<br />
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Ebert’s 1-star dismissal of <i>Darling Companion</i> is, more than anything, an indication that he considers it even worse than Kasdan’s last film, <i>Dreamcatcher</i>, to which Ebert awarded a mildly higher 1 ½ stars back in ’03. Other critics consider <i>Darling Companion</i> a slight return to form for the director. “As Kasdan dogs go, this is light-years better than <i>Dreamcatcher</i>,” <a href="http://www.timeout.com/us/film/darling-companion">writes</a> critic Keith Uhlich. “It’s not a disaster like Kasdan’s last film, <i>Dreamcatcher</i>,” <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/it_the_leashed_they_could_do_n2XIewP8Y50LVd2qneurPI">writes</a> critic Lou Lumenick, who actually gave <i>Dreamcatcher</i> a <a href="http://www.metacritic.com/movie/dreamcatcher/critic-reviews">positive review</a> back in ’03. This is where I'm in the strange position of disagreeing with everyone. While I admire <i>Darling Companion</i> more than Ebert, I would also argue against Uhlich and Lumenick’s assertions that it’s a better film than <i>Dreamcatcher</i>. For all its faults, <i>Dreamcatcher</i> afforded Kasdan the rare privilege of tackling big, challenging themes about mankind’s place in the universe, and was further benefited from a strong performance by Damian Lewis as a psychic trapped inside his own subconscious mind. By comparison, <i>Darling Companion</i> is—in Kasdan’s own <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/2012-04-19/film-tv/Lawrence-Kasdan-interview/">words</a>—“meant to be light,” and despite having a cast of veteran actors who are clearly having a good time, none of them deliver a performance quite as compelling as Lewis’ in the last film, and the picture looks rather small and ordinary next to something as big and brave as <i>Dreamcatcher</i>.<br />
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The most successful performance in <i>Darling Companion</i> is by Diane Keaton, whom Kasdan has never worked with before, but who delivers what might be her best acting work since <i>Something’s Gotta Give</i>. She plays Beth Winter, who first found Freeway hiding out beneath snowy branches on the curb of a highway, and leads the charge to find him even while the rest of her family begrudgingly puts their weekly plans behind to join her in the search. “There’s a moment, very late in the film,” <a href="http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2012/05/18/diane_keaton_unleashes_late_life_frustrations_in_darling_companion/">writes</a> critic Ty Burr, “where Beth stands in a field calling out for Freeway one last time. Keaton’s voice goes hoarse and breaks, and our hearts break with it, so profoundly do we understand this woman’s need for this dog — the mute optimism and uncompromised love Beth used to believe in until life and family betrayed her.”<br />
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For me, the second-best performance in the film is delivered by Ayelet Zurer as Carmen, a descendant of gypsies who claims to begin having visions that Freeway is alive. When the film came out, several critics moaned that such a character is unrealistic in this type of story, sounding a note of “no, I’m not kidding!” in their reviews before revealing Carmen as a gypsy descendant (including <a href="http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/darling-companion/6189">this critic</a>, <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/it_the_leashed_they_could_do_n2XIewP8Y50LVd2qneurPI">this critic</a> and <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120518/ENT02/205180397">this critic</a>). And I’d be inclined to agree with them—except that the Kasdans <i>did</i>, in fact, <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/2012-04-19/film-tv/Lawrence-Kasdan-interview">consult</a> the advice of a possible psychic when their own dog got lost. Personally, I found Carmen to be an interesting character and was delighted to see Zurer in the role; I instantly remembered her as Avner’s wife in Spielberg’s <i>Munich</i> (could this have been a casting referral from Kasdan’s old <i>Raiders</i> buddy?). The presence of a psychic in the film also allows for Kevin Kline, as Beth’s back-surgeon husband Joseph, to deliver the film’s funniest zingers, as when Carmen advises everyone to “go to bed” and Joseph muses, “What? Are you closing for the night?” Or, after Carmen claims to have seen a vision of Freeway in a frying pan of bacon: “I lost a pair of reading glasses. Maybe you could check the French toast.”<br />
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During these scenes, I laughed. At other times watching <i>Darling Companion</i> I felt like the jokes were tired and pathetic, all-too-obviously aimed for a generation older than mine. The film’s target audience is obviously a more geriatric crowd, which explains why the cast is composed predominantly of actors in their 60’s and beyond (Keaton, Kline, Richard Jenkins, Dianne Wiest, Sam Shepard). I was the youngest in my audience on the day I saw the film, and while the older audience members seemed to be enjoying it, I could never quite shake the feeling that Kasdan was underachieving. I longed for the more complex, more invigorating Kasdan of <i>Body Heat, The Accidental Tourist</i> and <i>Grand Canyon</i>, and didn’t mind that he was making a film about old age so much as a film so simple-minded in its exploration of the subject. “Gettin’ old really sucks, Joe,” grumbles Shepard as the local sheriff. Okay, so why couldn’t Kasdan have made a whole film centered on this issue, instead of merely glossing over it in a film about a missing dog?<br />
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On top of that, Kasdan’s direction is not up to par this time. In one scene, Joseph’s nephew, Bryan (Mark Duplass), and brother-in-law, Russell (Richard Jenkins), fight a slovenly dog breeder out in the woods, and I didn’t believe this scene for a minute; it’s played for obvious laughs, and one cannot help but reflect that in real life, Bryan and Russell would probably be shot by the breeder for harassing him on his land. In another scene, Joseph is on the phone with his newlywed daughter, Grace (Elisabeth Moss from <i>Mad Men</i>), while she’s on her honeymoon in Bora Bora, and Kasdan and his lifelong editor, Carol Littleton, ruin the moment by cutting back and forth from Joseph in the Rockies to Grace back in Bora Bora, who is blissfully ignorant of Freeway’s disappearance. The scene would have been more powerful if Kasdan had held the camera on Joseph the entire time, uneasily struggling to keep himself from telling his daughter the truth.<br />
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Kasdan has better luck directing a scene in which Joseph and Beth take a tumble down a rainy incline at nightfall, and Beth finds herself having to carefully mend Joseph’s dislocated shoulder; the camera holds on Keaton and Kline for the entire shot, and the scene works. The Kasdans also have fun with sexual politics in the screenplay. When Freeway is first found by Beth and her daughter at the beginning of the movie, Grace mutters, “This is one of those occasions when I wish I had a man I could call.” After Freeway gets lost, Joseph warns his wife that such pressures can be hard on a woman, and Beth shoots back, “Oh, <i>tell</i> me about being a woman.” Bryan, who is falling in love with Carmen but is skeptical about her psychic abilities, muses, “Beautiful women get away with a lot of shit.”<br />
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Some of these scenes work, others don’t, and eventually it all leads up to the finale, which is yet another reminder of what this movie needed more of: the dog. Kasdan rather nicely escalates the suspense in the film’s final scenes, when the Winters sadly board a plane back home and Beth looks out the window, surveying the mountain lands she and her family have trekked for the past three days. At this exact moment, I could hear audience members squealing under their breath, “She’s gonna <i>SEE FREEWAY</i>!” and suddenly I realized: wow, clichéd as it may be, I sure as hell <i>wanted</i> her to see Freeway. And yes, dear reader, once Freeway came bounding over those golden fields and into Beth’s arms, I could feel myself getting a little teary-eyed. The best thing to be said about <i>Darling Companion</i> is that even though we can see the happy ending coming a mile away, we’re happy to get one.Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-84479228887286929862012-05-26T10:00:00.002-07:002022-05-31T15:04:23.650-07:00Dreamcatcher (2003): Lawrence Kasdan's Flawed Great Film<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Lawrence Kasdan’s <i>Dreamcatcher</i> is a movie I have been defending ever since I was 12 years old. How I first saw it is a story unto itself.<br />
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One Sunday morning in the spring of 2003, I devised a scheme to get my sister and my father to go see a movie with me. I convinced them that the three of us should go to church that morning, and so we did, but the Lutheran minister’s sermons had done very little to restore our faith in the wake of a family death—which had been keeping us away from church for over a year. My evil scheme was as follows: if church couldn’t exorcise our demons, then a Hollywood bloodbath surely would. <br />
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So, after church, and after a pleasant donut breakfast on the road, I asked my father, hey: instead of going straight home, why don’t we catch a movie while we’re still out here? We did. I immediately selected <i>Dreamcatcher</i>, knowing that this was the only way I’d ever get to see it while it was still out, and, yes, successfully managed to get myself, my sister and my father into a movie theater to see it—without telling either of them it was R-rated. I wasn’t even aware that it was directed by the same man who wrote the screenplays for <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i> and <i>Raiders of the Ark</i>, but no matter: I knew I was in for a real treat.<br />
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I loved it. My father and my sister disliked it, and were appalled—I recall—by how gory it was. In fairness to them, I pretty much knew what to expect from the movie when the three of us walked in; a couple of weeks beforehand, I had attempted to read the 800-page book by Stephen King but never managed to finish it. I was especially aware that by the time I <i>would</i> finish the book, the movie would no longer be in theaters, so I took my chances and dragged my family to see <i>Dreamcatcher</i> with half of the story already in my head. I knew how the movie would begin, but had absolutely no idea how it would end. Like Clint Eastwood's <i>Mystic River</i>, also released in 2003, it's a film about how an incident in the lives of a group of teenage boys leads to their even more unpredictable lives as adults.<br />
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The making of <i>Dreamcatcher</i> was a long, arduous 5-month shoot in Vancouver involving filmmakers who all felt differently about the material. Some of them are proud of the finished film. Consider Damian Lewis, who played the character of Jonesy. He <a href="http://www.mrporter.com/journal/journal_issue63/1">suggests</a> that the film is best appreciated while high ("All you need for <i>Dreamcatcher</i> is a big spliff, a nice comfy sofa and a bag of popcorn"), but confesses that he was often lonely on the set: "I was a young 30, very much on my own and a long way from home… I mostly just sat in my hotel room on rainy days not knowing anyone." Then listen to Lawrence Kasdan, who <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/2012-04-19/film-tv/Lawrence-Kasdan-interview/">blames</a> the film for doing damage to his Hollywood career: "With <i>Dreamcatcher</i>, the career was hurt. I was planning to do <i>The Risk Pool</i> with Tom Hanks... And it didn't happen. Then another one didn't happen. Meanwhile, two years have passed here, two have passed there... it is discouraging to go nine years without a movie when all you want to do is make movies." After a nine-long absence from moviemaking, Kasdan has finally returned with <i>Darling Companion</i>, and—unlike <i>Dreamcatcher</i>—it has been made and released independent of Hollywood.<br />
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Seeing <i>Dreamcatcher</i> again today, I am, admittedly, far more understanding (than I was at 12) of why it received such a harsh critical and commercial reception in 2003. The movie does have a fair share of problems, many of which I stubbornly ignored at the time, but which I willfully acknowledge today. The crass bathroom humor. The starkly-split narrative that tries to tell way too many stories all at once. The mean-spirited way in which a dog is killed off.<br />
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Be that as it may, I've never considered <i>Dreamcatcher</i> to be a bad film by any means. I still don't. But could it have been better? I would concede that, yes, it could have been a little better, especially when considering the experience the filmmakers had with this kind of material in the past. Kasdan co-wrote the screenplay with William Goldman, and the combination of their respective powers resulted in a hybrid that can be described as both a glorious trainwreck and a flawed great film of sorts. Kasdan brought to the script the dark atmosphere of <i>Body Heat</i> and the big-budget thrills of <i>Silverado</i>; Goldman brought to it the nightmarish elements of his scripts for John Schlesinger’s <i>Marathon Man</i>, Richard Attenborough’s <i>Magic</i> and Rob Reiner’s <i>Misery</i>—the latter, of course, being another Stephen King adaptation.<br />
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<i>Dreamcatcher</i> is really trying to be two movies: one, a story of four telepathically-connected childhood friends, whose retreat to a cabin in the woods of Derry, Maine goes horribly wrong; the other, a story about the U.S. military’s chaotic attempts to quarantine the area once a race of aliens begin attacking. Both stories could have made presumably good individual movies of their own, but they don’t coexist very comfortably in the same film. Nor, for that matter, did they in King’s ridiculously overlong book, which is why one wishes that Kasdan and Goldman had tossed aside one narrative and kept the other—specifically, the one about the four friends on vacation. It’s when the military scenes come around that <i>Dreamcatcher</i> gradually begins to lose focus, a focus which Kasdan only just barely manages to regain during the film's exciting closing scenes.<br />
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Since the film doesn’t really come together as a whole, it should instead be appreciated for showcasing some of the most accomplished sequences Kasdan has ever directed. The first is the film’s most suspenseful scene, in which Jonesy (Damian Lewis) and Beaver (Jason Lee) are left alone to hunt outside their cabin. Jonesy nearly shoots a disoriented wanderer (Eric Keenleyside) out in the woods after mistaking him for a deer, and kindly lets this man inside the cabin for a nightcap—only for him to bleed all over the hallways and barricade himself inside the cabin’s bathroom. Jonesy and Beaver force their way in, finding that the bathroom walls have been caked with blood and red fungus, and that the wanderer, now sitting dead on the toilet, has excreted something that sounds as if it may be... <i>living</i>. What follows is a sequence of almost unbearable tension in which Beaver volunteers to stay put on the toilet seat, struggling to contain this monstrous "Shit Weasel" that literally breaks the water pipes upon its ejection. It’s a powerful scene, not just because it "does for toilets what <i>Psycho</i> did for showers" (to quote Stephen King on the film’s DVD), but also because it gains an unexpected irony if one reflects that, had Jonesy shot the wanderer out in the woods—instead of letting him inside the cabin—all of this madness could have been prevented.<br />
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The film’s second great sequence has Henry (Thomas Jane), one of Jonesy and Beaver’s friends, returning to the cabin and discovering, to his horror, that it’s been overtaken by the Shit Weasel and its many egg nests. When the eggs hatch, hundreds of little white worm larvae come squiggling out, and Henry resorts to burning them alive with liquid fire ignited by a single match—the only one that doesn’t come jingling out of the matchbox while the others collapse to the floor. This is a running theme in the film: single objects causing monumental damage. Another example is a single toothpick, untainted by blood, which tempts Beaver to his doom in the earlier bathroom scene. And the single surviving worm at the end of the movie, which—if it manages to infect Boston’s water supply—is lethal enough to "kill the world." It only takes one. One match. One toothpick. One worm.<br />
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The third great sequence in the film depicts a military strike led by Colonel Curtis (Morgan Freeman) and his right-hand man Owen (Tom Sizemore), as they lead a team of "Blue Unit" fighter jets in an air raid on the aliens’ mothership nestled out in the woodsy Maine wilderness. The sequence sort of feels like it belongs in another movie, but never mind: It’s well-done. I love how the aliens in this scene (who are all down on the ground before Curtis attacks them) start out looking like plain, innocent, human-shaped gray beings—before morphing into their true steely-jawed forms to protect themselves. And how they’re beamed up backwards into the mothership as it glows an angry red and self-destructs, engulfing several of Curtis’ men in a moment that reminds me of that scene in De Palma’s <i>Mission to Mars</i> (2000) where the planet’s "security system" rips apart the bodies of a couple of astronauts. All the same, this is the only military-related scene in <i>Dreamcatcher</i> that doesn’t take us out of the film somewhat.<br />
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As mentioned before, the film works best during the scenes with the four telepathically-connected childhood friends: Jonesy, Henry, Beaver and Pete (Timothy Olyphant), the latter being the only one of the four friends blessed with a magical index finger. The film’s opening scenes depict the four friends getting together after each has been shown experiencing a series of catastrophes made all the more complicated by their psychic powers. There is a fun scene of night-time dinner conversation at the "Hole in the Wall" cabin, early on in the film, in which the four buddies engage in the kind of indecent, pornographic dialogue that Kasdan has specialized in since <i>Body Heat</i>. So effective is the camaraderie in this dinner scene, in fact, that Kasdan makes the odd decision of replaying it during the film’s end credits. Perhaps this is an indication of the sort of film he might have been more comfortable making: a simple Hawksian hangout picture about horny male friends vacationing in the woods.<br />
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The four male friends are so sex-obsessed, in fact, that it was a search for a pin-up cartoon 20 years earlier that led them to committing a good deed that would change their lives forever: rescuing mentally-challenged, Scooby Doo-infatuated Douglas "Duddits" Clavell from a pack of high school football bullies. The four boys who play Jonesy, Henry, Beaver and Pete as young teenagers (Giacomo Baessato, Mikey Holekamp, Reece Thompson and Joel Palmer) are all—like their adult counterparts—very good actors, as is the young actor playing Duddits (Andrew Robb). As an adult, Duddits is played by Donnie Wahlberg, who gives an excellent performance of his own, but appears so late in the film he almost doesn’t get a fair chance to make an impression on the audience. The actress playing Duddits’ mother, Rosemary Dunsmore (she was the <a href="http://www.moviecricket.com/images/actors/rosemary-dunsmore.jpg">slap-happy doctor</a> in Verhoeven’s <i>Total Recall</i>), has what is, in retrospect, the only significant female role in the whole film—a surprising shortcoming for Kasdan, whose films have usually offered meaty parts for women. Dunsmore does, however, have the warmest line of dialogue in the whole film: "Goodbye, Duddie. Be a good boy. Now, go save the world."<br />
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All of the four actors playing Jonesy, Henry, Beaver and Pete as adults are well-cast, despite the fact that none of them were household names when the film was made. Thomas Jane, as Henry, makes for a likable action hero (possibly convincing Frank Darabont to cast him as the lead in <i>The Mist</i>, also based on a King story), and Jason Lee and Timothy Olyphant, as Beaver and Pete, provide some welcome comic relief ("Jesus Christ bananas!"). But it is Damian Lewis, as the alien-possessed Jonesy, who delivers the greatest performance in the film. Lewis has the challenging task of playing a dual role; as Jonesy, he retains an ordinary, American voice, while as the sinister "Mr. Gray" he launches into a completely over-the-top Cockney accent, resulting in a performance that is at once hilarious and disturbing. The final scene, in which Henry is faced with the dilemma of whether or not to shoot Jonesy because of his possession, is made all the more eerie by Lewis’ suspiciously-enthusiastic response: "I knew you’d come, Henry! I knew you wouldn’t let me die!" Interestingly, all four actors went on to deliver some of their best work on television: Lewis on <i>Life</i> and <i>Homeland</i>, Lee on <i>My Name is Earl</i>, Olyphant on <i>Deadwood</i> and <i>Justified</i>, Jane on an episode of <i>Arrested Development</i> (in which he appeared as the aptly-named "Tom Jane").<br />
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The scenes featuring Morgan Freeman and Tom Sizemore are a bit more problematic. Both actors do a solid job with their performances, but whereas Sizemore is tailor-made for the role of Owen (hardened military types are the actor’s speciality), Freeman is a curious choice for Colonel Curtis; is the actor believable as such a hawkish lunatic? Freeman is a fine actor, and is sometimes effectively menacing in the film (as in a scene where he fires a bullet into the hand of an insubordinate Blue Unit soldier), but never quite makes for enough of a convincing villain to carry the scenes involving the military—which, again, feel like they all belong in a different film. Of all the actors Kasdan has worked with, perhaps William Hurt would have been an angrier, more unpredictable presence in this role, perhaps even enough to justify the film’s military segments.<br />
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Other flaws in the film include its excessive bathroom humor, which works only when it’s reserved for the characters’ dialogue, as in the dinner conversation between the four friends. It’s when we begin hearing actual burps and farts on the soundtrack (emitted mostly by bloated victims of the Shit Weasels) that Kasdan goes overkill with the bathroom humor—after awhile, it just gets obnoxious. It’s not the first time Kasdan has used a fart joke in one of his movies (Kevin Kline’s Italian-food constipation in <i>I Love You to Death</i> comes to mind), but in the case of <i>Dreamcatcher</i> it’s a case of "too many farts for a movie that keeps insisting, with mounting implausibility, that it is intended to be good," to quote from Roger Ebert’s sorely-negative <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030322/REVIEWS/303220302/1023">1 ½-star review</a>. One of the most unpleasant moments in the film involves a kidnapped German Shepherd dog, named "Ike", who dies while defecating a Shit Weasel; his death is, essentially, ignored in the background while the onscreen action is reserved for the human characters alone. It’s a startlingly mean-spirited way to kill off a dog in a movie, especially since Kasdan used to have a track-record as a dog-friendly filmmaker. Edward in <i>The Accidental Tourist</i> certainly would not have stood for what Ike has to undergo here.<br />
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I could probably go on and on listing the film’s flaws. I haven’t even gotten yet to its plot holes, such as how Duddits is arbitrarily revealed to be an alien himself during the climactic battle with Mr. Gray (a very different finale from the book’s ending, which I have forgotten). There is also, as Ebert complained in his review, the film’s failure to fully engage its ideas about telepathy: "The problem of <i>really</i> being telepathic is a favorite science-fiction theme. If you could read minds, would you be undone by the despair and anguish being broadcast all around you?" The film, alas, ignores such questions, although a joke is made out of the four friends’ strangely-inadequate telepathy abilities when Henry exclaims in one scene, "You could have run me down!" and Owen, driving a vehicle, deadpans, "Figured you’d read my mind, and get out of the way."<br />
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<i>Dreamcatcher</i> is, yes, a seriously-flawed film. It’s got a lot of problems. But oh, the good things about it! There are many. Kasdan admits on the film’s DVD that this was his first truly effects-laden picture, despite having written the scripts for <i>Empire</i> and <i>Raiders</i>, but whatever inexperience he may have had with CGI certainly doesn’t show in the finished film, which contains some of the best and most convincing CGI effects I’ve seen in the past decade. The film’s "creatures", designed by Crash McCreery, are inspired creations, beautiful to look at in all their lurid glory. The Shit Weasels, disgusting as they are, are frightening little devils. And the final reveal of Mr. Gray’s true form is absolutely terrifying; he’s like a shark crossed with a centipede, and his teeth unfold ferociously across the screen while James Newton Howard’s score signals their arrival with an ominous brass orchestra. <br />
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Another special aspect of the film is the cinematography by John Seale, which gleams a dark orange during the imaginative "Memory Warehouse" sequences inside Jonesy’s subconscious, its rooms containing—among other things—Duddits' secret files and the all-important lyrics to Roy Orbison's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiMl4yX1JiA&ob=av2n">"Blue Bayou"</a>. Seale's camera also takes advantage of blinding white wintry landscapes that remind us of the most famous King adaptation of them all: Kubrick’s <i>The Shining</i>, which King, of course, notoriously hates, but which Kasdan has <a href="http://movies.ign.com/articles/390/390342p2.html">cited</a> as a film he admires.<br />
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But <i>Dreamcatcher</i> is more than just a visually-enticing film. It’s an emotionally-involving film as well, and, damn it all, my 12-year old self still holds a special place in my heart for it. It was better than the book. It was incredibly well-acted and directed. It had a screenplay that, while overly-complicated, still contained enough interesting characters and thought-provoking themes to make it an impossible film to dismiss. While we’re on that subject, I very nearly forgot one of the film’s central themes: a subplot involving Owen’s late military father, whose last words were, "Sometimes, we have to kill, but our real job is to save lives." That’s what all of the human characters in this movie are doing. They’re all committing sacrifices to save lives. Even Curtis, the bad guy, just wants to save mankind. Ultimately though, the two characters in the film who make the most vital sacrifices are Owen, who gives his life for Henry and Duddits; and Duddits himself, who gives his life for Henry, Jonesy and mankind, too. Soon, though, it’s just Henry and Jonesy left alone with mankind, and, well... after that, are there any more sacrifices left to be made?<br />
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Of course there are. There’s still that one last worm to be squashed. "<i>H</i>!" whispers Jonesy, before crushing the worm beneath his shoe. "Jonesy!" grins Henry with an affirming smile. It’s little intuitive moments like this that make <i>Dreamcatcher</i>, flaws and all, arguably one of Lawrence Kasdan’s most intense works, and one of the best films he’s ever made.Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-60005655356788435672012-05-18T14:14:00.000-07:002012-05-27T02:16:22.800-07:00The Ring (1927)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.scoop.it/NcRXfZ7UK1kIMiSdhKmh_Tl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://img.scoop.it/NcRXfZ7UK1kIMiSdhKmh_Tl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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“It’s a story about two prize fighters who are in love with the same woman,” said Francois Truffaut. “I like that picture very much.”<br />
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“Yes,” agreed the Master of Suspense, “that was really an interesting movie.”<br />
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They were talking about <i>The Ring</i>, Alfred Hitchcock’s boxing picture released in 1927, at the tail-end of the silent era. “You might say,” Hitchcock himself suggested, “that after <i>The Lodger</i>, <i>The Ring</i> was the next Hitchcock picture. There were all kinds of innovations in it, and I remember that at the premiere an elaborate montage got a round of applause. It was the first time that had ever happened to me.”<br />
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“The next Hitchcock picture?” A boxing movie? Really? I was mildly intrigued. I had barely even heard of <i>The Ring</i> before, even though I owned it as part of my treasured “Alfred Hitchcock: The Legend Begins” box set, and had never bothered to sit down and watch it until fairly recently, when Truffaut and Hitchcock’s ecstatic comments about it caught my eye. I was having a difficult time imagining how a boxing movie could be one of Hitchcock’s major works, especially since—as Truffaut conceded—“It isn’t a suspense film and has no crime ingredients.” Sports movie melodrama just didn’t sound at all to me like Hitchcock’s forte. <br />
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I’ve now watched <i>The Ring</i> (not to be confused with the overrated Gore Verbinski/Naomi Watts horror movie) in its entirety, and my feelings about it are… mixed. From where I stand, it’s good but minor Hitchcock, with some rather lame acting, an even lamer storyline and a punishingly boring first half, justified only by a second half that, surprisingly, offers a good deal of legitimately exciting cinema. The film’s second half, in which Hitchcock’s gift for montage comes vividly to life, includes a visually-stunning sequence in which the hero (an underdog boxer) is plagued by blurry hallucinations of his wife embracing his antagonistic rival, juxtaposed with crazed images of party guests engaged in a mad dance while a pianist’s fingers jump up and down on a keyboard. This, I’d bet you dollars to donuts, is the “elaborate montage” which Hitchcock claims received a round of applause at the movie’s premiere.<br />
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The story? Not nearly as exciting. A banal love triangle plot involving a boxer’s pathetic spiral downwards into jealousy when he discovers that his wife has been cheating on him with an Australian champion. Yes, “boxing” and “jealousy,” but don’t get your hopes up—this ain’t <i>Raging Bull</i>. It’s more like the 1927 version of <i>The Room</i>, with some boxing, some elaborate montaging and even a happy ending thrown in for effect. Is that a harsh comparison? Sure. Hell, if I listened very closely I could probably even hear Hitchcock spinning in his grave if he heard me writing this. But come on: when the hero of this movie is uttering corny lines of dialogue like, “I shall always be ready to fight for my wife against any man!” and “It seems as though I shall have to fight for my wife, after all!” well… you can see why somebody like Tommy Wiseau would have had a field day with this script.<br />
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The film’s casual racism is another concern. In the opening sequence, set at a carnival, a crowd of jeering white people is shown dunking a black man sitting in one of those water-filled booths that you usually see reserved for clowns. Time and time again, the black man is dunked into the water when a ball is thrown. His routine is to fall into the water, get out of the water, roar with laughter and then ready himself for the next dunking. I’m sure that Hitchcock filmed this scene only with the best intentions and that audiences in 1927 must have smiled at its depiction of mischievous fun at a carnival, but in 2012 scenes like this can only be met with a weary cynicism. The black man is obviously getting paid to be dunked, but we’re left wondering: what’s his story? How does he feel about a having a job that requires him to be humiliated by privileged white people? Why does he laugh every time he’s dunked? Is his laughter sincere, or is it a cover for his embarrassment? Will he be fired if he <i>doesn’t</i> laugh? The film, of course, addresses none of these concerns; Hitchcock treats it like stock footage, included in the film merely for decoration, completely irrelevant to the story.<br />
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Later in the film, the hero, jealous prize-fighter One-Round Jack (Carl Brisson), is planning to fight his way to the top in order to win back the love of his wife, and one of his trainers offers a bit of sly advice: “If you win this next fight with the nigger, you’ll be in the running for the championship.” Win this next fight with the <i>what</i>? Mind you, it’s not the mere use of this word that is offensive, but the fact that Hitchcock—who co-wrote the screenplay—brings it into the movie and then treats it casually, regarding it with the least amount of importance. If the use of this particular word in the film were to inform us of anything substantial about these characters and their prejudices, of course, then one would understand why Hitchcock chose to use it; indeed, one of One-Round Jack’s own personal trainers is a black man (seen above) who blends in perfectly with the rest of Jack’s white trainers, dining with them, drinking with them, celebrating with them. But because of this, it doesn’t make much sense for Jack’s trainers to be speaking in racist lingo when they’ve already accepted a man of color as one of their own.<br />
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I am not proud to admit that the film’s racism immediately made me think of D.W. Griffith, whose films I admire (for the part) but, alas, seem to have largely influenced Hitchcock in the wrong way here. It is no secret that Hitchcock was a Griffith fan (“Like all directors, I was influenced by Griffith,”), and in a sense that ought to be a good thing, but somehow the dunking scene, the jeering white crowds, the amazingly casual use of the N-word, etc., reminded me of the worst aspects of Griffith; the Klan’s glorified executions in <i>The Birth of A Nation</i> and Donald Crisp’s ridiculously sinister close-ups in <i>Broken Blossoms</i> both came to mind. Even a wedding scene depicting the marriage of One-Round Jack to his wife is spoiled by a crass shot of the ring-bearer (one of Jack’s trainers) picking his nose; I was reminded of a Southern maid (in blackface) in <i>Birth of A Nation</i> who does the exact same thing. To be sure, the guilty nose-picker in <i>The Ring</i> is a white man, but what difference does it make? Why does Hitchcock show him doing this in the first place? Is it supposed to be funny? What’s so funny about nose-picking?<br />
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<i>The Ring</i> is more successful, actually, whenever Hitchcock comes up with shots that seem to be of his own creation, rather than the ones that reek of Griffith’s influence. Had Luis Bunuel seen the film, he likely would have coveted the memorable sight gag of a pair of conjoined twins in the pews during the wedding, one struggling to pull out, the other begging to stay. I also liked the scene at the banquet following the wedding, in which the ring bearer, intoxicated, collapses at the table while witnessing a playful spar of fists between One-Round Jack and his rival; Hitchcock goes for a blurry POV shot that nicely illustrates his drunkenness. And there is a neat moment in the film’s final climactic boxing sequence when Jack looks over his rival’s shoulder and spots his wife down in audience; Hitchcock tracks down to her devilishly smiling up at him, and Jack, frozen with surprise (because he dreamt she’d be here), is so distracted that the rival knocks him down with one punch. POV shots of lines and orbs fill his blurry vision, foreshadowing that famous POV shot in <i>Spellbound</i> (1944) in which a revolver is turned around to fire at the camera (implying a suicide), and a burst of blood-red fills the screen. The boxing scenes themselves are intense and well-done for a silent film, although it’s unlikely that they influenced <i>Raging Bull</i> (Martin Scorsese once went on record as claiming that Buster Keaton’s <i>Battling Butler</i> was the only boxing picture that ever impressed him).<br />
<br />
Is <i>The Ring</i> a great Hitchcock film? No. Its characters, for one thing, are too thinly drawn. One-Round Jack is not an interesting protagonist, his wife is too much of a hateful, scheming ice queen, and his Australian rival never comes into focus as anything more than a cardboard cut-out. And the first half, as mentioned before, is a chore to sit through. Truffaut claimed to have seen the film “several times.” I can’t imagine why. Maybe he kept coming back to the movie because he was fascinated with Hitchcock’s use of montage. Or perhaps because he liked the symbolism of the title; “The Ring” could mean anything, from the opening shot (a circular drum being beaten) to the fighting ring itself, to the bracelet worn on the shoulder by Jack’s wife—a secret gift from her Australian lover, who is surprised when the wife ditches it for an innocent gym employee to find (“Look what I found at the ring-side, Guv’nor!”).<br />
<br />
Because the film’s first half is so dull, for awhile I dreaded the thought of even finishing it, worried that it might fall into that rare category of Hitchcock movies that have actually managed to bore me to tears (<i>Jamaica Inn, To Catch of Thief</i>). <i>The Ring</i> has its dull stretches, yes, as well as a dull story, but in the end, the exciting second half is what redeems Hitchcock’s effort with this material. I can’t quite figure out whatever must have compelled Truffaut to want to revisit the film “several times,” but ultimately, I myself am still happy to have seen it at least once. Maybe you, like Truffaut, will want to revisit it with multiple viewings. Maybe not.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://npo1.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1001883&code=Blogathon%202012"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J6qjzhgRLqo/T7a7Z49WoyI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/_iKHqRKcYlo/s1600/hitch_badge_donate.jpg" /></a></div>Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-81808861631151002482012-05-02T08:00:00.000-07:002012-05-09T14:14:27.035-07:00The Russia House (1989) by John le Carré<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
The Russia House was published by John le Carré in 1989. This post will consist of my summaries of the book's individual chapters.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<br />
<i>FOR BOB GOTTLIEB, a great editor and a long-suffering friend</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>"Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of their way and let them have it."<br />
<br />
-Dwight D. Eisenhower<br />
<br />
"One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being."<br />
<br />
-May Sarton</i><br />
<br />
<b>1</b><br />
<br />
<i>In a broad Moscow street not two hundred yards from the Leningrad station, on the upper floor of an ornate and hideous hotel built by Stalin in the style known to Muscovites as Empire During the Plague, the British Council's first ever audio fair for the teaching of the English language and the spread of British culture was grinding to its excruciating end. The time was half past five, the summer weather erratic. After fierce rain showers all day long, a false sunlight was blazing in the puddles and raising vapour from the pavements. Of the passers-by, the younger ones wore jeans and sneakers, but their elders were still huddled in their warms.</i> <br />
<br />
A first-person narrator, Harry (not his real name), is recalling his interviews with a man named Niki Landau, who is sitting at his stand at the audio fair when a Russian womman named Yekaterina "Katya" Orlova comes up to him asking, "Excuse me, sir. Are you the gentleman from Abercrombie & Blair?" He replies no, that this is the wrong stand, and that she's in fact looking for Scott "Barley" Blair. Landau tells her that Blair did not decide to "occupy his stand" at the fair, but that if she wants to give anything to Blair, she can give it to him and he can take it to Blair. To make sure the authorities don't see, Landau encourages her to act like she's kissing him while he smuggles a brown-paper parcel out of her bag and into his briefcase.<br />
<br />
Losing interest in him, Katya gives Niki her business card.<br />
<br />
<i>She gave it to him, then walked stiffly down the pompous staircase, head up and one hand on the broad marble balustrade, the other hand trailing the perhaps-bag. The boys in leather jackets watched her all the way down to the hall. And Landau, while he popped the card into his top pocket with the half-dozen others he'd collected in the last two hours, saw them watch her and gave the boys a wink. And the boys after due reflection winked back at him, because this was a new season of openness when a pair of good Russian hips could be acknowledged for what they were, even to a foreigner.</i><br />
<br />
At his hotel, Landau looks at the notebooks inside the parcel, and is appalled. One section reads:<br />
<br />
<i>"The American strategists can sleep in peace. Their nightmares cannot be realised. The Soviet knight is dying inside his armour. He is a secondary power like you British. He can start a war but cannot continue one and cannot win one. Believe me."</i><br />
<br />
Landau realizes that this makes Blair a spy. Nevertheless, he decides he'll deliver the notebooks anyway, which Harry finds startling.<br />
<br />
<i>How he sees me, if he ever thinks of me, I dare not wonder. Hannah, whom I loved but failed, would have no doubt at all. "As another of those Englishmen with hope in their faces and none in their hearts," she would say, flushing with anger. For I am afraid she says whatever comes to her these days. Much of her old forbearance is gone.</i><br />
<br />
<b>2</b><br />
<br />
<i>The whole of Whitehall was agreed that no story should ever begin that way again.</i><br />
<br />
Landau pays a visit to the Russia House, where his briefcase is checked but the guards are not suspicious of the notebooks inside. Pleading an interview with a member of the British Intelligence Branch, he is met by Palmer Wellow, to whom he gives the notebooks. Palmer gives word of the notebooks to his colleague, Ned, who received word of them at the Russia House, his "stubby brick-out station in Victoria." <br />
<br />
Ned sets up a meeting with Landau. When Landau starts asking questions about Barley and inquiring if he is alright, Ned quietly replies, "We never mention names like that, Niki... Not even among ourselves. You couldn't know, so you've done nothing wrong. Just please don't do it again... And yes, he's alright."<br />
<br />
<br />
Landau is then questioned by and an East Coast American, "Johnny." They are suspicious of some angry telephone calls he's had with a woman named Lydia, and of his meeting at the audio fair with Katya, whom he claims was wearing a blue dress and a wedding ring, and - judging by the size of her hips - is probably a mother of children, too. <br />
<br />
<i>Yet again Johnny was at his telegrams. "You say that Yekaterina Borisovn Orlova referred to the adjoining stand of Abercrombie & Blair as having been empty on the previous day, correct?"<br />
"I do say so, yes."<br />
"But you didn't see her the day before? Is that also correct?"<br />
"It is."<br />
"You also say that you have an eye for a pretty lady."<br />
"I do, thank you, and may it long remain vigilant."<br />
"Don't you think you should have noticed her then?"<br />
"I do sometimes miss one," Landau confessed, colouring again. "If my back is turned, if I am bent over a desk or relieving myself in the toilet, it is possible my attention may flag for a moment."</i><br />
<br />
Over the days that follow, throughout interview after interview Landau develops "movie" fantasies about how the Service might be planning to make him a spy, like Barley. But he is then delivered to a Whitehall ministry where he walks into a great room full of a row of men, headed by a younger, sharp-suited man named Clive. Sitting with him are others, one of them being Old Palfrey, aka Harry. Clive introduces Landau to the men, then gets to the point:<br />
<br />
<i>"You've done a good job but we can't tell you why it's good, because that would be insecure," Clive continued in his arid voice when Landau was comfortably settled. "Even the little you know is too much. And we can't let you wander around Eastern Europe with our secrets in your head. It's too dangerous. For you and the people involved. So while you've performed a valuable service for us, you've also become a serious worry. If this were wartime, we could lock you up or shoot you or something. But it isn't, not officially."</i><br />
<br />
Harry is then assigned to be Landau's Legal Adviser. As a happy result, Landau's video shop flourishes. <br />
<br />
Above all, we were able to love him, because he saw us as we wished to be seen, as the omniscient, capable and heroic custodians of our great nation's inner health. It was a view of us that Barley never quite seemed able to share - any more, I have to say, than Hannah could, though she only knew it from the outside, as the place to which she could not follow me, as the shrine of ultimate compromise and therefore, in her unrelenting view, despair.<br />
<br />
<i>"They are definitely not the cure, Palfrey," she had told me only a few weeks before, when for some reason I was trying to extol the Service. "And they sound to *me* more likely to be the disease."</i><br />
<br />
<b>3</b><br />
<br />
Barley is tracked down at a bar by "a fat boy of thirty" named Merridew, who has been following him for awhile now. British Intelligence has found out that Barley's connections include "a sister in Hove who despaired of him, tradesmen in Hampstead who were writing to him, a married daughter in Grantham who adored him and a grey-wolf son in the City who was so withdrawn he might have taken a vow of silence."<br />
<br />
While Barley is drunkenly chatting with "Gravey" in the bar, Merridew introduces himself to him as a Commercial Second Secretary from the Embassy, telling him, "We've received a rather pressing telegram for you over our link. We think you should pop round and read it straight away. Would you mind.?" Then Merridew cups his hand over his head - as if to straighten his hair - which alarms Barley; as le Carre puts it, "this large gesture, performed by a fat man in a low room, seemed to raise fears in Barley that might otherwise have slumbered, for he became disconcertingly sober."<br />
<br />
After some struggling, Merridew finally convinces Barley to come with him. During the car ride, Barley demands, "Are you the people who've been snooping round my daughter, asking her a lot of stupid questions?" to which Merridew insists it couldn't be them because they're too "commercial" for that. Sound they arrive at rented town house, and inside, Barley is introduced to Ned in an indoor library.<br />
<br />
<i>"How drunk are you?" Ned asked, lowering his voice and handing Barley a glass of iced water.<br />
"Not," said Barley. "Who's hijacking me? What goes on?"<br />
"My name's Ned. I'm about to move the goalposts. There's no telegram, no crisis in your affairs beyond the usual. No one's being hijacked. I'm from British Intelligence. So are the people waiting for you next door. You once applied to join us. Now's your chance to help."</i><br />
<br />
Although Barley insists he knows nothing, and is suspicious about the place, Ned tells him the place is owned by the Ambassador, and proves it by letting Barley call the Ambassador from Ned's directory and asking him about when is the best time to play golf - as Ned correctly predicts, the Ambassador is engaged until 5:00. This proves to Barley that this whole thing isn't a joke.<br />
<br />
Ned introduces Barley to Clive, Walter, Bob and Harry (Bob is a CIA agent with a Boston accent). Barley quips, "So where are we off to? Nicaragua? Chile? Salvador? Iran? If you want a Third World leader assassinated, I'm your man." Clive is not amused ("Don't rant,"), and tries to get Barley to sign an Official Secrets Act, but he refuses. They interrogate Barley further.<br />
<br />
<i>"Why didn't you got to Moscow?" Clive asked without waiting any longer for Barley to settle. "You were expected. You rented a stand, booked your flight and your hotel. But you didn't show up and you haven't paid. You came to Lisbon with a woman instead. Why?"<br />
"Would you rather I came here with a man?" Barley asked. "What's it got to do with you and the CIA whether I came here with a woman or a Muscovy duck?"</i><br />
<br />
They find out that the reason Barley has been so reckless in London lately (including leaving behind "trails of weeping mistresses") is because he "inherited a romantic list" and hated publishing romantic literature. He claims it's a family tradition of writing "novels for the housemaid" that he's getting rather tired of, but that his family shareholders (i.e. his aunts) won't let him publish anything else. He didn't show up at the audio fair because they wouldn't let him go into the business of audio cassettes. <br />
<br />
They show him Katya's letter. He claims ignorance to the handwriting and to its author, saying the only Russian woman he's ever had close contact with was an "old cow in Aurora" who tries to sell him some Russian paintings. They then make Barley read the letter out loud, and he does.<br />
<br />
<i>"My beloved Barley." He tilted the letter and began again. "My beloved Barley, Do you remember a promise you made to me one night in Peredelkino as we lay on the verandah of our friends' dacha and recited to each other the poetry of a great Russian mystic who loved England? You swore to me that you would always prefer humanity to nations and that when the day came you would act like a decent human being."</i><br />
He had stopped again.<br />
"Is none of that true?" said Clive."<br />
"I told you. I never <i>met</i> the hag!"<br />
There was a force in Barley's denial that was not there before. He was shoving back something that was threatening him.<br />
<i>"So now I am asking you to redeem your promise, though not in the way we might have imagined that night when we agreed to become lovers."</i>"Total balls," he muttered. "Silly cow's got it all mixed up. <i>"I ask you to show this book to English people who think as we do. Publish it for me, using the arguments you expressed with so much fire. Show it to your scientists and artists and intelligentsia and tell them it is the first stone of a great avalanche and they must throw the next stone for themselves. Tell them that with the new openness we can move together to destroy the destruction and castrate the monster we have created. Ask them which is more dangerous to mankind: to conform like a slave or resist like a man? Act like a decent human being, Barley. I love Herzen's England and you."</i><br />
<br />
Barley demands to see the book. They tell him it's in a safe place. He claims it's his right to see it: "I've been charged with it. You saw what he wrote. I'm his publisher. It's mine. You've know right to it." His use of the word "he" confuses them. He demands to see the book, but Harry tells him the book has been classified as top secret. Barley then pours himself a glass of Scotch from the drinks table, "all within a couple of inches' range of a microphone that Brock with his characteristic over-production had concealed in one of the richly carved compartments."<br />
<br />
<b>in Chapter 5...</b><br />
<br />
"I suppose you realize that if you do walk out on Goethe you'll be leaving him to the Americans?" said Ned, on a practical point of information. "Bob won't let him go, why should he? Don't be fooled by those old Yalie manners of his. How will you live with yourself <i>then</i>?"<br />
"I don't want to live with myself," said Barley. "I can't think of anybody worse to live with."<br />
<br />
After Barley embarks on his mission, Ned and Brock search his Hampstead flat for clues of his ties to Goethe/Katya. They find a notebook with a Stevie Smith quote:<br />
<br />
"I am not so afraid of the dark knight<br />
As the friends I do not know..."<br />
<br />
Ned finds, on the back of one of Barley's bills thrown in the trash, a quote by Roethke:<br />
<br />
"I learn by going where I have to go."<br />
<br />
<b>in Chapter 10...</b> <b>(after Barley has made the publishing deal with Goethe and gotten drunk)</b><br />
<br />
But as Wicklow patiently hauled him up to bed the undrunk part of Barley glanced over his shoulder, down the wide staircase. And in the darkness near the entrance, he saw Katya, seated with her legs crossed, her perhaps-bag on her lap. She was wearing a pinched black jacket. A white silk scarf was knotted under her chin, and her face was pressed towards him with that tense smile she had, sad and hopeful, open to love.<br />
<br />
But as his gaze cleared her he saw her say something saucy out of the corner of her mouth to the porter, and he realised she was just another Leningrad tart looking for a trick.
<br />
<br />
<b>17</b>
<br />
<br />
Palfrey goes to visit Barley when he finds out where he is. Barley is isolated from his aunts and his publishing company now, living alone and painting his house walls, sad about the fact that he'll probably never see Katya or her kids ever again.
<br />
<br />
<i>She'll come, he told me as he gazed out at the harbour. They promised one day she would come.
<br />
<br />
Not at once, and in their time, not in Barley's. But she would come, he had no doubt. Maybe this year, maybe next, he said. But something inside the mountainous bureaucratic Russian belly would heave and give birth to a mouse of compassion. He had no doubt of it. It would be gradual but it would happen. They had promised him.
<br />
<br />
"They don't break their promises," he assured me, and in the face of such trust it would have been churlish in me to contradict him. But something else was preventing me from voicing my customary scepticism. It was Hannah again. I felt she was begging me to let him live with his humanity, even if I had destroyed hers. "You think people never change because you don't," she had once said to me. "You only feel safe when you're disenchanted."
<br />
<br />
...And he talked. For me. For him. Talked and talked. He told me the story as I have tried to tell it to you here, from his side as well as ours. He went on talking till it was light, and when I left at five in the morning, he was wondering whether he might as well finish that bit of wall before turning in. There was a lot to get ready, he explained. Carpets. Curtains. Bookshelves.
<br />
<br />
"It's going to be all right, Harry," he assured me as he showed me off the premises. "Tell them that."
<br />
<br />
Spying is waiting.</i>Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-89632958409857838762012-04-23T15:40:00.000-07:002012-05-09T14:15:55.704-07:00"The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" (1972) by Thomas Keneally<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith</i> was written by Thomas Keneally in 1972. In this post I will quote from some of the book's individual chapters.<br />
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<br />
Chapter 1<br />
<br />
<b>In June of 1900 Jimmie Blacksmith's maternal uncle Tabidgi--Jackie Smolders to the white world--was disturbed to get news that Jimmie had married a white woman in the Methodist church at Wallah.<br />
</b><br />
<br />
Chapter 5<br />
<br />
<b>Jimmie Blacksmith knew that he was being exquisitely cruel and that it was bad for his soul, that it might put him closer to madness most ruinous to his ambitions.<br />
"Why 'im Harry give 'im woman to 'im white boy?"<br />
Harry did not understand the point.<br />
"Whiteman 'im don't lend no one 'im wife. 'E keep her all the time, even when 'e borrow gin all the time. She lie down with 'im other man, whiteman kill 'im wife. Maybe kill 'im man too, often as not. So why yer bloody give Sally for 'im white boy ride?<br />
Certainly Harry tried to understand the point. His eyes glazed withe the import of it.<br />
But Jimmie Blacksmith went and rolled himself up for sleep and slept obdurately, hearing unwillingly sounds of Harry's misuse, which Harry had merited. By not understanding.</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
Chapter 15<br />
<br />
<b>People laughed in their state of grace, the old crimes done, all convict chains a rusted fable in the brazen Arcady and under the roar of buskers in temperate April 1901.<br />
<br />
And the other viciousness -- the rape of primitives? -- it was done and past report.<br />
<br />
Scratch a Labor politician and even some of the others and you find twentieth-century daring. Votes for women. Pensions for the old and for the widow. Industrial courts benevolent to trade unionists. Had anyone in London, Paris, Vienna, Washington even hinted at such eventualities? You could bet your bottom dollar they hadn't.<br />
<br />
...<br />
<br />
It was happy Easter and open another bottle as the wild men pitched over the necks of crazy bulls from Wyalong.<br />
<br />
You couldn't hang blacks on such an occasion.</b><br />
<br />
...<br />
<br />
<b>In May Mr Hyberry went to Dubbo and hanged old Jackie. It was a quick and easy hanging.<br />
<br />
The next day Jackie saw an eye he was not used to, peering full, blinking rarely, at the Judas window. A new warder? Jimmie wondered. A politician? Jimmie, on the second last day of life, had the prisoner's thirst for novelty and eye for small changes.<br />
<br />
Mr Hyberry was away three days in all, and his fine boys could cope with the customers.</b>Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-40117736311142084072012-04-17T18:56:00.062-07:002012-05-21T23:30:56.520-07:00Tom Cruise = No Longer A Bankable Hollywood Star?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<i>Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol</i> officially came out on Blu-Ray and DVD today. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here thinking: Remember when Tom Cruise used to be the most bankable star in Hollywood? <br />
<br />
Not that he should be too worried about DVD sales. <i>Ghost Protocol</i> was, after all, one of the <a href="http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2011">Top 10 highest-grossing movies of 2011</a>, grossing nearly $700 million worldwide. But the fact that it finally took another <i>Mission: Impossible</i> flick to kinda, sorta restore Cruise's popularity with the American public has started to make me ponder about where his career has gone. <br />
<br />
Consider this: In 2002, the Hollywood Reporter conducted a <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/02/05/entertainment/main328301.shtml">poll</a> that ranked Cruise at #1 on their list of the Top 10 Most Bankable Hollywood Stars. In 2011, Forbes conducted a <a href="http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/twilight-stars-top-most-bankable-list.html">poll</a> of their own, and Cruise didn't even make the cut. <br />
<br />
What happened? Could it be because of the strange direction Cruise's career has taken? Compare his output from 1999-2005...<br />
<br />
<b>Eyes Wide Shut (1999)<br />
Magnolia (1999)<br />
Mission: Impossible II (2000)<br />
Vanilla Sky (2001)<br />
Minority Report (2002)<br />
The Last Samurai (2003)<br />
Collateral (2004)<br />
War of the Worlds (2005)</b><br />
<br />
to his output from 2006-2011...<br />
<br />
<b>Mission: Impossible III (2006)<br />
Lions for Lambs (2007)<br />
Tropic Thunder (2008)<br />
Valkyrie (2008)<br />
Knight and Day (2010)<br />
Mission Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011)</b><br />
<br />
An alarming pattern indeed. How does such a seemingly popular Hollywood star go from working with filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg and Michael Mann to working with decent-but-lesser filmmakers like J.J. Abrams, Ben Stiller, Bryan Singer and James Mangold? How does that happen?<br />
<br />
Granted, working with Brad Bird recently on <i>Ghost Protocol</i> did allow Cruise the opportunity to go back to work with an actual great, relevant modern Hollywood director. And yet Cruise himself is not credited as one of the major factors in the movie's success. Had he been, it's likely Forbes would have included him on their "most bankable" year-end list.<br />
<br />
Okay, okay. I'm not saying money is the most important thing about all of this. Realistically, who gives a damn if one Cruise's movies doesn't make much money as long as it's, you know, good? Back in 1999, when Cruise was still a hot-button Hollywood item, he made two movies in one year — <i>Eyes Wide Shut</i> and <i>Magnolia</i> — and they both flopped. Today, they're widely regarded as modern classics.<br />
<br />
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Nowadays, however, whenever a Cruise feature flops, it's practically forgotten in a heartbeat. Admittedly, it's because he's not making as many great movies as he used to. Robert Redford's <i>Lions for Lambs</i> was a boring, unsurprising political drama that didn't really have anything illuminating to say about the War on Terror. Mangold's <i>Knight and Day</i> was enjoyable entertainment and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it again, but it wasn't a major work as far as Cruise is concerned. And I admit I didn't even see Singer's <i>Valkyrie</i> because I was scared away by the lukewarm reviews. Perhaps I'll see it someday, but what I've heard isn't too promising.<br />
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So, I guess it's saying something when even I, an unabashed Cruise fan, haven't been getting too hyped up for Cruise's recent projects. It's really saying something when the only two highly interesting movies he's made in the past 6 years are both <i>Mission: Impossible</i> flicks. I guess he's realized that this is the only way to keep him bankable for the time being, since very few people in Hollywood are willing to work with him anymore.<br />
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Everyone knows why, of course. It's because of Cruise's idiotic antics in the media following the release of <i>War of the Worlds</i> in the summer of 2005. Instead of promoting Steven Spielberg's brilliant sci-fi/terror epic, Cruise used his skyrocketed popularity as a cheap excuse to try to bring the public closer to the Church of Scientology, a movement that backfired after Cruise abused this rare power by couch-jumping on Oprah, dissing Brooke Shields for her medication usage during her experience of postpartum depression, and engaging in a memorably ugly debate about psychiatry with Matt Lauer on The Today Show.<br />
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A violent reaction from the public was inevitable. Rumors began surfacing that Spielberg threw a fit when Cruise neglected to promote <i>War of the Worlds</i> during his media tour (and, according to the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Men-Who-Would-King/dp/0547134703">The Men Who Would Be King</a> by Nicole LaPorte, allegedly hired a Scientologist to try to stop Spielberg's wife Kate Capshaw from taking meds). This resulted in, I think, a public boycott against <i>War of the Worlds</i>, which did eventually <a href="http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=waroftheworlds.htm">gross $591 million worldwide</a> but might have grossed even more had it not been for Cruise's public persona outside of the film itself. The film currently has a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407304/">6.5 rating</a> on IMDb. I suspect a large majority of those who voted the movie at such a low score were rapid anti-Cruise fanboys.<br />
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Honestly, I don't understand why people hate Cruise so much for being a Scientologist. That he can be a bully in the media? Sure. But what's wrong with him being a Scientologist? Admittedly, I'm largely ignorant about the religion itself, but as a supporter of our basic First Amendment rights, I'm not going to attack Cruise for his religious beliefs; Scientology doesn't sound to me like a "Hitler Youth" movement, or whatever people want to call it. I also seriously question the charges of <a href="http://www.ehrensteinland.com/htmls/library/tomcruiseletters.shtml">one particular critic</a> that Cruise is a closeted homosexual, although I do understand why Cruise's threats to sue this critic for attempting to write a book about such theories have led this critic to admit, "Consequently my feelings about him are less than copasetic." So would mine, probably, if I wanted to write such a book. I wouldn't, of course, but still. I get it.<br />
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Anyway, to prove that we should forget the artist's private life and simply focus on the majesty of the artist himself, I've decided to compile a list of Cruise's Top 10 greatest performances. Because, despite what people say, he truly can be a great actor when given the best parts and the best directors.<br />
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10. <i>The Last Samurai</i> (2003), Dir. Edward Zwick<br />
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This may be a flawed film, one that dabbles in the all-too-familiar white-man-joins-foreign-race genre, but by God, Cruise makes it work. As the alcoholic Captain Nathan Algren, haunted by memories of serving under Custer during murderous raids on Native Americans, Cruise makes us believe such a man could possibly wind up in 19th-century Japan converting to the side of the samurai and their classical, honorable ways. Ken Watanabe may have been the one who received an Oscar nomination for his acting work in this film, and justifiably so, but it was Cruise who opened up audiences' interest for the movie in the first place. There was even a scene where Algren was shown goofing off in his samurai robe while left alone, wittily <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=6EgPDierNGUC&pg=PA777&lpg=PA777&dq=%22there's+even+a+scene+uncomfortably+reminiscent%22&source=bl&ots=AkFcjRVloy&sig=Zb8tBdHQ1XIqdXUkr1f9tp9H34c&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Pk6OT-ffL4Oo8gSLsYilDg&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22there's%20even%20a%20scene%20uncomfortably%20reminiscent%22&f=false">reminding</a> critic Leonard Maltin of Cruise's famous underwear scene in <i>Risky Business</i>.<br />
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9. <i>Rain Man</i> (1988), Dir. Barry Levinson<br />
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Another Cruise vehicle in which another star (Dustin Hoffman) was honored by the Academy, but wouldn't have been so successful without Cruise's invaluable presence. <i>Rain Man</i> is often snarked at by critics today as one of those movies that didn't deserve to win Best Picture -- which it probably didn't -- but I like it all the same. The role of pretentious, narcissistic yuppie Charlie Babbit could have been thankless and uninspired, but Cruise really sells the role, making us see why such a man could be so wigged out by his own ridiculous scheme of trying to get a share of his father's will from his autistic brother. My favorite scene: when Babbit, finally pushed to the breaking point, pulls the car over, runs out into the desert, and kicks some sand around before finally <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlZb1PphB5Q&feature=related">belting out</a>, "SON OF A <i>BIIIIITCH</i>!!!!!" while his voice echoes around the surrounding canyons. Yeah, we've all had one of those days.<br />
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8. <i>Vanilla Sky</i> (2001), Dir. Cameron Crowe<br />
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<i>Jerry Maguire</i> may be the more famous Crowe/Cruise vehicle, but I recently returned to this obscure remake of Amenebar's <i>Open Your Eyes</i> (which I haven't seen) and was surprised by how well it's held up. I think in the past I sometimes had the tendency to write it off as a visually-interesting but emotionally-distancing misfire. Not anymore. For me, this is Cameron Crowe's best film, and it provides even more challenging work for Cruise than what was offered in their previous collaboration. Forget "Show me the money!"; I'd much rather see Cruise here, as ill-fated magazine tycoon David Aames, running through an empty Time Square (to the tune of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8vMeMVk5R0">From Rusholme With Love</a>), falling helplessly in love with Penelope Cruz, being stalked by a batshit crazy Cameron Diaz and eventually falling so far into his own "Lucid Dream" that he can't discern reality anymore. This movie doesn't always make sense, but it might actually be somewhere on the level of greatness of <i>Mulholland Dr.</i>, which came out the same year. <br />
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7. <i>Collateral</i> (2004), Dir. Michael Mann<br />
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One of my favorite Michael Mann flicks, <i>Collateral</i> allowed Cruise a chance to prove to audiences he could effectively play a memorable bad guy. Which, to be fair, he had already done as Lestat in Neil Jordan's <i>Interview With the Vampire</i> (1994), but whereas that film was messy and tedious, <i>Collateral</i> bursts with energy and nonstop thrills. Cruise's work as the cool, unfazed contract killer Vincent is sublime, and should have merited an Oscar nomination. Unfortunately, this was yet again one of those instances when the Academy preferred to nominate another actor from the same film (Jamie Foxx). I suspect a majority of Cruise's detractors haven't even seen it.<br />
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6. <i>A Few Good Men</i> (1992), Dir. Rob Reiner<br />
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These days, Rob Reiner hasn't been a very interesting filmmaker. But he was once a very good one, and I'll forever forgive whatever trespasses he may have committed in the past 15 years thanks to this, his most splendidly acted, written and directed film. Everyone remembers Colonel Jessup's "You can't handle the truth!" speech, but what I like more is the way Cruise's character, Lt. Kaffee, finds a way to wrench a confession out of Jessup. "If your orders are always followed," Kaffee muses, "why did Santiago have to be transferred off the base?" I love quoting this scene, and it's a testament to the fact that, even as a younger actor, Cruise's talents had reached their peak.<br />
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5. <i>War of the Worlds</i> (2005), Dir. Steven Spielberg<br />
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Ray Ferrier is a lousy father and ex-husband who finally realizes he needs to rise the occasion if he's going to protect the ones he loves. Those who criticize Cruise's performance in <i>War of the Worlds</i> seem to be criticizing Cruise the man instead of Cruise the actor, and if there's a fault in this particular performance, I'd like to know what it is. In the scenes of Ray rushing his kids out of his house, throwing peanut butter bread against a window in a fury, screaming for his son as he watches him run towards a wall of fire and prepares to murder a deranged man (Tim Robbins) whose actions may bring harm to his daughter, Cruise viscerally brings out the instincts of this seemingly simple man, transformed into an unlikely action hero. In one scene, Cruise sings Dakota Fanning to sleep with a variation of the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coup," and although this scene must have sounded silly on paper, Cruise and Spielberg make it believable and touching. Spielberg reportedly never wants to work with Cruise again because of his failure to adequately promote this film, and that's sad. In my lifetime, I hope to at least get to see them collaborate again for a third and final time.<br />
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4. <i>Eyes Wide Shut</i> (1999), Dir. Stanley Kubrick<br />
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Stanley Kubrick's movies didn't exactly specialize in 3-dimensional characters, so it's not surprising that Cruise's work here as Dr. Bill Harford didn't attract any Oscar attention. That is not important in the case of a film like this. Part of what makes <i>Eyes Wide Shut</i> so fascinating is that Kubrick gets into the mindset of Cruise -- during that era perhaps the most popular male heartthrob in Hollywood -- and then considers, hey: what if we broke down this heartthrob into something subtler, deeper, less identitifable? A man who goes on a sexual odyssey without ever actually having sex himself? <i>Eyes Wide Shut</i> was largely dismissed by audiences during initial release as a failure, but make no mistake: it's an eerie, mesmerizing masterpiece. I'm annoyed with <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/oct/05/news1">claims</a> by actor R. Lee Ermey that Kubrick was disappointed with the way the movie turned out and supposedly thought Cruise and then-wife Nicole Kidman were bad in it; fortunately Todd Field has <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=zlSRS80XIfQC&pg=PT313&lpg=PT313&dq=%22all+I+can+say+is+Stanley+was+adamant%22&source=bl&ots=iIAG6lYUej&sig=W3-Rgz2vxhZ838_nJrGVQ5sVA8Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rhWOT5jXEon6tgeI7rDnCw&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22all%20I%20can%20say%20is%20Stanley%20was%20adamant%22&f=false">disputed</a> Ermey's claims. Cruise is, really, dabbling in the sort of "memorably forgettable" (to borrow a <a href="http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2011/10/the-conversations-barry-lyndon/">phrase</a> from Ed and Jason) work that Ryan O'Neal achieved in <i>Barry Lyndon</i>. In short: the richest kind of Kubrick performance.<br />
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3. <i>Magnolia</i> (1999), Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson<br />
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Whenever people tell me they think Cruise can't act, I ask them, "Well, have you seen him in <i>Magnolia</i>?" I think the reason why Paul Thomas Anderson would think to cast Cruise in the role of sex exploiter & misogynist Frank T.J. Mackey was to see just how far Cruise could break down his own ridiculous image as a sex symbol in the eyes of the post-90's American public (sheesh, no wonder <i>Magnolia</i> and <i>Eyes Wide Shut</i> came out in the same year). Cruise, in this film, goes from a ladies' man completely in his element to a pissed-off interviewee who's "quietly judging" his female interviewer (April Grace), to a betrayed son weeping at the bedside of his dying father (Jason Robards). It's a brave, wrenching performance and, out of all of Cruise's Oscar-nominated work, is the one performance where I feel he completely deserved the Academy Award. He was beaten out that year by Michael Caine, who was admittedly outstanding in <i>The Cider House Rules</i> and even <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuhXv2wBeiQ">joked</a> (3:55) that an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor would have been too insulting to Cruise's talents ("Tom... have you any idea what supporting actors get <i>paid</i>!??"), but still: 1999 was Cruise's year.<br />
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2. <i>Born on the Fourth of July</i> (1989), Dir. Oliver Stone<br />
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Remember when I argued that most rapid anti-Cruise haters probably haven't even seen <i>Magnolia</i> or <i>Collateral</i>? I'd be surprised if ANY of them have seen <i>Born on the Fourth of July</i>. Clearly the best performance Cruise has given that's actually been nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars, he probably would have won hands-down had Daniel Day-Lewis not given similarly jaw-dropping work of his own that year in <i>My Left Foot</i>. This is one of those situations when I try to forget the Oscars entirely because, you know, Cruise is so damned good here as the paralyzed Ron Kovic, watching his own system of patriotism and jingoistic zeal come crashing down before his eyes once he realizes that the War in Vietnam has completely and utterly fucked up his whole life. You can see some of Oliver Stone's own personal experiences as a Vietnam vet come clear in this performance (this might even be Stone's best movie), and even though Cruise himself never went to Vietnam, he sells us for 2 1/2 hours on the concept that he was actually there, and saw it all, and is about to do something about it. For me, that <i>is</i> the essence of great acting. I'd like to think Oliver Stone could even save his own struggling career if he considered working with Cruise again on another film.<br />
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1. <i>Minority Report</i> (2002), Dir. Steven Spielberg<br />
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Oh, how I love this movie, and how I love Cruise's dynamic performance in it. It reminds me of the good old days, when the release of a new Tom Cruise movie actually meant something, and when his talents as an actor where never, ever called into question. I could go on raving for days about his work in <i>Born on the Fourth of July, Magnolia, Eyes Wide Shut</i> and so many other films, but if you wanted me to point to the performance that most intimatetly captures the humanity of one man, it's Cruise's absolutely magnificent performance in <i>Minority Report</i> as John Anderton, a disillusioned Washington D.C. cop who believes the system of PreCrime is perfect... until it comes after him.<br />
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In some of the best acting you will ever see in Steven Spielberg's cinema, the film's highlight comes during the sequence where Anderton prepares to face the man he believes has kidnapped and murdered his son. "I <i>am</i> going to kill this man," he whispers to Agatha (Samantha Morton), and he proceeds to beat the living hell out of Leo Crow (Mike Binder), very nearly shooting him dead before pausing and deciding that it would be wrong, and that he must do the right thing and let him live. This is a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MuZATnrE3Y">scene</a> you have to see to believe, and when I first saw it at the age of 11, it made me question my own beliefs about ethics, murder, vengeance, capital punishment and all other things. By the end of the film, you truly believe Anderton has emerged from his nightmarish experience as a better, wiser man, having come to the realization that he owes a responsibility to his fellow Americans not to let them be taken advantage of by an Orwellian justice system any longer. It's the role of his I identify with the most. It is, quite simply, a masterstroke of acting, and the greatest performance Cruise has ever given.<br />
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Nostalgic about the good old days, I did some web-surfing on YouTube and found this great Charlie Rose interview from '99, in which Paul Thomas Anderson discusses <i>Magnolia</i> and has some delicate comments to make about Cruise, as an actor and as a friend:<br />
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(5:48) <i>Rose: You've got some of the hottest actors in the world in this movie. Start with Tom Cruise. How'd you get him?<br />
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PTA: He called me after he'd seen Boogie Nights. And that's the phonecall from the President of the United States of Movie Land, you know? And--<br />
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Rose: It doesn't get any bigger than that!<br />
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PTA: No, literally! It doesn't!</i><br />
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(9:25) <i>Rose: There's something good about Cruise...<br />
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PTA: (nodding) Tom Cruise is... the MAN. He really is. He's a pretty amazing individual.</i><br />
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"President of the United States of Movie Land"? You wouldn't be caught dead in Hollywood saying that about Cruise today. He probably wouldn't even qualify for the Speaker of the House position. He's simply not as sought-after by studios and filmmakers the way he once was.<br />
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Do I believe Cruise can make a comeback? Absolutely. He just needs to find a director who can provide the right inspiration for one. Look at all the A-list directors he's worked with so far:<br />
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Stanley Kubrick <br />
Steven Spielberg <br />
Martin Scorsese <br />
Paul Thomas Anderson <br />
Brian De Palma <br />
Francis Ford Coppola <br />
Oliver Stone <br />
Ridley Scott <br />
Michael Mann <br />
Brad Bird <br />
Sydney Pollack <br />
Barry Levinson <br />
Cameron Crowe <br />
Neil Jordan <br />
Rob Reiner <br />
John Woo <br />
Robert Redford<br />
Ron Howard<br />
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Also, back in early 2009, David Cronenberg expressed <a href="http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment/article/586265">interest</a> in working with Cruise on an adaptation of a Robert Ludlum spy novel. With luck, this project will see the light of day. As for the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/mar/12/tom-cruise-a-star-is-born">rumor</a> of him collaborating with Clint Eastwood on a remake of <i>A Star is Born</i>, I'm open to the possibility -- so long as they get a more experienced actress to play the female lead than Beyonce Knowles.<br />
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Cruise's next movie is going to be a musical called <i>Rock of Ages</i>. I have no idea if it's going to be a good movie or not, but judging from this trailer...<br />
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...it looks as if Tom is getting back in Frank T.J. Mackey mode. To that I say: let's hope so.Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-47096341720957363212012-03-25T09:00:00.005-07:002012-03-28T16:35:49.555-07:00Andrew Stanton's Women<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QtZxC0RgbKw/T27Ja9gZqxI/AAAAAAAAAk0/lbGa-2SqEI0/s1600/lynn-collins-john-carter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="260" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QtZxC0RgbKw/T27Ja9gZqxI/AAAAAAAAAk0/lbGa-2SqEI0/s400/lynn-collins-john-carter.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Why so many bad reviews? <i>John Carter</i> was great—I thought so, at least. If you're planning on seeing any Hollywood movies this month, I recommend this one, especially since its been <a href="http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3389&p=.htm">struggling</a> at the box office and Disney could use the dough. Wait, I take that back: <i>Andrew Stanton</i> could use the dough. This was, from where I stand, Stanton's fourth great movie in a row, and it wasn't even distributed by Pixar. It's an even more impressive transition from animation to live-action than Brad Bird's <i>Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol</i> last winter, also a good flick, but I'd say with <i>John Carter</i> Stanton has pulled off an even greater feat: he's made me a believer in action/fantasy epics again (after being disappointed by some high-profile losers, <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/06/prince-of-persia-sands-of-time-2010.html"><i>Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time</i></a> being one of them). And contrary to what the majority of the critics are <a href="http://www.metacritic.com/movie/john-carter/critic-reviews">saying</a> about <i>John Carter</i> ("less is more!"), I would argue that, in this case, less is definitely <i>not</i> more. Filmmakers like Stanton need to command a lot of space—a lot of depth of field—to tell their stories, and therefore any critic who snipes "too much!" is being unreasonable. Disney granted Stanton a $250 million budget and, bless his heart, he has put every single cent of that budget to good use. <br />
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I want a sequel, too. I want to see more of these characters, especially since it will give me a good excuse to read those Edgar Rice Burroughs books (which, had I read them beforehand, might have led me to appreciate Stanton's film even more). This is not one of those director-for-hire Disney 3-D hackjobs like Tim Burton's atrocious <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>; no, this, despite being a big-budget studio flick, was also a very personal project for Stanton, who not only directed it by co-wrote the screenplay with Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon (who, after this and <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/04/spider-man-2-2004.html"><i>Spider-Man 2</i></a>, is officially the best writer in the business when it comes to adapting adventure serials to the big screen). That <i>John Carter</i> is not doing very well at the box office right now cannot be due to the quality of the film (which is superb) but more to, well, its vague title and its even vaguer ad campaign. Perhaps it's also because the film's big-named, Academy Award-nominated stars (Willem Dafoe, Samantha Morton, Thomas Hayden Church) mainly provide the voice talents for the CGI characters, whereas the two lead roles are played by two young unknowns: the charming Taylor Kitsch (yeah, weird name, I know) as John Carter of Virginia, and the pleasantly surprising Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.<br />
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Studying Collins' performance, I began to notice a trend in Stanton's work: his recurring use of strong, ambitious female characters in each and every one of his movies. They are always like the men: energetic idealists who want to make a difference in their lives, have adventures, go somewhere, be somebody. They have dreams. They have passions. They even have goofy fantasies, and the first time I noticed something unusual about the Dejah character was during the sequence in which she first meets John Carter, after he rescues her from a death-defying fall (one of about three in the movie—yes, I counted). While Carter sets her down and then springs up into the air to return to the action in the sky, Dejah is down on the ground, staring up at him while Carter's allies, the Tharks (a race of Green Martians with tusks on their faces), begin swarming around her. Looking up at Carter with stars in her eyes, Dejah squeals to the Thusks, "You may take me prisoner!" That's her way of saying, "I want to bang that guy, like, right now."<br />
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But Dejah is not merely one of those Disney princesses who fangirls over a handsome man. She's good with a sword, is capable of taking care of herself, inspires Carter to fight for what he believes in and gripes at the thought of her father (Ciaran Hinds, in an inspired casting choice) reducing her to the role of a good wife in an arranged, politically-motivated marriage to some hawkish douchebag. She'd rather be with, support and—this is key—be able to fight side by side with a man she actually loves and admires, all of this delicately conveyed by Lynn Collins in a free-spirited performance that is one of the movie's most unexpected surprises.<br />
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Also, she's incredibly easy on the eyes. Um...<br />
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Stanton seems to have thing for Disney princesses with attitude. You'll remember that in <i>A Bug's Life</i> (1998), his first film as a director (though in actuality he co-directed it with John Lasseter), Stanton characterized Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) as an insecure princess who wasn't sure if she was ready to be queen yet, but then drew inspiration from a plan by Flik (Dave Foley) to rally her colony against pillaging Grasshoppers by mounting the construction of a giant bird. Atta also had a younger sister, Dot (Hayden Manetierre), who made every effort to help Flik and Atta in an attempt to expedite her maturity in the time before her wings grew.<br />
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Another subversive female character in <i>John Carter</i> is Sola (voiced by an unrecognizable Samantha Morton), a Thark who becomes one of Carter's sidekicks purely by accident. She begins as the runt of the female Tharks—the only one without a baby to take care of—given the humiliating task of tasking care of the "white worm" Carter by Sarkoja (Polly Walker), the bitchiest of the Tharks' mothers. Because she has no children, Sola realizes her life is meant for other things, and she not only begins to join Carter in his pursuits, she also begins following the example of her father, Tars (voiced by Willem Dafoe), who wants to keep her out of harm's way but is proven wrong when she herself tells him how committed she is: "Your blood flows through me."<br />
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A similarly fiercely-committed heroine in Stanton's filmography is EVE (Elissa Knight) in <i>WALL-E</i> (2008), who constantly reminds WALL-E (Ben Burtt) that she has to complete her "directive" before she can move on to anything else. And after her "directive" is fulfilled, she is instrumental in helping WALL-E bring the humans back to Earth, as well as shaking WALL-E back to life just when it seems he's been deactivated for good. It is even implied that she and WALL-E will be instrumental in making Earth a great planet again.<br />
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Stanton, likes James Cameron, is one of those wise mainstream Hollywood filmmakers who not only loves, appreciates and understands the women in his films, but makes them equal to the men; as the Nostalgia Chick once <a href="http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thedudette/nostalgia-chick/17165-titanic">commented</a> on Cameron's women, "The girls are actually <i>there</i>. They don't make a big deal out of being female; they don't hold their ovaries in triumph whilst they kick @$$; they just happen to be female and find themselves in these ridiculous situations, whatever they might be... they're well-written because they're <i>people</i> first, not ladies. And I think that's the best way to see more of the same: write people. Not tokens." <br />
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That, I believes, describes Stanton's work to a T, and might even apply in some ways to arguably the most famous female protagonist in Stanton's work: Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), the Blue Tang fish in <i>Finding Nemo</i> (2003) who suffers from short-term memory loss but nevertheless proves to be an invaluable influence on Marlin (Albert Brooks) in his quest to find his son. Although Dory is severely lacking when it comes to memory, she still has her instincts, and still possesses the ability to sense when a situation has gone right and when her life has actually started to make a difference in someone else's, as summed up in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTb8MVevWbE">this</a>, the film's most beautiful speech:<br />
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"Please don't go away. Please? No one's ever stuck with me for so long before. And if you leave... if you leave... I just, I remember things better with you. I do. Look: P. Sherman, forty-two... forty-two... I remember it, I do. It's there, I know it is, because when I look at you, I can feel it. And—and I look at you, and I... I'm <i>home</i>."Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-44817160227560886642012-03-08T00:30:00.000-08:002012-03-08T00:30:58.314-08:00Verhoeven on The Last Express<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/vcXp3r63WIw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Kind of late to be making a post about this, but whatever. <br />
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Faithful readers of my blog will recall that back in April 2010, I was thrilled by the <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/04/paul-verhoeven-to-direct-last-express.html">rumor</a> that Paul Verhoeven was working on adapting Jordan Mechner's 1997 computer game <i>The Last Express</i> into a major motion picture. This remained a mere rumor until October 2011, when - if you watch the video above, specifically at the 6:40 mark - Verhoeven confirmed that he has, indeed, been engaging in talks with Mechner to adapt <i>The Last Express</i> into a movie. He is even considering filming it in 3D.<br />
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Um... got a Donate button, Paul? Because I will happily give you as much money as possible to ensure that this guaranteed masterpiece gets made. Just sayin'.Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-12869888383405428182012-03-02T05:51:00.006-08:002012-03-04T20:00:43.999-08:00My problems with the Second Edition of Joseph McBride's book on Spielberg<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cQy2KTuxBV8/T1Q6Y82NFuI/AAAAAAAAAik/Q96YxRLY1FY/s1600/Steven-Spielberg-A-Biography.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="265" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cQy2KTuxBV8/T1Q6Y82NFuI/AAAAAAAAAik/Q96YxRLY1FY/s400/Steven-Spielberg-A-Biography.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Since <a href="http://www.ebay.com/itm/Steven-Spielberg-by-Joseph-McBride-1997-Hardcover-/380416144134?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item589291b306#ht_500wt_922">the original 1997 edition</a> of Joseph McBride's biography of Steven Spielberg is still, I think, the best book on Spielberg around, I went ahead and checked out the <a href="http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2011/book-reviews/steven-spielberg-a-biography-second-edition-by-joseph-mcbride/">Second Edition</a> of McBride's book that came out recently. There are parts of the new edition I like very much - he mounts an unexpected and very enlightening defense of <i>Amistad</i>, declares <i>A.I.</i> to be the masterpiece that it rightfully is, and waxes poetic about <i>Catch Me if You Can, The Terminal</i> and, surprisingly, even <i>Kingdom of the Crystal Skull</i> (he sticks up for the "nuke the fridge" gag). He also does some good research on Spielberg's track record as a DreamWorks mogul. <br />
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So, you'd think this would be a very welcome edition, preferable to the first one. But it's not. I'm very disappointed to see that McBride considers a majority of <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/12/saving-private-ryan-1998-what-is.html"><i>Saving Private Ryan</i></a> "a serious letdown" and that he has chosen to side with the age-old argument that every scene after the D-Day sequence is an anticlimax. He thinks the movie is "damaged" by its refusal to adopt a firm stance on warfare (why does it need to?). He appears sympathetic to Jonathan Rosenbaum's infamous review of the movie, in that he wonders if Spielberg is glorifying war, more than he is painting a horrorific picture of it. When he describes the scene in which Mellish is stabbed upstairs by the Waffen-SS soldier while Upham is downstairs cowering, he claims that it's a clumsy allegory for the Holocaust because Upham is a Gentile, despite the fact that Spielberg has specified in interviews that he identifies most with Upham. Strangest of all, McBride does not go into detail about the scenes featuring Miller and Upham's crisis of conscience when they decide to let "Steamboat Willie" go. McBride makes no mention of this pivotal subplot at all. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jB238cgdm8Y/TRMr67QdonI/AAAAAAAAAHw/CyRE86EbB_8/s1600/upham.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="240" width="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jB238cgdm8Y/TRMr67QdonI/AAAAAAAAAHw/CyRE86EbB_8/s1600/upham.jpg" /></a></div><br />
In fact, the entire chapter on <i>Saving Private Ryan</i> feels rushed and unorthodox. McBride does not lend very much weight to arguments in defense of the film; it's like he's committed to some strange cause of erasing the movie from public memory. To me, this a cardinal sin to commit as a biographer. We're all entitled to our opinions, obviously, but since nobody has written a more well-read biography on Spielberg than McBride I think he owes a little more to his readers. Why not consider some of the more thoughtful defenses of the film out there - the ones by <a href="http://cinepad.com/notepad/np_ryan.htm">Jim Emerson</a>, <a href="http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2007/05/links-for-the-day-may-26th-2007/">Matt Zoller Seitz</a>, <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980724/REVIEWS/807240304/1023">Roger Ebert</a>, etc.? Why not refer to what Quentin Tarantino <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/de/palma/blog/index.blog/1378661/tarantino-on-icasualties-of-wari/">said</a>, about how even he believes the movie changed his opinion on war movies in general? Why not make note of the fact that so many WWII veterans saw the movie and adored it? Like it or not, <i>Saving Private Ryan</i> is one of the most important achievements in Spielberg's career as a director; it's a little unwise of McBride to be marginalizing it, regardless if he has reservations with the film or not. <br />
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And my problems with the new edition of McBride's book don't stop there. He is surprisingly damning of <i>War of the Worlds</i>, which he dismisses as "ugly". To be sure, he praises it as a technical marvel and says some nice things about Tom Cruise's performance, but then whines that "the characterizations are thin" and that the movie does not work as an emotional experience or as a communication of post-9/11 paranoid feelings through the medium of the Hollywood blockbuster. I completely disagree with all of this. <br />
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McBride also doesn't really do justice to either <i>Minority Report</i> or <i>Munich</i>, films which he likes but doesn't seem to love much. He thinks that <i>Minority Report</i> sometimes gets distracted by having "too many action scenes," and holds to the argument that it falls apart in the last scenes, believing they're too good to be true. He doesn't go into any detail over <i>why</i> the movie ends the way it does. Why not consider if maybe John and Lara's triumph at the end of the film is a bittersweet one? Why not also consider the dubious (but still thought-provoking) theory which the IMDB commentator LoneStranger and others around the Internet have suggested: that the whole ending of the film may or may not be an illusion? Mind you, I get the impression that McBride <i>likes</i> the movie (he seems to admire how timely it was at the time of the signing away of the Patriot Act), but his enthusiasm for it is not on the level of someone like Roger Ebert's.<br />
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As for his writings on <i>Munich</i>, I expected more... <i>much</i> more. McBride goes into painful detail about the enemies Spielberg and Tony Kushner made in Israel when they chose to release the film, but whatever acclaim he may have for the movie feels muted. As with <i>War of the Worlds</i>, he argues that it works on a technical level but not on an emotional level. He sides with <a href="http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117929081/">Todd McCarthy</a>, in complaining that Avner, Carl, Robert, Hans and Steve are not well-rounded characters. But I would counter that each of the characters have individual moments in the film where they come alive (Carl's point about Israel's anti-death penalty policies; Robert's "soul" monologue; Hans' regrets about the way he treated the Dutch woman; Steve's paranoia after failing to assassinate Salamei; Avner's tortured reconnection with his wife back home). <br />
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Bizzarely, McBride also argues that Steven Bauer's portrayal of Avner in <i>Sword of Gideon</i> (1986) is superior to Eric Bana's. To that I say, "WTF?" To be sure, I only saw <i>Sword of Gideon</i> once, but I remember Bauer's performance being more than a little ham-fisted and the movie itself being very badly photographed and directed. Whereas Bana's performance in <i>Munich</i> is subtle, moving, and - if you ask me - completely relatable. I should probably make note of the fact that McBride comletely ignores the often-mentioned sex scene between Avner and his wife. Had McBride read Matt Zoller Seitz's <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060223/SCANNERS/60223002">online defense</a> of this particular scene, I'm sure he would not have ignored it. <br />
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After some time, I began to notice a recurring theme in McBride's criticisms of <i>Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, War of the Worlds</i> and <i>Munich</i>: McBride has a bit of a problem with Spielberg as a director of violence. He seems to prefer Spielberg as a director of magic, comedy and occasional heartbreak, not as a director of sequences in which people are gruesomely slaughtered (with the notable exceptions of <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/12/schindlers-list-1993-control-is-power.html"><i>Schindler's List</i></a> and <i>Amistad</i>). From what I recall, the only "action" movies McBride actually praised in the first edition of his book were <i>Duel</i> and <i>Jaws</i>, and I think it's because those were simple 70's-era portrayals of themes like man vs. machine, man vs. nature, etc. But I do remember in his first book that McBride was also incredibly annoyed with the action/violence in <i>Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade</i> and <i>Jurassic Park</i>. To be fair, his panning of <i>The Lost World Jurassic Park</i> in this new edition is much fairer game, but...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8DE2OxloW8Q/T1CvewLL2mI/AAAAAAAAAiM/-afniFjhimM/s1600/mcbride.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="248" width="304" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8DE2OxloW8Q/T1CvewLL2mI/AAAAAAAAAiM/-afniFjhimM/s400/mcbride.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Maybe I'm off-base, but I suspect McBride's criticisms of Spielberg's more recent forays into violence stem from a political objection of some sort. He is obviously a very liberal writer, and perhaps he holds firm anti-war beliefs that prevented him from fully appreciating something as neutral as <i>Saving Private Ryan</i>. Perhaps the scene in <i>War of the Worlds</i> where Ray is driven to murder Ogilvy rubbed him the wrong way, and colored his perceptions of that entire film in general. I could be wrong, of course, but I think that's why he goes into great detail about only <i>some</i> of Spielberg's latest films, in this new edition, and sort of hurries past the others. Because of that, I'm hoping some brave biographer will publish a book of his or her own to challenge McBride's views of these films, perhaps even in such a way that he'll consider reevaluating his positions on said films in the inevitable future edition of his book.Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-25299018085433003452012-02-28T19:00:00.001-08:002012-02-28T19:00:05.620-08:00My Live-Tweeting of the 84th Academy Awards<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.idsnews.com/blogs/weekendwatchers/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Oscars-2012-Billy-Crystal-007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://www.idsnews.com/blogs/weekendwatchers/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Oscars-2012-Billy-Crystal-007.jpg" width="460" /></a></div><br />
All my tweets from last Sunday night are available below for your reading pleasure.<br />
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Favorite wins: Descendant's screenplay win, Hugo's tech wins. That's about it. The show started out fun, then became boring. #Oscars<br />
8:42 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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2h Steven Santos @stevensantos · Open<br />
Outside of wins for A SEPARATION and THE DESCENDANTS, an uninspired group of winners from a lackluster list of nominees. The End. #oscars<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@stevensantos Agreed.<br />
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8:42 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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2h jim emerson @jeeemerson · Open<br />
Tom Cruise's "Oh, yeah, so, that's anti-climactic," delivery of the winning picture's title was as human as I've ever seen him act. #Oscars<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@jeeemerson But not as human as his Magnolia performance! ;)<br />
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8:41 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Ali Arikan @aliarikan Close<br />
And we can all stop talking about The Artist now. OK? OK.<br />
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8:36 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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2h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie · Open<br />
Honestly... I probably shouldn't be too mad about this win, because I doubt The Iron Lady is as bad as The Help. #Oscars<br />
2h edcopeland @edcopeland · Open<br />
@adamzanzie You'd be very wrong. The Help is good. The Iron Lady is terrible.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@edcopeland @notjustmovies Eh. Now I'm more afraid 2 see it! This talk about it portraying Thatcher as just some innocent feminist is scary.<br />
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8:38 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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2h edcopeland @edcopeland · Open<br />
@adamzanzie @notjustmovies Not a masterpiece, but a helluva cast and better than The Artist.<br />
2h edcopeland @edcopeland · Open<br />
@adamzanzie @notjustmovies The structuree is awful too with it being some long Alzheimer's flashback. The Help has a helluva cast.(1 of 2)<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
The muted applause for Tree of Life/War Horse proves one thing: NOBODY IN THE ACADEMY FUCKING SAW THEM. #Oscars<br />
8:36 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Cruise presenting Best Picture! That's a ballsy choice. #Oscars<br />
8:33 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Honestly... I probably shouldn't be too mad about this win, because I doubt The Iron Lady is as bad as The Help. #Oscars<br />
8:32 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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2h edcopeland @edcopeland · Open<br />
@adamzanzie You'd be very wrong. The Help is good. The Iron Lady is terrible.<br />
2h Jake Cole @notjustmovies · Open<br />
@adamzanzie It is. It's actually worse.<br />
Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick Close<br />
Actress: Streep in mild upset. Most of thought Viola Davis had it wrapped up. Academy declined to make history w/2 black actress Oscars<br />
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8:30 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
If Meryl thanks Thatcher in her speech, I swear... #Oscars<br />
8:30 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Ali Arikan @aliarikan Close<br />
Shame on you, Colin, for not mentioning Rooney Mara's pierced nipples.<br />
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8:27 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Like I said, I hated The Help... but I'm looking forward to Viola's win, as well as her speech. #Oscars<br />
8:25 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
The Artist has won Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Score. What else is there to say? #Oscars<br />
8:23 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri Close<br />
Well, it’s almost over. I’d make a joke about getting ready to eat a shit pie, but it seems to me we’ve been eating one all night. #oscars<br />
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8:22 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Um.. was that A.A. Ramann? #Oscars<br />
8:21 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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2h Ali Arikan @aliarikan · Open<br />
The woman next to Jonah Hill has really bad hearing.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@aliarikan Did she think Jonah's name was called? Ha!<br />
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8:19 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
"Jonah Hill's mother's teeth should win an Oscar." - @FilmTell 's roommate<br />
8:18 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Give this to Clooney. #Oscars<br />
8:14 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
"I never had any of those feelings." Okay, that was pretty funny. #Oscars<br />
8:13 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Ben Mankiewicz @BenMank77 Close<br />
Too bad Cliff Robertson was only in Spiderman and never won an #Oscar or anything.<br />
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8:10 PM - 26 Feb 12 via Twitter for iPad · Details<br />
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3h Eddie Love @EddieLove44 · Open<br />
@BenMank77 Yeah, they could have highlighted his work as the gaping hole at the center of DPalma's Obsession. #TooSoon ?<br />
3h Benjamín TZS @BenjaminTZS · Open<br />
@BenMank77 Cliff Robertson is an Oscar Winner!!<br />
3h Amy @tracyhepburnfan · Open<br />
@BenMank77 Seriously! Not a clip from Charley?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
For instance... G.D. Spradlin died last year. Where was he in that tribute? Nowhere, that's where. #Oscars<br />
8:08 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Why do I get the feeiling they missed a lot of important names in that tribute? #Oscars<br />
8:07 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Hey @TomCruise , what are you gonna present again? Best Actress? The In Memorium segment? Or what? #Oscars<br />
8:02 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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3h Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick · Open<br />
But they did manage to generate some suspense with a string of five early wins for HUGO. #Oscars<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@LouLumenick True. I doubt Hugo'll win BP though, since it didn't get Screenplay or Director.<br />
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8:01 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Donald G. Carder @theangrymick Close<br />
Michel Hazanavicius wins Best Director and the Internet crashes as a million spell checkers go into overdrive. #Oscars<br />
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7:59 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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3h Jake Cole @notjustmovies · Open<br />
What is that random electric keyboard riff for the Honorary Oscar noms? #Oscars<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@notjustmovies Good question... my friends wondered what that musical queue was, too.<br />
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8:00 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Steven Santos @stevensantos Close<br />
Academy to special Oscar winners: Stand up, wave to the crowd and don't say a fucking word. #Oscars<br />
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7:58 PM - 26 Feb 12 via Twitter for iPad · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I hate how they have these Honorary Oscars on other shows. That's not good. #Oscars<br />
7:58 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
The Descendants actually might have a shot at Best Picture if Clooney wins. Payne already won, after all. #Oscars<br />
7:56 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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3h Ali Arikan @aliarikan · Open<br />
THAT SCORE! THAT FUCKING SCORE!<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@aliarikan I know, right?<br />
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7:55 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Matthew Seitz @mattzollerseitz Close<br />
Best Picture should be renamed Well-Made Movie We Didn't Hate.<br />
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7:54 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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3h Brandon Nowalk @bnowalk · Open<br />
@mattzollerseitz Can we get it down to Decently Made Movie We Didn't Hate?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Hugo's probably not gonna win by this point. It didn't win Adapted Screenplay nor Director. #Oscars<br />
7:55 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Matthew Seitz @mattzollerseitz Close<br />
And the Best Director Oscar goes to Terrence Malick. In my dreams.<br />
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7:53 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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3h Rich Jones @jonesrich · Open<br />
@mattzollerseitz Maybe Malick can direct next year's Oscar--6 month run time?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Damn. Scorsese looked a little pissed when the winner was called. #Oscars<br />
7:53 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Please give this to either Scorsese or Malick. #Oscars<br />
7:51 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Menacing music to introduce Michael Douglas! Wtf... #Oscars<br />
7:50 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Andy Borowitz @BorowitzReport Close<br />
By now Ahmadinejad has already melted down Iran's Oscar to form the tip of a nuclear warhead. #Oscars<br />
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7:45 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
"With no clear favorite, anyone could win!" Um... Viola's pretty much guaranteed Best Actress, so no. #Oscars<br />
7:47 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Ali Arikan @aliarikan Close<br />
No wonder why Sandra Bullock was so moved by a film about plastic surgery!<br />
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7:44 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Ty Burr @tyburr Close<br />
BEST moment of the entire night: Scorsese's reaction to Rose Byrne and Melissa McCarthy's "Scorsese" drinking game #Oscars<br />
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7:43 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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3h edcopeland @edcopeland · Open<br />
The Shore was directed by Terry George who directed 2nd ep of Luck. Both Luck, The Shore feature Kerrry Condon #oscars<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@edcopeland Kerry Condon... the Sky Captain guy, right?<br />
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7:42 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Trumbell! #Oscars<br />
7:38 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Milla Jovovich is this year's hot geek at the Science & Tech Oscars. #Oscars<br />
7:38 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Why isn't Google Chrome working!??<br />
7:36 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Steven Santos @stevensantos Close<br />
And made him eat his shoe. RT @jeeemerson: I hope Errol Morris directed Werner Herzog in this. #Oscars<br />
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7:33 PM - 26 Feb 12 via Twitter for iPad · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Payne basically told his mother "where the library is" in Hawaiian. #StealingJonStewartsJokes #Oscars<br />
7:34 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I think Tom Cruise is the secret weapon in Hollywood nobody's using. A great actor, utterly wasted in the last 7 years. #Oscars<br />
7:21 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Well, that does it, I suppose. War Horse and The Tree of Life are going home empty-handed. #Oscars<br />
7:19 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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3h Nick Gass @NickGass · Open<br />
@adamzanzie He won for Life is Beautiful.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@NickGass He did! Ugh...<br />
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7:18 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Jason Bellamy @CoolerCinema Close<br />
Kim Novak feels like Jodie Foster in THE ACCUSED right now.<br />
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7:16 PM - 26 Feb 12 via TweetDeck · Details<br />
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4h Nick Gass @NickGass · Open<br />
@adamzanzie Remember when Nicola Piovani won Best Original Score (Drama) in 1999?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@NickGass Which movie did she win for? I don't think I watched that telecast.<br />
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7:16 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Ali Arikan @aliarikan Close<br />
Best original score goes to Bernard Hermmann.<br />
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7:14 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU Ludovic-whats-your-name! #Oscars<br />
7:14 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
GIVE THIS TO JOHN WILLIAMS! #Oscars<br />
7:11 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
"Is Brett Ratner there? They should cut to him." - @FilmTell<br />
7:11 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
AWESOME roast of Scorsese there! #Oscars<br />
7:10 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri Close<br />
I saw TITANIC so many times in the theater during its release I was made an honorary 13-year-old girl. #truestory<br />
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7:07 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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4h Sam Adams @SamuelAAdams · Open<br />
@BilgeEbiri I did 3, I think.<br />
4h Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri · Open<br />
@SamuelAAdams I did, uh, 12, I think. Should I admit that?<br />
4h Nick Gass @NickGass · Open<br />
It's a better film. RT @kristapley: Hugo already has more Oscars than The Departed.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@NickGass @kristapley Agreed.<br />
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7:06 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Hey @avaznz , Titanic 3D is opening on your birthday!<br />
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7:05 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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IFC.com @IFCtv Close<br />
RT @mattsinger: Christopher Plummer beats Max von Sydow for the Oscar. But can he beat him at chess?<br />
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7:03 PM - 26 Feb 12 via HootSuite · Details<br />
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4h jim emerson @jeeemerson · Open<br />
How embarrassing! The Academy thinks Christopher Plummer is Octavia Spencer! Or do they just stand up to support supporting actors? #Oscars<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@jeeemerson Eh, it's probably just because he's old, and won't get this chance again. Octavia might, though. #Oscars<br />
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7:03 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
"Oldest actor ever to win an Oscar"? Does that mean Plummer's older than Jessica Tandy? #Oscars<br />
7:01 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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4h edcopeland @edcopeland · Open<br />
@adamzanzie She was 80 on the nose<br />
4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie · Open<br />
Give this to Plummer. Even though I didn't see Beginners. #Oscars<br />
4h edcopeland @edcopeland · Open<br />
@adamzanzie Lucky man<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@edcopeland Really? Was it not good?<br />
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7:00 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Give this to Plummer. Even though I didn't see Beginners. #Oscars<br />
6:58 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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4h edcopeland @edcopeland · Open<br />
@adamzanzie Lucky man<br />
4h Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie · Open<br />
@edcopeland Really? Was it not good?<br />
Matthew Seitz @mattzollerseitz Close<br />
I didn't know Michael Bay personally did the effects for the third TRANSFORMERS movie. What a talented guy!<br />
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6:57 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Okay, wow. Hugo is really OWNING tonight's show. #Oscars<br />
6:57 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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4h Jason Bellamy @CoolerCinema · Open<br />
Emma Stone rushed to the Kodak Theater after shooting a commercial in which she plays a new Lexus. Alas, no time for a costume change.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@CoolerCinema Ha!<br />
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6:57 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I love how they're playing the War Horse score during these technical awards, just to rub in the fact that the movie's not winning anything.<br />
6:55 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Nice reference there to Stiller's Oscar history. #Oscars<br />
6:55 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Henry Stewart @henrycstewart Close<br />
I wonder if Billy Crystal saw TREE OF LIFE or if he has people who do that for him.<br />
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6:53 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Norm Macdonald @normmacdonald Close<br />
It's funny when fat ladies want to have sex.<br />
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6:52 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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4h Floyd Morse @Tmisforme · Open<br />
@normmacdonald Don't get it<br />
4h Ken Pisani @kpsmartypants · Open<br />
See, SHE'S FAT! RT @normmacdonald It's funny when fat ladies want to have sex.<br />
4h Brian Balboa @balboa1979 · Open<br />
@normmacdonald fat porn is always good for a laugh<br />
4h Steve Marsh @stephenhero · Open<br />
When is @normmacdonald gonna get a shot at this gig?<br />
4h Burgundy Books @burgundybookst · Open<br />
@normmacdonald how do you mean?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I never thought I'd live to see Gore Verbinski win an Oscar. #Oscars<br />
6:47 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
honestly, after that whole Tintin snub, I don't care who wins this Animation category. #Oscars<br />
6:46 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Give this award to If A Tree Falls. #Oscars<br />
6:42 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Crystal grilling Plummer/Von Sydow. Reminds me of his roasting of Eastwood back in 2004! #Oscars<br />
6:40 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
*Soleil<br />
6:39 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Cirque du Solei... making fun of Julie Taymor's Spiderman musical, I presume? #Oscars<br />
6:39 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
So... why are Kermit/Piggy complaining about Spielberg's Oscar history if he ain't even gonna win anything tonight? #Oscars<br />
6:35 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I have a miserable feeling that my favorite movie of the year, War Horse, is going home empty-handed. Perhaps Williams has a shot. #Oscars<br />
6:31 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Hugo's winning a lot, but this is probably another repeat of the Aviator/Million Dollar Baby race: all tech awards, no major awards. #Oscars<br />
6:27 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Vertigo music playing over Artist reel! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #Oscars<br />
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6:23 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Bob Balaban doing his Close Encounters schtick again. #Oscars<br />
6:22 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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5h jim emerson @jeeemerson · Open<br />
I predict that Best Costumes will go to HUGO! #Oscar<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@jeeemerson I think they already gave that one out. The Artist won it, I think.<br />
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6:17 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I hated The Help. But Octavia deserves this for sure. #Oscars<br />
6:13 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I'm pretty sure A Separation is going to win this one. Haven't seen it yet, sadly. #Oscars<br />
6:06 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick Close<br />
So now we know who Sandler approached first to play his love interest in JACK AND JILL: Sean Connery #Oscars<br />
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6:04 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Michael Moore @MMFlint Close<br />
I'm at the Oscars.<br />
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6:03 PM - 26 Feb 12 via OpenBeak · Details<br />
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4h Kayti Sullivan @k8sl · Open<br />
@MMFlint may they be nice to you this time<br />
4h rodolfo reich @rgreich · Open<br />
@MMFlint sorry<br />
5h Gavin Rossdale @GavinRossdale · Open<br />
@MMFlint right where you belong buddy #oscars<br />
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4h Blonde_Phantom @Blonde_Phantom · Open<br />
@MMFlint #gifiles #Stratfor #WikiLeaks take a look during the advertising pause;)<br />
4h rarrrrarrr @WetRandy · Open<br />
@MMFlint God bless capitalism and Hollywood.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Tom Cruise still exists! #Oscars<br />
6:01 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Ali Arikan @aliarikan Close<br />
That's a lot of ass, ladies!<br />
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from Turkey<br />
5:58 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Did The Iron Lady just win something? Okay, not cool. #Oscars<br />
5:58 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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5h Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick · Open<br />
Apparently no important movies were made before 1970 #Oscars<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@LouLumenick Except Midnight Cowboy! #Oscars<br />
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5:56 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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5h Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick · Open<br />
@adamzanzie OK, 1969.<br />
5h Nick Gass @NickGass · Open<br />
J Lo is having a wardrobe malfunction.<br />
DANNYDIANORA @DANNYDIANORA Close<br />
@NickGass That's a lot of J Lo!<br />
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5:55 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I don't really understand what the point of that montage was... #Oscars<br />
5:53 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Matthew Seitz @mattzollerseitz Close<br />
They're really hustling through the non-marquee awards. Cinematography...Production design....Warp nine!<br />
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5:46 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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5h Brian Beeghly @brianbeeghly · Open<br />
@mattzollerseitz There must be some sane alternate universe where cinematography is THE marquee award.<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I feel like I've seen Richardson win Best Cinematography every other show. #Oscars<br />
5:44 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Give it to Kaminski! #Oscars<br />
5:43 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I thought that Carl seat-filler guy was Mickey Rooney at first. #Oscars<br />
5:43 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Billy Crystal has officially restored dignity to the Academy Awards as a show. #Oscars #BravoBilly<br />
5:42 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
THAT... WAS A FUCKING AWESOME INTRO. #Oscars<br />
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5:36 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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5h Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick · Open<br />
MIRROR MIRROR commercial definitely does not improve with a second viewing #Oscars<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@LouLumenick Poor Tarsem... he's turning into a Hollywood sellout. #Oscars<br />
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5:29 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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5h Ali Arikan @aliarikan · Open<br />
Hey, guys, when are the Oscars?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@aliarikan That's what I wanted to know!<br />
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5:26 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Is that Tom Hanks? Without his Da Vinci Code haircut? It's 1998 again! #Oscars<br />
5:22 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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jim emerson @jeeemerson Close<br />
So glamorous. They put red carpet on the walls and on Natalie Portman. #Oscars<br />
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5:21 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I love Andrew Stanton but I'm very, very worried about "John Carter." Seriously. #Oscars<br />
5:20 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
That Muppets/Google/Under Pressure ad was actually kinda clever. #Oscars<br />
5:18 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Ali Arikan @aliarikan Close<br />
Angelina Jolie's leg is slightly thinner than my pinkie. Not that pinkie, you perverts!<br />
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from Turkey<br />
5:15 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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5h Jini McClelland @swtrgrl · Open<br />
@aliarikan how I adore thee, Ali!<br />
5h Neil de Vere @NeildeVere · Open<br />
@aliarikan are you there?<br />
View location<br />
5h Erin @erinprovolone · Open<br />
@aliarikan I knew she was skinny but I never thought she'd get THAT skinny.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I'm sorry... who is this chick with George Clooney, exactly? #Oscars<br />
5:11 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
"It's a Chalice, not a glass." Hmm... I liked "Perfection has its price" better. #StellaArtois #Oscars<br />
5:09 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Not gonna lie... Charlize Theron always looks pretty fantastic in those perfume commercials. #Oscars<br />
5:08 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Oh, look! Apple Martin's mother! #Oscars<br />
5:05 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Bradley Cooper doing his best Kevin Kline impersonation. #Oscars<br />
5:03 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
28 minutes until the Oscars!?? #Oscars<br />
5:01 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Jason Bellamy @CoolerCinema Close<br />
Nolte's interview included talk of crows, a 1997 Oliver Stone movie and pinball. If you had that in your Oscar pool, you are now the 1%.<br />
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4:56 PM - 26 Feb 12 via TweetDeck · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Oh, Nick Nolte... what happened to you? #Oscars<br />
4:53 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
I'm watching the Red Carpet on E! right now. Just to make sure, this channel is airing the Oscars too, right...?<br />
4:31 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
The Dictator just pulled a Lebowski ash prank on Seacrest. BOOM! #Oscars<br />
4:17 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
"I'm gonna hit you" - funniest line of 2011 #Oscars<br />
4:15 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
ROBERT FORSTER! #Oscars<br />
4:15 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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7h Nick Gass @NickGass · Open<br />
How in the world is this ABC pre-show going to go 90 minutes? #Oscars<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@NickGass Wait, really? When did this show start? I just started watching.<br />
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4:14 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Did Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas meet through De Palma, or what? #Oscars<br />
4:12 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Thanks to @tdeperro for that last tweet.<br />
4:11 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
@clairecmc is running against THEY! aka those villains in that one Wes Craven movie... #Oscars<br />
4:10 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Or at least, the "Dictator" trailer suggests otherwise. Guess Cohen is too famous to fool people anymore. #Oscars<br />
4:09 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
At first I thought "The Dictator" was another mockumentary. I was wrong. #Oscars<br />
4:08 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
And so the live-tweeting begins... #Oscars<br />
4:06 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
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Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Close<br />
Good luck tonight to 4 of my favorite movies of 2011: War Horse, Hugo, The Tree of Life & The Descendants.<br />
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1:52 PM - 26 Feb 12 via web · Details<br />
Reply Delete FavoriteAdam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-61059910427812165432012-02-18T08:00:00.023-08:002013-08-25T11:49:37.776-07:00The Day of the Jackal (1973): Fred Zinnemann's Masterpiece<br />
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After his exquisite <i>A Man for All Seasons</i> (1966) won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, Fred Zinnemann had every reason to feel like the luckiest director in Hollywood. The truth is he would not get to direct his next film for another seven years. His attempt to direct an adaptation of André Malraux’ <i>Man’s Fate</i> for MGM had fallen through, and a court battle with the studio almost pushed him over the edge and into bankruptcy. It seemed like his career had nowhere left to go when, suddenly, straight out of nowhere, an offer from Universal came to direct an adaptation of a spy novel that was about to be a huge best-seller. The book, published in 1971, was Frederick Forsyth’s <i>The Day of the Jackal</i>, and the movie, released in 1973, is a masterpiece—the greatest film of Zinnemann's career.<br />
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Not everyone felt that way at the time, least of all Zinnemann himself. In an <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=SiK_3d6a7DQC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=%22was+made+purely+as+entertainment%22&source=bl&ots=NpyJTzX2Jf&sig=mewRNsMOnn3BlUm91vk031xOFN0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DXo-T-fqGcSftwec1JzjBQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22was%20made%20purely%20as%20entertainment%22&f=false">interview</a>, he was modest: “<i>The Day of the Jackal</i> was made purely as entertainment,” he claimed, “and doesn’t pretend to be anything else. It should not be taken seriously politically or in any other way, because it’s just a technical exercise in suspense.” Today, <i>The Day of the Jackal</i> is widely regarded as one of the best thrillers of its era: politically-charged, suspenseful to the max, and taken seriously (for a variety of reasons) by a host of devoted fans all around the world. And yet Zinnemann would forever insist that the movie was little more than a simple crowd-pleaser; one look at the finished film and it is clear he was underrating his own masterpiece. Why did he do this? In his 1992 autobiography, <i>A Life in Pictures</i>, he provides some hints as to why.<br />
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Zinnemann, it seems, was intensely paranoid about the modern Hollywood system after the cancellation of <i>Man’s Fate</i>, which, as he <a href="http://www.variety.com/vstory/VR1117342690.html?categoryid=38&cs=1">wrote</a>, “marked the end of an era in picture making and the dawn of a new one, when lawyers and accountants began to replace showmen as head of the studios and when a handshake was a handshake no longer." In a strange career move, he must have determined that the best way to sell a complex project like <i>The Day of the Jackal</i> to those lawyers and accountants was to reduce its qualities; it was, he claimed, just a simple thriller about a plot to assassinate Charles de Gaulle, and that was it. Nothing could have been further from the truth. <br />
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From its opening voiceover (“August, 1962 was a stormy time for France…”), <i>The Day of the Jackal</i> presents itself as a radical portrait of the seething, right-wing French “patriots” of the 1960’s, who felt betrayed by General Charles de Gaulle’s controversial decision to pull France out of the Algerian War. The general, during his terms in office, was hated equally by the right and the left, but for different reasons. The right despised him for losing the war, and the left would never forgive him for carrying on the war in the first place (actress Anne Wiazemsky once claimed that even Jean-Luc Godard thought de Gaulle deserved to be shot). Knowledgeable lovers of cinema will recall that Gillo Pontecorvo’s excellent <i>The Battle of Algiers</i> (1966) ended with the nationalists uniting victoriously while the French military pulled out of Algeria, shamed and embarrassed. Zinnemann’s film is the story of what happened next.<br />
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At the center of Zinnemann’s film is a continental chase between two European men, one a professional assassin, the other a detective. The first man, the assassin, is an anonymous Englishman, codenamed the Jackal (Edward Fox), hired by the French OAS (Secret Army Organization) to assassinate Charles de Gaulle for half a million in cash. The second man, the detective, is Claude Lebel (Michael Lonsdale), the French spy who is appointed by a committee at Élysée Palace to help hunt down the Jackal before time runs out. For the longest time in the movie, Lebel and the rest of the authorities believe they have an idea who the Jackal may be, only to eventually realize (at the last minute) that they’ve been wrong the whole time. By the end of the film, the Jackal remains a mystery, his anonymity left unsolved.<br />
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Lebel is technically supposed to be the movie’s hero, and the Jackal technically its villain, but both men are equally likable, and I think part of the reason why the movie works so well is because the two characters are perfect foils for one another. By giving us both an appealing hero and an appealing villain, Zinnemann allowed it so that audiences could watch the film with fluctuating sympathies towards both men. When we’re disgusted with the Jackal’s reprehensible killings, we root for Lebel. When we grow tired of Lebel’s long, slow, calculated process of cracking the case, we find ourselves rooting for the Jackal again. This is a fun, ongoing process of love/hate feelings towards both men that we share all throughout the picture. Audiences who saw Zinnemann’s Spanish Civil War epic <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/06/behold-pale-horse-1964.html"><i>Behold A Pale Horse</i> (1964)</a> were disappointed that it didn’t end with Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn duking it out, but no worries: Zinnemann doesn’t make that same mistake here. We are promised a final showdown between Fox and Lonsdale, and, fortunately, we get one.<br />
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The Jackal has got to be one of the most interesting antiheroes ever to lead a Hollywood film. Watching the movie, we have a mixed response to the character. In a sense, we can’t help but like him; he’s a charming, fairly uncomplicated man, who seeks to kill de Gaulle not because of any personal feelings he may have about the man (hell, for all we know, he may even <i>like</i> de Gaulle a little), but because—to put it frankly—he wants the money. “You must understand: this is a once-in-a-lifetime job,” he warns Colonel Rodin (Eric Porter) and his OAS cronies. “Whoever does it can never work again.” His insists that his fee of half a million in cash is quite sound: “Considering you expect to get France in return, I’d have thought it a reasonable price.” On the other hand, much as we’d like to sympathize with the Jackal’s dreams of fortune and glory, we also have to take into account that he is, at the end of the day, a killer, and that an assassination of the general will do a lot more harm than good. De Gaulle has, arguably, done his military a great favor by pulling them out of a pointless, unpopular war. Why kill him?<br />
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The film is wall-to-wall with sudden bursts of violence, many of them committed by the Jackal himself. To ensure that we are repulsed, not excited, by such moments, Zinnemann visually associates the Jackal’s killings with pornography in certain scenes. In the scene where the Jackal smashes in the gut of a forger (Ronald Pickup) who has tried to blackmail him, Zinnemann moves for a close-up of the Jackal’s face—hardened, silhouetted in shadow—while a portrait of a topless model looms tall in the background. In the scene where the Jackal kills Madame de Montpellier (Delphine Syrig), Zinnemann once again closes in on the Jackal’s shadowy face, quietly snapping the neck of the woman underneath him—a murder committed during sex. In the scene where the Jackal kills a landlady who has offered him a glass of water, a small picture of a naked baby can be glimpsed on the wall behind him. Another murder, in which the victim is a homosexual (Anton Rodgers), serves a different purpose: it occurs offscreen while John Huston’s <i>Moulin Rouge</i> (which was about a handicapped dwarf) plays on a TV set, foreshadowing the grand finale in which the Jackal will, ironically, disguise himself as a handicapped war veteran.<br />
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A number of Zinnemann’s most famous films (<i><a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/05/high-noon-1952-fred-zinnemann-and.html">High Noon</a>, From Here to Eternity, The Nun’s Story, A Man for All Seasons</i>) share a common theme: the isolated protagonist with a conscience in crisis. In <i>The Day of the Jackal</i>, it is not the Jackal who suffers a conscience crisis, but Lebel; he is not at all pleased with being assigned this demanding job of tracking down a dangerous killer. In Forsyth’s book, the character is described as “the cartoonist’s image of a hen-pecked husband,” and no wonder: when we first see Lebel in the movie, he is innocently tending to pigeons in his backyard when his wife suddenly comes running out of the house, telling him he’s needed at work, demanding that he remember to come home early. To cope with the difficulties of the job, he requests the assistance of a younger colleague, Caron (a young Derek Jacobi), and warns him that many things will be needed to set up their new office, among them “a percolator and lots of coffee.” Some of the best moments in Kenneth Ross’ brilliant screenplay involve the back-and-forth rapport between Lebel and Caron, among them this memorable exchange:<br />
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<i>Caron: You know, sir, what they’ll do to you if you don’t catch this man in time?<br />
Lebel: I’ve been given a job, so we’ll just have to do it.<br />
Caron: But no crime has been committed yet, so where are we supposed to start looking for the criminal?<br />
Lebel: We start by recognizing that, after de Gaulle, we are the two most powerful people in France.</i><br />
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And so they are. Before we know it, Lebel and Caron become France’s answer to Holmes and Watson. Indeed, as we later realize, they are even better detectives than we’ve given them credit for. They are, for example, keeping a close watch for the white Alfa Romeo two-seater which the Jackal is reportedly driving around Europe. They are quick to arrive on the scene of a hotel near Grasse where the Jackal has allegedly spent the night. They successfully trap an OAS spy who has infiltrated Élysée Palace. And so on. We like Lebel and Caron so much, in fact, that, yes, we do want to see them catch the Jackal in time, even though we also harbor a perverse desire to see the Jackal succeed in eliminating his target first. By giving us both a likable villain and a likable dynamic duo, Zinnemann achieves the impossible: he has ensured it so a majority of his audience will be satisfied with his movie no matter who wins in the end.<br />
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Trains. There are trains in nearly all of Zinnemann’s movies. Remember the train filled with young Holocaust survivors in <i>The Search</i> (1948), Frank Miller’s train in <i>High Noon</i>, Omar Shariff’s missed train in <i>Behold A Pale Horse</i> and the several trains which Lillian boards in <i>Julia</i> (1977). The great critic Marilyn Ferdinand has <a href="http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/?p=454">commented</a> on Zinnemann’s “affinity for trains, close-ups, and ability to coax iconic performances to dizzying heights,” and in <i>The Day of the Jackal</i> he provides a set piece for a train sequence that is dizzying, indeed. The Jackal, disguised as a schoolteacher named “Perl Lundquist,” has just arrived in Paris and is headed for a Turkish bath. In the film’s most spellbinding shot, Zinnemann and his cameraman, Jean Tournier, track the Jackal’s taxi as it speeds off—while Lebel and Caron’s car passes the taxi in the <i>opposite</i> direction, towards the train station, in the exact same shot. Other sequences in the movie boast some fine editing by Ralph Kemplen (the only crew member who was Oscar-nominated for his efforts) and a thunderous score by Georges Delerue. Roger Ebert, in his glowing <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19730730/REVIEWS/301010309/1023">4-star review</a> of the film, summed it up best: “The movie’s technical values (as is always the case with a Zinnemann film) are impeccable.”<br />
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The movie is well-remembered for its impressive gallery of British and French actors, some of them playing nuanced characters, some of them not. Forsyth’s 350-paged book had enough space for an unlimited amount of backstories; the movie, with its 143-minute running time, doesn't. In the movie, the gunsmith (Cyril Cusack) who sells the Jackal an elaborate rifle is just a simple salesman who takes his job seriously; in the book, he is given a name, "M. Goosens," and is revealed to be a lonely, divorced family man. Also in the book, the OAS have a bodyguard, Viktor Kowalski, who is kidnapped by Action Service after he is baited with news that his daughter is dying of leukemia. In the movie, he is named Wolenski (Jean Martin, who played Colonel Mathieu in <i>The Battle of Algiers</i>), does not have a daughter and is intercepted by Action Service simply because they know his wrist is handcuffed to the OAS’ important files. These backstories didn’t make their way into the film because they don’t have much to do with the conflict between the Jackal and Lebel (another sequence from the book that was cut involved the Jackal entering a gay bar, dressed in drag!), but otherwise Kenneth Ross’ screenplay remains fairly true to Forsyth. Ross, for some unexplained reason, would go on to write only three more screenplays after this film, two of them for John Frankenheimer.<br />
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One subplot that Ross and Zinnemann do retain from Forsyth’s book turns out to be one of the film’s more emotionally-involving stories, and it doesn’t even involve the Jackal or Lebel. The OAS have a female spy, Denise (Olga Georges-Picot), named “Jacqueline” in the book, who seeks to avenge her fiancée’s death in Algeria. In a scene in the film that, once again, subtly equates violence with pornography, an OAS member burns a photograph of Denise’s fiancée while ordering her to “get involved” with one of de Gaulle’s officials; a tear can be seen sliding down her face while she helplessly watches her lover’s picture cast into the fire. Later in the film, however, she makes a stunning transformation into a sexy, irresistible femme fatale, and we realize that she is actually very good at her job. Her scheme to seduce St. Clair (Barrie Ingham) during a ride on horseback looks as though it were inspired by Hitchcock’s <i>Notorious</i>, and it’s little surprise that a seemingly committed family man such as him winds up falling for her.<br />
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Alas, it is not a match made in heaven, and eventually St. Clair realizes he’s been duped. A phone conversation with an OAS contact is played before the committee at Élysée Palace, and, yes, that is most definitely Denise’s voice on the phone. The Minister (Alan Badel) demands an explanation. Then, in one of the saddest moments in the film, St. Clair slowly stands up before his peers, and tells the truth: “I regret to have to inform you, Minister, that it was the voice of a friend of mine... she is staying with me at the moment... excuse me.”<br />
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This scene is beautifully, heartbreakingly delivered by the actor Barrie Ingham, who also provides the film’s opening narration; he would later be more well-known to juvenile audiences as the voice behind Basil of Bakerstreet in Disney’s <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/07/great-mouse-detective-1986.html"><i>The Great Mouse Detective</i> (1986)</a>. But he steals this one scene in <i>The Day of the Jackal</i> so unexpectedly that he’s one of the things about the movie we remember the most. In the book, the character of St. Clair is a nastier piece of work: an obnoxious ball-buster who resents Lebel’s authority, and whose eventual disgrace before his peers is hardly worthy of our pity. Zinnemann and Ross, however, are wise to make him more of a naïve and pathetic figure in the movie, and we can’t help but feel a little bad for him; his downfall is a reminder of the Van Heflin hero’s fate in Zinnemann’s classic film noir <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/02/act-of-violence-1949.html"><i>Act of Violence</i> (1949)</a>. True, in retrospect, St. Clair has nobody to blame but himself; his mistake could have been easily avoided if he had simply remained true to his family. But not every sinner in the world finds themself in the unusual position of somehow committing treason in the wake of adultery, making his suicide of a drug overdose at the end of the film all the more tragic.<br />
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Another emotionally-charged subplot in the film involves the tragic fate of Madame de Montpellier, nicknamed “Colette,” who is unfortunate enough to meet the Jackal at the hotel near Grasse. The wonderful actress Delphine Seyrig (from Bunuel’s <i>The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie</i>) portrays her as a rich housewife who appreciates the Jackal’s attempts to flirt with her; she comfortably admits to him that her life story is “unfortunately” true, and that she is not terribly pleased about her 19-year old son getting a military commission. They discuss mountain-climbing in the Alps, foreshadowing Zinnemann’s great final film, <i>Five Days One Summer</i> (1982). They have sex twice, once at the hotel, another time at her own house when the Jackal arrives on her doorstep uninvited (there is, amusingly, a plentiful amount of nudity and sex in the film for a PG-rated thriller). It is here, at the house, that the Jackal murders her when she innocently inquires about what he’s up to. At this point we find ourselves starting to hate the Jackal; Colette has given him her hospitality and her love, and we sincerely believe her when she insists she won’t rat out on him, so his decision to execute her as a witness feels grossly unjust. She, like St. Clair, is another poor soul in the movie who pays an unfair price for her adultery. <br />
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If there’s anything in the movie that may turn off some viewers today, it might be Zinnemann’s depiction of the gung-ho, by-any-means-necessary attitudes of the Action Service, who are willing to go to just about any extreme measures to ensure that the Jackal is caught. Which means that, yes, they are open to torture; one of the most excruciating sequences in the movie involves the torture of Wolenski the bodyguard, who suffers so badly from his electric shocks that he dies immediately after spilling the beans. In scenes like these, Zinnemann is dangerously skirting the borderlines of a pro-torture argument, but I don't think he's going so far as to make an outright <i>case</i> for torture. One scene shows an Action Service cop listening to Wolenski’s confessions, disgusted by the cries of suffering on the audio tape, ripping off his headphones and roaring, “What the hell did they <i>do</i> to the bastard!??” Here, the movie is quick to demonstrate that the practice of torture has flaws of its own. <br />
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Lebel, too, finds himself having to go to some ruthless measures in order to do his job, and when it is discovered that he is the one who wire-tapped St. Clair’s phone, the Minister asks him how he knew whose phone to tap. “I didn’t,” Lebel coolly replies, “so I tapped all of them.” This is a disturbing line, yes—especially in our era of the dreaded Patriot Act—but I would argue that Zinnemann is simply asking us if a practice as immoral as wire-tapping might be necessary in such a drastic ticking time-bomb situation, unethical as it may be. As Neil Sinyard thoughtfully <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=2ybsUUgPkhMC&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=%22The+implication+seems+to+be+that+terrorism%22&source=bl&ots=6N0zC0rWGK&sig=7dk0HXfPrR7TE4CMw6CnoJZyXQE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Xy5QT7OpMY-ltwflwb2xDQ&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22The%20implication%20seems%20to%20be%20that%20terrorism%22&f=false">puts</a> it in his book on Zinnemann, <i>Films of Character and Conscience</i>, “The implication seems to be that terrorism can only be combated by terrorism from the State, which necessitates an indifference to the relation between means and ends. It is a depressing thought, for the danger is that it might ultimately blur the distinction between the two.”<br />
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The movie's lead actors are sensational. Edward Fox is absolutely right for the Jackal, bringing to the role a sense of mystery and anonymity that a more famous actor would have been incapable of supplying. Fox revealed in a recent <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLpm8v3EiyM">interview with Riverside Studios</a> that he was cast in the role because Zinnemann was impressed with his delivery of an absurd line of dialogue (“Nothing is ever a lady’s fault!”) in Joseph Losey’s <i>The Go-Between</i> (1970). In the same interview, Fox informs a live audience that Zinnemann and Frederick Forsyth got along rather well (he claims they even went to bars together, where they were accosted by hookers), although Fox adds that their working relationship was more formal: "Zinnemann wasn’t very keen on having anybody who wasn’t integral to the film on the set. Visitors weren’t terribly welcome, and that included old Freddie Forsyth, too." <br />
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Michael Lonsdale’s portrayal of Lebel is a terrific demonstration of Zinnemann’s favorite type of protagonist: tense and uneasy about his responsibilities, before finally gathering up the courage to face his fears and live up to the challenge awaiting him. Lonsdale has often been typecast throughout his career in roles as religious figures; his portrayals of clergies in Orson Welles’ <i>The Trial</i> (1962), Jacques Jean-Annaud’s <i>The Name of the Rose</i> (1986), Milos Foreman’s <i>Goya’s Ghosts</i> (2006) and Xavier Beauvois’s recent <i>Of Gods and Men</i> (2011) all come to mind. But whenever he returns to his thriller roots, it is always a true delight; Steven Spielberg has verified that he cast Lonsdale as the crime lord “Papa” in <i>Munich</i> (2005) after fondly remembering his portrayal of Lebel in Zinnemann’s film.<br />
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The final confrontation between Fox and Lonsdale is one of the great final confrontations in the history of movies. The Jackal just barely misses his target (de Gaulle has bent too far forward), and suddenly the door bursts open and Lebel is up there in the same room with him—it's the first time they've met face-to-face. Both struggle to load their weapons and fire at each other, but Lebel fires first (with a MAT-49 picked up from a fallen CRS guard), and the Jackal is blasted against the wall. There is an unforgettable close-up of Lebel's face, sweaty and well-lit (as opposed to shadowy, like the Jackal's face after the murders of Colette and the forger). He cannot quite believe it: he has struck down the Jackal himself. The look of astonishment on his face suggests this may be the first time in his life he has ever killed a man.<br />
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The film’s only flaw is the quickened pace of the concluding scenes following the Jackal's death, which feel too rushed. Disappointingly, the chilling last line of Forsyth’s book (“The day of the jackal was over”) is never included. The final shot, of a key character standing sadly over the Jackal’s freshly-buried grave, is so mesmerizing that we want Zinnemann to hold the shot for a long time—but he doesn’t. The end credits begin rolling sooner than they should, although the closing image of a lion statue parked in front of Élysée Palace does, in some ways, remind us of the lion and dragon statues in the closing moments of <i>A Man For All Seasons</i>, another film about a martyred rebel.<br />
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Zinnemann leaves us with some troubling questions, among them the question of whether or not the heroes have actually succeeded in, well, <i>learning</i> anything at all about their enemy. "I don’t think we ever really had any idea what kind of man you’ve been pursuing during the past two weeks," the Minister confesses to Lebel—and that, unfortunately, remains to be the case when the movie is over. The Jackal may be dead, but so what? They didn't even get to find out what his real name was; their suspicion of him as being one “Charles H. Calthrop” turns out to be a false lead. "If the Jackal wasn’t really Calthrop," ponders Inspector Thomas (Tony Britton), "then who the hell <i>was</i> he?" All that torture and wire-tapping, it seems, may have saved the general’s life, but there are no personal rewards to be reaped. Few things are uglier than killing a man with no identity and no recorded background, doomed to be buried in a forgotten and unmarked grave. They <i>never</i> knew anything about him.<br />
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Claude Lebel is the only character left standing at the end of the movie who still truly, honestly wants to know who the Jackal was. For everybody else in the movie, it doesn't matter, and life goes on. For him, it won't. He’ll have to go back home to his wife, back to his pigeons, back to his job, back to his missions with Caron, continuously wishing he could have had a little more time to learn something about his enemy. He never does get to find out who the Jackal was, or why the Jackal turned to a life of cold-blooded killing. But Lebel, bless his heart, would still <i>like</i> an answer to those questions. In its own special way, that is a sign of progress. And he is the only person in the movie who goes to the Jackal’s funeral.Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-65421026638553153632012-02-05T23:50:00.000-08:002012-02-05T00:39:16.422-08:00The Pursuit of Happiness (1968) by Thomas Rogers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UvGPgNoJP5Y/TxpgnXRhNPI/AAAAAAAAAXg/5C9ihm2Cz18/s1600/happiness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UvGPgNoJP5Y/TxpgnXRhNPI/AAAAAAAAAXg/5C9ihm2Cz18/s400/happiness.jpg" width="138" /></a></div><br />
<i>The Pursuit of Happiness</i> was written by American novelist Thomas Rogers in 1968, and was subsequently adapted into a 1971 feature film directed by Robert Mulligan. In this post, I will cover the book's individual chapters.<br />
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<b>Dedication</b><br />
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<i>This novel is dedicated to Elizabeth Vinsohaler Rogers and Thomas Hunton Rogers with the author's filial love.</i><br />
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<i>There is a general assumption that the manner of a man's life is a clue to what he on reflection regards as the good - in other words happiness.<br />
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ARISTOTLE, Nichomachean Ethics I. v<br />
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<b>Part One<br />
LIFE</b><br />
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<b>Chapter 1</b><br />
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<i>Spring began with an unseasonal blizzard. Michigan City, Indiana, received a record snowfall and the South Side of Chicago was blanketed under seven inches. It was wet snow. Along 55th Street it turned to black slush and by the next day the gutters were running in streams. On that day of galoshes and rubbers and wet feet, Mrs. Thwett visited her nephew, William Popper.</i><br />
<br />
Mrs. Thwett comes over to chat with her nephew, William Popper. They have some conversations about how she disapproves of the girl he's seeing, Jane Kauffmann, who is a Faulkner fan but, much to the aunt's disapproval, doesn't ever bother to clean up the place. The aunt claims Jane is unattractive, which is untrue; in fact, for the longest time, William didn't even notice her beauty until others began checking her out. They have some conversations about how William's father ought to divorce his mother, but that he shouldn't move into his own housing developments because it would be an insult to his wealth. Williams says of his father, "We have a fine relationship."<br />
<br />
After Mrs. Thwett leaves, Jane comes over, and she and William talk about how they have no real causes to endorse. "These are reactionary times," William complains. "There aren't any good political forces to join." During their conversations, Jane begins calling William "Bill" (as Rogers writes, <i>She called him Bill when they were making love and when they were arguing</i>), because she's uncomfortable with his suggestions that they get married. The way William sees it, they're both 21, and not getting any younger.<br />
<br />
Like Mrs. Thwett, Jane has some racial prejudices, although where Mrs. Thwett dislikes "Negroes," Jane dislikes Muslims.<br />
<br />
They are interrupted by the drunken Melvin Lasher, who comes over to tell them the outline of a movie he's planning on making but then stumbles back out into the snowy distance. The chapter ends with William trying to get Jane to admit her father is "fat-assed" and her brother is "skinny-assed"; he disapproves of both of them, before they decide they won't let Melvin in again and will simply leave his whiskey bottle outside for him. In his best W.C. Fields voice, William concludes, "Nice guys finish last."<br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 2</b><br />
<br />
While driving on his way to Flossmoor to see his father, William's car skids on an icy road and accidentally kills a woman named Mrs. Verne Conroy. When he tells the police he has no insurance, the cop sneers, "You're in deep." They find 20 unpaid parking tickets in his glove compartment and, on the backseat, a copy of Victor Serge's <i>Memoirs of a Revolutionary</i>.<br />
<br />
At the police station, he first calls Jane, who is all but speechless. He then calls his father, who in turn calls his lawyer, Daniel Lawrence, who arrives with a bondsman named Mr. Rabin. William and Lawrence join William's father in his limousine. Lawrence is concerned when William says he didn't "cry" at the scene of the accident, and says, "That's bad." Lawrence is also displeased that he called Jane at the police station, and continues ridiculing William for not crying.<br />
<br />
<i>"There's a woman dead," said Mr. Lawrence.<br />
"I know."<br />
"I wish you had shown that you knew."<br />
"By crying?"<br />
"There's nothing shameful about crying," said Mr. Lawrence. "I cry myself on occasions."<br />
"Do you?"<br />
"I do."<br />
"Well, I don't feel like crying. I feel horrified."<br />
"I'm gratified to hear that," said Mr. Lawrence.<br />
"Really, Daniel!" said Mr. Popper. "William has had a shock."</i><br />
<br />
Mr. Lawrence warns William and his dad not to interact with the victim's family, and that William should show some remorse at the trial and expect a charge for involuntary manslaughter. Then, Mr. Lawrence hops out to catch a cab, while William sneers that he hope he doesn't catch one. <br />
<br />
At his father's house, William and his dad have dinner over two bottles of red wine, and the dad drinks to the memory of the victim even though William doesn't feel like talking about her. The dad tries to sympathize with William's failure to cry. They also talk about the dad's plans to move into his housing development in Concord, which is in a natural setting. The dad says William shouldn't feel too guilty about his accident, since worse things have happened in the war, adding, "That's why it seems to me so important to live close to nature. One wants to feel there is something permanent."<br />
<br />
William takes a train back to Chicago and joins Jane in his own apartment; she sits on the edge of her bed, he slides into an armchair and tells her about the accident. They have sex for 25 minutes and he walks her back to her dorm. Down below, he leans against a fence in the darkness but is then briefly interrogated by a campus guard, who writes down his university identification and then snaps, "Don't let me catch you hanging around here anymore."<br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 3</b><br />
<br />
Mrs. Thwett goes to visit William's grandmother, Mrs. Popper, who suspects William's victim was a drunken Irish woman and that she must have been at fault for her own death. She demands the police do a blood test on her corpse "before the priests have time to destroy the evidence."<br />
<br />
William's mother writes to him, telling him that God has a purpose for everything people do. She writes to him that she's sending him a painting and that her teacher, "Mr. Serapion," is teaching her to be more free in her work.<br />
<br />
William teases Jane about the accident, comparing what he did to the poems of T.S. Eliot. This gets on her nerves.<br />
<br />
<i>"It's a simple question of style. Within the guiding lines of tradition, each individual works out his own style of destruction. For instance, suicide. Some students shy away from killing other people. They are withdrawn, you might say. They avoid face-to-face contact with their victims - except in the mirror. They jump out of windows or take poison. Others, like myself, lead sloppy lives. We skid into our victims. Style is the man, Jane. Nothing is accidental. You've read my mother's letter."<br />
"Stop it!" Jane said.<br />
William stopped.<br />
"That poor woman's dead."<br />
"I know," he said. "It's hard to believe."<br />
"Well, she is."<br />
"I know."</i><br />
<br />
To show remorse, William decides to go against the advice of his lawyer and pay a visit to the Conroys. Jane says she'll come with him and wait outside, but won't go into the house - which is a wooden bungalow with plastic-stone facing.<br />
<br />
There, William meets his victim's mother-in-law, Mrs. Conroy, who accepts his roses but doesn't seem to have an opinion on what he did; when he apologizes for not going to the funeral, she tells him that he hadn't been expected to come.<br />
<br />
Just then, Mrs. O'Mara, the victim's daughter, walks in and reprimands William for intruding into this "house of grief." They get into a brief argument about how William claims he wasn't been careless, and that it was all just an accident.<br />
<br />
<i>"Do you think God makes accidents?" Mrs. O'Mara said.<br />
"I don't believe in God," said William. It was the wrong thing to say. Even Mrs. Conroy looked startled."</i><br />
<br />
Williams realizes he needs to leave, and while Mrs. O'Mara reprimands him for his "blaspheming," Mrs. Conroy thanks him for the roses. Back in the taxicab (which, as Mrs. Conroy had earlier observed, William needed because he's no longer allowed to drive), Jane asks him what happened, but William doesn't want to talk about it. On the ride home, he breathes deeply and muses, "I wonder if her ghost is laid?"<br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 4</b><br />
<br />
Mr. Lawrence is extremely disappointed in William for disobeying him and going to see the victim's family. He has deduced that a jury trial would now not be so good for William anymore: "Juries do not not admire rich young men who live in concubinage and profess radical views." Believing the situation couldn't be any worse, Mr. Lawrence hopes the case will be heard by Judge Murrow, who, he claims, would not send William to jail; William is facing up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine. But the state controls the vogels, which means he might have to appear before Judge Vogel. Before leaving, he warns William to dress appropriately in court.<br />
<br />
William and his father go to visit his grandmother, who bitterly snipes at William for not coming to see her until now. Mrs. Popper, according to her butler Holmes, has been having trouble lately with black boys who run into her yard and climb on her roof; Mr. Popper suggests she allow those boys to set up a youth club in her yard, but she will have none of it (she wants to buy some police dogs for protection). She also reprimands William for his relationship with Jane: "You think I don't know how you live, but I do. I know you're living with a Jewish girl... Don't smile at me!"<br />
<br />
After that, William insists on bringing his father home to meet Jane over dinner. They bring home some steaks and wine, and when they come home Jane is naked behind a crate that is encasing the painting William's mother, Isabelle, sent him. They break the crate open. The painting depicts some glowing green circles and a spiral nebula against a black background.<br />
<br />
While they're eating, Melvin Lasher barges in, makes some jokes about how Mr. Popper should have adopted a Jewish boy instead of fathering William, and then suggests that Isabelle's painting represents vaginality and penis envy. While Williams quickly ushers Melvin out of the room, Jane and Mr. Popper begin talking.<br />
<br />
They talk for several minutes, about marriage, about dreams, and at some point Jane bursts into tears, surprising Mr. Popper.<br />
<br />
<i>Jane stopped herself. "I'm sorry. You see, we thought - you'll think it's ridiculous - but we thought we could do something... you know" - she gestured vaguely - "to make the world better." And she put her elbow on the table, cupped her cheek in her palm, and burst out crying loudly.</i><br />
<br />
Mr. Popper wonders why she won't marry William; doesn't she love him? She says she does, and dries her tears. He tells her he empathizes with her situation because his marriage to Isabelle was a lovely one, until he realized that he was hampering her artistic dreams and allowed her to move to New York. By the time William has returned, Mr. Popper feels it's best for him to leave instead of staying while Jane makes coffee.<br />
<br />
Walking down to the limo, Mr. Popper insists William ought to persuade Jane to marry him. Inside the limo, they have a private talk, and Mr. Popper tells William he can see some of Isabelle in Jane.<br />
<br />
<i>Mr. Potter patted his son's shoulder. "This has been a very important evening for me," he said. "I've understood things about you, William, that I didn't quite understand before."<br />
"I'm glad you came," said William. <br />
"Even out of evil, good can come," said Mr. Popper. "This accident has brought us closer together as a family. And now you go up to Jane, my boy."</i><br />
<br />
While lying in bed that night, William and Jane mourn about their future and their past. <br />
<br />
<i>Jane giggled. "You know, it was terrible, but I sobbed and sobbed with your father just because it suddenly struck me that we aren't going to change the world. He must have thought I was insane."<br />
"That was why you cried?"<br />
"Yes, really. It seemed so pathetic. I had a vision, that the world is just going to stagger along in its terrible old way and we can't make it better."</i><br />
<br />
They talk about politics, too, and about how they kicked the Totskyites out of the SFNP but didn't have much to celebrate about it, and about how most of their friends have graduated by now. And about marriage; Jane confesses, "Maybe I'm <i>just</i> afraid of marrying you." She fears she;ll turn into an Emma Goldman type, but William assures her he wouldn't marry her just to save her from that (or from turning into a woman like his mother, Isabelle).<br />
<br />
Lastly, they discuss if perhaps they should give Isabelle's painting to Mr. Popper, since, if it stays at William's place, it might get damaged during a party.<br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 5</b><br />
<br />
<i>On June 6, William's case came before Judge Vogel</i>.<br />
<br />
Vogel believes that William is at fault because his reckless driving resulted in someone being killed. He disregards the meeting William had with the victim's family, since it bears no relevance to the crime that took place, but he does say that whatever conditions the victim was under at the time of the accident are also of no relevance because William's bad driving history is the real issue. Taking William's youth into account, Vogel sentences him to one year's imprisonement at hard labor and a fine of $5,000. He sets bail and a stay of execution, and orders him to turn himself in to the sheriff of Cook County at 10:00 on the morning of Saturday, the 16th.<br />
<br />
Mr. Lawrence and his partner, Mr. Patton, are pleased with the verdict, though the Poppers are clearly not, especially Mrs. Thwett. When William makes talk of fleeing to Canada or Mexico, the two lawyers decide to part company with the family because they refuse to endorse any criminal actions. <br />
<br />
The Poppers have lunch at the top of the Prudential Building, where Mrs. Thwett suggests her husband, Robert (a former U.S. Rep), might be able to help out. She then has to step away to cry, and William and his dad talk in private. Mr. Popper offers to call the Gannets, who own a lodge in Illinois (on an island in Lake Huron), and let William and Jane go up and relax there. <br />
<br />
When William returns to his apartment, a subdued Melvin Lasher walks in. William tells him he's going to prison. <br />
<br />
<i>Lasher continued to face Mrs. Popper's picture. "Well, look at it this way," he said. "You'll have no responsibilities, no choices to make, no exams to take..."<br />
"No freedom," William said.<br />
"Freedom's old fashioned, William."</i><br />
<br />
Lasher even suggests "suffering" is what most counts; he claims he got this from Dostoyevsky. They begin discussing what William might be able to do while he's in prison, and the conversation leads to this:<br />
<br />
"Well, there's God," said Lasher. "Many people have seen God in a drop of water. I don't see why you can't find Him in steel bars. After all, cells have always been associated with intense spiritual life. Think of the monks."<br />
"I'm thinking of them."<br />
<br />
William then says he wants to throw a going-away party, and writes Lasher a $500 check. As Lasher is claiming the party will go down in "Hyde Park history," Jane comes in (unnoticed) and asks, "What party?"<br />
<br />
<i>"Jane, my love," Lasher said, "the most tremendous thing has happened. William is going to prison, and we're going to give him a fantastic going-away party."<br />
Jane dropped her books.<br />
"It is as it is," said William.<br />
"I'm going to leave you two now," Lasher said. "I've got to go away and think."<br />
"What about history?" William asked.<br />
Lasher paused in the doorway. "I've just decided it's too late to do any serious studying. Besides, as Lenin said, it's more fun to make history than study it." Then he went on out the door, leaving Jane and William alone together.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 6</b><br />
<br />
Jane argues over a meal with her socialist father about William, whom he doesn't like.<br />
<br />
The following afternoon, Jane and William fly to St. Ignace and meet up with Mr. Gannet, who takes them to the lodge, telling them he'll be back in four days.<br />
<br />
William and Jane have some discussions, some about how William is still considering going to Canada, and how Jane disapproves of that. "I think you just want me to go to jail so you can work for TWO," William says with a smile (TWO is The Woodlawn Organization).<br />
<br />
The next morning, William takes a swim in a the cold lake, daring Jane to come in, who refuses. They drink some champagne before breakfast and then go back to bed.<br />
<br />
"Just think!" William said. "Millions of people are drinking bad coffee and reading bad newspapers and getting ready to go to dull jobs."<br />
"Well, we're going to change all that, aren't we?" Jane said.<br />
"We'd like to think so," William said.<br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 7</b><br />
<br />
William visits his grandmother. Among other things, she tells him that in her will, she has specified that when she dies, her house will go to him.<br />
<br />
When the party is officially thrown at the apartment, Lasher introduces William and Jane to "Bob," who doesn't say much. A stripper, Miss Camille de la Canorgue, puts on a performance in an alligator mask. Jane thinks she's awful.<br />
<br />
At one point during the party, Lasher calls down to two blacks on the streets, calls them "nigs" and tells them the party offers "free drinks and nice Jewish girls." The two blacks (named Melvin and Howard) come up and try to beat up Lasher for this, but are stopped by Corinna, a fat, friendly prostitute who invites herself into the party.<br />
<br />
Throughout the night, Lasher finds himself having to bribe cops not to shut the party down (neighbors are complaining about noise). Corinna gets up on a table and tells everyone about her husband "O'Reilly" and the hard times they went through ("It was eating too much and drinking too much that made me lose my shape, and that's how I became a chanteuse"). <br />
<br />
The party is finally shut down by some police who decide to arrest everybody there. The next morning, William is reprimanded by Mr. Lawrence and driven to the courthouse, but Lasher, Jane and others get in Howard's red Cadillac and they chase him, and William and Jane blow kisses at each other from opposite cars. Mr. Lawrence asks William to roll up his window because the wind is irritating his toothache. He is ignored.<br />
<br />
When they reach the County Court Building, Mr. Popper is waiting for them. They're 10 minutes late. Mr. Lawrence is appalled by the sight of William's friends coming out to greet them, while Mr. Popper, bemused, shakes some of their hands. William embraces Jane.<br />
<br />
<i>"Good bye," she said.<br />
"You won't miss me much?"<br />
She shook her head. "Will you be all right?"<br />
"Yes."</i><br />
<br />
But Mr. Popper and Mr. Lawrence finally have to insist that William party company with them. "A cheer," said Lasher. "Hip, hip, hooray!" Wiliam's friends cheer him on as he disappears. Once he's gone, they all get back into the red Cadillac, "and then there were only the usual pedestrians on the sidewalk."<br />
<br />
<b>Part Two<br />
LIBERTY</b><br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 8</b><br />
<br />
William moves into a cell with Senator James Moran, who went to jail for embezzlement. Moran says that while he's not innocent, somebody named "Harkins" is supposedly at fault for him landing in prison. Moran has smuggled yakydock into the cell, but warns William that he should find some money if ever he wants to obtain any rare goods while in prison. As part of his sentence, William is assigned the duty of shoveling coal in prison.<br />
<br />
In the showers, William meets a gay, muscular black man named George and decides to help him write a letter to a fair-haired boy who works in the prison hospital but is currently under the protection of a convict by the name of McArdle. <br />
<br />
<i>Now, in the shower room, William understood at once when George asked, "Would you say, 'You got the most pretty face I've ever seen?"<br />
"No," William said. "I'd say, 'You've got the prettiest face I've ever seen."<br />
The noise of the showers interfered with George's hearing. "How'd you say that?" he asked. <br />
William raised his voice. "I said, 'You've got the prettiest face I've ever seen.'"<br />
He was overheard by other bathers, who looked first at George and then at William. Blushing, William retreated under his curtain of water, while George, meditating this new verbal stroke, returned to his own thoughts.</i><br />
<br />
When rumor gets around that William might be in love w/George, Moran interrogates William but is thankful when he reveals he thinks about Jane daily, and is merely helping George get acquainted with the fair-haired boy. "But one thing, Bill," Moran adds, "I'd steer clear of George if I were you. You know, that sort of stuff's contaminating, and dangerous, too. Half the knifings in this prison are about sex. You don't want to be mixed up in things like that." To further his point about "not making too many friends" in prison, Moran shows William some porn pictures he bought from a convict that he wishes he hadn't bought because they're overly vile.<br />
<br />
A few days later, after sending the letter to the fair-haired boy and excitedly claiming he "looked" at him during breakfast, George spots a crow flying over the blue sky, which he says to William is bad luck. Sure enough, later that afternoon, George is knifed in the showers by McArdle, who flees the scene while William screams for help. A guard comes onto the scene and orders William and others to line up and face the wall.<br />
<br />
<i>George lay deserted in the middle of the shower room until the medical orderlies arrived. He was unconscious by the time he reached the prison hospital. Before supper he was dead.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 9</b><br />
<br />
Jane talks with her roommate Bernice, then goes with Mr. Popper to see William in prison. William tells them about George's murder and that he's going to be witness at the murder trial, even though talking about such things is considered a taboo by the inmates. Mr. Popper says he'll get Mr. Lawrence to represent William at the trial.<br />
<br />
During the visitation, they look over and notice a black woman crying while visiting her convict husband.<br />
<br />
<i>At once the man next to William rose and walked to the prisoner's door, leaving his wife sitting at the table, her handkerchief still held across her mouth and nose. She sat for a moment, weeping as steadily as she had wept all during her conversation with her husband. Then, still with the handkerchief at her face, she stood up and moved toward the visitors' door. William could still not decide from exactly what depth her tears came.</i><br />
<br />
Eventually, William's time is up. <br />
<br />
<i>"Goodbye," said Jane.<br />
"I'll be seeing you," said William. He got up and walked to the door, where he paused a moment to look back at Jane and his father. Their faces had gone suddenly blank, which made him feel worse than he had felt for a long time.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 10</b><br />
<br />
Isabelle writes to William, saying how his prison sentence reminds her of her own life because "my whole life has been a sort of prison." She also says she hopes he will get out soon, and that the time he serves may even remind her of how she's felt throughout all these years.<br />
<br />
Mr. Lawrence comes to see William in prison and insists that William not make clear at the trial that he was a friend of George. William really wants to tell the truth at the trial (he and Mr. Lawrence have a memorable debate about how William "admires" strong, muscular men like George, but Mr. Lawrence does not). Mr. Lawrence discourages against William revealing he was a friend of George's. When William ponders, "Friends aren't reliable witnesses?" Mr. Lawrence sits back in his chair and barks, "If you want my advice, please stop trying to provoke me with 'clever' questions."<br />
<br />
They continue talking. William believes he noticed McArdle looking "surprised" upon slashing George, as if he hadn't actually meant to kill him. But Mr. Lawrence tells him to forget about this.<br />
<br />
<i>"In any case, you're a prosecution witness. They will try to present it as a deliberate, murderous attack, and it's not in your interest to introduce interpretations like this one."<br />
"I'm supposed to tell the whole truth," William said.<br />
This produced a return to the earlier atmosphere of their interview, and yet William's opinion of Mr. Lawrence had really risen. Mr. Lawrence, as far as he went, was not a bad man. And for the world beyond Mr. Lawrence, what guides were there?</i><br />
<br />
After the interview, William chats with Moran about law and order, namely about how governments are important but that sometimes people should keep quiet. "Bill," he warns, "your first responsibility is to yourself."<br />
<br />
Then, when he's taken to the witness room of the Joliet courthouse, William decides he is going to escape. When the guards allow him to go to the bathroom unsupervised, he climbs out the open window sill and launches himself twelve feet downwards to the grass.<br />
<br />
<i>The fall was painful. He sprawled on the grass, wondering if he had twisted his ankle. He was reassured when he got to his feet. His ankle hurt, but it functioned. Limping only slightly, he traversed the lawn, stepped over a low iron railing, and with increasing ease walked east away from the Joliet courthouse.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 11</b><br />
<br />
Bernice is startled when William shows up at her doorstep; he hitchhiked his way to Chicago. He phones Jane at TWO; she at first assumes it's Lasher pulling a prank, but realizes it's William when he does his W.C. Fields imitation.<br />
<br />
When Jane shows up, William tells her he's thinking about going to Mexico, and he wants her to go with him. She accepts. Bernice doesn't like the idea.<br />
<br />
William and Jane get a room in a hotel (checking in as Mr. and Mrs. Millard Fillmore) and go for a swim in a lake. William wears the bottom of one of Jane's suits, which is "designed to go out where he didn't go out and go in where he didn't go in." Jane only swims briefly, but William swims out far.<br />
<br />
<i>The shore was not patrolled here. There was no lifeguard to blow a whistle, no prison guard to tell him to keep in line, no policeman to ask for his identity. He swam straight out, turning on his back from time to time to look out at the receding shore. The farther he swam, the more the hotels and apartment houses along the lake shore seemed to tower up. The panorama widened until he could see as far north as the Loop and as far south as the steel mills. Then he dived down as far as he could go. The water grew colder and colder the farther down he went. When the pressure on his eardrums grew painful, he turned and started back toward the surface, which looked from below like a round, shining circle. He broke the surface with a splash and then floated with his feet out and his hands behind his head. He could see nothing but the sky, and, with water in his ears, he could hear nothing but the liquid sounds of his own faint movement. He felt detached and isolated in a world of his own.</i><br />
<br />
William and Jane then go to Lasher's. William tells Lasher a phony story about how he escaped from prison by growing a potato vine out the window. To which Jane adds, "William's just making this up because the truth is even less plausible."<br />
<br />
Lasher introduces them to his new girlfriend, Monica, who is intrigued when William tells her he was in prison. 'You have?" she asks. "For pot or pacifism?" To which Lasher responds, "Neither. William killed a woman. I've told you about him."<br />
<br />
William proposes he'll get money from his grandmother and then give it to Lasher so that he can buy a car for them.<br />
<br />
<i>"Sorry to see you go," Lasher said. "But I shall return with money from Grandma." He paused in the doorway to look at Jane. "Don't worry about me."<br />
"I'll try not to," she said. <br />
"Why should she?" Lasher asked. "Doesn't God take care of the lucky?"</i><br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 12</b><br />
<br />
William goes to Prairie Avenue, where his grandmother is on alert because she claims kids are trying to break into her house, and dogs are patrolling the yard down below. William manages to climb up to her. <br />
<br />
<i>"William?" she said. "What are you doing out there?"<br />
"It was the question Thoreau had asked Emerson. William could not resist saying, "And what are you doing in there?"</i><br />
<br />
She is disappointed not merely because he escaped from prison, but because he is fleeing the country and is not willing to fight the system and clear his name anymore. She allows him to take money from her safe, but tells him she's going to change her will. He will probably be cut out of it.<br />
<br />
Some black cops come in protesting that they can't guard the house anymore because the dogs in the yard bit them. They see William and are suspicious. Holmes has told them that William is their chauffeur, but this doesn't seem to convince them.<br />
<br />
William comes back to Lasher's, where he is joined by Jane as well as Leo & Angelica. Monica has fallen asleep down on the staircase. Lasher recites a poem he wrote:<br />
<br />
<i>The woods decay, the woods decay and rot<br />
The gasworks leak their vapor to the air<br />
Man comes and fills the streets and rides beneath,<br />
And after many a summer dies the clown.</i><br />
<br />
Lasher says it's supposed to be a sad poem, a result of his "Tennysonian, not to say Vergilian, mood."<br />
<br />
They are now all planning to go down to Mexico with William and Jane, although Leo says he might have to join them later because he has to meet a man in Ypsilanti. Lasher then agrees he will use William's grandmother's money to buy a car and deliver it to the Shoreham -- which is where they'll be going.<br />
<br />
<i>"And now shall we sing the Whiffenpoof song?"<br />
"No," said William.<br />
"Always your infallible taste corrects me," Lasher said. "After all, we're not Yalies, are we? We're Chicago men."<br />
"We're better than that," William said. "We're Chicago men and women."</i><br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 13</b><br />
<br />
William calls his father over the phone, but the call is angrily interrupted by Mrs. Twett, who demands that William turn himself in because he is disgracing the family and because his grandmother might go to jail if the police find out she sheltered him. Mr. Popper tells Mrs. Thwett, "William's chosen his own way, and I think it's too late for us to change it." But he also warns William, "What I'm afraid of is that you've used your influence to make her come with you." When William admits that that is, indeed, what he's doing, Mr. Popper asks him if that was the right thing to do, and whether it would have been better (and possible) to avoid it. To which William replies, "Why? If you lean over backward trying to not influence them, they're still going to be influenced by someone. It's a question of whose influence is best... Besides, Jane's not a puppet. She wouldn't be going to Mexico with me if she didn't really mean it. People do what they want."<br />
<br />
When the call ends, William says to his father, "And Daddy, I hope you won't be alone," to which Mr. Popper responds, "You musn't worry about me... Take care of yourself. And take care of Jane." William also wishes Mrs. Thwett goodbye, but she replies,"I'm not going to say goodbye... I'm too angry."<br />
<br />
Lasher has William and Jane's car parked across the street, but apparently they'll be making the trip to Mexico alone because Bernice's apartment was recently searched by police. When they reach the car, Lasher slaps William's shoulder and remarks, "Back at the wheel! The killer rides again."<br />
<br />
<i>There is a special intimacy about the front seat of an automobile at the beginning of a long trip. The road maps are still freshly creased. There are no half-eaten rolls of Lifesavers, no stray bits of Kleenex or candy wrappers, and the windshield is clean.</i><br />
<br />
On Cicero Avenue, William and Jane pick up an 88-year old hitchhiker named George Morrison (William introduces himself as "William White"). Morrison claims he ran away from home even though his "daughter" begged him not to. He proceeds to tell William and Jane some highly unlikely stories, among them a tale that he fought in the Spanish-American War at San Juan Hill and that Colonel Theodore Roosevelt told him to "Beat that drum, boy, beat it like hell." He also claims he also fought in World War I at St. Mihiel, and that he comes from Point Pleasant, Ohio.<br />
<br />
In one story he tells, he used to be a farmer until he accidentally shot his wife in the breast, while she posthumously gave birth to a son whom he quickly delivered with a hunting knife and "Caesarian midesction." The death of this wife made him leave the farm. <br />
<br />
Morrison later tells an absurd story about how his "second wife" who died in a wellhead that caught fire after Morrison accidentally ignited it with a cigar, at a time when he was a "rich" oil proctor (he claims he drank away all of his money afterwards). William observes, "You've been unlucky with your wives."<br />
<br />
Politically, Morrison says he's always voted Republican (in the election of 1913, he says he "wanted" T.R. to win but voted for Taft because he believed Taft would win, but then realized "it was Wilson all the time"). He claims he would have voted for FDR in 1936 "if I hadn't been sick this year," even though he thought Hoover would take it. He thought Nixon would win instead of JFK in the 60's but lost because of Japanese voters ("The Japanese they run out of California during the war"), which outrages him because his grandson (also named George Morrison) died while dive-bombing and sinking a Jap battleship in WWII; he was his daughter's only son.<br />
<br />
William observes, "But if your daughter was the mother of the pilot who sank the Japanese battleship, his name wouldn't be Morrison," and Morrison replies, "That's right, only she married a man named Morrison from Battavia, a cousin of ours."<br />
<br />
Morrison also claims he had a third wife from Kokomo, Indiana who died"in the flu epidemic of nineteen-eighteen," which was after his WWI service. He then took up a job in a Coca-Cola factory and lost his finger in a bottlemaking machine (says William: "It must have been quite an experience for the person who drank that bottle.") <br />
<br />
Then Morrison claims he went shrimp-fishing in the Gulf of Mexico ("They've got a lot of sharks down there,") but before he can tell a possible shark story, he falls asleep.<br />
<br />
They all check into a motel in Burlington; William and Jane book a second room for Morrison, even though they're anxious to get rid of him. <br />
<br />
At night, William and Jane lay away thinking - Jane, about how they'll be giving up a life of politics, and William, about how he confesses he never got involved in politics like she did, and was never willing to join TWO. But despite Jane's nostalgia for the country she's about to leave, she laughs and assures William she would never return to American without him. "You really love me, don't you?" he asks. She replies, "Yes, I really do."<br />
<br />
<i>When they had made love, William lay back on his pillow. He was thinking of Jane's answer. It was a new conception to him that she could love him enough to give up many things that were meaningful to her. Such a feeling almost amounted to self-sacrifice, an alien phenomenon in William's thinking. And yet, the more he considered it, the more he saw that self-sacrifice had been there all the time in his father and in Jane. He wondered about his responsibility in the face of this new view of human possibilities. He wondered, too, if there was something missing in him that he didn't have this quality possessed by the two best people he had known.</i><br />
<br />
They decide to see what they can of Burlington, and go to a local necking area that's being patrolled by the police. In the bushes, they're caught by some cops who ask for William's driver's license. Observing his strange gesture of searching his pockets only to realize it's not their (William has forgotten his license was revoked long ago), the cops assume he lost it in the bushes. The cops try to help him find it, but find nothing; shrugging, they suggest he go back to the station to see if they've got it there, and then warn him and Jane to be on their way.<br />
<br />
In the morning, Morrison catches them and joins them again, but they ditch him on Route Thirty-Four; they claim they're newlyweds on their honeymoon (who aren't wearing rings because they're Christian Scientists). Morrison angrily gets out, mutters "Young folks!" then goes on another one of his tirades before spitting on the pavement, and hissing to them, "You'll see... sailing along in that car, breaking all the speed limits. They'll get you."<br />
<br />
After they've driven through Joplin, Missouri and Oklahoma City, they finally reach Laredo, Texas - on their fourth day out of Chicago. Knowing the car won't make it to Mexico City because it's low on oil and making some awful noises, they make a plan to sell the car, send their suitcases to Mexico by Railway Express, and then hope from a tourist bus to a train on their way to Mexico. After some bargaining, they're able to sell the car to a sympathetic dealer ("I'd like to help you young folks if I could") for $125. The dealer kindly drives them to the station, where Jane's bags are shipped, and William brings along his bag full of necessities onto the tourist bus. <br />
<br />
<i>They looked at the exposed river bed. Jane put her arm through William's.<br />
"Nervous?" he asked. <br />
"A little."<br />
"Remember, we're just tourists now."<br />
She nodded, but her hand tightened on his arm as they approached the frontier barrier. She need not have worried. An American customs agent wearing a Texas hat climbed aboard. "Y'all citizens?" he asked. They all were. "O.K." He climbed back down.<br />
"And that's that," said William.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Chapter 14</b><br />
<br />
<i>It was spring again. William leaned on the balustrade of his terrace and looked out at the Pacific. Frangipani bloomed in stone urns on either side of him. Fifty yards ahead, and almost at William's level, a seagull floated in the air. William watched it fold its wings and swoop down toward the village dump. Then his attention was attracted to a dusty black car that had emerged from the village and started up the road toward the villa. A plume of dust rose behind the car. Presently William could hear the engine laboring. The car disappeared behind a clump of pines, reappeared in the road directly below the terrace, and came to a stop. The driver got out and ran around to open the rear door, and Mrs. Twett emerged.</i><br />
<br />
Mrs. Thwett is suffering from a bout of Montezuma's Revenge when she greets William. She believes his new home looks worse than his Chicago apartment, but he likes how the rent is only $100 a month ("Life is cheap here), and is okay with the fact that a gardener, a maid and the maid's family comes with the place. Mrs. Thwett has brought some papers; she says the Conroys are suing their family for damages, and that his father could have brought the papers himself but is too afraid to fly. She does, however, say that his father is "well." After Mrs. Thwett meets Jane for the first time, she observes, to William, "So you're going to have a child." William assures her that he and Jane will get married before that happens.<br />
<br />
Jane talks privately with William, confessing that Mrs. Thwett "scares" her a little; William claims her husband (his uncle) is fat, hard-boiled and even less friendly.<br />
<br />
<i>"Do you think we're going to make good parents?"<br />
"Aunt Anne was raising that very question."<br />
"I think we will," Jane said. "I'm really getting sort of excited."<br />
"And you used to have such misgivings about being married!"<br />
"Being married and having a child are different."<br />
"The two things are often connected."<br />
"Not in my case."<br />
"We're correcting that." William laughed. "You know, we've come all this way just to settle into domesticity."<br />
"It is funny," Jane said.<br />
"Maybe we <b>ought</b> to announce it at our wedding."<br />
"I wouldn't mind it," Jane said.</i><br />
<br />
They finish by discussing what possible wedding presents their families will send them. Then they go back to writing - Jane to writing her novel, William to writing his book, which started as a polemical autobiography called <i>Under the Mushroom Cloud</i> but is now a political analysis of American Life, perhaps to be titled <i>Love and Violence: The American Antimonies</i>. Writing is something William has found he enjoys.<br />
<br />
<i>Mrs. Thwett ate a light supper with them. Afterward they went out on the terrace, where she unfolded the business matters with which she had been entrusted. There were papers for William to sign. "And these will have to be notarized. I suppose there is such a thing down here?"<br />
"Yes."<br />
"And here's some money for the time being." She handed William a folder of traveler's checks. <br />
"Will I have to pay American taxes if my income comes from a Mexican mutual fund?"<br />
"No."<br />
"Then we'll be rich."<br />
"You won't be rich until Mother dies."<br />
"How is she."<br />
"not very well. All this business about you, and now the Land Commission wants to take her house."<br />
"It'll give her something to fight," William said.<br />
"She;s not who she was," said Mrs. Thwett. "I'm afraid if they do pull down house it may be the end."<br />
William nodded.<br />
"Ten years ago this would have been a blessing, but now she's really too old to move." She sighed. Then she lit a cigarette. "Now, William, I want to have a serious conversation with you."<br />
"Shall I leave?" Jane asked. <br />
"No. I want you to hear this, too."<br />
"What is it?" William asked, though he knew what it was.<br />
"It's this, William. We've arranged for you to receive money here in Mexico, but I hope you're not going to settle here permanently. I didn't know when I came that you're going to have a child, but that makes it just that much more important for you to return to the United States."<br />
"And go to prison?"<br />
"You wouldn't be in long. Robert has talked to the state's attorney. You wouldn't have to spend more than another thirty months in prison."<br />
"Any why should I spend any time in prison?"<br />
"In order to live in your own country again."<br />
"And why should I live there?"<br />
"It's where you belong."<br />
"I don't feel that," William said.<br />
"Then, I'm sorry for you."<br />
At sunset, sweet-smelling breezes began to blow from the hills behind the villa. William lifted his head to catch them. It was the time of day he liked best, when he and Jane would sit on the terrace in the gathering darkness while bats began to flit overhead.<br />
"I don't want to sound accusing," Mrs. Thwett said, "but there is such a thing as patriotism."<br />
"I know there is. I used to be very patriotic."<br />
"And aren't you anymore?"<br />
"Not in the same way."<br />
Mrs. Thwett shifted in her chair. William watched the glowing tip of her cigarette as she flicked away ashes. "And what are you going to do with your life?" she asked.<br />
"It's hard to say."<br />
"You're still very young," Mrs. Thwett said. "There are years and years ahead of you."<br />
"I'm aware of that."<br />
Mrs. Thwett gave up her attention on Jane temporarily and turned her attention to Jane. "And don't you want to go back and have your child in an American hospital?"<br />
"I want to stay with William."<br />
"And what sort of life will you have here? What sort of life will it be for your child?"<br />
"If we stay here, he'll grow up loving this place, and it's really very beautiful here.<br />
"And what about you?"<br />
William intervened. "We're as happy here as we'd be anywhere else. Happier than if I were in Stateville."<br />
"America isn't just Stateville, William."<br />
"For me, it is." William couldn't see his aunt's expression anymore, but he could imagine it. "I'm sorry, Aunt Anne, but it's no good. This is just the way I am."<br />
Mrs. Thwett leaned forward as if to pounce. "And don't you ever want to live in your own country again?"<br />
"No," said William.</i>Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-67291456291659380072012-01-22T09:00:00.000-08:002012-08-08T15:40:37.234-07:00My Top 10 of 2011<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xIkkuz1aMVM/TxuvtC6axII/AAAAAAAAAYE/_19UunLx4_s/s1600/Joey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xIkkuz1aMVM/TxuvtC6axII/AAAAAAAAAYE/_19UunLx4_s/s400/Joey.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
More than any other moviegoing year in recent memory, 2011 was a year of emotions. The films I loved most were the films involving me completely in their stories, their characters. Such an outgrowth of great films, I believe, hasn't happened since 2007, when <i>No Country for Old Men</i> and <i>There Will Be Blood</i> rendered me so speechless I could hardly muster my praise for them. Since then I had been yearning for another cinematic experience of that kind. This year, I saw many wonderful films, and I can say with certainty that at least one of them rendered me speechless. <br />
<br />
For the past three years, it seems, I've been rather cynical in my selections for the best movies of each respective year. In 2008, I was so disillusioned with the majority of the year's output that my favorites were two critically-panned box office flops, <i>Synecdoche, New York</i> and <i>Revolutionary Road</i>. In <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/03/iceboxs-top-five-of-2009.html">2009</a>, I embraced two films (<i>A Serious Man</i> and <i>The Road</i>) that got slightly better reviews, but were still largely ignored by critics and audiences, perhaps because they were rather gloomy, Kafkaesque works. In <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/02/iceboxs-top-10-of-2010_26.html">2010</a>, same thing: <i>Shutter Island</i> and <i>The Ghost Writer</i> topped my list, and they were so pessimistic and politically-vicious that it's no wonder audiences walked out of them feeling miserable. All of these were great films, but the fact that I kept praising them above sunnier, more energetic works may be proof that my faith in humanity must have been slipping a bit.<br />
<br />
Now, of course, <i>There Will Be Blood</i> and <i>No Country for Old Men</i> were angry movies as well, but those two milestones came out during a year (2007) when I was still in high school, and well-situated in society. 2008-2010, however, was less certain, because I was about to graduate from high school and had to think seriously about my future. Those three years weren't exactly bright. Some difficult day jobs, some severed relationships with friends, some uneasiness at having to go to community college (although I do not regret the latter at all; it was cheap, and it got the hard part of college out of the way for me)... all of that made those three years less-than-satisfactory (aside from one experience that was <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2009/11/david-lynch-weekend-at-maharishi.html">life-changing</a>). I guess you could say I was an angrier young man during those years than I am now, so, naturally, my taste in movies was different.<br />
<br />
2011 was another story. I began it with an <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/02/sundance-film-festival-january-26-30.html">amazing trip</a> to Sundance, and, gradually, it only got better from there. In the fall, I got accepted into film school. And, well, now, life is good. Really good.<br />
<br />
So maybe it was just perfect timing, but somehow I really, really liked a lot of the movies released in 2011. I think a large part of it is because some of my all-time favorite filmmakers made fantastic comebacks this year, some of which I didn't really anticipate. If you'll remember, 2007 was such a year; a year in which some notable directors (Coen Bros., P.T. Anderson, Fincher, Cronenberg, De Palma, Coppola) made some outstanding films. <br />
<br />
Similarly, consider the directors who came out with all barrels blazing <i>this</i> year: Spielberg, Scorsese, Malick, Cronenberg, Fincher, Polanski, Godard, Von Trier, Herzog. Some of their movies I didn't see (and some I didn't even <i>like</i>), but <i>c'est la vie</i>. Many were great.<br />
<br />
As always, the ones I can't thank enough for such a good year are my friends and family. That includes those of you in the blogosphere who have supported my site since its conception. You guys are the ones keeping me energized. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vrHKQZe-JdI/Txu5McONfEI/AAAAAAAAAYo/i50TAkRk6rY/s1600/Albert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vrHKQZe-JdI/Txu5McONfEI/AAAAAAAAAYo/i50TAkRk6rY/s400/Albert.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
1. <i>War Horse</i> (Steven Spielberg)<br />
<br />
We need more American directors like Steven Spielberg, and we need more American movies like <i>War Horse</i>. It's a masterpiece, pure and simple. Rarely have I ever loved so much a film that is so unabashedly classical, Romantic and, yes, even a little optimistic. But in 2011, I could make an exception.<br />
<br />
Spielberg and screenwriters Richard Curtis and Lee Hall have succeeded in locating a highly compelling, cinematic narrative in Michael Morpurgo's <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/search/label/Michael%20Morpurgo">book</a>. In telling the stories of the Narracotts (Peter Mullan & Emily Watson), their son Albert (Jeremy Irvine), his horse Joey, and the nightmarish struggles faced by both Albert and Joey in the trenches of World War I and beyond, Spielberg is, somehow, finally able to reach a profound catharsis of love and survival at the end—without ever shying away from the carnage of it all. "It would not be enough for me to say that this is my favorite movie of the year," I <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/12/war-horse-2011.html">wrote</a> in my review. "This is one of the best movies I've ever seen." <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UZ43QGR-v5Y/TxvolpJC9SI/AAAAAAAAAZM/pG979V-ygzo/s1600/asa-butterfield-chloe-moretz-hugo-image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UZ43QGR-v5Y/TxvolpJC9SI/AAAAAAAAAZM/pG979V-ygzo/s400/asa-butterfield-chloe-moretz-hugo-image.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
2. <i>Hugo</i> (Martin Scorsese)<br />
<br />
I walked out of Martin Scorsese's fantasy with stars in my eyes, and then wondered how much of it was true. I then decided that it didn't matter. Scorsese had accomplished his mission: to bring back the sad story of Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley) to the public limelight in a way that could be both moving and entertaining—not to mention the best experience with 3D I've ever had in a theater. <br />
<br />
Because this was released around Thanksgiving, I was too lazy to write an official review, but in the meantime check out the glowing reviews by some of my colleagues: <a href="http://themanfromporlock.blogspot.com/2011/11/dream-in-middle-of-day-hugo.html">Craig Simpson</a>, <a href="http://armchairc.blogspot.com/2011/11/hugo-martin-scorsese-2011.html">Jake Cole</a>, <a href="http://cinemadirectives.blogspot.com/2011/12/scorseses-love-letter-to-early-cinema.html">Tom Hyland</a> and <a href="http://kolson-kevinsblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/catching-up-with-2011-hugo.html">Kevin J. Olson</a>. Like me, they came away enchanted.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ApRvQDv5ip0/Txvqi9OjxvI/AAAAAAAAAZY/qakxvekj1mg/s1600/the-adventures-of-tintin-2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ApRvQDv5ip0/Txvqi9OjxvI/AAAAAAAAAZY/qakxvekj1mg/s400/the-adventures-of-tintin-2011.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
3. <i>The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn</i> (Steven Spielberg)<br />
<br />
The year's greatest entertainment. Speaking as a born-again fan of the <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/search/label/Herge">Herge comics</a>, this movie gave me everything I wanted from it, and more. It's also the collaboration between Spielberg and Peter Jackson we've been waiting for, after their god-awful <i>The Lovely Bones</i> (2009). <br />
<br />
I've only seen <i>The Secret of the Unicorn</i> once, and someday plan to write an official review of it, but for now, these <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/12/movie-review-the-bigger-better-adventures-of-tintin.html">words of praise</a> by David Edelstein will suffice: "Spielberg’s punchy foregrounds and multiple planes of action (a joke or nutty curlicue on every plane!) will have you goggle-eyed...You can imagine Alfred Hitchcock — who famously praised the young Spielberg as the first director who "doesn't see the proscenium arch" — rocking with laughter, belly heaving, coughing out cigar smoke."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ULipeVQeMSw/TiSA6tr0pjI/AAAAAAAAAOg/J-Itx1cxLsk/s1600/ice.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ULipeVQeMSw/TiSA6tr0pjI/AAAAAAAAAOg/J-Itx1cxLsk/s1600/ice.png" width="520" /></a></div><br />
4. <i>The Tree of Life</i> (Terrence Malick)<br />
<br />
I saw Terrence Malick's latest feature twice in theaters. That is almost a moral necessity when dealing with films as unique as this: you cannot see them just once and expect to formulate a credible opinion afterwards. And I expect my appreciation for it to deepen in the years to come. My review <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/07/tree-of-life-2011-stairways-to-heaven.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4fTnKlD2FcA/Txv-x4UdOkI/AAAAAAAAAZw/6GyEU1ojrBo/s1600/descendants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4fTnKlD2FcA/Txv-x4UdOkI/AAAAAAAAAZw/6GyEU1ojrBo/s400/descendants.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
5. <i>The Descendants</i> (Alexander Payne)<br />
<br />
Sometimes you don't realize just how much you love a movie until weeks after you've seen it. I saw <i>The Descendants</i> over holiday break, found a great deal about it to admire, rated it positively and moved on. But the fact is that the personal tragedy suffered by Matt King (George Clooney) and his grieving daughters stayed with me; I hadn't even realized, until fairly recently, how strongly I identified with them, and how greatly I wanted to see them find happiness in the end. <br />
<br />
What it boils down to is this: Alexander Payne is one of America's most exciting living directors. He is often accused of being condescending and, yes, even sympathetic towards characters who are normally undeserving of our sympathy (in this case, rich people). But because I recognize so much of real-life in his fictional stories, I have no reason to complain. He's one of the last filmmakers alive who truly, honestly understands people, their demons and their difficulties.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-psYMAn79lyI/Txv_Jgl7BfI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/rUO8U_wK7qk/s1600/dangerous%2Bmethod.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-psYMAn79lyI/Txv_Jgl7BfI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/rUO8U_wK7qk/s400/dangerous%2Bmethod.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
6. <i>A Dangerous Method</i> (David Cronenberg)<br />
<br />
In his 1983 cult classic <i>Videodrome</i>, one character asks another, "You know what Freud would've said about that dress?" So, in many ways <i>A Dangerous Method</i> is the film David Cronenberg has been working up to his entire career, although I'd argue it's most characteristic of the films he made in the mid-90's: <i>M. Butterfly</i> (1993) and <i>Crash</i> (1996). Like those films, it's about desires that cannot be satisfied and loves that are lost forever. <br />
<br />
As with many other films on this list, I've only seen <i>A Dangerous Method</i> once, but I expect my appreciation of it to grow with repeated viewings. Cronenberg also showcases five outstanding performances: Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung; Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud; Sarah Gadon as Emma Jung; Vincent Cassel as the perverted Otto Gross; and Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein, in a performance so masterful in the way it captures hysterics (and wild facial expressions) that it reminds me, oddly enough, of Thandie's Newton's performance in <i>Beloved</i>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.granvilleonline.ca/files/articles/GVO-Eds-Die-Oregon.jpg?1317675796" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="http://www.granvilleonline.ca/files/articles/GVO-Eds-Die-Oregon.jpg?1317675796" width="494" /></a></div><br />
7. <i>How to Die in Oregon</i> (Peter D. Richardson)<br />
<br />
This documentary may have only been released on HBO in 2011, but I don't care: it deserves a place on this list, theatrically-released or not. I <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/01/sundance-2011-day-4.html">saw</a> it at Sundance last year, after it won the U.S. Documentary award. It's a very important film, one that is unafraid to tackle the subject of physician-assisted suicide but respects the patients (like Cody Curtis, pictured above) who decide to go through with it, and honors their right to choose.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S2S0cmmlmhk/Tx78lWRNIxI/AAAAAAAAAaI/FZmibp_l-G4/s1600/if%2Ba%2Btree%2Bfalls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="226" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S2S0cmmlmhk/Tx78lWRNIxI/AAAAAAAAAaI/FZmibp_l-G4/s400/if%2Ba%2Btree%2Bfalls.jpg" /></a></div><br />
8. <i>If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front</i> (Marshall Curry)<br />
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Another great documentary that I had the pleasure of <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/01/sundance-2011-day-1.html">seeing</a> at Sundance last year, <i>If A Tree Falls</i> covers the little-known activities of the Earth Liberation Front, an organization that once made its living going around burning down lumber factories in order to help save forests. <br />
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In particular, the film covers the life of one Daniel McGowan, who has been branded a "terrorist" for his crimes and is facing a long prison sentence. The film finally asks us: is "terrorism" a fair charge for individuals, like McGowan, who seek to conserve, not to kill? As the great critic Steven Boone <a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/demand/2011/09/terrorism_is_stupid.html">writes</a> in his review, "It's so moving, the way it all plays out, in hugs and tears and the remorse of a man in his mid-30s, still young, still radiating decency and idealism, but branded for life."<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/Uncle-Boonmee-Who-Can-Recall-His-Past-Lives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/Uncle-Boonmee-Who-Can-Recall-His-Past-Lives.jpg" width="450" /></a></div><br />
9. <i>Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives</i> (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)<br />
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It's only been a few days since I watched this, but I'm having a hard time shaking some of its images. And I don't intend to, either (you got to admit it: that whole catfish-sex thing is pretty original). It's the first film by Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul I've seen, and hopefully one of many more in the future. <br />
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Although it has slow stretches here and there, as a whole it finally comes together as a film so surreal, so haunting, that it's near-impossible to dismiss. In short: <i>Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives</i> is one hell of a trip, and I'm happy to have watched it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rKZtvV5RTUg/Txv7fMwvOjI/AAAAAAAAAZk/Fy9HBoSWggg/s1600/Kirsten-Dunst-Topless-Melancholia-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rKZtvV5RTUg/Txv7fMwvOjI/AAAAAAAAAZk/Fy9HBoSWggg/s400/Kirsten-Dunst-Topless-Melancholia-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
10. <i>Melancholia</i> (Lars Von Trier)<br />
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Or, as I like to call it, <i>The Legend of Lars von Trier: Majora's Mask</i>. Believe me when I say that Von Trier's latest psychosexual epic is the real thing. Forget those idiotic comments he made at Cannes. Forget all of that. If it helps, I hope I should hasten to add that <i>Melancholia</i> is NOT the work of "a Jew who found out that I was actually a Nazi." Not at all. It's a serious attempt to envision what it would be like if the world <i>did</i>, indeed, come to an end someday (with, yes, some striking similarities to a certain Zelda videogame). On top of that, it showcases the best and bravest performance Kirsten Dunst has ever given. <br />
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As my colleague Tom Hyland <a href="http://cinemadirectives.blogspot.com/2011/12/end-of-world-according-to-lars-von.html">wrote</a> in his own review, "The end of the world has been the subject of many books and films before; now Von Trier gives us his vision, one that's deeply satisfying, especially in terms of trying to understand the human psyche." <br />
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<br />
<b>Honorable Mentions</b><br />
<br />
<i>Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol</i> (Brad Bird)<br />
<i>Moneyball</i> (Bennett Miller)<br />
<a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-torture-and-revenge-in-girl-with.html"><i>The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo</i> (David Fincher)</a><br />
<a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/01/sundance-2011-days-2-3.html"><i>The Future</i> (Miranda July)</a><br />
<i>The Conspirator</i> (Robert Redford)<br />
<i>The Artist</i> (Michel Hazanavicus)<br />
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/film-in-st-louis/meek-s-cutoff-2011-review"><i>Meek's Cutoff </i>(Kelly Reichardt)</a><br />
<i>Of Gods and Men</i> (Xavier Beauvois)<br />
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/film-in-st-louis/midnight-paris-2011-review"><i>Midnight in Paris</i> (Woody Allen)</a><br />
<a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/01/sundance-2011-days-2-3.html"><i>Corman's World: Exploits of A Hollywood Rebel</i> (Alex Stapleton)</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Some Great Movies I Saw at Sundance That Still Haven't Been Theatrically Released</b><br />
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<a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/01/sundance-2011-day-1.html"><i>Vampire</i> (Iwai Shunji)</a><br />
<a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/01/sundance-2011-day-4.html"><i>Jess + Moss</i> (Clay Jeter)</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Guilty Pleasures</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.examiner.com/film-in-st-louis/cars-2-2011-review" style="text-decoration: underline;"><i>Cars 2</i> (John Lasseter, Brad Lewis)</a><br />
<i>Don't Be Afraid of The Dark</i> (Troy Nixey)<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Disappointments</b><br />
<br />
<i>Film Socialisme</i> (Jean-Luc Godard)<br />
<a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/01/sundance-2011-day-1.html"><i>Margin Call</i> (J.C. Chandor)</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>I Might Have Been Too Hard On...</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.examiner.com/film-in-st-louis/super-8-2011-review"><i>Super 8</i> (J.J. Abrams)</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Still Need to See...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Shame</i> (Steve McQueen)<br />
<i>Carnage</i> (Roman Polanski)<br />
<i>Cave of Forgotten Dreams</i> (Werner Herzog)<br />
<i>Into the Abyss</i> (Werner Herzog)<br />
<i>Pina</i> (Wim Wenders)<br />
<i>Drive</i> (Nicolas Winding Refn)<br />
<i>Take Shelter </i>(Jeff Nichols)<br />
<i>A Separation</i> (Asghar Farhadi)<br />
<i>J. Edgar</i> (Clint Eastwood)<br />
<i>Kinyarwanda</i> (Alrick Brown)<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Proud to Admit I Did NOT See...</b><br />
<br />
<i>Machine Gun Preacher</i> (Marc Forster)<br />
<i>Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides</i> (Rob Marshall)<br />
<i>The Iron Lady</i> (Phyllidya Lloyd)<br />
<i>Sucker Punch</i> (Zack Snyder)<br />
<i>Transformers: Dark of the Moon</i> (Michael Bay)<br />
<i>The Help</i> (Tate Taylor)<br />
<i>Breaking Dawn</i> (Bill Condon)<br />
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Alrighty, folks, that just about wraps it up! Now bring on 2012, the year in which we will, hopefully, see the light of day of Francis Ford Coppola's <i>Twixt</i>, Steven Spielberg's <i>Lincoln</i>, William Friedkin's <i>Killer Joe</i>, Peter Jackson's <i>The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey</i> and Brian De Palma's <i>Passion</i>. And, of course, the year in which... the world may end?<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><u><u><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rmLtJtXEEhg/Tj774xSxZqI/AAAAAAAAAGs/-Q6szWjTeZ4/s1600/Happiness_img_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rmLtJtXEEhg/Tj774xSxZqI/AAAAAAAAAGs/-Q6szWjTeZ4/s1600/Happiness_img_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></u></u></div>Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-69351029340534957892012-01-16T15:03:00.001-08:002012-01-19T14:57:44.583-08:00My Exciting Live-Tweeting of the Boring 69th Golden Globe Awards<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dB3pK3N44fg/TxSr9TAZbuI/AAAAAAAAAXI/F9V9_AwQ0Fg/s1600/gervais.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dB3pK3N44fg/TxSr9TAZbuI/AAAAAAAAAXI/F9V9_AwQ0Fg/s400/gervais.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
It was the most boring Golden Globes telecast I've ever seen, and I say that as one who remembers those disastrous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/65th_Golden_Globe_Awards">65th Golden Globe Awards</a> from 2008, in which the awards were announced at a "press conference" instead of on an actual show. But at least that horrorshow was short and to the point. This one--the 69th Golden Globes--was so boring, so dreadfully BORING, that it was redeemed only by a handful of pleasant and surprising wins. To borrow a <a href="http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110227/OSCARS/110229986">completely unrelated quote</a> from Roger Ebert, "Some great winners, a nice distribution of awards, but the show? Dead. In. The. Water."<br />
<a name='more'></a>Gervais simply didn't <i>do anything</i>. Granted, I missed his entire opening gig (it took me a whole fucking hour to find a television on my college campus that was actually airing the show), but people have told me it wasn't as radical as his opening gig from last year. You will remember at last year's show (the 68th Golden Globes), Gervais was so unrelentingly nasty ("Ashton Kutcher's dad, Bruce Willis!") that he actually managed to provoke a response from his fans and critics; Matt Zoller Seitz <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/01/17/golden_globes_2011/">dubbed</a> it "the Golden Globes of hatred."<br />
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Honestly, as uncomfortable as last year's show was, at least it was brilliant television. At least it had an attitude, as bitter as it may have been. This time Gervais just seemed to be on a leash. Either that, or it was entirely his decision to go easier this time. In his recent <a href="http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/05/9982244-ricky-gervais-tells-matt-lauer-no-restrictions-at-golden-globes">interview</a> with Matt Lauer, Gervais indicated he accepted the offer to host the Globes a third time so that he could prove a point; to demonstrate to his critics he wasn't afraid of doing it one more time.<br />
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So... was that the only reason he was there? To just, you know... <i>be</i> there?<br />
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I mean, I guess a few of his jokes were decent. I liked his whole diss of Madonna as still being "like a virgin," and Madonna's comeback was unexpected gold: "Why don't you come over here and doing something about it? It's been awhile since I last kissed a girl." His later diss of Natalie Portman as making the mistake of "putting her children before her career" had some of the same enticing venom to it, although Portman, unlike Madonna, didn't make a comeback.<br />
<br />
The jokes were simply too far and few between. Gervais would diappear for long periods of time, and you'd wonder, What happened to him? As Lou Lumenick <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/LouLumenick/status/158732022154670080">complained</a> via Twitter, "Free Ricky Gervais!"<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SVZyHHnJSRE/TxSrQvl5VWI/AAAAAAAAAWk/i6-YyQp-5oc/s1600/scorsese.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="389" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SVZyHHnJSRE/TxSrQvl5VWI/AAAAAAAAAWk/i6-YyQp-5oc/s400/scorsese.jpg" width="282" /></a></div><br />
So, for me at least, there was only one thing saving the show: the winners. Scorsese winning Best Director for <i>Hugo</i> was one of those big WTF moments that you secretly pray will happen, but which only happens 99.9% of the time in the history of award shows.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9U6Xb6SUrOk/TxSrVBN6r4I/AAAAAAAAAWw/qVbD7MWqZmA/s1600/69th_Golden_Globe_Awards_-_Show_%2BShow.JPEG-0219f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="376" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9U6Xb6SUrOk/TxSrVBN6r4I/AAAAAAAAAWw/qVbD7MWqZmA/s400/69th_Golden_Globe_Awards_-_Show_%2BShow.JPEG-0219f.jpg" width="269" /></a></div><br />
Spielberg winning Best Animated Film for <i>The Adventures of Tintin</i> was a joyous moment, too, since everybody thought <i>Rango</i> might be the spoiler in that category (Spielberg spent so much time thanking the filmmakers who worked on the film that he almost forgot to thank his wife, Willie Scott herself, Kate Chapsaw; the kiss he blew to her at the last moment was priceless).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SUXziXz6MuE/TxSrcNyoJZI/AAAAAAAAAW8/fQpli1HF4cg/s1600/payne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SUXziXz6MuE/TxSrcNyoJZI/AAAAAAAAAW8/fQpli1HF4cg/s400/payne.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
As for <i>The Descendants</i> winning Best Drama, although I obviously would have preferred a <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2011/12/war-horse-2011.html"><i>War Horse</i></a> win, I liked <i>The Descendants</i> all the same, and seeing Alexander Payne win his first Globe since <i>Sideways</i> was a nice tough. If the Oscar race is, as they truly say, going to be a horse race between <i>The Artist</i> and <i>The Descendants</i>, I'll be rooting for the latter. Though I do hope <i>War Horse</i> gets a Best Picture nomination of its own...<br />
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All in all, good winners, lousy show. We still have Billy Crystal to look forward to at the Oscars, so I have high hopes for that. But as my Twitter feed below indicates, this year's Golden Globes was a depressing exercise indeed.<br />
<br />
Albert Brooks @AlbertBrooks 18h Reply Retweeted Favorite · Open<br />
Just found out on Twitter that I lost. Shit.<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 21h Reply Retweeted Favorite · Open<br />
That was...unexpected. Am I right, @adamzanzie?!?!? #GoldenGlobes<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
IFC.com @IFCtv 20h Reply Retweeted Favorite · Open<br />
RT @kristenschaaled: I know 2 Globes that didn't show up: Ricky Gervais' BALLS! Not rude enough! #goldenglobes<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Final verdict: some pleasant wins in an otherwise lousy show.<br />
7:59 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Last year, Ricky ended by thanking God for his atheism. This year... some bullshit about gold and champagne. Whatever. #goldenglobes<br />
7:58 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I mean, this isn't a bad thing. "The Descendants" was excellent. But it ain't even in my Top 5 of the year. #goldenglobes<br />
7:56 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Ah, well. #goldenglobes<br />
7:55 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Okay, here we go... #goldenglobes<br />
7:55 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Harrison Ford presenting Best Drama! Yay! #goldenglobes<br />
7:54 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
In fact, I'm gonna start chanting right now: GIVE BEST DRAMA TO "WAR HORSE"! PLEEEAAASE!<br />
7:52 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Actually, Clooney's win probably spells out a win for Descendants in Best Drama. Unless War Horse proves to be a dark horse. #goldenglobes<br />
7:51 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
So... what's left? Just Best Drama? Ooh, the suspense.<br />
7:51 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
IFC.com @IFCtv Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
RT @timeculture: Fourth d--k joke of the night, if we're counting right.<br />
Retweeted by Adam Charles Zanzie<br />
3<br />
RETWEETS<br />
1<br />
FAVORITE <br />
7:50 PM - 15 Jan 12 via HootSuite · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Clooney's thank-you to Payne was nice. #goldenglobes<br />
7:50 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Funny remark about Fassbender's full-frontal. Clooney should roast more often. #goldenglobes<br />
7:50 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
And yes, he deserves this award. Payne was right-on to cast him. #goldenglobes<br />
7:49 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
You know, I actually used to REALLY hate George Clooney, but after "Michael Clayton" I had a change of heart. #goldenglobes<br />
7:48 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Natalie won't respond to Ricky's diss? She's no fun :( #goldenglobes<br />
7:48 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I... guess that Portman diss was decent. But I still think Ricky can do better. #goldenglobes<br />
7:48 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I still don't understand why a Marilyn Monroe show is touting an Aguilera song in its ads. #smash<br />
7:47 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I will say, this telecast has had some better winners than last year. #goldenglobes<br />
7:45 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 20h<br />
@adamzanzie Which one is that?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass I told you, "No Strings Attached"!<br />
Hide conversation<br />
7:44 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 20h<br />
@adamzanzie Hmm...maybe. I think that's the likeliest choice, but I don't know.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass Hopefully the winner will be... the one that I want to win. Lol<br />
Hide conversation<br />
7:43 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
The dog is standing up! #goldenglobes<br />
7:42 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 20h<br />
Okay...well...good. The Artist! Formidable! #GoldenGlobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass Hey, what do you think will win Best Drama? I have no idea, honestly. Maybe "The Descendants"?<br />
Hide conversation<br />
7:42 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
The dog from The Artist! Yay! #goldenglobes<br />
7:41 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Okay. I'm REALLY curious to see what wins Best Drama now. #goldenglobes<br />
7:41 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Just give it to The Artist already. #goldenglobes<br />
7:39 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Jane Fonda. She still exists. #goldenglobes<br />
7:39 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
"Everybody in England let me trample their history." Ya think? #goldenglobes<br />
7:39 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie 20h<br />
What are Fincher and Clooney doing...? #goldenglobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@adamzanzie Oh. lol<br />
Hide conversation<br />
7:38 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
What are Fincher and Clooney doing...? #goldenglobes<br />
7:37 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie 20h<br />
@adamzanzie Oh. lol<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Streep just got bleeped. #goldenglobes<br />
7:37 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
You know, I actually would have preferred Gervais play Thatcher. #goldenglobes<br />
7:36 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Meryl Streep wins for playing an English dictator? Whatever. #goldenglobes<br />
7:35 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
What's funny about calling Firth a racist? Christ almighty, Gervais. #goldenglobes<br />
7:34 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie 20h<br />
Is Dujardin the first since the silent era to winBest Actor for a mute performance? Usually these awards only go to actresses. #goldenglobes<br />
ckoh @ckoh 20h<br />
@adamzanzie unless arkin won for the heart is a lonely hunter decades ago, you may be right<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@ckoh Did he? I thought Arkin didn't win anything until Little Miss Sunshine. I may be wrong, though.<br />
Hide conversation<br />
7:31 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
ckoh @ckoh 20h<br />
@adamzanzie don't know, just trying to remember mute male roles<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 20h<br />
@adamzanzie But he spoke...a line, but still..<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass To be sure, Patty Duke won this sort of award too for The Miracle Worker, in which she managed to say "waaaaah" (water).<br />
Hide conversation<br />
7:29 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 20h<br />
@adamzanzie But he spoke...a line, but still..<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass What's the one word he says in the movie? "Gladly," or something.<br />
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7:28 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Is Dujardin the first since the silent era to winBest Actor for a mute performance? Usually these awards only go to actresses. #goldenglobes<br />
7:27 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
ckoh @ckoh 20h<br />
@adamzanzie unless arkin won for the heart is a lonely hunter decades ago, you may be right<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie 20h<br />
@ckoh Did he? I thought Arkin didn't win anything until Little Miss Sunshine. I may be wrong, though.<br />
ckoh @ckoh 20h<br />
@adamzanzie don't know, just trying to remember mute male roles<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Maybe Dujardin will give a speech in French. #goldenglobes<br />
7:26 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Ryan Gosling isn't there? Hmm. #goldenglobes<br />
7:25 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick 20h<br />
Can we please shoot WAR HORSE right now and put it out of its misery? #goldenglobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@LouLumenick NO!<br />
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7:25 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
"Epic filmmaking." Amen. #goldenglobes<br />
7:24 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Oooh, nice. Michelle Pfeiffer introducing "War Horse". #goldenglobes<br />
7:23 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Confession: that "Cheers" theme song in the State Farm ad used to make me cry when I was little. (don't ask)<br />
7:23 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Well, damn. "Luck" looks like a pretty beastly show. Too bad I don't have Showtime.<br />
7:22 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
This is like the 3rd time I've seen this Diet Pepsi ad. I miss the days when Coke sponsored the #GoldenGlobes.<br />
7:20 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
When did this telecast become bilingual? #goldenglobes<br />
7:19 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Jaime Grijalba @jaimegrijalba 20h<br />
@adamzanzie stop being so... snarky. Es un show internacional, chico, sé un poco más abierto!<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 21h<br />
What did Ricky say? #GoldenGlobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass I think he got bleeped or something.<br />
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7:17 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Richard Roeper @richardroeper 21h<br />
Nobody loves Scorsese more than I do. But how the f--- does he watch his own movie in 3D with those glasses?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@richardroeper What do you mean? "Hugo" was perfectly fine in 3D.<br />
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7:16 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
ckoh @ckoh 21h<br />
hey marty won! liked his george harrison doc much more but glad a real director got it<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@ckoh Man, I still need to see his Harrison doc. Missed it when it was on TV.<br />
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7:16 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
ckoh @ckoh 21h<br />
@adamzanzie it's amazing especially if you love the Beatles as much as I do<br />
ckoh @ckoh Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
hey marty won! liked his george harrison doc much more but glad a real director got it<br />
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7:15 PM - 15 Jan 12 via TweetDeck · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie 21h<br />
@ckoh Man, I still need to see his Harrison doc. Missed it when it was on TV.<br />
ckoh @ckoh 21h<br />
@adamzanzie it's amazing especially if you love the Beatles as much as I do<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
As bad as this whole telecast is, I'll forgive the HFP for awarding Scorsese and Spielberg in the same night.<br />
7:14 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Okay... I was kind of *not* expecting Scorsese to win at all. But he did! HAPPY DAY! #goldenglobes<br />
7:14 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
HOLY SHIT! #goldenglobes<br />
7:13 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Give this one to Scorsese. Or Payne. #goldenglobes<br />
7:13 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Downey Jr. just referred to The Artist as "daring". I think he just spoiled the winner for Best Musical/Comedy. #goldenglobes<br />
7:12 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Guess not.<br />
7:11 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
will Downey Jr. roast the girls in the audience like he did last year? #goldenglobes<br />
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7:11 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Tom Bergeron @Tom_Bergeron Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
Ricky Gervais just found being tied to a bed at the Beverly Hilton by Madonna.<br />
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6:58 PM - 15 Jan 12 via Twitter for iPad · Details<br />
Quina Gonzalez @ANIUSHKA 20h<br />
@Tom_Bergeron omg hahaha<br />
Synthia Charbonneau @synamelya 21h<br />
@Tom_Bergeron you make me laugh......so much<br />
Duffy M...... @DuffyM__ 21h<br />
@Tom_Bergeron They may have given him carte blanche this year, but they sure didn't give him much stage time AT ALL. #BOOOO<br />
AmyRose @blmcnty 21h<br />
@Tom_Bergeron Never said Hollywood wasn't going to get even this year!<br />
steve baxley @lugnuts6 21h<br />
@Tom_Bergeron with seth rogan watching ? (sorry about that, had to be done)<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
THIS is Ben Kingsley's current wife: vivoluxury.com/wp-content/upl…<br />
7:09 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Apparently I missed a great shot of Kingsley with a babe on his lap. Oh, well. #goldenglobes<br />
7:08 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
As much as I love Andrew Stanton, I can't get too much worked up about "John Carter".<br />
7:07 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Why is Freeman bringing up "Red" again? Christ, don't give that movie any more love. #goldenglobes<br />
7:05 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
gtripp @gtripp 17h<br />
@adamzanzie I loved Red!<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
"And Sidney... MR. POITIER!" #goldenglobes<br />
7:04 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 21h<br />
That Morgan Freeman clip from The Electric Company is going to give me nightmares. #GoldenGlobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass Me, too...<br />
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7:03 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Out of all these Freeman clips I'm only excited pleased to see an "Unforgiven" tribute. #GoldenGlobes<br />
7:03 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I only saw a little of "Red" when I worked at AMC, and it was so atrocious I swore off Freeman AND Helen Mirren for months. #goldenglobes<br />
7:00 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I kind of want to see Poitier winning this award tonight instead of Freeman, but he probably already won it years earlier. #holdenglobes<br />
6:57 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
That was a fitting standing ovation. Virgil Tibbs himself deserves nothing less. #goldenglobes<br />
6:56 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
POITIER!!!!! #goldenglobes<br />
6:56 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
"The Descendants" was certainly well-directed by Payne, but is Reese right to call it "masterfully" directed? I dunno. #goldenglobes<br />
6:55 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
This telecast might even be worse than that one they did were the winners were merely "announced" due to the writers' strike. #goldenglobes<br />
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6:54 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
ckoh @ckoh 21h<br />
@adamzanzie it's certainly even more dull. plus the films are worse<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Coretta Scott didn't like "Mississippi Burning", after all. #goldenglobes<br />
6:50 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Spencer just thanked MLK, but judging from those reviews I doubt MLK would have liked "The Help" much. #goldenglobes<br />
6:49 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
These nods were pretty bad to begin with. They didn't even nominate Chastain for the right movie. #goldenglobes<br />
6:48 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Give it to the Descendants gal. #goldenglobes<br />
6:47 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Jake Cole @notjustmovies Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
Matt Leblanc wins for his fantastic performance in zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:45 PM - 15 Jan 12 via TweetDeck · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@egallion Meh. I rarely watch the stuff he exec-produces because his heart is rarely in them. Anyway, he's not writing or directing it.<br />
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6:45 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I didn't even hear the "penis joke" Fey/Lynch allegedly just made. That's how bored I am. #goldenglobes<br />
6:44 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@egallion I... dunno. Maybe I'll watch it, but I've never watched a musical show before. You think it'll be good?<br />
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6:42 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Will somebody explain to me why a show about Marilyn Monroe features a Christina Aguilera song? #smash<br />
6:42 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
*sigh* Well, at least we have Billy Crystal to look forward to in the spring, right?<br />
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6:40 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Oh, yeah: "Homeland", right? Duh. #goldenglobes<br />
6:37 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
Fun fact: Someone once texted me claiming to be Claire Danes. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:36 PM - 15 Jan 12 via TweetDeck · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I'm sorry... what did Claire Danes just win again? I'm losing interest in the show, it seems. #goldenglobes<br />
6:36 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Dustin H. thanking his wife and his agent for making him a presenter? I don't get it. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:35 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Benjamin Kramer @voraciousfilmgo 21h<br />
@adamzanzie a joke?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Good speech. We hear so many bad things about Iran these days, so it's nice to hear something good. #goldenglobes<br />
6:34 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
jim emerson @jeeemerson Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
Who is this foreign woman introducing the foreign films?<br />
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6:32 PM - 15 Jan 12 via Tweetbot for iPhone · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
So, I guess I really need to see "A Separation" now... #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:32 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
If Ricky doesn't come back at Madonna I will be super-disappointed. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:32 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Gotta hand it to Madonna: that was a fine diss. But there was no competition, really. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:31 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Oh, come on, Ricky. Is that the best you can do? #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:31 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Elton PWNED. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:30 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
My gut tells me "The Descendants" might win. And that's okay; I mean, it's not my favorite of the nominees, but I liked it. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:30 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Okay, bring on the early predictions: what do you all think will win Best Drama? #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:29 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Thanks you, News Channel 5, for keeping us up on snowy weather in the STL.<br />
6:28 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 21h<br />
@adamzanzie It's the remake...would you expect anything else?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass Weeeeelllllll... I liked Jackson's remake. But not Guillermin's.<br />
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6:27 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Wait, what? Jessica Lange previously won for that god-awful Kong remake? Or am I mishearing things? #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:25 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@egallion Methinks they're both doing equally well, but you know that already ;)<br />
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6:23 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Macy and Huffman singing. I like this. #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:23 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Oh, wow: Woody didn't show up. What a surprise. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:23 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Give it to The Descendants. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:22 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Fake Armond @ArmondWhite Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
Good. TANTAN won for Best Fuck You Spielberg.<br />
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6:20 PM - 15 Jan 12 via Twitter for iPhone · Details<br />
Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick 22h<br />
Sorry, I don't think a #goldenglobe win is going to sell TINTIN to the animation branch for #oscars<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@LouLumenick That's what I'm afraid of. I hope it does, though. The only spoiler might be "Rango".<br />
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6:19 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
edgarwright @edgarwright Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
Go Spiels!<br />
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6:18 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
agnesnutter @agnesnutter 21h<br />
@edgarwright you at the globes?<br />
Robb Clarke @robbclarke 21h<br />
@edgarwright Congrats<br />
Drew Manning @DrewManning 21h<br />
@edgarwright Go Spiels! - He couldn't have done it without you, Mr. Cornish and Mr. Moffat!<br />
Rena @library_vixen 21h<br />
@edgarwright @nickjfrost @simonpegg My kid told me that 3 of her favorite British people were involved with Tintin! :D #namedropsarecool<br />
Liliana kekalih @owheylily 21h<br />
@edgarwright congrats to you and your pal @simonpegg for Tintin win!<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Spielberg almost forgot to thank Kate. Glad he remembered at the last minute. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:18 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Simon Pegg @simonpegg Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
Steven Spielberg just name checked me and @nickjfrost, I jumped off the bed and hurt my thigh. #swingsandroundabouts<br />
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6:16 PM - 15 Jan 12 via TweetDeck · Details<br />
Karen Brown @kannbrown 21h<br />
@simonpegg @nickjfrost Aww, so cool! Congrats getting the Spielberg shoutout!<br />
Logan Michaels @Logan1275 21h<br />
@simonpegg @nickjfrost #ActorsProblems You work out for schwimmer, but get out of shape for Speilberg?<br />
Adam Ostegard @OZ1313 21h<br />
@simonpegg @nickjfrost Hey, remember that time when Spielberg dropped your names! That was cool!<br />
Nathaniel Ochoa @NateTheGreat84 21h<br />
@simonpegg @nickjfrost Hopefully that is just what it takes for you two to finally get some exposure in Hollywoodland :)<br />
Rachelle @Samhaeyn 21h<br />
@simonpegg @nickjfrost #Proudmoment I would have loved to have seen you guys there though.<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 22h<br />
This is probably the earliest in an award show Spielberg has accepted an award. #GoldenGlobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass Yeah, I think the last time he won it was w/Eastwood for "Letters from Iwo Jima".<br />
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6:16 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
YEAAAAAAAAAAAH SPIELBERG! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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6:14 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
TINTIN, PLEASE! #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:13 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Oh, come on, Ricky. There are a million ways to roast Clooney, and you didn't use any of them! #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:12 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Gervais returns! #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:11 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
They're playing music on Dinklage? #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:10 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Confession: I thought the dwarf in "In Bruges" was Dinklage. But it wasn't. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:09 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Dinklage FTW! #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:09 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Again, these are great actors, so I don't care who wins. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:08 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
Free Ricky Gervais! #goldenglobes<br />
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6:07 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
jim emerson @jeeemerson 22h<br />
About time Meek's Cutoff won something!<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@jeeemerson Lol. A particularly impressive feat after Tarantino called it one of the worst movies of the year!<br />
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6:07 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Everyone does seem to be kissing Harvey Weinstein's @$$ tonight. #GoldenGlobes<br />
6:06 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Question: why do they give awards like this if they're just gonna play people off the stage w/music? #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:59 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Give it to Bill Nighy. #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:57 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Is @ebertchicago not live-tweeting the #GoldenGlobes. Not that he's missing anything...<br />
5:57 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Maybe they should hire Calvin Klein to direct "Shame 2".<br />
5:55 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
There's a lot of globes (i.e. cleavage) on this telecast, in the show and in the ads. #dietpepsi<br />
5:54 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
At first I thought this Cadillac ad was a "Tree of Life" promo. #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:53 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
ckoh @ckoh 22h<br />
guess nobody cares about the vertigo flap wrt the artist's score. also why wasn't tintin's score nominated? better than war horse's<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@ckoh I like the "War Horse" score, but yeah, "Tintin" deserved a nod, too.<br />
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5:51 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
Isn't the #GoldenGlobes supposed to be the fun awards show?<br />
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5:47 PM - 15 Jan 12 via TweetDeck · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 22h<br />
There's a movie called Machine Gun Preacher. #GoldenGlobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass That was a movie I'm proud I didn't see last year!<br />
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5:49 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I can't believe "Machine Gun Preacher" got a nod of any kind. #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:49 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Jake Cole @notjustmovies 22h<br />
Really? The WAR HORSE score got nominated for anything? #GoldenGlobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@notjustmovies It also has a Best Drama nod.<br />
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5:46 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
GIVE IT TO JOHN WILLIAMS!!!!!!!!!!<br />
5:46 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Jimmy Fallon and Adam Levine, 2 of the biggest douchebags ever, introducing Best Original Score? WTF? #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:45 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 22h<br />
This #GoldenGlobes really lacks any sort of energy. At least last year's had a darker, hostile tone. This one is just...nothing.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass I agree. How was Gervais' opening piece? Did he go easy or something? I missed it.<br />
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5:43 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Lou Lumenick @LouLumenick 22h<br />
This show is alarmingly boring on balance so far. Is Ricky holding back? #goldenglobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@LouLumenick I missed Gervais opening thing, but so far I agree with you. Nothing exciting is going on...<br />
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5:43 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
"Soup Opera." How original. #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:42 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
As much as I love THE GODFATHER, I will always hate it for bringing the word "consigliere" into the common lexicon.<br />
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5:40 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Baran Zoral @baranzoral 22h<br />
@BilgeEbiri equally hate the "leave the gun, take the cannoli" references/jokes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Damian Lewis is famous on Homeland now, but I well remember him from "Dreamcatcher". #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:41 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I was gonna say these TV awards are boring, but I seem to say that every year. #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:40 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 22h<br />
@adamzanzie Yes, Breaking Bad. Not much of a Grammer fan, anyway.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass Because of his politics, right? lol<br />
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5:39 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Sean Bean in "Game of Thrones" looks more like... well, Boromir, I guess. #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:38 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Nick Gass @NickGass 22h<br />
Steve Buscemi or Bryan Cranston. If not...I will be angry. #GoldenGlobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@NickGass Wait what was Cranston nominated for again? Breaking Bad, right? Or something else? #GoldenGlobes<br />
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5:37 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Kelsey Grammar winning instead of Jeremy Irons and Steve Buscemi? Heresy! #GoldenGlobes<br />
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5:36 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie 22h<br />
It just occurred to me: the only thing by Todd Haynes I've seen is "I'm Not There", and nothing else. #GoldenGlobes<br />
ckoh @ckoh 22h<br />
@adamzanzie safe, poison & far from heaven all worth watching. velvet goldmine has redeeming facets as well<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@ckoh Yeah, I don't know why I've neglected Far From Heaven for so long. It's on my list.<br />
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5:34 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Jake Cole @notjustmovies 22h<br />
Nicole Kidman looks like she just bathed in virgin's blood. #GoldenGlobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@notjustmovies Ha, yeah I noticed that.<br />
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5:33 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Harrison Ford sitting next to Nicole Kidman? Hmm. #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:33 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
JEREMY IRONS! And... some other chick! #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:32 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Dear Frank Martinez, whoever you are: If you know what's good for you, you'll stop working for McDonalds. They. Are. Evil. #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:29 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Bilge Ebiri @BilgeEbiri Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
"Good potato." That is all.<br />
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5:28 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
john lichman @jlichman 22h<br />
@BilgeEbiri was waiting for "Brought to you by Scientology."<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
It just occurred to me: the only thing by Todd Haynes I've seen is "I'm Not There", and nothing else. #GoldenGlobes<br />
5:26 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
ckoh @ckoh 22h<br />
@adamzanzie safe, poison & far from heaven all worth watching. velvet goldmine has redeeming facets as well<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie 22h<br />
@ckoh Yeah, I don't know why I've neglected Far From Heaven for so long. It's on my list.<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
It seems I keep forgetting to include the #GoldenGlobes tag. Starting now.<br />
5:25 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Richard Roeper @richardroeper Reply Retweeted Favorite · Close<br />
Oh great, now Kate Winslet's probably gonna do some fake British accent...<br />
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5:25 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
AshleyOhAshley @AshleyDidIt 22h<br />
When actors become #famous they always get a British accent you didn't know ? LOL ~ "@richardroeper<br />
Lisa Manna @LisaManna 22h<br />
@richardroeper Like Madonna and Johnny Depp?<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
*Mildred<br />
5:25 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Oh, well. I didn't watch "Mildren Pierce", but I still think Emily should have won instead of Kate.<br />
5:24 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Emily Watson better win this award, whatever it is.<br />
5:24 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Oh, Julian Fellowes! I haven't seen him win something since his "Gosford Park" Oscar.<br />
5:22 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
"When was the last time you did a cold reading in front of Steven Spielberg"? Well... she *was* in "The Lost World", Rob Lowe, so STFU.<br />
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5:21 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Yeah... Rob Lowe kind of shouldn't even be breathing the same air as Julianne Moore.<br />
5:20 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Goooooooooooooooooooold!<br />
5:18 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Who shot this Trop50 commercial? Brian De Palma?<br />
5:18 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Why do I get the strange feeling L'OREAL will be sponsoring the Globes for another eternity?<br />
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5:17 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Kenji Fujishima @kenjfuj 23h<br />
I'll consider Laura Dern's win for ENLIGHTENED as a sideways honor for INLAND EMPIRE. Just because I feel like it. #GoldenGlobes<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
@kenjfuj So will I! ;)<br />
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5:16 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Benjamin Kramer @voraciousfilmgo 23h<br />
@adamzanzie @kenjfuj I'll take it as a lifetime achievement award<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Did Laura Dern just thank Frank Capra...?<br />
5:16 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Wait... *what* did Laura Dern just win for? I wasn't paying attention.<br />
5:14 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Glad to see Plummer win<br />
5:14 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Sadly, I missed Gervais entire opening monologue :(<br />
5:13 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Okay... WOW. I finally got access to a TV on campus with the Globes airing.<br />
5:13 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
I'm a weird position right now. I can't watch the Globes because NBC isn't streaming them online. HELP!<br />
4:09 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · Details<br />
Adam Charles Zanzie @adamzanzie Reply Delete Favorite · Close<br />
Does anyone know any websites that are streaming the #goldenglobes right now?<br />
4:02 PM - 15 Jan 12 via web · DetailsAdam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-63070503164685620592011-12-28T09:00:00.001-08:002016-09-07T17:35:36.721-07:00War Horse (2011)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When this movie was over, I wept. It was nothing for me to be ashamed of. Steven Spielberg’s <i>War Horse</i> is a painterly masterpiece, woven together with beauty and sadness, strength and heartbreak, triumph and love. It tells the story of a horse that is plunged headfirst into the cauldron of World War I, and the teenage boy who descends into the hells of the trenches to find it and bring it home. But it is more, too. It invited me, like a warm blanket, into its world of green pastures and smoky battlefields, and introduced me to characters—both human and animal—that I began to love and adore with great emotion, as if they were real presences in my own life. It would not be enough for me to say that this is my favorite movie of the year. This is one of the best movies I've ever seen.<br />
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All great filmmakers have one thing in common: they expand on ideas that worked for them in the past. From there, they create new and unexpected works of art. Steven Spielberg is no exception: he is our finest poet of communication breakdowns. We remember, from his films, Elliot, Gertie and Michael teaching E.T. how to talk; Nettie teaching Celie how to read; Adams, Joadson and Baldwin teaching Cinque about American customs; Viktor Navorski teaching himself how to speak English. But <i>War Horse</i> is a horse of a different color, and in more ways than one. Spielberg has always had a penchant for challenging his audiences to invest their care in the narratives of unusual protagonists. This time, he has mounted his most compelling narrative challenge for us since <i>A.I.</i>, by centering his latest film around a teenage boy learning to communicate—intimately—with a creature that doesn’t talk at all.<br />
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Jeremy Irvine plays Albert Narracott, a young English lad growing up on his family’s farm in Devon in 1913. In the opening passages of <i>War Horse</i>, Spielberg and his world treasure of a cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, soar over the lime-green fields of England, in a merrily nostalgic evocation of John Ford’s <i>The Quiet Man</i>, before settling down to a starry-eyed Albert watching, through a fence, while a pregnant mother horse gives birth to a baby fawn. The boy can hardly hold back his excitement. This could very well be the first time he has ever born witness to an event of profound, natural beauty.<br />
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The newborn horse is not as amused with its own surroundings, which Spielberg makes palpably felt in a harrowing little scene where it is taken, kicking and screaming, away from its mother, whom it will never see again. It has been purchased by Albert’s father, Ted (Peter Mullan), who snagged it at an auction for no good reason other than to smite his bourgeoisie landlord, Lyons (David Thewlis), while they were both flexing their muscles in a futile game of prewar class warfare. Spielberg, indeed, bookends <i>War Horse</i> with two sequences set at auctions: the first one, a bet for the horse’s ownership, and the second, a bet for its life. His basic point is that horses, no matter if they’re impressive or unimpressive creatures, will always be at the mercy of us. We are the ones who determine whether they are destined for happy lives or as fodder for the meat grinder, and sometimes, he argues, we do it in the names of greed and masculine pride. In war and in life, just because horses are beings of a lesser intelligence, they are not afforded the luxury of choice.<br />
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What Albert Narracott does want to establish, between himself and the new horse, is a system of trust. Remember Elliot having to bait E.T., with Reese’s Pieces, in order to lead him into his house? Spielberg replicates some of that magic here, when Albert realizes he’s going to need to bait the new horse, somehow, in order to earn its friendship. Why not turn his back, and allow the bucket to resonate more like a breakfast waiting patiently for its customer, instead of like an intimidating instrument of force-feeding and torture? Albert tries this out, and it works. The horse quietly steps up, eases its snout into the bucket and chows down, and remains admirably calm while Albert pets it and bestows upon it a name: “I’m gonna call you Joey.”<br />
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Albert’s family, the Narracotts, is one of the most lovable movie families in recent memory. Albert is an idealistic young lad; Ted is alternately a drunken fool and an observant farmer who knows what to do in a time of economic panic; and Rose (Emily Watson) is a headstrong wife and mother (the most fully-realized heroine in Spielberg’s career since, well, <i>ever</i>) who maintains the family’s sanity even while struggling to maintain her own. In one of the funniest and, at the same time, most touching shots composed by Spielberg in the film, the director places Rose in the foreground, allowing her to have a private moment all to herself while the farm goose waddles in the lower right-hand corner of the frame, minding its own business. This goose likes to act as man of the house in Ted and Albert’s place, and has the freedom to do what they are in no position to do—that is, chase away unwanted authorities, like Lyons, whenever they descend on the Narracott homestead and give the family a hard time.<br />
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The first hour of <i>War Horse</i> is a joyous one, allowing the audience to get to know the Narracotts, and the rest of the village, as they slowly but surely rally behind Albert’s efforts to raise Joey as a farm horse that can plough through even the hardest of stone and mud. But this barely even begins to describe the range of Spielberg’s film, which reaches a turning point after Ted realizes what must be done to save the family farm: sell Joey to the English cavalry. Over the course of the film, Joey will fall into the custody of a host of different characters, all of whom are impressed by the power and strength of this horse, and many of whom, no doubt, would like to take it home with them after the war is over. We follow Joey and, later, Albert—when he enlists in the war in hopes that Joey will be recovered—as their adventures carry them from forests to hillsides, windmills to No Man’s Land, against a nightmarish depiction of trench warfare that invites comparison to Kubrick and <i>Paths of Glory</i>.<br />
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The film remains true to the 1982 children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo, which I have already <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/search/label/Michael%20Morpurgo">read and covered</a>, and also, presumably, to the recent London stage play by Nick Stafford, which I haven’t yet seen. To adapt Morpurgo’s complicated story, Spielberg has hired two of England’s most talented screenwriters, Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, whose resumes look almost tailor-made for a project of this emotional magnitude. Hall was the one who located the human story in <i>Billy Elliot</i>, making that film one of the surprise indie hits of the late 1990’s. Curtis is more well-known in the industry, perhaps because of his enjoyable romantic comedies (<i>Notting Hill, Love Actually, The Girl in the Café</i>), although it wasn’t until 2009’s <i>Pirate Radio</i> when I thought he finally managed to reach a kind of cinematic brilliance. Spielberg may have also hired Curtis because of his involvement with the 80's television show <i>Blackadder Goes Forth</i>, which I haven’t watched, but which, evidently, was the work of a filmmaker who already knew a thing or two about the first world war.<br />
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Together, Hall and Curtis lay the ground plan for Spielberg’s vision: to make a film about the war in which all sides are granted their dignity. Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston) and Major Stewart (Benedict Cumberbatch) are gentle, commanding officers of the British cavalry who treat Joey and his eventual horse companion—a black beauty named Topthorn—as fellow soldiers deserving of their respect, while the young, sickly Emilie (Celine Buckens) and her doting grandfather (Niels Arestrup) represent the spirit of France, welcoming Joey and Topthorn into their windmill home with open arms. But there is a sympathetic portrait of Germany here, too; Spielberg does not fall into the same trap Howard Hawks and John Huston fell into, in <i>Sergeant York</i>, when they inadvertently reduced Kaiser helmet-wearing Germans to a nameless, anonymous enemy. Gunther (David Kross) and his 14-year old brother Michael (Leonhard Carow) attempt to free Joey and Topthorn from the madness of the war, while risking their own lives in the process. And it is the jolly, bearded gunman Friedrich (Nicolas Bro) who remains by Topthorn’s side at a crucial moment, and screams for Joey to run for his life just when a Panzer is about to unleash all hell on No Man’s Land.<br />
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There are no villains in this film. Why would there be? World War I was a superfluous, pointless war, and it would have been a mistake to demonize any of the world powers because none of them were guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors; the war was fought not for world freedom, but for class and politics. As Lyons, David Thewlis plays an antagonist who, despite being an upper-class bully, allows the Narracotts their chance to raise Joey, even while he remains somewhat justifiably skeptical of the horse’s skills. Lyons has a son, David (Robert Emms), who intimidates Albert with his cars and hot babes until he finds himself being rescued—by Albert—in the heat of battle, later on in the film. Brandt (Rainer Bock), the cigar-smoking German major who makes life difficult for Joey and Topthorn, is really just a hardened soldier who has taught himself to adhere by a commonly-accepted rule: don’t ever dote on horses and give them names, or else you’ll get too carried away with grief once you've seen them die on the battlefield.<br />
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Spielberg has cast every actor in this movie to perfection. I am tempted to describe how much I admired the performances by all of them, but that way madness lies. I’ll limit to myself to the Narracotts. Jeremy Irvine is quite a refreshing new discovery as Albert; he’s the kind of younger actor that directors like David Lean loved to work with, so I guess it’s not a surprise to learn that Mike Newell has cast him in an upcoming <i>Great Expectations</i> remake. Peter Mullan is an actor who’s never made a great impression on me until now. I don’t seem to recall his role in <i>Braveheart</i>, although I well remember him as the corrupt cop in <i>Children of Men</i>. Here, he bravely takes upon the role of a father who has kept his own memories of war heavily-guarded, and finds himself sometimes having to go against the wishes of his wife and son in order to protect the family. And Emily Watson, perhaps my favorite living actress, is a true blessing in the canvas. In one of the film’s most quietly moving moments, when her husband asks her how she will react if he does the unthinkable, she pointedly replies, “I may <i>hate</i> you more… but I will never love you less.” Even she is prepared to condone that decision which she fears the most.<br />
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In the past, Spielberg and his usual team of technical collaborators (Janusz Kaminski, Michael Kahn, John Williams) have managed to tackle extraordinary narratives of an awesome variety, but here they face a considerable challenge: how do you mount an epic in which the main protagonist is an animal? The original Morpurgo book relied on narration from Joey’s inner thoughts, but Spielberg has resisted that approach here, perhaps because the last time DreamWorks distributed a film narrated by a horse (2002’s <i>Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron</i>), it was a resounding box office flop. Spielberg has taken a wiser approach, I believe, by trusting his audience enough to let us figure out, for ourselves, what Joey is thinking in key sequences. When Albert, for example, teaches Joey, through clever visual expression, that there’s nothing dangerous about putting on a harness, Joey is able to silently pass this knowledge onto Topthorn later on, in a wonderfully understated moment. Or consider the climactic scene in which Joey finds himself cornered by the approaching Panzer (in a startling quotation of <a href="http://iceboxmovies.blogspot.com/2010/12/saving-private-ryan-1998-what-is.html"><i>Saving Private Ryan’s</i></a> finale), and his frightened neighing conveys to us what narration wouldn’t have needed to. In fact, Spielberg enlisted no less than 15 different horses to play Joey, but you wouldn’t know it from the finished film. By the end, Joey has emerged as the most three-dimensional character in the story.<br />
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I went into <i>War Horse</i> expecting Spielberg to mount a war odyssey on the scale of <i>Empire of the Sun</i>. I did not anticipate a film that would both remain true to the source material <i>and</i> surprise me with scenes that came out of left field; the pivotal sequence in which an English and German soldier (Toby Kebbell and Hinnerck Schonemman) must put aside their differences to rescue Joey from a web of barbed wire in No Man’s Land has already been much discussed in other reviews. I went in already familiar with Morpurgo’s story, but was amazed at how captivated I finally was with the way Spielberg had reimagined it. He closes the film, fittingly, with a visual reference to <i>Gone with the Wind</i> (his first tribute to Victor Fleming since <i>Always</i> in ’89) that, I believe, will be remembered as a classic movie ending in itself: one that asks us what Joey and Albert have finally accomplished, even as we are already cheering them on for their accomplishments. <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6QGtVMAoq3A/Tvq0xPImhMI/AAAAAAAAAUg/Yn1_xs3ds3E/s1600/joeyalbert-war-horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6QGtVMAoq3A/Tvq0xPImhMI/AAAAAAAAAUg/Yn1_xs3ds3E/s400/joeyalbert-war-horse.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>War Horse</i> is Spielberg’s Christmas gift to us. More appropriately, it’s his reward to us—a reward for our natural wisdom as moviegoers. To fully appreciate Spielberg's achievement, however, there is catch: you must see this film with a mass audience. Watch how everybody in your theater falls under its spell, one by one. I know I did. I saw it with an audience that broke into applause after it was over, and I never wanted the applause to end; movies like this deserve all the applause in the world. After the past decade, with the failures of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, what a relief it is to have this film, which states that most wars are not a question of good guys and bad guys. More often, they are a clash of human beings, unsure of why they fight each other and unaware of the common universal ideals which could ultimately unite them. Joey the horse is a represention of that ideal, and it doesn't matter that this story is set during another period in our world's history. <i>War Horse</i> is a movie for our time.Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8545661733980837263.post-57942958841465390132011-12-08T07:00:00.000-08:002012-01-22T02:58:12.016-08:00The Adventures of Tintin: Red Rackham's Treasure (1945)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.dooyoo.co.uk/GB_EN/orig/0/7/7/9/4/779442.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://img.dooyoo.co.uk/GB_EN/orig/0/7/7/9/4/779442.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A man named Bill walks into a bar, The Anchor, and tells a friend named George that he's sailing aboard the SIRIUS in a few days with Tintin and Captain Haddock. George is familiar with them because they cracked the Bird brothers case, and Bill tells him he's going treasure-hunting with them. They are overheard by a Daily Reporter, who publishes the story in the news the next day (Haddock bumps into a pole while reading the paper, alarmed that an ad on the pole descripes the Daily Reporter as "news which <i>hits</i> you").</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A man claiming to go by the name "Red Rackham" drops by Tintin's place and claims he's entitled to half a share; others claiming to go by that name drop by as well (one carrying a "family tree" with him). Haddock scares them off when he reveals himself as Sir Francis' descendant. By the time Thomson and Thompson have dropped by, another man -- Cuthbert Calculus -- has dropped by. He is hard of hearing, and when Haddock demands that he give "YOUR NAME!", Calculus replies, "Gone away?... What a pity! Never mind. I'll come again. I particularly wanted to speak to Mr. Tintin himself..."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Calculus tells Tintin (with some difficulty) that he's invented an underwater sub that could help Tintin avoid sharks during his journey. Much to his annoyance, he practically invites himself along for the ride (assuming Tintin has invited him, even though Tintin has tried to yell to him that he doesn't need him). After a bit of slapstick at Calculus' place, and accidentally breaking his own sub machine in half, Tintin and Haddock leave, with Calculus assuming (wrongly) that they want him to build a two-seater sub for them.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Some days later, Tintin and Haddock buy a diving suit from a merchant who warns them, "Beware, young fellow, beware! Money is the root of all evil!" and "I see that you intend to go treasure hunting... I read it in your face." Haddock accidentally breaks a mirror in the shop, which makes him paranoid the next day about the voyage. Thomson & Thompson come to inform them that Max Bird has escaped. Haddock receives a latter from his doctor stating that he has a bad liver condition and should avoid alcohol. Just then, Calculus appears and says his ship is ready, but Haddock draws a message on a wall for him: WE ARE <u>NOT</u> INTERESTED IN YOUR MACHINE! Haddock is still resistant about going on the voyage before the Thomsons suggest he is afraid, and he explodes, declaring they'll lay anchors tomorrow.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">When they set out the next day, the Thomsons catch up with Tintin/Haddock on motorboat insisting they come with them to make sure Max Bird isn't stalking them during the voyage. "Now that we are aboard you will be able to feel that you are perfectly safe," says Thomson. "To be precise," adds Thompson, "perfectly safe."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">There is trouble onboard when Bill accuses Snowy of stealing biscuits and chicken. Meanwhile, Haddock thinks there's a bomb onboard in some crates, when actually it's just steel plates. Haddock also suspects Snowy of stealing whiskey, and although they find Snowy clearly drunk, it's only because Snowy has been licking smashed whiskey from the deck. Up top, they find Calculus sleeping in a lifeboat with a box of biscuits. It turns out Calculus removed the bottles of whiskey from the crates and replaced it with the parts of his sub machine. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">No islands are sighted. The Thomsons insist the Captain may have made a mistake on his calculations, and point to where they think he is on the map. Haddock takes off his hat and "prays", then explains, "I mean, gentlemen, that according to your calculations we are now standing inside Westminster Abbey!" Tintin and Haddock privately try to figure out what they're doing wrong with the calculations, and Tintin realizes that Sir Francis probably used a French chart -- which may mean that they're too far west. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">They finally find an island, but they wait until morning to explore. In the morning, they find the remains of Sir Franc's old jollyboat, which may mean that they're near their goal. In the jungle, Snowy finds a bone and leads them to the remains of jungle natives beside an "idol" of Sir Francis. When Tintin impersonates how Sir Francis might have talked to the natives long ago ("Ration my rum!"), he is replied to by some parrots saying the same thing on the trees above. They also have trouble with some monkeys that temporarily steal Haddock's gun. They decide to take the Francis idol back to the ship.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">On the way back, a shark attacks their boat, and others follow suit. Haddock shoots at them, but Calculus appears in his shark-proof sub and scares the sharks off. This persuades Tintin to try operating the sub himself; Calculus tells him a red button can be used to release smoke in the water when he's found the treasure. Tintin descends the sub with Snowy, only for the sub's propeller to get caught in some seaweed. Believing he's found treasure, Haddock and Calculus now out, but are bemused when Tintin fails to rise to the surface. Haddock decides to use the anchor to hook onto the sub and, after some struggling, frees the sub to the surface. Snowy thinks to himself, "Weeds or not, I don't set foot in that thing again!", to which Tintin replies, "Snowy and I are setting out again immediately!"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">With his pendulum, Calculus tries to tell Haddock that the Unicorn wreck is not in the area they're searching. However, Tintin does manage to find the wreck, and dives down to it in his diving suit. The air temporarily stops working when the Thomsons stop pumping, which incites Haddock's wrath. When Calculus asks what's going on, Haddock snarks Tintin is "picking daisies down below", which Calculus reads as "having a row." So when Tintin emerges to the surface with a gold cross, encrusted with precious stones and a cutlass, Calculus is rather angry, believing Haddock lied to him.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">When Haddock himself dives, he comes up with a bottle of rum, gets drunk, dives back down <i>without</i> his helmet and is prepared to rage at the Thomsons because they "forgot to pump again!" But of course, his suit is now full of water, which Tintin and the Thomsons demonstrate by tipping him over. Having a drink of rum that evening, Tintin expresses disappointment over having not found the treasure, but Haddock says, "Oh, we'll find that tomorrow, won't we Professor Calculus?" To which Calculus, still hard-of-hearing, replies, "Perhaps, but I'm inclined to think it is rum." They then realize the Thomsons are still pumping air outside, and order them off to bed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The next morning, Tintin finds a casket and wonders if it's treasure when, suddenly, he is attacked by a shark that swallows it. Using a rum bottle as a weapon somehow makes the shark drunk, and Tintin uses the opportunity to tie the ship's rope to the shark and have it dragged up to the deck. When the shark is cut open, they find the casket in its stomach, and Haddock tries to use a case opener to open it. Inside, all they find are old documents "half eaten away by damp!" More treasure-hunting down below proves useless.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Calculus spots a cross on the island, and they row back to dig under it, which confuses Calculus: what on Earth are they digging for? They find no treasure. Calculus says the pendulum points westwards, but Haddock, in a fury, grabs it and stomps on it (Snowy then treats the pendulum like a fetch ball and brings it back to Calculus). The Thomsons, curiously, stay behind to fill in the hole ("people never look where they're going..."). By the 15th, they are at least able to raise the Unicorn figurehead, which surprises Calculus -- whose pendulum, apparently, was wrong all along. By the time they return on the 22nd, a reporter, Ken Rogers of the Daily Reporter, is desperate for an interview, and Haddock turns his "secretary" Calculus over to him for any questions. The Thomsons, meanwhile, confident that Max Bird never appeared because they were onboard during the voyage, decide to "spend a few days in the country with a farmer friend of ours."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Some days later, Calculus pays a visit to Tintin with the documents from the casket, believing he's been able to figure them out. Indeed, the documents reveal that King Charles II bestowed Marlinspike Hall to Sir Francis. This delights Calculus, who says he has enough government money (for the patent on his sub) to buy the estate back. They buy it, and in the storeroom they find a statue of St. John the Evangelist ("the Eagle of Patmos"), which is equipped with a stone globe that -- when Tintin points to the island they journeyed to - pops out a lid to reveal Red Rackham's treasure. Hearing footsteps, they run and hide, only to realize it's just Caulcus following his pendulum. This allows Haddock to set up a Maritime Gallery, where relics of the Unicorn ship will be on display in Marlinspike Hall.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">HADDOCK: Well, what do you say now, my friends? All's well that ends well, eh?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">CALCULUS: Just as I always said: more to the west!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">HADDOCK: Yes, yes. But I said: all's well that ends well. Don't you agree?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">CALCULUS: Your maritime gallery? ... I think it is very successful!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">HADDOCK: Thanks. But I was just saying that our adventures had a happy ending. They've ended, and happily!...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">CALCULUS: No thank you. Never between meals.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">HADDOCK: No, no! Blistering barnacles! All's well that ends well! <i>ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL</i>!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">CALCULUS: Without any doubt!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">CALCULUS: ...and this is just the moment to quote that old saying: All's well that ends well!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Adam Zanziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.com0