Play Misty for Me

I was a '70's kid, so I grew up on Clint Eastwood. My generation grew up on Clint Eastwood. I remember my mother taking us to see "Firefox" at our grubby, but most awesome, Spryfield Cinemas ...& despite Mom's obvious crush, Dad loved Clint too - back then every guy would've liked to be Clint for five minutes...

"A Sensitive Director" - apparently this is the most popular current thought on Mr.Eastwood ...awesome. That at 80, he is one of the most respected filmmakers in the world is well ...a proper thing. He's been doing it, and doing it well for almost 40 years. From MISTY thru 70's and 80's tough guys to Unforgiven - the end of his men without names, to the swan song for his violent characters provided in Gran Torino(I'm sad we won't see him act again, but not really - it was a perfect ending, and that song ...amazing - one classy exit). No other actor/director has achieved anything even close to this kind of career.

But, way way back ...Clint decided that "directing" a movie might be fun. He told his agent, and his agent told Warner Brothers - they said "Cool, sounds great, but we're not paying you." The rest is history.
The script for "Misty" by Jo Heims is fantastic - tight, and smart, and timely. Fatal Attraction borrows heavily, as do probably many I haven't seen. The story is of a Cali coast DJ who sleeps with one of his loyal listeners, beginning an odyssey of obsession and terror. We get to know Dave Garver and his world, as Evelyn Draper invades it. This nuanced descent into madness, by Jessica Walters, is brilliant, as is the pace and direction leading her there. She will always be my favorite version of "the stalker", but I looove JW(Arrested Development, c'mon..)and I could watch her do anything ...from the bushes, or across the street in a phonebooth...
Anyway, there are 3 excellent characters here - Dave, Evelyn, and a very young Donna Mills as Dave's on-again-off-again girlfriend. She turns in a performance every bit as subtle and honest as Jessica Walters is sexy and psycho. The love-scene is deftly handled - not the obvious work of a gun-toting tough guy. And then ther's that "wave scene" as the duo walk and talk:
"The success of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" essentially launched Flack's career as a popular singer, and the single became one of her signature songs. Flack's slower, more sensual version was used by Clint Eastwood in his 1971 directorial debut Play Misty for Me during a lovemaking scene. With the new exposure, Atlantic Records cut the song down to four minutes and released it to radio. It became an extremely successful single in the United States, hitting number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the spring of 1972 and remaining there for six weeks; the song also spent six weeks at the top of Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks [2]." Wikipedia.
Exceptional Scene - To shoot them together, with that wall of water behind them, and that song - the enormity and power of nature used to illustrate "love" as just as powerful a force ...again, the instincts of a natural director. Amazing.

So many nice character touches in this story - from Don Siegel's presence as a bartender/advisor(little Director's help for Clint, too..) to John Larch's classic smart cop, and James McEachin's pot-smokin' DJ friend, it feels like a slice of life at the time, where any adventure Dave might've had would be watchable. Enter Jessica Walters - with as much screen charisma as Clint himself, and as I watch it again I realize my "crush" on JW now eclipses even Joan Allen and the legendary Helen Mirren. I am in love with Jessica Walters... & Arrested Development only cements it. She is awesome. From coy groupee to absolute psycho, and everything inbetween ...my only problem is that her character reminds me of more than one ex-girlfriend ...such is life.
A nice piece of the character day-to-day, and a nice slice of the era, is the montage shot at the Monterey Jazz Festival. It's long and freestyle, like the music - a very nice touch all around, and clearly a personal touch by Clint. He's indulged his jazz passion more and more over the years, and I can't help but think this inspired closing his last performance with a personal tune. Super cool.
TBC

The 10 o' '10

The Ten so far...

I. Kane (1941) - Education / epic / character study - 100 books wouldn't cover it all. Can a movie destroy a life? ...yes, two, in fact.
II. Duel(1971) - 1st film / man(n) v man / nature / machine - Focus is what we have here.
III. Misty(1971) - 1st film / style / suspense / location - My single most inspirational film.
IV. Thing(1982) - Small / scary / tight / open - I love love love The Thing.
V. Buckaroo(1984) - Smart / fearless / committed - This film is absolutely unique - true to itself.
VI. Razor's Edge(1984) - Personal philosophy / experience - Life is beauty.
VII. Psycho 3(1986) - Sequel / dirty / curio strange - Mother talks on her own ...c'mon, how awesome is that?
VIII. Shawshank(1994) - Hope and despair / Stephen King - That a kind man possesses "one of the greatest imagination of our time" is extraordinary. I am a genuine fan of his work.
IX. Zodiac(2006) - Obsession / period piece / real history - What is the truth? ...and why do I need to know? Can obsession destroy a life? Oh, yeah..
X. A Team(2010) - Adaptation and expansion / reverence - If you're going to do something - do it right, but do NOT forget to have fun...even the bad guys.

Now that is one weird list ...but I do believe it is time to look more closely at why I want these 10 movies to influence my future filmmaking skills ...
Starting with the guy who, at 40 in '70, decided to direct his first feature...

LEt sLeePing CorPses LiE: a zombie interlude

Zombies scare me. Fact. I'm not sure why ...they always have. I think it's the inevitabilty ...their patience, if you will...
Night of the Living Dead scared me & it is the classic - no denying it - like The Thing, it's that ending that caps it perfectly, creating a "WTF?" instead of an "aahhh, everything's ok..."
From that I would've jumped all the way to 28 Days Later or Dawn of the Dead(06), but Jorge Grau's Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is my personal favorite in the genre. I watched it again last night(partially in response to my spiritual tirade earlier) back to back with Slither, which I'll yammer on about at a different point, but I've sampled a lot of Zombie movies, and I think this is the one that both borrows and inspires best.
For starters, Danny Boyle is clearly a fan of this movie - with the "rage" eyes and faster "dead", 28 Days Later is almost a remake...
A friend commented that the movie looks like an Agatha Christie movie ...'til the Zombies show up. It has a very British/70's storytelling element to it ...with just that dash of Italian darkness ...almost like a Stephen King story.
They do some different things here, with the homicidal babies, and the relentless hobo ...things that stay with you a little longer, and despite it's tone, we eventually see blood aplenty.
The acting is great, and the inspector(played by Arthur Kennedy) is a fantastic character, making the film feel more like a mystery featuring the undead, as opposed to a "horror" film. The score is excellent, the suspense genuine, and the outcome is unpredictable. This is an excellent movie by almost any standard, and as I write this I can't wait to show it to someone new...

My Ultimate Zombie Fest would read something like this:

Night of the Living Dead(1968) Let Sleeping Corpses Lie(1974) Dawn of the Dead(1978) 28 Days Later(2002) Dawn of the Dead(2004) Shaun of the Dead(2004) Zombieland(2009) Let Sleeping Corpses Lie(2012) - A remake and functioning sequel/follow-up to Shaun of the Dead(by the same team, of course).

If you look for it - it has about 30 titles ("The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue" /"Don't Open the Window"), so you can pick your favorite...

It's worth it ...watch it on a misty night ...trust me.

Bill Murray & THE RAZOR'S EDGE

"America" - The last line of my favorite film.
Movies can inspire us ...affect us ...and sometimes they can answer questions we didn't know to ask...
This film, more than any other, sums up my truest philosophy on the human condition:

We all get what we truly want.

I was handed this new perspective at a time I was indulging something I thought I wanted, and it grabbed hold quickly. I was left with the question - what do I need(not want) and what does that need want? They are different. Our "learned personality" covets, and I believe this to be the downfall of North American culture.
I read a story by Kurt Vonnegut years ago called Harrison Bergeron ...about society bringing everyone down to the same level ...I think we do this to each other, but mostly to ourselves ...not so much misery loves company as impotence and fear adore company...
"Keeping up with the Jones'" has tragically created about a billion Harrison Bergerons ...only measuring ourselves against others - the "successful " ones, with no core sense of who or what we really are ...what we really need, to be the best possible version of this assemblage of gifts that any of us is.

Is life distracting us from obtaining our goals? ...or is distraction what we seek? Why does someone stay in an abusive relationship? ...what interior question is being addressed?
We measure ourselves against what we see to be success and decide it's too much ..too hard, and the fear is so warm ...

I believe we are searching, both consciously and un- , from the moment we wake til the moment we sleep, for what we truly desire in this world...
But what is it you seek ...what experience is guiding you? ..what pain or inspiration? ...what self-imposed limitation keeps that goal forever planted in the realm of the someday...?

"I didn't know I was lying, but I was." - I love that line.

Our protagonist, Larry Darrell is still a mystery to me ...but one I think of often. If honest answers are what we seek, how can life not be immeasurably rewarding?
What will make me happy? What will make this experience valuable while I'm in it? How do I affect others?
I honestly believe Bill Murray made Groundhog Day as a thematic sequel(or perhaps a philosophical follow-up) to Razor's Edge ...What is the value in anything ..anyone? How do I engage this experience unselfishly?
Beautiful.
But the lesson itself is not soft. What do you truly want? Honest answer...

At one point he visits an old friend who is not well ...listen to Larry's answer when his friend thanks him...

As for the film itself, John Byrum's direction is subtle and strong, allowing the film and the performances be patient when it's necesarry. Denholm Elliot could do no wrong in the 80's and the cinematography is gorgeous. My long-standing crush on Catherine Hicks remains undiminished ...Child's Play, Star Trek IV ...and she's great here(don't hate her)...as is Teresa Russell - lovely, vulnerable, sad.
And...
I love Bill Murray's performance as Larry Darrell, but I just love Bill Murray ...I think he knows who he is ...or at least, he's not afraid to look.
I could have discussed Ghostbusters - I think it's a perfect movie - Life Aquatic, Broken Flowers, etc...amazing, and I would give him the "best cameo of all time" award for Zombieland, but between the ultimate messages of Groundhog Day and Razor's Edge I think it's the personal philosophy of the actor that gets me most. GD feels more European in tone every time I see it ...and what a message - value what is valuable. That's it.
All the players in RE seek, and recieve ...but, like a great number of our lives I suspect, you have to look back at the question, and realize, that this and only this, provides the answer that is your day to day existence. What do I want?

Mr.Murray indulges both the exquisite beauty and the exquisite sadness that is life ...and honestly evokes that old idiom: If I didn't laugh I'd cry. I thank him and my friend Mike Goodfellow, who knew I should watch this movie...
It's like Jeopardy - sometimes the answer prompts the question itself.
I'm left with a question upon writing this. Do I want to be a filmmaker who measures himself against the works of others? No, I want to answer myself. The way the people on this list have, and then let the world form it's own questions to my answers.

There is a moment in The Razor's Edge when Larry is atop a mountain, burning his books to stay warm ...his last possessions. He is smiling - I envy that smile.

THE A TEAM ...yes, The A-Team

Okay, now you think I'm crazy ...hear me out.
The 2010 update of the 80's TV show The A-Team could easily be viewed as just another of the infinite # of remakes and sequels that Hollywood continues to churn out ..except for a few valid points.
What is the truest purpose of re-doing something? I believe the answer is "to do it better".
Seems simple right? Wrong, as we all know ...
So here's the catch ...this movie is better than the show ever was. My friend Travelin' Dave summed it up perfectly in noting that GIJoe did not succeed in making us feel that rush that the show gave us as kids ...The A-Team did. But we're not kids anymore so how does it work?
Give us what we want as adult filmgoers:
From the adrenaline fueled opening culminating in Hannibal Smith's classic line to the very end of the film when we get the iconic "If you have a problem..." AWESOME. Joe Carnahan and his team have such a genuine and obvious love for the original concept that a pervasive sense of pleasure threads the whole movie. Even the bad guys shine with great performances, nuanced dialogue, and actors who seem to be having at least as much fun as we are.
Noteworthy here is that Smokin Aces by the same director distinctly felt as though it's makers enjoyed the process far more than we did.

The film is fun ..it's that simple. The plot is neither complex nor insulting, providing a non-stop ride and plenty of time for every actor here to playaround, and even evolve a little. Watching Liam Neeson do George Peppard's Hannibal Smith is almost as fun as Chris Pine's Captain Kirk - reverence and reinvention abound. Bradley Cooper is charming beyond, and Rampage Jackson pays absolute tribute to Mr.T's BA Baracus ...buuuut Murdock was my guy.
I was a teen when the show debuted so I found it a little young even then, but Dwight Shultz's Murdock was a guaranteed laugh. Sharlto Copley(of District 9) has so much fun with this role, I'd see it again for him ...he is just so funny. Our introduction to "Howlin' Mad"(*spoilers*) has him stitching a thunderbolt into BA's wound and lighting Face on fire ...I missed dialogue because I was laughing ...great, again - good reason to go back to the theatre. Only last years Star Trek impressed me this much(in the realm of the reboot) and though I believe that to be a superior film to The A-Team, it actually accomplishes slightly less: Star Trek was a fantastic show that needed some help in recapturing the magic again... The A-Team was never a fantastic show, but one that resided firmly within camp & nostalgia ...and how to make it work as a film ...easy, make it really entertaining - take everything we liked about the show and inject it with steroids ...perfecto. In other words, do exactly what every filmmaker should set out to do - entertain us.
I guess I'm one of the few guys around who loves sequels and remakes ...these are our stories ...our youth, retold and rebooted and repackaged ...and every once in a while you get to hear a story you know you've heard before, but the guy telling it is telling it even better.

...and another THING...

I was right. I can watch it every day...then again - I am crazy, but it's just sooo good. The Thing is the type of film that I want to make. That's it...it's smart and consistent, with that flavor of character acting that I love - people that really feel like they're in those skins...Alien did it first, but this one is my favorite.
The whole film speaks in the voiced question of the original story...Who Goes There? ...at more than one turn we are left saying "Who was that? ..but who was that?" but like the book/screenplay of No Country for Old Men, The Thing is also remarkable for what isn't there: The men don't use words out of science fiction...they don't have the magic answer for us, so they feel real. Then there's the questions ..do they know if they've changed? Where is it from? The unanswered and unresolved compliment the story perfectly - no, they enhance it...I think this is what I despise most in a lot of the films of today...when they hand us not only ALL of the info we should have to discover ourselves, but usually even more than needed, making the experience not only stupid, but insulting...these "exposition scenes" I just can't stand...
Might be my favorite ending scene...no, Kane and Groundhog Day match it, but anyway, that ballsy ballsy ending is almost European in tone(and I still have no idea, much like Twelve Monkeys, what the truth is..) - I somehow doubt the upcoming remake will be so esoteric at it's edges...
Dean Cundey is a genius ...if genius means figuring out the absolute best look and feel to establish a tone for the story - it's pitch, if you will is perfect throughout, again more noticeable in films when it isn't. Though the story is messy the film is extraordinarily tidy - amazing.

So many cool posters for this film...

For three nights I've turned it on and turned away - used it as a radio show to go to sleep...awesome, with some freaky dreams to boot - I swear that score could hold up the whole film...simple, punchy, and creepy - there's a "dark inevitability" to it that unfailingly puts me in Antarctica, knowing I won't survive...or will I?
Had a discussion about "love" for film last night - love versus "like" or "really like" ...you film obsessos know what I mean...

I love The Thing, and like real love, it just keeps getting better.