Wow! I am a conservative, so that automatically makes me a fantastically wealthy plutocrat in a top hat and monocle, laughing at the suffering of the 99% while I light $50 cigars with $100 bills, but it would take me 21 years at my current salary just to afford this blackmail payment. Where do I go to get my transfer papers to the "progressive" ranks?
This same idea was done years ago--and done right, in my opinion--in a weird, sexy, twisted film called "The Company of Wolves". You haven't lived until you've seen Angela Lansbury's severed head in a pail of milk, and realized that maybe the wolf isn't really the bad guy...
Yes, I'm glad that Amazon did the right thing. Alas, doing the right thing because you fear the repercussions is not the same as doing what is right because it is right. I contacted Amazon on Wednesday morning to cancel my account. They made their choice and I made mine. Not censorship, freedom of choice.
"Hard Times" is probably my favorite Bronson film. The atmosphere, the supporting cast (they finally found the perfect venue for Strother Martin's squirrely persona) and the fight scenes. And Bronson himself...he looks like he could split wood with his mind.
One role that nobody else here has mentioned is another one I love. It was his least-likely performance, as Francis Pharcellus Church in "Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus", a TV movie from the 90's. It is a subdued, melancholy role (I wonder if it was after his beloved Jill died), but he does a good job. And just to see the all-time reigning Hollywood tough guy named "Francis" is worth it. Although, as I recall, everyone calls him Frank.
"Saving Private Ryan" is one of the great "almost...but" films of all time. Spielberg had the budget, the uniforms and the equipment to make the greatest war film of all time, then he hacked it up. The basic problem is this: Spielberg took groundbreaking effects and graphic realism, then grafted them onto all the hackneyed cliches of a thousand other films. The squad portrayed is supposed to be composed of U.S. Army Rangers, self-selected for the toughest missions, but they are actually a group of misfit schlubs. They squabble, they disobey, they make stupid decisions that cost lives. What they are, of course, is the usual assortment of "types" that every WW1 and WW2 film had--the streetwise Jew, the tough Italian, the Country Boy, the scrappy Mick. It is "The Fighting 69th" without the charm or the patriotism.
Almost...but.
I don't believe in polygamy, but--if it ever comes to pass--I want to ask my wife if Mary Katherine Ham can be our plural spouse. Smart as a whip, cute as a bug and snide as Hell. What a woman!
An interesting article, but I don't know that I totally agree that zombies have avoided the "Twilight" effect. I believe that the Godfather himself, George Romero, jumped that particular shark in "Land of the Dead." The ending of that film, which I believe approaches "Plan 9 From Outer Space" territory, portrays the reanimated, rotting corpses as another misunderstood grievance group with a legimate beef against mankind.
Give Romero another few films and he will have America become a peaceful Zombie Utopia, once all the dreadful conservatives have been eaten.
Sorry John, you lost me. "Land of the Dead" suffers from Romero's political fixations and never recovers. It is not simply that he takes the easy way out at the expense of reason, plot and common sense (Hopper's character carrying around a case of greenbacks in a post apocalyptic world? Why not collectible Hummel figurines?)
No, he allows his "message" about...uh...stuff to destroy everything that came before. We had spent almost 40 years seeing his zombies as relentless killing machines, creatures out of our darkest nightmares. Now--WHAMMO--they are just misunderstood folks with a legitimate beef against the living. Stupid, weak and worthless. Romero wanted to make his point (whatever it was) and he didn't care if it was coherent. Well, he certainly succeeded in that.
Curse Hollywood for exposing my denomination! I am the Highest of High Church Episcopalians, but never thought that a film would give away our secrets. Sure, we look like a bunch of uptight folks, wearing suits and refusing to sing anything written after 1770, but in secret we are snake-handling, tongue-speaking, fire-n-brimstone holy rollers. Damn! Now I'll never get a parking space!
Bram Stoker's novel is not only explicitly Christian, but specifically Catholic. My father always said that one of the defining moments of the story is when Van Helsing mentions that he has received a special dispensation to carry the Holy Eucharist with him, and reverently removes his hat when he says it.
"Dracula" (the novel, not any version I have ever seen on film) is drenched with Christianity. I would like to see that version on screen.
![[Avatar]](/images/avatar26.png){kind=avatar}
Branch