Tuesday, July 20, 2004
I was reading someone's livejournal just a few moments ago and they were writing about 'The Apartment' . Their comment about wishing that Jack Lemmon would have lived forever got me to thinking about Mister Roberts (Part of me wanted to write "The 1955 classic with Henry Fonda as the titular hero, Mister Roberts", but that would have made me sound like a complete and utter jackass).
I really like Mister Roberts because it's a shouty movie. There's lots of great shouted dialogue and heated exchanges between Henry Fonda and James Cagney. Lemmon won an Oscar for playing the weasely, Ensign Pulver.
Some of my other favourite shout-y movies are :
From Here to Eternity. I saw this on the waterfront once. They also showed 'On The Waterfront' that summer. I'm quite sure the joke wasn't lost on anyone. I went to see 'From Here to Eternity' with my roommate who had tried out for the Lion King earlier that summer. My other roommate that summer was the Altoids girl. I never went anywhere without fresh breath. I like 'From Here too Eternity' because Ernest Borgnine goes by the moniker, Fatso Jetson, and he gets in a fight with Frank Sinatra.
Stalag 17. I didn't use to have a vcr or a living room so I was encouraged by my bosses to use the library as my living room and take full advantage of the tv and vcr that was available there. It'd be sort of neat watching old black and white movies at 2 in the morning on a Sunday night at the library. Maybe 'neat' isn't the right word. Anyway William Holden's great in this movie about a prisoner of war camp. He also doesn't make many friends, 'Sefton ' (William Holden) : If I ever run into any of you bums on a street corner, just let's pretend we've never met before.
Philip and I watched Cross of Iron a few nights back and I was surprised at how good it was. Peckinpah ran out of money before the film was completed and James Coburn had to improvise the ending. Philip and I read the original script online (almost immediately after we finished watching the movie which...well it definitely proves something) and the scripted version of the last scene was pretty awful. There's lots of talk about how hard the main character is and it ends with him killing both himself and his commanding officer with a grenade. It's really quite contrived and it seems like it would make the movie pretty much unwatcheable. Basically it was a colossal piece of shit ending. The improvised ending is way badder. By 'badder' I don't mean worse or even as a short hand form of 'Black Adder', which of course would make no sense, I mean badder in the way that Philip's leather jacket makes him look badder even when he's wearing jogging pants, I mean in the way that I'd say that Jim McAlpine looks badder when he has a sunburn or Mike Bigelow looks badder when he says he's really into Slayer. You get the picture.
Last night I watched one of my all time favourite shout-y movies, The Wild Bunch. It has both William Holden and Ernest Borgnine in it. I use to confused Ernest Borgnine with Victor Borge. I think I did this especially when I saw Airwolf, the Single Guy, and All Dogs Go To Heaven 2. I like the part in the Wild Bunch where the guy who is nicely attired gets shot in the face and he's all like "I can ride, I can't see, I can ride" and you're thinking 'Guy, your face is blown off, you can't ride, don't be the guy that makes everyone wait for him, don't be that guy that noone wants to upset because he's got it bad enough, but they all secretly hate. And then the guy mulls it over for two seconds and comes to his senses, "...ah man who the fuck am I foolin' I can't, finish me off." Before he even thinks about changing his mind, 'Bang!'
If I'm ever keeping anyone late for an important appointment or I'm slowing you down while we're running from a posse, do the right thing and shoot me in the face.
I really like Mister Roberts because it's a shouty movie. There's lots of great shouted dialogue and heated exchanges between Henry Fonda and James Cagney. Lemmon won an Oscar for playing the weasely, Ensign Pulver.
Some of my other favourite shout-y movies are :
From Here to Eternity. I saw this on the waterfront once. They also showed 'On The Waterfront' that summer. I'm quite sure the joke wasn't lost on anyone. I went to see 'From Here to Eternity' with my roommate who had tried out for the Lion King earlier that summer. My other roommate that summer was the Altoids girl. I never went anywhere without fresh breath. I like 'From Here too Eternity' because Ernest Borgnine goes by the moniker, Fatso Jetson, and he gets in a fight with Frank Sinatra.
Stalag 17. I didn't use to have a vcr or a living room so I was encouraged by my bosses to use the library as my living room and take full advantage of the tv and vcr that was available there. It'd be sort of neat watching old black and white movies at 2 in the morning on a Sunday night at the library. Maybe 'neat' isn't the right word. Anyway William Holden's great in this movie about a prisoner of war camp. He also doesn't make many friends, 'Sefton ' (William Holden) : If I ever run into any of you bums on a street corner, just let's pretend we've never met before.
Philip and I watched Cross of Iron a few nights back and I was surprised at how good it was. Peckinpah ran out of money before the film was completed and James Coburn had to improvise the ending. Philip and I read the original script online (almost immediately after we finished watching the movie which...well it definitely proves something) and the scripted version of the last scene was pretty awful. There's lots of talk about how hard the main character is and it ends with him killing both himself and his commanding officer with a grenade. It's really quite contrived and it seems like it would make the movie pretty much unwatcheable. Basically it was a colossal piece of shit ending. The improvised ending is way badder. By 'badder' I don't mean worse or even as a short hand form of 'Black Adder', which of course would make no sense, I mean badder in the way that Philip's leather jacket makes him look badder even when he's wearing jogging pants, I mean in the way that I'd say that Jim McAlpine looks badder when he has a sunburn or Mike Bigelow looks badder when he says he's really into Slayer. You get the picture.
Last night I watched one of my all time favourite shout-y movies, The Wild Bunch. It has both William Holden and Ernest Borgnine in it. I use to confused Ernest Borgnine with Victor Borge. I think I did this especially when I saw Airwolf, the Single Guy, and All Dogs Go To Heaven 2. I like the part in the Wild Bunch where the guy who is nicely attired gets shot in the face and he's all like "I can ride, I can't see, I can ride" and you're thinking 'Guy, your face is blown off, you can't ride, don't be the guy that makes everyone wait for him, don't be that guy that noone wants to upset because he's got it bad enough, but they all secretly hate. And then the guy mulls it over for two seconds and comes to his senses, "...ah man who the fuck am I foolin' I can't, finish me off." Before he even thinks about changing his mind, 'Bang!'
If I'm ever keeping anyone late for an important appointment or I'm slowing you down while we're running from a posse, do the right thing and shoot me in the face.
# posted by Die Brucke @ 10:22 AM 
