Welcome to the 277th Edition of my series. As I said last week, I want
to pay tribute to rock music and started with a concert film and will
mention rock songs that are part of the soundtrack so I will do this
throughout March. Not all movies will have a rock song mentioned,
especially the older ones.
Bacon Brothers: No Food Jokes Tour
(2003): This is the 17th link on The Chain and Kevin Bacon is the link
for this one. This is a concert video and maybe in technical terms it
is not a movie but I have final say on this blog so I say it can be on
here. Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael perform a 90 minute set in
front of a crowd where Kevin shows off his music talent as well as
Michael being a good musician in his own right. They play a lot of
original music that they wrote as well as their own version of FOOTLOOSE
which is the film that put Bacon into stardom. This is available on
Instant Netflix and is a pretty fun concert film with a pretty talented
Bacon as a singer.
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939): This is one of many
greats from this year which is John Ford and Henry Fonda's entry into
the year that had such films as THE WIZARD OF OZ, GONE WITH THE WIND,
and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. Henry Fonda stars as the title
character most have probably guessed is about Abraham Lincoln, soon to
have a film which chronicles his life as a vampire hunter. This is a
fictional account to his career as a self-educated attorney who takes a
murder case of two brothers which proves to be a very difficult case.
Fonda plays this part with such ease and perfection and shows his early
meetings with Stephen Douglas who would then go onto have some of the
most famous political debates of all time. He also meets his future
wife Mary. There is no encounter with Booth but apparently Ford at one
time had a scene that he did not want used of him and a very young Booth
that he had the film footage burned so it could not be used.
Au
Revoir Les Enfants (1987): This is my French film for the week that was
written and directed by Louis Malle. This takes place at a French
boarding school during WW2. This centers around a Jewish boy named Jean
Bonnet who is being hidden from the Nazis. He has a hard time
adjusting to the new school and being away from his mother at first. He
then meets a boy in his class named Julien who also has a rough life.
They are rivals at first but then become friends. This is based on
incidents in Malle's life. There is not much to explain without really
giving it away but it is a good look at life at a boarding school and
the difficulty of living in the Nazi era. When Quentin Tarantino worked
at a video store he called this movie "The Reservoir Film" because he
could not pronounce the title. Years later, he would take the word and
the dogs part of STRAW DOGS for the title RESERVOIR DOGS which will
always remain my favorite with Tarantino.
Little Brown Jug
(1948): This is my animated short for the week which I found on my
Pub-D-Hub app on the Roku Player. This is produced by Paramount and
focuses on woodland animals milling and drinking apple cider. It then
becomes a sing-along to the title song. This is a fun animated short
and I'm sure people loved singing along in theaters.
Blow-Up
(1966): Michelangelo Antonioni directed this film which stars David
Hemmings as a London photographer named Thomas. Vanessa Redgrave stars
as Jane, a mysterious woman that he photographs. When looking at the
negatives of his photographs he looks to piece together what he believes
is a murder. This takes a good look into the mind of an eccentric
photographer who will take pictures of anything he finds to be
interesting. While the main character is a fashion photographer, this
should not be looked at upon as a film on the industry. It really takes
a look at the individual mind which is Thomas in this situation. This
is one that you must stick with but has a very good conclusion to piece
everything together and might require multiple viewings. This is
Antonioni's first British film and first movie in the English language.
It is reported to be the first British film to show full frontal female
nudity. The band performing is the Yardbirds which features a pre-Led
Zeppelin Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.
Zero Day (2003): This movie
includes the alternative band Sonic Youth whose song ELIMINATOR JR. is
featured. Also, one of the kids was wearing a Pearl Jam shirt which was
quite interesting as their song JEREMY was about a school shooting.
This is Travis' Co-Op film series selection that he shows on a weekly
basis at Ball State University at the Bracken library and makes
selections for film that many do not look into on their own and I was
blown away by this selection. Ben Coccio directed and co-wrote this
film with his brother Christopher Coccio. This takes a look at two high
school students who are planning a school shooting. The movie has the
students filming themselves planning what they are doing with the
intention of the footage being found after the job is done. The camera
that was used appears to just be a home camera making the feel of the
movie quite authentic so the shaky cam method really works for this
film. It is a very independent film that had a very low budget and one I
feel deserves more attention. It was very interesting with these kids
doing their planning and acknowledging what they believe were mistakes
others used in school shootings. It was also interesting in where they
acknowledged that it was not their parents fault and even talked about
the blaming of media which they felt was very stupid. They also go onto
talk about how they were made fun of at school. This movie could raise
a lot of awareness in schools and I really would not see a problem in
showing this movie at a high school class so that a discussion can be
had within the class about the things that happen at school. Many can
in some ways relate to this film. I know in school I got made fun of a
lot and even remember someone joking that I was going to do a school
shooting which was obviously said because I got put through a lot in
school. In school, it is hard to think about how there is life after
high school but I just thought of life day by day and always tried to
fit in. I admit one of the things I did to try to fit in was make fun
other others myself thinking that would bring me into the "cool" crowd.
It is interesting to think of this now and I hold no grudges against
those that I felt mistreated me at school as long as now we can be
adults. To the ones I made fun of I apologize and realize now how wrong
that was that I was trying to fit in. This movie was actually shot in
1999 shortly after the Columbine shootings and did not finish until
2001. However, the filmmakers delayed the release on account of the
9/11 attacks and even did some re-editing putting out the finished
product in 2003. Though this is not for everyone, it does not glorify
school shootings and something that groups should watch and discuss
because these are very serious issues as we probably have not witnessed
our last school shooting.
21 Hours at Munich (1976): This is my
tv movie for the week which is a dramatization of the horrible situation
in the 1972 Olympics where Arab terrorists took hostage and murdered 11
Israeli athletes. William Holden stars as the head investigator who is
trying to end it without the hostages getting hurt. There is nothing
upbeat about this film but the incident was a very horrible one where
this is kind of shot like a documentary which works for some and not for
others. If looking for things like character development, this will
not be for you. It is a pretty good retelling in my opinion. This is
available on Instant Netflix. Many years later in 2005, Steven
Spielberg would direct the movie MUNICH which is really more the
aftermath of what happened in this film.
If I Leap (2009): This
is one of those very rare weeks where I have two short films on one
edition as the last one was a lot older and as you see this is much
newer. I found this on HBO On-Demand. This takes place in a convent
where one nun takes a liking to a man and must evaluate her life
decisions. The performances were pretty good and worth about 20
minutes.
The Wages of Fear (1953): This is my second French film
for the week and this one was directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and
stars Yves Montand. This is a pretty suspenseful film where a South
American jungle needs supplies of nitroglycerine and four men are hired
for this dangerous job and try to work as a team but form a dangerous
rivalry in these efforts that are life-threatening. Montand and the
other actors were very good in their performances but saying anything
else will give this away. This is available on Instant Netflix.
Rugrats:
Tales from the Crib: Three Jacks and a Beanstalk (2003): I end this
week with this feature length episode of RUGRATS which was part of this
Tales from the Crib series and I believe this is the last episode.
Believe it or not, this is part five of a Mo'Nique series which probably
ends this week and she voices the motherly cow in this. The very
resourceful child Tommy Pickles, Phil, and Chucky are all three Jacks
among the girls being there for the ride and the mean cousin Anjelica is
the giant who the Rugrats must defeat. I remember watching this as a
kid and was a great cartoon. Even my mom always really liked this show
so it was good to revisit this series. There are a few obvious moments
of cartoon violence but there is also a good message about friendship
and working together. This even has a few musical numbers.
Well,
that is it for this week. Stay tuned for next week which so far
includes more Kevin Bacon, Penelope Cruz, Jennifer Connelly, Sandra
Bullock, F.W. Murnau, the late Jane Russell, and many others. I guess I
don't have much that feature rock music but stay tuned for next week
which features music from John Lennon and Sting.
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