Retro grit

Eric Harrison offers a sharp and insightful Houston Chronicle piece about the return of irony-free, '70s-style grit to contemporary cinema. Glad to see a savvy writer confirm what I saw coming (or, to be more precise, hoped I saw coming) here and there a couple years back.

TV viewing tip: Sleuth (1972)

Thanks to Turner Classic Movies, you can take another (or a first) look at Joseph L. Mankiewicz's original 1972 version of Sleuth just in time to compare it with Kenneth Branagh's newly released remake. The devilishly clever and impeccably acted mystery -- currently hard to find on DVD -- can be seen at 8 pm EDT Sunday (Oct. 14) on TMC.

The good, the bad and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

OK, I admit -- I checked this out, on the advice of my buddy John Guidry, expecting to laugh. But I wound up smiling instead. Go figure.

Stupid is as stupid does

Occasionally, I wonder why movie stars and other showbiz celebrities complain so stridently about having to endure interviews whenever they're promoting their latest projects. But then I read something like this, and I wonder why they ever grant interviews to anyone, ever. Let's face it: There are people in my racket who are... gee, how can I say this? I mean, the word assholes comes to mind, but it somehow seems inadequate.

Read at your own risk

Michael Caine is, hands down, my favorite film actor. And Susan Wloszczyna certainly is one of the better film journalists working right now. But, I'm sorry, both deserve black marks in their copybooks for the spoiler that appears near the end of this USA Today piece about the new Sleuth remake. (If you're ever seen Sleuth on stage, or if you recall the 1972 film adaptation, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.)

First the movie, then the musical, and now... The MTV special!

I'm old enough to recall Sunday evenings when The Ed Sullivan Show would offer live performances of production numbers from then-current Broadway musicals. (Trivia note: Davy Jones, later to star in The Monkees, appeared as the Artful Dodger in an Oliver! excerpt when that show was highlighted on the same 1964 Ed Sullivan telecast that introduced U.S. audiences to The Beatles.) And I vaguely -- very vaguely -- recall seeing a 1964 Hallmark Hall of Fame telecast of The Fantasticks when that show was just four years into its legendarily long off-Broadway run. But I can't remember ever seeing a TV presentation of a Broadway musical while that show continued to be a hot ticket on The Great White Way. But that's precisely what MTV will offer this weekend.

Sam Elliott, Flying Cowboy

Sam Elliott -- the subject of a cover-story profile I've written for the December issue of Cowboys & Indians Magazine -- hosted the world premiere launch of the official trailer for The Golden Compass Tuesday evening at the Ice Rink at Rockefeller Center in New York. Elliott plays a dashing cowboy figure named Lee Scoresby in the lavish fantasy, which opens Dec. 7 at theaters and drive-ins everywhere. And just in case you missed the Manhattan extravaganza, you can link to the trailer here.

Remembering Reign

Maybe it was because I was sitting in one of my favorite New York pubs, and it occurred to me – a thought unbidden but unavoidable, like a sudden slap to the face – that I had visited this place for the first time years ago with a friend who’s no longer alive. Or maybe it was because the song by The Who roared through the speakers of the high-tech jukebox just as a bolt of lightning illuminated the rainswept streets outside the window near my table. Whatever the reason, tonight I was reminded of Mike Binder’s Reign Over Me, and I remembered: There hasn’t been another movie that I’ve seen this year that had a comparably devastating emotional impact on me. So I have to ask: Why isn’t anyone talking about possible Oscar nominations for this masterwork? I mean, good heavens, what more does a movie have to do to be considered a contender? Or are we really in an age when we forget important things so quickly?

The Duke in 3-D

Writer/researchers Bob Furmanek and Jack Theakston want to the set the record straight regarding "myths" about Hondo. (Thanks to John Guidry for the tip.)

But seriously, folks: Jim Carrey on Burma

From Jim Carrey, by way of Crooks and Liars: “A couple of weeks ago I sent you a message about a hero of mine named Aung San Suu Kyi, a brave lady in Burma who won the Nobel Peace Prize and who has often been compared to Gandhi or Nelson Mandela. After she won 82% of the Parliamentary seats in her country, she was denied the right to govern, and held under house arrest by a military regime that has burned over 3,000 villages, forced million from their homes, raped and tortured thousands, and recruited more child soldiers than any other country in the world. That message got a lot of attention because a lot of you watched it. Now I’d like to ask you to use that power again, by sending your very own email to this address: Inquiries@un.org urging the UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon to coordinate a strong response by the United nations Security Council to the situation in Burma. …”

War stories

For the past few years, I have taught a course at the University of Houston -- Social Aspects of Film -- with a syllabus designed to make students more informed and critical viewers as they approach war on film and films on wars. To that end, we've examined the various ways that various wars – ranging from The Great War to The Gulf War, and beyond – have been rendered in cinema. We look at how filmmakers have prepared the nation for global conflicts, boosted morale with celebrations of men (and, occasionally, women) in combat – and, during post-war eras, re-examined attitudes and assumptions while questioning the morality of war.

Naturally, a major chunk of the course is devoted to the Vietnam War -- and, specifically, to the ways Hollywood-produced features of the 1960s and early '70s often alluded to U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, even as Hollywood conspicuously avoiding the production of "combat movies" (in the traditional sense of that term) set in Vietnam. (The exception that proves the rule: John Wayne's The Green Berets.)

So it is with more than pasing interest that I devoured Carrie Rickey's thoughtful article about recent and upcoming movies dealing head-on with the Iraq War. (Thanks to David Poland for the tip.) Some money quotes:

"When it comes to protest films, 'it's traditional to see movies set in a previous war that are implicitly critical of the current one,' notes [film historian Jeanine] Basinger, citing M*A*S*H. Though the 1970 black comedy was set in a Korean War medical unit, its allusions are to Vietnam.

"It's also traditional, she notes, just prior to U.S. involvement in war, to detect a call to arms in films. In the run-up to Iraq, Black Hawk Down and Behind Enemy Lines (both 2001) framed war as a fight for humanitarian values in, respectively, Somalia and Bosnia.

"'The movies that explicitly ask, "Is the war worth it?" - historically, those films come out after the conflict has ended,' says Basinger. The Best Years of Our Lives was released a year after World War II, Men in War after the Korean conflict, Coming Home and The Deer Hunter after Vietnam, and Three Kings after the Persian Gulf War.

"'That these films are coming forward during the progress of a war and questioning it sooner may mean that the general public is rejecting what our leaders are telling us . . . and want to know more about the war,' she suggests.

"During World War II, Hollywood complied with the nonmilitary Office of War Information, which aimed to have movies show an America united behind the war effort. Today there are no such guidelines, 'in contrast to that period,' says Phil Strub, Department of Defense public affairs officer."

BTW: Six years ago, many observers duly noted the flurry of war-related movies that invaded theaters and drive-ins everywhere in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. But I often have wondered: Why were these movies already green-lit -- already produced, already in the pipeline -- long before the planes crashed into the Twin Towers? Basinger views these films collectively as "a call to arms." But if so, why was that call made? To put it another way: What was in the air during, say, 1999 and 2000 that made so many producers so eager to make war movies?

The art of movie posters

Louis B. Parks has a fun piece on collectible movie posters in the Sunday edition of The Houston Chronicle. Money quote from Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne: "I think the interest (in art posters) has been triggered by the fact they have replaced masterworks... There was a time when many people could buy traditional artists, like a Renoir. Now the prices are prohibitive. So movie posters have taken up some of that role. Especially the Italian and French posters, because they are so beautiful. The artwork on the Italian posters is so stunningly beautiful, they are artworks in themselves."

Mockbusters

From the folks who gave us Snakes on a Train, more of the same, according to The New York Times. Money quote: “I’m just trying to get my films watched. Other people do tie-ins all the time; they’re just better at being subtle about it. Another studio might make a giant robot movie that ties into the Transformers release and call it Robot Wars. We’ll call ours Transmorphers. ”

Heartbreak ahead for The Heartbreak Kid?

According to Nikki Finke, the mega-hyped comedy will post an opening-weekend gross much lower than anyone predicted. On the other hand, it probably will sell more tickets than Feel the Noise.

Not about movies, strictly speaking, but...

As William Goldman told me a few years back: It's very hard to be a satirist at a time when the real world has loonier stuff than you would ever dare make up.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Received a very gracious letter the other day from Russell Crowe, thanking me for the 3:10 to Yuma piece I wrote for Cowboys & Indians magazine. In the same note, however, he politely pointed out that… that… well, that I had screwed up.

Or, as he diplomatically phrased it, that I had included stuff in the article “that was a little askew.”

Specifically: Based on outdated and/or incorrect information I had obtained elsewhere, I made passing reference “the 100-acre spread [Crowe] maintains five hours from Sydney, along the coastal flats of New South Wales, where he raises Brangus cattle.”

Not quite, I’m embarrassed to admit.

“My property,” Crowe wrote, “is now 1360 acres in the main block – with 180 acres of grain land down the river one way and 360 acres of finishing land down the valley the other way. We aren’t what you would call coastal flats, being some 18 to 20 miles inland from the ocean at about 109’ above sea level. Over time what we do on the farm has been refined. We now run a herd of 500 breeders and bulls, having gone into straight Angus about five years ago. We haven’t achieved full certification yet but we follow an organic regime. This month we are turning off about 250kg of restaurant cuts. It’s not a lot, but it’s all hand raised, home range 150 day grain fed or true home range beef and it tastes great.”

I have received letters reporting errors that have made me angry – at myself, not the sender – and I have read others that have made me laugh. But I must admit: This is the first letter of its kind that has made me hungry.

I apologize profusely for the misinformation, Mr. Crowe. But do you think that, next time I’m in Australia, I could cadge a free meal at your place?

The Fast and The Furious, Part 4

According to the Associated Press, a new sequel will reunite Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, who starred in the original 2001 flick that kicked off the franchise. "The story line of Universal's as-yet-untitled installment is being kept under wraps," Borys Kit reports, "but fast cars are involved." Gee, you think?

Episode 4

Here I am talking about Resident Evil: Extinction and 3:10 to Yuma. Not bad.

Good news, bad news for Western fans

The good news: Comanche Moon finally has a definite air date on CBS. The bad news: The six-hour miniseries will be broadcast from 9-11 p.m. ET Dec. 30, Jan. 1 and Jan. 2. Not exactly the sort of showcase you'd expect for a star-studded prequel to Lonesome Dove.

On the other hand, there's nothing but bad news for loyal viewers of Deadwood.

Worst film critic in the world

Worst person: Michael Medved
What? You were expecting maybe David Manning?