Hi, everyone! Tonight, on Mastodon, I will be hosting the #TubiThursday watch party! Join us for 1987’s The Principal!
You can find the movie on Tubi or YouTube and you can join us on Mastodon at 9 pm central time! (That’s 10 pm for you folks on the East Coast.) We will be using #TubiThursday hashtag! See you then!
Everyone remembers the “Mad as Hell Speech” from Sidney Lumet’s 1976 satire, Network.
Personally, I think this scene below is just as good. Replace “tube” with TikTok and Bluesky and you’ll have a pretty good explanation for why the world today is full of so many angry people who think they know more than they do.
(Usually, heavy-handed scenes annoy me. Fortunately, much like David Fincher with Aaron Sorkin’s script for The Social Network, Sidney Lumet knew the right directorial tone to take when translating Paddy Chayefsky’s script to the screen. One shudders to think of what Network would have been like with a less skilled director behind the camera.)
Watch this scene the next time you’re wondering what happened to New York.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of director Sidney Lumet, born 102 years ago on this date. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Sidney Lumet Films
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1962, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Boris Kaufman)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Victor J. Kemper)
Network (1976, dir. Sidney Lumet, DP: Owen Roizman)
The Verdict (1981, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Andrzej Bartkowiak)
Artist Unknown
We’re just a week and a half away from the most important birthday party in history.
The lead singer of Pretty Boy Floyd wants to be with you, even if it means calling in the middle of a performance. This video is shot in black-and-white so you know it’s artistic.
Pretty Boy Floyd may not have been the most aggressive of the hair metal bands but they could still probably beat up Winger.
Enjoy!
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.
This week, who cares about a concussion?
Episode 4.6 “The Dark Side”
(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on November 9th, 1988)
Going into the half, the Bulls are in danger of losing their first game of the season. Dodds Company executive Michael Westwood (Paul Tuerpe) has suspended Bubba and Jethro for refusing to sell their bar. “They draw a criminal element,” Michael said. “They’re just football players!” TD Parker (OJ Simpson) snaps back. Because Bubba and Jethro aren’t there to protect him, quarterback Doug Clayton (Scott Geyer) has been sacked and is now playing with a concussion.
During the coach’s locker room talk, Doug suddenly imagines that he’s in a Vietnam war film and that he and the team are soldiers on a mission to rescue Bubba and Jethro from a POW camp. OJ Simpson dresses up like Rambo and leads the assault. OJ kills a lot of people in this episode!
His fantasy over, the still dazed Doug heads back out to play the second half, this time with Bubba and Jethro once again blocking for him.
So, to make clear, Doug is playing with a severe concussion. That’s really the entire plot of this episode. The Vietnam stuff is occasionally amusing if overly broad. Bubba and Jethro recreate The Deer Hunter’s Russian Roulette scene. OJ Simpson still comes across as being oddly mild-mannered, even while firing a machine gun. That said, it’s hard not to feel that Doug, who gave up a Rhodes scholarship to play professional football, is basically sacrificing his life for one game.
Oh well. The Bulls win. That’s the important thing.
Rick Kagan (Rick Hearst) is a rich kid who has a rebellious attitude and lives to race dirt bikes. The other dirt bikers don’t like him and, when he tries to join the team sponsored by Steve Sinclair (Vernon Wells), the the other members of the team refuses to race with him. Rick competes without a team, while falling in love with the pretty Megan (Colleen Poland) and trying to avoid his disapproving father (John Saxon).
It’s hard to know what to make of this sports film. Rick Kagan is our hero but he’s petulant and spoiled and it’s hard to root for him. You can understand why other people wouldn’t want to race with him. I wouldn’t want him on my team. He takes too many stupid risks and he has absolutely no clue how to be a teammate. We’re supposed to like him because the members of the opposing team are also jerks but Rick doesn’t come across as being any better.
The only interesting thing about this film is that there are a few familiar faces in the cast. Saxon is Rick’s father and gives a better performance than the material deserves. Vernon Wells’s is the sponsor of Rick’s rivals. Cameron Mitchell is the chief of police who tells Saxon that he needs to be a better father. This must have been one of Mitchell’s final movies. He only appears in one scene and he doesn’t look well. Rick Hearst had the screen presence to be a star but, in this film, he’s stuck with a character who is impossible to root for.
Crossing the Line is set in America but it was filmed in South Africa at a time when many productions were boycotting the country to protest Apartheid. Director Gary Graver was a protégé of Orson Welles and was one of the many crew members involved in the lengthy shooting of The Other Side of the Wind. Graver shows a good eye for directing dirt bike races. It’s just too bad the film is far less interesting once it gets off the track.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986! The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!
This week, everyone’s singing!
Episodes 7.25 and 7.26 “Dreamboat/Gopher, Isaac & the Starlet/The Parents/The Importance of Being Johnny/Julie and the Producer”
(Dir by Robert Scheerer, originally aired on May 5th, 1984)
A Hollywood film crew is setting sail on The Love Boat. They’ll be shooting a movie called Dreamboat and the passengers and the crew will be acting as extras! Dreamboat is a musical which means that, for the next two hours, everyone on the Pacific Princess is going to be randomly breaking out into song.
From what I’ve seen online, there’s a tendency to dismiss the musical episodes of The Love Boat but I have to admit that I kind of enjoy them. Our Love Boat crew may not have been the most musically talented group of people but they all seemed to be enjoying the chance to show off and try to hit those high notes. The songs themselves are nothing special. It really is more of a community theater production than a Broadway show. But I like community theater productions. It’s always nice to see everyone trying their hardest and doing their best.
What’s happening on the ship in between songs? A lot!
There’s a lot of people to keep track of in this episode but ultimately, the stories don’t matter. This episode is about singing and dancing and having a good time. Everyone seems to be having fun. I felt happy while watching them.
That said, I know what you’re wondering.
On a scale of 0 to 10, Julies scores a perfect ten this week. When she first sees Marty, her eyes flash with an energy that is generated by more than just love. This week, Julie never stop smiling and she often seems to be sniffing whenever she’s in the background.
And you know what? As long as Julie’s happy, I’m happy for her. This was a very happy episode.
Next week, we reach the end of the seventh season!
“Boys will be boys.”
That’s something that I heard a lot back when I was cheerleading in high school. A football player grabbed your ass while he was running out on the field? Someone told you that the team lost because you didn’t smile more? At the after-game party, you were called a tease if you didn’t drink enough to excuse whatever happened later that night? It was all just a case of boys being boys.
“They’ll grow out of it.” “They’re under a lot of pressure right now.” “Your job is help them celebrate when they win and to make them feel better when they lose.” I heard all of that back when I was cheerleading and, because I usually heard it from older women who were supposed to be looking out for me, I usually accepted it. If someone said something that made me cry, I told myself it was my fault for not understanding how difficult it was to be a good player on a bad team. If someone accused me of sending out mixed signals or giving someone the wrong idea, I didn’t say, “That’s your problem for not paying attention.” Instead, I felt guilty about it, as if I had done something wrong. My job was to support the team. I was there to cheer for the boys. Half of the time, I loved being a cheerleader. I loved the sisterhood. I love the thrill of pumping up the people in the bleachers. I enjoyed feeling as if I had played a role whenever one of our teams won a game. The other half of the time, I was a nervous wreck because I worried I had done something wrong.
I guess that’s why I related to the main character in Stand Against Fear when I watched it earlier today. (It’s on YouTube.) Sarah Chalke plays a cheerleader who is inappropriately touched by a football player (Lochlyn Munro). He thinks that he can get away with anything because he’s the star of the football team and his father’s rich. When the police and the school refuse to do anything, the cheerleader sues the football player for sexual harassment.
I don’t know if this movie was based on a true story but watching it brought back a lot of memories of high school. The dread of knowing that you’re going to be treated like an object, the fear of not fitting in, and the helplessness of knowing that no one is going to be on your side, Stand Against Fear captured all of that. When Sarah Chalke and her family finally stood up for themselves, I wanted to cheer. It was inspiring to see.
As for me, it wasn’t until a few years after I graduated from high school that I looked back and realized just how messed up all of that was. Whenever I run into any of my old cheerleading friends today, we inevitably start talking about the past and we always agree that we spent way too much time worrying about the boys when we should have been worrying about ourselves. As this movie shows, it takes strength to stand up for yourself but it’s always the right thing to do.
It’s been a while since I’ve written about any of my favorite romantic films. Today, I thought I would discuss the film that just might be my favorite love story of them all, and that’s the 1995 version of PERSUASION. Based on Jane Austen’s final completed novel, PERSUASION tells the story of Anne Elliot (Amanda Root) who was persuaded eight years earlier, at the age of 19, to reject the hand of the man she loved, Captain Frederick Wentworth (Ciarán Hinds). At the time, Wentworth had no fortune or social standing, but the ensuing years seemed to bring both to the seafaring captain. When fate unexpectedly brings them back together, Anne’s past feelings of love re-emerge, and so does her regret for her earlier decision. After all these years, does the still-single Captain Wentworth love her, or is he ready to move on?
PERSUASION features incredible turns from Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds as Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth. Their performances aren’t built around grand gestures or sweeping declarations of love. They’re built on quick glances, emotional restraint, and an ability to convey lingering pain, regret, and feelings of love that began many years earlier but have never gone away. Their chemistry isn’t flashy, but it is authentic, built over many years rather than some instant attraction. These character traits may seem old-fashioned and unnecessary in this day and time, but the action in the film takes place in early 1800’s where this behavior would have been perfectly natural.
Speaking of “perfectly natural,” director Roger Michell’s realistic presentation of the material is one of the film’s key strengths as far as I’m concerned. Avoiding the polish of most period dramas, PERSUASION embraces the weathered houses, imperfect landscapes, simple costumes, and yes, even the less than glamourous looks of the cast. It seems like we’re watching real people living in the real world instead of impossibly attractive men and women playing dress up. As the lead characters seem to be falling deeper into love over the course of the film, their blossoming happiness makes them more attractive.
If I haven’t made it clear enough, if you’re looking for a movie that throws a lot of overly dramatic plot twists and simple solutions your way, PERSUASION is probably not the movie for you. But if you enjoy a deliberately paced, mature story that deals with messy themes of missed opportunities, personal growth, and forgiveness, then you just may love it. There are moments when Anne simply watches Wentworth across a room, or clutches a chair as he enters a room, where I felt such a strong connection to the characters. Sometimes the most powerful emotions truly are those that are left unspoken. This film will reward your patience if you stick with it, and its final scenes are very satisfying to me because of what the characters have gone through to reach that point.
PERSUASION is a film that I return to again and again when I’m stressed or need a pick-me-up. It just makes me feel good. In my opinion, it isn’t just one of the best Jane Austen movies, it’s one of the best romantic dramas out there, and I highly recommend it!
Through the Shattered Lens 