Today is the 100th birthday of the great filmmaker and showman Orson Welles! And what better way to celebrate than listening to the famous 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds? Reportedly, this caused mass panic when it was originally aired as people tuned in late and were convinced that the Earth actually had been invaded by Martians!
(Like Martians would want this dump! Seriously….)
Enjoy and join us all in wishing Orson Welles a happy 100th!
So, it looks like the fight of the century between Floyd Mayweather, Jr and Manny Pacquiao turned out to be more of a whimper instead of a bang.
Now, this short, but sweet 3-round fight from April, 15, 1985 was (and is) what a great fight looks like. It’s the kind of fight Floyd will never put himself in and the sort of fighters he would duck and dodge until they’re on the downside of their careers then he would agree for the money fight.
Floyd is not, as he proclaimed a couple weeks ago, the greatest fighter ever. He’s no Muhammad Ali. He’s no Sugar Ray Robinson. He’s not even in the same league as Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns.
We lost three talented character actors this week.
Tom Towles (March 20, 1950–April 5, 2015) may have never been a household name but he was well-known to horror fans. In Rob Zombie’s House of a 1,000 Corpses, he played George Wydell, the gruff deputy who was executed by Karen Black’s Mama Firefly. In Tom Savini’s underrated remake of Night of the Living Dead, he took over the role of Harry Cooper and was executed by Patricia Tallman’s Barbara.
However, he was best known for playing the loathsome Otis in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Taken under the wing of serial killer Henry (Michael Rooker), Otis is such an enthusiastic and depraved student that even Henry grows disgusted with him. Based on real-life murderer Ottis Toole, Otis is one of the most disgusting and plausible of movie psychos. Playing a stupid character, Towles gave a very intelligent performance.
Before being cast as Otis, Towles served in the Marines and was active in Chicago theater. He died in Florida, of a massive stroke.
James Best (July 26th, 1926–April 6th, 2015) played many different roles but he will always be best known as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane of Hazzard County. Born in Kentucky, Best proudly served in World War II and started acting in 1950. For the first part of his career, he played cowboys, soldiers, outlaws, and sidekicks. In The Twilight Zone episode “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank,” he played a country boy who came back to life in the middle of his funeral. On The Andy Griffith Show, he played guitar player Jim Lindsey. He showed his versatility in films like Sam Fuller’s Shock Corridor and Max Baer’s Ode To Billy Joe.
Most people know him for his role on The Dukes of Hazzard. For 6 years, Best played Roscoe P. Coltrane and his performance has lived on and been rediscovered in endless syndicated reruns. Roscoe was forever in “hot pursuit,” chasing the Duke boys with his basset hound, Flash, sitting in the car beside him. Roscoe never came close to catching the Dukes but he never stopped trying. There was nothing subtle about Best’s performance but it was perfect for The Dukes of Hazzard.
James Best was also a painter and a respected acting coach, as well as an early mentor to Quentin Tarantino. He passed away at the age of 88 from pneumonia.
Geoffrey Lewis (July 31st, 1935–April 7th, 2015) began his career in 1970 and, at the time of his passing, he had over 200 credited roles to his name. With a face that could either be friendly or threatening depending on how it was lit, Lewis played truck drivers and senators, criminals and lawyers, good old boys and corporate businessmen. Lewis was the epitome of a character actor, never quite a star but making even the smallest of roles memorable.
He was a favorite of Clint Eastwood’s and appeared in seven films with him. In Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can, he played Orville and stole scenes from not only Clint Eastwood and Ruth Gordon but from Clyde the Orangutan as well. More recently, he brought tragic dignity to the role of Roy Sullivan in Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects.
Rest in peace, good gentlemen.
Happy Easter from the Shattered Lens!
Éirinn go Brách!
Well, it’s almost here!
Tomorrow night, the Oscars will be handed out! Now, I have to admit that, despite all of the time that I spent keeping up with all of the guild awards and the critics award and all the other precursors, I kinda lost interest in the Oscar race after the actual nominations were announced. I took one look at Jeff Wells claiming to be solely responsible for the success of Birdman and Sasha Stone going on and on about Selma and Ryan Adams doing whatever the Hell it is that he supposedly does over at Awards Daily and I just found myself saying, “Fuck it, who cares?”
Seriously, 2015 will be remembered as the year that Oscar punditry jumped the shark. Hopefully, within the next few years, new voices will emerge and we’ll be spared from having to deal with Jeff Wells, Sasha Stone, and all the rest.
The Oscar commentary this year has been so negative and so toxic and so predictably strident and so tediously bitter that I did get a little bit burned out. It just hasn’t been as much fun this year. When, earlier this week, I was reminded that the Oscars were this Sunday, I have to admit that I was taken a little bit by surprise. For some reason, I had gotten into my head that the Oscars were next week.
But anyway, they’re not next week. They’re tomorrow and that means that it is now time for me to try to predict who and what will win tomorrow night. A lot of people are saying that this is the closest Oscar race in years. But you know what? They say that every year.
Remember how there were going to be a lot of upsets last year?
And, in the end, exactly what everyone thought would win did win.
I imagine the same thing will happen this year.
Here are my predictions! I will be listing both what I think will win and what I think should win.
Need to kill some time? Look through all the posts since November and count up how many times this picture has appeared on the site!
Best Picture:
Will Win: Birdman
Should Win: Boyhood
Best Director:
Will Win: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Birdman
Should Win: Richard Linklater for Boyhood
Best Actor
Will Win: Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything
Should Win: Michael Keaton for Birdman
Best Actress
Will Win: Julianne Moore for Still Alice
Should Win: Reese Witherspoon for Wild
Best Supporting Actor
Will and Should Win: J.K. Simmons for Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress
Will and Should Win: Patricia Arquette for Boyhood
Best Original Screenplay
Will Win: Birdman
Should Win: Boyhood
Best Adapted Screenplay
Will and Should Win: Whiplash
Best Animated Feature:
Will Win: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Should Win: Big Hero 6
Best Foreign Language Film
Will Win: Leviathan
Should Win: Ida
Best Documentary Feature
Will Win: CitizenFour
Should Win: Finding Vivian Maier
Best Documentary Short Subject:
Will Win (random guess): Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Should Win: ???
Best Live Action Short Film:
Will Win (random guess): The Phone Call
Should Win: ???
Best Animated Short Film:
Will and Should Win: My Moulton
Best Original Score:
Will and Should Win: The Theory of Everything
Best Original Song:
Will Win: “Glory” from Selma
Should Win: “Hooray for Everything” from The Lego Movie
Best Sound Editing
Will and Should Win: American Sniper
Best Sound Mixing
Will Win: American Sniper
Should Win: Whiplash
Best Production Design
Will and Should Win: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Cinematography
Will Win: Unbroken
Should Win: Ida
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Will Win: Foxcatcher
Should Win: Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Costume Design
Will Win: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Should Win: Inherent Vice
Best Film Editing
Will and Should Win: Boyhood
Best Visual Effects
Will Win: Interstellar
Should Win: Guardians of the Galaxy
Well, those are my predictions! Will I be right or will I be wrong? We’ll find out tomorrow!
We have some sad news to report.
Chris Mead, who blogged for the TSL under the name Semtex Skittle, passed away on January 21st. Though Chris started out as our video game reviewer, he quickly proved himself to be just as adept at reviewing everything from anime to episodes of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD to Pierce Brosnan-era James Bond movies. His reviews were distinguished by his intelligence and wit and were always a pleasure to read. I was always so happy whenever I would see that he was editing a new review.
It’s hard to know what to say after losing someone like Chris. Speaking for myself, I will always be grateful for the invaluable help that he provided back in 2012 when I decided that, in the days leading up to the release of Skyfall, we, as a group, would review every single film in the James Bond franchise. Leonard Wilson often refers to the Bond reviews as being our Avengers moment and Chris was definitely our Captain America.
On a personal note, Chris and I once ended a long twitter conversation about gender stereotypes by making an agreement. He promised to watch the last Twilight film if I would buy, play, and subsequently review the latest Call of Duty game. I did buy the game and, believe it or not, I even played a good deal of it. Fortunately, Chis was always available on twitter to explain to me how to do things like … well, like how to actually play the game.
Chris was taken from us far too soon but I know we’re all thankful for the time that we had to get to know him. He was a Bears fan, a good writer, a good friend, and a good guy. He will be missed. Our thoughts and condolences go out to his friends and family.
Chris Mead (a.k.a. Semtex Skittle), R.I.P.
“If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!”
-St. Catherine of Sienna
Happy 2015! Let’s make this year a great one!
Well, 2014 is nearly over.
Soon, it will be 2015.
Soon, the present will become the future.
2014 will not go down in history as one of humanity’s finest moments. Considering all that’s happened over the past year, it’s hard for me to be surprised by the fact that several of my favorite films of the year were films that I would normally describe as being entertaining escapism.
In 2014, we needed to be entertained. We needed to escape.
Will 2015 be any better? What will be the way of the future? It’s a question that Leonardo DiCaprio asked at the end of Martin Scorsese’s 2004 film The Aviator and it’s a question that we’re still asking today.
We’re closing out another year and it’s always time to reflect back on the events the we all experienced.
Here in Through the Shattered Lens we saw a new writer join the ranks with the arrival and addition of Alexandre Rothier. We also saw more and more of our writers grow in confidence with their writing. This didn’t just translate into more writing from them, but better as well. There’s Dazzling Erin with her constant surprise of finding new artists to share. Then leonth3duke who finally made the jump to truly appreciating horror. Leonard Wilson continued to find his voice with each new review he wrote.
I can’t forget necromoonyeti who continues to be my source of all things music and with each new band written I pick up something new to experience. Semtex Skittle showed the world his appreciation not just for the franchise of Final Fantasy but Sailor Moon as well and to that otaku are grateful. Speaking of otaku there’s the site’s own big bear of one with pantsukudasai56 who always brings in his choice recommendations in anime.
Then there’s Dork Geekus giving us his thoughts on things comic book. We also have trashfilmguru gracious enough to take time to share his unique take on horror, comic books both high and low-brow who also keeps the rest of us from drinking the Marvel Kool-Aid wholesale which makes for a better site.
Finally there’s my co-founder and partner-in-crime Lisa Marie Bowman who upped her game as she literally propped up the site at times with her voluminous, insightful and unique brand of writing. I will be forever grateful for her continued support and for becoming one of my closest friends.
I’ve chosen the latest “Song of the Day” as an analogue for what I witnessed — both personally and within this site — throughout the year 2014. I had just lost my father at the tail end of 2013 (a loss still felt even today) and then fell deathly ill around the holidays. Through it all, I remained thankful and proud of the work my fellow writers produced in my absence, despite my grief and illness.
Basil Poledouris has been an artist I’ve admired ever since I first heard how his music transformed John Milius’ screen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s Cimmerian barbarian from a mere violent sword-and-sorcery matinee into something approaching a perfect blend of epic fantasy and primal storytelling. Poledouris went on to compose many other memorable film scores, but his work in Conan the Barbarian remains his most iconic.
In the film’s closing sequence following its climax, we hear the somber piece “Orphans of Doom/The Awakening,” which brings the story to a haunting yet uplifting conclusion. I chose this track to symbolize the year Through the Shattered Lens endured. It opens with an elegiac tone, underscored by a choir that imbues the music with an ethereal quality; yet as the piece unfolds, it gradually swells into something triumphant — a sound that carries hope for the future.
This composition perfectly encapsulates Through the Shattered Lens circa 2014, and it’s my hope that a brighter future awaits me and all who walk beside me as the new year dawns.
