117 years ago today, Ian Fleming was born in Mayfair, London. A member of British Intelligence during World War II, Fleming is today best-remembered as the creator of James Bond.
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1962’s Dr. No. Here is Sean Connery, in his first appearance as Fleming’s iconic secret agent. Eunice Gray was cast as Sylvia Trench, who was originally envisioned as being Bond’s permanent “London” girlfriend. She also appeared in From Russia With Love before the idea was abandoned. We all know that Bond’s true love was Tracy di Vincenzo.
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 the Shattered Lens celebrates what would have been the 94th birthday of the great cinematographer, Gordon Willis. Willis was the master of using shadow and underexposed film to create some of the most haunting movie images of the 70s and 80s. He was also one of the first cinematographers to take advantage of the so-called “magic hour,” that moment when the sun is setting and everything is bathed in a golden glow. Today, everyone does that but Willis was the first.
Willis has often been cited as one of the most influential cinematographers of all time but, amazingly, Willis would receive only two Academy Award nominations (for Zelig and The Godfather Part III) and he would never win a competitive Oscar.
In memory of Gordon Willis, here are….
6 Shots From 6 Gordon Willis Films
End of the Road (1970, dir by Aram Avakian, Cinematography by Gordon Willis)
The Godfather (1972, dir by Francis Ford Coppola, Cinematography by Gordon Willis)
The Parallax View (1974, dir by Alan J. Pakula, Cinematography by Gordon Willis)
The Godfather Part II (dir by Francis Ford Coppola, Cinematography by Gordon Willis)
All The President’s Men (1976, dir by Alan J. Pakula, Cinematography by Gordon Willis)
Manhattan (1979, dir by Woody Allen, Cinematography by Gordon Willis)
I enjoyed Clint Eastwood’s 1975 film, THE EIGER SANCTION. The movie features many visually stunning shots. The one I’m sharing today is the scene where Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy climb the famous “Totem Pole” in Arizona’s Monument Valley. The scene is breathtaking, but watching it made me weak in the knees. It finishes with a little beer humor that I enjoyed.
Interestingly, this production was the last time anyone has been legally allowed to climb the “Totem Pole.” Why anyone would want to is beyond me. SCARY!! In exchange for permission to film there, climbers with the production had to remove all of the metal spikes, or pitons, which had accumulated from years of climbing. Legend has it that some adventurous folks have climbed it since then, but they were being unlawful with each step, tug and pull!
Aaron (Dylan Walsh) has been hired to sever as a bodyguard for spoiled heiress Gloria (Erika Eleniak) while she takes a cruise. Things go wrong when Josef (Ice-T) and Max (Claudia Christian) hijack the cruise. They think that they’ll make a fortune by taking everyone hostage and searching the boat. Little do they know that the boat is very slowly sinking. (They would known except they killed the engineers when they first took over.) Aaron and Gloria have to defeat the terrorists before the boat sinks.
Imagine Die Hard or Under Siege made not with expensive special effects but instead with a healthy supply of stock footage and built not around proven action stars like Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal but instead around the charisma-free Dylan Walsh and you have a pretty good idea why FinalVoyage is one of the more forgettable movies to be ripped off from either one of those two films. At least Dylan Walsh has the excuse of being miscast. Erika Eleniak actually was in UnderSiege and still seems clueless as to what she’s supposed to be doing during Final Voyage. Ice-T is an amusing villain and the movie opens with a gunfight on an airplane that is so poorly choreographed and improbable that it becomes entertaining to watch. Otherwise, FinalVoyage is a cruise best not taken.
This is a Jim Wynorski film so there’s plenty of gratuitous bra and cleavage shots for those who are specifically looking for that. Jim Wynorski definitely has a style and he manages to bring it to every film that he makes, even when it doesn’t really make sense for the story being told. Give Wynorski this, he understands why people are watching his movies.
Here at The Shattered Lens, we’re definitely celebrating Clint Eastwood’s May 31st birthday. As part of that celebration, I decided to revisit his 1975 film, THE EIGER SANCTION.
Clint Eastwood is art professor Jonathan Hemlock, a retired assassin, who agrees to take one last “sanction” from a shadowy agency to avenge his friend’s death. A skilled mountain climber, Hemlock learns that the killer is part of a group of men who are attempting to climb the treacherous Eiger mountain in Switzerland. The Eiger has defeated Hemlock two times already, but he’s hoping the third time will be the charm. He goes to see his friend Ben (George Kennedy) in Arizona, who gets him in the shape he needs to be in to climb the Eiger. The time finally comes to go to Switzerland, climb the mountain, identify the man who killed his friend, and take him out. None of it goes easy, and Hemlock can only hope he will live long enough to avenge his friend!
THE EIGER SANCTION finds Clint Eastwood in James Bond territory. The “agency” is run by the over-the-top albino villain “Dragon,” who can never see any daylight, but seems to enjoy the sanctioning of death. He sends a beautiful woman named Jemima Brown (Vonetta McGee) to steal Hemlock’s money and put him in no position to turn down the agency’s request. Luckily for Hemlock, in true Bond fashion, the beautiful “Aunt” Jemima decides to bed him as part of her assignment. I must admit that I found myself quite enraptured by the beautiful Vonetta McGee. This is some pretty good stuff, but I prefer my 70’s Bond action to come from Sean Connery or Roger Moore. Eastwood is always great (the man had the best head of hair in the business), but I enjoy his movies more when they’re set in the real world of cops and criminals. It’s still a fun movie, and I especially like Hemlock’s relationship with Kennedy. There are some amazing shots of Eastwood and Kennedy in Arizona’s Monument Valley as they prepare for the Eiger and drink some warm beer together on the Totem Pole rock formation! The shots of the men climbing the Eiger are also amazing, but we don’t really know the characters so the drama isn’t strong during this portion of the film. The visuals are absolutely amazing though. The final reveal of the man that Hemlock is after isn’t very surprising. Any person who has seen more than a couple of “mystery” films will figure it out quite easily.
At the end of the day, I enjoyed THE EIGER SANCTION. Eastwood is always worth watching and this film contains several moments of his unique toughness and dry sense of humor. It’s just not as engaging as his very best work. Eastwood is tying to do something a little different, and while I commend him for that, it’s not quite as good as his other work during this time. I’d still give a solid 7 out of 10. The trailer is included below:
One of the great things about the original, 1958 version of The Fly is that, even though it starred Vincent Price, Price didn’t play the Fly. Instead, for once, Price was allowed to be the voice of reason, the guy who said, “Maybe don’t mess around with the laws of time and space.”
Today’s scene that I love is from the ending of the original Fly. Supposedly, Price had a hard time filming this scene because whenever he heard the recording of David Hedison crying out, “Help me!,” he would start laughing. Still, if you know what spiders actually do to the flies that they capture, you can’t help but sympathize with our misdirected scientist in the web. Destroying him with a rock was probably the most merciful thing that anyone could do.
In honor of Vincent Price, on what would have been his birthday, here is a scene that I love.
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 honor the legacy of a man who was not just a great horror star but also a great actor. period Christopher Lee worked with everyone from Laurence Olivier to Steven Spielberg to Peter Jackson to Martin Scorsese. Though he turned own the chance to play Dr. No, Lee later did go play a Bond villain in The Man with The Golden Gun. He was one of those actors who was always great, even if the film wasn’t.
That said, it’s for his horror films that Lee is best known. He was the scariest Dracula and the most imposing Frankenstein’s Monster. He played mad scientists, decadent aristocrats, and even the occasional hero. Christopher Lee was an actor who could do it all and today, on what would have been his birthday, we honor him with….
6 Shots From 6 Christopher Lee Films
The Horror of Dracula (1958, dir by Terence Fisher, DP: Jack Asher)
Count Dracula (1970, dir by Jess Franco, DP: Manuel Merino and Luciano Trasatti)
Horror Express (1972, dir by Eugenio Martin, DP: Alejandro Ulloa)
The Wicker Man (1973, dir by Robert Hardy. DP: Harry Waxman)
The Man With The Golden Gun (1974, dir by Guy Hamilton, DP: Ted Moore and Oswald Morris)
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, dir by Peter Jackson, DP: Andrew Lesnie)
One of the funniest scenes in SPACE COWBOYS (2000) takes place when Jay Leno interviews the characters of Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood), Hawk Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones), Jerry O’Neill (Donald Sutherland) and Tank Sullivan (James Garner). The scene I’m referring to involves a question asked of “babe magnet” Jerry O’Neill. Only a few moments of Jay Leno’s material made it into the completed film, but the interview was filmed in front of a real Tonight Show audience. Leno made monologue jokes about Viagra, Matlock (1986), and prostate problems. Leno ad-libbed with the actors like he would in a real interview. I’ve included the additional scenes here!
In December of 1941, Lt. John Brickley (Robert Montgomery) commands a squadron of Navy PT boats, based in the Philippines. Brickley is convinced that the small and agile PT Boats could be used in combat but his superior officers disagree, even after viewing a demonstration of what they can do. Brickley’s second-in-command, Rusty (John Wayne), is frustrated and feels that he will never see combat. That changes when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and then turn their attention to the Philippines. Brickley gets his chance to show what the PT boats can do but both he and his men must also deal with the terrible risks that come with combat. Brickley and his men have been set up to fight a losing battle, only hoping to slow down the inevitable Japanese onslaught, because both they and their boats are considered to be expendable. The hot-headed Rusty learns humility when he’s sidelined by blood poisoning and he also falls in love with a nurse, Sandy (Donna Reed). However, the war doesn’t care about love or any other plans that its participants may have. With the invasion of the Philippines inevitable, it just becomes a question of who will be sent with MacArthur to Australia and who will remain behind.
One of John Ford’s best films, They Were Expendable is a tribute to the U.S. Navy and also a realistic look at the realities of combat. The movie features Ford’s trademark sentimentality and moments of humors but it also doesn’t deny that most of the characters who are left behind at the end of the movie will not survive the Japanese invasion. Even “Dad’ Knowland (Russell Simpson), the fatherly owner of a local shipyard who does repair work on the PT boats, knows that he’s expendable. He resolves to meet his fate with a rifle in hand and a jug of whiskey at his feet. Rusty, who starts out thirty for combat, comes to learn the truth about war. Ford was one of the many Hollywood directors who was recruited to film documentaries during World War II and he brings a documentarian’s touch to the scenes of combat.
Robert Montgomery had previously volunteered in France and the United Kingdom, fighting the Axis Powers before America officially entered the war. After the war began, he entered the Navy and he was a lieutenant commander when he appeared in They Were Expendable. Montgomery brought a hardened authenticity to the role of Brickley. (Montgomery also reportedly directed a few scenes when Ford was sidelined with a broken leg.) John Wayne is equally good in the role of the hot-headed Rusty, who learns the truth about combat and what it means to be expendable. The cast is full of familiar faces, many of whom were members of the John Ford stock company. Keep an eye out for Ward Bond, Cameron Mitchell, Leon Ames, Jack Holt, and Donald Curtis.
They Were Expendable is one of the best of the World War II movies. It’s a worthy film for Memorial Day and any other day.
Here at The Shattered Lens, we’re definitely celebrating Clint Eastwood’s May 31st birthday. As part of that celebration, I decided to revisit his 2000 film, SPACE COWBOYS.
SPACE COWBOYS opens in 1958 on the day that Air Force Test Pilot Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood) and his team of Hawk Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones), Jerry O’Neill (Donald Sutherland), and Tank Sullivan (James Garner) find out that their test program is being shutdown due to the formation of NASA. Their dreams of someday making it to space are crushed, and to make it worse, they were stabbed in the back by their leader Bob Gerson (James Cromwell) and not invited to be part of NASA’s new testing program. Fast forward to the present time, where a Soviet communications satellite seems to be unresponsive and NASA is working with Russian General Vostov (Rade Serbedzija) to figure out how to keep it from crashing back to Earth. The satellite is a relic of the Cold War that somehow ended up with a guidance system on board that’s so old that it was designed by Frank, and the young folks don’t know how to work with it. And to complicate things even further, the guidance system can only be fixed on site, which means in space. So it seems that NASA finally needs Frank after all this time, and he’ll only agree to help if he’s able to bring his old team on board. Their old nemesis Bob, the project’s manager at NASA, reluctantly agrees. We see that he’s still the same bastard he’s always been as he and General Vostov are holding back critical information about the cargo of the satellite. So let the training and preparation for the mission begin!
The premise of SPACE COWBOYS may not be very realistic, but I think it’s one hell of a fun movie, especially during its first half. I really enjoy watching this amazing cast of veteran actors do their thing. Of course they get the cool walk into NASA headquarters wearing sunglasses and leather jackets, while N’ Sync’s “Space Cowboy” plays over the soundtrack. Clint Eastwood plays the character he has perfected over his career, that of the tough, grizzled leader with a dry sense of humor. Tommy Lee Jones is the fearless hotshot who has never been good at following orders, but has the kind of talent that everyone wishes they had. Jones is actually by far the youngest of the primary cast, a full 16 years younger than Eastwood. Donald Sutherland gets some of the best laughs as the ladies man of the team. The scene where he answers Jay Leno’s question about his reputation as a lothario made me laugh out loud! James Garner’s character became a Baptist minister after his days with the Air Force and prays often for the group. He’s good here, but his character is the least memorable. With their mission labeled “The Ripe Stuff” by the media, watching these great older actors go through their training, and deal with their much younger counterparts and the NASA brass, is a joy. I also want to shout out William Devane as the NASA flight director for the mission. He has a couple of really strong scenes.
The legendary cast of this film can’t help but give a seasoned moviegoer like me a warm sense of nostalgia based on their amazing body of work. I remember introducing KELLY’S HEROES to my son when he was a boy. He watched my DVD over and over again. Seeing Eastwood and Sutherland together here brought those memories back. One of my very favorite revenge films is ROLLING THUNDER with William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones. Seeing them together here helps me remember just how great they are in that badass classic. Heck, Garner’s character name of “Tank” Sullivan takes me back to one of the very first movies our family rented when we got our VCR in the mid-80’s! Do y’all remember Garner’s film TANK from 1984? I certainly do!
I will admit that once the crew takes off and begins the actual mission, which comprises about the last 45 minutes of the film, the entertainment level goes down a couple of notches for me. The technical aspects of completing the mission are not as interesting to me as the character interplay in the earlier portions of the film. With that said, there are still some exciting moments to be had, including the nailbiter of a landing at the end.
I enjoyed revisiting SPACE COWBOYS after quite a few years. This movie is ultimately a crowd pleaser, and for me, it does its job well. Enjoy the trailer below:
Through the Shattered Lens