Since Arleigh shared the film’s greatest monologue for today’s scene that I love, it only makes sense that today’s song of the day should come from Jaws as well!
Category Archives: Film
Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us for Silicon Towers!
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be Silicon Towers!
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Silicon Towers on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!
Enjoy!
Scenes I Love: Jaws
“You know the thing about a shark, he’s got…lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eye. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white.” — Quint
People have blamed Spielberg and his breakout film, Jaws, as the cause of the blockbuster mentality that studios have had since this film came out. Studios and producers wanted to recreate the ultra-successful box-office numbers of Jaws. Despite the fact that this film was modestly budgeted, people nowadays who think they’re film experts point to it as the culprit. They’ve called it the film that begun the dumbing down of Hollywood when creativity was sacrificed for profit.
Why did I pick a scene from this film as a favorite? I picked this particular scene because it’s one reason why the film succeeded and made people come back again and again. It’s a scene that perfectly captures one reason why we love to see films in a communal setting. We want to share the same experience and emotions this scene brought up from the pit of each audience’s psyche.
Jaws didn’t ruin the creativity in filmmaking. I like to think that this one film was a filmmaker at his most creativie (shark wouldn’t work properly so Spielberg kept it off-screen which just added to the terror and tension in the film). This very scene goes down as one of the greatest film monologues. It sets up the danger the trio faces with some anecdotal evidence from the very person who survived the experience, but who might have become unhinged because of it. I love the look of frozen terror on the face of Richard Dryefuss’ character as he listens to Robert Shaw tell the story of the ill-fated journey of the U.S.S. Indianapolis.
This latest “Scenes I Love” is why I consider Spielberg one of the best filmmaker of his generation and probably beyond that.
A Blast From The Past: Testing Dirty (dir by Lynn Hamrick)
Our regularly scheduled review of Degrassi High will not be posted tonight so that we can bring you this special presentation.
My Retro Television Reviews will return on Monday but for now, check out this 1990 program called Testing Dirty! In this short film, Christopher Daniel Barnes (best known for playing Greg Brady in The Brady Bunch Movie) is a high school athlete who tests positive for drugs despite not using them. As he tries to clear his name, the adults in his community debate whether or not random drug tests are actually fighting or helping the problem. That’s an important topic but, for the most part, this film is best-known for a cameo appearance by Adam Sandler as a drug dealer.
And now, without further ado …. it’s time for Testing Dirty!
Richard Chamberlain – Allen Quartermain, Toshiro Mifune & Charles Bronson!
When I was a kid, I loved the movie KING SOLOMON’S MINES (1985) with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone, along with its follow up ALLAN QUARTERMAIN AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1986). These movies don’t really hold up very well these days, but that does not change the fact that they still hold a special place in my heart. That was during my “Indiana Jones” phase and I wanted to watch any movie with adventurers in jungles. ROMANCING THE STONE (1984) is one of those types of movies that really does hold up; THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TENNESSEE BUCK (1988), not so much. While we were watching King Solomon’s Mines, I remember my parents telling us kids that Chamberlain was in a miniseries called THE THORNBIRDS, but I’ve never watched it. It intrigued me though. TV miniseries were a big thing in the 70’s and early 80’s and Chamberlain was a king of the TV miniseries age. I discovered that even further when I became obsessed with Toshiro Mifune. I discovered his great miniseries SHOGUN (1980) that also starred Chamberlain.
As an obsessed Charles Bronson fan, I also discovered that they starred together in an episode of the TV series DR. KILDARE (pictured above). He also worked with Bronson in the film A THUNDER OF DRUMS (1961). Richard Chamberlain may not be one of my all time favorite actors, but he was a part of my life growing up and he worked with my favorite actor of all time a couple of different times. That feeling of nostalgia causes me to mourn his loss. It’s like a part of me is now gone. RIP, Richard Chamberlain. Thanks for sharing your talent with us.
4 Shots From 4 Films: Special 1959 Edition
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, let’s celebrate the year 1959! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 1959 films
The 400 Blows (1959, dir by François Truffaut, DP: Henri Decae)
Ben-Hur (1959, dir by William Wyler, DP: Robert Surtees)
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957, dir by Edward D. Wood, Jr., DP: William C. Thompson)
North by Northwest (1959, dir by Alfred Hitchcock, DP: Robert Burks)
Scene That I Love: Warren Beatty, Jack Warden, and James Mason In Heaven Can Wait
Today, we wish a happy birthday to actor, director, and producer Warren Beatty!
This wonderfully-acted scene that I love comes from Beatty’s 1978 film, Heaven Can Wait. In this scene Warren Beatty plays a character who attempts to convince his friend (Jack Warden) that he has come back from the dead and is inhabiting the body of an old millionaire. (Watch the film, it makes sense.) James Mason plays the erudite angel that only Beatty can see.
The Only Game In Town (1970, directed by George Stevens)
Fran Walker (Elizabeth Taylor) is an aging Vegas showgirl who has been abandoned by her married lover (Charles Braswell). A trip to a piano bar leads to her meeting pianist and gambling addict Joe Grady (Warren Beatty). Frank brings Joe home with her. Joe is trying to win $5,000 so he can leave Las Vegas and go to New York. Fran needs someone to keep her from going to back to her go-nowhere relationship. The two talk and talk. And talk.
Based on a play that closed after 16 performances, The Only Game In Town is memorable for being one of the most expensive theatrical adaptations ever produced. That’s because Taylor insisted on filming in Paris instead of Las Vegas. A set representing Fran’s tiny apartment (which is supposed to look cheap) was built on a Paris soundstage and the budget ballooned to a then unheard of $11,000,000. (By today’s standards, that would be a $90,461,391 budget for a film with two stars and only a handful of locations.) The Only Game In Town is also memorable for being the only film to feature both Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty. Taylor and Beatty were actually close in age but Fran still seems to be several decades older than Joe. It was not the script’s intention but, due to the age difference, Joe comes across as being a gigolo. (Originally, Frank Sinatra was cast as Joe but he left while the sets were being made in France.) Finally, this was the final film to be directed by George Stevens, one of the great Golden Age directors who found himself struggling to keep up in a changing Hollywood. With its stagey set-up and it’s dialogue-heavy script, this film does not features Stevens’s best work.
The Only Game In Town was a huge flop when released, damaging Taylor’s already floundering career and making Beatty even more determined to eventually direct his own films. Seen today, Warren Beatty is actually pretty good in his role, even if he does come across as being too young. Elizabeth Taylor is not served well by any element of the film, from her matronly (but expensive) costumes or a script the encourages her to be shrill. The Only Game In Town was not one that anyone won.
A Blast From The Past: The Human Voice (dir by Ted Kotcheff)
Our regular review of Homicide will not be posted today so that we may bring you this special presentation….
My retro television review will return tomorrow. For now, check out 1966’s The Human Voice. In this 55-minute stage adaptation, Ingrid Bergman plays a woman having a phone conversation with her lover of five years on the night before he’s meant to marry another. Written by Jean Cocteau, this monologue was also filmed by Pedro Almodovar in 2020, with Tilda Swinton giving a performance that cannot hope to compare to Bergman’s.
And now, without further ado, here is The Human Voice!
A Blast From The Past: The Gymnast (dir by Larry Elikann)
Our regular review of Check It Out! will not be posted tonight so that we might bring you this special program….
My retro television reviews will return next week. For now, we present you with The Gymnast, a short film from 1980 about a teenage girl named Jenny who wants to be the best gymnast in the world but who is going to have to learn some important lessons about hard work and humility beforehand. I could relate to this film because I was the same way about dancing when I was a teen. Of course, I never learned any lessons about hard work or humility and I’m all the better for it.
That said, this isn’t a bad little film. Zina Bethune gives a good performance as the hard-pushing coach and there’s plenty of gymnastic action as well. I’m going to guess this was probably made to appeal to teens who would presumably have found a bunch of new heroes watching the 1980 Summer Olympics. Jimmy Carter, however, had other plans.
Now, without any further ado, here is …. The Gymnast!
Through the Shattered Lens 