4 Shots From 4 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, on what would have been his 71st birthday, we celebrate filmmaker Albert Pyun!
It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Albert Pyun Films
The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982, dir by Albert Pyun, DP: Joseph Margine)
Cyborg (1989, dir by Albert Pyun, DP: Philip Alan Waters)
Captain America (1990, dir by Albert Pyun, DP: Philp Alan Waters)
Kickboxer 2 (1991, dir by Albert Pyun, DP: George Mooradian)
A young man named Eric (Allen Williamson) enlists as a combat medic and is sent to Afghanistan. Eric truly thinks that he’s going to help to make the world a better place but, what he sees and experiences in Afghanistan, leaves him shaken and haunted by memories of the dead and wounded.
Upon returning home, Eric tries to keep himself busy helping his family’s winery recover from the latest round of California wildfires but he still finds himself tormented by his experiences. Suffering from PTSD, Eric discovers that his country is more than willing to send young men overseas to fight but it’s less willing to provide them with the support that they need when they return. With the help of his mother (Elizabeth Gast), his girlfriend (Cayla Black), and a fellow veteran (Stephen Wesley Green), Eric tries to find his place in the world.
Scars is an undeniably low-budget film. If you’re looking for a war film that is full of epic battle scenes and which will leave you feeling as if you actually are in the middle of Afghanistan, Scars is not the film to go with. Indeed, it took me a while to realize that Eric was in Afghanistan because Afghanistan looked exactly like California. As well, towards the end of the film, there’s a few moments of clumsy melodrama that feel as if they were added solely so that this rather talky film could be sold as a thriller.
But you know what? In the end, those flaws don’t matter. Scars is a heartfelt film, featuring an excellent lead performance from Allen Williamson, playing a man who is burdened by guilt but who never lets go of hope. Scars is a film about the pain that people carry with them and the struggle that men like Eric have when it comes to opening up about that pain. (Not all of the scars in the film are physical.) It’s an indictment of a society that, far too often, pushes the needs of veterans to the side. That’s especially true if that veteran served in an unpopular war, like the ones in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Considering that we still don’t know how many people were left behind when we left Afghanistan, Scars is a film that feels all too relevant.
And yes, Eric Roberts is in Scars. Playing a sympathetic doctor, he has about a minute of screentime towards the end of the film. It’s always a good idea to put your Eric Roberts cameo at the end of your movie, just to make sure that audiences stick around for the entire film.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
For years, outlaws have controlled the frontier town of Dusty Gulch but now their power is threatened by the homesteaders who are moving into the area. Led by the crusading Rev. Tex Harding, the homesteaders are being progress and reform to the frontier.
Duke (Ethan Laidlaw) and his gang have launched a campaign of intimidation against the new arrivals. Luckily, the Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) rides into town to protect the homesteaders. Duke’s boss, businessman Blaze Howard (John Calvert), decides that the town needs a sheriff to go after the Kid. Blaze offers the job to newcomer Steve Ranson, not realizing that Steve is not only the Durango Kid but also the brother of the former sheriff, who was murdered by Blaze’s men.
Lawless Empire is one of the few Durango Kid films not to feature Smiley Burnette as Durango’s sidekick. Instead, Durango rides into town with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and, while Willis does perform a song or two, there’s still considerable less singing than in the films that featured Burnette. The role of comic relief is provided by Dub Taylor in the role of Cannonball. Cannonball gets a job sweeping up Blaze’s saloon and he feeds whatever information he learns back to Durango. When Blaze figures out what’s going on, he deliberately supplies Cannonball with bad information but it doesn’t make any difference. The Durango Kid is always one step ahead of the bad guys.
Lawless Empire is a little more serious than the other Durango Kid films. Steve is not only trying to clean up the town but he’s also seeking to avenge his brother so there’s not as much room for as much comedy as usual. Lawless Empire does have all of the usual gunfights and horse chases and the film gets off to an exciting start with Durango making his first appearance with his gun already drawn so that he can disarm Duke and his men. Even without Smiley around to help him out, Durango brings law to a lawless empire.
Yesterday, the world learned the sad news that the great Texas character actor, Dabney Coleman, had passed away at the age of 93.
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1984’s The Muppets Take Manhattan. In this scene, the Muppets try to sell Coleman on their idea for a musical. Coleman, meanwhile, does his best to cheat the Muppets out of all of their money. It takes a truly great actor to give a convincing performance while acting opposite a very large group of puppets.
(I mean, we all know Kermit’s real but I’m pretty sure that the rest of them are puppets….)
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 9 pm et, Tim Buntley will be hosting #ScarySocial! The movie? 2023’s Tell Me A Creepy Story!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! I’ll be there tweeting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Tell Me A Creepy Story is available on Prime and Tubi!
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!
127 years ago, on this date, Frank Capra was born in Sicily. Capra was six years old when his family immigrated to the United States and, for the rest of his long life, he would often talk about seeing the Statue of Liberty from the deck of a boat sailing to Ellis Island. Capra went on to become a director whose work celebrated the ideals and the promise of America. He not only gave us the holiday classic, It’s A Wonderful Life, but he also directed one of the few political films that matteed, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. And let us not forget that the first two comedies to win the Oscar for Best Picture were directed by Capra, It Happened One Night and You Can’t Take It With You.
In honor of a great career and legacy, here are….
4 Shots From 4 Frank Capra Films
It Happened One Night (1934, dir by Frank Capra, DP: Joseph Walker)
You Can’t Take It With You (1938, dir by Frank Capra, DP: Joseph Walker)
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939, dir by Frank Capra, DP: Joseph Walker)
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, dir by Frank Capra, DP: Joseph Walker and Joseph Biroc)
The year is 1964. Kennedy is dead and Johnson is president. American troops are in Vietnam but the American public is not yet concerned with that conflict. Instead, it’s the British Invasion that has intrigued the youth of America. People know that times are changing but they have no idea just how much change is waiting for them in the future.
Jim Goodwin (Zachary Quninto) is a meek animal trainer who is driving across the country with his chimpanzee, Spanky. At one time, Spanky was a celebrity. He ice skated with the stars. He appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Everyone loved Spanky but now, it appears that his time has passed. People are more interested in Beatles than chimps. With Spanky no longer in demand, Jim’s marriage is failing and he’s struggling to pay the bills.
At a Nevada gas station, Jim sees a young man named Bobby Falls (Jacob Elordi) trying to hitch a ride. Assuming that Bobby is a college student and wanting someone to talk to during the long drive to Chicago, Jim offers him a ride. Bobby is reluctant at first and demands to know if Jim has some sort of sinister motive for picking him up. After Jim promises that he doesn’t, Bobby gets in the truck with him.
What Jim doesn’t know, but eventually learns, is that Bobby is a criminal. Using a derringer, Bobby has been robbing gas stations and executing the gas station attendants. Their journey becomes a rather macabre road trip, with Jim and Bobby bonding despite the fact that Jim is scared of Bobby and Bobby always seems to be one step away from snapping. Bobby encourages Jim to stop being such a wimp and Jim encourages Bobby to maybe not be such a violent sociopath. Though Bobby and Jim come from different worlds, they both have one thing in common. They really like the chimpanzee.
I have to admit that I liked the chimpanzee as well. Bobby’s a killer so it’s impossible for me to like him. Jim is a wimp who fails to take advantage of several opportunities to escape so it’s impossible for me to respect him. But Spanky is an innocent animal who likes to eat apples and who sincerely cares about both his owner and the hitchhiker who keeps losing his temper. I watched the film dreading that something bad would happen to Spanky. In fact, the only reason I stuck with the film for its entire running time was because I wanted to make sure Spanky survived.
(SPOILER ALERT: He did. Whatever other flaws this film may have, there is no deliberate animal cruelty.)
I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about this movie. There was a lot that I didn’t like about the film. I never bought the relationship between the two main characters (though I should also acknowledge that the film is loosely based on a true story and ends with an interview with the real life model for Jim). The performances felt a bit one-note. And, to be honest, I’m a bit bored with movies about people who spend the majority of their time killing other people. At the same time, the film looked great. Visually, it really captured the arid beauty of the American desert. And the film’s final twist was just bizarre enough to make me smile. Tragically, director Jeffrey Darling died shortly after completing production of this film. (It was his feature directorial debut.) And while I didn’t care much for the film, there were moments where I could see the talent of the director peeking through. I would have liked to have seen what Darling’s second film would have been.
As for He Went That Way, it’s not a disastrous film but it’s also not one that I will probably ever feel like rewatching.
Steve Norris (Charles Starrett) has moved to a new frontier town and is making a good living as a cattle rancher. The sheriff (Ethan Laidlaw) takes a dislike to Steve and even accuses him of being a cattle rustler. Steve is so angered that he plays right into the hands of Decker (Hugh Prosser), a corrupt businessman who secretly puts blanks into Steve’s gun and then tricks Steve into thinking that he has shot and killed the sheriff.
Decker appoints Steve as the new sheriff but demands that Steve do exactly what Decker orders him to do. If Steve actually enforced the law, Decker will turn him in as the first sheriff’s murderer. Steve may not be able to do anything about Decker’s crimes but his alter ego, The Durango Kid, can! As always, working with Steve is his loyal sidekick, Smiley Burnette.
The stand-out set piece of this Durango Kid film is an exciting stagecoach chase, which features the Durango Kid (in the form of legendary stuntman Jock Mahoney) making some thrilling moves. The scene was so exciting and popular that it was used in a dozen other Durango Kid films. These movies were never shy about reusing good scenes, effective stunts, and plot twists. (It’s easy to lose track of how many times Steve has been appointed as sheriff of a town.) This was also neither the first nor the last time that Hugh Prosser and Robert Wilke would play bad guys in a Durango Kid movie. However, this is the only Durango Kid film to feature the Rodeo Rangers providing musical accompaniment to Smiley Burnette’s songs.
Six-Gun Law will be best appreciated by fans of the western genre. Charles Starrett is as tough and authentic a cowboy as always and the storyline has some nice twists and turns. For once, with Steve being blackmailed by Decker, it makes sense that Steve would put on his disguise and solve his problems as the Durango Kid.
Bill Paxton would have been 69 years old today. As a lover of both films and eccentric Texans, I still miss Bill Paxton.
Today’s scene that I love comes from Twister and it features Bill Paxton showing off some wonderful chemistry with Helen Hunt. One of the great things about Bill Paxton is that he was equally at home in both big blockbusters like Twister and Titanic and low-budget indies like Near Dark. He was an artist who also happened to be a star.
4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.
88 years ago, Dennis Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas.
It seems rather appropriate that one of America’s greatest cinematic outlaws was born in a town that will be forever associated with the old west. Dennis Hopper was a rebel, back when there were actual consequences for being one. He started out acting in the 50s, appearing in films like Rebel Without A Cause and Giant and developing a reputation for being a disciple of James Dean. He also developed a reputation for eccentricity and for being difficult on set and he probably would have gotten completely kicked out of Hollywood if not for a somewhat improbable friendship with John Wayne. (Wayne thought Hopper was a communist but he liked him anyways. Interestingly enough, Hopper later became a Republican.) Somehow, Hopper managed to survive both a raging drug addiction and an obsession with guns and, after a mid-80s trip to rehab, he eventually became an almost universally beloved and busy character actor.
Hopper, however, always wanted to direct. He made his directorial debut with 1969’s Easy Rider, a film that became a huge success despite being an infamously chaotic shoot. The success of Easy Rider led to the Hollywood studios briefly trying to produce counter-culture films of their own. Hopper was given several million dollars and sent to Peru to make one of them, the somewhat dangerously titled The Last Movie. Unfortunately, The Last Movie, was such a bomb that it not only temporarily derailed Hopper’s career but it also turned Hollywood off of financing counter culture films. Hopper spent a decade in the Hollywood wilderness, giving acclaimed performances in independent films like Tracks and The American Friend, even while continuing to increase his reputation for drug-fueled instability. Hopper would eventually return to directing with his masterpiece, 1980’s Out of the Blue. (Out of the Blue was so controversial that, when it played at Cannes, Canada refused to acknowledge that it was a Canadian production. It played as a film without a country. Out of the Blue, however, is a film that has stood the test of time.) Unfortunately, even after a newly cleaned-up Hopper was re-embraced by the mainstream, his directorial career never really took off. He directed 7 films, of which only Easy Rider and Colors were financially successful. Contemporary critics often didn’t seem to know what to make of Dennis Hopper as a director. In recent years, however, Hopper’s directorial efforts have been reevaluated. Even The Last Movie has won over some new fans.
Today, on his birthday, we honor Dennis Hopper’s directorial career with….
4 Shots From 4 Dennis Hopper Films
Easy Rider (1969, dir by Dennis Hopper, DP: Laszlo Kovacs)The Last Movie (1971, dir by Dennis Hopper, DP: Laszlo Kovacs)Out of the Blue (1980, dir by Dennis Hopper, DP: Marc Champion)The Hot Spot (1990, dir by Dennis Hopper, DP: Ueli Steiger)
Through the Shattered Lens 