Today would have been the 85th birthday of actor and director Peter Fonda. Today’s scene that I love comes from Fonda’s best-known film, 1969’s Easy Rider. In this scene, Fonda is the epitome of cool as he and Dennis Hopper prepare to ride their bikes across America.
Today’s scene that I love comes from the Jonathan Demme-directed concert film, 1984’s Stop Making Sense. In this scene, brilliantly directed and edited by Demme, Talking Heads perform Life During Wartime. I love the energy in this performance. I’d love to be Tina Weymouth, able to play perfect bass and run in place at the same time.
Today is Kesley Grammer’s 70th birthday. In order to celebrate this event, here is an amazing 8-second scene from one of my favorite films, 2020’s Money Plane!
It’s rumble time!
Since today would have been Robert Altman’s 100th birthday, it only seems right that today’s song of the day should come from his best film. In this scene from 1975’s Nashville, Keith Carradine sings I’m Easy as Altman’s camera finds each of his lovers in the audience, all convinced that Carradine is singing expressly to them.
This song won Nashville it’s only Oscar. It also made Keith, who wrote the song, the only Oscar winner amongst the fabled Carradine family.
Point Blank (1967, directed by John Boorman)
Today is the anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest of the screen tough guys, Mr. Lee Marvin! Today’s scene that I love comes from the 1967 film, Point Blank. In this short but emotionally exhausting scene, Angie Dickinson hits Lee Marvin’s career criminal, over and over again. Marvin, for his part, barely reacts. This scene is the epitome of Lee Marvin’s mystique. He played men who only showed emotion when it was necessary. Dickinson hits Marvin to try to make him feel something but Marvin’s career criminal in beyond such concerns.
From Point Blank, here is today’s scene that I love:
I couldn’t let today go by without recognizing John Travolta. I’ve enjoyed so many of his films over the years, especially movies like GREASE, BLOW OUT, PULP FICTION, and GET SHORTY. But the movie I probably love the most is FACE/OFF. I remember watching it at the movie theater back in 1997 and thinking it was the best movie ever. It came out at a perfect time when I was obsessed with John Woo, and I was still enjoying Travolta’s mid-90’s comeback. I still watch FACE/OFF at least once every year.
Enjoy this excellent scene from John Woo’s FACE/OFF!
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1986’s Pretty In Pink, starring Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Jon Cryer, and James Spader and written by John Hughes.
In the final scene, we discover Andie at prom with Duckie. Fortunately, Blaine shows up. Listen, I know that there are a lot of people who think that Andie should have ended up with Duckie. That’s how the script was originally written and the film’s ending was reshot after test audiences literally booed the idea of Andie going to prom with her best friend. In this case, though, the test audience was correct. Duckie was sweet but he wasn’t a prom date. Andie and Blaine belonged together.
Today is both President’s Day and Don Coscarelli’s birthday! As such, it only seems appropriate that today’s scene of the day should come from Coscarelli’s 2002 film, Bubba Ho-Tep.
In this film, Elvis (Bruce Campbell) and John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) team up to battle the killer Mummy that is haunting their nursing home. Personally, I choose to believe that both Elvis and JFK were exactly who they said they were in this film.
From 1989’s Major League, this is the way every baseball game should end. What I really love about this scene is that Tom Berenger wins the game not with a home run but with a bunt. That’s what baseball is all about.
Have you guessed yet that I really, really love baseball?
It’s almost time for Spring Training and I’ve been thinking about some of my favorite baseball movies!
There are a lot of movies that I like but my absolute favorite baseball movie has to be Eight Men Out, which is about how the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series. What I like about is that, while looking at the economics and the politics about baseball, it never lost sight of everything that makes the game so special.
In the scene below, fans at a minor league game think they’ve spotted Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the best players to have ever been banned from baseball, at bat.
Through the Shattered Lens 