I’m a big fan of the South Korean actor, Choi Min-sik, especially due to his performance in the film OLDBOY (2003). I remember buying the foreign DVD when the movie came out. I had a region-free DVD player so I was able to watch it back in the early 2000’s before everyone else knew about it. Back in those days, it felt like I knew something that nobody else knew, and it was pretty awesome. Choi would soon go on to star in movies like LADY VENGEANCE (2005) and I SAW THE DEVIL (2010), cementing himself as an icon. On his 64th birthday, I invite you to celebrate this fight scene from his legendary performance in OLDBOY!
Telly Savalas would have been 104 years old today. He’s been in many of my favorite movies so I’m glad to celebrate him today with 4 Shots from 4 of my favorites!
Who loves ya, baby? (Telly Savalas as Kojak!)With Charles Bronson in THE DIRTY DOZEN!With Clint Eastwood & Donald Sutherland in KELLY’S HEROES!With Charles Bronson in VIOLENT CITY!
I discovered South Korean cinema when I ran across the blu ray for SHIRI (1999) at Best Buy some time around the turn of the century. Making the impulse buy, I discovered SHIRI to be an incredible action film. With my appetite sufficiently whetted, I hopped on the Internet and just started searching for more. The next movie I came across was JOINT SECURITY AREA (2000), another great film. I took notice of the actor Song Kang-ho in both films, so I started watching his career very closely. Soon he was starring in the psychological thriller SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (2002) and the serial killer film MEMORIES OF MURDER (2003). Not only was Song giving incredible acting performances, he was working for two of the great South Korean directors at the time, Park Chan-Wook and Bong Joon Ho. These two incredible directors were making the best films in South Korean cinema and Song’s fingerprints were all over their best work. Films like THE HOST (2006), THIRST (2009) and SNOWPIERCER (2013) soon followed, culminating in Song’s lead performance in Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar winning film PARASITE (2018), the first foreign language film to ever take home the Best Picture Oscar!
I have now been a fan of Song Kang-ho for over 25 years. He’s still working hard. I just noticed that he has a series that’s streaming on Hulu called UNCLE SAMSIK. I need to check that out. I also noticed that many of his best films are currently available for streaming on so many different platforms… Netflix, Tubi, the Roku Channel, PlutoTV, etc., etc.!
Check out this trailer for MEMORIES OF MURDER. If this doesn’t light your fire, your wood’s wet! Happy Birthday, Song Kang-ho. Thanks for a quarter century of entertainment!
If you’re following the page today, you know that The Shattered Lens is celebrating the 78th birthday of legendary Director John Carpenter. Did you know that there was a time when the studio “suits” wanted Charles Bronson to play the role of Snake Plissken in Carpenter’s classic, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK? A big star when the original idea of the film began kicking around, studio executives felt that an experienced, gritty actor like Bronson might be perfect for the role, especially since he was already a solid box office champ.
Carpenter, however, wanted a younger guy to play Plissken and may have even been a little intimidated to work with the veteran action star…
“Charles Bronson had expressed interest in playing Snake, but I was afraid of working with him. He was a big star, and I was this little-shit nobody.”
It all worked out well in the long run as Carpenter was eventually able to cast his first choice for the role, Kurt Russell, who was at an important stage in his own career as he was still in the process of reinventing his on-screen image from his days as a former child star and Disney star. John Carpenter had worked with Russell a couple of years earlier in the TV movie, ELVIS (1979), so he had confidence in the young actor. Russell turned out to be an incredible choice for the film and key to making it the classic it is today.
Still, for a Bronson fan like me, it’s quite interesting to know that there’s a multiverse out there that could have seen Bronson in the iconic role!
Today is Nicolas Cage’s 62nd birthday. Join me and celebrate by watching this incredible clip from my favorite film of 2021, PIG! It’s currently streaming on Netflix!
Happy Birthday to one of my favorite people in the world, Jan Gan Boyd, Charles Bronson’s co-star in ASSASSINATION (1987)!
We’ll be back to that in a bit, but first a little about me. My parents purchased a VCR for our family sometime around 1985 or so. I was about 12 years old at that time, and it’s fair to say that I’ve been obsessed with movies ever since. It’s actually fair to say that I have somewhat of an obsessive personality, so when I latch onto something, I really, really latch on. At the very top of that list is my lifelong fascination with the actor Charles Bronson. To be completely honest with you, it’s a passion that not many people really understand or appreciate. Beginning around 1986 with my discovery of DEATH WISH 3, I would talk about his movies to my friends constantly. Now keep in mind that I was a young teenager and Bronson was around 65, with his best movie-making years well behind him. Charles Bronson was not high on the list of topics my friends wanted to discuss. I’m in my 50’s now, and my old high school friends still tease me about Charles Bronson. I don’t care, because I still think he’s awesome!
As a matter of fact, my obsession with Charles Bronson has only gotten stronger over the last five years or so. Back in November of 2021, I met a guy from Pennsylvania named Eric Todd who had started the “This Week in Charles Bronson” Podcast and Facebook page. After joining the page, we became fast friends. For the first time, through the Facebook page, I had a whole group of friends who love Charles Bronson as much, or at least close to as much, as I do. In the summer of 2022, when my wife and I drove 17 hours from my home in Arkansas to the Mahoning Drive-In in Lehighton, PA, to watch a triple feature of classic Bronson films, Eric asked me to join him on the podcast and while on-site at the drive-in, I recorded my first episode. I thought this would just be some fun social media or podcast activity where us “Bronson weirdos,” as we call ourselves, would discuss our hero and his movies. I never thought it would lead me to getting to meet some of the actors and actresses who actually worked with Bronson in the movies. Boy, was I wrong!
Through my participation with the “This Week in Charles Bronson” podcast and Facebook page, I have met Paul Talbot (author of the “Bronson’s Loose” and “Bronson’s Loose Again” books), Jordan Rhodes (co-star of MR. MAJESTYK and THE INDIAN RUNNER), Henry Brooks (writer of “Charles Bronson, More than a Vigilante, The Musical” ), Robert F. Lyons (co-star of DEATH WISH II, TEN TO MIDNIGHT and MURPHY’S LAW), and Lindsay Ireland (Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland’s niece and author of the book “Why Not Me?”). I have met fellow Bronson fans from all over the country and world. Not only have I met these people, but I’ve also developed some true friendships along the way. Eric and I now plan family vacations together, and if I ever find myself in a city where one of my “Buchinsky Boys” reside, I will definitely find the time to break bread with them. It’s one of the nicest communities I’ve ever been a part of, and I’m thankful for it.
To bring this full circle, one of my favorite people in the world, who I now consider a friend, just so happened to co-star with Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland in the 1987 action film, ASSASSINATION. Back in January of 2023, Eric and I were able to interview actress Jan Gan Boyd. It was such an honor to be able spend some time with her as she talked about working with Bronson, Michael Douglas, Richard Attenborough, Martin Kove, Ted Danson, and even Richard Roundtree. She remained close friends with Charles Bronson up until his death in 2003. If any of you would like to watch that podcast episode, I’ve linked to it below.
“I was twelve going on thirteen the first time I saw a dead human being.”
These are the first words spoken in director Rob Reiner’s classic coming of age film, STAND BY ME, which received its widespread theatrical release in the United States on August 22nd, 1986. Actor Richard Dreyfuss spoke words that gave an exact description of my own age in the summer of 1986 when the film was released, and I certainly felt a connection to the characters in Reiner’s film. I watched STAND BY ME many times as a teenager, and with a humble and hurting heart, I decided to watch it again last night. On its surface, it’s a pretty simple story…
After accidentally learning of the location of the body of a local boy who’s been missing for several days, four boys (played by Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell) set off on a weekend adventure to find the body in hopes of becoming local heroes. Along the way, they dodge trains, get sucked on by leeches, tell gross-out stories around a campfire, tackle traumatic personal issues, and eventually stand up to a group of older bullies (led by Kiefer Sutherland)! When the weekend is over, they move on with their own lives, lives that are never quite the same again.
The main reason I have a real personal connection to STAND BY ME is the fact that I recognize myself and some of my friends in its young characters. I grew up in a very small rural community in Arkansas called Toad Suck. It wasn’t even a town; it was more of just a spot in the road where a few homes built up near a dam and bridge on the Arkansas River. Often when I’d spend the night with my best friend, we’d go walking down the railroad track that ran through our community, carrying our BB guns and hanging out on the railroad bridges where we could take aim at rocks, sticks, turtles, and, at times, the dreaded water mocassin! Like the boys in the movie, we’d always have to be on the lookout for the oncoming trains. As a very naïve and sheltered kid of the mid-80’s who was raised in a strict religious household, I tended to be somewhat judgmental. STAND BY ME forced me to think deeper thoughts and try to find a more mature empathy for those kids I hung out with and saw at school every day. While none of the characters in the film are an exact replica of me or my friends, we knew of people who were probably experiencing abuse, who were looked down upon as “less than,” and who were neglected by their parents. And I think we have all experienced times when we felt insecure, lacked confidence, or were afraid and didn’t have the maturity to handle it in a positive manner. I felt compassion for these characters, which in turn helped me feel more understanding towards those around me in my real life! As a filmmaker in complete control of his craft, Rob Reiner made a movie that even affected someone like me, and I’ve never forgotten those feelings.
My feeling of kinship with the actors who played in STAND BY ME didn’t end when the movie ended either. Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell were all very close to my age when they filmed the movie, and I’ve followed each of their careers fairly closely my entire life. My two favorites were River Phoenix and Corey Feldman. It was painful to me when River Phoenix died in 1993 at just 23 years of age. I remember all the issues Corey Feldman had with drug addiction. I’m so glad that he’s been able to overcome that addiction and achieve sobriety for multiple decades. I’m not a Star Trek completist, but I always got a kick out of seeing Wil Wheaton on THE BIG BANG THEORY. And then Jerry O’Connell definitely lost his baby fat and has gone on to a solid acting career! The common thread, of course, is the fact that Reiner got great performances from each of these young actors in STAND BY ME. Combine those performances with the quality of the film and the time in my own life when the film came out, and you can start to get the idea of why the film has a position of reverence in my life. You can also see why I have such respect for Rob Reiner as a filmmaker.
Overall, STAND BY ME is simply one of my favorite films of all time. It has some of the most memorable on-screen moments of my childhood. The pie eating barf-o-rama and the crotch leeches are scenes that are burned into my psyche. Along with the great cast of boys, Kiefer Sutherland gives one of his solid, bully performances in an 80’s film. Sutherland would go on later in his career and play one of my all-time favorite TV characters, Jack Bauer, in 24. More important than all of that, though, is the fact that the coming-of-age film STAND BY ME helped 12-13 year-old me grow up a little bit myself by making me feel something. I guess the greatest compliment you can give any director is to tell them that their film made you think about things more important than yourself and made a difference in your own life. Today, I pay you that great compliment and say Rest in Peace, Mr. Reiner!
Actor/writer/director John Cassavetes was born on this day in 1929. While he had an amazing career, I first saw him in his Oscar nominated performance as doomed military convict Victor Franko in THE DIRTY DOZEN. In celebration of what would have been his 96th birthday, enjoy this scene from Director Robert Aldrich’s classic World War II film! All I can say is, if you’re going to get your ass kicked in a movie, you might as well get it kicked by Charles Bronson, Jim Brown and Clint Walker!
As TSL celebrates what would have been the 109th birthday of director Richard Fleischer, I wanted to share an interview that the “This Week in Charles Bronson” podcast was able to conduct with Fleischer’s son Bruce, as well as his son-in-law, Max Reid. There’s a lot of good information about Richard Fleischer and his movies. Fleischer wasn’t a huge fan of Bronson’s personality, but he did make one of his best movies (MR. MAJESTYK), so I’m forever grateful.
Through the Shattered Lens 