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 95th birthday of Hal Ashby, one of the most important (and, sadly, one of the most overlooked) directors of the 1970s. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Hal Ashby Films
Harold and Maude (1971, dir by Hal Ashby, DP: John A. Alonzo)
The Last Detail (1973, dir by Hal Ashby, DP: Michael Chapman)
Bound for Glory (1976, dir by Hal Ashby, DP: Haskell Wexler)
Being There (1979, dir by Hal Ashby, DP: Caleb Deschanel)
Today, we wish a happy sixtieth birthday to the one and only Keanu Reeves!
Today’s scene that I love comes from the film that made Keanu an icon for a whole generation of moviegoers who had blocked The Matrix sequels from their collective memories, John Wick. In this scene, Keanu explains that it wasn’t just a dog that he lost.
There’s not a pet owner in the world who doesn’t understand exactly what John Wick is saying here. And it must be said that Keanu, who has definitely grown a good deal as an actor over the years, really sells the emotions in this scene.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show can be purchased on Prime!
After taking a two-month hiatus, I think it’s time to finally get back to the reviews. Thank you for your patience, everyone. Now, let’s head to down to Miami for some Vice!
Episode 2.20 “Payback”
(Dir by Aaron Lipstadt, originally aired on March 14th, 1986)
A low-level drug dealer named Jesus Moroto (Roberto Duran) wants a meeting with the detective who arrested him and sent him to jail. When Sonny Crockett arrives to see what Moroto wants, Sonny is shocked when Moroto commits suicide in the visitation room.
Sudden and violent deaths are a recurring thing in Miami but the death of Moroto haunts Sonny. As Sonny explains to Tubbs, it doesn’t make any sense for Moroto, who was only looking at a few years in jail, to have killed himself. Sonny wonders why Moroto died in front of him. Tubbs suggests that Sonny instead focus on their current assignment, trying to get close to the elusive drug lord, Mario Fuente (played by famed art rocker, Frank Zappa). As a lot of drug lords do on this show, Fuente lives on a yacht and it’s next to impossible to see him. Using their undercover identities as Burnett and Cooper, Crockett and Tubbs have so far only been able to meet with Fuente’s second-in-command, Reuben Reydolfo (Dan Hedaya).
Crockett and Tubbs find themselves assigned to work with two DEA agents, one whom — Kevin Cates (Graham Beckel) — claims that he can get Crockett and Tubbs onto Fuente’s boat. Crockett and Tubbs are reluctant to work with anyone but it soon turns out that Cates is apparently better at his job than Crockett and Tubbs gave him credit for.
Except, of course, everyone’s got a secret. Before he went to jail, Moroto stole several million dollars from Fuente. It turns out that Internal Affairs is convinced that Crockett helped Moroto steal the money and Fuente, who knows that Burnett and Cooper are actually Crockett and Tubbs, believes the same thing. The only person who can truly prove that Crockett is innocent is Kevin Cates and that’s because he’s the one who stole the money!
It doesn’t matter that the twisty plot of this particular episode is not always easy to follow. It also doesn’t matter that this episode leaves you wondering just how exactly Crockett and Tubbs have managed to maintain their Burnett/Cooper personas for so long without everyone in Miami’s underworld figuring out the truth. (Personally, I wonder that after every episode.) This episode works due to the atmospheric direction of Aaron Lipstadt and the performances of Don Johnson, Edward James Olmos, Frank Zappa, and especially Graham Beckel. Beckel gives a performance that will keep you guessing at just who exactly Kevin Cates is working for and whether or not he can be trusted. That he makes Kevin into a somewhat likable character makes it all the more disturbing when he turns out to not be quite the honest law enforcer that he made himself out to be. If the main theme of Miami Vice often seemed to be that Crockett and Tubbs were fighting a war that there was no way to win, this episode shows why their work often felt so futile. In this episode, Crockett not only has to battle a drug lord but he also has to battle Internal Affairs. No one trusts anyone.
The episode ends on an ambiguous note, with Crockett technically cleared but still unable to truly prove his innocence. (Kevin Cates, the only man who can truly prove Crockett’s innocence, is naturally gunned down during the show’s final few minutes.) Crockett is warned that Fuente is still going to be coming after him. (Unfortunately, Zappa was in poor health when he filmed this episode and Fuente would never return.) This episode is Miami Vice at its most cynical and its most effective.
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 The Man From Hong Kong, starring George Lazenby! The film is on Tubi!
Then, on twitter, #MondayMuggers will be showing Death Becomes Her! The film is on Prime and it starts at 10 pm et!
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 The Man From Hong Kong on Tubi, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! Then switch over to twitter, pull Death Becomes Her up on Prime, and use the #MondayMuggers hashtag!
I have no idea what this day is supposed to celebrate but I hope everyone has a good one.
There doesn’t seem to be any agreed upon way to celebrate Labor Day. A few people have the day off and they’re the reason why I decided to hold off on going up to Lake Texoma until this upcoming, holiday-free weekend. Personally, I think the best way to celebrate any holiday is with a film festival so here are my suggestions for your Labor Day viewing:
Red Menace (1949) — In this wonderfully atmospheric film noir, a former GI named Bill Jones (Robert Rockwell) finds himself seduced by the Communist Party. After he witnesses the head of the party murder a man who questions the wisdom of Marx, Jones and his lover go on the run.
Big Jim McClain (1951) — John Wayne takes on the commies! And you better believe that no one is more determined to keep America and its workers safe from communist influence than the Duke! This film features some lovely Hawaiian scenery and enough over-the-top propaganda to make any American proud.
I Was A Communist For The FBI (1951) — Based (I imagine very loosely) on a true story, I Was A Communist For The FBI is about an agent who spent nine years undercover as a communist. As a result, he lost his friends and almost his family but he also serves his country. Featuring a scene where a strike turns violent, there’s nothing subtle about this film but, as with Big Jim McClain, that’s a large part of what makes the movie so watchable.
On The Waterfront (1954) — Marlon Brando won his first Oscar for this film about union corruption.
Dr. No (1962) — In his very first film outing, James Bond shows what a good job a true professional can do.
Blue Collar (1978) — In this gritty film from Paul Schrader, three auto-workers (played by Yaphet Kotto, Harvey Keitel, and Richard Pryor) discover that their union is even more corrupt than management. Consider this film to be an antidote to Norma Rae.
F.I.S.T. (1978) — After the success of Rocky, Sylvester Stallone played a thinly-disguised version of Jimmy Hoffa in this epic historical film. The film is poorly paced and doesn’t quite work but it’s interesting to see Stallone, post-Rocky, playing a character who isn’t necessarily all-that heroic.
Convoy (1979) — The film celebrate the independent trucker, the hard-working driver who doesn’t want to be tied down by either the unions or the law. Convoy is infamous for being an out-of-control production and yes, it is a bit self-indulgent. But who cares? When that convoy forms, you have to heartless not to cheer a little.
Alien (1979) — One of the best films about how much it sucks to have to work for a living, Alien follows a group of blue-collar workers whose lives are deliberately put in danger by a big, faceless corporation.
Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989) — A labor strike leaves a Brooklyn neighborhood reeling. This film is not for the faint-hearted.
Hoffa (1991) — Jack Nicholson stars as Jimmy Hoffa in this uneven but watchable film. This movie is unabashedly pro-Hoffa and therefore, it provides an interesting contrast to films like F.I.S.T. and Blue Collar.
The Irishman (2019) — Despite all the criticism that it received when it was first released, TheIrishman is one of Martin Scorsese’s finest films. It takes a while to get used to the de-aging but Al Pacino’s performance as Jimmy Hoffa was brilliant. This film is one of the best looks at how the American labor movement lost its way.
The YouTube video says 2012 but the song, if I remember correctly, was actually written for Ron Paul’s 2008 campaign and Aimee Allen even performed it at Ron Paul events. It wouldn’t surprise me if the song was reused for his 2012 campaign. I’m going to assume this video is from the 2008 campaign but again, I could be wrong.
(Ron Paul was huge amongst my friends in 2008, many of whom had previously been crazy about Dennis Kucinich and who later went equally crazy over Bernie Sanders, Mike Gravel, Marianne Williamson, Tulsi Gabbard, and RKF, Jr. 2008, of course, was before most people really understood what ‘too online’ meant and there was a general belief that having a lot of followers posting on message boards and on social media would translate into getting a lot of votes in a primary. Needless to say, that didn’t quite turn out to be the case.)
Aimee Allen is currently the lead singer for The Interrupters.
Nguyen is known for directing such fine films as …. well, he directed some movies that have found fame for various reasons. For instance, there’s a little film called Birdemic. And then there’s Birdemic 2. And then there’s a Birdemic 3….
Anyway, today’s scene that I love comes from Birdemic. Thank you, James Nguyen, for introducing me to the perfect song to sing whenever my family gets together.
After three really difficult months, I’m ready to get back to the Shattered Lens. And what better way to start things anew than with this latest music video from Annie Hardy. The video stars some of her friends as well. I love the possum, especially.
(We’ve got quite a few possums that live around here and Erin and I are always happy to see one of them making its way through our backyard at night. The possums will always be safe around here.)
Annie Hardy previously starred in Dashcam, which I still consider to be the best film made about what life was like during the COVID lockdowns. Check it out if you haven’t already.
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? 1996’s Thinner!
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.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on Twitter and Mastodon. 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 10 pm et, #FridayNightFlix has a film that all good people love, 1994s Timecop!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Timecop is available on Prime and Tubi! See you there!
Through the Shattered Lens