Our song of the day comes from 1984’s Red Dawn, directed by the great John Milius.
AVENGE ME!
Our song of the day comes from 1984’s Red Dawn, directed by the great John Milius.
AVENGE ME!
Today, the Shattered Lens celebrates the 82nd birthday of the iconic screenwriter and director, John Milius!
While director Francis Ford Coppola definitely put his own stamp on 1979’s Apocalypse Now, the film started life as a script written by John Milius and the film itself is full of dialogue that could only have been written by Milius. The most famous example is Robert Duvall’s monologue about the smell of napalm in the morning. Actually, the entire helicopter attack feels like pure Milius. Reportedly, Duvall’s character was originally named Colonel Kharnage but, by the time the movie was made, his name had become Kilgore. It’s still not exactly a subtle name but it’s not quite as obvious as Kharnage.
(When James Caan read the script, he loved the role so much that he was offended to not be offered it and, as a result, he turned down offers to play not only Willard but also Kurtz.)
Happy birthday, John Milius!
“Someday, this war is going to end.”
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 is John Milius’s birthday and you know what? It should be a national holiday!
It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 John Milius Films
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly watch parties. On Twitter, I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday and I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday. On Mastodon, 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, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix! The movie? 1984’s The Terminator!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, find The Terminator on Prime, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! I’ll be there happily tweeting. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
See you there!
Today’s song of the day comes from tonight’s #FridayNightFlix.
Today would have been Max von Sydow’s 97th birthday. In today’s scene that I love, von Sydow plays a disarmingly polite assassin.
From 1975’s Three Days of the Condor:
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 wishes a happy early birthday to German director Uli Edel, who will be turning 79 tomorrow! It’s time for….
4 Shots from 4 Uli Edel Films
“Jakey, Jakey, big mistakey,” the bad guy says at one point during 2015’s Story of Eva and if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about this film, I don’t know what to tell you.
Eva (Nicole Rio) is the mother of teenage Amber (Chelsea London Lloyd). After Amber is murdered by a serial killer who also works as a human trafficker, Eva decides to get revenge. First, however, she has to train herself to not only inflict pain but to also handle it. She finds Amber’s stash and starts smoking it. She wears a ball gag. She whips herself. She learns how to handle pain. She uses Amber’s college fund to buy a membership at the gym and takes boxing lessons. And she builds her own little dungeon. Whenever Eva captures a criminal, she turns into Evil Eva and is even played by a different actress, Shawn Craig. Eva is one of those vigilantes who can’t punish an evil-doer without delivering an endless monologue. The script is talky in the way that scripts written by first-timers determined to prove their cleverness often are.
“No child should ever suffer!” Eva — in “good” form — announces before then adding, “What kind of God would allow that?” Thunder rumbles in the background and it’s not for the first or the only time in the movie as Eva views herself as having become a vengeful God. I have to admit that I appreciated the fact that the film was so shamelessly overwrought and overdone. Everything about the the move is over-the-top and yet, oddly, it’s still rather dull. Some of it is that fact that we live in a post-Hostel world. Torture chambers just don’t carry the same jolt that they once did.
Eric Roberts plays a detective who is investigating all of the murders. He is named Detective Wood. His partner (Rico Ross) is named Detective Grind and the fact that there was no one named Detective Bump seems like a missed opportunity. Roberts appears in a handful of scenes and brings some welcome wit to the role.
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
The lineup for this year’s Cannes film festival was announced earlier today. There’s only one American film in the official competition. We’re all rooting for you, Ira Sachs!
Here’s the line-up:
Opening film:
LA VÉNUS ÉLECTRIQUE
Pierre SALVADORI
(Out of Competition)
Competition:
AMARGA NAVIDAD Pedro ALMODÓVAR
PARALLEL TALES Asghar FARHADI
A WOMAN’S LIFE Charline BOURGEOIS-TACQUET
LA BOLA NEGRA Javier CALVO & Javier AMBROSSI
COWARD Lukas DHONT
DAS GETRÄUMTE ABENTEUER Valeska GRISEBACH
ALL OF SUDDEN HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke
THE UNKNOWN Arthur HARARI
ANOTHER DAY Jeanne HERRY
SHEEP IN THE BOX KORE-EDA Hirokazu
HOPE NA Hong-jin
NAGI NOTES FUKADA Koji
GENTLE MONSTER Marie KREUTZER
NOTRE SALUT Emmanuel MARRE
FJORD Cristian MUNGIU
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY Léa MYSIUS
MOULIN László NEMES
FATHERLAND Pawel PAWLIKOWSKI
THE MAN I LOVE Ira SACHS
EL SER QUERIDO (THE BELOVED) Rodrigo SOROGOYEN
MINOTAUR Andrey ZVYAGINTSEV
Un Certain Regard
TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA Jane SCHOENBRUN
Opening Film
ELEPHANTS IN THE FOG Abinash
BIKRAM SHAH 1st film
IRON BOY Louis CLICHY
BEN’IMANA Marie-Clémentine DUSABEJAMBO
1st film
CONGO BOY Rafiki FARIALA
CLUB KID Jordan FIRSTMAN
1st film
UĻA Viesturs KAIRIŠS
LA MÁS DULCE (STRAWBERRIES) Laïla MARRAKCHI
EL DESHIELO (THE MELTDOWN) Manuela MARTELLI
SIEMPRE SOY TU ANIMAL MATERNO (FOREVER YOUR MATERNAL ANIMAL) Valentina MAUREL
YESTERDAY THE EYE DIDN’T SLEEP Rakan MAYASI
I’LL BE GONE IN JUNE Katharina RIVILIS
1st film
WORDS OF LOVE Rudi ROSENBERG
EVERYTIME Sandra WOLLNER
ALL THE LOVERS IN THE NIGHT SODE Yukiko
Out of Competition
LA BATAILLE DE GAULLE : L’ÂGE DE FER Antonin BAUDRY
KARMA Guillaume CANET
DIAMOND Andy GARCIA
L’ABANDON Vincent GARENQ
L’OBJET DU DÉLIT Agnès JAOUI
HER PRIVATE HELL Nicolas WINDING REFN
Midnight Screenings
FULL PHIL Quentin DUPIEUX
SANGUINE Marion LE CORROLLER
1st film
ROMA ELASTICA Bertrand MANDICO
JIM QUEEN Marco NGUYEN & Nicolas ATHANÉ
1st film
GUN-CHE (COLONY) YEON Sang-ho
Cannes Première
LA TROISIÈME NUIT Daniel AUTEUIL
THE MATCH Juan CABRAL & Santiago FRANCO
KOKUROJO (THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER) KUROSAWA Kiyoshi
HEIMSUCHUNG (VISITATION) Volker SCHLÖNDORFF
PROPELLER ONE-WAY NIGHT COACH John TRAVOLTA
Special Screenings
REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION Pegah AHANGARANI
1st film
LES MATINS MERVEILLEUX Avril BESSON
1st film
L’AFFAIRE MARIE-CLAIRE Lauriane ESCAFFRE & Yvo MULLER
AVEDON Ron HOWARD
LES SURVIVANTS DU CHE Christophe Dimitri RÉVEILLE
1st film
JOHN LENNON : THE LAST INTERVIEW Steven SODERBERGH
CANTONA David TRYHORN & Ben NICHOLAS
Hi, everyone! Tonight, on Mastodon, I will be hosting the #TubiThursday watch party! Join us for Cocktail (1988)!
You can find the movie on Tubi and you can join us on Mastodon at 9 pm central time! (That’s 10 pm for you folks on the East Coast.) We will be using #TubiThursday hashtag! See you then!