Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to my fellow redhead, Amy Adams!
Amy gave one of the best performances to not be nominated for an Oscar in 2016’s Arrival. Today, my scene that I love is the poignant and thought-provoking ending of that film.
Today would have been Patrick Swayze’s 74th birthday. This scene that I love comes from Swayze’s greatest film, 1989’s Road House.
Here, Swayze explains how to be a bouncer.
Taxi Driver is 50 years old but it’s still one of cinema’s most definitive portraits of urban paranoia and societal detachment. Travis (played by Robert De Niro) obsesses on the city that he harshly judges even though he’s as much a part of New York as those who he wishes will be washed away.
This scene features Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Schrader at their definite best. I imagine that, for a lot of people, this is one of those scenes that solidified their opinions on New York City. For the record, the last time I was in New York, everyone was fairly pleasant. They weren’t exactly friendly but I also didn’t get my bag stolen. (Those of us who don’t live in New York tend to assume that we’ll get mugged as soon as we leave JFK.)
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to actor Steve Carell. This scene that I love is from Foxcatcher and it features Carell cast against type, as the sociopathic John du Pont. (Carell received his first and — to date — last Oscar nomination for his performance as Du Pont.) In this scene, Du Pont corrupts a young wrestler played by Channing Tatum.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to one of the better actresses of her generation, Jennifer Lawrence. This scene that I love comes from 2009’s Winter’s Bone. I still think this is Lawrence’s best performance.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes actor and comedian Steve Martin a happy 81st birthday. Originally from Texas, Martin has been a cultural mainstay for longer than I’ve been alive. He’s a master of both comedy and drama, as anyone who has watched the two seasons of Only Murders In The Building can tell you.
And he can sing too!
Here he is, performing Maxwell’s Silver Hammer in 1978’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Though this was not Martin’s film debut, it was his first “big” role. Steve Martin was 33 years old here. Remarkably, he only seems to have aged a few years in the decades since appearing in this film.
Happy birthday, Steve Martin!
It’s not just The Birds that cause chaos in this scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film of the same name. I will never understand why that gentleman decided that he just had to light up a cigar at that particular time. And if he had used a lighter instead of a match, he could have prevented a lot of trouble.
You do have to respect the Birds for somehow knowing that he would do exactly that and therefore, making sure that the gasoline ended up right around his feet. Those birds are clever!
Seriously, though, this scene really creeps me out. I think it’s because there’s so many birds and, as this scene showed, there was absolutely no way the humans on that island were going to be able to win this particular battle.
145 years ago, on this date, director Cecil B. DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts. From the silent era until his death in 1959, DeMille was one of Hollywood’s superstar directors. His films, which were often over the top and effective at the same time, helped to build the modern film industry.
Today’s scene that I love comes from DeMille’s final film. From 1956’s The Ten Commandments, Moses parts the Red Sea.
(Please note, this video starts with a frozen image that lasts for about 12 seconds.)
Rest in peace to the great Reggie Bannister. After years of ill health, Bannister passed away on August 9th at the age of 80.
Reggie Bannister will always be remembered for his role as the same-named Reggie, the ice cream man in the Phantasm franchise. For all the attention that was given to how scary Angus Grimm was, Reggie was the heart of the film. Today’s scene that I love comes from 1979’s Phantasm.
Today would have been the 95th birthday of Tom Laughlin, the independent film pioneer who gave the world Billy Jack.
In honor of the day of his birth, here’s a scene that I love from 1971’s Billy Jack. The townspeople think that they can get away with humiliating the students from the Freedom School. Well, Billy Jack’s got something to say about that.
Who is Billy Jack? He’s just a person who protects children and other living things.
