Today, the Shattered Lens wises director James Gunn a happy 56th birthday!
My favorite James Gunn film remains 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Not coincidentally, that’s also my favorite comic book film. A good deal of that love has to do with the film’s absolutely brilliant introduction of Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord. In the scene below, both the film and Gunn announce that this is a comic book movie that actually has a sense of humor. Let the other franchises specialize in depressed heroes and grim themes. The Guardians of the Galaxy are all about dancing.
Here’s a scene that I love, directed by James Gunn:
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Sam Mendes!
Now, it’s true that Sam Mendes won an Oscar for directing American Beauty and he probably came close to winning a second one for his work on 1917. However, my favorite Mendes film remains Skyfall.Skyfall is one of the best of the Bond films and I say this as someone who was not really a fan of Daniel Craig’s mopey interpretation of the character. Based on his previous films, Sam Mendes may not have been the first name that come to mind when people talked about someone who could make a great Bond film but, with Skyfall, he did just that.
Here, in a scene that I love, James Bond pursues Silva (Javier Bardem) through the London Underground. It’s very suspenseful, very droll, and, most importantly, very British.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 62nd birthday to Texas’s own Richard Linklater!
In order to celebrate this day, here’s one of my favorite scenes from Linklater’s 1993 film, Dazed and Confused. Not only does this montage introduce the viewer to the suburban Texas nightlife of 1976 but it’s also perfectly set to War’s Low Rider.
And, of course, it features that classic line, “It’d be a lot cooler if you did.”
Today, we celebrate the birthday of my pre-code, silent film role model, the amazing Clara Bow! Clara was born 115 years ago, on this date, in Brooklyn, New York. As an actress, she was one of the biggest stars of the silent era. She came to represent the the Roaring 20s in all of their glory. She also co-starred in the first film to ever win the Oscar for Best Picture, Wings!
Below is a scene from my favorite Clara Bow film, 1928’s It. Playing a poor but confident shopgirl who falls in love with her wealthy boss, Bow was so popular with audiences that she became known as the “It Girl.”
In the scene below, she prepares for a date with her boss. She may not be as rich as her romantic rivals but she doesn’t let that stand in her way. She’s Clara Bow. She’s got it and she knows it.
Yesterday, the great western character actor, L.Q. Jones, passed away. He was 94 years old.
Though he was probably best known for the films that he did with Sam Peckinpah and for directing the darkly humorous sci-fi film, A Boy And His Dog, Jones also appeared in Martin Scorsese’s 1995 film, Casino. Playing the role of county commissioner Pat Webb, Jones went toe-to-toe with Robert De Niro and more than held his own. Reportedly, Scorsese asked Jones to rewrite much of his dialogue, in order to give it a western authenticity,
From Casino, here is a scene that I love:
Though Ace would disagree with me, he really should have just taken Webb up on his suggestion to give his brother-in-law a “position further down the trough.” That pride was not only Ace’s undoing but also the end of Bugsy Seigel’s vision of Las Vegas.
Interestingly enough, this scene always makes me think of the scene where Sen. Pat Geary (also of Nevada) tried to bully Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II. In that film, the Corleones were able to put the senator in his place. In Casino, however, it turns out that Pat Webb is right and Ace and the gangsters in Kansas City never really do figure out how things work in Vegas.
James Caan has passed away, at the age of 82. There are a lot of great James Caan performances to choose from and to highlight. For me, though, he’ll always be Sonny Corleone, the temperamental son of the Don who remains oddly likable, even as he cheats on his wife and threatens to kill every other gangster in New York. Sonny is a force of chaos, which ultimately leads to his untimely death. But, at the same time, it also makes him someone who you definitely fighting for you instead of against you.
The scene below is mostly cited for Al Pacino’s quiet intensity as he reveals that he’s truly become a member of the family. While Pacino’s great, Caan’s reaction is just as important.
In the scene below, Sonny discovers that Carol has been beating up Connie so Sonny beats up Carlo. Carlo really deserved it. Now this scene is often cited for featuring one shot where it’s clear that Caan didn’t actually hit Gianni Russo. That’s fair. But still, Caan actually did make contact enough times that Russo ended up with a broken rib. Look past that one shot and you’ll see that, in this scene, Caan clearly shows why Sonny was such a feared figure. Even more importantly, this scene shows how important his family was to Sonny. Who doesn’t want someone who would beat someone up for them?
And finally, in this scene, Sonny tells off the FBI. How can’t you love that? Apparently, the smashing of the camera was something that Caan improvised on the spot.
That said, there was a lot more to Caan’s career than just The Godfather. Watch all of his films. He was one of the greats and perhaps the only celebrity who was actually worth following on twitter. RIP.
Tom Cruise is 60 years old today! He doesn’t look a day over 36. Insert your own Dorian Gray joke here.
No matter what else you may want to say about Tom Cruise, you can’t deny that he’s one of the last of the genuine movie stars. He’s been a star in since the 80s, doing things onscreen that you could never imagine some of our younger actors even attempting. And right now, Top Gun: Maverick appears to be unstoppable with audiences and critics. There are many reasons for Maverick‘s popularity but one cannot deny that a lot of it is the fact that Cruise just has that old-fashioned movie star charisma.
Today’s scene that I love comes from the first Top Gun. In this scene, Tom Cruise, Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer, and Rick Rossovich play beach volleyball. The scene kind of comes out of nowhere and there are times when the whole thing comes close to self-parody. (Actually, if we’re going to be honest, it crosses the line into self-parody more than a few times.) But, Cruise and Kilmer manage to save it, like the movie stars they are!
According to the imdb, today is Robby the Robot’s birthday. I didn’t know that robot’s had birthdays but apparently, they do. Robby is 67 years old and I think that, along with Earl Holliman, he might be one of the last two surviving cast member of the 1956 sci-fi classic, Forbidden Planet.
So, it only seems appropriate that today’s scene that I love should be Robby the Robot’s debut appearance in Forbidden Planet. Happy birthday, Robby!
Through the Shattered Lens 