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western #5, 'for a few dollars more.' [another day, another movie.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 1 min read

It would seem the Man with No Name and the Masterless Samurai are even more connected than I initially thought. There was already the obvious connection, in that The Man with No Name was created as an adaptation of the Masterless Samurai. However, it seems to me the similarities extend into their sequels as well.

Sanjuro, the second film featuring the character from Yojimbo, was only supposed to be a straight adaptation of a novel called Peaceful Days, but after the success of Yojimbo, the studio decided to have Kurosawa bring the character back sooner rather than later and worked his character into the center of the film.

It felt to me like the same thing happened with the second movie to feature The Man with No Name.

For a Few Dollars More felt to me like the story of one man’s revenge, and that man was not The Man with No Name. Instead, he moved back and forth in the story, like we were following him in and out of the real story that was happening.

It was if Leone simply realized he had struck gold in Eastwood’s character and wanted him in the movie, even if he didn’t have much reason to be there.

The result was that I didn’t really care much about Eastwood’s character in this one. I still loved him, he’s Clint Fucking Eastwood. Yet, in A Fistful of Dollars, all of the best scenes, the ones with the most weight, were scenes featuring Eastwood front and center. That wasn’t so in the second one.

The film was a bit more scattered as well. There were flashes of brilliance, for one, the duel during the climax was pretty great all around, directing, acting, etc. And during a showdown at the beginning, Morricone was off his ass in all his composing glory, working organ music in with… well , you’ll just have to watch it if you haven’t seen it. It was pretty amazing. Outside of those flashes of brilliance, it was pretty straightforward, and at times even dull.

However, I can’t wait for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!

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western #3, 'stagecoach.' [another day, another movie.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 2 min read

Film #3 was the genre classic, Stagecoach. The film was #63 in the original AFI list of the greatest 100 films of the first 100 years of cinema.

Personally, I’m not really a fan.

I’m not challenging its appearance on the list by any means. I understand that the film was important in film history, if for no other reason than because it was John Ford’s first western with sound. I just find it uninteresting at best, and downright offensive at worst.

The uninteresting part of it was writing more than direction, the characters were simply all two-dimensional. The happily drunk doctor, the tough as nails marshall, the heroic outlaw who really hadn’t done anything wrong when you think about it.

The offensive part was spread all around.

There were two primary women, each fit into the mold of Madonna and the Whore, although the Madonna was closed off and kind of a bitch, while the whore had a heart of gold, the filmmakers still only had two places to put young women. That is until John Wayne rolls onto the scene and saves the poor latter woman from a life of whoredom.

I understand that when engaging film, or any art, we need to view it within the lens of its time, understanding that it was a product of a different era. That’s just not really what I am interested in doing here. I certainly want to learn about film history through all of this, but at the end of the day I am also hoping to find movies I love watching. This movie just made me sad most of the time, especially pertaining to the depiction, unsurprisingly, of Native Americans.

It wasn’t enough that we killed off entire civilizations of people, taking every part of their homeland. We also had to turn them into punch lines and story props. A Native American character didn’t have a single line of dialogue. Wait, except for the wife of a Mexican character they meet along the way, she sings in perfect spanish (inexplicably), and she is Apache.

A cheap, insincere way to pay lip service to the idea that not all ‘Indians’ are bad right? Wrong, she took off in the night and stole her husbands horse to warn Geronimo about the Stagecoach. As it would turn out, all Indians are bad. The only hope the white man has is using their tribal divisions to get them to work for you. Sort of like the Cheyenne from the opening scene who stands around like so much set dressing, while a white guy reports on his behalf that he found out Geronimo is going to attack soon. They choose to trust him, not because he is actually trustworthy, but because the Cheyenne “hate the Apaches even more than we do.”

Then, there is the climactic stagecoach chase scene where a bunch of natives chase after them shooting rifles and bows, clearly just malicious for malice’s sake. I guess we are supposed to cheer as John Wayne sits atop the coach and picks off Apache after Apache. How dare they defend their own fucking land, we’re white, we should be allowed to take a stagecoach wherever we damned well please.

It would have been a little easier to swallow if the film offered even the slightest bit of ambiguity, the slightest hint that perhaps they understood that maybe this wasn’t all ok. As it stands, I just couldn’t enjoy it. The attitudes on display are just too shameful and tragic for that.


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western audacity.

By • On • In another day. another movie., gaming, scott • 1 min read

Well, another day, another movie is hitting the next level. We’ve done horror movies. We’ve done time-travel. The plan was that all of these type things would be 10-14 days long.

Not so any longer.

The Western film extravaganza is going to be a full month long.

30 Days. 30 Westerns.

During that time, I will also be watching the complete series of Deadwood. And, if Gamefly cooperates, I may be playing through Red Dead Redemption as well.

Right now, the plan is to post a short post for each day, rather than waiting until the end and posting a huge long post that no one will actually read. Any ideas on a better format?

I’m looking forward to this, while also worrying a bit that I will hate Westerns by the end.

I’m going for it, because I think there is something beautiful about endeavors which are at once audacious and pointless.

For those in the Seattle area, company is always appreciated for any and all of these films.

June 1st, Western month begins!

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janelle monáe, will you marry me?

By • On • In scott, the band wagon • 1 min read

There are always those bands and artists you hear about constantly, but never get around to checking out. There is only so much time, and if you love music there is far too much to experience and far too little time in the day.

That’s why it has taken me so long to finally listen to Janelle Monáe. She’s been on the cover of Paste, she’s been raved about by just about everyone, and normally something along the lines of “Future of Soul” or “Future of Hip Hop” is attached to her name.

Usually, when people are praised as ‘the future of music,’ it doesn’t work out. That’s because bands described that way are normally good, and the stuff that sets the trends is normally garbage. Listen to radio rock from the late 90’s, then listen to radio rock from right now. That’s right, sounds pretty much like the same thing.

However, as the music industry continues to decentralize, then perhaps someone like Janelle Monáe can be the future. If that’s true, the future is bright.

She is amazing. I waited far too long listen to her, but after discussing her the other day with Brian, I got her first CD as soon as my eMusic downloads renewed.

I’m pretty sure I’m in love with her.

Folks, you should be listening to this.

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the adjustment bureau. [trailer park.]

By • On • In scott, trailer park • 1 min read

I’ve been waiting for this trailer for a while, and finally, here it is!

Sadly, the trailer presents lots of text which is formulaic, but trailers do that regardless of what the film has in store.

I am so there the weekend this comes out.

Granted, adaptations Philip K. Dick stories can be pretty terrible (i.e. Paycheck), but they can also be pretty fantastic, (i.e. Blade Runner, Minority Report).

Damon, Blunt, Roger Sterling… C’mon!

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another day, another movie.

By • On • In scott • 1 min read

For those of you who have been reading what I write for a while, you probably remember last year’s Halloween Moviefest. If not, you can check it out here, but basically it was just me trying to learn a bit more about the world of horror(ish) films by watching one every day for over a week.

It was even more fun than I had anticipated, and it made me want to do the same thing again next Halloween, while also doing the same with different genres. It will feed my film-nerd tendencies by familiarizing me with genres I am less familiar with, like the Western, or by getting me even more experience with genres I know and love, like Post-Apocalypse Sci-Fi.

I plan to call the posts, “Another Day, Another Movie.” Now, in preparation, I could use your help in two ways.

1. What genres do you think I should do? I already have some planned, but I would love the input!

2. The first genre on the docket will be the aforementioned Western genre. Classics like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and Unforgiven will be included, as well as many others. I was going to go see Jonah Hex for this, but then the trailer came out and made it look like Wild, Wild West 2. The last thing the world needs is a sequel to Wild, Wild West.

Anyway, what Westerns should I include in the first Western themed ‘Another Day, Another Movie’ series?

Holla back homies.

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will avatar be the engine that drives blu-ray to the next level?

By • On • In scott • 1 min read

There has been plenty of talk of all the money Avatar has made, both in theaters and in home-viewing formats. Yet, while Avatar is the ‘highest grossing film of all time’, that is only due to the fact that those figures never adjust for inflation. Were actual attendance the only criteria, leveling the playing field regardless of the value of the dollar, then the highest grossing film of all time is and always will be Gone with the Wind, which by today’s standards would have made over $1.5 Billion (numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo).

No, the place where Avatar is truly making history is in Blu-ray sales. So far, James Cameron’s little movie has sold, oh, only twice as many copies as any other Blu-ray.

This has had me thinking lately about whether or not Avatar and all its visual treats might be enough to power Blu-ray into everyone’s living rooms, ending forever the days when Blockbuster employees need to check to be sure you know what a Blu-ray player is before you leave the store with a Blu-ray disc.

The reason I am wondering this is because back when we were all making the switch to DVD, it was The Matrix that finally got everyone to cough up the money for a DVD player. It was a perfect storm of DVD players finally lowering in price to the point of affordability, and a movie that was visually thrilling enough that people wanted to be sure to see it in the best possible format. The result was that for some time, based on sales figures, more than half of the people who owned DVD players also owned a copy of The Matrix.

Could Avatar be the straw that finally breaks the proverbial back of the camel that is America’s apathetic attitude toward Blu-ray? Will the idea of watching all that high-tech sexiness on anything less than High-Def, combined with lowering costs for Blu-ray players finally get people excited about the wonderful world of 1080?

I sure hope so. The difference between Blu-ray and DVD is considerable… considerably awesome. It is high time we finally fully enter the era of Blu-ray. DVD is sooooo 1998. C’mon! Get with the times, Grandma.

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