Freeze Frame: The WSW Roundtable take 6

And we're back once again for another go-round on the world of film. This is third and final session with the current group of fellow film bloggers:

Tom from Movie Reviews by Tom Clift

Courtney from Big Thoughts From a Small Mind

Rachel and Jess from their brand-new blog, Reel Insight 

A new group will come on board beginning in June. 

And here are this month's questions:

The Searchers

The Searchers
seen on TV @ TCM
4.10.12

Back in the 90s, there was a popular comic book series called Preacher, which Hollywood has been trying to turn into a movie for awhile now, without success. The plot is... rather complicated. What's relevant here, though, is that Jesse, the main character, is a huge John Wayne fan; has been since he was a child. Periodically, throughout the story, what appears to be Wayne's ghost appears to Jesse to offer advice and inspiration when he needs it, a relationship not unlike that of Clarence and Elvis Presley in True Romance. It could be a ghost, but it could also be the protagonist's imagination. As in that movie, we never quite see Wayne's face; it's always in shadow, but there's never any question that it's him. 

Wayne in Preacher represents a certain idea of America in general and American manliness in particular (which is ironic, since it was written by an Irishman). Jesse has always tried to live his life according to the principles represented by Wayne in his movies, handed down through Jesse's father, but over the course of the story, Jesse learns how to grow beyond those basic, black-and-white, might-makes-right ideals in order to be with the woman he loves. In the story's context, it's not that they're inherently wrong. They're simply not enough.

The America of today bears little resemblance to that of Wayne's time, when we kicked Hitler's ass, stared down the Commies without blinking, and were the envy of the rest of the world, or so said the legends. The reality was much more complicated than that, but it was in a John Wayne movie, after all, where we learned what to do when the legend becomes fact. Wayne personified that era of American history, that self-image of the country, as much, if not more, than any other actor. Where can his like be found today?

Some have lamented that the male movie stars of the 21st century lack a certain ruggedness found in their forebears, and to a certain extent, it's hard to argue that. Shia LaBeouf or Taylor Kitsch can't hold a candle to the Duke and I think it's safe to say that they never will. Still, there ought to be some sort of middle ground, where Wayne's machismo is wedded to a more modern sensitivity. George Clooney probably comes closest to embodying that middle ground, though he's more Cary Grant than John Wayne.

On screen, Wayne was like a force of nature. His physical size was a factor, naturally, but it was also his bearing, the way he interacted with the rest of his cast, the way his most memorable characters lived by their own code - their own sense of right and wrong - that was evocative of less complex times. And I suspect that's why he remains appealing to those who believe life would be a lot simpler if it were more like a John Wayne movie (in spirit, I would hope, not in fact).

But then there's The Searchers, a movie with all the grandeur and scope of Wayne's greatest films, but one in which Wayne's character Ethan is problematic, to say the least. There's no delicate way to put it - Ethan is straight-up racist. The first time he meets Jeffrey Hunter's character, he calls him a half-breed. He spends all these years looking for his young niece, who was kidnapped by Indians, and when he finds her, he's ready to shoot her because she's been assimilated into their culture. What the hell is that about?


Perhaps it's about the reality behind the legends of the Wild West: that if you were anything other than a white male, you had it a hell of a lot rougher. That's not something people usually choose to dwell on, but it's impossible to avoid when looking at The Searchers today. 

The movie remains compelling to watch, though, partly because of all those breathtaking Monument Valley landscapes, and partly because of Wayne himself. One gets the impression that Ethan knows that the things he's seen and done sets himself apart from everyone else, an idea expressed in the famous final shot of Ethan, having returned his niece to their family, standing on the threshold of the frontier house, but not quite able to cross it. He loves her and goes to great extremes to rescue her, but he hates what she has become and won't be part of it. Not exactly a black-and-white, might-makes-right situation, and yet Wayne fits into it well.

The ship still sinks!

So I was gonna see the Titanic re-release in 3D, but after reading that the 3D is nothing to write home about, I decided to opt for a 2D viewing, if there was one. I couldn't find one, and after thinking about it some more, I decided I didn't need to see it again that badly after all. Still, I can't let the occasion go by without putting in my two cents about the movie... everybody else is...

I was still working video retail when it first came out in December 1997. I know I saw it in Manhattan, but I can't remember which theater. I don't think I saw it opening day, but I'm not sure. I do recall talking to a few people who had already seen it, and I had steeled myself for it in advance, determined not to fall prey to cheap emotionalism and to be as objective in my evaluation of the movie as possible. But the truth is that this is simply not that kind of movie.

Yes, I may have shed a tear or two towards the end. Seriously, it's hard not to get caught up in the story, especially once they hit the iceberg and the carnage begins. Titanic is the kind of movie that has to be seen on the big screen to get the full impact of it, and James Cameron knew that when he made it. Love him or hate him, he does not make movies for people to watch on their iPhones. And maybe the creation of movies like these has turned him into a dick with a massive ego. If so, that's unfortunate, but you and I will probably never know for certain. It's certainly unfortunate that Cameron doesn't feel the need to collaborate with a writing partner. Maybe that's a sign of his ego; I don't know.


I bought Titanic on VHS - widescreen, two tapes - but I don't recall watching it at home all that much. If I were being completely honest, I'd say the reason I bought it in the first place was because I got caught up in all the hype, but long before it came to home video I knew about the backlash. Obviously I didn't have the internet back then, but I read Premiere and Entertainment Weekly regularly. I knew that people were saying it wasn't all that. And now we've come to expect a backlash to movies like Titanic.

I think Titanic is half of a great movie - the second half, obviously - but that second half is powerful enough to justify the first half. And give Cameron credit for making the movie he wanted to make, without apologies. Like Cecil B. DeMille and David Lean before him, Cameron thinks on an epic scale and has the stones to pursue his vision, no matter where it takes him, from deep space to the bottom of the ocean, from the far-flung future to the distant past. That's a rare thing... and he should be recognized for that much.

Spanning the web to bring you the constant variety of blog

So this holiday weekend, I thought I'd shine a light on what the rest of the film blogger world is up to, as we prepare for the summer movie season to arrive...

- Titanic has docked into theaters once again, this time in 3D, and here's a nice appreciation of it, in which the author explains how Kate Winslet's Rose inspired him to follow his heart.

- Brandie and the crew at True Classics are devoting this month to the films of Barbara Stanwyck, so I highly encourage you to check them out for that. 

- Speaking of Stany, here's a post about her films with Fred MacMurray.


- Imagine Siskel & Ebert as an old Jewish couple and you get Two Jews on Film, a pair of video bloggers whom I have thoroughly enjoyed lately. Here's their YouTube page.

- Rachel and Jess have combined Rachel's Reel Reviews and Insight into Entertainment to create Reel Insight.

- Here's a follow-up to the Queens World Film Festival: a piece from local news network NY1 about the young student filmmakers whose work played at the fest.


- Finally, I've seen several different renderings of a Pac-Man "movie," but this is by far the best. (Via Rope of Silicon)

A Star Is Born (1937)

A Star Is Born (1937)
seen online via YouTube
4.4.12

Hollywood marriages must seem fleeting and ephemeral to the average moviegoer sometimes. Relationships are forged between actors, or perhaps an actor and a celebrity in another field, last a few years, and then something goes wrong, whatever it may be, and then it's in all the papers. The relationships that stick, that last the longest, tend to be taken for granted, and they're certainly not talked about as much - Brad and Angelina being a notable exception, of course.


Generally, I don't pay much attention to the personal lives of the stars, though of course there are some couples that I have liked at one point or another. I liked Will Smith and Jada Pinkett before they started turning their kids into celebrities too. I also liked Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins; never would've imagined they'd break up but they did.

I can't think of too many current examples of a Hollywood couple in which one is on the rise and another is on the way down. Katie Holmes was already making movies and was known before she married Tom Cruise, and though he did have a dry spell for a few years before Mission: Impossible 4 last winter, she hasn't exactly set the world on fire either. And it wasn't like people suddenly forgot who Tom Cruise was when he was in his slump.


But maybe it was different back in the Golden Age of Hollywood. I can see why A Star Is Born has been done so many times throughout film history - it's the kind of story that helped fuel the Hollywood fantasy, that (white) stars can come from anywhere. That's still true, but this dream is no longer solely dependent on the studio system to make it possible. Now it looks like Clint Eastwood, of all people, wants to do another one. Not that I'm all that eager to see yet another version, but I am curious as to how much modern media in general and the internet in particular will play a part in Clint's version.

Fredric March's character made me think of the stories I've read about Spencer Tracy, who apparently was a notorious boozer throughout his career, and of course Janet Gaynor's character stands by him the way Katharine Hepburn stood by Tracy. It's all very romantic and tragic at the same time on the big screen, though in real life I imagine it's probably a hell of a lot rougher. Of course, one also can't help but also be reminded of The Artist, even though this takes place entirely in the sound era of film and the ending is quite different. It's enjoyable, for what it is.

Requiem for the video store, part 2

Last week I posted a link to a conversation between filmmaker Alex Ross Perry and video store owner Joe Martin about the home video market, video stores in general, and Martin's Brooklyn store, Reel Life South, in particular, which is going out of business. As someone who spent over seven years working in four different video stores (from the mid-90s to the mid-00s), there were so many things in this article that I found I could relate to and recognize from my experiences, and I just wanna highlight a few. 

For instance, I, like Perry, worked at Kim's Video in Greenwich Village, though at a different location, and if I recall correctly, I think there was a girl there who might have also worked at RLS at one point. Don't remember for sure. I've never been in RLS; I sometimes pass by the place whenever I'm in the Park Slope neighborhood and I knew its reputation, but I never knew it was in danger of closing. I vividly remember when the St. Mark's Place flagship location of Kim's closed and as a former Kim's drone, I can verify Perry's statement that mismanagement led to their downfall.

Re: VHS-to-DVD transition: I was working at the Third Avenue store at the time and among the first DVDs we picked up that were big renters were Fight Club and Austin Powers. I remember an afternoon flicking through the latter's extras, amazed at all the peripheral items to choose from. We started out with maybe fifty or so DVDs lined up in a box behind the counter. VHS was our bread and butter, not only for regular customers, but for a number of corporate accounts we kept for years - ad agencies, magazines, TV networks, places like that. They'd order 20, 30, 40 tapes at a time and we'd deliver them as well. These accounts were immensely profitable, as you can imagine, but they didn't order DVDs in anywhere near the same amounts.

I remember we had to work at keeping DVDs relatively clean and usable. They were rentals, so they'd be handled by who-knew-how-many different people a week. We would apply this cleaning goop to a DVD whenever somebody brought one in claiming that it wouldn't play past a certain point or whatever, which happened all the time of course because DVDs were still very much a new technology and people didn't know how to treat them properly.


Also, DVDs were priced to own; i.e., there was no period where it was rental only; the street date was the date for both renting and owning. We began selling off used VHS tapes in larger numbers than usual to compensate. Eventually they filled up an entire cabinet. As I recall, the only new VHS movies we'd sell tended to be Disney and other children's movies, because they generally hit the street priced to own as well as to rent. (Those over-sized "clamshell" containers - never cared for them.) We special ordered stuff for daily customers as well, though that was never a big business for us; VHS rentals were always the big thing. When I worked in the video department of Tower Records, the product there was strictly to buy only, but then I don't think Tower ever trafficked in the rental business.


Personally, I started getting more into buying DVDs. One of the last notable things I did while at Third Avenue was special ordering a DVD box set of I Claudius, which I was pretty excited about. By this time I owned a desktop computer and would play my DVDs on it. By the time I came to Kim's, my DVD collection had grown significantly. I usually went to the Virgin Megastore to buy them because they had a Criterion section, and it wasn't long before I discovered how special Criterion DVDs were - and are.


The clientele at Third Avenue was more sophisticated than your average Blockbuster crowd in terms of movie taste, but we had very little of the hardcore, scouring-the-city-for-rare-editions collector. That was much more of a Kim's thing. I consider myself fortunate that three of the four video stores I worked at were very much neighborhood stores. At Third Avenue, our everyday customers were mostly middle class families and aesthetes looking for a wider range of movies than what Blockbuster offered; the Film Forum/Angelika-type.

Oh, and of course, the porn watchers. Porn was another steady source of revenue for us, another service that Blockbuster didn't provide. RLS' Martin says in the interview that a good video store should specialize in horror, noir and foreign films. To that, I would also add porn. While I was at Third Avenue I was always a bit uncomfortable with porn, but by the time I got to Kim's, I was cool with it, but in both places, the porn section was always well-stocked and well-trafficked, and having it absolutely made a difference.


Perry says later on, in comparing the video store experience to Netflix and online streaming, that spontaneity, the ability to come into the store wanting one thing and end up leaving with something completely different, has a value. At Third Avenue, we had a section where, on one end were the boxes for about five or six new releases, and next to each one were older movies that were similar thematically, that one could conceivably choose from if the new release was out. For example, on a shelf next to, say, Magnolia, one could put movies like Boogie Nights and Hard Eight (other Paul Thomas Anderson films), or Short Cuts (PTA has often been compared to Robert Altman). To be honest, not everyone understood what we were trying to achieve with this section, even though we had signage explaining it, but those that did often took advantage of it, and I personally enjoyed helping to put it together (though I enjoyed arranging my staff selection shelf more).


I always liked recommending films to people. I don't think a day went by at Third Avenue without somebody asking, "What do you suggest?" when the new release they wanted wasn't in. Often times, we tried to steer them towards other new releases, but we also would suggest older movies, of course, and both Perry and Martin agree that this ability to talk to an actual human, an expert, is something we as a society are moving away from as online services make ordering products easier, perhaps too easier. I can't argue that; at both Third Avenue and Kim's, we established and maintained relationships with our customers that were as important as anything else in our businesses, maybe more so. Not every customer was pleasant to be around, naturally, but those that were made the job fun and easygoing. And that's something you can't possibly put a price on.


-----------------------------
Previously:
Requiem for the video store

The Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski
last seen @ Landmark Loews Jersey Theater, Jersey City, NJ
3.30.12


I've always liked bowling. I think it gets mocked sometimes by some people who don't think it's a "real" sport, like say, tennis or golf. If nothing else, it requires a certain amount of arm strength and wrist and hand dexterity, and not everybody has that. It looks effortless, but it's not. And honestly, who cares if it's "legitimate" or not? Plenty of people enjoy it and it's fun.


Don't know if they still do it, but Wide World of Sports used to show the Pro Bowlers Tour on Saturdays, and as a kid I'd watch it fairly often. I'd always root for the left-handed bowlers, me being a lefty and all, although they were pretty rare. I couldn't tell you what exactly kept me watching bowling on TV. It's not like I aspired to become a pro bowler myself. As far as sporting ambitions go, mine was to play right field for the Mets. I guess it was just something to watch on a Saturday afternoon before or after the Game of the Week on NBC. 

The last time I went bowling was a few years ago, as part of an office Christmas party held in a bowling alley in south Brooklyn. I almost wasn't gonna go, but there was this girl that I liked who was going too, so I figured what the hell. She bragged that she was an excellent bowler, and she was pretty good, though I don't remember how she fared. I do remember seeing her get hit on by some drunk co-worker, though.

Whenever I try to bowl, I always think back to watching all those pros on TV and I try and do what they do, although as a lefty I have to reverse everything. I don't think much about things like putting enough spin on the ball or proper footing or anything like that, though; I just try to put as much power behind my release and aim for the two or the four pin and pray I don't get a split that's too wide for me to convert for a spare.


And you know, after all these years, I'm still not entirely certain how scoring works in bowling. Every time I think I've got it figured out, I get tripped up again. I don't remember how we would do it whenever my friends and I would go bowling in high school. We didn't have automatic computer screens keeping track of the scores then.

I saw The Big Lebowski when it first came out and I wasn't that impressed. Didn't hate it, but at the time it struck me as silly-but-lesser Coen Brothers material and  I quickly forgot about it. Years later, of course, I learned of the cult that has grown around the movie in general and Jeff Bridges' character in particular, and sooner or later I knew I would have to see it again in order to reassess it.


Now that I have, my opinion hasn't changed much. It's absolutely funny and enjoyable, but I think what soured me on it the first time was that I lost the thread of the plot halfway through and never recovered it. I've read that Lebowski is a modern spin on The Big Sleep, and maybe that's true, but as far as screwball Coen movies go, I'd still take Raising Arizona or O Brother Where Art Thou? over Lebowski. It does have a killer soundtrack, though; I'd forgotten about that.

This was one of, if not the biggest crowds for a film at the Loews that I'd ever been to.  The auditorium looked close to full, even on the sides. Fortunately, I arrived early and got a great aisle seat up front. I saw at least two replica Lebowski bowling shirts worn by a couple of dudes, and I suspect there were a lot of people attending the Loews for the first time. Wonder if they'll come back?