One of Clint Eastwood’s best and most underrated films, “Tightrope” is less interesting as a thriller (even though it’s a very good one) and more interesting as a character study. The lead character played by Eastwood, a New Orleans detective named Wes Block, who drowns his sorrows over his wife leaving him, by frequenting prostitutes and engaging in sado-masochistic behavior. He’s also looking for a serial killer / rapist whose victims are women that Wes has had some involvement with. There’s even some hints that Wes may in fact be in the killer in question.
Assisting Wes in his investigation is a rape counselor named Beryl, played by Genevieve Bujold, who gets him to confront the hows and whys of his behavior in a mature, non-confrontational way. A key scene that explains his character comes when Beryl asks Wes about his job and his ex-wife. She asks him how dealing with sex crimes in his job affected his private life. He answers that it made him want to treat his wife more tenderly. “How did she respond?” Beryl asks. Wes sadly replies, “She said she wasn’t interested in tenderness.” A quietly devastating moment from a great film.
Comedian Patton Oswalt discusses his fear of getting married in relation to the infamous Stella d’Oro Breakfast Treat commercials of the 1970s. Very funny, but due to some very bad language here, not safe for work or little ones.
“The Great Santini” is a marvelous film adaptation of Pat Conroy’s novel. Robert Duvall gives what is arguably his finest acting performance as Lt. Col. Wilbur “Bull” Meechum, a Marine fighter pilot who excels in his job, but bullies everyone around him, especially his family. Michael O’Keefe arguably gives his best ever acting performance as Meechum’s oldest son Ben. Duvall and O’Keefe were both nominated for Oscars that year, but lost out to Robert DeNiro in “Raging Bull” and Timothy Hutton in “Ordinary People” respectively. The film also boasts great performances by Blythe Danner, Lisa Jane Persky, Stan Shaw, and David Keith.
The scene I’ve included here is the memorable and very painful scene where Ben plays a one-on-one basketball game with his father. Duvall has balls of steel for doing a film like this, because what his character does in this scene is one of the most hateful displays of bullying I’ve ever seen on film. The best thing about “The Great Santini” is that there is no redemptive arc to Duvall’s character. He’s an immature, pathetic, loathsome human being pretty much throughout the entire film. He’s not entirely unlikable, but damn near close.
When David Lynch was making his 1986 film “Blue Velvet,” he wanted to use This Mortal Coil’s famous cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren” for his film. As great as this cover is, Lynch could not afford the rights to use it based on the limited budget he was given to make “Blue Velvet.” So, Lynch used composer Angelo Badalamenti’s and vocalist Julee Cruise’s “Mysteries of Love” instead. The song was effectively used in the film, especially during the scene where Jeffrey (played by Kyle Maclaughlin) kisses Sandy (played by Laura Dern) for the first time and then during the end credits.
Sometimes, one minute of careful editing, brilliant acting, and music tells you everything you need to know about a character in a film. This is the infamous entrance of Robert DeNiro’s character Johnny Boy in Martin Scorsese’s breakout film from 1973 “Mean Streets.” The scene is cut to the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and Johnny Boy enters the club, two girls on his arm, acting like a cocky jackass with a stupid hat and suit. His friend, played by Harvey Keitel, eyes him with the most in-control “Oh s–t! This a–hole better not start anything tonight” look I’ve ever seen.
Holy … f–king … s–t! This is a beyond incredible rockin’ version of one of John Cale’s best and most intense songs, done live in the studio for KEXP-FM in Seattle in December 2012. This was originally recorded in 1975 for his “Slow Dazzle” album, and was allegedly about Cale’s extremely angry and homicidal thoughts about a colleague of his who hooked up with Cale’s then-wife. You’ll notice in this nearly 40-years later version, Cale changes the pronoun on the infamous opening line from “my” to “his.”
Please keep in mind that the man intensely rockin’ the mic is over 70 years old. The fact that I share Welsh blood with this man gives me hope for my impending “golden years.”
From Zappa’s magnificent and gleefully obscene 1979 album “Sheik Yerbouti” comes “Flakes,” an anthem about unreliable repair technicians and the people that hire them. The Bob Dylan impression and the reference to “frosting a cake with a paper knife” are especially nice touches. “Flakes” is an unusually clean (though not that clean) track from “Sheik,” apparently Zappa’s best-selling album of all time. “Sheik” is also arguably the least politically correct and filthiest album to hit the Billboard Top 25 album chart until the ascendency of gangsta rap. That’s a compliment, by the way.
From the David Bowie produced 1977 album “The Idiot,” comes the stomping, quaalude-paced “Nightclubbing.” If there was ever an anthem for vampires, this would be it. You can definitely hear the influence on Goth music, yet “Nightclubbing” does the Goth thing so much better than what resulted later on.
The song was later covered by Grace Jones, whose version I’ve included below. While I like Pop’s original better, I do like Jones’s odd, stoner-funk cover. The song made also made an appearance in the 1996 Danny Boyle classic film “Trainspotting.”
Back when I was 12 years old, I used to visit my Dad in the Washington D.C. area about 4 times a year. There was a mall with a 6-screen multiplex within walking distance of my Dad’s towhouse, so I used to spend a lot of my days buying records, reading books in the bookstore, and seeing movies at the mall.
Being a horror movie fan (the sicker the better) and a “Fangoria” reader at the time (a magazine which showed all of the gory scenes from popular movies the same way stroke mags feature aspiring model/actress/whatevers working very hard to make the rent), I was familiar with the R-rated, gory “Creepshow” that was being released to theaters that fall. With George “Dawn of the Dead” Romero directing and Stephen King as the screenwriter, crafting a hyper-sleazy homage to the hyper-sleazy E.C. Comics of the 1950s, I knew this was going to be a great film.
However, the film was “R” rated, which meant (at least from the religious right city where I grew up), that an adult had to buy your ticket and watch it with you in the theater. I knew there was no way in hell my Dad was going to watch it with me. Not because my Dad was a prude (he took me to the original “Mad Max” and Richard Rush’s “The Stunt Man” when I was 10), but because he thought horror movies were stupid.
I knew I could probably sneak in, but every time I’ve always tried to do something underhanded in my life, I always get caught. I’ve never been a good liar or sneak (some people say that’s a good thing). Anyway, I thought “Hey … I’m tall for my age … Maybe I could pass for 17.” I walked up to the box office at the multiplex, trying to be cool and “casually” requested a ticket for “Creepshow.” The ticket taker said “$2.50” I threw down my cash and ran in to the theater thinking “Yeah, motherf–kers! That’s how I roll!” Of course, it never occurred to me that the theater probably had no policy about enforcing the age policy on R-rated movies (ahh, the 1980s in a major city!), but for an afternoon, I thought I was a motherf–kin’ badassss!
The film didn’t disappoint. It delivered lots of gore, bad language, and very very nasty behavior. But with the comic book stylings of the production design, it was all in very good, tasteless fun. It’s funny, but the attached preview doesn’t even remotely hint at how nasty this film is. But even still, like an Alice Cooper album, you find yourself more entertained that offended. Not Romero’s best by any means, but still a lot of fun.
First up is the grinding, distortion-heavy,machine-like anthem of paranoia “Strange” by Wire, from their 1977 debut “Pink Flag.” As classic as this song is, the more upbeat, rollicking, garage band cover by R.E.M. from 1987’s “Document” album is probably better known. I can’t say which one I like better. I love how positively creepy and dreadful the original is, yet the R.E.M. version is one of their best, hardest rocking tunes. You decide.
Dave's Strange World 