A really smart retrospective of Barry Levinson’s 1982 classic film “Diner,” by writer S.L. Price. Not only did the film launch the careers of Kevin Bacon, Paul Reiser, Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Daniel Stern, Steve Guttenberg, and Tim Daly, Price argues that “Diner” was one of the major influences on pop culture in the past 30 years. Think about it: Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity,” the pop and junk culture dialogues in Quentin Tarantino’s oeuvre, “Seinfeld,” and Judd Apatow’s “bromance” genre can all be traced back to “Diner.” All I can say is “Damn, wish I had thought of that!” Nice shooting, Mr. Price.
Tarantino promotes his upcoming film “Django Unchained” on the Howard Stern Show. Like most of Tarantino’s films, the 74-minute interview is shocking, hilarious, profane, politically incorrect, and most of all, fun. Not only is Tarantino a great guest, but Stern proves once again he’s one of the best interviewers around. As you can imagine, not safe for work or little ones.
Not to be confused with the Jackson 5 hit of the same name, this is a wonderful R&B ballad by Joe Tex from 1966 that was resurrected by the Quentin Tarantino half of 2007’s “Grindhouse” (“Death Proof”). While “Death Proof” was not the strongest Tarantino film (though it does have its charms), the soundtrack (as always for a Tarantino film) is pretty awesome.
A splendid rock ballad from the original Jack Rabbit Slim. Forbert may have been a one-hit wonder, but my, what a hit (it went all the way to #11 on the Billboard singles chart in 1980). Dedicated to the memory of Florence Ballard of the Supremes, not because the lyrics have anything to do with Ballard, but as Forbert said “That seemed like such bad news to me and such sad news. She wasn’t really taken care of by the music business, which is not a new story.” He deserved greater success than he achieved, but it was nice that Tarantino named the 50s retro club in “Pulp Fiction” after Forbert’s album “Jackrabbit Slim.”
X’s cover of the Jerry Lee Lewis classic, recorded for the much underrated 1983 Richard Gere-starring remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s film of the same name. If you’re skeptical, give it a shot. I think you’ll see where Tarantino got a lot of ideas.
Number 3 on Dave’s Strange World’s all-time favorite films is P.T. Anderson’s magnificent epic film the L.A. porn industry between 1977 and 1984. It still amazes me to think that Anderson was only 27 when he made this film, because it exudes an artistic confidence that is rare in most films, let alone by young filmmakers making their 2nd feature.
“Boogie Nights” combines the delirious rock-n-roll rhythms of Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” the successful juggling of multiple quirky, memorable characters / storylines (ala Robert Altman), and “Wouldn’t it be really f–kin’ cool if I tried this?” sense of danger / bravado of Tarantino. Like “Goodfellas,” it’s a 2.5 hour film that feels like its half its length. Anderson has gone on to make other brilliant films (“Magnolia,” “Punch Drunk Love,” “There Will be Blood”), but none of them are quite as breathtaking as “Boogie Nights.”
The scene here is the bravura sequence near the end of the film where Mark Wahlberg’s Dirk Diggler character (his success as a porn actor squandered on cocaine addiction), along with his pals (played by John C. Reilly and Thomas Jane) makes a desperate attempt to rip off a drug dealer. The scene is based on the infamous Wonderland murders from 1981 that involved John Holmes. Anderson’s use of 80s pop music in this scene is extraordinary … especially the use of Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian,” which takes on a deeper meaning, because the song is about the loss of innocence and it’s an ironic and sad counterpoint to the characters in this scene, who are long past that stage. The character with the firecrackers was a steal (with permission) from Robert Downey Sr.’s abrasively funny 1969 satire “Putney Swope.”
Because this scene involves substance abuse, graphic violence, and bad language, not safe for work or little ones.
This selection on my all-time favorite film list shouldn’t come as any surprise if you’ve been following the blog recently. I recently posted two clips from this film due to director Tony Scott’s recent demise. While the clip on the rooftop between Christian Slater’s and Patricia Arquette’s characters is my favorite scene from the film, this one also ranks high on the list.
Since my entry about this film on my previous blog is gone, I’ll briefly summarize why this film has so much meaning for me (and you can skip this part, if you’ve read this already on my earlier blog). I saw this movie during the fall of 1993, which at that point in my life, I was very similar to Christian Slater’s character Clarence: no girlfriend, dead end jobs, and the only beacon of light was maybe the chance I’d get accepted into a grad school program somewhere. Anyway, not only was this movie enormously entertaining, it gave me a beacon of hope, in an odd way. Granted, my personal beacon didn’t involve a suitcase full of illegal drugs, a prostitute girlfriend, and 10 million bullets, but it did put a big smile on my face back in the day … and still does.
This is my favorite Quentin Tarantino film, even though he was only the screenwriter. Tarantino has admitted that Clarence is autobiographical to a certain degree, because he was a lot like him when he was in his 20s. It’s a very special script and Tony Scott so respected it that he allowed Tarantino to be an integral part of the process of making the film (something unheard of in Hollywood). Their most passionate argument during the making of “True Romance” involved the ending. In Tarantino’s original, Clarence dies. However, Scott made an impassioned case to Tarantino to let Clarence live, not for commercial reasons, but because he said he loved Clarence and Alabama (Arguette’s character) so much, he wanted them to have a happy ending. Scott’s respect for Tarantino was such that he shot two endings, one where Clarence dies and the one where he lives. And Tarantino admitted that Scott’s ending was the better ending for the film that Scott made. A true gentleman’s agreement if there ever was one.
Yes, this is Tarantino so the attached scene is not safe for work or little ones.
Number 8 on Dave’s Strange World’s list of 10 favorite films comes Richard Rush’s bats–t crazy masterpiece from 1980, “The Stunt Man.” I saw this when it was in theaters in the fall of 1980, thanks to my Dad. Back in the day, my Dad was an avid “New Yorker” reader and likely wanted to see this based on Pauline Kael’s rave review of this film. Granted, this film was grossly inappropriate for a 10-year old to see, but I respect my Dad for trusting my intelligence and good taste in letting me see this.
Like “Pulp Fiction,” this is quite possibly the perfect film: action, suspense, comedy, violence, sex, and plot twists that seriously f–k with your brain and make you question reality. It’s cerebral, but ridiculously entertaining at the lowest common denominator as well. It’s what every Hollywood film should be like, but isn’t. Richly deserving of its 3 Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor for Peter O’Toole’s turn as the Satanic director. O’Toole could have easily walked off with the Best Actor Oscar that year, had it not been for DeNiro’s turn in “Raging Bull.” (Shaking fist in the air, Stephen Colbert-style: “DENIRO!!!!!!!”)
I think this is still available on Netflix instant and if you haven’t seen it, you’re in for one of the greatest treats of your life.
Continuing the punk theme from “Jesus of Suburbia,” Number 9 on Dave’s Strange World all-time favorite movies is Alex Cox’s funny, nasty tale of punks, UFOs, repo men, and the CIA. This movie came out around the time me and my friends started getting into punk. In 1984, punk as a late-1970s fad had faded and whatever was left just got harder and more aggressive, hence the adjective “hardcore.” By this point, there wasn’t much mainstream media exposure to punk, other than “Blackboard Jungle”-style exposes of wayward youth on the evening news.
So when a major studio (in this case, Universal) film featured hardcore punk as a prominent part of the film and soundtrack, it was something we all paid attention to. Granted, “Repo Man” portrayed punks as stupid, violent, and amoral for the most part, but nearly all of the characters in “Repo Man” were stupid, violent, and amoral, so no one cared and laughed their asses off.
This is a really funny, subversive film that’s still hilarious to this day. It’s nihilistic sense of humor predated Quentin Tarantino’s films by about 8 years and when I first saw “Reservoir Dogs” in 1992, I described to friends as “Repo Man” meets “Goodfellas.” I realize that may strike most people as odd, but when you consider the characters in “Repo” and “Reservoir”‘s mutual misanthropy, it makes perfect sense in my book.
Of the many great scenes in “Repo Man,” I love this one where Emilio Estevez’s character is talking to his punk friend who is dying after being shot during an attempted hold-up. Estevez casually comforts his friend during his death rattle by saying “You’re going to be all right, man … Maybe not.”
From the Jim Brown blaxploitation classic “Slaughter” (and more recently, from Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 Oscar-nominated revenge thriller “Inglorious Basterds”) comes this kick-ass hard-funk song from Billy Preston. Hearing those guitars that slash like razor blades against that organ that rocks harder than the guitars, my advice to you is this: if you shoot at him bruthah, you betta not miss!!!!
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