tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70082177649917745162024-03-12T19:45:54.430-04:00Stuff I Like: A BlogThe Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.comBlogger337125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-90900122351250755712023-09-21T16:57:00.002-04:002023-11-01T09:44:25.650-04:00More Stephen King<p> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px;">Stephen King</b></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-50GwN_76E6M/XQBBa-WVxVI/AAAAAAAAN8o/Slx58HbcN4MDn82tue7pWGv6u4FR5YbEwCLcBGAs/s1600/Stephen-King-1970s-660x330.jpg" style="color: #8c0c0c; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="660" height="212" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-50GwN_76E6M/XQBBa-WVxVI/AAAAAAAAN8o/Slx58HbcN4MDn82tue7pWGv6u4FR5YbEwCLcBGAs/w410-h212/Stephen-King-1970s-660x330.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="410" /></a></b></div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;">Fiction</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;" /><ol style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?766" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Carrie</a> (1974) - good with even better movie made from it</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1272" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">'Salem's Lot</a> (1975) - my favorite vampire book </li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1234" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">The Shining</a> (1977) - his best, with nary a wasted word</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1148" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">The Stand</a> (1978) - two times I tried but couldn't finish. bloated and surprisingly dull in parts. The beginning, though, man, oh, man.</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2136" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">The Dead Zone</a> (1979) - very good - how <i>do </i>you make Lee Harvey Oswald the hero? also, challenge me if you like, but Cronenberg's movie is the best King adaptation </li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1940" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Firestarter</a> (1980) - disposable</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1396" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Pet Sematary</a> (1983) - way overrated</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1050" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">The Talisman</a> (1984) w/Peter Straub - good enough</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1695" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">IT</a> (1986) - good parts mixed with very bad parts and waaaay too long</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?987" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">The Tommyknockers</a> (1987) - he can't remember writing this which I think is for the best</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2167" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">The Dark Half</a> (1989) - very good</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1710" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Insomnia</a> (1994) - goodish but long and a little pat with its human villain</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3156" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">The Regulators</a> (1996) - not good</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?12530" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Bag of Bones</a> (1998) - solid if, again, pat in its villains</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?21729" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Dreamcatcher</a> (2001) - nuts and not really good, but big, stoopid fun</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?22280" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">From a Buick 8</a> (2002) - very good</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?169307" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">The Colorado Kid</a> (2005) - infuriating fun about an unanswerable mystery </li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?180458" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Cell</a> (2006) - goodish, but feels like a over-long short story </li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?184895" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Lisey's Story</a> (2006) - I found it more interesting than good, but decent enough. some very good non-fantastic parts of loss</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?776229" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Duma Key</a> (2008) - eh, but only because I still expect more </li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2346735" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">The Outsider</a> (2018) - very good</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(novel)" target="_blank">Revival</a> (2014)</span> - <span style="color: red;">very good and the bleakest of his books. It makes Pet Semetary, which I admittedly feel meh about, look like a Sunday School picnic</span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Later_(novel)" target="_blank">Later </a>(2021) - sure, talking to the dead's been done, but King handles its very well. Mixed together with his hardboiled tendencies from the last twenty years equals good results</span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: red;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Institute_(King_novel)" target="_blank">The Institute</a> (2019) - What if Firestarter wasn't crappy and it the plot had world-wide implications? This is what you'd get. His prose smooth and effortless without being dumb or simple. </span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: red;"><u><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1501125605?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tmmp_0&storeType=ebooks" target="_blank">Mr. Mercedes</a></u> (2014) - A thriller, pitting a psycopathic young killer against a fat, retired police detective with suicidal thoughts. It's not anything new, but, like with The Institute, King's writing - the prose, the characters, the plot - are very good and there's real tension and surprises. I'm looking forward to getting the two sequels, Finders Keepers (2015), and End of Watch (2016) in the mail next week.</span></li></ol><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;">Collections</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;" /><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3_t_5-Zp8tg/XQBCddlDleI/AAAAAAAAN9A/6s0b8dykkV0UhSp7R4eWKHRiDk3iqQqrwCLcBGAs/s1600/9780451139771.jpg" style="color: #8c0c0c; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="258" height="272" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3_t_5-Zp8tg/XQBCddlDleI/AAAAAAAAN9A/6s0b8dykkV0UhSp7R4eWKHRiDk3iqQqrwCLcBGAs/w154-h272/9780451139771.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(233, 233, 233); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="154" /></a></div><ol style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px;"><li style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?36906" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Night Shift</a> (1978) - perfect</li><li style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?36904" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Skeleton Crew</a> (1985) - close to perfect</li><li style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?36903" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Four Past Midnight</a> (1990) - okay</li><li style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?36902" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Nightmares & Dreamscapes</a> (1993) - some good stuff </li><li style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?20786" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Hearts in Atlantis</a> (1998) - as a longtime hearts player, I love this</li><li style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?40037" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Everything's Eventual</a> (2001) - okay</li><li style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1170701" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Full Dark, No Stars</a> (2010) - not bad at all</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: red;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_It_Bleeds" target="_blank">If It Bleeds</a> (2020)</b><b> - I only read the title story, which features Holly Gibney, and it's terrific</b></span></li></ol><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;" /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;">Nonfiction<br /><ol><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?30919" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">Danse Macabre</a> (1981) - important look at horror as a genre </li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?103198" style="color: #8c0c0c; text-decoration-line: none;">On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft</a> (2000) - helpful</li></ol><div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">King is the writer who almost single-handedly turned horror into a marketable genre. It wasn't by accident: his early works mix pulp roots with literary aspirations and eyes wide-open on the bestseller lists. He wasn't the first person to do this, but he was the most industrious and simply better than most of his rivals.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">His first five novels (as much as I don't like <b><i>The Stand</i></b>, its importance to his career and the genre are undeniable. Most people I know who've read it totally dug it.) and first two story collections are forces that any examination of modern horror has to address. If you read horror and have somehow missed them it's best to rectify that.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">There's a definite drop off in quality in the eighties due to addiction troubles (supposedly he has no memory of writing <b><i>The Tommyknockers</i></b>, though that just might be wishful thinking). As good as I think some of his later books are, they lack the immediacy and novelty of those first six books. Those early ones, though, man, oh, man are they fun.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">PS: I just recently read his last novel, <b><i>The Outsider</i></b>, and it cooks. More than any of his other books that I can think of, it feels very much a part of the horror paperback original scene of the seventies and eighties - done really, really well. In these days of glittery vampires and torture porn gore, it's a real standout.<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">Still, it's not as much of a punch to the gut as his early books. I attribute that to the effect of decades, and decades of horror written by divers hands. When King kicked things off over forty years ago, if not the first explorer, he was definitely the most important conquistador in the lands of horror. The trails he opened and styles he conquered have long since been traveled and done to death. It's incredibly hard for new horror book to strike with the same potency of King's earliest books, even his own.</div></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Since writing this, we've had a plague and I've read three more King books, all new, and all very good. The first, best, and most brutal is <i>Revival</i>. It's dedicated to Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, HP Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Donald Wandrei, Fritz Leiber, August Derleth, Shirley Jackson, Robert Bloch, and Peter Straub, as well as Arthur Machen. To the latter-most, King writes that his "short novel <i>The Great God Pan</i> has haunted me all my life." It draws much of its inspiration from the sort of cosmic horror those authors all worked with and mixes it with King's own more human-scaled concerns.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Much of the novel is concerned simply with the life and times of its narrator, Jamie Morton, as he moves from the sixties to the present. The hororor elements only emerge gradually, and their slow emergence through Jamie's story lets the atmosphere build gradually before coming together in a furious burst of dark electricity that leaves him and the reader feeling gutted. Of all the newer King I've read, this might be the one to stand alongside his best early books.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>Later </i>is the third of his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Case_Crime" target="_blank">Hard Case Crime</a> releases. The others are <i>The Colorado Kid</i> and <i>Joyland</i>. I like the first a lot and own but still need to read the second. It's a good, decent supernatural thriller mixed with a crime story involving police corruption and drug dealers. It isn't groundbreaking, but King's tight storytelling, and the ease with which the narrator's voice captures the reader makes for a good, quick read.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><i>The Institute</i> is a book I can't totally explain. Not the plot, that's straightforward enough. What eludes me is exactly why I plowed thru a 650-page book in only three or four days for the first time in a very long time. I guess he just knows how to grab me. It's really all I can say. He builds up the suspense, knows how to throw me off kilter every time I think I know where things are going, and creates characters that are captivating, be they heroes, villains, or someone in betwee. When I find myself staying up to all hourse because I've "only" got 150 pages left, I can only conider the book a massive success. That said, it's less a horror story than a paranormal thriller that recalls his own <i>Firestarter </i>and John Farris' <i>The Fury</i>. It's much (much!) better than both and much more disturbing, drawing on the torture scandals and black sites of the War on Terror. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Most times when I read a Stephen King book, I find myself compelled to pick up another one. That's what I've done right now. I've finally put <i>Mr. Mercedes</i> (2014) on my nightstand and will probably jump right into <i>Joyland </i>(2013) afterwards. If <i>Mr. Mercedes</i> is any good, and from all I've read, it is, I'll follow up with its sequels, <i>Finders Keepers</i> (2015) and <i>End of Watch </i>(2016), and then his latest, <i>Holly</i>.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvcc9HSISnm3n8PXUrK9vEMYRHQurPxJ2Lukp0rzmwJZqOgTRyyfDK8aQnjTuZkffb8Kz9vc-sGyAa06Si2tpQBQMKA_TiImw--EhXI9x_3tY-hxzCQO8E4nvt3omK1XaBNGMotWuQx8N24mbaXJ_cIwrhqxevQW6CQltRQBum_2zerGHCFyl3pPMzG_a2/s1200/stephen-king-net-worth.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvcc9HSISnm3n8PXUrK9vEMYRHQurPxJ2Lukp0rzmwJZqOgTRyyfDK8aQnjTuZkffb8Kz9vc-sGyAa06Si2tpQBQMKA_TiImw--EhXI9x_3tY-hxzCQO8E4nvt3omK1XaBNGMotWuQx8N24mbaXJ_cIwrhqxevQW6CQltRQBum_2zerGHCFyl3pPMzG_a2/s320/stephen-king-net-worth.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></div></div>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-11408990866764320912023-06-14T16:41:00.003-04:002023-06-14T16:41:30.979-04:00Battle of Olustee: Road Trip During the Plague, Pt 2<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtzqijCS_cccGvfeIRFuWt_SC6pkOfAQj_P01DkQAX4liC0RFQeHRnyrV40WUrjuqr8Sd4LrZnNxSFWbaFErEFzIKTOy7d8NIHHsTI3pcHbiI6guvTeGPu5ohtRUI8kc085NTAi7zzzhKxrnDr3FPeph8kSkdPwkoOYEDg6st786pXaCVzsYHasYXu1A/s1600/IMG_20210220_173107393.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtzqijCS_cccGvfeIRFuWt_SC6pkOfAQj_P01DkQAX4liC0RFQeHRnyrV40WUrjuqr8Sd4LrZnNxSFWbaFErEFzIKTOy7d8NIHHsTI3pcHbiI6guvTeGPu5ohtRUI8kc085NTAi7zzzhKxrnDr3FPeph8kSkdPwkoOYEDg6st786pXaCVzsYHasYXu1A/s320/IMG_20210220_173107393.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Olustee Battlefield, Feb 2021</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><div style="text-align: justify;">We've been going to St. Augustine for about ten years and I always wanted to take the hour-and-a-half drive to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Olustee" target="_blank">Olustee battlefield</a>. Finally, in 2021 as we hit the road west, I got the chance. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">With five thousand troops on each side, Olustee was the biggest battle fought in Florida during the Civil War. Most of coastal Florida had fallen to the United States by 1862, but the interior remained under Confederate control. In Feburary, 1864, against orders, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Seymour" target="_blank">General Truman Seymour</a> launched an expedition against the Florida state capital, Tallahassee. On February 20th he came up against rebel forces in a marshy pine forest.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Seymour believed he'd only be facing state militia, troops he'd had little trouble with in the past. Unknown to him, the militia had been augmented by several thousand veteran troops sent down from Charleston. Confederate commander, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Finegan" target="_blank">General Joseph Finegan</a>, tried to lure Seymour into attacking an entrenched position but this failed. Instead, both sides fed their reinforcements into the battle until ultimately the Union line broke. Despite the small size of the battle, based on the proportion of casualties, Olustee was one of the fiercest fights in the Civil War. The Union lost over 200 men killed, over 1,000 wounded, and 500 missing or captured out of about 5,000 soldiers. The Confederacy lost almost 100 killed and about 850 wounded.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY7r75Fph4ibLuFON_2-NmWs5135qYHAPa_r0GZ9caRlfxoznvOazsRPHsmn34a7H65dCqlsbKoW6IrXuP2GZlDIaDJfS4bw5EhVWjru1_udbUQ4VwKoRHJaT0BYdcHtPxaJWhwPuXLmOjCq5v77MCDkphLKpSjgaPiRAOXD4QtnLdxDYKKFCJzBWIXQ/s1600/IMG_20210220_173111438.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY7r75Fph4ibLuFON_2-NmWs5135qYHAPa_r0GZ9caRlfxoznvOazsRPHsmn34a7H65dCqlsbKoW6IrXuP2GZlDIaDJfS4bw5EhVWjru1_udbUQ4VwKoRHJaT0BYdcHtPxaJWhwPuXLmOjCq5v77MCDkphLKpSjgaPiRAOXD4QtnLdxDYKKFCJzBWIXQ/s320/IMG_20210220_173111438.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Finegan made a final effort, sending troops against Seymour's retreating force but was held off by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/54th_Massachusetts_Infantry_Regiment#" target="_blank">54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment</a> (the regiment featured in the movie <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(1989_film)" target="_blank"><b>Glory </b>(1989)</a>) and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35th_United_States_Colored_Infantry_Regiment" target="_blank">35th United States Colored Infantry Regiment</a>. Later, the 54th pulled a broken down train with wounded on it over three miles. Then, with the aid of horses, they towed it another ten miles back to Jacksonville.<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">We took a walk around the site, and had to take a couple of serious detours and get a bit soaked. As I said, it's a marshy area and the storms that had devastated Texas had dumped serious rain on Florida for several days. The problem with the Olustee Battlefield is that while still undeveloped and relatively unchanged terrain, the vegetation has changed. The battle was fought in open spaces in a pine forest near the swampy shore of Ocean Pond. Today, that same are is covered with saw palmetto. If I remember the park ranger's talk correctly, fires took out the pines and the saw palmettos moved in and took over. Still, walking the quiet, empty woods around the same time of year as the battle, it was possible to imagine what it must have been like when it was taken over by rifle and cannon fire, the shouts of attacking troops and the screams of the wounded. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We spent an hour of so walking around the site, got back in our car and headed west. This was the first of seven battle sites we'd visit on the Great Road Trip of the Plague Year.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWnEzS_6Xpw_Xnfk31wEOYwuIqYLrkqJhVklrP5Hp4VFrrJnEnBh5irF0KjqodL-Wv93dVg0C2YeXzWD-0h996iKyKB7_sN2y3TcWSyNlh3NOPGO8Lo-mIwRaglOFmvEYJbGL34iKU_8DXl-N6o9QEuvdY_V0J5KL8xNAA_m4xcMtWstR_ubqRN-qWQ/s1156/Olustee.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1156" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWnEzS_6Xpw_Xnfk31wEOYwuIqYLrkqJhVklrP5Hp4VFrrJnEnBh5irF0KjqodL-Wv93dVg0C2YeXzWD-0h996iKyKB7_sN2y3TcWSyNlh3NOPGO8Lo-mIwRaglOFmvEYJbGL34iKU_8DXl-N6o9QEuvdY_V0J5KL8xNAA_m4xcMtWstR_ubqRN-qWQ/w474-h327/Olustee.svg.png" width="474" /></a></div><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_mbX_dNNDPxevvqPIDyzNaDmPDnzXcw1791LksRblfm7FUe45P28uNg2pFWQhVZz-nPmw9ObNLQlEqP9qQnq8wN7aydqoc9xqnNXkO1vs13nHFjxHFx59UTitaY3ukol4knt-ol4FpTLRDLRuut9jhOsEstGpucby-3NIKVuVmxVdM05g3E71Vy1uQ/s1329/olusteebattlemap_lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="1329" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq_mbX_dNNDPxevvqPIDyzNaDmPDnzXcw1791LksRblfm7FUe45P28uNg2pFWQhVZz-nPmw9ObNLQlEqP9qQnq8wN7aydqoc9xqnNXkO1vs13nHFjxHFx59UTitaY3ukol4knt-ol4FpTLRDLRuut9jhOsEstGpucby-3NIKVuVmxVdM05g3E71Vy1uQ/w498-h291/olusteebattlemap_lg.jpg" width="498" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb4MZ5Dkjx6BTqcV9CEAepKtKbdecLCEDSt4zeg111k63yc1SKLTt7O6Sw0cLFjzHpqpoLBg0XoHdPV22noz1Q_UZlnLLQugkK53GwaWRzHXykZ_SyWND441t77FyDhtn12yiEZPmRt7GhJbqDAd94WuryhCJHPoXWMXTKECngd4erIYoSNpQtu9lDQw/s900/battle-of-olustee-florida-philip-capps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="900" height="379" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb4MZ5Dkjx6BTqcV9CEAepKtKbdecLCEDSt4zeg111k63yc1SKLTt7O6Sw0cLFjzHpqpoLBg0XoHdPV22noz1Q_UZlnLLQugkK53GwaWRzHXykZ_SyWND441t77FyDhtn12yiEZPmRt7GhJbqDAd94WuryhCJHPoXWMXTKECngd4erIYoSNpQtu9lDQw/w474-h379/battle-of-olustee-florida-philip-capps.jpg" width="474" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-85988755954606417822023-06-10T00:30:00.001-04:002023-06-10T00:39:25.676-04:00Road Trip During the Plague, Pt 1<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX0uOMSTjKcHLk85_2t6VoHiKmeB_HySLlCSqe3otT_36ClqBctPsZSUWiKp3SNE8sRNe9HdO1-7r6R24vQR_oCjjRvjTBiUpyDx5KO2UmfAufTTw7fyinq0Egpsuvr2KqjLvNTQb7EwSBLm7tWW0SZRJB3eh90GVKbXaDfqes8AJrf6c0Lc-GjiMWcg/s2048/155746604_10223740960725406_2455088404133240169_n.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX0uOMSTjKcHLk85_2t6VoHiKmeB_HySLlCSqe3otT_36ClqBctPsZSUWiKp3SNE8sRNe9HdO1-7r6R24vQR_oCjjRvjTBiUpyDx5KO2UmfAufTTw7fyinq0Egpsuvr2KqjLvNTQb7EwSBLm7tWW0SZRJB3eh90GVKbXaDfqes8AJrf6c0Lc-GjiMWcg/s320/155746604_10223740960725406_2455088404133240169_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;"><b>In the canyon</b></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Two and a half years ago, well into the Plague, my wife, the luminous Mrs. V, decided a short invitation to stay at someone's place in St. Augustine should be turned into the first leg of a massive road trip. We were both out of work with no clear indication of when we'd resume. It might be our only chance for a long time to take such an undertaking. </div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The original plan was to drive to St. Augustine, then drive west to the Grand Canyon. Coming back, we'd swing a little further north and hit a string of Civil War sites and the Laura and Almanzo Wilder house in Mansfield, Missouri (Mrs. V is a huge fan. We've been to Mansfield before and it was something to see her and several other women almost in tears the first time they realized they were standing on the same linoleum Almanzo had put down and Laura had walked on). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As soon as we hit St. Augustine, our plans fell apart. An ice storm had devastated Texas, knocking out the power grid across much of the state. Driving overland through Texas in the midst of that disaster was not going to happen. This was also pre-vaccine, so some states were still being obnoxious towards out-of-towners. <br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Mrs. V quickly came up with an alternate plan. First, we'd fly out to Phoenix and then drive up to the Grand Canyon. After flying back to St. Augustine, we'd drive west through Mississippi and Arkansas, loop back eastward at Mansfield, and come home thru Tennessee and West Virginia. It's what we did, and it was the best and longest road trip we've ever taken.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">After a few days in St. Augustine, we flew out of Jacksonville. With masks on the entire flight, it was only slightly uncomfortable. It was pre-vaccine so many people were still overly nervous and the airlines were being hardcore to make . The flight was short and sweet and the view of Galveston and the rest of Texas from the air was fascinating. What we saw of Phoenix was soulless and desiccated. Lots of new buildings and dreary old concrete ones on great, wide, empty streets. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The drive up to Grand Canyon Village was very nice. I'm not sure I'd ever realized how striking ochre and beige landscape could be. Flagstaff was mostly hotels, motels, and shopping plazas, but most of the drive was through largely unblemished plains and rocky escarpments. The horizon seemed further than it had ever seemed before and the February sky was a shocking azure.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We finally arrived at the Grand Canyon at dusk. We weren't sure where our hotel was, so we pulled into the first parking lot we encountered. I stepped out of the car and wondered where exactly the canyon was. Suddenly, as I turned around and my eyes adjusted to the evening's light, I realized it was fifteen feet beyond the front of our car. If you haven't seen it, imagine something carved jaggedly into the Earth's crust over ten miles across. Its walls are an array of colored layers, stretching out for miles and miles in both directions. Looking over the parking lot wall, we could just make out the bottom, thousands of feet below, in the fading light.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now, I am not a hiker and I especially don't like hiking up elevations. Mrs. V's plan, though, had us hiking way down the canyon, twelve or thirteen miles along the floor, then back up. To say I was dubious of this plan is insufficient. My brain was shouting repeatedly that this was insane. Nonetheless, I acquiesced, out of love and out of one of my occasional flashes of a "why the heck not?" attitude.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">To prepare a little, the next day we drove down to Sedona where we intended to take a hike onto and around a butte. It was a beautiful day and away from the touristy main part of Sedona, the land was beautiful, too. To be honest, it reminded me of some of the rides from Knotts Berry Farm I took when I was a little kid - and that was very cool. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1Xu56r5EWtSO7qiu5GyO2WjoiXjmrTjjMvMIHkWquFVfLwgcOF4pAQ-nW_x1Py_asQth6_bnsRX70FMwo9p370WytrerV5srTxzvcmuYopXwQQHOzhowTWDUgRuakMIQ6fQd7aUo7xrFkfpu1QzeGBtvPeiyMjgo3zljYikw8lCzhgbog99KDo7-tg/s1101/2021_Chapel_of_the_Holy_Cross_from_right_below.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1101" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1Xu56r5EWtSO7qiu5GyO2WjoiXjmrTjjMvMIHkWquFVfLwgcOF4pAQ-nW_x1Py_asQth6_bnsRX70FMwo9p370WytrerV5srTxzvcmuYopXwQQHOzhowTWDUgRuakMIQ6fQd7aUo7xrFkfpu1QzeGBtvPeiyMjgo3zljYikw8lCzhgbog99KDo7-tg/s320/2021_Chapel_of_the_Holy_Cross_from_right_below.jpg" width="233" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rising out of the side of the butte is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapel_of_the_Holy_Cross_(Sedona,_Arizona)" target="_blank">Chapel of the Holy Cross</a>. Built in 1954, the chapel was commissioned by rancher/sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Staude. It wasn't open to visitors that day, but the parking lot was. The only thing was, at 5:00 the lot was going to be locked and our car would be trapped if we hadn't returned by then. We had two and a half hours, though, so we were sure we could make it around and back in time. Ha!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The hike was unpleasant, Mrs. V got us off the often poorly-marked trails and lost two or three times. Fortunately, we managed to get back on track each time, but the clock was counting down. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The views from the trail are impressive. I don't know how high up we were, but you could see all of Sedona and the surrounding mountains. We stopped several times to just look at the world moving below us. And the clock continued to tick.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">During one of the periods of being lost, I told Mrs. V something I considered very important. I, from the bottom of my heart, from the depths of my soul, hated what we were doing. Despite the beauty of the butte, despite the wonderful views, I hated the hike. I hate all hikes. I do not and will not enjoy them. But, and this was important, I will do them because you want to.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">I move slowly going uphill; it's just a fact of life. Years ago, hiking across Devon, Mrs. V would be hundreds of feet ahead of me as we climbed roads that felt damn near vertical. The same happened here. Increasingly, even as we knew we were near the end, it felt like we wouldn't make. With about fifteen minutes to go, she decided to take off and leave me behind. She made it, secured our car, and I wandered in about ten minutes later. It had been a near-run thing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After the day's adventure, Mrs. V willingly cut down her ambitions for the Grand Canyon. We'd only go down to the bottom and then hike back up, a much more reasonable distance. We'd get up early, around six thirty, eat, then head off to the trailhead and begin our descent by seven thirty, or so. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs6TWaVLDzCR36mSsrFfHatMflHzJ2s0yL8n_ag9MG1DtY8-NEkb6aVHmSck7s8c-o30PhRsAVcWDqraliLKzaOatLMpE0nv7IGuR-zxY__nek-ASx2Q2ERrz1KclmFnRGjCqs8uXdkFa8znCwDXhPfY3hPttdGNziFuztURnvmq4Vz2UNKAGQ5m0aww/s5184/IMG_2326.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs6TWaVLDzCR36mSsrFfHatMflHzJ2s0yL8n_ag9MG1DtY8-NEkb6aVHmSck7s8c-o30PhRsAVcWDqraliLKzaOatLMpE0nv7IGuR-zxY__nek-ASx2Q2ERrz1KclmFnRGjCqs8uXdkFa8znCwDXhPfY3hPttdGNziFuztURnvmq4Vz2UNKAGQ5m0aww/s320/IMG_2326.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;">No proof against the cold</span></b></td></tr></tbody></table>When we woke up it was freezing. It had been comfortable when we arrived at the Canyon, but it was late February and it gets cold out there. It was below freezing, ice had formed on the trails, and we had nothing remotely adequate to wear as you can see. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We decided to hold off until it warmed up and do what we could do. In the end, we hiked about four miles from the Kachina Lodge along the South Rim to the South Kaibab Trail, ravens racing and swooping overhead. Once there, we hiked down the switchback trail along the Canyon wall about a mile and a half down and then back up again.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiraVEIA-ic-iGZeGamVrQNTPYk8FvuxK-gbWRIXxWO5iJS-8APD6te6XUuh6jdTOpHS-67WQC6qbRrxTBy25YViOmJzbdSFaZG8eA0DQkbpmD-vG1_tm1pOV3hMutiH0C338abiDQrlhI2W6K64YAAOiMAc9ikVQG-PYWIkpltvJQ69vWJSTf9bCu0A/s5184/IMG_2338.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiraVEIA-ic-iGZeGamVrQNTPYk8FvuxK-gbWRIXxWO5iJS-8APD6te6XUuh6jdTOpHS-67WQC6qbRrxTBy25YViOmJzbdSFaZG8eA0DQkbpmD-vG1_tm1pOV3hMutiH0C338abiDQrlhI2W6K64YAAOiMAc9ikVQG-PYWIkpltvJQ69vWJSTf9bCu0A/s320/IMG_2338.JPG" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;">Switchback</span></b></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">The amazing engineering feat of the trail, the stunning vistas it afforded us, the quiet, only occasionally broken by bird calls, and the very cool mule trains we had to step aside for several times, almost made me like hiking.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-jU8CGh-OS_w0zDWxn_wgvB3tG2BZb3b0OsKi10cZioD1Js3EQFzzMnhtBcX5kwv7kxZE8MiUD4nHTC1INxHxIUvzdkZiBharZ-zpgz_pLTn3GmU2MRRkDKBC_yZZRBdvuwT2gj8k_UMTitrvCp52T4kkf4XB0E1bksCoP9KcpVpcgQQQLxtJJVnejA/s5184/IMG_2344.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-jU8CGh-OS_w0zDWxn_wgvB3tG2BZb3b0OsKi10cZioD1Js3EQFzzMnhtBcX5kwv7kxZE8MiUD4nHTC1INxHxIUvzdkZiBharZ-zpgz_pLTn3GmU2MRRkDKBC_yZZRBdvuwT2gj8k_UMTitrvCp52T4kkf4XB0E1bksCoP9KcpVpcgQQQLxtJJVnejA/s320/IMG_2344.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: red;">Mules looking askance</span></b></td></tr></tbody></table>Actually, I did love the hike. There are many wonderful natural places in America and I've been lucky enough to see some of them - the coast of Kauai, Glacier National Park, the Adirondacks - but I had never been to the Grand Canyon before. If you ever have the chance, go. </div><div><br /></div><div>From that first view from the parking lot to the last glimpse as we drove away, I remained stunned by the immensity and beauty of the place. None of my pictures do the least justice to those qualities, but here are a few for some sense of the place.</div></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNeLB6Pu3qUsdwo9wi9PeC1DvhrNIhkNpF1zZ0g4QGL5-hDDRKriDzXZSROll9Jgrol3RX_-_3jUXXjg2Dmgy3VKOYWtjcXebinfTfOCcE6amm2J9_IrMy-4LSIDxjdpwZMvHNDN06fITobGuELzaWlBeSZty5NoPgN-xL0mPP-lgQyFbtqSJKBNwqfQ/s5184/IMG_2315.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNeLB6Pu3qUsdwo9wi9PeC1DvhrNIhkNpF1zZ0g4QGL5-hDDRKriDzXZSROll9Jgrol3RX_-_3jUXXjg2Dmgy3VKOYWtjcXebinfTfOCcE6amm2J9_IrMy-4LSIDxjdpwZMvHNDN06fITobGuELzaWlBeSZty5NoPgN-xL0mPP-lgQyFbtqSJKBNwqfQ/w506-h337/IMG_2315.JPG" width="506" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU4quMDFcpJonUut-jCV-ZnwWN3kumzJGdk0kdblPW6RMtT5QpNnzvz-SIIsgCnPhnWMTju1dJZz_XKmuvDQlzcaNcOviEleKwlLBb3h9xYTnjyF98dggiC19gAuUl51sLjgZHkDxiK7FxlWMZ3Y976yH9iDkYcrTpvv8260YNoLZWOkgSkUqBEzplnQ/s5184/IMG_2307.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU4quMDFcpJonUut-jCV-ZnwWN3kumzJGdk0kdblPW6RMtT5QpNnzvz-SIIsgCnPhnWMTju1dJZz_XKmuvDQlzcaNcOviEleKwlLBb3h9xYTnjyF98dggiC19gAuUl51sLjgZHkDxiK7FxlWMZ3Y976yH9iDkYcrTpvv8260YNoLZWOkgSkUqBEzplnQ/w505-h336/IMG_2307.JPG" width="505" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalQCKt3beVVZeaNWAwkhTIj9BEGum8elz16jdehQpn_jX92pXkPTbdA-pa_fZVowD_DSnYQIGW7qe1csjYNPigPOv8ZR0yGv48pC6PzwifgnUa7fS9_1gAx25_5SfDK1qf2iFi3OtiXhSJ58J8NmJ23c3sMDeVy22My20JU-kUVvMaIYtL8BCz_px6A/s5184/IMG_2357.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalQCKt3beVVZeaNWAwkhTIj9BEGum8elz16jdehQpn_jX92pXkPTbdA-pa_fZVowD_DSnYQIGW7qe1csjYNPigPOv8ZR0yGv48pC6PzwifgnUa7fS9_1gAx25_5SfDK1qf2iFi3OtiXhSJ58J8NmJ23c3sMDeVy22My20JU-kUVvMaIYtL8BCz_px6A/w502-h335/IMG_2357.JPG" width="502" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdW1qsRZPPH4guk0OdxgZsCciVw-ROnvj42Ue-Dx8AfAtnIrb_h8stYeffKAIiDAtA4LJInNXx8DqV5s4KCTiTEKnPq6WarToq6OxR2Agdafoqkr84FI1PbA9bvH1jLXM7s6_s2sQBBa9Q74ccbUkJucMbcHySXrEO5pxWqnYIbmprQ-vryJpQfJPqsA/s5184/IMG_2348.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3456" height="717" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdW1qsRZPPH4guk0OdxgZsCciVw-ROnvj42Ue-Dx8AfAtnIrb_h8stYeffKAIiDAtA4LJInNXx8DqV5s4KCTiTEKnPq6WarToq6OxR2Agdafoqkr84FI1PbA9bvH1jLXM7s6_s2sQBBa9Q74ccbUkJucMbcHySXrEO5pxWqnYIbmprQ-vryJpQfJPqsA/w478-h717/IMG_2348.JPG" width="478" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">We left the Grand Canyon, drove back to Phoenix, and then flew to Jacksonville. After a few more days in St. Augustine, we hit the road for the third, and longest leg, of our trip.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-8438840044451003612023-04-17T13:24:00.007-04:002023-04-17T13:43:42.910-04:00Easy Rawlins by Walter Mosley<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGZ-qjeZ8QYicTPH0Eu8vw62sX9LJkYYOhveohuvfu05dTVoX4iEDVZMpdorpoHaXa-a3erGABCGNTMmnWIp7n1qc5oZyUYc9iX_ial3kchZ4WspmDAAjKf7P9WdLm7L30I379I8U9rhpHR_f7EWlfy7uquBWqfc0F_dqzJUgRSDrvhyr6y3ksPq8FXw/s500/9780393028546-us.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="339" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGZ-qjeZ8QYicTPH0Eu8vw62sX9LJkYYOhveohuvfu05dTVoX4iEDVZMpdorpoHaXa-a3erGABCGNTMmnWIp7n1qc5oZyUYc9iX_ial3kchZ4WspmDAAjKf7P9WdLm7L30I379I8U9rhpHR_f7EWlfy7uquBWqfc0F_dqzJUgRSDrvhyr6y3ksPq8FXw/s320/9780393028546-us.jpg" width="217" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just as I was diving into James Ellroy's twisted version of Los Angeles in the post-war era, along came Walter Mosley's first novel, <b>Devil in a Blue Dress</b> (1990). I grabbed it probably after hearing it reviewed on NPR. It was presented as a hardboiled LA crime story, but told from the perspective of someone who was never the protagonist in any of the classic stories; a black man. It's a good book and a terrific debut novel. It led me to read six more Easy Rawlins books as they came out as well as the first Socrates Fortlow book, <b>Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned</b> (1997). The latter is an absolutely fantastic book, disappointingly filmed by Michael Apted and starring Laurence Fishburne. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins is a WWII veteran and aircraft factory worker when he falls into investigating the location of a white woman who frequents black bars. Worried about paying his mortgage after losing his job, Rawlins agrees. Along with the expected twists and dangers from a hardboiled mystery, Mosley delivers plenty about race and class in post-war America. It's not a perfect book - there's a bit too much deus ex machina via a certain character - but it's a damn good one. The movie, starring Denzel Washington as Easy and Don Cheadle as Mouse (which is the first time I noticed him and he blew away everyone else on the screen and in the theater), is solid, too. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLthrznZr7dGZSxk0dYa9U2YQdGqhzAfz31C2nEDcqIRihGkQLmRok2TgYOYLeS2JIPl819_97mmekFdh331s8oaPmT4goQqu34z-SstuJ9aQJSGZnPhY9O8ufmsff63H34AoqrN4vR97Ukoj_jreAs3H6yHSHTput7fgpZ9dkD7f9R0NWRsFrD7GTOw/s1000/900473.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="691" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLthrznZr7dGZSxk0dYa9U2YQdGqhzAfz31C2nEDcqIRihGkQLmRok2TgYOYLeS2JIPl819_97mmekFdh331s8oaPmT4goQqu34z-SstuJ9aQJSGZnPhY9O8ufmsff63H34AoqrN4vR97Ukoj_jreAs3H6yHSHTput7fgpZ9dkD7f9R0NWRsFrD7GTOw/s320/900473.jpg" width="221" /></a></div></span><span style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The first five books - <b>Devil in a Blue Dress</b>, <b>A Red Death</b> (1991), <b>White Butterfly</b> (1992), <b>Black Betty</b> (1994), and <b>A Little Yellow Dog</b> (1996) - are an absolutely terrific addition to the hardboiled canon. The speed of those five books' appearance is reflected in the headiness and urgency in Mosely's writing. Part of their goal is to open wide the genre and expand its purview beyond the same old white heroes. Nonetheless, they remain true to the tropes and forms. In the foreword to the 30th-anniversary edition of <b>Devil</b>, Mosely wrote:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i></i><blockquote><i>Easy is not afraid of death. He cannot but follow his understanding of what is right and wrong. And he knows that the LAPD, the mayor and governor, the congress and president are not, in so many ways, reflective of his values. Every case he takes on is defined by his personal understanding of honesty and justice. In this way Easy is an inheritor of the mantle of the hardboiled private detective genre that started with Philip Marlowe and the Continental Op. He must make up his own mind as to what is legal and not legal, fair and balanced, in a world where corporate interests eclipse the individual nine times out of ten.</i></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I read seven of the series before drifting away after <b>Bad Boy Brawly Brown</b> (2002) as the stories became a little too familiar (I was also at the beginning of a push to read more new fantasy, so picking up some doorstoppers meant less time for crime stories). A major <span style="text-align: left;">problem with any long series, though, is it's easy for the author to fall into a rut. It's got to be brutal to keep up the quality with a single set of characters who keep falling into extraordinary circumstances again, and again. I gave up on Joe Lansdale's Hap & Leonard series after </span><b style="text-align: left;">Vanilla Ride</b><span style="text-align: left;"> (2009) and I'm not sure I'll go back to Michael Connelly's Bosch books anytime soon. The only similar things I've stuck it out with are James Lee Burke's Robicheaux books and John Connolly's Charlie Parker series, both largely because they're brilliant prose writers.</span></div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It's been ages since I reread <b>Devil in a Blue Dress</b> and it's definitely time for a revisit. The thing is, I stopped with book seven and now there are fourteen. If I start, I'm curious how much, if any, further, I'll get this time. The thing about ditching on a series is you never know what you're missing out on. For all I know, the best Easy Rawlins book is one I never got to.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdgy-88kzaiJnx26k-uGT_oui7zagaZkfKJ3WRRffYYftH_uoP5-cfLAelRtYOerBdMlfUPGixYstHWIkvh6GCX0kFl6Jrs-ws6Kk6RuQIVL0X_Rd18icgDVxsPtUz8r1z2hn9R2hNXmSJaA-9YBg-gyse1e4-uF8n_3QHbc1oPQ6hQ5eEq2GzYsTDNw/s880/15079.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdgy-88kzaiJnx26k-uGT_oui7zagaZkfKJ3WRRffYYftH_uoP5-cfLAelRtYOerBdMlfUPGixYstHWIkvh6GCX0kFl6Jrs-ws6Kk6RuQIVL0X_Rd18icgDVxsPtUz8r1z2hn9R2hNXmSJaA-9YBg-gyse1e4-uF8n_3QHbc1oPQ6hQ5eEq2GzYsTDNw/s320/15079.jpg" width="218" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBsu0qG-ulDV1izQq4hXV6GYfCwjtDvIbYp6ZtQi6Zjek72UrXz7354P2SQGgMd2OHYaIBqRR57C7d4-GzMrZnfk87Hhbxr9c_oXCowIzrcN3l2pDcI0GsO5YmwKJeJticZHm6zplv0_7e2aiHhxY61aoPYJGFkiLa-xj1GJsml6EjvuLoekESfa_3pw/s817/3303946459.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="550" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBsu0qG-ulDV1izQq4hXV6GYfCwjtDvIbYp6ZtQi6Zjek72UrXz7354P2SQGgMd2OHYaIBqRR57C7d4-GzMrZnfk87Hhbxr9c_oXCowIzrcN3l2pDcI0GsO5YmwKJeJticZHm6zplv0_7e2aiHhxY61aoPYJGFkiLa-xj1GJsml6EjvuLoekESfa_3pw/s320/3303946459.jpg" width="215" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ-p1paKUXn0MV5_XZ2yWEEVaz4Bk0Sv8XEunlbVuahL85ud5iQEPNCH7AyM2Ar0WevPBRhZdUkBThWVKqsdy8iafUAwv9T6fPeZM5QNgWocQmWPq_Vn20WfQEQH18vLchqnh3XBQJH4VcuaHfKpKm3-YHXUVTgDnv-f280tfNohjx6EpkXkG8nX1g_w/s875/22889311874.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="875" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ-p1paKUXn0MV5_XZ2yWEEVaz4Bk0Sv8XEunlbVuahL85ud5iQEPNCH7AyM2Ar0WevPBRhZdUkBThWVKqsdy8iafUAwv9T6fPeZM5QNgWocQmWPq_Vn20WfQEQH18vLchqnh3XBQJH4VcuaHfKpKm3-YHXUVTgDnv-f280tfNohjx6EpkXkG8nX1g_w/s320/22889311874.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyf1oPcDGRpAk0jaKeLmfclqMVQnFgdqeTVZ267qFT8xZYbG_ROf3DU5-oIr-5dfIBuTEEbEudvKGNcvLigIkdBLzj5MFRe1fB4MDPON01TQPuVCVj5niFIBF-7brhKQ0eXS2v0o4uTEJClpsCHKfwkoreK9IXPrWDDbGl1_kdI5yQMOjwKIVwMuBLUg/s400/9781574780253.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="244" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyf1oPcDGRpAk0jaKeLmfclqMVQnFgdqeTVZ267qFT8xZYbG_ROf3DU5-oIr-5dfIBuTEEbEudvKGNcvLigIkdBLzj5MFRe1fB4MDPON01TQPuVCVj5niFIBF-7brhKQ0eXS2v0o4uTEJClpsCHKfwkoreK9IXPrWDDbGl1_kdI5yQMOjwKIVwMuBLUg/s320/9781574780253.jpg" width="195" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1r9-hQ-2ciWsJCfp3x3MVgTIXVhj4dHDgyN56UYJzKJ7GygcT5mMkzRaJYAq81OFSU5FFT4D6bJjmYzKk1I5W53ob5MjY8zi5svo7uzjE57oVkcnBsOcJidh2ec7q8aWfKtgJtsmWkmO_smYG5wrujd2TZg-VvYQX8BJ9pPbSfMoTjHrtiK5QTtIE7g/s500/51IFRUCE1HL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1r9-hQ-2ciWsJCfp3x3MVgTIXVhj4dHDgyN56UYJzKJ7GygcT5mMkzRaJYAq81OFSU5FFT4D6bJjmYzKk1I5W53ob5MjY8zi5svo7uzjE57oVkcnBsOcJidh2ec7q8aWfKtgJtsmWkmO_smYG5wrujd2TZg-VvYQX8BJ9pPbSfMoTjHrtiK5QTtIE7g/s320/51IFRUCE1HL.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-77418785830946141802023-04-13T14:34:00.003-04:002023-04-13T14:44:10.745-04:00Film Noir Los Angeles<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
A Neighborhood Far Afield (<a href="https://apeshall.blogspot.com/2009/12/neighborhood-far-afield.html" target="_blank">previously post on my other blog</a> in 2009)<br /></h3>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0vejoS9ui3g/SzjaeNFs7uI/AAAAAAAAAys/TQHCBSrs0a4/s1600-h/1959_0210_bunker_hill.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420322363984899810" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0vejoS9ui3g/SzjaeNFs7uI/AAAAAAAAAys/TQHCBSrs0a4/w392-h640/1959_0210_bunker_hill.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 245px;" width="392" /></a><br /> <br />
In the heart of downtown Los Angeles is the neighborhood of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunker_Hill,_Los_Angeles" target="_blank">Bunker Hill</a>. Once it was a steep hill covered with Victorian mansions and
shops and reached by seemingly impossibly steep trains tracks. <br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_0vejoS9ui3g/Szja7pTEWrI/AAAAAAAAAy0/Ymfc0nm2jCI/s1600-h/Angels_Flight.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420322869773359794" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_0vejoS9ui3g/Szja7pTEWrI/AAAAAAAAAy0/Ymfc0nm2jCI/s400/Angels_Flight.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br /><br />
Over time their wealthy owners moved to the suburbs in places like
Pasadena and the mansions became apartments and flophouses. The whole
area became a giant filming location for film noir movies.<br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_0vejoS9ui3g/Szjc-AtbbcI/AAAAAAAAAy8/Ji4fBb2qKUU/s1600-h/1903thecrockermansionis.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420325109440933314" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_0vejoS9ui3g/Szjc-AtbbcI/AAAAAAAAAy8/Ji4fBb2qKUU/s400/1903thecrockermansionis.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 256px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br /><br />
In 1955 the city decided the neighborhood as is stood impeded the
city's development. They declared it blighted (which of course, once
such a determination was made, only led to area becoming truly blighted),
eliminated the 150 foot height limit on new buildings, and leveled the
district. Literally. </p><p>About a hundred feet were shaved off the hill,
tearing down most of the old buildings and making way for the steel and
glass skyscrapers that dominate the downtown today.</p><p><br /> I don't know
anything about LA and I can't say much about the rightness or wrongness
of what was done six decades ago (though I will say I find the look of downtown LA ugly as sin). But I can provide a link to an
amazing site (<span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.onbunkerhill.org/">On Bunker Hill</a></span>) put together by local LA historians and aficionados in order to document the old, and long lost, Bunker Hill. </p><p>(2023) Additionally, there's a movie about American Indians who moved to the are in the late fifties. Most of actors were non-professionals. The movie's plot was derived from documentary interviews. Shot in the Bunker Hill neighborhood, it's got some amazing footage of a neighborhood long gone.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhCzGsJS1WMDwkNa9L0Yk6gcni0hJD57OZA-gLHakoXHoE_JYyrJ2V2WtRX_1kgQeMIQLxVrmqYDfLOUP1DlsczZoUfOOAesYPJ_f1DWqcgFGF4AZA_Vfdk9ld0VD0-u0irRomI_C-lEl318b76U7U1cVY-jBpQQ6WtSHP35EHX4RA_nz8voSNx1ZMMA/s1600/71XKrM13MPL._RI_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhCzGsJS1WMDwkNa9L0Yk6gcni0hJD57OZA-gLHakoXHoE_JYyrJ2V2WtRX_1kgQeMIQLxVrmqYDfLOUP1DlsczZoUfOOAesYPJ_f1DWqcgFGF4AZA_Vfdk9ld0VD0-u0irRomI_C-lEl318b76U7U1cVY-jBpQQ6WtSHP35EHX4RA_nz8voSNx1ZMMA/s320/71XKrM13MPL._RI_.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-70272819365606580202023-04-12T13:55:00.001-04:002023-04-12T13:55:01.756-04:00the Lloyd Hopkins Covers<p>My first experience with James Ellroy was completely unknowingly when I watched the movie <b>Cop</b> (1988) with James Woods. It wasn't until I started going through Ellroy's catalogue a few years later did I realize his early book, <b>Blood on the Moon</b> (1984) was the film's basis. </p><p>It's been ages since I've seen the movie, but my memory is it's alright. It's pretty brutal and maintains a modicum of the book's weirdness and creepiness. Still, against the book, it's a pale shadow. <br /></p><p>The <b>Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy</b> - <b>Blood on the Moon</b>, <b>Because the Night</b> (1984), and <b>Suicide Hill</b> (1985) - is Ellroy's first series. It's been ages since I've read these, but I remember liking them a lot. Hopkins is too brilliant and the plot's insane, but these are short and fast, and an intimation of greater things to come.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7vQGeVfrgsTF5VxrEzbXCJ6TY-OG2aBjiFrk4v5ASZMajxx6tkdB3OuiQeIjErcUH-XNp5RZN0534T-mc5m1sqI7FvoKE1Dk5-QtKv9AW-c_brHM45YdrSRnWkvvmBDAbBAeZvC0Ry_jCeK1DTPbs0TapkEHbCPZHt_RrxeEXuGh6s6h2bH5PjDfayg/s500/9780380698516-us.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="343" height="441" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7vQGeVfrgsTF5VxrEzbXCJ6TY-OG2aBjiFrk4v5ASZMajxx6tkdB3OuiQeIjErcUH-XNp5RZN0534T-mc5m1sqI7FvoKE1Dk5-QtKv9AW-c_brHM45YdrSRnWkvvmBDAbBAeZvC0Ry_jCeK1DTPbs0TapkEHbCPZHt_RrxeEXuGh6s6h2bH5PjDfayg/w303-h441/9780380698516-us.jpg" width="303" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3INiHfDK746w4xu6OVSjO7xQJL68O5fErd4PJG1B5T3OJBLUrAOr0ZdOWqDwwnVSO-r9HZ5eeh8iqbieXrCjnsem6-wqRL8zTXx94G6bM0OOPo9xVmhxR_tGmp1L38N9bt5EydEhiUna-V2vXKq-J9imEkIWjGFtztLE4RjPg9uBJ36Y36Fv-bRjAA/s350/da9396f9f0fa23523e3659981162ee0f39ce0607.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="211" height="495" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3INiHfDK746w4xu6OVSjO7xQJL68O5fErd4PJG1B5T3OJBLUrAOr0ZdOWqDwwnVSO-r9HZ5eeh8iqbieXrCjnsem6-wqRL8zTXx94G6bM0OOPo9xVmhxR_tGmp1L38N9bt5EydEhiUna-V2vXKq-J9imEkIWjGFtztLE4RjPg9uBJ36Y36Fv-bRjAA/w300-h495/da9396f9f0fa23523e3659981162ee0f39ce0607.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4aE3uxcL4LCmWtctzZreTDw1wy2yelHCoGRnHVuIxqA5zQcEihAOSrCwlnp5RAzAscSIJMNzgtzovKeX_JIMr_puyZqzbdGyZDgHzSA2Effjky1fBfEcYPBrbZXMbSBmH-mo6hOnLXE2L0QYBINc0vC-vKUWm1ukUlMzHNVzeuUzSY1EtlXekd_Jkg/s635/892cafc00281583597364653077444341587343_v5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="389" height="483" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4aE3uxcL4LCmWtctzZreTDw1wy2yelHCoGRnHVuIxqA5zQcEihAOSrCwlnp5RAzAscSIJMNzgtzovKeX_JIMr_puyZqzbdGyZDgHzSA2Effjky1fBfEcYPBrbZXMbSBmH-mo6hOnLXE2L0QYBINc0vC-vKUWm1ukUlMzHNVzeuUzSY1EtlXekd_Jkg/w296-h483/892cafc00281583597364653077444341587343_v5.jpg" width="296" /></a></div><br />The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-52233425756371374822023-04-03T22:07:00.004-04:002023-04-04T10:52:09.636-04:00COUGAR BLOOD BOIL! - James Ellroy's First L.A. Quartet<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTMQqDdShB5vxroaEP8DBA6TjqY-KAHLkow-kUkKw5QltFpi9wfHqF9ioO5k3RO_goleQP1tewP5ykkYllTFVqNBSyG9qcvgum19GlxV6P4A4akYDJ0rE7nf2jBvVj3LTiBKSBLXJNZmPltFlgEt9BKrguHN9nMn8A9A3RT2Pfi2OXPTquHSdpr2ge7Q/s500/lee-earle-ellroy-mug-shot.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="365" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTMQqDdShB5vxroaEP8DBA6TjqY-KAHLkow-kUkKw5QltFpi9wfHqF9ioO5k3RO_goleQP1tewP5ykkYllTFVqNBSyG9qcvgum19GlxV6P4A4akYDJ0rE7nf2jBvVj3LTiBKSBLXJNZmPltFlgEt9BKrguHN9nMn8A9A3RT2Pfi2OXPTquHSdpr2ge7Q/w226-h311/lee-earle-ellroy-mug-shot.jpg" title="Ellroy's Mugshot" width="226" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ellroy's mugshot</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">My one encounter with James Ellroy came in the mid-nineties (probably 1994) at New York Is Book Country. He was hawking his books and asked me to buy the latest, <b>Hollywood Nocturnes</b>. I told him I already had it and everything else as well. He seemed pleased. Then he offered to sign the balloon my friend was carrying. She, of course, let him. With a flourish, he wrote: Cougar Blood Boil! No one could have asked for anything better.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I found James Ellroy during grad school (1989-1991) when I was in the middle of an obsession with true crime. Right after I had seen something about the murder of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dahlia" target="_blank">Liz Short</a>, aka the Black Dahlia, I remembered seeing a book in the mystery section of the mall bookstore called <b>The Black Dahlia </b>(1987). With no idea of the author's name, I had to go through the shelves, book by book. And then I found it, the author someone I'd never heard of before: James Ellroy.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCoOwSspx9UWkpKoDSvcTmcodL9o1eF_RVQaTJHJ256zHzsf7o5HVBwaPUlYtyZdJWR_0JUpxIwlUNOtDhs7c1X-epsCIXjN2Om6naRDpsKWIW7WSvFLtDVob6UC41Oz2hVjgYcx7sGBh6bMh17id0lNYdfjuGMShYisjdGB3N1pLpEAxlXyVRZcf7nw/s474/th-1672675100.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="474" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCoOwSspx9UWkpKoDSvcTmcodL9o1eF_RVQaTJHJ256zHzsf7o5HVBwaPUlYtyZdJWR_0JUpxIwlUNOtDhs7c1X-epsCIXjN2Om6naRDpsKWIW7WSvFLtDVob6UC41Oz2hVjgYcx7sGBh6bMh17id0lNYdfjuGMShYisjdGB3N1pLpEAxlXyVRZcf7nw/s320/th-1672675100.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The first sentence just hinted at the dark obsession that the novel would quickly emerge as the core of one of the most intensely haunting and brutal books I had ever read.<p></p><p></p><blockquote>I never knew her in life. She exists for me through others, in evidence of the ways her death drove them. Working backward, seeking only facts, I reconstructed her as a sad little girl and a whore, at best a could-have-been - a tag that might equally apply to me.</blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7g__JwJhTYJKvPF92kgYGGr6d_VcdYrvoEZqe-AklhouMyD6Y5ajUCTO12FFMOzlVoiUTBf0Ch-tXFSXNKsxABaEjdYgwsx6yBoP9gspfFOP1RHaLM4TvuCm4k9h9-VYbdGpGm10sgf28zHfzzy0Ey7uGbGhwtRItnv6eRdxqU57BviLTq8SHvCC95w/s691/31372977573.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="691" data-original-width="456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7g__JwJhTYJKvPF92kgYGGr6d_VcdYrvoEZqe-AklhouMyD6Y5ajUCTO12FFMOzlVoiUTBf0Ch-tXFSXNKsxABaEjdYgwsx6yBoP9gspfFOP1RHaLM4TvuCm4k9h9-VYbdGpGm10sgf28zHfzzy0Ey7uGbGhwtRItnv6eRdxqU57BviLTq8SHvCC95w/s320/31372977573.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Narrated by LAPD detective Bucky Bleichert, <b>The Black Dahlia</b> is the story of his friendship with another cop, Lee Blanchard, and his girlfriend, Kay Lake, and the real-life murder in 1947 of Elizabeth Short. Solving Short's murder displaces everything in Bleichert's life, dragging him deeper and deeper into circles of corruption and depravity that would make Caligula blush.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Ellroy took the 1940s Los Angeles of the great film noirs and Raymond Chandler and turned it into a psychotic fantasy hopped up on violence, booze, sex, and racism. Chandler famously wrote : </p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. </span></p><p></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">This is not the case for Beichert or any of the protagonists in Ellroy's books. They are brutal, liars, drunks, and abusers. Still, some of them still have something buried away that still lets them grasp for justice or deliver vengeance in its absence.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Black Dahlia</b> changed my attitude toward crime fiction. While I had grown up watching every mystery show imaginable (from the brilliant <b>Rockford Files</b> down to the ridiculous <b>Quincy</b> and anything in between), but I had never developed a taste for crime and mystery novels. This book changed all that. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW10bSgtlnXGYgaGyILHaChU8W8nnAN0XrRv8E0rgitCEMFRzS98d3dNoJshNPCa6Cmcsmiem7bA4ojIiHDkjaEjKcF8As7u2HC5M0-sH0lwM8Z_1PQrJL9KnFmSh3Xq83KgkfGcxN28O_qM8LSluwZVR-PHEyMum_JQRmRW-A20KriigDQgUgfaI-Gg/s500/9780892962839-us.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="314" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW10bSgtlnXGYgaGyILHaChU8W8nnAN0XrRv8E0rgitCEMFRzS98d3dNoJshNPCa6Cmcsmiem7bA4ojIiHDkjaEjKcF8As7u2HC5M0-sH0lwM8Z_1PQrJL9KnFmSh3Xq83KgkfGcxN28O_qM8LSluwZVR-PHEyMum_JQRmRW-A20KriigDQgUgfaI-Gg/s320/9780892962839-us.jpg" width="201" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once I had plowed through all of Ellroy's available catalogue I turned to the two best-known hardboiled writers, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. I still have to read some of their novels, but I quickly burned through all their short stories. Hammett's Continental Op stories and Chandler's Marlowe stories are brilliant. The <b>Black Lizard</b> editions of their books led me to the Black Lizard editions of Chester Himes' series of novels about two black NYPD detectives; Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Those books, all read over 1990 and 1991, set me on the path of reading crime fiction for which I'll be forever grateful.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Black Dahlia</b> was followed by three more books; <b>The Big Nowhere</b> (1988), <b>L.A. Confidential</b> (1990), and <b>White Jazz</b> (1992). Together, they were called the <b>L.A. Quartet</b>. Each weaves together fictional and historical figures and sets them against the great economic engines of L.A., first home building, then Hollywood, and finally Disney. Ellroy's L.A. is a bottomless-gulletted monster that devours innocence and pukes up sin and corruption. The latter is mere political shenanigans, but the Biblical, soul-destroying stuff. It's not for the timid - it's epically harrowing - but the reward is one of the greatest undertakings in crime writing. (If you like the movie <b>L.A. Confidential</b> - which I do - just know
that it eliminated an entire subplot involving a child killer who
happens to be the son of a Walt Disney stand-in)<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNz41NDchvRkiSs0WT9apyfCucPeGzQ42kwzsv0CT4JPYsTGT1zbQA2jl925bX5l2SZjFaxL0rNqZSLGOu2S_2pzPHoKAjkTAoB0PV9SasT-zmEv1nIfOjPfjKFwOxlkZXb4niILOqqD7og-NNIFZCykoRcQmbHyobGedgAhZqUuCJ6ozB6NmFNvtMAw/s1600/s-l1600.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1064" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNz41NDchvRkiSs0WT9apyfCucPeGzQ42kwzsv0CT4JPYsTGT1zbQA2jl925bX5l2SZjFaxL0rNqZSLGOu2S_2pzPHoKAjkTAoB0PV9SasT-zmEv1nIfOjPfjKFwOxlkZXb4niILOqqD7og-NNIFZCykoRcQmbHyobGedgAhZqUuCJ6ozB6NmFNvtMAw/s320/s-l1600.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ellroy's writing is akin to Chandler's but hopped up on speed and booze. As the quartet proceeded, the writing became increasingly elaborate and the storytelling complex and complicated. With <b>White Jazz</b>, he flipped the table. Supposedly in response to his editor's request to trim the book's length, instead of excising sub-plots, he eliminated any words he could. <b>White Jazz</b> is the memoir of a corrupt cop on speed and it reads that way:</div><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p>Robbery, sweet duty: jack up heist guys and boost their shit.</p><p>Work the Commie: phone calls.</p><p>Fred Turentine, bug man-yes for five hundred. Pete Bondurant-yes for a grand-and he'd pay the photo guy. Pete, <i>Hush-Hush</i> cozy-more heat on the smear.</p><p> The Women's Jail watch boss ower me; a La Verne Benson update cashed her out. La Verne-prostituion beef number three-no bail, no trial date. La Verne to the phone-suppose we lose your rap sheet-yes! yes! Yes!</p><p>Antsy-my standard postmurder shakes. Antsy to itchy-drive.</p></blockquote><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFMfCwzre3rAcbVzZD98iFDJFD5rX7f5B3ACm6Hyv88JMDCoU7SuDV7ZiaRoTwkIqvWkepMwZrSmkj5hoH__LuzGayQBoFyIpcMXmGwwtkbF5MEgQTppSjM4Vr-_0wv8eazMJkVR7zkGSh5lqGcozhyiwd3-As8pEdFj6XwgchfsTRtN8ZJvDTb9-pg/s500/9780679414490-us.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFMfCwzre3rAcbVzZD98iFDJFD5rX7f5B3ACm6Hyv88JMDCoU7SuDV7ZiaRoTwkIqvWkepMwZrSmkj5hoH__LuzGayQBoFyIpcMXmGwwtkbF5MEgQTppSjM4Vr-_0wv8eazMJkVR7zkGSh5lqGcozhyiwd3-As8pEdFj6XwgchfsTRtN8ZJvDTb9-pg/s320/9780679414490-us.jpg" width="224" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After not having read anything by Ellroy all the way through in a long time, I'm thinking it might be time for a revisit. At some point, I overdosed. I was exhausted after I finished <b>American Tabloid </b>(1995), the first of the <b>Underworld USA</b> trilogy. I bought the second book, <b>The Cold Six Thousand </b>(2001) and never read it. I never bothered buying the final one, <b>Blood's a Rover </b>(2009), and eventually sold the first two. He'd abandoned the crazed experiment of <b>White Jazz</b> and crafted something too-similar to the <b>Big Nowher</b>e and <b>L.A. Confidential</b> but amped up a million white-hot degrees. It just wasn't worth it. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">That was over twenty years ago, so it might be time to revisit Ellroy. I never reneged on my love for the L.A. Quartet. When they came out, I bought copies of <b>Perfidia</b> and <b>This Storm</b>, but I before I go at them, I really think I need to go back to where it all started in <b>The Black Dahlia</b>.<span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisYr3LsNYiGo1ddcK-llWEMPEqk0FvSqpnokO5GpX3DSKFR_is1yf5JDnT2aN01Q1UJv7TDum8Pon-6vljSG-MLuvZNZ5zXTjqUlcdnWRzfMnpzQjA03tiYPmPvWdSPK3oLRIkkKWCzmmon8InT7vptY2wQ4WvotVlAa6fVf7-TLnn0fHtPZX34-wMYg/s700/Untitled.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="700" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisYr3LsNYiGo1ddcK-llWEMPEqk0FvSqpnokO5GpX3DSKFR_is1yf5JDnT2aN01Q1UJv7TDum8Pon-6vljSG-MLuvZNZ5zXTjqUlcdnWRzfMnpzQjA03tiYPmPvWdSPK3oLRIkkKWCzmmon8InT7vptY2wQ4WvotVlAa6fVf7-TLnn0fHtPZX34-wMYg/w491-h351/Untitled.png" width="491" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-72881242238018226332022-08-24T16:36:00.002-04:002022-09-12T00:34:56.424-04:00Murder Ballad in the Outback: The Proposition<p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Proposition_(2005_film)" target="_blank">The Proposition</a> (2005)</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><b>directed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hillcoat" target="_blank">John Hillcoat</a></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><b>screenplay by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Cave" target="_blank">Nick Cave</a></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><b>music by Nick Cave & <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Ellis_(musician)" target="_blank">Warren Ellis</a></b></p><p><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiU0Osgo48GQqrRnSTvYVThZj1T1jJGAEB8_20X0_d9yMoObnpOwYjGSrX2GFBhjxaVzH37_PsEFtAnSPy1PU6GV10AwWkARFKC9bdH4awh8U4SKRl9YdVzJUb-M9-FK6imnUiMM26dOJHEWPx-yq7hWHy4CfuTA5GUIE0dfNoB2micQyKIxNE-gZUQNQ=s738" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="738" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiU0Osgo48GQqrRnSTvYVThZj1T1jJGAEB8_20X0_d9yMoObnpOwYjGSrX2GFBhjxaVzH37_PsEFtAnSPy1PU6GV10AwWkARFKC9bdH4awh8U4SKRl9YdVzJUb-M9-FK6imnUiMM26dOJHEWPx-yq7hWHy4CfuTA5GUIE0dfNoB2micQyKIxNE-gZUQNQ=s16000" /></a></div><br /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></b><p></p><p><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hillcoat:</b><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"> “At that time, it was the last frontier. They basically just went further and further into the desert, into the most inhospitable terrain.”</span></p><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cave:</b><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"> “To me the major point was that it was so far out in the inhospitable countryside. So Captain Stanley and his wife can’t go anywhere, they just had to stay there. The answer to Stanley’s problems, really, is to quit his job and go somewhere where he and his wife should be. He’d probably have quite a nice life. And the same goes for the other characters as well.”</span><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span>from a 2005 interview with director John Hillcoat and writer Nick Cave</span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgGZ4V464zEd30_LKXlabFLx98GE5WKCJLi1VleN8eKaFl4nS3434L_ZcQrLXnAiIPklUxIHtX6ZN1HRTnZa4B4yEm8km8uL7a0IGrR2DclfMVmN7Ib-huzoSpZhPNAmfrht5ud2l8Kz1J23DvMNIlHH3Wp6M3OWkBmVUTCkW-uj0qYzjb-wq1QvxfrWQ=s2000" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="2000" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgGZ4V464zEd30_LKXlabFLx98GE5WKCJLi1VleN8eKaFl4nS3434L_ZcQrLXnAiIPklUxIHtX6ZN1HRTnZa4B4yEm8km8uL7a0IGrR2DclfMVmN7Ib-huzoSpZhPNAmfrht5ud2l8Kz1J23DvMNIlHH3Wp6M3OWkBmVUTCkW-uj0qYzjb-wq1QvxfrWQ=w400-h254" title="Charley Burns (Guy Pearce)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charley Burns (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Pearce" target="_blank">Guy Pearce</a>)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span>I don't know much about Australian history, let alone that of its 19th-century frontier. I have seen <b>Quigley Down Under</b> - which I don't like that much - and that's about it. If that period was anything like it's portrayed in <b>The Proposition</b>, directed by John Hillcoat and written by Nick Cave, it was irredeemably harsh and miserable. The effort to bring civilization suffered at the hands of the rich and the violent. As the quote above states, the Queensland Outback, the movie's setting, was a place Europeans would have been better off avoiding. It is hot (in another interview, Hillcoat mentioned the desert temperature getting up around 130 degrees Fahrenheit), barren, and fly-infested. Whatever might be there, none of it seems worth the misery.</span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgd_1EyPgJo9UKN8ygpp_aa_IM2c--8_8ceOSM13I2ldjBIy9YTcMYDfThTCouNXy4dNux95FXTw6pXO7Oa6EkHWhCC013G0FyQpVbDPu9teus6Byt5Jnm1VHZKhPNzXUnDFFKz3Ijx2B0VR9ILgv1Na3suBZcYT1KrM-m8OWRepcPnJBfsL235QJXEhg=s512" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="512" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgd_1EyPgJo9UKN8ygpp_aa_IM2c--8_8ceOSM13I2ldjBIy9YTcMYDfThTCouNXy4dNux95FXTw6pXO7Oa6EkHWhCC013G0FyQpVbDPu9teus6Byt5Jnm1VHZKhPNzXUnDFFKz3Ijx2B0VR9ILgv1Na3suBZcYT1KrM-m8OWRepcPnJBfsL235QJXEhg=w400-h256" title="Captain Morris Stanley (Ray Winstone)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Captain Stanley (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Winstone" target="_blank">Ray Winstone</a>)</td></tr></tbody></table><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Following a brief, deadly shootout that opens <b>The Proposition</b>, Charley Burns (Guy Pearce), and his simple-minded brother Mikey (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wilson_(Australian_actor)" target="_blank">Richard Wilson</a>), are taken prisoner by Captain Morris Stanley (Ray Winstone). Stanley informs Charley, that on Christmas Day, only nine days away, Mikey will be hanged in the town of Clarence. If, however, Charley accepts a simple proposition (work that title!), both he and Mikey will be pardoned and set free. All Charley has to do is kill his older brother, Arthur (Danny Huston). Arthur raped and killed the pregnant Eliza Hopkins. He is "an abomination" who needs to be stopped at all costs. The local Aborigines claim Arthur is a monster who turns into a great dog with sharp teeth.</div><div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Capt. Stanley: I wish to <a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/present" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none;">present</a> you with a proposition. I know <a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/where" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none;">where</a> <a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/Arthur" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none;">Arthur</a> <a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/Burns" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none;">Burns</a> is. It is a <a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/godforsaken" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none;">godforsaken</a> place. The <a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/blacks" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none;">blacks</a> won't go there, nor the trackers. Not even my own men. I suppose, in time, the <a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/bounty" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none;">bounty</a> <a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/hunters" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none;">hunters</a> will get him. But I have <a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/other" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none;">other</a> plans. I aim to <a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/bring" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; text-decoration-line: none;">bring</a> him down. I aim to show that he is a man like any other. I aim to hurt him.</span></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;">Charley accepts, leaving Mikey in the hands of the authorities. Viewing the burnt ruins of the Hopkins farm, he is clearly horrified when he discovers a bassinet, now never to be used. Arthur is assuredly the obscenity he's claimed to be. </p></div><div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhZd28cNry9TVxrHT9k58R7GZvYerYyoI_R86uAwC2AVtFTI1UH3E0VdD2r616CVWCsmeKYiIgRkSTrhjUt3Qa4_xwoZZdhT0nlj_kBXSq2T4yuCEsK8vPErBEw36rxS2WmbwYsjfB5To11IjvDH2ZShhUNze8rBm2vrmENZtOe3URrNA4sMe0yHcSbVQ=s768" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="768" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhZd28cNry9TVxrHT9k58R7GZvYerYyoI_R86uAwC2AVtFTI1UH3E0VdD2r616CVWCsmeKYiIgRkSTrhjUt3Qa4_xwoZZdhT0nlj_kBXSq2T4yuCEsK8vPErBEw36rxS2WmbwYsjfB5To11IjvDH2ZShhUNze8rBm2vrmENZtOe3URrNA4sMe0yHcSbVQ=w400-h256" title="Arthur Burns (Danny Huston)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arthur Burns (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Huston" target="_blank">Danny Huston</a>)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On the road to his brother's hideout in the hills, meets a pompous, racist named Jellon Lamb (John Hurt) in a tavern. Realizing Lamb is one of the bounty hunters Cpt. Stanley referred to, Charley knocks him out and heads off into the hills. There he is rescued from a band of Aborigines who attack him by Arthur and his gang. For a while, it seems, Arthur is more a philosopher than killer, but this is soon proven to be on an illusion.</span></div></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhXrMbqBOJvE8bdcW5Vt0A93YzyvKdxJEUfqwyy2megB9Me8I3lIp3Z6tT1rHy0M0li0AKUSVu3LNecDoVP35HJZV1rfZ2FsVCrQoyRXFk4rmln3y7XYPY0VQ2z_m2pTmUd8Q1FT24IdjJmE73AeaF9TEY4Sfthn4UyrtACN-FDeadIIx5QGDvu-W_K8A=s546" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="546" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhXrMbqBOJvE8bdcW5Vt0A93YzyvKdxJEUfqwyy2megB9Me8I3lIp3Z6tT1rHy0M0li0AKUSVu3LNecDoVP35HJZV1rfZ2FsVCrQoyRXFk4rmln3y7XYPY0VQ2z_m2pTmUd8Q1FT24IdjJmE73AeaF9TEY4Sfthn4UyrtACN-FDeadIIx5QGDvu-W_K8A=w400-h293" title="Two Bob (Tom E. Lewis)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two Bob (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_E._Lewis" target="_blank">Tom E. Lewis</a>)</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, back in Clarence, the townsfolk, led by the town's richest man, Eden Fletcher (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wenham" target="_blank">David Wenham</a>), demand that whatever deal Stanley brokered, Mikey Burns must be punished. Even Stanley's demure wife, Martha (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Watson" target="_blank">Emily Watson</a>), insists he must suffer. Against the Captain's best efforts, the boy is dragged out to be flogged. Before the sentence can be finished (after suffering exactly thirty-nine lashes), everything just stops. The townspeople walk away in disgust, and even the flogger gives up. Martha swoons at the sight of Mikey's ravaged back. Later, the torture will prove fatal, setting the stage for the final showdown between the remaining Burns brothers and Captain Stanley.</div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white;"><div style="font-size: 13.3333px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiibt-bBnq6_xrDDBdQ3lBpt_IRNBVMQZbNt9A3HCmqXDZon9ZKOQN-1NUTJa0c1tRaeqhYtKaQsmSLU3p4I1-Z6IbeJNSUZkz4en-ecMohhxeFjCCLhb73biGfLT9jh3I9CVu7AxzxUQBpEROhqA17nYIXm5yXT4FtwEl9sAcPxniWwje0btBUkO8dXA=s720" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="720" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiibt-bBnq6_xrDDBdQ3lBpt_IRNBVMQZbNt9A3HCmqXDZon9ZKOQN-1NUTJa0c1tRaeqhYtKaQsmSLU3p4I1-Z6IbeJNSUZkz4en-ecMohhxeFjCCLhb73biGfLT9jh3I9CVu7AxzxUQBpEROhqA17nYIXm5yXT4FtwEl9sAcPxniWwje0btBUkO8dXA=w400-h259" title="Jellon Lamb (John Hurt)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jellon Lamb (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hurt" target="_blank">John Hurt</a>)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;">The showdown occurs after much bloodshed and mayhem, all of which plays across the harsh Outback. </span><span style="background-color: white;">Most of the movie is bathed in ochre and sepia as if the desert sand has filled every pore and bathed every molecule. The landscape is all sharp-edged and the violence seems to actually seep out of it.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;">The cast is quite good, especially Pearce and Huston. They both Of special note is the presence of two of the best-known Aboriginal actors. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_E._Lewis" target="_blank">Tom E. Lewis</a> is good as the tough Two Bob, one of Arthur's henchmen. Lewis starred in Fred Schepisi's 1978, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chant_of_Jimmie_Blacksmith" target="_blank">The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith</a></b>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gulpilil" target="_blank">David Gulpilil</a>, star of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkabout_(film)" target="_blank">Walkabout </a></b>and <b>The Last Wave</b>, plays Jacko, one of Stanley's deputies.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The greatest Westerns are moral tales set on the edge between civilization and the wilds. Good stands against evil, order against chaos, even if justice must be delivered with bullets and by a man who is too raw to live in society. Charley rode with Arthur, so we have to assume he has committed reprehensible acts. Still, from the start, he is repulsed by his brother's crimes. Even when it no longer matters to Mikey's fate, perhaps especially then, Charley does what's right.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Proposition</b> is one of the best Westerns to appear in the last two decades. It's a raw film in its acting, setting, look, and story. It also feels true to its time, not a harangue by someone upset the past doesn't conform to their ideals. It's a movie I know I'll return to in the years to come. </div><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.3333px;"><br /></span></div><div><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: justify;">Rating - <b>A</b>: Certain scenes in <b>The Proposition</b> make it a tough movie to watch, but none of them are gratuitous or frivolous. The violence isn't played for thrills like an 80's vintage Hollywood action movie. Their power comes from their sparing use and their utter cold-heartedness. There are no witty rejoinders, every shooting and every beating is brutal, they never feel less than real and painful. It's got the same basic elements of American Westerns - the conflicts between lawlessness and civilization, whites and natives, and a frontier setting. Like the best of them, it presents them brilliantly and with deep emotional resonance. <span style="text-align: left;"><b>The Proposition</b> is proof that the West is not necessary to make a Western. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjXV_9rr5UmZbFt5g_3ccqZhlFqu0dVVDk5WnVbTwsrd5uqJqXl1z4zx8Z_SPcwNssSDruxBFIaL1-RBxNr42b0YAsZsAX0_uDh-vHs24s4R3OCFvHdtUkyh3PThyAqKjgJS6-aVzFEH4CuoGczll9XFUo7IY7t6u6TtAeo_wAhZINZd1q90UtBxuK0Aw=s2284" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1617" data-original-width="2284" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjXV_9rr5UmZbFt5g_3ccqZhlFqu0dVVDk5WnVbTwsrd5uqJqXl1z4zx8Z_SPcwNssSDruxBFIaL1-RBxNr42b0YAsZsAX0_uDh-vHs24s4R3OCFvHdtUkyh3PThyAqKjgJS6-aVzFEH4CuoGczll9XFUo7IY7t6u6TtAeo_wAhZINZd1q90UtBxuK0Aw=w487-h346" width="487" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;" /><br /><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: start;">Rating System</span><br style="text-align: start;" /><span style="text-align: start;"><b>A</b></span><span style="text-align: start;">: Ace - Brilliant or groundbreaking; one of the best that no fan should miss.</span><br style="text-align: start;" /><span style="text-align: start;"><b>B</b></span><span style="text-align: start;">: Bravo - Good stuff, but less than perfection</span><br style="text-align: start;" /><span style="text-align: start;"><b>C</b></span><span style="text-align: start;">: Cowpoke - Routine oater, filler</span><br style="text-align: start;" /><span style="text-align: start;"><b>D</b></span><span style="text-align: start;">: Dismal - Sloppy or junky, but either way not worth the runtime</span></p></div></div>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-43598573612236865152022-08-09T21:21:00.000-04:002022-08-09T21:21:55.829-04:00Lovecraft Covers<p> The first time I saw H.P. Lovecraft's name was in an advertisement in Creepy Magazine for a series of books. I had no idea who he was or what he wrote, but the freakish looking covers by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/oct/18/john-holmes-obituary" target="_blank">John Holmes</a> were nuts. It would be several years before I read anything by him, but Holmes' covers stuck with me. I'd later end up picking up most of them along with almost any other Lovecraftian collection I could get my hands on. <br /></p><p>I'm on a bit of a Lovecraftian roll right now. I wrote about Lord Dunsany's <b>At the Edge of the World</b> for <i><a href="https://goodman-games.com/tftms/" target="_blank">Tales from the Magician's Skull</a></i>. That inspired me to pick up HPL's <b>The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath</b> for the first time in ages. Simultaneously, to celebrate my shared birthday with HPL, I'm revisiting the very first collection of his stories I ever read; <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror</b> published by <b>Scholastic Books</b> of all people. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">This leads me right to another display of Lovecraftian covers, so here you go.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6DNFnyf52iowN36H_hauizHoCPkyOamhji1InGTsZVxVYMnaMAjICsN9-FK-7aroDJ59YzW595ADir5PeTpX8hmtOGYK-AHXwPmKhuzBq8mCnDcROdQPC5rS2j3iqAp0tLgd8VYPSc-lPYJt4aV85z4sWbFwUh_1qk1JtClykvdh6qrckv9tOwpLvrg/s600/holmes%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="353" height="620" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6DNFnyf52iowN36H_hauizHoCPkyOamhji1InGTsZVxVYMnaMAjICsN9-FK-7aroDJ59YzW595ADir5PeTpX8hmtOGYK-AHXwPmKhuzBq8mCnDcROdQPC5rS2j3iqAp0tLgd8VYPSc-lPYJt4aV85z4sWbFwUh_1qk1JtClykvdh6qrckv9tOwpLvrg/w364-h620/holmes%202.jpg" width="364" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4jPq0Be4OcE3VQCBzmYcP5CiUrm2cvc4afdYqFi18RjHsuxFWY5HODamjBn3iV9mh5OZ0_qjqgE42igoyfW8mGBITLW1UrfdmDEfKUu49qsr8aCTJppk3-hMfSRrXve7XwKAmvYH3NHHN061tg5PMK_XykvOO3Q0RVFT5eEObVn9Pb2fcLBd2jM23ww/s600/holmes%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="359" height="603" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4jPq0Be4OcE3VQCBzmYcP5CiUrm2cvc4afdYqFi18RjHsuxFWY5HODamjBn3iV9mh5OZ0_qjqgE42igoyfW8mGBITLW1UrfdmDEfKUu49qsr8aCTJppk3-hMfSRrXve7XwKAmvYH3NHHN061tg5PMK_XykvOO3Q0RVFT5eEObVn9Pb2fcLBd2jM23ww/w360-h603/holmes%203.jpg" width="360" /></a></div><p>These first two are August Derleth's Lovecraftian anthology, Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (1969), broken into two parts. Alongside several Lovecraft originals, there are terrific stories by Robert Block, Brian Lumley, and Frank Belknap Long. Finding these two books at an early age (12 or 13), set me off on a hunt for as many Mythos writers as I could possibly get my hands on. </p><p><br /></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc3mzW_C4Fu4eb_20mvG-PulxqERODuzO97LPxfp3Ro7JdYt7jSAIDLC6XLW3jEclaLfy-LRVaM4UkMiBuIjC87kfDAbd_94imRZaf-im7kXygMDpxgX5oJySWYHBsa6PDXke33q2hjCe2scTCjb_FqbCYGWTbK-z98vJxMKGqWDnBAB9D_IzxAqKEew/s600/holmes%204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="351" height="606" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc3mzW_C4Fu4eb_20mvG-PulxqERODuzO97LPxfp3Ro7JdYt7jSAIDLC6XLW3jEclaLfy-LRVaM4UkMiBuIjC87kfDAbd_94imRZaf-im7kXygMDpxgX5oJySWYHBsa6PDXke33q2hjCe2scTCjb_FqbCYGWTbK-z98vJxMKGqWDnBAB9D_IzxAqKEew/w354-h606/holmes%204.jpg" width="354" /></a></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5gkSJL7x6Hl8kInfw3RK8eq98ozb6sWjI9vKx0I46pmP25P8ru6Uj2o0xOPJ6K8jSEumusWjFN6eJLl8AMjpuYIlLcb791ik6wOALRt4bzOz7yDI0j4rFSkXDkyp0v61nD12qpF0ii473KcA0ob6yWIQ5vkYObq_TVepJjJb0oh0nGnj7BY4R6OPmuw/s600/holmes%205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="356" height="595" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5gkSJL7x6Hl8kInfw3RK8eq98ozb6sWjI9vKx0I46pmP25P8ru6Uj2o0xOPJ6K8jSEumusWjFN6eJLl8AMjpuYIlLcb791ik6wOALRt4bzOz7yDI0j4rFSkXDkyp0v61nD12qpF0ii473KcA0ob6yWIQ5vkYObq_TVepJjJb0oh0nGnj7BY4R6OPmuw/w353-h595/holmes%205.jpg" width="353" /></a></div><p>Even in the beginning, I was less than fond of August Derleth's efforts at Mythos tale-telling. Not as poor as Lin Carter's, but he never really had the feel for the stuff. His best ones are those that eschew New England and use his own Midwestern environs instead and those aren't here.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3juqYr-wnBJC9hxQaO5LaGW19Qpanu4_VWiI4hIPxCfYFl02nS2XjsM434sgiHlus5CN782-ySGHwZx5y5-bLpDaFb2p7SaixEfs6dauLm3FtDhxpi16nBR4zrFvKW36LIZRnvHCBoHOb6ViAnHiICpyz9L3vXbYLGjNix7GQTv6QTWDkYg1ZDCMEeg/s600/holmes%206.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="359" height="579" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3juqYr-wnBJC9hxQaO5LaGW19Qpanu4_VWiI4hIPxCfYFl02nS2XjsM434sgiHlus5CN782-ySGHwZx5y5-bLpDaFb2p7SaixEfs6dauLm3FtDhxpi16nBR4zrFvKW36LIZRnvHCBoHOb6ViAnHiICpyz9L3vXbYLGjNix7GQTv6QTWDkYg1ZDCMEeg/w346-h579/holmes%206.jpg" width="346" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK3uW7hHEuXXWXUxRYhRWz-EN1_oD-mGH4DEqVAfZ84awq8clsajw7ATOUOvLydZIu1WD5c3P2VnBmY01IPAFgAU8Hn-reprtb9wxWRfIV2C9ae7cpB8wlUS-8-VdDJFYnrwaRSHPey1pXRSpznkM7omXaVjud46UD_9t9dK18biDgr-UtdNfpKb8wvA/s600/holmes%20%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="358" height="570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK3uW7hHEuXXWXUxRYhRWz-EN1_oD-mGH4DEqVAfZ84awq8clsajw7ATOUOvLydZIu1WD5c3P2VnBmY01IPAFgAU8Hn-reprtb9wxWRfIV2C9ae7cpB8wlUS-8-VdDJFYnrwaRSHPey1pXRSpznkM7omXaVjud46UD_9t9dK18biDgr-UtdNfpKb8wvA/w340-h570/holmes%20%201.jpg" width="340" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>These are the original Arkham house omnibuses of Lovecraft's fiction. With the first three covers by Lee Brown Coye and the last by Gahan Wilson, these are a pulp reader's delight. My local library had the first three (which still impresses the heck out of me!) and were the ones I always wanted to own myself. That was not to be. </p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcWEVbX_UE8IvIPT81uOSZcz3ppxdpm-XS285QO5T2N-sWTBMwJH7BAsiFNWGEFbFeyxDu5DC7xo1vMKJYgqy0FUF5JTX-PHAOqs0G7yDG-aiB3jkypJ1WHnOVldQzQB-UBnudUwpReP8qC-BVXvj9-o6qojFcBUYMnIXcT3xmHM435k-U6UPBZPCfwA/s483/01%20Dagon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="327" height="510" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcWEVbX_UE8IvIPT81uOSZcz3ppxdpm-XS285QO5T2N-sWTBMwJH7BAsiFNWGEFbFeyxDu5DC7xo1vMKJYgqy0FUF5JTX-PHAOqs0G7yDG-aiB3jkypJ1WHnOVldQzQB-UBnudUwpReP8qC-BVXvj9-o6qojFcBUYMnIXcT3xmHM435k-U6UPBZPCfwA/w346-h510/01%20Dagon.jpg" width="346" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqCyooce8xbWY9etz6G6AeZ8bpir3fLVJJhUIwSjbeHyYtYsmohqxu67NbCFlgvKouHF4PfbrGn2-LIfyCOGLcIozbedIcsFNIozK-sKkLRPFB6cOBzox9K7vcz5wCX-CtAEg0sGWvcAkdTUoh8y92c4c83Vl42xjsuC_bLopPYBibTFBGaR-vIT_eLA/s600/01%20dunwich.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="398" height="509" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqCyooce8xbWY9etz6G6AeZ8bpir3fLVJJhUIwSjbeHyYtYsmohqxu67NbCFlgvKouHF4PfbrGn2-LIfyCOGLcIozbedIcsFNIozK-sKkLRPFB6cOBzox9K7vcz5wCX-CtAEg0sGWvcAkdTUoh8y92c4c83Vl42xjsuC_bLopPYBibTFBGaR-vIT_eLA/w337-h509/01%20dunwich.jpg" width="337" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhixQJMg-RP9Meo8uTfTLSMvROg482kgU_fbyuAb5Zxe_t7VRjJ3c9SEJUNLKmuiMRQ6BqzCSoq-25QW1HMlKhGEtBlb17HfQE--HpqXEd2mzLoDU9jH0badlKwWo3sVg5_rUVJXXD1xnmDrzywdbc_wBGTWjPrVXyeHCl_Vq2ZZA6f5L92mpcAYoKDlQ/s600/01%20Mountains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="396" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhixQJMg-RP9Meo8uTfTLSMvROg482kgU_fbyuAb5Zxe_t7VRjJ3c9SEJUNLKmuiMRQ6BqzCSoq-25QW1HMlKhGEtBlb17HfQE--HpqXEd2mzLoDU9jH0badlKwWo3sVg5_rUVJXXD1xnmDrzywdbc_wBGTWjPrVXyeHCl_Vq2ZZA6f5L92mpcAYoKDlQ/w331-h502/01%20Mountains.jpg" width="331" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NYuxSrHCa9fD8ecKrci1hxFSjcovc0NaW0pbkUNgoTrb0TZ_11s6fCpeKRLuEXElJkifpJXEO6niCvqNgpldtb6Ao8o0cPyrywKU8z9NSQCCT4TEJeWIi0kt6Ctt_AViRX9RsDVQSfIVA49PN035WSI99DE3Pwf1pWAS96AcUZr9t_ke3bdoumC5zw/s500/01%20museum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="341" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-NYuxSrHCa9fD8ecKrci1hxFSjcovc0NaW0pbkUNgoTrb0TZ_11s6fCpeKRLuEXElJkifpJXEO6niCvqNgpldtb6Ao8o0cPyrywKU8z9NSQCCT4TEJeWIi0kt6Ctt_AViRX9RsDVQSfIVA49PN035WSI99DE3Pwf1pWAS96AcUZr9t_ke3bdoumC5zw/w322-h472/01%20museum.jpg" width="322" /></a></div><p><br /></p>These 1980s covers by Raymond Bayless are the ones I ended up with on my shelves. I bought all four on my first book run to Providence back in the mid-nineties. They're fine enough, but a little too meh for my tastes. They do have S.T. Joshi's introductions and, as much as he can be irritating at times, these are incredibly valuable and more than worth your time.<p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8VDH4nRwTOxuhr2Mj6Wpjvi-rrXhAFoa8IUqdt1Dg6aC1ZhkHQ62QnDyyyyMnV6TKG_uXAb9JjYLoswyJyIHiXBMu1rXFwst5x40-zq3LpZqsnU2WTWX2xBGl6kURfb-Pz3epPBnZmhLr2aDyDgOtLr46cXaXhTH3MSVx68uCa1PKcro2XPEUJkelA/s600/02%20Dagon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="395" height="481" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8VDH4nRwTOxuhr2Mj6Wpjvi-rrXhAFoa8IUqdt1Dg6aC1ZhkHQ62QnDyyyyMnV6TKG_uXAb9JjYLoswyJyIHiXBMu1rXFwst5x40-zq3LpZqsnU2WTWX2xBGl6kURfb-Pz3epPBnZmhLr2aDyDgOtLr46cXaXhTH3MSVx68uCa1PKcro2XPEUJkelA/w317-h481/02%20Dagon.jpg" width="317" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp9ubH5KDjMcCt9CmS3ko-H3WATyzvl0kfezL32lb6RQEMERddLVpxEC5XrRGnDUCt8Lnpq9V8mX0z9AA0ad79lBoCqiC6WYA4iJi_ELt03b_Jv84uMUZGvTQf_sbnjtSLE_d14Fus6tMyY0wvvQpeEHFe9VTEJ9OEymx5JWvWOXDJ2MSSZrsk1deK6w/s600/02%20Dunwich.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="402" height="462" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp9ubH5KDjMcCt9CmS3ko-H3WATyzvl0kfezL32lb6RQEMERddLVpxEC5XrRGnDUCt8Lnpq9V8mX0z9AA0ad79lBoCqiC6WYA4iJi_ELt03b_Jv84uMUZGvTQf_sbnjtSLE_d14Fus6tMyY0wvvQpeEHFe9VTEJ9OEymx5JWvWOXDJ2MSSZrsk1deK6w/w309-h462/02%20Dunwich.jpg" width="309" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVcchvg25vCmfq6SPHJVi2lkso8-KAAXnhF_y2eBmfcrdoETd250mXQki5OUCs-gcwxOPtOSx8AwpE7aQyk7EtiDMvtcWuzmkmUhPbC3Ws9cOBbB8h84kldQfGFIPoiUoE3x5zTCM1VSO-DbXG0JV3UZv446YcHkuCKvzq0nHBsclcM4S1dIsG8P_kkQ/s600/02%20Mountains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="406" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVcchvg25vCmfq6SPHJVi2lkso8-KAAXnhF_y2eBmfcrdoETd250mXQki5OUCs-gcwxOPtOSx8AwpE7aQyk7EtiDMvtcWuzmkmUhPbC3Ws9cOBbB8h84kldQfGFIPoiUoE3x5zTCM1VSO-DbXG0JV3UZv446YcHkuCKvzq0nHBsclcM4S1dIsG8P_kkQ/w307-h452/02%20Mountains.jpg" width="307" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_qg7cS1imSL9-NNIb1NCGuNbB41IeJd-9jTFYMoyVgLms8H7PLsOa_f2bumngO3Gx0vcot8idxuGYPwkO9_Y9fS8hvwvl8uIs4Hc5ILCG02K_RYt_n4tQ18j789vsfqth9cwKhTzpn1ctfUZavTt4UT55VTQfYhG0QzCe6gzV_WzTSpiBvpaxpZipA/s600/02%20museumr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="403" height="453" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_qg7cS1imSL9-NNIb1NCGuNbB41IeJd-9jTFYMoyVgLms8H7PLsOa_f2bumngO3Gx0vcot8idxuGYPwkO9_Y9fS8hvwvl8uIs4Hc5ILCG02K_RYt_n4tQ18j789vsfqth9cwKhTzpn1ctfUZavTt4UT55VTQfYhG0QzCe6gzV_WzTSpiBvpaxpZipA/w305-h453/02%20museumr.jpg" width="305" /></a></div><p>Tony Patrick's covers are not to my taste at all. They appear to have been released around 2001. While they're the current versions, with the slowing collapse of Arkham House, I wonder if there'll ever be another series.</p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KxZey5ekRgvhnjTF8v7S1BpSLNwSh02of-KUzIuKQihpygKx-ShbVKf2KnM9NeVwJd1UX8wfB_-tDqoUDdMWM4XK-dl6nyp-tFkQaj-35u57xUUfJieKBI1imQ2Ff-Mf-P95v5hbZconBb6vHgc45mFmfVlqIapa7JJ5WY96x6utiknz9yCF_NdR1A/s500/03%20Dagon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="341" height="443" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KxZey5ekRgvhnjTF8v7S1BpSLNwSh02of-KUzIuKQihpygKx-ShbVKf2KnM9NeVwJd1UX8wfB_-tDqoUDdMWM4XK-dl6nyp-tFkQaj-35u57xUUfJieKBI1imQ2Ff-Mf-P95v5hbZconBb6vHgc45mFmfVlqIapa7JJ5WY96x6utiknz9yCF_NdR1A/w301-h443/03%20Dagon.jpg" width="301" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRAJcHFJsVd8kbY6EUUg-ZNkn6QhFquYG11hCk2d9ky4tkfMl6Klds3deJ6yclis4vTfU1IVxpfLAOaKwfUbUANHGdR8twyNbrYG1_4-fmc-DSVLrGv5zg6dj2I90c-ss1IgrsvHDaB8z79u2BfTz-RlxG0ZgUimNHwHxRkS9VvwOrbV6p85-AEQnfoA/s600/03%20Dunwich.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="409" height="449" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRAJcHFJsVd8kbY6EUUg-ZNkn6QhFquYG11hCk2d9ky4tkfMl6Klds3deJ6yclis4vTfU1IVxpfLAOaKwfUbUANHGdR8twyNbrYG1_4-fmc-DSVLrGv5zg6dj2I90c-ss1IgrsvHDaB8z79u2BfTz-RlxG0ZgUimNHwHxRkS9VvwOrbV6p85-AEQnfoA/w305-h449/03%20Dunwich.jpg" width="305" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWfjTEeWkzvrFbO4eqPDEMSSUBbnXM4-i8Gc7fgzF83NEORQ48VFyh8sf8sUlaycfU7Rj3cEPJ776ZWzCAzRnS0DzwDjUvgg55ImDstDhDGbYQL4F3EeW6VH_kzj7o6MOQOafZgg378hR-D_GTI2-Gt8Gybnyu7kKW8sLMtepbvbw6JoQb4RbSKbDdg/s500/03%20Mountains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="335" height="455" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWfjTEeWkzvrFbO4eqPDEMSSUBbnXM4-i8Gc7fgzF83NEORQ48VFyh8sf8sUlaycfU7Rj3cEPJ776ZWzCAzRnS0DzwDjUvgg55ImDstDhDGbYQL4F3EeW6VH_kzj7o6MOQOafZgg378hR-D_GTI2-Gt8Gybnyu7kKW8sLMtepbvbw6JoQb4RbSKbDdg/w304-h455/03%20Mountains.jpg" width="304" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxzoGWmdawMeFR2Q5lrqDVGtNYGUVLNXtCn0dBo2yAKTqFCJtE54V5RuXvFjeAfPteCC8BS5d-iWAeFba3bL_fJWm492yaP2hLJb2o5C2AboxjNJQnJmKDGNF7hEN4lhsv7mhRkUJ3fqsJbZQ9vkDs1liuLN-D85h2MlCRO6wCzomYfMtwFH64QlQ6g/s475/03%20museum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="318" height="445" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxzoGWmdawMeFR2Q5lrqDVGtNYGUVLNXtCn0dBo2yAKTqFCJtE54V5RuXvFjeAfPteCC8BS5d-iWAeFba3bL_fJWm492yaP2hLJb2o5C2AboxjNJQnJmKDGNF7hEN4lhsv7mhRkUJ3fqsJbZQ9vkDs1liuLN-D85h2MlCRO6wCzomYfMtwFH64QlQ6g/w298-h445/03%20museum.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><p>And here it is, where it all began for me on the night of the Great Blackout in 1977. While it's got some lesser tales, it also has <b>The Colour Out of Space</b> and <b>The Shadow Over Innsmouth</b>. </p><p><br /></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghC8TniEpKy6YetHV3H47nSRSO_Yyds6Lzkty2zRDAj3na-W4Q-mymJG2MH7os1Vp3TFe2sSTVbOq_qZ7BMcqA1rQdSoWEMklaXQ4o-XcMILGKbFzZnWLACJ_FVfgreVulLqpcZ_tvzHhKffBOuJsMnRMMcbrXwW46dtlUGX15QqEGkRQUgjUlPvX9DQ/s600/THSHDWVRNN1971.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="357" height="513" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghC8TniEpKy6YetHV3H47nSRSO_Yyds6Lzkty2zRDAj3na-W4Q-mymJG2MH7os1Vp3TFe2sSTVbOq_qZ7BMcqA1rQdSoWEMklaXQ4o-XcMILGKbFzZnWLACJ_FVfgreVulLqpcZ_tvzHhKffBOuJsMnRMMcbrXwW46dtlUGX15QqEGkRQUgjUlPvX9DQ/w305-h513/THSHDWVRNN1971.jpg" width="305" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p></p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-88207617749193286942022-07-08T16:28:00.005-04:002022-07-08T16:28:49.205-04:00Michael Moorcock Covers From My Youth<p>My friends and I didn't read Robert E Howard, we didn't read Terry Brooks (other than that first Tolkien pastiche). A lot of us read Tolkien, but not everyone. Michael Moorcock, though, we <b><i>all </i></b>read. I think my friend Karl H. told me about <b>Stormbringer </b>first, before I picked up anything by Moorcock.I'm pretty sure he repeated the sword Stormbringer's line to the dead Elric. For him at fourteen or so, it was the epitome of wicked coolness. When I discovered the Lancer copies of <b>The Dreaming City</b> and <b>The Sleeping Sorceress</b> in my dad's vast attic book collection, I was hooked. Gilded battle barges, dragon attacks, demon patrons, and the unholy black sword in the hands of an albino wizard were like nothing else I'd read yet. My dad also had the DAW <b>Dorian Hawkmoon</b> books which were just as mindblowing in their own ways. He also had the first set of <b>Corum </b>books which were even better.<br /></p><p>Over the next few years, I plowed through all the core Eternal Champion books. It was the same thing for most of my friends. I remember my buddy Alex R. getting all excited when he discovered (the first person among us) the Count Brass books. </p><p>I'm going to discover how well <b>Stormbringer </b>holds up for a post-middle-age man, but I know it was perfect for a teenager. Elric is all aggrieved moodiness, rebelliousness, and hopelessly romantic - and Romantic. </p><p>The book covers I'm showing below were all books I read multiple times before I finished high school. I've probably read the Corum books the most, finding their Celtic-inspired setting particularly appealing , but even with those, it's been some time since I've read them. The only Moorcock book I've read in recent years was <b>The Eternal Champion</b>. I <a href="https://www.blackgate.com/2014/05/27/the-eternal-champion-by-michael-moorcock/">reviewed it all the way back in 2014 at <b>Black Gate</b></a> and was left underwhelmed. Nonetheless, I have big hopes for <b>Stormbringer</b>. I'm only a little bit in, and already I feel fourteen again in the best possible way.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4hBEc3PHoRiouSZ1RNaQ-V-OMP7NjZtUkywijuRuiGofbLN1tABY_JfVoFevWXO9nHvBRghgJitdiSuN-8Rk2PUhsi8jmbtuk--Xinbw5N8gY9Gc0iFqV221Zl1-EYeWzCMhZqY1mMj_ScuPykC0bljdrArPrCoGdwmXI1qG3_29T0k92cL9-z0Oq0A/s724/el2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="598" data-original-width="724" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4hBEc3PHoRiouSZ1RNaQ-V-OMP7NjZtUkywijuRuiGofbLN1tABY_JfVoFevWXO9nHvBRghgJitdiSuN-8Rk2PUhsi8jmbtuk--Xinbw5N8gY9Gc0iFqV221Zl1-EYeWzCMhZqY1mMj_ScuPykC0bljdrArPrCoGdwmXI1qG3_29T0k92cL9-z0Oq0A/w441-h364/el2.png" width="441" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Kj5eKEk15txi1M_FX8EDpF2WLjbfw_EYH9PGO-fgzM8A4n_fjuqCwqQd0pdkatZXQOOOjdmiNVGO1QKmN9uannmeaghohunZHVSjCfPF5KbY_iuxCyxJAjlVdDBThneRw83RM_za5c1Dj4rQCKVOdrkNzPiIzLlI5PZWW0KoWk9K3XtGklykUFzhKw/s1198/ELRIC.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="1076" height="616" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Kj5eKEk15txi1M_FX8EDpF2WLjbfw_EYH9PGO-fgzM8A4n_fjuqCwqQd0pdkatZXQOOOjdmiNVGO1QKmN9uannmeaghohunZHVSjCfPF5KbY_iuxCyxJAjlVdDBThneRw83RM_za5c1Dj4rQCKVOdrkNzPiIzLlI5PZWW0KoWk9K3XtGklykUFzhKw/w552-h616/ELRIC.png" width="552" /></a></div><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD5bdK8GnQDEdTaH1JG9qwevqokaRc0kDirQwMsiSG56SOSpRntlCJAP7jOAf12f1odaZG8hsI84jxFYgC004vW6W6LOLWUVnnwtlXQWAJy6F1wi7QDvOS6di3IyBhBkqTgQMXLNr7g6MXQcb0VCszi88GTORgFQG9650lwyRNaGn2P9uJWf6UUVjzKg/s1198/dorian.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="700" height="662" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD5bdK8GnQDEdTaH1JG9qwevqokaRc0kDirQwMsiSG56SOSpRntlCJAP7jOAf12f1odaZG8hsI84jxFYgC004vW6W6LOLWUVnnwtlXQWAJy6F1wi7QDvOS6di3IyBhBkqTgQMXLNr7g6MXQcb0VCszi88GTORgFQG9650lwyRNaGn2P9uJWf6UUVjzKg/w387-h662/dorian.png" width="387" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh26qxS94lTAvf8zN7Rxtq5ItwsNl7GGZk5lmw7rSpXigfXr4DzlOLPWRrH3Lr_RGpl2pqsS_i75qay7XJzj6VB8KEul_vanyp4gN2r94Qm8a8vK-qn35M4ZH6PE7YVIdIMTwe8Bnid9DPzDFsF-U6UYQUKun9hAvMQBp6IQmBd6qMpd5JZHtsREOMQYA/s1157/brass.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="1157" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh26qxS94lTAvf8zN7Rxtq5ItwsNl7GGZk5lmw7rSpXigfXr4DzlOLPWRrH3Lr_RGpl2pqsS_i75qay7XJzj6VB8KEul_vanyp4gN2r94Qm8a8vK-qn35M4ZH6PE7YVIdIMTwe8Bnid9DPzDFsF-U6UYQUKun9hAvMQBp6IQmBd6qMpd5JZHtsREOMQYA/w547-h297/brass.png" width="547" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh--jIqEgyyf0fk2Euo1y9_1wEnmzLDamdEBru51UBvdLDHHzfOSht8BtIsQfQFcLI4mZy60cuZDEZxDgqv62YuiPNpoq2dhzb-ujmDwwcmKW7CiZA6cOYNSGGDEJht_kYNQDK8bQm00r6PHMEDKWHLJLcMLYsoXUIeva2lclUe47L6Zw1GCL8k2TFbVA/s1282/corum.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1282" data-original-width="1157" height="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh--jIqEgyyf0fk2Euo1y9_1wEnmzLDamdEBru51UBvdLDHHzfOSht8BtIsQfQFcLI4mZy60cuZDEZxDgqv62YuiPNpoq2dhzb-ujmDwwcmKW7CiZA6cOYNSGGDEJht_kYNQDK8bQm00r6PHMEDKWHLJLcMLYsoXUIeva2lclUe47L6Zw1GCL8k2TFbVA/w492-h546/corum.png" width="492" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-25115987862884748722022-05-26T14:55:00.004-04:002022-05-26T14:55:57.466-04:00New Blog - A Collection Reviewed<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="413" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2es-lfRSDOI" width="497" youtube-src-id="2es-lfRSDOI"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p> </p><p> For anyone not following me on Facebook, I've been posting a series of movie reviews since last Christmastime. You can see many of them (they'll all be there eventually) at <a href="https://collectionreviewed.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><b>A Collection Reviewe</b></a>d. My wife, the luminous Mrs. V., came up with the idea to watch and potentially cull our overly large DVD collection. We're always buying new movies and rarely sitting down to watch them. What if, she asked, we watched everything we own, 1) simply to watch it, and 2) decide whether we should actually keep it? I said it seemed like a great idea and we started at once.</p><p> We keep our movies organized into several broad groups, breaking out musicals, Biblical, Hitchcock, espionage, horror, Hitchcock, Westerns, war and sci-fi from the larger "general" category. Trailing after the fiction, there's a small documentary section and a music section, which includes concerts and video collections. To keep from getting too bored by having to watch nothing but Westerns at some point, we decided to watch things in sequence; 5 general films, then 1 from each of the genres followed by a documentary and a music disc. We decided to skip horror until Halloween and kids films altogether. As long as we have young nieces and nephews, we're just going to hold onto all of them. </p><p> I set up the new blog, <a href="https://collectionreviewed.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><b>A Collection Review</b></a>, because I got a lot more feedback on the Facebook posts than I anticipated. People I rarely speak with online crept out of the woodwork to debate certain movies and while some cult movies just brought out all sorts to voice their huzzahs! for them (I'm thinking of <b>Big Trouble in Little China</b> in particular). There have been several great conversations on some really interesting movies and I thought it would be cool to preserve them and bring them all together in a easier to use place than Facebook.</p><p> In 1997, a friend came up with the idea for a competition over who could see the most movies in the theater. To the best of my recollection I came in third or fourth (of about seven or eight players) with 108 movies. When someone questioned one of the competitors about why'd we were doing this, he said explained we all watched movies like other guys watched sports. For me, WABC's 4:30 Movie, WOR's The Million Dollar Movie, and assorted late-night programs on all the networks were more important to me than any sports ball game ever. <br /></p><p> I grew up watching anything and everything with my parents. We didn't have a color-TV when I was little, so it didn't matter if a movie was in black and white. I pity today's kids who are constitutionally unable to watch anything not in color. I saw so many great and cheesy movies as a kid. I got scared by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creature_from_the_Black_Lagoon" target="_blank"><b>Creature from the Black Lagoon</b></a> and hunted along with Glenn Ford for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Glove" target="_blank"><b>The Green Glove</b></a>. Even before I started reading history books, I had a basic sense of who fought WWII and why - all from movies like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_at_Remagen" target="_blank"><b>The Bridge at Remagen</b></a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzio_(film)" target="_blank"><b>Anzio</b></a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Hell_and_Back_(film)" target="_blank"><b>To Hell and Back</b></a>. <br /></p><p> I hope I can convey a little of my enthusiasm (or vitriol or boredom) with the movies I write about here. I also hope if you have anything to add or, more importantly, correct about my essays, you'll comment. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="380" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BPTQRmwCOWs" width="458" youtube-src-id="BPTQRmwCOWs"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-45708756142872520902021-11-10T22:07:00.003-05:002021-11-10T22:07:43.599-05:00Gordon Dickson Covers From My Youth<p style="text-align: justify;"> My dad was a HUUGE Gordon Dickson fan. He easily had thirty novels and short story collections in the attic boxes. As a kid, I read a bunch of them, and well, most of them weren't anything special. Still, they were short and quick and their depictions of competent humans aligned against assorted aliens helped lay the groundwork for my science fiction universe. I know Harlan Ellison was a big fan of his short fiction, so I should probably give some of that a go at some point, but up to now, I haven't.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> I've scavenged all the books from Dickson's <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childe_Cycle" target="_blank">Childe Cycle</a></b>. I've read half of them and, while tinted by age, my memories of them are they were really good. Centered around the mercenaries of the planet Dorsai, he envisioned the series, in addition to the six science fiction novels he finished, as having three historical and three contemporary novels. It would tell the extended history of humanity as it splintered colonizing the stars and was reunified. At his death in 2001, Dickson hadn't finished the final book in the series, <b>Childe</b>, and had never written the non-sci-fi novels. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yZHX2sX1N64/YJN1FS-679I/AAAAAAAAPGM/LfNvYf6BgfoFCS1TVn4kqjtkrj2W0hV7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/DORSAI1E1976.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="368" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yZHX2sX1N64/YJN1FS-679I/AAAAAAAAPGM/LfNvYf6BgfoFCS1TVn4kqjtkrj2W0hV7gCLcBGAsYHQ/w368-h640/DORSAI1E1976.jpg" width="368" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SDaJbc1XLpI/YJN1GszBFgI/AAAAAAAAPGQ/2UKr8AJJym4a4YI4927nJ7oLnMQRfoPygCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/NCRMNCR6E1978.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="380" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SDaJbc1XLpI/YJN1GszBFgI/AAAAAAAAPGQ/2UKr8AJJym4a4YI4927nJ7oLnMQRfoPygCLcBGAsYHQ/w380-h640/NCRMNCR6E1978.jpg" width="380" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ATF53j5NwmY/YJN1LWJYvxI/AAAAAAAAPGU/oUpxAViQIa04IquLc2kt5S6lu5FMc_d7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/SLDRSKNTTX1975.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="379" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ATF53j5NwmY/YJN1LWJYvxI/AAAAAAAAPGU/oUpxAViQIa04IquLc2kt5S6lu5FMc_d7QCLcBGAsYHQ/w380-h640/SLDRSKNTTX1975.jpg" width="380" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S1ivLlu8PIY/YJN1M6JkvOI/AAAAAAAAPGY/g0NT5EUkbK0O5hJaRCxrK8CJnJq71NawgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/TCTCSFMSTK030.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="377" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S1ivLlu8PIY/YJN1M6JkvOI/AAAAAAAAPGY/g0NT5EUkbK0O5hJaRCxrK8CJnJq71NawgCLcBGAsYHQ/w376-h640/TCTCSFMSTK030.jpg" width="376" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rURsGDQ1Z7U/YJN1OI3N8EI/AAAAAAAAPGc/Y7p8_Eojj4YS2e03FqroDnZhx0eaoU8-wCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/BKTG01789.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="439" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rURsGDQ1Z7U/YJN1OI3N8EI/AAAAAAAAPGc/Y7p8_Eojj4YS2e03FqroDnZhx0eaoU8-wCLcBGAsYHQ/w440-h640/BKTG01789.jpg" width="440" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uln85Sy-0-I/YJN1OyTLbHI/AAAAAAAAPGg/GsELRpREbqMcNbD4l0RnESweKbR0oBCtwCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/THCHNTRGLD1989.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="361" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uln85Sy-0-I/YJN1OyTLbHI/AAAAAAAAPGg/GsELRpREbqMcNbD4l0RnESweKbR0oBCtwCLcBGAsYHQ/w386-h640/THCHNTRGLD1989.jpg" width="386" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"> It's an interesting example of evolving covers over the years. Those first two, <b>Dorsai!</b> by Paul Lehr and <b>Necromancer </b>by Jack Gaughan (someone I normally like) are nicely modish, late seventies artwork, but too generic and unmemorable. Now, the next two, both by the mighty Kelly Freas, are a great improvement. <b>Soldier, Ask Not</b> might have one of the best military sci-fi covers around. I've always assumed it depicts the Friendly soldier, Jamethon Black, a character I remember sympathizing with, despite him being something of a humorless scold. Here, dressed all in black and set against a background of stars, he stares forlornly off into the distance, awaiting whatever battle may come. The cover for <b>Tactics of Mistake</b>, featuring the super-tactician, Cletus Grahame, has more than a whiff of evening-time-in-the-Playboy-Mansion-grotto to it, what with him in that intergalactic smoking jacket and orange mood lights playing overhead. I absolutely dig it.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> The last two are just not good. Michael Whelan, one of the book cover greats, has given <b>The Final Encyclopedia</b> the floating man contemplating a tower that no one ever needed. Maybe it's a direct scene from the book, but I don't care, The colors are blah and the scene is just dull. Still, it's way better than what Jim Burns did for <b>The Chantry Guild</b>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I'm going to try and do more of these. Old covers, as much as they trigger a burst of nostalgia, also serve as a catalogue of the genre. Clearly, covers fifty-odd years ago were whiter, but they were also pulpier and more exciting. There was no chance you were going to mistake a sci-fi or fantasy book for a romance or some generic airport thriller.</p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-39276833486938248012021-04-12T13:10:00.003-04:002021-04-12T13:15:29.491-04:00Bronson in Winter: Breakheart Pass <p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oVwfcFOmN3E/YGhnN-DnmsI/AAAAAAAAPC4/KmgpMWLZnPQLEEfI3PCodmAAowQWKmu6wCLcBGAsYHQ/s713/breakheart-pass-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oVwfcFOmN3E/YGhnN-DnmsI/AAAAAAAAPC4/KmgpMWLZnPQLEEfI3PCodmAAowQWKmu6wCLcBGAsYHQ/w448-h640/breakheart-pass-2.png" width="448" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large; text-decoration-line: none;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakheart_Pass_(film)" target="_blank">Breakheart Pass (1975)</a></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">directed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Gries" target="_blank">Tom Gries</a></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">screenplay <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_MacLean" target="_blank">Alistair MacLean</a> from his own book</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">music by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_MacLean" target="_blank">Jerry Goldsmith</a></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bronson" target="_blank"></a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"></span></div><span style="font-weight: 700;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--sYwSFOVCGs/YGpraAvW45I/AAAAAAAAPDk/ZzWPzy74SvYFSWYiZ9iY32Q6RvoJHczAgCLcBGAsYHQ/s650/MV5BNGI1NGRiOWQtNGYzMS00OTQ2LWExNDEtNWExZTI0YWRmMmFmL2ltYWdlL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjY1MzQwNzQ%2540._V1_.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="650" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--sYwSFOVCGs/YGpraAvW45I/AAAAAAAAPDk/ZzWPzy74SvYFSWYiZ9iY32Q6RvoJHczAgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/MV5BNGI1NGRiOWQtNGYzMS00OTQ2LWExNDEtNWExZTI0YWRmMmFmL2ltYWdlL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjY1MzQwNzQ%2540._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles Bronson</td></tr></tbody></table><span>Charles Bronson was a journeyman actor who slowly moved up the ranks of tough-guy actors until finally becoming a leading man in the late sixties and early seventies. </span><b>Bronson, born Charles Buchinsky, grew up working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. During WWII he served as a tail-gunner on B-29s bombing Japan. After the war, he slowly drifted into acting. He worked his way up through character roles and some leads in some B-movies, before becoming a major support actor in some big movies. I</b><span>t wasn't until the brutal and timely </span><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Wish_(1974_film)" target="_blank">Death Wish</a> (1974), that, at the age of 52, he really became a star. Many, many of his movies are terrible, often the results of contractual obligations. </b><b>As he got visibly older, playing the violent hard man looked less and less believable and the quality of his scripts got increasingly declined. </b><b>Do not let yourself suffer through Death Wish 3, 4, or 5 or 10 To Midnight. On the other hand, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mechanic_(1972_film)" target="_blank">The Mechanic</a> (1972), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Majestyk" target="_blank">Mr. Majestyk</a> (1974), and, especially, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Times_%281975_film%29" target="_blank">Hard Times</a> (1975), are paragons of seventies hardboiled filmmaking. Bronson's perpetual squint, sour croak of a voice, and physical hardness made him one of the most distinctive and well-known Hollywood tough guys of all time.</b></div></span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1VmOb0Q77EY/YGprfPw4snI/AAAAAAAAPDo/H5IeqjO2Qf4OMYvrwCJLrIgdCx4pC-sYQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/91dCDvjSvgL.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1198" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1VmOb0Q77EY/YGprfPw4snI/AAAAAAAAPDo/H5IeqjO2Qf4OMYvrwCJLrIgdCx4pC-sYQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/91dCDvjSvgL.jpg" /></a></div><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC";"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_MacLean" target="_blank">Alistair MacLean</a> served in the Royal Navy during WWII and became a schoolteacher afterward.When his first novel, H.M.S. Ulysses (1955) made him a pot of money he turned to full-time writing. His follow-up book, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_Navarone_(novel)" target="_blank">The Guns of Navarone</a> (1957) sold almost half a million copies in the first six months. After its success, he said </b><b style="background-color: transparent;">"I'm not a literary person. If someone offered me £100,000 tax free I'd never write another word." He said similar things later, and considered himself a reluctant writer of limited talent who didn't understand why people bought his books. But buy them they did, with total sales of his books estimated at over 150 million copies. Fifteen movies were made from some of his novels, most notably the aforementioned <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_Navarone_(film)" target="_blank">The Guns of Navarone</a> (1961) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Station_Zebra" target="_blank">Ice Station Zebra</a> (1968).</b></div></b><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Breakheart Pass, directed by Tom Gries is a movie that, I admit, holds a special place for me because I watched it with my dad. He was a huge Western fan, as well as a fan of MacLean and Bronson. Gries was another of those utility directors Hollywood used to be filled with. In addition to loads of tv episodes (he created <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rat_Patrol" target="_blank">T</a></b><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rat_Patrol" target="_blank">he Rat Patrol</a>), he directed one of Charlton Heston's best movies, the Western <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Penny" target="_blank">Will Penny</a> (1968).* He also directed two of the best miniseries of the seventies: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QB_VII_(miniseries)" target="_blank">QB VII</a> (1974) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_Skelter_(1976_film)" target="_blank">Helter Skelter</a> (1976). Breakheart Pass, unfortunately, doesn't match the quality of those films. Instead, it's just an average suspense thriller with a few fun, if not surprising, twists.</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b></b></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LCj0vHdvXeA/YHR9AEI9szI/AAAAAAAAPEw/c2xX461CmnsR5T627plemTjrM20dkFsvQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/cbc7647da1e1519ee310ab4699cf65d8.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="1280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LCj0vHdvXeA/YHR9AEI9szI/AAAAAAAAPEw/c2xX461CmnsR5T627plemTjrM20dkFsvQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/cbc7647da1e1519ee310ab4699cf65d8.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ben Johnson and Bronson</td></tr></tbody></table><b><br />The movie opens with a train filled with soldiers, the Governor Fairchild of Nevada (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Crenna" target="_blank">Richard Crenna</a>) and his fiancée, Marica (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Ireland" target="_blank">Jill Ireland</a> - Bronson's wife, and co-star in 15 movies) making its way through the snow-covered mountains toward Fort Humboldt, stopping at the whistle-stop, Myrtle. While there, Marshal Pearce (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Johnson_(actor)" target="_blank">Ben Johnson</a>), with prisoner John Deakin (Bronson), forces his way onto the train over the soldiers' commander, Major Claremont (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Lauter" target="_blank">Ed Lauter</a>) wishes. Deakins, a doctor and ex-college lecturer, it seems is wanted for a host of crimes including destroying a cache of Army munitions, making it a federal crime, and one for which the Marshal can demand he and his prisoner be taken on as passengers. Along with the train's crew, there are several other passengers, including Doctor Molyneux (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Huddleston" target="_blank">David Huddleston</a>), O'Brien, an aide to the governor (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Durning" target="_blank">Charles Durning</a>), and the Rev. Peabody (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_McKinney" target="_blank">Bill McKinney</a>). As you can see, that's about as solid a mix of character actors as you could ever have in a movie.</b><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vhOWu0ZVbU8/YHR9ZLTydcI/AAAAAAAAPE4/su7K-U3XaOcJB8ycQCourbLVIDMBK6ZRACLcBGAsYHQ/s380/297160__48138.1412258671.380.500.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="380" height="160" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vhOWu0ZVbU8/YHR9ZLTydcI/AAAAAAAAPE4/su7K-U3XaOcJB8ycQCourbLVIDMBK6ZRACLcBGAsYHQ/w200-h160/297160__48138.1412258671.380.500.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jill Ireland</td></tr></tbody></table><b>Strange things begin happening at once. Two of Claremont's senior officers go missing before the train rolls out of Myrtle. Despite misgivings, the commander gives the order for the train to head out. The next day, Doctor Peabody is found dead. Deakins is asked to examine the doctor's corpse and determines he was murdered. Of course all eyes turn to Deakins, but he was securely tied up during the night and couldn't have done it. Or could he?<br /></b><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>What follows is a moderately exciting actioneer. Most of the several mysteries - why is the train going to Fort Humboldt, what's in the cases, and who killed the doctor, among others - are revealed fairly soon. Too soon, for Bronson's tastes, according to Wikipedia. He wanted a particular big reveal kept towards the end as it was in the initial script. </b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>The action scenes, largely outdoors (and often on the roof of the train) are pretty good. The several fights are good and brutal, and the film's climax with Indians (played by members of the Nez Perce tribe) and bandits fighting Deakins and company on the train is well done and looks great in the snowy countryside. It was also legendary stuntman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakima_Canutt" target="_blank">Yakima Canutt's</a> last movie. At age 79, he served as second unit director and coordinated the stunning derailment scene. </b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iQloNcfuRfc/YHR8NfJd6EI/AAAAAAAAPEY/oa21-mrTm48VG2zTG9b3qeRjqdkVX1HtwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/Breakheart-Pass.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="1024" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iQloNcfuRfc/YHR8NfJd6EI/AAAAAAAAPEY/oa21-mrTm48VG2zTG9b3qeRjqdkVX1HtwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/Breakheart-Pass.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></p>The movie was filmed in northern Idaho and from the dingy town of Myrtle to the snow-covered mountains the train rolls through, the movie looks good. The production used the Camas Prairie Railroad. Known as the "railroad on stilts" for its numerous wooden-trestle bridges, it's a great setting for a Western thriller. When Deakins is forced to climb down along one of those bridges to inspect a body, it looks uncomfortable in a way that can't be recreated with CGI or on a set. </b><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Unfortunately, Breakheart Pass suffers from a trait common to many seventies movies - much of it looks like a tv-show. The interiors in Myrtle when Deakins is arrested and all the shots inside the train look lousy. It's not just the rear-projection shots of the passing landscape - something even Hitchcock had trouble making look good - but there's something about the way the scenes are framed and lit that makes them look fake and cheap. </b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b></b></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xJDqtu8BQ_M/YHR8XMAU2OI/AAAAAAAAPEc/hqFi_d4l9xgC0HAAAQ5lYtlHcIbPMquGQCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/unnamed.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="800" height="109" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xJDqtu8BQ_M/YHR8XMAU2OI/AAAAAAAAPEc/hqFi_d4l9xgC0HAAAQ5lYtlHcIbPMquGQCLcBGAsYHQ/w200-h109/unnamed.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eddie Little Sky</td></tr></tbody></table><b>It's unfortunate, because so much else about the movie is good. The acting - except for Jill Ireland (and that's more the script's fault than hers) - is solid. The outlandishness of the plot doesn't matter so much when everybody's selling it completely. Even though given too little screen time, the two big villains - Levi Calhoun (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tessier" target="_blank">Robert Tessier</a>, voiced by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Frees" target="_blank">Paul Frees</a>) and Chief White Hand (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Little_Sky" target="_blank">Eddie Little Sky</a>) - are tough and menacing. Most importantly, Bronson is great. As I wrote about him in Once Upon a Time in the West, he wasn't a really inventive actor, usually sticking to the same Bronsonish persona no matter what the movie was, but he always had presence. He could seem very dangerous on the screen and when he's unleashed in Breakheart Pass, you can easily imagine him killing someone on top of a moving railcar for real. His persona makes even some of his most ridiculous movies, Telefon (1978) for example, much better than they should have been. </b><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5hWBQluSr4g/YHR8fhrVwWI/AAAAAAAAPEk/E6TQ3GHcaVYeYCgpN0FKeIo0asP52D_RQCLcBGAsYHQ/s300/Robert-Tessier-as-Levi-Calhoun-in-Breakheart-Pass-1974-300x230.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="230" data-original-width="300" height="153" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5hWBQluSr4g/YHR8fhrVwWI/AAAAAAAAPEk/E6TQ3GHcaVYeYCgpN0FKeIo0asP52D_RQCLcBGAsYHQ/w200-h153/Robert-Tessier-as-Levi-Calhoun-in-Breakheart-Pass-1974-300x230.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Tessier</td></tr></tbody></table><b>The fake-looking set-bound sequences are a distraction that can't be avoided. An important part of a Western is creating a convincing recreation of the past - whether realistic or mythical - and when it looks like an episode of Barnaby Jones, it's a major failure. </b><p></p><p><b>Right after watching the movie, I picked up the book. I've never read any MacLean before and I doubt I'll ever read anything again (except maybe The Guns of Navarone). Maybe his contemporary thrillers are better, but this is bad. Elliot Kastner, one of the producers (who'd previously produced two other movies based on MacLean books: Where Eagles Dare and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Eight_Bells_Toll_(film)" target="_blank">When Eight Bells Toll</a>) had given the author an office in the studio to "therapy, as he says MacLean was suffering in his marriage and with alcoholism." The dialogue is stilted, the characters are given too much unbelievable background, and all sorts of Britishisms are left unchanged in a book set in 1870's Nevada. It's not very evocative of the setting. The screenplay, by MacLean himself, improves things greatly. It deletes all the silly backstory and makes Levi Calhoun (Sepp Calhoun in the novel), much more evil and threatening. It does eliminate some of the villains' motivations, but it's not enough of a loss to matter. The Idaho filming location more than makes up for the book's lack of any appreciable period atmosphere.</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xqSN6HagrJM/YHR9hRvL0SI/AAAAAAAAPE8/ZPvDcK5g7oYllMl-LOhLxdvSGy3YuTJiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s477/Breakheart%2BPass.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="477" height="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xqSN6HagrJM/YHR9hRvL0SI/AAAAAAAAPE8/ZPvDcK5g7oYllMl-LOhLxdvSGy3YuTJiQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h288/Breakheart%2BPass.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Rating - C: Rewatching Breakheart Pass after several years with a more critical eye still left me liking the movie. The soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith is suitably rousing and as described, the action is too. Nonetheless, there's really no great reason to seek this movie out unless you're a Bronson fan - which I am. I really want to give this movie a B but it's really a C. If it's on, leave it on, and if you find the DVD for a dollar or two it's worth it, but that's about it. </b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UG9SIWeBq9M/YHR7QAzITQI/AAAAAAAAPEQ/f6CEdL8ZQB8sUnliioHHacnn8IjrQ5EEgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/map.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1902" data-original-width="2048" height="371" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UG9SIWeBq9M/YHR7QAzITQI/AAAAAAAAPEQ/f6CEdL8ZQB8sUnliioHHacnn8IjrQ5EEgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h371/map.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">The film's setting, somewhere in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but outside of Carson City and involving ore from the Comstock Lode, is a little hard to pinpoint. Let's just say it's somewhere in western Nevada. Northern Idaho in the Lewiston area seems an adequate enough stand-in and a better one than happens in many Westerns.</span></b><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;">Rating System</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">A</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;">: Ace - Brilliant or groundbreaking; one of the best that no fan should miss.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">B</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;">: Bravo - Good stuff, but less than perfection</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">C</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;">: Cowpoke - Routine oater, filler</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">D</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: start;">: Dismal - Sloppy or junky, but either way not worth the runtime</span></p><div class="mw-body-content" id="bodyContent" style="color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: calc(0.875em); line-height: 1.6; position: relative; z-index: 0;"></div>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-67233012775744451842021-03-24T20:12:00.004-04:002021-03-31T20:51:02.243-04:00Mexico in Moab: Rio Conchos (1964)<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Okb4cTTrj0/YFqjT9CdoOI/AAAAAAAAPBo/T4Q-JHmK8vElO-b2a9oMs9z0-VKhQ_YWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s849/Rio-Conchos-poster-cartel.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="590" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Okb4cTTrj0/YFqjT9CdoOI/AAAAAAAAPBo/T4Q-JHmK8vElO-b2a9oMs9z0-VKhQ_YWgCLcBGAsYHQ/w444-h640/Rio-Conchos-poster-cartel.jpg" width="444" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Conchos_(film)" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Rio Conchos (1968)</span></a></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span>directed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Douglas_(director)" target="_blank">Gordon Douglas</a></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span>screenplay <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0484923/" target="_blank">Joseph Landon</a></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span>book by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_Huffaker" target="_blank">Clair Huffaker</a></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span>music by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Goldsmith" target="_blank">Jerry Goldsmith</a></span></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">There is no way <b>Rio Conchos</b> qualifies as a great Western, but there are enough interesting things about its story and cast to make it a good one. Director Gordon Douglas was a solid utility director who worked his way up through the Hal Roach studio, directing <b>Our Gang</b> shorts and Laurel and Hardy, and then seemingly whatever else came his way over the next forty years (including Them!). Its cast, led by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Boone" target="_blank">Richard Boone</a> of <b>Have Gun - Will Travel</b>, includes <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Whitman" target="_blank">Stuart Whitman</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Franciosa" target="_blank">Tony Franciosa</a>, and, in his film debut, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Brown" target="_blank">Jim Brown</a>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmond_O%27Brien" target="_blank">Edmond O'Brien</a> shows up late in the picture to chew up the scenery as a Confederate bitter-ender and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wende_Wagner" target="_blank">Wende Wagner</a> as an Apache woman named Sally.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The movie opens with a scene that seems to presage the soon to arrive revisionist and Spaghetti Westerns. An Apache burial party is ruthlessly gunned down by a lone white man, Lassister (Richard Boone). Most of them are shot in the back trying to get away. Apaches, we later learn, tortured and killed his family, and now he's carrying on a one-man race war against them. Soon after he's arrested by a cavalry troop led by Capt. Haven (Stuart Whitman) and accompanied by Sgt. Franklyn (Jim Brown). While it seems he's arrested for killing the Apaches, but Haven is interested in where Lassiter bought the repeating rifle he's carrying.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RIoz8SBvP-4/YFvTK3fTwMI/AAAAAAAAPB4/CF4ZGoFL3PYpaEJ5W2e4ENsDdjABrCPzACLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/download%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="1280" height="170" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RIoz8SBvP-4/YFvTK3fTwMI/AAAAAAAAPB4/CF4ZGoFL3PYpaEJ5W2e4ENsDdjABrCPzACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h170/download%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Richard Boone and Stuart Whitman" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Richard Boone and Stuart Whitman</b></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">It turns out the renegade Col. Pardee is arming the Apaches with repeating rifles he stole from the army. He's come to the conclusion that the Confederacy failed because it wasn't brutal enough during the war, so now he intends to persuade the Apaches to act as his proxies and raise bloody hell across the border region. From his base in Mexico - a recreation of a Southern plantation house out in the desert - Pardee and his coterie of fellow Confederate veterans are joyfully awaiting the day of their victory.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Capt. Haven's commander, Col. Wagner knows Lassister served under Pardee and convinces him to lead Haven and Franklyn to Pardee and hopefully destroy the cache of weapons. Lassister agrees, but only on the condition that he can be joined by Juan Louis Rodriguez (Franciosa), a prisoner of his acquaintance slated for execution. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kvrnf1RGI8w/YFvTsLPkpaI/AAAAAAAAPCA/y8xHhsOdUqUCGUBinFMdQd7iNdHjOVaGQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1181/download%2B%25282%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="1181" height="217" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kvrnf1RGI8w/YFvTsLPkpaI/AAAAAAAAPCA/y8xHhsOdUqUCGUBinFMdQd7iNdHjOVaGQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h217/download%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Jim Brown and Tony Franciosa</b></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">The four set out for Pardee's camp. Along the way, there are run-ins with banditos, a racist barkeep, and finally Apaches and Confederates. Save for the ending, there's nothing particularly surprising or original about <b>Rio Conchos</b>, except for the way it's played - which is with total seriousness. Oh, Franciosa plays Rodriguez with a bright twinkle in his eye, but it only disguises his character's ruthlessness. Everyone else comes at their role with deadly earnestness, especially Boone. Boone's voice never rises, never changes in affect, even when nearly beating a man to death it remains at the same cold, steely tone. This is the closest to playing the hero I've ever seen Boone (I haven't seen <b>Have Gun - Will Travel</b> yet), but he's no good guy. As Haven, Whitman is a martinet driven by his own failure to go after Pardee. Only Brown's Franklyn doesn't have a bad side, though he has to deal with casual racism from most of the white men he meets.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Rio Conchos</b> isn't a revisionist Western - the very traditional-sounding Goldsmith score alone helps make it feel like a traditional one - but it's clearly walking on the road in that direction. There were Indian-murdering protagonists before 1964 - Ethan Hunt in <b>The Searchers</b>, most prominently - but Lassister is clearly a man obsessed beyond reason. Race, while not a huge factor in the movie, nonetheless isn't avoided. The simple presence of Brown at the height of his NFL career in the middle of the Civil Rights era had to have forced contemporary viewers to at least think about the situation of Sgt. Franklyn in post-Civil War America. Finally, unlike too many Westerns, there isn't any nostalgia for the Confederates. Pardee is a madman and his whole plan is to unleash an army of killers to duplicate the savagery inflicted on Lassiter across the whole American border region. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z_3tekJJKlc/YFvT9gu05iI/AAAAAAAAPCI/crhryYgf26I-8sL2CetuiPXpF4YSv5uygCLcBGAsYHQ/s2524/MV5BYTQ3ZWEyMDUtMzA1Zi00YzVmLWI0YmQtOTc0MDFmZDU0NDY0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQ1Mzg1NDE%2540._V1_.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1245" data-original-width="2524" height="198" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z_3tekJJKlc/YFvT9gu05iI/AAAAAAAAPCI/crhryYgf26I-8sL2CetuiPXpF4YSv5uygCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h198/MV5BYTQ3ZWEyMDUtMzA1Zi00YzVmLWI0YmQtOTc0MDFmZDU0NDY0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQ1Mzg1NDE%2540._V1_.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Edmond O'Brien</b></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Rio Conchos </b>is visually adequate if never particularly memorable.<b> </b>It benefits greatly from being filmed in Moab, Utah. The mesa-filled landscape is so striking it overrides the non-descript cinematography. The action is well-shot and Douglas clearly had a sure hand depicting violence. The scenes aren't gory but they don't pull punches either. When men die it hurts. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I'm not sure how much remembered <b>Rio Conchos</b> is anymore. It never reaches the heights of <b>The Searchers</b> or the loopiness of <b>A Fistful of Dollars</b>, but, then it doesn't aim for those things. It's just a competently constructed and acted Western that'll take up 107 minutes of an evening. Also, anything starring Richard Boone is worth at least one viewing.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p><b style="font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;">Rating - B</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;">: Again, just 107 minutes of adequate Western goodness. Nothing spectacular, but you won't feel like your time was wasted or your intelligence insulted</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;"><b>Rio Conchos' </b>Historical Location</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u0Fzr3G_mlA/YFvQiS2_qtI/AAAAAAAAPBw/NNj57ROfs6ssgV_1uMG3NA6tHDk6w9xdwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1646/map1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1098" data-original-width="1646" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u0Fzr3G_mlA/YFvQiS2_qtI/AAAAAAAAPBw/NNj57ROfs6ssgV_1uMG3NA6tHDk6w9xdwCLcBGAsYHQ/w542-h360/map1.jpg" width="542" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The film's setting, around Presidio, Texas, and Ojinaga, Mexico looks a lot drabber and flatter than the bright, rust-colored landscape of Moab, Utah where it was filmed. </span></div></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;"></b></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">Rating System</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">A</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">: Ace - Brilliant or groundbreaking; one of the best that no fan should miss.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">B</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">: Bravo - Good stuff, but less than perfection</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">C</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">: Cowpoke - Routine oater, filler</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">D</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">: Dismal - Sloppy or junky, but either way not worth the runtime</span></p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-54239485956506384112021-03-06T00:33:00.005-05:002021-05-03T21:58:09.908-04:00L'ultimo Spaghetti: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DOwpxyjz9ek/X_0MPJ8xq3I/AAAAAAAAO9U/TWqxs4mZ-zM7OUklSZrHDXx9NkbJ0n5cgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/download%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1452" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DOwpxyjz9ek/X_0MPJ8xq3I/AAAAAAAAO9U/TWqxs4mZ-zM7OUklSZrHDXx9NkbJ0n5cgCLcBGAsYHQ/w454-h640/download%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="454" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_the_West" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">O</span>nce Upon a Time in the West</a> (1968)</span></b></div><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>directed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio_Leone" target="_blank">Sergio Leone</a></b></div><p><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;"></b></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>screenplay by </b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio_Donati"><b>Sergio Donati</b></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b> Sergio Leone</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>story by </b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dario_Argento"><b>Dario Argento</b></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardo_Bertolucci"><b>Bernardo Bertolucci</b></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Sergio Leone</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I grew up watching Westerns because of my dad. He loved the genre, books, and movies alike. I remember being excited one summer when Channel 5 announced a week of Clint Eastwood Westerns. My mom and sister were going to be away for a week and it meant my dad and I had control of the tv. I definitely remember watching all three of Eastwood's Man With No Name movies directed by Sergio Leone: <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fistful_of_Dollars" target="_blank">A Fistful of Dollars</a></b>, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_a_Few_Dollars_More" target="_blank">For a Few Dollars More</a></b>, and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good,_the_Bad_and_the_Ugly" target="_blank">The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly</a></b>. Somehow, I didn't see <b>Once Upon a Time in the West</b> until several years later. In fact, the only reason I saw it when I did was that we had run out of things to rent from the local mom & pop video store. This was back in 1985, the heyday of mom-and-pop video stores. The store we belonged to was a block from our house and my family had run through the store's initial collection in only a few weeks. Eventually, with little else to choose from, my mom brought home <b>Once Upon a Time in the West</b>. The title and the box made it look cheesy, but Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, and Jason Robards on the cover were enticing. I was not ready for what soon unspooled on my VHS player.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pA3rlIHLFco" width="320" youtube-src-id="pA3rlIHLFco"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With little dialogue, the opening scene introduces three ominous-looking men, two played by immediately recognizable actors: wall-eyed Western character actor Jack Elam, and Olympian and star of John Ford's <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Rutledge" target="_blank">Sergeant Rutledge</a></b>, Woody Strode. After an extended sequence built of numerous small, satisfying moments, a train arrives and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bronson" target="_blank">Charles Bronson</a>, features made of chiseled red granite, debarks. The ensuing action is sharp and swift and was more than enough to hook me right away. Bronson's character never gets a real name but is called Harmonica by people for the eponymous instrument he wears around his neck and plays from time to time. I love Charles Bronson and grew up on his tough guy movies from the seventies and I know he was a fairly limited actor, but within his limits he could do good work and he does that here. Harmonica's an opaque character, saving the answers to his mysteries for a certain time and place and Bronson's blank, squinting demeanor is perfect for what the role needs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AN6v5xGsW48/YEMG7kwtaLI/AAAAAAAAPAI/SKuJrYAUthk4NhttKTUedWW4oaaKj-l7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s299/images.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="299" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AN6v5xGsW48/YEMG7kwtaLI/AAAAAAAAPAI/SKuJrYAUthk4NhttKTUedWW4oaaKj-l7gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/images.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">The movie then introduces us to the other major characters in equally powerful scenes. We meet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fonda" target="_blank">Henry Fonda</a> as Frank, the only completely villainous role I'm aware of him ever playing. It's a brilliant bit of casting against type. Fonda's on-screen persona, going back to his earliest roles, was of a good and noble man, whether in </span><b style="text-align: justify;">Young Mr. Lincoln</b><span style="text-align: justify;">, </span><b style="text-align: justify;">The Grapes of Wrath</b><span style="text-align: justify;">, or </span><b style="text-align: justify;">Advise and Consent</b><span style="text-align: justify;">. He still has the same calm voice and rational demeanor, but he hasn't a single redeemable quality. It's a bold choice, by Leone and Fonda, that I wish more actors would do. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-toFFnLw8LPg/YEMHRwxC8tI/AAAAAAAAPAU/3jNNzHctae4JmOP8tkqNQsRNzBkzGUFKQCLcBGAsYHQ/s285/download.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="177" data-original-width="285" height="248" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-toFFnLw8LPg/YEMHRwxC8tI/AAAAAAAAPAU/3jNNzHctae4JmOP8tkqNQsRNzBkzGUFKQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h248/download.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, as Jill McBain, there's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Cardinale" target="_blank">Claudia Cardinale</a>, a murdered man's bride newly arrived from New Orleans. It's hard to tell how good her acting is - most of the non-American actors are dubbed - but she's absolutely luminous. Later we learn she's a whore with a heart, if not of gold, at least silver. Dubbed or not, she plays it with the right mix of hardness and softness. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z59GK42dppw/YEMHVxTUYmI/AAAAAAAAPAY/oPPGnySzP_QwIkUQCk3mxabFc8GNfEStgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/maxresdefault.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z59GK42dppw/YEMHVxTUYmI/AAAAAAAAPAY/oPPGnySzP_QwIkUQCk3mxabFc8GNfEStgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/maxresdefault.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Finally, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Robards" target="_blank">Jason Robards</a> as Cheyenne, leader of a gang of outlaws,</span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">makes his entry, freshly escaped from custody and his hands still shackled. He made his career on the stage in Eugene O'Neil plays, but on film, he played more than a few roguish types. With him, Leone cast exactly to type. The liveliest character in the movie, he's the source of most of </span><b style="text-align: left;">Once Upon a Time in the West</b><span style="text-align: left;">'s humor.</span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F4OdLfECA1o/YEMHalFW88I/AAAAAAAAPAc/3MPLJtx5NZ07xcjNFSVJ9Q0B77jt3AtWQCLcBGAsYHQ/s669/4a1e8845ac45b8c0060fa77f7e099bac.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="669" height="217" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F4OdLfECA1o/YEMHalFW88I/AAAAAAAAPAc/3MPLJtx5NZ07xcjNFSVJ9Q0B77jt3AtWQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h217/4a1e8845ac45b8c0060fa77f7e099bac.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>With <b>The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly</b> in 1967, Sergio Leone felt he was finished with making Westerns. What he wanted to do was make a movie out of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Grey" target="_blank">Harry Grey</a>'s autobiography about his days as a Jewish gangster in New York. Eventually, he would, as <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_America" target="_blank">Once Upon a Time in America</a></b>, a truly epic film starring James Woods, Robert De Niro, and William Forsythe, but not until 1984 and not without troubles in getting his full version released.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 1967, Hollywood just wasn't interested. He kept being offered only Westerns and he kept turning them down. Not until Paramount offered him a big production budget and the services of his favorite actor, Henry Fonda, did he say yes. He had Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci join him in drawing up a story. They spent a year watching classics American Westerns, among them <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Horse_(film)" target="_blank">The Iron Horse</a></b>, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Noon" target="_blank">High Noon</a></b>, <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Comancheros_(film)" target="_blank">The Comancheros</a></b>, and <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Searchers" target="_blank">The Searchers</a></b>. The goal was to create a movie that paid homage to those movies and pack it with as many of the best Western movie tropes as possible. </div><blockquote>As Leone explained: ‘For this “dance of death”, I wanted to take all the most stereotypical characters from the American Western — on loan! The finest whore from New Orleans; the romantic bandit; the killer who is half-businessman, half-killer, and who wants to get on in the new world of business; the businessman who fancies himself as a gun fighter; the lone avenger. With these five most stereotypical characters from the American Western, I wanted to present a homage to the Western at the same time as showing the mutations which American society was undergoing at that time. So the story was about birth and death. Before they even come on to the scene these stereotypical characters know themselves to be dying in every sense, physically and morally — victims of the new era which was advancing.’ Leone’s ultimate goal was nothing less than a ‘cinematic fresco on the birth of America’.</blockquote><div>For a detailed look at the creation, production, and legacy of <b>Once Upon a Time in the West</b>, <a href="https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2016/08/04/the-making-of-once-upon-a-time-in-the-west/" target="_blank">here's a piece titled: The Making of 'Once Upon a Time in the West'</a>. The movie is equal parts pastiche and original artwork. As much as it stokes the fires of revisionism, it's a tremendous homage to the great films Leone and company loved. Unlike the <b>Man With No Name</b> trilogy, which, as much as I love it, never really feel like it sits properly alongside classic American Westerns, this movie does. The cheap, dirty look of Leone's earlier Westerns had more, I think, to do with finances than intent. The budget for this movie was four times that of his previous Western epic, <b>The Good, the Bad and the Ugly </b>and it shows. Most of <b>Once Upon a Time</b> was still filmed in Spain and Italy, but it just looks better - the shots are better, the sets are better, the costumes are better. The squalidness of the Eastwood movies is absent here, replaced by a glorious, epic look. Added sequences in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Valley" target="_blank">Monument Valley</a>, the location of many of John Ford's Westerns, add to the film's verisimilitude and help connect it to its inspirations.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5THk8YJk4i4/YEMKyQfSPZI/AAAAAAAAPAs/wSQ0RZ1WxB4KIoJW1IvpoR2-xcyDVrXvACLcBGAsYHQ/s300/download%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="224" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5THk8YJk4i4/YEMKyQfSPZI/AAAAAAAAPAs/wSQ0RZ1WxB4KIoJW1IvpoR2-xcyDVrXvACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h224/download%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>I've seen <b>Once Upon a Time in the West</b> described as slow. That is wrong. It is deliberate, taking time to build its characters, the plot, and show off the land. It <i>is </i>a long movie, but it doesn't drag. There's always something happening, some plot unfolding, some bit of violence. It moves between all four lead characters, building their connections to each other and slowly revealing just what is going on: why did Jill's murdered husband order palettes and palettes of lumber? Why did Frank kill those people? Who is Harmonica? </div><div><br /></div><div>I need to find longer pieces by Leone, Sergio Corbucci, and some of the other Spaghetti Western directors to learn more about their fascination with Westerns. I've written before about the clear connections between hardboiled crime, sword & sorcery, and Westerns, so I suspect those links are just as valid for Americans as Italians: tough stories of strong men in dangerous settings acting bravely, and often nobly, and bound by personal codes of honor. That's simplistic, but carrying that off perfectly isn't easy. Not every hardboiled movie is <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Key_(1942_film)" target="_blank">The Glass Key</a></b> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(1941_film)" target="_blank"><b>The Maltese Falcon</b></a> and not every movie is <b>The Searchers</b>....or <b>Once Upon a Time in America</b>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rating - A: Despite being a pastiche, Once Upon a Time in the West transcends its fanboyish origins and truly is one of the great Westerns. Yes, the dubbing is occasionally obvious and annoying, yes, it's cobbled together from things we've seen before, but the movie's power - from its cast, from the archetypal Western story and characters, from the visuals - is real. If you see only a single Leone movie, this is the one to see. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JzNed195hY8/YJCpb71J6PI/AAAAAAAAPGA/emOCmcAYkpUXUaC-nWTvN1xZToWiOUkNwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/mp11330a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1461" data-original-width="2048" height="285" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JzNed195hY8/YJCpb71J6PI/AAAAAAAAPGA/emOCmcAYkpUXUaC-nWTvN1xZToWiOUkNwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h285/mp11330a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">The film's setting - the fictional town of Flagstone - could be anywhere in the explicitly mythical Old West. The real shooting locations - Italy soundstages, the Spanish countryside, and Monument Valley - seem as integral to how I imagine the West to look as does the real American West.</span></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dS_l4FFilLc/YEMOVNmKADI/AAAAAAAAPA0/2oae1ep4RKQS5aV7cHjlUshq1L-xIyrYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s910/8ea182a825510bd7b476bcc41f5a3c89.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="910" height="279" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dS_l4FFilLc/YEMOVNmKADI/AAAAAAAAPA0/2oae1ep4RKQS5aV7cHjlUshq1L-xIyrYwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h279/8ea182a825510bd7b476bcc41f5a3c89.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fonda, Cardinale, Leone, Bronson, & Robards</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;">Rating System</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;">A</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;">: Ace - Brilliant or groundbreaking; one of the best that no fan should miss.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;">B</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;">: Bravo - Good stuff, but less than perfection</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;">C</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;">: Cowpoke - Routine oater, filler</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;">D</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; font-weight: 700;">: Dismal - Sloppy or junky, but either way not worth the runtime</span><br /><br /><div><br /></div><div>PS: I didn't mention a sword & sorcery movies because they all stink.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-84935466067772071792021-01-02T01:15:00.002-05:002021-01-02T01:15:25.407-05:00RIP: John le Carre' 1931-2020 <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_C71OFv4yJw/X9xO-DBslDI/AAAAAAAAO68/0q18bdNMfwIxILS9tQASOOzylVzmn9acQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/john-le-carre.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_C71OFv4yJw/X9xO-DBslDI/AAAAAAAAO68/0q18bdNMfwIxILS9tQASOOzylVzmn9acQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/john-le-carre.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_C71OFv4yJw/X9xO-DBslDI/AAAAAAAAO68/0q18bdNMfwIxILS9tQASOOzylVzmn9acQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/john-le-carre.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">David Cornwell, aka John le Carré, died yesterday at the age of 89. He started in British intelligence, became a part-time novelist, was exposed to the Soviets by the arch-traitor Kim Philby, had to resign and then went on to become one of the great English novelists of the 20th century. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> Of his twenty-five novels, I've only read seven- though six of them three times or more. I haven't read any of his post-Cold War books (except the belated and okayish late Smiley book, <b>A Legacy of Spies</b>. He seemed to have become so reflexively anti-American - which I always suspected as having sprung from a chauvinistic belief that we didn't do empire, as well as England, had, more than any real distaste for our overseas adventurism - that I gave up on him. As I've gotten older I've become more able to separate an artist from his politics, or at least enough to give his work the chance to stand on its own. I've also become more appreciative of many artist's later works. There can be a richness of character and depth that's only achievable after a lifetime of writing. So, I've been planning to rectify the situation. I've seen some great films have been made from several later works - <b>The Night Manager</b>, <b>Our Kind of Traitor</b>, and <b>A Most Wanted Man</b> - and I can only imagine how good the books are. (In fact, just last night I bought <b>Our Kind of Traitor </b>and I'm already well into it. It is very good.) PS: I just finished it and it is beautifully written, insightful into what might inspire somewhat to take great risks, and more cynical and brutal than any of his other works I've read)</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-37GNEKyoko8/X9xPX5n8sMI/AAAAAAAAO7E/msFVtwY9B9A9mXH8g8E9vWV1y2My_hFAwCLcBGAsYHQ/s635/ceb6330fb6291da593278366177444341587343_v5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="380" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-37GNEKyoko8/X9xPX5n8sMI/AAAAAAAAO7E/msFVtwY9B9A9mXH8g8E9vWV1y2My_hFAwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/ceb6330fb6291da593278366177444341587343_v5.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I first read <b>The Spy Who Came in from the Cold</b> in 1986 in a class on Post-1945 European history. The professor, Myrna Chase, handed out a sheet the first day with a historical topic and a pertinent novel from that era. For the former, I chose De Gaulle opposing the UK's joining the Common Market. It was interesting but dry. For the novel, I chose <b>The Spy Who Came in from the Cold </b>by John le Carré. I had seen the two mini-series with Alec Guiness, <b>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy</b> (1979) and <b>Smiley's People</b> (1982), both based on le Carré books when they aired, but I really didn't follow them. I just knew le Carré wrote spy stories. What I didn't know was exactly what kind of spy stories. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I was raised watching the James Bond movies, and while I knew real espionage was nothing like it, I still imagined there were romantic aspects to it. <b>The Spy Who Came in from the Cold</b>, le Carré's third novel and first major success, disabused me of any of that. By then it was known le Carré had been some sort of spy - to this day it's unclear what he actually did - and brought a personal knowledge of what went on on the secret battlefields of the Cold War. <b>Spy </b>is about a mission to discredit an East German intelligence officer by convincing his superiors he's a double agent for the British. What arises from that scheme is a series of betrayals and brutal double-crosses. There's little action, idealists are lambs for the slaughter, and no one is trustworthy. It was the most cynical book I'd read up until that time and it gave me a new perspective on the Cold War, or at least an added one. Had unconscionable things been done over the course of the Cold War by the West? If so, had they had any true value in the conflict? It's also a great thriller and the protagonist, Alec Leamas, is one of the great tragic heroes of 20th-century literature. Noted spy aficionado Graham Greene called it the best spy novel he'd ever read and six decades later it remains a powerful indictment of spying and people who direct and carry it out. When le Carré wrote one last book about his most well-known character, George Smiley, he was also drawn back to Alec Leamas and his mission to East Germany. That return to the beginning, <b>A Legacy of Spies</b>, adds great depth to Leamas, Smiley, and Peter Guillam, even if it ends with a paean to the European Union. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xwl8G2PNRFU/X-Fx6myyKRI/AAAAAAAAO7U/q_SVob42SwIe3dtGxjEqAzet2dRzt5aZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s635/e664eb3ea115fe7593551545477444341587343_v5.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="403" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xwl8G2PNRFU/X-Fx6myyKRI/AAAAAAAAO7U/q_SVob42SwIe3dtGxjEqAzet2dRzt5aZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/e664eb3ea115fe7593551545477444341587343_v5.jpg" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Almost as soon as I had finished <b>The Spy Who Came in from the Cold</b> I picked up the <b>Karla Trilogy</b>: <b>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy</b> (1974), <b>The Honourable Schoolboy</b> (1977), and <b>Smiley's People</b> (1979). Together, they tell the complex and complicated story of George Smiley's uncovering of a mole in the British intelligence - colloquially called the Circus - and his efforts to thwart the head of Soviet intelligence, a brilliant operator is known by the code name Karla. It's as a great a sustained work of worldbuilding as the<i> <b>Lord of the Rings</b></i>. At some point, words le Carre' created to describe elements of spycraft, such as a mole to describe a double agent or scalphunters, the field agents who do the real dirty work, were actually taken up by the real espionage business. <span style="text-align: left;">It's a dense, believable maze of bureaucratese and double-dealing peopled with con-artists, various species of ladder-climbers, and a few honest players.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;">These books are also where le Carre's best-known character really comes to the fore: George Smiley. He was conceived of as the anti-Bond - intellectual and definitely not given to feats of action and derring-do. He was short and dumpy and forever cuckolded, not an amoral killer and cocksman. Here he is described in <b>Tinker, Tailor</b>:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote>Small, podgy, and at best middle-aged, he was by appearance one of London’s meek who do not inherit the earth. His legs were short, his gait anything but agile, his dress costly, ill-fitting, and extremely wet. His overcoat, which had a hint of widowhood about it, was of that black loose weave which is designed to retain moisture. Either the sleeves were too long or his arms were too short, for, as with Roach, when he wore his mackintosh, the cuffs all but concealed the fingers.</blockquote><p>He isn't dashing, but he is brilliant at digging out people's motives and making the connections between various events and actors. He possesses a highly honed talent for manipulation, though only in his work. Commenting on Smiley's wayward wife, someone tells him if he'd run her as an agent things might have gone better for the couple. His first two appearances, in <b>Call for the Dead </b>(1961) and then <b>A Murder of Quality</b> (1962), see Smiley operating like a classic English detective. It is in his role as right-hand man of Control, head of the Circus, running Alec Leamas in <b>Spy </b>that we get to see Smiley as operator and manipulator of men. He performs a similar function in <b>The Looking Glass War</b> (1965) (which I haven't read). In the <b>Karla Trilogy</b>, he is the spy as hunter and plotter extraordinaire. </p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">What makes the trilogy important is how it plumbs the depths of disguise and betrayal as ways of life and the costs of taking up the same tools as the Soviets in order to fight them. Along the way, there's a thorough examination of England's place as a worn-out, long-past-its-day empire struggling to maintain a place at the great nations' table by selling out to America. As one character in <b>Tinker, Tailor</b> puts it:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><blockquote> “Poor loves. Trained to Empire, trained to rule the waves. All gone. All taken away. Bye-bye, world. You’re the last, George, you and Bill. And filthy Percy a bit.”</blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zJRvVS4vYyE/X_AOlGVyceI/AAAAAAAAO8o/9INkth_l_X0L6FxZRXvP0a0YJG0RIxPlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/a-most-wanted-man-9781982132255_hr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1127" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zJRvVS4vYyE/X_AOlGVyceI/AAAAAAAAO8o/9INkth_l_X0L6FxZRXvP0a0YJG0RIxPlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/a-most-wanted-man-9781982132255_hr.jpg" /></a></div>The generation le Carre' was writing about, born during or just after WWI thought they'd be the masters of the world's greatest empire but instead had to navigate its decline and fall. As I noted above, I haven't read his more recent novels, but it seems that what he saw as the obsequious sidling up to America by the Tony Blair government during the Iraq War and the loss of any remaining British moral authority is a major focus in much of his later work. In those books in the absence of Soviet spies, there are international arms dealers, pharmaceutical companies, and, ultimately spies again with the rise of Islamic terrorism and the endless wars in Asia. <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I thought I had more to write at this time, but I don't. The world has lost a great writer - not just as a chronicler of the duplicitous times we've lived in since WWII - but as someone who has delved deeply into how we lie to ourselves and others, as well as the costs of abandoning our ideals. Using the form of the espionage story, le Carre' wrote some of the best and most important novels about the corrupting power of ideology, power, and wealth. If uncertain of where to start, do so where I did, with<b> The Spy Who Came in from the Cold</b>. Note: <b>Spy </b>was also turned into a movie starring Richard Burton and directed by Martin Ritt. It is bleak and savage and one of the best movies of the Cold War.</p></div>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-19749224013232870802020-12-09T14:58:00.000-05:002020-12-09T14:58:13.553-05:00MONDO BIZARRO ON THE BORDER: DJANGO (1966)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jbbOXmfWqDY/X8xe9rJteYI/AAAAAAAAO5k/wTt-Ezc9JkAgcyFtNqkexMfcCLK0Au3MACLcBGAsYHQ/s778/c56941c037d19ec5f0b29cf39ccb6cc5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="564" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jbbOXmfWqDY/X8xe9rJteYI/AAAAAAAAO5k/wTt-Ezc9JkAgcyFtNqkexMfcCLK0Au3MACLcBGAsYHQ/w464-h640/c56941c037d19ec5f0b29cf39ccb6cc5.jpg" width="464" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_(1966_film)" target="_blank">Django</a> (1966)</span></b></div><p></p><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b>]directed by <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Sergio Corbucci</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>script by Sergio Corbucci</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Corbucci">Bruno Corbucci</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco_Rossetti">Franco Rossetti</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0349437/" target="_blank">José Gutiérrez Maesso</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_Vivarelli">Piero Vivarelli</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>lifted uncredited from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div></b><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-weight: 400; margin: 1em 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; margin: 1em 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"What did you say?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; margin: 1em 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> It doesn't matter. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">What</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/matters" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">matters</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">is that </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">you're</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a href="https://www.definitions.net/definition/about" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">about</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">to die."</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; margin: 1em 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Django responding to a Red Shirt</span></p></blockquote><p>Django has one of the coolest openings ever: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="326" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rwfl1SYjX2M" width="392" youtube-src-id="Rwfl1SYjX2M"></iframe></div><br /><p>This is not a great movie (unlike Corbucci's 1968 masterpiece, The Great Silence {which I wrote about <a href="https://swordssorcery.blogspot.com/2018/12/four-more-westerns-that-arent-my.html" target="_blank">here</a>}), but it is packed with some brilliant, lunatic scenes that make it worthwhile viewing. </p><p>According to Wikipedia, Sergio Corbucci was filming another movie and was approached by a novice producer in need of a quick hit. Corbucci jumped at the offer and decided to do a loose remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai movie, Yojimbo. Sergio Leone had already done that with A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and set Clint Eastwood on the path to superstardom. Corbucci, a more overtly political director had something else in mind.</p><p>Where there was no obvious racial animosity between the Mexican and American gangs in Leone's movie, outright racism was going to be at the heart of Corbucci's. Again, in the earlier film, politics are nonexistent. In Django, while superficial at best, they are there and serve to justify the Mexican gangs actions, at least a little.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JPv0yHxmBQ8/X9Eq2cq6YII/AAAAAAAAO6Q/8wmhUyYgdY0DzCAItVlUKZEdfCMpeXyagCLcBGAsYHQ/s500/tumblr_inline_otvamoeG131rj0abt_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="500" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JPv0yHxmBQ8/X9Eq2cq6YII/AAAAAAAAO6Q/8wmhUyYgdY0DzCAItVlUKZEdfCMpeXyagCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/tumblr_inline_otvamoeG131rj0abt_500.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Franco Nero</td></tr></tbody></table><p><b>The movie opens with Django (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco_Nero" target="_blank">Franco Nero</a>) appearing out of nowhere and coming across a group of Mexican bandits preparing to whip a woman for the crime of running away from their boss, Hugo (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_B%C3%B3dalo" target="_blank">José Bódalo</a></b>). As the punishment begins, shots ring out and all the Mexicans are killed. A band of Americans, all wearing bright red scarves have suddenly appeared. While they untie the woman, they don't free her, instead they immediately prepare to burn her alive for the crime of miscegenation. That proves too much for Django and he up toward the Americans. Soon, they too lie dead in the mud, and this time, the woman, whom we've learned is named Maria (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loredana_Nusciak" target="_blank">Loredana Nusciak</a>), is freed.</p></b><b><p>Eventually the viewer learns that under the command of Major Jackson (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Fajardo" target="_blank">Eduardo Fajardo</a>), a band of inveterate racist Confederates have made their way into Mexico where they've been helping the Mexican government against revolutionaries led by Hugo. Jackson is an old enemy of Django and Hugo is an old friend. Soon, Django is killing and plotting, which in turn leads to more killing and more plotting. What's inside that coffin he's been dragging around turns out to be so cool it's probably the one thing everyone who has ever seen the movie remembers.</p><p>The movie suffers from a weak, slapdash script. Again, according to Wikipedia, the script was being written and rewritten constantly. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/may/26/franco-nero-django" target="_blank">In a 2001 article in The Guardian, Nero said,</a> when shooting started, Corbucci had little more than a "scaletta," a synopsis. It tells with slack dialogue and hackneyed motivations. The terrible dubbing doesn't help matters whatsoever. The whole movie has a feeling of having been done on the fly at times. None of these things, though, make it unwatchable, only disappointing considering how much better it might have been.</p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M_bVBzgbsVA/X9EqoKtOOyI/AAAAAAAAO6M/BPCAt4q4rCseewXPaR4OiF7ZkAfmv11HwCLcBGAsYHQ/s646/Eduardo_Fajardo_-_Django_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="646" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M_bVBzgbsVA/X9EqoKtOOyI/AAAAAAAAO6M/BPCAt4q4rCseewXPaR4OiF7ZkAfmv11HwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Eduardo_Fajardo_-_Django_02.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eduardo Fajardo</td></tr></tbody></table>Despite its flaws, Django still provides a good kick or two to the gut in the best possible ways. I think Corbucci making Major Jackson and his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Shirts_(United_States)" target="_blank">Red Shirts</a> the real villains is similar to what was done with South Africans in Lethal Weapon II (dir. Richard Donner, 1989): blood and murder are made more virtuous by the presence of dastardly racists. Still, racist Americans in a Western in 1966 are pretty-in-your face and on target. By then, the rest of the world was getting a good look at American racist and their fight against black civil rights. I have to believe the despicable Jackson and company captured foreign reaction to that pretty well. I may not normally care what an Italian communist has to say about America, but if the proverbial broken clock can be right twice a day, he can at least once in his career. </p><p>Then there's the violence. There's some pretty brutal killings in A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More (dir. Leone, 1965), but nothing that quite compares to those in Django. The killing of Jackson's men and the attack on the Mexican Army detachment are industrialized murder on a scale not seen in a many Westerns before. There may not be the gallons of blood Peckinpah would unleash a few years later in The Wild Bunch (1969) (<a href="https://swordssorcery.blogspot.com/2018/10/not-list-of-my-top-five-favorite.html" target="_blank">see here</a>), but it's nearly as intense, and done with such vigor and sure handed playing to the audience it's easy to get swept up in it and cheer it on.</p><p>Django also looks good. Considered the first part of Corbucci's "Mud and Blood Trilogy" (which also includes The Great Silence and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Specialists_(1969_film)" target="_blank">The Specialists</a> (1969)), it's got an exhausted, filthy look that as much as the plot demythologizes - hell, anti-mythologizes - the West. Too many American Westerns look too clean. That was rarely the case with Spaghetti Westerns and Corbucci brings on the muck and mire by the truck loads. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TMjinlvwX3I/X9Ep4MiXoXI/AAAAAAAAO6E/bkjwI_N-i3wab9MYHBxxw0FAI3i68DaPACLcBGAsYHQ/s664/248961.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="664" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TMjinlvwX3I/X9Ep4MiXoXI/AAAAAAAAO6E/bkjwI_N-i3wab9MYHBxxw0FAI3i68DaPACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/248961.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nero and Nusciak</td></tr></tbody></table>The same ugliness applies to the cast. The whores aren't pretty, most of the men are unshaven and dirty and most are ugly. Major Jackson looks normal, but at least we see how misshapen his soul is right away. Even the youthful and handsome Nero's face is obscured by makeup to age him and whiskers. Whether only the ugly inhabit the West or the West deforms its inhabitants, it's not a pretty place. Only Maria starts and remains beautiful through the whole movie. </p><p>Corbucci's West isn't John Ford's land of mesas and strong-hearted men with noble codes. It's not Boetticher's stripped down and hardboiled West, either. It's a vile place filled with Gothic flourishes and it's full of pulpish goodness and badness. It's an intense place and Django, maybe more than its better made Leone predecessors the herald of the increasing bizarreness of Spaghetti Westerns to come.</p><p>Django, censored in the UK, without an official US release until 1972, still became an international hit and made Franco Nero a star. There are more than thirty sequels, only one of which, Django Strikes Again (dir. Ted Archer, aka Nello Rossati, 1987) is official and stars Franco Nero. The name Django was even added to Italian mobster movies because it had been such a hit. Of course, most recently, Quentin Tarantino made Django Unchained (2012), an homage to the original and featuring Nero in a cameo role. </p><p><b style="font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;">Rating - B</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;">: When I first saw this about twenty-five years ago, I totally loved it. That opening, the big reveal on what's in the coffin, it just hit me as totally cool. Now, I'm more "eh," and I shrug my shoulders. I've seen so many more Spaghetti Westerns that I know just how good they can be (and, again, with The Great Silence, just how good Corbucci could be), that I know it isn't wrong to want more than some shiny-shiny things from them. Nonetheless, those shiny-shiny bits are a lot of fun, and it's always exciting seeing a young star on the make. Franco Nero - even badly dubbed - just looks right and swaggers with the best of them. </span>If you haven't seen Django, watch it, if only to find out what's in Django's coffin. </p></b><b><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;">Django's Historical Location: somewhere along the US-Mexico border after the Civil War</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i3Qm8SXv6Mw/X9BiRNIOOUI/AAAAAAAAO50/iVOKzbpok8INaO9fZOaHLY0HNjIvT923ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/django%2Bmap.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1507" data-original-width="2048" height="277" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i3Qm8SXv6Mw/X9BiRNIOOUI/AAAAAAAAO50/iVOKzbpok8INaO9fZOaHLY0HNjIvT923ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h277/django%2Bmap.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;">Like so many Westerns, the film's exact location is never made clear and like most Italian Westerns it wasn't filmed anywhere remotely near the real West. Instead, it was filmed in the Tor Caldara nature reserve near Anzio and in a run down Western town on the Elios film set near Rome. If you look up the latter on IMDB you'll see over a dozen different Westerns were shot there.</div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px;"><br /></div><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">Rating System</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">A</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">: Ace - Brilliant or groundbreaking; one of the best that no fan should miss.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">B</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">: Bravo - Good stuff, but less than perfection</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">C</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">: Cowpoke - Routine oater, filler</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;" /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">D</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "IM Fell French Canon SC"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;">: Dismal - Sloppy or junky, but either way not worth the runtime</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-weight: 400; margin: 1em 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p></b></div>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-5821739821438122102020-11-24T00:12:00.002-05:002020-11-24T00:12:26.486-05:00More Tolkien Covers<p>Last time I posted Barbara Remington's <b>Lord of the Rings</b> covers for Ballantine. Those were the first versions of Tolkien's books I read. They were my dad's and they eventually fell apart. When I bought a new set, they had covers featuring paintings by Tolkien. As much as I love Remington's on-the-nose sixties art, I prefer Tokien's. I love his art nouveau-influenced style and the rare chance to see an author's actual vision put to paper. I'm still looking for good shots of more of his art to post, but these four covers will do in the meantime.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A5NCJr30v7I/X7iVavpf2YI/AAAAAAAAO3s/TfTREDbsir0bUCs-FAcuJaraSp1jBJrQwCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/THHBBTRTHC1974.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="350" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A5NCJr30v7I/X7iVavpf2YI/AAAAAAAAO3s/TfTREDbsir0bUCs-FAcuJaraSp1jBJrQwCLcBGAsYHQ/w374-h640/THHBBTRTHC1974.jpg" width="374" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">depicted: Bilbo and the dwarves escaping the Elf King's hall</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TRDa3O-oIbY/X7iU3aNvwgI/AAAAAAAAO3M/ld03I8OQkC0xuRicxfj3y1CETQ3YKfzqwCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/THFLLWSHPC1976.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="349" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TRDa3O-oIbY/X7iU3aNvwgI/AAAAAAAAO3M/ld03I8OQkC0xuRicxfj3y1CETQ3YKfzqwCLcBGAsYHQ/w373-h640/THFLLWSHPC1976.jpg" width="373" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">depicted: Hobbiton</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D76qUmcjwjc/X7iU7_AmC-I/AAAAAAAAO3U/hJHlwHKk1Y4FKN1cKuTAMdBNHbQ7MmoewCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/THTWTWRSMP1976.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="363" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D76qUmcjwjc/X7iU7_AmC-I/AAAAAAAAO3U/hJHlwHKk1Y4FKN1cKuTAMdBNHbQ7MmoewCLcBGAsYHQ/w388-h640/THTWTWRSMP1976.jpg" width="388" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">depicted: Fangorn Forest</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Muy-4EMN4Q/X7iU8mNQgRI/AAAAAAAAO3Y/s07TGR9SUCgJZb3Ezxge6ZRyiSCmbUrjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/THRTRNFTHK1976.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="356" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Muy-4EMN4Q/X7iU8mNQgRI/AAAAAAAAO3Y/s07TGR9SUCgJZb3Ezxge6ZRyiSCmbUrjwCLcBGAsYHQ/w380-h640/THRTRNFTHK1976.jpg" width="380" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;">depicted: Barad-dûr</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-13675434853402820262020-11-12T23:08:00.000-05:002020-11-12T23:08:02.844-05:00Beautiful Ballantine Covers<p>Many of the books I'm hoping to read for my new <i><a href="https://www.blackgate.com/">Black Gate</a></i> column were published by Ballantine books, some as precursors to and others as part of the famous Ballantine Adult Fantasy line. That's got me looking at my shelf-full of them and their beautiful covers. Several times over the years I've written about the quality of old book covers compared to modern ones. It should come as no surprise I think the old ones come out on top most of the time.</p><p>While <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gervasio_Gallardo">Gervasio Gallardo</a> is probably the single artist most recognized from the Ballantine AF books Lin Carter edited, there were other artists of note, especially for the pre-Carter books. Here are some of my favorites, all by the recently deceased <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Remington">Barbara Remington</a>.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gRup8s9Om4g/X6ywVvyeZVI/AAAAAAAAO1o/vDi6bXYgc6MGPnMS2DSFwT9zLqXR7wTlQCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/THHBBT1965.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="359" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gRup8s9Om4g/X6ywVvyeZVI/AAAAAAAAO1o/vDi6bXYgc6MGPnMS2DSFwT9zLqXR7wTlQCLcBGAsYHQ/w384-h640/THHBBT1965.jpg" width="384" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4wrCaEID5a4/X6ywZSuh6uI/AAAAAAAAO1s/08QCi8lTFs0Y4pJsj-iEfp-njVeL2TTOgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/THFLLWSHPG1965.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="380" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4wrCaEID5a4/X6ywZSuh6uI/AAAAAAAAO1s/08QCi8lTFs0Y4pJsj-iEfp-njVeL2TTOgCLcBGAsYHQ/w380-h640/THFLLWSHPG1965.jpg" width="380" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3nEIuUZtXs4/X6ywbn3vHlI/AAAAAAAAO1w/uH4FveEb7lcxKz1071kRlnpaPbI6ombwACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/THTWTWRSVS1965.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="389" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3nEIuUZtXs4/X6ywbn3vHlI/AAAAAAAAO1w/uH4FveEb7lcxKz1071kRlnpaPbI6ombwACLcBGAsYHQ/w388-h640/THTWTWRSVS1965.jpg" width="388" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W9Bxk7dgWsM/X6yweVIUkuI/AAAAAAAAO10/0HFwZDulMaIlqgxZ8DpYgzcUdAb07lxVwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/THRTRNFTHC1965.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="376" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W9Bxk7dgWsM/X6yweVIUkuI/AAAAAAAAO10/0HFwZDulMaIlqgxZ8DpYgzcUdAb07lxVwCLcBGAsYHQ/w376-h640/THRTRNFTHC1965.jpg" width="376" /></a></div><br /><p>These hippy trippy covers were my first vision of <b>The Lord of the Rings</b>. Tolkien couldn't understand them, but that's because Remington wasn't able to read them before doing the covers. She said she would have done something very different if she had, but I'm glad she didn't. I love these ludicrous artifacts from stranger days. </p><p>I particularly love that together they form one lunatic vision of Tolkien's world</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ztTi0YjDc-I/X64GOUl1xoI/AAAAAAAAO2w/7DURlnM0aMQIYHXevOM5G2Ey3CW2b_l8gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/lf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1070" data-original-width="2048" height="209" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ztTi0YjDc-I/X64GOUl1xoI/AAAAAAAAO2w/7DURlnM0aMQIYHXevOM5G2Ey3CW2b_l8gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h209/lf.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BVTcHpKY2To/X6yznlKIBmI/AAAAAAAAO2I/qagnLpcPU4MgkLwH8eum2fMu7LHQtjfPgCLcBGAsYHQ/s594/THWRMRBRSL1975.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="372" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BVTcHpKY2To/X6yznlKIBmI/AAAAAAAAO2I/qagnLpcPU4MgkLwH8eum2fMu7LHQtjfPgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h640/THWRMRBRSL1975.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VjV1uXgR1Mw/X6yzrjUTdEI/AAAAAAAAO2M/1JU9TzGtstEQ4vnPeVBcYwfnLhR4BZ9YACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/MSTRSSFMST1967.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="381" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VjV1uXgR1Mw/X6yzrjUTdEI/AAAAAAAAO2M/1JU9TzGtstEQ4vnPeVBcYwfnLhR4BZ9YACLcBGAsYHQ/w380-h640/MSTRSSFMST1967.jpg" width="380" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EcEtNXyXUFI/X6yzwSwLk7I/AAAAAAAAO2Q/EDMxVMfJAUkTPOg6RUobwaoOs-99t2jfQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/FSHDNN1968.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="385" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EcEtNXyXUFI/X6yzwSwLk7I/AAAAAAAAO2Q/EDMxVMfJAUkTPOg6RUobwaoOs-99t2jfQCLcBGAsYHQ/w384-h640/FSHDNN1968.jpg" width="384" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b9SNZdRpcb0/X6yzyAcg-XI/AAAAAAAAO2U/QPhcuZQL7IUEC7jtO1kgQt7-mSw17t77gCLcBGAsYHQ/s594/MZNTNGTTVK1972.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="362" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b9SNZdRpcb0/X6yzyAcg-XI/AAAAAAAAO2U/QPhcuZQL7IUEC7jtO1kgQt7-mSw17t77gCLcBGAsYHQ/w390-h640/MZNTNGTTVK1972.jpg" width="390" /></a></div><br /><p>The first three of these are by Barbara Remington, while the fourth, possibly by a different artist, is uncredited. I hope to tackle <b>Worm </b>sooner rather than later, but I make no guarantees. These covers are remarkable. I love the ouroboros motif and the high middle ages depictions of the knights and castles. The dogs and lions on Mistress have a heraldic quality reflects perfectly echoes Eddison's medieval stylings. </p><p>I look and look at both these sets of covers and I wonder why must we continue to suffer God awful photoshopped covers. </p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-82765122669643806982020-11-08T22:02:00.001-05:002020-11-09T22:59:32.691-05:00Back in the Saddle Again: A New Monthly Column<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4gJrYcnEK5s/X6ihQu1QMBI/AAAAAAAAO1A/RtSqNMZy3EI0AxZR6wx6RE69p9GYhdYOwCLcBGAsYHQ/s630/download.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4gJrYcnEK5s/X6ihQu1QMBI/AAAAAAAAO1A/RtSqNMZy3EI0AxZR6wx6RE69p9GYhdYOwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/download.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After nearly two years of retirement from <i><a href="https://www.blackgate.com/">Black Gate</a></i>, I'm coming back. I'm brushing the cobwebs out of my brain, flexing my writing muscles, and gearing up for a return to the electronic pages of the best fantasy (and horror, and sci-fi, and crime fiction) magazine around. The luminous Mrs. V. has already signed back on to edit my work so it'll be coherent. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">There'll be two significant changes. The first is I'll be posting monthly, not weekly. Each new article will post on the first Friday of the month, starting in December. I figure a lighter schedule is the way to go. Five years of reading and reviewing three books and a half dozen or more short stories every month burned me out.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The other is I'll be reading classic works I haven't read before (or only once a long time ago - I've always got to give myself some sort of wiggle room - which specifically mean <b>Gormenghast</b>). The first book, which I've already started, is Hope Mirrlees' <b>Lud-in-the-Mist</b>. <b>The Last Unicorn</b>, and <b>The Ship of Ishtar</b>, as well as some Gothic romances, including <b>Melmoth the Wanderer</b> and <b>Frankenstein</b>, are some others I think I'll give a go. I can imagine reading things not as old, but I definitely want to focus on some of the books most important to the evolution of fantasy literature. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ss5FW1AsMhY/X6ivWP9ZsII/AAAAAAAAO1M/UnwZs5J8fA4Co6zH0G0olGo2EyuhFFhAACLcBGAsYHQ/s1153/71O2VAYTuUL.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1153" data-original-width="744" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ss5FW1AsMhY/X6ivWP9ZsII/AAAAAAAAO1M/UnwZs5J8fA4Co6zH0G0olGo2EyuhFFhAACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/71O2VAYTuUL.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I want to dig into fantasy from before genrefication took hold. That's what I call the point when fantasy got locked down. It was as if clear limitations were staked out marking out what is and isn't fantasy. Fantasy was reduced to no more than a commodity and tropes have come to supplant the unique and strange. Much contemporary fantasy seems to be written by authors for whom only other fantasy exists and those are their only influences. It's a copy of a copy, not something inspired and drawn up from the deeper wells of our shared cultures and myths. It often reads like a gaming campaign, complete with detailed magic systems and character classes. There's also the whole grimdark business which seems intent on eliminating the fantastic from fantasy much of the time. </div><p></p><p>I think it was the explosion of epic fantasy series in the eighties and nineties and the commercial success of the genre that much of the strangeness went out of it. When Lester Del Rey deliberately set out to find a Xerox copy of the <b>Lord of the Rings</b> and discovered <b>The Sword of Shannara</b> (<b><a href="https://www.blackgate.com/2015/10/13/you-cant-go-home-again-the-annotated-sword-of-shannara-35th-anniversary-edition-by-terry-brooks-2/">reviewed here</a></b>) can be seen as the actual start of all this. For over a decade we were blessed with an endless slew of often hard to differentiate epic series. Now, with grittiness all the rage, everyone is aping George R.R. Martin or Joe Abercrombie. The tropes have changed a bit, but we're still getting lots of not very dissimilar epic series - just "grittier."</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-acxuIYPJtmI/X6ivnNbBwxI/AAAAAAAAO1U/0tsVc8vNDCsT9MEqzXyB5XoK8QmN6W7mQCLcBGAsYHQ/s717/b780739e2ca7f652db648b3c5f289120.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="420" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-acxuIYPJtmI/X6ivnNbBwxI/AAAAAAAAO1U/0tsVc8vNDCsT9MEqzXyB5XoK8QmN6W7mQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/b780739e2ca7f652db648b3c5f289120.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I know well-received books like <b>Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell</b> that don't limit themselves to the tired and true (hey, I haven't read that, so I might add it to the list) still appear from time to time, but they are anomalies. A few writers are still inspired by pulp and older fantasy (James Enge, Howard Andrew Jones, and <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Raphael Ordoñez</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> </span></span> among them), but there's little room for the dreamlike imagination of many early fantasies or the magpie mixtures of sci-fi, horror, and anything else that suited the fancies of writers like William Hope Hodgson or Clark Ashton Smith. If you're not new here you know this is one of the hobby horses I ride the hardest. I'll make every effort to not be a bore.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I'm also hoping to get some Western movie reviews up again. It's not like I haven't watched a ton of them since the last time I posted a review (<a href="https://swordssorcery.blogspot.com/2018/10/not-list-of-my-top-five-favorite.html">here</a>).</p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-60797172126602333122020-10-22T14:02:00.000-04:002020-10-22T14:02:13.835-04:00Barbarians at the Gates of Hollywood by P.J. Thorndyke<p> It's been nearly two years since I wrote anything for Black Gate. Save a few posts here, I've not done much writing at all. Every now and then, John O'Neill, captain of the good ship Black Gate, sent me an inquiry to try to entice me back into the fold. Until last month none of them proved tempting enough. Then I got P.J. Thorndyke's Barbarians at the Gates of Hollywood.</p><p>The book is absolute gold, albeit on a subject that rarely shines: sword & sorcery movies. They're mostly tripe, but, the story around them and about their creation is fascinating. I recommend Thorndyke's book to anyone with the slightest interest in low-budget movies as well as any S&S reader looking for a great resource on, no matter what the films' quality, an important part of the genre's history.</p><p>For the full review go <b style="background-color: red;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="https://www.blackgate.com/2020/10/22/barbarians-at-the-gates-of-hollywood-by-p-j-thorndyke/">HERE</a></span></b>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8eORrZ-QMms/X5HI2PrbhAI/AAAAAAAAOzk/EsDRcNRjoiA4uJ1WkRq6VMsB37D8HwxkQCLcBGAsYHQ/s463/51SzjgYptL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="463" data-original-width="300" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8eORrZ-QMms/X5HI2PrbhAI/AAAAAAAAOzk/EsDRcNRjoiA4uJ1WkRq6VMsB37D8HwxkQCLcBGAsYHQ/w414-h640/51SzjgYptL.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-35980416105572874222020-10-07T21:11:00.000-04:002020-10-07T21:11:41.484-04:00A Horror Favorite: Session 9<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
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Every October, the luminous Mrs. V. and I sit down to watch spooky (but not <i>too </i>spooky) movies together. I've long thought one of my favorites might be too much for her, but rewatching it last year, I realized it isn't. Unfortunately, while she indeed didn't find it too creepy, she also didn't really dig it. Oh, well, it's still one of my favorite horror movies. </div>
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<b><u><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_9" target="_blank">Session 9</a></u></b> (2001), directed by Brad Anderson</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Us6L1v2-uzo/XKPx3f49N7I/AAAAAAAAN2s/C-ngJ6vweU4lA-Xk8X3m0SWGomWwJO-lwCLcBGAs/s1600/MV5BMWYyYzc4MTItOTdkOS00ZTIwLWE2N2MtZjA4N2YxMTI2NjViXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI%2540._V1_UY1200_CR92%252C0%252C630%252C1200_AL_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="338" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Us6L1v2-uzo/XKPx3f49N7I/AAAAAAAAN2s/C-ngJ6vweU4lA-Xk8X3m0SWGomWwJO-lwCLcBGAs/s320/MV5BMWYyYzc4MTItOTdkOS00ZTIwLWE2N2MtZjA4N2YxMTI2NjViXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI%2540._V1_UY1200_CR92%252C0%252C630%252C1200_AL_.jpg" width="216" /></a>When it all comes together - story, atmosphere, acting - you get something that will you haunt you a long time after the screen goes dark and the house lights come up. Played by Peter Mullan, Gordon Fleming runs a faltering asbestos removal business. In hope of saving it, he takes on a seemingly impossible contract to clean up a massive old asylum in one week instead of the anticipated three.</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Session 9 was filmed on the grounds of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danvers_State_Hospital">Danvers State Hospital</a>, a closed facility outside of Boston. Built in 1878 and designed for 500 to 1000 patients at best, by the 1940s over 2000 people were housed there. Like most such facilities across the country, budget cuts, changing approaches to mental health treatment, and horrible conditions, it was closed. Since the movie was made in 2000 most of the complex has been demolished despite efforts to preserve it. </div><div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xmcYOXJr_ac/X35ln9W_PGI/AAAAAAAAOyw/MzwF4DGlGSEMd3uuPrxW71KicIQ0FGArgCLcBGAsYHQ/s650/part13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="650" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xmcYOXJr_ac/X35ln9W_PGI/AAAAAAAAOyw/MzwF4DGlGSEMd3uuPrxW71KicIQ0FGArgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/part13.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The men on his crew, including a terrific David Caruso, balk, but the chance to make a big bonus is enough to get them all on board. When they discover a cache of interview tapes with a notorious resident of the hospital things start to get strange. Then they get terrible.</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cBo05xQMrok/X35mIh8UjcI/AAAAAAAAOy8/8PUMEC_tdC8Jn5R_ytz4q2fUN0ejJpLHACLcBGAsYHQ/s530/session-9-blu-ray-review-scream-factory-530x281.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="530" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cBo05xQMrok/X35mIh8UjcI/AAAAAAAAOy8/8PUMEC_tdC8Jn5R_ytz4q2fUN0ejJpLHACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/session-9-blu-ray-review-scream-factory-530x281.jpg" width="320" /></a>
<b>Session 9</b> builds much of its atmosphere out of relics, real as well as props, from the brick corpse of the asylum. Real photos from long-dead patients decorate the walls of one room, and the place really was plagued by ancient, crumbling plaster and asbestos. The graveyard is actually fake, but it was modeled on the real one nearby. <br />
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When I saw this the first time (at the <b><a href="https://www.angelikafilmcenter.com/nyc" target="_blank">Angelika</a></b>), I had no idea what I'd be getting. I knew it was a horror flick, but I only knew Brad Anderson from his excellent comic <b>Next Stop Wonderland</b>. Every time I've watched it since, it still manages to raise a chill. Like <b>The Haunting, </b>it puts to the viewer the question of whether events are supernatural or not.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Qne9Qje4v3E/XNO1bAFI01I/AAAAAAAAN6E/SLDCttSIM3gPLo_XyqnTZr8c4OUk4uEFQCLcBGAs/s1600/session-9-peter-mullan-1108x0-c-default.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="831" data-original-width="1108" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Qne9Qje4v3E/XNO1bAFI01I/AAAAAAAAN6E/SLDCttSIM3gPLo_XyqnTZr8c4OUk4uEFQCLcBGAs/s320/session-9-peter-mullan-1108x0-c-default.jpg" title="Peter Mullan - Session 9" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter Mullan</td></tr>
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The titular session tapes from an infamous killer once held in the hospital are fake. Nonetheless, they sound real enough. Each tape brings the cast (and the viewer) closer to a shadow prowling the ruins' hallways. Whether their final revelations are real or not is a question that persists until the film's final frames.<br />
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I have my own opinion on that, but the movie as it stands (there are deleted scenes that can be seen as strengthening one of the two sides) leaves the question unanswered, a black ambiguity that leaves Fleming's actions mysteries to the very end. This, plus the atmosphere of a place that was a real-life house of horrors and the cast, make this a movie that holds up under repeated viewings. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-37246214673649015872020-05-21T01:06:00.001-04:002020-05-21T22:51:13.731-04:00Early Thoughts on Esdaile's The Peninsular War<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dBOkFsXNvKo/XsXtMfq9LMI/AAAAAAAAOj0/RwmCoSbIfcIThLcYlebC2_4nvrrd_EUWgCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/El_dos_de_mayo_de_1808_en_Madrid_rdit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1237" data-original-width="1600" height="308" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dBOkFsXNvKo/XsXtMfq9LMI/AAAAAAAAOj0/RwmCoSbIfcIThLcYlebC2_4nvrrd_EUWgCPcBGAYYCw/s400/El_dos_de_mayo_de_1808_en_Madrid_rdit.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">El 2 de mayo de 1808 en Madrid by Goy</i></td></tr>
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I'm a good piece into Charles Esdaile's <b>The Peninsular War</b>. That's the name given to the complex and ferocious war fought across Spain and Portugal between 1808 and 1814. Spain, suffering from centuries of corruption, political and religious repression, and was facing revolution in its colonies in the Americas, had been forced into an alliance with the French Empire. Together, they had invaded and conquered British-allied Portugal. They had failed to capture the Portuguese royal family and treasury, both of which had been safely evacuated to Brazil.<br />
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Despite the battlefield victory, Spain continued to be a state in turmoil. Machinations between various parties led to complete chaos, with followers of the king, Charles IV, facing off against followers of his son, Ferdinand VII.<br />
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To ensure Spanish acquiescence to French plans, Napoleon began moving troops commanded by several of his marshals into eastern Spain. In the chaos that followed, King Charles IV abdicated and his son, Ferdinand VII, attempted to assume the throne. Napoleon forced them both out, installed his adoring older brother Joseph on the throne in Madrid and attempted to occupy the whole of the country.<br />
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The invasion lead to a massive uprising against the French conquerors. Despite retaliation by the French, the uprising proved impossible to suppress. Spanish regular forces under General Castaños forced the surrender of nearly 18,000 French soldiers at Bailén. This led to British intervention, followed by Napoleon himself taking over the reins of the French forces. Then the British retreated, with their commander, General Moore getting killed, and the French in control of much of Spain and part of Portugal. Napoleon returned to France to raise troops to fight the resurgent Austrians and left his generals in command once again. It was only then that Arthur Wellesley arrived on the scene with a renewed British commitment to fight the French. At that point there were five more years of brutal fighting ahead.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KrSYFvGf19Y/XsXsCItebOI/AAAAAAAAOjs/ZPvcO0TuA8wqGLezQiyq_kK36uqGUQgkQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/goya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1048" height="302" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KrSYFvGf19Y/XsXsCItebOI/AAAAAAAAOjs/ZPvcO0TuA8wqGLezQiyq_kK36uqGUQgkQCPcBGAYYCw/s400/goya.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;"><i lang="es" title="Spanish language text">El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid by Goya</i></b></td></tr>
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That's as far as I've gotten in the book and it's been packed with examples of military and political incompetence and atrocities of all sorts. Like most guerrillas before them, the Spanish and Portuguese partisans, unable and unwilling to confront the French in the field, carry out murders of collaborators and messengers. Most of the Spanish generals are mildly competent at best and the poor Spanish infantry are often untrained and poorly armed as well as underfed and ill-clothed. The French wantonly sacked and raped their way across the country side. The second, and successful, assault on Zaragoza left 20,000 Spanish soldiers and 34,000 civilians dead after months of siege and weeks of house-to-house fighting.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XAms5wUASoA/XsYIPcWGn6I/AAAAAAAAOj8/oxnqFlihqJoF89bpbXtLSx3Cz2GNzYKZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Santa_Engracia_-_Lejeune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1396" data-original-width="1106" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XAms5wUASoA/XsYIPcWGn6I/AAAAAAAAOj8/oxnqFlihqJoF89bpbXtLSx3Cz2GNzYKZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Santa_Engracia_-_Lejeune.jpg" width="505" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Abbey of Santa Engracia by Louis-François Lejeune <br />from the Second Siege of Zaragoza</span></i></b><br />
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The British fare no better in the book. Most were Anglican or Methodist and anti-Catholic and had a strong dislike of the Spanish priests and monks, seeing them as lazy parasites living on the largesse of the citizenry. For the Spanish army, they had little regard, treating it with contempt and derision. Without a dedicated supply train, the British army, like the French (and the Spanish, as well), lived off the countryside, routinely plundering whatever farm or village they come upon.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oywxlSKxQho/XsYJZENDK6I/AAAAAAAAOkE/X3WG7dY5hjw8Jr1MIu8w52oQvUUZVijxACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_4437-WEB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1210" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oywxlSKxQho/XsYJZENDK6I/AAAAAAAAOkE/X3WG7dY5hjw8Jr1MIu8w52oQvUUZVijxACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_4437-WEB.jpg" width="420" /></a></td></tr>
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<strong><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Saragossa 10 February 1809 by Harold Hume Piffard</span></i></strong></h3>
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I've never read much Napoleonic history, but I was still taken aback by the murderousness of the war - and this is only in the early stages. It's clear, already, why the fighting came to be called the Spanish Ulcer. It may not have been cause of Napoleon's great defeat - that was the Russian Campaign followed by the battle of Leipzig - but the deployment of so many troops away from his greater objectives was a significant contribution.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RW6AWqP2gus/XsYKE0dGrgI/AAAAAAAAOkM/9Dd1IGqROKIZUp7L96aExsT80qdasW6cgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/death-of-sir-john-moore-2800x1440.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="823" data-original-width="1600" height="205" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RW6AWqP2gus/XsYKE0dGrgI/AAAAAAAAOkM/9Dd1IGqROKIZUp7L96aExsT80qdasW6cgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/death-of-sir-john-moore-2800x1440.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><i>The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna by George Jones</i></b></span></td></tr>
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Esdaile's book is very clear in his explanations of the assorted factors that led to the war and where it fits into the greater history of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. What it doesn't do is give long, complicated descriptions of the battles - which in this sort of history, that is one covering a lengthy war - I quite like. Instead of describing the movement of every Spanish and British company at the battle of Talavera, Esdaile concentrates on the French and English strategies that led to the battle being fought in the place it was fought.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Talavera</span></i></b></td></tr>
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I'm going to take a break from <b>The Peninsular War</b> for a few days. I'm going to dive back into Perez-Reverte's <b>The Siege</b>. Then, it's onto <b>War and Peace</b>. It's funny, when I decided on the latter as the follow-up to Doctor Zhivago (more on that later), I didn't consciously pick for its being set during the Napoleonic Wars. It was just synchronicity.The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-20650948192355091462020-05-12T00:14:00.001-04:002020-05-12T00:14:43.025-04:00Whiling Away Days in Quarantine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GwsJCVHq878/XroK0g_HtxI/AAAAAAAAOh4/pkQyZJY3HP0xBG26fb3qCYgBnZgxqApHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/download%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="394" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GwsJCVHq878/XroK0g_HtxI/AAAAAAAAOh4/pkQyZJY3HP0xBG26fb3qCYgBnZgxqApHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/download%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="123" /></a></div>
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You'd think with all the free time in these days of enforced lockdown I'd get some serious reading done; nope. I mean I am reading and I did actually finish two books - <b>The Footsteps at the Lock</b> and <b>Hidden Moon</b> - but I'm working really hard to finish the three others I've got going on - <b>Doctor Zhivago</b>, <b>The Peninsular War</b>, and <b>The Siege</b>. All are very good and very dense and I will finish them, but, man, oh, man, it's taking me a long time. </div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UbUJ4ZHhDDk/XroK7vIvIdI/AAAAAAAAOiA/DrnLvFb1A9E3BiX4gUWjEDXqChx1HpqfQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/TFTMS4_cover-600x777.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="777" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UbUJ4ZHhDDk/XroK7vIvIdI/AAAAAAAAOiA/DrnLvFb1A9E3BiX4gUWjEDXqChx1HpqfQCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/TFTMS4_cover-600x777.jpg" width="154" /></a>I was excited to get the latest issue of <b><a href="https://goodman-games.com/store/product-category/tales-from-the-magicians-skull/" target="_blank">Tales from the Magician's Skull</a></b> but I can't read it, at least not now. I'm amazed that I still can't read fantasy. It makes sense as it's about all I read for five or six years. Now, I can barely work up any enthusiasm for the genre, no matter how good it looks. It's getting to be a bit of a bummer. I've got books that I really want to read, but when I pick them up any interest just dries up like a puddle in the Sahara at high noon. I couldn't even finish a very good Tim Powers (one of my favorite authors) book I started during all this. I know I'll get back up on that horse someday, but right now it's way beyond the horizon.</div>
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We did just watch the Hulu series, <b>Devs</b>, from Alex Garland, starring, among a bunch of other good actors, Nick Offerman. Essentially, a tech mogul is attempting to determine if the universe is completely deterministic. I have all sorts of problems with the way the show discusses the question as if it's never been done before, and the end is not good. Nonetheless, the acting is very, very good, with Offerman and Jin Ha being my favorites. The whole show is, from the woodland campus and gilded quantum computing center to the fog-shrouded hills above San Francisco is beautiful. Within its own universe, it's a tense and riveting show. It's been hinted that Garland wants to do something entirely different with the same cast and I would definitely be up for that. </div>
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As for how I'll while away future days in captivity, it'll be more of the same. Some work on the computer followed by computer games and movies with sporadic bouts of reading. The luminous Mrs. V. has us trying to get various projects done and I'm sort of game for it.<br />
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Actually, I do sort of have my future reading goals laid out. Once I've finished <b>Zhivago</b>, I'm just going to go for the brass ring and pick up <b>War and Peace</b>. It looked so ridiculously long when I was a kid, but, seriously, when fantasy fans routinely read multi-volume thousand-page-a-book series, it's not much at all. Alongside that, I've got <b>Dark Matter</b> by Michelle Paver, a horror novel set on Svalbard, and Tim Willocks' South African-set <b>Memo from Turner</b>. It's not too lofty a goal, so just maybe I'll achieve it. Stranger things have happened.<br />
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The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7008217764991774516.post-30749194161157943692020-03-08T23:08:00.003-04:002020-03-08T23:08:54.056-04:00The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov <div style="text-align: justify;">
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I don't think I'll be writing much about any of the Russian books that I read this year. Far better things have been written about any of the works I'll get to for there to be anything I can add. If you doubt me, check out this <a href="https://shoshibookblog.wordpress.com/russian-literature/" target="_blank">blog</a>. Still, I will slap together a few quick takes, nonetheless. (<b>Note</b>: apparently, this is not true, and I'll be writing too much, probably)<br />
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bulgakov" target="_blank">Mikhail Bulgakov</a> (1891-1940) greatest work, <b>The Master and Margarita</b> (1940), was never published during his lifetime. Much of his work, reviled by the Soviet literary establishment, was suppressed. Even during the post-Stalin thaw under Khrushchev, the book remained unpublished for a long time and didn't appear until a censored version came out in 1967. The full text wasn't available until 1973. The first English translation was in 1967.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Devil and his retinue <br />by Alekshey Galushkov</td></tr>
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One hot spring day, the Devil and his entourage come to Moscow. When he comes upon the head of the writers' union, Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, lecturing the poet, Ivan Bezdomny, that it's not enough to portray Christ as a comical figure, but instead he must be shown to have never existed at all, he is excited.<br />
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The visit brings down chaos on the citizens of the capital, exposing many of the vicious little ways people have accommodated themselves to the corruption and evil of the Soviet Union. Shortages of most luxuries and even many necessities have turned many ordinary people cagey and covetous. When the writer Berlioz is killed, having slipped and fallen under a tram, his uncle's first thought upon hearing the news is not one of sympathy but of how to claim his large Moscow apartment. Poets conform their words to the official dogma while loudly condemning all who don't. People, for no apparent reason most times, disappear in the middle of the day from their apartments, never to be seen again, and no one ever speaks of it.<br />
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In the middle of all the Satanic shenanigans, there's the tale of Margarita and her lover, the writer known only as the Master. For writing a book presented as a non-supernatural tale of Pontius Pilate and a prisoner called Yeshua Ha-Notsri, he was blacklisted and eventually went mad. Selections from the Master's novel are spread throughout the book.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margarita spies <br />the Master watching her</td></tr>
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I've read this book numerous times over the past thirty-five years and loved it each time. This time around, though, my enjoyment came more from the satirical anti-Soviet elements than the artistic and philosophical/theological ones. I've read a bit more about the period and Bulgakov's life and While very funny, Bulgakov never softens his depictions of the brutality and moral decay wrought by the Soviet government.<br />
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What surprised me on this reading was how much I remembered and how much I forgot. Few specific scenes surprised me; Professor Woland holding forth on the existence of God, Pilate interrogating Ha-Notsri, the magic show in Moscow, and Satanic ball. It all came back to me.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Azzazello, Behemoth, and Korovyev</td></tr>
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What threw me was the novel's overall flow. Despite its title, while hinted at, both Margarita and the Master don't show up till nearly halfway through the book. Even Pilate get much less time on the stage then I believed. The travails of the government poet, Ivan Bezdomny, and assorted writers and theater employees make up most of the first half of the book. I suspect it's this part, far more than the Pilate chapters, that ensured Bulgakov's book would never see the light of day in the USSR.<br />
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Moscow is a city of limits. Despite the modernity of its streetcars, theaters, even the thoughts, and ideas of its citizens, it is bereft of much. For artists, only the luckiest have adequate living space and only those who regurgitate state dogma have access to fine cuisine. Even the refreshment stand at Patriarch's Ponds on a hot day has no cold beer or seltzer, only warm apricot juice.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Behemoth</td></tr>
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While there are obvious allusions to the sudden disappearance of innocents who fall afoul of the state's terror apparatus, most people manage to live in, even if only willful, ignorance of such terrors. Instead, they simply live lives that seem threadbare and bereft of most simple comforts, let alone luxuries. It's a gray world where the only light comes from Margarita's love for the Master.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pilate and Banga</td></tr>
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Despite finding myself drawn more to the Moscow chapters this reading, the Pilate ones are still the heart of the book. Bulgakov's Pilate is miserable, pained by endless headaches, brought about by Jerusalem's heat, his hatred of the endless plotting by the Sanhedrin, and what he sees as the Jewish fanaticism. His only real fellowship is with his dog. Suddenly, confronted by Ha-Notsri's unwarranted goodness, he senses the possibility of relief, even redemption.<br />
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When I first met the luminous Mrs. V., I gave her <b>The Master and Margarita</b> to read. She didn't finish it, put off as she was by the retelling of the Pilate's and Jesus' story. Yeshua Ha-Notsri isn't divine (though his insights seem to be), he has no real disciples, and he isn't preaching salvation or messiah hood. For me, no less orthodox in my theology, it was never a problem. It's a story within a story, it's the Master's novel. In the end, a character in a book, his deliverance must come from his creator, not the Creator.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mikhail Bulgakov</td></tr>
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A line from the book, "Manuscripts don't burn," became well-known in the Soviet Union. In the book, it referred explicitly to the Master's novel about Pilate being given to him despite having burned the original manuscript. It came to pertain to politically unpublishable novels being memorized by their authors.<br />
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It's a powerful notion - that art persists despite the savagery of the world. Bulgakov's works were kept unpublished, his plays shut down after a performance, and Stalin would not allow him to emigrate. In the end, he died from an inherited disease, his greatest work unknown to anyone outside his immediate circle. Today, it's considered one of the great works of Russian literature, so maybe he was right.<br />
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When I started this whole Russian thing, I thought I'd be focusing largely on the writings of the great 19th and early 20th century writers - Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov, and the like. Instead, I started with a post-Revolutionary novel and I've already started on a second - <b>Doctor Zhivago</b> by Boris Pasternak. I'm also looking forward to a collection of Soviet-era short stories my mother-in-law's giving me this week. Aside from just being good books, they're fascinating for their portrayal of Soviet Union from within. It was the great threat to the world for much of my life, it murdered untold millions of its own people, and now it's just gone. It's gripping to get a glimpse from the inside through the eyes of actual Russian writers instead of histories written by outsiders. I'm going to get to the 19th century at some point, but right now, I'm going to be sticking to the 20th.</div>
The Wasphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08636805818054637966noreply@blogger.com0