For some reason I found this interview from 1977 fascinating. I have no idea who James Sinclair is but I didn’t find Mark Hamill overly egotistical at all. I would imagine he enjoyed walking around London and not being recognized or asked to talk about Star Wars!
The Dark Side Of California: Cutter’s Way
“Cutter’s Way” is a character study wrapped in a film noir murder mystery about a group of friends and outcasts living in Santa Barbara, CA. If it had been released in 1976 it would probably be considered a minor classic of 70s cinema, instead it was barely released in 1981 and basically disowned by the studio that made it, and now it is another one of those great cult films that almost no one has seen or even knows exists.
Starring John Heard as the bitter, cynical and wounded in more ways than one Vietnam vet Cutter, Lisa Eichorn as his burned out and alcoholic wife Mo have the dominant parts in the film over Jeff Bridges vacillating beach boyish boat salesman and sometime gigolo Bone. Directed by the Czech Milos Forman associate Ivan Passer it is a film that I suspect that once you have seen it, you will either love it or hate it. “Cutter’s Way” is as far as 80s studio films got from the dominant summer blockbuster mentality of that decade as you could get.
James Coburn on Sam Peckinpah
James was right about modern action movies. No doubt about it.
A Different Kind Of Western: Buck And The Preacher
“Buck And The Preacher” is a Western I remember seeing on TV a couple of times in the 1970s when I was a kid and I really enjoyed it but I wasn’t aware at the time how unique it was. To have a film of this genre, especially, with two black actors, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, as the leads and to be told from their perspective is not something that happened a lot in 1972 or since . This was the first film directed by Sidney Poitier and that was unique in itself but Poitier would go on to direct a string of films in the 70s including Uptown Saturday Night and Stir Crazy. There is great chemistry and humor to the interaction between Poitier, Belafonte and Ruby Dee. You can figure out the plot fairly easily from the trailer.
The Director Series: 5 Video Essays On Stanley Kubrick
Five excellent video essays on the career of Stanley Kubrick from his days as a photographer for Look magazine through to his final film “Eyes Wide Shut”. Extremely well done and highly recommended!
The Woman Has The Best Part: Two Mules For Sister Sara
The 1970 film “Two Mules For Sister Sara” starring Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood is not considered a great Western in Eastwood’s long career, but it is the most unique, and in some ways, the most enjoyable to watch. Directed by Don Siegel, with a fun score by Ennio Morricone, MacLaine and Eastwood have great chemistry and play off each other wonderfully. The trailer makes it seem like an action packed Western, which it is, but it also has a playful and sardonic sense of humor. As MacLaine and Eastwood were both well aware of, the role of Sara was the best part in the movie.
John Landis Interview
Here is a great, freewheeling 2013 interview with Director John Landis and Adam Savage. Landis is a great storyteller and he has many great stories to tell including working on Kelly’s Heroes in Yugoslavia to Once Upon A Time In The West in Spain. Stanley Kubrick comes up quite a bit also. Very entertaining.
Swinging London Is Dead: Withnail & I
The 1987 British dark comedy “Withnail & I” is one of the great cult films of all time and in Great Britain it is as well loved (and quoted) as The Big Lebowski is here in the U.S. The film is about two down on their luck unemployed actors in London at the tail end of 1969 – the acerbic and cynical Withnail (Richard E. Grant) and the neurotic Marwood (Paul McGann) – who live in drug & booze fueled squalor. They decide to take a trip out to the country cottage of Withnail’s uncle and things don’t go well for our two protagonists. Richard E. Grant gives one of the great performances of the 80s as Withnail. Written and directed by Bruce Robinson and produced by George Harrison’s Handmade Films it is an unsparing look at the death of the 60s. Highly recommended.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark in Black & White
I will bet that every one of you have always had a secret desire to watch Raiders Of The Lost Ark in black and white? Who hasn’t?
Now is your chance, courtesy of Steven Soderbergh. And the bonus is there is no sound only the score to The Social Network and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to keep you company. The film looks great, by the way.
Soderbergh: “So I want you to watch this movie and think only about staging, how the shots are built and laid out, what the rules of movement are, what the cutting patterns are. See if you can reproduce the thought process that resulted in these choices by asking yourself: why was each shot—whether short or long—held for that exact length of time and placed in that order? Sounds like fun, right? It actually is. To me.”
Screenwriter Violence: In A Lonely Place
The 1950 film “In A Lonely Place” starring Humphrey Bogart as cynical Hollywood screenwriter Dixon Steele and Gloria Grahame as his neighbor Laurel Gray features what is arguably Bogart’s best performance. Directed by Nicholas Ray (Grahame’s husband at the time) the film delves into the latent violence, isolation and paranoia of Bogart’s Steele as he is suspected of killing a girl last seen leaving his apartment and is provided an alibi by Grahame, who he becomes involved with. Produced by Bogart’s own production company, Santana Productions, Bogart obviously thought this complex role and the film was a good fit for him. He was right.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Films 