the groundhog day project

Something I didn't know: a Broadway revival of The Pirates of Penzance had apparently done quite well in 1981. Universal pushed for a film version, but it wouldn't come out until 1983. In the meantime, Fox pushed out the send-up The Pirate Movie , beating the straight adaptation to the big screen. But, I really didn't want to talk about the pillaging of the theater but rather the pillaging of women, the patriarchy, and all the usual stuff I might talk about. The "noble custom" that dictates that the eldest daughter marry first, the youngest marry last, with nary a question of whether or not any of them want to marry. But, even on the other side, Frederic asks of Ruth (apparently before he's met other women, even though I'm sure he and his shipmates have raped and pillaged and plundered plenty) if she's beautiful. Almost immediately after meeting Mabel, he declares that he loves her and may want to marry her, because that is what he thinks non-pirate...

I figure most people reading this (unless of course you found it while scouring the Internet for reference to The Pirate Movie ) have never seen The Pirate Movie , probably haven't even heard of it. Generic spoof titles get lost in time. But, The Pirate Movie was actually #5 at the box office its opening weekend. I did not, however, see this movie in the theater. I don't rightly recall when I first saw it, but it was probably as soon as it was on video (not sure how fast that happened in 1982). Apparently, quite a few people saw it in the theater. The weekend, by the way: E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial in its 9th week. I definitely saw that on the big screen. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in its 3rd, and I swear, I'm pretty sure I saw that on the big screen. Things Are Tough All Over , opening that weekend, and no, I have never heard of it either. An Officer and a Gentleman , in is 2nd week, and obviously, I saw that one. The Pirate Movie Rocky III , in its 1...

          I often get lost as these old movies from my childhood play, but I didn't expect to get lost in The Pirate Movie as soon as it got started. But, "Victory" starts playing over pirate ship battle footage and I'm in. And then the main plot gets going pretty quick and Ninjas attack the pirate ship and it's on. This was what really got me when I was a kid, the action and the romance. I talked about the military side of An Officer and a Gentleman was just as much rooted in fantasy as the love story yesterday --but the actual action in something like this is an easy in for a kid. Pirate adventure, plus ninjas, and later cops, plus the romance and songs.           I had yet to see a production of The Pirates of Penzance when I first saw this film, though I would see it later, so I didn't know a lot of the basic specifics being spoofed. But, unlike some more recent spoof films, this one keeps a main plot that makes sense...

I have only one thing further to say about Cutthroat Island . Except, it's not really about the movie itself; rather, it's about Roger Ebert's review . See, he doens't praise it, but he also doesn't seem to find it as boring and distasteful as I do. And, I am surprised by that. "'Cutthroat Island' does not disappoint," he writes. "It touches all [its] bases like clockwork..." Those bases, the tropes of any "decent pirate pictures" according to Roger: (1) an escape from a hostile port; (2) a battle at sea, preferably with broadsides fired and pirates boarding each other's ships; (3) one featured swordfight, (4) a storm at sea, with the survivors washed ashore, and (5) discovery of the treasure and a final confrontation. And, you know what I like about that list? At first blush, my personal favorite pirate movie-- The Pirate Movie --has but one of those, a featured swordfight. Now, at second blush, it's got a storm at...

I have a goal for today. I want to like Cutthroat Island . Despite all of its flaws, I mean. Despite it's simplistic, plot-driven structure. Despite it's excessive length. Despite its unmotivated characters. Despite its generic script. I have my work cut out for me. I suppose there's charm to these opening titles, all the overlaid old maps and maritime illustrations, like the movie really wants to be the definitive pirate movie... And then I'm reminded of The Pirate Movie , and I love that movie. That movie has charm, taking The Pirates of Penzance , already good in its own right, and updating it for the 1980s with a bit of parody to it, with just the right balance of cheese and earnestness. This movie could use a little less earnestness, a little more lightheartedness. Instead of this faux gravitas between Harry (Harris Yulin) and Dawg (Frank Langella). Or, instead of Renny Harlin and Geena Davis getting the studio to basically fund their honeymoon (they married jus...

(637) (That's the number for this blog entry. It will be consistent neither with the personal numbers or any film references below.) I don't remember what day I "met" my wife, or "met" either of the girlfriends before her. Since I met them online, they were just names on a screen for a while before they became someone important to me. I know Katie mattered to me sometime in July, Miranda in June, Sarah in August. That last one--who I would later marry and from which I will soon be divorced--August 15th, 2001, what I would later call "Arrow Day." (And, not for some cheesy, Cupid-related reason, and that only even occurred to me now because I saw Avengers: Age of Ultron tonight and watched the latest episode of Arrow earlier today and the bow-and-arrow thing was in my head... No, Arrow Day took its name from a particular message board post of mine that got us talking. I posted an arrow pointing to the link to my website after mention of writing...