the groundhog day project

Another soundtrack that played a lot in our house when I was a kid: The Man from Snowy River . Bruce Rowland's score is iconic to me, more so than some of the great film scores out there that I know are great but just didn't get repeat play in the house I grew up in. And, then the credits end with Directed by George Miller and I am 1) shocked because I never knew George Miller directed this, even after all the times I've seen it (far more times than I have ever seen The Road Warrior , a film I prefer), and 2) disappointed because apparently Australia's film industry rules allow two different directors called George Miller. I mean, that Mad Max George Miller also made Babe: Pig in the City and Happy Feet , so that guy could direct pretty much anything, and horse stampedes and cheesy close ups of angry horse eyes actually seemed right up his alley. But no, this George Miller directed Andre and A Mom for Christmas , which an ex of mine was rather cheekily obsessed wi...

I never really wrote about the original The Magnificent Seven in this blog. (One of a few times that exhaustion at the end of a long day kept me from really putting in an effort here.) Also, it only just occurred to me, as the men from the Mexican town have come to Chris (Yul Brynner) for help, that aside from one detail--Flik being an outcast from his village rather than a stranger-- A Bug's Life is basically this film, or rather Seven Samurai . And, I'm wondering how I never got that before. It's so obvious. Now, I'm wondering what else I have missed in the movies I've seen, what references went over my head because of particular timing or a lack of familiarity? I have seen Seven Samurai but maybe only once all the way through. It's also the plot of many a D&D module. It's such a simple plot hook--a village is in trouble, and a bunch of men (usually men) have the skills to save it from its attackers. Bring your gunslinging, your knife-throwing...

I wrote a bit about The Magnificent Seven a few days ago . Talking about character classes (a la Dungeons & Dragons ) and archetypes, how each character needs to have a different personality trait or skill that makes them distinct from the other characters. What The Encylopedia of Fantasy refers to as the "seven samurai" and TV Tropes calls "the magnificent seven samurai". A reminder: I'm watching the latest incarnation of The Magnificent Seven tonight, so the seven are: Denzel Washington as Sam Chisolm, the leader, a warrant officer Chris Pratt as Josh Faraday, a gambler Ethan Hawke as Goodnight Robicheaux, the veteran sharpshooter Vincent D'Onofrio as Jack Horne, the mountain man, who is also religious Byung-hun Lee as Billy Rocks, the knife thrower (and "a mysterious man of the Orient") Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Vasquez, an outlaw Martin Sensmeier as Red Harvest, a Comanche warrior Plus Haley Bennett as Emma Cullen, the woman who gets ...

Two movies today-- The Naked Spur and Shane . Twenty minutes into The Naked Spur , I'm wondering why Wright (1975) categorizes it under the vengeance plot. Howard Kemp (Jimmy Stewart) is a bounty hunter... and he did rip off the bottom of the wanted poster where it mentioned the reward, so maybe he's got a personal stake in this. I tend to like writing during the movies for this blog, but reading about a Western that, yes, I've probably seen, but no, don't remember, can spoil what's coming. There's some interesting gender commentary going on in this film. The wanted man, Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan) claims he took in Lina Patch (Janet Leigh) because her pa was his best friend. And, the old prospector Jesse Tate, asked if he ever married one of the good women he's known, says he never had to with his good looks. Thing is, the male/female opposition is like a footnote at the edge of the main story. The real story here is Ben trying to put wedge between...