the groundhog day project

Our progress so far in this deconstruction: (All, in theory, of course. Plus, it's basically a chicken or the egg problem; like, did I like movies about rebels and outcasts because I already had the interest, or was it my interest that drew me to such movies? Could I already imagine that monsters were human too, and that's something I liked about Young Frankenstein , or was it this movie that formed that notion within me? Or is it all just coincidence with some of these really early films--i.e. movies made before I was born, and put to VHS in my family's house not by my choice, and not even viewed by me necessarily by my choice; I mean, I took an interest in films before I can remember taking such an interest. If there was a movie to watch, I would watch it. Didn't matter what it was about; I'd give it a shot. And, if my mother didn't already know just how adult the film might be, she might try to cover my eyes (though she usually failed, and always piqued m...

Before I really get into today's film-- Young Frankenstein --I was thinking about the similarities this one shares with the last two. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) is visited at work to be told he has inherited property. Johnny Baxter in Snowball Express is visited at work to be told he has inherited property. Steve Walker in Blackbeard's Ghost comes to his new locale because of work, but he too is brought to a new location where the new plot gets going. It's an easy in, really. Like offering up the rookie officer, or the new partner, in a cop movie; it invents a definable beginning for the plot for the audience to come into it. (We're still not to year of my birth, by the way. This is 1974. But, of course, I was not selecting the movies for my family right out of the womb. That would take at least a handful of years.) It's an easy opening for any film, any story. Take westerns, for example--which, if you're new, I explored through the month of June...

There's an echo--or whatever the opposite of an echo is--of Joe Versus the Volcano in the much briefer opening of Snowball Express . Baxter doesn't have a terminal diagnosis, of course. Rather, his great uncle (who he apparently didn't even know) died, and this is Baxter's new lease on life. Get out of the "smudge pot" of the city, the office, and go run a hotel in Colorado. I just learned this is based on a book called Chateau Bon Vivant --a true story apparently--about newlyweds Frankie and Johnny O'Rear who "arm themselves with a four-hundred-page volume entitled Theories of Hotel Management , two cases of bourbon... and a Vermont beagle" and set about a "twelve-year comedy of errors" running a ski-lodge in Quebec" (Back Cover Description, near as I can tell). Some details have been changed, of course. Frankie is Susan. Johnny is still Johnny but he left the office instead of the navy. Instead of two cases of bourbon, they...

I And then there's Snowball Express . Dean Jones again. Disney again. And this one starts with the subversive element--Baxter (Jones) inherits a hotel in Colorado and immediately quits his office job... I'm not even sure what it is that he does. Ah, he says Indemnity and Casualty --I guess it's insurance. That's certainly not symbolic of anything. Nor is his destructive interactions with the office "computer" or the time clock. He assesses his time at the company for his wife like this: "Yes, eleven years. And in that time I have moved up three rows, from accounts receivable to accounts payable. Honey, I feel like I'm digging myself into a hole. And today, somebody threw me a rope." She responds: "Do you mean you're just going to give up everything and drag your family off into the wilderness?" "Wilderness?" What...? Honey, I am taking over as the owner and the proprietor of the Grand Imperial Hotel. Does that sound li...

I never got to the second . Yesterday , I mean. I quoted some Alexander Hamilton, then got to ranting and rambling about a topic with a political bent--far, one might argue, from Blackbeard's Ghost . And, in particular, I said, "First, there's that line about seeing desolation and ruin everywhere." But, I never had a second to pair with that first . And, that provides me a mild disappointment. Before I move on to my final thoughts regarding the links between Blackbeard's Ghost and the formation of my identity as a film aficionado and as a human (because, I suppose, at times, the two things must be separated), I must have at last a second . And, it is this: Hamilton, near the end of the passage I quoted, says, "Say not, we have suffered also, and thence withhold your compassion." You know, your all lives matter crowd, your--and, here, I will raise the ire of some for sure--folks who blame antifa for the violence in Charlottesvilke as if a crowd of ...

Keep in mind, I grew up attending church every Saturday, and I went to a private school owned by the church and was taught stuff from the Bible every day in church. Our church took seriously the notion that the world was ending soon--you can read some more of what that did to me day 534 - what are you expecting? world war iii . Our church (and more specifically out school) made an effort once to fast forward through the line, "I want my father back, you son of a bitch" in a movie night screening of The Princess Bride . But, here I am, however young I was when I first watched Blackbeard's Ghost watching a movie that involves, accurate scrying (read: witchcraft) by Mrs Stowecraft, ghosts trapped in limbo (which ran counter to our church's version of what happened after death), and that ghost is a former pirate, murderer, pillager, probably a rapist, and he's an alcoholic. But, what does the movie do with all these dark things? It all serves a very simple idea--do a...

Since Blackbeard's Ghost is a kid's film, we won't hear details about the death of Edward Teach--still fighting after his throat was cut, he was felled by at least 5 gunshots and 20 sword cuts--or how he deliberately ran one of his own ships aground so the shares of the loot among the rest of his men would be bigger. Or how he would stick lit fuses in his hat to scare the crap out of people with the cloud of smoke around his head. Instead, we get a pirate who is funny, and an alcoholic. My sister Brooke joked last night that she may have learned to drink from this movie. We also get a kissing booth. And, if this were the romantic comedy it occasionally seems to think it is, that kissing booth offers up the ultimate meet-cute with Steve meeting Jo Anne (Suzanne Pleshette) by kissing her. Incorrectly figuring because she's taking money near the kissing booth that she is working the booth. It's 1968, second-wave feminism in full swing, so after Steve proceeds to als...

First of all, they were doing this useless prologue bullshit in '68?! I mean, of course they were. Hollywood has rarely trusted its audience to figure out the story as it happens. Gotta dumb it down into an opening crawl, or a voiceover that just opens and closes the movie but adds nothing along the way. Anyway, Blackbeard's Ghost begins with this: In the early years of the eighteenth century lived the pirate Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard. From the Spanish Main to the Carolinas, he wrought a bloody tale of destruction, unparalleled for its ferocity and terror. Blackbeard was killed in sea battle off the American shore. This was followed by widespread joy when it became known the dread pirate had gone at last. Or had he? Second, I realize this may take a while. This being the deconstruction and reconstruction of my childhood in film. Or some such thing. The plan began as a notion of watching all the movies I saw far too many times when I was young. I started with a li...

Von Franz (1980) states that redemption in fairy tales should not be viewed as having "religious" connotations, but has to do with becoming "restored" after having been cursed" (p. 7). Such fairy tales do not dwell on the problem, but on the redemption process, making them relevant in therapy and healing (p. 8). The process is reminiscent of Phil Connors' situation, which is never overtly explained, his story focusing on his process of recovering his humanness and fellow-feeling which appears to lead his "curse" being lifted. (Benesh, 2011, p. 33) This is why I put a pink tab labeled "self-cursed"--just in case you're paying attention, I think I said the tab was on page 34, so I'll explain: I printed Benesh's dissertation two pages per sheet. I mean, the things 131 pages long. If I could cut the paper count in half, I would. Similarly, the second revision of the screenplay is printed two pages per sheet... I mention this no...