Day: April 12, 2021

No Way The H’wood Arclight Disappears

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Someone or some entity will step in and save H’wood’s Arclight plex and particularly the Cinerama Dome**. Some wealthy entrepeneur or digital distribution company (Netflix, Amazon, Quentin Tarantino) will save the day. The Arclight cinemas (including the ones in Sherman Oaks and Culver City) are central to the L.A. movie experience. They’re simply not allowed to permanently shutter…out of the question.

** The ultra-curved Cinerama Dome screen distorts the shit out of Scope films (2.39:1), by the way. It distorts the shit out of everything.

Respect for Richard Rush

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All hail director Richard Rush, who passed on 4.8.21 at age 91.

I met, interviewed and even hung out with Rush a bit during the 1980 promotion (spring and summer) of The Stunt Man — an audacious, whimsical turn-on that’s partly a sardonic comedy and partly a surreal meditation on the nature of “reality” and filmmaking. It was Rush’s one big triumph, or more precisely as a success d’estime within the community of hip know-it-all critics.

I was flattered to be invited to a special Manhattan Stunt Man gathering that included Rush, costar Steve Railsback and three or four elite journo schmoozer types — a boozy late-night hang that went into the wee hours. Out of this I became friendly (short termish) with Railsback’s wife Jackie (aka Jackie Giroux). Several weeks later I wangled a GQ assignment to interview Peter O’Toole, whose Stunt Man performance as director Eli Cross was one of his best, at his London home**.

Wiki excerpt: “Adapted by Rush and Lawrence B. Marcus from a same-titled 1970 novel by Paul Brodeur, The Stunt Man is about a young fugitive (Railsback) who lucks into a stunt double gig on the set of a World War I movie whose charismatic director (O’Toole) is quite the force of nature. Pic was nominated for three Oscars: O’Toole for Best Actor, Rush for Best Director and also for Best Adapted Screenplay.”

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Chandler Era

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Nocturnal high-def Los Angeles in the early to mid ’40s…Gilda, The Outlaw, The Letter on theatre marquees. Hat stores, fur stores, Atlantic Richfield gas stations. A large spotlight mounted on a flatbed truck. Hundreds upon hundreds of mid ’40s autos parked curbside — a 2021 film set in this era couldn’t hope to deliver this kind of authentic realism. Downtown Los Angeles plus the mean streets of Hollywood. Video-like clarity plus simulated sound…fairly amazing.

Pre-Covid Thriller On The Verge

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For an alleged “problem” movie, Joe Wright‘s The Woman in the Window (Netflix, 5.14) seems more intriguing due to the latest trailer. Pic was initially slated for a 10.4.19 release via 20th Century Fox. Disney, which bought Fox on 3.20.19, got the willies after alleged poor test screening results. Pic was recut and given a 5.15.20 theatrical release. But then Covid stepped in. Netflix bought Wright’s film on 8.3.20.

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Son of Profound Finales

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[Video clip posted two or three times, but the copy was originally posted on 1.10.15]: There are great movie finales, or ones that end on a sum-up note that is fair, concise, honest, eloquent. And there are finales that do all that but also reach inside and push that button that you yourself don’t know how to find, much less push, half the time. A kind of sinking sensation in your soul. A sense of sudden wisdom and sadness and being oddly at peace with everything, including your own miserable self.

This is how I’ve felt time and again during the last 60 seconds of Franklin J. Schaffner‘s Patton (’69), stirringly fortified by Jerry Goldsmith‘s score and particularly by the words “all glory is fleeting.”

In short, everything worth cherishing in life is fleeting…it all fades and vaporizes…romantic love, freshly-shined shoes, a perfectly tuned six-cylinder engine, purring cats on your lap, world-class wifi, general ecstasy, feelings of absolute security, exquisite guitar playing, momentary pride in a difficult achievement, warm sunshine, the balm of friendship and camaraderie, the sight of snow-capped mountain peaks against a sparkling blue sky, perfect glasses of pineapple juice, Everett Sloane‘s girl in a white dress on the Staten Island ferry…don’t get me started.

All of it streaming past, leaves floating away on a mountain stream, nothing to have or hold. Either you savor your passing delights as impermanent and all the more valuable for that, or you don’t.

God: “What do you want from me?” Me: “I don’t know. The good moments lasting a little longer?”

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Death Reel Keepers & Straddlers

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Forthwith are the names of Hollywood luminaries who passed in 2020 or early ’21. I’m assuming all or most will be included in the Oscar telecast death reel, but you know the Academy — they always cut or ignore at random. Who’s safe and who might not be? And who am I missing?

Sean Connery, Chadwick Boseman, Kirk Douglas, Kelly Preston, (not Eddie Van Halen), Orson Bean, (not Kool & the Gang co-founder Ronald Bell), Honor “Pussy Galore” Blackman, Wilford Brimley, Kobe Bryant (his Dear Basketball won Best Animated Short Film Oscar), Edd “Kookie” Byrnes (not Pierre Cardin), Robert Conrad, (not Mac Davis), Olivia de Havilland, Brian Dennehy, (possibly not Rhonda Fleming), Buck Henry, Ian Holm, (possibly not Terry Jones), Irrfan Khan, John Le Carre, James Lipton, (possibly not Terrence McNally, who was primarily a playwright), (possibly not Ken “Eddie Haskell” Osmond), (possibly not Regis Philbin), David “Darth Vader” Prowse, Carl Reiner, Diana Rigg, John Saxon, Joel Schumacher, Jerry Stiller, (probably not Alex Trebek), Max von Sydow, (possibly not Lyle Waggoner, Dawn Wells or Fred Willard), Bertrand Tavernier…a total of 25 solid inclusions, give or take.

Add-ons: Michael Apted. Allen Daviau. Alan Parker. Michael Chapman, Lynn Stalmaster.

The Crowd Roars

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There’s almost nothing anyone can say about yesterday’s Daunte Wright shooting in Minneapolis except “here we go again.”

If the fuzz pulls you over for whatever, the dumbest thing you can do is to resist or run. This has always been true in any region, under any circumstance. If you’ve been pulled over, resistance of any kind will end badly…period.

In this instance the 20-year-old Wright, who had been ridiculously pulled over for having an air-freshener or two hanging from his car’s rearview mirror, defied the bulls and drove off when they attempted to cuff him for a past warrant. A cop shot him. Wright succumbed to the wound several blocks later, crashed the car and died. Brilliant! Air fresheners!

Where is it written in the annals of Minnesota police regulations that if a suspect runs you whip out your pistol and shoot him dead? I know that if I say “Wright should have just chilled and cooperated,” Twitter will say I’m a bad person so I’d like to announce here and now that I don’t know what he should’ve done.

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