I’d be okay with re-watching The Godfather on a big screen but only in a first-rate, tip-top theatre. I’m less sure about re-watching it in the company of popcorn-munchers at an AMC theatre. The best way to re-immerse is via the 2008 Robert Harris-supervised Bluray restoration, on my 65” 4K HDR Sony.
Hugs and condolences to everyone who knew, hired, liked, occasionally fraternized with or loved Sally Kellerman, who’s passed at age 84.
Sally hit it big exactly once in her career when she played Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan in Robert Altman‘s M*A*S*H (’70 — snagged a Best Supporting Actress nomination). She also costarred in some other Altman films (Brewster McCloud, Welcome to L.A., The Player, Prêt a Porter) plus an assortment of films and TV shows.
The only other Kellerman performance that really stuck out for me was her real-estate agent in Dan Mirvish‘s Open House, a musical comedy that premiered at Slamdance ’04. Honestly? With all the singing done “live”, the best you could say was “nice try.” Kellerman indicated during a post-screening q & a that the film could have benefitted from the usual practice of post-production scoring.
Over the last 30-plus years I must have run into Kellerman at a minimum of 200 post-screening parties.
When and if Russian troops run into Sean Penn and his camera crew on some rubble-strewn Ukraine battleground, they should leave them alone. No shoving, no rifle butts, no bullets — please give the order to this effect. You’re friendly with Oliver Stone, of course, so you probably know Oliver made a ‘90s film with Sean (U–Turn) and that they’re good people, etc. Be cool, respect the fifth estate, don’t let the troops get carried away.
Remember the alarming news montage — scary military provocations from a belligerent Russian leader — that opens Crimson Tide (‘95)? What’s happening in Ukraine right now is worse than that, certainly from a theatrical perspective. We are living through a surreal amplification of that Disney-produced scenario — a real-world Jerry Bruckheimer + Tony Scott popcorn nail-biter, and all of it compounded by the domestic crazy right (Trump, Carlson, the no-longer-fat Pompeo) supporting Putin and the Ukraine invasion right now. This is nuts!
