If I needed to collect my thoughts and assess my options after being asked a politically difficult question, I would maybe stall for eight to ten seconds…something in that realm. But a 21-second delay is too much. It implies a certain lack of focus or even maturity. Whatever you’re thinking, just spit it out. Even if you’re afraid of saying it.

The trailer for Derek Wayne Johnson‘s 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic, which is narrated by Sylvester Stallone, seems to be mostly about the making of the original Rocky. That 1976 Oscar winner was the only “pure” entry in the long-running franchise — the only one that got everything right and a film which everyone still loves or at least likes.

The doc’s title, however, suggests that the long-running Rocky franchise (eight films including the original) will be explored. Which would be a shame. There’s nothing glorious or heart-warming about several attempts to make more money off a popular brand.

There have been seven cash-in sequels since John Avildsen‘s Rocky, written by and starring Stallone, opened on 11.21.76. The sequels are Rocky II (’79), Rocky III (’82), Rocky IV (’85), Rocky V (’90), Rocky Balboa (’06), Creed (’15 — a franchise redefiner that was almost as good as the original), and Creed II (’18).

Stallone played Rocky Balboa (a name inspired by the real-life Rocky Graziano and inspired by Robert Wise‘s Somebody Up There Likes Me) in all eight films. He wrote seven of the eight and directed four of them.

40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic will be available on-demand as of Tuesday, 6.9.

The doc features heretofore unseen pre-production and principal photography footage shot by Avildsen and others.

Posted on Facebook by Rod Lurie, around 9:30 am (Tuesday, 6.2): “It was a good speech, Joe. Eloquent and even presidential. On any other day I would say it was perfect. But today? It was the opposite of what we needed to hear from you.

“What we need is blistering anger. We need to see the veins popping in your forehead. Donald Trump opened fire on innocent and peaceful protestors yesterday and this “Gentleman Joe” stuff isn’t gong to fucking cut it. Because we’re at war now — war against a tyrant, a would-be dictator, a leader who has learned more from Kim Jung Un than he has from Winston Churchill.

“You should not have buried the lede in that speech. You needed to come out — FIRST words out of your mouth, no ‘good morning’, no ‘I’m happy to be here’, but …

“‘Yesterday the President of the United States, the man who holds the same office as did George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, terrorized peaceful American citizens with tear gas and flash grenades and rubber bullets. You saw it, I saw it, we all saw this despicable dark moment in American history — and he did it for one reason’…and then, Joe, you should have held up that photo of Trump holding up a bible in front of that church…’So he could do this. THIS.’

“Then you should have taken a beat. Chilled for a second.

“‘Folks, I have been driven by my faith my whole life. I know a real Christian when I see one. And I know the fakes as well. And I know fake patriots: The charlatans who use the Lord and the flag as a prop. The men who order violence on other humans and then stand in front of a church holding a bible upside down as the cameras flash.’

“‘A year from now, unless we do the right thing, scenes like the ones we saw yesterday will simply become a way of life in or country — because that is what happens in fascist natio.

“‘Trump got the votes he did because he identified an anger in this country and tapped into it. Well, we are angry still. Angrier, even. And now it is time for YOU to tap into that. The difference is that you actually empathize with these real Americans. So damn man, show us…SHOW US.’

“Decency, Joe, doesn’t always have to be polite.”

HE side-comment: Every YouTube video of Biden’s speech, presumably sourced from the same pool camera, is out of focus. How hard would it have been for the person in charge to realize what was happening and go up to the camera and manually correct the focus?

Posted early this morning in the “See HD Boxy Jacket While You Can” thread:

“FMJ is a flawed masterwork due to the relatively weak and longish Vietnam middle section that’s mostly about waiting for something to happen. The focus is basically didactic moral commentary rather than narrative tension.

‘However, the opening Parris Island boot camp section + the fires-of-hell finale in Hue with the young-girl sniper are jewel-perfect.”

Charles Laughton’s Sir Wilfrid Robarts on yesterday’s bible photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church: “My Lord, I would also remind my learned friend that President Trump has lived such an arrogant and deplorable life, told so many lies and violated so many solemn oaths that I am surprised the Testament did not leap from his hands when he posed with it before the cameras.”

Thanks for giving The Beast a potential election boost by allowing him to appear semi-sane, at least in the eyes of Average Joes.

I didn’t think it would be possible for Trump to adopt a semi-palatable look in the middle of all this righteous rage and in the wake of his horrific non-handling of the pandemic, but he’s managed that. Or the looters have, I should say. It’s bullshit, of course, but he’s selling it.

Last night’s demonstration in Lafayette Park was peaceful, I’ve read. But Trump sent in troops regardless. Tear gas all around. Then he went over to St. John’s and held up a bible. Jesus wept.

If JFK had eluded assassination in Dallas he’d be 103 years old this month, an unlikely milestone given the frail state of his health (including Addison’s disease) reaching back to the 1940s and ’50s. But if he had somehow lived to age 100 (like Norman Lloyd and Kirk Douglas managed without breaking much of a sweat), he probably would have been sliced and diced by #MeToo. It would’ve been brutal, and he wouldn’t have had much of a defense.

Given the fact that his compulsive Don Juaning was way beyond anything Bill Clinton or Gary Hart could have even dreamt of, the 35th president lived and died within the right time frame. For all his admirable qualities, he was not a man for all seasons.

But when you compare JFK to the present Oval Office occupant…forget it. And yet he was, by any even-handed standard, a #MeToo villain. As much of a sexist dinosaur as James Bond was in his realm. And yet at the same time a guy who knew from dignity…refined, discreet, educated, thoughtful, civilized…a guy who exuded a certain elan and conveyed a bracing vision of things, and seemed to know what voters wanted of him and how to behave. An elitist, okay, but not a racist, and always with a healthy suspicion of Republicans and those big businessmen he regarded as “sons of bitches.”

But it was probably better that he lived when he did. Because when you consider his reported attitudes about women…okay, there’s nowhere to go with this. Different eras. The twains could never meet.

From Christopher Sandford‘s “Harold and Jack: The Remarkable Friendship of Prime Minister Macmillan and President Kennedy“:

An explanation of the bone spurs slur, as provided by N.Y. Times reporter Steve Eder on 12.26.18.

Here's the audio of that remarkable call where Trump lashes out at governors and says they need to crack down on protesters. pic.twitter.com/ANSsniYItN

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) June 1, 2020

Last night I was browsing through some HBO Max films, and was startled to discover that the boxy (1.37:1) version of Stanley Kubrick‘s Full Metal Jacket (’87) is being HD streamed. Which is certainly cause for celebration.

One, I hadn’t watched this version of FMJ since the early aughts, or soon after the release of the 2001 “Kubrick Collection” DVD version, which was mastered in 1.37:1. Two, until last night I’d never seen the boxy version in 1080p HD, as the ’01 DVD was naturally presented in 480p. And three, Kubrick preferred the boxy version to the cleavered 1.85, which is how 99.5% of the home viewing public has seen this Vietnam War classic.

Full Metal Jacket as it currently appears on HBO Max, with a 1.37:1 aspect ratio.

Same scene within the standard 1.85 a.r., which is how almost everyone has seen Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 Vietnam War classic over the last 15 or 20 years, give or take.

HE is advising all HBO Max subscribers to stream the boxy FMJ as soon as possible before it disappears. Because the sworn enemies of “boxy is beautiful” will be doing everything they can to erase this version, despite the fact that Kubrick personally preferred it.

Seriously, hurry. If I know Bob Furmanek and the 1.85 fascist cabal they’ll soon be hounding HBO Max to swap out the boxy with the 1.85. These guys are fanatics. They hate boxy and will stop at nothing.

Perhaps someone on the HB0 Max tech team made a “mistake” in uploading the boxy version, but it’s a good mistake, trust me.

Consider the following 2008 DVD Talk interview with longtime Kubrick employee and collaborator Leon Vitali, in which he explains Kubrick’s visual aesthetic:

DVD Talk: “One of the areas of greatest debate in the DVD community is about aspect ratios. The two films that people talk about the most in terms of aspect ratio are Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, maybe because those are the ones that have been seen theatrical by the DVD buying audience. But people will go through [these films] frame by frame and say ‘in the trailer of Eyes Wide Shut, you can see a sign on the street that you can’t see on the full frame video. You can see an extra character.’ So how do you address the differences between the theatrical releases of Eyes Wide Shut and of Full Metal Jacket in the DVD releases?”

Vitali: The original video release of Full Metal Jacket was in the supervised hands and owned by Stanley. The thing about Stanley, he was a photographer. That’s how he started. He had a still photographer’s eye. So when he composed a picture through the camera, he was setting up for what he saw through the camera — the full picture. That was very important to him. It really was. It was an instinct that never ever left him.

From the N.Y. Times’ Mike Hale via Facebook: