Everyone reflexively smiles when they meet people socially. Some smile slightly, some a little too much but always with the same glazed eyes. No sincerity offered or expected. But handshakes are a different deal when you’re saying hello to a powerful Hollywood player. Their teeth are gleaming but their eyes are scanning you like a Manhattan detective, trying to assess your nature or strengths or potential threat levels in the space of two or three seconds. I felt this when I met CAA honcho Mike Ovitz in ’88 — he had the eyes of a timber wolf. The eyes of MPAA president Jack Valenti, whom I met in ’84 at the Sportsmen’s Lodge, weren’t as feral but he was definitely sizing me up. Do I scan people like Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s cyborg when I meet them? Frankly, yes…but I try to mask it. Maybe that’s what a lot of people do.

“A formally and thematically ambitious documentary that revisits the 1966 sniper shootings at the U. of Texas at Austin, Tower powerfully channels the terror and confusion of that terrible August day while also achieving the weight and authority that can only come with time and distance. A gripping dramatic reconstruction, a tribute to the heroes and the fallen, and inevitably an expression of nostalgia for the days when a mass shooting still had the power to shock, Keith Maitland’s film weaves rotoscopic animation, archival footage and present-day interviews into a uniquely cinematic memorial that will be in demand from programmers and buyers as the 50th anniversary of the shootings approaches.” — from Justin Chang’s 3.15 SXSW review.

Press to Hillary Clinton about Monday night’s debate:  “There are 50 ways you can fuck this up, and if you can think of 35 of them you’re a genius. Trump will frequently lie his ass off, of course, and it’s entirely possible that moderator Lester Holt will indeed sit there like a potted plant and let many of his falsehoods slide. So it’s on you to correct him. Which, if you do with any thoroughness, will leave you almost no time to deliver your own points. Just remember that when you correct Trump, don’t sound like a braying scold. As FakeEmily65 tweeted this morning, ‘Be smart but not a know-it-all. Be human but not phony. Smile but not too much. Be tough but not a bully.’  You need to do all these things and be likable. It’s unfair, of course, but all Trump has to do is turn down the crazy and pretend to be semi-reasonable with a smile, and he’s got it half won.”

I noted in the headline for my 10.22.14 review of John Wick that Keanu Reeves looked “beefy.” He had definitely waded into Chris Pratt territory, but he looks somewhat more chiselled (i.e., 10 or 15 pounds lighter?) in John Wick: Chapter Two (Summit, 2.10.17). Just saying.

“Wick director Chad Stahelski (along with Zack Snyder, David Leitch and others of their tribe) represents everything about the action-fantasy-superhero franchise business that is rancid, robotic and devoid of a soul. I’ve also noted that Stahelski is the last name of an electrician, a surfer, pool-maintenance guy, a hot-dog chef at Pinks, a garbage man or a guy whose grandfather worked in the same New Orleans factory as Stanley Kowalski.” — from 1.29.15 posting titled “Disembowel This Movie With A Viking Sword.”

Until about 45 minutes ago, I honestly and truly thought today was Friday. I’m used to living in a kind of writing cave but I’ve never “lost” an entire day before. One third of the weekend is suddenly gone. An odd, slightly unpleasant feeling.

Today a guy on Twitter called me “insufferable” for asserting that my Cape Fear Bluray on my 65-inch Sony will look better than the 35mm print that the New Beverly will be playing this evening, or roughly 55 minutes from now. The Bluray will be sharper, crisper, cleaner, better sounding and will offer a much richer, more glistening monochrome palette. Just a perfect experience as opposed to sitting in the tunnel-like New Beverly and watching a decent but probably far from perfect print on a smallish screen with a bunch of film bums.

These are the two best portions of Louis Heaton‘s Guns For Hire: The Making of ‘The Magnificent Seven’, a 16 year-old documentary and a very flavorful and knowledgable inside-Hollywood saga. A pretty good thing to watch on this, a day of mourning with Antoine Fuqua‘s bullshit remake playing in theatres nationwide. The only thing I genuinely liked about Fuqua’s film is the decision to play Elmer Bernstein’s 1960 score during the closing credits. Charles Lang‘s widescreen cinematography is so handsomely framed and balanced, each and every shot.

A little over four years ago I bought Olive Films’ 60th anniversary High Noon Bluray, and I was immensely pleased with the image quality. It makes Fred Zinneman’s 1952 classic look like one of the most beautiful monochrome films ever shot. Naturally, schmuck that I am, I’ve just bought the new Olive Signature Bluray version of the same guldarned film because it’s a remaster from an all-new 4K harvest. How much better can it look? Will I notice tiny little improvements? I have doubts, but I can’t tolerate the notion of a slightly better looking version being out there and my not owning it.

This at least affords an opportunity to re-post Matthew Morettini’s improved version of the famous ticking clock sequence, which is apt with the new Bluray containing an essay called “A Ticking Clock — Mark Goldblatt on the editing of High Noon.”

Matthew Morettini 2015 version:

Posted on 12.2.15: “Yesterday I posted a short piece about how Elmo Williams‘ cutting of the famous High Noon tick-tock sequence has always bothered me slightly. It was edited to match Dimitri Tiomkin‘s music, and so every cut was supposed to happen at the precise instant of the final beat…but it doesn’t quite do that. Today editor Matthew Morettini wrote to say the reason for my slight irritation is that the picture is four frames ahead of the music.

Respect and condolences for the friends, fans and colleagues of Bill Nunn, who’s passed after only 62 years of life. I knew him best as “Radio Raheem” in Spike Lee‘s Do The Right Thing (’89), which was shot when the Pittsburgh-born Nunn was 34. Sidenote: Raheem’s ghetto blaster ignites a fierce battle (racist Italian pizza guys vs. African American Fort Greene natives) in this scene from Lee’s film. In the view of Raheem and friends, assaulting passersby with ear-splitting music was a celebration of their culture, but to most New Yorkers back then (and I’m speaking as an ex-resident) ghetto blasters were a scourge. They made life hell for thousands of Central Park visitors on weekends. A friend told me about a kid on a bike who was blasting sounds somewhere near an open pasture in southern Central Park, and suddenly the kid lost his balance and the blaster fell and shattered and was silent. A few people leapt to their feet and started cheering.

Posted four days ago (9.19) by Kirk Douglas (edited): “I am in my 100th year. When I was born in 1916 in Amsterdam, New York, Woodrow Wilson was our president. The longer I’ve lived, the less I’ve been surprised by the inevitability of change, and how I’ve rejoiced that so many of the changes I’ve seen have been good.

“Yet, I’ve also lived through the horrors of a Great Depression and two World Wars, the second of which was started by a man who promised that he would restore his country it to its former greatness.

“I was 16 when that man came to power in 1933. For almost a decade before his rise he was laughed at — not taken seriously. He was seen as a buffoon who couldn’t possibly deceive an educated, civilized population with his nationalistic, hateful rhetoric. The ‘experts’ dismissed him as a joke. They were wrong.

“A few weeks ago we heard words spoken in Arizona that my wife, Anne, who grew up in Germany, said chilled her to the bone. They could also have been spoken in 1933:

“’We also have to be honest about the fact that not everyone who seeks to join our country will be able to successfully assimilate. It is our right as a sovereign nation to choose immigrants that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish here…[including] new screening tests for all applicants that include an ideological certification to make sure that those we are admitting to our country share our values.’

“These are not the American values that we fought in World War II to protect.

On 10.25 Olive Signature will issue a 4K-scanned Bluray of John Ford‘s The Quiet Man. Olive put out a 2K Bluray in January 2103. The newbie will offer a denser, more finely rendered harvest of an original-negative restoration from the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Ford biographer, SFSU professor and author Joe McBride, who recorded a commentary track on the forthcoming version, says “this is the best-looking home video release of The Quiet Man I’ve ever seen. Other editions didn’t capture the lush, delicate beauty of the Oscar-winning cinematography by Winton C. Hoch and Archie J. Stout — this one does.”

I bought the 2013 Bluray, watched it for 45 minutes and gave up. I simply don’t like this film because it overloads on the Irish blarney. Sentimentality never ages well, and that quality has always been the anvil tied to the ankle of Ford’s reputation. I’m sorry but Ford’s susceptibility to the Irishness of The Quiet Man (particularly his affection for drinkers and fondness for what David Thomson once called the “tedious eccentricity” in his supporting players) just wears you down. The John Wayne-Maureen O’Hara connection is the only thing that saves it.