I grew up watching Bronson, Marvin, Eastwood, and other tough guys with my dad. The Last Detail with Nicholson.
Point is I learned from him that some ideas don’t fit in standard orthodoxies but are equally valid. That honor and truth can come from anyone, are exceedingly rare when things get really bad, and that some ideas are worth dying for. Good lessons to learn from your dad.
I am watching the Dirty Dozen right now and it is one of my favorite movies. Hell in the Pacific is another one.
Good movie, the DD.
I love that movie. And you are right about the lessons to be learned. Too bad H’wood doesn’t bother any more.
Lee Marvin may have been an asshole in his personal life but he had a way about him.
Well, I guess he was an asshole on film, too, but he had class.
What M’lady LC said. Battle of the Bulge and Battle for Britain are other good ones.
I saw Last Detail in the theatres when it came out. Good – but I disliked the ending. Kinda like Last Picture Show. Depressing.
H’wood is kinda like the print media: not evolving, it is dying. Its my understanding that movie attendance (when normalized for population growth) has had an avg negative slope for 1-2 decades. For about the price of a theater ticket for two you can own the flick on DVD.
I’m not sure but there seems to be a correlation in the increase numbers: Movie ticket prices, college tuition, and medical care. All of those shot up faster than almost anything else. Correlation certainly. Causation? Therein lies a good movie premise for an intelligent movie maker.
Last Picture Show… I remember being kind of appalled that Cybill Shepherd flashed muff and turned off to the movie. Amused my folks to no end. I guess I wanted even as a kid to believe that some people held themselves to a higher standard.
I didn’t get the memo. What’s up with the “B. Woo” moniker?
I think B. Woo was a lesser known Third Dynasty general who wrote about military tactics, a work called “The Art of Bitch Slapping”. The translation isn’t so good but I think that was the best match on the title they could come up with.
I could be wrong though. This cold has got me all f***ed up.