The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

As someone who's not very religious--at least not in the "orthodox" sense of the word--I've always been fascinated by religion.  I've studied a few over the years and realized that the bulk of them are founded on good ideas.  I don't have a problem with religion per se.  I don't have a problem if you find something in it that works for your life and as long as it brings you comfort and inner peace and you're not harming anyone else, I don't have any issue with your chosen spiritual practice.

I do, however, have issues with proselytization--the idea that if something works for you it must work for everyone else and therefore you have to "convert" everyone to your way of thinking.  I don't know if this is supposed to validate your own experience or what, but I think it closes peoples' minds to many experiences and possibilities.

I've frequently said that movies and music are the closest things I get to religion.  I've described going to movie theaters and record stores as going to church.  I get something out of it that so many other people don't.  And I don't want to proselytize, but there is one point--possibly a "tenet" of my "faith"--that has become something of a cause célèbre, particularly among major film directors.  That belief--one that I share--is the idea that movies are best appreciated in a theater.

And don't get me wrong--I enjoy watching movies at home.  I'm watching one as I write this.  But even with a 50-inch television that's bigger than anything we ever had when I was a kid and a killer sound system, it's still not as impressive as watching it in a darkened room on a screen at least two stories tall.  It does require leaving the house, it frequently involves sharing the experience with a group of strangers, but I've often felt that the experience is still better.

The pandemic hit the film industry hard.  As an avid moviegoer, I was particularly disappointed--there were three movies coming out in 2020 that I had to wait an extra year and a half to see, one of which never wound up playing at a theater near me (more than half a decade later and I'm still pissed about that!).  Filmmakers--especially the well-known, well-respected ones--have been making a point the last few years to make their movies events that make it worth leaving the house for.

Last weekend, Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey raked in over $260 million globally in its opening weekend.  Not only are people saying that you need to see this in theaters, but because it's the first feature to be shot entirely in the IMAX format, you need to actually see it that way, which requires not just leaving your house, but seeking out a theater that is specially equipped to show such a film.  And that judgement seems to be paying off.  (Sadly, the closest IMAX theater to me is over an hour away--don't know if I'll see it that way or not--although I might opt for the new SCREENX option.)

But even without the whole IMAX thing, the bottom line based on my own experience is this:  movies are typically better in a theater.  I find this is especially true of movies that I've watched hundreds of times at home, particularly if I'm seeing them in a theater for the first time.  I often see little details that I never saw before because it's harder to see them on your television screen--and damn near impossible on your phone--that make the viewing experience that much more interesting.  Of course, once I see them, I can't unsee them, even when watching at home.  (In It's a Wonderful Life, what IS that skull shaped thing on Mr. Potter's desk?)

In a theater, I've found that comedies are funnier, tragedies are sadder, action films are more intense, and even epics are more epic.  The sheer size and scope of the theater screen makes for a bigger and better overall moviegoing experience.

Strangely enough, I've noticed that once I've seen certain films on the big screen, I'll go back and see them again if given the opportunity.  This is especially true of movies that have meant something to me throughout my life.  I've seen It's a Wonderful Life, Casablanca, Ghostbusters, and The Labyrinth multiple times in theaters--and even though I have them all in my home video collection, if I ever see that they're playing at my local theater, I will go see them again because they're among my favourites.  Since 2009, I've actually seen Ghostbusters more times in a theater than I did when it was originally released in 1984.

When deciding which film to highlight this week, I actually tried to avoid picking this particular one.  Admittedly, it is a little cliché and my friend Tara will think I'm calling her out for never having seen it (okay, maybe I am doing that to some degree--sorry, not sorry).  But the truth is, this is a perfect example of what I--along with Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan and even Francis Ford Coppola--have been trying to explain since we've developed the ability to watch movies on our phones.

The first time I saw this film actually was in a theater in 1997.  At the time, the movie was celebrating its 25th anniversary, so it was re-released in theaters.  I had never seen it, even on home video, and always understood it to be something of a cultural phenomenon--even at 23, I also seemed to understand that seeing it at home on a VHS tape could not compare to seeing it in a theater.  Looking back on it now, it's even more special to me because I got to share the experience with my dad--the man I credit for making me fall in love with movies to begin with.  It was actually one of his favourites and I can say without hesitation that today it's one of mine.  In the decade since his death, I've even been able to see it two more times on the big screen.  And if I ever again see that it's playing, I will make a point of going out of my way to see it again (heads up, Tara).

Released in 1972, the film established the careers of Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and even director Francis Ford Coppola.  Based on one of the most celebrated novels of all time, Coppola also co-wrote the screenplay with the novel's author, Mario Puzo.  It went on to win three Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay.  In 2007, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked it #2 on their list of the 100 greatest American movies.  Yeah, it's a cliché, but this week, please enjoy The Godfather.

(NOTE:  I would feel remiss if I didn't mention 1974's The Godfather Part II.  It is, in my humble opinion, the greatest sequel--and prequel--ever made.  Honestly, I tend to view both movies as one massive epic.  Like it's predecessor, it's better appreciated in a theater.  It went on to win six Oscars including Best Picture--the only sequel to ever win that award whose predecessor also won it--Best Supporting Actor (Rober De Niro) and Best Adapted Screenplay.  In 2007, the AFI ranked it at #32 on their list of the 100 greatest American films--the only sequel on the list.  I've even had the pleasure of seeing it on the big screen twice in the last ten years.  And while I'll be the first to admit it's not as good, I feel that 1990's The Godfather Part III is often unjustly and unfairly maligned--but that's just me.)

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

 

 

 

 

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

"And now for something completely different."

--John Cleese, "Monty Python's Flying Circus"

I'll start off this week with a confession.  A few years back, my sister gave me an audiobook of Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror--something she listens to every Christmas.  And as much as I love Christopher Moore's writing, I've only listened to about half of the audiobook.  I keep saying that one year, preferably during the holidays, I'll listen to the whole thing, but I just can't seem to be able to focus on it.  Maybe I should just buy the book and read it.

People frequently ask me if I listen to certain podcasts or audiobooks.  I just can't seem to get into them.  I mean, they sound fascinating--or I'm sure they would if I actually listened.  The problem is that the main reason people like the podcasts and audiobooks is the main reason I can't get into them--one can multitask while listening to them. 

Multitasking has never been something that's ever really been in my wheelhouse.  When I'm doing dishes or yardwork, I can play music.  But it's usually music I'm already familiar with and in some cases know backward and forward.  When I'm listening to a podcast or an audiobook, I'm trying to absorb new information.  That usually requires my full attention.  It requires me to actually put everything on hold and listen.  If I'm trying to do anything else at the same time, I feel like I'm missing something--either a vital piece of trivial information or an overgrown branch on my hedge that won't get trimmed properly and will be even more overgrown the next time I do my yardwork.

When I was younger, I would have had no problem with audiobooks.  I used to just sit and listen to things like old radio broadcasts or standup comedy albums or even music--the reason I can put on such familiar music while I'm doing dishes is because I listened to it and absorbed it as a teenager.

I recently found a cheap four-disc box set of one of my favourite performers.  When I got it home, I realized that I couldn't just put it on and play it--I actually had to listen to it.  It's not like it's a standard album of music.  It took me a couple of months before I was able to find the time to just... listen.  But when I (finally) did, it made me appreciate his artistry even more than I already did.

Having grown up on his movies, I was already a fan of Peter Sellers the actor.  From his performance as the inept Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies to his Oscar-nominated turns in Dr. Strangelove and Being There, Sellers was always fun to watch.  What I didn't realize was that between 1958 and 1979 Sellers recorded a few albums of comedic/musical material--he even did one with Sophia Loren after they made a movie together.  I don't know why this surprised me exactly.  I was at least somewhat familiar with "The Goon Show" broadcasts he did for the BBC in the 1950s with Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe.

As a one-time aspiring voice-artist myself, I've always admired those who have a facility with dialects and accents and even language in general.  Listening to those albums, I realized what a genius Sellers was in this area.  I have a feeling that if he were alive today, he would have quite a career for himself in voice work.  And even though this should have been apparent in his movies--in Dr. Strangelove alone, he played three different characters all with a different accent--it becomes even more evident when you sit and listen to his recorded works (even the ones that today would be considered "problematic").

This week, just to shake things up a bit, I thought I'd share his last album, 1979's Sellers Market.  If anyone reading this happens to be fluent in Morse Code, I'd be curious to know how accurate the translation of Cole Porter's "Night and Day" is.  I haven't studied it in roughly 35 years and I'm afraid I've forgotten most of it.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you. 

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill 

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

Sometimes I think it's important to re-evaluate things in our lives--especially when it comes to things like film and music.  Opinions change with time and age, and we may see something that was not necessarily visible to us before.

In 1998, the American Film Institute (AFI), I believe to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of motion pictures, made a list of what they believed to be the 100 greatest American movies.  They broadcast the list in a big prime time special featuring interviews with actors, writers, directors, and other famous people in the industry.

Being the film nut that I am, I watched the special.  At 24, I was quite proud of myself for having seen a number of the films on the list that pre-dated me.  The whole thing, as fascinating as I found it, was a bit anticlimactic because I knew, even at that age, that #1 and #2 were going to be Citizen Kane (1941) and Casablanca (1942)--I just didn't know which film would be in which position.  Lo and behold, at the end of the broadcast, Casablanca was #2 and Citizen Kane was #1.

(That's not to say that I wasn't pleasantly surprised by other titles and their respective positions, particularly The Godfather (1972), which I had only just seen for the first time the previous year, which came in at #3.)

A couple of years later, I happened to be in a Sam's Club and found a VHS copy of Citizen Kane for all of four bucks.  As much as I had read about it, I had still never seen the movie.  So I bought it in an effort to find out what film scholars had been raving about for nearly 60 years at that point.

My initial thought was that it was a good movie.  I don't think I would have called it the greatest American movie ever made.  I certainly wouldn't have said it was better than Casablanca.  But it was enjoyable enough, even though I think it was rather overrated.

It was about a year after that, that I started upgrading everything to DVD.  For one reason or another, I didn't get around to upgrading that particular film.  I also didn't watch it again, even though I've kept a working VCR the entire time, because I just kept figuring I would be upgrading it in the near future, which never happened.

After making more film lists--including 100 Greatest Love Stories, Heroes and Villains, and Film Quotes--in 2007, the AFI revisited their original list of the 100 Greatest American Movies, this time re-evaluating it.  A lot of movies had come out during that time and opinions changed on others.  (Apparently, no matter how technologically groundbreaking it might have been in 1915, a film that glorifies the Ku Klux Klan is problematic in the 21st century, so Birth of a Nation--which was on the 1998 list--suddenly went bye-bye.  Not to worry, though--Gone With the Wind (1939) still remained in the Top 10.)

What was interesting to me is that many films just changed positions on the list.  Raging Bull (1980) actually jumped up 20 positions in nine years and was suddenly ranked #4 on the list.  In fact, The Godfather and Casablanca just switched positions making them #2 and #3 respectively.  And yet somehow, Citizen Kane still remained at #1.

By this point in my life, I had seen many more movies and had what I like to think are educated opinions of them, including Citizen Kane.  And while I was able to genuinely appreciate the "Saturday Night Live" sequel, Citizen Kane II, I still thought the film was overrated.

This feeling was reinforced a couple of years ago when I read my grandmother's diary.  She wrote in 1942 about seeing the film and not being that impressed with it, which delighted me in a snobbish kind of way.

This year marks the 85th anniversary of this landmark film.  It played at my local theater, so I decided it had been roughly 25 years since I'd seen it--maybe I should watch it again on a big screen (the way films are best appreciated) and maybe I could see what critics and scholars saw that eluded me in the past.

I did come away from it with a deeper appreciation than I did when I first saw it nearly half my life ago.  The basic themes of the film seemed timely in a way they didn't 25 years ago.  Or maybe they always were and I just wasn't aware of it.  I feel like I can find contemporary analogs of most of those characters in our present-day society.

What genuinely impressed me about the film was the "arrogance of youth" that I referred to in this week's album "sermon."  Orson Welles turned 26 around the time the movie premiered.  He co-wrote, directed, and starred in this film alongside actors from his Mercury Theatre, many of whom were making their film debuts.  From a technical and even a technological standpoint, he did some impressive things with camera angles and focus that had not really been done at the time, which does make the movie stand out, especially among other films from that time.  Watching him age over the course of the movie from his mid-20s to his late-70s required some impressive makeup.  I wonder if Welles would have--or could have--attempted to make a movie like this later in his life. 

Don't get me wrong--I still think Casablanca, The Godfather, and even Raging Bull are all better movies--or, at the very least, I enjoyed them more.  And I still think, to a degree, Citizen Kane is overrated.  But I don't think it's as overrated as I once did.

Co-starring Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Ruth Warrick, Ray Collins, and Agnes Moorehead, please enjoy what the American Film Institute deems the greatest American movie ever made, 1941's Citizen Kane.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

I was going through some old posts recently and discovered some technical issues with enclosed links which I will attempt to rectify starting here.  I'll probably even try to go back and fix those old posts, although that may be an undertaking.  We'll see.

I stumbled upon this week's album last summer and I've been wanting to write about it ever since.  On one hand, it's very much a product of its time--on the other, I think it transcends that period with its satirical, even subversive, nature, something I've always been intrinsically drawn to.  Frankly, I wish someone would release something like this today.

The album itself is apparently supposed to sound like a broadcast from Radio London, a popular pirate radio station in the UK (also known as Wonderful Radio London and The Big L), which had actually stopped broadcasting a few months before the album's release.  It even features station identification plugs and fake ads for real products.  In fact, a lot of companies actually filed lawsuits after the album came out because allegedly no one got permission to use their products, either within the album or for its cover art.  And as much as I enjoy the subversion, I totally get that.  After all, I have not consciously eaten Heinz Baked Beans since I first saw Roger Daltrey on the album's cover sitting in a bathtub full of them.  In fact, I can't even see them on a grocery store shelf without thinking of that picture.

And while I'm sure we still have a few odd "pirate" radio stations in this country, I've never had the good fortune to hear them.  So when I first listened to this week's album, it seemed more to me like a satire of a licensed broadcast station, right down to the fake ads.  It reminded me a lot of radio stations that I would tend to listen to on a Saturday night when I was a teenager.  It was a weird mix of making fun of certain institutions as well as a sense of nostalgia for those institutions.

In retrospect, I think this is an album that could only be made with the arrogance of youth.  And even though Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey failed to die before they grew old, I wonder if they--or anyone over the age of 35--could make an album like that today.  But if anyone could, they would be the ones to do it.  Featuring their classic hit "I Can See For Miles" (the album's only single), from 1967, please enjoy The Who Sell Out.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

This week's film marks a first for me.  I normally try to shake things up from one week to the next, but I felt compelled to continue the focus on one of my favourite directors that I began last week.

I was reading an article in the New York Times this past week regarding Mel Brooks's 100th birthday and it lists 100 reasons to love him--all of them valid in my opinion.  And even though I didn't need the encouragement from the article, I did sit down and re-watch a few of his movies that I hadn't seen in awhile.  Watching some of these again, I really began to marvel not only at Mel's comedic genius, but also what he was able to actually accomplish--things that, frankly, I don't think any other director would have had the balls to attempt.

The song "Springtime For Hitler" from 1967's The Producers as well as the infamous campfire scene in 1974's Blazing Saddles cemented his reputation for audacity.  But he took it a step further with his next film, Young Frankenstein--also released in 1974.  As he told Jimmy Kimmel in 2014:

"We had a deal with Columbia [Pictures].  We had a deal and we shook hands, we're going to make the movie for $2,000,000.  This is in 1973.  And on the way out of the meeting, I poked my head back in the room and I said, 'Oh, by the way, it's gonna be in black and white,' and I left.  Down the hall, you heard thundering Jews... 28 Jews chasing [me], 'No!  Peru just got colour!  No!'  So Columbia wasn't going for it.  But Alan Ladd, Jr.--Alan Ladd's son, 'Laddie'--just took over Fox, and my producer, Mike Gruskoff, knew him well, got the script to him, and he said, 'It should be in black and white!  And I'll give you $100 more to make it."

If you've seen Young Frankenstein, you probably can't imagine it in colour any more than you can picture James Whale's 1931 classic horror film in colour.  It just wouldn't work.  It had to be in black and white.  Mel and Gene Wilder were genius enough to know that going in.  Lo and behold, the film was a hit and 50 years later, it's still regarded as one of the funniest movies ever made.  Eh--Columbia's loss.

But Mel still had one trick up his sleeve that he wanted to try.  This became the gimmick, for lack of a better word, of his next film, which, clearly, Alan Ladd, Jr. didn't object to.  After watching it again for the first time in many years, I felt it deserved to be highlighted in my weekly "sermons."

Once sound was developed in the late 1920s, movies were changed forever.  Now, rather than having to read sparse dialogue on interstitial title cards between shots, we could actually hear actors speaking their characters' lines.

And along comes Mel Brooks nearly 50 years later and, after making a movie in black and white, he decides he wants to make a silent movie as a tribute to that era of moviemaking.

In the movie, Mel Brooks plays Mel Funn, a legendary director who had so many drinks on the rocks that now his career was too.  Mel's former studio, Big Pictures, is on the verge of being taken over by the greedy corporate conglomerate Engulf and Devour (a not too subtle swipe at the actual conglomerate Gulf & Western, which had taken over Paramount Pictures).  Mel pitches an idea for a silent movie to the studio chief (played by Sid Caesar) telling him that if he can get some of Hollywood's biggest stars to be in this picture, it'll be a hit and save the studio.  Mel then goes out with his associates Marty Eggs (Marty Feldman) and Dom Bell (Dom DeLuise) to get the stars to agree to be in his movie.

Normally, when I watch movies at home, I'm doing something else--catching up on email, folding laundry, writing these weekly missives, whatever.  You can't do that with a movie like this.  You actually have to watch it without distractions.  The film is mostly sight gags and if you take your eyes off the screen for even a moment, there's a good chance you'll miss something.  In that respect, it's almost better appreciated in a theater than at home.

Brooks not only directed and starred in the film, he also co-wrote it with Ron Clark, Rudy De Luca, and Barry Levinson.  (Brooks would go on to work with them again on his next film, a send-up of Alfred Hitchcock, High Anxiety.)  The film co-starred Harold Gould, Ron Carey, and Bernadette Peters, and features cameos from Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minelli, Paul Newman, Anne Bancroft (Brooks's wife), and legendary mime Marcel Marceau who--SPOILER ALERT--utters the only word of dialogue actually heard in the film.  From 1976, please enjoy Silent Movie.

I'll be taking next week off to spend time with family.  Until I return, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

"America isn't easy.  America is advanced citizenship--you've gotta want it bad.  Because it's gonna put up a fight.  It's gonna say, 'You want free speech?  Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil who is standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.  You want to claim this land as the land of the free?  Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag.  The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest.  Now show me that!  Defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms!  Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free."

--Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd in The American President, 1995

What with our country's semiquincentennial occurring this weekend--which is just a fancy way to say that the country is 250 years old--I, like a lot of Americans, have been reflecting on what it means to be American and my/our place in it.

Without getting too political, I've often said that America is not a country.  It's an ideal.  It's something we strive to be every day.  We don't always live up to that ideal.  Our country's past is full of vile and repulsive moments from slavery and later Jim Crow to the slaughtering of indigenous peoples to Executive Order 9066.  We still try--and even frequently succeed--in passing laws throughout various regions of the country designed to repress anyone who's "different" from the majority or those in power, frequently citing God and religion as reasons for that repression, even though one of the reasons for founding this country was to escape religious persecution.

And don't get me wrong--there are plenty of things to be proud of in this country from the beauty and majesty of our national parks to our culture which includes film, television, jazz, blues, rock 'n' roll, baseball, and hot dog eating contests on the 4th of July.  This country has always been referred to as a "melting pot."  Immigrants come from all over the world to make a better life here, bringing elements of their culture with them and weaving it into a larger cultural tapestry that is unique and special and... well... American.

"We're all very different people.  We're not Watusi.  We're not Spartans.  We're Americans--with a capital A!  And you know what that means?  Do ya'?  That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world.  We are the wretched refuse.  We're the underdog.  We're mutts!... But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more loveable than the mutt."

--Bill Murray as John Winger in Stripes, 1981

For all of its faults--and we do have them--I would probably find it difficult to live in any other country.  Our nation's founding documents alone make it worth my while.  As long as I'm not harming others, where else can I legally criticize my country's leaders, peaceably assemble, and even pursue something as intangible as happiness?

Yes, we can be loud and boorish and jingoistic.  We have a tendency to oppress others who aren't like us.  But we're constantly working on it.  We're constantly trying to be better, whatever that may entail, whether we admit it or not.  But I would rather have the right to stand up and exercise my right to refer to our President as a loud, boorish, jingoistic snowflake and the Less-Than-Great Pumpkin than live in a "perfect" country.

We're a complicated nation with a complicated past and a complicated citizenry.  Personally, I think that's worth celebrating as much as anything else.  At least we're not boring.

Around this time of year, I always reflect on what may have been the most American thing I ever did over Independence Day.  In the summer of 2000, my father and I took a cross country road trip.  We drove the length of Route 66--what's left of it--from Chicago to Los Angeles.  We left on Saturday, 1 July, and basically traversed a state a day until we reached California.  We saw many wondrous things, both natural and man-made from the Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon to Mother Jones's grave and the Will Rogers Museum.  I can even say that I once stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.  We ate in local diners and restaurants and stayed in local motels.  All in all, not a bad way to spend a couple of weeks at the start of the new millennium.

We spent the 4th crossing the Texas panhandle which is--and I mean this as a tremendous compliment--the most eccentric place I've ever seen.  There's a leaning water tower--which is exactly what it sounds like.  You can see what is purported to be the largest cross in the western hemisphere.  It's a giant cement cross that's visible for easily 20 miles in each direction.

Perhaps my favourite attraction is the legendary Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo--ten Cadillacs lined up and buried to their front windshields in the ground.  Tourists visit to take pictures next to the cars and even spray paint them.  It's one of Route 66's--I would even say one of America's--most endearing attractions.

This year not only marks our country's 250th anniversary, it also marks the 100th anniversary of the famed highway, also known as "The Mother Road."  So this week, I wanted to celebrate both of those things with what I think is one of the most American albums ever made.  I actually feel like this album is a perfect reflection on what it's like to be a citizen of this country.  Please enjoy Bruce Springsteen with his 1980 double album The River featuring his first Top 5 single, "Hungry Heart," as well as such timely songs as "Independence Day" and "Cadillac Ranch."

I'll be taking next week off to spend time with family.  Until I return, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isnt' for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

I'm rather excited in a geeky sort of way this week.  One of my heroes is celebrating a landmark birthday.  You know you want to say and even sing some of these with me:

"It's good to be the king." 

 "What's the matter, Colonel Sandurz?  Chicken?"

"We're men.  We're men in tights--TIGHT tights!"

"It's twue... it's twue, it's twue!"

"Don't be stupid, be a smarty.  Come and join the Nazi Party."

 "If you're blue and you don't know where to go to why don't you go where fashion sits... (snap fingers twice and insert incoherent bellowing here)."

"Non!" (spoken by Marcel Marceau)

Writer, director, actor, EGOT winner, World War II veteran, and cultured, sophisticated man about town Mel Brooks turns 100 this Sunday.  As someone who tends to gravitate toward movies that make me laugh, his films have probably meant more to me over the years than just about any other filmmaker.  I've been a fan most of my life.  When I'm down or sick, watching one of his movies always makes me feel better.

Having grown up during the golden age of Hollywood, Brooks has an appreciation for all different genres of film.  Most of his movies are parodies or spoofs of other movies or specific genres, and virtually every one features a musical number of some sort--usually written or co-written by Brooks himself--regardless of whether or not the film is actually a musical.

Aside from making me laugh hysterically, even with repeated viewings, watching one of Mel's films (and even though I've never met him, I do feel like I'm on a first-name basis with the man), makes me want to watch other films that aren't his.  Because his films are typically spoofs, when I watch one, I want to view the movie or movies that inspired it.  For example, when I watch Young Frankenstein every October, I also feel compelled to watch the original 1931 Frankenstein as well as its 1935 sequel The Bride of Frankenstein.

In honour of his pending centennial, I felt compelled to watch one of his movies the other night that I don't watch as often.  It's different from his other films in that it's not a parody of something else, but rather based on a Russian novel.  It was only his second movie, after the original version of The Producers which won him the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.  It wasn't a huge hit when it was released in 1970--Brooks joked that The Producers made a penny, while this film made half a penny.  But with the development of home video, new generations have come to not just view, but appreciate this underappreciated movie.

Set in 1927 in the relatively recently developed Soviet Union, a dying woman tells her son in law, Vorobyaninov (played by Ron Moody), a former Russian aristocrat, that during the revolution she hid her jewels inside the seat of a chair that was part of a set of twelve.  Moments before telling him, she also told the local priest, Father Fyodor (an almost unrecognizable Dom DeLuise).  On a return trip to his former stately home, Vorobyaninov teams up with Ostap Bender, a con artist (Frank Langella in what IMDB says was his film debut) and is reunited with his former servant Tikon (Brooks in what I think is the finest acting he ever did).  Together, they try to stay ahead of Fyodor and hopefully find the jewels first in what becomes a madcap chase across the country.

Brooks shot the movie in what was then Yugoslavia and wrote the screenplay based on the novel Dvenadstat Stulyev by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov and translated by Elizabeth Hill under the title Diamonds To Sit On.  In honour of Mel Brooks's 100th birthday, please enjoy what Brooks has said is his favourite of his own movies, The Twelve Chairs.  Thanks, Mel, for all the laughs.  Keep 'em coming.  Looking forward to Spaceballs: The New One next year.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember... be good to your parents.  They've been good to you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill