True Grit and My Problem with The Duke

Why have I always had such an aversion to John Wayne films? Enough people liked him to name an airport after him in Orange County.

This week I borrowed the original True Grit from of the library in an attempt to get clarification on this issue. For some reason, he was loved, even adored by the American public. Yet when I look at him as an actor, he is so weak it is embarrassing, at least by today’s standards. In recent years the few times I’ve watched him he comes across as a caricature of himself? Am I being too harsh? So that past couple evenings I watched The Duke to see if his Oscar-winning performance in True Grit would change my mind.

At the outset, the directing seems exceptionally weak. Director Henry Hathaway allows actors to remain stilted when not delivering lines. But that’s not a crime against Mr. Wayne.

It’s Rooster Cogburn here, on the witness. Sounds just like John Wayne. He’s a bit crotchety and likable. Sort of. Now he’s having to deal with the girl. He tries to sound tough, but gosh, he just seems so amiably boisterous. She’s determined, and it’s a Western and she’s jabbering to get Mr. Cogburn involved in her case, and… well, that was easy.

It’s not an altogether original malady to be a caricature of oneself. Clint Eastwood has a certain Clint persona in most, if not all, of his films. Tom Cruise played a lot of roles that suited him, but has demonstrated a measure of range at times.

So, we’re 34 minutes in and John Wayne is just being himself. Glen Campbell has revealed he’s no actor either. All the lines are delivered in such a stilted manner I can hardly wait to be done with this masterpiece.

Rooster Cogburn is supposedly a drunken, hard-nosed U.S. Marshal, but as cantankerous as he carries himself, he still comes across as a softy. Here’s Kim Darby laying down the law with Cogburn, signing him up with a handful of green and a contract. And so it goes….

It’s dawning on me exactly what it is that made people go to theaters to see The Duke. When you invest time with a film, you’re moving into a relationship with a group of characters. The Duke was a guy who was easy to hang around with. “They say he has grit. I wanted a man with grit,” Kim Darby says. But the audience knows he’s just having fun.

The director in this 1969 film, Henry Hathaway, was born Marquis Henri Leonard de Fiennes. In keeping with Hollywood habits of nom de plumes, he must have had his reasons, as did Mr. Wayne who was born Marion Morrison. In the same year Sam Peckinpaugh released The Wild Bunch (a Western), Dustin Hoffman and John Voigt outperformed the world with Midnight Cowboy (a different kind of cowboy movie), and Newman and Redford teamed up to give us Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (yet another kind of Western), we find True Grit dropped into our laps. Cowboy themes were hot. Paint Your Wagon, a Western musical, came out that year, too. Of the bunch, well, this film just feels so limp in comparison to any of them.

At this point I’m half-way through the flick and I realize my problem. I thought it was supposed to be acting, but The Duke is just having fun being a character. You can see it in the way he’s interrogating those two men they smoked out of the cabin. He’s delivering his tough guy lines and the whole crew is on the verge of cracking up. And the audience is lapping it up as well.

Now here’s another scene shot in a fake outdoor setting that must have been filmed in a studio. Fake clouds, fake sky, and the dialogue sounds recorded indoors as well. Would Brad Pitt put himself in a role like this? DeNiro? Ed Harris? (OK, was in a fake outdoors scene in Hoffa, and it stood out like Ronald McDonald in a gorilla cage at the zoo. Truman Show, too, had a fake sky over a fake town, but that was its schtick.)

Well, lookie here, its Robert Duvall as Lucky Ned Pepper, on his way to the big time. It won't be long before he's adopted into the Corleone family.

Enough's enough. I won't spoil the end though most of you know how it goes... Hopefully I don't come across too harsh here. Making movies back then was a different game. How he'd fare in today's environment of hyped expectations I don't really know. What do you think?

Meantime, it's a weekend coming up and a nice one at that. Get outside and breathe a little fresh air if you can. You might also want to visit an art gallery or two. There are at least three in Canal Park, and there's also a nice hideaway in Carlton called Art Dimensions, which doubles as a rest stop for bicycle enthusiasts on the Munger Trail. Carlton Bike Rental is there in the event you want to do some biking yourself. (They also do repairs.)

In other news... the Limbo Gallery has announced its pairings for the Artist Kamikaze IV. The theme will be INTERGALACTIC. Artist Kamikaze IV will be on display at Pizza Luce during the month of June this year. Details to come.

Cowboys and Aliens

Last night was Oscar night so our minds drift to Hollywood, the land of red carpets, limos and stars in sidewalks. By now you know The Artist took home its share of honors, and the best actress of our generation, Meryl Streep, won best actress. But I wanted to write about an entertaining 2011 film that I enjoyed this weekend on DVD, even if it was panned by the Academy.

Hollywood has a habit of returning to favorite themes: love stories, monsters, murder mysteries, the rich & famous, thrillers, musicals… themes of all kinds. But westerns seemed to really draw the attention of American television and movie viewers. Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Roy Rogers and Maverick were on the tube. And think of all those cowboy and Indians stories on the silver screen like the epic How the West Was Won to the more politically correct Little Big Man and Dances with Wolves. Clint Eastwood cut his teeth doing spaghetti westerns. The Duke finally got his Oscar in True Grit. So here is a film that has yet another twist on the cowboys and Indians saga that is both surprising and entertaining, even if improbable, Cowboys and Aliens.

The influence of all those old westerns could be seen in my second grade art class where I did some pictures of cowboys. One of my stuffed animals had a vest with a sheriff's badge on it.

From the very first, you can tell Daniel Craig was born to be a cowboy, gritty as any of the Magnificent Seven ever were. He must have had fun playing this role. He wore his chaps and holster well.

I could probably find out with minimal research but the location where this film was shot reminded me of the South Dakota Badlands, one of our family vacations when our kids were young. Nearby the film Dances with Wolves was shot. But a lot of Hollywood Westerns were shot in the neighborhood of Sedona, Arizona and that opening shot could have been there as well. We have a lot of beautiful landscapes in the country.

The story…. Good guys and bad guys and Natives and … well, aliens. If UFOs can come to earth in our modern time, who’s to say they couldn’t have come to earth just as easily in the 19th century…. or fifteenth… or fourth…. For the purposes of this story, they came in the 19th century, the wild west era, because folks in Hollywood know how much we Americans love Westerns.

These aliens were indeed gruesome. Why is it that Hollywood has such a fondness for making aliens, monsters and ghouls green? Is green really the color of evil? The aliens here are truly creepy with insect-like features, reptilian hides. E.T., the Mask and the Creature from the Black Lagoon come to mind here as green creatures. But look at the Disney world and we find plenty of other evil characters portrayed in greens and blues. (Insight courtesy artist Kim Abeles of Los Angeles.)

The stars are bright in this film, Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford pre-eminent and Olivia Wilde being a heroine of exceptional beauty. You'll recognize other faces in this vast cast.
The special effects were as expected with a movie of this size. Director John Favreau, who did Iron Man, clearly knows how to play the special effects game. Though spectacular, they do not distract from the story, which was fun and full of surprises, though maybe a bit tedious at the end.

If you get the chance, give it a chance. Even if the critics panned it, a lot of film buffs enjoyed it. I'm one of them.

Julie and Julia

Last night Susie and I went to a theater to see Julie and Julia, a delightfully original story involving cooking, writing, blogging and relationships, starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and a lot of wonderful foods. We were celebrating our 30th anniversary (yes, such things are possible these days) and so we began, appropriately, with dinner. We’d intended Italian but ended up with Mexican, sharing a delicious bowl of molcaheta. I also had a relleno a la carte. Yum.

Julie and Julia is a refreshing alternative to testosterone laden heavy-SFX schlock featuring aliens, explosions, and other characterless Hollywood fare. Director Nora Ephron assembled a film with original characters you enjoy being with. And food, gloriously appetizing, rich and tasty.

Amy Adams is Julie, a woman who decides to start a blog in which she intends to make over 500 recipes in 365 days, from the groundbreaking cookbook that put Julia Child on the cultural map. Julie’s story is woven back and forth with Julia Child’s story, and Streep is just plain fun throughout. The film is a great summer escape, or winter retreat if you wait for the DVD.

Writers might enjoy the challenges writers face in striving for publication. Child’s French cooking cookbook took eight years to produce (this was back when carbon paper was an essential) and not easily sold to the U.S. market. Authors will also recognize the challenges involved in collaborations, in renegotiated agreements with friends and co-authors as well when one is not pulling his or her weight.

The film is also a great insight into the world of a committed blogger. “Is anybody out there reading this schlock?” Julie wonders more than once. Yet she remains committed to her task, never compromises her commitment to high standards and is ultimately rewarded for seeing it through.

Even though both are true stories, one can come away with the impression that a year of blogging will land you in the New York Times resulting in a boatload of editors and agents seeking to get you signed.

Lucky Julie got her dream… the opportunity to write and get published, and to escape living above a pizza place in the Queens. Her husband comes across as a good guy, and maybe, just maybe she will end up on her 30th anniversary going to dinner and a movie based on a story by this here blogger, yours truly. Wouldn’t that be an interesting twist.

Good luck Julie in the rest of your endeavors.

The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett has been called "the father of the hard-boiled detective novel" and creator of one of the 20th century's most famous sleuths, Sam Spade. Last week I found and finished one of his most well known works, The Maltese Falcon. Within a dozen years of publication it had already been made into three motion pictures, the most famous featuring Humphrey Bogart as the personification of Sam Spade.

Hammett purportedly worked for seven years with the Pinkerton detective agency, so he brings realism to his stories in a first-hand manner that conveys a believable jadedness. Even so, when I initially read The Thin Man years ago, it failed to make a deep impression. And I can't say I found this book compelling either. Maybe it was the story itself, or maybe Spade didn't hook me like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes.

Perhaps Hammett's significance is that of creating a genre, the tough guy detective who is his own man, in cahoots with no one, the modern existential hero solving life's problems against the backdrop of a murder mystery setting. Evidently someone considered his work significant enough to have him listed among the greats (501 Great Writers) and there are critics who rave over him, but this Amazon.com review by a typical reader seemed to adequately capture my mood on finishing it.

"The Maltese Falcon is nothing to write home about. It's a good book, and I recommend it, but it is nothing discernibly 'special.' You don't finish it and go, 'Wow!'"

On the heels of completing the book I decided to track down and revisit the Bogie film of the same name. I perked up when I saw that John Huston (The African Queen, Moby Dick, Under the Volcano) directed the film. The casting was pretty much perfect, even if Bogart is not blond. But to be honest, I don't know what all the fuss is about.

Yes, there are a lot of raves about this film. It's considered by many critics to be one of the top one hundred of all time. And many of the reviews at imdb.com support this claim. Still, there are naysayers such as Jake, who wrote, "After having heard so much about this movie over the years I was surprised to find it so dull and so poorly executed."

This review, by someone named dogspit, also indicates disappointment. "I tried to like The Maltese Falcon, but it didn't quite do it for me. Bogart & Astor each were plastic in their roles, and the rest of the cast fared little better. The film lacked ANY character development and tried to push the pace too much to be very enjoyable. Watch it for the nostalgia of it, but do not expect a lot."

Actually, I don't entirely agree with dogspit. I found the opening section compelling. Bogart does reek with an aura of smooth cool. But the noir style has so pervaded the Hollywood atmosphere I just can't get past the caricature. Whereas the setup drew me in, the story made me tired.

Though more can be said, for now I let it pass. What's your take?

Cinderella Man

Last week I came across an audio version of Cinderella Man: James J. Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History. I'd seen the film starring Russell Crowe last year, and though well done (and I like Russell Crowe in nearly everything he does) it was not a film that made me feel wowed. An interesting story about a down-and-out boxer who makes a comeback and ends up world champeen.

The book is far and away a superior telling of the story, because it is not about a boxer. It is about two boxers who have two totally different life trajectories.

James Braddock was a New Jersey working class guy. A wife, kids, a man who was motivated to fight by only one thing: to put food on the table for his family during the dark days of the Depression. Max Baer, on the other hand, was a jovial, charming fellow whose successes as a boxer (his punch carried a powerful wallop that resulted in two deaths) led to a career in Hollywood, liaisons with famous actresses, and the perks of privilege.

Max Baer, incidentally, was the father of Max Baer, Jr of the Beverly Hillbillies, who you may recall as Jethro. Now you know where that Jethro's natural good-naturedness comes from.

Baer's life story is as compelling as Braddock's but in the film you only get hints of it. In the book you get all the details. He was young, strong, cocky, but also carried a measure of anxiety after one of his blows knocked a man cold, permanently.

One of the things I learned was how in the 20's and 30's the sportswriters and promoters played up the ethnic rivalries. The Italian vs. The Irishman. The German vs. The Jew. Baer, though one quarter Jewish, wore the Star of David on his trunks during his later fights.

A feature of the audio book, which I found in the local library here, is a lengthy interview with Braddock himself who lived to be 69 and died in 1974. Braddock is asked about every facet of his life, and every fight. In his thick Jersey accent he makes comments that reveal much about the man, his opponents, and the life of a boxer. It's a tough life.

The book is also about the entire culture of boxing during what some have called its Golden Era. Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey, Max Schmelling, Joe Louis... they're all there, as well as the promoters, trainers, refs and sportswriters who sought to keep readers' passions stirred even when there was nothing to write about.

As for the film, Ron Howard did a professional job, but it comes across as a cliche of what a Hollywood film should be. Pretty standard fare. Maybe his heart wasn't into it? The soundtrack was manipulative and pointless. Yet, you can still catch a glimpse of what made the Cinderella Man a compelling story when the real James J. Braddock was on the scene. A Comeback Kid. A Seabiscuit. An ordinary many who did an extraordinary thing.

When I finished the book I went and picked up the film again. While watching it on one monitor, I watched the actual Baer-Braddock fight on YouTube. What a contrast. If able, you might want to try it.

Go Browns!

"Browns fans, this was a day your team made you proud. It was a day when they proved worthy of your loyalty that has never wavered through rain, sleet, snow or a move to Baltimore." ~ Terry Pluto
Dec. 16, 2007

Pluto is a sportwriter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. And he is a fan of the Cleveland teams that I grew up learning to love. Till I was twelve I lived in Cleveland, then moved away, but the Indians and Browns continued to live in my heart.

OK, so we have not had much to cheer about for a while. Like, a very long while. The Indians came surprisingly close to representing the American League in the World Series this year, which was good. Then the walls crashed in. But they gave us a thrill.

Most people do not remember how dominant the Indians were in the 1950's. When my parents brought me home from the hospital in 1952, they named my four teddy bears after the Cleveland Indians starting rotation. My favorites were Feller and Lemon, one of the best one-two combos ever. In 1954 the Indians were the first team in baseball history, and the only team since, to have a pitching staff with four twenty game winners. The Tribe, as they are affectionately called by fans, won a pennant that year and came in second at least a half dozen times during that decade. Then, the bad thing happened.

Terry Pluto wrote a book about it, actually: The Curse of Rocky Colavito. (Thanks, Terry!) It is a book about how the team management decimated a good team for money, and about how the bad behavior of that team owner resulted in a perpetual cloud of bad luck to hang over the city and it team of perennial also-rans. It's an entertaining book for all Indians fans and I recommend it heartily. It helped explain why there were no Indians on the team when I went to the 1963 All Star Game in Cleveland's municipal stadium, and why there were no fans at so many of the games I went to at that time as a kid.

But today, we're talking about the Browns. The Cleveland Browns, one of football's great traditions, have been having a surprisingly good year. Like their baseball counterpart, the Browns have likewise had a disappointing history these past four decades. The glory days of Jimmy Brown and Leroy Kelly, Lou "the Toe" Groza, Frank Ryan, Paul Warfield, Bobby Mitchell, Gary Collins... well, it may have been a long time ago but the precious memories are very present. The legacy since that time includes a three year stint when we had no Browns at all. The team had been moved to Baltimore. Ack!

Well, we all know that the Browns are not Super Bowl bound because, ahem, our former coach Bellicek has built one heckuva a dynasty up in New England, if those Colts in Indy don't squash us first. Nevertheless, it's exciting to watch a team that has the potential to win every week, like they're supposed to. It's been a long time since I have read "the latest line" and found our Brownies actually favored almost every week. Woof! Woof Woof!

Check out this 1963 Cleveland Browns football card. Them Browns was great, weren't they?

Holiday Ups and Downs

COPING WITH HOLIDAY STRESS

by Dr. Ron Newman

When you think of the Christmas Holiday season, what comes to your mind? Some people get excited about the decorations, music, presents, or the real "reason for the season." Others, however, get anxious about potential family conflicts, frantic busyness, crowds and long lines at the shopping mall. It is not unusual for people to have mixed emotions, including loneliness, depression, and grief over lost loved ones who will no longer be physically present to share in the holiday spirit.

What follows are some principles that may help you have a more enjoyable Christmas season.

A) Strengthen Relationships.

The holiday offers a unique opportunity to rebuild relationships. Recognize the value of those relationships, and focus on those relationships that you want to strengthen -- perhaps for the other person's benefit as well as your own. Even if you are experiencing your own sense of loneliness, resist the temptation to isolate yourself. Reach out to others who may have a similar need. The most meaningful experiences in life are in the context of our relationships with others.

B) Learn to say "No."

We often become overwhelmed at the holidays because of our difficulty in saying no to people. We sometimes allow others to determine how we use our time. Being assertive regarding those situations is necessary for our own sanity. This guideline is meant to help balance the goal of building relationships, but is not intended as a rationale for unhealthy isolation of oneself.

C) Practice Forgiveness.

Holidays can remind us of the unresolved conflicts we have with others. In the spirit of Christmas, we can sometimes face those relationships in a new light as we seek tounderstand, accept, and let go of past hurts. Or perhaps it is a good time for us to approach someone we have hurt to offer our own apology and seek reconciliation. This may not always be possible or advisable, if the other person is not "safe," but in most relationships there is room for more mercy.

D) Maintain a Sense of Humor.

If we take ourselves or others too seriously, we risk losing our own positive attitude about the holidays. A merry heart is good medicine. Learn to laugh at the long lines,forgotten presents and last minute shopping, etc. A negative attitude will only bring you down, but will not change the circumstances you are in.

E) Maintain Good Health Habits.

As with any stress management program, you want to get sufficient exercise, adequate sleep, and a balanced nutritional intake (beware of the excesses). Holidays are fraught with temptations of all sorts that can throw you body off balance and make the holidays less satisfying.

F) Sing and Enjoy the Music.

Music is good for the soul, and singing has many psychological as well as physical benefits. For one thing, it cleans out the stale air in your lungs! It has the ability to stir up every type of emotion, but during the holiday season it's good to be reminded of a more optimistic outlook on life.

G) Thoughtful Planning.

Goal setting and making plans to achieve those goals are necessary elements to success in life. The same is true regarding our success in navigating the pitfalls of the holiday season.

1. List your goals. Brainstorming all that you want to accomplish can be a helpful first step in this regard. This should include relationships as well as tasks.

2. Prioritize your goals. You want to be clear what is most important to you, otherwise you may end up doing what is easiest first, and not have time for what is really your highest value.

3. Remind yourself repeatedly of your goals. Put them on the refrigerator, on the calendar, in your daytimer, or whatever works for you. Just donít forget them, which is our tendency if we don't have a system to remind us.

4. Delegate when possible. If time management is particularly difficult for you, delegation of responsibilities becomes very important. Perhaps you do not have to buy all of the presents for everybody, or you do not have to cook the entire meal by yourself!

The above principles can help you enjoy your holiday to the fullest extent and avoid those inherent pitfalls.

Merry Christmas!

Ronald S. Newman, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist in New Jersey withover 20 years of experience in the mental health field. He has been a popular speaker both in New Jersey and in South America where he makes annual trips for the purposes of teaching and training. This article originally appeared in Ecobyte.

Murderball

Tonight, watched Murderball, the incredible documentary about quadriplegic rugby. Or rather, a film about humanity. When our bodies experience limitations, our dreams do not need to be grounded as well. The film vividly portrays a world few of us are familiar with, yet it exists all around us. I refer not to the world of quad rugby, but to the forgotten masses who have been crippled by injury or disease. Murderball is just one of the outlets through which the handicapped express their passion for life. This is a gritty, inspired film and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

A review from Amazon.com:

More than merely a sports documentary or an inspirational profile of triumph over adversity, Murderball offers a refreshing and progressive attitude toward disability while telling unforgettable stories about uniquely admirable people. It's ostensibly a film about quadriplegic rugby (or "Murderball," as it was formerly known), in which players with at least some loss of physical function in all four limbs navigate modified wheelchairs in a hardcore, full-contact sport that takes them all the way to the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, in 2004. But as we get to know paralyzed or amputee players on Team USA like Andy Cohn, Scott Hogsett, Bob Lujano and charismatic team spokesman Mark Zupan, we come to understand that quad rugby is a saving grace for these determined competitors, who battle Team Canada coach (and former Team USA superstar) Joe Soares en route to the climactic contest in Athens. Simply put, Murderball is the best film to date about living with a severe disability, but codirectors Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro avoid the sappy, inspirational sentiment that hampers nearly all mainstream films involving disability. By the time this blazing 85-minute film reaches its emotional conclusion, the issue of disability is almost irrelevant; these guys are as normal as anyone, and their life stories led to Murderball becoming the most critically acclaimed documentary of 2005. ~ Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Press On

"Keep pressing on. When one person makes it, others see that maybe they can do it, too." Line that was never used from a screen play I wrote called The Extras.

Journal note. Dec 19, 1993

1993 was an interesting year. A big Hollywood production came to town and filmed Iron Will, a Disney flick with a number of mid-range stars along with the up-and-coming Kevin Spacey. Like hundreds of others, I got involved with the film as an extra and became mesmerized by the experience. While in the holding area during the shooting of the ballroom scene, I introduced myself to Robert Schwartz, one of the producers, seeking an opportunity to pitch a movie idea.

Mr. Schwartz listened and said that if I wrote up a ten to twelve page proposal he would read it. In point of fact, when the film was a wrap, and everyone had returned to Hollywood, he called me to say that if I wrote the screen play, he would read that, too. Thus began the distracting traipse along the garden path that led to three screen plays and a lot of diverted energies.

Such is the power of Hollywood, to fire up our dreams and then to let us down. Mr. Schwartz did read my work and said "it was good"... but that to make it in Hollywood you really have to BE in Hollywood. With a young family and a secure job, it seemed just a little too much risk to trade my little piece of paradise in Northern Minnesota for a small stash of fools gold.

Albeit, the dream was motivational. I became a dues paying member of the screen writers' guild, I produced a lot of work and my second screen play was actually quite powerful. (Uprooted: The Ralph Kand Story) The Disney producer said so himself. But my agent had difficulty finding it a home and like the early mists on a Minnesota highway, those dreams quickly evaporated in the light of day.