True Grit 2010

I do not understand why I had not previously added a review of the remake of True Grit alongside the original with John Wayne as I saw in theatre at the time it was released at the end of 2010 just before Christmas. The film was made by the splendid Coen brothers whose work is always interesting although not always enjoyable and satisfying.

The story is an engaging one with a fourteen year old girl taking it upon herself to arrange for the return of the body of her father who has been killed when intervening in a conflict involving one of his hired hands while in town Fort Smith Arkansas purchasing two animals. The man Tom Cheney has headed into Indian country with two of her fathers special gold coin pieces. She comes to town just for the day with another hired hand as escort although she sends him home with the body staying in town to undertake unfinished business. Her first task is to cancel the purchase and claim compensation for the loss of her father’s horse which she negotiates hard. She sees the local Justices who have no interest in pursuing the murderer so she seeks advice as to who might be willing to undertake the task offering to pay $50 over the state terms. This is then raised to an additional $50 on success of the mission. She is given three names and approaches the old timer Rooster Coburn played by Jeff Bridges in the remake. While John Wayne remained distinctly John Wayne in the original Mr Bridges has become famed for his characterisation where you would not know who the actor is without being informed. This is to his credit although both performances are outstanding.

Roster Cockburn is not anti social as such but prefers to follow his business without encumbrances so the idea of being accompanied let alone commissioned by a fourteen year girl is understandably not something he is prepared to countenance. She begins to have misgivings about him after finding him a drunken state and wishes she had first approached Texas Ranger LaBoeuf played by Matt Damon who is also after the same man for the murder a Texan senator, especially as he knows the territory involved. While she is staying at the same boarding house where her father lodged The Texan and Rooster make an early start without her, telling the ferry man that she is a runaway and not to let her cross. She crosses the river anyway with the horse swimming.

The two men first fall out over the treatment of the girl and allowing her to go with them. Mattie Ross is played by Oscar nominated Hailee Steinfield who had to compete with 15000 applicants for the role(She is to play Juliet in a remake film of Shakespeare’s play.

With the onset of winter and snow falling the two make for a an overnight lodge on the advice of a medicine man they encounter but find that outlaws have taken up residence. They smoke them out and plan to stay overnight after a fight before finding out that a well known gang is to arrive accompanied by the man they are after. The two wait in ambush on a hill overlooking the cabin. The plan misfires when the Texas Ranger arrives before the outlaw gang. Rooster is able to his aid at a distance although the man is injured. Some of the outlaws escape to join the rest of the gang.

Unfortunately the two men argue again this time over the Civil War and La Beuof again goes off and Mattie is then caught by the gang when she is getting water from the river and confronts Chaney. Fortunately La Boeuf comes to the rescue just before Chaney is about to the kill Mattie. who has been taken hostage. They devise a plan to take on the gang which involves Rooster taking on four men a kind of jousting conflict. After killing three, Rooster falls and is trapped by his horse. LaBoeuf makes an amazing shot of 400 yards to down the fourth man. Having also killed Chaney the mission is over. Unfortunately Mattie falls down into a cave full of snakes and is bitten and Rooster rides in desperation to where he knows she will get appropriate help. She recovers but loses an arm.

Twenty five years later Mattie gets a note from Rooster with a hand bill saying that he is performing in a Wild West Show nearby. She visits only to find that he died a few days before her arrival. She arranges for the coffin to be moved to the family plot on the family farm. She reflects on their adventure together.

Although the film was nominated for 10 awards at the Oscars and 8 at the Bafta’s it only won the Cinematic Bafta. This is one of the rare situations where both films can be enjoy and stand alongside each other.

The Musical on Film

My love of the film includes the musical following one of my first visits to the theatre, the West End production of Irma La Deuce, subsequently made into a film. Another early experience was The Boyfriend which I saw on stage at Streatham and then took my birth and care mother’s and their elder sister to see. I enjoy seeing the film when it appears on TV from Time to Time.

I saw the London production of Hair and bought both long play records but was greatly disappointed with the film version. The musical love of my life is Miss Saigon which I saw in the West End Theatre four times and am thrilled to learn a film will come to cinemas later this year. I have Tapes of show which I must convert to a CD . I hope I will not be disappointed.

The most impressive and enjoyable theatrical experience musical remains Les Miserables, seen in the West End twice, having to leave the first showing immediately before the end to join others to view Miss Saigon. I have a DVD of concert version of the show

I missed Cats with a cold and cough although I had a ticket which was resold at the door. I saw Joan Littlewood Oh What a Luvely War at Stratford although the film is not as effective as the stage performance I saw Blood Brothers at Newcastle’s theatre Royal and the 15th year edition at the Richmond Theatre on the Green only two years ago. Minor entertainment but enjoyable none the less was Five Guys named Mo. Seen on stage and then on film with the DVD on hand is Evita where I liked the film better than the live performance

I won a weekend trip to London from the Daily Mail which included two night’s hotel in central London, diner one evening and a trip to a the theatre which was to see a musical about life on a train whose name I cannot remember. 42nd Street but did I see in London, or locally?
There was the life of Dusty Springfield seen in Newcastle and another musical celebrating an era in London with a half price ticket where again I cannot remember the title. I did not get to see Abba the show but enjoyed the Movie in theatre and enjoy the DVD. It remains great fun.

Just before Christmas I saw the stage version of White Christmas half a century since first seeing the film. It is an usual other way round where stage productions are then made into films. I must have seen other stage musicals. I must check on programmes to see if this has been so.

When it comes to musicals on film the list is long one and by no means comprehensive. I begin with those where I have the DVD or commercial video. I saw the film. The Sound of Music with colleagues from Oxfordshire Children’s department in the city when it was first released and then took my mother etc to see. I was sent the video as part of some offer. This is perhaps the most well known. I also took “the aunties” I took them into central London to see My Fair Lady on film having seen the film first separately. A recent favourite is Moulin Rouge which I saw in a theatre full of noisy teenagers in Sutton and later enjoyed seeing again at Croydon and view the DVD at regular intervals for the colour and the music.

The most interesting musical because of the seriousness of its subject remains Cabaret, seen in cinema theatre and have the DVD. These are the only musicals I have on DVD, I cannot remember what I have on video


Films involving Jazz and swing became important from the early 1950’s with the Benny Goodman story the most influential together with the Glenn Miller Story. St Louis Blues, Orchestra Wives, The Band Wagon Paris Blues, Young Man with a Horn, High Society(Louis Armstrong), The Gene Krupa Story, Jazz on a Summer’s day seen day after prison is included but is not a musical as such. Its Trad dad. Lady Sings the Blues, the life of Billie Holiday and Nashville with is County and Western but is included here because it remains one of my favourite films along with the Coal Miner‘s Daughter.

Films involving serious music are usually seen when ever they appear again on TV The Great Caruso, The Student Prince come to mind, Broadening the category I also include Carmen Jones, the Beggars Opera, Rhapsody in Blue, The Vagabond King, An American in Paris, Porgy and Bess and the Tales of Hoffman. Originally I included April in Paris, Flashdance and Amadeus, until deciding that the genre had to defined as a story told through music and dance.

The Contemporary music category must begin with Rock around the Clock, and Elvis Presley films Jailhouse Rock, King Creole, GI Blues,, Blue Hawaii, Fun in Acapulco, The Young ones and Summer Holiday with Cliff Richard, Beatles films such as, A Hard Day’s Night, Help and, Yellow Submarine. The who with Tommy. The Buddy Holly Story, The Blues Brothers, and Blues Brothers 2000., Fame, Pink Floyd and the Wall, and something called Espresso Bongo set in the Coffee Bar era. There are several others which I will try and remember

There has been a long tradition of films intended for the family with the Wizard of Oz the most well known Mary Poppins, Bednobs and Broomsticks, Dumbo, Hans Christian Andersen, Oliver, The Lady is a Tramp, One hundred and one Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Aristocrats. Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory come to mind among those I have seen, More recently there is the Lion King and for teenagers the High School series.

The Comedy Musical was personified with the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Carmen Miranda Road movies - The Road to Singapore, Road to Zanzibar and Road to Morocco, Road to Rio, Road to Bali, Road to Hong Kong but not seen Road to Hollywood.

The list of others where I am yet to try an categorises is much longer than I first anticipated. The Broadway Melody, Showboat, Annie Get your Gun, Rio Rita, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Gigi, Chicago, The Producers, Ship Ahoy, Springtime in the Rockies and Yankee Doodle Dandy, Cabin in the Sky. The Desert Song and Shine on Harvest Moon, Anchor’s away and The Bells of Saint Mary’s, State Fair, Zigfield Follies, Blue Skies, and Ester Parade.

The Paleface,( Son of Paleface), On the Town, Annie get you Gun and Tea for Two, and On Moonlight Bay, The Belle of New York and Sailor Beware. Call me Madam, Calamity Jane, Kiss me Kate, Brigadoon, New Faces, Rose Marie, A Star is Born, There’s no business like show business, Hit the Deck, Kismet. Oklahoma and the Tender Trap.

Carousel and the Eddie Duchin Story, The King and I, Funny Face, The Pyjama Game and Pal Joey. Silk Stockings, South Pacific, Some Like it Hot, The Belles are Ringing, Can Can, Flower Drum Song, Gypsy. The State Fair, Robin and the Seven Hoods, Frankie and Johnny. Camelot Thoroughly Modern Millie, Funny Girl, Star, Hullo Dolly, Paint Your Wagon, Sweet Charity and Scrooge.

Song of Norway, Man of La Mancha, Bugs Malone, Slipper and the Rose. Grease. The Last Waltz Xandu, Annie, Best Whorehouse in Texas, Yentl, A Chorus Line. Sister Act. Nine Cleo, Follies I have not been a great fan of Singing in the Rain or Guys and Dolls. I am sure there are many others including the Busby Berkeley films seen at the Wallington Odeon in the 1940’s and 1950‘s

Now to West Side Story.

Moulin Rouge revisted

However I can see why the work was so popular and achieved critical success. The music, lyrics and dance is integrated to a high level. and stands the test of time. I understand there are many differences between the film and the original stage show. Unlike Moulin Rouge there was however no inclination to immediate get the DVD and look forward to replays. Why is this so.

Moulin Rouge is also based on an internationally familiar work. In this instance La Triviata where a small group of bohemian artists struggle to make ends meet sharing garret and where one falls in love with someone who becomes terminally ill. My bohemian instincts, attraction to the Montmartre district of Paris, the Parisian nightlight life given the film a good head start over West Side Story.

Ewan McGregor a writer finds becomes friends with others sharing the same tenement in Paris close to the Moulin Rouge. They are developing a play for the owner of nightclub and because of an accident to one of their number involved McGregor and persuade the owner to accept him as the writer.

The owner played by the magnificent Jim Broadbent is seeking funds from the British Duke of Roxburgh who wants to have the star of the Moulin Rouge, Satine, played by Nicole Kidman who is experienced in spending the night with those who further her career and support the establishment. By mistake she mistakes McGregor for the Duke and puts up with his poetry reading and they fall in love. Without knowing this Broadbent in effects sells Satine to the Duke and obtains the funds for a complete refurbishment of the theatre and to make the new play into a great spectacle.

McGregor creates a work based on their true life situation in which Satine chooses love rather than wealth and position an ending which the Duke understandably dislikes. He puts up with putting of from Satine and finding the two in compromising situations. The Moulin Rouge owner then discovers the truth and is horrified because in order to ensure his possession of the girl and control over the show the Duke has required the deeds of the Theatre and the final word about the contents of the work. To make the situation worse, Satine and become ill but Broadbent has until now kept the seriousness from her. He now tells her the truth the situation and that in order to save everyone she must pretend not to love him. She rejects McGregor and agrees to spend the night with the Duke and agrees to changing the ending of the play after another jealous cast member alerts the Duke to the true situation. She changes her mind and the Duke tries to rape her but is prevented by the intervention of McGregor and as in West Side Story to plan to run away together.

In desperation Broadbent tells Satine that she is dying o consumption and that the Duke will kill McGregor unless she performs in the show and stops seeing McGregor. In anger McGregor attends the opening performance intending to give money to Satine for their affair todate and in the melee both end up on stage with the Duke’s bodyguard trying to kill McGregor. At one point Broadbent stops the Duke trying to kill McGregor directly. The show is a great success and then Satine collapses and dies. McGregor is seen in his garret writing his great work of truth and love, the Bohemian ideals.

The films continues to appeal to me for two reasons. The music is great often using very known music and lyrics in a creative and amusing way, particularly the South of Music The Hills are alive, and Children of the Revolution( T Rex) and Like Virgin(Madonna). Others remakes are Nature Boy (Nat King Cole), Lady Marmalade (Labelle), Because we Can (Fatboy Slim), Material Girl (Madonna), Smells like teen spirit (Nirvana), Diamonds are a girls best friend, (Marilyn Monroe), Diamond Dogs (David Bowie), One Day (Ill Fly away) Randy Crawford, Roxanne(Police), The Show must go on (Queen) Young Song (Elton John).

The other reason is the glorious colour photography. The combination of the two and the setting make this a film to enjoy time and time again,

West Side Story

There is one other to mention which is the reason why I am writing this piece. It begins with a Confession in that at the time I was not taken with West Side Story. During last week the film versions appeared on a Sky film channel in HD so I recorded and then gave the film my undivided attention. As with many musical it is ad adaptation of an older story, Romeo and Juliet and star crossed lovers. The film won ten of the 11 nominated Academy awards.

The film opens in an unusual way with an orchestral introduction and no moving pictures. The scene is then set between two street gangs. The Jets are a Gang created from the established neighbourhood with includes a range of former immigrant groups while the Sharks represent the Newcomers, Puerto Ricans. The Jets resent the newcomers on principle and make it is evident they are not welcome to meet together anywhere on their territory, They have the support of the local police in this respect. While the fighting is undertaken by the young men their girls support, encourage and sometimes incite in the gang behaviour.

While the story is condemnatory of the behaviour there is an element in the film and original story which approves the codes of honour involved. The tension between the two gangs has been building leading to the situation of a once and for all showdown being arranged by representatives who will meet at a local candy/drug store. The co founder of the Jets has left to work at the store and dreams of having a girl friend and his life changing (Something’s Coming) The ongoing gang leader, Russ Tamblyn eventually persuades Tony, the other co founder to join the meting to arrange the fight.

The leader of the Puerto Rican gang Bernardo takes his sister Maria played by Natalie Wood and girl friend played by Rita Moreno to the local dance where both gangs enjoy themselves but keep apart from each other. An attempt is made at integration during which time Tony and Maria meet and fall instantly in love and leads to one of the well known songs from the Musical Maria. This leads to a debate about whether the Puerto Rican should keep the ethnic identity or attempt to integrate other cultures have done in the past, although to varying degrees with the USA even if they continue to live in ghetto type districts. It remains one of the great problems that the USA likes to present itself as unified and integrated society when in fact it has always been a collection of different cultures each protecting and furthering their identifies. What cannot be argued against is that loyalty and commitment to nation does bind them all. It is a paradox.

After the dance the couple meet in secret and this lead to the other major number from the show Tonight. When the parties meet to determine the form of the fight Tony has been influenced by his relationship with Marie to try and limit the violence with the suggestion of a fight between two leaders or their champions. Expecting that Tony would be successful Maria becomes excited when at work and sings I feel pretty. She then persuades Tony to try and stop the conflict altogether.

At the arranged venue for the fight Tony’s efforts are ignored and Bernardo kills the other cofounder the Jets. In his grief and anger Tony then kills Bernardo.

Tony goes into hiding, meets up with Maria and arranges to run away with her, returning to the store where he hides. Maria is held up and sends Anita, Bernardo’s girl friend to tell Tony that she has been delayed. At the store she is roughed up and threatened with rape for her efforts and as a consequence she tells Tony that Maria has been killed in revenge because of her friendship by the best friend of Bernardo. Tony is distraught and goes into the Street telling Chino to take his life. He then sees Maria and realises she is alive but when going towards her he is killed by Chino. The musical ends with the sentimental notion that because of these events the war between the two gangs will be brought to an immediate If government, national and local and strong, united and purposeful they can keep a lid on such deeply held differences often by getting rid off or making inactive the very people they previously used to undertake the dirty work. Often those previously leaders or in commanding positions are given political and other positions and they also often have the education and natural intelligence and understanding to make truce, armistice and peace agreements work. There is never immediate sentimental solutions.

However I can see why the work was so popular and achieved critical success. The music, lyrics and dance is integrated to a high level. and stands the test of time. I understand there are many differences between the film and the original stage show. Unlike Moulin Rouge there was however no inclination to immediate get the DVD and look forward to replays. Why is this so.

Stagecoach 1966-1986

The other surprise of the New Year Christmas period was the 1966 version of John Ford’s classic Western Stagecoach so I also view again the 1986 made for TV version which I also recently experienced and reviewed. I would have liked to have also seen the original version and then compared individuals roles and the three versions overall. I have a merged vision from the experience.

The film is an account of the lives of a group of diverse travellers who commence a stage journey from a town in Arizona to a town in New Mexico during the era when Geronimo and his Apache Indians were attempting to reclaim their land from the new arrivals. There are two stops for fresh horses, food and comfort breaks on a journey which is usually undertaken within one day. The army advises the coach driver and his passengers that their has been activity, including the cutting of the telegraph and advises against departure but offers them an escort to the first stop stating that other army escorts will accompany the other stages.

When the coach driver visit the Marshal for his shotgun rider he is told that the man has been sent out with a posse to try and capture an escaped convict known as the Ringo Kid, the part played by John Wayne in the 1939 original and Kris Krisskofferson in 1986. The 1966 version has a ex football player called Alex Cord. The convict alleges he was framed by men who killed his father and brother and it is believed he is now on this way to Lordsburg, the destination town for the stage coach, to seek revenge on the killers who live there. The marshal decides that in the circumstances he will undertake the role as shot gun rider and as they leave town two events occur which make the story.

The coach is flagged down by the bank manger who is leaving town, he says having been telegraphed to take papers to the bank at Lordsburg, a statement which immediate attracts the interest of the Marshall and driver who have been told the telegraph line has been cut. We, the audience, know that the man has been threatened to be exposed to his family by his mistress and has decided to run off with the shipment of cash brought to the bank by the stagecoach. He is played Robert Cummings in1966.

The second development is that the Ringo Kid having lost his horse attempts to board the coach only to be recognised by the Marshal, arrested, disarmed and made to sit inside the coach on its floor.

Van Heflin plays the Marshal in 66 with Johnny Cash in 1986. I thought the Cash version is a good one. Also deciding to make the journey is the pregnant wife of an army officer she is travelling to be with for the birth of their first child. She is played by Stefanie Powers in 66 the most well known of three actresses playing the role.

The second woman is a bar girl being run out of town by the local women’s committee although in the remake she is the victim of a man who promised to marry her. Ann Margret plays the role in 66 and in each instance the casting has been excellent in matching Dallas and with the Ringo Kid in such a way that the eventual coupling is credible.

There is a Doctor, a drunk in the original film but switched to Doc Holiday in the remake, the Dentist gunfighter, a real life individual remembered for his part in the Gun Fight at the OK Coral with Wyatt Earp in the town of Tombstone. Doc Holiday is on his way back to Tombstone and the Whisky salesman is in search of new markets. In 1966 the role is taken by none other than Bing Crosby as Doc Josiah Boone, dying from consumption.

There is also a former Calvary paymaster who was saved from execution by the father of the wife on her way to join her husband. He had gambled the wages and been imprisoned where he had learnt to become a card sharp gambler making his living from town to town. He offers to protect the wife until joining her husband because her father’s support for him in the past. The remaining traveller is a specialist whisky salesman selling his wares from town to town. Red Buttons takes the role in 1966.

When they arrive at the first stop they are provided with food and rest but are told the new army escort had been attacked and that the wife’s husband had been injured and taken their base while the rest of the troop were out on the trail of the Indians.

The existing escort is under orders to return but offers to take anyone who wishes back with them. The whisky salesman does so in the three films. When they reach the second stop they find is has been attacked and partially destroyed with the relief horses run off. The wife goes into labour so they are forced to stay over night. The wife gives birth with the help of the Doc and the women of the night. She has struck up a relationship with Kid who tells her of the ranch he and his family were developing and offers a home to her as they are two of kind.

As anticipated when they set off they are attacked by the Indians and in the remake there are two differences. In the original it is the cardsharp who is killed but in the remake he survives while in the original the banker survives to be arrested on reaching Lordsburg but in the 86 remake he is killed. I cannot remember what happens in the 66.

They are rescued by the army who drive off the Indians when all appears lost and the wife with her baby finds that in charge is her husband who contrary to the previous report had only a minor injury. In the original film the Ringo Kid goes off and gets his revenge killing all three brothers involved in the family deaths and the framing of him. In the remake the Marshall together with the Doc and the Cardsharp are all involved in tackling the gangsters leading to the death of the senior brother in a fair shootout and the arrest of the other two.

There is one other difference between the films is that in the original the Kid returns to custody expecting to be returned to prison and asks the Marshall to arrange for the woman to get to his ranch to wait for his release. The Marshall allows him to go off with the woman, although still a fugitive. In the remake his innocence is established before the shoot out and therefore the couple are free to start their new life together. I thought the remake was as well acted as the original and maintained an authentic feel.

Augustus Caesar

I could not resist yet another viewing of my favourite film of all time, Casablanca. One day I will find the time to reflect why I never fail to enjoy and always find something new to appreciate.

Another film I viewed again was Wall Street with Martin and Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas and Terence Stamp. Having earlier in the year seen the sequel I decided to remind myself of the original and was not disappointed.

The great surprise of January viewing todate has been the 200 min Anglo Italian production of Imperium, the life of Octavian who became Augustus Caesar. Peter O’Toole is brilliant in his role as the aged Emperor with Charlotte Rampling a great matching as his wife Livia, one of the great women of ancient history alongside Cleopatra played here by Anna Valle. Gerald Klein is Julius Caesar, and Massimo Ghini Mark Anthony. His daughter Julia is played by Vittoria Belvedere

The story switches between the early years of the Roman Empire AD and back to 46 BC when Octavius and his friend Marcus Agrippa (an architect builder at heart) turned general were imbued with ideas of genuine democracy and furthering the interests of all the people, and join Julius Caesar in Spain to battle against the troops of Pompey. The name Octavius went to non Roman Nobles who reached positions of state. Octavius although a nephew of Julius Caesar, and who became his adopted son, was the son of brought up simply at his father‘s village. His father was one time governor of Macedonia died when he was four, and his mother who had the Caesar family link remarried someone who claimed decadency from Alexander the Great but who had no interest in his step son who he arranged to be cared for by the boy’s Grandmother, the sister of Julius. When his grandmother died Octavius gave the funeral oration and this raised his profile with his mother and stepfather.
The film skips over this background and covers the determination which he showed with Agrippa to reach Caesar in Spain, survived a ship wreck and crossing hostile territory which is said to have drawn him to the attention of Julius. Having adopted him as his son and heir Julius decides that Octavius should have a triumphant entry on return to Rome and then with Agrippa and the son of a friend of Caesar should be sent to Macedonia for further military training and general education. He was therefore not in Rome when Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March. It was only then that Octavius discovered that he inherited two thirds of the estate. One of my early films was Julius Caesar (my GCE Shakespeare was Macbeth) and it was several decades before seeing a stage version by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford and then Newcastle.

In the film Octavius is portrayed as man only interested in furthering the vision of Julius Caesar of a united and peaceful Empire in which everyone had equal status. He claims no personal ambition which is to some extent is apportioned to his wife Livia whose ambition was to bring her son by her first marriage to be Emperor.

In the film Octavius has arranged the marriage of his daughter Julia by his first marriage to his friend Agrippa a man twice her age, and by who she had two sons. Octavius saw the future of the Empire in the hands of his sons and not the son of Livia who he regarded as weak. Julia has taken up with Mark Anthony’s son with Cleopatra Iullus who initially takes up with the woman in order to gain access to the man who he regards as responsible for the death of his father, with a view to killing him. When after the death of Agrippa from fever on his way home, Octavius demands that Julia goes through a new marriage convenience with Livia’s son and she rebels, he explains the background and why the marriage is essential adding that he will arrange for her new husband to be outposted from Rome and that she can continue her love affair discretely. This is the core story of the film alongside his vision of a stable and peaceful empire..

According my immediate research Octavius was much more ambitious and calculating that the film portrayal. He is known to have commandeered 700 million sesterces stored at Brundisium for funding the campaign against Parthia on his way back to Rome with a view to establishing his position in society, although the money is said to have been subsequently used to fund the campaign against Mark Anthony rather than personal wealth. He drew on Julius Caesar veterans to build up his own forces after Mark Anthony had taken the greater part of the available army on the mission to Partha and the bed of Cleopatra, following on the earlier experience of Julius. In Rome the two heir’s of Caesar competed for ascendancy with Mark Anthony refusing to pass over the inheritance. Octavius used his popularity to build up his position in Rome while Mark Anthony was abroad.

In the film there is only brief mention of this period in which Anthony with Lepidus built up their power along that of Octavius to create the Second Triumvirate and the persecution of those who had brought Julius down. The situation in Rome made stable Anthony went to Egypt while Lepidus went to Africa. In Rome Octavius popularity vanished as he forcibly resettled veterans of the Macedonian campaign by confiscating lands.

It is said that Octavius married the older first wife in order to enhance his position with the Roman Nobles but little over a year just as his daughter was born, he divorced and remarried the love of his life Livia. Not only Tiberius born to Livia by the time she was introduced to Octavius but she was pregnant with her second son Nero( not the subsequent Emperor), whose existence is not mentioned in the film.

In Egypt Cleopatra bore Anthony three children but to avoid civil war with Octavius, he agreed to marry his sister Octavia with whom he had two daughters. The two men extended the Triumvirate for a further five years in order to defeat Pompeius and pursue the campaign against Parthia. With the surrender of Lepidus, control of the Empire was divided between Octavius and Anthony.

In both this film and the great Hollywood epic, Cleopatra, she is shown as the ambitious one seeking acceptance as his legitimate wife. This enables Octavius to use her ambitions to push the senate to support him against Anthony. In the film as Octavius gains access to the secret Will of Anthony in which he declared his sons by her as his heirs and plans to build a tomb in Alexandria for himself and his queen when they died. The events of the sea and land battles between Anthony and Cleopatra and Octavius and Agrippa are well documented as well as the suicide of Anthony in the arms of Cleopatra followed by her death through the poison of the Asp. To secure his position Cleopatra’s son to Julius is killed but he allows the children with Anthony to live.

After defeating Anthony and Cleopatra, he had Agrippa returned to Rome where they were appointed joint consuls. He relinquished power over the Roman provinces and their armies back to the Senate. However this was a political move to ingratiate and soon they were calling on him to take active control of the Empire. He therefore became a popular dictator because overall he did bring stability, peace and justice within the Empire. It was not an easy position to maintain. In 22BC there was a grain shortage in Rome which brought him unpopularity ( shown in the film) and there were continuing problems until he appointed someone in charge of securing sufficient food for the capital in AD 8.In the film it is Agrippa who builds a great viaduct to bring fresh water into Rome for drinking via fountains and irrigation of farming land.

Livia’s son grew up and was given a triumphant return to Rome after victories in Germanica in 7BC. Augustus Caesar as he had now become, reinterpreted his vision as peace within territories once they were conquered. His troops took what is today Spain and Portugal. His empire enveloped what is today Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, extended the borders in Africa to the East and the South, moved into Judea and Syria. Modern Turkey was converted into the Empire without force.

There is little disagreement that having secured the Empire he provided the basis for Roman rule for the next 1500 years (for better and worse, given the behaviour of his immediate successors). He created a standing army of 28 legions, 170000 men and the Praetorian Guard. He introduced a standard form of taxation throughout the Empire, based on population census and increased the total revenue under his and Rome’s control. His abolished the use of private tax collectors and created a civil service cadre. The month of August was named after him. He was directly responsible for many great building works including the Pantheon by Agrippa.

In the film there is reference by Augustus to his legacy as he lays on his death bed and during his attempt to explain and convince his daughter why he has to put the interests of Rome before his and her own. In the film he survives one assassination attempt by the allay of his daughter’s lover wearing a disguised leather safety vest.

It was when he became ill in 23BC that he said to have concentrated on his succession and decided that his only child, Julia should marry Agrippa who was appointed head of the Eastern half of the Empire based at Samos in Aegean. In the film Julia appears to have only given birth to two sons but in fact she had five children and it was through her daughter Agrippina, the elder, that she became the grandmother of the Emperor’s Nero and Caligula both of whose rule and lives severely damaged Rome‘s reputation in history.

I have so far failed to establish the authenticity of the film plot in which after Julia has been raped by her husband after she fails to be discrete in her relationship with the son of Mark Anthony, and she expresses her anger to the son and wishes that her father is dead. This provokes the son to attempt to kill Augustus and although his plan is overheard by Livia’s son she tells hims to let events takes their course, seeing this an opportunity to implicate Julia as well as gain power for son, and through him, herself. Hearing the cries of her husband under attack she tells her son to rescue him which he does thus earning the gratitude of Augustus who orders the banishment of Julia away from her children. His plans for her male sons end when both die of fever without issue, thus leaving the way for Livia’s son, Tiberius. According to the film he is reconciled with his daughter on the death bed at the age the age of 77.

Throughout the film I felt the performance of Livia was being influenced by her portrayal in that great BBC series I Claudius. She has appeared in many other films and series as well as literature. This includes ITV’s the Caesars and the BBC/HBO series Rome. Having played a major role in making her son Emperor he is said to have grown impatient with her continuing use of power, so he gave up, literally, and left Rome for retirement, refusing to return when she became fatally ill and sending Caligula to give the funeral oration. I enjoyed the film and the research, wishing that I had the time to pursue several arising interests.

The Bridges of Toko Ri

That the two leaders survive also offended many. This contrasts with the other William Holden film experienced again, The Bridges of Toko Ri.

In contrast to the Wild Bunch, the point of this film is summoned up by the captain of a Carrier when he observes where do we find such men in awe of their heroism and technical abilities.

This 1954 film follows the James Michener story which in turns has a basis of fact in terms of missions from the Carriers the Essex and the Valley Forge upon which Michener was a war Korean Correspondent and from where aircraft undertook key missions to destroy the closely guarded bridges over the gorge at Toko Ri and also covers rescue mission by helicopter for downed pilots in the sea and on the mainland.

William Holden plays one of the Bomber pilots who is angry at being called up after serving in World War II, returning home , setting up a successful legal business. Marrying a beautiful wife (Grace Kelly) with two adorable children. The wife is daughter of a senator and managers to get permission to visit her husband in Japan where the vessel go for shore leave, However on the first night of their reunion Holden is called away to help the pilot of the ship’s rescue helicopter who became fighting drunk and destructive after finding that his Japanese girl friend had fallen for an Essex man. And finds himself unsurprisingly in the naval jail.

He has become a great friend of all the airman because of his own bravery and that of the winchman and who recently rescued Holden who had to ditch in the sea between Korea and the ship. The ship’s captain takes special interest because Holden is of a similar age and married status as his son who was killed in action. He meets with William and his wife in Japan and continues with a meal with the family while William is away rescuing Rooney. Kelly is unable to face the reality of the situation of her husband and the Captain fears for her mental health in the future as the next mission William will face is the Bridges. His daughter in law reacted in the arms of anyone and everyone and alcohol, and his wife who had to bear the loss of their two sons retreated into mental illness. Before setting of Grace forces herself and William to tell of his next assignment and risks.

There is a further confrontation between Rooney and the man from the Essex who sees saying goodbye to his former girl friend as Holden says goodbye to Grace as both ships head out to sea for the Toko Ri mission. The captain arranged for Rooney and his winch man to be transferred to South Korean mainland to undertakes rescue missions for pilots who have to ditch planes while overland. A feature of Rooney is the wearing of blue tall hat and scarf which enables pilots to rescue the successful rescue pilot is on his way to them.

William is asked to undertake a photo recognisance mission which brings home the risk as he escort the photo taking plane through the run over the gorge and four road and rail bridges with anti aircraft fire come from sides at regular intervals. He begins to panic at thought of not returning especially having had time with his wife and children. His plane is damaged and he loses fuel, not from the eventually successful double run over the bridges but from the second assignment of adjacent fuel and weapons dumps. He nearly makes it to the sea but is forces to crash land in enemy held territory but managed to get into a narrow drainage channel close to the aircraft. Fighter planes from the carriers keep the enemy away until Rooney arrives, but the helicopter is also hit and force to land. Rooney makes it into the channel to join Holden but the winchman is killed. The Planes can only stay for a while before their fuel runs out and they have to leave the two who put up a fight until they are killed by the superior forces against them. There was a similar incident while Michener was on one of the ships as war correspondent and he believed the downed pilots had been killed. In fact they survived, were captured and subsequently repatriated. The success of the film is the death of three men we come to care about and the knowledge of a woman and their children left to mourn, sugared in this instance by a romantic time together immediately beforehand,

After losing over Christmas and beginning to head towards the regulation zone Newcastle has had two great wins, the latest another 5.0 home win in the absence of injured Carroll, The star performance was jointly held by new recruit Leon best who has languished in the lower league for over five years. He scored the traditional hat trick of three goals on his first team debut. The other star was captain former bad boy Joey Barton whose repeated bad behaviour off and on the pitched led many, including myself to believe his career should have been ended. He ha sis now replaying those who kept faith with him. As with Sunderland there are many individuals who have impressed this season and begin to show what can be done if they work together as a team.

Sunderland who one place below a European spot next season had another impressive away win at Aston Villa with both sides reduced two ten men because of red card offences. With other top teams failing notably Chelsea and Liverpool Sunderland now have a good chance of making Europe if they can maintain their recent overall good form. Newcastle will also not have to face relegation. The test for both teams is next Sunday at noon when they meet at Stadium of Light with Sunderland still wounded from their 5.0 collapse. A score draw 2.2. 3.3 would be a fair result in present circumstances

The Wild bunch blog

My topsy turvey body clock is taking days to settle down. Last nigght, Wednesday I went to bed and sleep early evening for two and half hours but could only stay up for the first hour of the cricket then going to bed and sleeping for a couple more hours at that. I came down and caught up with the live cricket before realising I was drifting off and generally in an uncomfortable state so I returned to bed with the radio and spent the rest of night from around 3am until 7.30am continued to drift in and out of sleep catching odd moment in the live radio commentary. However it is 4 30 pm today and so far the head remains clear although enthusiasm for work has been limited. I have ventured out to pay in two small cheques at the bank and for some colour cartridge ink as well as post an important letter. It is bitter cold again and starting to sleet but his did not continue.

I did see The Wild Bunch again over the holiday, a Sam Peckinpath film which stands out among the top Western genre and which features William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien and Warren Oats among others. The film remains controversial for the amount of bloody killing and portrayal of men willing to do anything to survive.

The bloodshed and action continues from start to finish with brief interludes. A small gang led by William Holden, former military men, have become outlaws and raid a railroad office because there is said to be silver there. In fact it is steel washers. They are ambushed by Robert Ryan, released from prison, to track down his former associates and together with others deputised by the railroad company there is a shoot out where several men are killed as well as townsfolk bystanders.

Holden takes his remaining men across the border into Mexico and to the town of one his group, a Mexican. The town is the HQ for an army general who is the kind of bandit warlord known to control much of Afghanistan. Holden does a deal with the general to steal USA weapons across the border known to be travelling by train. This mission is also bloody but successful. They continue to be pursued by Robert Ryan and his posse.

The mission would have ended successfully if the Mexican member had not found that his former girlfriend was not one of the General’s women. It is quickly evident that the local women are willing to offer sex for money and the men enjoy sexual adventures before embarking on each gun fight.

The Mexican tackles the girl and the General about their relationship and this is laughed off. However not long after the Mexican is taken prisoner and tortured near to death while Holden and the other gang members first decide there is nothing they can do except take the money and run. However they relent and ask for the release of their colleague. This is agreed but with his throat cut. This results in the bloodiest of battles in which dozen of not hundreds die. Only Holden survives the carnage.

The reason why the Mexican is taken prisoner is that he had had used a small part of the weapons’ cache to arm his townsfolk who are tired of being at the mercy of the General. The local revolutionaries kill the surviving members of Ryan’s posse who are returning without him, but with the bodies of all the other gang members to claim the reward. So just about everyone dies including many villagers, including the women, the General’s men, the posse and the gang. The film ends with Ryan and Holden riding off together.

There are no good men or women in this film, something which offended at the time of its release and still does certain sections of society on both dies of the North Atlantic. Even when one of their number of captured and tortured they are willing to turn away because of the odds. The irony is that it is only after they have been paid for stealing and turning over the weapons do they have a crisis of conscience about leaving their Mexican member behind. Life is cheap including their own and there is no sense of guilt or need to atone for all the slaughtering. That the two leaders survive also offended many. This contrasts with the other William Holden film experienced again, The Bridges of Toko Ri.

Titanic 1953

It is possible to describe the past 96 hours as days original and remakes, given the number of films which have enabled me to forget the constant blowing of nose and coughing although I have managed to sleep, albeit at an assortment of times.

I went out early on Tuesday morning January 4th to the return of biting coldness for a brief shopping expedition to the nearest supermarket and to use up the £5 voucher bonus from the Christmas New Year give away and a £5 voucher from the petrol station. It main purpose was to restock on toilet rolls and toothpaste. There was an excellent offer of tins of grapefruit in juice at 29p and the tubs of prepared rice for 74p instead of £1 or more. I purchased some salad and grapes. Special offer diet coke and an extra or two, a tin of anchovies and two half price individual Christmas puddings. Apart from milk I am well stocked for two weeks if necessary. I plan to use up the freezer and fridge contents for defrost and clean if the snow keeps away.

On returning home the Green wagon was in the lane so I had to park and wait. I only need to clear my blue (green) wheelie bin every four weeks but neighbours bins were bulging with celebration cans and bottles as well as Christmas cardboard. The ordinary waste wagon had also cleared the bins leading mine in front of the garage door so I had to get out in the cold to move before being able to park. I remember back to the days of the round metal waste bins in which it was possible to burn waste as well as putting in the embers from the coal fires. Its seems a lifetime ago and it was, although the memories are vivid.

One of the films was the 1953 Titanic, made in black and white it created a great sense of horror than the more recent popular award winning version, despite its preoccupation with the trivial life of one family, the Sturges with Barbara Stanwick playing wife Julie who has decided to rebel against her purposeless life, following her husband around Europe to the social events of the seasons while he plots a good marriage for his adoring 17 year old daughter and worshipping son. She has sneaked off while he is occupied elsewhere using the excuse of the Titanic maiden voyage to take the children home and then keep them there hoping to change them into more likeable and socially aware young people.

The husband, played by Clifton Webb, finds out but arrives at the Cherbourg stage to find there are no tickets left. This is dishonest film trick as the vessel sailed half full of wine growers travelling third class fortunately, otherwise the number of deaths would have been significantly greater. He persuades a Spanish family of wine growers travelling third class to give up the male parent’s ticket after offering to add the purchase of 100 aces for their trouble. As if the family on their way to California would have agreed to separated and in this way, but this aspect is essential for the particular ending.

Their ten year old son is delighted to see his father and immediately plans how they will spend part of the day together entering the Shuffleboard competition, when there was no such game on the ship. Similarly Clifton is away luggage finds himself sporting day wear and an evening suit from the Ship’s Tailor and shop, another feature not on the Titanic.

The 17 year old Annette is appalled to learn she has missed the opportunity to attend a major social event at which Clifton has planned to arrange her marriage to one of Europe’s wealthiest families. She rejects the attention from a talented, and attractive young man, part of the USA Tennis team on their way home, and played by a very young Robert Wagner. He is encouraged by the mother and after a dance the two fall in love just as the iceberg opens the ship below the waterline rather like a tin opener on the former of corned beef tins. The relationship between husband and wife reaches its climax fighting over the future of the two children when mother recognising she is rejected by her daughter in favour of her father, ensures she will keep the boy by revealing he is the child of a brief encounter one summer. However Clifton reacts by saying he wants to have nothing more to do with her or the boy and spends the time playing bridge with an assortment of other First class socialites including a character based on Molly Brown played by Thelma Ritter.

The ending has its sentimental aspects similar to the more recent version, as first the daughter realises she has behaved badly towards her mother and that she has fallen for Wagner and then the reality that he and her father are unlikely to survive when having to remain on the ship because their are insufficient lifeboats. After saying goodbye and not expecting to see him again, Wagner heroically climbs down the winding gear of another boat which has become entangled and falls hitting his head into the water by the sudden release of the boat into the water. He is picked up and unbeknown to his new love, will be rescued along with her.

The discovery about his son results in Webb taking an interest in the Spanish family and getting the mother to sign what appears to be a Will or deed of settlement of some kind prepared which she is asked to hold for him. He therefore makes sure she gets onto a lifeboat and witnessing this act although unaware of its significance and they way he had ensured that she and their children are safe knowing he is likely to perish, makes Barbara see her husband in a new light and they are reconciled at the moment of permanent separation. Then out of sight of mother and sister, the boy gives up his seat in the boat to an old women to go in search of his father. Father is horrified on seeing the boy and finding that there are no lifeboats left tells the boy how much he is proud of his son and they die together. Apart from the Molly Brown character who we see surviving in another boat the only other story of merit is that of a priest, unfrocked because of his alcoholism is finding it difficult facing the family who gave up much to enable him to achieve his calling. He(Richard Baseheart) dies going to spiritual aid of trapped men below decks. “For God’s sake don’t go in there” says a crew member. to which he replies For God’s sake I am going in there.

There is a host of historical inaccuracies in the film with some already mentioned. The boilers explode in the film when in reality they did not and the interior of the ship was very different. The wealthy travellers of the Captain’s table, first class would have had staff with them and occupied substantial suites whereas the Sturgis family occupy two fairly basic cabins and there are no staff other than Ships crew. Wikipedia has an extensive list of other errors, although in the opening credits there is reference to the authentic city of the basic facts of what happened. Yet having said all this why do I still feel that the film showed the horror more effectively than the recent version. There are two reason, both subjective. The first is a film in black and white struck me as communicating the cold more effectively. The second is seeing the film at an ice cold time of the year. I was struck by the awareness of the death of so many men, the small number of women and the one child, a girl of a family who went in search of their baby son who had already been taken onto a lifeboat by its nurse, the horror of their actual death by drowning suffocation and what would have been the impact of the immediate surviving and other family members.

The International

I am convinced that I have written already about the International, a vehicle for Clive Owen, who performs as an Interpol agent with an Assistant District Attorney who want to bring justice to one of the world’s most powerful banks whose activities including money laundering, illegal arms trading and terrorism promotion as part of interfering with the independence of nations in order to promote and further its business and profitability.. In Italy they witness the assassination of a candidate for the Presidency, an arms manufacturer who refused to sell to the corporation. Through a local corrupt police the assassin is identified as someone local instead of a specialist hitman employed by the company on several operations in the past, However by persistence, some luck and some skill the individual is identified as based in New York which is fortunate as the two are ordered by their superiors to return home as the case is official close by the Italian Police.

The assassin us traced to a meeting at the Guggenheim museum which is a trap to end his contract and result in a great shoot out with modern multifiring weapons. Hr helps Owen to survive although dies without proving useful evidence. The arms manufacturer politician was killed in the belief that it would be possible to deal with his sons. This is a major mistake which will lead to the bringing down to the corrupt bank leadership, at least for a time. The action moves to Istanbul where the company needs an important deal where Owen is about to take the law into in own hands and kill the Banks Chief Executive. Her is spared as another assassin is successful, employed by the sons avenging the death of their father. However this is but the closing of one chapter, It does nit bring down the bank, suggesting either a sequel or more likely the reality that once these organisations are established with their network fused with crime all over the world they are difficult to dismantle whatever happens to individuals in the control and leadership level. This we have seen with he UK banks and those in states and elsewhere in Europe. When the entire system is under threat while individuals may be purged the basic structure and approach is supported reinforced and encouraged to flourish

A Serious Man and the Cohen Brothers

The Coen brothers Joel and Nathan have created some interesting challenging, unique and sometimes funny works. A serious man is not funny. Well it depends on the individual sense of humour.

A polish Jew tells his wife that eh has been helped home by Reb Groshkover who he has invited in for the evening soup (stew), His wife, Dora, objects, as the man is dead. The man is therefore a ghost or some form of living dead. When he arrives the wife plunges and icepick in the chest of visitor.

Half century later we are in the USA Minnesota and the wife of Professor of Physics announces she wants a divorce so she can marry a widower neighbour.. She suggests it would be appropriate he moves out into a motel which he agrees.

Living in the family home is their son who owes money to a Hebrew classmate for the marijuana he has provided and he places the note in a transistor radio with ear piece which he takes to school and is then confiscated by the head teacher. His sister is obsessed with doing her hair and his uncle spends his time filling a notebook with a complex scientific theory which he claims will fuse together all natural laws. This we have a typical Cohen collection of human beings in contrast to Hollywood and media family portrayals.

The husband faces a faculty decision on whether his tenure is confirmed and this put in jeopardy following his decision to appropriate grade a Korean student who first leaves a substantial financial gift which is then denied when confronted by the Professor and they in turn threaten defamation and make complaint.

Things quickly go from bad to worse. He finds that his wife having persuaded him to leave the home and go into a motel, empties his bank accounts. His brother is then arrested for solicitation.

Our hero turns to his religion and seeks an audience with the senior rabbi who refuses contact with the outside world except to approve the bar Mitzvah which his son is due to take. The others he consult behave in negative, incomprehensible ways and are of no help. Then the situation appears to change. He and his wife’s lover are involved in car accidents at the same time but in different places. The lover dies and our hero pays for the funeral at the insistence of his wife. This is man unable to control any aspect of his destiny. The Bar Mitzvah appears to go well although the hero and the rest are unaware that the son has coped by taking cannabis. He gains entry to the senior rabbi who passes over the transistor radio with the missing note appearing to be confusing the son with his father. White at home he goes on the roof to sort out the TV aerial and sees a neighbour sunbathing in her yard naked. He begins a relationship with her. He is given the impression his job is safe. The boy’s teacher struggles to open the school shelter’s door as a cyclone approaches Then the hero receives a telephone call from his doctor after the result of an x ray have been checked.

The film is about he deception of appearances and the Cohen’s The last film note is that No Jews were harmed in the making of the film! You either love them or hate them.

Deal

Deal, with Burt Reynolds is a film which will only appeal to Gamblers. A young man opts out of he life planned for him by his parents because he has a flair for poker, a flair which is spotted by Burt Reynolds a man who comes close to winning the world championship and who has withdrawn from activity in order to save his marriage. At first his role is to train the young man to achieve the success which eluded him but soon the bug bites back and the two men find themselves in close completion in the world Championship at Las Vegas. The film provides the opportunity for various known Poker players and Poker commentators to come to the big screen. There are times when the Sky TV channels appear to be covering Poker tournaments or advertising online and TV games for the amateur to lose money. I cannot now remember if I dozed off or was distracted and therefore missed how the film ends. Did I care then? Yes although a minor irritation. Do I care now.? No but I may catch the ending sometime as it continues to be shown.

Inkheart

For the second night in succession I have remained awake, eaten a little and worked or played games. I will go to bed soon and try and sleep. Last night I stayed awake in bed because the mind was racing following events the previous day where tonight I found it difficult to get comfortable with a blocked nose. Even the common head cold frightens me a little, sometimes a lot. I an defrosting a large chicken, some pigs in blankets and special almond and apricot stuffing balls. I shall also roast the ham and enjoy a small Christmas pudding with hot custard as well as drink a whole bottle of Asti. There will be cold cuts with salad and perhaps a curry from the chicken. As soon as the cold cough has departed I will attend to losing weight with renewed determination.

Inkheart is described as a young adult fantasy which attracted my attention during December. It is first book of a trilogy made into a film in 2008 with a major cast which includes Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren and Andy Serkis. This is a wonderful story about the power of the word and the creative imagination and concerns the 12 year old daughter, Meggie, of a man who discovers that he can make elements of any story he reads out loud to others come to life. It is important to understand that while the book tells the adventure from her perspective the film tends to switch between the perspective of the different characters which at times I did find hard to follow. It is important to pay close attention and reminds of those video adventure games where visual acuity is important together with a knowledge of the story upon which the game is based. Similar to the Harry Potter films which follow the books in great detail the film is aimed at those who have ready the original book, published in German but with an English translation.

The danger of her father’s ability as he discovers is that he appears to have read his wife into the story as she disappears, bring into reality a juggling fire eater from a travelling circus in the book called Dustfinger.

Meggie spends years searching for another copy of the book unaware that these have been bought up by another of the Inkheart characters called Capricorn played by Andy Serkis. He is a nasty criminal rogue he we learn lives in a castle dominated village which he has created in mountains of Italy. Her father is a book repairer which enables him to visit public and private collections and on one visit he finds a copy and Dustfinger who wants to be returned into the story and his wife unaware that he dies at the end of the book.

Without knowing the location of his wife the father refuses and goes to see his wife’s great aunt, Helen Mirren, who lives with her great book collection blaming Mortimer for the loss of his wife. They are followed their by Dustfinger who has reported the existence of Mortimer to Capricorn who promises to arrange for the juggler to be return to fiction.

Capricorn already has a reader, but the man has a stutter so the creatures are deformed and these include


He and his daughter then sped years on a pilgrimage trying to find another copy of the book to reverse the position. Mortimer is a repairer of books by trade and this provides the opportunities to inspect private as well as public libraries including the one held by the great aunt of his wife played by Helen Mirren and who lives in Italy. He makes the journey after being called into a bookstore and finding a copy of the book and then encountering Dustfinger who wants to be immediately read back into the story without first locating the whereabouts of the missing wife. Because of his refusal to act Dustfinger has alerted another characters who were released from the story and Capricorn played by Andy Serkis, and who at his isolated Castle has created a community of other characters including the Hound from the Baskervilles, the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz and the ticking crocodile from Peter Pan, together with a vicious Minotaur

The reader and the great aunt and Meggie are captured by Capricorn’s agents and taken to the Castle after the great private library is destroyed Mortimer is required to read for Capricorn to protect his daughter and this brings into the story a new and important character from Ali Baba who releases unlimited treasure. Mortimer has disclosed his power to his daughter and the great aunt and that he believes he unintentionally placed his wife in the book hence his search for another copy. The story becomes increasingly complicated, at least I found it so.

Unbeknown to either Mortimer or Capricorn the wife is not in the book but a mute artistic kitchen helper but she is discovered by Dustfinger who keeps the knowledge secret. The plan is devised to break out of the Castle and go in search of the author of the book in the hope he has a copy. The break out involves creating the cyclone from the Wizard of Oz and which also brings Toto the into the story as a friend for Meggie.

After locating the author played by Jim Broadbent, and finding he has a handwritten manuscript, a plan is devised to return to the Castle community and read a new version of the tale with a different ending as Capricorn is after bringing into reality the super monster which threatens mankind, similar to the monster of Outlander. Meggie discovers she also has the power and this in turn becomes known to Capricorn who also finds that her mother is working for him and blackmails the girl to read as he wishes. Fortunately they are able to alter the story, prevent the monster coming into reality also send back all the characters into their original stories. This enables Dustfinger to return and have a happy ending with his wife, but the Ali Baba character decides to stay with Mortimer and Meggie with whom he has struck up a relationship, suggesting the direction of the second volume. In attempting to simplify what is a fast moving and complex story I have done a disservice where the great aunt also has a ongoing role as does Mr Broadbent. It is he kind of film that one can enjoy better if you have read the book or watches attentively for a second time.

Me and Orson Wells

I had wanted to go and see Me and Orson Welles in theatre although never a great Orson Wells fan in the way of other actors of the same generation although I do accept that Citizen Kane is a great film and always enjoy his appearance in the Third Man. Anyway this films is a rites of passage film in which Christian McKay who plays Wells shows 17 year old Richard Samuels the facts of life. Richard comes to New York to study and by good fortune which stretches belief gets a part in a low budget, save the off Broadway theatre production of Julius Caesar. The larger than life actor playing actor is having an extra marital affair with his leading lady, something which shocks the well brought up innocent 17 year old. He is taken under the wind of the older (Mrs Robinson) production assistant.

The night before curtain up Welles insists the cast go off in pairs to enjoy the night, draw at random, although the 17 year old fixes it to go off with the production assistant and they spend the night together. He falls in love and despite being told the reality the ambitious get to Hollywood production assistant then sleeps with Wells which causes the 17 year old to give Wells a piece of his mind. Wells keeps the lad in the play which is a great success, but only until he can arrange a replacement. The young man learns his lesson.

At the start of the film he meets a young ambitious rather plain looking young woman in music store who is setting out to become a writer. They meet up again just after he has got the part and she is feeling low about her lack of success. He offers to pass one of stories through a connection gained at the theatre. They meet for a third time at the end of film after her story is accepted and she is on the way to success.

The film was made in England, including the Isle of Man. Pinewood studios and Crystal Palace. The film had a budget of $25million and is reported to have made less that $3m yet received good media reactions as a film about putting on a play. It appears that the portrayal of Wells was a good one as the part gained a Best support actor BAFTA nomination. I was pleased to have got the film out of my system and that I had not taken the time and expense to view in theatre.

The Long Goodbye

I thought I had seen The Long Goodbye before, a 1953 Raymond Chandler Philip Marlow Story with a young Elliott Gould in the role of this 1973 made film. It was only when reading the background that I remembered the other film was the Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and hen remade with Robert Mitcham. No one has been able to better the Bogart Philip Marlow or the Bogart anything and Elliott has played too many roles as Elliott Gould to be anything other than Elliott Gould so this is in fact an Elliott Gould detective film and where I am on the side of the police who find him insufferable and unhelpful , This arises because I am inclined to have a favourable view of the British Police Detective in general and forget that the USA film portrayal of their police as being as best lacking any kind of professionalism and at worst prejudiced and corrupt.

The story begins with Marlow brought in for questioning after the discovery of the murder of the wife of a long standing friend who contacted Marlowe on the night of the murder, met him in an anxious and afraid state and admitted he had a row with his wife. The friend is then found dead while Marlow is in custody, and apparent suicide and therefore the police in their stock fashion decided to close the case. Marlow had in fact taken the friend from Los Angeles to border with Mexico at Tijuana.

Marlow returns to his day job and accepts a request to locate the alcoholic writer husband of the stock platinum blonde curvaceous female who feature in the Chandler writings. His first call is the detox clinic previously used where he is told lies only to find that the writer is there, wanting to break out and appears to be held against his will for non payment of previous fees. Marlow then learns that the writer and his wife knew his dead friend and the writer’s wife reinforces Marlowe’s view that someone else killed the wife and the suicide verdict is questionable.

Marlowe is then taken temporary prisoner by a vicious gangster so dangerous that he physically hurts his mistress to demonstrate that, her I love, You I don’t even like, thus making the point as directly and strongly as he can that he wants the third of a million dollars owed him by the suicide dead friend. He then finds the gangster relationship with the writer and his wife.

However before the significance of this is explained Marlow learns that the writer as having an affair with the wife of his dead friend and that the writer’s wife, who appears to have set her cap at Marlow, believed that her husband was capable of killing the woman and who then appears to take his own life drowning in the sea. The police do not believe this story saying that he alibi has been checked and confirmed. They are right you see.

Marlowe returns to Mexico where he discovers that his friend is alive and has bribed official over his suicide death story. He admits that he killed his wife because of an affair with the wife of the writer, and not the other way around. So the police were right about this too. Worse has followed. The writer’s wife admits she was holding the money for her lover and returns it to the vicious criminal who lets Marlow go. He then passes the woman on her way to her lover in Mexico, having shot him dead for the killing betrayal and the hassle Marlowe has experienced. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the vicious gangster and Stirling Hayden the writer (Ernest Hemingway style). Critics generally shared my view that Altman and Gould appear half heartened in their realization of Chandler’s Marlowe

Toast

Toast is made for TV 90 minute film of the published autobiography of food critic and writer Nigel Slater, and award winning journalist with the Observer Newspaper. At the close of the film he leaves home, goes to London and obtains a job in the kitchen of the Savoy Hotel. Toast is in fact the story of a childhood and adolescence rather than the blow by blow rise of a cook into writer about food. I am not sure if it is the intention of the director but Slater does not fare well in the story. He is brought up in Wolverhampton with an insensitive lump of a father played by Nigel Stott and an insipid and neurotic mother who suffers from severe asthma and who dies when he is only nine years of age. His mother has an aversion to cooking and relies on tins, which she also gets wrong and then relies on making Toast to satisfy the appetite, hence the title of the original autobiography and film. Slater the child is revealed as wanting to change the situation and tries to introduce the family to Spaghetti Bolognaise.

After the death father commences a relationship with the a cleaning lady, more attractive, sexy and a good cook, played by Helena Bonham Carter and whose tour de force is a Lemon Meringue pie which according to Slater his step mother refused to divulge the recipe so he spent years trying to work out her success and when he achieves this his father rejects because it is produced at the wrong time.

What I do not understand from the film and obviously the book may make the situation more clear is why Nigel took against his step mother so badly given that the relationship with his mother was not a great one. The answer could be what I suspect is made more fundamental in the book but skated over in the film, the relationship between food and sex and his development as a homosexual. The film suggests hat during his childhood his birth mother and father had a comfortable but sexually unadventurous relationship while that with the step mother was of a different order and there is the hint of the step mother turning to adolescent 15 year old for comfort when her husband suddenly dies. What the film also fails to mention is that Nigel has two older brothers.

I suspect interest and enjoyment in the film rests on the extent to which the audience comprised those who had read his column, or used his books or become a fan through his TV work. I must confess not to have known anything about him and therefore had none of the usual curiosity about his background which I do have with those whose work I appreciate.

Outlander

I need another film catch up. In fact I need a general catch up with a house clean and tidy, a financial clean and tidy and a lifestyle clean and tidy. For the past three years I have undertaken mini trips on average once a month because of the £9 a night room offer by Travel Lodge. As his year progressed the arrangements for the offers changed and on the last occasion I failed to gain accommodation for an end of the year London trip.

Today I returned from an early morning swim, visit to Morrison’s and then Staples, returning via South Shields town centre to pick up a pocket diary at the pound shop only to switch on the computer, check the email and find that Travel Lodge were holding what is reported to be their last ever £9 sale with accommodation available for the whole year. This posed a dilemma because as reported in the last writing I need to reign in expenditure, but equally I did not want a situation where I am unable to make trips later because of having to pay the full price when the opportunity now arose. In the event there were few £9 rooms available for consecutive days and I had to settle to three trips of three nights with only two rooms at £9 and the rest at £19, although this also included a Saturday. I will have another look in a moment to see what is still on offer.

The first film update is Outlander which someone has described as cross between the Highlander series and Braveheart. The film cost nearly $50 million to make and is reported to have taken less than a seventh of this at the box office. I can understand why although given other offering of the same ilk it deserved better. The story is of a warrior soldier in an advanced planet in 709 AD, the time of he Viking domination of Northern and central Europe. The planet is attacked by a specie of fiery devilish flesh eating monsters. Alien and Monster, that seems to be the title for another film attack each other’s worlds and on returning to his home world the warrior soldier finds that his wife and child have been killed and he goes off seeking revenge only to crash on earth bring a stowaway family of monster with him. These set about terrorising the Viking community which captures the warrior after the space ship crashes into the sea. The Warrior gains the confidence of the local king played by John Hurt, the King’s adventuring daughter, his previously chief warrior and a young orphan lad who takes a shine for new arrival. There is an overlong and at times improbable doing battle with the monsters during which the King and his chief warrior are killed, the daughter is captured alive, the reason for this in inexplicable so there is not attempt to do so, and she is rescued. The monsters are slain as a result of creating a special sword from the metal of the space craft. The film ends as the visiting warrior turns off his distress beacon and settles down to become the king, marry the former King’s daughter with the adopted orphan and fires the lighted arrow to set of the sailing pyre carrying the bodies of the old king and his chief warrior.

The director of the film, Howard McCain wrote the original published story two decades before inspired by a rebuilt Viking ship on he cover of Archaeology Magazine and the teals of Beowulf and such remained his enthusiasm that he created a replica village and ship for the film set. The creature has two forms, a prehistoric beast which becomes a translucent fiery dragon. At two hours the film could have been shortened without altering is impact.

Flash of Genius

By now any regular readers will know that I applaud anyone who pursues their dreams as long as in doing so they do not knowingly harm others. This is not always easy because the singled minded individual will. however unintentionally, adversely affect parents and other family members, partners and children, unless they are successful in their endeavours. The definition of success is also variable. Someone my go off and climb mountains but in doing bring tension to those waiting to know if their child or partner will return often such endeavours require considerable financial as well as emotional support.

The Flash of Genius is the name of a film but also a doctrine where for ten years the Courts in the USA judged the protection of patents. The film concerns Robert Kearns who successfully fought a battle against the Ford Motor Company to obtain financial recognition for his device, the variable screen wiper.

Robert Kearns was a remarkable man in every sense who successfully studied engineering at Universities in the USA and became a teacher. He was a talented violinist and during the Second World War he was a member of the Office of Strategic Services which became the CIA.

He was nearly blind in one eye, caused on his wedding night when a released champagne cork hit the eye and he suffered difficulties throughout his life as a consequence. Driving with his family in the rain he found the constant back and forth of the screen wipers irritating and his flash of genius was to work out a mechanism which enabled the wipers to operate intermittently. He used this story in court to illustrate his claim for originality. He developed a prototype in the basement of his home where he lived with his wife and then six children.

The device was shown to the Ford Motor Company who agreed to incorporate the mechanism into a new model with Kearns and his partner setting up a manufacturing company to produce the wiper mechanism directly. The deal went as far as submitting a sample unit and pricing information but then silence. He then discovered that the same device was being used in a new model without any reference to him.

The film suggests that he became so distraught about what happened that he required psychiatric help arranged officially by his family. He comes home a broken man but decides to study the legal position and commences action against the company. He is then given legal help and Ford agrees to make a settlement of $30 million which would have set himself and his family up for life, given that other companies wishing to use the device would be required to make payments. He rejected the offer because of the requirement for the out of court settlement to agree on the basis that Ford did not admit liability, which is the usual way civil compensation claims are settled on both sides of the Atlantic.

For Kearns being cheated and unfair commercial practice became the fundamental issue rather than the money and according to the film he decided to continue on his own. Although he maintained contact with his children who came to support him in the preparation of the case and in attending the eventual court hearings, his wife commenced to live life separate from him and divorced.

He won the legal battle although the Court ruled that the infringement had not been intentional with an award of only $10 million on the basis of no appeal regarding the amount. He later successfully won a case against the Chrysler Corporation for $18.7 million with interest but Chrysler appealed until the Supreme Court rejected the request and he received $30 million but out of which he met $10 million of the legal costs.

To place his D I Y legal success in perspective, he commenced the project development in 1966 and the formal legal action in 1978 and 1982 but the trial did not take place until 1990 with the Chrysler initial decision in 1990 and a further five years before settlement. Thus the ordeal for himself and his family took two decades. He failed in cases against General Motors, Mercedes and Japanese companies because of missed deadlines. The film does bring out the basis for the defence of the auto industry in that the device does not use new components. Kearns counteracted this by using the example of a well known book when on the first and subsequent pages all the words are familiar and already contained in the dictionary. The success of the work regarded as a literary masterpiece is in how the author places the words and similarly the argument that while he used existing mechanical and electrical components it is how they are arranged that produces the new type of wiper which he had properly and effectively patented before being used by the motor vehicle manufacturing companies. He died in 2005 from a form of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 75 having served on a number of charities including the board of the Veterans in the Office of Strategic Services

I agree with one reviewer, Stephen Holden of the New York Times that the film lacked greatness although it contains the mixture of idealism, obsession and paranoia because it somehow misses out in communication the emotional and psychological impact of his quest on him and his family. On reflection this is perhaps unfair because as another reviewer mentions Peter Hartlub in the San Francisco Chronicle, the film does use 2 hours to communicate the struggle and failure before the final moments of success of a kind. I thought this was a good construction in the sense of posing the question was it really worth it? However this is not general entertainment and will appeal only to those like me who have gone through a similar experience. It is also noteworthy that although the film uses the legal doctrine a Flash of Genius, this was altered in 1952 before Kearns commenced his law suits and while he used what happened when driving the car in the rain to indicate the first flash of genius, he subsequently confirmed that the it was several years of a trial and error research before the device was perfected.

Step Brothers and St Trinian Gold

The Saturday before Christmas 2010, the 18th of December was a monumental failure to achieve objectives set for the day. I did rise early and swim 54 length, spending little time reading the paper in the hotel lounge, full edition but I could not settle after reading how bad the weather had again become over much of the British Isles. I realised that it was increasingly unlikely I would be able to get away for Christmas, or if I did set off I could face a horrendous journey which I would not be able to cope with.

At lunchtime I enjoyed the Sunderland home game against Bolton on Sky, especially when the lead was taken. There were several opportunities to extend this but the failure to do so meant that Bolton then had several opportunities to equalize but players on both side miskicked or met determined defences. Because of a dramatic snow fall in many parts of the country a number of football matches were called off to prevent fans having to travel in the atrocious road conditions. Because of this Sunderland rose to sixth in the table with their win and on equal points with Spurs who have a game in hand

I watched a remake of the film Stagecoach which I enjoyed and then in the evening enjoyed the final two sessions of Strictly Come Dancing in which the three deserving couples were reduced to two after the first hour session when they each danced twice Pamela Stevenson has gained many admirers as the dancing grandmother, professional clinical psychologist aged 61 who lost two dress sizes during the contest and found herself again, as she admitted in terms of enjoying public performance and recognition. She disappointed with the speciality dance concentrating on a mixture of the best dance forms unlike the other two couple who went in for spectacular gymnastics and rightly obtained the public support to contest the second and final session of two dances, one a repeat of what they regarded as their best and the fourth of the evening a routine they had not performed before. Not that given her age and frame Pamela could do anything else. She appeared to find the coming third difficult and did not reappear during the final session or finale. The winner was justifiable the most beautiful and athletic performer although even she had several technical hitches which prevented top notch marks. The following information on the inner comes from the Official Strictly site

At the age of 7, Kara Tointon started to go to speech and drama lessons at school. She did LAMDA exams and entered local music festivals doing poetry recitals. Her first acting experience was playing the part of Brigitta in The Sound of Music at the Cliffs Pavilion in Essex for the local amateur dramatic society. Her first paid job was in the panto Snow White at the age of 11 - she was one of the child dancers. Her first TV appearance was in EastEnders in 1994 as an extra, playing Sonia's school friend. In 2000 after leaving school, she won a part in the Channel 4 drama Teachers. It was this job that convinced Kara that she should make acting her full-time career. In 2002, Kara appeared in Dinotopia, followed in 2004 by a role in Mile High. She then joined the cast of Dream Team as Gina Moliano, a role she played until 2005. Almost as soon as she left Dream Team it was announced she would be joining EastEnders as Dawn Swann, the sister of Mickey Miller (Joe Swash). During her four years on EastEnders, Kara's character conned the residents of Albert Square into paying for breast implants, was kidnapped and held hostage by her lover who planned to give her an enforced caesarean, had a brief affair with Phil Mitchell, and was involved in a long-running 'will-they-won't-they' plotline with Garry Hobbs (played by last year's Strictly contestant Ricky Groves). Kara left EastEnders in 2009, saying she would love to return one day. In 2008, Kara took part in the Sport Relief version of Strictly, partnering Mark Ramprakash, and won. Kara was born in Basildon in Essex. Her younger sister Hannah is also an actress and has appeared in Hollyoaks. She dated James Bourne from the band Busted from the age of 15 until she won her role on EastEnders. She briefly dated James Alexandrou (Martin Fowler) before going out with Joe Swash (Mickey Miller) in 2008 just before he took part in I'm A Celebrity. They split in May 2010, and Kara is currently single.
If she wasn't an actress, Kara says she would have gone to Art College instead. She's 27 years old and is 5' 5" tall. As well as winning the Sexiest Actress gong at the National Soap Awards in 2008, Kara was also nominated for 'Most Popular Actress' at the National Television Awards in 2007. She has appeared in adverts for McDonalds and Diamond, and in 2009 she was unveiled as the face of Michelle for George underwear at Asda. Kara suffers from dyslexia and says she has a reading age of about 12, which causes her problems memorising lines for last-minute auditions. She has made a documentary about the subject for BBC Three, which will be shown in mid-November.

Her professional dance partner was Artem Chigvintsev of Russian birth but now regards Los Angeles as his home base although he has trained, competed and performed all over the world. He has openly cried at their success and appears to worship Karia as she him which explains the magical intensity and fusion of their dancing. She is quite extraordinary.

I enjoyed my food, a bacon roll, soup with a little salad at lunch and some grapes, Christmas cake and cheese mid afternoon followed by two lamb chops with the rest of the salad and grapes later. A glass of whisky to insulate against the chill despite having the heating on all day.

So why the discontent and inability to sleep? I have not completed letters to accompany the remaining Christmas card and I will not be able to go swimming in the morning from tiredness or late waking. There were also feelings of failure, frustration, sadness, guilt to painful and private to recount, I must do much better but time is running out and I am unable alone to break out of the cycle I am locked into to make the kind of difference I am seeking. I am also anxious about my situation next year. It is 4 am and I have been up for 90 minutes after coming down making a milky drink and playing the third round Mahjong well ahead of the previous best score which should see me reach well above 15.

I must write about the worst film I have seen for decades perhaps ever so as to sum up this unsatisfactory 24 hours, not helped by the second England collapse in Australia or having a temporary fault in the new Sky box but which took only a few Minutes to resolve.

Step brothers is described as an American slapstick buddy comedy film. This is the story of two moronic infantile men in their thirties who continue to live with the divorced parents , one his mother and the other his father until the parents set up home together and they forced to share a room and change their established ways of life which includes not working, being slobs and generally give their respective parent a hard time. Their situation goes from bad to worse when the married brother of one arrives with his family boasting of his success and offers to sell the family home to enable his father and new wife to go round the world on their boat thus making the two men homeless. They join forces as a consequence and their behaviour eventually drives the parents to split up and the men to try and find jobs. They become successful, the respective parent geometer again accepting that the their sons are as they are. It is awful excruciating embarrassing and one wonder who will enjoy the film given that the lewd comments and lavatory humour is not suitable for children but who would enjoy nevertheless. The Film is Directed by one Adam McKay who also produced, created the story and the screenplay. Theb two brothers are played by Will Ferrell to also wrote the screenplay and devised he story, and John C Reiley who also helped with the story development. Needless to add the film was a great success at the box office making over $100 million. This beggars belief.

I can understand why contemporary version of St Trinians continued to be made. The screen is filled with scantily dressed young women pretending to be school girls, The film stars Rupert Everett as the female Headmistress Camilla Dagey Fritton, her Ancestor Archibald Fritton and the Rev Fortnum Fritton another ancestor. David Tennant of Dr Who fame plays Sir Piers Pomfrey leader of a secret society after the Treasure known as Fritton’s Gold and Colin Firth as Geoffrey Thwaites the former Minister of Education. To give and idea of the style of the piece some of the girls are Jessica the Chav, Bianca the Rude Girl, Chelsea Parker, Bella and Saffy the Posh Totties, Celia the ECO freak, Lucy the Geek, Zoë the EMO, and Roxy the Rock Star.

The search for the treasures takes them to the Globe Theatre where it is found to be Shakespeare’s last plat and unknown play Queen Lear and that Shakespeare was in fact a woman who was also the Pirate Fritton. I kid you not . The film took over £7 million at the box office just over half that of the first new edition. It is very colourful boisterous and absurd. I went to sleep while watching hence the paucity of my comments.