A few weeks ago, Warners came out with "Sam Peckinpah's Legendary Westerns Collection", dvd set that includes "The Wild Bunch", "The Ballad of Cable Hogue", "Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid" and the movie I really want to recommend to you (all five of you) "Ride The High Country".
This movie stars Joel McCrea (who rules in Preston Sturges' "Sullivan's Travels"but mainly wanted to do Westerns) and Randolph Scott (the Wayne to Budd Boetticher's John Ford and so associated with Westerns in general, his name alone was enough for a great punchline in Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles") as two ex-lawmen out to do one last job protecting a mining payroll (and Mariette Hartley!) in the Sierra Nevadas.
Peckinpah loved making eulogies for the West, and the Western. Especially in "Wild Bunch" and "Ride", men are always completing one last job before retiring. But the earlier "Ride" has a strong moral sense what's right and what's wrong that helps to ground the film in the audiences heart. As much has I loved "Wild Bunch", the bloody chaos at the climax of the film, even though it is justified as revenge that's being taken for the Bunch's friend having his throat cut by Mapache, doesn't ring as true to me as much as McCrea wanting to "enter his house justified", as he puts his moral code.
Maybe "bunch" is a younger man's film and "Ride" is an older man's film. Which is weird because a younger Peckinpah made the earlier film and and older Peckinpah made "Bunch".
Rent or buy this one if you haven't seen it.
Currently listening to...
1) "Piano Jazz: Costello/McPartland"- Elvis Costello and Marian McPartland. Listening to this episode of the NPR series on CD is like hearing a conversation between a cool friend and your British aunt who plays awesome jazz piano. "Almost Blue" (natch), covers of "You Don't Know What Love Is", "At Last", and discussions of Chet Baker, Georgie Fame, and Costello's dad, who was a big band singer. Great stuff.
2)"Get Away From Me" - Nellie McKay. Yeah, I know I'm getting on the band wagon for this singer-songwriter/prodigy a little late... but wow, is she good. Like a cross between Harry Nilsson and Rickie Lee Jones ( a description that mystifies me even as I write it), no track on this CD is the same as the one that proceeded it! Anyone who makes one CD, and then is cast in a revival of "The Threepenny Opera" with Alan Cummings and Cyndi Lauper, has to be amazing. And she is.
3) "Hunky Dory"- David Bowie. Or Bowie when he was folky-ish. Contains "Changes" and "Life On Mars" and funny liner notes. Made in the sixties, man.
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6 comments:
this is like a surreal semi-nightmare with a batman twist. is this the one and only robin jones, formerly of georgia avenue, mccomb ms? the keeper of the ever-caped brother brendan? fellow marvel comic junkie? stalker of the pik & pak? no, it can't be...can it?
if you can guess who this is, you get-nothing. but take a trip down memory lane-to the orange bus and the girl who used to peek into your family room from across the way, only to see bob in his green underpants. those were the days, huh kid?
Ummm... if this is Gena Maria Serio, who's name I probably just misspelled, I'll have that coronary I've been dreaming of all my life.
However, if it's Lisa Whitmire, I'll have to restart my heart, then have yet another coronary.
Either way, my infant son loses his dad.
BTW "bob in his green underpants" is something I hope never to hear again in my lifetime. ;>
although i have somewhat of a reputation for leaving innocent children fatherless, i have no desire to do so in this case. lisa whitmire? gimme a break. were you secretly escorting her to the pik and pak without my knowledge?
"although i have somewhat of a reputation for leaving innocent children fatherless, i have no desire to do so in this case."
My wife thanks you, my son thanks you, and I thank you.
It is very good to hear from you, Ms. Serio. I only guessed Lisa because she used to leave mysterious anonymous notes for me.
Of course, this all happened in 5th grade, so maybe things have changed.
As for my dad, read latest blog.
Hope you (and yours? I seem to recall dad telling me he saw you dj-ing at some event with a husband? This would be several years ago.) are well.
IT'S REALLY GOOD TO TALK TO YOU-IT'S ONLY BEEN ABOUT A HUNDRED YEARS. THAT EVENT BOB WAS TALKING ABOUT WAS A COUPLE OF HUSBANDS AGO (IT'S BEEN AN INTERESTING LIFE, TO SAY THE LEAST). I HEARD THRU THE GOOD OLD MCCOMB GRAPEVINE THAT YOU MARRIED A GREAT LADY AND ARE DOING QUITE WELL. I REMARRIED FOUR YEARS AGO (NO MORE DIVORCES, HOWEVER MURDER REMAINS A VIABLE OPTION :))AND HAVE AN 18 YEAR OLD IN COLLEGE AND A 23 YEAR OLD ABOUT TO MAKE ME A GRANDMA FOR THE 2ND TIME. SO IT GOES LIKE IT GOES...BE WELL
GENA
Well, I am glad to hear about you doing well, with the marriage and the kids and being a gran-
A GRANDMOTHER?!?!?!?
Gulp.
Uhm, well, seeing as my wife and I are your age, uhm...
I feel really old now. Much older than when I have explain my "Columbo" references to the young people.
Or when I tell those blasted kids to get out of my yard.
Sigh.
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