Some Words on the Subject of Swing Music.

One day, I hope to be able to swing dance. This is not merely because I am pretentious and want to be able to say that I swing dance, but largely because I've grown a huge fondness for swing music over the last few months. For the last while, whenever I've put together a Grooveshark playlist, it's usually been made up almost entirely of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and the like. 

Dorsey, on the trombone, Goodman, the clarinetist on the right.
Portrait by Al Hirschfeld.

There's a wonderful, unique, joy to Swing; playful, perhaps mischievous but never mean. When I was home in Lansing, I loved playing Tommy Dorsey while babysitting my niece. Something about watching a baby's toddle accompanied by "On The Sunny Side of The Street" just seems so right in the most amusing way. 

Benny Goodman, especially, has been getting my attention. Often referred to as "The King of Swing", Goodman is one of those musicians of whom I would've loved to have heard right when he started getting famous, just so I could've experienced and observed his work without the goggles of nostalgia; to listen to him before his name was in music-history books; to hear his version of "Sing Sing Sing (With A Swing)" and think "I've never hear anything like this!"

                                                       "Sing, Sing, Sing, (With A Swing)"

I really like thinking about how this was the wild party music of the '30s and '40s. This is the music that parents told their children not to listen to. Jazz is the devil's music after all! I like the thought of having wild parties while listening exclusively to Swing.  

Pants above the bellybutton: sign of a true party animal.

While being one of the most innovative of the Swing bandleaders, he was also one of the most demanding. Singer, Helen Forrest, said, "The twenty or so months I spent with Benny felt like twenty years." But he was also among the first bandleaders to make a mixed-race ensemble. The guy demanded hard work, but didn't care what it looked like at a time when many did. He broke a lot of boundaries in this area. 

Nostalgia and significance aside, I really enjoy listening to this stuff. Maybe one day I'll be able to swing dance and make full use of this music, but, in the meantime, I love the music. Play, play play, Benny.

                                         

Reflections on Star Wars' Popularity

I caught some of Star Wars: Episode IV on t.v the other day. It occurred to me, not for the first time, how unique Star Wars is. I don't just mean in how groundbreaking the special effects effects were, or how nothing else has encapsulated everything that was cinema up until that point, but mostly in how popular it's remained since its release. Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope first hit theaters in May 1977, but people talk about it as if it came out in May 2012.

Like we'd have promotional posters this awesome in 2012...

Think about this for a moment: The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises were easily the most anticipated films of 2012, they had the 1st and 3rd most successful opening weekends of all time, and they came out only a few months ago. Star Wars came out 35 years ago and I hear more people talk about it than The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises combined.

Note that whenever this "Dark Knight Rises" character's voice is mentioned,
people immediately compare him to Darth Vader.

                                         
I can rarely scroll down my facebook news-feed without seeing at least one or two Star Wars related posts. How many movies from the 70s can make that claim? How many movies in general can make that claim? Let's look at some other movies from the 70s. Annie Hall, Woody Allen's 1977 "Best Picture" winner is still talked about at times, and, when brought up, is always regarded as an important piece of cinema, but is not talked about nearly as much as the Sci-Fi film in question that came out during the same year.

The Academy picked a movie revolving around a romantic relationship
over a movie about people flying around through space? Absurd!

The Godfather, 1972 "Best Picture" winner, (along with its 1974 sequel) is often considered the greatest film of all time. It made a huge splash when it first came out, and people still love, respect, and discuss it, but for every pop culture Godfather reference you see, there are twenty Star Wars references.

On that subject, how many times have you heard people talk about Star Wars on t.v, in movies, in comics? Whether it be characters in a movie discussing the politics of construction workers building the Death Star (Clerks), or blatantly having a character mimic the iconic "I am your father" line from Episode V (Tommy Boy), references to Star Wars are everywhere. For that matter, take Mel Brooks' film "Spaceballs," an entire movie parodying Star Wars. In a similar way, Family guy made 50 minute parodies of each of the three original films.

Not that I'm a big Family Guy fan, but hey, is a prevalent reference. 

Even if you were to take away all the references and allusions to Star Wars in popular culture, it's still probably the most present and prevalent piece of cinema culture. In all its movies, t.v shows, toys and other products, it's pretty much an industry in and of itself, and a huge one of that.

Buy All 11,590,334!

And all this from a science-fiction movie with a story that was intentionally stock and generic. It's no secret that George Lucas based Star Wars off a large variety of things, but much of his inspiration (with the exception of John Ford and Akira Kurosawa) was from cheap and largely considered second rate material: Flash Gordon serials, westerns and all sorts of sci-fi B-Movies.

Look like anything familiar?

It's surprising that this movie, based mostly on what many at the time would have deemed low-class, would become one of the most popular and beloved pieces of film ever shot.

I don't think its popularity will fade anytime soon. If it was going to, I think it already would have. Its popularity didn't end with those who first saw it in theaters. Unlike many sci-fi movies that age very badly, this won't harm Star Wars in the same way. It still looks good. That's one of the wonderful things about using practical special effects; if it looked real then, it will probably still look real now. Whereas movies filled with computerized effects that looked great when they came out look old and dated only a couple years after their release.

CGI, in all its disgusting, stupid and unrealistic-looking,
yet surprisingly expensive glory!

Even if Star Wars' effects hadn't aged well, that wouldn't matter too much. The story is timeless. It is not a "70s movie." It's something we'll be able to share with our kids and they with their's. It's amazing to me that a sci-fi/action/adventure film could not only be so timeless, but so accessible to everyone. It's a truly unique piece of the film world. I don't think it'll fade away any time soon, and I consider that a very good thing.

Marty, Network, and Paddy Chayefsky

With this, I enter the vast, overpopulated world of blogs. Aside from its vastness and overpopulatedness, I really know precious little about this territory of the internet. I don't know how one goes about starting these. Being that this is, in part, a movie blog, I'll start off by mentioning the last movie I watched: the classic, best picture winner, "Marty."

Seriously, this won Best Picture. Why does nobody ever even talk about this movie?

Marty is a 1955 movie staring the recently departed Ernest Borgnine. It's about a 35 year old, overweight, "average Joe", Marty (Brognine), whose friends constantly set him up with dates that ultimately end in his humiliation. Just when he decides to give up, he meets a plain, but fair looking girl, Clara (Betsy Blair), who's all too familiar with his romantic luck. They hit it off. It goes from there. This movie moved me in ways that I sometimes forget is possible. I genuinely cared for Marty and Clara. Granted, the acting was good--Borgnine's amazing performance as Marty won him an Oscar--but what should be credited for bringing such realism and making you connect with the characters is the writing.  Usually when I talk about the technical side of a movie, the first person I mention is the director, but in this case, the genius behind the picture is the writer, Paddy Chayefsky.

Chayefsky is one of those Hollywood icons of whom I hardly ever hear mentioned, but when mentioned is always regarded as one of the very best. The movies he wrote are the same way. His movie, "Network," (directed by Sidney Lumet) for example, is one of the greatest movies I've ever seen. It's a story about a second rate news station that puts its integrity aside in favor of a quest for ratings. Absurd, haunting, and horrifyingly believable madness ensues.

*the only part of the movie that has weaseled its way into popular culture* 

                 

In the commentary track on the DVD, Sidney Lumet (the director) said that "Network" was not Chayefsky's satire of the news, it was his prophecy. News didn't look the way it looks in "Network" in 1976, but it sure looks a lot like it does today! Despite its impressiveness, relevance, and enjoyability, it seems like it would be watched and talked about all the time. I never heard it brought up in conversation until I watched it. I would only come across "Network" in articles and books about film, and even then, practically exclusively in passing; never raving or praising, but in a more "oh, well yeah, 'Network' is brilliant... that kinda goes without saying," sort of way. That's how Chayefsky is typically mentioned as well. This is largely because he mostly worked in television, but nevertheless, people who know film--who brought "Casablanca" and "Citizen Kane" to the general public--know, like, and respect "Network" and "Marty," and I think it a shame that they haven't done the same with "Network" and "Marty" as they did with "Citizen Kane" and "Casablanca."

No film critic can talk about every movie all the time. I understand this. I merely find it a shame that such gems as "Marty" and "Network" are swept under the rug. I try to do my humble part in spreading the word on less known movies (even if I've been known to gab about well known ones in excess). I've been a long time suggester of "Network," and will without a doubt do the same with "Marty."