Five Minutes of History and Some Music

 

View from the West Berlin side of graffiti art on the wall in 1986. The wall's infamous "death strip", on the east side of the wall, here follows the curve of the long closed Luisenstadt Canal.

There was a brief mention in the newspapers and on the TV news last weekend that that weekend was the 50^th anniversary of commencement of construction of the Berlin Wall.

This reminded me of a song from my youth, when I was just a nipper, but more of that later.

For the youngsters, when Germany was defeated in 1945, four Allied powers continued occupying Berlin:  the UK, France, the US and the Soviet Union.  It wasn’t long before difficulties arose between the Soviets and the other three. As a result the zones occupied by the US, the UK and France became merged into one zone with the Soviets occupying the other.  This also became a confrontation between democracy and communism, eventually leading to the Cold War and the McCarthy witchhunts.

In Berlin, the two political systems were paralleled by the economic systems:  West Germany developed as a democracy with a capitalist economic system; East Germany was part of the communist Eastern Bloc with the same socialist system.

Movie Moments: #113

 

Midnight Express (1978)

Comment:

In 1970 American student Billy Hayes was busted trying to smuggle hashish out of Turkey.  Hayes was sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in a Turkish prison but, when his release date was only weeks away, his sentence was changed to life imprisonment.  Hayes escaped to Greece in 1975 and subsequently wrote of his experiences in a book, Midnight Express.  That book was the basis for the 1978 film of the same name, directed by Alan Parker with a screenplay by Oliver Stone.  Hayes, however, was unhappy with the factual changes and with the extremely negative portrayal of all Turkish people.  Hayes, now a writer, actor and director, returned to Turkey in 2007 to show his regret at the negative portrayal of Turkey in the film.  Stone has also apologised for the portrayal of Turkey’s people.

Synopsis:

A depiction of Hayes’ smuggling detection, imprisonment and escape; refer above.

Quote:

Max:The best thing to do is to get your ass out of here. Best way that you can.

Billy Hayes: Yeah, but how?

Max: Catch the midnight express.

Billy Hayes: But what's that?

Max: [laughs] Well it's not a train. It's a prison word for... escape. But it doesn't stop around here.

Link:

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAY4aADKk08

Trivia:

·       Billy Hayes courteously declines the amorous advances of one of his fellow inmates. In actuality, the real Billy Hayes had an ongoing affair with this person, not just a brief encounter in the shower.

·       At the end of the movie, Billy Hayes killed the head guard, Hamidou, by pushing him into a clothes rack and impaling him. In real life, it wasn't Billy Hayes that killed the head guard but a recently paroled prisoner, where he spotted Hamidou drinking tea at a café outside and shot him eight times, killing him.

Quote: Og Mandino

 

Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find "tomorrow" on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday's defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, "If I had my life to live over again." Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day! Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

-          Og Mandino

Augustus “Og” Mandino (1923 – 1996) was an American author and self-help proponent.

Movie Moment: #112

 

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Comment:

1969 was a momentous year:  Woodstock, the Moon Walk, Charles Manson, Chappaquidick, Nixon back again, an escalating Vietnam.  And Midnight Cowboy took out the Oscar for Best Pic.  A well deserved win but John Wayne getting the nod as Best Actor for True Grit rather than Dustin Hoffman for Midnight Cowboy??  MC remains a classic, deservedly so.  It also continues the recent series of posts with the word Midnight in the title:  Midnight Run, Midnight Sting.  Tomorrow:  Midnight Express.

Synopsis:

Texan dishwasher Joe Buck gets himself some cowboy clobber and heads for New York, intent on making money as a stud for wealthy women.  He ends up broke and desperate, even being conned out of $20 by third rate, crippled con artist “Ratso” Rizzo, who takes him in.  Together they try to survive the winter, living rough in a condemned building.

Quote:

Joe Buck: I bet you ain't never even been laid! How about that? And you're gonna tell me what appeals to women!

Ratso Rizzo: I know enough to know that that great big, dumb cowboy crap of yours don't appeal to nobody except every jockey on 42nd Street. That's faggot stuff! You wanna call it by its name? That's strictly for fags!

Joe Buck: John Wayne! You wanna tell me he's a fag?

Link:

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnFoaj8utio

The haunting theme music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGORPUzLxtU

Trivia:

Before Dustin Hoffman auditioned for this film, he knew that his all-American image could easily cost him the job. To prove he could do it, he asked the auditioning film executive to meet him on a street corner in Manhattan, and in the meantime, dressed himself in filthy rags. The executive arrived at the appointed corner and waited, barely noticing the "beggar" less than ten feet away who was accosting people for spare change. At last, the beggar walked up to him and revealed his true identity.

Yoda & Co

 

Yesterday I mentioned the iconic image of Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue.

Here are some items of trivia about Einstein and appearances, as well as about some other celebs:

·        Einstein’s appearance was distinctive. 

He never wore socks:  "When I was young, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in the sock, so I stopped wearing socks." (Albert Einstein).

He was wild haired and lax in apperance:  “Long hair minimizes the need for barbers; socks can be done without; one leather jacket solves the coat problem for many years; suspenders are superfluous.”  (Albert Einstein).

·        When Hollywood need to depict absent minded, nerdy scientists in some films being made, they depicted such scientists in the manner of Einstein.  Hence even today characters such as Doc Emmett Brown in Back to the Future and Dr Strangelove are modelled on Einstein’s appearance or parts of his appearance, such as his hair.

Movie Moments: #111

 

Midnight Sting (1992)

Comment:

This is a hard movie to find, a cross between Rocky and The Sting.  It may come on cable occasionally or it may be obtainable on Amazon; if you get the opportunity, it’s worth watching.  In the US it goes under the title of Diggstown.

Synopsis:

Gabriel Caine (John Woods) wagers bad guy John Dillon (Bruce Dern – he always makes a good villain) that his fighter, “Honey” Roy Palmer (Louis Gossett Jnr) can defeat 10 men from Diggstown in boxing bouts in a 24 hour period.  As dirty doings happen and the bet keeps escalating, there are stings and cons within cons.

Quote:

John Gillon: Never try and hustle a hustler, Mr. Cain!
Gabriel Caine: Actually, I believe it goes: Never con a con-man, especially one who's better than you are.

Link:

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr007U4Pekk

Quote: Albert Einstein

 

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”

-          Albert Einstein

(The above photograph, an iconic image, was taken in 1951.  Albert Einstein had attended the Princeton Clun for a celebration of his 72^nd birthday and was besieged by photographers as he was leaving.  Pressed for “just one more” photo, tired from the day’s activities and having already smiled many times for the cameras, Einstein instead poked out his tongue.  The only photographer to catch it was UPI photographer Arthur Sasse.  The original pic included other people who were driving Einstein home.

Sasse’s editors were worried about publishing it but in the end decided to do so.  They needn’t have worried.  Not only was it one of the UPI’s most popular pics of Einstein, the man himself requested 9 copies and distributed them to friends as a greeting card. 

On June 19, 2009, the original photograph was sold at auction for $74,324, a record for an Einstein picture.)

Movie Moments: #110

 

Four Lions (2010)

Comment:

I am surprised that this British black comedy has not attracted wider attention, both in relation to the film and in protests by Muslim groups.  Just as Catch 22 starts off as funny but starts to gradually become more bleak, disturbing and sad, so Four Lions alters from comedy to tragedy. It’s a film with many funny moments but at the same time many of its themes and scenes will remain in the mind in this current context of terrorism, conflict and polarisation.

Synopsis:

Four incompetent English jihadists set out to train for, and commit, suicide bombings in London.

Quote:

Barry:  You can't win an argument just by being right!

Link:

Some of the best scenes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5pvqkJh5yg

Trivia:

Chris Morris is both the writer and the director and spent three years researching the project.  This included speaking to terrorism experts, police, the secret service and imams as well as ordinary Muslims.  He wrote the script in 2007 and has said that his research predated the 2007 London bombings.

"It was an attempt to figure it out, to ask, 'What's going on with this?' This [the "War on Terror"] is something that's commanding so much of our lives, shaping so much of our culture, turning this massive political wheel. I was wondering what this new game was all about. But then 7/7 hit that with a fairly large impact, in that we were suddenly seeing all these guys with a Hovis accent.  Suddenly you're not dealing with an amorphous Arab world so much as with British people who have been here quite a long time and who make curry and are a part of the landscape. So you've got a double excavation going on.”

New London Olympics Logo

 

The above was sent to me by Byter Leo. 

At first I found it funny and no doubt many others will as well.

But the more I thought about it, the more I came to realise that it is also sad.

Remember back in 1999 when we were all hoping for the best with the 2000 Sydney Olympics?  There was concern at getting everything finished in time and as to whether the budget would go into the red or whether we would break even.  Would people travel the distance to Australia, would there be massive traffic jams, would we be able to host an Olympics that we would be proud of, would we be left with a large debt afterwards. 

Now, imagine that in 1999 Sydney had been the scene of large scale riots, looting and violence.  Imagine that public facilities had been destroyed and that substantial amounts of public money and personnel needed to be diverted  to the reisntatement of those facilities.  Imagine that the Olympic facilities timeframe was seriously affected, that the budget for the Olympics was in strife and that the same thing had happened in other towns and cities nearby, some of them also hosting Olympic events.  Worst of all, our Olympics, our endeavours and our hopes in relation to those Olympics had ruined by the actions of hoons and yobs.

Tarnished to the point that even the Olympic logo was used to make fun of our situation.

Sad.

Movie Moments: #109

 

The Proposition (2005)

Comment: 

An Australian Western?  Sure, and a good one too.  It probably should more accurately be called a Souther, since it’s set downunder.  It’s bleak, black and violent, but then what would you expect when it’s been written by Nick Cave.  It's not for the squeamish and is extremely violent but it's not a horror flick (I hate horror, cut and slash films and don't bother watching them).  This is also not simply an American cowie transplanted to Oz.  Throughout it maintains its Australian identity and Australian feeling.  Forget preconceptions of asheriff standing outnumbered against bad guys, attacks by Indians or the fast draw in the main street.  It’s not that type of Western, but it is a bloody good film.

Synopsis:

A family is raped and murdered in the 1880’s in the Australian outback, allegedly by the infamous Burns brothers gang. After a shootout, Police Captain Stanley captures Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) and his feeble minded brother, Mikey.  Captain Stanley gives Charlie a proposition: if Charlie kills his psychopathic brother Arthur, who is in an inaccessible outback area, within 9 days, he and Mikey will go free; if not, Mikey will be hanged on the next day, Christmas Day.

Quote:

Jellon Lamb: Perhaps you've read "On the Origin of the Species By Means of Natural Selection" by Charles Darwin. Oh, don't be thrown by the title, he had some most fascinating things to say. Chilling things. Mr. Darwin spent time studying Aboriginals. He claims we are, at bottom, one in the same. He infers, Mr. Murphy, that we share a common ancestry with monkeys. Monkeys!!!

Link:

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7V-CW_SUos

Trivia:

Originally, the film’s director John Hillcoat approached Nick Cave about doing the soundtrack for a Western.  Eventually he asked if Cave would write the screenplay as well.  Cave finished it in 3 weeks.

The Origin and Development of Motorcycles and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs - Part 2

 

(Click on images to enlarge)

Bikie gangs get together for a reconciliation day at Menai, Sydney, in 2009. From left: Finks, Ambassadors, Lone Wolf and Hells Angels.

Picture: Simon Bullard

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/ferrets-manifesto/story-e6frg8h6-1225894609789

Motorcycles to WW2:

Harley-Davidson was founded in 1903.  Their bigger engine and loop-frame design took the machine out of the motorised bicycle category and helped define what a modern motorcycle should contain in future years.

Quote: Alan Berg

 

The following quotation also applies closer to home:

“You have all the benefits in this country which individuals in other countries would pray for, and you bring shame and disgrace upon this country as a whole, and upon yourselves and your families.

You do nothing constructive. Everything you do is destructive. This was intolerable lawlessness and no civilised society should be expected to put up with it.”

District Judge Alan Berg,

sentencing looters in Manchester following the riots of the last few days

Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025066/UK-RIOTS-2011-Youre-disgrace-country.html#ixzz1UofXlU5Z

Movie Moments: #108

 

Duel (1971)

Comment:

Still a classic film and one that marked Steven Speilberg’s film directorial debut (he had previously directed an episode of Rod Serling’s TV show Night Gallery). Duel was also made for TV, not theatre release, although it did have a theatre release in Oz.  I know, because I remember going to see it when I was at uni.   How good is it, how simple yet complex.  A motorist is terrorised by a truck on the highway in the California desert.  We never see the driver and the truck develops a personality of its own, an evil, malevolent monster. 

Synopsis:

See above.

Quote:

David Mann: There you are, right back in the jungle again.

Link:

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MtAMc4i8OA

Trivia:

·       The script was adapted by Richard Matheson (who wrote quite a number of Twilight one scripts) from his own short story, originally published in Playboy magazine. It was inspired by a real-life experience, in which Matheson was tailgated by a trucker on his way home from a golfing match on the same day as the Kennedy assassination.

·       During the chase, a parked service car for a pest exterminator named Grebleips is seen. Grebleips is "Spielberg" in reverse. This has since been used in many similar movies as a tribute to Duel.

·       While filming the shot where the truck drives off the cliff, a piece of machinery designed to keep the truck traveling in a straight line without a driver failed. So, instead of calling a halt, the driver stayed in the driving seat and jumped out at the very last second before the truck went off. That is why the door was open during the fall. The shot also had to be done in one take.

Funny Friday

 

(From Byter Leo):

A guy walks into a bar with his pet monkey. He orders a drink and while he's drinking the monkey jumps all around the place.  The monkey grabs some olives off the bar and eats them, then grabs some sliced limes and eats them, then jumps onto the pool table, grabs one of the billiard balls, sticks it in his mouth, and to everyone's amazement, somehow swallows it whole.

The bartender screams at the guy, "Did you see what your monkey just did?" The guy says "No, what?"  "He just ate the cue ball off my pool table ... whole!" 

"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me," replied the guy, "He eats everything in sight, the little bugger. Sorry. I'll pay for the cue ball and stuff".

He finishes his drink, pays his bill, pays for the stuff the Monkey ate, then leaves.

Two weeks later he's in the bar again, and has his monkey with him.

He orders a drink and the monkey starts running around the bar again. While the man is finishing his drink, the monkey finds a cherry on the bar. He grabs it, sticks it up his bum, pulls it out, and eats it.

The bartender is disgusted.

"Did you see what your monkey did now?" "No, what?" replies the guy. "Well, he stuck a cherry up his bum, pulled it out, and ate it!" said the bartender.

"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me", replied the guy. "He still eats everything in sight, but ever since the cue ball incident, he measures everything first."

Movie Moments: #107

 

Midnight Run (1998)

Comment:

Robert De Niro is an under-appreciated actor.  The man should have a shelf of Oscars..  Midnight Run is one of his lesser known films but, in this writer’s opinion, one of his best.  Action and comedy with a witty script, plus some great onscreen chemistry between De Niro and Charles Grodin, make this a must-see.  At the next trip to the video store, walk by the newest releases and get out this oldie.

Synopsis:

The US allows individuals and companies to post bail for people charged with offences.  These are known as bond agents and only the Philippines does likewise.  Interest rates vary from state to state but are usually in the vicinity of 10-15% of the amount posted.   When defendants fail to answer their bail, the system allows the posted money to be recovered where the defendant is brought back before the courts by the bond agent.  Hence bond agents rely on modern day bounty hunters.

De Niro plays such a bounty hunter, Jack Walsh, who seeks to return Jonathon Mardukas, an accountant who embezzled $15m from a Chicago mobster.  Jack’s bond agent wants Mardukas back to recover the bail, the mobster wants him dead and the FBI want him as a witness to give evidence against the mobster.  Plus it’s a road movie.  A+

Quote:

Jonathan Mardukas: [making fun of Jack by sounding like Jack in the responses] Jack? "What?" When do you think you we're gonna get to L.A.? "None of your fucking business!" Well, I have to go to the bathroom. "Shut the fuck up!"

Link:

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1_N28DA3gY

Trivia:

A “midnight run” is an easy task, which Jack initially thought this assignment would be.

The boxcar scene where Jack Walsh and John Mardukas) discuss whether or not they could ever be friends, was almost entirely improvised on set. As regards Grodin's famous "Have you ever had sex with a chicken?" line, he was told by director Nartin Brest to come up with something that was guaranteed to make even Robert De Niro laugh.

A Barrister and his Diary, Part #2:

 

I previously posted an item about a barrister, who shall remain nameless, who listed a matter for a few weeks hence and then had to beg off because he was getting married on that day.  Asked why that had not occurred to him when he listed the matter, he replied that he had not put his wedding in his diary.  Read that item at:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/2010/09/barristers-1.html

The following sets out a telephone conversation with that barrister a day or two ago:

Myself:  Are you free to mention a matter on Thursday?

Nameless Barrister:  I don’t know, I’ll have to check my diary.

Myself:  Yep, I’d believe that about a fellow who didn’t remember he was getting married because he hadn’t put it in his diary.

Nameless Barrister:  Shit! I’m glad you reminded me. That’s coming up again soon. 

Myself:  Isn’t it in your diary?

Nameless Barrister:  No. I’ll put it in right now.

Movie Moments: #106

 Something’s Gotta Give (2003)

Comment:

Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton together in a movie with a witty script and some pertinent observations about love and sex.  As the Queen Mother said on approaching her 100th birthday, is it me or are pensioners looking younger these days?

Synopsis:

Jack Nicholson plays Harry Sanborn, a 63 year old music mogul who has been dating women under 30 for the last 40 years.  He meets and falls in love with 56 year old author Erica Barry, played by the lovely Diane Keaton, the mother of his 29 year old intended conquest, Marin. The path of true love for Harry and Erica is not smooth and they split.  Erica develops a relationship with 36 year old Julian (Keannu Reeves), Harry’s doctor.  As you may have gathered, age is a relevant factor in this movie.

Quote:

Harry Sanborn: Some people consider rap poetry.

Erica Barry: C'mon, how many words can you rhyme with bitch?

Link:

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSjI-xiH7j0

Trivia:

Nancy Meyers wrote the roles of Erica and Harry specifically for Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson but Twentieth Century Fox declined making the film, citing that the leads were too old. 

Jack Nicholson turned down Bad Santa to be in this film.

Some More Strange Products from Bygone Days . . .

 
(Click on the images to enlarge)

Movie Moments: #105

  

When Worlds Collide (1951)

Comment:

Today in the online edition of the Sydney Morning Herald there is an item captioned “The World Is Not Ending.”  It’s by Ross Gittins and it refers to the share market falls.  When I first saw the headline I thought it was reassurance that despite global warming predictions, climate change, terrorism, global financial crises and London under siege, the purported Mayan calendar prediction of the end of the world in 2012, as depicted in the movie by that name, was not coming to pass.

Which started me thinking:  What is my favourite end of the world movie?  Mad Max?  On the Beach (filmed in Melbourne in 1959, Ava Gardner was reported as having said that Melbourne was “the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world”.  The reality is that it was a journo’s tongue in cheek quote attributed to her as a joke but which ended up being published as being by her).  Independence Day?  The Birds? 12 Monkeys?  Deep Impact?  Dr Strangelove?  28 Fays Later?  Nope, it’s a relative oldie, When Worlds Collide.  Pre CGI, pre most everything, it is still worth watching 60 years on. 

Synopsis

When a fast travelling star is discovered on a collision course with Earth, ETA 8 months, a group of people seek to build a modern day spaceship Noah’s Ark, those going to be selected by ballot.

Quote:

Dr. Emery Bronson: Hendron will pay you on delivery. Time is all that counts. The money doesn't matter at all.

David Randall: With me, doctor, money always matters.

Dr. Emery Bronson:  Perhaps the day may arrive when money won't mean anything, not to you... nor anyone.

David Randall:  When that happens to me, I'll be six feet under.

[Randall is taken aback when Bronson just stares at him intently puffing on his pipe

Link:

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXeT-yHNcFI

Trivia:

A remake is in the works for 2012, if we last that long.

Poster