Semiquincentennial Movie Project #39: America 3000

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

 

Week #39: Colorado -

 

 

The state of Colorado was established on August 1, 1876 

Details about Colorado:

State bird: lark bunting

State flower: Rocky Mountain columbine

State tree: Colorado blue spruce

Additional historical trivia: 

It's one of four states that intersect with each other. The other three are Utah, New Mexico and Arizona (which this same trivia piece will appear...)

 

Combining acrophobia, claustrophobia and gephyrophobia... the Royal Gorge Bridge is one of the highest suspension bridges in the world.

The Stanley Hotel, the inspiration for Stephen King's The Shining is in Estes Park.

Colorado is the only state to actually say "No" to an offer to host an Olympics.

In 1904 Colorado had 3 governors on one day. Alva Adams, a Democrat, won the election, but it transpired that he had cheated. His opponent James Peabody was installed as governor, on the condition that he immediately resign and give the office to his lieutenant governor, Jesse McDonald. 

Famous people born in Colorado: Lon Chaney, Ken Curtis (Chester on Gunsmoke), Tim Allen, Ken Kesey (wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Jack Dempsey, Jello Biafra and U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry. 

 

 

America 3000 (1986): 

It's the year 3000. (duhh).

 "Nine hundred years after the Great Nuke. 

The world man created he destroyed.

Out of the darkness and ignorance of the

radioactive rubble emerged a new order...

 

and the world was woggos!" 

 

(In old world speak that means _Crazy!)

 

The world has indeed gone "woggos." It is basically run by Fraus (women). The Fraus live in "Coms" which I think is a slang for "communities". (By the way, this film is replete with futuristic slang, and it may take some doing to figure out what the hell the narrator is saying... much like Alex in A Clockwork Orange...) The Fraus in question here live in the "Com of Frisco", which, despite the name, is located somewhere near Denver.

The Fraus occasionally go out into the wilderness to capture Plugots (men). They don't need men to establish their society, what they need them for is to perform manual labor, such as doing the heavy lifting. Of course, they also need them to help carry on the population, which is why the men they capture are classed as "Machos" (laborers) and "Seeders" (and if I need to tell you what that means they are for, you are reading the wrong blog...)

 

Our main hero/narrator is a Plugot named Gruss (William Wallace), who acts as the narrator of the story. Gruss doesn't particularly care for his options of being either a Macho OR a Seeder (although from looking at the Fraus, I'd be OK with being a Seeder, I think...)  

A companion of Gruss, Korvis (Chuck Wagner), hijacks a horse and makes a getaway and Gruss jumps on the horse with him to take advantage of the situation. The two boys manage to escape the Fraus because they head into an area called "the contams", which I gather is an area that is still (900 years later, note!) a danger zone from the radiation from that ancient nuclear war noted at the beginning, and the Fraus have a law that says they can't go into the contaminated areas.  A sign they pass indicates that this area was once a part of Denver.

 

Once they get to a point of safety, they start scrounging to survive. Of course, among the things they take that they "need to survive" are a top hat (really) and a children's ABC book (really! really!). And also, later it is revealed, a pristine copy of a vintage Playboy... (Hey, I know which I'd snag first...) They also hook up with a tribe of neanderthals who aren't much smarter than their neolithic ancestors. They only grunt and hoot, and have no real coherence of cooperation. Witness when they try to ambush a Frau food train. They would be lucky if they came away with a Snickers bar, the way they attack. But they do manage to seriously wound the leader of the Fraus, basically a "queen" called for purposes here, a "Tiara" (I'm not making this up!)

The Tiara, Reya (Camilla Sparv), makes it back to camp, but being mortally wounded she passes on the Tiara crown (no pun intended) to her daughter, Vena (Laurene Landon), which doesn't exactly sit well with her other daughter, Lakella (Victoria Barrett). But Lakella, at least as a front, accepts her mother's decision and vows to follow the new Tiara. 

By the way don't miss out on the significance of the attempt to heal Reya just before she passes into the great beyond. One woman, labelled a healer, brings out an old fashioned first aid kit (you can tell by the red cross emblazoned on it... and this thing is not even slightly rusty, considering it's probably a leftover from the days before the nuclear war... remember, 900 years ago...) The Fraus chant "red cross... red cross... red cross..." like its some kind of mantra.

 

Meanwhile back in the contaminated remains of Denver, Gruss and Korvis get together and organize a raid on the com of the Fraus. Mostly to get the Machos and the Seeders free, but also to gather up some of the stockpiles of food.   They make their escape chased by Fraus.

 

At this point the movie starts to get whacked out (it wasn't already?) Korvis is hit by Vena with her primitive but effective crossbow gun and falls into a cavern. 

 

He is saved from death from the arrow because it (conveniently) gets lodge into the children's book he was still carrying... In the cavern, lo and behold, he stumbles upon an ancient bomb shelter left over from pre-nuclear war. He finds the bunker stocked with 80's standards of a pinball game and a stand up version of the classic Centipede game (typical 1980's entertainment still being used ind 2100?). He also finds a cache of, (thankfully), laser rifles that would seem to be more fitting for 2100. 

 

This primitive man (by comparison to a modern 21st century man) almost ridiculously figures out how all this advanced technology works in a matter of minutes, reading the instructions for operating them and making the things work well. (Remember, earlier in the film he struggled with comprehending a child's ABCs book... I guess one of the side effects of nuclear fallout included making comprehension increase exponentially...)

Outside the bunker, now dressed in the gold radiation suit he found in the bunker, Korvis meets up with one of the slave men, who mistakes him for the legendary messiah the people have been waiting for; "the Prezee-dent" (Don't ask!) But it gives Korvis an idea. 

More ridiculous stuff happens, including a scene where Korvis informs Vena that he wants to meet her one on one in the contaminated zone. This involves him first convincing her that he is the coming of the Prezee-dent. To get her to do this he rigs up a fireworks display, accompanied by a recording played on a genuine 80's boom box. And, the funniest scene occurs when the music he plays is a recording of Tschiakovsky's 1812 Overture! This is humorous in more ways than one. the obvious being the standard 4th of July theatrics associated with Tschiakovsky's piece (and if you are not American you may be unfamiliar with this tradition), but also the fact that the Cold War enemy that the Americans fought during that nuclear war were Russians... I point out that this movie did come out in 1986, prior to the end of the Cold War in the 90's, but it's still funny.

 

 

Much of the movie doesn't make much sense if you really think about it from a logical standpoint. For one thing, supposedly if a woman gives birth to a male child, they throw it away. So how do we get men in the first place, then? After 900 years, if there are no women giving birth to boys that are left alive, where do those Plugots come from? For that matter, where are the women the Plugots are repopulating with in their own encampment?  Also, the fact that these women are looking for the coming of that messianic Prezee-dent, whom they are constantly referring to as a "he". If these women are so all-fired down on males, why is their potential "god' a male? And the biggest one is how do any of them have any idea how to perform in bed (so to speak) if there is a separating line between the male and the female societies and neither have contact except when Fraus capture Plugots? 

Note:I'm willing to overlook the fact that, as some reviewers I read pointed out, the women of CE 3000 somehow have a way to keep their hair in perfectly coiffed 80's hairstyles, even though it doesn't seem like the have beauty shops in their camp. 

This is the problem with quite a number of the kinds of films that I watch simply because they are done by whack jobs who are just cranking out films to crank out films. Sure, they're entertaining on one level, but many of them require you to leave your brain at the box office counter before going in to watch them. 

Cannon Films, the producers of this film and numerous others, had a reputation creating movies that were just based on a single concept with no real idea of logic or transparency. There is a great documentary, made in 2014, that delves in the Cannon mythos: Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, that gives a lot of insight into the kind of stuff that the duo of Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan, the two behind the film company, put out.

America 3000 had a budget of $2 million and, let's be honest, about half that probably was spent making all those Fraus look like they just came from the hairdressers. The special effects budget had to be pretty minimal, except for the Tschiakovsky fireworks scene. I can't find any details on how much money it made on ticket sales. It couldn't have been a major blockbuster, since I only found it by snagging a four movie set which included as it's other titles Arena, Eliminators and The Time Guardian, none of which I had ever even heard of. (The second half of the 1980's all, and I would bet all of them were lucky to have even one week at drive-in theaters, and probably no major theater venues...)

With the exception of Chuck Wagner, who had a recurring role on General Hospital in the early 80's, and Laurene Landon, who shows up in a lot of the same kind of schlock movies like this, it's probably a good bet you've never seen any of the cast in anything else.  (Yes, Camilla Sparv won a Golden Globes as Best New Actress in 1967 for her role in Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, but I've never met anyone else who has seen it...) 

But, be that as it may, if you like low-budget schlock as much as I do, this one could be a hoot. It's worth a look just for the scenes that feature "Aargh the Awful" (a prehistoric neanderthal the Fraus keep in a cage for entertainment and training purposes). 

 

Until next time, drive safely, folks,

Quiggy

 

 

Semiquincentennial Movie Project #34: Short Circuit

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

 

 

 

Week #34: Oregon :

 

The state of Oregon became the 34th of the union on February 14, 1859.

Details about Oregon:

State bird: Western meadowlark

State flower: Oregon grape

State tree: Douglas fir 

Additional interesting facts: 

As pictured above, Oregon is the only state to have it's state flag with two different emblems, one on each side. 

The actual origin of the state name is inconclusive, but I find it interesting that one of the theories is it got it's name from the fact that oregano grew in lushly in the southern part of the state. 

Although the Springfield in The Simpsons is not exactly located in Oregon, a real town by that name was the inspiration for Matt Groening, the creator of the show.

The name of the city Portland, Oregon was decided by a coin flip. It was to be either that or Boston.

Oh, and one other thing I find extremely interesting: Oregon was the first state to establish a "state mushroom". (Think about it... it's almost like kismet... given that the state was a mecca for hippie back-to-nature advocates) It is the Pacific golden chanterelle.

Famous people born in Oregon: Matt Groening, Tonya Harding, River Phoenix, Sally Struthers, Doc Severinson (Johnny Carson's Tonight Show bandleader), Linus Pauling and Chief Joseph (of "I will fight no more forever" fame), 

 

 

 

Short Circuit  (1986): 

Preface (or possibly, a rant): As predictable in many movies of this stripe, the government (and the military by relation) is the big bugaboo. You might get the idea, reasonably I might add, that in times of conservative dominance in the White House, that Hollywood is decidedly anarchistic. To wit, this movie came out in 1986, right in the middle of Ronald Reagan's second term in the office of the President of the United States. During this, and other times, when the office was occupied by a Republican, quite a number of  Hollywood movies that had a dealing with government entities would show such entities in a negative light. Think E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (Reagan). Or Firestarter. (Reagan, again). Or V for Vendetta (George W. Bush). Or one of my favorites, They Live (George H. W. Bush), in which the government forces are not only evil, but they are also aliens from outer space. Don't get me wrong. I actually liked most of these movies, but I still find the Hollywood predilection for casting government in a negative light to be a bit off-putting. OK, rant over.

 

The film starts with some project in which the "evil" government is sponsoring a group of scientists involved in creating robots. (The government's plan is to use the robots to do soldier work, thus eliminating the necessity of using humans, which may be a good thing, but also putting thousands of men out of work if successful, so not ALL a good thing, if you ask me...) 

 

 

The main scientist, Crosby (Steve Guttenberg), would rather that the robots they are creating be used for more peaceful means, but, as usual, the idealistic scientist is trumped by the military in these situations.

 

At a display of the robots' power (there are 5 of these little beauties), they lay waste to an entire platoon of motorized vehicles, fortunately not manned by real people, just mannequins. At the after party, Crosby is reluctant to show his face despite the pressure of his boss, Dr. Marner (Austin Pendleton). 

 

 

Meanwhile, at the hobnob session, a smarmy general (Vernon Weddle) explains to a senator exactly what the point is behind these robots:

General: "The only way to secure the peace, Senator, as I'm sure you know, is to be prepared. See, we can parachute these robot guys behind enemy lines. They hide out till the first strike blows over. Then each one is able to just carry a 25-megaton bomb right up the middle of Main Street Moscow - like the mailman bringing bad news. We call it Operation 'Gotcha LAST!'"

(And you probably thought I was being overly critical of the way Hollywood portrays the military...)

Crosby, of course, questions the military applications of his robot. When his boss notes that Crosby has designed a machine that will keep people safe:

Crosby: "What's so safe about blowing people up?" 

There is a gremlin in the works, however, because while Robot #5 is on a charger a lightning bolt hits the transformer the charger is hooked up to, seemingly frying Number 5. But it is still functional. At least by initial appearances. But apparently that electromagnetic shock that the robot took scrambled it's operational wiring. And instead of going back to the lab, it hotfoots it out of the laboratory, off the grounds, and ends up in nearby Astoria.

Number 5, as the robot chooses to call itself, is on the ultimate quest to acquire as much information as it can ("need input"). It ends up with an amateur local animal shelter enthusiast, Stephanie (Ally Sheedy). But upon discovering the robot, she is under the impression that it is an alien that somehow crash-landed on Earth. (Yeah, she IS pretty clueless...)

Stephanie: "Oh, my God! I knew they'd pick me! I just knew it!" 

(Yeah, Stephanie... like you're the paragon of intelligent life in the universe...)

 

 

Number 5 and Stephanie hit it off, mainly because Stephanie is oblivious and so is Number 5 (who is voiced by Tim Blainey).  Stephanie, at Number 5's request for input, introduces the robot to her set of encyclopedias. Which, since he (and I am going to refer to him from now on as "he" because I am wanting to dispense with the gender neutral "it") is a robot, can consume all the information in a matter of seconds. Number 5 is on his way to becoming a fully thinking entity. 

 

 

After reading the entire library that Stephanie has, and still demanding more input, she introduces him to that vast purveyor of intelligence... local TV programming. (Now there's something every inquisitive being needs to access...) 

Meanwhile Dr. Crosby and his assistant, Ben (Fisher Stevens) are trying to recover Number 5. You might wonder, watching these two in action, how they ever managed to get through high school, much less advanced collegiate studies. 

 

Eventually Stephanie does get clued in that Number 5 is not an alien, but a rbot and her demeanor changes, because after all that laboratory down the road is an arm of the evil militaristic government...

(See? Government equals evil. It's so straightforward even a monkey could see it...)

Stephanie calls up Nova and Dr. Marner sends out the marines, or rather the Keystone Kops who sit in as security for the laboratories, led by Skroeder (G.W. Bailey), who makes the real Keystone Kops look like the Mensa patrol. 

 

And, unfortunately, now Number 5 is on the loose, because he knows that the laboratory is now coming to get him and disassemble him (in other words, he will be "dead"). Which is not good. As he now tells Stephanie:

Number 5: "Number 5...is alive!" 

So now Stephanie is on Number 5's side, and determined not to let that evil Nova have him back. But Nova (and by association, Skroeder) have other ideas. Not only that, but somehow Stephanie has to convince the only person that can even remotely help her, Crosby, that Number 5 has transmigrated from just a simple robot to a rational self-aware entity.

 

The second half of the film involves some of the better scenes in the movie, which include Number 5 taking the other 4 robots out of the picture. (No, not "dead", just convinced that their Nova mission is not the best idea for survival, at least, the survival of Number 5...) 

So what happens? I'm going to leave you with the opportunity to find out. And for those of you with little rugrats crawling around the house, this is one of those rare ones on my blog  that I can wholeheartedly recommend as family friendly.

Short Circuit had a fair bit of success at the box office. On a budget of $15 million it garnered a $40 million in receipts. Maybe not blockbuster material, but still a decent turn around. It was received with a mediocre rating by the critics. The New York Times critic, Vincent Canby, claimed that it was "a cheerful, inoffensive fantasy in which such attractive live actors as Steve Guttenberg and Ally Sheedy play second fiddle to machinery."  But, on the other hand, Roger Ebert, whom I don't find necessarily unsympathetic many times, said that it was "too cute for its own good."

Rotten Tomatoes has it at 62% Fresh, which makes it somewhere near the middle of the pack. And, despite its box office showing, it only gets a 6.6 on IMDb. Is is good? That depends largely on your ability to accept some of the cheesier aspects of it. It is probably going to be a bigger hit with your kids or grandkids, I admit. But I think it's not bad, given the climate of movie output for the time. 1986 was also the year that gave us such feel good movies as My Chauffeur, Flight of the Navigator, The Karate Kid, Part II,  Labyrinth, and Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home. (It also gave us some of my favorites that are NOT family friendly types, like Big Trouble in Little China and Ruthless People, but a lot of the films that came out that year are childhood favorites for kids that were young at the time...)

Until nest time, drive safely, folks. And watch the roads. There may be some inexperienced robot trying to escape the evil government out there.

Quiggy

 

 

Meet Me at the Crossroads

 

 

Some background to my experience:

I discovered the blues in the early 80's.  My first experience was buying Muddy Waters' album "I'm a King Bee".  I didn't have any idea what I was buying at the time.  It was just on the shelf at Musicland, a music outlet at my local mall. (Remember malls? They were the go-to place for shopping back in the day and a decent place to hang out even if you weren't shopping).

Anyway, I bought the record without having any idea what I was getting, just because it was on sale.  I got home and put it on the turn table and was transported to a world I had never known existed previously.  

You have to understand: from the time I was born (1961) until about 1978, my total experience was country music.  Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, they were my total experience, barring the occasional snippets of music I heard when hanging out with school friends.  And those friends were into either heavy metal music (my first experience hearing AC/DC was while a freshman riding around with a few seniors at lunch) or pop music.

But in 1978 I transitioned to the local pop music radio.  But pop music was disco and R &B and the like.  Bee Gees, Village People, Donna Summer and Electric Light Orchestra.  My universe was expanding in the late 70's and I gradually started to realize there were different musical worlds out there.  So by 1981 I was willing to listen to anything.  It was during this time that I also discovered jazz.

But for a time I was entranced by the music of the blues.  Granted, I didn't identify with it lyrically, but then no form of music ever touched me lyrically as a genre. The traditional "life is hard and I got a long road to hoe to get to happiness" theme was not my experience. I just liked the melodies and the sound of the instrumentation.  Blues really hit me in that respect.

So when Crossroads hit the theaters I was already attracted by the musical portion.  At the time I was also attracted to Ralph Macchio as an actor, so having his name on the marquee also gave me an incentive to see the movie.  I later learned it was directed by one of my favorite directors, Walter Hill, but I have to admit, at that time I hardly ever paid attention to the director's credits in film (with the exception of John Carpenter, of course, who has always been a draw for me, dating back to my first experience with him with Halloween).

This Crossroads should NOT be confused with that turkey featuring the "no talent" (as an actress) Britney Spears.  It's an entirely different movie, with it's basis on the legend of Robert Johnson, the ultimate king of the blues, who supposedly made a deal with the devil for his bluesmanship. Which is part of the driving force behind this film, as you will see.

(There are also several other movies out there with "Crossroads" in the title.  It's apparently a very attractive title.  I counted 14 others.  But stick with the 1986 film if you want a very good drama.  No telling what you'll get if you go down those other "crossroads"... Some of them, to be fair, may be actually good, but if you want to go with this theme, there is only one that I know of that fits it).

Crossroads(1986):

Eugene Martone (Raph Macchio) is a talented guitarist studying at Julliard (the mecca for talent in the music world.  You get in that door and you really have something to write home about.).  But according to his professor, he is wasting his talent messing around with this "primitive music" called the blues. Dr. Santis  informs him that "excellence in primitive music is cultural... you have to be born with it". And coming from rich money (and Long Island to boot), Eugene is unlikely to have been born with it.

 

But Eugene is nothing if not dedicated to his sideline interest.  In an effort to become known in the blues world he seeks out one of the last remaining original blues me, Willie Brown (Joe Seneca).  Eugene is is convinced that this Willie Brown is also the man who played with Robert Johnson under the name Blind Dog Fulton.

 

But Willie is incarcerated in a minimum security old folks home, basically a prison but for people who are old and not considered too much of a risk.  What Eugene wants is to get Willie to teach him the legendary missing 30th song from Robert Johnson's recording sessions.  Willie tells him he will teach it to him, but only if Eugene helps him escape the prison and get back to Mississippi.

Willie tells Eugene that he has a money stash to help chip in for the trip, but he won't show the wad of dough in New York City.  He insists that Eugene pay the bus fare to Memphis and he will pay the rest of the way.  But, of course, when they get to Memphis it comes to light that Willie's "stash" only amounts to $40.  That won't get them anywhere near Mississippi...

So they have to start hitchhiking, or, as Willie refers to it, "hoboing".  Along the way they meet up with a runaway, Frances (Jamie Gertz). And end up rescuing her from a sleazeball bar owner whose intentions are not entirely pure. 

 

Although Frances and Eugene start out at odds, they eventually hook up.  

 

And Eugene, being a young man with the requisite hormones of said such, but also with the sense of said such, falls in love with Frances.  But Frances is a bit more jaded for a girl of her age.  So she takes off, leaving Eugene to his hormones and sense.

The ultimate goal of Willie comes to light, as the reason why he wanted to get to Mississippi was to get back to the crossroads where he made a deal with the devil umpteen odd years ago.  The original go between, the Devil's assistant  (Joe Morton), shows up, but Willie insists on talking to the big guy himself, the man who calls himself Scratch (Robert Judd).

 

Scratch tells Willie he won't negate the contract for his soul.  But if Willie is willing to pit a contest with Scratch's #1 guitarist, Jack Butler (Steve Vai), and Willie wins, he'll tear up the contract.  But Willie is not a guitarist.  But Eugene is.  And Eugene, not believing in all this mumbo-jumbo about selling a soul to the Devil, agrees to sit in as Willie's substitute in the battle.

Of course, the battle is real, as the scene shifts to a juke joint in Hell.  And Jack Butler, the guitarist representing Scratch in the contest turns out to be the epitome of a heavy metal wizard who had previously sold his own soul for the wizardry.  And the guitar battle that ensues is one of the main reasons I have always liked this movie.  On a list of musical sequences in film, this ranks in the top 5 for me.  Jack and Eugene alternate, much like a heavy metal/blues version of "Dueling Banjos", with Jack playing a heavy metal piece and Eugene countering with a blues rendition of the piece.

 

 

Ultimately Eugene reverts to his classical training, and it is entirely a mystery to Jack. (Apparently Jack was not the most open musical guy, like I was and am.  He had not had much experience with that genre and ends up losing the contest, which leads to Scratch tearing up the contract.

Crossroads is a decent film in terms of acting, but for me, the draw is really the music.  It's not a musical in the sense of the traditional term. You want a real musical with blues as it's basis The Blues Brothers is a better choice.  But for drama and character, this one would be a better selection.  Macchio and Seneca fit well together on screen.  I can't say the same about Jamie Gertz.  Gertz and Macchio just don't have the chemistry.  It's hard to believe that pairing would happen, for me.  Probably because I see myself in Eugene and I personally would never have made it past the physical attraction into the emotional attraction part with Frances. 

Most of the time when Eugene is playing, we get a close up of hands playing the guitar without the long shot of Macchio.  There is a purpose to this,of course.  Macchio is not actually playing the guitar for the soundtrack. (Whether Macchio can actually play guitar or not I admit i don't know..) For his guitar playing it is actually guitar wizard Ry Cooder.  Steve Vai, on the other hand, is really a guitar player.  (Along with Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson, Vai has been on tour playing in what has been called the "G3 Tour"). I'm pretty sure Vai could have pulled off the classical music guitar if it had been Vai himself and not the character he played, Jack Butler.

Fortunately, unlike Eugene and Willie, I have this old Plymouth to get on down the road. So drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

 

Culture Crash

 

 

 

 

 

This is my entry in the On The Job Blogathon hosted by Hamlette's Soliloquy and yours truly.

 

 

 

In the mid - to - late 80's Michael Keaton was one of the big names in Hollywood. A Michael Keaton film was guaranteed to have a big popular draw, (and most of the time, it actually did draw a crowd),  He started out as a standup comedian, and managed to parlay that into an early career as a bit player on TV,  He was a co-star on the short-lived The Mary Tyler Moore Hour as Kenny the page. 

His big break in film came as a co-star with Henry Winkler in Night Shift. that followed with starring roles in Mr. Mom and Johnny Dangerously. By the time Gung Ho hit the theaters he had just started to get his chops and following.

Gung Ho hit the theaters at a time when Ronald Reagan was in his second term in office as President.  The economy in the US had made great stride since the recession of the early 80's. But sales of American automobiles were being seriously challenged by the more economic cars being produced by Japan.

Whether or not the events in Gung Ho are realistic from an economic view of that time period, I couldn't say.  My recollection of that time period is limited to the transition from junior college to university, and many a drunken party. (I wasn't very responsible in those days, sad to say).

Gung Ho was a modest hit with audiences and almost assuredly cemented Michael Keaton as a star (although it would take 2 years before he had another real hit with Beetlejuice).  It made $36 million off of a $13 million investment.

Gung Ho (1986):

In the fictional town of Hadleyville, PA, times are rough.  The big money draw in town used to be the automobile factory, but it has been closed for 9 months, and most of the town is either on unemployment or closing up shops and leaving.  Note: I'm not sure how big this town actually is supposed to be.  I get the impression that it is a modest population, probably less than 100,000. Whether the town could or could not survive without a factory is questionable in my opinion.  But the fact remains that many are leaving for better shores.

Hunt Stevenson (Michael Keaton) is tasked with a job to try to entice the Japanese Assan Motors Company to reopen the plant, and goes to Tokyo to talk with the executives.  The first strains of the culture clash that will drive the movie are experienced when Hunt tries to find his way to the executive offices and gets lost. (as well as the experiences he has in living arrangements and finding food that appeals to him).

 

 

 

The meeting seems to not go well and Hunt thinks he has failed.  He returns to Hadleyville broken.  But it turns out that he made a good impression on the Japanese and they decide to open.  Kaz Kazihiro (Gedde Watanabe) is sent with an entourage to open the plant.  

 

 

 

But the culture clash that was Hunt's experience in Japan comes back full force for the Japanese when they arrive.  Fully expecting to run the plant on the Japanese model, they run into a conflict when their American employees throw up a resistance, expecting that things will be the "same as usual" from when it was an American run company.  The first obstacle: the Japanese apparently are not familiar with the labor union system.

The Japanese are only paying a partial hourly wage compared to what the union pay rate was before the plant closed down. (around $8 an hour compared to $11... imagine that today, boys and girls.) But with Hunt's help, the plant does get opened.  

But things don't go quite as smoothly.  The Japanese management has some different views of operation that the Americans are resistant to; like no radios on the line, no smoking (which raises up a red flag for me not because of a disdain for smoking, but because the factory surely has combustible materials in proximity)

One of the more vitriolic members of the American contingent is Buster (George Wendt). Buster is extremely adamant about things going his way, and highly resistant to the Japanese management just on the face of it. 

 

 

 

 In one scene, during an impromptu beer league softball game, Buster takes out his frustration by intentionally running into Saito (Sab Shimono).  Later, when he is demoted to janitor, he thinks it is because of his previous confrontation, although he is told it is because he has been performing subpar in his role at the factory.

 

 

 

Frustrations continue to mount, and Hunt, ever the promoter of himself as what others perceive him to be, tries to negotiate every situation so he looks good.  The big trouble comes midway through the film when Hunt negotiates a pact with Kaz; the plant will produce 15,000 cars in one month  to tie the record made in Japan for one month.  If they do, the management will concede raising the pay to pre shut-down rates, among other concessions.  But if they don't, no concessions will be made.

However, the American workers ask Hunt if they get partial concessions if they come close.  Because Hunt doesn't want to lose face with his compatriots he says yes, they will get something, but knowing that's not true, tries to convince them to go the full amount. This is the point where I started to dislike the American workers. They seem to want it all, but only want to pay for a part of it.  Kind of reminds me of stories I've heard of shoppers trying to use an expired coupon and insisting they still get the discount.

 

 

Anyway, the workers go forward, making a few concessions such as working on Sundays to get to the quota they think is their goal. (Only 13,000 as opposed to 15,000.) But when one of the Japanese management reveals to them the truth they conclude that the management is trying to renege on the deal and walk (strike).

Things are coming to a head.  Hunt finally has to reveal that he knew all along that there was no deal for partial completion.  With 1000 cars still to produce to reach the agreement, Hunt and Kaz go in to the factory to try to get the quota. Will the rest of the factory workers join them? I think you know what is going to happen since this is a feel good comedy not a depressing drama. But hold out for the final reel anyway, because the American spirit comes full force when the top dog Japanese guy shows up to inspect the output.

Gung Ho  is not Michael Keaton's best performance. It's only #37 out of 47 on the Tomatometer which ranks all of his movies. But it ranks about #5 on my list. (Beetlejuice, Batman, Night Shift, and Clean and Sober take the top 4 spots). As far as work films, it is one of the top 5 also. As much as I don't like George Wendt's character of Buster for most of the movie, I do think Wendt as an actor pulled off the character rather well.  The rest of the cast is pretty good too.  Don't miss seeing John Turturro, as one of the other American workers.  

If I had to recast the film, however, I think I would have found a better actress than Mimi Rogers as Hunt's love interest.  She is the only one who I found didn't bring much to the film.  Not sure who else might have been available at the time, nor do I know who else did a casting call for the role. But personally, I wish that it had been Andie McDowell in the role.

 

 

 

Well, folks, it's a work day tomorrow, so I gotta get the Plymouth back in the garage.  Drive safely.

Quiggy

Different Directions Part1

 

 

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry back in 2019, one of my favorite Stephen King books was Different Seasons.  The book consists of four separate novellas by King that depart from the horror genre he is primarily known to publish.  Although I was originally attracted to King's work through what was then a newly released paperback edition of his first collection of short stories, Night Shift, my favorite story after I read was, and still is, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption which is as far away from that typical horror genre as you could possibly get, I expect.

Three of the stories in Different Seasons have made it to the big screen, with only the last story in the book, "The Breathing Method" still awaiting a movie version.  Between 1986 and 1998 we got, in succession, Stand By Me (based on "The Body"), The Shawshank Redemption (based on "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption") and Apt Pupil (based on "Apt Pupil"). 

All three were well done, and two of them even received recognition by the Academy Awards committee. (The only one to not get recognized was Apt Pupil which may have had more to do with the subject matter than anything with the direction of Bryan Singer or the acting of it's two stars, Ian McKellen or Brad Renfro.)

Recently I came across my battered copy of Different Seasons and decided to reread it afresh. And since I have re-inaugurated the blog, I thought why not review the films (which I was astonished to find out I had never delved in to any of them in more than a brief reference.)

An observation from the outset.  It seems. to me anyway,  that one of the overall themes of these films (and the stories behind them) is the loss of innocence. I didn't get that feeling from "The Breathing Method" as a story, so maybe that is part of the reason why it still hasn't been filmed.  Everyone likes a good "loss of innocence" story on one level or another, whether nostalgic, like "The Body", or one that drives a character to greater triumphs, like "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption".  Even the loss of innocence accompanying "Apt Pupil" has a lesson that can be learned.

So here we are.  And since the nostalgia factor was the impetus for re-reading the book and watching these movies again, I think it's fitting that the first entry be on Rob Reiner's production Stand By Me ("The Body")

The movie has an impressive cast. Most of the child actors in the film were just starting out.  This was the first role for Jerry O'Connell (Vern). Wil Wheaton had been in a few TV movies and as an extra in a couple of theatrical releases. River Phoenix also had some TV experience (he was a cast member on a TV show Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ). The member with the most cachet of the primary cast has to be Corey Feldman, however, who had some 30 appearances to his credit, including being a primary cast member of two other 80's "coming of age" movies, Gremlins and The Goonies.

In addition you also had Keifer Sutherland who was just getting his feet wet in the industry, as well as Casey Siemazko.  When you add that such already well established actors as Richard Dreyfuss and John Cusak came on board, you have to realize that Rob Reiner did have some pull in Hollywood, even with only a couple of films under his director's belt. But you can see with this film that Reiner knew what he was doing and his genius as a director would be well established from now on.

 

Stand By Me (1986):

In 1985 a man sits alone in his car reminiscing.  He has just read about the death of one of his childhood friends as the result of the friend trying to intervene in a bar fight.  The man, a grown up writer (Richard Dreyfuss) is revealed to be Gordie LaChance. He and his friends had an adventure way back in 1959 when they were 12 years old, which becomes the center point for the film. 

 

 

 

Gordie (Wil Wheaton) and his friends, Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman) and Vern (Jerry O'Connell) sit in their clubhouse playing cards and just doing things kids that age did. Vern reveals that he overheard his older brother, Billy (Casey Siemaszko) and his friend Charlie (Gary Riley) discussing having found the dead body of a missing kid. They express a reluctance to reveal the fact because the two had been engaged in the hijacking of a car when they found him.

 

 

 

Vern convinces the rest of his compadres to do an overnight hike to find the body themselves and take credit for discovering it. With visions of becoming home town heroes the four trek off, using the cover that they are actually camping out overnight at one of the friends' house to convince their parents that it is just a innocent sleepover.

Over the course of the film we get some insight into the characters, which is the driving force behind this outing. Chris is fighting a seeming losing battle over being considered a delinquent because he was accused of stealing some funds from school. Gordie is struggling with being basically the invisible boy at home because his older brother, Denny, had recently died and his parents are so distraught that they have been neglecting him. Teddy has an abusive father who has been committed to an insane asylum. Although the father was abusive to him, Teddy still idolizes him on some level because after all, his father had been among those who stormed the beach at Normandy during D-Day in WWII. Vern, for his part, is just considered the wimp of the group and is timid in most conflicts.

Although the film mostly is just a character driven delving into the friendship of the four, there are some interesting scenes worth checking out.  At one point during the trek they have to cross a junkyard owned by an irascible old man. Milo (William Bronder) and his guard dog "Chopper". Chopper has a legend surrounding him that his owner has trained him to bite whatever body part that Milo orders him to attack (I.e. "Chopper, sic balls").

The scenes were the gang has to cross a long train bridge while wary of when the next train is due, and cross a swamp which turns out to be infested with leeches are among some of the great scenes, Also of note are some intense dramatic scenes which in the real world reveal some of the potential that would come later in the careers of these child actors. I'm particularly fond of the scene between Phoenix and Wheaton when Chis reveals to Gordie the truth behind his supposed indiscretion with school funds.

Meanwhile, back on the home front, Billy and Charlie have broke down and revealed their secret to their own friends which comes to the attention to the leader of the town's biggest hoodlum gang, Ace (Keifer Sutherland) who bullies the rest of the gang to accompany him in discovering the body themselves. Piled into two cars, the hoodlums drive to the location.

 

 

 

The boys discover the body first, but Ace and his gang show up and there is a confrontation to determine which group is going to get credit for the discovery.

Spoiler Alert!: Never bring a switchblade to a gun fight. Ace thinks he has the upper hand with his knife until Gordie brings out a gun that the boys have brought with them. Gordie asserts that neither of the groups is going to get credit. They are each going to go their own way and leave the discovery to someone else.

 

 

(Which brings up one point that always bothered me, The boys are on foot.  Ace and his gang have cars.  What stopped Ace and the others from just driving off a ways and waiting for the boys to leave and then coming back and taking the body anyway? It implies a sense of honor which up to this point I couldn't see in the hoodlums that Ace led.)

Back in the present Gordie as the adult writer is finishing up his story. He reveals that Vern got married and is a forklift operator at a factory.  Teddy, after having unsuccessfully try to enter the army, had ended up doing odd jobs and even experiencing a little time behind bars.  Chris, despite feeling that he was doomed to a life of being an outcast, had instead made it to college and been a lawyer. 

Gordie ends his story with "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twevle.  Jesus, does anyone?:

The film only got a limited release on it's first week out, and that might have been the end of it, but it did well and was later released to more theaters, where it made a huge box office success.  It garnered a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay (which it lost to A Room with a View) and several other noms. It didn't win any, but it still got a lot of press from critics. It currently has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And as an added bonus, it was one of the few movies adapted from his work of which the author expressed approval.

An interesting side piece of trivia for you.  Did you know that the title track song "Stand By Me". which was originally released in 1961 (and made it all the way to #4 on the charts) was re-released to coincide with this movie and made it to #9 in early 1987?  I don't know if 26 years stands as a record for an original song to chart, either as a re-release or even the original first time, but I think that's pretty impressive anyway.  I wonder what the singer thought about that... (He was still alive at the time, so possibly he was asked, but I couldn't find an interview with him online.)

Well, folks, fortunately I don't have an overnight trek to get home. The old Plymouth will still get me home.  Drive safely.

Quiggy