Category: 1. Jason Apuzzo

Happy Birthday Duke

Big Duke.

By Jason Apuzzo. Today is John Wayne’s birthday, and we would be most remiss if we didn’t remember The Duke for a just a few moments on his big day.  John Wayne was born 103 years ago today in the small town of Winterset, Iowa.  He went on to become the most enduring, popular movie star in history and an icon of American culture worldwide.

Several years ago Govindini and I had the pleasure of meeting the Duke’s family at a screening of the newly restored, 3-D version of Hondo.  They’re delightful people and are doing a wonderful job of preserving the Duke’s legacy for future generations – we wish them the very best, and congratulations to them on this day.

As I mentioned in a Classic Movie Update post from a few days ago, there’s a lot of Duke news to report:

• There’s a 50th anniversary benefit screening of The Alamo this week at John Wayne’s birthplace, with Wayne’s daughter Aissa in attendance.  The benefit event, a fundraiser for the John Wayne Birthplace Museum and Learning Center, takes place over 2 days – May 28th and 29th.  Wayne directed The Alamo himself (with spot 2nd unit direction from John Ford) – a huge, sprawling and satisfying epic, featuring an extraordinary musical score by Dmitri Tiomkin – and The Duke considered it his most important film.  Wayne considered the film a parable of America’s place in the world as the lone outpost of freedom.  The Alamo famously went up against Kirk Douglas’ left-leaning Spartacus at the 1960 Academy Awards.  If you’re anywhere near Wayne’s birthplace of Winterset, Iowa, you should certainly catch this wonderful-looking event – and feel free to purchase your own copy of The Alamo in the LFM Store below.

• In related news, The Criterion Collection has just put out a new, restored version of the John Wayne/John Ford Classic Stagecoach on DVD and Blu-Ray.  You can buy this version in the LFM store above.

• Since I’m in the mood for it, here’s my list of Duke Wayne’s Top 5 films, all available in the LFM store above:

  1. The Searchers
  2. Stagecoach
  3. Red River
  4. Hondo (particularly in 3-D)
  5. The Alamo

Sustainable Fred and the Green Lifestyle

[Editor’s Note: this film short contains some scenes of violence.  Viewer discretion advised.]

By Jason Apuzzo. Continuing on some themes raised by Govindini in her post below “Happiness Runs, Avatar & The Reality Behind Utopian Nature Cults,” we’ve decided to bring you “Sustainable Fred.”  This is a very amusing short by filmmaker Trevor Wild about a young man who’s having a little trouble changing the world through enlightened ‘green living.’  It’s too bad he doesn’t live in Pandora.

I’m not sure today’s environmentalists always realize what kind of impression they create in the midst of their ongoing efforts to dictate how the rest of us live our daily lives (one thinks here of the extremely creepy, unfunny, totalitarian-chic ‘Green Police’ ads run by Audi during the Super Bowl).  These endlessly snotty, moralizing, insufferable do-gooders are essentially whom “Sustainable Fred” is satirizing … and without giving too much away, it’s delicious to see Fred get his comuppance late in this film.

Enjoy.  Bravo to Trevor.

Hollywood + Indie Round-up, 5/25

Rosie Huntington to replace Megan Fox in 'Transformers 3.'

By Jason Apuzzo. I was kidding the other day when I said that “I’m sure [Michael] Bay’s people have a million Victoria’s Secret models on speed-dial that they can call on for the next  [Transformers] film” in the wake of the Megan Fox firing.  And it turns out … Bay has hired a Victoria’s Secret model.  She’s a lustrous Brit named Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.  THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO READ LIBERTAS … WE PREDICTED IT HERE FIRST AND WE’RE ON TOP OF THIS STORY.  No word on whether Ms. Huntington-Whiteley has a personality.  We’ll see.  Fox News is also doing some speculation on the future of Megan Fox’s career.  She’ll do fine, but perhaps she should hold off on calling her directors ‘Hitler,’ and for safety’s sake confine her comparisons strictly to ‘Idi Amin.’

• The long, sad decline of 24 into left-wing drivel is now over as the show mercifully ends.  What this show has needed the past few seasons is not so much Jack Bauer as Jack Kevorkian.

• New Sex and the City 2 rumored to present “puritanical and misogynistic culture of the Middle East.” Glad to here they’re brave enough to go there; still not enough to get me to watch Sarah Jessica Parker.  [Aside: I’m having flashbacks of Jewel of the Nile here.  Didn’t that just hit Blu-Ray?]  Also: a Middle-Eastern guy who was an on-set extra in Sex and the City 2 gripes about the experience in the New York Times today.  He doesn’t mention whether he still cashed his paycheck.

• Orlando Bloom cast as the ‘villain’ in new Three Musketeers remake.  Wow – what could be more frightening?

• Dominic Cooper to play Iron Man’s father in Captain America – which will be shot in London.  Maybe Tony Stark’s dad could stop in on Sherlock Holmes while he’s in town.

• New, ‘modern’ take on the Nativity story coming down the pike.  (See here and here).  It’s set in the 70’s and apparently stars Bette Midler.  Rumor mill has Sally Field cast as Pontius Pilate.

"Actually, pre-modern Christians ALWAYS wore acid-washed jeans."

• Mindless historical revisionism fuels pot shots against Christianity in new film Agora starring Rachel Weisz. Film twists history and depicts angry, murderous Christian mobs destroying Library of Alexandria (?); peddles bogus analogy between radical Islam and contemporary Christianity.  I think Govindini will be posting on this later.  The only upside here is that the film is getting bad reviews (see here and here), and that no one will see it because Rachel Weisz isn’t a real star.

• In the wake of the Shrek disappointment, blogger Vadim Rizov asks ‘Are children’s movies made by people who hate kids?’ Good question.

And in more pleasant news …

"I'm out!"

• Filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been freed on probation.  Thank God.  (See here and here.)  He’s out on something like $20,000 bail, and there’s still going to be some farce of a trial.  Somebody please send him Dershowitz.

• A new documentary on the murderous communist thug Nicolae Ceausescu, called The Autobiography of  Nicolae Ceausescu, recently played at Cannes.  I’ve seen the trailer, and it looks interesting in a kind of arch/satiric way.  There’s a round-up of generally positive reviews of the film here today.  We’ll try to review it down the line.

• Our friend and LFM Contributor Joe Bendel has a nice review up today of a new Turkish film called The Breath that deals with terrorism along the Turkish-Iraqi border, so check that out.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

“The Adventures of Obama Man,” Episode 1

[Editor’s Note: this film contains some adult humor. Viewer discretion advised.]

By Jason Apuzzo.  Almost 18 months into the Obama Administration, Hollywood has become a kind of no-fly zone with respect to satire directed at The One.  The idea around LA seems to be that Obama’s preternatural ‘cool’ and pseudo-revolutionary ambitions render him above normal satire.  How, in effect, does one satirize a bodhisattva?  There would appear to be no easy angle, no obvious comedic hook on Obama if you believe this line.  Barack’s genius is so manifest, one could no more satirize him than one could satirize Miles Davis while he was recording Kind of Blue. Right?

Not quite.  In the independent film world, where filmmaking is more adventurous than it is in Hollywood right now, the divine afflatus surrounding Obama is not so bright.  Witness this episode of “The Adventures of Obama Man” above.  “The Adventures of Obama Man” takes as its point of departure Obama’s early years in the 1980’s when he lived in New York City – years about which we know very little … until now.

Obama as lifestyle product.

What I enjoy about this little short film is its simplicity and understated humor.  The depiction of Obama as a plastic doll, I think, directly and elegantly captures what many of us think about Barack: that his zeal for radical reform is matched only by his vacuity – the sense that he is, basically, a plastic man.

More than that, though: ‘Obama’ has become a kind of fetishized object – like an iPad or an iPhone – around which people orient a more ‘progressive’ and ‘enlightened’ lifestyle for themselves. ‘Obama’ the Man long ago gave way to ‘Obama’ the lifestyle/fashion accessory, similar in function and tone to a Louis Vuitton bag (both are stylish carriers of what is usually, on closer inspection, clutter and junk).  It’s appropriate, then, that filmmaker Chilembwe Mason would depict ‘Obama Man’ here as a doll one can transport around like a totemic symbol – redolant of hipness, sophistication, ‘cool’ … with nothing really inside, other than a few pre-programmed phrases and a stiff finger pointing to an imaginary future.

Enjoy  the short.

Hollywood Round-up, 5/24

"I agree, Admiral - blockade the Straights of Hormuz."

By Jason Apuzzo.  • Paris Hilton signs on as celebrity ambassador for the USO, vows to visit troops overseas. Good news!  Taliban responds by unfriending her on Facebook.

• Even in 2010, enlightened-progressive Hollywood still casting white people as ethnic minorities, says LA Times.  Jake Gyllenhaal as a ‘Prince of Persia’?  Sure!  While we’re at it it, let’s cast Joe Biden as Flava Flav.

• Miss USA explains recent photos – and her stance on illegal immigration – on Fox News.  Fox News still waiting to grill her on the GATT tax and Elena Kagan.

• Crave Online posts 5 ways to improve the next season of V.  My advice?  Set the show in the 80’s and bring back Marc Singer.

• Ken Loach pops off about the Iraq War at Cannes.  I thought he was dead.

• Shrek overdose now official as sequel disappoints at box office.  Plus: Dreamworks stock drops as a result. Dreamworks begs Christopher Nolan to reboot franchise.

• Robert Rodriguez’s pseudo-controversial Machete looking for Texas tax incentives.  Doesn’t Rodriguez know?  It’s still cheaper to shoot in Mexico, and the beer’s better.

Juliette Binoche at Cannes.

• Christian mega-churches are the new training ground for American Idol singers.  I also read somewhere that Christian mega-churches are the new training ground for NFL defensive backs.  Is there a connection?

• Michael Caine speaks out about promoting the UK’s Conservative Party.  They should get him to a Tea Party rally dressed as Harry Palmer.

• AND IN MORE SERIOUS NEWS … Cannes Film Festival announces its prize winners (see here and here) under cloud of ongoing Jafar Panahi jailing.  Juliette Binoche accepts her best actress prize holding “Jafar Panahi” sign.  Panahi reportedly may be granted parole by Iranian government.  The noted filmmaker has reportedly begun a hunger strike.  Read this 2006 interview with Panahi, in which he declares that his films are not political. Sign the petition to Free Jafar Panahi.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood …

ALSO: Special thanks to ‘John Boot’ and Pajamas Media for their article today on the re-launch of Libertas. Welcome to Pajamas Media readers.

UPDATE: Special thanks to Lars Larson today for having LFM’s Govindini Murty on his national show to talk about LFM.  Welcome to all of Lars’ listeners.

Why Fire Megan?

A woman scorned.

By Jason Apuzzo.  I’m a little confused by this whole Megan Fox thing.

As many of you may know, Transformers star/sexpot Megan Fox was essentially fired from the next Transformers film by director Michael Bay this past week (see here) – although some reports now indicate that the comely Ms. Fox may actually have walked away from the project on her own pair of highly photogenic legs.

The reason behind the firing supposedly has to do with how difficult Ms. Fox is to work with, how she can’t get along with the crew, that she’s late, generally bitchy to borderline psychotic, that she tattoos herself (making things difficult for the makeup people), she doesn’t show up to crew parties, she’s annoyed by Middle America, she once blew off the Crown Prince of Jordan … and that she once referred to Michael Bay as Hitler.

Except for the Hitler thing, I’m not sure which of these qualities hasn’t been assigned to Angelina Jolie – but I digress.

Now here’s the thing.  Transformers is Michael Bay’s franchise.  He can do whatever he damn well pleases with it.  But my question is this: when did the behavior of Hollywood stars suddenly matter, to the degree that it cost them roles and careers?  When was the memo sent out on this, because some of us didn’t get it.  Why is it that all of a sudden it matters how stars behave?  For those of us who’ve been watching Alec Baldwin and Sean Penn and George Clooney lurch from one bizarre, histrionic episode to another over the years, this is really something new.

Let me put this another way.  Why was it OK for years in Hollywood to call Bush Hitler, but not Michael Bay? Why is it suddenly so important that a Hollywood star watch what she says, and how she acts around others?

Sin on high heels.

Or is it just that you can’t offend the wrong people.

I personally couldn’t care less about the future – or past – of the Transformers series.  I’m not really interested in ‘autocons’ or ‘decepticons’ or ‘paleocons’ or whatever pseudo-mythology Michael Bay and Hasbro are currently peddling.  The only reason I would ever watch these films would be to watch Megan Fox, actually.

And that’s where I think Bay is making a big mistake here.  I’m sure Bay’s people have a million Victoria’s Secret models on speed-dial that they can call on for the next film; or they can go with the chick from Prince of Persia, as some are reporting.  Whatever.

Ms. Fox is different, frankly.  She has the sort of wicked, carnal appeal – and brazen arrogance – that make her highly appealing to men, and very compelling in front of a camera.  I’m not really talking about acting here, obviously – I’m talking about something ineffable that we usually term ‘star power.’  She’s got it.  And you don’t throw that away lightly.  Industrial Light and Magic, as talented as they are, have no software that can replace that – regardless of what they have planned for the next Transformers.

From everything I’ve seen, Ms. Fox appears brassy, difficult, cocky, probably a little bit crazy … and you know what?  Men love that.  They absolutely eat it up.  And they have since the beginning of time.

What the hell happened to Hollywood that they no longer understand that?