By David Ross. Who is the mad genius who so thoroughly inhabits the mind (and accent) of Werner Herzog and brings us these marvelous children’s stories, told for the first time with proper attention to their horrifying subtexts — their terrible occlusions?
On a more serious but related note, let me recommend the informative documentary Virginia Lee Burton: A Sense of Place (2008), which tells the story of the author and illustrator of Mike Mulligan and several other classics of children’s literature. Burton was the most inventive artist ever to devote herself exclusively to children’s literature. Her every page is a little cosmos of detail; detail coalesces into pattern; pattern comes alive as rhythm. Among modern American illustrators and cartoonists, only Saul Steinberg more completely transcended his job description and ascended into the sphere of high art (New Yorker subscribers should have a look at Adam Gopnik’s brilliant essay on Steinberg; Updike was another ardent, life-long admirer).
[Editor’s Note: Today we combine our recent space/invasion theme here at LFM, and Steve Greaves’ ‘Loving the Cold War Lifestyle’ series, with a brief look back – and forward – at the classic British TV show “UFO.”]
By Steve Greaves. Fans of the Supermarionation series Thunderbirds and the live-action Space:1999 alike will be intrigued to know that Gerry Anderson’s influential British TV series UFO is currently on track for a Hollywood summer tentpole updating. [See the opening titles of the original series above.] Producer Robert Evans and British network ITV are slated to team up on the project, which will find the year 2020 as the new backdrop for the business of SHADO – the crafty organization that combats alien invasion threats from on high with an arsenal of labs, gizmos, purple wigs and cool vehicles that traverse every frontier. Here is the new film’s website.
Scenes from the original British TV series "UFO."
Anderson himself was appalled by the miserable remake of his fantastic Thunderbirds franchise, as would be anyone who saw it, but the rumor is that he’s optimistic about the new UFO getting off the ground in style. The original series, which ran for just one season in 1972 in the US, was ahead of its time – especially for TV – and was notable for its special effects, art direction and vehicle design. Perhaps the most important legacy of UFO is that it directly influenced the look and approach to the better-known and more widely enduring Space:1999, which was Anderson’s series that ran from 1975-77 and starred Martin Landau.
Now, one key factor sure to be absent from any new UFO launch that anchored the many other-worlds of Gerry Anderson is the music of Barry Gray. Gray scored or wrote themes for virtually all of Anderson’s shows from the puppeteering days forward, including Fireball XL5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, Supercar, Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun, Thunderbirds, and – of course – UFO and Space:1999. The groovy, jaunty flavor of Gray’s music was part of what made these shows something fun and exciting to tune into, not to mention that his themes are among the catchiest in this universe or beyond. One listen to the head-bobbing Joe 90 theme will set you straight [see here and here].
By David Ross. President Obama’s hostility to NASA has now become a subject of wide comment, and for good reason. It reveals, perhaps more than anything else, his resentment of everything that implies heroic possibility (the military, capitalism, Israel, etc.). The heroic quest to expand knowledge – to enrich consciousness – has nothing to do with his mindset or task, which remains that of the leftwing community organizer. Harold Bloom uses the phrase ‘school of resentment’ to describe the academic enemies of Shakespeare. In my opinion, the same psychopathology explains the enemies of NASA. This ‘resentment’ is directed against anything that suggests human beings transcend their social, economic, and biological context, and that they are irreducible to a formula of animal needs. Robert Zubrin, who has for decades lobbied for a mission to Mars as head of the Mars Society, makes precisely my own point in the June issue of Commentary (subscriber only):
The values championed by the Obama administration are comfort, security, protection, and dependence. But the frontier sings to our souls with different ideals, telling stirring tales of courage, risk, initiative, inventiveness, independence, and self-reliance. Considered as a make-work bureaucracy, NASA may be perfectly acceptable to those currently in power. But for mentalities that would criminalize the failure to buy health insurance, the notion of a government agency that celebrates the pioneer ethos by risking its crews on daring voyages of exploration across vast distances to terra incognita can only be repellent.
By David Ross. The Pixar-Disney partnership, about which I was initially skeptical, now seems all to the good. Pixar remains exuberantly creative, while Disney has absorbed some of the lessons of Pixar, the most basic of which is that kids have better instincts as well as worse instincts, and that there is plenty of money to be made by appealing to the former. My recent discussion of kids movies made no mention of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog (2009) because I had not yet seen it, but my little family had a rollicking time with it last night. I would call it Disney’s best film since The Fox and the Hound (1981), the last film to exhibit something, if only a shadow, of the old charm and simplicity. Coming on the heels of Bolt (2008) – Disney’s most successful Pixar rip-off attempt – The Princess and the Frog seems to signal that Disney has finally found the light at the end of its long tunnel of malaise, incompetence, condescension, and small-mindedness, otherwise known as the Eisner era.
The Princess and the Frog offers plenty to like. Instead of rounding up celebs to phone in the usual tired voice work (v. Mel Gibson in Pocahontas and Demi Moore in The Hunchback), Disney put together a low-profile but vibrant cast led by Anika Noni Rose as Tiana and Jenifer Lewis as Mama Odie. The acting is focused and energetic throughout, giving the entire film an air of personality and emotional engagement that recalls the films of Disney’s golden age (Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter, etc.). Meanwhile, Randy Newman’s soundtrack, a pastiche of New Orleans jazz and zydeco, lends the film what all recent Disney films have lacked: bounce. While it is not going to convince anyone to throw away their old Clifton Chenier records, the soundtrack is a lark, and a welcome reprieve from the pop-Broadway syrup that dominated Disney’s dark age. Continue reading DVD Review: The Princess and the Frog: The End of the Disney Dark Age?
Wonder Woman Lynda Carter, wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July.
By Jason Apuzzo. • Given the recent dust-up over the new-look Wonder Woman, we thought we’d let Lynda Carter lead things off by wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July. Lynda certainly has a way of raising everone’s spirits. I know that just looking at the picture above has put me in a kind of patriotic fervor.
The glorious Lynda Carter.
We’ve put the entire Wonder Woman TV series in the LFM Store below for your perusal and patriotic edification. I remember liking the show back in the day, but my sense is that’s its appeal must only be greater now. May I be frank? I’d rather spend hours watching Lynda Carter than Jack Bauer. But’s that’s just me.
In any case, the show lasted for 3 seasons – all of which are gathered together in this tidy little collection.
• Turner Classic Movies has a nice run today of patriotic films. My personal recommendations: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the highly underrated The Devil’s Disciple (has Laurence Olivier ever been better?) and Yankee Doodle Dandy. I can’t actually watch James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy because I get too emotional. God bless Michael Curtiz – he’s probably the greatest director ever, and nobody even knows it. All these movies are available in the LFM Store below.
• Humphrey Bogart is coming to Blu-ray in a big way this October. Visit the HeatVision blog at The Hollywood Reporter to read about the new Humphrey Bogart: The Essential Collection that will be coming to Blu-ray. As the picture below illustrates, this collection is basically going to have all the best stuff Bogey did for Warner Brothers. Plus, I believe that Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon will be released separately on Blu-ray. You can pre-order Treasure and Maltese in the LFM Store below.
Bogart on Blu-ray.
• New York’s Film Forum is presenting a 32-film Anthony Mann retrospective from 25 June – July 15. Mann was easily one of our greatest directors, and a personal favorite of mine. You can read more about that film series here. I’ve put a few Anthony Mann classics in the LFM Store below.
• Eminent film writer David Bordwell has an interesting piece up on his site now about John Ford’s work as a silent film director … and somewhat related to this, Turner Classic Movies will be doing a mini-festival on July 10th of films shot at Monument Valley, which will (obviously) include Ford’s Stagecoach, The Searchers, My Darling Clementine, Sergeant Rutledge, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. I actually think Cheyenne Autumn is the best looking film Ford ever shot in Monument Valley, although the film is a bit tedious and left wing. We’ve got a few Ford-Monument Valley films in the LFM Store below.
Raquel Welch as Hannie Caulder.
• Producer Elliot Kastner has died. Kastner produced, among other films, one of my absolute all time favorites: Where Eagles Dare. You can read the article about his life and career in Variety. He will be missed. Pick up Where Eagles Dare in the LFM Store below.
• Carol Reed’s Night Train to Munich is finally getting a decent DVD release (Criterion, of course), and Turner Classic Movies has a review of it. In other news, the Arnold Schwarzenegger-John McTiernan classic Predator is coming to Blu-ray, as is a restored version of Visconti’s The Leopard – which recently had a screening at the LA Film Festival. All these films are available in the LFM Store.
• The magnificent Greenbriar Picture Shows classic movie blog has a wonderful 2-part look at the career of Orson Welles, see here and here. I really love what they do at that site. For the heck of it, I’ve put one of my favorite Welles books in the LFM Store: Peter Conrad’s Orson Welles: The Stories of His Life.
• Praise be to the heavens … Raquel Welch’s Hannie Caulder is finally coming to DVD! You can read a new DVD review of the film at Turner Classic Movies. This film is a major cult classic and it’s a crime that it hasn’t been available except on cheap VHS copies for years. The film stars Raquel, along with Christopher Lee and Ernest Borgnine. You can pre-order it in the LFM Store below.
