favorite movie #83 - halloween edition: the birds

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #83 - The Birds (1963) - Hitchcock based this innovative film on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier. But apart from the seemingly random and ever-building attacks by birds, which featured in the original story, this film is all Hitch. Screenwriter Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain) expanded the story at the director's request, to feature a Hitchcock cool blonde, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), as the heroine of the piece. Hitchcock, as we have learned many years later, crossed all sorts of boundaries with actress Tippi Hedren, but it should be noted that for all of his films featuring enigmatic blondes, they were never in the leading role. They were always the focus of the leading man in the film (North By Northwest, Rear Window, Vertigo, To Catch A Thief, Psycho, etc.) But for this film, and the subsequent film he made with Hedren, Marnie, her character is the protagonist. That is significant. If he hadn't pushed her to a point where she refused to work with him again, one wonders what other female-driven stories he might have told.

But  I digress. Back to the film: San Francisco socialite Melanie Daniels decides to pursue Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) from San Francisco where they had a meet-cute in a pet shop, all the way upstate to his Bodega Bay weekend/family home. Her arrival seems to coincide with a series of vicious bird attacks on the town residents. The movie has no musical score, but does include bird sound effects, which add to the terror as the frequency and level of the attacks increase. Mitch is surrounded by women: his mother (Jessica Tandy), who initially resents Melanie's presence, his much younger sister (Veronica Cartwright), who immediately loves Melanie, and an old flame, Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette, in one of the most touching performances in a Hitchcock film), who welcomes Melanie, in a sad, world-weary way. No one in Bodega Bay is safe — from the birds or the director's special effects. Truly one of the all-time great films.

As Melanie arrives she is poised, confident - but she and her iconic green suit will get battered during her visit 

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favorite movie #76 - halloween edition: village of the damned

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #76 - Village of the Damned (1960) - Sticking with the creepy kids theme started yesterday with The Omen, is one of my favorite sci-fi horror films, Village of the Damned. It was based on the novel by John Wyndham, The Midwich Cuckoos, about the invasion of an alien race — this time through the birth of a new generation of creepy kids, as opposed to the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In a small village of Midwich in England one day everyone suddenly falls unconscious. When they awake a few hours later everyone seems to be fine — that is, until a few months later, when it is discovered that every woman in the village of childbearing age is pregnant. All the women give birth on the same day to extremely blond children with shining eyes, and soon, the ability to read minds. One of the children's "fathers," Professor Zellaby (George Sanders), tries to  at first study, protect, and then reason with the children. But soon it is clear that the children may not want to live with the citizens of Midwich in harmony, but rather want to control them ... but for what purpose?

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favorite movie #70 - halloween edition: invasion of the body snatchers

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #70 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) - The 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a classic, but I have a special fondness for its remake. Or maybe it's not exactly a remake, but a sequel, as the film features Kent McCord, from the original film, in a cameo appearance, trying to warn onlookers of what's coming. It's got a great creepy score too, and sound effects which were innovative for the time. And the cast is excellent: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright as residents of San Francisco, who are the only ones who notice that a new pink flower and its pods may not be as innocent as they seem. And may have come from a galaxy far, far away. The film ratchets up the thrills and paranoia as everywhere one looks more and more folks seem to become pod people. Our heroes can remain safe — as long as they never fall asleep ...

Robert Duvall in an eerie cameo as a priest in a playground

Sometimes, Brooke Adams, you shouldn't stop and smell the flowers

Two sides of Donald Sutherland

Jeff Goldblum and Leonard Nimoy

Veronica Cartwright runs into an old friend

it was a pleasure to burn - fahrenheit 451

The kid is in high school now, and although her getting older must mean that I, too, must be getting older (yikes!), there are a few perks. One of them is getting to watch her discover things, like some great books that I read when I was around her age. First up is Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian masterpiece. The story of a society, perhaps our own, that has decided that the ideas included in books are dangerous, seems eerily prescient. The floor-to-ceiling view screens that most of society, including the protagonist Guy Montag's wife Mildred spend their days and nights glued to easily double for our large-scale flat screen televisions, tablets, and smart phones. And "The Family," the drivel that appears on the screen every day is simply reality television and YouTubers. Fahrenheit 451 was first published in 1953. Montag is a fireman, whose job it is to burn books, but is growing increasingly disillusioned with his job and his place in society.

I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Tim Robbins. He did a good job with the voices, and seemed to especially have fun voicing Mildred. Maybe it was hearing the book out loud, but  I was struck by how poetic Bradbury's prose sounded, how rhythmic. I'm looking forward to introducing my daughter to some more Bradbury (and re-reading some myself). I'm impressed with this book as a first choice. I wonder what she will be asked to read next ...

BTW — If you are interested in seeing a film adaptation of the novel, please avoid at all costs the recent HBO "adaptation" of the novel. It shared the title, but not much else. A huge disappointment. The Francois Truffaut film, starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie, from 1966, is the way to go.

favorite movie #43: repo man

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #43 - Repo Man (1984) - "The life of a repo man is always intense." This crazy wonderful silly movie was a hoot when I saw it back in 1984 and it still is today. Punker Otto (Emilio Estevez) is schooled in the code of the repo man by Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) and the other employees of the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation (Tracey Walter, Vonetta McGee, Sy Richardson). Soon the focus of the firm and just about everyone else in Los Angeles is a 1964 Chevy Malibu, which has something very interesting and very dangerous in its trunk ...

Bud: Look at those assholes, ordinary fucking people. I hate 'em.

Debbi: Duke, let's go do some crimes. Duke: Yeah. Let's go get sushi and not pay.

Iggy Pop's theme song is great, too.

this perfect day, this perfect society?

This Perfect Day, by Ira Levin

Wow, This book. I had never heard of it before, but I am a completist, and I have been reading a lot of Ira Levin lately. I found this copy at a used book store. But I don’t think I’ll be trading it back. I might like to re-read sometime.

This Perfect Day was first published in 1970, but the dystopia depicted in the novel may sound eerily familiar. The story follows Chip from the age of about 6 until around 37 or so. He has been born into a world that is controlled by one large, global computer system, Unicomp. Uni, as members of the Family (citizens) like to call it, takes care of everything. Food has been simplified to something called total cakes, and everyone drinks Cokes. The world population is controlled – Uni decides if someone can procreate. They are also controlled through drugs, which inhibit disease as well as the growth of facial hair in men and breasts in women. There are only four names for men (Bob, Jesus, Karl and Li) and women (Anna, Mary, Peace and Yin). These names are derived from the four “engineers” of this society, Bob Wood, Jesus Christ, Karl Marx, and Wei Li Chun. Members all have “namebers,” long strings of their names, birth year, etc. Chip’s (a nickname given him by his grandfather) nameber is Li RM35M4419. Members are also only allowed to live to the ripe old age of 62.

Family members are indoctrinated into their society from an early age through playground rhymes:

Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei,

Led us to this perfect day.

Marx, Wood, Wei and Christ,

All but Wei were sacrificed.

Wood, Wei, Christ and Marx,

Gave us lovely schools and parks.

Wei, Christ, Marx and Wood,

Made us humble, made us good.

What makes the story exciting is how Chip struggles with his lot in life and his attempts to break out of his state and his various backsliding into conformity. The sheer size of Uni is definitely 70s-era, which will amuse folks in the iPhone era. There are also some strange attitudes about sex, although that’s just as much a part of the Family as it is the time it was written. This Perfect Day is definitely a good, sometimes fascinating read, in the tradition of Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. And modern readers can’t help but relate to the prevalence of mind numbing drugs and a government who thinks it knows what’s best to keep its citizens distracted and placated.

Originally published on Cannonball Read 10

favorite movie #34: a clockwork orange

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #34 - A Clockwork Orange (1971) - This is a terrible and wonderful film. Wonderfully creative and impactful, but terrible to witness at times. Director Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's novel is powerful and disturbing. Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his Droogs run rampant through a dystopian Britain, with Ludwig Van and "Singin' in the Rain' as their soundtrack. The costumes, dialogue (Nadsat, the slang of the Droogs, a form of Russian-influenced English), all contribute to the atmosphere of the film. And the unrelenting ultra-violence.

Alex (Malcolm McDowell): It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.

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favorite movie #25: logan’s run

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #25 - Logan’s Run (1976) - I remember seeing Logan’s Run in a movie theater with my family. Michael York was such a dish. And there was nudity! (Must have been uncomfortable for my mom and dad with my brother and me there - oops!) Jenny Agutter and her ankh choker. Farrah Fawcett in a bit part. Peter Ustinov and all those cats. I’ve always loved science fiction that played with our future. This was an early filmed dystopia. I loved it so much I read the novel, which was quite different from the film.

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favorite movies #24: planet of the apes

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #24 - Planet of the Apes (1968) - Before HBO and streaming it was a big deal to premiere theatrical movies on TV. Seeing Planet of the Apes for the first time with my family (probably in summertime) was the beginning of our shared love of movies. So many things about this movie, apart from the cool monkeys rule the world theme are memorable. It was an early experience of a post-apocalyptic world and a twist ending. And the “they always kill the black guy” trope that always irritated me in films and movies at at early age. And Charlton Heston looked great in that loincloth.

George Taylor (Charlton Heston): Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!