Tony Scott has long been one of my favorite action movie directors. His films were always fun and popcorn with a little smarts mixed in, never feeling like they were dragged through development hell, which is how most action movies feel to me.
Tony Scott made a lot of memorable films, but CRIMSON TIDE is the first movie I think of when I hear Tony Scott's name. No, it's certainly not his showiest film, but it's the best example of a contained thriller I've ever seen. If someone wrote that script today, it would be the hottest spec on the market.
My love for CRIMSON TIDE exists not solely because it is a fine film, but the sentimental attachment I have with it; it was the first R-rated film I saw at the theatre. My two underage cousins and I snuck in. We didn't get past the previews before a theatre staffer shined the flashlight on us. Busted. But the staffer didn't kick us out. She merely confiscated the bags of M&M's and Skittles we smuggled in to avoid the pricey concession stand. And then she left us to enjoy the movie. Which we did.
Oh man, and that score. I think the score for CRIMSON TIDE is Hans Zimmer's finest work.
When I saw the headline of Nora Ephron's death on Yahoo, I gasped. One of those shrieking inhales that feels like your heart stopped beating for five seconds.
Obviously, she was a great writer, and I mourn the fact that she will never write another movie or pen another book of essays. But my sadness is also selfish. When I turned my focus to writing a couple years ago, I was asked what screenwriter I wanted my writing and career to emulate. I thought about it for thirty seconds. Nora Ephron. Not just because I write romantic comedies, but also because of the way her great sense of humor shined through in everything she wrote, humorous or tragic. I wanted to have lunch with her, and I dreamed that maybe one day I would. I don't want my idol to be dead.
Move over Rosie the Riveter. Nancy Wake would've kicked your ass.
This inspires me. Everything about this woman is fascinating. There is an amazing film in here somewhere. Though there have been miniseries, I don't think anyone has seen them, and the subject could be covered again.
I don't know why, because this obituary was awesome, but reading about Nancy made me think of Sucker Punch. Yes, I just put the White Mouse and Sucker Punch in the same sentence, and I apologize. But I couldn't help thinking while reading that the story of those elite British women trained to go behind enemy lines during WWII should have replaced the burlesque babes wielding samurai swords. If I was Zack Snyder, I know which movie I would've made.
Though Amy Winehouse's death doesn't come as a complete shock, that doesn't make it any less tragic. Her music and her amazing, soulful voice had a unique, honest vibrance and vulnerability that pop music hasn't had in a long time. And it stinks that we won't get any more of it.
I've been out of the country and without internet access, so I was shocked and saddened when I learned yesterday that photographer and documentarian Tim Heatherington was killed on April 20 while covering the Libyan civil war.
His movie Restrepo almost made my Top Ten list for last year. It's a raw, moving, disturbing, and honest look through the eyes of American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley that everyone should see. This is what modern day war looks like. And Tim was brave enough to go behind the lines with the these soldiers and tell their stories. Before Restrepo, Tim went behind rebel lines in Liberia to cover the civil war there.
Tim left the world all the fascinating images he captured on his camera. This photo of an American soldier in the Korengal Valley was his most famous. It won the prestigous World Press Photo Award in 2007, out of over 75,000 other entries.
Elizabeth Taylor passed away on March 23 at the age of 79. The media was quick to label the occasion as the death of the last true Hollywood star. Somewhere, Debbie Reynolds muttered, "Really? Are you effing kidding me?" And Lauren Bacall rolled her eyes and continued reading the phonebook just to listen to her own voice.
All the summations of Ms. Taylor's life have blurbed about her personal life overshadowing her acting career. Maybe it's because I wasn't alive when all the drama was taking place, or maybe because I watched a recent interview with Debbie Reynolds where she spoke of making peace with Elizabeth decades ago, but I've always just seen her as a gifted actress, stunning beauty, and gracious humanitarian. I recently watched Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Great performance. And, of course, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? would be the performance of any actress's career.
Okay, her personal life was pretty soap operatic with her first husband, Mike Todd (founder of the famous Todd-AO) dying in a tragic plane crash when she was 26 and the whole Eddie Fisher drama to on again, off again with Richard Burton for over a decade. But I will always remember Elizabeth as National Velvet.
This movie was one of my favorites growing up, and it still holds up. The Pi? Any little girl's fantasy. And Donald Crisp and Anne Revere are the parents you dream of having as a child; smart, loving, and flawed, but able to recognize their flaws. Anne Revere won a well-deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the film. Unfortunately, her film career was ruined after she was blacklisted for refusing to testify to HUAAC. Ugh, what an ugly time in American history. Such a shame for all the talent so senselessly punished, and such a shame for us all, missing out on so many great Anne Revere (and countless others) performances.
But I have digressed. Rest in peace, Elizabeth. I'm sure Hollywod will make a movie about your life soon.
