This Side of Lost

There's been a terrible accident in Minneapolis. Is everyone back in Minnesota okay?

This feels so cheesy, but you'll forgive me if I'm worried.

My mix CD obsession has struck again.

Sam Peckinpah directs this 1969 western starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan. Holden plays Pike, the leader of a group of aging outlaws in the early 20th century where the "wild west" that they knew is disappearing.

Another western. Who knew so many westerns were so influential? I'm just not a big western fan, I've decided. In any case, here's another one. This one, along with the usual excellent cinematography and pacing, features some characteristics we've come to find common in AFI 100 movies: ambigiously moral characters and groundbreaking themes and/or technology.

I found myself, once again, not sure who to root for or who to like in this picture. Holden and Borgnine play the aging outlaw well -- they're despicable for their bloodthirstiness and total lack of regard for common morals, but equally sympathetic as men whose time has just plain passed them by. They don't fit anymore. The climax of the film (which I'll detail in a moment) is one of the more stirring climaxes in the movie's we've watched -- all the work going into building these characters and taking them through their paces pays off in a 20 second scene of close-ups between the outlaws' faces as they decide to embark on the last gunfight of their lives -- and you completely understand why it had to end this way.

What way is that? Only the bloodiest and most violent gunfight ever committed to film at that point. Peckinpah is the master of western gore. The slow motion bullet hits with blood splattering and flying flesh is an orgy of destruction, and Peckinpah is painstaking about the detail that went into it. Tarantino owes a lot to this man, but Peckinpah is Tarantino's superior. Trantino's violence has no purpose. Peckinpah works tirelessly to illustrate precisely why the violence takes place in the lives of these men. He also worked tirelessly to make it look as bloody as possible, which was pretty groundbreaking as well.

So. The themes continue -- the ones mentioned above, and also the theme of not being enough a film snob to fully appreciate this. Although I am learning more about the history of film. So we're still being successful.

(See this post if you're confused why I'm reviewing movies.)

There's been no comment on this blog for nearly four months. I'm not surprised, really, given how poor I have been about updating. And the things I write about aren't exactly riveting either. And this one isn't gonna change that. Maybe I'll post more frequently with more thoughtful and less newsy posts. Maybe I won't. Who knows?

In the almost two months since we've been back from the trip, plenty of things have happened. Here's the highlights:

• Spending time with friends. We've had some opportunities to get out of our little bubble in Northridge. Susanna, a colleague from work and her husband Andy are friendly people who see lots of movies and like to play party games. So we spent the Fourth of July at their place and they also came to our place for Samantha's birthday earlier this month. We've also been to a birthday party for Kat, a cool girl from Angeles Chorale. We also went on a double date (so high school!) with her and her boyfriend Brandon to dinner and a cozy concert. Some socialization makes this place feel a little less isolated.
• Harry Potter craziness. We saw the Order of the Phoenix movie, which I thought was good, but not as good as the last two. Fun to watch, but the pacing wasn't great. And the final book. Squeee! I loved it and thought it was a very fitting finish to the series. Kudos to Rowling -- these are her first books, after all.
• Visitor(s). Well, okay, only one this time. But Roy is cool enough to count for several. He took time out of his busy schedule as a networking guru at a conference to hang out with us, teaching us the Denny's song, visiting the Getty again and going for some excellent British food and trivia.
• Baseball. The Twins aren't doing too hot, but that didn't stop us from heading to Anaheim to catch the last game of their series with the Angels a few Sundays ago. We were accompanied by our friends Andy and Eric. We had a good time (even though they lost).
• Books. I did a bit of reading on the trip and afterwards that was heretofore undocumented: Fantasyland (about one man's maniacal decision to enter the country's top fantasy baseball league with no experience -- totally awesome), the Belgariad, a five book series by David Eddings (one of Samantha's favorites, standard fantasy/sci-fi fare, but very character driven -- good fun) and currently Sex, Drugs and DNA: Science's Taboos Confronted -- review forthcoming.