Movie Music: Alan Silvestri's "The Quick and the Dead" (1995)

I, Hamlette, love westerns. You probably know that by now, since I just finished co-hosting Legends of Western Cinema Week for the... fourth year?  Something like that. 

I feel like The Quick and the Dead (1995) is not an especially well-known movie, so I'll quick recap what it's about: An unknown female gunslinger (Sharon Stone) enters a gunfighting competition on a quest to avenge her father's death. It is a leeeeeetle bit cheesy here and there, but that's more than made up for by the presence of Russell Crowe as a killer turned pacifistic preacher, and of Gene Hackman as the powerful man who runs the town and knows everyone's secrets. There's also a young Leonardo DiCaprio, and Gary Sinise is in a flashback scene. Good cast, good music, satisfying story. It's rated R, though, so watch with caution, as there are some skippable things. 

But you don't need any caution when listening to the soundtrack by Alan Silvestri! Here are a few tracks to give you an idea of what the soundtrack as a whole is like.

"Redemption" has such a classic western sound to it, with the whistling, the whip-cracks, and lots of guitar. Really captures the exciting-but-sometimes-dark-and-pensive tone for the movie. 

"The Big Day" starts off all edgy and off-kilter, upping the tension handily. It builds slowly, finally reaching a moody climax that conveys more sorrow than triumph. 

Back to that main theme again that you heard in "Redemption," only this time it's presented with a clear and determined trumpet instead of whistling. Then, because this is played during the end credits and composers like to do this, it pulls in other themes from throughout the score, so that this one track is kind of a nice overview of the major themes.  In fact, it might be my favorite track on the whole album!

Silvestri's score for The Quick and the Dead is one of my favorites to write to, especially if I'm writing action scenes or gunfights.  But it's also great when I need a little burst of energy while cooking or doing housework.

(Most of this review originally appeared here at J and J Productions on October 22, 2015.)

My Ten Favorite Female-centric Westerns

When you think of western movies, I'm betting you think of stories that revolve around men.  Lone gunmen, groups of men, a man and a sidekick, and so on.  But there are actually quite a few westerns that are centered on women.  

Because people were grappling with life-and-death issues like food, shelter, and enemies trying to kill you in the Old West, they weren't always so caught up on little things like whether women should own and run businesses, boss men around, make decisions, choose their own husbands, defend themselves, own and work the land, and so on!  Hollywood has often used that reality to help tell stories about women that might not be suited to other time periods, including the ones they were making the movies in.

It may surprise you to find that 7/10 of the movies on this list were made before the year 1970.  Strong Female Characters might not be as recent a phenomenon as you've been led to believe.

Anyway!  Here they are :-)  Titles are linked to my reviews where applicable.

1. The Rare Breed (1966)

A British widow (Maureen O'Hara) and her daughter (Juliet Mills) accompany the prize bull they've sold on its way to its new owner (Brian Keith) with the help of a determined cowhand (James Stewart). I've seen this so often, the characters all feel like dear old friends.

2. The Quick and the Dead (1995)

A woman gunfighter (Sharon Stone) enters a quick-draw contest because she believes it's her best chance to avenge her father being murdered by a former outlaw (Gene Hackman).  This movie has one of my absolute favorite Russell Crowe characters in it, but the movie really belongs to The Lady.

3. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

A woman (Jane Powell) marries a man (Howard Keel) she just met that same day, and she's excited about the prospect of keeping house for just the two of them, back up in the mountains where he lives.  He fails tell her he has six brothers back home that he expects her to cook for too, and she is less than amused when she finds out. Trust me, this retelling of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is funnier than it sounds. Also, it has gobs and gobs of awesome dancing.

4. Angel and the Badman (1947)

Penelope Worth (Gail Russell) might not be quite an angel, but then again, Quirt Evans (John Wayne) isn't quite a bad man either. Her Quaker family takes him in when he's wounded, and he does everything in his power to make sure they don't regret that decision even though he's pitted himself against some pretty desperate characters.  Of all the movies on this list, this is the only one where you could argue that the woman isn't the central character, but Penny is so pivotal that I really think it counts.

5. Australia (2008)

A determined Englishwoman (Nicole Kidman) and a drifting Drover (Hugh Jackman) struggle to save each other and an orphaned Aboriginal child (Brandon Walters) in Australia's Outback during World War Two. This is the only movie that has ever given me cowboys and WWII soldiers in the same story.

6. True Grit (2010)

A fourteen-year-old girl (Hailee Steinfeld) hires a crotchety US Marshal (Jeff Bridges) to track down the man who murdered her father, and insists on accompanying him on the quest.  I love the unusual flavor of this movie's dialog, which comes straight from the book by Charles Portis.  You can read my review of the book here.

7. Calamity Jane (1953)

A completely fictional story revolving around Calamity Jane (Doris Day), Wild Bill Hickock (Howard Keel), and a big mix-up involving a famous singer who is supposed to come to Deadwood, but doesn't.  My favorite thing about it is that Calamity Jane's character arc doesn't involve her gaining a husband by giving up her "outrageous" behavior of wearing buckskins and trousers, shooting at outlaws, and guarding stagecoaches.  Instead, she finds love with a man who appreciates who she already is, not who she could become.

8. Cat Ballou (1965)

Cat Ballou (Jane Fonda) comes home to her family's ranch just in time to witness her father's murder by the notorious (and noseless) Tim Strawn (Lee Marvin).  She straps on a gunbelt and sets out to avenge him, eventually gathering up an outlaw gang of comically inept ne'erdowells, including washed-up gunfighter Kid Shelleen (also Lee Marvin).  This is a wacky, wild movie, but I like it.

9. The Redhead from Wyoming (1953)

A beautiful woman (Maureen O'Hara) arrives in town and starts running a saloon and buying cattle, all at the behest of a former lover (Alexander Scourby) who is trying to start a range war between the big cattle barons and the smaller farmers and ranchers.  A new sheriff (Alex Nicol) stands up against him, and the woman has to choose which side she'll support because the townsfolk like her so much, they'll follow her, not either of the men.

10. Westward the Women (1951)

One hundred and forty women travel west in a wagon train to find new husbands.  On the way, they learn to hitch horses to wagons, shoot and hunt, ford rivers, and generally protect themselves while surviving.  It's one of the most realistic portrayals of a wagon train that I have seen.

You'll notice that four of these are currently part of my Legends of Western Cinema Week giveaway, just in case you want to get a chance to own and watch them for yourself!  And, yes, this top ten list has been one of my contributions to this year's LOWCW shindig.

If you enjoyed this list, you might also enjoy some of my other Top Ten Favorite lists: 

Western Movies

Western TV Shows

Alan Ladd Westerns

John Wayne Westerns

Western Movie Couples

Western Movie Soundtracks

Episodes of The Magnificent Seven

Movie Music: Davies, Gordon, and Tognetti's "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (2003)

Today I'm going to share one of my absolute favorite soundtracks with you, that for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), which is one of the most beautiful scores I've ever heard. It contains both original music composed by Iva Davies, Christopher Gordon, and Richard Tognetti and classical pieces by Mozart, J.S. Bach, Boccherini, and others. Why the mix? Because the two main characters, Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and Dr. Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), play the violin and the cello.

(In the books the movie is adapted from, they first met at a concert, where Aubrey annoyed Maturin by tapping his toe and waving his hand to the beat -- Maturin dismissed him as a gauche musical naif, only to discover that Aubrey was actually a gifted violinist. Not only that, but Aubrey was in command of a ship about to sail that needed a surgeon, and Dr. Maturin was in need of a job, and so an unlikely friendship was formed.)

Here's a scene from the movie where they play a song that's on the soundtrack, part of Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3:

(Both actors took music lessons so that they would at least look reasonably proficient at playing their instruments, though their performances do not appear on the soundtrack.)

And here's one of my favorite written-for-the-score tracks, "Into the Fog." A lot of the music for this movie is very militaresque, as befits a movie about a British warship that involves a healthy number of naval battles. Lots of drums, some strings, some fifes and other wind instruments. I love listening to it in the morning, when I need to get myself motivated to make breakfast, etc.

And here's one final song, which also happens to be from the end of the film, a snippet of Boccherini's "La Musica Notturna Delle Strade di Madrid No. 6." Or, as I call it, "the song where Aubrey and Maturin pretend they have guitars."

I consider this movie to be one of the finest book-to-film adaptations ever, and I've always been so happy that it has a splendid soundtrack to match.

You can read my review of this movie here, and a Femnista article I wrote about Aubrey and Maturin's friendship is here.

(The bulk of this review originally appeared here at J and J Productions on June 9, 2015.)

"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (2003)

I can't watch this movie without grinning.  And by that, I mean grinning through about 90% of it, and clasping my hands in mute, loving anxiety for the other 10%.

I grin because I absolutely adore the two main characters, love four or five others, and am exceedingly fond of most of the rest.  Hence the anxiety whenever they're in Terrible Danger, which they are pretty often since this is a tale of daring deeds and derring-do on the high seas during the Napoleonic Wars.  

I also grin because I've read all 20 of the books in the series this is based on, the Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian, and the filmmakers captured them absolutely perfectly.  I'd actually read most/all of the books before this came out in 2003, and I remember taking my brother to see it on his first Thanksgiving break from college and just reveling in how exactly right they got every single thing.  Every character, every personality quirk, every nuance.  Completely and absolutely true to the books.  (He probably got really tired of me leaning over and whispering my glee at how perfectly they had captured yet another tiny detail.)

Well, everything except the plot, which actually cobbles together a series of adventures from several of the books.  People who read the book Master and Commander and then hear me say this is the most perfect book-to-movie adaptation I have ever seen... usually growl at me.  Because the plot doesn't come from that book, which is the first in the series.  A lot of it comes from a much later book in the series, The Far Side of the World.  Which is why the title includes that as well, but people seem to miss that?  I guess?  Whatever.  They absolutely, positively, indisputably captured the characters and the world and the essence of the series.  

First of all, you have Russell Crowe playing Captain Jack Aubrey, a bulldog of a naval officer who unswervingly pursues his enemies in pursuit of... well, in pursuit of glory and riches as well as the good of the British Empire, it must be admitted.  That's what keeps him from being a one-note, cardboard cutout of a hero.  He's Lucky Jack, hero of many an engagement with long odds and high rewards.  But he's also very human and feels the loss of crewmembers keenly.  He's like a benevolent but steely-eyed father for everyone on his crew, basically.

And then you have Paul Bettany playing his best friend in all the world, Dr. Stephen Maturin.  Stephen is a real physician who has been to real medical school, not a mere surgeon, aka some guy who knows how to sew up wounds and dig out bullets and amputate limbs.  (His role/rank aboard ship is technically Ships' Surgeon, though.)  This makes him something of a celebrity to the crew because if they get wounded, they get to be operated on a guy who has at least a reasonable chance of knowing how to put you back together properly and isn't just guessing.  He has a quick Irish temper and tends to try to play Jiminy Cricket to his friend Jack whenever he displays what Stephen considers to be dangerously high hubris.  Stephen is an amateur naturalist and also (though this doesn't play into the movie at all) often a spy for the British government.  

In the books, Jack and Stephen met at a concert in London, where they annoy each other so much, they end up almost fighting a duel over their differing ideas of how to enjoy fine music.  I wrote a Femnista article last year (read it here) about their meeting, it tickles me so much.  Anyway, it turns out that Stephen plays the cello and Jack plays the violin, and they spend their evenings aboard ship playing duets because they think it's fun.  And eating toasted cheese, because who doesn't like toasted cheese?  (Well, aside from my ridiculous 11-yr-old daughter...)  The movie has multiple scenes of them enjoying music together, and the soundtrack is just marvelous as a result.  Russell Crowe actually learned to play the violin just for this movie, and I assume Paul Bettany took some sort of cello lessons too, since they both look pretty credible.  I do know that Bettany learned how to use 1800s surgeon's tools so he'd look credible doing bits of surgery.

Anyway, the plot revolves around Aubrey's ship, the HMS Surprise, pursuing a French ship, the Acheron, which is trying to get around Cape Horn and into the Pacific Ocean so it can harass English ships there and disrupt their trading.  Along the way, various adventures occur.  Stephen gets to visit the Galapagos Islands, which delights him because he can collect lots of rare specimens there.  (They actually filmed most of that part on the Galapagos Islands, too!)  There are multiple naval battles, with lots of cannoneering and hand-to-hand fighting and tricky nautical maneuvering.  It's very thrilling and fun to watch, though my m-i-l found the battles really hard to follow when we watched this with her years ago, so your mileage may vary. 

Besides Jack and Stephen, I also love Barrett Bonden (Billy Boyd), Lt. Tom Pullings (James D'Arcy), and Midshipman Blakeney (Max Pirkis).  And Jack's steward, Killick (David Threlfall), who's always grumpy and hates the music that Jack and Stephen play, and is so fiercely loyal to his captain that I want to hug him.  Plus, he's the one making the toasted cheese, and if you've ever had toasted cheese, well, you understand how that could make you love a guy.

If you like the Horatio Hornblower movies or just love stories of heroic deeds done by ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, definitely give this movie a try.

Is this movie family friendly?  Well, it's rated PG-13 for "intense battle sequences, related images, and brief language."  There's a LOT of violence because it IS a war movie.  Characters you care about get hurt.  Surgical things get not-entirely-graphically portrayed, such as an arm getting amputated just out of shot, or a guy getting his brain operated on.  And there's a very tense scene involving extracting a bullet from someone's abdomen.  The language is overall pretty mild, but there's one F-bomb.  There's a drowning and a suicide, and a pretty intense storm sequence.  I would say it's fine for older teens.  There's no innuendo or steamy scenes because there aren't any female characters at all, aside from a couple of native women briefly seen selling fruit and parrots from canoes.  They're all decently clad.

This has been my final contribution for the Epic Story Event hosted by Heidi at Along the Brandywine, which has been going for weeks now and ends today.  Nothing like squeaking in at the last minute with one last post, eh?

A Collection of Robin Hood Posts

For the Robin Hood Week party hosted by Meanwhile, in Rivendell... I thought it would be fun if I collected up all the posts I've written over the years about various Robin Hood-related things, with links to them so you can read any that might interest you.

Some of these are on this blog, some are on my book blog, one is an article I wrote for Femnista magazine, and one is on a friend's blog that I used to contribute posts to.

~ My Femnista article "The Many Flavors of Robin Hood" discusses how many different variations of Robin Hood there are -- sweet or salty, snack-sized or full meal, and so on.

~ My review of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) is one of those very detailed reviews where I include dozens of screencaps because oh, the costumes!  The scenery!  The handsome and beautiful actors and actresses!

Errol Flynn as Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

~ My review of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) contains three tracks you can listen to, as well as a brief summary of the thrilling tale of how writing this score helped Korngold escape Nazi Germany.

~ In this post, I talk about how the 1973 animated Robin Hood was my introduction to the character and has long been my favorite animated film.

Robin Hood and Skippy in Robin Hood (1973)

~ In this post, I delve into the detailed reasons that I love the climax of 1973 animated Robin Hood so dearly.

~ It's not completely Robin Hood-related, but my review of Ivanhoe (1982) does spend some time on Robin Hood.

David Robb as Robin Hood in Ivanhoe (1982)

~ I spend this post talking about why I no longer love Robin Hood:  Prince of Thieves (1991) as much as I used to.

~ My review of Robin Hood (2010) isn't very detailed, but I do a lot of discussing of why I think it wasn't a commercially successful film, and what I do and don't like about it myself.

Russell Crowe as Robin Hood in Robin Hood (2010)

~ Here's my brief review of Rowan Hood: Outlaw Girl of Sherwood Forest by Nancy Springer.

~ Here's my lengthy, gushy review of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle.

~ My review of Outlaw by Angus Donald discusses why I stopped reading that book.

If you decide to read any of those, do please leave me a comment!  I know some of those posts are from years ago, but I still love discussing them :-)

I'll be posting my answers to Olivia's Robin Hood Tag in a day or so!

Interesting Patterns in My 100 Favorite Movies

So I've been pondering my lists of 100 Favorite Movies that I've just posted, and I decided to just point out some interesting stats, patterns, whatever.  Interesting to me, anyway :-)

What Actors Do I Love?

8 Harrison Ford movies (The Fugitive, Sabrina, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Star Wars:  Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars:  A New Hope, Star Wars:  The Force Awakens, Witness)

6 John Wayne movies  (The Sons of Katie Elder, Rio Bravo, Operation Pacific, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, North to Alaska, The Longest Day)

4 Hugh Jackman movies -- and all as the same character!!! (X-Men:  Days of Future Past, X2:  X-Men United, X-Men, X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

4 Maureen O'Hara movies (Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, The Rare Breed, The Parent Trap, The Black Swan)

4 James Stewart movies -- (Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, The Rare Breed, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Destry Rides Again)

3 Bobby Darin movies (Gunfight in Abilene, Hell is for Heroes, Captain Newman M.D.)

3 Glenn Ford movies (3:10 to Yuma, Blackboard Jungle, The Fastest Gun Alive)

3 Dana Andrews movies (Laura, The Best Years of Our Lives, State Fair)

3 Alan Ladd movies (Shane, Whispering Smith, This Gun for Hire)

3 Rudolph Valentino movies (The Sheik, Moran of the Lady Letty, The Son of the Sheik)

3 Russell Crowe movies (Master and Commander:  The Far Side of the World, The Quick and the Dead, LA Confidential)

3 Steve McQueen movies (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Hell is for Heroes)

3 Tom Hanks movies (Toy Story, You've Got Mail, Apollo 13)


Right now, my top 3 favorite actors are John Wayne, Hugh Jackman, and Harrison Ford.  So that meshes pretty well with who I have the most favorites from.


What Genres Do I Love?

21 Dramas
19 Westerns
13 Action/Adventure movies
9 WWII-related movies
6 Comedies
6 Fantasy movies
5 Superhero movies
4 Musicals
4 Rom-coms
3 Sci-fi movies
3 Film noir


What Decades Do I Love?

3 from the 1920s
3 from the 1930s
8 from the 1940s
12 from the 1950s
17 from the 1960s
4 from the 1970s
14 from the 1980s
17 from the 1990s
13 from the 2000s
8 from the 2010s

Conclusion:  the 1970s are best ignored, for the most part.


What Ratings Do I Favor?

18 Not Rated
24 Approved
6 G
22 PG
22 PG-13
6 R

You probably know this, but for those who don't, movies didn't used to have ratings.  In the 1920s and early '30s, there was no rating system at all.  Individual theaters and the towns or cities they were in decided what was appropriate for their audiences.  In 1934, the Hays Code went into effect, and from then on until the mid-1950s, movies who didn't pass muster didn't get distributed.  In the mid-1950s, that changed to movies being labeled "Approved" if they passed the code, but others did get distributed without a rating.  In the late 1960s, that was changed to the MPAA rating system that was basically like what we have now, except the ratings were G, M, R, and X.  In the mid-1970s, that was changed to G, GP, R, and X.  And in the 1980s, we got G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17.  Which means that movies until the mid 1980s that we would now consider PG-13 were either PG or R.  Which can be a little confusing when you deal with a lot of old movies like I do, so just thought I'd explain what all those Not Rated and Approved things are -- those are old movies!

Oh, and for those of you who are now wondering which movies on my list were R so you can avoid them, they're Conspiracy Theory, Hamlet, Tombstone, Witness, The Quick and the Dead, and L.A. Confidential.  Now you know.

Five Male Characters Tag

Remember the Five Female Characters Tag I did earlier this month?  Olivia of Meanwhile, in Rivendell has tagged me with its counterpart :-)  So here goes!

Rules:
1.) List 5 of your favorite male characters (book or screen)
2.) Tagging other people is optional
3.) If you are tagged link back to the person that tagged you
4.) Link back to Revealed In Time

Choose one from each category:

1.) Hero
2.) Villain
3.) Anti-hero
4.) Best book-to-screen adaption
5.) Best character perception change (as explained here by the tag's originator, Ivy Miranda)

Right, so here goes.  Once again, I'm very happy that this tag specifies these can be "five OF your favorite male characters" because I could choose five or ten for each of these categories. So here are the ones I feel like talking about today:

1.) Hero:  Jim Craig (Tom Burlinson) in The Man from Snowy River (1982)

The Man from Snowy River (1982) has been my favorite movie since I was 2 years old.  I've blogged about it before here and here.  The man himself, Jim Craig, has been object of my aspirations for more than 30 years.  When I watched this the last time, about a year and a half ago, I realized that I have spent my life trying to be like Jim Craig.  Honest, innocent-yet-not-naive, forthright, stubborn, determined, kind, helpful -- that's Jim Craig, and that's what I try to be.


2.) Villain:  Calverra (Eli Wallach) in The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Yeah, I have trouble with villains.  I tend to adamantly dislike them, and the idea of "favorite villain" is a hard one for me.  But I am genuinely fond of Calverra.  I wrote a whole post about him here, but to recap, I like him because he treats the business of being a bandit chieftain as just another day job. He isn't out to be Mean and Nasty and Evul. Robbing just happens to be how he makes his living and provides for the men who depend on him.


3.) Anti-hero:  Sawyer (Josh Holloway) on Lost (2004-2010).

Um, yeah.  Sawyer.  ::Sigh::  How can I explain Sawyer?  He's a con artist who grew up hating con artists.  He works hard to make people dislike him because he dislikes himself.  He tries time and again not to do the right thing because he doesn't believe he's the right kind of guy... but despite himself, over the course of six seasons, he becomes a genuinely Good Guy.  Because I tend to blog about characters I dearly love, I've got a whole post about him too, here.


4.) Best book-to-screen adaption:  Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany) from Master and Commander:  The Far Side of the World (2003)

When I blogged about the soundtrack here on James the Movie Reviewer's blog, someone commented that my calling M&C "one of the finest book-to-film adaptations ever" made it seem like I hadn't read the book, because the plot of the movie has very little to do with the plot of Patrick O'Brian's book Master and Commander.  And that's true.  Because the movie pulls from several of the 20 books in the series, all of which I have read.  And when it comes to capturing the essence of characters, and also their mannerisms, foibles, habits, and even physicality, I have yet to see the match of these two.  And yes, I'm talking about both of them because you can't talk about Aubrey without Maturin, and vice versa.  It doesn't work.


5.) Best character perception change  (as explained here by the tag's originator, Ivy Miranda):  Bud White (Russell Crowe) in LA Confidential (1997)

I need to put a big disclaimer here before I talk about Bud.  I would not recommend LA Confidential to most of my blogging friends.  It's not a nice movie.  There's a lot of bad stuff in it:  prostitution, murder, drug use, corruption, violence, greed, lust, anger, woman-hitting, homosexuality, and rotting corpses.  It fully earns its R rating.  I don't ordinarily watch movies like it.  I don't recommend that you do, either.

However.  Bud White.  Just look at him in that picture, and maybe you can understand why the phrase "in his eyes, all the sadness of the world" comes to my mind when I think of Bud.  (Yeah, that's from Phantom of the Opera.  Everything gets mashed together in my head.  It's a fun place.)

When we first meet Bud White, we see him as a thuggish police officer, valuable only for his fists and willingness to use them on command.  He's just a big slab of unemotional muscle.  But as the story unfolds, we get to see the mind behind those muscles, the emotions he fears and tries to control.  When he unleashes his anger and pain, it is fearsome, much more so than the sight of him punching someone when his boss tells him to.  And when we get to see the clever mind behind both the muscles and the emotions, we finally see him for what he is:  an intelligent, damaged, but redeemable man.


Once again, I'm not tagging anyone because I'm supposed to be getting ready for my Hamlet read-along, which starts tomorrow.  However, if you want to do either this tag or the Five Female Characters version, have at it!

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

Look what Emma and Ashley both tagged me with!  Thankee, Emma and Ashley :-)  I'm sorry it's taken me a couple weeks to complete this.

Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you, linking back to their site.
2. Put the Award logo on your blog.
3. Answer the ten questions sent to you.
4. Make up ten new questions for your nominees to answer.
5. Nominate ten blogs


Emma's questions:

#1 Do you like county fairs?

Yes, I do.

#2 Were you ever in some sort of club as a kid?

I was in a couple different 4-H clubs, both of them full of other homeschoolers.  That's where I met two of my current best friends, when I was 12, though we didn't become close friends for a few years.

#3 What's one of the first movies you remember seeing?

I remember watching The Sound of Music with my parents when I was pretty little.

#4 Which would you rather do: hop in your old pickup truck and go for an unexpected adventure, or sit on the back porch with a good novel on a warm summer evening?

I definitely choose the back porch with the novel.

#5 Do you enjoy live concerts?

I do!  When I was a kid, my parents belonged to the local "Community Concert Association" and we went to see lots of live concerts, mostly classical music, though I saw the Glenn Miller Orchestra that way.  When I went to college, I went to quite a few concerts, mostly small, not-well-known groups.  Cowboy took me to a Beach Boy concert when we were dating :-D  I also went to two Creed concerts in 2002, the only major rock concerts I ever went to.  And we saw Yo-Yo Ma perform with the Boston Pops when my brother and his wife lived in Boston.  Live performances have such a great energy to them, and I totally recommend them.

#6 Which do you read more of: historical fiction or contemporary fiction?

It's a toss-up.  Does stuff written in the 20th century count as historical or contemporary?

#7 Do you like country music? 

Not much, but I do enjoy some of it.

#8 If you could play any role in a musical, who would you chose?

Sister Sarah in Guys and Dolls.

(Sister Sarah is the one in red here.)

#9 Do you ever put your feet up on the dashboard when riding in a car?

Not anymore.  I tried a few times as a teen, but I was always worried we'd get in a wreck and I'd break both legs.

#10 Can you tell us a funny story of something that happened to you in the last week/month/ever?

Well, Tootie (my 3-year-old) asked me, in all seriousness, what tornadoes taste like.  I thought that was pretty funny.

(Margaret O'Brien as Tootie in Meet Me in St. Louis.
Our Tootie behaves a great deal like her, hence the nickname)

Ashley's questions:

1. Do you have any nicknames? What are they?

Well... my name isn't actually Hamlette, so that's definitely a nickname.  In the Combat! fandom, I'm known as White Queen or WQ.  And Cowboy calls me Cutie -- he's the only one who is allowed to, though ;-)

2. What is your current favorite song?

As opposed to my favorite song of all time?  I have been whistling the main theme from The Quick and the Dead a lot these days because I just bought the soundtrack and am listening to it while writing.

(Russell Crowe in TQATD)

3. Have you ever traveled out of your country?

Yes, I have.  I've been to Canada lots of times, and also to Mexico, Poland, and Ukraine.

4. What is your dream job?

Earning enough money with my writing to hire someone to clean my house once in a while.

5. Pen or pencil?

Pen, particularly with blue or purple ink.

6. What is your dream college?

Small, Christian, and arts-oriented.  Which describes my alma mater, actually.

7. Do you like burritos?

Yes!  I like most Mexican-style food.

8. What is your opinion of Taco Bell?

I have many happy memories of eating at Taco Bell with my friends when we were in high school.

9. Do you have a swimming pool?

We do not own one.  However, part of our HOA fees pay for the upkeep of a very nice pool only a block from our house, so we go there a lot in the summer.

10. What is your favorite Little House book (Laura)?

Little House in the Big Woods.

(This is the edition I grew up with and still own.)

Now it's my turn!  Here are my questions:

1.  Do you like westerns?
2.  What was your favorite TV show as a child?
3.  Are there any salad dressings you dislike?
4.  Do you call carbonated beverages "soda" or "pop" or something else?
5.  What's the farthest from home you've ever been?
6.  Have you ever eaten a peanut-butter-and-onion sandwich?
7.  Do you like roller coasters?
8.  Do you subscribe to any magazines?
9.  Do you wear a wristwatch?
10.  When do you generally get up in the morning?

I hereby tag:

Birdie
DKoren
Elizabeth Anne D.
Eowyn
Hannah
Kara
Kelly-Anne
Maggie
Sarah
Sarah Margaret

Play if you want to!

AMA Answers #1

Here's my first set of answers to the questions from my AMA invitation :-)  Thanks for the questions, everyone!  If anyone still wants to ask some, I'm not done answering yet, so the microphone is still open, so to speak.

Tom asked: When you were growing up did your parents let you watch television?  If so, what were some of your favorite programs? 

I grew up in the '80s, and we were allowed to watch a few select shows on PBS.  I loved Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, Square One, Reading Rainbow, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, though different ones in different stages of my childhood.  Every Saturday night, my brother and I would watch reruns of The Lawrence Welk Show to keep us out of Dad's earshot while he memorized his sermon.  And we watched every episode of Five Mile Creek over and over and over and over as a family.

Later on, when I was a teen, we watched a little more TV.  We started watching Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman in its third or fourth season.  We were allowed to watch all kinds of classic TV shows, though, especially The Andy Griffith Show and Star Trek and Combat! and I Love Lucy and Little House on the Prairie, and just about any western we could find.  This was the '90s, before DVDs, and we didn't have cable, so most of our watching was limited to things we recorded on VHS at my grandparents' house in the summer (they had cable!), whatever we could rent from the video store or library, and eventually the things show on a little start-up broadcast station, which is where we discovered Combat! when I was 14.

We couldn't watch TV any old time, though.  We watched things together as a family on Friday nights, and we watched DQMW on Saturday night with Mom.  Otherwise, the only TV or movie-watching we got to do was if we were too sick to do schoolwork.

Also what is the first movie you ever remember seeing? 

I have definite, early memories of watching The Sound of Music (1965), The Adventures of the Wilderness Family (1975), and Rocky II (1979).  I'm not at all sure which of those I saw first.  Those were all on video -- I know I saw a couple of movies in the theater earlier than that, but I don't have actual memories of watching them, I just know that I did.

Sarah asked: What is your favorite movie that you think most people underrate?

The Lone Ranger (2013).

(This is how I feel when people denigrate it.)

And least favorite that most people overrate?

The remake version of 3:10 to Yuma (2007).  The 1957 original is magnificent -- so tense and dramatic.  The remake is splashy and over-violent, and the ending didn't work for me at all.  (However!  Russell Crowe was thoroughly enjoyable, even if what his character did in the ending was nonsensical.)

(This is how I feel when people talk about how awesome the remake is,
especially when they say, "Oh, was there an old version too?")

Naomi Bennet asked: What's your current desktop background? 

What a fun question!  On our desktop computer it's a picture of my three kids on Easter Sunday :-)  On my laptop, which I use for the majority of my fiction writing, it's this:

What's the last movie you watched?

Robin Hood (2010).  The last anything at all that I watched, though, was the 2-part season finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which we finally watched last night.

What made you decide to blog in the first place?

The hubris of a recent college graduate who thought she had things to say that were worth sharing with the world :-)

More answers coming later!

"Robin Hood" (2010) -- Initial Thoughts

Sometimes when a movie bombs, I watch it and wonder, "What is wrong with people?  Why didn't anyone like this?"  Sometimes, I watch it and think, "Yeah, no wonder this wasn't popular."  Sadly, this movie falls into the latter category.

And I do mean "sadly," because this movie has so much potential!  I mean, you've got Russell Crowe looking fit and fearsome as Robin Hood.

You've got Cate Blanchett as a determined, weary Marion (not a maid though -- she's a widow).

You've got Matthew Macfadyen having waaay too much fun playing the sinister Sheriff of Nottingham.

And you've got this ultra-scowly Sheriff's Thug to spice things up!

Oh yes, my friends, that is a young and lunchable Luke Evans right there, making a one-line appearance and scowling so fiercely he makes MY face hurt.  That screencap above is way too dark to be properly appreciated, so here's a closer, lightened up version for you to enjoy.

Okay, so you've got all that amazing talent, you've got wonderful costumes, you've got Ridley Scott directing, and Brian Helgeland writing the screenplay -- how did this go so wrong?!  Actually, I think I know.  This is how:

This is the final words-panel, which pops up before the end credits.  This movie was meant to be the beginning of a series.  And instead of writing a super-actiony Robin Hood retelling, they wrote an origins story that spent 45 minutes getting to Nottingham.  Instead of giving us all the fun stuff we expected, with Robin teasing the Sheriff of Nottingham, the archery tournament, robbing the rich to feed the poor and so on... we got a convoluted origin story.  Which, you know, wouldn't be so bad if this was a TV mini-series and we had more episodes to expound the story with.  Or if this was a prequel to a movie about all the usual fun Robin Hood stuff.  Or even if this movie was called The Origins of Robin Hood or something like that instead.

There's a lot of fun there, even so.  You've got Robin Hood shooting his bow and arrow once in a great while.

You've got Robin Hood riding a horse.  He rides quite well, and I rather wish there had just been 45 minutes of him riding a horse at the beginning instead of all that nonsense about the Crusades and politics.

You've got Robin Hood shirtless.  No explanation necessary.

And you've got this awesomely shot invasion of England that makes this look like the D-DAY landing during WWII, only the attack is coming from the opposite side of the channel.

But what you don't have is a solid Robin Hood story.  It ends right when all the fun should begin, with Robin gathering a following, hiding out in Sherwood Forest, and making a stand against the Sheriff of Nottingham.  If only the rest of the movie had lasted maybe half an hour, and then they'd gone on from there, maybe it wouldn't have flopped.  At the very least, maybe I would have liked it better.

Is this movie family friendly?  NO.  I'm rather shocked it's only got a PG-13 rating.  There's lots of spattery violence, innuendo all over, an attempted rape, and buckets of sexual tension between Robin and Marian, though I was super surprised and excited that they never actually slept together.  Just a lot of desirous glances and so on.

New Soundtrack Post Up... And a Question

My review of the Master and Commander:  The Far Side of the World soundtrack is up here on James' blog.  This is one of my favorite soundtracks ever, and I loved getting to discuss it.

Question:  Should I continue to post a heads-up here when one of my soundtrack posts gets published over there?  Or are all the people here who are interested in reading about soundtracks already following his blog too by now?

My Ten Favorite Action Movies

So, I've decided I love too many "action/adventure" movies to lump them all together, and I'm going to do lists of my favorite superhero, sci-fi, fantasy, and war movies separately.  Which means these are all pure action movies about people without super powers or magical abilities that are battling other real people, not robots or supervillains or evil wizards.  Yes, such movies exist!

1.  The Fugitive (1993)

Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) is wrongly convicted of his wife's murder, escapes, and goes hunting for the real killer while U.S. Marshal Sammy Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) hunts for him.  My second-favorite movie of all time.

2.  The Bourne Identity (2002)

Amnesiac Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) races across Europe, evading unknown pursuers, seeking answers about his past, and falling in love with a quirky stranger (Franka Potente).  The movie that changed my mind about Matt Damon.  And based on one of my favorite books.

3.  A Knight's Tale (2001)

Poor William Thatcher (Heath Ledger) pretends to be a knight so he can win jousting tournaments and feed himself and his friends (Paul Bettany, Alan Tudyk, and Mark Addy).  Rollicking good fun, with a crazy soundtrack and some awesome jousting scenes.

4.  Conspiracy Theory (1997)

Paranoid cab driver Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) convinces the woman he loves (Julia Roberts) to help him uncover a conspiracy.  I think this is the first thing I ever saw Patrick Stewart in other than Star Trek:  The Next Generation.  It manages to be twisty and tender, creepy and sweet, all at the same time.

5.  The Three Musketeers (1993)

Young d'Artagnan (Chris O'Donnell) just wants to be a Musketeer, but he ends up embroiled in unmasking a plot against the king.  His three Musketeer friends (Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, and Oliver Platt) are hilarious and awesome too.  I actually like this better than Alexandre Dumas' book!

6.  GoldenEye (1995)

James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) battles his ex-partner (Sean Bean) to save Britain from an electronic meltdown.  The first thing I ever saw Brosnan, Bean, and Judi Dench in -- and I became a total fan of all three.

7.  Master and Commander:  The Far Side of the World (2003)

Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) leads his best friend Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany) and his ship's crew on a quest to capture a dastardly French ship.  I'd read all of Patrick O'Brian's novels about Aubrey and Maturin before the movie came out, and I spent a lot of my time in the theater whispering to my brother about how perfectly everything matched the books.

8.  R.E.D. (2010)

Retired black-ops agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), his new girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), and a bunch of his old pals (Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren) and enemies (Brian Cox) team up to figure out who's trying to kill them, and why.  Hilarious from beginning to end.  You guys wanna get pancakes?

9.  The Hunt for Red October (1990)

CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) tries to convince his superiors that a Russian submarine captain (Sean Connery) wants to defect.  Still the best Jack Ryan movie, and since I love Harrison Ford but only like Alec Baldwin, that's saying something.

10.  Romancing the Stone (1984)

Romance novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) goes to South America to rescue her kidnapped sister and ends up having a grand adventure with the help of a stranger (Michael Douglas).  Rollicking good fun, and all the parts that have to do with being a writer crack me up to no end.

My Ten Favorite Noir Films

Time for the latest installment in my "Ten Favorite" series.  This time, it's all about the dames, the dinguses, the shamuses, the femmes fatale.  Back alleys and broken dreams all the way.

I first encountered film noir when I was in high school.  Our local PBS station showed classic movies on Saturday nights, and I would record them if they sounded interesting, then watch them later.  One week, they showed The Big Sleep (1946).  I'd recently read the book, my first taste of Raymond Chandler's amazing writing.  I found the movie entrancing, this completely new-to-me style of gritty locations, tough characters, unsavory goings-on, and breathtakingly beautiful cinematography.  With just that one movie, I fell in love with a whole film style I hadn't known existed.

In case you're not familiar with it, film noir means "black/dark film" in French, and these movies are generally very dark indeed.  Usually, there's a crime committed and someone trying to right the wrong or solve the case.  Usually, there are tough men and tougher women -- some evil and some good and most in the grey area in between.  Usually, there's a sad ending, though not always -- most of my favorites end relatively happily.  But always, there is darkness.

So anyway, here are my ten favorite noir films.  Six are classic noir from the '40s, three are amazing neo-noir films, and one you could kind of call kiddie-noir, I guess.  As usual, I've provided my own descriptions and comments, and a link to my review if I've done one here before.

1. Laura (1944)

While solving the murder of beautiful Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) falls in love with her memory.  One of the most haunting murder mysteries with one of the biggest plot twists.

2. Road to Perdition (2002)

A hitman (Tom Hanks) takes his son (Tyler Hoechlin) on the run, seeking vengeance for the brutal murder of his wife and other son.  Brilliant acting from all involved, including Paul Newman, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and some dude named Daniel Craig.

3. The Maltese Falcon (1941)

PI Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) searches for a missing statue, going up against every archetypical noir character in the process.  Gunsels, damsels in distress, femmes fatale, eccentric criminals -- they're all here, and all terrific.

4. LA Confidential (1997)

Three Hollywood cops (Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, and Guy Pearce) wrestle with corruption, vice, murder, and conspiracy.  One of the most intricately plotted movies ever, with all kinds of disparate strands woven together to form a dazzling whole.

5. To Have and Have Not (1944)

Fisherman Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) gets tangled up with a wandering woman (Lauren Bacall) and a bunch of anti-Nazi French patriots during WWII.  Loosely based on characters from the Ernest Hemingway novel by the same title.

6. Brick (2005)

Highschool loner Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) investigates the murder of the girl he may have loved, discovering a teenage underworld in the process.  One of the most creative movies I've ever seen.

7. The Big Sleep (1946)

PI Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) takes a case for a wealthy family with a lot of secrets.  Pairs Bogart again with the love of his real life, Lauren Bacall.

8. Swamp Water (1941)

An innocent bayou dweller (Dana Andrews) gets mixed up with a fugitive (Walter Brennan) and his daughter in the Okefenokee Swamp.  A very sweet movie in many ways.

9. Dick Tracy (1990)

Straight-as-an-arrow police detective Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty) battles mobsters with names like Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino), 88 Keys (Mandy Patinkin), Breathless Mahoney (Madonna), and Mumbles (Dustin Hoffman).  The best film adaptation of a comic strip I've ever seen.  The funny names and bright colors make it seem like child's play, but it's got a pretty serious storyline.

10. Fallen Angel (1945)

A con man (Dana Andrews) hits town intending to seduce a lonely spinster (Alice Faye) out of her money while carrying on with a waitress (Linda Darnell) on the side.  Nothing goes as he planned.  This is noir, after all.

EDIT:  I feel like I need to post a warning here.  Brick, L.A. Confidential, and Road to Perdition are rated R.  Brick and Road to Perdition are R for violence and strong language.  L.A. Confidential is R for violence, strong language, and sexual content, and it very much earns that R rating.  It looks like Clearplay has filters for all three, and I strongly recommend using one for L.A. Confidential if you decide you want to see it.  But it is not in any way a "family friendly" movie.  The other two would clean up fairly easily.

A Growing Fondness for... Javert?

I listened to the Les Miserables CD in the car with the kids the last few mornings, and I realized yesterday, as I searched out my favorite tracks, that I was seeking all the songs with bits of Javert singing in them.  Stuff like "The Confrontation" and "Javert at the Barricade."  And, of course, "Stars."  I went around singing, "Shoot me now or shoot me later -- every schoolboy to his spot.  Death to each and every traitor!  I renounce your people's plot" over and over in my head for much of yesterday.  And not cuz I was having a bad day, just cuz I like how vehement it is.

This is all Russell Crowe's fault.

I realized when I got the soundtrack for my birthday that I actually like Russell Crowe's singing voice better than Hugh Jackman's.  No worries -- I still love Hugh Jackman greatly, and I do enjoy his singing in this movie... it's just that his singing voice is a little too nasal for my taste.  But Russell Crowe's voice is richer and more colorful, resonant, plummy and yummy.  "Stars" has gone from one of my least-favorite songs from the musical to one of my favorites.

And now I've realized I no longer dislike Javert.  I actually sympathize with him.  Ack!  I picked up a copy of the novel a couple weeks ago, and while I doubt I'll get to it before next year, I'm really looking forward to seeing if my perceptions of the character have truly changed, or if I'll go back to disliking him and being 100% Team Valjean.

Meanwhile, here's a song-only version of "Stars."  Next time I watch the movie, I'm going to watch that scene with my eyes closed so I'm not distracted by the bad staging I complained about here.  I think it will work much better that way.



After listening to this a lot lately, I think that maybe Russell Crowe focused so much on the singing side of his performance that he didn't have any concentration/energy left for the acting part, leading to the much more restrained performance in that scene than I'd wanted.  If they hadn't recorded the singing live, who knows how different that scene might have been.  Or maybe it was just staged really boringly and there was no help for it no matter what.  But the song... oh, the song.  Yowza.

Okay, just to highlight the contrast between Jackman and Crowe's voices, here's their dueling duet:



Russell Crowe, Russell Crowe -- how could you do this to me?