A-Z: My First Meme
Posted by Dirty Harry on Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Glenn Kenny at Some Came Running invites me to my first meme. To be honest, I didn’t even know what a meme was until now. Actually, I still don’t know, but any chance to willy-nilly list a bunch of movies is not something I have the discipline to turn down. In turn, I’m supposed to tag five movie bloggers and ask them to do the same. And if I’m able to think of five movie bloggers who won’t respond with a “F**K OFF RIGHT WING FASCIST!! — I’ll do just that.
So here, off the top of my head, are my a to z’s with a short explanation.
Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd — because the boys make me laugh and I just watched this yesterday. Love the “beer” song.
Boys From Brazil — one of the all-time great bad movies. If I’m flipping and it’s on, I finish it. Oh, yeah.
Cleopatra — the one with Liz. It’s really much better than people give it credit for. Stupendous palace intrigue. Jaw-dropping sets. Grade-A cleavage.
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo — depending on which day you ask me either this or The Seachers is my favorite film of all time. And in case you’re wondering, today’s feeling like a Deuce-iful day.
Emperor of the North — because it’s the greatest film not available I didn’t know was on DVD.
Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas — if the DEA could track the purchasers of this unwatchable piece of crap they’d have the names of every marginally employed, degenerate pothead in America.
Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster– When I was young enough for jammies with footies and had no idea the world could be a bad place, being allowed to stay up late to watch this seemed like the greatest thing that could ever happen to me. Still does.
Hell Is For Heroes – McQueen Shchmaqueen. Bob Newhart rawks.
Inside Man –this movie sucks.
Ju Dou — because it’s time to choose something properly cinema.
King Creole — in 1958 Elvis Presley was the coolest man on the planet.
L.I.E. – offends everything I stand for and yet so beautifully crafted I don’t care.
Mr. Skeffington – man, I loves me a melodrama.
Nobody’s Fool – still missing Paul Newman
The Odd Couple – still missing Lemmon and Matthau
The Pledge– if Sean Penn were on fire I might consider throwing a little urine his way, but there’s no changing the fact that this is one of the best film’s of the last ten years and quite possibly the most complicated examination of that fine line between honor and obsession ever.
The Quick and the Dead:– Hackman. Keith David. Russell Crowe. Gary Sinise. Lance Henriksen. Pat Hingle… That’s how you cast a Western.
River Of No Return — yes, Marilyn could act … and fill out a pair of blue jeans.
Some Came Running – believe it or not, I just watched this for the first time in years yesterday. Part of my down-with-the-flu triple-feature along with Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd and Fallen Angel. Great cast, great photography, but Elmer Bernstein’s score is so good the script wasn’t even necessary. Wow. Also, love the end when Dino removes his hat. That’s a moment that stays with you.
Tall T- because a movie list without Budd Boetticher is only kinda a movie list.
The Unknown – Tod Browning directs Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford. 81 years later and still a film — even in this age of the visceral – that gets and stays under the skin … forever.
Victory – this Stallone POW film looped endlessly on HBO back in the early 80’s. If I saw it once the summer of my junior year, I saw it a hundred times. It took twenty years for me to discover how truly awful it is.
Where The Sidewalk Ends - Why this piece of cinematic perfection doesn’t make any Top This Or That lists is beyond me. It would easily make my Top 100, maybe my Top 50. Every element of every one of this masterpiece’s 95 minutes hits like a young Sonny Liston. One of the great actor/director pairings was Dana Andrews and Otto Preminger. It deserves more attention.
X The Unknown — underrated 50’s chiller. Killer mud. Can ya’ dig it?
You Were Never Lovelier– Fred Astaire. Rita Hayworth. Adolph Menjou. Xavier Cugat. Larry Parks… That’s how you cast, well, anything.
Zorro The Gay Blade — anyone ever seen this? It’s hilarious.
I’m tagging: Kyle Smith- Christian Toto - Robert Avrech - Ed Driscoll - Movie Bob – Sorry guys.
Filed in General |
Joan of Argghh!on 15 Nov 2008 at 4:57 pm 1Zorro The Gay Blade!! Yes!
George Hamilton at his finest. *ahem*
steevyon 15 Nov 2008 at 5:03 pm 2Godzilla movies were on in the afternoon(WOR and WPIX in NY) in my youth.They usually had a “Monster Week” seemed like several times a year,good times.Battle Beneath the Earth GREAT bad movie “They’re down there digging,like ANTS!” not available DVD damnit.Another good movie not available(well it is but only in a butchered edited version) is a Foreign legion film starring the great Gene Hackman called March or Die.
steevyon 15 Nov 2008 at 5:04 pm 3Oh and Gay Blade is pretty good.I like Love Bites too.”For you never a quickie only a …..longie”.
The Bad ass liberalon 15 Nov 2008 at 5:04 pm 4You thought inside man sucked?
jeffsterson 15 Nov 2008 at 5:05 pm 5Agreed - Zorro the Gay Blade was a riot.
“Say something like a Sissy Boy!”
JohnJon 15 Nov 2008 at 5:07 pm 6Sorry to break it to you, DH: http://www.amazon.com/Emperor-North-Lee-Marvin/dp/B000EXDSCU
Nobody had to think Inside Man sucked. It just did.
MovieMan0283on 15 Nov 2008 at 5:08 pm 7Why the inclusion of
I tackled this too last week; my list (admittedly more traditional) can be found here:
http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/2008/11/x-does-not-mark-spot.html
Didn’t include Some Came Running, but I just bought it the other day. An excellent film.
MovieMan0283on 15 Nov 2008 at 5:08 pm 8Sorry, that was supposed to say, “Why the inclusion of films you didn’t like?” (Fear & Loathing, Inside Man?)
The Bad ass liberalon 15 Nov 2008 at 5:17 pm 9It was great a little confusing but besides that I liked it.
ScottDSon 15 Nov 2008 at 5:45 pm 10I just watched The Boys from Brazil for the first time a couple weeks ago. I liked it but I could understand why people might consider it a guilty pleasure.
For you film score nerds out there, Intrada recently released Jerry Goldsmith’s complete score for the film. I’ll probably order it one day this week (consider it a very early Chanukah present).
Ginaon 15 Nov 2008 at 5:57 pm 11At the beginning of “Cleopatra,” when we see Rex Harrison in one of those little Roman skirts, my first thought was “Why can’t a man be more like a woman?”
Somehow I couldn’t seem to take the movie seriously after that.
(I know I’m being flippant, but I couldn’t help it!
)
Matt Helmon 15 Nov 2008 at 5:57 pm 12But Harry, what is the theme of the meme? This is confusing. Is it, “list your favorite movies? OR, great movies that you may, or may not, agree with?
Campaspeon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:03 pm 13Matt Helm, everybody is just kind of bending it to their own preoccupations. I listed movies I like in French and English. I am pretty tickled at the inclusion of films DH doesn’t like. A whole list like that would be fun. Especially if it consisted of films you don’t like, but everybody else does.
Anyway I am pronouncing this list “great” because it includes Mr. Skeffington. And The Unknown.
Stephanieon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:08 pm 14OK I just got back to our hotel and want to know one thing..its been bugging me…but in hell is a Meme?
Sharon Fergusonon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:28 pm 15Woo hoo! You like The Quick and the Dead?
That was the movie that converted me into a Russell Crowe fan - when I find myself having to pick my jaw up off the floor from just watching him take off his jacket to get ready for a gun fight, THATS when I know Ive seen talent.
*sigh* Cort took over that movie. Ellen who?!
Sharon Fergusonon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:35 pm 16Gina - thank you for the belly laugh of the day! ROFL!!
A meme is generally more used to generate posts when you want to network and have a good squeal over your favorite things. (Why are you looking at me like that?! Like I’m weird for knowing what a meme is…?!) Its fun and its more along the lines of a ‘getting to know you’ thing.
Ohio Wolverine Momon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:36 pm 17Gina—thanks, now you’ve ruined My Fair Lady for me….
I always tear up toward the end or Mulan as her friends help her rescue the emperor; there is a reprise of “I’ll Make a Man out of You” as the friends disguise themselves as geishas…a favorite Disney (or any other movie) moment.
Patrickon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:39 pm 18I just watched a couple of movies on this list - Mr. Skeffington, which gets rapped for being a soap opera, but I found it quite entertaining, stuff happens in it. And Fear and Loathing, which eventually wore me out, nothing really happens in it, I think I gave up half way through it and put it back in it’s envelope to send back to Netflix. I guess trying to film people using hallucinogenic drugs is going to be short on plot.
Ginaon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:39 pm 19Sorry, Mom! (”My Fair Lady” is my second favorite movie of all time. I’ve watched it so many times that nothing could ruin it for me, not even my own silly jokes!)
Stephanie, a meme is sort of like a questionnaire that gets passed from blogger to blogger.
Sharon Fergusonon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:41 pm 20Favorite Disney moments for me come from Hercules:
“Next thing you know, there’ll be a plague of locusts [sic]”
*a cricket hops onto the rim of the fountain. Everyone reacts in horror*
Old man: “That’s it! I’m moving to Sthparta!”
And looooooved James Woods as Hades.
Sharon Fergusonon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:43 pm 21OWM - I loved the short growly guy - “does this make me look fat?”
And Ive always liked that song “A Man Out of You” too…
Sharon Fergusonon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:45 pm 22Sorry for hogging the thread, but have to reply one more time - Ive seen Zorro the Gay Blade too…”the pepples. We must save the pepples.” (or something like that…)
Ohio Wolverine Momon 15 Nov 2008 at 6:51 pm 23Gina–only kidding!
Sharon, I’ll admit I bought the sound track because it featured DONNY OSMOND (okay, lost the little respectI might have here, I know,but still love him) but absolutely loved the story; have bought copies for all of my nieces (I have eight,so it got pricey).
And Harvey Fierstein was a great voice for Yao.
I will Hercules another look…and as a mom through adoption, Tarzan always makes me cry.
And James Woods in anything—I even liked him with Dolly Parton,though her best teaming was with Sam Shepard,IMHO.
Mike Kriskeyon 15 Nov 2008 at 7:12 pm 24At least now I know it’s just like the book. I had people tell me that book would change my life, and all it did was waste a little piece of it.
Lord Jiggyon 15 Nov 2008 at 7:23 pm 25The Gay Blade: truly twisted, unappreciated. A big step up from Love Sucks or whatever the vampire movie was…
It might have been too completely committed to “making fun of the poofy boys” though, and that might have hampered it. I thought George Hamilton had a career ahead of him in comedy, but only saw him a little after that (a nice cameo in Doc Hollywood, by the way).
Clive Owen was in Inside Man. He usually emanates a tortured kind of decency (see “Children of Men”), and he can be good in dopey movies (the King Arthur flick). He can’t save a bad movie (Sin City or Shoot ‘Em Up), but he can push a good one over the edge.
Inside Man was just okay, tho, and he was the best thing in it.
Sharon Fergusonon 15 Nov 2008 at 7:23 pm 26An adoptee, I have a certain appreciation for Hercules.
II2None59on 15 Nov 2008 at 7:37 pm 27I canNOT recommend The Unknown enough! One of the greatest silent movies ever (and I’m a huge silent film fan although they are WAY before my time), and possibly Lon Chaney’s best. I just watched it twice last week, and it definitely takes you by the scruff and gives you a major shaking. If you’ve never seen it DO! It’s part of a DVD set called The Lon Chaney Collection, and catch Laugh Clown Laugh while you’re at it.
And The Quick and the Dead is a favorite guilty pleasure!
Bennett Marcoon 15 Nov 2008 at 7:56 pm 28Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine fight each other with chains and sledge hammers atop a moving freight train — “Emperor of the North” has got to be on the short list for most macho movie ever.
Carolynon 15 Nov 2008 at 8:08 pm 29“The Quick and the Dead” - yuck! I loved Crowe in it but nothing else. The moment Sharon Stone started talking in that ridiculous ‘I’ll pitch my voice real low and growly like it’s coming from my kneecaps to give me that authentic tough bitch’ voice, I horked into my popcorn and couldn’t take the film seriously afterwards. The only good thing was Crowe. (But I do give Stone credit. She gave Crowe his Hollywood breakthrough by holding up production so that he could finish a film in Australia. Thank her sincerely for that wonderful gesture.)
Neat! I finally know what a ‘meme’ is. (Uhh, I take it the word is a combination of ‘memo’ and ‘email’?)
Wayfareron 15 Nov 2008 at 8:24 pm 30Gina, that was hilarious. (Just have to echo that.)
I want to see The Quick and the Dead after reading that cast.
Ronsonicon 15 Nov 2008 at 8:39 pm 31You forgot Hammersmith is Out.
Sharon Fergusonon 15 Nov 2008 at 8:50 pm 32Carolyn, - agree TOTALLY about Stone…I skip past those parts….but Crowe and Hackman stole the show - there was a really good dynamic going on between the Crowe/Hackman/DiCapprio characters. If they had concentrated on that, it would have made a really good Western. But no…Stone had to go all femishootist….
Inklingon 15 Nov 2008 at 9:13 pm 33Still trying to figure out the unifying theme of DH’s list.
“Films that come to mind while high as a kite on Nyquil”?
Carolynon 15 Nov 2008 at 9:23 pm 34Damn, Sharon, I’ve got>/i> to steal your line!
‘femishootist’.
Oh, perfect. Absolutely perfect!
Carolynon 15 Nov 2008 at 9:24 pm 35And I’ve also got to do my ‘italics’ code right.
Sheesh.
trzupron 15 Nov 2008 at 9:55 pm 36Harry - Not bad, but it doesn’t get any better than this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FExqG6LdWHU
Carolynon 15 Nov 2008 at 10:21 pm 37SHIT, trzupr - I just watched your video! Awesome. The research that had to go into making it - that was awesome!
trzupron 15 Nov 2008 at 10:33 pm 38Carolyn - Wasn’t that cool? Can’t take credit though. I just stumbled across it. A better mix of tribute and theme I have not found. The value of nerdiness has never been better illustrated!
Bob Whiteon 15 Nov 2008 at 10:42 pm 39Not a serious list.
Sunday Sunday SUNDAY! — WHAT WOULD TOTO WATCH?on 15 Nov 2008 at 10:56 pm 40[…] posted tomorrow — Nov. 16 — courtesy of a “tag, you’re it” game with Dirty Harry … and my review of “Slumdog Millionaire” from the Starz Denver Film […]
Enderon 15 Nov 2008 at 11:40 pm 41The scene in Zorro TGB with Hamilton and Ron Leibman going over the different colors of Zorro’s outifts is gut-bustingly funny.
wanketteon 16 Nov 2008 at 12:25 am 42How the hell does a list get defined as “meme”? is this new blogspeak ?
This is what meme memes. Uh, means. Sorry, couldn’t avoid that.:
wanketteon 16 Nov 2008 at 12:26 am 43Damn it, you upset me so much I
Stephanieon 16 Nov 2008 at 4:40 am 44OK thanks guys…in that case yes. Love The Quick and the Dead. Second Russell Crowe film that I got to see between LA Confidential and Virtuosity….he was HOT…….and still is….blowing raspberries at people who don’t think so…nanny nanny boo boo!
Bennett Marcoon 16 Nov 2008 at 5:56 am 45trzupr:
Waaaay cooool vid. I guessed right on 11, 44, and of course, 57.
Personally, I would have ended it with it:
Nick: One shot
Michael: One shot, one shot.
Elizabetheon 16 Nov 2008 at 7:35 am 46Wankette, I’m absolutely on board with your confusion. The use of the word “meme” to describe what should be called a “chain blogger survey” drives me absolutely batty.
I think the name meme got put on these chain blogger surveys kind because one of the things that makes a “meme” different from an “idea”, or some other concept, is that memes are self-perpetuating. They tend to live and get passed on and on in some mysterious way, and often for no discernible reason. A real example of a meme would be something like an “old wives tale” or some other kind of nugget of common sense that is just plain wrong but that keeps getting passed down through generations anyway, without evidence, reason, or logic to explain why.
It’s been a while since I studied the concept of memes, so sue me if I’m wrong about anything.
wanketteon 16 Nov 2008 at 8:04 am 47My favorite meme goes something like this:
“A woman was making Christmas dinner as her young daughter watched. Before she put the ham in the baking dish, she sliced off exactly three inches from the end.
“Why’d you do that, Mom?” the daughter queried.
The woman was stumped for a moment, because…well…she’d always done it that way. “I don’t know, actually. I always watched your grandma, and your grandma always made ham like that!”
Luckily Grandma was there. So she was asked the reason for the three-inch slice off the end of the ham.
“I don’t know…that’s how I’ve always done it. That’s how MY mother did it,” she replied.
Great-grandma was not present, but still living, so they phoned her to find out the big secret that made cutting that three inches off the ham so necessary to the recipe.
Apparently, in those days, Great-grandma had had no cooking pan that could hold a whole ham. So she whacked off about three inches so that the ham could fit inside.
Problem solved.
Meme defined.
Ginaon 16 Nov 2008 at 8:52 am 48This “The Unknown” sounds intriguing. I don’t always do well with movies that get and stay under the skin forever, though. They tend to haunt me and keep me awake at night.
Morganon 16 Nov 2008 at 9:35 am 49Quite a list. Hope you don’t mind my two cents on some of your entries.
Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd- Never seen it, but it doesn’t matter what movie it is, they’re always funny.
The Boys From Brazil- I wouldn’t call it a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination.
Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas- Based on what little I know about Terry Gilliam’s films, this is probably his only conventional film.
Hell Is For Heroes- Don’t diss McQueen; without him, Newhart wouldn’t have been as funny.
Inside Man- Now that’s what I would call a watchable bad movie.
Ju Dou- Nice you chose something “properly cinema”, but couldn’t you have chosen something I’m at least vaguely familiar with? Like Ikiru?
The Pledge- One of Sean Penn’s few redemptive achievements.
The Quick And The Dead- Hackman. Keith David. Russell Crowe. Gary Sinise. Lance Henriksen. Pat Hingle… still a sad waste of all their talents.
RedneckJDon 16 Nov 2008 at 12:39 pm 50Thanks for mentioning “Mr. Skeffington”; I really feel this was Bette playing herself, based upon interviews and TV bits I’ve seen and read. And “Zorro: The Gay Blade”; if the anti-8 crowd had had this shown before the election they might have won. Hamilton is better in this than in the Hank Williams thing (I lost the title as I was typing) and “Where the Boys Are”.
Daliaon 16 Nov 2008 at 1:22 pm 51Love At First Bite.
Morganon 16 Nov 2008 at 3:12 pm 52RedneckJD, in case you still haven’t remembered yet, it was Your Cheatin’ Heart. Yeah, before they used the titles of songs from Johnny Cash and Bobby Darin for their biopics, they had done the same thing to Hank Williams back in the ’60s.
Morganon 17 Nov 2008 at 8:58 am 53I stand corrected, Dirty Harry. Newhart did rawk in Hell Is For Heroes, regardless of Steve McQueen.