Dear Jodie! I've Learned To Feed The Birds!

Dear Jodie!

In light of our comments on Saving Mr. Banks, here is a story I wish the movie had mentioned, but understand why it didn't.

When it came time to cast the small, but important, role of the Bird Woman, Walt Disney said, "I know who I want to do this role.  I don't know if she will do it, but I want to ask."

So Walt Disney personally went to the actor's retirement home and asked the eighty-five year old Oscar winning actor Jane Darwell, if she would play the role of the Bird Woman.  Ms. Darwell had not worked in a number of years.

She was thrilled that he asked, and gladly accepted.  Each day that she worked, Walt Disney sent a car for her, and personally met her on the sound stage to welcome her.

The song "Feed The Birds" is about a seemingly small act that rocks the world!  "Tuppence a bag."  What a great line. I can't say the line without tears forming in my eyes. Walt Disney, whether he knew it or not, honored that sentiment by giving an elderly lady the chance to shine one more time in her life.  Jane Darwell, herself, said, "Mr. Disney made me feel like a star."

Oh, no!  Ms. Darwell was a star. Check out her credits on IMDB.  Mr. Disney just made sure the world knew it and got to see it one last time

Jane Darwell lived long enough to see the movie, and LOVED it.

Here in seven minutes is her performance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABc1-6o9cF0

Ahhh, what movie shall we tackle next, Jodie?

Dear Jodie! Saving Mr. Banks

Dear Jodie,

I saw Mary Poppins in its original release in 1964 and fell in love with it.  Naturally, when I saw the previews for Saving Mr. Banks, I couldn't wait.  What better story for this actor and writer to see?

If I had a trepidation going in, it was that Walt Disney Pictures was involved in the making of this story . . . along with BBC films.  The issue for me would be how would the Walt Disney Pictures portion of this team handle a story that ultimately didn't end well between P. L. (Pamela) Travers and Walt Disney?

I needn't have worried.  Just as the movie transported P. L. Travers back to the world of Helen Lyndon Goff, her younger self, it transported me back to 1964, and all of the times since that I have seen Mary Poppins.

 Oh, Jodie, I can't count the number of times I have been down in the dumps only to have Mary Poppins pull me out, laughing and joyous.

Saving Mr. Banks had a similar effect on the adult Rocky.

I loved everything about this movie. A friend of mine didn't like the flashbacks, but to my mind, the essence of this movie is in the backstory.  How did loving, open, imaginative Helen Lyndon Goff become tight, repressed, almost misanthropic Pamela Lyndon Travers?

We do learn.

I thought the acting in this movie rocked!  As I mentioned in my Philip Seymour Hoffman tribute, one of the most difficult roles an actor can play is someone in living memory.  For me Walt Disney is within living memory.  Tom Hanks shined, especially in the London scene.

Colin Farrell kicked serious ass as Travers Goff.  Bradley Whitford and Jason Schwartzman were amazing as the Sherman Brothers.  So many others did great jobs, but I did want to give a shout out to young Annie Rose Buckley as Helen.  What a lovely performance!

The movie, though, belonged to Emma Thompson, and her role was so much more difficult than even Tom Hanks.  In addition to being within living memory, P. L. Travers comes off as a pill early on in the movie, and Emma had to sustain that while making ever-so-gentle steps forward, gaining and keeping the sympathy of the audience along the way.

She amazed me by doing it in almost imperceptible baby steps.

I especially loved the scenes between Pamela and Ralph (Paul Giamatti), and their developing friendship.

Saving Mr. Banks allowed me to go back to 1964 and not just enjoy Mary Poppins, but to take shy, hurt, Rocky, who had no self-worth, and show him that everything is all right.

But Saving Mr. Banks left me torn.

The writer in me completely understands the need for Pamela Travers to see her creation as her family, and to cling hard to her own vision of that family.  My writer soul relates to the disappointment and even anger that she felt when it didn't completely turn out her way.

The child in me, both from 1964 and now, believes that Walt Disney served her family brilliantly.

What a great collaboration between Australian, American, and British filmmakers!

My intellect gives the movie 8 out of 10.

My emotions give it a 10.

Oh, Jodie!  Did I tell you that in the 90's, I collected about 300 autographs, including this one of Dick Van Dyke.

 

What did you think of Saving Mr. Banks?

You can find Jodie's take here.

Dear Jodie - Philip Seymour Hoffman

Dear Jodie!

We lost Philip Seymour Hoffman yesterday, and I am sad.  What a special actor he was.  He was what I strived to be, a gifted character actor capable of leading roles.

This was not easy for him to accomplish in the Hollywood world of, not just beauty, but perfect, flawless beauty.

Mr. Hoffman helped break that mold with brilliant performances with such directors as the Coen Brothers, Spike Lee, Cameron Crowe, and David Mamet.

For me his best of all of his wonderful performances was "Capote."

I'll discuss this more in depth at another time, but one of the most difficult roles an actor can play is a person within living memory.  For me, Truman Capote is well within living memory being a brilliant writer and character in his own right, yet fifteen seconds after Hoffman appeared on-screen, I forgot about any semblance of a performance.  I stayed with him the entire way through his research and writing of the amazing "In Cold Blood."  I couldn't take my eyes away from his brilliance.

He pulled me in.

I voted for Hoffman for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2005.  He won.  I so rooted for him in the Academy Awards.  He won that, too, and I applauded so hard my hands hurt.

Marvelous.

The entertainment community lost a wonderful actor from whom I wanted to see so much more, not the least of which was the continuation of "The Hunger Games" in the two-part telling of "Mockingjay."

And, Jodie, what were we discussing in our comments on "The Wolf of Wall Street" and how these people could have ingested so many drugs and walk out on the other side?

Philip Seymour Hoffman wasn't fortunate enough to walk out on the other side.

We may have sadly found the cautionary tale that Jordan Belfort wanted for himself.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was 46 years old, and on his way to the top of his profession.  He had not hit his peak.

Tonight I am sad, and my heart goes out to all of his family and friends and those who knew and loved him.

Yet he has left behind a wonderful body of work, and was, in the best sense of the word, unique.

What were your favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman performances, Jodie?  

Read Jodie's tribute here!

Dear Jodie - The Wolf of Wall Street

Dear Jodie,

My day job is in the financial industry, so The Wolf of Wall Street looked like a good choice to see.

It was, but it sure did make me uncomfortable, striking me as Caligula meets Lord of the Flies.

Goodnight-up-above, what is it about us humans that we love wretched excess, particularly when we claim to hate it?

And I claim to hate it.

Sometimes . . .

In the entire movie, I only found two sympathetic characters.  The first was Jordan Belfort’s long-suffering first wife Teresa Petrillo (not the real Jordan Belfort’s first wife’s name), and the yacht that sank on its way to Monaco. Come on!  What did that poor 175-foot yacht do to anyone?

Yet I watched.  I grimaced a lot.  I laughed in spite of myself, some of it at the male guffaws coming from various points in the theatre and the places in the movie that tickled them.

Don’t get me wrong, these are roles that actors would kill to play.  In 2007, Leonardo DiCaprio beat out Brad Pitt for the rights to the book, and had the devil’s own time getting it made. 

Heaven knows I would LOVE to have played any role in the movie . . . except Jordan Belfort’s long suffering first wife.

And the yacht.

Jonah Hill, despite having been Oscar nominated for his performance in Moneyball (2011), took minimum wage ($60,000) to do this film and work with Martin Scorsese.  By contrast, Leonardo DiCaprio got $10,000,000.00.

What can I say about the tale?

Jordan Belfort wanted his story to be a cautionary tale.  I haven’t read his book but sure didn’t see it in the movie.  I saw a cursory rags-to-riches-to-rags story surrounded by Roman orgies, excessive drug addiction with people snorting cocaine out of various body orifices and unfettered greed.

A cautionary tale would have shown the difficulty of shedding such a deep drug addiction.  We see nothing of rehab or recovery.  In fact, the movie version of Jordan Belfort said clearly that sobriety “sucks.”

Cautionary tales usually show some kind of change in the character, repentance or regret, even in the last seconds of life.  Here, we never see the victims, those poor souls who Belfort and his cronies bilked, sometimes out of their life savings, because he could “spend the money better.”  And I felt that the only thing Jordan Belfort was ever sorry for was getting caught.

Despicable.

And I cringed and laughed at it all.  Black comedy is still comedy.  I would give the movie eight out of ten, because it is excellent, and fascinating, well-acted and marvelously directed and, like Caligula and the boys in Lord of the Flies, shows a select few of the darker elements of human nature that many of us don’t ever experience, some of us might not ever see.

I would have given it 9 out of 10, but 569 F-bombs – yes, that is correct -- is a bit excessive, even for me.

I will say this.  I walked out of that theatre remembering the worst things I’ve ever done in my life, and took satisfaction that I’ve never done anything quite like that.

But I sure as hell would love to on the big screen or, hell, the small screen . . . or stage . . . or . . . ?

What do you think?  How did the movie strike you?  Check out her response here!

Osage County Hilarity

To my friend Jodie!

Dear Jodie!

Please let me offer a definition for the word "hilarious."  This comes from Merriam-Webster online.

"Hilarious:  marked by or causing hilarity:  extremely funny. "

Here's one from The Free Dictionary:  "Hilarious:  Characterized by or causing great merriment."

One of the movies I've been wanting to see this award season is AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY.  It opened across the U. S. his past Friday, but, being a longtime member of the Screen Actor's Guild, I received a screener DVD copy in the mail.  After my writing was done for the day, I put the movie on; wanting it to put a smile on my face, because the very first word I saw on the cover of the DVD screener copy was "Hilarious."  I read a couple of reviews that said the same thing.

The description you will read on the Rotten Tomatoes website begins . . . "AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY tells the dark, hilarious and deeply touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family. . ."

The one thing I agree with these critics was that it was an excellent movie.  The performances were amazing.  The movie went right to my heart, because, with variations, it was about my own family.  

A number of critics saw the movie as a "hilarious" comedy.

I did not.

Oh, I laughed in a number of places. Dramas should always have elements of comedy and comedies should always have elements of drama.

It bothered me that New York and LA critics saw the movie as "hilarious" and that the producers chose to put that description on the cover of the screener.

This is a movie about drug addiction, alcoholism, suicide, infidelity, incest, and potential child molestation, and critics and producers alike thought it "hilarious."  That bothers the shit out of me.  These topics to me are not "extremely funny."  These topics do not cause "great merriment" in my soul.

The movie was amazing.  I'll be thinking about it for a long time.  Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, and others give brilliant performances.  "Hilarious?"   Really?

I'd be willing to bet that had these dysfunctional families been from California or New York, the "hilarious" would have been changed to "poignant" or "profound" or "important."  Maybe "tragic?"  Do critics and producers think these issues are hilarious because they take place in the plains of Oklahoma … the state just north of my home state of Texas?  Or because it takes place in the South?  Or anywhere in "Hicksville" outside of New York or LA?  

Seriously!

I reckon so.  

Sometimes I believe that the New York and LA crowd of critics and movie producers laugh at the rest of the country, particularly those of us south of the Mason/Dixon line.

I have many friends in both areas of the country who in no way subscribe to what I just laid out, or in no way would support such an attitude.  I am only referring to movie critics, producers, and publicity departments.

There are a number of words I would use to describe AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, many of them in support of a wonderfully creative effort.  "Hilarious" would never be on that list.

Thank you, as always Jodie, for listening to my rant!  You are amazing!

Cheers!

The Rock

56 Bum Glue Lane

Bum glue.

The most important element in a writer's determination to write, or so said author Bryce Courtenay.

I just learned today that he died way back on November 22, 2012 at his home in Canberra, Australia.  Though born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Australia was his adopted country and he set his novels in one place or the other.  His first novel The Power of One is still one of Australia's best-selling books by any author.

I first met him at the Maui Writers Conference in 1999, ten years after publication of The Power of One, a wonderful novel.  Check it out if you get the chance.  I intend to read it again soon.

Bryce was the keynote speaker at the conference, and won over a throng of nearly a thousand writers and writer wannabes with his passion, his enthusiasm, and the glow of love he radiated for every single writer he met.

To this day, I've never met any writer as vibrant, as charismatic, as enthusiastic.  I wonder to this day whether those qualities came about because he was fifty-six years old when The Power of One came out, and, because of that, appreciated his success all the more and needed to give what he had learned.

I am fifty-six years old.  This second day of 2014 finds me sad that he is not with us, but happy that I saw him speak several times and have two books that he signed to me.  He always emphasized that being a writer required ". . . bum glue.  You have to glue your bum to the chair and write."

When he signed my copy of The Power of One I mentioned how inspiring his talk was.  He looked up, flashed a huge smile, his eyes twinkling, and said, "Bum glue, Rocky.  Bum glue."

The address for my writing house during 2014 will be 56 Bum Glue Lane.

I will live there with my lovely ghost Emmie, and the sage wisdom of Bryce Courtenay.

Political Correctness and Foster Brooks

First, let me apologize!  It's been nearly three weeks since I've posted.

Here we go.

I love humor.  I am sometimes healed by it.

I understand things about political correctness, and not all of them are good.

When I grew up in the late fifties and sixties and high school into the seventies, we had a different term for it.  We called it manners.  We listened to Emily Post, Amy Vanderbilt, and Judith Martin (Miss Manners) on how to behave with our fellow humans, because according to them, manners is what keeps the human race from barbarism, from the fate left to us as described by one of the great novels in the English Language Lord of the Flies.

I, too, believe that William Golding had it right while still believing that Political Correctness (PC) can take things over the edge and has.

Manners tempers that edge to my mind.

What manners allowed for, that PC does not, is the ability to laugh at ourselves and our own foibles.  Humor.  Sometimes to laugh is to look inside and really see.  And things that we laughed at back in the day, folks would chastise us for laughing at now.

I'll offer a modest example.

Foster Brooks.

Do you know him?  If you're my age in the US, you probably do.  If not, let me give you a little bit on Foster Brooks, known in his heyday ad "The Loveable Lush."

His act was that of a drunk.

He hit the big time a number of years after he took his last drink, being well into his 50's.  During his act, he was stone cold sober, yet he forced us all to look inside, with amazing humor ... and insight.  I've met a couple of folks who said they understood their own alcoholism from watching the act of Foster Brooks.

Humor, to my mind, can do so much more than make us laugh.  It can make us look hard at ourselves and see the demons within without feeling like a cyclops in the world of two-eyed people.

What I love about manners, and hate about political correctness, is that the former allows for humor, the latter does now.  Check out this bit from the old Dean Martin Roast of Don Rickles, featuring the late, great Foster Brooks.

I know it's hard to watch with alcoholism being such a problem in the world, but do we solve it by taking away the humor?

It's just a question.  I am looking for guidance.

Please comment and let me know what you think, regardless of what thoughts you may have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQgxS-R8TzA