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VIEWING 1 - 5 OUT OF 5 BLOGS.
The Black & White Blog: High Sierra
DATE: 03/06/2008 19:27:51 / MOOD: other
My wife & I have been watching a lot of old black and white movies
through Netflix, so I'm going to try and do a small write-up on each of
them. Let me know what you think. High Sierra (1941) I confess, I haven't seen a lot of Humphrey Bogart films aside from Casablanca. I'm trying to rectify this, beginning with this great piece of crime drama (half mobster movie, half film noir) starring Bogart (I believe this is his first starring role) as Roy "Mad Dog" Earle. Earle is released from prison by the corrupt governor who has been paid off by a mobster looking to enlist Earle for his latest heist. the robbery of a casino on the Nevada border. Bogart is incredible in this and I can see why he started getting top billing after this movie. On one hand, he is the typical soulless gangster who doesn't even look back when people are killed. However, you still root for him because of the soft side he shows: he rescues a poor, hungry dog and he pays for a local girl to get the surgery she needs to walk again. If you haven't checked this one out yet, I can't recommend it enough. It has so much packed into its running time, including the casino hold-up, a tense, high-speed car chase, and the classic shoot-out between the criminal and the cops. It's just great fun.
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The Black & White Blog: The Letter
DATE: 02/08/2008 13:04:28 / MOOD: other
My wife & I have been watching a lot of old black and white movies
through Netflix, so I'm going to try and do a small write-up on each of
them. Let me know what you think. The Letter (1940) Bettie Davis plays Leslie Crosbie, the wife of a plantation owner in Singapore. She claims self defense when a number of witnesses see her unload six bullets into another man. It is up to the family friend and lawyer Howard Joyce (James Stephenson) to save her from the hangman's noose. Unfortunately for her, a letter is discovered that indicates she had planned then entire thing. Joyce must decide whether to do the right thing or save his friend from execution. The acting in this film is wonderful. Davis is just nasty at the beginning of the movie, and it's tough for the audience to doubt her guilt based on the heartless expression on her face as she shoots another man dead. She just as easily shows the fear that she feels when she realizes what the letter can do to her. Stephenson is the other pillar of the film, dealing with the internal debate of saving his friend or properly serving his profession. Quite a tour de force from the both of them. (And, if you're looking for something to laugh at, enjoy American-born Dane Gale Sondergaard who gets to play the Chinese wife of the victim. How anyone thought she'd pass as Asian is beyond me.)
Nominated for seven Academy Awards: Actor in a Supporting Role (Stephenson), Actress (Davis), B&W Cinematography, Directing, Film Editing, Music, Outstanding Production
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The Black & White Blog: I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
DATE: 02/07/2008 19:18:19 / MOOD: other
My wife & I have been watching a lot of old black and white movies through Netflix, so I'm going to try and do a small write-up on each of them. Let me know what you think. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) This is a fantastic prison drama based on the memoirs of Robert E. Burns, who actually spent time on a chain gang in the early 20th century. James Allen, played by Paul Muni (you may remember him as the original Scarface), returns home from WWI a hero, and a changed man. He's no longer interested in working in a factory for the rest of his life, but wants to put the engineering knowledge he picked up in the war to use. Leaving his family behind, he sets out on his own looking for his dream job. The problem is, there is no work to be found. He finds himself drifting from place to place, barely making enough to feed himself. So when he's offered a free hamburger by one of his coworkers (great line: What would I say to a hamburger? Boy. I'd take Mr. Hamburger by the hand and say, "Pal, I haven't seen you for a long, long time."), he doesn't think twice. Unfortunately, his new friend proceeds to hold up the hamburger stand, and when the police show up and shoot him dead, James is accused of being an accomplice, and is sentenced to serve 10 years on a chain gang. The movie shows the brutal treatment of the members of the gang, including the disproportionate number of blacks, in detail that i imagine was shocking to viewers of the 1930's.
The movie follows James as he escapes from the gang, makes his way to Chicago where he becomes a famous engineer and productive member of society, only to have his femme-fatale girlfriend threaten to reveal his past if he doesn't marry her. When he resists her, she turns him in and is returned to the chain gang (the way they trick James into returning to the gang is heartbreaking). James escapes a second time and realizes he will never be a free man, and must remain on the run for the rest of life. This is a great early example of film noir, and includes an amazing performance from Muni (the final shot of him is haunting). The fact that the movie is based on real life experiences really brings home how brutal the early American justice was. I've read that this was one of the first socially conscious movies out of Hollywood, and I imagine it certainly opened some eyes.
Nominated for Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Actor (Muni).
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Will I ever be able to own a house in LA?
DATE: 01/25/2008 19:30:22 / MOOD: angry
Living in Los Angeles is really ???ing expensive. Now, I've lived in southern California my entire life. I was born in the San Fernando Valley, and grew up mostly in Simi Valley (home of the Rodney King trial & the Ronald Reagan presidential library!), so this is all I've really ever known. Plus, I have an overwhelming fear of flying (more about that in a separate post), so I haven't done a lot of serious traveling, either. However, I've always been content. After college, and after a terrible year living in Koreatown (aka roachville), I found a great one-bedroom apartment in West LA for $675 a month. Plus, it was rent controlled, so the rent could only go up 3% a year. So I had a good roof over my head, several jobs to feed me, and access to all the movies and movie theaters I could get my big hands on. And then I met a girl. Several years later, we're married and living in a more expensive two bedroom apartment in the same area for $1500 a month. Still not a bad deal for living in LA. Here's the thing: while the apartment is perfect for the two of us, that's about the end of it. There is no room for anything else. And we have both discussed it and we'd love to have a little Tieman or two running around sometime in the not so distant future. But we would also like to raise said children in a house. Not an apartment, not a town home, not a condo, but an honest to goodness house with a yard of some sort and something more than six inches and a few sheets of wall paneling separating us from our neighbors. Can I pull this off and remain in LA? On top of easy access to movies, pretty much all of my family lives out here, and all of hers that is not in the Philippines, too. All of our friends live here. Both of us have good jobs, and hers is a state job, with a future including a pension. There are a ton of reasons for us to stay rooted here, but one big reason that we may have to pull up roots eventually. Owning a home in Los Angeles is really ???ing expensive. I've always been aware of this, but I never really considered it because it wasn't important to me. Plus, having little travel experience, I had no clue what the difference in housing costs were when comparing other parts of the country. We were recently in Seattle for a wedding and my wife grabbed some real estate magazines. I was floored at how much cheaper the homes were. FLOORED. A three or four bedroom home with 2 baths was at least 1/3 of what it would cost anywhere in southern California. We've been putting aside money since the wedding, and in two years, we've socked away a little more than $15K. This won't even begin to cover a smidgen of the deposit of the smallest condo in the ???tiest area of LA, much less a home. Considering what homes cost, and the fact that you should have 10%-20% deposit, we won't have the money for a home until 2016, when we'll both be 38. Not the best age to start a family.
So now I have to take a step back, look at all my options, all the varying factors, and think about the future. How important is it to live in LA? How important is it to raise kids in a home? If we were to leave, where would we go? This has now become something I think about constantly, and I will post updates if I have any bright ideas. Any suggestions would be appreciated, too.
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I'm going to miss my grandmother
DATE: 01/24/2008 12:45:09 / MOOD: lonely
I know this is a bit of a depressing first blog, but I need to talk about this somewhere. I just buried my grandmother yesterday. She was 78. I have never had someone this close to me die, and I'm still adjusting to this. Aside from immediate family, she was my closest relative. Her death was very sudden and unexpected, and I still find myself feeling weird and shocked when I think about that fact that she is forever gone from my life. I have wonderful memories of her going all the way back to my very early childhood. You see, I was her first grandchild, and we formed a special bond because of this. When I was very young, I suppose I was always excited to visit her & my grandfather because they spoiled me silly, but I look back now and see the great love she had for not only me but the rest of her grandchildren. I like to think I got my independent streak from her. She was always the one who went her own way, regardless of other's opinions. She spoke her mind, so you always knew where you stood with her. She supported me when I moved out of my parent's house as soon as I was done with high school, telling me that she was very proud of my independence. Tell people the truth, and if they don't like you because of that, then that's their problem, she'd tell me.
She had the kind of personality that stuck with you after you had met her, even if it was only once. A lot of my good friends met her for the first time two years ago at my wedding, and for weeks afterward I was regaled with tales of her speaking with them outside while having one of her many, many cigarettes (she has been a lifetime smoker, starting when she was 14 in the early 1940's). Even two years later, all of them remember her very clearly and sincerely mourned her passing. This is going to take some getting used to. I miss you, Nana, and I hope you're in a better place now.
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