tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72180561584251347802024-03-13T09:16:57.488-04:00Panic on the 4th of July<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>
JUST CHUMMIN' SOME OF THIS SHIT DOWN HERE.Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-24401301690429632922012-02-06T21:16:00.005-05:002012-02-06T21:21:34.388-05:00"Does This Bus Stop at 53rd and 3rd?"I had no idea this even ever happened! Sure, I know Bruce originally wrote "Hungry Heart" for the Ramones after he ran into Joey in 1979, but apparently this meeting with Dee Dee happened much earlier, in '77 at fabled Max's Kansas City. The mind it do boggle. Will ever wonder what they talked about...Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-2162460578530574942011-04-15T13:17:00.011-04:002011-07-07T20:55:11.079-04:00My Cinematic Alphabet, '70s StyleWill Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-14047185703816993222011-03-15T10:58:00.012-04:002014-04-05T09:18:57.650-04:00More Netflix Instant '70s: Last Embrace, The Manitou, and The Last of SheilaLast Embrace (1979, dir. Jonathan Demme) Unavailable on DVD, this suspense thriller plays like minor Hitchcock, complete with obsessive love for a dead woman, a convoluted mystery stuffed with red herrings, a swirling romantic score, and a climactic chase at a national monument (here, Niagara Falls). I sought this one out as a missing piece of Scheider's '70s filmography, and while he's always Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-83705630490533766492010-10-15T14:30:00.003-04:002011-03-15T11:03:53.540-04:00Netflix Instant '70s Horror: 10 Rillington Place, Vampire Circus, and Audrey Rose10 Rillington Place (1971, dir. Richard Fleischer) A somber, grim retelling of one of England's most notorious serial killers, played with great and creepy skill by David Attenborough. Disarmingly quiet and deferential, John Christie poses as a former military doctor who now lives with his wife in a terribly run down flat in the terribly run down section of Notting Hill, London, in 1950. The filmWill Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-67001414417099855202010-06-29T18:13:00.007-04:002010-09-08T22:52:09.266-04:00John Huston's Fat City (1972): Makin' It Through the NightBoxing films are never about the sport of boxing. Boxing is so primitive, so stark and simple-minded, that it can only function as a metaphor for the larger concerns of character and conflict. Which is simply fine with me as someone who really has no interest in sports; so many great movies are "about" boxing: Rocky (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Body and Soul (1947), The Harder They Fall (1955), Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-50908810699180638162010-06-20T12:45:00.014-04:002013-04-09T16:02:56.542-04:00Jaws: On a 35-Year-Old ObsessionJune 20th, 2010 marks the 35th anniversary of the release of the movie JAWS. This post is part of Radiation-Scarred Review's 2010 SHARKATHALON, which celebrates this milestone with blog posts around the web."There is a creature alive today that has survived millions of years of evolution. Without change, without passion, and without logic. It lives to kill. A mindless eating machine, it will Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-54433066412230574862010-06-19T13:50:00.006-04:002010-06-19T14:08:13.770-04:00Steven Spielberg's Jaws: More Momentary Appreciation on its 35th AnniversaryJune 20th, 2010 marks the 35th anniversary of the release of the movie JAWS. This post is part of Radiation-Scarred Review's 2010 SHARKATHALON, which celebrates this milestone with blog posts around the web.Again, a collection of in-between moments and lines from Jaws that I find as memorable, effective, and artfully composed as any of the big standout action pieces. Of course, this is Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-67498377873581530932010-06-18T10:15:00.003-04:002010-08-26T13:01:03.555-04:00Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975): A Momentary Appreciation on its 35th AnniversaryJune 20th, 2010 marks the 35th anniversary of the release of the movie JAWS. This post is part of Radiation-Scarred Review's 2010 SHARKATHALON, which celebrates this milestone with blog posts around the web.There are moments in Jaws that simply leave me speechless. Quiet moments. Odd moments. In-between moments. Touches here and there that add color and depth and shade and wit to the Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-38487777734671691142010-06-17T17:50:00.000-04:002010-06-17T17:51:07.046-04:00As If God Created the Devil and Gave Him... JawsJune 20th, 2010 marks the 35th anniversary of the release of the movie JAWS. This post is part of Radiation-Scarred Review's 2010 SHARKATHALON, which celebrates this milestone with blog posts around the web.These are a few of the foreign movie posters for Jaws, Steven Spielberg's summer blockbuster masterpiece. Above is the French poster, with its title translated not as Jaws but Teeth of Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-37230048334612352392010-04-17T19:35:00.005-04:002011-03-15T10:08:46.413-04:00Gene Hackman in Night Moves (1975): Winner Lose AllUnjustifiably forgotten today, Arthur Penn's 1975 Night Moves stars Gene Hackman as Harry Moseby, a former football hero who now tries to cut it as a private detective, and one obsessed with chess at that. Sporting one of the finer non-Burt Reynolds mustaches of '70s cinema, Hackman is at his everyman best, and is as good here as he is in The French Connection or The Conversation or, hell, Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-45337805082554528362010-02-23T21:45:00.015-05:002013-10-29T14:43:45.616-04:00Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976): I Can't Pretend and I Know I'm AloneSome thoughtful movie fans see American personhood summed up in characters like Rocky Balboa, Atticus Finch, George Bailey, Forrest Gump, Cool Hand Luke, and even Vito Corleone or Tony Montana. But I see much of it in Travis Bickle, the wounded Vietnam vet and desperate loner of Taxi Driver (1976), slowly going psychotically mad in the (then-) ruined urban landscape of New York City. It is my Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-71656592272953640432010-01-25T19:10:00.006-05:002010-06-16T02:45:58.495-04:00Albert Brooks's Real Life (1979): Burning Down the HouseIt's satisfyingly ironic that the first reality show was broadcast on PBS, that most esteemed bastion of social conscience and good taste, in 1973. An American Family showcased the Loud family and their daily lives in a 12-hour miniseries for the delectation of a record-setting millions of viewers. Interestingly, son Lance was perhaps the first openly gay person on television. You don't hear muchWill Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-28228766247584406852010-01-22T00:15:00.011-05:002011-01-31T15:23:01.373-05:00Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973): Doing His Best James Dean
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-67284443679666615492010-01-18T22:53:00.009-05:002010-01-19T09:32:23.880-05:00Upcoming for the New YearThis is what I've got planned for the early part of the new year: rather than always seeking out '70s movies I haven't seen before to write about, I'm going to concentrate awhile on some of my favorites. This may prove more daunting than motivational; what's left to be said on Taxi Driver, on Network, on Annie Hall, on Texas Chainsaw Massacre? I hope to find out. Other classic movies I'm lining Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-25014857169037729042009-12-22T09:48:00.025-05:002009-12-29T03:18:09.826-05:00Remembering Joe Strummer (1952 - 2002)On this day in 2002, the world lost one of rock'n'roll's greatest frontmen, Joe Strummer. Born John Graham Mellor in 1952, he embodied the busking British folkie, squatting in abandoned high rises during the early '70s, and then joined the pub rock ensemble the 101ers. But as a member of the Clash from 1976 to 1986, Joe rounded the world, galvanizing audiences with lyrics exposing global Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-48355901461002177162009-12-15T18:30:00.003-05:002010-05-19T10:11:19.805-04:00Robert Mitchum in The Yakuza (1974): The Strange Stranger"When an American cracks up, he opens a window and shoots up a bunch of strangers. When a Japanese cracks up, he closes the window and kills himself."Richard Jordan in The YakuzaThe Yakuza (1974) has a pretty high pedigree for the 1970s: it was the first screenplay from Paul Schrader, co-written with his brother Leonard, a rewrite by Robert Towne, and directed by Sydney Pollack. Robert Mitchum, Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-73545196164379223062009-12-01T11:41:00.008-05:002009-12-01T12:01:44.606-05:00RIP Paul Naschy (1934 - 2009)Spain's legendary master of the macabre, Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina Alvarez), has died in Madrid, according to Spanish news reports. Often referred to as the "Spanish Boris Karloff" or "Lon Chaney of Spain," Naschy was a writer, director, and actor, appearing in dozens of charmingly low-budget movies beginning in the late 1960s.Naschy was well-known in cult movie circles for his recurring Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-31742322573377869162009-11-24T23:18:00.016-05:002009-11-30T09:33:11.166-05:00Boris Karloff Blogathon: The Body Snatcher (1945) trailerWhen most people hear the phrase "body snatcher" they think of the 1956 science fiction classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, directed by Don Siegel and starring Kevin McCarthy, from Jack Finney's novel. There is, however, another movie a good 10 years prior which also bears the phrase "body snatcher," and it's based on a short story by the venerable Robert Louis Stevenson. Released in 1945 Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-67975042717026422862009-11-05T13:24:00.005-05:002010-05-19T10:13:03.103-04:00Brian DePalma's Dressed to Kill (1980): "It's Just So Dirty"Dressed to Kill is a lurid and self-conscious thriller, director Brian DePalma's 1980 riff on even more Hitchcock tropes, dressed up as high art. Mostly vulgarizing Hitchcock for the excessive style-over-substance cocaine '80s, you can sense the sleaze dripping off every frame, and not in an appreciatively over-the-top manner but in a let-me-rub-your-face-in-filth way. It has more in common with Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-78355369172115590122009-11-03T10:00:00.005-05:002010-05-19T10:13:36.546-04:00Brian DePalma's Obsession (1976): Overwrought and ObviousI am usually underwhelmed by Brian DePalma's movies. He's a stylist who wears his influences - his influence, as in Hitchcock and Hitchcock only - on his sleeve. I've enjoyed Sisters, Carrie, The Untouchables, and Carlito's Way, but schlock like Scarface, Raising Cain, and The Black Dahlia are some of the worst movies I've ever seen by a major director. Too often they rely simply on their Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-40668416667457623622009-10-31T12:19:00.016-04:002009-12-15T21:18:57.550-05:00Countdown to Halloween: Kids' BooksHalloween has arrived! Since this awesome holiday is (ostensibly) about kids, I wanted to share some great books I, and plenty of other folks, loved to read and reread as a child. These are the books that made me the Halloween and horror fan I remain to this day!Norman Bridwell, most famous for creating Clifford the Big Red Dog, had several books of charmingly-drawn monsters. I mean, they are Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-47604476114651382032009-10-30T15:33:00.034-04:002009-10-31T12:25:19.157-04:00Countdown to Halloween: Horror Around the HouseAs we get right up on Halloween, here's a nice chunk of the horror-related books and toys and whatnot I like to accessorize with at home.Three old-school Draculas guard the bookshelf...Horror fiction in various states of read- and unread-ness. You got your King hardcovers that date from when I was in high school, and countless books good and bad I've collected (I do not recommend re-reading It asWill Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-34164563881015952222009-10-29T19:09:00.008-04:002009-10-29T19:22:35.145-04:00Countdown to Halloween: Lovecraft and the Parody of Religion
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-60881766009910272822009-10-28T00:01:00.015-04:002009-12-22T10:59:18.031-05:00Countdown to Halloween: Rise of the VampiresFrom Tod Browning's Dracula (1931):"And all around them, the bestiality of the night rises on tenebrous wings. The vampire's time has come."Stephen King, 'Salem's Lot (1975)"You play your wits against me, mine, who commanded armies hundreds of years before you were born?"Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897)"If it's raining and you're running Don't slip in mud because if you do You'll slip in blood Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7218056158425134780.post-9638842272404322082009-10-27T00:01:00.015-04:002013-01-24T09:00:14.226-05:00The Delights of Dread: Meeting Clive Barker"There is no delight the equal of dread," wrote Liverpudlian Clive Barker in the first lines of his 1984 short story "Dread," collected in Books of Blood Vol. 2. I believed him back then and I believe him now. Also, from the title story: "The dead have highways... Their thrum and throb can be heard in the broken places of the world, through cracks made by acts of cruelty, violence and depravity."Will Erricksonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16285306262078600804noreply@blogger.com6