Redford Week: Jeremiah Johnson

Before and after going out to see All Is Lost, I revisited Robert Redford in an earlier cinematic tale of Man VS Nature, 1972's Jeremiah Johnson.  In what would be Redford's 2nd of 7 collaborations with director Sydney Pollack, Jeremiah Johnson is the tale of a wandering former soldier who arrives in Colorado to become a mountain man, hunting "bears, beavers and other critters worth cash money when skinned".  Utilizing the vast landscape of Utah, Pollack alternates harsh winters and arid desert vistas to give us an idea of just how hard life could be back then.

At first, Johnson struggles in the wilderness to survive, his hunting skills are lacking and he resorts to trying to catch fish with his bare hands in a frigid creek.  He's taken in by a local grizzly bear hunting mountain fella who teaches him the way of living off the rock.  Soon, Johnson becomes a self described "great hunter", the "fine figure of a man" who makes "damn good biscuits".  Along the way he runs into trouble with a pack of tribal nations people who end up slaughtering his wife and adopted child.  With nothing left, Johnson becomes a famed killer of the tribe and lives on the move, always waiting for the next attack.

Jeremiah Johnson is a great adventure flick that strangely parallels All Is Lost on simple things like men choosing isolation over society, accepting each new uninvited challenge and never giving up.  There's also weird coincidences like shaving before the storm (literal and figurative storms), forehead wound placement and screaming at the sky in both.  What I forgot about the movie is how funny it is at times as well as brutal.  The action is rough and tumble but still packs a wallop after all these years.  Sometimes seeing a nasty, animalistic scrap is more effective than the most choreographed display of physical prowess.  The film was co-written by John Milius, ya know, from Conan the Barbarian and Apocalypse Now?  The guy Walt from The Big Lebowski is based on?  Exactly.  Having worked on many a studio picture officially and unofficially, Milius has it written into his contract that in addition to a fee, he receives a firearm of significant value.

Apparently, Johnson is based on a real individual who after losing his family to braves from the Crow tribe, enlisted other mountain men and rival tribes to exact revenge over 25 years.  Rumor is he would eat the liver of each man he killed as a sign of disrespect to his enemies beliefs.  Respect.

The power of Yes:

Elbow Rocket! Accountability

Looks like a busy week, time to bust out the Action Item aka To Do list so I can spend equal time on each project.  Back in the 80's, writer/director/cinema savior James Cameron had three projects going simultaneously; rewriting his directorial vehicle, The Terminator, then as a hired gun on the sequel to Alien (which he would go on to direct, with Michael Biehn and Bill Paxton starring!) and the second installment of the Rambo franchise (where little of his contribution made it on screen).  He set up three different typewriters, figured out how many pages he needed to write for each per day, played different music for each project then got to work until he was finished. Seems easy enough right?  So remember, some people are given lists to do while others make the list.  Go out and make yours, internets.

"Yeah, yeah, I know about the P.T.A., but this is just parents who don't want to take responsibility for controlling their kids.  They work or are divorced or something.  They think they don't have the time."
    - Arnold Schwarzenegger on blaming others instead of being accountable

Arnie's Twitter buddy James Cameron on being The Man:

Fall Flicks: All Is Lost

Some more critical and award fodder with J.C. Chandor's All Is Lost starring the one and only Bobby the Robert Redford.  The story concerns a seasoned sailor in the middle of the ocean whose vessel is struck by a stray shipping container from China holding a boatload of shoes.

Then it is basically:  Redford.  On a boat.  Suffering hardship.  After hardship.  Then another hardship.  Phew.  I love Redford but I feel all of the praise his performance is garnering is a bit of an insult.  There is no dialog to speak of, it's a very realistic account of one man's quest to survive.  There are moments of true terror, the film is simple yet deftly constructed and quite a departure from Chandor's previous film, 2011's dialog heavy Margin Call.

We've seen how strong, funny, endearing and romantic Redford can be from Barefoot in the Park, The Candidate, Jeremiah Johnson, The Great Waldo Pepper and Sneakers among dozens of others.  To to hail a performance where he says next to nothing and instead gives us a how-to on seminar on boat repair and survival techniques seems erroneous.  It's a role any actor, put in the situation under the created elements, would probably receive our sympathy for.

Cinema Showdown: DC vs Marvel

Booked my tickets to the Thor/Avengers/Thor:  The Dark World marathon and yesterday watched the Captain America:  The Winter Soldier trailer half a dozen times.  It's a great age to be a comic book and film fan.  Marvel has been knocking it out of the park since they launched their own studio and carefully constructed an interwoven cinematic universe of safe and entertaining if not daring movie fare.  Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor have all been given big budget, semi faithful adaptations on the big screen culminating in mega hit, The Avengers.

Meanwhile DC has struggled outside of the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale Batman universe to capitalize on the thousands of characters at their disposal under Time Warner's vast multinational media network of film, television, print, video games, etc.  Justice League?  Scrapped.  Catwoman?  Please.  Green Lantern?  See ya later Ryan Reynolds.  The casting of Ben Affleck as the new Batman rankled more than a few movie going and comic book reading patrons but hey, never forget that Michael Keaton did a great job.

Why?  Because for Marvel it's all or nothing.  After years of selling off their titles and seeing cheap adaptations like 1990's Captain America (ehhhhh) and 1989's The Punisher (still best adaptation to date!) the stars finally aligned when Fox and Sony put up decent cash and directors for X-Men and Spider-Man in the 2000's, showing audiences that superhero movies could be equally exciting and dramatic.  Marvel Studios was formed to corral the remaining unlicensed characters and voila, 2008's Iron Man hit the mark and now we're moving into Phase II and Phase III of Kevin Fiege's legacy.

It's a different story for DC and Warner Brothers though, WB is only interested in the properties as brands and franchises, fodder for toy and tee-shirt deals and product in the company pipeline.  Harry Potter, Ocean's 11 and Nolan's Batman have run dry while Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit only has two more entries.  That's not a bad thing, they have to run their business.  But how else could you quantify the disjointed efforts of Superman on television, Shaquille O'Neal as Steel, the expensive mess of Green Lantern and Halle Berry as Catwoman?  Oh and it doesn't help they have David S. Goyer as their in house authority, remember when he was handed the keys to his own franchise then drove it into the fucking ground and gave us Blade:  Trinity?  The white-washed, slow motion fest sitcom?  Didn't think so.

Warner Brothers may have started the conversation with Superman and Batman but now they can't keep up because they're making the movies for all the wrong reasons.  How else can you explain Batman's inclusion into the rebooted Superman sequel?  A)  It shows how desperate they are to start their cinematic comic book universe and B)  Shows you how boring Superman is as a character.

Just like the comics, Make Mine Marvel!  With these mash up Hulk credits!

Redford Week: Winter Weather Warning

Tell me you've watched the trailer for Captain America:  The Winter Soldier!  And tell me you're not excited to see Bobby Redford aka Robert in it!  Ssssh, let's watch it again:



Doesn't that look awesome?!  I'm guessing Redford ends up being the villain and if Marvel really wants to push it, is Cap's World War II nemesis, The Red Skull, in present day!  I always thought Robert Redford would have been a perfect Steve Rogers/Cap.  Don't believe me?  Just watch The Way We Were.  The Way We Were?  That chick flick with Barbara Streisand?!  Yup, Redford is the spitting image of 70's and 80's era Cap where he wasn't super muscular, had some style and hadn't been turned into a big, bland, flag waver who memorizes names of vice presidents on a Saturday night.  Oh and Redford's character in TWWW is named is Hubbell, which is also sweet.

It's like looking into a comic book to black and white photo mirror!

Paneled Goods: The Shadow Strikes

Picked up a stack of The Shadow Strikes at some Con in the last year or so and finally cracked open the plastic comic bag and started reading.  Boy did I feel dumb, sure we all gloss over words we don't know, many times the way it's used can help you deduce it's meaning.  This time, I reached for the ol' dictionary to quickly learn and just as quickly forget the meaning of multiple words.

 

To start, The Shadow Strikes is a DC series from 1989 from Gerard Jones and Eduardo Barreto.  For the uninitiated, The Shadow is a character created in the 1930's where his adventures were read in pulp novels and heard on radio programs.  While origins vary with each medium, some basic characteristics include fighting in World War I, traveling through Asia and learning how to cloud men's minds.  Alec Baldwin played him in the 1994 big screen adaptation from Universal but we'll get to my obsession with period comic book action movies later.

The first issue begins at a posh social club, where a federal agent loses his head, literally.  It's up to Lamont Cranston and his alter ego, The Shadow to find out whats happened.  Throw in a cult where the leader hypnotizes and seduces women and a Russian femme fatale and you've got yourself a mystery that only a figure who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men while brandishing dual pistols and a wide brimmed hat can solve!

While reading I looked up:

Nadir - the lowest point in the fortunes of a person or organization
Aquiline - like an eagle
Chartreuse - a color halfway between yellow and green
Creosote - a brown, oily liquid used to keep wood from rotting

And who says comics are only about the pictures?  Check out Unicron aka Orson Welles:

Chief Goods: Business Hours

Notes from The Chief:

"People shouldn't start work before 10 o'clock in the morning. People shouldn't work weekends unless they work in the service industry and they're getting paid double time. Thou Shalt Not Work Weekends. I don't like workaholics. Don't f***ing trust them. Why are they working? I don't trust busy c***s. That's how wars start: busy f***ers. If terrorism had a weekend off, eventually they'd have a year off. Eventually they'd go, "F*** this - blowing up shit? Football's on." Thou shalt not be arsed."

With insight like that, he can give Bruce a run for his money on being known as "The Boss".

Thank you for the good times:

I'm Hot! I'm Big! Life Lessons

"What the hell you doing on the ground? It's supposed to hurt! That pain's what's gonna save your life. Your cells remember where it hurts and that's where they get strong. It's called pain and gain, don't be a little bitch."

How's your Tuesday starting off, internets?  Looking good, feeling good?

After a night of stuffing my face, I woke up early to get in a workout to even it out.

1)  Clean and Press/Chins/Incline Push Up/Dumbbell Row/DB Fly/Dip/Shrug
2)  Squat/Deadlift/Reeves Squat/DB Lunge/Calf Raises

Did each circuit twice then pedaled for 15 minutes.

Role model (for assimilating into the community, not hurting people):

Gotta Drank! Ralph's VS Costco

Monday was for math when I tried to figure out the cost difference for the world's best selling Irish Whiskey, Jameson, between Ralph's "Buy 6, get 30% off" deal and Costco's daily price for their super sized bottle. Basically, Ralph's sells 750 ml for around $22.00 with the discount. Buying 6 of those means 750 x 6 = 4,500 ml at a cost of $22.00 x 6 = $132.00 and with 1,000 ml = 1 liter that puts Ralph's at $29.33 per liter of Jameson. While Costco sells a 1.75 l bottle or 1,750 ml for $36.00. I bought 2 bottles so $36.00 x 2 = $72.00 for 3,500 ml which means Costco charges $20.57 per liter. Phew! Apparently, Jameson has been coming out of Ireland since 1708 and sells something like 48 million bottles a year. Keep it up guys.

 

 About 3 seconds before the action of this clip, Daniel Craig downs 3 shots like nothing:

 



Workout of the Day: Bicep Trauma

I love training in gyms but in Los Angeles, they're a bit of a pain.  However, there's nothing like a warehouse full of equipment filled with naturally and un-naturally buffed out persons to get you motivated and change up your workout.  Thus was the case this weekend when I hit up Gold's Gym in Hollywood while my car was getting some routine maintenance nearby.  I trained at Gold's last year with a Groupon deal and would frequently see Will Ferrell dripping a sweat at 6:00AM while rocking tee shirts of his own films and a hella nice mustache, must have been getting ready for Anchorman:  Da Sequel.  If you're wondering, he did a lot of circuit training.  There's also lots and lots of people in short shorts, which would be nice if some of those people were women...

Today was a shoulders and arm session that included:

1)  Arnold Press/Preacher Curl/Dumbbell Extension
2)  Rope Pushdown/Preacher Cable Curl/Side Delt Machine Raises
3)  Rear Dumbbell Raises/Low Incline Dumbbell Curl/Lying Dumbbell Extension

Followed by Forearms and 15 minutes on the bike.

Gold's of course has a smoothie bar which serves you protein dranks in brightly colored cups reminiscent of Panda Express.  I felt pretty good afterwards but that night and the following day, my arms would be SCREAMING in dull aching pain.  Pretty sure that's a sign I overdid it.  Damn you Van Damme and Larry Scott!

In case you didn't know, Preacher Curls are a great way to add thickness to your biceps and really help fill in the space between your muscle and elbow, giving you that nice, football shaped muscle.  Some people have short, naturally high peaking biceps so they're better off doing exercises to accentuate said peak like concentration curls.  I myself do not have that so go the Scott and VD route using Preacher and Spider curls to work the brachialis (muscle between bi's and tri's) that can make your arms look wider.  Scott also advocated doing half reps at the end of each set so really induce a burn which is probably whey I'm in pain today...

Animate in Peace: Lou Scheimer

It was Comic-Con 2012 when I saw Lou Scheimer at a panel discussing and celebrating his work at Filmation, the studio he founded and ran in the 1980's.  Battling what I think was Parkinson's disease, the man behind the animated adventures of He-Man, She-Ra, Flash Gordon, Fat Albert, Marshall Bravestarr and hundreds of others was in the room but not on the planet if you know what I mean.  Later, on the convention floor I stumbled across a booth where he was signing and he graciously put pen to paper on this snazzy banner showcasing the multitude of characters he'd helped bring to life.

Whenever you hear about Scheimer at conventions, there's always panels at Comic-Con or Power-Con, former employees speak fondly of the man who knew how to stretch a dollar while keeping it in the United States.  Unlike other powerhouse animation studios like Hanna-Barbera, which farmed out most work overseas.  What also set Filmation apart and probably hurt it in the later years, was their penchant to include morals in every episode and life lessons in the form of PSA's at the end of each adventure.  Along with non-Filmation entity G.I. Joe (Now you know and knowing is half the battle), those PSAs probably molded more than a few kids to become better adults.

Today's lesson:

Elbow Rocket! Monument Man

Nothing like coming into work at 7:00AM to meet a contractor only to have them run late, ah Monday...I could be bitter or upset but I choose not to be.  Shit happens.  Now if people do something to intentionally harm or agitate you then yeah, it's time to take it all the way.  Because it's not one eye for one eye, it's two eyes, for one eye!

Take Monday down, down to Chinatown.  And maybe one day you can touch the ass of a statue of yourself.  Go forth, internets!

Let me ask you something:  "Do you like, my ass?"  It is nice!

Hungry?