Classics Easy Rider, Vertigo and The Wild Bunch and music with Kinky Boots, Pitch Perfect and Madame Butterfly and

There's a little bit of everything in this post, some theater, comedy, drama, westerns. It made for a fun week and I hope it makes for a fun 200th post (yes 200!). I think this deserves a cake.

7/28/15 Kinky Boots, Orpheum Theater, Minneapolis

I saw Kinky Boots the movie years ago and really loved it (a great contrast between Chiwetel Ejiofor's role as Lola in Kinky Boots and as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is Selma). I was excited to see the musical, with music and lyrics by Cindy Lauper and book by Harvey Fierstein. The story is about a young man from Northampton, Charlie Price, who inherits the family shoe business from his dad, who really wants to live in London with his girlfriend. But, the ties of family and the fact that he has known most of the employees his whole life, do not make it an easy proposition. Charlie meets Lola, a drag queen who could use a good sturdy, but sexy, boot. Lola (given name Simon) is a strong young black man living in London; when Charlie invites Lola out to Northampton, most of the men at the factory do not want Lola or her friends around and do not want to make boots for drag queens. Kinky Boots is a story about acceptance, acceptance of oneself and others. The songs and costumes were fabulous, the audience cheered several times during songs and were on their feet at the end. My issue (aside from the fidgety woman in front of me and the three stooges behind me) were some of the slower numbers seemed to go on too long, and even as the audience was really into the more upbeat numbers, their attention seemed to wander during the slow songs. If you can see the musical, I suggest you get tickets; in the meantime, get the movie. You'll definitely feel good.

7/30/15 Pitch Perfect

If you are like most of my friends, you have already seen Pitch Perfect and probably have seen Pitch Perfect 2. Like most things in my life, I was a little slow to the gate on this one. I was probably having a snooty moment and thought myself too above a comedy film. Don't worry, I just gave myself a head slap. Pitch Perfect is about college a capella singing groups. Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow and Rebel Wilson star and they are part of the Barden Bellas. They face off against their arch-rivals, The Treblemakers. There is nothing overly intellectual or thought-provoking, but that's okay, that's what documentaries are for. I laughed my ass off and I enjoyed the music as well. I was really impressed with Anna Kendrick, although, I think I was impressed with her in the last Oscars presentation, so I was confirmed in my impressions. She really can sing and she's pretty funny (she was the friend in Cake so she can do serious as well). It's a lot like those other 'team' movies, like Bring It On or The Internship, except I would watch Pitch Perfect again. (In fact it was on television as I was writing this and I watched it again.)

8/1/15 Madame Butterfly, Minnesota Orchestra, Minneapolis

I have been fortunate enough to see the Minnesota Opera perform Puccini's Madame Butterfly years ago and I really love the CD performance. A friend and I attended the Minnesota Orchestra's summer finale which was a performance of Madame Butterfly. It was a little weird, nothing sounded familiar. Nothing. Once I got past that little hang up, I enjoyed the performance. Butterfly is a young girl who marries B.F. Pinkerton, an American naval officer; Butterfly has fallen in love with Pinkerton, even after only knowing him for a short time, but it's not a two-way street. Pinkerton goes back to America and is away for three years with Butterfly pining for him and raising their young son. Her maid, Suzuki, looks after her and worries about her health. Pinkerton sneaks back into Japan, although Butterfly recognized his ship out in the harbor. Pinkerton wants his new American wife to raise his son. Butterfly is distraught but realizes it would be for the best, but she wants to see Pinkerton. He arrives too late. Overall, the performance was not the best I have ever seen, mainly because of the sound issues; one part of the stage seemed 'dead', a place where sound went to die. However, it was still wonderful and the audience, which wasn't a sell out, was appreciative, with several 'Bravas' being shouted out for Kelly Kaduce (Butterfly) and Kelly O'Connor (Suzuki). When I tell people that I have been to the opera, they have look that is a mixture of admiration and being perplexed. People seem to be afraid of opera, the fact that many are not sung in English, there are super titles and sometimes the music is perceived as screechy. I have seen some not so good operas, Glimmerglass and some other one I cannot remember, come to mind; they were actually horrible. HOWEVER, I have seen some incredible operas as well, Turandot, Madame Butterfly, Don Giovanni to name a few. I'm used to listening to music that is not in English, and if you think about it, you can't really understand the words to most songs and they don't make sense when you do understand them, so to me, opera is no different. It's 18th and 19th century musical theater. The next time you see your local opera company's schedule come out, challenge yourself and go see one (the funny operas like Falstaff or  The Merry Widow may be more accessible, but Puccini is always a good bet in my opinion).

8/2/15 Vertigo, 1958 #9 AFI, National Film Registry, #3 BBC 

I seem to be on an Alfred Hitchcock kick lately, or it's just a coincidence that so many of his movies are on three of the four lists I am using. A few weeks ago I watched Rear View Mirror and North by Northwest and I didn't care so much for Rear View Mirror but I did like North by Northwest. I really liked Vertigo, though, it was a suspenseful film that really sucked me in and had me on the edge of my seat. James Stewart stars in another Hitchcock film as John "Scottie" Ferguson, a former police detective who retired due to a severe fear of heights and vertigo; Kim Novak is Judy Barton. The film is set in San Francisco and we get a nice flavor of the city. Scottie meets up with an old friend, Gavin Elster, to follow Elster's wife and determine the cause of her recent strange behavior. I am going to stop here with any other plot points because I don't want to ruin the suspense. I was reminded of one of Hitchock's other films, and one of my favorite books, Rebecca. It's moody and tense, and there is almost a 'ghost story' element. Scottie is a flawed hero, and perhaps it's not even right to call him a hero. Novak does a good job at portraying Barton as a conflicted woman (you'll have to watch the movie to see why). There are a few more Hitchcock movies on my lists including Marnie and Psycho and I'm embarrassed to say I'm afraid to watch Psycho by myself.

8/6/15 Easy Rider, 1969 #84 AFI, National Film Registry 

Like a lot of movies on 'the lists', I have heard of Easy Rider and seen clips of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper riding motorcycles, but I have never seen the movie in its entirety. I wasn't sure what to expect or if I would like it, I kind of thought I would hate it. I'm kind of a square if you haven't guessed that already by the fact that I spend my spare timing writing this blog, so I thought I would be less than impressed by this look at American counter-culture. I'm not ashamed to admit that I liked it. Easy Rider is a buddy/road film with Wyatt/Captain America (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) traveling from California to New Orleans after making a lot of money on a drug sale. Along the way, Wyatt and Billy meet people who are not too fond of their long hair, loud motorcycles and their hippie lifestyle (this is the year of Woodstock), but they also meet people sympathetic to them, including members of a desert commune, an alcoholic lawyer (Jack Nicholson) and two prostitutes. One of the things that blew me away was the cinematography, there were some incredible scenes where the sky was purple-red - AMAZING! I also learned from Wikipedia is a lot of the dialog was improvised. Hopper directed the movie and Hopper, Fonda and Terry Southern wrote it. I had the notion that the movie was kind of drug-addled, and while drugs are a pretty significant part of the plot, there is an underlying sense that Wyatt is on a quest for something, maybe the American dream, whatever that is. He is much more appreciative and interested in the people they meet on the road than Billy is. I did not know how the movie ended and I was very surprised and kind of bummed out, and maybe that was the point, you don't always get what you want or expect. The music is a perfect time capsule of 1969 with songs from Steppenwolf, The Byrds, The Band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and more. Some movies from this period don't translate very well into the 21st century (Shampoo) is one that always sticks in my mind, but I think Easy Rider can be appreciated for its film-making style, the soundtrack and the journey that Wyatt and Billy are on, in Wyatt's case, a journey for meaning and purpose.



8/8/15 The Wild Bunch, 1969 #79 AFI, National Film Registry, #52 BBC 

The only Sam Peckinpah movie that I can recall seeing is Straw Dogs which I hated, loathed, despised, so I wasn't in a great hurry to watch any of his other movies. The Wild Bunch is a Western set in 1913 southern Texas and northern Mexico and stars William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan and Warren Oates. Pike (Holden) leads a group of robbers looking for their last big score before they ride off into the sunset. Something goes terribly wrong when they try to rob a railroad, and that something is Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), formerly Pike's partner who has been forced to betray his old friend to stay out of prison. The movie follows Pike and his gang as they try to outrun Thornton and his crew of misfits (including Strother Martin) while they are also trying to complete a job for General Mapache, the Mexican leader of the area.The Wild Bunch is noted for being very violent, and it definitely is, but for some reason it didn't upset or bother me as much as it did it Straw Dogs (although it is a different type of violence) or in Bonnie and Clyde (but I think the shrieking of Estelle Parsons bothered me more). At times, it was definitely over the top, one of the final scenes reminded me of the end of Django Unchained and I was wondering if Quentin Tarantino had been influenced by Peckinpah (I would say probably). Robert Ryan (Dirty Dozen, The Longest Day) was really good as the reluctant agent of the railroad; Thornton seemed okay with trying to capture Pike and the gang, but he didn't want the bloodshed that his 'crew' lusted after, he and Pike knew each other so well it was like they were playing a chess match. When Pike would talk about Thornton, he knew what his next move would be and he didn't even seem to begrudge the fact that Thornton was hunting him down, he understood it was Thornton's only choice. Pike isn't overly sentimental, but he does have a code that he lives by, although it's hard to discern at first. Peckinpah used film techniques that we take for granted now like slow motion scenes. He really captured the the feeling of the dusty, dry Southwest, and also the changing of an era. Most Westerns are set in the mid-1800s, this one is set on the eve of World War I, even including some German officers and automobiles. I love William Holden and I was thinking that he was really an incredible actor when you think about the roles he had, from Paul in Born Yesterday to David Larrabee in Sabrina to grizzled news division president in Network, he had great range. In an earlier post I mention that I really didn't like Westerns, except I think I need to revise that opinion. If it's a good movie, regardless of genre, it's a good movie. I did like The Wild Bunch, it has action, some humor and good acting. If you like Quentin Tarantino's movies, you will probably like this as well.