Revisiting "The HORROR - NO TV - :(" ...

On Wednesday, 17 OCT 2018, I sent THIS email to all my friends ..
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The HORROR - NO TV - :(

DIED;  and I CAN'T AFFORD to DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

MAY seem TRIVIAL;  but when you can BARELY even get about, it DOES kinda SUCK.


ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHH!!!!   :(

-- 

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Got THIS from a WONDERFUL gal who's donated a LOT to me ...
Hey Paul-what size tv do you have?

I answered ...
A 27" Sony Trinitron WEGA  KV-27V42 that I got from Sears in 2001.  It's a MONSTER, weighing about a hundred lbs.  When I moved into my current apartment in 2007,  I managed to lift it onto the heavy duty steel shelving I used for a stand  THEN, but I'd probably KILL myself trying to handle it in my condition NOW;  so I'll just call the leasing office and let one of their maintenance people take care of it.  The FUN part is FINDING something, and THEN going going out to GET it and bring it back when going ANYWHERE is SUCH a HASSLE.   ;-)


Her follow up ...
Paul-I would happily buy you a new tv :=). Why don't you pick something out online and I will order it and have it delivered to you? I'm a best buy or sears/Kmart fan (since looks like they are going out of business :-( ) if you could find something there or even macys-lots of coupons :=). Or amazon ... What do you say?

I replied ...
I may take you up on that.  I'll see what I can find on Best Buy's site;  need to check specifications to be sure it has the right connectors.  I'll try to get back to you in a few days.  Thanks.

BUT ...

My initial email was slightly exaggerated;  instead of "DIED", I should have said "DYING".  I REALLY believed that it WAS.

What was happening was more and more frequent LOSS of video for five to ten seconds followed by its return.  I felt this was a symptom of impending FAILURE of that 17+ year old picture tube.

It's STOPPED doing that, and if that monster is STABLE, I'm content to simply STAY with it for NOW.

That gal has helped me with donations SO MUCH, I regret that she can't claim me as a dependent on her income taxes.  I CAN'T (and WON'T) add THIS to her burdens.

Of course, THIS POSTING could JINX EVERYTHING.  We'll see.   ;-)
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"... and call off Christmas!!!" - (R.I.P. Alan Rickman - 14 JAN 2016)

There actually was something really good in Kevin Costner's  Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991).

That something was Alan Rickman, as the Sheriff of Nottingham.

 from www.fanpop.com

In a previous post, I kinda dumped on The Syfy Channel a bit, for the inclusion of distinctly non-science fiction items in its lineup, including that movie.

(In a conversation with a clerk at Barnes & Noble, I learned that a writer, asking one of the people running The Syfy Channel about why they had changed their name from The "Sci-Fi Channel", was told that "Sci-Fi" is considered shorthand for "Science-Fiction", implying that would be the content;  whereas "Syfy" is in fact just a totally meaningless bit of noise, and gives them license to schedule whatever they wish.  Okay ... )

Back to Alan then.

Of all the people in this movie, he alone appears to be actually having fun, being so deliciously nasty.

After the Sheriff  has said he'll cut out Robin Hood's  heart with a spoon ...
Guy of Gisborne: "Why a spoon, cousin?  Why not an axe?"
Sheriff: "Because it's DULL, you twit.  It'll hurt more."
(Said with a sneer that only Alan Rickman can manage; he has an absolute lock on that.)

Sheriff: (to a wench)  "You.  My room.  10:30 tonight."
Sheriff: (to another wench)  "You.  10:45 ... And bring a friend."

Upon hearing from a scribe about the relationship Robin Hood has with the people...
Sheriff: "Just a minute. Robin Hood steals money from my pocket, forcing me to hurt the public,  -- and they love him for it?"
The scribe nods.
Sheriff: "That's it then.  Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings,  -- and call off Christmas!!!"

One thing I'll always wonder: Was that last parting shot scripted?
Or, was Rickman on a roll at that time and he just ad-libbed it?

At times, he seems to be in an entirely different movie than the rest of the cast is, and almost succeeds in making this bloated epic truly watchable.  Unfortunately, as with Ian McShane in the latest "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, he can't do the job all by himself. 

What put him on the map was his role as Hans Gruber (one of the all-time great villains) in Die Hard  (1988), opposite Bruce Willis...

 from aveleyman.com

Problem with getting on the map that way is the danger of typecasting.  In Quigly Down Under  (1990), opposite Tom Selleck, he played a villain with a mustache almost fit for twirling.  He seemed to be at the top of any list for playing a back-stabbing, conniving SOB, and got quite a bit of work as such.

But, that's not the only side to him.  Right after "Quigly", he appeared in Truly Madly Deeply (1990), wherein he was a ghost hanging around his girlfriend who really needed to get on with her life, but found it a bit difficult with him and his ghost friends around all the time, watching videos (what else do you do with all that time in the afterlife?)  It was a sweet, warm role totally unexpected for the guy who played Hans Gruber.

His latest work has been as Professor Severus Snape, the "Darth Vader" of the Harry Potter series...

 from www.examiner.com

He's actually the most tragic figure in the story, very multi-layered (Yes!  I'm quite aware that I use that phrase a lot;  I'm drawn to characters that rate it).  Rickman succeeds in the challenge of taking a character you've learned to hate, and making you almost weep for him near the end of the last movie.

What can I say?  The man is simply so damned good.

(Originally published 2102 CST 08 AUG 2011)
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UPDATE Thursday, 14 JAN 2016:  I've just learned that Alan Rickman has left us today...  

...  FAR TOO SOON.  Rest in peace, Sir.  :-(


For his LAST performance in a live-action film ...

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

"NEVER tell a soldier ... (Updated 28 JUN 2016)

... that he does not know the cost of war."
~Alan Rickman as Lt. General Frank Benson in Eye in the Sky (2015)

A FINE way to go out!
frown emoticon
-

"He WON the ones he HAD to."

... Bottom line reply of a couple of British historians on George Washington's military prowess, in response to an argument that, "He LOST more battles than he WON."

I suspect that North Vietnam's General Võ Nguyên Giáp would have understood PERFECTLY. 

During our Bicentennial in 1976, CBS ran a number of "Bicentennial Minutes" (short educational American television segments commemorating the bicentennial of the American Revolution). 

In one of them, U.S. Army Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr. talked of his participation in the Paris Peace Talks, in 1973, as part of the delegation negotiating our withdrawal from Vietnam. At that time, he felt deeply humiliated at being party to what amounted to a surrender on our part. 

He recalled that one time, when leaving the conference room, he tore into one of the Vietnamese delegates, "You know, you never beat us on the battlefield". 

Instead of the argument he was spoiling for, what he got in return was, "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant."

He acknowledged THAT to be "the shortest, most succinct lesson in strategy I have EVER been privileged to hear".

Recently, on The History Channel, I came across Washington the Warrior (2006), (which I now have on order from Amazon). This is an uttelry fascinating look at our first Commander in Chief, which I cannot recommend too highly. There is NOTHING stuffy or boring about him.

To go along with that I would also recommend The Crossing (2000), about Washington's crossing the Delaware to attack a Hessian brigade at Trenton, New Jersey, at a time when his army was almost disintegrated from lack of supplies and support, figuring that the Hessians had everything he was in need of.

Hunt these up and enjoy History at its best.
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The Year of the Jackpot (Updated 07 DEC 2014)

At first, Potiphar Breen did not notice the girl who was undressing.

Most good writers will try to hook you with the first paragraph (the first line, if possible), and Robert A. Heinlein (the author of the novella this post is named after) was a master at that.

In the story, Breen is a statistician who has been following a number of peculiar and disturbing trends, and intervenes when the girl (who had absolutely no idea of why she did what she did in public) was about to be arrested. Although that changes, at that moment what he rescued was just another statistic.

Meade Barstow (yes, the statistic has a name) demands: "I want to know why I did what I did!".

He looked at her soberly. "I think we're lemmings, Meade."

He explains what has him so worried, talking about a 54-year cycle of events, an 18 & 1/3, a nine-year one, a 41-month one and several others, all laid out on a chart he is showing her.

Poitiphar: "See anything odd there, Meade?"
Meade: "They sort of bunch up there, at the right end."
 . . .
Potiphar: "Meade, if statistics mean anything, this tired old planet hasn't seen a jackpot like this since Eve went into the apple business. I'm scared."
 . . .
Potiphar: "This is it. The Year of the Jackpot."

Ok, then. It's a story. Anything to it?

When I first read it (in the story collection "The Menace from Earth"), something about it triggered a memory. As a kid, in the late '40s and early '50s, I devoured copies of Mechanix Illustrated (my uncle was a subscriber). Besides the usual do-it-yourself articles on auto repair and furniture building, and the Tom McCahill auto tests they were famous for, they often had articles that seemed to have nothing whatever to do with what you'd think the magazine was about.

One of those articles was on cycles and I remember it mentioning some of those Heinlein named. "Jackpot" was published in 1952 and the article was from around that time. I figured that Heinlein probably came across it.

Much later, at a used book store, I found ...

Back cover

Published in 1947, it covers every one of the cycles Heinlein mentions in his story, and was almost certainly the inspiration for it. I suspect that one of the authors probably wrote that Mechanix Illustrated article I recalled, but I've had no luck in verifying that.

What's the verdict on this book? Being lazy, I'll let someone else sum it up ...

[Cycles: The Science of Prediction] is not a scientific book: the evidence underlying the stated conclusions is not presented in full; data graphed are not identified so that someone else could reproduce them; the techniques employed are nowhere described in detail.

That's from Dr. Milton Friedman (reputed as being somewhat knowledgeable in economics and trends :-), who dismissed the book as pseudoscience.

Did Robert Heinlein believe it?

He was a professional writer, with an insatiable curiosity about anything and everything, who may have went "hmmmm" about it, but never used it again (as far as I know). That sounds a lot like someone who figured a good story could come from it, but would not take it to the bank.

So, I seriously doubt that Dewey and Dakin had made a devoted convert.

In one of Heinlein's darkest and most prophetic stories, "Solution Unsatisfactory", his main character (Colonel Clyde C. Manning) was described by the first-person narrator ...

... what I liked about him was that, though he was liberal, he was tough minded, which most liberals aren't. Most liberals know that water runs downhill, but Praise God, it'll never reach the bottom.

Manning was not like that. He could see a logical necessity and act on it, no matter how unpleasant it could be.

I believe that to be a fair description of Robert Heinlein himself.

Straying slightly from topic: Heinlein on film ...
For such a prolific writer, not much of his stuff has made its way to film. Considering the fate of all too many beloved stories and novels, perhaps that's a blessing.

In 1950, Destination Moon was released, for which he was a writer and technical adviser. Sort of like a Life Magazine article brought to life, it wasn't bad but probably contributed to his attitude towards Hollywood ("Take the money and run!!!").

The IMDB lists three of his short stories ("The Green Hills of Earth", "Misfit", "Ordeal in Space" ) in a short-lived CBS TV series that I'd never heard of, Out There (1951–1952), about which an anonymous writer noted ...

Innovative anthology series was one of the first adult-oriented science fiction series of the early-fifties and probably suffered for it. Teleplays were adapted from the best science fiction stories available from such masters as Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein. The series, which did not have a sponsor, was canceled after only twelve episodes.

There's a thing called The Brain Eaters (1958) in which the IMDB lists Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters (uncredited). I'd love to think that Heinlein told them, "Put my name on that thing, and I'll KILL you!". But, as the Writers Guild of America allows the use of pseudonyms to protect both your royalties and your dignity, I suspect they thought they had changed enough details and names to avoid the necessity of even mentioning it to him. Oh, and Leonard Nimoy's in it too.

In 1994, a three-part animated mini-series Red Planet was adapted from his juvenile of the same name.

In that same year, one of my all time favorites of his novels was legitimately adapted into The Puppet Masters by the writing team of Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio (who had much better luck with the first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies). Not even the presence of Donald Sutherland could save this movie.  Those writers had a blog post for a long time, "Building the Bomb" (apparently no longer available), about the writing of their screenplay, in which they demonstrated that what you finally saw on the screen was not at all what they had in mind. Enough said.

1997, a year that will live in infamy, saw Paul Verhoeven's savaging of Starship Troopers. When a movie has Clancy Brown in a major role, and I still cannot stand it, what more needs saying? :(

What I'd like to see ...
"Stranger in a Strange Land" - This has been rumored since before many of you were even born, and I have doubts about living long enough to ever see it happen. When I first read it, I could see John Philip Law as Valentine Michael Smith, most likely because I had seen him as the blind angel Pygar in Barbarella.  But he died in 2008, so I suppose they'll have to make do with someone else.

"Lifeline" - Heinlein's very first published story.  Set entirely indoors, it could work quite well as a stage play.

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag - That this one has a link means it's actually in the works. From the IMDB synopsis ...

A man, who suddenly realizes that he has no memory of what he does during the day, hires a husband and wife detective agency to follow him. The truth takes a dark turn as their investigation leads to a series of frightening revelations.

"takes a dark turn" - Boy, does it ever!

While I was less than thrilled with Director Alex Proyas' treatment of Isaac Asimov's I, Robot, I do believe the director of The Crow and Dark City just might be the perfect choice for this tale.

Whenever I read the story, I can't help seeing the late comedian Ernie Kovacs as Hoag. But, because of that word "late", I'm tempted to cut Mr. Proyas some slack when it comes to casting.

Scheduled for release sometime in 2013, this is one I'm really looking forward to.

And finally, for inflicting upon you two of the most boring images imaginable, let me apologize by presenting (even though it has absolutely nothing to do with this post) ...

Jolene Blaylock as Vulcan Commander T'pol in Star Trek: Enterprise

(c) by Thomas Raube 04/2004 - Thunderchild2604@freenet.de 

WWW.HyperspaceVision.de

Am I forgiven now? :-)

Originally published 25 JUN 2012. 1640 CDT

Update: 07 DEC 2014 - So, what happened with "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag"?

Above, I had noted "scheduled for release sometime in 2013". You may have noticed that date has come and gone, along with most of 2014 as well.

The link I gave above for the movie still lists it as "In developement", which could mean exactly what it says, or that nobody has updated the page since the April 2012 news that Alex Proyas had picked this as his next project.

Alex Proyas' IMDB page also still lists it. THAT suggests that he hasn't given up on it, but is probably facing the usual hoops to jump through on getting financing and had to move on with other projects (because rent is due and he might like to eat).

That happens all the time in this business. Director Guillermo del Toro ("Hellboy", "Pan's Labyrinth". "Pacific Rim") had worked to bring H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" to the screen, until Universal pulled the plug in January 2013. I understand that he has not given up on the project, and it may eventually happen someday.

THAT could be the case for "Jonathan Hoag". At least,I sure HOPE so.
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"Bah. Humbug!" :-)

There are three absolutely perfect movies for Christmas. This is about one of them.

First, of course, is Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), starring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a bank officer who attempts suicide in desperation after losing a large sum of money entrusted to him.  He is saved by Clarence, a guardian angel tasked with convincing George that the world would not really be better off without him.
   Clarence: "We don't have money in Heaven."
   George:  "Well, it comes in mighty handy down here, Bub."

Second is Bob Clark's A Christmas Story (1983), about Ralphie's desperate quest to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, against all obstacles ("You'll shoot your eye out!").

And then, I found this at Walmart, on their $5.00 shelf ...

A Christmas Carol (1984),  a made for TV movie that I saw when it was broadcast in 1984, and which I recalled as being pretty damned good, with George C. Scott just maybe being the finest incarnation of Ebeneezer Scrooge that I ever saw.

That recollection was validated when I watched this DVD. I love it when I get occasional reassurance that my memory is just fine. :-)

Although temporarily upstaged by Edward Woodward as The Ghost of Christmas Present ...

Original photo from thomasorourkeactor.blogspot.com, 

but considerably brightened by me

... this is George C. Scott's movie, and he is at his best. ...

From www.cedmagic.com

Find it, and give it a look.

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Hamlet - (Corrected 01 SEP 2019)

I know, I KNOW!  Someone has already written about this guy.  So?  :-)

Method in the Madness ...

Some of you have probably come across that phrase and wondered where it came from (or not).

Well, it comes from Hamlet, wherein Hamlet is a young prince of Denmark whose father (the King) has recently died. Uncle Claudius has ascended to the throne and married his mother (Queen Gertrude).

As Shakespeare's play opens, some friends of Hamlet tell him that the guards of the night watch have reported seeing an apparition, a ghost "very like the late King", wandering the battlements of Elsinore Castle in the wee hours before the dawn.

Hamlet goes to see, and the specter beckons him away from his friends and tells him that his death was not natural, that it was "MURDER, most foul" and that Claudius had poisoned him.

Hamlet vows bloody vengeance. He wants it to be so complete, that when he finds Claudius alone one night (unaware of Hamlet's presence because he's in the midst of meditation and prayer) Hamlet draws back, fearing that if he struck now, Claudius would be sent straight to Heaven. He not only wants the bastard DEAD; he wants him IN HELL!!!

But, Hamlet is not a kamikaze. Regicide carries some pretty stiff penalties. They come up with some pretty awful ways of doing you in; not out of mindless brutality, but out of very thoughtful deterrence meant to make it crystal that THAT is very definitely a NO-NO!

However, even in those medieval times, there had developed the idea that a person "not in his right mind" may not be responsible for his actions.  So, Hamlet begins laying what would amount to an insanity defense by acting peculiar and going about muttering gibberish and nonsense.

(Now, I seriously doubt that, if he killed the King in that state, they would just let him go. I suspect that he would spend the rest of his days in a medieval version of an asylum, not very different from the worst cells in the dungeon, and might soon wish they had just killed him and gotten it over with. But, if he didn't think it all the way through, he wouldn't be the first.)

King Claudius has asked his adviser Polonius to keep an eye on Hamlet. He finds Hamlet buried in a book, and when he asks him what he is reading, Hamlet (who knows what Polonius is up to) tells him, "It says that old men ... (but I don't believe this) ...", openly mocking Polonius while pretending not to do so.  Now, while Polonius often appears to only be full of platitudes (to his son, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be.", "To thine own self be true."), he is not stupid.  Recognizing the mockery that Hamlet is pulling, he casts this aside to the audience, "Though this be madness, yet there is method in it."

The old boy smells a rat and is not completely sold on Hamlet's madness.

Anyway, that's where the term comes from.

The "Lost" Hamlet ...  

The first time I ever saw the play performed was in the mid 1960s, when I saw Hamlet at Elsinore (1964)  broadcast on the local NET (National Education Television - precursor to PBS) station (Channel 8 in Houston).  

It was a made for BBC Television production, filmed at the actual location the play is set in (Elsinore Castle, in Denmark) on black and white film. That choice was made because a lot of the location shots depended on whatever existing light there was, and black and white film was the only type fast enough to do the job. (It was a decade later before Stanley Kubrick could do something similar with color film when shooting Barry Lyndon. By then, color film speed had greatly improved, and he rented a hideously expensive camera lens from NASA that had a HUGE aperture in order to pull that off.) - See Correction - 01 SEP 2019 below.

This version of Hamlet had the absolutely finest performances of the two lead characters; Christopher Plummer as Hamlet and Robert Shaw as Claudius.

Plummer played the Dane as if he was genuinely mad, and Shaw as Claudius was sexy, charming, and dangerous as Hell. You could easily imagine Gertrude falling for him, much more than you would believe that for others who had that role.

After seeing it that time, I never even heard of it again for a long time. I looked all over when videos and DVDs came out, but to no avail. The movie was shot on film and transferred to videotape (in those days (before Beta and VHS), videotape was 35mm film stock, with a magnetic recording layer in place of film emulsion). Also, in those days, the BBC had a horrid habit of re-using those tapes; recording new material over whatever was there before.

Correction - 01 SEP 2019 - Some of that is WRONG.  Don't recall original source of info but have learned, "This programme was recorded and edited on video tape (2" quadruplex) and not 'filmed'."  The part about the BBC re-using the tapes IS correct;  and THEY weren't the ONLY ones.

Movies meant for theatrical release usually have hundreds (more often thousands) of copies made for distribution to theaters, greatly improving the chances that people can restore an old movie later on.

As this was a production meant for a showing on television, it was all too possible that not a single copy existed and that it was gone forever. 

Found ...

After writing that, I searched on google for information and whatever images I could find, and came across this ...

I'm guessing that the original negative was available, or that a few 16mm prints may have been made (for schools). However they pulled it off, the BBC was able to remaster this movie, in time for a film festival in Sarasota, Florida, and then they issued a DVD in October 2011, which I now have. 

Correction - 01 SEP 2019 - Steve Says: 
February 19th, 2012 at 12:32 am

The good news is that the BBC is releasing a lot of their vintage material on DVD, whatever they have in their archives after dumping or erasing a good percentage of it at the time (or so I’ve read). The even better news is that HAMLET AT ELSINORE is one of the productions that survived, and it was released on DVD last October.

I've now confirmed my 47 year old memory of how great those performances were, and you can too. Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, even some Walmarts have this.

Christopher Plummer as Hamlet - 

from filmsworthwatching.blogspot.com

Robert Shaw as Claudius - from the DVD cover.

Enjoy! :-)
-

Gary Farmer - Contrary Warrior

Saw Farmer Monday night (01 Jul 2013) on one of my favorite TV shows; A&E TV's Longmire (based on Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire mysteries and about Sheriff Walt Longmire of the fictional Absaroka County, in Wyoming).

In episode 6 of season 2, "Tell It Slant" (I'll get to that title in a moment),  Walt looks out his cabin window one morning, to see an Indian riding by, seated backwards on his pony and wearing a ceremonial  mask. The Indian greets the sheriff with “Sweet dreams, sheriff!  It’s a beautiful night to be born!” 

Walt's reaction is to radio in to the station.
 Walt: "Ruby, it's me. I think we may have a dead body.”
 Ruby: "Where?"
 Walt: "I have no idea."

So, who is that guy?  And why does Walt react that way?

On arrival at the station, being told of no reports (yet) of a body, and being asked, "Why?  Do you want there to be one?" ...
 Walt: "Think I got a tip -- sort of."
 Deputy: "You think?  From who?"
 Walt: "A heyoka."
 Deputy (snorting):
   "You mean the drunk guy who walks backwards around the square?
   "That one?"
 Other deputy: "Excuse me?'
 Walt: "Cheyenne man who lives in the area.  He's something of a"
 Deputy: "head case"
 Walt: " a Sacred Clown. Cheyenne call him 'Contrary Warrior'; 
   "he does the opposite of what you expect."
 Other deputy: "Why?"
 Walt: "You see, the whole idea is to force people out of their comfort 
    zones;  make them examine their beliefs."
 Other deputy: "That's annoying."
 Walt: "If I just heard him right, then we have a dead body somewhere."

Well, Walt did hear him right and a body is soon discovered. It turns out to be that of a local psychic who called herself Cassandra, and when they learn that her real name is Cynthia Two Rivers, Walt goes calling on her brother Aaron Two Rivers (Gary Farmer) who is in fact our Contrary Warrior.

Walt brings along a Cheyenne named Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips) who is proprietor of The Red Pony tavern and cafe, an expert tracker, and is Walt's best friend.

Henry is somewhat less than impressed with Aaron's claim as Contrary Warrior, believing Aaron's visions to come from the bottom of a bottle rather than from any spirits on high.
 Henry: "The last real Contrary Warrior died in 1974."
 Walt: "And this would make Aaron?"
 Henry: "A pest -- with pretensions."

After an interview with Aaron that was inconclusive ...
 Henry: "You can never tell when he is telling the truth."
 Walt: "Well, he's just like everybody else, then. 
    "At least, he's up front about it."
 Henry: "Before I banned him from The Red Pony, Aaron Two Rivers
     used to drink his fill, and walk out the door backwards -- without 
     paying. His 'contrary' act is less charming than you think."

About that title ...

It's actually from an Emily Dickinson poem:

Tell All The Truth
  Tell all the truth but tell it slant,
  Success in circuit lies,
  Too bright for our infirm delight
  The truth's superb surprise;

  As lightning to the children eased
  With explanation kind,
  The truth must dazzle gradually
  Or every man be blind.

So, basically, tell the truth, but tell it gently. If you come right out with it, it could be too surprising. Better to break things to people in a roundabout way rather than just drop a truthbomb.   (~From episode guide on aetv.com)

A truthbomb is at the heart of the murder here.

"Longmire" has become one of the few television shows I make an effort not to miss. But, be warned;  if you're looking for slam-bang action from the "blow em up real good" school of movie making, this ain't it. It's more laid back and character driven. If you're patient and just let it sort of wash over you, I think you'll find it absorbing (as I have).

There's a a bit of coincidence in my seeing this episode when I did.

When I posted "Toughest Pawnee" ... (about actor Wes Studi) I may have accidentally started a series of these things about American Indian actors. The post resulted in an email from an Air Force buddy recommending the movie Smoke Signals (1998), about life on the reservation.

I got the DVD of "Smoke Signals", absolutely loved it, and posted "Big truck just went by. ...", about it and the actors in it (including Gary Farmer). A comment to that post recommended yet another movie, Powwow Highway (1989), which I ordered and got a little while ago, and finally watched just before seeing the "Longmire" episode above.

Gary Farmer strikes again ...
In "Powwow Highway", Indian activist Buddy Red Bow (played by A Martinez (Adolph Larrue Martinez) who has a recurring role on "Longmire" as lawyer Jacob Nighthorse) has to make an emergency trip from the reservation in Montana to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to bail out his sister who has been busted on drug charges...

A Martinez as Buddy Red Bow - from veevr.com

His best friend, Philbert Bono (Gary Farmer), has visions (like Aaron, but probably from another source) and feels the need to get ready for an important journey of his own, for which he needs a "war pony".

Gary Farmer  as  Philbert Bono

(from nativeamericanactors.tumblr.com)

Seeing an ad on TV from a local used-car hustler, his idea of a "war pony" is one of the rusting hulks on that dealer's lot.  He makes an offer to trade what's in his pocket (including what appears to be a large plastic-wrapped bundle of weed (most likely the source of his visions).

Philbert finds his "war pony" 

(from randallhassen.wordpress.com)

Learning of Philbert's "war pony", Buddy decides a meeting is in order ...

From amazon.com

Gary Farmer as Philbert, A Martinez as Buddy, and YES, that is Wes Studi in the black hat. Graham Greene is also in this movie. But, this is a year before "Dances With Wolves" and neither of them appear for more than a couple of minutes.

Buddy needs a ride to Santa Fe, and offers to pay Philbert for the gas.  So, off they go ...

On the road - from imcdb.org

Buddy is anxious to get to Santa Fe, suspecting that his sister's drug bust was an entrapment to get Buddy away from a Council meeting on the reservation where an important vote was coming up.

But, there are a lot of detours along the way as Buddy discovers (after being committed to this trip) that Philbert is on a spiritual quest of his own.

It doesn't help things much that Buddy is a hard-nosed rationalist, who is not put at ease by Philbert's absolute faith that things "are going to work out just fine. You'll see!".

This is kind of a journey of discovery for Buddy (and for the viewer), with Philbert as spiritual guide. 

As this movie was released 24 years before the "Longmire" episode above, Gary Farmer has proven to have been mostly a Contrary Warrior for over a generation now.

Find it and give it a look. Well worth the trip.

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"Big truck just went by. ...

-- Now it's gone."   ~Morning traffic report on the "Res"

My previous post "Toughest Pawnee" ...  resulted in this email from an Air Force buddy in Montana ...
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Hi Paul,
    Good stuff on Wes Studi and the other Indian actors.  I grew up with Indians, adopted and raised two Indian kids, and still call them all Indians.  None of my Indian friends seem to mind; they haven’t yet insisted I refer to them as Native American.  I love Studi’s performances; you’re absolutely right—he owned Dances With Wolves for those few minutes..  Graham Greene and Adam Beach are other favorites.
    Adam Beach first came to my attention in Smoke Signals, an excellent film made on a reservation near Spokane and Couer d’ Alene.  If you’ve seen that film, you’ve witnessed scenes (drunken parties, domestic violence) right out of my life.
  
 * * *

    Anyway, nice catch.  These guys are all great actors.  I felt the entire cast of Smoke Signals deserved awards, particularly Gary Hall.  It sure portrayed the “Res” way of life accurately.
    Now to look up those PBS titles you gave.
Thanks,
***
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One of my greatest joys is when something I've written strikes a chord with someone, and I hope he forgives me for using part of his email in this post.

No, I had not seen Smoke Signals (1998), although I had heard about the title. I took so long to reply because I needed the time to hunt it up and watch it.

It's a keeper, and I loved it enough that I decided this would be my response.

"Big truck just went by. -- Now it's gone."
That local traffic report, on the "Res", would also be an accurate report on the part of rural Arkansas that I've experienced. (***'s comment in his email, "... you’ve witnessed scenes ... right out of my life." also apply to rural Arkansas.)

The movie is mostly about Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) ...

 Adam Beach as Victor Joseph - from aveleyman.com

... coming to terms with the recent death of his father Arnold (Gary Farmer) who had left the family ten years ago.

As I can find no mention of a Gary Hall involved with the movie, I suspect that *** was really thinking of Gary Farmer,...

Cody Lightning as young Victor Joseph and Gary Farmer as Arnold Joseph

(Screencap from DVD)

... who truly does rate at least a nomination.

There's an inside joke in the movie involving Farmer: In the movie, while riding on the bus on his way to where his father has died, Victor remembers a drunken party during his childhood, where his father is repeatedly asking him, "Who's your favorite Indian?", to which young Victor replies, "Nobody!"

Three years before "Smoke Signals", Farmer co-starred with Johnny Depp in one of the weirdest westerns I can recall, Dead Man (1995), in which a hapless soul, William Blake (Depp) is on the run for an accidental killing, is slowly dying from a bullet wound and encounters a very strange Indian (Farmer) who calls himself Nobody. 

Nobody tells a tale of being captured by whites ("Stupid White Man") as a kid, taken from one town to another ("Every time I was moved, I found people waiting for me that looked the same as the ones before. I wondered how they kept moving whole towns like that") until he was eventually taken across the ocean to London, where he was educated (somewhat) and introduced to the poems of William Blake, telling Depp's character, "Now I know that you truly are a dead man.".

He continues the tale of his escape, of returning across the ocean and working his way back to his village, where no one believed his story, laughing him out of the village, calling him a name that translates into, "Man who talks loud, saying nothing!". He concludes, "I prefer Nobody".

Instead of giving a summary of "Smoke Signals" that would spoil things for any of you who've yet to check it out, I'm gonna concentrate on trivia that relates it to "those PBS titles you gave" (referring to four Tony Hillerman Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn mysteries I mentioned in the "Toughest Pawnee" post).

"Smoke Signals" won the Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy (and was nominated for Grand Jury Prize); all in Dramatic category, for first-time Native American (Oh, alright, Indian) director Chris Eyre, at the Sundance Film Festival. That festival is an annual event by the Sundance Institute, an outfit devoted to helping and promoting independent film makers. It was founded (and is presided over) by actor Robert Redford.

Redford's production company was involved with all four of the Hillerman titles and I doubt that it's much of a leap to think he saw "Smoke Signals" and was impressed with Eyre; enough to maybe being the one who chose him to direct "Skinwalkers" and "A Thief of Time".

Adam Beach was pretty early in his career when he did "Smoke Signals", but this is some of his best work.  Not because he's stuck at some level, but because this role allows him more range than most roles he's gotten, from being an asshole (when he torpedoes a blonde on the bus who claims to have been an alternate on the Olympic Gymnastic Team) to releasing pent-up grief from the very bottom of his soul in another scene.  I expect that Eyre was the one to pick him for the role of Jim Chee in "Skinwalkers", already knowing what he could do.

Farmer is in three of the Chee/Leaphorn movies; as a Hopi policeman in "The Dark Wind", and as Leaphorn's superior Captain Largo in "Coyote Waits" and "A Thief of Time".

As *** notes above, almost all of the cast in "Smoke Signals" deserved awards.

Someone I was particularly impressed with I had never even heard of, much less seen before: Evan Adams (Thomas Builds-the-Fire)...

(Screencaps from DVD)

... an Indian nerd, always telling stories that no one (especially Victor) wants to hear.  I said above, "The movie is mostly about Victor Joseph", but in reality it's about Thomas telling the story of Victor Joseph.

As much as I like Adam Beach, right there is the true owner of this movie. :-)
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"Toughest Pawnee" ...

... is how actor Wes Studi (a full-blooded Cherokee from Oklahoma) is listed in the credits for Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990).

In it, he plays the lone survivor of a Pawnee raiding party that has not fared so well in a skirmish with the Sioux. Before the surrounding Sioux close in to finish him off, he takes his moment to loudly try to educate them about their ancestry, personal hygiene, sexual habits, and whatever else he feels they might need enlightenment on.  For a brief moment or two, he owns the movie.

(This movie was also the introduction (for most of us, although he'd been acting for 14 years by the time it came out) to Canadian Indian Graham Greene, as Kicking Bird. I mention him because he's gonna show up again, below.)

Magua say, "Understand English very well." ...

Wes Studi as Magua - from nativeamericanactors.tumblr.com

If "Dances with Wolves" was the first movie in which I saw Studi, Michael Mann's absolutely wonderful Last of the Mohicans (1992) was the one in which I really took notice of him.

An English Officer, leading some troops and a few civilians from Albany to  Fort William Henry, has given an instruction to whom he believes to be a Mohawk scout, not knowing that Magua is a Huron who was taken in by the Mohawks after his village was destroyed by English soldiers. So, you could say that Magua has serious issues with the English.

The Officer punctuates his instruction with, "Do you understand?". After hearing Magua mutter something in Huron (NOT at all complimentary) he asks, "What did you just say?".  Magua, looking straight at the Officer he's leading into an ambush, replies, "Magua say, 'Understand English very well'."

Wes Studi is mesmerizing here, playing an adversary who has reasons for being what he is.  I truly think he deserved a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for this. He probably wouldn't have won as Gene Hackman took it for his role of "Little Bill" Daggett in "Unforgiven" that year and was pretty well unbeatable, but he should have at least been nominated.

"NOW what?!!!" ...

Wes Studi as Hanover - from weirdwildrealm.com

... would make a fine alternate title for a guilty pleasure of mine, Deep Rising (1998), in which Treat Williams appears to be having the time of his life playing a boat captain for hire, in the South China Sea, who keeps finding plenty of reasons to utter that exclamation.  

Famke Jannsen ("Goldeneye", "X-Men") plays a con-woman on a floating casino, apparently playing her in Sandra Bullock mode.

And, Wes plays Hanover, the leader of a pack of mercenaries who hire the boat to launch a bit of piracy against that casino, only to discover it wrecked by a monster, with only a few of the passengers (including Jannsen) and crew still surviving.

In truth, to call this movie "dumb" is a disservice to the word. But, it is a "fun" dumb, and makes you wonder, "Where the Hell is Mystery Science Theater 3000 when you really need it?".  This is absolutely perfect material for it.

As for Studi here, he has a demise (earned) that is worth the price of admission by itself. If his kids ever saw it, I'll bet they just ate it up. :-)

"That's not very Navajo." ...

Wes Studi as Joe Leaphorn and Adam Beach as Jim Chee

from italychile.blogspot.com

Author Tony Hillerman wrote a series of novels, set in the Navajo Nation ...

from nnrecovery.navajo-nsn.gov

from destination360.com

... and mostly about Sergeant Jim Chee and/or Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn; both of the Navajo Tribal Police.

Chee is very enamored with the old ways, wants to become a spiritual healer and still has superstitions around bodies and burial sites.

Leaphorn is almost a polar opposite; having been born on the reservation but raised outside of it.  He has little tolerance, and even less patience, with those superstitions; preferring reason and logic.  

One of his quirks is the map of the reservation he keeps on his wall, using pins with different colored flags to mark the locations of various crimes and incidents. He once admitted that he doesn't know how it helps him to solve crimes other than the fact that it seems to help him think.

Four of Hillerman's novels have been made into one film and three made for TV movies; thanks to Robert Redford's production company.

The Dark Wind (1991) was a theatrical release, with Lou Diamond Phillips and Fred Ward as Chee and Leaphorn, respectively. Nice piece of work; worth seeking out.

But, the really good versions are the three that were made for PBS's American Mystery series: Skinwalkers (2002), Coyote Waits (2003), and A Thief of Time (2004).  These are the ones pairing Adam Beach and Wes Studi.

In "Coyote Waits", we run into evangelical Christian/con-man Slick Nakai ...

Wes Studi as Joe Leaphorn and Graham Greene as Slick Nakai

Modified from avalon-medieval.blogspot.com

When we meet him here, he's using his Cadillac as a taxi, delivering someone to Leaphorn's house.  When Leaphorn inquires about his driving a taxi, Slick mentions losing his permit to set up his revival tent on reservation land.

Leaphorn: "I heard about that. Something about a collection plate."

Slick: "Everything I get, I give to God. Everybody knows that. -- 'cept you."

(Slick is also in "A Thief of Time". I've a reason to bring him up. You'll see.)

In "Coyote Waits", Chee and Leaphorn are investigating the apparent killing of Officer Delbert Nez (a close friend of Chee's) by Ashie Pinto.  Local Defense Attorney Janet Pete (also Chee's current girlfriend) has gone to Leaphorn's office to get his take on the situation.

On seeing the familiar map on Leaphorn's wall, with its colored pins ...

Janet Pete (seeing three yellow ones that Leaphorn uses for "oddities"):
 "What about those yellow ones?"

Leaphorn (pointing to each in turn): "Here's Ashie Pinto's shack.
 "Here's where Officer Nez lived. --  And, here's where he died."

Janet Pete: "Forms a triangle."

Leaphorn:  "Very large triangle. Two Navajos, who might as well have lived on two different planets -- they met here. I don't think it was by chance."

Janet Pete: "You're sure about that?"

Leaphorn: "Nothing happens by chance."

Janet Pete: "That's not very Navajo."

Leaphorn: "No. That's me."

Now, I love these movies and consider Joe Leaphorn as my favorite of Wes Studi's roles.

But, not everyone agrees.  Here's the reason I referred to Greene so much.

A visitor to the IMDB page for "Coyote Waits" wrote a review, in which he stated preference for Graham Greene as Joe Leaphorn, noting that in the books, Leaphorn had a way of interrogating you by putting you at ease and letting you talk and ramble on and on, while he's just sitting there and taking it all in, quietly putting the pieces together.

In contrast (he noted), Studi's version would look at you as if wondering how your scalp would look on his lodge pole.

I suspect that reviewer would take this photo ...

Wes Studi as Joe Leaphorn - from pbs.org

... and declare, "I rest my case!"

Ok!  I have difficulty in arguing with that.

But, Hell!  I still like the guy. :-)

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