April 25, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Sad to see the Florida Project not get a nom in one of the best picture categories after all the love critics associations have been giving it. It seems to have played out in theaters, a Globes nom might have boosted it a bit and kept the admissions up until the Oscar nominations but I don’t see how they are holding on until then.
The Big Sick shut out. No Gerwig or Peele for Director. No Ivory for script. I guess those are the biggies.
Has the HFPA actually seen the final cut of All the Money in the World? Does it even exist yet?
YancySkancy wrote: No Ivory for script.”
What script are you referring to?
* * * * *
I saw for the first time, as an adult, cover to cover, w/out commercial interruption, “The Searchers” over the weekend. Not getting how this is supposedly the greatest western of all time??
TO,
Totally with you on Searchers, a decent to strong western but I would not put it anywhere near the top of the list. For me, Wayne’s masterpiece was The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with Red River, Stagecoach and even True Grit and Horse Soldiers coming in above Searchers.
And I believe James Ivory is credited with Call Me By Your Name.
Weirdly, I consider The Searchers to be not just the greatest Western of all-time, but the greatest American movie. So, y’know, subjectivity, I guess.
Treason’s Greetings & Happy Coup Year!
The Searchers is touted more as a self-aware reflection on Ford/Wayne’s previous collaborations.
“The greatest Western of all time” is not a thing that exists outside of one’s own head. The Searchers, a great film IMO, might win a poll of that title, but you don’t need a majority to win a poll — just more votes than any other film. For example, some people get bent out of shape about Citizen Kane topping the Sight and Sound poll for so many years, but most of those years it only had to appear on fewer than 50 voter lists to claim that spot. In the last poll, when Vertigo passed it up, over 800 critics participated. Vertigo got 191 mentions to Kane’s 157. We can’t even know if those who voted would have put either title at the top of their lists, because ranking doesn’t figure into the vote tallying. So take these things with a big grain of salt.
Agreed, ranking things is always subjective but I think TO simply meant that he saw a film that is very highly regarded and couldn’t see what differentiated it from other movies in the genre (at least I know that is how I feel about it). He wasn’t talking about it being too high on the list but rather whether it should been on the list at all. We have all been on both sides of this argument, you mentioned Vertigo and it has never done much for me but I love the passion when people defend it, and there have been plenty of times I have gone to bat for How Green is My Valley when others have called it overrated.
I am just thankful there is a place where I can go and people have actually SEEN The Searchers or Vertigo. You know the looks I get at work when I recommend The Best Years of Our Lives to people?
Yes, Hcat, that’s it. There are plenty of films that didn’t really do much for me or I enjoyed but didn’t have a religious experience watching but then could see why others would hold them in rare esteem. If Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, High Noon, Once Upon a Time in the West, Shane or The Good, The Bad and The Ugly were to show up being a list topper, it’s not so much that because I enjoyed them that I wouldn’t bat an eye over who’s first, it’s that I could see why a case could be made for whatever one was placed #1.
But it’s not just a single list from AFI or Entertainment Weekly that has Searchers first, it is, as MarkVH stated upthread, regarded as one of the preeminent works of all cinema of all-time. I knew of its stature for decades, even before I developed more than a passing interest in film. Was it better because it was first? Do the characters embody a prevailing spirit or pov of Americana? Is there some emotion connection to loss that resonates w/viewers? Is it the satisfaction of perseverance played out? I was left scratching my head over it. I would love for anyone to explain what makes The Searchers really stand out.
I am hoping to hear JS’s review of The Searchers. Hopefully he has never seen it so he can give an accurate review. It’s inference. It’s a thing, ya know.
I’ve always attributed my attitude toward Searchers to the fact that I knew the ending so that cut the tension of both the search and what might have been a nail biter of an ending. i would imagine it would be sort of the same with planet of the apes and psycho, even sixth sense if you want a modern one. But then again that’s the beauty of Casablanca, everyone knows the ending but it doesn’t matter because getting there is perfection.
Scorsese on The Searchers: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/review-martin-scorsese-searchers-426059
A.O. Scott: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/movies/11scot.html
Jonathan Lethem’s piece that Scott mentions: https://engl551.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/jonathan-lethem-defending-the-searchers.pdf
And the deal is finalized. The Dodgers have left Brooklyn.
Thanks Yancy, That HR article is exactly what I was talking about regarding the passionate defense of favorites. Glad to see he mentioned the frontier comedy aspect which sort of comes out of nowhere and is a little jarring in its tone shift. I always found it odd that they seemed to slip ten minutes of McKlintock! into what was a serious epic. Its as poor of a fit as the Innkeeper in Les Miserables. I am more accepting of the folk music interludes that would start appearing in westerns a decade later than having baggy pants periphery characters getting an arrow in the butt for a cheap laugh in what is supposed to be a story about obsession.