When I first heard that Ernest Borgnine passed away today at the age of 95, my first thoughts were of his great film roles in The Wild Bunch (1969), From Here to Eternity (1953), and Marty (1955), for which he won a Best Actor Academy Award. But as the news sunk in, I began to think more and more about the way I first saw him when I was a kid. Before I watched any of those movies, I knew him as Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale on McHale’s Navy. The series ran from 1962-1966, overlapping with The Andy Griffith Show. Borgnine and Griffith, who also passed away in the last week, had the great talent to play the heart of their respective shows amidst a sea of wacky characters. Neither show would be so fondly remembered without the fine work by the two actors.
Borgnine also appeared in two spin-off movies with the characters from the show, and he also had a small role in the 1997 film McHale’s Navy with Tom Arnold. Below is the first part of the first episode of the first season of McHale’s Navy, originally broadcast in 1962.
In this clip, Borgnine remembers how he became involved in McHale’s Navy, which started out from a drama called Seven Against the Sea.
Both Sheriff Taylor and Lt. Commander McHale were both men in uniform, but each know sometimes you had to work against an unfair system. Sheriff Taylor would dispense his own kind of fairness and justice, while McHale regularly found ways to protect his men from the often inept authority figure Captain Wallace Burton Binghamton (played by Joe Flynn). While neither comedy was revolutionary, looking back, one sees a little of the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s seeping out of these characters from early in the decade. Although McHale’s Navy was set during World War II, Ernest Borgnine knew how to give a heart to a character surrounded by craziness during a decade that saw the country getting deeper into another war in Asia. Rest in peace.
The Greenpeace Save the Arctic campaign has enlisted Radiohead and Jude Law in a new video. The film reflects concerns about climate change and oil company drilling that drastically affect the arctic and its wildlife, like the displaced polar bear in the video. The video features narration by Jude Law over Radiohead’s song “Everything in Its Right Place” from Kid A (2004). Check it out.
According to Greenpeace’s website, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke explained, “An oil spill in the Arctic would devastate this region of breathtaking beauty, while burning that oil will only add to the biggest problem we all face, climate change.” If you are concerned about the environment or do not want immigrant polar bears in your back yard, check out Greenpeace’s website.
Most reviews of Woody Allen’s latest film, To Rome with Love (2012), at some point feel the need to say the latest is not as good as Allen’s success from last year, Midnight in Paris. While it is true that the new film lacks the storyline of its predecessor, To Rome with Love is a light-hearted romp set amidst the beauty of Rome that has many funny moments and is a good summer movie.
In Woody Allen: A Documentary (2011), Allen shows a pile of scrap paper he carries around where he writes notes for ideas to movies. He explains that when it is time to write a new film, he throws the notes down and looks through them. I can imagine him doing that before he made To Rome with Love, finding four stories he liked but that on their own could not sustain a full-length film. Then, I imagine, he hit upon the idea to throw the four tales together into one movie and create To Rome with Love. And Allen being the talented director and writer that he is, he creates a fun and entertaining movie.
To Rome with Love features four stories with separate characters connected only in that they all are in Rome. One story follows an average worker played by Roberto Benigni who suddenly finds himself famous for no reason. In another story, a character played by Allen hears the father of his daughter’s boyfriend singing in the shower and decides to make him famous. In a third tale, a newly married Italian couple become separated in the big city and the husband ends up having to pretend that a prostitute (Penélope Cruz) is his wife. In the fourth story, a character played by Alec Baldwin goes looking for his past and ends up in a story where a young man (Jesse Eisenberg) considers cheating on his girlfriend (Greta Gerwig) with her friend (Ellen Page).
I will not ruin any of the stories, but different people will enjoy different stories more than the others. While I found them all interesting, I could not help thinking that the Baldwin-Eisenberg-Gerwig-Page tale is the one story that might have had a chance to be developed into the centerpiece of film on its own.
Conclusion? If you are looking for a summer romantic comedy with some laughs and wit, check out Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love. As all the critics will remind you, do not expect Midnight in Paris. But do not let that comparison stop you from seeing an entertaining funny film.
Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me?: Rotten Tomatoes reflects shattered Midnight in Paris expectations from many critics and viewers, showing a 45% Critics Rating and a 50% Audience Rating. Mike Scott at the New Orleans Times-Picayune agrees with the low rating and calls the film, “shrug-worthy.” Gary Wolcutt at the Tri-City Herald, though, says the movie works “brilliantly” and gives it 4 1/2 stars. Finally, although the full review is not online for non-subscribers, David Denby of The New Yorker disagrees with many other critics and praises To Rome with Love as “a stronger film” than Midnight in Paris.
This Tuesday, Adam Lambert began his short tour with Queen in at Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine. Among the songs was the Queen classic, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” While nobody can replace the great singer Freddie Mercury, Lambert has the singing chops to pull off the songs. I am glad that Queen can still tour with a worthy front man, although some may complain that Lambert got his start as a runner up on the reality TV show American Idol. The performance remains a tribute to Mercury, though, as his voice and images appear during the performance, haunting the song and making us miss him even more.
Should Queen have stopped touring or do you agree they were right to go on with Adam Lambert? Leave your two cents in the comments.
There are a number of popular songs that reference the Fourth of July and Independence Day. There are songs that take a historical approach to focus on the drafters and signers of the Declaration of Independence as in the play and movie 1776. And there are popular songs about America like the version of “America the Beautiful” by Ray Charles or the song we discussed on Chimesfreedom last year, Paul Simon’s “American Tune.” But there are also a number of songs that refer to the modern version of the holiday without singing about Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, or purple mountains majesty.
Shooter Jennings: “Fourth of July”
Shooter Jennings, son of the great Waylon Jennings, recorded an excellent song about the holiday in “Fourth of July” off his debut album, Put the O Back in Country (2005). Although the song does not mention the Declaration of Independence or our Founding Fathers, it evokes the Fourth of July that is more familiar to Americans today of having a nice holiday.
Unlike many of the other Fourth of July patriotic songs, Shooter Jennings’s song is completely about the holiday. And it is a fun song. A live version is here.
“Independence Day”
There are two excellent songs titled “Independence Day” that focus on personal escape and independence. In Bruce Springsteen’s song from The River (1980), he sings about leaving home, not necessarily on the Fourth of July. The song highlights the tension between father and son, with the son leaving: “Well say goodbye it’s Independence Day / It’s Independence Day all boys must run away.”
While Springsteen’s “Independence Day” portrays a bittersweet aspect of growing up and escaping, Martina McBride sings her “Independence Day” as an angry and empowering anthem. In the song, written by Gretchen Peters, the singer recounts her mom standing up to domestic abuse.
The “Independence Day” in this song refers both to the mother’s action asserting independence as well as to the holiday: “So I took myself down to the fair in town / On Independence Day.” Here is McBride’s video of the song, which appeared on her album The Way That I Am (1993).
“Fourth of July, Asbury Park”
Springsteen actually does have a song that, unlike his “Independence Day,” is set on the holiday. “Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” first appeared on Springsteen’s second album, The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle (1973) album. The song captures a moment of young love on a summer holiday down by the shore.
Here is a young Boss playing the song in 1975 at Hammersmith Odeon. Like Shooter’s song, this one does a great job of capturing the holiday spirit.
Songs About Fireworks
I suspect that many firework displays feature Katy Perry’s “Firework,” from her Teenage Dream (2010) album. Although the song mentions the Fourth of July, it does so in the context of asking the object of the song to “Just own the night like the Fourth of July.”
Like McBride’s “Independence Day,” Perry’s “Firework” is a song of empowerment, but without the arson.
Another song that evokes the annual holiday explosives is Ryan Adams’s excellent song, “Firecracker” from his Gold (2001) CD. The song is about courtship instead of going out to see fireworks on the Fourth of July: “I just want to be your firecracker / And maybe be your baby tonight.”
In this video, Adams performs “Firecracker” in an acoustic version.
“The Great Compromise”
John Prine invokes patriotic imagery as he remembers “a girl who was almost a lady” born on the Fourth of July in his wonderful “The Great Compromise.” The song appeared on Prine’s album Diamonds In The Rough (1971).
The girl in “The Great Compromise,” however, really represents the United States. Prine’s song about disillusionment with the country during the Vietnam War is one of the great songs about our country. [Thanks to Lucia Ferrara for reminding me about the Prine song.]
Other Singing References to the Fourth
Many other singers and songwriters have planted references to the holiday in their songs. For example, there are songs by James Taylor (“On the Fourth of July”), U2 (the instrumental “4th of July”), Elliott Smith (“Independence Day”), X (“4th of July”), Ariel Abshire (“Fourth of July”), and Aimee Mann (“4th of July”).
Tom Waits mentions the holiday in “This One From the Heart.” So does Chicago in “Saturday in the Park” but the band was not completely sure about the day: “Saturday in the park/ I think it was the Fourth of July.”
And Lucinda Williams sang about a “Metal Firecracker,” although the song title referred to a tour bus. PopMatters has a good list of July Fourth songs, and check out the comments below for some more additions.
What is your favorite Fourth of July song? Let us know in the comments. And have a happy and safe Fourth of July.
When I first heard that Ernest Borgnine passed away today at the age of 95, my first thoughts were of his great film roles in The Wild Bunch (1969), From Here to Eternity (1953), and Marty (1955), for which he won a Best Actor Academy Award. But as the news sunk in, I began to think more and more about the way I first saw him when I was a kid. Before I watched any of those movies, I knew him as Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale on McHale’s Navy. The series ran from 1962-1966, overlapping with The Andy Griffith Show. Borgnine and Griffith, who also passed away in the last week, had the great talent to play the heart of their respective shows amidst a sea of wacky characters. Neither show would be so fondly remembered without the fine work by the two actors.
(1971).
