ScreenPrism has created a short video that explores the work of screenwriter and director David Lynch. The video discusses Lynch’s history and his films. And it considers what his movies reveal about his views on Americana.
The narrator explains how Lynch uses surreal images and mixes them with a film noir tone in Americana settings. In less than ten minutes, the video zips through Lynch’s works such as Eraserhead (1977), The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), Mulholland Drive (2001), Lost Highway (1997), and the TV series Twin Peaks. And the video explains its thesis about how Lynch’s unique cinematic approach explores the complexity of humanity.
So, check out David Lynch: Surrealist of Americana.
What is your favorite David Lynch film? Leave your two cents in the comments.
A new documentary celebrates the classic 1967 Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The film, It Was 50 Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt Pepper & Beyond, focuses on the 12 months around the recording of the album.
The movie, directed by Alan G. Parker, features archival video and interviews with people like John Lennon’s sister Julia and former Beatles drummer Pete Best. Check out the trailer for the movie.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt Pepper & Beyond will be in U.K. theaters on May 26, 2017 followed by release on DVD later in the summer.
Also, as part of the celebration of the anniversary of the album, a new box set special edition is being released of the album featuring 34 bonus tracks of outtakes.
For more about Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, check out the video of “Things You Didn’t Know” about the album below.
Butch Cassidy was born on April 13, 1866 in Beaver, Utah as Robert Leroy Parker. His nickname “Butch” may have later come from working in a butcher shop.
Cassidy was first arrested at around the age of 14 when he left an IOU after taking a pair of jeans and a pie from a store for a pair of jeans. After a jury acquitted him, he pursued various jobs throughout his youth, including work on ranches.
Cassidy’s first bank robbery occurred on June 24, 1889 in Colorado. While he continued to do some ranch work, his illegal activities increased.
He formed his “Wild Bunch” gang of criminals after getting out of prison in 1896. After that, it was not long before he added Harry Alonzo Longabaugh — “The Sundance Kid” — into the gang.
Of course, it would be the association between Butch and Sundance that would inspire the classic 1969 movie directed by George Roy Hill and starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The fate of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid remains somewhat of a mystery. Two bandits were killed in San Vicente, Bolivia as shown in the film. But many debate whether those two men were actually Butch and Sundance. Some speculate they returned to the U.S. where they lived out their days.
Happy birthday Butch, wherever you are. And as a bonus, here are Six Things You May Not Know About Butch Cassidy. Photo via public domain. What is your favorite scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Bruce Springsteen finally officially released his song “I’ll Stand By You” on one of his albums on “Tracks II,” but he wrote it for a Harry Potter movie.
One of the songs to finally appear on an official Bruce Springsteen album in the massiveTracks IIset is “I’ll Stand By You” (called “I’ll Stand By You Always” in other places). The track appears on the Twilight Hours “lost album.” The song had appeared on the soundtrack for the movie Blinded by the Light, but it was originally intended for one of the Harry Potter films.
The Harry Potter films had almost everything. They had magic and adventure. They had a story beloved by children and adults. But they did not have a Bruce Springsteen song, although they could have.
Bruce Springsteen offered his song “I’ll Stand By You Always” to the franchise, but filmmakers turned him down. Reportedly, Springsteen wrote the song between 1998 and 2000 after reading the first Harry Potter book to his eldest son, Sam. He then made the song available to director Christopher Columbus for either Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).
Springsteen explained to BBC Radio 2 that “I’ll Stand By You Always” “was a big ballad that was very uncharacteristic of something I’d sing myself.” He added, though, that “it was something that I thought would have fit lovely.”
The song’s rejection had nothing to do with the quality of the song. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s contract stipulated that no commercial songs could be used in the movies.
“I’ll Stand By You Always” almost had a second life when Marc Anthony planned to include it on his album Mended (2002). But ultimately Anthony left the song off the album.
In Springsteen’s demo version, “I’ll Stand By You Always” is a quiet ballad. The lyrics contain no overt references to Harry Potter, but they do sound like they were written from a parent to a child.
I know here in the dark tomorrow can seem so very far away; Here the ghosts and the goblins can rise from your dreams to steal your heart away; Together we’ll chase those thieves that won’t leave you alone out from under the bed, out from over our home; And when the light comes we’ll laugh my love about the things that the night had us so frightened of; And until then,
I’ll stand by you always, always, always.
Around the time that Springsteen was shopping the song to the Harry Potter folks, a CD-R with the song was given to some executives at Columbia Records. But the song is not generally available. Springsteen’s demo of “I’ll Stand By You Always” hit the Internet for a brief period recently, but for now it is gone.
Springsteen does tend to release old songs eventually, so we eventually did get an official release of “I’ll Stand By You Always.” But before it was released we had to imagine how it sounded as Conan O’Brien does below (“Let’s raise our wands to all the wizards and steel workers. . . “).
Post updated in 2025. Leave your two cents in the comments.
Everybody loves The Princess Bride, although as the Honest Trailer notes, most probably never saw it in the movie theater. The film, which was directed by Rob Reiner, has become a classic of repeated viewings on VHS, DVD, cable, and through the Internet. I cannot even count how many times I have seen it.
So, sit back and enjoy a little fun being poked at The Princess Bride.
What is your favorite Honest Trailer? Leave your two cents in the comments.
is being released of the album featuring 34 bonus tracks of outtakes.
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