I ran across this 18-minute film called Plastic Bag that Ramin Bahrani directed, wrote, and edited. Despite what you might expect from the title of the 2009 film, the movie is not about the recent environmental debate about plastic bags. Instead, it is about what it means to be human.
The gravity of the film’s themes is amplified by the narration of famous director Werner Herzog. The addition of Herzog’s voice to anything makes it sound important.
Open Culture reports that Plastic Bag was one of several films “released in the Internet Television Service’s Futurestates film series exploring ‘what life might look like in an America of the future.'”
When he was asked to do the narration, Herzog recognized that the short film is about something more than a piece of plastic or arguments about plastic bags. As he explained to The Guardian, “the movie’s about something else, something more … it’s about a journey.”
The film reminds me of Steven Spielberg’s AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001). Plastic Bag takes something non-human, and it discovers something human in the act of taking a journey to find meaning.
You may find the existential movie funny. Or you may find it strange. Or you may find it touching. But Plastic Bag is worth a few minutes of your time. Check it out.
What do you think of Plastic Bag? Leave your two cents in the comments.
The new trailer for The Magnificent Seven (2016) has me cautiously optimistic that the movie will do justice to the very good original film from 1961. That movie starred Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson. The new film also features a great cast, with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ethan Hawke, and Haley Bennett. From the trailer though, it looks like the movie is largely a Washington and Pratt show.
Antoine Fuqua, who previously directed Training Day (2001) and King Arthur (2004), directs the new film. From the trailer, it seems he at least roughly follows the story of the 1961 film, which was directed by John Sturges. That film, in turn was based on the great Japanese film, Seven Samurai (1954), which was directed by Akira Kurosawa.
The trailer shows a widow (Bennett) seeking help to get vengeance for her husband’s death. As in the original The Magnificent Seven, the new trailer indicates one thing leads to another, so that the rag-tag band of seven has to stand up against an army to protect a town. Check out the trailer below.
The Magnificent Seven heads into theaters on September 23, 2016.
What do you think of the trailer? Leave your two cents in the comments?
One of the great songs of the 1960s is The Righteous Brothers recording of “Unchained Melody,” a song that has been covered by many great stars, including Elvis Presley. But The Righteous Brothers were not the first to record the song. And why is the song called “Unchained Melody” when the word “unchained” occurs nowhere in the song?
Although The Righteous Brother version was released on July 17, 1965, “Unchained Melody” had its origins decades earlier. Songwriter Alex North worked on the music in the 1930s, and at one time Bing Crosby turned down the opportunity to record an unfinished version of the song.
The Movie That Gave the Song Its Name
But North did not give up on the music. In the 1950s he and Hy Zaret were contracted to write a song for a prison movie. With Zaret adding lyrics to the music, the two came up with the completed song for the 1955 film, which was called Unchained. Hence, the song from the movie became known as “Unchained Melody.”
The movie Unchained was about an inmate who struggles with the decision of whether or not to try to escape. Todd Duncan recorded the song on the soundtrack and he appeared in the film as a prisoner singing part of the song.
Duncan had the chops for the song. He was the first black singer to join the New York City Opera when he performed there in 1945. Below is the clip from Unchained with Duncan singing “Unchained Melody.”
The Righteous Brothers Hit
Others recorded versions of the song before The Righteous Brothers. Performers who recorded “Unchained Melody” included bandleader Les Baxter, Al Hibler, and Jimmy Young.
Of course, the version we know best is by The Righteous Brothers. But the original recording did not include both brothers. It featured only Bobby Hatfield and did not include the other “brother” Bill Medley.
After the song was a hit in 1965, it once again climbed the charts in the early 1990s after it was featured in another movie, Ghost (1990). We should be glad that the song was first featured in Unchained. Otherwise, we would be calling it “Ghost Melody.”
And that’s the story behind the song. What is your favorite version of “Unchained Melody”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
“Yankee Doodle Dandy,” starring James Cagney as George M. Cohan, is a fun Fourth of July bio-pic about the famous entertainer and songwriter.
Probably the most famous Fourth of July movie is Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), starring James Cagney as George M. Cohan. It is a spectacular and fun bio-pic about the famous entertainer and songwriter. And Cagney gives one of his greatest performances while also capture much about the sound and dance of the real Cohan.
Cohan famously sang about being “born on the Fourth of July,” although he actually was born on July 3, 1878 in Providence, Rhode Island. As portrayed in the film Yankee Doodle Dandy, Cohan began with his career in vaudeville with his parents and sister in an act known as “The Four Cohans.”
In the early 1900s, he was one of the biggest things on Broadway, creating and producing successful musicals. He wrote many of the classic songs we still hear today like “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “Yankee Doddle Boy,” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”
“Over There”
In Yankee Doodle Dandy, we see Cagney as Cohan creating another one of Cohan’s classic’s, “Over There.” As portrayed in the clip, Cohan wrote the song in 1917 when the United States entered World War I.
If you wonder what the real George M. Cohan danced and sounded like, Cagney gives a good sense in the film. But a surviving movie clip of Cohan shows him singing and dancing in blackface in The Phantom President (1932).
Also, one may hear the real George M. Cohan in the clip below. He is introduced at around the one-minute mark. Then, he sings “Over There.”
“Yankee Doodle Dandy” and Death
Yankee Doodle Dandy was released on May 29, 1942, and the film went on to receive several Academy Awards. Among the awards, Cagney won the Oscar for Best Actor.
Cohan reportedly originally wanted Fred Astaire to play him. But he lived to see Yankee Doodle Dandy released with Cagney in the lead role.
Cohan died on November 5, 1942 not long after the movie’s release. He passed away at the age of 64 at his apartment at 993 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
After Cohan died, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a telegram to Cohan’s wife Agnes Mary Nolan Cohan. In it, he concluded, “He will be mourned by millions whose lives were brightened and whose burdens were eased by his genius as a fun maker and as a dispeller of gloom.”
What better way to be remembered than as a “fun maker” and “dispeller of gloom”?
Have a safe and happy Fourth of July, and check out our previous post on Fourth of July Songs. Photo via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.
The New York Timesrecently reported that an internal Marine Corps investigation concluded that for more than 70 years it had wrongly identified one of the men in one of the most famous American photos. The Marines found that a private first class, Harold Schultz, was one of the six men in the iconic photo of the flag being raised over Iwo Jima during World War II.
Joe Rosenthal took the Pulitzer-Prize winning photo on February 23, 1945. For years it was thought that one of the men in the photo was a Navy hospital corpsman named John Bradley. But the recent inquiry, which included careful study of the uniforms in the photo, concluded that Schultz was in the photo, not Bradley. (Below is a brief video showing the famous raising of the flag at Iwo Jima.)
The Marines opened the investigation in response to questions raised by producers working on the documentary, The Unknown Flag Raisers of Iwo Jima. The production company, Lucky 8 TV took their evidence to the chief historian of the Marines, Charles Neimeyer, leading to the appointment of a panel to investigate the issue. The film is being shown on the Smithsonian Channel.
Harold Schultz
There is something sad about the news that connects together Bradley and Schultz. As for Harold Schultz, he did not live to see the news, having died in 1995 at age 70.
The day after the photo was taken, Schultz was wounded and sent home. He lived in Los Angeles as a mail sorter, marrying for the first time at the age of 60. He married a neighbor, although they never moved in together and he rarely discussed his time in the military.
Schultz, however, did know he was in the photo. He just did not talk about it. His stepdaughter Dezreen MacDowell said that one night during dinner, he did mention that he was one of the flag raisers. When she told him he was a hero, he responded, “No, I was a Marine.”
MacDowell said he never talked about it again. She explained, “He was a very self-effacing Midwestern person.” She was happy to hear he would finally be getting the recognition: “He was a kind and gentle man.”
Schultz’s story seems both happy and sad. He finally got the recognition, but he did not live to see it. Then again, it appears he did not seek any recognition for his part in the photo.
John Bradley
John Bradley’s story, and how it affects his child, has a tragic quality too. Along with Ron Powers, Bradley’s son James Bradley wrote a best-selling book, Flags of Our Fathers(2000). The book told the story of the men who raised the Iwo Jima flag, including Bradley’s father.
After the battle, John Bradley participated in war bond drives with other survivors who raised the flag, Ira Hayes and Rene Gagnon. Bradley also played himself in the 1949 movie Sands of Iwo Jima, which starred John Wayne.
John died in 1994, but his son James Bradley learned about the investigation while it was going on. And he came to conclude that his father had participated in an earlier flag-raising and mistakenly thought he was in the famous photo.
John Bradley never heard that he was not in the photo. But I feel bad for his son, who invested so much into believing his father was in the photo. He seemed accepting of the new discovery, although he did not participate in the documentary or the New York Times story.
Flags of Our Fathers
Clint Eastwood directed the movie version of Bradley’s book, Flags of Our Fathers (2006). Below is the trailer.
My favorite scene in the movie involves John “Doc” Bradley (played by Ryan Phillippe) near the end of the film. On his deathbed, John tells his son James about how he and other Marines went swimming after the battle and the famous photo.
The movie then shows the Marines on the beach. They are laughing and jumping in the water. They were humans.
It is a beautiful scene, humanizing the soldiers we so often think of as something like superheroes. And the scene may remind one of how our parents and grandparents were once young men and women. No matter what they accomplished, they once were young and like their children, just having some fun on the beach.
Two Different Kinds of Heroes
I hope James Bradley is not too disappointed upon learning his father was not in the photo as portrayed in his book and in the film. All of the soldiers at Iwo Jima were doing something special for their country, for their families, and for their buddies.
As for Schultz, he stands in stark contrast to our current fame-seeking fads. Here was a man who was part of something pretty cool. And he not only never Tweeted or or put it in Facebook, he barely mentioned it to those he loved. And so a man in one of the most famous photographs of all time was someone who would never have taken a selfie. Leave your two cents in the comments. Stamp photo via public domain.
The new trailer for The Magnificent Seven (2016) has me cautiously optimistic that the movie will do justice to the very good 
Probably the most famous Fourth of July movie is 
(2000). The book told the story of the men who raised the Iwo Jima flag, including Bradley’s father.
