Category: Movies

Cinderella story, Outta nowhere: Caddyshack Anniversary

Caddyshack was released more than three decades ago on July 25, 1980. Although the movie initially received a number of poor reviews, over time it has become a comedy classic.  But there still may be some things about the movie that you don’t know.

Did you know . . .

Caddyshack

– Caddyshack was the first movie directed by Harold Ramis, who would go on to direct other classics such as Groundhog Day.

– The idea for the movie came from Brian Doyle-Murray’s experiences working as a caddy in Illinois.

– Originally, the producers planned to get Don Rickles for the Rodney Dangerfield part as Al Czervik.

– At one point, a young Mickey Rourke was considered for the role of caddy Danny.

– Doug Kenney, who co-wrote Caddyshack with Doyle-Murray and Ramis, also co-wrote National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978) and co-founded National Lampoon Magazine in 1970. He also had a small role in Animal House, where he played Stork. Unfortunately, he was despondent over the early bad reviews for Caddyshack and never saw the movie achieve its cult status. Kenney died a little more than a month after Caddyshack was released.  He died while in Hawaii, where he was trying to fight various demons. He either fell off a cliff or committed suicide.

– Many of the film’s segments were improvised by the various actors, including Bill Murray making up much of the role of Carl Spackler.

– The character of Al Czervik was initially a small role.  But Rodney Dangerfield could not be stopped when he started his routines.  Thus, he ended up with a much larger role than originally planned.

– If you want to read an excellent article about more of the story behind Caddyshack, check out this article from (where else?) Golf Digest.

Is Caddyshack one of the best comedies of all time or an overrated movie? Leave a comment.

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    Dear Zachary (Missed Movies)

    Cover of "Dear Zachary:A Letter to a Son ...
    Cover via Amazon

    Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
     (2008) is a moving documentary that filmmaker Kurt Kuenne made after his friend Andrew Bagby was murdered.  More than anything, the film is a tribute to his friend.

    Dear Zachary explores how one person may touch many others and how one tragedy connects to loved ones.  The film does address the solving of the crime.  But the movie is not a prolonged mystery, although it does follow the quest for some sense of justice.

    Much of the drama of the film, though, comes from attempts to return the alleged perpetrator to the United States from Canada.  And then, there is a twist. Bagby’s friends and family learn that he left behind a son, who is the Zachary in the title.

    The film then becomes an attempt to tell the son about the father he will never know. Much of the movie focuses on Bagby’s parents.  It recounts how they have dealt with losing their only child.  Their agony is genuine throughout the movie, as they face additional hurdles and heartbreak.

    My one criticism of the movie is that it over-simplifies the legal issues involved in the attempts to extradite the alleged perpetrator.  The movie makes an argument that Canada needs to reform its bail system. And it argues for an automatic rule that might not work in all cases.

    While it is true that the system did not work in this case, the failures may have been more from the actors in the system than the system itself.  It was fairly clear that the woman who killed Bagby was mentally ill.  And the movie only briefly notes her psychiatrist’s misconduct that led to her release. Thus, the movie ignores part of the problem with the system.  It also avoids the question of whether putting more potentially innocent people in jail is the solution.

    Along these lines, the movie may attempt too much by tacking on a political statement that the filmmaker is not willing to fully explore.  But it is an understandable oversight in light of the personal story.

    The movie’s appearance and lighting reveal that the film is not an expensive Hollywood vehicle.  But it is compelling and a good story.

    Although the movie goes in some different directions, those directions are driven by the narrative of real events.  The film is a very good documentary about the tragedies that befall when individuals die too soon.  And it reminds us of the love that can live on after their deaths.

    {Missed Movies is our continuing series on good films you might have missed because they did not receive the recognition they deserved when released.}

    If you have already seen Dear Zachary, head over to the movie’s website for an update.  If you have not yet seen the movie, wait until after you see it before checking out the update, which contains spoilers.

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    An Industry Attempts to Prevent Gasland from Winning an Oscar (Mad Movies)

    {Note: On February 21, 2011, Chimesfreedom posted the following discussion of the documentary Gasland, but for some reason the blog post disappeared in early July 2011. The web hosting company does not know what happened, so we are re-posting the review, which is still relevant in light of recent debates in states like New York on the practice of fracking.}

    With this post and a post about The Tillman Story, Chimesfreedom starts a series on “Movies that Make Us Mad.” These movies expose information that we might not otherwise know about, revealing misinformation, lies, and hidden stories that make us angry.

    Gasland movie With the Academy Awards later this week, we are starting with a movie that has an industry so upset the industry is trying to prevent the film from winning an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The movie is Gasland (2010), a documentary about the natural gas industry that is available on DVD and Blu Ray.

    The movie begins with the filmmaker, Josh Fox, getting an offer of more than $100,000 from gas companies to be allowed to drill on his land, and the offer sets him off on a cross-country journey. Fox visits the homes of a number of people who claim to have been affected by natural gas companies in their areas. The movie explains how the gas companies drill into the ground and then pump tons of water mixed with numerous chemicals into the ground to get the natural gas. The homeowners in the movie claim to be affected by the air pollutants and they show the effects on their drinking water, ranging from health problems, livestock and animals losing hair and dying, and being able to light the gas coming out of their water faucets.

    America’s Natural Gas Alliance, i.e, the natural gas industry, has responded to the documentary by saying there is no link between their drilling for oil and the problems shown in the movie. One oil and gas industry organization has even tried to get the Motion Picture Academy to revoke its best documentary Oscar nomination for the movie.

    While watching the movie, I did wonder what the other side to the story was, as things are not always black and white. There is a problem sometimes with taking anecdotal evidence, such as a few people having contaminated water, and drawing a big conclusion without using the scientific method to reach that conclusion. But there is also a problem that individuals have no power, and big industry has all the power. That’s why movies like Gasland are important. Even though the truth may be somewhere between the self-interested response of the gas companies and the stories shown in the movie, the documentary is an insightful look that raises important issues that most of us probably never would think about otherwise.

    The gas industry memo does not respond to the information in the movie about how the industry was made exempt from several national environmental laws by a bill that Pres. George W. Bush signed into law in 2005. The movie also asserts that the exemption benefited the vice-president’s former company, Halliburton, which developed the drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing which involves using high pressure to fracture shale to release the gas underground.

    The movie does an excellent job of telling the stories of individuals in middle America who are largely powerless against corporate interests. By contrast, the state of New York worked toward a moratorium on shale gas drilling [July 2011 Update: It now looks like New York may allow this type of drilling]. Most importantly, the movie makes you more aware of the issue and want to learn more. And it makes you mad. Fracking mad.

    Did you see the movie? What did you think? Leave a comment.

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    10 Reasons Hope Floats is a Guilty Pleasure

    Hope FloatsHope Floats (1998) is not one of the greatest movies of all time, but it is one of those movies that I find myself watching whenever it pops up on TV. While the critics’ evaluation of the movie puts it at a low 25% “liked it” on the Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, the audience puts it at a respectable 73% “liked it.” Why are regular audience members right on this movie and the critics so wrong? Here are ten reasons.

    1. Forest Whitaker directs the movie, and does an excellent job. The well-known actor may have been an unusual choice to direct this movie, but he captures the atmosphere of a small town in Texas, perhaps because he was born in Texas. There are excellent shots throughout the movie, and as someone who has spent some time in the Lone Star State, I think he does a great job capturing some of the beauty of the area. He should direct more often.

    2. Sandra Bullock gives one of her best performances as Birdee Pruitt. Bullock fits comfortably in the role of a likeable former small-town girl who was a cheerleader and “Queen of Corn.” She explains how the story attracted her to take the role in this video interview.

    3. The movie includes a musical performance by Jack Ingram, who is playing at a dance scene. Ingram started out playing country music in Texas bars in the early 1990s. A friend introduced me to Ingram in the late 1990s when Ingram released some excellent CDs. Live at Adair’s (1996) is a great live album. More recently, Ingram got a trendy haircut and had more commercial success with songs like “Love You.” The Academy of Country Music gave him a top “new” male artist award in 2008, about a decade too late. But it is great he’s still making good music.

    4. Speaking of musicians, Harry Connick, Jr. shows off his acting chops as Justin Matisse in Hope Floats. Connick has a lot of personality and it comes through in his performance here. Sure, he is not playing Hamlet or another great part, but he fits the role like a comfortable glove and is believable.

    5. The rest of the cast is engaging too. The movie has Gena Rolands, who has been acting since the late 1950s and has an impressive resume of outstanding roles. She’s great here as Bullock’s mother. And Mae Whitman is able to make us laugh while at other times conveying the pain of a child with parents going through a divorce.

    6. The movie has a number of elements that make it hard to classify. There are some laughs, but it is not a light-hearted romantic comedy. It is a Hollywood movie and it is not gritty, but there are several genuine moments in the movie about small-town life, death, divorce, and home.

    7. The film has an excellent scene at the employment office when a former classmate gives Birdee (Bullock) her comeuppance for her popularity in high school. Neither person is played as a stereotype, and viewers find themselves sympathetic to both characters.

    8. Two touching dance scenes illustrate romance, childhood, aging, and starting again: Birdie dances with her father, who has had a stroke and is in a nursing home, and she dances with Justin at the bar.

    9. “Beginnings are scary. Endings are usually sad. But it’s the middle that counts the most.”

    10. The soundtrack works, and the movie includes “Make You Feel My Love.” The song, sung here by Garth Brooks, is one of Bob Dylan’s later career classic songs, as we discussed recently on Chimesfreedom. In the case of both the song and the movie, the fans are right and the critics are wrong.

    Is Hope Floats a bad sappy movie or is it a guilty pleasure? Leave a comment.

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    Ruth Ellis: Dance With A Stranger

    Dance With A Stranger, Ruth Ellis On this date in 1955, Great Britain hanged Ruth Ellis, who became the last woman executed in the United Kingdom. Ellis was convicted of murdering race-car driver David Blakely. Ellis and Blakely had an affair that sometimes became violent, including one time when Blakely hit Ellis in the stomach causing her to miscarriage. Ellis, a married night club hostess, was found guilty of shooting Blakely to death outside a pub in North London. She emptied the bullets in her revolver into his body and then asked someone to call the police. She immediately gave a full confession.

    After the jury convicted the 28-year-old Ellis of intentional murder, she automatically received the death penalty. She was hanged at Holloway Prison. As in the modern United States, executions of women often seem to highlight for some the barbarity of the death penalty. In Ellis’s case, thousands of people protested the planned execution.

    Although more men were hanged after Ellis, she was the last woman hanged in Great Britain. The last men were hanged in 1964, as England, Scotland, and Wales banned the death penalty for murder in 1965. In 1973, Northern Ireland banned capital punishment, and in 1998 Great Britain banned executions for all crimes, including treason.

    I just learned there is a movie about the case, Dance With A Stranger (1985). It does not appear to be available on Netflix, but is available other places. Dance With A Stranger stars Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, and Ian Holm. If you have seen the movie, leave a comment. It seems to have received pretty good reviews by critics. Ellis is also portrayed in the movie Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman(2006).

    The murder of Blakely and the hanging of Ellis led to other tragedies. According to a detailed Wikipedia article, Ellis’s husband, George Ellis, hanged himself a few years later. Ruth Ellis’s son by another man, who was 10 when his mother was hanged, suffered psychological problems after the execution and eventually killed himself in 1982. Ruth’s sister Muriel Jakubait has worked unsuccessfully to clear her sister’s name, although many have argued that Ellis suffered from battered spouse syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder.

    Albert Pierrepoint, the official hangman of Great Britain who hanged Ellis, wrote in 1974 “that executions solve nothing.” The United Kingdom eventually agreed, but it was too late for Ruth Ellis. More details on the case are available on the TruTV website.

    Have you seen Dance with a Stranger? Leave a comment.

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