Killing Your Sacred Cows since 1992

So, over the years, I've seen the cover for the video of "Death Trap", thought it seemed interesting and vaguely thought I'd seen the play version. Death Trap was based on a play by Ira Levin, but I was actually thinking of "The Mousetrap," an entirely different play by Agatha Christie. Incidentally, if you've ever heard me tell the story that I never EVER heard my father say a swear word (I'm not exaggerating in any way) EXCEPT when he had to for a theatrical production, The Mousetrap is the play to which I'm referring.

Anyhow, my pal wednes recently invited me to watch Death Trap at her place, and I loved it. Christopher Reeve is at his hunkiest - you can see why they thought he had the physical attributes to play Superman. His acting is also quite good. And I love Michael Caine, despite the fact that he's been in some stinkers. He's got a wonderful maniacal gleam in his eye in this one. It's a really fun show.

Googling the film and play afterward, I ran across ( Spoiler info behind the cut: )

So, it's probably a big old "duh" to some of you that I should have watched the classic 1962 David Lean film "Lawrence of Arabia" BEFORE I tried to watch the made-for-TV movie "A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia."

And I'm sure some of you are appalled that I've reached the age of 37 without having seen the '62 film before.

Nevertheless, it was kind of interesting to watch them in the "wrong" order, and here are my thoughts on both.

"A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia": OK, I admit it that Ralph Fiennes' hotness was one of the reason I initially checked this movie out. I thought I knew enough about Lawrence's life that'd make sense, but I think I would have gotten more out of it if I'd seen the '62 film first.

First off, the positives: It's beautifully shot, Fiennes is radiant and makes a wonderfully beautiful but asexual Lawrence, and Alexander Siddig (still going by his real name Siddig El Fadil at this time) was a huge surprise. He plays the Arabic prince beautifully and he is stunningly handsome, which doesn't hurt. This film also deconstructs some of the mythos around T.E. Lawrence and looks at his life more critically than the '62 epic did as well.

Big negative, though: It's a terribly talky movie. It's mainly about political maneuvering, and there's a lot of dialog and not nearly enough action, though there is some smoking, smoldering chemistry (not really sexual, but intense, nonetheless) between Fiennes and El Fadil.

So, I went back and watched the classic not too long afterward...

"Lawrence of Arabia": Things started off badly because we've been having some issues with our DVD player, and when the music started up with a black screen, I thought there was something wrong with the DVD or the player. I went back to the menu, started over, and saw there was a disclaimer saying that "Director David Lean intended for the overture to play with no picture" both at the beginning of the film, and after the "intermission" that's inserted into this (rather long) movie. I was thinking to myself, "Well, David Lean is a punkass, then, because film is a visual medium!" Philistine or not, I fast-forwarded through the 4-minute-plus overture to get to the visuals... And, from there on out, I have to say it was a fantastic movie.

Did they take liberties with the truth? For sure. Lawrence had turned into a legend in his own time, much less nearly 30 years after his own death, but that's part of the charm of the movie.

It's one of Peter O'Toole's earliest roles, and he is... again the word "radiant" comes to mind. His blue eyes peering out of a wind- and sun-burned face, his platinum hair, his white robes of the desert sherif. Wonderful. And he plays him asexual but slightly effeminate, extremely smart and arrogant and masochistic, which is just right. He also does a bang-up portrayal of Lawrence's wild-eyed craziness after being captured, beaten and sexually abused (though the last bit is only hinted at extremely obliquely) by the Turks.

And Omar Sharif as Sherif Ali? OHMIGOD. I've always had a "thing" for Omar Sharif since the first time I saw him in Dr. Zhivago, but he is 10 times sexier in "Lawrence." Those eyes! I could fall into them and never come out. Even his dorky mustache cannot detract from his beauty. And, I should probably mention that he acts the part beautifully as well. :)

I do have some quibbles, in addition to the one already mentioned about Lean's lunk-headed ideas about the overture.

For one, PLEASE STOP CASTING ALEC GUINNESS AS 'THE EXOTIC ONE' for chrissake! I'd just recently watched him play the Indian character Godbole in "A Passage to India" not long ago, and here he is cast as a blue-eyed Arab. Guinness can act the fuck out of any part, but why, why couldn't they find more Arabic actors for these roles? Anthony Quinn, with his dark-browed looks, actually was passable as Bedouin mercenary, but Guinness is the ultimate English white boy. Geezy petes! *

Also, I had to laugh at an early line in the movie that that said the Bedouin could "travel 60 miles a day in the deep desert." No disrespect to the Bedouin, who I'm sure are desert experts, but they can't move 60 miles in a day in the desert - their CAMELS can. I have a lot more respect for camels after watching the film, actually. They're odd and clumsy looking out of context, but in the desert, they actually look pretty elegant, especially when dressed up colorfully Bedouin-style. And they can go 20 days without water. These are some tough animals!

When all is said and done, I'm glad I watched both, but it's certainly the '62 movie that I will definitely have to watch again.

(Also, thanks for reading and sorry that this devolved into a drool-fest over all the eye candy...)

*as I noted in the comments, this is actually me chiding the David Lean of 1984 more than the David Lean of 1962.

So, I'm feeling rather ashamed of myself that I've just now sort of unpacked and examined a stereotype/prejudice I didn't really consciously realize I had: that gay men are apolitical.

Lesbians? Sure, I expect them to be politically active.

But, come on, Sarah, there were gay men at Stonewall, and you don't get too much more political than that!

I think it comes from the fact that most - though certainly not ALL - of the gay men I've known personally have been apolitical, some to the point of apathy and/or intentional ignorance. But there are plenty of examples of gay men who are making things happen in the area of GLBT rights but also anti-racism and other social justice issues.

And by "political," I don't necessarily mean going to protest marches or organizing boycotts, ala Harvey Milk. You can have a political consciousness and not do marches; you can influence people just by the way you choose to live and the causes you choose to support with your money or by leveraging your fame.

Most recently, I've been respecting the hell out of gay men who were out and/or active pre-Stonewall. Two examples: Christopher Isherwood and Quentin Crisp.

I just finished Isherwood's "Berlin Stories" and reading up on him on Wikipedia. Definitely not apolitical.

And Quentin Crisp? I recently watched "The Naked Civil Servant" on Watch Now, with John Hurt playing Crisp. Hurt's performance is FUCKING FIERCE, and he deserves every award he got. My eyes tear up just thinking about it. Crisp is oddly passive in his love life in the film depiction (and likely in the memoir its based on), and yet the way he lived his life was so brave- he refused to be anybody but Quentin.

In an interesting coincidence, when I was googling the made-for-British-TV-movie, I found out that John Hurt will be playing Crisp again, as an older man.

Previous posts in this series:
Part 1: January-March
Part 2: April-June
Part 3: July-September
Part 4: October/November
Addendum

Here's what I watched & loved/hated in December:

TV Shows

LOVED The Venture Brothers Season 3. I actually think 1&2 held together better in terms of story line, but I still love the series. Also, we were introduced to The Big Bang Theory, and watched all of Season One in December. Geek love!

HATED None.

Enjoyable: Smallville Season 8, News Radio Season 5, The I.T. Crowd, Series 3, Heroes Season 4.

Movies

LOVED: a tie between the new Sherlock Holmes movie and Brokeback Mountain. I liked Sherlock better than I expected from the previews, but I'm a big SH fan, so anything related is mostly going to get 3 stars or more from me. Brokeback Mountain blew me away. I felt the leads really disappeared into their roles and I really believed them. In contrast, I respected the movie "Milk" but didn't feel the leads immersed themselves the same way- I always felt like, "This is an interesting performance from two heterosexual men" in a way that I didn't with Brokeback.

HATED Delta of Venus and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Delta was kind of sexy, but I didn't believe the actors in their roles- they were so wooden and badly cast. I've read some Anais Nin, and I don't think she'd care for this adaptation, either, but what else can one expect from Zalman "Red Shoe Diaries" King? Also, "Underworld" was so bad we couldn't finish it.

Enjoyable: Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, Love Actually, Still Crazy, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Escanaba in da Moonlight, Point of No Return, Eddie Izzard: Definite Article.

What I watched & loved or hated in 2009, part 3:

July
TV Shows

LOVED The Flight of the Conchords Season 1. My mother, of all people, recommended this to us. A crazy comedy-musical duo from New Zealand try to make it in America while dodging their one rabid fangirl. Also loving Psych Season 3.

HATED: None.

Enjoyable: Ben Franklin (PBS documentary from 2002), Doctor Who Season 4, The Mighty Boosh Season 1, BSG Season 4.5, Sledge Hammer! Season 1, The I.T. Crowd Season 2, Tripping the Rift Season 3.

Movies

LOVED The Great Escape, the Steve McQueen wartime flick from 1963. Really a lot of fun, and very suspenseful, while also touching. 1963 must have been a great year for movies, because "Charade" (Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant) was also made in '63 and I loved this film.

HATED Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. The premise sounded interesting, but I just didn't care for this and turned it off after about half an hour. We'd also heard good things about "Death Note," but I found it just "meh."

Enjoyable: Watchmen, The Color of Magic, Coraline, My Name is Bruce.

August
TV Shows

LOVED In Living Color Season 2. Great season, great energy.

HATED: None.

Enjoyable: Smallville Season 8.

Movies

LOVED Slumdog Millionaire. Again, maybe an obvious choice since everyone else love it, too, but I really enjoyed this film.

HATED The Hound of the Baskervilles may be the only Sherlock Holmes film I've ever given less than a 3-star rating. Matt Frewer was badly-miscast as Holmes and chews the scenery. The movie is actually tolerable in the scenes where he's absent.

Enjoyable: Pygmalion, Finding Neverland, The Mists of Avalon, The Specials, 24 Hour Party People, Modify (documentary on body mod).

September
TV Shows

LOVED Dead Like Me Season 1. OK, this is an exaggeration. I found this show to be OK, but I love Mandy Patinkin.

HATED: None.

Enjoyable: Nothing new this month other than "Dead" mentioned above.

Movies

LOVED Bamboozled. I'm a Spike Lee fan, and this was a good one.

HATED Van Helsing. Easy to pick on, I know. It was so bad that J. apparently shut it out of his mind. About 2 weeks later, he mentioned that we hadn't watched this movie, and I made him re-watch part of it to remind him that we had, indeed, watched this stinker.

Enjoyable: Dhoom 2, Wet Hot American Summer, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Departed, Lathe of Heaven (2002, though I think the earlier one was better), The Iron Giant, Dead Again. (Edited to add: Also enjoyed "Up" at the second run theater.)

It's been a long time since I did a "What I've been watching" post, and I thought it'd be fun to look back at what I loved and hated on video in 2009. This is going to get long, so I'll break it up into a few different posts.

January
TV shows:

LOVED "Frisky Dingo" Season 1. This show is so wrong and so fun.

HATED Mutant X Season 1. Worst sci-fi show I've seen in a long time. We compare everything else to this now, as in, "Well, it wasn't as bad as Mutant X."

Enjoyable: BSG Season 4, Numb3rs Season 2, Monk Season 3, Doctor Who Season 2, Little Britain Series 1, Jeremiah Season 2.

Movies:
LOVED "Futurama: Bender's Dream." Actually, we've been loving all the stand-alone feature Futurama movies.

HATED: Nothing, really, though several movies were kind of "meh."

Enjoyable: King Solomon's Mines (1950), Repo! The Genetic Opera, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Legends of the Fall (a guilty pleasure rather than an outstanding movie).

February
TV Shows

LOVED Kids in the Hall Season 4. The kids were really on this season.

HATED Earth 2. Man this was a piece of crap! Runner-up is Galactica 1980. Also a piece of crap.

Enjoyable: South Park Season 9, Smallville Season 7, The Monkees Season 1, Frisky Dingo Season 2, Doctor Who Season 3, Heroes Season 3.

Movies

LOVED Juno. It got a lot of press and awards, so this is a pretty obvious choice, but I really did like it. Runner-up, the film "Birdy" which I reviewed here.

HATED Event Horizon. J. made me watch this again, even though it sucked the first time I saw it.

Enjoyable: The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), The Brother from Another Planet, Velvet Goldmine, Fierce Creatures, Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Domino.

March
TV Shows

LOVED Numb3rs Season 3. I love both the science and the relationships. Runner-up: X-Men Evolution Season 3. This is the best of the cartoon X-men interpretations, in my opinion.

HATED none, but Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes was disappointing. It's mostly an excuse to inject more boobs and booze into the Ren & Stimpy universe.

Enjoyable: The Kids in the Hall Season 5.

Movies

LOVED The Bucket List. Another obvious choice, but I never claimed I wasn't sentimental!

HATED the Woody Allen movie Celebrity. I hated every character introduced in the first 10 minutes, so I never finished it.

Enjoyable: Return to Oz, Scotland PA, Sherlock: Case of Evil, True Believer, A Passage to India.

We had a Night of Unspeakable Horror at our place last night, featuring the movie Cthulhu. Aside from the unspeakable horror of Tori Spelling being in the cast, I thought it was a decent movie. We had fun MST3K-ing it. I think others thought it was a stink-bomb, but I'd actually give it a 3 of 5 stars. The gay sex was definitely not a detractor for me, but I also thought the movie captured some of the heart of Lovecraftian horror- that you never see things full on but out of the corner of your eye, and that the horror is as much from within the heart of mankind than it is from burbling monsters from the deep.

Anyhow, the food was supposed to be horror-themed, too, though J. discouraged people from contributing anthing "actively nauseating." I had all kinds of plans for horror-themed foods but only ended up contributing two dishes: Evil Eye Deviled Eggs and Festering Devil's Food Cake. I wish I'd taken photos before we got started noshing on them, but you can see the leftovers...

P. also contributed the movie Versus, kind of a samurai zombie flick. It was funny-bad, but I couldn't stay awake for the whole thing. Gettin' old...

J. and I recently saw both "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" via the "Watch Now" feature on netflix. I recommend them.

They're part vampire flick, part supernatural thriller, but with a weird Russian twist. The cast is all unknowns (in America, anyway), though they're based on novels that have some cult following in the U.S. They're all in Russian, with subtitles, but they do fun things with the subtitles, like turning them colors, making them vibrate, and so on. Aside from the whole "Battle of the light against the dark," it doesn't feel familiar and formulaic to me, probably because I'm less familiar with the myths and legends they draw from.

They're making the next in the series, "Twilight Watch," for 2009, but they're filming in English. I'm just assuming they'll fuck up all the things I liked about the first two.

Tipsy.

Just watched "Ghost Rider."

 

Ridiculous.

Don't feel too sorry for me-- it was free.

J. and I got hopelessly addicted to the TV show "Heroes" and have been watching Season 1 for free via Netflix's "Watch Now" feature. We just finished off Season 1 last night, and I was joking that I hoped the TV writer's strike would end soon so we could watch more episodes. There are 10 of Season 2 available on "Watch Now" but I'm  sure we could plow through those pretty quickly based on the rate at which we devoured Season 1. 

This morning, I googled the writer's strike to see what the latest news was, and lo and behold, they just settled. Thanks to figmentj, I have a link to when new episodes of favorite shows will be coming out. Sadly, there are no new episodes of Heroes slated until fall. :(

Here's some additional "What I've been watching" commentary:

-The character of "Dawn" on Buffy irritates me severely, even after finding out her back story. I want her to die screaming NOW, but I hear she's around for a couple more seasons at least.

-"Venture Brothers" continues to be brilliant into Season 2.

-I think the two back-to-back South Park Season 6 episodes that have Lord of the Rings references in them are sheer genius. I especially loved the quest of Lemmiwinks to escape from the Ass of Doom. If you've ever watched the LOTR cartoons from the 70s and you remember that music...? Oh, yeah...

-I thought "Jesus Camp" was well done, but it was PAINFUL to watch. Other than the talking in tongues, it's not that far from my experience growing up as a young fundamentalist on fire for Christ.

-I've had Freaks and Geeks recommended to me repeatedly. We've watched a few episodes, and I can see why people like it. It's also somewhat painful to watch since I WAS such a freak/geek in high school, but it's so fun, too.

-The Simpsons movie was fairly forgettable fluff, but I LOVED SpiderPig!

-The Final Cut, a near-future distopia sci-fi thriller with Robin Williams, had an intriguing premise, but I found it disappointing overall.

-I still really dig the movie "The Last Supper" but it does seem as if the moral of the story is not to trust conservatives because they will kill you and then go on to become president.

-I tried to watch "Flesh," an art film by Andy Warhol. While it had full frontal male nudity in its favor, I despised every single character and stopped watching after about 55 minutes.

-While I was home sick in January, I watched "Manhattan Murder Mystery" which I liked a lot better than I thought I would (I'm kind of so-so on Woody Allen movies) and "Remains of the Day." All I have to say about the latter is, "What kind of knob asks the butler to explain the birds and the bees to his godson?"