DAY 5 - Good Ol Boy Night
I was a bit worried with how Quentin started off this night. Basically... I had in my mind a picture of... GOOD OL BOY NIGHT.... It was a stunningly wonderful vision of Quentin drunk on a variety of intoxicating liquids from beer to real life Austin Moonshine. But the Quentin that took the stage tonight... Well... He seemed a bit serious, like we were going to be receiving the flipside of the wild and crazy GOOD OL BOY flicks from before. He referred to the previous G.O.B. night as “totally chicken fried,” but when referring to tonight’s bill.... “They’re not hootin’ n hollerin’”
Well dammit, I like ‘hootin n hollerin’. That’s what Good Ol Boys are all about. Getting drunk and sweaty in your car with the missus while the tinty sound of the drive in speaker rasps out the sounds of the south, interspersed with the squeaks of your suspension and that of a hundred other cars.
So I began dismissing all of them thoughts. Banishing them to some far back corner of my brain. And I prepared to give Quentin his chance... He’s been pretty dead on thus far...
TICK TICK TICK
I already love the title, and I remember seeing the poster in one of last year’s films. It stars Jim Brown and George Kennedy. Quentin was quite a bit fired up about Jim Brown.
When people went to TICK TICK TICK, they were expecting a very specific type of film from Jim Brown. He kicks ass, and according to Quentin, if you start talking about the acting the general response was, “I didn’t go to no Jim Brown movie to see the actin’. I wanna see Jim Brown whup some ass!!!” But Quentin insisted that Jim Brown has something.... Charisma with a capital C... He’s loved and thought very fondly of...
“Out of everyone that dies in THE DIRTY DOZEN... the one that most gets me is Jim Brown man.... That just kills ya. The rest of em... That’s fine... But Jim Brown was the man.”
It was kinda funny, the audience... I don’t believe was taking Quentin very serious about his... Jim Brown/Actor stance... But well, ...tick...tick...tick will speak for itself.
He then went on to talk about Ralph Nelson... the director, who’s career and choice of films were... all over the place in tone. From movies like LILIES IN THE FIELD and CHARLY to DUEL AT DIABLO, WRATH OF GOD and SOLDIER BLUE. His directing style could swing from Sam Peckinpah to Stanley Kramer in a seemingly effortless motion.
Quentin then mentions that he doesn’t usually love Fredric March... but that he loves him as the mayor in this movie. Then he highlights Don Stroud as the quintessential bully from 1970-75. And then it was on to....
The Trailers....
A SMALL TOWN IN TEXAS.... Any film with Bo Hopkins and Susan George is worth a look or two, and this has a logo that comes straight from Saturday Mornings’ SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK... but it says A SMALL TOWN IN TEXAS... same style though.
GATOR... This looks like a fun as hell movie, and the trailer’s tabulation of exactly the amount of damage Burt Reynolds was going to do to boats, cars, people and wild life... Well it’s funny as hell... BUT it doesn’t look like it could be an ingrown hair on the ass of WHITE LIGHTNING.
FIGHTING MAD... Wow... A trailer for Jonathon Demme’s Peter Fonda... pre-FALLING DOWN film. Man, I’ve been trying to see this film for years now.... “God help anyone who gets in his way”
THE BLACK OAK CONSPIRACY... “The next time... I’ll soak you in Kerosene and set you on fire” heh heh heh... Don’t screw with these rednecks... that’s for sure...
MOVING VIOLATION... Great trailer... A cop asks a young hipster, “You play this thing.” To which the too cool for school dude replies, “No... I carry my dope in it.” I don’t know much about this film, but all I needed to see was Dick Miller, and I’m interested. “William Geer... He never pulled a trigger... but alot of people died.”
...tick...tick...tick
Alright.. from the very opening shots of the film, I knew that this film was something awesome. It begins with a buncha ‘good ol boys’ standing around sweating and staring at an egg cooking on the ground. When George Kennedy appears... Tom Joad comments, “He looks like a fucking stud.” It turns out someone lost some money due to that egg cooking.
This isn’t a good movie. It’s not one of them, “pretty good movies”. This is a GREAT movie. It should be shown in every damn high school in the country. You see it is about a town... a small southern town that had just elected a Black Sheriff. This town has a strong Klan presence, and the black population of the town is angry and empowered by their right to vote. Armed and ready for an excuse to just stand up and pop ol whitey in the face.
George Kennedy is the outgoing sheriff and Jim Brown the incoming sheriff. What ensues from there is simply one of the best films to deal with these sorts of tense times.
As for Jim Brown’s charisma... Well, here’s one line he delivers dead on to his wife who is terrified she’s about to have a husband who is hanging out in the breeze. “For the first time in history, folks will have a sheriff they can call ‘boy’.” She ever so slightly breaks a smile. As did I.
Meanwhile on the George Kennedy side of things his wife is saying things like, “You’re not going to seduce me into any suicide pack.”
Then just the regular townfolks have fantastic scenes. In one, this rascist fella is having his shoes shined, and he’s talking shit about their new ‘nigger sheriff’ when the black shoeshine dude suddenly spits on his shoes in anger. The rascist looks at him and says, “You spit on my shoes BOY!” To which the ‘boy’ says, “Isa good for them boss.... it makes them sssshiiiine!!!” To which the kracker says, “Oh... then spit on the other one too.”
However, my absolute favorite bit in the film comes between Jim Brown and his deputy as they are talking about pride, and the help they’ll need. Jim Brown is a bit too proud to reach out to George Kennedy for help, and his deputy starts talking about ‘Oh... that WALL again.’ To which Jim Brown says, “and what wall would that be.” His Deputy says... beautifully, “Oh... you know... that same ol wall that’s always been there... One side painted white, the other side black with bricks inbetween.” As he says it, we have a tight close-up on Jim Brown on the left hand side of the screen and the most beautiful acid fade I’ve ever seen slow bleeds to the far right side revealing George Kennedy. It was... a tear... A perfect screen moment.
All in all... seek out this movie. Find it... and watch it. It’s fantastic.
Next up was JUNIOR BONNER...
I’ve been watching Tarantino speak and talk for years now. And with this introduction I saw something new. Something I hadn’t seen so wonderfully displayed before. I often times compare things that have happened in my life to films. I believe it’s the only point of association to really connect to films with. But I usually don’t see other people admitting to that a whole bunch, but with Quentin’s introduction of JUNIOR BONNER... well that changed.
While Quentin was in the middle of his release for JACKIE BROWN he rewatched JUNIOR BONNER and suddenly saw the film under completely different light, and all of a sudden all them invisible parallel lines began forming alongside him and JUNIOR BONNER.
First off... JACKIE BROWN and JUNIOR BONNER have the same initials. (ewwwwww Harrrrry... That’s deep!) (Awww shut up) This is when Quentin began kicking the intro of full blast.
According to Quentin about 4 years before JUNIOR BONNER, Peckinpah made THE WILD BUNCH, and to the world it seemed like it literally came out of nowhere. It didn’t really make a TON of money, but it had a following. Critics liked it... well at least those that were not put off to the violence. And while... not nearly every U.S. person had seen THE WILD BUNCH... They had all heard of it and Peckinpah’s “reputation started growing.”
The next film was STRAW DOGS and that one just went through the roof. The studio pumped the film as “From The Master Of Violence, Sam Peckinpah” and according to Quentin, you couldn’t escape the blanket television campaign for STRAW DOGS. Critics almost universally began hailing Peckinpah as a sort of second coming. During these years it could be said that Sam was “the most famous director working in these years”
The next big anticipated project became... JUNIOR BONNER. “At the height of his success he did Junior Bonner.” The film left the audience confused, this didn’t look like anything they’d seen from “the master of violence” The movie got... ‘ok’ critical response... Some really strong reviews, and some disappointed reviews. This wasn’t the type of film his audience was looking for him to make.
It was as if Peckinpah were saying, “You think you know who I am... Well you don’t.”
Quentin was extremely nervous about this take of his. He said, “I feel like some sort of egotistical big headed asshole just for saying this.” But he shouldn’t. He was very self-conscious of the ‘egotism’ that drawing parallels between himself and Sam Peckinpah would bring. And I get the idea that it probably comes from the fact that I don’t think Quentin sees himself as a ‘great auteur’ yet.
He’s like a fan that’s drawn 3 popular comic books, but knows that he ain’t no Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Will Eisner or Wally Wood. That he’s got a long ways to go before he can begin drawing parallels between his career and their’s. But ya know what... that’s really not what he was doing. He wasn’t saying “I am the living reincarnation of Sam Peckinpah!” What he was basically saying was that this early, three film arc of Peckinpah’s seems to strangely parallel the way my first three films were.
At no point was he saying that RESERVOIR DOGS was THE WILD BUNCH or that PULP FICTION was STRAW DOGS... But that the perception of RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION by the media, critics and film fans pushed him to the similar spotlight that Peckinpah was once in.
Quentin did his usual breakdowns of actors before this film... But we all know that Steve McQueen is a god, that Joe Don Baker rules, that Ida Lupino is just about as cool as it gets, that Robert Preston is an insanely cool man.... etc... He talked of the other two ‘rodeo’ movies that came out at the same time.... J W COOP and THE HONKERS, out of the three he felt that JUNIOR BONNER was the far superior, though J W COOP did have some highlights.
Next came... Trailers...
NAVAJO JOE... Alright... fuck Quentin.... I’m dying to see this film now. This is the third time I’ve seen the trailer, and it is not necessary that the movie be played. I don’t wanna wait till tomorrow.... waaaaaaaaaahhhh
PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID... You know... Peckinpah is just one of the cool gods of films. I’ve had this trailer on my own 16mm western trailer reel for a long time...
TEXAS DETOUR... With Patrick “I played Sinbad” Wayne. A very... ummmm... odd trailer that caused audience laughter throughout...
MOON RUNNERS... The trailer is narrated by Waylon Jennings (I think) and stars Robert Mitchum’s son... James Mitchum (who if memory serves, co-starred with Patrick Wayne in THE BIG JAKE) “I never sleep alone.... I always sleep with my 45 automatic.”
JUNIOR BONNER
The film is a fantastic character study, and one of the best ‘day in the life of’ sorts of films I’ve ever seen. I mean... this is literally about one day in Junior Bonner’s life. Nothing really huge about that. Ya see he’s been in a bit of a rut, and he’s doing the rodeo in front of the homecrowd... specifically Mom, Dad, Brother, nephews, etc...
He’s a bit hurt from being throwed. His ribs are taped up, he walks with this fantastic bow legged walk that is so honest and real... I spent my Junior High and High School life on a real live Ranch in North Texas. JUNIOR BONNER reminded me of the ‘cowboys’ my Mom used to hire.
She never brought in the cowboys in their prime... she couldn’t pay for them to work the ranch... So instead. She hired and recruited older broken in and broken down cowboys. The ones with an undying desire to wrap their lips around an alcoholic glass teat and suck till it’s bone dry. They drank to put away the pain, to bury the thoughts about where they were headed from here, and to escape their pasts... which were sordid and somewhat criminal.
They all walked with a bow legged stride, always headed for a drink and thinking of somesort of get rich quick sort of thing.
I loved JUNIOR BONNER because it captured that feel, the atmosphere of the small town filled with it’s rodeo crowd, where usually only dust blows through.
Tom Joad said, “It’s just like my hometown in Oklahoma, but with too many people.”
I lean over, and I say to Joad, “But the rodeo is going on...”
He looks at me and does one of them smiling.... “ooooooh yeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhh....” sorta things.
I came home... tired... but I watched JACKIE BROWN, and folks... the films are very very close to one another... not in a ‘rip off’ sort of way... but rather in a tonal sort of way. Quentin should not be embarrassed for drawing the parallels...
