I had to post this.

It won’t be out until next October.

I’m talking about the original 1933 version of King Kong. It is a great movie and a hell of lot more violent and gruesome than I ever thought. It must have shocked and scared the crap out of audiences in 1933. I never realized what an incredible movie it is.

The stop-motion special effects are executed with style and drama that are so expressive, “the beast” comes across as a sensitive guy. There isn’t much of a story until Kong comes into the picture — and then you can watch the movie with the sound down if you feel like it because everything unfolds in broad strokes: 1) Island natives capture Fay Wray for sacrifice to Kong; 2) Kong runs into the jungle with Ms. Wray, protecting her instead of eating her; 3) A rescue party runs into the jungle and are killed off one at a time by Kong; 4) Kong is captured and brought back to the US… and so on. Although King Kong is sometimes considered a B-quality monster movie, it’s operatic and poignant as well. I’d love to see it in a theatre someday.

I was never a huge fan of any of the Godfather movies until I watched the entire trilogy over the period of a week. (The Godfather – Part III is the dud of the series, infamously diminished by the casting of Sofia Coppola as Michael Corleone’s daughter. She can’t act. That’s not the only problem with the film, just the most obvious. It might be best to pretend Part III doesn’t exist.) The Godfather (Parts 1 and 2) are so good, so rich in character and story, so masterfully acted and directed, there’s nothing I can say about the films that hasn’t been said with greater insight by hundreds of critics already.

Check out this one paragraph from the linked DVD Talk review: “Religion is important in The Godfather. In all of the films, sacred events are used as cover for the sin of murder, be it the christening in episode I or the street fair in the flashbacks in II, when young Vito (Robert De Niro) goes after Fanucci (Gastone Moschin). Notice, too, in that latter scene, Fanucci gets an orange on his way to the assassin’s bullet. Coppola often uses poetic imagery to tie together different events across this vast timeline. Oranges always foreshadow some kind of violence or death — older Vito (Marlon Brando) is getting oranges when he is shot, and later eating one when he eventually dies, in one of the most poignant death scenes in all of movie history. So, too, is Michael eating an orange when he is plotting various hits near the end of part II and again in the final scene of part III. Though not a recurring theme, one of my favorite images in the movie is in part I when Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana) is being strangled. Coppola steps out of the room and films the attack through a glass pane decorated with a fish pattern. Later, when Michael and Sonny (James Caan) and the others are informed of Luca’s death, it’s with one of the movie’s most quoted lines: ‘Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.’” That’s just a taste of what’s going on in The Godfather (Parts 1 and 2). Francis Ford Coppola was in the zone when he made these movies. The genius of the filmmaking reveals itself more with each viewing. Damn, I think I’ll watch them again right now. See ya!

This is my daughter’s first song she composed, titled Falling Leaves. She’s been taking piano lessons since the fall and part of their curriculum consists of composition, which is impressive – I was never taught that.

Click the image for a larger view.

I’ve never met anyone with the name Esmé. The one and only time I’ve seen it is in J.D. Salinger’s short story, “For Esmé — with Love and Squalor.” It’s a masterpiece. It’s a quiet story about loneliness and compassion. The Wikipedia entry for the story states: “Lack of purity and innocence in the adult world, love of childhood itself, and the power of words and writing are among the story’s themes.” Okay, that too. It’s the one short story I make sure to read every couple years. There is something in the follow excerpt that resonates for me, always has.

Now, for the third time since he had returned from the hospital that day, he opened the woman’s book and read the brief inscription on the flyleaf. Written in ink, in German, in a small, hopelessly sincere handwriting, were the words “Dear God, life is hell.” Nothing led up to or away from it. Alone on the page, and in the sickly stillness of the room, the words appeared to have the stature of an uncontestable, even classic indictment. X stared at the page for several minutes, trying, against heavy odds, not to be taken in. Then, with far more zeal than he had done anything in weeks, he picked up a pencil stub and wrote down under the inscription, in English, “Fathers and teachers, I ponder ‘What is hell?’ I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” He started to write Dostoevski’s name under the inscription, but saw — with fright that ran through his whole body — that what he had written was almost entirely illegible. He shut the book.

The entire story, along with just about everything else Salinger has written, including his uncollected works, are available online at freeweb.hu/tchl/salinger/. My guess is Salinger’s lawyers will have the site shut down ASAP.

Never Cry Wolf and The Snow Walker are based on works by Farley Mowat and should be seen together. If you like one, chances are you’ll like the other. The drama is magnified in both movies by the desolate and beautiful landscape of Canada’s north. In Never Cry Wolf, a scientist spends six months in the bush studying wolves. It’s a quiet, somewhat meditative movie that takes a look at our relationship with the natural world. That relationship can be harmonious, perhaps even sacred; sacred as in having respect for the environment. Or it can be motivated by the usual crap that’s destroying the planet: greed. The Snow Walker, although more action-oriented, has a similar message: respect the land and you’ll survive; don’t and it will kill you. Both movies use stereotypes (stupid white men; wise natives) to present an idealized version of the north. But that’s a minor criticism that’s easy to overlook because the filmmakers succeed so well at transporting us into a world that we would otherwise never know (unless you live up north).

The Snow Walker is a must-see movie for fans of Never Cry Wolf. A bush pilot (Barry Pepper) and an Inuit passenger crash on the tundra and are forced to survive off the land and find their way back to civilization together. That’s it. It’s minimal, but it works. The guy who plays Farley Mowat in Never Cry Wolf, Charles Martin Smith, returns as the director this time around with a vision of the north that is beautiful and brutal all at once. It may even surpass Never Cry Wolf. The Snow Walker is also reminiscent of Himalaya — the natural landscape overwhelms all aspects of the story and heightens the drama every step of the way. It’s fiction, but it can also work as a documentary; watching a movie like this is the next best thing to being there.

UPDATE (Nov. 22/09): The Snow Walker did not hold up well to a second viewing. I must have been in the mood for it the first time I saw it. I watched it by myself and really go into it. But watching it with someone else, I quickly realized that it’s not a must-see for anyone who likes Never Cry Wolf. It’s more like a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, a syrupy made-for-TV melodrama, and one that really is not in the same league as Never Cry Wolf. The living off the land and the natural beauty of the landscape is still good, but the acting isn’t the greatest, the music is heavy-handed, and all the back stories are irrelevant. It would have been a more interesting, convincing and dramatic story if they’d kept it simple: minimal music and no back stories, just the pilot and the Inuit girl living off the land. And it’s not even close to being as good as Himalaya.

Atheist toast:

Made ME laugh.

(via Bits & Pieces)

A single-take, single-shot video from a Newfoundland band called Hey Rosetta, directed by local St. John’s filmmaker, Jordan Canning. Best viewed in HQ mode.

I’m not into much rock music, if that’s what this is, but these guys are very good at what they do and only getting better. They’re gonna be big.