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April 18, 2008
SAD DAY
There are, I suppose, three kinds of people in the world:
1) Those who like the "guy with a guitar" Bruce Springsteen on NEBRASKA, THE RIVER, DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD, and DEVILS & DUST
2) Those who like the New Jersey street band kitchen sink kaleidoscopic* stylings of Bruce Springsteen on BORN TO RUN, THE YOUNG, GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, BORN IN THE USA, and, last year, MAGIC.
3) Those who don't like Bruce Springsteen.
I prefer 1, but am always up for the Boss to swing back with 2 - if DEVILS & DUST was brutally stark in its sympathetic populism, MAGIC was the kind of music the characters of that casualty-filled wasteland might entertain themselves with.
As for you 3 people. I don't get you and I don't want to get you.
But either way, you shouldn't be sad that Danny Federici, the keyboard player for the E Street band died. Say what you want about HUNGRY HEART, but it captures that "We may as well be dead, but we're sure as hell alive" spirit of the best upbeat Springsteen.
Since its raining in Memphis, here's more moisture for the wet blanket: About a month ago Anthony Minghella died. Minghella is not exactly David Lean, but he's certain not Michael Bay. In the last ten years, Minghella directed THE ENGLISH PATIENT, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, COLD MOUNTAIN, and BREAKING AND ENTERING - while the last was curiously boring and unwatchable, the first three are unapologetically epic in a way that most movies ever don't try or attempt and fail miserably. I remember being blown away by finding out that the script for PATIENT was only 90 pages long - the rest was atmosphere, sweeping shots, glances that say more than words.
I liked COLD MOUNTAIN, but it missed the modern classic status it seemed to be going for. The only vivid detail I can remember is that Jack White was in it, and at one point he played the banjo. But THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY is really masterful film - it may be the best Alfred Hitchcock movie that Alfred Hitchcock didn't make (suck it, Brian De Palma!) - it creates suspense and mystery around character and doesn't let those characters hide in the places they want to. I remember liking it in the movie theater, but last year I found a copy in the bargain bin at Target ($7.99!) and picked it up. I was blown away by the period details, the beauty of the scenery, the way Minghella photographs Jude Law so that he's at times angelic, at others demonic - exactly the twisted perspective that Matt Damon's Ripley shifts back and forth between.
But I recently got a little misty for Minghella because of his work in the occasionally excellent Jim Henson's THE STORYTELLER series. As a fifth grader, I caught an episode that Minghella wrote called "The Soldier and Death." I remembered the story for all of my young life, and would occasionally tell it around campfires. Minghella takes the mystery of a fable and turns it into a remarkably linear story - where each obstacle gives the hero an increasingly exciting new dilemma.
Minghella will be missed. I have the feeling he had another Oscar in him. His movies were big, spectacular, and unrelenting visual.
* - I have no idea how music can be "kaleidoscopic" but it sounds right.
| By Andytown | 02:04 PM
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Comments
I keep chicking the blog, but you have not updated it. What gives abomb?
meerkat
Posted by: meerkat at May 1, 2008 09:13 AM
Andytown, i have nothing to do anymore, please post something soon. Post about how you will be leaving in 3 months and we'll never see you again. Post about the top 5 people you will miss in memphis.
Posted by: the big easy at May 1, 2008 12:04 PM