Author: Tony

Release date:  3/30/1981

20^th Century Fox

Directed by

• Hugh Hudson

Produced by

• David Putnam

Written by

• Colin Welland

Cast

Harold Abrahams

• Ben Cross

Eric Liddell

• Ian Charleston

Ian Holm

• Sam Mussabini

 

The hosts review:

Darrell starts off by mentioning the Chariots of Fire representation in the opening ceremonies of this year’s Summer Olympics… featuring the one and only Mr. Bean!

Tony felt that the music, even being 30 years old, sounded dated even for its time, specifically the synthesizer.  Darrell thought that the music worked well, and was surprised that they used modern music for a movie that takes place from 1919-1924.  He then went on to talk about how the Chariots of Fire theme is integral to the movie, how it immediately conjures up that iconic image of men running on the beach.

Darrell enjoyed the movie and found it to be a true “drama.”  He appreciated the movie a lot more now than he did years ago, as did Tony.  Tony, though, didn’t think it was as fantastic as critics proclaimed it to be, and found the dialogue “clunky.”  Darrell said that a lot of the dialogue was based on a journal by one of the characters in the movie, and Tony concurred that it did sound like written word and didn’t always flow naturally.  He found that it almost appears to be a “talking down” to the audience.

Tony also brought up how the anti-Semitism and racism was apparent, even in a very polite manner, from the onset of the movie.  There were constant little snips at and about Abrahams Jewish heritage.  There were also offhand comments regarding Abrahams personal coach, Mussabini, who was of Italian and Arab descent.

The hosts also discussed the different reasons and passions behind each man needing to run.  Abrahams runs to win and Liddell runs for God, and how each of them faced hurdles (no pun intended… I think) to accomplish their goals of Olympic gold.

They talk about how in most other sports-themed movies, there is usually a big build-up to the main sporting event.  In this movie, the race was almost an anti-climactic moment, an after-thought.  The “meat” of the story was in getting to the Olympics, in each man’s journey and struggle to get there.

They found it almost amusing to compare the opening ceremony scene of the 1924 Olympics to the grand spectacle of the 2012 Olympics.

Darrell mentioned that he wondered what Liddell did when he returned to China as a missionary:

Liddell’s first job was as a teacher at an Anglo-Chinese school for wealthy Chinese students.  The belief at the time being that by teaching these wealthy children, they would grow up to be influential figures and promoters of Christianity in China.

He also competed periodically in local and North China championships.

In 1943, he was interned at the Weihsien Internment Camp when the Japanese took over the mission station he was serving.  He died in February of 1945, still in the internment camp, of an inoperable brain tumor.  In his final letter to his wife (who had returned to her native Canada with their children when the Japanese had become aggressive toward China), he told her that he had suffered a nervous breakdown.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

Most of the runners training on West Sands in St. Andrews during the title sequence were St. Andrews golf caddies.

Chariots of Fire was named as one of “The 20 Most Overrated Movies of All Time” by Premiere.

The producers intentionally added profanity to the film to avoid a G rating because they thought people would associate a G rating with a film for children.

Abrahams also competed in the 1920 Olympics: he finished fourth in the 4×100 relay, 20th in the long jump and was eliminated in the quarter-finals of both the 100m and 200m races.

Kenneth Branagh was a gofer and an extra for the shoot. He is a Cambridge student in the “Society Day” crowds, wearing a grey knit vest with dark trim, a white shirt, and a dark tie. He’s on screen for 20 seconds, starting at about 11:00.

Stephen Fry is also an extra in the film, singing in the chorus of the Cambridge ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’ production. He is the third face to the right of Harold Abrahams, singing “He Is An Englishman”. He’s on screen for about 35 seconds, starting at around 32:00.

Awards won by Chariots of Fire:

1981 Academy Awards (Best Picture, Original Music Score, Writing Original Screenplay and Costume Design)

1981 Cannes Film Festival (Best Supporting Actor/Ian Holm, Prize of Ecumenical Jury-Special Mention/Hugh Hudson

1981 BAFTA (Best Film)

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 8/1/2012

 

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The summer movie series continues…

Release date:  6/3/1955

20^th Century Fox

Directed by

• Billy Wilder

Produced by

• Charles K. Feldman
• Billy Wilder

Written by

• George Axelrod
• Billy Wilder

Cast

The Girl

• Marilyn Monroe

Richard Sherman

• Tom Ewell

 

The hosts review:

The first point brought up is that, while The Seven Year Itch has the most iconic image of Marilyn Monroe (dress blowing up over the subway grate), the movie doesn’t show the full image.  They also talk about how it was said that Monroe was “difficult” to work with during this movie, with her being late more often than not and flubbing a number of her lines.  This was also due to her depression.

Both hosts found it a little disconcerting that the main character, Richard Sherman (Ewell) had an inner dialogue that he utilized by talking, out loud, to himself.  They played on Richard’s overactive imagination in a nice way, with his dialogue and his “fantasy thoughts.”  They also liked the scene in the vegetarian restaurant in the beginning of the movie… a very bohemian/hippie restaurant, very alternative for the mid-1950s.  Tony was really amused by the waitress who tries to talk Richard into donating to the nudist society.

The Seven Year Itch was originally a stage production, and the movie is played out in very much the same way, with Richard breaking the “fourth wall” quite a few times in the film.  It was also filmed in a stage style in that there were only four or five sets and there wasn’t a lot of movement outside of these scenes.

One of the differences between the stage version and the film version is that the film had to have the risqué stage dialogue toned down, which the hosts preferred because it gave Richard a more innocent look.  It also played well in how he over-reacted to the scenes he imagined in his head, which would have been much more blatant on the stage.

Lena (from the chat room) brought up that Walter Matthau was the original actor that Billy Wilder wanted to play the role of Richard Sherman, but 20^th Century Fox did not want to risk this movie on a newcomer, so they turned to the actor who played the role on stage, Tom Ewell.  Lena thought that, while Matthau certainly could have done a good job, Ewell was the better choice.  Tony disagreed and said that he would have liked to have seen Matthau take on the role of Richard.

One of the favorite lines from the film (Lena’s pick) was when Richard said, regarding his wife, “She’s not as young as she used to be.  She’s 31 now.”

Tony and Darrell also discussed Marilyn Monroe and her contribution to this movie and her other movies.  They also talked about what she had to go through; the paparazzi, the tabloids, and the pressure she was constantly under… and how even today celebrities have a hard time dealing with the pressures that almost originated with her.

All in all, they both found it to be a fun, sweet movie.  Monroe’s character (The Girl) was a very sweet girl, not at all malicious or seductive in nature.

Bonus… at approx. 27 minutes in, Tony and Darrell talk a little bit about The Dark Knight Rises… no spoilers are involved, just general movie chit-chat.

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

As Tony brought up earlier in the podcast, the classic shot of Marilyn Monroe’s dress blowing up around her legs as she stands over a subway grate was originally shot on Lexington Avenue at 52nd Street (Manhattan) 1:00 am, with 5,000 onlookers whistling and cheering through take after take as she repeatedly missed her lines. That original footage never made it to the screen; the noise of the crowd had made it unusable.  Billy Wilder re-staged the scene on the 20th Century-Fox lot, on a set replicating Lexington Avenue, and got a more satisfactory result. However, it took another 40 takes for Marilyn to achieve the famous scene.

A 52-foot-high cutout of Marilyn Monroe (from the blowing-dress scene) was erected in front of Loews State Theater, in New York City’s Times Square as part of the campaign for the release of this film.

Tom Ewell won the 1953 Tony Award for Actor in a Drama for “The Seven Year Itch” in the role of Richard Sherman, which he reprised in this film.

 

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 7/25/2012

 

 

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The Endless Summer

Release date:  6/15/1966

Monterey Media

Directed, Produced, Written by

• Bruce Brown

Cast (as themselves)

• Michael Hynson
• Robert August
• Bruce Brown (narrator)

 

Step into Liquid

Release date:  4/20/2004

Artisan Entertainment

Directed by

• Dana Brown

Produced by

• John-Paul Beeghly

Cast (as themselves)

• Laird Hamilton
• Dave Kalama
• Dale Webster
• Jesse Billauer

For any of you who might still be jonesing for more surfing documentaries, there are two follow-ups by the same producers: The Endless Summer II (1994) by Bruce Brown and The Endless Summer Revisited (2000), by Dana Brown, which contains unused footage from the The Endless Summer and The Endless Summer II.

The hosts review of The Endless Summer:

Darrell thought The Endless Summer was fun to watch.  It’s a travelogue type movie and easy to watch.  He liked that it showed a more innocent time; two surfers travelling the world, chasing the sun and the surf, literally having an “endless summer.”

He also liked the scene at their first stop in Africa where the surfers complained about the cost of their hotel as $30 per night, per person!  Tony added that in that scene, they also complained that the cost of gas was close to $1.00 a gallon (which, truly, was A LOT for 1966).

Tony’s first impression was that it reminded him of a lot of the school documentaries he saw as a child: single camera, lock focus, no dialogue, a single narrator.

Darrell noted that Bruce Brown read a book on how to make movies on the flight to meet his fellow surfers.  Also, to raise money for this film, he gathered his previously shot 16mm footage on surfers (called Waterlogged) and showed it around.

What kept Tony going throughout the documentary was the sense of humor from Brown.  He was occasionally snarky and dry and witty, but if you weren’t watching the film at the same time, the jokes were easily lost.  One such comment was when the surfers were in South Africa, and Brown stated that when not surfing, the guys hung out with the natives.  On the film, though, one of the men is laying on the beach between two bikini-clad South African women.

Both hosts agreed that it’s probably best to watch The Endless Summer in small doses, as opposed to sitting through the full 95 minutes all at once.

Lena’s (from the chat room) favorite line came during the filming in Africa.  Some of the locals were gathered at the beach watching the surfers and Brown said, “Being good Africans, they threw rocks.”  Tony’s favorite was when they were talking about the female surfers in Australia, Brown said (of the girls’ bikinis, when they wipe out), “They just roll up in a ball and go into a clam hole.”

Darrell thought that this was a great time capsule to look at the world in the mid-sixties.  There was no hidden message to this movie… just two guys travelling around the world trying to surf and live an endless summer.

 

The hosts review of Step into Liquid:

Darrell compared the two as “stepping from the stone age to the space age,” in terms of the technical sport of surfing.  This was the difference between surfing six foot waves and then sixty foot waves.  Both Darrell and Tony also really liked the advances in how they surf (using the wakes from super tankers was pretty cool to see).

Also, the cinematography was amazing (not just in comparison to The Endless Summer, but just within the movie itself.)

This wasn’t noted earlier, but Dana Brown (Step into Liquid) is the son of Bruce Brown (The Endless Summer) and dad Bruce is featured in son Dana’s film.

There was also a much broader group of surfers in Step into Liquid, covering the sport of surfing itself, instead of a singular focus on the two surfers travelling the world in The Endless Summer.

Tony talked about the scene with Jesse Billauer, where they talk about the different ways to surf.  You can be standing on the board, sitting, kneeling, even flat on your belly; it’s all surfing.  You then find out that Jessie was paralyzed in an earlier surfing accident and continues to surf with his buddies (they carry him to his board and he surfs on his belly).  The camaraderie between the surfers was really nice to see.

The section in the second movie that focused on the female surfers was worlds away from the brief mention in the first movie, as well.  A quote (or as close as I can remember) about the women: “Remember that tomboy girl that beat you in sports when you were a little kid?  Well, she’s grown up now and gorgeous and she STILL beats you in sports.”

One surfer that was shown in the movie, Dale “The Daily Wavester” Webster, was on his was to setting a record of consecutive days of surfing, at 10,407.  He did break that record on February 29, 2004.  I also found another mention of his consecutive days of surfing and found that he got at least as far as 13,000 days on April 6, 2011.

 

Trivial bits ‘n pieces:

In 2002, The Endless Summer was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

The previously unknown break off of Cape St. Francis in South Africa, featured in The Endless Summer, went on to become one of the world’s most famous surfing sites.

The 66-foot wave ridden by Mike Parsons in Step into Liquid at the Cortez Bank was believed to have been the largest wave ever surfed at the time the movie was released.  It has since been surpassed by a 70-foot wave ridden by Pete Cabrinha in 2004 at Peahi in Hawaii.

 

Your Producers for this episode were:

• Tony
• Darrell

This episode was recorded: 7/17/2012

 

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