Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.
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Like every other 70s kid but me. To this day, I have never seen any of the Billy Jack movies, although of course, I was aware of their existence. I mostly know the character as the inspiration for the in-ring persona of professional wrestler William Albert Haynes III, who wrestled as "Billy Jack Haynes" from 1982 to 1996. Haynes, who was known for being short-tempered and violent in and out of the ring, is currently in custody for allegedly murdering his wife.
The theme song to Billy Jack, "One Tin Soldier," was everywhere for a spell.
It was in frequent rotation in the "Folk Masses" in our parish that my older sister played guitar in.
Over the weekend I watched Sinners (DVD from the library). It was excellent, although maybe not as great as I had been hearing. As a musician who plays blues I naturally got a kick out of the way blues music was integral to the story. When it turns into a vampire story, it goes hard right to the end (nice little blues coda at the end, too). It's not an entirely original concept, either: it reminded me a lot of From Dusk Till Dawn.
You might want to check out one of my favorite podcasts: The Next Picture Show. They pair a current release with a classic movie to put it in historical context and tease out the similarities and differences between the films. They paired Sinners with From Dusk Till Dawn a couple months ago. I would have liked to have heard them pair it with O Brother Where Art Thou -- another movie full of music and set in the old south. (Although with Christopher Nolan's The Oddessy coming up, I doubt it will go undiscussed for long.)
Their current combo is comparing Superman: The Movie to the current model. My all-time favorite pairing was comparing Finding Dory to Memento.
Enjoy! Two other comics-related pairings to look out for: Suicide Squad (unfortunately, I think it's the first one) and The Dirty Dozen, and the WWI-set Wonder Woman and Paths of Glory.
Born Losers revisits the plot of The Wild One with Billy Jack thrown in to deal with the thugs. Billy Jack desperately wants to be a message film. Unable to decide upon one timely message, they throw all of them in.
I think I had seen Billy Jack and The Trial of Billy Jack before I saw Born Losers. In Born Losers he wears a white cowboy hat, which was a little jarring. I don’t think (I may be wrong) that he is said to have been a Green Beret in the later movies. In Born Losers he fires a magic bullet which hits between the eyes of the gang leader, splitting his sunglasses. He's killed, but I don’t think there was any damage to his head.
Both movies overuse rape as a plot device.
I think this writing is intended to get the audience to really hate the bad guys.
Both films lean anti-authority, though both feature at least one noble cop who respects and assists Billy.
I also own the four-movie DVD set. Without rewatching, I don’t remember any noble cop, only murderous evil ones, particularly in The Trial of Billy Jack, shooting down unarmed hippies. The Trial of… (and Easy Rider before it) enraged the audiences.
The theme song to Billy Jack, "One Tin Soldier," was everywhere for a spell.
I really liked One Tin Soldier until I thought about it. “So they killed the mountain people” and discovered a note that said “Peace on Earth.” I’m sure that note really impressed the heck out of the disappointed butchers who had massacred them.
Your mention of Easy Rider reminds me of ElectraGlide in Blue (whose shocking ending is often seen as an "answer" to Easy Rider), and my mention of ElectraGlide in Blue reminds me of Terry Kath's closing song "TELL ME" (which is my answer to "One Tin Soldier").
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(I hope Bob doesn't read this or he will have apoplexy.)
Eh, we all have our dark secrets.
Like every other kid in the 70s, I saw Billy Jack
Like every other 70s kid but me. To this day, I have never seen any of the Billy Jack movies, although of course, I was aware of their existence. I mostly know the character as the inspiration for the in-ring persona of professional wrestler William Albert Haynes III, who wrestled as "Billy Jack Haynes" from 1982 to 1996. Haynes, who was known for being short-tempered and violent in and out of the ring, is currently in custody for allegedly murdering his wife.
The theme song to Billy Jack, "One Tin Soldier," was everywhere for a spell.
It was in frequent rotation in the "Folk Masses" in our parish that my older sister played guitar in.
Billy Jack Haynes
I only read the MAD parody!
Like every other 70s kid but me.
It was every other kid who saw it.
Over the weekend I watched Sinners (DVD from the library). It was excellent, although maybe not as great as I had been hearing. As a musician who plays blues I naturally got a kick out of the way blues music was integral to the story. When it turns into a vampire story, it goes hard right to the end (nice little blues coda at the end, too). It's not an entirely original concept, either: it reminded me a lot of From Dusk Till Dawn.
You might want to check out one of my favorite podcasts: The Next Picture Show. They pair a current release with a classic movie to put it in historical context and tease out the similarities and differences between the films. They paired Sinners with From Dusk Till Dawn a couple months ago. I would have liked to have heard them pair it with O Brother Where Art Thou -- another movie full of music and set in the old south. (Although with Christopher Nolan's The Oddessy coming up, I doubt it will go undiscussed for long.)
Their current combo is comparing Superman: The Movie to the current model. My all-time favorite pairing was comparing Finding Dory to Memento.
Cool! I may have to dig up the Memento one.
Enjoy! Two other comics-related pairings to look out for: Suicide Squad (unfortunately, I think it's the first one) and The Dirty Dozen, and the WWI-set Wonder Woman and Paths of Glory.
JD DeLuzio said:
Born Losers revisits the plot of The Wild One with Billy Jack thrown in to deal with the thugs. Billy Jack desperately wants to be a message film. Unable to decide upon one timely message, they throw all of them in.
I think I had seen Billy Jack and The Trial of Billy Jack before I saw Born Losers. In Born Losers he wears a white cowboy hat, which was a little jarring. I don’t think (I may be wrong) that he is said to have been a Green Beret in the later movies. In Born Losers he fires a magic bullet which hits between the eyes of the gang leader, splitting his sunglasses. He's killed, but I don’t think there was any damage to his head.
Both movies overuse rape as a plot device.
I think this writing is intended to get the audience to really hate the bad guys.
Both films lean anti-authority, though both feature at least one noble cop who respects and assists Billy.
I also own the four-movie DVD set. Without rewatching, I don’t remember any noble cop, only murderous evil ones, particularly in The Trial of Billy Jack, shooting down unarmed hippies. The Trial of… (and Easy Rider before it) enraged the audiences.
The theme song to Billy Jack, "One Tin Soldier," was everywhere for a spell.
I really liked One Tin Soldier until I thought about it. “So they killed the mountain people” and discovered a note that said “Peace on Earth.” I’m sure that note really impressed the heck out of the disappointed butchers who had massacred them.
Your mention of Easy Rider reminds me of ElectraGlide in Blue (whose shocking ending is often seen as an "answer" to Easy Rider), and my mention of ElectraGlide in Blue reminds me of Terry Kath's closing song "TELL ME" (which is my answer to "One Tin Soldier").
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