p e n g u i n d e v i l

Yes, it is catch-up time again (super twice catch-up, as I wrote this draft in 2012 and didn’t publish it until 2019)…

In brief…



Desperate Man Blues…
A Documentary about Joe Bussard, a record collector since way back with an enormous and unique collection of old americana records. The film is a fascinating tale of the history of record collecting and the appreciation of the music, starting long before it was considered collectible. He discusses how he started collecting records in the South of the 1950’s, a time in which these were considered pretty worthless by most. He would just stop by people’s houses looking for unwanted records and he could get 400-500 in a day. But, even more so than his stories, some of the high points of this movie are the many times when he plays some of the great things from his collection: Charlie Patton, Dave Macon, Jimmie Rodgers, film of Son House (I’ve never been a big fan of Son House, but watching him play guitar is pretty amazing), Clarence Ashley, and even an original Robert Johnson record!



Bussard is quite charismatic in a way as he is an incredibly enthusiastic fellow whose collection is not only fascinating, what with the old blues, bluegrass and jazz records from the 20’s and 30’s, but is also an important archive of American music, one which he wants to share… Even to the extent that, as a teenager, he started a radio station in his house, until the FCC came and visited him and shut him down.

He also quite opinionated, voicing such sentiments as: “rock is a cancer of music, it killed everything.” and “1933 was the last jazz record. 1955 was the last country record”. Sentiments that may be a bit hard to take at face value but, considering the source, one assumes that there must be some merit to the opinion. All in all, I would say a must see movie for anyone who is serious about classic american music or record collecting. Just a great story.

Un Flic.
Another Melville classic! This 1972 crime caper has everyone’s favorite frenchman, Alain Delon, working on the side of the law (for once…) to track down a notorious bank robber, and nightclub owner, played by Richard Crenna.

It starts right off with a memorable scene of four men in a Plymouth in the lead up to a bank robbery on a rainy waterfront street. Everything is tinged blue and quiet. In fact, I find the whole movie to feel quiet and memorable. Through the movie we quietly follow the thieves as they go about trying to avoid being caught by the flic on their tail. And, no matter how it ends up for them, I find it to be very nice to watch it unfold … Who needs gratuitous gore and scary music when you’ve got class and style?



Predator
We’re all gonna die…

Yes, it’s a classic, but you have to make it through the first ten minutes, where we are treated to a slow moving festival of a group of super dudes going comically out of their way to look as macho as possible (while we also get assaulted with a slew of some of the worst one-liner’s that have ever graced the silver screen) as they are flying into the jungle in a helicopter. Once they get on the ground though, the situation improves dramatically… Okay, the stuff with Carl and Arnold is pretty bad so maybe once they get into the jungle the situation, at least for us lucky movie goers, improves dramatically.

Oh, but the story? Well, for anyone who doesn’t know, a bunch of macho dudes (Arnold, The Body Ventura, Sonny Landham, Bill Duke!) are flown into the jungle on a mission to rescue some diplomats downed behind enemy lines. Of course, as with anything involving the government, that story is just a cover up. They get joined by Carl Weathers and run off into the jungle where they start getting pursued by an invisible super-hunter from outerspace. This hunter, or predator shall I say, makes them look pretty silly as he picks them off with his cool alien technology, including some classic ridiculous scenes such as when Mack just starts shooting into the jungle, then he is joined by everybody else shooting and they shoot hundreds of rounds into the same little area mowing down tress. Yes, it’s a dramatic bit, but it is safe to know that all of these guys know that if there was anything there it would have been taken out early in the fireflow and that most of that time they had just been wasting ammunition for dramatic macho sense.

With his usual smarmy attitude, old style MTV t-shirt and a gun that is like a lawnmower cannon against the jungle, The Body was one of the most entertaining aspects of the movie. However, the most memorable scenes involve Bill Duke and Sonny. Anyway, what the hell can you say? It’s a classic.