September 11 - Brian's Song(2001)

This film has a scene that happens today – September 11. I hope you will enjoy this film while watching it tonight.

BRIAN’S SONG(2001)

Brian Piccolo and African-American Gale Sayers meet at the Chicago Bear’s 1965 Training Camp. They rub each other the wrong way as Piccolo thinks Sayers is arrogant, while Sayers thinks Piccolo is a guy who tries to get by on personality, not talent. Sayers and Piccolo are directed to start rooming together. On September 11, 1966, [17:10 to 20:16] Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers play in the Bears season opener against the Detroit Lions. Sale wins the Rookie of the Year award. Sayers is hurt in a game and wants to give up but Piccolo won’t let him, supervising Sayers rehabilitation in the off-season. Piccolo had replaced Sayers during the last five games of the season. Piccolo is made a fullback, but he keeps losing weight and develops a persistent cough. He is removed as a starter. Piccolo learns he has embryonal cell carcinoma. He undergoes several surgeries. Piccolo bravely refuses to yield to the disease and is supported by his wife and Sayers. When Sayers wins the George S. Halas trophy for most courageous player, he tells the crowd the award should have gone to Piccolo. Piccolo dies from cancer. 

A watchable sports bio. Not quite as maudlin as the original, in this one the order of events has been altered for “dramatic purposes”. Still a compelling story of courage on and off the field.

The film says it’s “opening Day” at 17:11 and the opening day game was against Detroit on this date in 1966 as per The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia ed by Pete Palmer, Ken Pullis and Sean Lahman (Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 2006) at page 915

Producer – John M. Eckert and Dave Mace

Director - John Gray

Screenplay – John Gray and Allen Clare

Runtime – 1 hour 28 minutes

Released – December 2, 2001

Starring –

Sean Maher as Brian Piccolo

Mekhi Phifer as Gale Sayers

Paula Cale as Joy Piccolo

Elise Neal as Linda Sayers

Ben Gazzara as Coach Halas

 

September 10 - Flight of the Intruder

This is a movie with a scene that happens today – September 10. I hope you will enjoy this film while watching it tonight.

FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER

On September 10, 1972 [1:30 to 11:52] Lt. Jake Grafton and his bombardier Morgan McPherson are flying their A-6 bomber on a mission over North Vietnam. They hit their target, but on the way back to the USS Independence,  Morgan is hit by a one-in-a-million rifle shot and dies from loss of blood by the time they reach the carrier. “Tiger” Cole comes on board as Morgan’s replacement. Cole, Grafton and two other officers are sent to Subic Bay on R & R to get Grafton’s mind off Morgan’s death. Grafton goes to see Morgan’s widow, but she has already left. He meets Callie Joy, who is packing yje widow’s belongings for her. Callie has a brief affair with Grafton. Cole and Grafton go on a SAM suppression mission where they are chased by a MIG fighter and have an engine flameout. Grafton wants to bomb Hanoi, which is not allowed, but Cole says no. Then Boxman, another pilot is shot down. Cole tells Grafton that he had been shot down and his co-pilot was killed by the Vietnamese. Cole now suggests they bomb SAM city, a missile depot in the heart of the city. They get maps showing its location. On a mission to bomb a power plant, they continue on and even though it takes two bomb runs they hit and destroy SAM city. On their return the Navy announces it intends to court-martial them, but drops the charges as days later the President orders Hanoi to be bombed. Now the whole squadron flies SAM suppression missions. Camparelli is forced to make a crash landing and is injured. Cole and Grafton are shot down and separated. Grafton makes it to Camparelli. Cole tries to evade, but is mortally wounded and calls an air strike on his location, killing him and many Vietnamese.   Grafton is successful in getting himself and Camparelli to the rescue copter and out. Grafton is promoted to Captain.    

Has some good aerial combat sequences. A war movie with a romance grafted on. The stortyline seems somewhat clichéd of the guy who takes the war into his own hands after his pal is killed.    

Date given in film at 3:12

Producer - Brian Frankish

Director - John Milius

Screenplay - Robert Dillon and David Shaber

Runtime – 1 hour 55 minutes

Released - January 18, 1991

Starring –

Danny Glover as Cmdr. Frank “Dooke” Camparelli

Willem Dafoe as Lt. Cmdr. Virgil “Tiger” Cole

Brad Johnson  as Lt. Jake “Cool Hand” Grafton

Rosanna Arquette as Callie Joy

Tom Sizemore as Boxman

September 9 - I Am Legend

This movie has a scene that happens today – September 9. I hope you will enjoy this movie and watch it tonight.

I AM LEGEND

A supposed cure for cancer based on genetically modifying the measles virus goes awry, killing 90% of humanity and turning 90% of those left alive into vampire like Darkseekers, who are  violent, sunlight shunning beings who try to kill any remaining normal humans. Robert Neville is a military virologist who witnessed the death of his wife and daughter during the attempt to seal off Manhattan Island. He chose to stay behind and three years later scrounges for food amid the ruins with his dog, Sam. He also conducts experiments towards finding a cure for KV, as the disease is called. He uses animals and captured Darkseekers. One day Neville is caught in a snare and only escapes at dusk, but he is attacked by group of infected dogs. Sam is bitten and later dies. Blinded with rage Neville attacks a group of Darkseekers, but is overwhelmed and is only saved by being rescued by Anna and Ethan, two normals. She says she is going to the safe zone in Vermont, but Neville expresses doubt such a place exists. Unfortunately Anna did not take the precautions Neville usually did to hide his scent and on September 9, 2012 [1:17:33 to 1:29:47] the Darkseekers find and attack Neville’s house. They retreat to his basement lab and discover that his latest vaccine has worked on a captured Darkseeker. He draws some of her anti-body containing blood and sends Anna and Ethan out through a tunnel. Neville then blows up himself and the attacking Darkseekers. Anna and Ethan reached the safe zone, where the fight to cure the rest of humanity begins. 

This is the third time this story has been told, but this version is as good, if not better than the other two. Lots of good action sequences. A good script keeps you on the edge of your seat. 

Date given in film at 1:13:15

Producer - Akiva Goldsman, James Lassiter, David Heyman and Neal H. Moritz

Director  - Francis Lawrence

Screenplay - Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman

Runtime -  1 hour 40 minutes

Released – December 14, 2007

Starring –

Will Smith as Dr. Robert Neville

Alice Braga as Anna Montez

Charlie Tahan as Ethan

Emma Thompson as Dr. Alice Krippin

Salli Richardson as Zoe Neville

Willow Smith as Marley Neville

September 8 - MacArthur

This movie has a scene that happens today – September 8.  I hope you will enjoy this film while watching it tonight.  

MACARTHUR  

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur is giving a speech at West Point. He thinks back on his career.  After the Japanese attack on the Philippines he moves his headquarters to Corregidor. He is later ordered to go to Australia and says “I shall return”. He refuses to countenance any further withdrawals and insists on carrying the war to New Guinea. MacArthur’s staff carries on a full scale press offensive promoting him. He proposes a campaign of by-passing Japanese strong points and cutting them off from supplies.  At a meeting at Pearl Harbor, MacArthur forcefully presses for an early invasion of the Philippines. He is given permission to invade the islands and orders a landing on Leyte. He has a highly publized landing and advances to the front lines, where he learns he’s gotten his fifth star. Truman becomes president and orders the atomic bombing of Japan. MacArthur presides at the Japanese surrender. On September 8, 1945 [1:18:29 to 1:20:11] MacArthur arrives in Tokyo to take over as occupation leader. He pushes a progressive governmental, economic and social agenda. MacArthur prevents a Soviet move to occupy part of Japan. Then the North Koreans attack the South and MacArthur organizes the resistance. He proposes and carries out a landing at Inchon behind the lines and carries the war into the north. At Wake Island he tells Truman that the chances of a Chinese invasion is minimal. The Chinese do attack and after he makes public statements contrary to US policy, Truman relieves him of command. He receives a hero’s welcome on his return, but soon fades into obscurity.   

A decent bio. However it doesn’t cover any of Macarthur’s pre-World War II biography. It is balanced and avoids being either a coronation or a smear job.

The Years of MacArthur: Triumph and Disaster by D. Clayton James (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1985) t page 4 gives the date of his arrival

Producer - Frank McCarthy

Director - Joseph Sargent

Screenplay - Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins

Runtime – 2 hours 10 minutes

Released – July 15, 1977

Starring –

Gregory Peck as General of the Army Douglas MacArthur

Ed Flanders as President Harry S. Truman

Dan O'Herlihy as President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Ivan Bonar as Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland

Ward Costello as General of the Army George C. Marshall

Nicolas Coster as Colonel Sidney Huff

Marj Dusay as Mrs. Jean MacArthur

Art Fleming as William Averell Harriman

Russell Johnson as Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King

Sandy Kenyon as Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright

Robert Mandan as Representative Martin

Allan Miller as Colonel LeGrande A. Diller

Dick O'Neill as Colonel Whitney

Addison Powell as Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

September 7 - The Lost Weekend

This movie has a scene that happens today – September 7. I hope you will enjoy this movie while watching it tonight.

THE LOST WEEKEND

Don Birnam and his brother Wick are getting set to go to the country for the weekend. Don is a drunk who has been on the wagon for ten days. When his girlfriend Helen shows up he convinces Wick to take her to a concert to which someone has given her two tickets. Wick thinks he has found all of Don’s hidden liquor and left him with no money to buy any, so it’s okay to leave him alone. However, Don steals the money Wick left to pay the cleaning lady. He immediately goes out to a bar to buy liquor. Wick and Helen return and find Don gone. Wick says he’s fed up and leaves for the country. Don returns to his apartment and sneaks in, dodging Wick and Helen. The next morning, on September 7, 1945[22:04 to 28:40, 36:50 – 38:00, 49:50 – 59:07] he finds a note pinned to his door from Helen asking him to call her. Instead Don returns to the bar. He tells the bartender how he met Helen three years before at the opera. He and Helen start dating and Don stops drinking for a while because he’s so in love with her. When her parents come to New York to meet him, he overhears them discussing him. The anxiety of this causes him to start drinking again, but he confesses his alcohol problem to her. He reveals he’s suffering from severe self doubt and he tries to scare Helen off, but she won’t go.  Don leaves the bar and goes home to work on his novel. However, the need for alcohol gets to him. He can’t find the bottle he hid last night. He goes out to a bar and steals a woman’s purse to get money to pay the bar tab. She discovers the theft, but seeing he’s a drunk does not press charges.  Back at his apartment he accidentally finds the bottle he hid and drinks it all. The next morning he wakes to the phone ringing, but he ignores it and goes out to pawn his typewriter to get money for booze. He can’t, as all the pawn shops are closed since it’s Yom Kippur. He meets Gloria who was attracted to him yesterday and she gives him some money. He falls down stairs and is knocked out. He wakes up the next day in the hospital detox ward. He manages to escape. Helen, who spent the night in the hallway outside Don’s apartment is awakened by the landlady and leaves. Don steals a bottle of whiskey from a store. Back at his apartment he drinks the whole bottle while ignoring the phone. He starts to hallucinate. The landlady hears his screams and calls Helen. She stays in the apartment overnight. In the morning he runs away with her coat and pawns it in exchange for a gun.  Helen tries to get the gun from him before he can kill himself. He wrestles it from her. The barkeep arrives and returns his typewriter that he left in the bar. She convinces Don to start writing his novel about his ‘Lost Weekend’.

One of the most realistic accounts of addiction ever filmed. Don will lie, cheat and steal to get alcohol. Fortunately for him he has at least one person who cares for him. Hopefully, he will be able to make a recovery.   

At 1:04:29 he’s told it’s Saturday and on the same day at 1:06:07 that it’s Yom Kippur. This happened in 1945, when the date of Yom Kippur was Saturday, September 8. So the day before is the seventh.

Producer - Charles Brackett

Director - Billy Wilder

Screenplay - Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder

Awards – The film won the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor(Milland) and Best

                 Screenplay Oscars. It was also nominated for the Best Black and White

                 Cinematography, Best Music Score and Best Film Editing at the 18^th Academy

                  Awards.

Runtime – 1 hour 39 minutes

Released – November 16, 1945

Starring –

Ray Milland as Don Birnam

Jane Wyman as Helen St. James

Phillip Terry as Wick Birnam

Howard Da Silva as Nat

Doris Dowling as Gloria

Frank Faylen as 'Bim' Nolan

Mary Young as Mrs. Deveridge

Anita Bolster as Mrs. Foley

Lillian Fontaine as Mrs. St. James

Frank Orth as Opera cloak room attendant

Lewis L. Russell as Mr. St. James

September 6 - The Producers (1968)

This is a movie with a scene that happens today – September 6. I hope you will enjoy this film while watching it tonight.

THE PRODUCERS(1968)

Max Bialystock is a Broadway producer who has fallen on hard times, being reduced to seducing little old ladies so they will invest in his productions. Nerdish accountant Leo Bloom arrives to do his books and discovers that Max raised two thousand more on his last play than he needed, which is fraud. Max persuades Leo to cover this up. Leo has an idea that if someone raised much more than he needed for a play that flopped, the producer could keep all the extra cash. Max immediately decides to put this plan into action with Leo as his partner. After reading many, many terrible scripts, the two settle on Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden.   They persuade the insane ex-Nazi author Franz Liebkind to sell them the  rights to the script. Max sells 25, 000% of the play to his little old ladies and hires an attractive  Swedish receptionist who can’t speak English. They hire the cross-dressing Roger DeBris as the director. On September 6, 1967 [49:53 to 57:14] auditions are held for Springtime for Hitler. Lorenzo St. DuBois, a hippie who wandered in by accident is signed on to play Hitler. The show seems doomed to fail, but the audience takes the play as a satire and it is a big hit. Liedkind tries to kill Max and Leo, angry how they presented his story. Eventually he helps them try to blow up the theater in order to stop the show. The are caught, tried, convicted and sent to prison where they oversell the musical they produce with the prisoners called Prisoners of Love.  

A hilarious old time comedy. That is the film is funny because of the dialogue, not because of overuse of sexual innuendo or gross out sight gags. Still a very funny movie.

Date given in Variety at 49:47 -50

Producer - Sidney Glazier

Director - Mel Brooks

Screenplay - Mel Brooks

Awards – The film won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar. The movie was also nominated for the Best Supporting Actor(Wilder) at the 41^st Academy Awards.

Runtime – 1 hour 28 minutes

Released - March 18, 1968

Starring –

Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock

Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom

Dick Shawn as Lorenzo St. DuBois (L.S.D.)

Kenneth Mars as Franz Liebkind

Lee Meredith as Ulla

Estelle Winwood as "Hold Me! Touch Me!"

Christopher Hewett as Roger De Bris

Andreas Voutsinas as Carmen Ghia

Renée Taylor as the actor playing Eva Braun

Barney Martin as the actor playing Hermann Göring

Bill Macy as the foreman of the jury

William Hickey as the drunk in the bar

Madelyn Cates  as apartment building concierge

September 5 - The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)

This is a movie with a scene that happens today – September 5. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK (1998)

King Louis XIV of France summons Aramis, formerly one of the famed Three Musketeers, and now a priest, to a meeting. The King asks Aramis to find the secret leader of the Jesuits in France and kill him. The Jesuits have been critical of the king’s wars that are causing starvation and riots in France. Aramis agrees. Raoul, the son of Athos, another of the Three Musketeers, intends to propose to Christine, but she catches the King’s eye and Raoul is sent to the front, where he is killed. Athos swears vengeance. After Louis provides for medical aid to Christine’s mother and sister, she becomes his mistress. Aramis, Porthos, Athos and D’Artagnan meet in secret, where Aramis reveals he’s the secret leader of the Jesuits and proposes to depose the king. D’Artagnan, now head of the royal musketeers, refuses to join this plot. The other three visit an island prison, rescuing an inmate who wears an iron mask, disguising his escape by convincing the jailers he is dead. The prisoner looks just like the king. Aramis reveals that on September 5, 1638 [54:58 to 55:07] the  French Queen, Anne of Austria had twins, Louis, who is now the King and Philippe, the Man in the Iron Mask. The twin’s father, Louis XIII had Philippe hidden away and later Louis XIV orders him to wear the iron mask. Philippe agrees to replace his brother. When Christine confesses to Louis that she still loves Raoul and not him, he throws her out.  During a fancy court masque, the three musketeers make the switch. However, Phillipe’s unusually kind actions alert D’Artagnan, so he confronts them and captures Phillipe, while the three musketeers escape. Phillipe says he prefers death to the mask, so Louis orders it put back on. Christine kills herself in despair. The Three Musketeers enter the Bastille to free Philippe, but Louis follows D’Artagnan, who is helping them and blocks their escape route.  Philippe offers to give himself up for their lives, but D’Artagnan reveals he is actually the twins father and won’t let him. The five men charge the King’s troops, who fire blindly and so not one of the three musketeers is killed or seriously hurt. Louis tries to stab Philippe, but instead kills D’Artagnan who jumps between them. Lt. Andre, D’Artagnan’s subordinate is so enraged at his death that he aids the others in switching Louis and Philippe again.  Louis, now wearing the mask is sent off to prison and later exile. Philippe rules as king, with Aramis, Athos and Porthos as his advisors.

A fairly decent swashbuckler. Plenty of action and a decent plot. DiCaprio does a good job of creating two different characters in this film.

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser (Nan A. Talese, New York, 2006) at page 3 gives his birth date

Producer - Randall Wallace and Russell Smith

Director - Randall Wallace

Screenplay - Randall Wallace

Runtime – 2 hours 12 minutes

Released – March 13, 1998

Starring –

Leonardo DiCaprio as Louis XIV/Philippe

Jeremy Irons as Aramis

John Malkovich as Athos

Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan

Gérard Depardieu as Porthos

Anne Parillaud as Queen Mother Anne of Austria

Judith Godrèche as Christine Bellefort

Peter Sarsgaard as Raoul

Edward Atterton as Lieutenant Andre

Hugh Laurie as Pierre, Advisor to King Louis XIV

David Lowe as Advisor to King Louis XIV