Comment Archives: stories: Arts and Culture: Country Life
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
I remember the movie quite well, but I also remember feeling non-plussed about its ending. Spike Lee had the confounding knack of writing and visualizing great set-up premises and narratives for his films, but that initial energy and passion always seemed to drain away into an abrupt and unsatisfactory epilogue. It was as if he spent so much of himself getting those two qualities spilt on the celluloid that he was too drained to then take the proper amount of time needed to decompress and think of a coherent way to wrap up the whole experience.
Still, Hollyweird badly needs, and sorely misses, the man's serious and fresh directorial product between the mid-1980s' up to 'Bambozzled'.
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
@BenP: Good point about the music. That tension — of evenly matched forces in counterbalance or conflict — runs all the way through the movie: Martin and Malcolm, Mookie and Da Mayor, Love and Hate on Radio Raheem's fists, even in the movie's very last shot.
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
"Sal, I'm boycottin' your fat pasta ass."
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
Haw! Love it.
"It ain't never too hot or never too cold for fuckin'!"
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
"You wanna boycott someone? You ought to start with the goddamn barber that fucked up your head." Robin Harris, you are missed.
Re: “Congratulations, Acklen Post Office — You're One of America's Quirkiest Post Offices”
What's funny about the photos in Acklen is that they started hanging them in the late 80s, stopped a loooong time ago, and most of the people pictured weren't famous THEN.
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
"Ahmad, your Jordans are DOGGED!"
One of the funniest scenes in a movie ever, a close second to the part with the guys wondering what kind of a woman would name her child 'Sweet Dick Willie', hahaha...I'm also partial to "Where's my High Life? I NEED my High Life!" and "EXTRA CHEESE IS TWO DOLLAS!"
I think this movie is responsible for more of the quoted lines in my canon than even The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Big Lebowski...such a classic!
Re: “Local Filmmakers' A Measure of the Sin Tonight at Belcourt”
So what did you think of the movie?
Re: “Local Filmmakers' A Measure of the Sin Tonight at Belcourt”
A story about a man who exploits women being directed by a man who exploited his actors and thus turned what could have been a decent tale into just another a poor excuse for gratuitous nudity that will likely be soon forgotten. At least thirty of those I hope to never see again minutes should not have survived the final cut! Wedding’s lack of screenwriting talent and vision, plus careless editing, ruined this film.
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
That's a vivid, and to me accurate, description of the film, Pink.
Another brilliant aspect of Spike Lee's direction is the use of the Bill Lee score vs the hip hop/New Jack Swing soundtrack, where the music is used diagetically (car radios, for instance, but most critically Radio Raheem's boombox). Spike Lee's use of music is well-known, and to some, annoying, like when he brings the score way up. But to go from the sound of the streets to Bill Lee and Winston Marsalis' jazz score adds to the the powerful tension in the movie.
Re: “Hot Type: Martin Brady on Why The Columnist Matters for Local Theater”
Can't wait — I'm going Tuesday. Alford's great. I've never forgotten the production of A DOLL'S HOUSE that he and Denice Hicks did — it made me completely reevaluate a play I'd always found airless, stodgy and melodramatic.
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
Great post, Ben P. I saw it at the Hickory Hollow mall cinema, and I've never forgotten the tension in the racially mixed audience: it built up to that famous sequence of characters of various ethnicities spewing slurs directly into the camera, followed by Mister Senor Love Daddy's impassioned appeal to decency. The power of clearing the air has never been felt more forcefully.
I've also never forgotten walking around NYC in summer heat after the movie's release and seeing the movie's T-shirt everywhere, like a badge of solidarity. If anyone reading this thread hasn't seen the film, you're missing one of the great American movies — one you should by all means see with as big an audience as possible.
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
Indicator that you are getting old: when the cinema where you saw a film in its first run is now an art house and brings the same film back as a classic.
I can even date exactly when I saw this, thanks to the internet: July 21, 1989, because we went right from the Belcourt to watch the Mike Tyson vs Carl Williams fight.
Re: “Congratulations, Acklen Post Office — You're One of America's Quirkiest Post Offices”
I think the Belle Meade post office has celebrity photos as well. It's been a while since I've been, but I seem to remember that (and thinking #yasni).
Re: “Congratulations, Acklen Post Office — You're One of America's Quirkiest Post Offices”
I live in the Acklen PO zone, and, while their lobby may be lots of fun, the carriers are insane. One Saturday morning, we saw a carrier scream at one of our neighbors. It was so blatantly crazy and unprofessional that we were actually as impressed as we were terrified.
To this day, our household discussions often end with "MIND YOUR BUSINESS AND WALK YOUR DOG!" or "Lady, you better watch yourself. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF DAY I'M HAVING!"
(It all started because the postman parked her truck in a lane of traffic, instead of 10 feet down the street in a parking spot, and the neighbor suggested that she pull forward 10 feet.)
Good times. Go Uncle Sam.
Also, in the interest of full disclosure and as a disclaimer of potential bias, my regular carrier tramples through my flower garden EVERY DAMN DAY and gets muddy tracks everywhere.
Re: “Hot Type: Martin Brady on Why The Columnist Matters for Local Theater”
Terrific play, tour de force performance by Alford. See this thing. Kudos Tennessee Rep.
Re: “'Gangsters': A Second Series of Drawings From Those Darlins' Jessi Zazu”
Bought both sets! Fantastic!
Re: “Vince & Amy, Renée Fleming to the Rescue in Cash-Strapped Nashville Symphony's 2013-14 Season”
No they do not ..
Re: “Vince & Amy, Renée Fleming to the Rescue in Cash-Strapped Nashville Symphony's 2013-14 Season”
I wish I was able to of seen it
Re: “Fight the Power: Do the Right Thing with Frank Dobson Saturday at Belcourt”
His endings often kind of trail off, but even in his messiest recent movies, there's always something of interest. Haven't the foggiest clue what to expect from his OLDBOY remake — I thought his direction was pretty much wasted on INSIDE MAN, but still about the only thing of interest in it.