Entering this year I decided I needed to read more books by female authors. When I actually considered  the situation, I realized that, apart from a zillion Agatha Christies, I'd read very few books written by women. Surely less than 10% of all books read, maybe less than 5%, were by women. And so far this year, I've made a decent dent in the problem. A Jane Austen here, a George Eliot there, a great novel by Maggie O'Farrell, and a few others. Not bad.

But now I'm thinking that I need to read more western novels. As in, you know, cowboys and Indians and bad guys stuff.  I can only remember reading 5 westerns ever, though I might be forgetting one or two. And the average quality of those 5 is extremely high.

The least of them is BLAZING GUNS ON THE CHISHOLM TRAIL by Borden Chase. It's actually quite good, and was the basis for the classic film RED RIVER. But still, good as it is, it's the least of this small selection I've read.

Next would be SHANE by Jack Schaefer. Another excellent novel which spawned an even better movie.

The last three I hesitate to separate or rank in any way. All three are superb. Classics. They are...

THE OX-BOW INCIDENT by Walter Van Tilburg Clark.  Powerful, beautiful, and so damn depressing. Seed for yet another great movie.

TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis. This one gave us two terrific movies, both of which were smart enough to retain much of Portis's dialogue. 

LONESOME DOVE by Larry McMurtry. This could "only" lead to a TV miniseries, but that was the right way to go. There's a lot of story in that massive stack of pages.

All these are great. I think TRUE GRIT and LONESOME DOVE, at least, are among the very best novels--of any type--that I've ever read.

So, yeah, based on this history, I should read more westerns. Unfortunately, the preponderance of male authors is probably more dominant in this genre than any other so I may have to double up on the Jane Austen to balance things.

 Here we have this month's candidate for Greatest Movie Close-Up Ever.

Of course, it helps a great deal that Bogie's close-up follows immediately after this...

 

Here's a scoop for you-- Stephen King has written a lot of books!  I know! Who would have guessed?

Just how many he's written is not so clear. He's written, or co-written, 63 novels. I think. And he has several short story collections, a couple of non-fictions, other stuff. It's the other stuff that brings some questions.

I mean...CREEPSHOW? Is that a book? He did some rewriting on THE GUNSLINGER after it was first published, so does that make it two books?  For that matter, does THE STAND count as one, two, or maybe even three books?  Of course, CHARLIE THE CHOO-CHOO is a big ol' bucket of arguments.

But my count, which is the only one that matters to me, is that Stephen King has written 83 books, total. You can have your own number, but I'm going with 83.

Just a couple of days ago, I finally finished reading THE DARK TOWER saga, by conquering, uhh, THE DARK TOWER. This means that I have now read all 83 King books.

Of course, King has another book (a short story collection), coming in the Spring and I'll read it right away. I mean, now that I've conquered the mountain top, I don't care to be knocked off.

I'm not going to get into best and worst and suchlike. Not now. Maybe later. For now, I'll just bask in the glory of having read all them big ol' books.

And thank you, Mr. King.

 A Great Movie Scene

Al Pacino, to modern eyes, is the raggedy old guy who talks too loud and needs a haircut. To those a few years older he’s the “HOO-YAH” guy. But when he came into the movies, he was subtlety personified. 

Pacino’s quiet, controlled, endearing-then-terrifying performance is the backbone of one of the greatest of all movies, THE GODFATHER. For me, as for most people, Coppola’s masterpiece has always been about Marlon Brando, first and foremost. And why not? Brando, arguably the greatest of actors, was perfection. But Vito fades and dies, and Michael Corleone comes to the front. Pacino was ready for his moment.

The movie is full of great scenes. Shoot, it’s nothing but great scenes. But my personal favorite moment in the movie, and one of my favorite moments from any movie, is all Pacino.

Michael is meeting with the bad guys (wait! Aren’t they all bad guys?) Sollozzo and McCluskey at a small, “family” restaurant in the Bronx. As instructed by old hand Clemenza, Michael asks permission to visit the bathroom, retrieves the pistol hidden behind the toilet tank, and returns to the table. 

Clemenza had clearly and repeatedly instructed Michael on what to do. Once returned from the bathroom, he is to immediately shoot both baddies twice in the head, drop the gun, and slowly walk out of the restaurant. Instead, he returns to the table, sits and stalls while Sollozzo goes on talking.

In the earlier scene when Michael had proposed this shooting, he had been calm and easy. “It’s just business, Sonny.” Now, though, at the crucial moment, he pauses. His reasons are all over his face. We can read it in his eyes. Is he really going to assassinate two men? Is this really going to happen? 

I think this silent moment is the greatest acting Pacino ever did. If we were thinking a moment before “why hasn’t he shot them yet?”, now we know why. We feel it with him. What will he do? What would WE do? The tension is overwhelming. Coppola keeps the camera on Pacino’s face, no movement, no chicanery. Pacino--or rather Michael--genuinely lives the moment and takes us with him. When the murders occur, despite the violence and blood, we breathe a sigh of relief, not just that the action is past, but also that Michael’s internal struggles have ended. 

It’s a great, great scene.

BEST MOVIES OF A YEAR

    Back in the early ‘70s, Peter Bogdanovich wrote an article on the best movies of the year. The year in question was 1939. It was Bogdanovich’s feeling that a movie couldn’t truly be judged till 20 or 30 years had passed. It took that long, he thought, for the measured judgments of time to form a worthwhile opinion. In general I agree with the man. Too many movies are under- or over-valued at first blush. But… I also think that the reactions to the film when it’s new is worth consideration. I mean, it may not be a movie for the ages, but if it satisfies the audience for which it was made, at the time it was made, that’s not a small thing.

    Anyway, in the Bogdanovich line, I’ve decided here at the end of 2023, to zip back 25 years and offer up my choices for the Best Movies of The Year. The Best Movies of the Year 1998, that is.

    This will not be a full Oscar-style slate of awards, just a list of the best pictures and maybe a few acting nods. This is based entirely on movies released in the U.S. in 1998. So if I overlook your choice-- that masterpiece on the romance between two Bulgarian sewer workers--well, maybe next year.

THE BEST PICTURES OF 1998 (in no special order)

THE BIG LEBOWSKI

A BUG’S LIFE

THE CELEBRATION

ELIZABETH

GODS AND MONSTERS

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

LIVE FLESH

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

SONATINE

THE TRUMAN SHOW

I know, I know, that’s an unwieldy 11. I should make it just the 10 Best. But I don’t want to. And it’s my list, so there…

Honorable Mention

DARK CITY

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

FIREWORKS

A TASTE OF CHERRY

WAKING NED DEVINE

Performances of note

Jeff Bridges, John Goodman   THE BIG LEBOWSKI

Jim Carrey, Ed Harris    THE TRUMAN SHOW

Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser     GODS AND MONSTERS

Nick Nolte     AFFLICTION

Bill Nighy      STILL CRAZY

Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench, Geoffrey Rush    SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

Cate Blanchett       ELIZABETH

Angela Molina     LIVE FLESH

I just finished reading Maggie O’Farrell’s HAMNET. From all I’d read and heard about this book-- including its prize-winning ways-- I figured I’d be reading a good book. Maybe a great one. But with all that baggage, and knowing we were dealing with ‘literary fiction’ I also feared that reading it might be a bit of a chore. I mean, I’ve read ‘classics’ before, lots of ‘em. They tend to be clearly worthy of their reputations…but not easy. Not a page-turner. Not a zippy mystery from Michael Connelly or a tense must-finish from Stephen King. 

So I expected a good book. I feared a high-falutin’ slog. Expectations were more than met, fears soon evaporated.

For the first two-thirds of the book, 200 pages or thereabouts, I thought “good book. Very interesting, well-written, tells its story very well, yeah, good.” And I was satisfied. Not a great book (at that point), but certainly a good, readable, interesting novel. 

Then, with about a third of book to go, magic happened. The last 100 pages of HAMNET are astonishing. O’Farrell is practicing some sort of sorcery here. It becomes a masterpiece, about as fine a piece of writing as I’ve ever had the pleasure to read.

It wouldn’t be called “fun” reading, however. It’s a heartbreaking record of grief, a litany of agony, brilliantly told, which somehow manages an uplifting ending. 

Yeah. One of the best things I’ve ever read.

 

For years I collected movie quotes. I’d hear a line I loved and I’d immediately write it down and add it to my pages and pages of quotes. In truth, I still collect movie quotes though these days it really has to knock my socks off to make the grade.  For a time I even fancied putting a book together of great movie quotes, but, me being me, nothing came of that. Others have published such books and I don’t think any of them really sold, so no great loss.

But I might as well make use of some of these, since I still am hugely fond of them. These are not the really famous ones. No “We’ll always have Paris” or “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse” or “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the War Room.”  These are lesser known.

None are from truly obscure films, though some are wildly underseen. I won’t tell you the film titles, but I will include a photo from each movie which should make most of them easier, if not always really easy. 

Enjoy.

“Look, Iron Man, if you’re so uptight, take a shower and cool off.”        

“Just think, the next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested.”   

“There’ll be no morning for us.”        

“Think of me as falling out of a window-- forever.  For I am truly fucked.”

“If there were no gods at all I'd still revere them. If there were no Rome, I'd dream of her.”

“I'm a virgin. I'm just not very good at it.” 

“He dreaded the thought of being shot down alone, without a girl to scream out his name.” 

“The only thing standing between you and a watery grave is your wits, and that's not my idea of adequate protection.” 

“I looked for you in my closet.” 

“I will take you places you have never been, I will show you things you have never seen, and I will watch the life run out of you.” 

ANNA KARENINA is, as advertised, a great book. No surprise there. 

One segment in particular grabbed me hard. The chapter in which Kitty is in labor and Levin, the expectant father, is in his own Twilight Zoneish hell of waiting, is simply stunning. And the description of Levin beholding his new son, is a touching, chest-clutching masterpiece. 

“And meanwhile, there at the foot of the bed, in the deft hands of Lizaveta Petrovna, like a small flame over a lamp, wavered the life of a human being who had never existed before and who, with the same right, with the same importance for itself, would live and produce its own kind.”    

Tolstoy has a remarkable ability to locate, isolate, and describe human behavior and human nature in its broadest obviousness and in its most utter invisibility. As Anna disintegrates, Tolstoy takes us inside her deeply troubled head. It’s great stuff. 

But…

...I have to admit, starting with about 200 pages to go, I began to fervently wish for Anna to for God’s sake stop whining, and just head for the nearest train station.