Rants, Rates, Slags, Slates.

Manic-depressive posts from Red Wright-Hand. Because there are thousands of worthless blogs out there and who am I not to add to their number?

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(Sources: US Dept. of Defense, Iraq Coalition Casualty Count)

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While I'm thinking of it, I want to mention The Hot Rock, newly released on DVD. This is a 1972 film adapted from the very first of the Dortmunder series of novels written by Donald E. Westlake. (Fans of comic-mystery books know exactly what I'm talking about, and the rest of you ought to.) The movie is directed by Peter Yates (Bullitt, Breaking Away...and nothing very much good since, I'm afraid) stars Robert Redford, George Segal, Zero Mostel and Ron Leibman, plus a very young Christopher Guest in a bit as a cop (in the raid-on-the-precinct-house scene), and a decent Miles-Davis-ripoff score from Quincy Jones. Why am I going on about this 30-year-old movie? First, it is based on one of my favorite narrative devices, in which a series of elaborate and extremely-thought-out and even-arguably-brilliant plans all go wrong in execution. (Unfaithfully Yours [1948, with Rex Harrison, remade {why?} in 1984 with Dudley Moore] and Bedazzled [1967, with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, remade {why?} in 2000, with Brendan Fraser] are two other great movies that use this type of storyline well.) The Comedy of Frustration! The Agony of the Long-Deferred Wish! This is the very stuff of life, and it's always good to see it rendered in one or another of the Seven Arts. Now, another reason you should see The Hot Rock, and likely the main one, is that it features excellent location footage of the New York City metropolitan area as it existed at the time, not excluding the World Trade Center towers, which were being built during the film's production. That is correct. A long sequence involving a helicopter ride above and through the Manhattan skyline affords a very long look at the two towers while under construction, and a big shiver is likely to go all along your body as you realize what you're looking at. But more eerily still, The Hot Rock's climactic burglary hinges on use of the word "Afghanistan" in a hypnotic trigger. So we have the World Trade Center and "Afghanistan" featured in a 1972 film. Or am I making too much of this? The bottom line is that I'm a sucker for 1970s films shot on New York City locations, for personal reasons that are, currently, none of your business.

posted by Red at 8:31 PM