Francis Ford Coppola is a visionary director, obsessed in his determination to make films his way- or at least he was. Nowadays, Coppola has contempt for the suits in the corner offices of big studios who simply want to crank out the next super hero movie. He seems content to simply concentrate on his other great passion: running his successful wine business. Back in 1976 Coppola began the agonizing quest to bring "Apocalypse Now" to the screen. The experience over the next three years almost broke him emotionally, physically and financially. That the film turned out to be a masterpiece seems even more impressive when one views the brilliant 1991 documentary feature film "Hearts of Darkness", directed by Coppola's wife Eleanor, which chronicles the day-by-day agonies Coppola experienced as the budget soared the production inched toward completion. In these excerpts, we see Coppola's frustration with two of Hollywood's great mavericks: Marlon Brando and a zonked-out Dennis Hopper, playing an appropriately zonked out character.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER "APOCALYPSE NOW" SPECIAL EDITION THAT INCLUDES "HEARTS OF DARKNESS"
Everyone agrees
that the 1960s was an era of great social change. So much was happening on so
many different cultural and political fronts: the news was filled with wars and
rumors of war, riots and assassinations.
A new wave of artists and writers were on the scene, and new sounds in
the air and over the airwaves. On the other hand, there was television. In
1961, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Newton Minow, asserted
confidently that any intelligent person could “ sit down in front
of your television set when your station goes on the air... and keep your eyes
glued to that set until the station signs off, (and) I can assure you that you
will observe a vast wasteland.â€
Others agreed with Minow’s critique, TV was indeed a cultural and intellectual
wasteland, and in the opinion of many would remain so for much of the decade
and beyond.
I wasn’t one of
those people. And while I never thought about it back then (I was just a little
kid), later when I had time to reflect, I realized that, far from being a
complete waste of my time, growing up
watching 1960s television had, in fact, been a great gift to my life. Granted,
much of the programming back then, as today, was little more than junk food for
the mind. Still, stuffed amid the junk were some real treasures, ones that
nourished both the mind and the soul. I believe one of these was the Daniel
Boone show, which ran on NBC
from 1964 to 1970. Starring Fess Parker(1924-2010)
in the lead role, the series featured the adventures of legendary frontiersman
Daniel Boone. Others cast members included Patricia Blair as Daniel’s wife,
Rebecca, Darby Hinton as his young son, Israel, and Ed Ames as his, pardon the
expression, “boon companion†Mingo.
Every week viewers
could see Dan involved in fighting the British, making peace with the Indians,
or doing battle with moral wrongdoers. Each show ended usually on a high-note,
with friends and family united and enemies’ vanquished. All and all, not unlike
a lot of other “family shows†of the era. Except this one was a little
different. To begin with, the character of Boone as Parker portrayed him,
wasn’t exactly your typical John Ford or Howard Hawks western hero. While he
possessed all the traditional qualities of the type (courage, resourcefulness,
personal honesty and physical strength), the creators of the show added
something to the stock: human compassion. For while Dan was as quick with his
fists as he was his flintlock, ready for a fight at the drop of a coonskin cap,
he was just as quick to turn the other cheek and offer forgiveness to a former
foe. What’s more, he went out of his way to help others, especially those
weaker and more vulnerable than himself.
In one episode titled Hero’s Welcome, which
first aired in 1968, one of his old friends, a man named Simon Jarvis, has
fallen on hard times. Simon, a former war hero, suffers a fall from grace when
he is accused of cowardice in a later battle against the Choctaw Indians.
Taking solace in alcohol, Simon loses both his family and self-respect. By the
time Dan finds him, he has been reduced to lying in a half-fetal position on
the floor, suffering from what seems to be a form of PTSD. Dan slowly nurses
him back to health, doing everything from shaving him when he’s too weak to
hold a razor, to gently tucking him in bed at night. He even teaches him a
soothing mantra to say to himself when the night terrors are upon him. In
addition to helping Simon, Dan forcefully defends the honor of his good friend
Mingo, who is half Cherokee, against the attacks of a group of racist bullies,
the same group who unjustly accuse Simon of cowardice. Training his long rifle
on them, he says quietly, “he’s as good as any man here.†That one line,
perhaps as much as any, embodies the attitude of the show.
Add to this the
fact that Daniel and Rebecca’s marriage was not your usual “father knows bestâ€
variety. Dan looked to his wife for help and advice, trusted her implicitly in
all matters and was immensely proud of her independent spirit. Together, they
shared equal authority and responsibility in raising their children.
And while none of this may seem especially earth shattering
to us today, we must remember that back in the 1960s ideas about marriage, race
and masculinity had changed little in the country in two hundred years. Nowhere
was this truer than the part I grew up in, the rural South. Fables of
friendship, racial tolerance and equality between the sexes that Daniel Boone showcased were gentle and
understated, but no less real and powerful for that. The moral and ethical
lessons I learned sitting in front of our little black and white set each week,
in an era of violence and social unrest, never left me. Instead, they helped
shape and inform my adult worldview, and, I dare say, the view of others;
little boys all over America, little girls too, who loved both Fess Parker and
the icon he portrayed. If didn’t
matter so much that the stories were largely the fanciful creations of TV
script writers. What mattered were the ideals and values those writers took as
their common theme each week. Back then, we seemed to be a nation reaching for
something more than mere wealth and power alone could define, and these stories
of civic charity and social inclusiveness, told in the guise of an adventure
tale, taught us that. Fess Parker taught us that. We learn to put away childish
things when we grow up. However, there are certain lessons we should never
forget.
Joe
Elliott is an educator and writer who lives in Asheville, North Carolina
CLICK HERE TO ORDER "DANIEL BOONE: THE COMPLETE TV SERIES" FROM AMAZON
Thanks to reader Mark Jarman for sharing this with us- British Pathe film archives silent footage reel showing film marquees in London in 1976. Here is their official description:
Cinema signs in London.
Various shots sign outside the Empire for 'To The Devil a Daughter'. Various
shots Jacey cinema advertising 'Bisexual'. Various shots Leicester Square
advertising 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'. Various shots Cinecenta. Various shots
Odeon advertising 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest'. MS 'Operation:
Daybreak'. MS's Miss Fiona Richmond in 'Expose'. MS 'The Sunshine
Boys'. Various shots at Classic Moulin advertising 'I'm Not Feeling Myself
Tonight' and 'Housewives on the Job'. Various shots Odeon advertising 'Lenny'.
MS 'Return of the Pink Panther'. MS 'Emmanuelle'. MS's 'Jaws'. MS 'The
Hindenburg'. MS 'The Slipper and the Rose' at the Empire. MS's man behind sign
for 'Return of the Pink Panther' adjusting the wiring. MS's 'Love in a Women's
Prison'.
Here is rare color footage of The Three Stooges in 1938, shot in Atlantic City New Jersey's famed Steel Pier. Moe, Larry and Curly vie for the affections of model Barbara Bradford, who was married to song and dance man George Mann, who shot the film and makes an appearance.
Movie poster artist Frank McCarthy was a legend in his field. Until his death in 2002, McCarthy had created, or collaborated on creating, some of the most iconic movie poster art of all time. The web site Dangerous Minds pays tribute to McCarthy's creations with a mind-boggling gallery of images from such films as "Thunderball", "Khartoum", "The Dirty Dozen", "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", "Hatari!", "The Great Escape" and many others.
(Poster art illustrated here: "Where Eagles Dare", "The Venetian Affair", "You Only Live Twice", "Dark of the Sun" (aka "The Mercenaries"). Thanks to reader Sergio Mims for the heads up!
American politics have always been contentious. When people pine away for the good old days of political civility, well...they just never existed. Going back to the early days of the republic, candidates routinely lied about each other and passed around unfounded scandalous rumors. Even "Honest Abe" Lincoln secured the Republican presidential nomination by having his minions literally bribe people to pose as delegates and pack the convention hall. One thing is for certain, however: the country is seeing its most vibrant protest movements since the late 1960s, when the toxic mix of Vietnam, civil rights, women's rights and other emotional issues seemingly had everyone at each other's throats. In a New York Times article, writer David Bianculli recalls how the Smothers Brothers became unlike vessels of the counterculture movement. The clean cut comedy duo was hired by CBS to provide gentle family humor (Tom and Dick Smother's shtick always revolved around sibling rivalry.) What CBS didn't expect was political satire the likes of which the network never imagined. Suddenly younger people had a TV show that was geared for them and the Smother Brothers set off national debates in barber shops, diners and the family dinner table. CBS didn't like it one bit. The network was the home of such popular, non-threatening fare as "The Andy Griffith Show", "Green Acres", "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Petticoat Junction". Now, CBS magnate William Paley was getting complaints from top politicians. That set in motion a delicate situation: CBS would routinely try to censor segments of the show, but by doing so they were undermining the very audience that had made it a hit. Compromises were made but the politicos were not satisfied when seeing guests such as Pete Seeger and George Harrison intermingled with safe, traditional stars such as Jack Benny. (Seeger sang "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy", a thinly-veiled protest song about the Vietnam War that the network tried to cut.)
Ultimately, CBS caved and cancelled the show in its fourth season, using a bogus excuse that resulted in the Smothers Brothers getting a $900,000 payout- big money back in the day. Although the brothers skewed to the political left, one of their first targets had been Democratic President Johnson, who was constantly attacked for his Vietnam policy. His successor, Republican President Richard Nixon fared even worse. Johnson had complained personally to William Paley but after leaving office, made peace with the brothers by acknowledging that satire was an essential part of American politics. As for Nixon, it was learned later that he had siphoned funds from one of his presidential war chests to pay for a private investigator to find dirt on the Smothers Brothers. He never succeeded and Nixon would resign a few years later in the most notorious political scandal of the 20th century. Perhaps the brothers' ability to make both Democrats and Republicans feel uncomfortable was their greatest talent. Click here to read and view clips.
For author William Peter Blatty's interview in Cinema Retro, see issue #19 in our back issues section.
BY LEE PFEIFFER
With the recent passing of "Exorcist" author William Peter Blatty, the Washington Post takes a photographic journey back to the origins of the story that inspired Blatty to write the book. In 1949 the Catholic church issued a rare consent order to allow an exorcism to be performed on a young boy who priests feared had been possessed by a demon. Doctors and psychiatrists have long speculated that the cause of the boy's affliction was rooted in natural medical explanations but the priests reported that they witnessed events that could not have been caused by any earthly phenomenon. The priests involved remained made few public comments after the exorcism, though there are some sketchy diary entries that shed a bit of light on the proceedings. The boy who was the center of the case is still alive and is now 78 years old but has never commented publicly on his ordeal or his memories of it, if any. Unless and until he does, there will always be debate about what actually occurred in an ordinary house occupied by an ordinary family who would inspire one of the most extraordinary novels and films of the 20th century. Click here to view.