17 July 2014
The National Pasttime
by Eve Fisher
Now I have a theory that there is something about baseball that makes it fuel for great novels and great movies, in a way that no other sport seems to do. Granted, every sport has at least one fantastic book and/or movie based on it. And before you start screaming about why I didn't include certain movies, I know that every sport has its dying player movie (Brian's Song v. Bang the Drum Slowly, James Caan v. Robert DeNiro, for example, take your pick), and its unusual and/or unlikable and/or unbeatable coach movie (often ad nauseum, make your own list). And the occasional one with animal players, often monkeys (Every Which Way But Loose leaps to mind). SO:
SURFING (my second favorite sport to watch - can you tell I'm a California girl?): Endless Summer, of course, and Riding Giants. (And, just for a time capsule and a so-bad-its-good movie, Gidget.)
BASKETBALL: Hoosiers, Hoop Dreams, and He Got Game.
FOOTBALL: Friday Night Lights, book, movie and show. But my personal guilty pleasure is, Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins, sadly made into an incredibly bad movie in the 70's.
(NOTE to Dan Jenkins: get Kevin Smith to direct a new version of Semi-Tough, PLEASE, because he's the only director I can think of that could do justice to your profanity-laced, sex-sodden, really f---ing hilarious take on football, rivalry, and true love. You do that, and it might wash the taste of that Michael Ritchie version out of my mind...)
ICE HOCKEY: Slapshot.
Now these are good, but if you want depth, I think there are only two sports that really bring it out: baseball and boxing.
The Natural by Bernard Malamud. Forget the movie version, though it's good in its own way. The novel is raw and angry and sad and an allegory of life from the point of view of all of us who have screwed at least one thing up so badly it will never come right or have had fate step in and snatch everything away just as we had it in our hand:
"Roy, will you be the best there ever was in the game?" "That's right." She pulled the trigger...
"We have two lives; the life we learn with and the life we live after that."
Back when I put myself through college teaching ESL, we used The Natural to teach our Puerto Rican baseball scholarship students in order to get them to read - and it worked. It also broke (some of) their adolescent, ambitious little hearts. Great book. Good movie.
You Know Me Al by Ring Lardner. A collection of short stories, all letters from the road, penned by Jack Keefe, the dumbest, greediest, most cluelessly self-absorbed pitcher the Chicago White Sox ever had. I don't think even Will Farrell could capture Jack Keefe, because he is... just read it and laugh your head off. (NOTE: Ring Lardner ranks as one of the greatest short story writers of all time, imho, if nothing else for these and "Haircut" and "The Golden Honeymoon")
Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella. Read it, please. And, yes, go get the movie. I hold my breath through half the movie, and then cry shamelessly (usually after the appearance of Burt Lancaster) every time I see the damn thing.
Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof and Stephen Jay Gould. A meticulous, well-written, time capsule of the time and events of the worst baseball scandal in history. The movie isn't any slouch, either, directed by John Sayles with a strong, strong cast, especially D. B. Sweeney as Shoeless Joe Jackson and Studs Terkel as sportswriter Hugh Fullerton.
Speaking of baseball movies, here's a few, in no particular order:
Bull Durham
The Pride of the Yankees
Damn Yankees (whatever Lola wants...)
Ken Burns' Baseball
A League of Their Own
The Rookie
The Babe Ruth Story
Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
Now I said baseball and boxing, and first of all, here are some great boxing movies:
Raging Bull. Rocky. Requiem for a Heavyweight. When We Were Kings. The Harder They Fall.
And I think I may have found the connection. We all know both boxing and baseball from the inside out. Most of us have played baseball, from sandlot on up. Most of us have either gotten into a fight or watched one, with a lot (of pride, if nothing else) riding on the outcome. Both sports give the illusion that anybody with enough heart can do it, otherwise we wouldn't be so damned bothered by all the allegations of doping in baseball, at least. After all, we don't mind what are essentially genetic freaks (most people aren't 7 feet tall, folks!) in basketball; and when is someone going to bring up the size of American football players, especially fullbacks? Surfers are too cool dude; and you can't even see hockey players...
But baseball players and boxers are right out there, for us all to see. And both boxing and baseball movies and novels tend to focus on individual heroism and/or failure. Both sports allow an individual to take center stage, to let us get to know them, and then watch them sink or swim. We can make emotional connections. And they can be made into allegories that almost everyone can relate to.
Or at least that's my theory. Meanwhile, I've got to get out to the ballpark!
03 December 2023
The Spy Who Shunned Me
by Leigh Lundin
I was glancing at a not-so-recent Stacker.com ‘Best 100 Spy Movies of All Time’, thinking it was right up the dark alley of our spymaster, David Edgerley Gates. If you did something extremely stupid, he could make you disappear.
And then I noticed something stupid.
Where was Ipcress File? And Day of the Jackal? Manchurian Candidate? Riddle of the Sands? Casablanca? And where the hell was 39 Steps? And why the Hail Freedonia was Duck Soup in the list? Hey, I love the Marx Brothers but it bears as much resemblance to a spy movie as Margaret Dumont does to John le Carré.
I had to stop because so many possibilities flooded my mind. The article should be retitled ‘100 Pretty Good kinda-Spy Movies of Small Time, Give or Take.’ I bet David could name many more.
So here is the core of Stacker’s list followed by a few unranked suggestions of my own.
100 | Body of Lies | 2008 | Ridley Scott | 50 | Clear and Present Danger | 1994 | Phillip Noyce | |
99 | Salt | 2010 | Phillip Noyce | 49 | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | 2016 | Gareth Edwards | |
98 | Moonraker | 1979 | Lewis Gilbert | 48 | Breach | 2007 | Billy Ray | |
97 | Never Say Never Again | 1983 | Irvin Kershner | 47 | Spy | 2015 | Paul Feig | |
96 | Shadow Dancer | 2012 | James Marsh | 46 | Eye in the Sky | 2015 | Gavin Hood | |
95 | Octopussy | 1983 | John Glen | 45 | Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol | 2011 | Brad Bird | |
94 | The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | 2015 | Guy Ritchie | 44 | The Bourne Identity | 2002 | Doug Liman | |
93 | The Informant! | 2009 | Steven Soderbergh | 43 | Red Cliff | 2008 | John Woo | |
92 | The Eagle Has Landed | 1976 | John Sturges | 42 | Emperor and the Assassin | 1998 | Kaige Chen | |
91 | Atomic Blonde | 2017 | David Leitch | 41 | Flame & Citron | 2008 | Ole Christian Madsen | |
90 | Until the End of the World | 1991 | Wim Wenders | 40 | Inherent Vice | 2014 | Paul Thomas Anderson | |
89 | You Only Live Twice | 1967 | Lewis Gilbert | 39 | No Way Out | 1987 | Roger Donaldson | |
88 | Cloak & Dagger | 1984 | Richard Franklin | 38 | Black Book | 2006 | Paul Verhoeven | |
87 | The Fourth Protocol | 1987 | John Mackenzie | 37 | The Age of Shadows | 2016 | Kim Jee-woon | |
86 | RED | 2010 | Robert Schwentke | 36 | Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation | 2015 | Christopher McQuarrie | |
85 | Mission: Impossible | 1996 | Brian De Palma | 35 | The Bourne Supremacy | 2004 | Paul Greengrass | |
84 | Snowden | 2016 | Oliver Stone | 34 | Europa Europa | 1990 | Agnieszka Holland | |
83 | Allied | 2016 | Robert Zemeckis | 33 | Lady Vengeance | 2005 | Park Chan-wook | |
82 | The Matador | 2005 | Richard Shepard | 32 | Dr No | 1962 | Terence Young | |
81 | Michael Collins | 1996 | Neil Jordan | 31 | Inglourious Basterds | 2009 | Quentin Tarantino | |
80 | Eye of the Needle | 1981 | Richard Marquand | 30 | The Imitation Game | 2014 | Morten Tyldum | |
79 | Horror Express | 1972 | Eugenio MartÃn | 29 | The Man Who Knew Too Much | 1956 | Alfred Hitchcock | |
78 | Patriot Games | 1992 | Phillip Noyce | 28 | The Quiet American | 2002 | Phillip Noyce | |
77 | OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies | 2006 | Michel Hazanavicius | 27 | A Beautiful Mind | 2001 | Ron Howard | |
76 | The Front Line | 2011 | Jang Hoon | 26 | Infernal Affairs | 2002 | Andrew Lau, Alan Mak | |
75 | Thunderball | 1965 | Terence Young | 25 | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy | 2011 | Tomas Alfredson | |
74 | The Hunt for Red October | 1990 | John McTiernan | 24 | Ghost in the Shell | 1995 | Mamoru Oshii | |
73 | Spy Game | 2001 | Tony Scott | 23 | The Constant Gardener | 2005 | Fernando Meirelles | |
72 | Mission: Impossible III | 2006 | J.J. | 22 | Bridge of Spies | 2015 | Steven Spielberg | |
71 | Despicable Me 2 | 2013 | Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud | 21 | Skyfall | 2012 | Sam Mendes | |
70 | True Lies | 1994 | James Cameron | 20 | From Russia with Love | 1963 | Terence Young | |
69 | Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid | 1982 | Carl Reiner | 19 | Casino Royale | 2006 | Martin Campbell | |
68 | The Falcon and the Snowman | 1985 | John Schlesinger | 18 | Enter the Dragon | 1973 | Robert Clouse | |
67 | The East | 2013 | Zal Batmanglij | 17 | The English Patient | 1996 | Anthony Minghella | |
66 | Official Secrets | 2019 | Gavin Hood | 16 | Mission: Impossible: Fallout | 2018 | Christopher McQuarrie | |
65 | Lust, Caution | 2007 | Ang Lee | 15 | The Conversation | 1974 | Francis Ford Coppola | |
64 | Sneakers | 1992 | Phil Alden Robinson | 14 | House of Flying Daggers | 2004 | Yimou Zhang | |
63 | Fair Game | 2010 | Doug Liman | 13 | Stalag 17 | 1953 | Billy Wilder | |
62 | Confessions of a Dangerous Mind | 2002 | George Clooney | 12 | Goldfinger | 1964 | Guy Hamilton | |
61 | Charlie Wilson's War | 2007 | Mike Nichols | 11 | The Bourne Ultimatum | 2007 | Paul Greengrass | |
60 | Kingsman: The Secret Service | 2014 | Matthew Vaughn | 10 | Letters from Iwo Jima | 2006 | Clint Eastwood | |
59 | Three Days of the Condor | 1975 | Sydney Pollack | 9 | Zero Dark Thirty | 2012 | Kathryn Bigelow | |
58 | GoldenEye | 1995 | Martin Campbell | 8 | Le Petit Soldat | 1963 | Jean-Luc Godard | |
57 | Walk on Water | 2004 | Eytan Fox | 7 | Barry Lyndon | 1975 | Stanley Kubrick | |
56 | Marcel Proust's Time Regained | 1999 | Raoul Ruiz | 6 | The Departed | 2006 | Martin Scorsese | |
55 | Where Eagles Dare | 1968 | Brian G. | 5 | Duck Soup | 1933 | Leo McCarey | |
54 | Top Secret! | 1984 | Jim Abrahams, Zucker Bros. | 4 | The Lives of Others | 2006 | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | |
53 | A Most Wanted Man | 2014 | Anton Corbijn | 3 | Notorious | 1946 | Alfred Hitchcock | |
52 | The Spy Gone North | 2018 | Yoon Jong-bin | 2 | Pan's Labyrinth | 2006 | Guillermo del Toro | |
51 | X-Men: First Class | 2011 | Matthew Vaughn | 1 | North by Northwest | 1959 | Alfred Hitchcock | |
The 39 Steps | 1935 | Alfred Hitchcock | Topaz | 1969 | Alfred Hitchcock | |||
Day of the Jackal | 1973 | Fred Zinnemann | Riddle of the Sands | 1979 | ony Maylam | |||
The Ipcress File | 1965 | Sidney J Furie | Casablanca | 1842 | Michael Curtiz | |||
The Manchurian Candidate | 1962 | John Frankenheimer | Dark of the Sun | 1968 | Jack Cardiff |
For worst movie, I seem to recall Our Man Flint (1966), directed by Daniel Mann, was embarrassingly awful.
What is your take? Enquiring spies want to know.
Check out Prohibition Peepers, a Michael Bracken anthology.