Celebrating the Communal Experience of Film

As we count down the hours to the start of our 40 Years, 40 Movies marathon, perhaps I should revisit the question so many of you must have. Why?

When I was approaching my 30th birthday, Vonna and I talked about how I wanted to celebrate. The idea of renting a movie theater came up, and I quickly gravitated to renting a 35mm print of Raiders of the Lost Ark for a screening. We had a blast - I think we had nearly 100 people in attendance, and we had our names on the marquee (sorry I don't have the pictures handy - but trust me it said "John and Vonna present Raiders of the Lost Ark"). And I got to watch  my favorite movie on the big screen for the first time in years surrounded by friends and family.

When Vonna asked what I wanted to do for my 40th birthday, I knew wanted to try and live up to what we did 10 years ago. With The Slaughtered Lamb at our disposal, I knew I had the opportunity to screen a number of films that people might enjoy watching with me on the big screen. A 40-hour marathon was quickly dismissed, and quickly replaced with a month-long, 40-movie series.

And now, a confession. In all my 40 years, there are only two movies I've ever gone to see in theaters (other than the SLC) on my own. In one case, it was a screening of my personal 35mm print of Night of the Living Dead (1990) at a local theater that was scrambling when they failed to get a print of the original for a midnight show. The second was just two years ago, when I decided to brave the elements to catch a midnight premiere of I Am Legend (it was a Thursday night - and waaaaay past Vonna's bedtime).

Other than that, I've only seen movies with friends or family. Because to me, there's something missing if at the end of the show you don't have someone you can turn to to laugh, debate, or trade quotes with. By hosting 40 movie screenings over 30 days, and inviting you all to join me over the course of the month, I'm hoping to have more bonding moments with you over some (but far from all) of my favorite films.

So I am quite sincere when I say that your presence at any screening in January will be truly appreciated.

And the runners up are...

So now that you have a chance to review the full list of our 40 movies in detail, you may be wondering, how come such-and-such didn't make the cut. In almost all cases, it boils down to a simple answer. With very few exceptions, if we had already watched the film in The Slaughtered Lamb in the last two years, we set it aside to make room for a different selection.

For that reason, we aren't watching:

Night of the Living Dead

Day of the Dead

Knightriders

Capricorn One

This is Spinal Tap

Suspiria

National Lampoon's Vacation

Mad Max

Mad Monster Party

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

The Haunting

Poltergeist

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Near Dark

The Omega Man

The Last Man on Earth

Burnt Offerings

Blade Runner

Alien

And in some cases, we've got bigger and better plans lined up for a particular film, which would have been disrupted by their inclusion in the 40/40 Series.

So we also didn't include:

Back to the Future

Re-Animator

The Lord of the Rings

Planet of the Apes

Ben-Hur

Gladiator

Kill Bill

Braveheart

Highlander

Patriot Games

Lethal Weapon

Spider Baby

Carnival of Souls

Godzilla's Revenge

Willow

When we started down this path, I had no idea how hard it would be to come up with a list of 40 must-see films, while maintaining a mix of genres and appealing to a broad an audience as possible. In a few days, we'll find out how successful we have been.

See you in The Slaughtered Lamb next month.

January 30, 2010 - Mulholland Drive & Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

I made a schedule adjustment recently so that our closing night of the 40/40 series would be a David Lynch double feature - in fact my two favorite Lynch films. Determining which we'd watch first came down to deciding how I wanted to wrap our series... with the final image of Fire Walk With Me or Mulholland Drive. Without giving anything away, I felt the closing frames of FWWM were more in line with the tone I wanted to end the series on, so our penultimate film is David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.

When I first heard about Mulholland Drive, I was very excited. It signaled David' Lynch's return to the small screen. The pilot for a series set in and around LA, I longed for something second only to his masterwork series Twin Peaks. Then stories of problems started to emerge. And the project was shelved. An article in The New Yorker described how Lynch was basically given carte blanche, and then when he delivered something that was longer than the time slot, the execs told him it had to be cut to fit the time slot. He basically said nothing could go and when they said you cut it or we will, he took it and brought back a version that ran identically except for ending abruptly at the time limit. Needless to say, the network brass were less than pleased and the project was shelved.

Fast forward years later. Word gets out that Lynch will be releasing a theatrical film of Mulholland Drive. Having read and enjoyed the original teleplay, I was looking forward to it but could not have expected he would find such an interesting way to use the material he shot for the TV show and incorporate that into a similar, yet very different feature film. It was amazing to see on the big screen and I don't think the majority of the audience knew what hit them by the time it was through.

Thanks to the region free nature of HD-DVD, we'll be able to screen the film in high-definition. It's dark and mesmerizing. If you've never seen it, don't miss the chance to see it on the big screen.

When Twin Peaks was originally broadcast, nearly 20 years ago, it blew us away. It quickly ascended to the top of the list of favorite television shows. And it was heartbreaking, though by no means expected, when this avant garde show was finally dropped by the network. The odds of seeing more Twin Peaks seemed quite thin, so when a feature film prequel - detailing the last seven days in the life of troubled prom queen Laura Palmer - was announced, we couldn't wait to see it.

You'd think we would have been there on opening night to see the film - but a strange series of events had us meeting 80s horror authors John Skipp and Craig Spector for drinks, as they were in town for one of Fangoria's numerous failed attempts to establish the bay area as a hub for their conventions. I can't recall why we didn't make it out to see it the next night, but we finally made it that Sunday. I was so utterly blown away I knew right then I needed to see it again. So we went back the next night with our friend Becky. And I dragged another friend Cliff out to see it the following night - knowing he had not even watched the series (he liked it, BTW - hopefully he still has fond memories of it?). Needless to say, I knew it's shelf-life at the Century Town and Country was limited, and I wanted to soak in as much as I could.

Sheryl Lee, who didn't have nearly as much time to shine in the series, gives an absolutely phenomenal performance in the film. The feature matched the high points of the TV show, with the only possible complaint being that there was not the time nor opportunity to focus on other characters from the show. It's dark, blackly comic at times, and beautifully produced. It remains one of my all-time favorite films.

We hope you'll join us for the closing night of our 40/40 series on the 30th.

January 29, 2010 - Eyes Wide Shut

My favorite film of 1999 was not, as some might suspect, directed by George Lucas. It was not, interestingly enough, based on an amazing novel by Chuck Palahniuk. No, my favorite film of 1999 was what I describe as Stanley Kubrick's attempt to make a David Lynch movie.

As I mentioned previously, I developed a certain affinity for Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey over the years. Frankly, few of his other films interested me. A Clockwork Orange and The Shining perhaps the only notable exceptions.

There was much uproar over Eyes Wide Shut - at first about the scandalous nature of the film starring then Hollywood Royalty Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Then, after Kubrick's untimely death, the film was optically censored (at first described as according to the late director's wishes, but who are we kidding).

When Vonna and I saw the film at the AMC Saratoga in July of 1999, the mass audiences were still flocking to see The Phantom Menace the third, fourth and fifth times, so it was no surprise that we were of but a handful in attendance. The film blew me away. I didn't really know what to expect, but what I got was, as described above, Stanley Kubrick's take on a David Lynch concept. Secrets, deceit, betrayal, and a naive character sucked into a vortex from which he may not safely escape. It was a very powerful film, with several very well constructed set pieces.

When it came out on DVD, I ordered it from the UK as they saw fit to release Kubrick's original, uncensored version. That is the version that we will be watching on Blu Ray on the 29th. We hope you'll consider joining us for this swan song from a master filmmaker.

January 28, 2010 - The Crow

From my years working in a comic shop during college, I was familiar with, but not a huge fan of, James O'Barr's The Crow. While I felt the book had an interesting look and style, I felt it was a one-note "revenge from beyond the grave" tale. When I found out my old pal David J. Schow was working on the screenplay, I was intrigued. Working from O'Barr's simple premise, I was confident that he would do some interesting things to flesh out the story and characters.

As a fan of Bruce Lee growing up - I thought it was an interesting vehicle for young Brandon Lee, whose prior film work I had not seen. I followed the stories of the mishaps on the set of the film, and of course the accidental shooting of Brandon. I knew David had been on the set during the entire production, and I couldn't imagine what that must have been like, not to mention the following period of speculation as to whether the film would be completed, and what it would take to do that.

Fortunately, the team, led by director Alex Proyas, and Brandon's family felt that the film should move forward. Vonna and I were in Phoenix for the World Horror Convention in March of 1994, near which they held the first public preview of the film. We secured passes to the midnight screening, and almost didn't make it in as there were lines around the mall where the screening was taking place. It was a film you walked out of knowing you had seen something special. The visual style, production design, and amazing performance by Brandon Lee that would serve as his legacy all added up to so much more than one could have expected based on the source material.

When I had the opportunity to meet Linda Lee Caldwell (Brandon's mom and Bruce Lee's widow) several years later, I commented how much I enjoyed Brandon's work in The Crow, and she noted how much the film had meant to him.

As our 40/40 Series draws nearer to its conclusion, we'll honor the memory of Brandon Lee with our screening of The Crow on the 28th.

January 27, 2010 - Dawn of the Dead (137m)

Dawn of the Dead. Considered by many to be George A. Romero's magnum opus. I was too young to catch it in the theater, although I still have memories of seeing television ads (the zombie in the coin fountain always stood out), and of Scott Reiniger being interviewed by John Stanley on Creature Features.

I remember when I first found out it was coming to home video - I saw the poster in the video store across from the Meridian Quad (THE mini-multiplex for low budget independent horror classics in the 80s). Shortly thereafter, I recall seeing the notice in our local rental shop indicating that it was scheduled out the following week (this was long before Blockbuster, and even before there were Mom & Pop rental shops on every streetcorner).

After school on the day it was released, we headed over to the video store and were the first to check it out. I watched it with my Dad that night, and I was blown away. It was beyond what I ever could have imagined. I got up extra early the next morning and watched it before school, and watched it a third time as soon as I got home from school, before it had to be returned that night. And I've been a fan ever since.

Years later, stories started circulating about different versions of the film - longer versions, extra scenes. If memory serves, the first copy of the 137 minute Cannes cut (which circulated on 16mm from Cinema V)  that I owned was procured at the Zombie Jamboree in 1993 (celebrating the 25th anniversary of Night of the Living Dead). In the ensuing years, I'd upgrade to the Japanese LaserDisc, DVD and even found myself an actual Cinema V 16mm print. As we watched the theatrical cut in 2008 for our All Day of the Dead party, I thought it only appropriate that we screen an alternate cut in our 40/40 series.

And who knows - maybe we'll even screen the 16mm print on the 27th - we'll have to see what the weather is like outside. We hope you'll join us as we celebrate flesh eating zombies - classic Romero style.

January 26, 2010 - Zombie

In the wake of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (released as Zombi internationally), the floodgates of hell opened up and numerous knock-off zombie films poured out. One of the most memorable came from Italian goremeister Lucio Fulci. Unabashedly titled Zombi 2, it was released as Zombie in the US.

It features all the hallmarks of Italian horror films of the 80s: outrageous gore effects, ludicrous setpieces (zombie vs shark anyone?), and a bleak ending. All of which add up to a good time for anyone who can stomach it!

I've seen the film numerous times since its original release on videotape, and it does have a unique charm. We hope you'll consider joining us for a little Italian zombie fun on the 26th.