FILM 1822: THE HURRICANE HEIST

FILM 1822: THE HURRICANE HEIST

TRIVIA: In the trailer, viewers are told that the heist is planned during the monstrous hurricane that is pushing 600 miles per hour. The Great Red Spot, a massive hurricane on Jupiter that can fit two Earths in it, is also a 600-mile-per-hour storm. The highest sustained wind speed ever recorded in a hurricane on Earth is 190 miles per hour.

In the early 1990s, Sylvester Stallone was attached to star in a similar project to this film, called "Gale Force," about an ex-Navy SEAL who defends a seacoast town from a gang of modern pirates during a hurricane. David Chappe had written the script and Renny Harlinwas going to direct. Carolco Pictures had a $40 million budget for the film, but creative disagreements over the script and concerns about cost forced Carolco to scrap the film and make Cliffhanger (1993) instead.

FILM 1819: THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

FILM 1819: THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

TRIVIA: 20th Century Fox invited a group of scientists to preview the film, to test their reactions to the science used in the film. None of the scientists were impressed with what they saw, although most conceded that the movie was enjoyable nonsense.

The river crossing scene was actually filmed on the US-Mexico border, and the extras really were crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico.

The consultation by NASA scientists was requested before the filming of the movie, but NASA stated that the events in the film were too ridiculous actually to occur, and hence denied the request. NASA sent a memo out to all of its employees stating that they were not allowed to comment on the likelihood of the events portrayed, but later rescinded this restriction.

In 2008, Yahoo! Movies listed the film as one of the Top 10 Scientifically Inaccurate Movies.

Two library-bound survivors ask whether they should burn the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, whose "The Antichrist" states in its preface: "Only the day after tomorrow belongs to me. Some are born posthumously." Part of this line provided this movie's title.

When the camera pulls away from the Earth after the astronaut exclaims "the air is so clear" the image of the Earth is a modified version of the "Blue Marble" picture created by Robert Simmon. The Blue Marble picture is comprised of thousands of satellite photos, and some of the clouds are duplicated. The Apple iPhone uses the Blue Marble picture as the default wallpaper.

BOOK 173: SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM: JOAN DIDION

Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a 1968 collection of essays by Joan Didion that mainly describes her experiences in California during the 1960s. It takes its title from the poem "The Second Coming", by W. B. Yeats. The contents of this book are reprinted in Didion's We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction (2006).

The title essay describes Didion's impressions of the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco during the neighborhood's heyday as a countercultural center. In contrast to the more utopian image of the milieu promoted by counterculture sympathizers then and now, Didion offered a rather grim portrayal of the goings-on, including an encounter with a pre-school-age child who was given LSD by her parents.

In The New York Times Book Review, the novelist and screenwriter Dan Wakefield wrote, "Didion's first collection of nonfiction writing, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, brings together some of the finest magazine pieces published by anyone in this country in recent years. Now that Truman Capote has pronounced that such work may achieve the stature of 'art,' perhaps it is possible for this collection to be recognized as it should be: not as a better or worse example of what some people call 'mere journalism,' but as a rich display of some of the best prose written today in this country."

(Information from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slouching_Towards_Bethlehem)

FILM 1240: ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS

TRIVIA: Richard Barthelmess had deep scars that resulted from an infection due to plastic surgery. The only way to cover them up was with heavy make-up, but Howard Hawks convinced him to leave them the way they were because "those scars tell the story and are important to your character." Hawks also removed planks to make Barthelmess appear smaller, to reflect his character's inferiority among his fellow pilots.

Howard Hawks and Jean Arthur did not get along during filming. Arthur was not used to Hawks' highly improvisational style, and when Hawks wanted Arthur to play Bonnie much in a subtly sexy way (not unlike his other "Hawksian women"), Arthur flatly said, "I can't do that kind of stuff." Hawks told Arthur at the end of the shoot, "You are one of the few people I've worked with that I don't think I've helped at all. Someday you can go see what I wanted to do because I'm gonna do this character all over again." Years later Hawks returned home to find Arthur waiting for him in his driveway. She had just seen his To Have and Have Not (1944) and confessed, "I wish I'd done what you'd asked me to do. If you ever make another picture with me, I'll promise to do any goddamn thing you want to do. If a kid [Lauren Bacall] can come in and do that kind of stuff, I certainly could do it." Hawks and Arthur never collaborated again.

"Calling Baranca" later became a recurring line in Looney Toons/Merrie Melodies cartoons.

Dutchy's statements about flying, "Include me out," is a quote from Samuel Goldwyn. It is one of many malapropisms attributed to him.

Howard Hawks had known a real-life flier who once parachuted from a burning plane. His copilot died in the ensuing crash and his fellow pilots shunned him for the rest of his life.

Howard Hawks remembered that when the movie was released, "a certain critic said 'It's the only picture Hawks ever made that didn't have any truth in it.' I wrote him a letter and said, 'Every blooming thing in that movie was true.' I knew the men that were in it and everything about it. But it was just where truth was stranger than fiction."

… OF THE DAY

I kept seeing leaves moving out of the corner of my eyes and thinking they were creatures.  Some moved like birds and some moved like rats…

… OF THE DAY

There was such an odd atmosphere today.  The air was heavy with a wet, misty fog.  It was cold but beautiful.

FILM 1164: THREE COLOURS: RED

TRIVIA: Final movie for filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski

Juliette Binoche, Benoît Régent, Julie Delpy, Zbigniew Zamachowski:  the stars of Three Colors: Blue (1993) and Three Colors: White (1994), make appearances at the end of this film.