After that Gonzaga beatdown of WVU, I’m trying to think happy thoughts, so I broke out a DVD of a picture I know I have mentioned multiple times, but still adore- Breaking Away.
There are very few movies that will always, always cheer me up, but Breaking Away, Harold and Maude, the Tao of Steve, Weird Science, and Blazing Saddles are on the short list for my movie essentials library.
The Tao of Steve sometimes strikes a little too close to home, but Breaking Away is pure genius the whole way through. “It was dark… All I can tell your for sure is that they all wore Brut after-shave and reeked of Lavoris.” Genius.
NotMax
Rick S. has a not very good Ides of March.
1) Don’t It Make His Brown Nose Blue
2) Tells Puerto Rico to knock off all that Spanish stuff (citing a non-existent “federal law” mandating English).
Speaking of English, apparently Mr. Santorum hasn’t the slightest clue of what the term “pandemic” describes.
As a palate cleanser, Calvin Trillin riffs as the proverbial fly on the wall.
trollhattan
No “ini” foods!
Yup, will always be a favorite.
schrodinger's cat
Test
ETA: Tried to post a recipe in the last thread, but WP is not allowing me to post.
Barrasso
Shouldn’t you have a girlfriend after watching the tao of steve?
maurinsky
Refund? Refund?! Refund!!!!
FlipYrWhig
I think Breaking Away was one of the first movies I saw in a theater. My dad was excited about a bike-racing movie because he had been a bike racer in college. But I haven’t seen it since childhood. Worth revisiting?
piratedan
@FlipYrWhig: aye, the refund scene always makes me think of Jim Mora yelling “playoffs?”
John Cole
@FlipYrWhig: OMG, yes. I watch it at least twice a year.
Nemo_N
Just saw Anderson Cooper say: “A new poll shows a majority of americans don’t want contraception being part of any political debate. This hasn’t stopped democrats from using the issue to attack republicans”.
FlipYrWhig
@piratedan: @John Cole: Cool, I’ll consider it. I was too young to remember anything but that there were bikes in the movie and a guy shaving his legs.
trollhattan
Also, too, Lynda Barry.
Crap, long enough ago now for a retrospective. Sigh.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2017750833_realcomet15.html
Small world connection–she dated one of my high school friends.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
Sheat, and I went big for WVU in my pools. Was thinking Cole was golden and on a roll. I have no idea why.
Just Some Fuckhead
Me and the boy watch Beerfest whenever it’s on. Now THAT is a funny movie.
scottinnj
Actually Apollo 13 is another one that always cheers me up. It’s corny and all that I know but they got those boys home dammit! I particularly love the scene when they have to figure out the air system and they bring the bag of stuff in and say “we have to get this into that and this is what we have to work with”.
birthmarker
@Nemo_N: I just made that little sound in the back of my throat that defies phonics. The one that drips irony mixed with disbelief.
TheOtherWA
I saw Breaking Away in the theater. It was the first time I remember an audience applauding for a movie. It was that good.
/makes note to self to find it and watch again
lamh35
So, I’m was watching Highlander on Showtime today and I began remembering myself as a young teen girl who had just discovered those trashy historical romance novels with the women with the heavy bosoms and the Fabio dudes with the long flowing locks and the shirt that just never seemed to be buttoned past the navel… and I’m thinking, “ooh, wonder if they have this on Netflix or I need to find this series on Amazon!”
I was a serious Highlander fan both the movies and especially the tv series (loved me some Duncan McCloed) and honestly if they made another today, I’d probably pay to go see it 9x out of 10.
Is that sad…whatever…”THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!”
Oh yeah Freakin’ Sean “James Bond” Connery was in it too, so it had to be cool and badass right…LOL!
Also, hello the theme song from freakin’ Queen (Highlander Soundtrack)- Princes’ Of The Universe
Evap
Older (cop) brother: How are you today, boys?
Younger brother: we’re a little concerned about the crisis in the Middle East
I haven’t thought about B.A. In years, I must watch it again. Maybe a double feature with Diner.
Percysowner
Mine are 1776, Shawshank Redemption, Say Anything and Princess Bride.
Comrade Javamanphil
@Nemo_N: Goddamn liberal media. Also, too, kill me now.
birthmarker
Breaking away is one of my hubby’s favorite movies. He’s majorly into biking.
Corner Stone
If you want a movie guaranteed to lift your spirits – Anchorman. Never freakin fails.
“I’m in a glass case…of emotion!”
piratedan
cheer me up movies…
Real Genius
Buckaroo Banzaii
Notting Hill
While You Were Sleeping
Fierce Creatures
Waking Ned Devine
birthmarker
@Nemo_N: This is why I refuse to watch cable news, with a bit of an exception for MSNBC at night. I do occasionally scan by CNBC, and usually regret it.
Your life will be better for it.
FlipYrWhig
@Evap: Diner is great. Not upbeat though, at least not to me…
eyelessgame
In addition to Buckaroo Banzai and Princess Bride, one of my go-to cheer-up movies is Silverado.
Maeve
If you grew up in the Midwest, in a College town, as I did, you especially relate to it. There’s the landscape, which is real, and the culture. The “town-gown” divisision is there but it’s not your east coast ivy league thing. And someone with an “Italian” accent is really exotic, even to the college kids.
[ my prize for least authentic depiction of the Midwest goes to X-Files. In one episode Fox and Scully are investigating the mysterious crash of a semi-trialer truck. You see a landscape with a steep canyon type road. Then the title appears “Champaign, Illinois”. Yes. Everyone know about the CANYONS outside of Champaign. (I grew up in Urbana Illinois.)
JCJ
Breaking Away always makes me think of the two years I spent at Indiana University – Bloomington. That is where I met my wonderful wife. When we did the college tour with our daughter three years ago it was so nice to go to IU. It was actually her favorite school, but she did not want to go that far away (about 6 hours) – she is quite the homebody. Anyone questioning whether it is worth watching – I give a hearty yes!
trollhattan
Anybody remember “Local Hero”? Definitely owns a slot on my quirky feel-good movie list.
Comrade Mary
@Barrasso:
Shouldn’t you have a bike after watching Breaking Away?
I still fucking adore that movie, along with Galaxy Quest. Those of you who have skipped the latter, thinking it was was cheesy SF featuring Tim fucking Allen, really should sit down and see it. I’ve lost count of the number of people who expected it to be crappy and ended up loving it.
dogwood
Breaking Away is a gem of a film. And since I live in Zags country, I couldn’t be happier about the game.
trollhattan
@Comrade Mary:
Agreed on “Galaxy Quest.” I have similar fondness for the mess, “Fifth Element.”
Mark K
“Breaking Away” is a perfect movie. Even the soap-script on the windshields of the cars in his dads lot : “Magna Cum Audi” and “French Major” on a Peugeot.
I’d add “Charley Varrick” a great cult classic with Walter Matthau and the luscious Ashley Judds first movie “Ruby in Paradise” a great little movie. “Life of Brian” never fails to cheer me up.
The Dangerman
Don’t forget to punch the clock.
ETA: Apparently the quarry where they went swimming has become a Mecca of sorts for those that enjoyed the movie; sadly, it had to be fenced off to keep the crowds out. Bummer.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: Mess? Fucking work of genius, I say.
piratedan
concur on both Galaxy Quest and Fifth Element, also have to chime in that MiB always makes me grin too.
dexwood
A few of my cheer me up movies…
The Producers
Broadway Danny Rose
The Big Lebowski
Waking Ned Devine
My Favorite Year
Some Like It Hot
The Commitments
John Cole
@FlipYrWhig: Love the Colts trivia scene. True story, for years, my mother and I watched Braase, Donovan, Davis and Fans on VHS. A friend in Balmer would tape the shows and mail them, and we would get our Colts on.
Even though we were both Steelers fans at the time, but mum grew up block from memorial stadium and was there for the unitas years.
patrick II
Blues Brothers
Casablanca
O Brother, Where Art Thou
Scuffletuffle
@trollhattan: Yes!!! And Comfort & Joy when I can find it.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@scottinnj: I’m down with Apollo 13 also. One of two great movies with engineers as heroes, the other being The Dish, set in Australia.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
I mean mess in a loving way, naturlich. It does kind of lurch all over the place, but I can’t not watch it.
Also, too, “The Right Stuff.”
Lyrebird
Another vote for the awesomeness of Breaking Away!!! Still remember watching that!! Also Say Anything and/or Sure Thing. But for folks that love bicycling movies but don’t want dialog, The Triplets of Belleville is worth renting. Odd, & likely not as thoroughly heart-warming as Breaking Away, but kinda cool all the same.
Nemo_N
In a fair world, Galaxy Quest would be considered one of the best movies ever made.
Is there any other movie that blends a TV show, its actors lives, its fandom, its absurdities, its fictional workings as real, etc. so charmingly as GQ does?
Exurban Mom
Yes, “Real Genius”! Yes, “Galaxy Quest”! I got sucked into “The American President” the other night, and I wasn’t sorry.
handy
What, no Eraserhead?
PeakVT
@Nemo_N: A majority of Americans prefer to stick their fingers in their ears and say “LA LA LA LA LA GO AWAY POLITICIANS”, mostly because of twits like Cooper.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@piratedan: Yep. Seconded on these:
Notting Hill
While You Were Sleeping
When my oldest was 2 or 3, we watched two (pretty cheery) movies almost daily:
A League of Their Own
The Man From Snowy River
I was convinced he was going to grow up thinking baseball was played by girls and cowboys were Australian.
trollhattan
@patrick II:
I’m a Dapper Dan man! Might as well throw in “Raising Arizona.” Love that one.
Comrade Mary
Also: movie trailers used to be earnest constructions made for people with attention spans.
Breaking Away trailer
Also also: sitcoms.
Gus
@Mark K: Ooohhh, Charley Varrick! That is a good Don Siegel movie that I just stumbled on one afternoon, I think on TMC. Joe Don Baker’s a good heavy. Also agree on Life of Brian, my favorite Python movie. There was a time I could probably recite the entire movie’s dialog.
John O
Can’t believe I’ve still never seen BA start to finish.
LOVE all the other selections, though.
Just one of those weird things.
trollhattan
Kan we haz a Vote for Pedro?
handy
@trollhattan:
I love technology, but not as much as you you see.
MikeJ
@handy: Oh yeah, a double feature with Alphaville is my feel good evening.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: Oh, good call. Burt Lancaster had a great final run, didn’t he? Local Hero, Atlantic City, that thing with Kirk Doouglas.
Paul Dooley for my money is the best thing about Breaking Away. “Ree-FUND! Ree-FUND!” “No! I’m not glad to be alive, I’m glad I’m not dead! There’s a difference!”
Feel good movies: The Producers, My Man Godfrey, Harvey, It’s a Mad etc World, the John Gielgud parts of Arthur, the end of Animal House, Caddyshack.
John O
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
Jeez, I never would’ve admitted to my love of Notting Hill and While You Were Sleeping, the latter of which gets me every time (being a Chicagoan from a big family), if you hadn’t first.
I’ve watched Harold and Maude probably 20 times over the past 20 years. That movie also has one of the more underrated movie sound tracks of all time.
And I am Steve without the love interest.
Comrade Mary
Also concurring on Fifth Element, which made me actually like Bruce Willis, plus it was full of incredibly pretty and odd people and a gorgeous overall design that owes a fuckton of genius to Moebius.
And I will always, ALWAYS sit down and watch ALL of The Right Stuff, featuring the best stolen soundtrack ever.
piratedan
@trollhattan: only if you can draw me a Liger….
another film that always leaves me upbeat is Some Kind of Wonderful.… the soundtrack and Lea Thompson in those little boots and the understated beauty of Mary Stuart….
Origuy
I grew up in Bloomington and cycled around there a lot as a kid. I was in college in Champaign when the movie was being made. People in B-town didn’t think much about it until it came out, so everyone was surprised when it was such a big hit. I was in California by that time. Made me homesick.
Little Big Man is one of my favorites.
Martin
The soundtrack is what redeems Fifth Element. A friend of our worked on digital effects for that film.
Comrade Mary
@Nemo_N:
David Mamet: “The Godfather, A Place In The Sun, Dodsworth, Galaxy Quest — these are perfect films.” A perfect film, he writes, starts “. . . with a simple premise and then proceeds logically, and inevitably, toward a conclusions that is both exciting and inevitable . . . . A washed-up bunch of television actors curse the long-gone success of their show; it has mired them in supermarket openings, portraying cut-out heros; they are given the chance to inhabit that fantasy turned real and discover, in themselves, real heroism.”
Mamet can be a complete ass, but he hit the nail on the head here.
Mnemosyne
I remember seeing “Breaking Away” as a kid, but I don’t think I’ve re-watched it as an adult.
Comfort movies: anything Lubitsch, especially To Be or Not To Be. CQ is a super ultra film geek’s love letter — if you ever dreamed of Kubrick making a romantic film, this is probably the closest you’ll get.
Mnemosyne
Also, I fifth or sixth or whatever the love for Galaxy Quest. In fact, I’ll make it an Alan Rickman festival and add in Sense & Sensibility and Truly Madly Deeply (even if the latter was a rip-off of the old “Twilight Zone” episode, “The Trouble with Templeton.”)
runt
Is “Breaking Away” the one where these young guys go swimming in some kind of old quarry? And then one of them swims head first into a rock, or something like that? I have vivid childhood memories of such a scene, but I can’t remember what the movie was called.
PGE
I’ve got to concur with all the Galaxy Quest love. I heard Jonathan Frakes in an interview say that he had to insist to Patrick Stewart that he see it, and that they both love it. Though not a huge fan of Tim Allen I also recommend Big Trouble, another of his movies, this one based on a Dave Barry novel. And, yeah, Fifth Element is a lot of fun. But two movies that are near the top of my list for putting me in a good mood both star Gwyneth Paltrow: Shakespeare in Love and Emma.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@runt: yup, that’s breaking away.
runt
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Mystery solved! Thanks!
Oh, and on the subject of movies I never get tired of: Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes”. Great fun.
PGE
… I’ve also got to agree with Jim, the Foolish Literalist on My Man Godfrey.
Suffern ACE
@runt- yes. It is that film. Kid pretends to be Italian and woos the forbidden girl as a foreign exchange student.
Wag
@Nemo_N:
And Mystery Men. Tom Waits is always a treat.
And Breaking Away is great.
Cole, buy a road bike, shave your legs, ride, and lose weight.
piratedan
@Wag: I’m thinking that you’re gonna have to eat that egg salad sandwich….
BGinCHI
Breaking Away. Cole such a sucker for that Indiana content.
Ahh, the old home place….
Old Dan and Little Ann
Weird Science. Breakfast Club. Shawshank Redemption. Braveheart. Dumb and Dumber. Summer School. Summer Rental. Oi. That’s just for starters. And I do remember watching Breaking Away on HBO in the early 80’s. I liked it as a pre-teen but couldn’t figure out why Kelly Leak was riding a bike.
BGinCHI
@Old Dan and Little Ann: You mean a non-motorized bike and not on an infield?
Buttermaker!
Bad News Bears holds up great, btw.
NotMax
The Stunt Man — Peter O’Toole insidiously dials the ham up to 11.
Network — maybe better now than when it was released (saw it in a pre-release preview way back when and distinctly recall the audience coming out of the theater stunned and agog at what they had just seen).
Bringing Up Baby — Hepburn. Grant. ’nuff said.
The Third Man — one of those I cannot move the channel away from if I come across it, even though I own it on tape.
Destry Rides Again — just a personal fave (the original, with James Stewart & Marlene Dietrich).
Anything directed by Preston Sturges — always a pleasure to watch the overinflated personas of those in positions of power deftly get pricked and deflated.
Uncle Ebeneezer
I saw Breaking Away when I was very young, on cable. For some reason I loved it. Probably because it had the badass dude from Bad News Bears.
Feel good flicks (tho most are downers):
Sixteen Candles
Blazing Saddles
Shawshank Redemption
Goodfellas
Pale Rider
Chaplin
The Right Stuff
Empire Records (I know, I know)
Enter the Dragon
Hoosiers
Just Some Fuckhead
Don’t forget The Notebook, which has the happiest ending of any movie that has the two main characters die.
TooManyJens
I hate the fucking world. Just check out my twitter stream @tealdeer if you want to know why. I’m going to go take a hot bath.
/fucking hates everybody
BGinCHI
@Just Some Fuckhead: Only improvement would be early deaths for the whole cast and a 15 minute run time.
Then Bugs Bunny cartoons to fill the time.
handy
@BGinCHI:
You know who else liked Bugs Bunny?
BGinCHI
@handy: Elmer Fudd, NRA President.
Wascally Wabbit.
Just Some Fuckhead
And Radio Flyer, where a boy escapes his abusive stepfather in a homemade plane.
Mike E
@Mnemosyne: Showing my then 10 year-old daughter To Be or Not To Be was a parental obligation as far as I was concerned…didn’t want her development to be stunted. A Hard Day’s Night, now that’s an expression of pure love right there.
Breaking Away is arguably the greatest sports movie ever made; that single camera shot of the last two laps is pure genius, with our hero punching it over the finish line just as we cut to the close up shot. Chills.
ETA Dr. Strangelove is an oddly uplifting and life-affirming experience for me, also. Too.
phein
Local Hero – My friend, if you haven’t seen this, you must. Very sad in a way, but totally life-affirming. Burt Lancaster, Peter Riegert, and a very young Peter Capaldi.
BGinCHI
@Mike E: Also, too, Hoosiers.
I’d also nominate the pilot of Friday Night Lights: 50 minutes of perfect sports in a small town narrative. Just genius.
FlyingToaster
I was visiting the Bloomington campus when they were filming the last scene (the area between the bursar’s office and the Union was roped off). Heh.
Films, eh?
The Great Race (with the best pie fight ever!!!)
Buckaroo Banzai
Run Lola Run
Willow
Wall-E (which WarriorGirl watches at least once a week)
Wings of Desire (the Wim Wenders one, with Peter Falk)
Time Bandits
XMAS films — that you’ll never see on the Hallmark channel:
Comfort and Joy
The Lion in Winter
The Ref
handy
But seriously…no Eraserhead?
baldheadeddork
I know you hate people, John, but every year Bloomington plays Breaking Away in our old movie theater as a fundraiser. Good time and a great town if you want to make a road trip and see it on the big screen.
http://www.buskirkchumley.org/index.php?option=com_eventlist&view=details&id=284:bloomington-cycles-breaking-away&Itemid=4
FlipYrWhig
I didn’t expect to enjoy Galaxy Quest, but it really does work. Fifth Element I’m meh about; I think Chris Tucker completely ruins it. For a feel-good life-affirming movie, not mentioned yet, I like School of Rock.
Yutsano
@Comrade Mary: My brother has described “The Fifth Element” as the only successful live action anime made so far. I’m inclined to agree. In fact, you can see the influences of manga and anime all over the film. It’s fantastic.
Mino
Shockingly bad session between Rachel and Inhofe. I would have had better retorts to his Climategate assertions and I don’t have a research staff.
He quoted a Nature article that asked why scientists were losing the argument despite the evidence. Only in America, Rachel.
He claimed we had reserves for 50+++ yrs and she never mentioned that our reserves are not nationalized, either, and Republicans refuse to do so.
I could go on. Weak, very weak.
Mike E
Saw Eraserhead on a date…hawt.
Can’t omit Dr. Strangelove’s doppelganger in color, Raising Arizona. “I need a toddler, HI!” Gotta send my niece a copy, she just made my bro a Grampa. Dr. Spock would approve.
BGinCHI
@Mike E: I just love biblical names.
trollhattan
@Mike E:
My alltime sports movie is “Slapshot”, which I might as well add to tonight’s list.
The Hanson brothers forevah!
Mike E
The Snapper.
BGinCHI
@trollhattan: Trade me right fucking now!
Now hang up.
BGinCHI
@Mike E: Is that a turkey or a baby?
/Dublin accent
Mnemosyne
@Mike E:
So one time I met this guy from the internet for coffee and we agreed to go out again. First real date, Blood Simple. Second real date, a midnight show of Aliens.
Reader, I married him.
phil
Just came here to say: fuck the zags. That is all.
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne: I was gobsmacked when a room full of college kids last year turned up legions who had NEVER SEEN Aliens. I damn near put a question about it on the final exam.
Hill Dweller
@Mino: I didn’t see it(watched basketball), but she had to know Inhofe was going to filibuster and obfuscate. That’s the Republican tactic on every show, if they get any push back.
handy
Love Bill Paxton in Aliens. I could watch an edit just with Hudson quotes.
Petorado
Saw Breaking Away as a departing high school senior. Quit smoking and took up biking the next day. It was one of those accidental collisions of circumstance during life that permanently alters its course — for the better.
Other movies that are oddly inspiring: The Professional, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jeremiah Johnson.
NotMax
Just watched the first part of the third season finale of Archer.
What a wonderfully (often hilariously) demented show — each season better than the last, so far.
Mino
I kinda hate to revisit films that shook me up the first time I saw them. You almost never recapture the flavor.
numfar
Anyone know why the stylesheet keeps changing to the mobile version?
I’ve tried it in Firefox 10.0.2, Chrome 17, IE7, IE8, IE9, and Opera.
It’s hit or miss as to when the stylesheet changes. Clearing cache fixes it sometimes.
YellowJournalism
Uncle Ebeneezer, there is NOTHING wrong with your love of Empire Records.
“What’s with today today?”
“Shoplifter-er!!”
“Say no more, Mon Amore.”
The ACDC drums bit gets me every time. And Anthony LaPalgia (sp) is so hot when he’s doing it.
But damn them for only having the suprisingly inferior director’s cut on DVD. I just feel that it doesn’t flow as well as the theatrical release. That movie made my junior and senior years in high school that much more bearable. I think I wore out my soundtrack cd, too.
YellowJournalism
May I throw a little Hepburn love into the mix with the original Sabrina and Roman Holiday as feel-good films? And from the other Hepburn, I would throw in Adam’s Rib and Little Women.
And for the Ginger Rogers fans, The Major and the Minor is always a delight.
Mino
No Ken Russell love?
Comrade Luke
My Zags were the ‘shizzle!
Anne Laurie
Never understood why The Matchmaker (1997 version) wasn’t better known among liberals:
It has Janeanne Garafalo as a much-abused campaign worker, and humble blue-collar gowks attempting to get together, and mockery of Ye Olde Sodde, and Denis Leary as a political consultant who ends up getting punched in the mouth by the Good-Hearted Left-Thinking Eyecandy. (I mean, I love Denis Leary, but he does such an excellent turn as a Carville-type consultant-weasel that even he agrees that getting punched was necessary for a feel-good ending)…
Mnemosyne
@Mino:
They used to show The Devils around town (Los Angeles) quite a bit when I was in college. I liked to take people to see it so I could see their stunned expression afterwards.
Also, I think Oliver Reed was one of the most underrated actors of modern film.
LT
It’s been a long time since the last viewing, but I’ve seen Harold and Maude maybe 15 times. Just a great story and film. And the song “Trouble” along is worth a move or two.
And the fact that Billy Bob doesn’t get a lot more credit for Sling Blade really bugs me. Writing, cast choice, directing, acting – that was a legendary accomplishment, and it is an endlessly engaging film. And good gods almighty, would I have loved to be around for the filming of the porch band scene.
Jebediah
I love this type of thread – reminds me of stuff to put on my netflix queue to watch again, as well as ones I haven’t seen.
And when I come across an old (Sergio Leone) Clint Eastwood western, I can’t change the channel.
Origuy
@Anne Laurie: I loved The Matchmaker! Janeane Garafalo was as lovely as she’s ever been and the music was great.
Chris
I love Breaking Away, and not just because I went to IU, swum in those quarries, dated those sorority girls, and lived with cycling mad friends who trained all year for the Little 500. Its a great coming of age story, with great performances and direction and has a great tone.
But Bloomington is a magical place to go to college and a really great town. Now lets win this basketball game.
HeartlandLiberal
Speaking from having lived in Bloomington for 28 years now, I laud your choice in movies. It really is a classic, and it really did capture the feel of the place and time.
A dear friend of ours was a Dean during the seventies into the eighties, and it was thanks to her that the women stopped riding tricycles on the Friday before the men’s Little Five Hundred, and since then have their own bicycle race. Sadly, her husband, in his 90’s, a retired music professor who was my guest at the Sweet Sixteen and the Elite Eight when the Hoosiers made a run to the Championship right after Knight was fired, passed away a couple of weeks ago. An era at IU is ending.
We live just north of town, on a two lane road that heads out a wonderful stretch of rural roads that winds north west for miles, and is a favorite practice run for teams training for the Little Five. We are seeing them every day on our walks, usually in packs of five or six riders.
Also, John, the other movie you must see if you have not, is “Hoosiers” with Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, and Dennis Hopper. It is an absolutely moving gem of a film about commitment and teamwork, based on the true store of the victory of the small team with no back bench from Milan that won the state championship in the early 1950’s here in Indiana over the favored big city team that was the presumptive winner. It is an profoundly moving film, with one of the greatest sound tracks ever. And you will know what Indiana country side in autumn and winter looks like when you are done with this film, too. Angelo Pizzo, the author of the film, was a Hoosier who grew up in Bloomington, of course, and writing straight from the heart.
One other note. Many of the cast and the authors of “Hoosiers” were in town for a special event about a decade ago, and I have a DVD of the film autographed by them.
HeartlandLiberal
Oh, and I also enjoyed watching an incredibly fast and energetic IU team win 79-65 over New Mexico State last night.
The Hoosiers and IU basketball are definitely back. I took my tickets from both the Kentucky and Ohio State game when we defeated them, ranked #1 and #2 at the time of the games, and had one of Tom Crean’s secretary’s get him to autograph them for me. They are going to be framed with an 8 x 10 glossy photo of Watford’s winning buzzer beater at the Kentucky game that the Varsity Club at IU Athletics sent out to all members, with Crean and Director Fred Glass’ signatures digitized at the bottom of the photo.
PGE
@Anne Laurie
I’ve got The Matchmaker on DVD and watch it at least once a year. Pretty much pure fun IMO.
AnnaN
Love love love the film Breaking Away. A few problems with technicalities (really? drafting a truck in your SMALL ring??) but to this day, I will slump against a doorway and wistfully sigh in an Italian accent, “Mama? Papa? I’m in love.”
negative 1
“Doing stuff is overrated — look at Hitler, he did a lot. Don’t you wish he would have just stayed at home and gotten stoned?”
someofparts
You know, seeing Harold & Maude again since I became old, I didn’t like it this time. Now I identify with Maude, and it bugged me. What could she see in that callow boy? And the bit with funerals? Now that I’m old I see it as selling old women short. Every old woman I know, myself included, has a complicated, gritty, interesting life. Not that I don’t like the Maude character. It’s just that seeing that character put up there as a portrait of a hip old woman feels the way it would if someone featured a ten-year-old actress playing the role of Eleanor Roosevelt during her time as first lady.
Uncle Ebeneezer
I nearly forgot:
Singles (best soundtrack ever, imo)
Airplane
Memento
Dazed And Confused
Boogie Nights
Glory
ChicagoGirl
I was a senior at Indiana University the fall they came to Bloomington to film Breaking Away. None of us were very impressed. The film makers didn’t have much luck getting students to come watch the filming and act as the “crowd” for the racing scenes. Then the following fall when the movie came out and I went to see it I was stunned at how fabulous it was. And of course I have regretted ever since that I didn’t take my opportunity to be part of the movie.
Michael Carpet
“Pep? They don’t need pep. I need pep.” I use that line all the time. Paul Dooley was great in Breaking Away.
marina
Big Deal on Madonna Street, Midnight Run, Soapdish, Animal House, Beethoven, Home Alone, Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth (not the official title), The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon, To Have and Have Not, anything Chaplin, anything Buster Keaton, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Gregory’s Girl, Carrie, Kiss Me Deadly, Double Indemnity, anything Coen bros., Almost Famous, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Apartment, West Side Story, Funny Face, Roman Holiday, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Jones, Singing in the Rain, Klute…and that movie about two dogs and a cat who get lost and finally find their way home whose title I can’t remember (but Sally Field played the cat, and I think Michael J. Fox was the big dog…it was great, and I cry at the ending every time…
canuckistani
@trollhattan: Local Hero is my good feeling movie. It’s just so relaxing.
marina
Homeward Bound: the Incredible Journey.
Also the Blues Brothers, Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll, the 400 Blows, the T.A.M.I. Show.
Steve in the ATL
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