Third Annual Mustache Marathon: Week 1

It’s November, and in terms of my blog, that means it’s a month to watch movies that prominently feature mustaches.  I’ve been doing this for two years now.  In my third year, I thought that I would watch the movies without writing about them.  That was the wrong thing to think.  After just over a week, I got the feeling that I need to write about the movies.  The mustache marathon does not feel right without the words on the blog page.

So here’s what’s going to happen.  I don’t want to spend all of the time to write up the big individual posts for each of the movies.  That’s what struck the fear into me in the first place.  That’s a lot of time to invest into something that is pretty much only for my own enjoyment.  This is the reason why I decided that I’m going to write one post for each week of November, covering the movies that I’ve watched involving mustaches.  This first post will cover the first week, which is the first four movies of the marathon.  Let’s get started.

Machete

This year, I decided to begin the mustache marathon with a Danny Trejo film.  I don’t think I had him in any of the films in the previous two years.  What better way to introduce him into the marathons than to have one of his biggest starring roles.

Machete is about a tough son-of-a-bitch who gets set up for a crime, and must get revenge on the people who committed it.  It’s kind of like Shooter, but through the eyes of grindhouse filmmaking and Robert Rodriguez.  It has a great cast of random actors including Steven Seagal, Robert DeNiro, Jessica Alba, Cheech Marin, Jeff Fahey and Michelle Rodriguez.  The action is fun, and the movie is fun because of it.

In terms of mustaches, Danny Trejo has one that perfectly complements his face.  I might have seen him without it at one point, but watching Machete, I can’t imagine him without it.  They are a perfect match.

Bernie

I’d been meaning to see this Richard Linklater film since it came out.  I’ve liked almost all of the Linklater films that I’ve seen, I enjoy Jack Black in a lot of things he does, Matthew McConaughey is fun, and it has Shirley MacLaine.

Bernie is set up sort of like a documentary, thought there are actors in the primary roles.  This was done through two interesting methods.  One was to structure the story like a documentary.  A little bit of the story is shown through the Black, MacLaine, and McConaughey scenes, then talking heads come in to describe little bits that you might not know.  The second method was within the talking heads themselves.  Since the movie is based on a true story, the talking heads are often played by the real people that were involved in what had happened.

The real star of the movie though is Jack Black’s facial hair.  The exceptionally groomed mustache adds some flavour to the character’s look.  This is especially true since person on whom the movie is based had a mustache.

Raising Arizona

There are times when you watch a movie and wonder why it took you so long to watch that movie.  This is one of those cases for me.  This week was the first time I watched Raising Arizona, and it’s a shame that it took me so long to watch this Coen Brothers classic.

Raising Arizona stars Nic Cage and Holly Hunter as a married couple who steal a baby because they cannot conceive their own.  There is a tone to this movie that is consistent throughout the entire runtime and matches my sensibilities in a way I never expected.  It quickly went from an unseen Coen Brothers movie to one of my favourites.

As for the mustache, Nic Cage’s face sits well with it in this movie.  I can’t really imagine a version of H.I. that doesn’t have that facial accessory.  It feels right.  It just plain feels right.

MASH

Have you ever read about how much I like this movie?  MASH is one of the greatest comedies, in my opinion.  I’d put it up there with Animal House, Ghostbusters, and Role Models as one of the comedies that I could watch over and over again without ever tiring of it.  That’s how much I adore this movie.

Robert Altman directed MASH, a movie starring Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, Bud Cort, Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, Gary Burghoff, and Elliott Gould, among many many others.  It depicts the comedic day to day life of a mobile army surgical hospital during the Korean War.  The jokes still land to this day, and I laughed numerous times while watching MASH this past week.  When it works, it works, I guess.

The mustache crown of the first four movies definitely goes to Elliott Gould in MASH.  His mustache is magnificent.  If you haven’t seen this movie, I’d recommend it for the comedy, but it’s a definite must see for what is growing on Elliott Gould’s face.

That’s the first week of the third annual Mustache Marathon.  I’ll come back next week when I write about movies that I know at this point will include The Winning Season and RIPD.  Come back next week to find out what else will be in there.