Marathon of the Lost: Week 4
I know this is going up a little bit late. I’m sorry for the delay. Let’s get down to it then. There are four final movies that I watched as
a part of the Marathon of the Lost.
That’s four more people who passed away in 2013 that I was paying
tribute to this January. It’s been a
long month that included a lot of movies of a lot of genres. I’ve looked back at many different people who
have had an influence over film and television.
I’ve watched movies that they were involved in as a way to respect the
people who have provided me with entertainment for years. What were the final four movies? I’ll tell you right now.
Chariots of Fire
I wanted an excuse to watch this movie. Nigel Davenport passed away in 2013, so I
added it into the lineup of movies for this marathon. I don’t know who Nigel Davenport is. That makes me feel bad about having this
movie in the marathon since I’m paying tribute to someone I don’t know. I know he was an actor. I know he was in Chariots of Fire. That’s about all that I know. I feel bad, but at the same time I
don’t. I got to see the movie, and
though I’m not sure who he was in the movie, I know he was good. All of the acting in the movie was good. All of it.
Nigel Davenport died on October 25th of 2013 at
the age of 85. He was a well-known
British actor and did a lot for British acting, from what I can tell. I don’t know how he died.
Chariots of Fire is a fine movie. The acting is great and the idea is
good. The problem is that it’s somewhat
boring. There isn’t a lot of momentum to
the story and I lost interest multiple times.
I’m not sure why I was supposed to care about the characters. They wanted to win foot races. Okay.
That’s it? Okay. I don’t really have investment in that if the
characters themselves aren’t intriguing, and I didn’t find them
intriguing. I guess this one just isn’t
for me.
Frost/Nixon
Remember when this was nominated for Best Picture at the
Academy Awards? A movie about a series
of interviews was nominated for the most respected award in the movie
world. It should at least be a good
movie. And it is. It really is.
I’m not sure how it is possible to make interviews as exciting as this
movie made them, but I could watch this movie repeatedly and not tire of
it. Not only is that a testament to the
people involved in making the movie, but it’s a testament to David Frost, one
of the title characters.
David Frost was a real man who passed away on August 31st
of 2013 due to a heart attack. He was 74
years old. The man was a television
personality due to the many hosting duties he had for various shows. His most famous work is the series of
interviews he did with Richard Nixon, which are the basis for the movie.
Like I said Frost/Nixon is a movie that made interviews
exciting. I’m sure that the Richard
Nixon interviews were exciting enough when they happened because people wanted
to know more about Watergate and everything surrounding that. Thirty years later, when we know more about
the situation, and the audience for this movie probably wants a little bit more
movement in their movies, it seems near impossible to get excitement out of the
subject matter. But there is
excitement. It may be partially due to
the stage play that came before the film, but the film is a great achievement.
Big Stan
This was my choice for Marcia Wallace, the woman behind the
voice of Mrs. Krabappel on The Simpsons.
I initially chose The Simpsons Movie because it’s a movie based on the
show that she was most known for.
However, you never hear her voice in the movie so I needed to switch
it. I saw that she was in Big Stan, a
movie I had seen once and remembered liking.
I decided I’d give the movie another run through, so that’s why Big Stan
is here.
For those that don’t know, Marcia Wallace passed away on October
25th, 2013. She was 70 years
old and had been fighting breast cancer for 30 years. I never watched The Simpsons, but I know
people loved her for her work on the show.
The show paid tribute to her with Bart writing on the chalkboard that he
would miss her character.
Marcia Wallace isn’t in Big Stan for that long. I think she had two lines as a bartender in a
biker bar. She made the most of those
lines, though. I’ll tell you that
much. The movie as a whole wasn’t as
good as I remember. There’s an interesting
idea in there; a guy becomes top dog in prison and turns it into a place where
all of the inmates get along and become friends. I really like that concept. The problem is that it’s layered beneath an
hour and a half of rape jokes that aren’t funny in any way at all. That’s too bad. The movie could have been good, given that
all the performances are pretty good.
Running Scared
Finally, we come to Running Scared, the final movie of the
Marathon of the Lost. I saved this until
the end because out of everyone I gave tribute to, Paul Walker is the one that
meant the most to me. The guy was a part
of my life since I was a child. I’ve
been watching his movies for many years and grow up as he was finding his place
as a movie star. As his career grew, I
went through puberty. I watched his
movies many times. I enjoyed them. And then he died and I felt an emptiness
inside. (As I’m writing this, I have
learned that Philip Seymour Hoffman has passed, and there’s a similar feeling
with that death.) He was always there,
and now he’s not. I’ll miss him.
Paul Walker passed away on November 30th, 2013
when the car he was in crashed and burned up.
He was 40. He left behind one
daughter and a lot of pained twenty-somethings who adored his work.
Running Scared was the movie I chose for the Marathon of the
Lost because it might very well be the high point of Paul Walker’s acting
career. Many people would say that it’s
his best performance, and it’s hard to argue when you see the movie. It’s the most into a character he’s been,
where the character had depth. He does
accent work. He convincingly plays a
bunch of different emotions. I’m not one
to have ever said that Walker was a great actor. He lit up the screen because you knew he loved
his job. I enjoyed watching him. But Running Scared is the closest he came to
a great performance. I’m glad that we
have this movie to capture the potential that Paul Walker had. It’s sad that we’ll never see him give a
performance like it again.
That brings the Marathon of the Lost to a close. It’s been a long month of looking back on the
people we lost in 2013. I didn’t cover
everyone we lost because that would add a lot of other movies to the marathon
that I couldn’t possibly have watched in January. Nelson Mandela, James Avery, Cory Monteith, Lisa
Robin Kelly, Karen Black, Jean Stapleton… These are just some of the other people
who passed away last year. It’s just
hard to find the time to truly pay tribute to all of them.
2014 has already brought its share of death to Hollywood and
movie lovers everywhere. We appreciate
the work that these people have done. It
gives us entertainment. It makes us
forget, for small amounts of time, the troubles in our own lives. These people make us feel better. They bring us internal peace, even if only
momentarily. They mean a lot to us. On behalf of everyone, we’ll miss them all.
I’ll see you guys again sometime. I’ve got the Sunday “Bad” Movies every
Sunday, the Work Stories every Friday, the Power Rangers reviews whenever I get
around to them, marathons that pop up every once in a while, and other things
that you can find by looking around in the blog. Keep up with them if you want. Or don’t.
It’s up to you. I hope you’ll
come back some time.
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