Since the last time I posted an update on this project, I’ve managed to watch A Clockwork Orange, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Unforgiven, and Raging Bull. If I weren’t still feeling relatively laid low by the bug I caught last weekend (this sucker’s a tenacious little SOB) I’d be writing up the kind of lengthy posts I’ve authored for some of the others. As it is, I just don’t have the energy for much more than a couple fleeting high points: Butch and Sundance may be the best buddy movie I’ve ever seen, and I’m taking careful notes to improve the relationship between the two main characters in my novel; A Clockwork Orange was deservedly awesome for about the first half hour and then veered off into predictability land; Raging Bull is an interesting case study of violence but not as interesting as this year’s There Will Be Blood, but it’s really interesting to see that hot on the heels of On the Waterfront; and Unforgiven was, as I think Jonathan Gray pointed out in an earlier comment, pretty much Clint Eastwood proving that he can still make Westerns, although it was a decent Western at that.
I think the next couple on my hit list are Rocky and Network, with maybe One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest squeezing in there somewhere. Another thing I might do is lock myself in the house next Sunday while Laura’s at work, TiVo the Super Bowl so’s I can just watch the commercials, and watch nothing but war movies all day. I figure with enough tenacity, chips and beverages I could probably plow through Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Patton, The Bridge on the River Kwai, All Quiet on the Western Front and maybe even MASH by the end of the day. I’m dang near done with the Westerns after binging on those already – I think I only have Stagecoach and The Wild Bunch left to go there. I also need to do a comedy binge at some point, watching Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera, The General, City Lights, The Gold Rush, and Modern Times. Ken, when’s the next time you’re going to be up this way?