The Radical Child

(a big shoutout to loganberrybunny for inspiring me to watch this movie)

Based on the 1951 Lerner and Loewe American Western musical of the same name, the 1969 adaptation of Paint Your Wagon stars Lee Marvin as a prospector, Clint Eastwood as an amnesiac whom he recruits as his business partner, and Jean Seberg as one of a Mormon’s wives that he decides to sell to the highest bidder. I first saw this film as a rental in my town’s Blockbuster Video when that chain was still a thing, the title alone piquing my curiosity, the fact Clint Eastwood was in it being one of the sole things I knew about it. The following knowledge I would get about the film came from a brief spoof in The Simpsons episode “All Singing, All Dancing.”



Despite the title, the musical has nothing at all to do with literally painting wagons, with “paint your wagon” being a (very) dated expression meaning “to get things done.” Marvin’s character, Ben Rumson, dubs Eastwood’s “Pardner” as he recuperates, with a new tent town, “No Name City,” emerging when they discover gold. The male inhabitants become lonely from no female companionship until the mentioned Mormon husband comes and sells his wife Elizabeth to a drunken Rumson. A love triangle quickly emerges when Ben leaves his fiancé under Pardner’s care.

The latter portion of the movie involves Rumson and his men scheming to tunnel beneath No Name City to collect gold dust precipitating through the floorboards of saloons from paying customers, the only notable plot detail of which I had heard, courtesy my high school economics class, before I streamed this film. A zealous parson also comes to town in futile attempts to get its residents to abandon their sinful ways. Of course, many musical numbers abound, and while Marvin and Eastwood have never been known for their singing abilities, they did decently, with the former's “Wand’rin’ Star” probably being the high point of the film’s songs.



While I know this film gets its share of criticism, much justified, I found it an entertaining watch, with some initial themes like Rumson putting his business partners first and his apathy towards humanity resounding well with me. Mature content like references to venereal disease and prostitution also get some spotlight. Religious themes are front and center as well, given Rumson’s indifference towards God, the references to Mormonism and polygamy, and the ultrareligious preacher. Much of the film likely didn’t fly well with 1969 moviegoers (though modern audiences would probably find it less offensive than, say, Blazing Saddles). However, I think that time has vindicated it somewhat, and don’t regret seeing it.

This 1993 fantasy comedy stars Bill Murray as a snarky, cynical weatherman tasked with covering the annual Groundhog Day festival in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, who becomes entrapped in a time loop that makes him relive the day endlessly. As he does so, he accustoms himself to the various situations in town that recur and discovers that he can make some good of his apparent supernatural situation. The film melds comedy and philosophy well, having some religious allegory and qualifying as iconic, the title and holiday becoming synonymous with unpleasant and repetitive situations. Some of the technology dates it to the first half of the 1990s, but it’s still a bucket-list movie.

The first live-action film based on Mattel’s iconic toy line, Barbie stars Margot Robbie as the eponymous doll who lives an idealized life in Barbieland but has an existential crisis and travels to the real world alongside her boyfriend Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, in a fish-out-of-water comedic setting. Mattel’s CEO, played by Will Ferrell, is alerted to their presence, thus seeking to recapture them. Ken further discovers the concept of patriarchy and returns to Barbieland to lead a male revolution, culminating in reconciliation between them and the ruling Barbies. Overall, this was one of the few films whose concept seemed terrible, given the source material, but ended up surprisingly enjoyable, with sound social commentary, and is worth a watch.

The first installment of the Home Alone film series, directed by Chris Columbus, stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, part of a sizeable family planning to spend Christmas in Paris, although a scuffle with his older brother Buzz and consequential cleanup leads his father to throw away his ticket and passport accidentally. Coupled with a power outage in the middle of the night and a miscount of heads the following morning, Kevin is left stranded at home, which he must defend from a pair of thieves known as the Wet Bandits, portrayed by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. It rightfully stands as a holiday classic, with great music by John Williams, and has aged well.

The 1971 film adaptation of the stage musical focuses on the poor Jewish milkman Tevye, portrayed by the late Chaim Topol, living in the Ukrainian village of Anatevka and facing the challenge of marrying off his five daughters amidst the growing tension in his community and Imperial Russia at large in 1905. The prospective husbands include Perchik, a radical Marxist from Kiev (now Kyiv); Lazar Wolf (which most characters pronounce “laser wolf”), a wealthy widowed butcher; and the poor tailor Motel Kamzoil. Following one of the daughter’s weddings, the local constable leads a pogrom against Anatevka, with the second half of the film focusing on the aftermath months later that culminates in the dispersement of the town population following a government decree.

As a musical, there are, of course, several notable tunes such as “Tradition,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Miracle of Miracles,” and “Sunrise, Sunset,” the last two being my personal favorites. A few seem padded with nonsensical words like “If I Were a Rich Man" (though it could be Yiddish or Hebrew). Regardless, most of the numbers are well-performed and certainly would not have sounded awkward even in the place and period where and when the movie occurs, given the soundtrack's Semitic feel. The film also deals with themes like Jewish tradition, with insight into their customs and relationships back in 1905. While the film is not without its flaws and has a forthcoming remake, I think the 1971 adaptation is good enough as it is.

I haven't played any of the games, and don't know if I will since my backlog is massive, but it's a decently entertaining film, with the animatronics being ugly-cute and all.

The first Fantastic Beasts sequel focuses on magizoologist Newt Scamander as he joins then-Hogwarts-Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (back in 1927) to chase down escaped dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald as he tries to amass a pure-blood wizarding army in a more-divided wizarding world. The visual direction and continuity nods to the Harry Potter books and movies are good, along with some decent twists, but the film doesn't actually have a lot to do with the eponymous "crimes" of the titular sorcerer, and his motivations at points are actually just, given his foretelling of the Second World War among Muggles, for instance.

The first movie based on Star Trek, originally intended to be the pilot episode of a sequel series to The Original Series, focuses on a mysterious entity known as V'Ger engulfing everything in its path and threatening Earth, with Admiral Kirk gathering his old Enterprise crew to counter it. Director Robert Wise took heavy inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey, with plenty of drawn-out sequences showing off the film's special effects at the time. Jerry Goldsmith composed the soundtrack, its cornerstone being "Life Is a Dream," which would be later used as the central theme to The Next Generation. The film does show its age in many respects but did well to carry on the plot of the TOS cast.

I'm starting to rewatch these films since Rise of the Beasts came out recently, and I want to experience them chronologically. The eponymous Transformer arrives on Earth after he and the Autobots lose a war against the Decepticons on their home planet Cybertron to set up a base there, with a girl named Charlie finding him disguised as a Volkswagen Beetle, and two Decepticons are sent to Earth as well to ensure he doesn't set up resistance against their order. Has a good 1980s setting with some of the good music of the era, and I enjoyed the movie overall.

A significant improvement over previous DnD films in that it's canon to the Forgotten Realms and is a good mixture of action, comedy, and fantasy, more enjoyable than playing the tabletop game and whatever DnD video games I've played (with my experience limited to Baldur's Gate, but it was the original PC version that hasn't aged well). A shame it underperformed at the box office, so there probably won't be any more films, and I'm not sure if the planned television series will go through, either.