No, Seriously, How Green WAS My Valley?
It’ll be damn sight greener when Caerffili County Borough Council gets round to sorting out kerbside recycling. The fornightly trip to the local “Recycling Centre” with a boot-full of plastic is starting to get a little old.
I notice a bit of buzz about a Best Picture Oscar push for The Dark Knight. Ain’t going to happen, folks, not for a flick about a man in rubber. Although you’d be daft to bet against a post-humous one for Heath Ledger, because there’s nothing anyone likes more than human tragedy.
Speaking of the Academy Awards and on the subject of the film I got today’s post title from, the Academy has made some completely crackers decisions over the years. I mean, I’m as Wales-centric a person as you’ll find in the Fair Country, but How Green Was My Valley beat The Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane to the Best Picture/Director Oscars. Really, 1940s Hollywood? Really? Maybe one for Batman isn’t utterly outside the realms of possibility, and to be fair I can’t really think of a serious grown-up film about grown-up stuff that’s come out this year. But then, that’s probably just me being mesmerised by all the big screen pretty pretty explodey.
There’s always the Bond, though, and Bond’s been on my mind. Via Mick, I’ve been making my way through snell’s Bond reviews. Well worth your time, the review of The Spy Who Loved Me being particularly good in that it’s spot-on in identifying the film as over-rated, and explaining why.
You know what, I don’t think I’ve seen For Your Eyes Only. I must have, because ITV used to do a Saturday night Bond season at least once a year and I wouldn’t have kept missing the same one. But I don’t remember a single thing about it, apart from the theme, but that’s just from watching those “Best Bond Theme” chart programmes they do everytime there’s a new one in the cinema (in fact, aren’t we about due a new one that includes the Chris Cornell track?)
As for the original Bond novels, I’ve only read Casino Royale, although I intend to make my way through the rest of them at some point. And the more I hear about the original Moonraker, the worse the piece of shit film looks, and the more I wish the BBC could do a faithful period Bond drama, with someone like Ben Cross in the title role. Brother Paul and I have talked about James Bond: The Series a lot over the years. You’re telling me people wouldn’t watch a three-part Cold War thriller mini-series featuring ex-Nazis and a plan to annihilate London? They’d shovel that up even without James Bond in it. Damn you, copyright laws, damn you all to hell.
on September 29th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Thanks for the kind words.
Remember, Star Wars and Jaws and the Towering Inferno were all nominated for Best Picture, so I wouldn’t be all that surprised by a nomination for Dark Knight. Hollywood loves to at least give that token recognition to a quality film that does huge box office, and they haven’t had that chance since Lord of the Rings…
Regarding How Gree, that was during the period when 10 movies were nominated, making it easier for weird vote splits to take place…theoretically you could win Best Picture with onyl 11% of the vote. And with everybody afraid of offending Hearst, it’s not completely surprising the voters gravitated to How Green,
on September 30th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Ah, Moonraker! My favourite Bond book. Get onto that, friend; they may make it yet!
on September 30th, 2008 at 10:35 am
BDS: I didn’t realise how many films were nominated back in those days, so I can see how it happened now, but like you say, there were political reasons why Kane got left out in the cold, and I suppose Falcon is typical of the kind of film that’s appreciated more after its time than during the original run. It’s a stylistic classic now, but I suppose it was just considered a pulp-level detective thriller in the 40s.
Plok: The Bonds are definitely on my reading list, now, and I notice a few reasonably-priced omnibus editions knocking around the place.
on September 30th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
A few Christmases ago, my then girlfriend got me a Penguin box set of ten Bond novels (Just the anthologies and The Man With The Golden Gun were missing, not the best novel anyway, seeing as it was basically an unfinished book published after Fleming had died) and they are a fantastic read. Dated, for sure, and definitely not politically correct (especially in regard to homosexuals) but they still pack a punch after fifty-odd years. Moonraker is also my favourite of the novels, it’s the only 007 adventure set in Blighty, and the Drax of the novel is a far superior bad guy to his dreary cinematic counterpart.
I think the ‘Bond series’ idea is a great one. Every now and again, critics come out with ‘how is Bond still relevant to today’s climate’-type articles, and there’s one easy way round this, make Bond as a period drama. It wouldn’t matter then if there’s no longer a Cold War. It would be cool to see faithful adaptations of Fleming’s novels in the order they were written, set in the period they were written. (saying that, the first four Bond movies and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service are fairly faithful to the source material, except the scenes where Bond fights a giant squid and the bad guy drowning in bird shit are missing from the Dr. No film.)
And if nazis planning to blow up London is your thing, why not try Septic Isle, my forthcoming graphic novel coming soon?
on October 1st, 2008 at 9:52 am
Exactly my dream. Bond as period piece: black and white, he smokes three packs of Chesterfields a day, guzzles vodka and benzedrine cocktails, teeters at the edge of a nervous breakdown, is unregenerate. Also then Drax’s scheme is brilliant, and the climax of Moonraker is awesome in its simplicity.
And then maybe we could have Bloefeld’s Garden Of Death one day, too.
It would rock.
But I can hardly complain too much after the new Casino — short of the period-piece stuff and the B/W stock, it’s a little bit like someone was listening to me all these years.
on October 1st, 2008 at 9:53 am
Also, when Bond goes to M’s club, and they have dinner. That’s some crazy anachronistic shit right there. I learned Bridge from this book.
on October 1st, 2008 at 10:51 am
Mick: Don’t worry, Septic Isle is on my pull list at the local comic shop. I think the sentence “if nazis blowing up London is your thing” is going to throw up some interesting Google searches.
Plok: I really, really need to get through the original Bond novels. The synopsis I’ve seen of You Only Live Twice puts the film to shame, and for a film that involves stealing spaceships with other, bigger spaceships and hiding them in a hollowed-out volcano, that’s saying something. Also, Ninja Bond strangling Samurai “Shatterhand” Blofeld makes it sound like Fleming invented quirky internet film pitches forty years early.