Posted on 03/28/2021 8:19:43 AM PDT by Twotone
Larry McMurtry died this past week, in the small town where he was born and spent almost all his life - Archer City, Texas, where his greatest film was partly shot. He was principally a novelist, but Hollywood came a-callin' early, turning his very first book into an effective vehicle for Paul Newman, Hud (1963). It wasn't long before McMurtry was being asked to do his own adaptations of his novels, and by the time of the telly version of Lonesome Dove he was a bona fide famous screenwriter. His blockbuster was Terms of Endearment (1983), which Kathy Shaidle wrote about for us here. His masterpiece was his very first screenplay, which I reviewed four years ago:
The Last Picture Show is set a long way from the glitter of Houston, in a northern town up near the Oklahoma border that does not show the state at its most appealing - a desolate, decrepit Main Street, tumbleweeds bowling down it, dusty pool hall, flimsy screen doors banging in the wind, you know the drill. It's a simply constructed tale on a familiar theme, following the final year of high school through to the dawn of adulthood. But I have always loved this film, since I first saw it when I was about the age of its protagonists, and it has stayed with me over the decades.
So, once you exclude Terms of Endearment and The Last Picture Show, what's left? Well, there's always the film for which he won an Oscar, a decade-and-a-half back, by which point he was an admired enough screenwriter that he was being asked to adapt not just his own work but that of others - in this case, a short story by Annie Proulx. Brokeback Mountain (2006) was touted as the first gay western:
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Mark Steyn is an entertaining writer.
Another brilliant essay from Steyn, perhaps the World’s Greatest Punster.
He clears the air, hits the mark and makes me laugh.
I ain’t woke enough for Wokeback Mountain. Just ain’t.
The Last Picture Show is one of my favorite films. I wouldn’t even consider sitting through Cornhole Mountain.
The Spindletop oil rush must have been quite a time.
I realize Beaumont is a long way from Archer City.
“World’s Greatest Punster” That’s the main reason I can’t listen to him after a few minutes. His humor becomes tedious.
On the other hand...you, Mr. Poster, have a very clever title for yourself during this COVID era; “Quentin Quarantino”. I like it!
Sums it up.
Yep I agree. I never saw Brokeback and never want to see it.
I recall it was nominated for the best picture Oscar. I recall loudmouth activists complained it lost out on the best picture award because of the subject matter, Academy voters were homophobic, etc. To them it was the greatest groundbreaking movie of all time.
Funny though that today, nobody even talks about it.
Too funny!
Thanks, Mr. Martell. for the compliment. The handle came to me of its own, didn’t even have to try to think it up.
Re: Steyn ... I agree, a bit too much is too much. That’s why I’m hoping he won’t take Rush’s spot as a full time gig. Guest Host suits him better.
Steyn seems to have posted on Free Republic that he is totally done with any hosting duties, of any kind, on Rush’s show.
Lots of funny lines, indeed. Steyn is a gifted writer.
Thanks for the info about Steyn ... I missed that, glad to know.
Sensible of him to step away from the mic.
Time for Rush Limbaugh’s show to look toward the future again
3/11/2021, 5:17:43 PM · 67 of 113
Mark Steyn to 17strings
There really is no need for all this back and forth about my unsuitability as Rush’s successor.
I was honored to guest-host, at Rush’s pleasure, for fifteen years. My penultimate show (on February 19th, two days after his death) was my personal tribute to Rush. On my final show (February 22nd), I had the pleasure of hosting his beloved Kathryn.
And that is that.
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Thanks for the news, Mad ... Steyn is a true gentleman.
And Brokeback Mountain. Written by a Canadian woman. Filmed by a Chinaman. You know it can only be ridiculous.
And I always wondered if Heath Ledger killed Homeland out of shame got kissing a man. John Wayne would have never done that.
The film was supposed to be a provocation, and MSNBC and the rest of the gang blamed the "Christian right" for deliberately killing the movie by refusing to be provoked. Instead, the supposedly uptight right contented themselves with a few easygoing gags about the first western in which the good guys get it in the end. Which is funny, but not enough to get the mob stampeding the multiplexes."Refusing to be provoked" -- LOL.
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