Elvis Presley - The King still rules...

Top Ten - Western Movies

The best of the movies for any movie-loving kid, of any age...

1. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
2. For a Few Dollars More (1965)
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
5. Mackenna's Gold
6. Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957)
7. Unforgiven
8. They call me Trinity (1971)
9. Trinity is still my name (1972)
10. Lonesome Dove

Hornet's Nest

Another movie, that would just about not get into the list of my all-time favorites. But, I like the movie, because of its period genre of the second world war, made in the US at the time of the stink about the Vietnam War, and entirely to bring together the hype of the macho US army soldier. Absolutely done, as required, by Rock Hudson.

I saw it during the same months as "Too Late the Hero", and many a year went by, with memory playing tricks and bringing the stories together... Imagine... Rock Hudson, Henry Fonda and Michael Caine... doing the suicide run, and later, blowing up the dam.

Of course, it was Henry Fonda and Michael Caine in the suicide run, and Rock Hudson, blowing up the dam.

Too Late the Hero

A movie that would just about not be able to sneak in to my list of great movies. Actually most purists would not even include it in any list. But, its a good movie. I saw it in Aurora Cinema at King's Circle, Mumbai in 1975 with my father, and later thrice, in 1976 with my grandfather. They came, each time, to see Michael Caine, in an action movie.

I went with them to watch Michael Caine, but ended up watching and appreciating Henry Fonda, instead. The scenes where they run zigzag to avoid the Japanese bullets and the cockroach race, are classic.

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A review -

Filmed on location in the Philippines, Suicide Run is the alternate title of the British war thriller Too Late the Hero. Cliff Robertson stars as an opportunistic, mildly cowardly US navy lieutenant who is reluctantly recruited for a suicide mission. When his CO is killed, Robertson is forced into a leadership position, ordering his men forward to destroy a Japanese outpost. Michael Caine, Harry Andrews and Denholm Elliott play key roles, while Henry Fonda makes a pre-credits guest appearance as the man who gives Robertson his marching orders. Suicide Run caused a serious rift in the relationship between star Cliff Robertson and director Robert Aldrich, when the latter would not give the former time off from shooting so he could go to the Academy Awards ceremonies to pick up his Oscar for Charly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

GANDHI

A movie that I cannot include in any list. Its an entirely different genre, in a list by itself, and in a class of its own. You cannot ever compare it with another movie. But, yes... there is one other movie... it is the same movie, dubbed in Hindi. Both superhits.

Ben Kingsley, as the Mahatma, won the Oscar in 1982 or 1983, if I remember correctly. The movie won several other awards. Simply because, you could not avoid giving it the awards in most categories.

Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Maulana Azad meet with the British after the Jalianwala Bagh Massacre. Kinnock, played by the famous actor from "Yes, Minister" is on the other side.

Gandhi asks the British to leave India. The British are sceptical and ask him if he really believes that the British would leave India, "just like that"? Yes, replies Gandhi. He talks of non-cooperation. A really cool video clip, that presents the courage, humility, pragmatism and the sensibilities of that time.

A violent reaction to the Jalianwala Bagh issue would perhaps have destroyed the freedom movement. Cinema history, about history... Excellent.

My Fair Lady

"Luverly" - A classic video song montage featuring Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, using the London Vegetable Market situation to excellent advantage.

Lawrence of Arabia

A classic shot from Lawrence of Arabia - When Peter O'Toole rides his camel into the sea...

The scene where Anthony Quinn moves in on an unsuspecting Peter O'Toole is also classic cinema history.

Who can forget the scene where Omar Sharif, playing Prince Ali, makes his first entry in the movie, "Lawrence of Arabia"? He shoots the person drinking from his well, from a long distance gun shot, and then rides in on a petrified Peter O'Toole, playing Lawrence. I can never forget this scene.

If I had only known - Reba McEntire

I made this Flash Music Player at MyFlashFetish.com.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - remade in Hindi as "Satte pe Satta" starring Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini and others. Watch the original English movie and then understand and accept that a classic is a classic is a classic... always.

The songs, the locations, the story idea, and the sub plots within - the community that comes together to build a house. Fantastic stuff.

The Sound of Music

Yet another classic. Done to death in Hindi Cinema with Jeetendra and Jaya Bhaduri and the lord alone knows in how many other versions in other languages in India. But nothing to beat Julie Andrews, as she strums ''Do re mi" - that taught millions of Indians that there was another world outside "sa re ga ma"...

I went to see the Von Trapp castle in Vermont, where they resettled after they escaped from the Nazis in Austria. In the same valley, is Rudyard Kipling's home.

My Fair Lady

From the classic Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw - came a beautiful movie, starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. Of course, Rex Harrison burnt all his goodwill with me, after starring in the Hindi Fiasco - "Shalimar" - but the movie is a classic. Audrey Hepburn, with the song, "The rain in spain", and her father doing a falsetto dance... in the streets of London, when the sewer lines are being laid. Classic movie.

Reba McEntire - Take the mountain

The famous video from Reba McEntire - "I'm gonna take that mountain" - is significant of the approach that women should hold within themselves.

As a movie media by itself, I am most impressed by the video. It's totally complete within itself and does not require any story before or after the video.

Lonesome Dove - A Photo Album

Tommy Lee Jones - as Woodrow in "Lonesome Dove". A classic role. A King in his own right.

The Book by Larry Mc Murtry. Several fiction titles in Westerns. But after "Lonesome Dove", he does not even have to write another word.

Crossing the river... during the great move in the movie. The signatures are that of Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones.

Robert Duvall as "Gus" in Lonesome Dove. A role that was starkly different from that of "Hagen" in Godfather, or later as "Lenin" in Lenin.

Woodrow watching the great march on its way. A classic portrayal of the movie.

All photographs are with copyright of their owners. I am merely paying a tribute here.

Gregory Peck - A tribute

From Gregory Peck's OBIT in CNN.com -

"Peck was best known for roles of dignified statesmen and people who followed a strong code of ethics: a magazine reporter confronting anti-Semitism in "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947, a best picture Oscar winner), a military officer in "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), the president of the United States in "Amazing Grace and Chuck" (1987).

But he also could play against type. He was a conflicted father in the original "Cape Fear" (1962) and a Nazi in "The Boys From Brazil" (1978), the latter against Laurence Olivier's Nazi hunter.

He also gave an air of wondrous bemusement to his reporter in Audrey Hepburn's first major film, "Roman Holiday" (1953), for which Hepburn won an Oscar. "

Gregory Peck was nominated for five Academy Awards. Besides "Mockingbird," he also was nominated for "The Keys of the Kingdom" (1945), "The Yearling" (1946), "Gentleman's Agreement" and "Twelve O'Clock High" (1949).

He made his film debut in 1944 with "Days of Glory," playing a Russian, and followed that with a Roman Catholic priest in "The Keys to the Kingdom," Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound" (1945) and "The Yearling." By that point, he had established himself as a major star.