"Blazing Saddles" on BLU RAY – A Review Of Mel Brooks’ 1974 Comedic Masterpiece…

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"…Damn Near Lost A $400 Hand Cart!" – Blazing Saddles on BLU RAY

I can vividly remember seeing "Blazing Saddles" at the cinema in Dublin in 1974. Even as the credits rolled - the entire audience was screaming – helpless with laughter as bullwhip-cracks accompany a truly cheesy yee-haw song crammed with cornball lyrics like "...Conquer bad guys near and far…Bart was his name!"

But then as scene after scene unfolded and we began to realize this latest Mel Brooks caper was a pisstake on racism using the Wild West idiom - we also sat there in utter astonishment - and even excitement. Here was a film breaking down barriers – tackling taboos and monsters - but using comedy to do it (like Chaplin did with "The Dictator").

It’s 1874 and the town of Rock Ridge is building a railroad through 200,000 acres of other people’s land and the local greedy District Attorney (a stunning turn by Harvey Corman as Hedley Lemarr) needs a way to frighten the locals so senseless – they’ll just up and leave. And one day while he’s watching hangings out his window by a one-eyed Cyclops – Hedley hits on the genius idea of making the new sheriff a black man.

Playing that part with just the right amount of inner-smirk is Cleavon Little as Bart – a smart Negro outfoxing all the rednecks as he rides into town sporting a Gold Sherriff Star, a Gucci side saddlebag and a shiny new outfit. He’s teamed up with Gene Wilder as The Wako Kid - once the fastest gunslinger in the West but now a drunk in jail. Cue an endless stream of ball-breakingly funny Wild West set pieces and fabulous one-liners about ‘nig*ers’ and hick white attitudes…

"You use your tongue prettier than a $20 whore!" Slim Pickens says after Hedley Lemarr recites a list of the worst scum ever he wants assembled for a posse. There’s a preacher at a town meeting that says of the impending doom – "We should act!" Then grabs his coat. "I'm leaving!" A bearded dusty prospector speaks 'Genuine Frontier Gibberish' you can’t understand. Slim Pickens helpfully suggests how to rid Rock Ridge of the simple folk getting in the way of the railroad - "We'll ride into town and kill every first born child!" and Hedley Lemarr replies "Too Jewish!"

Even something as simple as Cleavon standing on the town podium addressing an all-white crowd becomes loaded with black virility when he says "Excuse me while I whip this out!" and all the white women duck for cover. And then there’s Director and Co-Writer Mel Brooks as the Governor who can’t string two words together (has GOV on his jacket) and keeps lusting after his big-chested assistant (Robyn Hilton of Vixens fame). "Work! Work! Work!" he complains as he signs another dodgy Bill into law.

But best of all is the famous farting sequence where all the cowboys are sat around a campfire eating plates of beans - I remember some people in the audience very nearly suffered a coronary they laughed that hard. And equally as joyous is Alex Karras as the unstoppable MONGO –a huge monosyllabic klutz that punches horses who annoy him. And on it goes like "Airplane" – whomping you in the nuts with clever one-liners and unbelievably edgy gags - all of which lead up to a Randolph Scott joke and a very slapstick ending. Wow!

The print quality on the BLU RAY starts out very badly with a lot of heavy grain shimmering and even the occasional line down the negative. But after a short while it settles down. In truth (and rather disappointingly) - you’d have to say the picture is good rather than great. However even stretched to Full Aspect – "Blazing Saddles" still looks cool for a 1974 production. Audio is Dolby Digital: English 5.1, French 1-channel Mono and German 1-channel Mono. Subtitles are English, French and German.

Extras include: Additional Scenes, Scene-Specific Commentary by Mel Brooks, 2 Documentaries – Back In The Saddle and Intimate Portrait: Madeline Kahn (Excerpt), Black Bart: 1975 Pilot Episode Of The Proposed TV Series Spinoff and a Theatrical Trailer.

Re-watching "Blazing Saddles" on BLU RAY has been a joy. It’s easily in the top 5 funniest films ever made – still brilliantly anarchic – snotty – and fresh in a way that so many gross-out comedies of today can’t even get near.

Two black men are sent up the railway line they’ve been slaving on and sink in quicksand – Slim Pickens comes along and throws a rope. But it’s not over the two drowning Negroes - but onto the handcart (his line titles this review).

 Do yourself a rootin’ tootin’ favour – and get this fabulous piece of un-pc cinematic crudity in-between your bowlegs…tarnation and varmit!

"Paint The Ground" by THE JUNIPERS – A Review Of The 2012 Download Now On VINYL In 2014 on Sugarbush Records

Here is a link to the Download avialable on Amazon UK (go to Sugarbush Records for the LP):

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"…Let The Feeling Flow…" – Paint The Ground by THE JUNIPERS

Initially released in 2012 as a 10-track Download only – someone in Sugarbush Records thinks "Paint The Ground" deserves another shot at stardom – and I’d say when it comes to Leicester’s Folk-Rock act THE JUNIPERS - they'd be right. 

This is a gorgeous little album – chock full of pleasing melodies – and now it’s being reissued in April 2014 with a bonus track on the VINYL LP (“Everywhere Was You” – Track 3 on Side 1). It's a limited edition of 300 copies (with a different sleeve) on Sugarbush SB600.

Stylistically - think a folksy variant of The LA’s with just as many catchy tunes. A sort of English BIG STAR with perhaps a taste of MATTHEWS SOUTHERN COMFORT and even the country melodies of THE JAYHAWKS. The painted art of the front cover might make you think this is perhaps Retro Psych – it isn’t (although the swirling song structures ape that sound at times). The Junipers feel more New Folk than Psych - like a hybrid of all of the above but with the added stew of Sixties Pop like THE ASSOCIATION or even the jangle of THE BYRDS.

Beautifully produced by Gavin Monhagon (Kings Of Leon, The Editors and Ryan Adams) - the opener "Look Into My River" hooks you immediately with its guitars, flute and layered soft vocals - while “Dandelion Man” ups the happy pace to a point where you may feel an uncontrollable urge to place a dandelion in the Afro hair of a foreign student on the London Underground.

“Golden Fields In Golden Sun” is pretty but perhaps takes the hippy lyrics a step too far – but the superb “Antler Season” is a musical nugget that will surely grace a “Juno” type soundtrack any day now. “Phoebus Filled The Town” even has a Steve Hackett guitar vibe (lyrics from it title this review) - sounding not unlike “Horizons” on “Foxtrot" at times. Very tasty indeed…

On the lovely “They Lived Up In The Valley” The Junipers sing of “such a quiet family…kept things to themselves…”

Well when you succumb to this gorgeous album – like me - you won’t be keeping quiet about them or this…well done lads.

“Centaur” by ORGONE BOX – A Review Of The 2013 CD and LP Featuring Rick Corcoran...

"…Find The One You Love…"

"Centaur" by ORGONE BOX

The first thing that hits you about ORGONE BOX is the sheer musicality of the tunes – part Seventies TODD RUNDGREN part BECK part BIG STAR part JIM WHITE and even THE BEATLES circa Peppers – and that’s an impressive line-up in any man’s book.

Lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Rick Corcoran writes all the songs - and named after a device that captures energy - 1996 saw the debut album "The Orgone Box" released in Japan only (reissued elsewhere 2001). "Things That Happened Then" followed in 2002, "My Reply" in 2004 - and now a mere 9-year gap until this - "Centaur" – released December 2013 on Sugarbush Records.

It opens with the lush acoustic strums of "Anaesthesia" and its multi-layered chorus - "I'm not into psychedelia but I’ve a psychedelic mind…" The swirl of the vocals continues on "Mirrorball (What I Want To Feel)" which some added fuzz guitar that really works. "Ticket To Return" is bound to turn up in a movie soundtrack somewhere – superbly hooky and full of great lyrics about sisters worried about their nerdy brothers. But even better ends Side 1 – "Judy Over The Rainbow" – so “Revolver” in ways that Macca and Lennon would love.

Side 2 highlights feature more fuzz-swirling catchiness in the shape of "Wurld Revolz" while the acoustic strum of "Find The One" is an obvious single/radio play hit (lyrics from it title this review). There’s a gorgeous musicality to "Disposable" which will draw in Karl Wallinger/World Party fans. And it ends on the Beatlesque “Bubble” evoking the spirit of 1966 yet again to superb effect.

On the lovely “Wethouse” Corcoran sings “Loving me shouldn’t be hard to do…”

It isn’t. Fabulous stuff...and a wee bit of an undiscovered gem frankly…

"Tank Tracks" on CD by STALINS OF SOUND - A Review Of Their 2014 Album...

As the STALINS OF SOUND Lead Singer and Principal songwriter Hadi Fever screams "I cannot sleep!" throughout "Without Machine"  - you can't help but feel the band's lo-fi and short bursts of energy are what's keeping the poor boy up at night.

Their sound is BIG BLACK with Drum Machine backdrops - manic paced guitars behind DEVO-like Robotic vocals - grunge with synths. The title track is based on US Army Veteran Shawn Nelson's infamous stealing of a Patton Tank and his rumble in said machine down the motorways of San Diego in 1995. He trashed everything in sight before being shot dead by authorities (a suitably angry beat to reflect this).

"Monkey's Attack" rocks like - well like a mad monkey - while "Abominations Of Fire" smacks of too many nights drinking schnapps with Florian Schneider as he makes "Computer World".  The finishers "Truth To Power" and "Rules For Your Mouth" may appeal to those dig their Kraftwerk with a harder edge.

Not for the faint-heated - "Tank Tracks" is Noise-Punk for the liberal palette.
(Released May 2014 on Slovenly 702-144 - CD/LP/Download )

"Saving Mr. Banks" on BLU RAY – A Review Of The 2013 Film….

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"…I Have Final Say!" – Saving Mr. Banks on BLU RAY

It’s 1906 in the beautiful and affluent city of Maryborough in Australia. Travers and Margaret Goff are leaving with their two daughters – Ginty and Dolly. Like Pied Piper their jokey father is leading his family to a new home, a new town, a new job in a bank for him and supposedly – a new and happier life. But the nanny who watches them leave yet another nice home and wife Margaret with an infant in her arms seems not so sure. And on the train to a remote place called Allora in Queensland (the last stop on the line) – Margaret watches with concern as her husband Travers sips slyly from a hip flask filled with whiskey. So while Ginty may adore her story-telling Dad who fills her with magic thoughts – she just stands on the back of the train dreamily watching everything she’s ever known disappear into the distance because of Daddy’s "ways"…

Now its April 1961 in London and the child Ginty is grown up into the frightfully prim and prig Pamela L. Travers – author of "Mary Poppins" – sat alone at her desk meditating (as per the works of George I. Gurdjieff). A ring at the front door brings in her literary agent Diarmuid Russell (Ronan Vibert) who informs her that the royalties have dried up and because she refuses to write anything new - soon even her beloved Bloomsbury home will go unless she procures money. But still she’s staggeringly prickly. Russell who has tread lightly long enough rages that Walt Disney - who has pursued her for twenty years to get the film rights to "Mary Poppins" - has even agreed to her excessive demands - no animation and full script approval. But she lives in terror that Hollywood will turn her beloved creation into pap.

But needs must – so - soon she’s on a BOAC jet to Los Angeles being rude to air hostesses, mothers with children and even the driver who picks her up at the other end – Ralph (a fabulous show by Paul Giamatti). "It smells like chlorine and sweat!" she says as Ralph tells her the scent in the Californian air is Jasmine. He buckles up – it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Mrs. Travers then throws pears out of her hotel window, growls at the writers in the Disney studios, whinges about piddly details like numbers on doors and moustaches and says "No! No! No!" absolutely all of the time. She’s even truculent in the face of the legendary Walt Disney and his considerable charm.

“Saving Mr. Banks” uses the technique of running Ginty’s 1906 childhood in Australia alongside her 1961 Californian battle with Disney and his people – so we slowly get to see why the dreamy hopeful child grows into a woman who would pen such a prig and proper character. Key to all of this is her relationship with the man she worshipped – Travers – her father. His daily battle with drink made his wife attempt suicide in a lake - lost him his job and health (consumption) – and eventually saw the kids farmed out to a visiting matriarch - Aunt Ellie. And with her starched almost churchlike garments, large carpetbag, face-shaped umbrella and 'no nonsense' practicality in the face of a crisis – Aunt Ellie would of course become the character "Mary Poppins". But is Mary Poppins about her saving the children - or is it really about Ginty saving her father through fiction? 

The superb cast includes Ruth Wilson as Margaret Travers, BJ Novak and Jason Schwartzman as the composing brothers Robert and Richard Sherman and Bradley Whitford as Disney man Don DaGradi. But the movie belongs to the leads… Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson.

There’s a strong body of evidence (“Castaway”, “Charlie Wilson’s War”, “Cloud Atlas” and “Captain Phillips”) that Tom Hanks may indeed be up there with De Niro, Al Pacino, Liam Neeson, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman and other greats in terms of being the best actor who’s ever lived. So it takes serious boots to outshine him as Walt Disney. Up steps such a force of nature - Engerland’s Emma Thompson – giving her hateful bully lady a beating heart and gradually unfolding the real reasons for her guarded and prickly nature. Thompson gives a performance of true brilliance - an embattled woman who is hurting so deeply that you literally ache for her – cherishing dreams she cannot have sullied by commerce and gaudiness. The dances between her and Hanks are fabulous – but even better is her work with Giamatti – the humble limousine driver who touches her heart and makes her offer up a rare morsel of kindness when he reveals he has a special needs daughter ("Tell your daughter she can do anything she puts her mind too…").

Credit also has to go Colin Farrell who is magnificent and measured as the troubled yet adoring father Travers. The scenes between him and Annie Rose Buckley as young Ginty are beautiful and immensely moving. Childlike and wondrous himself – he instils in his little girl the qualities that would make her such a great writer later on. But he also crippled her mind with images of innocence betrayed – and a helpless descent into loss that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Thomas Newman’s perfectly complimentary music and the presence of those wonderfully uplifting movie songs that are lingering in the back of our consciousness give the whole film warmth that’s tangible. But what really gets you over and over again - is the astonishing and truly immersive attention to period detail. The look of the bank Travers works in Allora, the huge wooden house on a hill in the middle of nowhere, the fun-fair day where he makes a fool of himself in front of his family because he’s drunk…  Then there’s the Beverly Hills Hotel where Pamela stays in 1961 – the Disney gift hampers she encounters in her room – even the stationery that Giamatti is holding when he meets her at the airport – all of it is period and absolutely spot on. There’s a scene where Walt takes Travers to Disneyland in an effort to soften her up – the stalls outside the theme park gates – the public crowds walking by the attractions and the carousel that ends up in the movie – huge set pieces - and all of it perfect.

The BLU RAY print is glorious throughout - a big Hollywood production and the picture quality reflects that. It’s defaulted to 2.34:1 so there are bars top and bottom – but even extended to Full Aspect – the print is gorgeous. This film is a real looker on the format.

Audio is English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with English 2.0.
Subtitles are English for The Hard Of Hearing, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish
Extras include "Deleted Scenes", "The Walt Disney Studios: From Poppins To The Present” and "Let’s Go Fly A Kite".

And on it goes to P. L. Travers finally sat in a cinema with tears rolling down her face as Walt Disney gives her Mister Banks the joy he so lacked all those years ago in Australia. Even Dick Van Dyke’s awful accent is forgiven as the joy of the songs and the film transcends everything. 

"Wind's in the east…mist coming in…like something is brewing…about to begin…"

"Saving Mr. Banks" is beautifully crafted cinema – superbly written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith and Directed by John Lee Hancock.

Do your heart and yourself a favour and spend Tuppence on this quality movie…

"Babette's Feast" on BLU RAY – A Review Of The 1987 Danish Film...

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"…Love Shall Unite Us…" – Babette's Feast on BLU RAY

It’s September 1871 in a remote part of Jutland in Denmark – and on a rain-sodden night - a young French woman dressed in hooded garb knocks on the door of elderly sisters Martine and Filippa. The serenely beautiful ladies live frugally and quietly in tiny houses high above the cliffs in a deeply Christian Community – generously feeding the elderly of the flock every single day with hot food culled from their basic cooking skills.

The woman is Babette Hersant – once a worshipped culinary chef in Café Anglais in Paris - and she bears a letter from an elderly French Opera Singer called Achille Papin. He has sent Babette to Denmark by boat to escape political rioting in the capitol city that has robbed her of everything including a husband. Papin visited the sisters when they were youthful beauties many decades back – and lost his heart to Filippa’s angelic voice (words from a duet they sing in a clinch together titles this review). But because of fear and entrenched Christian beliefs – Filippa could not bear what their burgeoning love was doing to her soul – so she had her Pastor father send him away (and silence his singing). But Papin remembered her kindness too – so he has sent the broken Babette into their care.

14 years pass and Babette has now worked her way into the hearts of the kindly sisters, the local grocer and even the fishermen who can’t pass off rancid meat or old fish on the food-knowledgeable Babette.  She even knows where the herbs are on the wild grass stretches that overlook the Sea.

Babette’s only link with France is a lottery ticket a kind relative keeps renewing for her year after year. And one day she gets a letter – she’s won 10,000 Francs. To their astonishment Babette doesn’t want to squander the money on clothes or fine things – but instead payback their kindness by cooking the austere community a proper French Dinner in honour of their Pastor Father whose anniversary is approaching. And Babette wants to do it her way. The sisters agree but have no idea of the opulence that is going to invade their linen-covered table and remain tearfully terrified of its corruptive nature. But great wine, champagne, real turtle soup, sumptuous cooking and divine food mellow the bickering and tetchy elderly community and bring about a deep healing – even a spiritual renaissance of sorts…

Released in the summer of 1987 and directed by Gabriel Axel (a Danish language movie with English subtitles) – the film is based on a story by Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen) and its full title is "Karen Blixen's Babette's Gaestebud". It was Denmark’s first Oscar Win for a foreign language film (also took the BAFTA).

Special mention should be made of the 'young' sisters whose back-story of 'lost love' gives the film its beating heart. A dashing Hussar called Lorens Lowenhielm is stationed in a Garrison Town living a life of tedium and gambling. His father feels he needs to be 'sent away' – so ships the blue-uniformed young man off to his aunt in Norre Vosburg in Jutland. One afternoon out of horseback he sees his redemption from creditor notes and parental lectures – the beautiful young Martine. He immediately tries to woe both her and the pious community who surrender her at every moment – but soon becomes painfully aware that his needs for luxury and easy living far outweigh his needs for Martine. So Lorens leaves and marries a countess with wealth and position. But he has of course made the mistake of a lifetime.

Now an old man but still a dashing officer – he is invited to the feast – and recognizes the extraordinary cooking skills from a past encounter in Paris (like a warm glow from the past). But more than that – he fills old Martine’s heart with joy by telling her that he has always loved her – and not even the physicality of years or body will keep them apart spiritually (his declaration of love to her at the end is one of the loveliest pieces of dialogue in cinema).

I wish I could say the Artificial Eye BLU RAY is a triumph – far from it. Despite its BFI logo – the print has specs of dirt on it, lines showing on occasion and a fair amount of natural fuzzy grain. It does look cleaned up in some places – beautiful even – but the BLU RAY improvement is slight. It’s defaulted to 1.85:1 so fills the entire screen but there’s no getting away from the fact that its good rather than great – which given the sumptuous nature of the feast – is so disappointing (docked a star for that).  As I say – it does look shockingly clean in places – but anyone expecting frame-by-frame clean up can look elsewhere.

There is a short interview in French with Stephane Audran who is intensely proud of the ‘masterpiece’ and Subtitles are Danish, Swedish, French and English.

"Babette's Feast" is a gentle film – slow and even pious to a point of being farcical. But the good-humour and warmth will etch its way into your heart – and after you witness the feast – be prepared to raid the cookie jars in your kitchen with a passion.

As young Papin's heart soars and he tells young Filippa she has 'the voice of joy' – there are moments in "Babette's Feast" when you are in complete lip-smacking agreement with the rotund Frenchman. A beautiful life-affirming film and then some…