Thursday, 2 July 2009
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Destination Mars by Hugh Walters
Review #6 looking back at the old and largely forgotten science-fiction series Chris Godfrey of UNEXA.
With Venus now conquered and with all the world's grey slime problems in the previous book being solved in the intervening six months it's time for Chris to head to Mars in Destination Mars (pub 1963). This book introduces the bizarre idea that apparently Mars is outside the Van Allen belt and so anyone straying beyond it goes mad. But why?
Although nobody wonders why Chris didn’t go mad when he went to Venus, Chris leads a mission to Mars with his three chums to find out some answers. The madness turns out to be down to an ancient race of invisible Martians who have also read too much science fiction and are determined to take over the earth. They have a fiendish plan to achieve this which involves waiting for spaceships to come close to Mars then making weird noises on the radio that make astronauts go mad.
Soon, everyone on board is walking around with stiff legs and saying Martiany things like: "The chances of us leaving our home are a million to one, but still we come." Luckily, Chris is built of sterner stuff and after a strong cup of tea he resists the Martians, switches off the radio, and gets the ship back to earth. On returning, he provides scientists with the important answer on how to avoid being conquered by the Martians of: when in space, don't switch on the radio.
Next week Chris moves on to Jupiter.
With Venus now conquered and with all the world's grey slime problems in the previous book being solved in the intervening six months it's time for Chris to head to Mars in Destination Mars (pub 1963). This book introduces the bizarre idea that apparently Mars is outside the Van Allen belt and so anyone straying beyond it goes mad. But why?
Although nobody wonders why Chris didn’t go mad when he went to Venus, Chris leads a mission to Mars with his three chums to find out some answers. The madness turns out to be down to an ancient race of invisible Martians who have also read too much science fiction and are determined to take over the earth. They have a fiendish plan to achieve this which involves waiting for spaceships to come close to Mars then making weird noises on the radio that make astronauts go mad.
Soon, everyone on board is walking around with stiff legs and saying Martiany things like: "The chances of us leaving our home are a million to one, but still we come." Luckily, Chris is built of sterner stuff and after a strong cup of tea he resists the Martians, switches off the radio, and gets the ship back to earth. On returning, he provides scientists with the important answer on how to avoid being conquered by the Martians of: when in space, don't switch on the radio.
Next week Chris moves on to Jupiter.
Thursday, 25 June 2009
The Red Arrows
Last night the Red Arrows, the British precision flying team, very kindly put on a display for me. I have a feeling it might have been for the benefit of the nearby airfield, but luckily they decided to spend half-an-hour whizzing around above my house. At times they were so close it looked as if they were skimming the treetops. Here's the pictures I took that by accident managed to actually catch the planes as they sped by at several hundred miles an hour.
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Forgotten movie: The Bofors Gun
This film was made in 1968 during a brief golden age for British cinema. Despite being directed by the acclaimed Jack Gold and starring many fine actors, it's strange that this film has been pretty much forgotten. It's not been issued on dvd, little information is available about it on the Internet, and it's been many years since I, and I guess most others, have even seen it. In fact I believe the last time it appeared on tv was the day I bought my first video recorder and I practised by recording this film. I managed to keep that recording for many years but it now appears to have been lost to time.
The film was originally a stage play and the film version does little to expand the story, but then again it didn't need to. It's largely filmed in real time, uses few sets, and is very talky. David Warner plays Terry Evans an ineffectual captain of an army detail in Germany that comprises both regulars and those on National Service. Their duty for the night is the unchallenging one of guarding the gun of the title.
Terry doesn’t mind this minor duty as tonight is to be his last night in Germany. Being a well-spoken and all-round decent chap, his connections have swung it for him to train to be an officer. He has already had a stint at college, but he failed as he lacks authority. But he's to get a second chance to become an officer, provided he has a quiet night and there are no loose ends.
This seemingly minor plotting point controls the main thrust of the story, because in his detail is O'Rourke played by Nicol Williamson. He is every commander's worst nightmare. O'Rourke is a fighting man whose interests in life are alcohol and thumping people. In times of war he's an ideal man to have in your squad, but not in peace time. Tonight is his 30th birthday, a time when he's determined to celebrate by getting blind drunk, having a punch-up, and being put on a charge. But having to deal with the administration of a charge will stop Terry returning to England and so he must try to keep him in line.
So the story becomes a character conflict between two men, one weak and well-meaning, the other a rebel and antagonistic. Terry tries to understand and reason with O'Rourke, and so prove that he can be a commander of men. O'Rourke is only interested in belitting Terry and so leaving him in no doubt of his utter contempt for him. That contempt ultimately creates a well-scripted role reversal.
At first you sympathise with Terry and his predicament of being in charge of an unreasonable man. But gradually you begin to appreciate O'Rourke's viewpoint and so your sympathies change. Like most 1960s British films it comes down to class. Terry has posh friends and so he will be a success no matter how useless he is. O'Rourke is an Irish working class man and so he is doomed to stay at the bottom no matter what he achieves. And despite his brawling, boozing exterior he has the soul of a poet. He has seen through to the rotten core of the British army's class system and he hates it.
The most famous scene neatly sums up the central conflict. Terry, at the end of his tether, asks O'Rourke why he hates him. O'Rourke glares at him. Then he walks over to the stove. He reaches in, pulls out a burning coal, and walks over to Terry with it held tightly in his fist. He stares into his eyes while clutching the steaming coal then deposits it on his desk. No words are needed. O'Rourke's hatred for posh British blokes is so strong he can control it only through pain and ultimately that will be his solution to the story's main dilemma.
The acting is exemplary from the two main leads as well as from numerous other well-known faces such as a young John Thaw. The only false note comes when the need to have a plotted resolution creates a melodramatic ending. The coal scene said it all but the story lets O'Rourke finally implode. Despite the ending, Nicol's character is up there with Jack Nicholson's McMurphy as being one of the great cinema rebels and it's sad therefore that he quit movies in the 1970s when there was so much more he could have achieved. But this movie stills stands as a great testament to quality acting and scripting.
The film was originally a stage play and the film version does little to expand the story, but then again it didn't need to. It's largely filmed in real time, uses few sets, and is very talky. David Warner plays Terry Evans an ineffectual captain of an army detail in Germany that comprises both regulars and those on National Service. Their duty for the night is the unchallenging one of guarding the gun of the title.
Terry doesn’t mind this minor duty as tonight is to be his last night in Germany. Being a well-spoken and all-round decent chap, his connections have swung it for him to train to be an officer. He has already had a stint at college, but he failed as he lacks authority. But he's to get a second chance to become an officer, provided he has a quiet night and there are no loose ends.
This seemingly minor plotting point controls the main thrust of the story, because in his detail is O'Rourke played by Nicol Williamson. He is every commander's worst nightmare. O'Rourke is a fighting man whose interests in life are alcohol and thumping people. In times of war he's an ideal man to have in your squad, but not in peace time. Tonight is his 30th birthday, a time when he's determined to celebrate by getting blind drunk, having a punch-up, and being put on a charge. But having to deal with the administration of a charge will stop Terry returning to England and so he must try to keep him in line.
So the story becomes a character conflict between two men, one weak and well-meaning, the other a rebel and antagonistic. Terry tries to understand and reason with O'Rourke, and so prove that he can be a commander of men. O'Rourke is only interested in belitting Terry and so leaving him in no doubt of his utter contempt for him. That contempt ultimately creates a well-scripted role reversal.
At first you sympathise with Terry and his predicament of being in charge of an unreasonable man. But gradually you begin to appreciate O'Rourke's viewpoint and so your sympathies change. Like most 1960s British films it comes down to class. Terry has posh friends and so he will be a success no matter how useless he is. O'Rourke is an Irish working class man and so he is doomed to stay at the bottom no matter what he achieves. And despite his brawling, boozing exterior he has the soul of a poet. He has seen through to the rotten core of the British army's class system and he hates it.
The most famous scene neatly sums up the central conflict. Terry, at the end of his tether, asks O'Rourke why he hates him. O'Rourke glares at him. Then he walks over to the stove. He reaches in, pulls out a burning coal, and walks over to Terry with it held tightly in his fist. He stares into his eyes while clutching the steaming coal then deposits it on his desk. No words are needed. O'Rourke's hatred for posh British blokes is so strong he can control it only through pain and ultimately that will be his solution to the story's main dilemma.
The acting is exemplary from the two main leads as well as from numerous other well-known faces such as a young John Thaw. The only false note comes when the need to have a plotted resolution creates a melodramatic ending. The coal scene said it all but the story lets O'Rourke finally implode. Despite the ending, Nicol's character is up there with Jack Nicholson's McMurphy as being one of the great cinema rebels and it's sad therefore that he quit movies in the 1970s when there was so much more he could have achieved. But this movie stills stands as a great testament to quality acting and scripting.
Friday, 19 June 2009
Knights of Cydonia
The final track on Prog-rocking Muse's album Black Holes and Revelations is the stand-out song. Knights of Cydonia delivers a self-styled theme tune to a futuristic spaghetti western. It opens to the sounds of galloping horses and wailing that would be familiar to fans of Sergio Leone's Man with no Name westerns. Gradually the tune turns into a Telstar type guitar beat (the lead singer's dad was The Tornadoes' guitarist) and then finally into a Queen style stadium anthem, but it remains at heart the theme tune to a futuristic western.
It's therefore pleasing that when the band came to do the inevitable promo video they made it a western. In fact I would rank it as being the greatest western music promo video ever made, although that's only because I can't think of another. What is most pleasing is that this 6 minute video actually has a plot and tells a familiar western tale.
The story goes like this: The man with no name practises his kung-fu moves before he straps on his gun and goes outside in a great 'going through the door to reveal the big country' shot. He rides off to the town of Cydonia (population 143), passing a collapsed Statue of Liberty on the way. Once there he beats up some rough-types in the road, then goes into the saloon and beats on some more rough types.
He gets into a card game with a saloon-girl. Her four queens beats his four jacks. They have a romantic fling, but the evil sheriff takes exception to them. The sheriff kidnaps the girl and beats up the hero in humiliating fashion using only two fingers then puts him in the stocks before running him out of town.
There in the wilderness the hero is about to crawl under a rock and die, but with the help of some kung-fu champions, several robots and a girl in a silver bikini riding a unicorn he rediscovers his courage. He rides back into town just as the evil sheriff is about to hang the saloon-girl. In the nick of time he saves her from the noose, shoots up anybody who gets in the way, and then in a showdown kills the evil sheriff. Cue end credits.
When you get down to it, that's a better plot than some westerns films I've seen, and better than a few I've written. Purists might take exception to the robots and the silver bikini as not being strictly authentic, but the video does well to cram a proper western story into six minutes.
With youtube taking down a lot of music videos these days I won’t link to something that will probably disappear within hours, but instead here is something even better. Muse in concert playing not only Knights of Cydonia but also doing an intro of the The Man with Harmonica theme from Once Upon a Time in the West. Pure bliss.
It's therefore pleasing that when the band came to do the inevitable promo video they made it a western. In fact I would rank it as being the greatest western music promo video ever made, although that's only because I can't think of another. What is most pleasing is that this 6 minute video actually has a plot and tells a familiar western tale.
The story goes like this: The man with no name practises his kung-fu moves before he straps on his gun and goes outside in a great 'going through the door to reveal the big country' shot. He rides off to the town of Cydonia (population 143), passing a collapsed Statue of Liberty on the way. Once there he beats up some rough-types in the road, then goes into the saloon and beats on some more rough types.
He gets into a card game with a saloon-girl. Her four queens beats his four jacks. They have a romantic fling, but the evil sheriff takes exception to them. The sheriff kidnaps the girl and beats up the hero in humiliating fashion using only two fingers then puts him in the stocks before running him out of town.
There in the wilderness the hero is about to crawl under a rock and die, but with the help of some kung-fu champions, several robots and a girl in a silver bikini riding a unicorn he rediscovers his courage. He rides back into town just as the evil sheriff is about to hang the saloon-girl. In the nick of time he saves her from the noose, shoots up anybody who gets in the way, and then in a showdown kills the evil sheriff. Cue end credits.
When you get down to it, that's a better plot than some westerns films I've seen, and better than a few I've written. Purists might take exception to the robots and the silver bikini as not being strictly authentic, but the video does well to cram a proper western story into six minutes.
With youtube taking down a lot of music videos these days I won’t link to something that will probably disappear within hours, but instead here is something even better. Muse in concert playing not only Knights of Cydonia but also doing an intro of the The Man with Harmonica theme from Once Upon a Time in the West. Pure bliss.
Monday, 15 June 2009
Expedition Venus by Hugh Walters
Review #5 looking back at the old and largely forgotten science-fiction series Chris Godfrey of UNEXA.
After thoroughly exploring the moon, Chris wisely decided it was time to investigate further afield. By now he had a full team behind him of no-longer slimy Soviet Serge Smyslov, resourceful American Morrison Kant, and top-notch engineer despite being very young Tony Hale. The first planet to get conquered by the team was Venus in Expedition Venus (1962). This was my favourite book of the series.
An unmanned probe descends into the lush jungles of Venus (I know) and brings back samples of Venus plant life. Unfortunately that plant life has read too many science fiction novels and immediately breaks out of its capsule and starts growing at an exponential rate.
Within hours a town is coated with Venusian grey slime, within days a country, and within a week a continent. The world seems doomed. This is all very tragic, but when the pesky blighter has rampaged across Europe, destroyed France, and is poised to grey up the White Cliffs of Dover, the Brits decide it's time to spring into action.
Chris along with his mates Morrison, Serge and Tony are tasked with toddling off to Venus and finding an antidote. You see Venus isn't covered in slime so clearly there must be a slime scoffer over there that keeps it in check. They go to Venus, find the antidote, and just as the slime is about to do the worst thing imaginable and make London go grey they hurtle back to earth.
Unfortunately, due to a bit of a cock-up on the navigating front, they've already used up all their retro-rocket fuel darting in and out of Venus's atmosphere and they can't slow down. They can do nothing but whizz past the distinctly grey earth. Luckily, Chris comes up with a cunning plan.
He chucks a bottle of slime killer out the window as he surges past the earth. The bottle hurtles earthward being slowed only by some hankies tied together as a parachute. A helicopter is sent out to intercept it and to make sure it doesn't smash to the ground and be lost in the slime. Luckily a pilot with a big net snags it just before it's about to fall into the slime whereupon scientists take the bottle back to a laboratory, open it up, and sprinkle the slime-scoffer over the slime, thus destroying it. You might have guessed that that plot development irritated me!
The world though is saved and after some improbable manoeuvres in space Chris gets the spaceship back home to receive a hero's welcome.
Next week Chris battles the Martians.
After thoroughly exploring the moon, Chris wisely decided it was time to investigate further afield. By now he had a full team behind him of no-longer slimy Soviet Serge Smyslov, resourceful American Morrison Kant, and top-notch engineer despite being very young Tony Hale. The first planet to get conquered by the team was Venus in Expedition Venus (1962). This was my favourite book of the series.
An unmanned probe descends into the lush jungles of Venus (I know) and brings back samples of Venus plant life. Unfortunately that plant life has read too many science fiction novels and immediately breaks out of its capsule and starts growing at an exponential rate.
Within hours a town is coated with Venusian grey slime, within days a country, and within a week a continent. The world seems doomed. This is all very tragic, but when the pesky blighter has rampaged across Europe, destroyed France, and is poised to grey up the White Cliffs of Dover, the Brits decide it's time to spring into action.
Chris along with his mates Morrison, Serge and Tony are tasked with toddling off to Venus and finding an antidote. You see Venus isn't covered in slime so clearly there must be a slime scoffer over there that keeps it in check. They go to Venus, find the antidote, and just as the slime is about to do the worst thing imaginable and make London go grey they hurtle back to earth.
Unfortunately, due to a bit of a cock-up on the navigating front, they've already used up all their retro-rocket fuel darting in and out of Venus's atmosphere and they can't slow down. They can do nothing but whizz past the distinctly grey earth. Luckily, Chris comes up with a cunning plan.
He chucks a bottle of slime killer out the window as he surges past the earth. The bottle hurtles earthward being slowed only by some hankies tied together as a parachute. A helicopter is sent out to intercept it and to make sure it doesn't smash to the ground and be lost in the slime. Luckily a pilot with a big net snags it just before it's about to fall into the slime whereupon scientists take the bottle back to a laboratory, open it up, and sprinkle the slime-scoffer over the slime, thus destroying it. You might have guessed that that plot development irritated me!
The world though is saved and after some improbable manoeuvres in space Chris gets the spaceship back home to receive a hero's welcome.
Next week Chris battles the Martians.
Friday, 12 June 2009
Fore!
Ray tagged me at Broken Trails so I've taken up the baton:
Four Movies that I can see over and over.
1. Dave
2. Eraserhead
3. 2001
4. Blade Runner
Four Places I have lived.
1. Bulwell, Nottingham
2. Mapperley, Nottingham
3. Arnold, Nottingham
4. Forres, Scotland
Four TV shows that I love to watch.
1. Bottom
2. Mash
3. Frasier
4. Auf Weidersehen, Pet
Four places where I have gone on vacation.
1. Scotland
2. Scotland
3. Scotland
4. Scotland
Four favourite foods.
1. Pie and Chips
2. Pasta Salad
3. Curry
4. Peanuts
Four websites I visit daily
1. Cricinfo.com
2. Digital Spy
3. Trek Today
4. eBay
Four Places I would rather be.
1. In the garden
2. In the living room
3. In the kitchen
4. Walking the dog
Four things that I would like to do before I die.
1. Finish decorating the kitchen
2. See the local dolphins
3. See England retain the Ashes
4. Get lots of cards from King William V's grandson
Four novels I wish that I was reading for the first time.
1. Tiger, Tiger by Alfred Bester
2. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
3. The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem
4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Four people to tag.
1. Sierra Donovan
2. Elisabeth Rose
3. Lois Carroll
4. Laurie Alice Eakes
Four Movies that I can see over and over.
1. Dave
2. Eraserhead
3. 2001
4. Blade Runner
Four Places I have lived.
1. Bulwell, Nottingham
2. Mapperley, Nottingham
3. Arnold, Nottingham
4. Forres, Scotland
Four TV shows that I love to watch.
1. Bottom
2. Mash
3. Frasier
4. Auf Weidersehen, Pet
Four places where I have gone on vacation.
1. Scotland
2. Scotland
3. Scotland
4. Scotland
Four favourite foods.
1. Pie and Chips
2. Pasta Salad
3. Curry
4. Peanuts
Four websites I visit daily
1. Cricinfo.com
2. Digital Spy
3. Trek Today
4. eBay
Four Places I would rather be.
1. In the garden
2. In the living room
3. In the kitchen
4. Walking the dog
Four things that I would like to do before I die.
1. Finish decorating the kitchen
2. See the local dolphins
3. See England retain the Ashes
4. Get lots of cards from King William V's grandson
Four novels I wish that I was reading for the first time.
1. Tiger, Tiger by Alfred Bester
2. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
3. The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem
4. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Four people to tag.
1. Sierra Donovan
2. Elisabeth Rose
3. Lois Carroll
4. Laurie Alice Eakes
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