Sunday, March 30, 2008

Happy Birthday, Warren Beatty!


Today is Warren Beatty's 71st birthday.

I've been a Warren Beatty fan about as long as I've been a movie fan. I was even one of the rare people who went to see Ishtar in the theater, and I still thing that's an underrated movie. In fact, it was one of the highlights of the Doctors K's wedding reception when our pal Mike sang "Wardrobe of Love" from that movie.

I also remember going to see the Oscars on the big screen at the Fargo Theatre the year Bugsy was up for a bunch of awards. Mike and I had gone to see the movie several times while it was playing at the buck theater, and we could pretty much quote huge sections of it verbatim. During the Oscar ceremony, we obnoxiously stood up and clapped every time Beatty appeared on the screen.


Seriously, though, Bonnie and Clyde and McCabe and Mrs. Miller are two of my all-time favorite movies. Beatty--who is called "Pro" by friends like Jack Nicholson--has been bold but selective in his career choices, which have often had a huge impact on American filmmaking. I should probably do a longer post on Warren Beatty some time, perhaps even running a Warren Week.

Here's the trailer for The Parallax View, one of the great, bleak, paranoid political thrillers to come out of the Watergate era.

I need to devote a whole post to this film, especially the great subliminal montage sequence.

6 comments:

Mike V. Scholtz said...

I do remember singing at your wedding. But I only vaguely remember standing up and clapping obnoxiously at the Fargo Theatre.

In any case, I wish to apologize to anyone who was hurt by my actions.

Intruder_W said...

A link then, in anticipation of your commentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNMi8fXi5Os&e

Really, they had me at the Thor comics.

Dr. K said...

intruder--that is a great scene, and I was planning a post on that in the near future.

Anonymous said...

I saw _Ishtar_ in the theater, too. On a date. --Debbie

Will Pfeifer said...

Here's an interesting essay Glenn Erickson (the DVD Savant) wrote about that great PARALLAX montage: http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s76parallax.html

By the way, I love the blog. It's like you're peeking into my head and writing about all the stuff I'm interested in.

Dr. K said...

Will--thanks for the link and the kind words. I'm glad you like the blog. I get the sense from reading yours that we have similar tastes in movies.

And, of course, everyone should be reading Catwoman.