I, Death

Thursday September 13, 2012 - 11:19 AM

I just did something these past few days that I haven’t done in ages.

I spent some time with Uncle Bob.

And it was great.

We watched movies. But we didn’t just watch them, it was more than that. We were able to bring back a fun experience we’d had a few years ago, back when Uncle Bob had read in a movie magazine that a reboot of Rise of the Planet of the Apes was being worked on. When he’d read about it, we started chatting and he told me about the reboot of the original Planet of the Apes which had come out in 2001, and we watched it, and I loved it. But the next day my uncle showed me a dvd from his library — it was the original movie from something like 40 years ago. We watched the original then talked about it. It was really cool, the way they did the first movie. The special effects were pretty bland, but the apes looked pretty realistic and the ending was fuckin-a. At the end the main character, played by Charlton Heston, is on this beach and sees the arm from the Statue of Liberty sticking up out of the sand and realizes that they hadn't been on some alien planet at all, but had landed on Earth which had been taken over by apes. Gotta love those types of endings.

My uncle's a pretty cool guy when it comes to movies — I remember we'd talked about the fact that the newer version wasn't so much of a remake as it was taking a basic concept and doing a whole new thing with it. There are pros and cons for each, I think. But I love listening to my uncle go on about it. He really knows his stuff.

This past week we watched a few movies and their remakes. We saw the original Flight of the Phoenix as well as the one that came out half a dozen years ago. Kind of neat. We watched Assault of Precinct 13 — the re-release and the one from the ’70s. My uncle liked both of them as well, but for different reasons. We watched the Star Trek reboot, then went back and watched the first Star Trek movie and some of Uncle Bob’s favourite episodes from the original tv series. Then we watched three different versions of King Kong which was really cool to do. We did those ones backwards, starting from the most recent to the original black-and-white.

We did the same thing with The Karate Kid movies. There was the original from the early 1980’s with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita and then the 2010 remake with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. We went back to watch Part II and III of the original Karate Kid series of movies, and even the one called The Next Karate Kid, the one in which Hilary Swank appeared as Miyagi’s new student.

One of my favourite lines from the original series was a quote from one of the ruthless, evil sensei characters; a guy named Kreese. Sure, he’s a douche, but I love how he put it. He said: “Mercy is for the weak. Here. On the street. In competition. A man confronts you, he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy.”

It’s so simple, so pure. “Mercy is for the weak.”

Last night we watched the original Alfred Hitchcock Psycho and the one they re-did a few years ago. It was neat to see the original, because I'd only seen the remake and thought it was pretty good. (Okay, I did see a clip from the black and white shower scene — I mean, who hasn’t seen that part?). But in that case, the original was just more creepy, had a deeper type of atmosphere. My uncle was able to explain how Hitchcock was able to do that consistently in his movies, but I've forgotten most of the details he explained.

It was enough just to listen to him go on, so excitedly, about the movies.

I love when my uncle and I can spend time like that together.

It makes me wonder, though, why he didn't pursue a career in film-making. I haven't asked him that, yet, though.

– 2 Comments –

Rainy said...

It's nice to reconnect with our family sometimes. I'm glad you guys could have that time together. I'm also glad he's trying to keep your interest in the older movies intact too. Most of what's out there today is remakes so it can be good to know where they came from.

MaliceAD said...

If you really liked Hitchcock you should check out Rope which is my favourite. It was actually shot in a series of continuous taks!