The #WWWSI stars seemed to align for this Hallowe'en Special as tonight's film, the supposed 32nd greatest Western of all time, fitted in perfectly with the fact that my only Hallowe'en costume is that of a werewolf.
When I die, forget all that #BRAPA nonsense, if there is one thing I want people to remember about me, it was 'He knew how to celebrate Hallowe'en ..... even in the year 2020'. 'PHIL! WE DON'T TALK ABOUT 2020 ... YOU KNOW THAT!' 'Sorry, Martha'.
I don't know who Phil and Martha are by the way, presumably I'll pay them to attend my funeral.
No celebrations could be complete without a bit of music, so thanks to follower 'Matthew' who recently released his 'difficult second album' The Twild Scaring.
Side A had more classic Western hits. And Side B is made up of spookier Hallowe'en tracks, and as 'Night of the Vampire' began, the pizza was just going in the oven, wine being poured and Wotsit dice being rolled. Really great mixtape. It finally felt like we had lift off .......
NOT ANOTHER 5! Seriously, this is getting ridiculous now. 36 bags out of a possible last 42, I just cannot roll less than a 4 at the moment. Good job it wasn't a 6, for as I searched around the back of the cupboard, I realised I only had 5 bags left. Yes, I had maxed out! What would I have done, called the whole night null and void? Or gone up to Sainsburys in wolf costume in search of multipack?
This week's wine was of the Dolcetto grape variety, taking us to Italy. Which predictably meant my book paired it with pizza. Mushroom Dr Oetker, on offer. Seemed less intimidating than something meaty.
The wine was decently bodied, but quite an easy drinker, either that or I'm getting immune, but don't just take my word for it .....
A few sips of the good stuff down the hatch, and the oven beeped and we ready to go through for the 'main event'......
One of those 'survivalist' Westerns which seem to be a genre in their own right. Kevin Costner pretty much does everything in the film, and although it probably was my ultimate favourite, it left an impression and he can give himself a #WWWSI pat on the back, the ultimate accolade for any Hollywood A-lister.
Basically, he needs his foot amputating but the doctor needs to go for an overdue sleep and some scran (typical overworked NHS) so KC gets his boot back on, jumps on his horse, and decides to go out in a blaze of glory by riding into enemy lines.
They all miss him (somehow, implausibly), and distracted, the goodies (not Bill Oddie n co) swoop in and kill the baddies. Kev earns some bravery award/promotion for his accidental heroism and to everyone's shock, he asks if he can posted to the 'frontier, while it still exists!'
He goes out there with a really annoying dude, who luckily gets killed, and although there are no pub scenes, there are lots of sweeping panoramic frontier shots that remind me of when Martin Taylor took me on trips to pubs in the Fens ......
After this, he kind of 'survives' whilst having stand offs with the local Indian tribe, his only friend a wolf with white socks which keeps hanging around him.
Eventually, he gets 'well in' with the locals when he tells them some buffalo are running about nearby, falls in love (it's okay cos she's an adopted white person too apparently), they call him 'Dances with Wolves', and the language barrier gets easier.
The baddies (which used to be the goodies, hope you are keeping up) kill the friendly wolf and arrest Kev for being a traitor, which he kind of is. The Sioux Indians return to free him, and film ends with a depressing epilogue saying the tribe lasted 13 more years, and then was wiped out. Yeah, cheers for that!
Was a bit of a slog towards the end. Not as much as Giant or Revenant, but still a bit much. Bit like a brewery section in a Beer Guide, a lot of it felt a needless excess. But enjoyable overall.
Next week, the lowest ranked (but not lowest rated) film yet at #95, Bend of the River. The DVD has finally arrived. The wine is from Romania (now that does sound scary), the food is a beef stew dinner, the day will be Saturday rather than Sunday (cheers Lockdown 2) and the Wotsits? Well, I'm not even thinking about that yet!
We'll leave you with an interesting film fact from friend of #WWWSI Cooking Lager.
Goodnight out there, whatever you are!
Si
You in your werewolf costume had me loling!
I mean of all the songs to be in dispute over on that wonderful mixtape, I love the sentiment of it but Lee Marvin's drawly vocals etc means should they really be cherishing it too much? Maybe I'm being a bit harsh.
Ah yes, "Paint Your Wagon". Something that I doubt Clint Eastwood puts on his resume along with "A Fistful Of Dollars" and "Unforgiven".
'Wand'drin' Star' disappeared off Spotify as well the week after I did that tape. I assume Lerner & Loewe's heirs are in some kind of dispute about streaming / online sales.
Gonna give the tape another spin tonight for Week 18. I played some tracks off for the first on for Dad, he loved it, and now I'm going to have to make him a similar (but on CD) for Christmas. Which might involve buying the tracks separately (took me ages to find a 'Wanderin' Star version you can download, seems it was on a lame film about a Twog on Amazon a few years back so that helped!)
Though I've never seen the movie ( everyone was fed up of Kevin Costner by 1992), it does amuse me to think of you listening to 'Sky Men', 'Witches Brew' and 'Monster In Black Tights' and thinking "What the f***ing hell is THIS?"