The lengths I go to so I can watch the Western I've rolled my 30 sided dice for!
I could only find this one on 'Blu-Ray' (whatever that means). I didn't have a Blu-Ray player. So I had to purchase one on EBay from a boring man in Leicestershire (why is it always a boring man in Leicestershire?)
The second hand Blu-Ray player cost less than the Blu Ray disc itself!
And to think this tentative 2023 return of #WWWSI was aimed at saving me money on too many crazy midweek BRAPA jaunts! False economy? I couldn't possibly comment!
Ranked 120th out of 120, you might be forgiven for believing that 'The New Land' isn't that well regarded. But just like the current Championship league table which has Hull City 15th when they are like 8th best or something, it lies. Critic and approval ratings sky high:
Time to go into the kitchen for the best part of the evening, the prep. Olive anyone?
Yet another new twist on the humble Wotsit .... these ones reminded me of those 'Cheeto' crisps you used to get in the 90's with that Cheetah wearing sunglasses on the front. Or cheesy Nik Naks if you prefer! A good crunch, very moreish, tempted to try them next time too.
It was very much Sweden v Uruguay tonight, which sounds like a boring World Cup group game which only comes alive when Luis Suarez bites Henrik Larsson's dreads.
The film was from Sweden, so I made an eclectic playlist. Oh, if only I could think of a famous Swedish band from the 70's .......
Joking of course, I put Super Trouper on because it is the first song I ever heard by them. We had Roxette, Ace of Base, Europe, Cardigans, the Rednex doing Cotton Eye Joe, and on the punk side, classic bands I loved 15-20 years ago like Randy, Bombshell Rocks, Millencolin, Backyard Babies, Turbonegro, and the slightly more famous The Hives.
Dr Alban roused us with period anthem 'It's My Life', bands like the Incest Brothers and the Shitlickers were slightly too experimental, before we settled down with Viagra Boys, Bathory, and sixties legends the Tages for a gentler finale.
This week's wine came from Uruguay - just when you think you'd seen it all!
Tannat is the national grape, even if they did nick it off France, and was next in my book:
Do you want to see a Father & Son duo trying to look cool in a Uruguayan vineyard? Course ya do!
I bought my bottle online from Fraziers (not Campbell), Co-op sold it too and were brutally honest in their assessment. "Put it in the back of a cupboard and forget about it!" they cried. "Not much going on with this wine!" claimed most of the reviewers.
Surprised to say, I loved it. Much fuller and darker than I'd been expecting with high tannins. And at 12.5%, quaffable like a session ale. Lowest abv since we watched McLintock! in week 32, nearly two years ago.
Keeping up the Sainsbury's pizza range to save money, I went for a vegetable one this week because it somehow seemed a bit more Keto (it wasn't). I'm going to try and go through the full range. Back in the Lockdown years, I got way too experimental with my cooking.
Then it was through for the main event ....
My pet hate is films that go on too long, and over three hours is wayyyy too long.
Yet The New Land didn't drag, or grate, or jar. Despite a lack of action and incident throughout, this was no Sam Peckinpah. It was just a really 'nice' film.
It picks up exactly where the previous film by same director with same cast 'The Emigrants' left off, like the next scene.
Basically this Swedish couple with a few twilds and hangers on pop over to America to make a new life for themselves. The husband and wife Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann have done so many films together by this point, they have a natural hubbie/wife chemistry.
They have to build a house, a micropub, make friends, try not to piss off the Native Americans, afford to buy stuff, cope with the weather, she feels homesick and keeps getting pregnant, he doesn't. It is fascinating viewing, I hope I'm selling it to you.
Other Swedish people arrive to do the same, a blessing and a curse. Stuff goes wrong. But because the film is told over like 20 years, the bad stuff is often all sorted out by the next scene. A bit like Neighbours.
The main man's brother and his friend have heard about the gold rush so they leave the family nest to go in search of gold. The friend dies. The other comes back with some cash 4 gold but his ears keep bleeding on his pillow and he has a persistent cough so you have to ask if it was worth it?
No. He dies too. But the micropub is finished by now, they annoyingly name it the Grand Hotel in honour of the old pub back in Sweden.
The new barman has an attitude:
But it is family friendly and Granny drinks a thimble of Old Peculiar out of a teacup:
Liv dies in her 500th childbirth, Max grows old on his own and spends a lot of time in his rocking chair, and dies at the end.
Weird how much I enjoyed it but I did. Might even watch Emigrants one day to see them all come over from Sweden. But that film ain't on my list.
Well, that all happened back on 11th Jan 2023.
It is now 1st Feb 2023 5pm, and in three hours time I'll be watching the lowly rated 'The Keeping Room', the Sainsbury's pizza is Pepperoni and the wine is a Tempranillo from Spain, but almost Chile.
See you soon, Si