The Truel

PARTLY SUBJECTIVE POST!!

Please read the blurb before you click the video!






Westerns come and go, but this climax to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" has to rank amongst the best. Apologies for this version, but this movie DEMANDS widescreen, especially here.

The "Good" (Blondie played by Clint Eastwood), the "Bad" (Tuco played by Eli Wallach) and the "Ugly" (Angel eyes, or Colonel Mortimer played by Lee Van Cleef) fight it out for $200,000 .

Things to notice.......Mortimer is the one with the tip of his middle finger missing, Blondie is the one with the perfect fingernails, and Tuco is the one wearing his gun around his neck on a string.

The director is Sergio Leone, and the music is by Ennio Morricone, in this the final instalment of the "Dollars" trilogy.

The use of music is impeccable as is the single crow sound at the end of the first stanza.

Leone wanted to convey how it looked from each character's viewpoint, as early on, the camera sits behind each of them.

They eyes are the key. Blondie only looks ahead to Tuco and Mortimer to his right, Tuco looks ahead to Blondie and to his left to Mortimer. Mortimer has to look both left and right.

The major key is Blondie's eyeline. Notice how he focuses more on Tuco toward the end , as if he is more afraid of him than Mortimer (yet he knows Tuco's gun is empty)

This is Mortimer's undoing, as he thinks Blondie is being distracted, and reaches first.....

Enjoy. The DVD of this is much clearer but in either version the 3 hours is worth the wait.

As well as science I also do movies as a hobby! (along with photography, travel, cooking, puzzles and music!)

Leone went on to make "Once Upon a Time in America", the Western that was given Carte Blanche by Hollywood, and so important was the music to him (again by Morricone) that he had the actors in it act whilst the music was being played to them on loudspeakers on the set. That movie is notable for it's extended Intro credits, about 10 minutes long, but that is another story.....

Parry Hotter and the Order of the Phoenix

I HATE him! I HATE him!

WHO.......?

Mr Harry Potter of course! The bar-steward, who obviously had the hots for poor little Japanese girl Cho Chang, the girl who had just about recovered from the death of her boyfriend Cedric in " Parry Hotter and the Goblet of Fire", takes advantage of her frailty and tongue-wrestles with her in his class.

THEN.....he dumps her for Ron's littler sister Ginny!

AND.....how could he possibly dump a lovely Japanese girl anyway? How dare he parry a hotter girl!

WHAT.......has Starry Blotter got against little Japanese girls?????

IS HE........Mad as Moody?

Oooh I'm trembling like a Blast-Ended Skrewt on Polyjuice Potion, so don't call me "Moaning Myrtle" but "Antagonised Aki".


(NB THIS POST HAS BEEN "COMEDIC RELIEFIO"!!)

Oh Mom! WHY can't I see the new Harry Potter Movie?

Well, after months of deliberation and nearly three weeks of reading, I finished The Book.

Harry Potter Book Number Seven " Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ".

And yes, as expected, it is full of action, and yes, there were deaths (five, I counted, of the main characters).

It completes everything in dashing detail as if weaving a particularly complex Indian Sari for several Prized Rajkumaris.

There is a lot of violence in the book, and it will probably merit a "15" in the cinemas, as it is beyond the "12" certificate. Hence the title of this post!!

(SUBJECTIVE DETERMINATION)

(FACTS): These are Spoilers!


Take it from me, Dumbledore is still alive, and those destined to die in this last book are Fred Weasley, Tonks and Lupin, Mad-Eye, Colin Creevy, and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. However, avenging his parents, a completely Unexpected Hero turns up in the shape of............Nah, that would spoil it, oh, and it turns out that Severus Snape is on the side of.......Nah, that would spoil it, too!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

(VERY SUBJECTIVE POST!!)

Yes, here we go again.

As a dedicated fan of Harry Potter, I also await the new (and last) book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" with abated breath.

I STILL think that Sirius Black (Harry's Godfather, played by Gary Oldman) is alive. I have maintained it ever since he was apparently killed in the above episode.

I am also in love with HIM: (Harry Potter)





































AND desperately jealous of HER: (Cho Chang)

















Because she gets to do THIS:






















with him.....GRRRRR.

I can at least take solace in the fact that he seems to prefer the oriental type.

Maybe I can weave some of my own magic on HIM! Expelliamus!

The Sixth Sith Sitch Itch - Part Two

(Whoops! As I write this on the 7th Floor of one of Tacloban's better hotels, we get a mild earthquake. At least, that is what the floor thought, along with the celebrating curtains, who danced merrily! (1930 on 28th July))

Finally viewed "Star Wars - Episode III". Got a VCD from the streets of Tacloban for a dollar. Stereo, too. This guy must have had a Dolby surround sound system and a stereo video camera. He recorded it straight from the TV, unlike the usual crap we get here, viz, someone with a mono cam sneaking into a cinema.

And did I enjoy it! Did I? DID I! Stooges beware!

At last, the reason Anakin fell from Grace is clear. He was under fire from the Dark Side.

The Emperor had TWO minds, not just a new one.

Still in Science-Fiction mode, I also today caught Star Trek - Nemesis, the 10th ST movie. Two quotes:

Picard: "That is what it is to be human. To make yourself more than you are"

And, this one:

"Fire at Will!"

I fail to see what Riker could possibly have done to merit this dishonor (sorry, Worf!)

Sixth Sith Sitch Itch

I have a bad feeling about this....NOT. I refer of course the imminent fall of The Republic and to the inevitable (or otherwise) demise of Annie (go get yer gun) Kin Skywaker.

Yes, the final (third, or is it the sixth?) episode of Star Wars is all but upon us, after decades of wondering why.

It all began in 1977, and is now about to end in 2005. Star Wars fans aside, Mr Lucas has certainly taken his time to set this one straight. I mean, we all knew that Lord Vader from the planet Vulcan (soundtrack provided by "Van Halen") jumped at the chance to go to the Dark (breathes in asthmatically) Side (breathes out pneumoniacally), but nobody knew how, why, or where. NOW we all have the chance to finally see for ourselves, the How, Why, and Where of it all. And wherewithall is what we will will need to pay to get to see it, given Movie Theater seat prices.

My entry to this planet was about the same time that "Jedi" was airing, so I will never go to THAT planet again, but, needles to say ( and I did say "Needles", Michael J. Fox and Van Halen keep watching), I will be watching this denouement with bated Vader's breath.

After all, Mr. Lucas, the new digitised cameras can't "free you up" THAT much so as to compromise the entire expectation (values) of an entire Generation (s) such that they get in the way of the actual storyline.....but this is BeFore GigaQuads were invented, so maybe I am wrong.

Maybe we should ALL try the Sixth Sith Sixth Sense Sitch, and realise that all it is about is money, after all, or maybe some allusion to the World's Worst Tongue-Twister.

(for those not with the Force, "sitch" is Teen English slang for "Situation")