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TONY’S MOVIES: THIS LAND IS MINE (1943) – A justification for SABOTAGE, and ‘Declaration of The Rights of Man'(1789).
21 Sunday Feb 2016
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in21 Sunday Feb 2016
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20 Saturday Feb 2016
Posted ACTING, AMERICAN DRAMA IN THE 1950S, ART, FILM, HISTORY, MOVIES, PEOPLE, TONY'S TOURS - Travel Journal, Uncategorized
inJohn Boorman’s Hell in the Pacific is a curious WW2 film involving just two actors, Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune, playing respectively marooned soldiers on a deserted island in the Pacific. It is an extremely intense film, heightened by the language barrier that naturally exists between the two characters. Initially antagonistic towards one another the two characters find common ground in their mutual battle for survival. The rather abrupt ending is a bit disconcerting but it does leave one contemplating how it could end other than tragically. It is war that drove these two characters apart, it is the struggle for life that brings them together, and it is the return of war that finally destroys them.
John Boorman made this film in 1968, following his previous film with Lee Marvin, the excellent crime drama, Point Blank (1967), and four years before his masterwork Deliverance (1972). The film was shot in Rock Islands near Paulu, in the Philippine Sea. Unfortunately, the film did not do well at the box-office, but it is a film that I would recommend one to see. I like John Boorman’s films – they are not always absolutely perfect but they are always imaginative, intense and provocative, and invariably involve characters out of their so-called ‘comfort-zones’, in hostile worlds in which the battle for survival is paramount – such is the case with Hell in the Pacific. Furthermore, Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune are absolutely terrific.
Toshiro Mifune is one of my favourite actors of the twentieth century cinema. He did not make many ‘Western’ films, but as has been acknowledged Hell in the Pacific perhaps comes the closest in capturing Toshiro Mifune’s extraordinary screen presence, power and charisma that is so easily seen in the many masterpieces he did in Japan, especially with Akiro Kurosawa. I also recently watched Kurosawa’s film Scandal (1950), which stars Toshiro Mifune – and it is fantastic! I may be sounding like a obsessive fan but that old cliche that ‘he could make reading a telephone book interesting’ is one that I would certainly give to Toshiro Mifune.
12 Friday Feb 2016
Tags
Adelaide, ADELAIDE FESTIVAL CENTRE, ADELAIDE SPORTS OVAL, Australia, BOER WAR, CANOVA, CHARLES KINGSFORD SMITH, GALLIPOLI, HERCULES, PUBLIC ART, RIVER TORRENS, SIMPSON AND HIS DONKEY, South Australia, STATUES, VENUS, WAR MEMORIALS, WWI
PUBLIC ART: The Three Oldest Statues in Adelaide
After spending a large amount of this morning in a dentist’s chair, and feeling a bit numb in the mouth, I walked back to the Adelaide CBD from North Adelaide via the Torrens River. Once again – a fabulous discovery of just how exquisitely beautiful Adelaide is. showing off this lovely sunny February day, and reminding me of certain English, American and European towns that have a river running through it. It also gave me chance to further my file re public art. As mentioned in a previous blog – PUBLIC ART: SINGAPORE – my definition of ‘Public Art’ is basically anything that is in and for the public eye, which can include statues, graffiti, sketches, advertising, memorials, etc. Here are some photos I took on this walk.
I had no clear itinerary worked out, just ‘went with the flow’ as to where I meandered. I walked past the ADELAIDE OVAL, which is a large stylish modern building – with a number of statues of classical heroic athletes, such as Hercules, as well as modern Australian ones.
THE STATUE OF HERCULES, also known as The Farnese ‘Hercules’, sits in Pennington Gardens in front of the Adelaide Oval. It was the second public statue to be erected in Adelaide; given to the City of Adelaide in 1893 by William Austin Horn (1841-1922). W. A. Horn was a prominent South Australian businessman and politician, of whom it was once said that he was ‘one of the most generous public men‘ in South Australia.
Whilst it is a copy of an original, dating from 1892, nonetheless, it is rather unique, presenting a rather reflective and melancholic older-Hercules.
I should add that in 1892 William Austin Horn in had already donated what was Adelaide’s first piece of public art; a classical statue, a beautiful copy of Canova‘s VENUS. This statue was rather controversial at the time. The controversy was possibly inflamed as well as ignored by the fact that one of old Adelaide’s most popular ‘Gentlemen Club’ of the 1890s was directly across the road from the statue which lay on North Terrace in the CBD. Members of the club could go onto the balcony, enjoying their evening brandy or port and cigars, whilst list-fully gazing at this beautiful Canova ‘Venus’. The statue, as well as the building that hosted this club are still there on North Terrace – long may they be so!
The other statues that I noted as I wandered through Pennington Park was a rather impressive one of Sir Donald Bradman (1908-2001), and somewhat perversely one of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1897-1935). What ‘Smithy’ has to do with sport and the Adelaide Sports Oval I’m not quite sure? Nonetheless, as it may be that younger (and older) Australians have no idea who Kingsford-Smith is (or rather, was), nor of his heroic importance to Australian and World-History, better that he is there smack-bang right at the entrance.
On the other side of the main road there are a number of gardens and war memorials. I didn’t go to all of them, but the ones I did were excellent and somewhat surprising. I’m starting to appreciate the unique quirkiness that one finds in Adelaide, as often as not expressed in it variable range of ‘public art’, which can sometimes be placed in somewhat ironic modern day position. For example, this beautiful stone cross that is right next to speed sign; I call the pix ‘Stone Crucifix in a 50km/hr zone’ (haha).
Attracted by one that had a plethora of petunias, I discovered a statue dedicated to WWI Australian Gallipoli hero John Simpson (1892-1915), of ‘Simpson and his Donkey‘ fame.
Just a little further on was another war memorial shrine, in a classical pagoda with a very unusual life-size statue on the steps.
From here I just walked straight down to the banks of the River Torrens – the vista speaks for itself – marvellous!
I walked towards the city along the bank footpath and under the bridge…..
….continuing my fascination with ‘pathways’, what they look like, and where they lead. The path under the bridge was no exception; plus I discovered a piece of ‘public art’ that I’m pretty sure most people passing through this ‘pathway’ would never really notice – a series of large blue tiles with black drawings and silhouettes.
Emerging from this tunnel, you get a fantastic view of the city of Adelaide, the River Torrens and the Festival Centre.
I then went up and crossed the bridge that becomes King William Street, one of the main roads that travels through the CBD. There are parks and gardens on both sides of the road, but the biggest is the open park in front of the Festival Centre, looking directly across the Torrens to the Sports Centre.
I continued walking up King William Street until it meets North Terrace. Just next to the Festival Centre, on the other side from the park and the river, there are a number of examples of ‘public art’, modern and those from a more distant time.
Was particularly taken with this one; playing with the reflections….
And this lovely drawing near the entrance to the Festival Centre Car Park….
Finally, at the corner of King William Street and North Terrace there is rather impressive War Memorial statue, of a soldier and his horse in action. What is wonderfully intriguing about this terrific bronze statue is that it is dedicated to those South Australians who served in the Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902); the same war that saw the court martial and execution of Lieutenant Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant (1864-1902). Morant’s name is not on any of bronze inscription panels that are places around the statue’s pedestal, which list the names of those who fought in the Boer War. However, the name of his comrade, Lieutenant Peter Handcock (1868-1902), who was also courtmartialed and executed at the same time as ‘Breaker’ Morant, was added in 1964 after a family and public campaign to do so.
The statue was designed and created by Adrian Jones (1885-1938); another of this English sculptor’s work, his ‘public art’, is the The Peace Quadriga that sits atop of Wellington Arch in London. After a vigorous competition involving public opinion, The pedestal was made by local firm Garlick, Sibley and Wooldridge, the granite coming from nearby Murray Bridge. The statue was offical unveiled at a big civic function by Sir George Le Hunte (1852-1925), Governor of South Australia from 1903-1909. The date, 6 June 1904, was chosen carefully, coinciding with the birthday of the then Prince of Wales, later King George V (1865-1936).
From the time of it’s unveiling up to present day, this memorial statue, placed right in front of Government House, has been central to any Australian war meorial function, including ANZAC Day. The statue has been known by a number of names. Initially it was the National War Memorial, a position it held until 1931. Today it is called The South African War Memorial and/or The Boer War Memorial.
What is simply wonderful – well I find wonderful in my own romantic way – is that The South African War Memorial, as well as the Canova ‘Venus’, and the Fernese ‘Hercules’, have all witnessed and played a part in the history and evolution of Adelaide. For many Adelaidians over the centuries these statues would have been, as they are now, part of the background for contemporary life and lives. They may not have been directly and regularly noted and commented upon, but was something buried in the conscious and sub-conscious, particularly in regard to memory and place. A common reference point for a number of people from Adelaide, the surrounding region and South Australia. A Collective Memory – what we see now other also saw in the past. Something to treasure!
09 Tuesday Feb 2016
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Recently I have become rather obsessed with ‘courtroom drama’. This was partly due to the paper I presented on American drama 1949-1954 early this year at the Musical Theatre Educators Alliance (MTEA) international conference at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), in Perth, WA. This period
produced some of the greatest masterworks of American drama in theatre, film, radio and musical theatre, including Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. What soon became apparent was the number of courtroom dramas were produced in this period, which again includes The Crucible and also works from other domains, as diverse as the film Witness for the Prosecution and the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Subsequently, I have started to look at the wide range of ‘courtroom drama’, with the only prerequisite that there was at least one scene, or act, set in a courtroom.
‘Courtroom drama’ is actually one of the oldest forms of drama…
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09 Tuesday Feb 2016
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inALL THE PLEASURES OF THE GARDEN
I WANT TO LIVE (1958): This ‘courtroom’ drama is based on the real-life involving convicted murderess, Barbara Graham. Produced by Walter Wanger, and directed by Robert Wise (yes – the same Robert wWise who directed The Sound of Music), with a screenplay by Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz, based on newspaper articles by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ed Montgomery, and letter Barbara Graham. Whilst it would seem that the real Barbara Graham was actually guilty, nonetheless, the version follows its sources (Montgomery and Graham) that mounts an argument for Graham’s innocence and presents a
s passionate, opportunistic and reckless but also the victim of brutish masculine
manipulation. The soundtrack, featuring a jazz music score by Johnny Mandel, as well as Gerry Mulligan and his band, is excellent and was very popular when the film was released. It set a new standard and set exerted a considerable influence in regard…
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