The opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is rife with callbacks and foreshadowing (what the cool kids these days call 'Easter eggs'). We witness the origin of Indiana Jones' iconic wardrobe; a wardrobe that he will, for the most part, remain faithful to for the next 60+ years of his life. Spoiler alert - the felt fedora was inexplicably gifted to him by a sweaty stranger. We find out how Indy got Harrison Ford's chin scar (freak whipping accident). But the sequence that is most meta is River Phoenix's chase along the length of the Dunn & Duffy circus train.
There are four distinct set pieces on the train:
M*A*S*H followed the exploits of the staff and patients at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. It was broadcast from 1972 to 1983, then continued in syndication for decades. Throughout my youth, M*A*S*H was one of a handful of shows that my entire family would gather to watch - mostly due to it being the only thing on at 7pm that was worth watching. This newspaper from 1984 can attest to that fact...
Something For Kate are an Australian alternative rock trio. Acclaimed by critics and fans alike, they have continued to release relevant and exceptional music for almost thirty years.
What does a thinly veiled anti-Vietnam War sitcom and one of the greatest Australian bands of all time have in common? Very little, unsurprisingly, except for the striking resemblance between singer Paul Dempsey and M*A*S*H's charismatic lead, Hawkeye (Alan Alda). The realisation of this got me thinking - What if the band shot a music video as if it were an episode of M*A*S*H, kind of like Weezer's 'Buddy Holly'? Instead of inserting the band members into actual footage from the show (as Weezer did with Happy Days), they could play characters from M*A*S*H. Bassist Stephanie Ashworth could be Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan, and bearded drummer Clint Hyndman would play moustachioed surgeon B.J. Hunnicutt.
Back in 2005, I pitched the idea to Something For Kate. Needless to say, I never received a response. Now, almost 20 years later, I still feel it was a missed opportunity and, as a fan, would have gotten a kick out of seeing Paul Dempsey in a Hawkeye Pierce Hawaiian shirt and cowboy hat ensemble. So, for your reading pleasure, here is my original script for a Something For Kate/M*A*S*H music video...
Since the release of The Beatles: Get Back, there has been a renewed interest in the original version of their 1970 documentary, Let It Be. However, copies of the film have been hard to come by, and as yet, it is unavailable on any streaming service. If only this View-Master set were real, we'd at least have 21 stereoscopic images of the band to gawp at.
The Aussie milk bar was, in its heyday, as ubiquitous in suburban Melbourne as pubs are in the UK. Conveniently situated within walking distance of your home, they provided families with the essentials - milk, bread, newspapers, cigarettes. They were also purveyors of the 20 cent bag of mixed lollies, wax paper wrapped trading cards with pink concrete sticks of nostalgia fuel, and a wide variety of ice-creams and icy poles - Sunnyboys, Two-In-Ones, Eskimo Pies, etc. For a brief period, some milk bars even attempted to cash in on the home video bandwagon; however, based on the amount of sun bleached clamshell tape covers collecting dust in the spinner racks, very few people actually rented them.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Mel Gibson's third (and final) adventure in the wastelands of the Australian outback, is widely regarded as the weakest film in the franchise. Many supporters of this sentiment claim that Thuderdome's tribe of children, cartoonish violence and M rating were detrimental to The Road Warrior's R rated legacy. The plot itself might also be responsible for alienating its audience, with its holes and questionable logic. To assuage your confusion and increase your enjoyment of the film, I have compiled a list of Frequently Asked Questions about Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and trawled through Joan D. Vinge's novelisation to answer them in the time honoured format of the 'trading card'.
It’s fair to assume that Frank Herbert wasn’t in any way influenced by Paul McCartney when he began writing Dune in 1959. However, by 1965, he definitely would have been aware of the Beatles and the adulation heaped upon McCartney. Did Paul McCartney’s fame retroactively have an impact on Herbert’s characterisation of Paul Atreides, the oval faced, black haired teenage son of Duke Leto and the potential messiah of Arrakis? Am I once again finding parallels where there are none? Most likely. But here they are anyway, the Top 5 Similarities Between The Beatles’ Paul McCartney and Dune’s Paul Atreides:
From 1963 until 1968, McCartney was in a relationship with actress Jane Asher. Paul Atreides' partner and concubine is Fremen warrior Chani Kynes. Despite the fact that her character is played in both film adaptations by brunettes, in the novel she is described as having red hair. Just like Jane Asher.
Paul McCartney shares his first name with Paul Atreides. In 1959, the name Paul was the 17th most popular name for boys. It remained relatively steady at that position through to Dune’s publication six years later. Although it stands to reason that an author might choose a popular name for his protagonist, let’s look at the names of some of the other male characters in Dune - Leto, Duncan, Gurney, Thufir, Wellington, Glossu, Fenring. Unlike Paul, each of these names sound sufficiently science fictiony for a novel set in the year 10,191. Unsurprisingly, all are absent from the top 100 list of boy names from 1959.
Both Pauls dabbled in hallucinogens. The spice melange of Arrakis bestows vitality, longevity and prescience on Atreides, while the Beatles’ experiences with LSD opened their minds to new ways of creating music and cultivating facial hair. McCartney didn’t drop acid until late 1965, but LSD was readily available and partaken by artists, writers and musicians throughout the 60s.
By modulating tone and pitch, both Pauls were able to use their voice to affect the lives of others. McCartney won the hearts and minds of teens and their mums the world over with his singing, while Atreides used the Bene Gesserit power of the Voice to literally control people’s thoughts and actions.
Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club is a fast 208 page read and perfect fodder for the ‘hero’s journey’ narrative structure preferred by Hollywood producers and the general film consuming public. Despite Palahniuk’s unorthodox prose, it was, for the most part, faithfully adapted by Jim Uhls for David Fincher’s 1999 film. As with any novel to film adaptation, there were a number of notable differences between page and screen. This includes a subtle shift in its overall tone; the novel’s nihilism is substituted for the audience friendly optimism of the film. During the final act, Project Mayhem’s ultimate goal changes from being purely selfish - erasing the past (destroying a museum), to being selfless and altruistic - erasing debt (destroying credit card companies). The protagonist was successful in achieving this goal in the film, and did so in one of the most iconic movie climaxes of all time. The novel, however, ended with Tyler’s bomb failing to detonate and the narrator committed to a mental institution.
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| In the film, a messiah. In the novel, a murdering psychopath. |
Most of the changes made by Uhls and Fincher were justified, successful, and the reason for Fight Club’s ongoing notoriety more than 20 years after its release. Others, not so much. In keeping with Repeat Viewing’s purpose statement of pointlessly dissecting popular culture for the benefit of no-one, here is the best and worst of David Fincher’s Fight Club adaptation.
