Some stuff I still think is great. Some of it has been superseded by time. Some has been superseded by film production techniques (I am still of the opinion that The Three Musketeers/Four Musketeers is by far the best version of the Dumas tale, BUT, during the 1980s, MTV-style editing techniques oozed into film production, making for a much faster visual pacing for pictures. As a result, movies made pre-1980 seem slow and plodding. Movies made after 1990 seem faster (and sometimes too frenetic). With movies made during the 80s, it’s hit or miss, depending on the old-school-new-school qualities of the directors.

It’s interesting to go back and watch the “big chase scenes” from Bullit and The French Connection and, despite the fact that these were considered wild and crazy scenes in their time, they are literally boring (“Hey! Hey! Is anything gonna HAPPEN HERE?!?!”) today. The Great Escape has a similar sequence that is downgraded to “lame” by time.

Some very rewatchable movies from the pre-1990 era:

The Music Man
The Final Countdown
Hopscotch
Sunset Boulevard
A Little Romance
The Silent Partner
Stalag 17
Marty
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Most Bogie
Most Cary Grant
Most Jimmy Stewart
Most Henry Fonda
Most John Barrymore
Most Hitchcock
Most John Huston’s (director) – Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Asphalt Jungle

But almost all of them require some patience with the speed, if you’re not still dialed in on that (most people have sped up, if they pay any attention to modern movies at all).

I was waiting for Alan Bates to show up. I’ve always been a huge fan. Women in Love, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Rose, The Mothman Prophecies. The last one is nominally a supernatural monster film, but is quite good even if you discount all that. It’s quite emotional and personal and has one of Laura Linney’s best performances. Bates is good in it, though not his best.
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I had an experience slightly similar to Neo’s a few months ago. I woke up one morning and had an image in my head of an attractive young woman, smartly dressed in 50’s or 60’s attire, standing outside somewhere. Then its struck me; It was Inger Stevens in the Twilight Zone. I had seen it about ten years earlier. (The Hitch-Hiker, Ep. 16) Here is a photo of her.

It’s a fabulous look. Her character is a dept. store buyer of women’s fashions, so it follows that she would look stylish. I’ve always liked the shorter hair, and the mixing of masculine accents (the hat) with the feminine.

And the emotional arc of the story, and her performance, is special. She seems so cool and collected in the beginning, then she becomes disconcerted, then desperate. But even through the desperate phase, she is holding onto her composure with a fierce grip.

Stevens personal life started badly, then she achieved considerable success, and ended in suicide. I believe that episode was filmed not long after her first suicide attempt.

F: Well, Zevon does have Don Henley and Glenn Frey, as well as most of the top LA session musicians and other Asylum stars, playing behind him on that album.

Thanks for giving it a listen!

I’m still wondering whether Zevon used the film title. He had a good ear for phrases that sound like they’ve been around forever

Thanks, and glad you liked it. You also seem to have remembered far more about the movie over the years than I did.

It really is a remarkable film, in my eyes.

“Hasten down the wind” is a touching story. The song itself is a little trite, but I was happy to follow the link and hear the song — for the first time. But listen to just about any song by the Eagles and will hear the same chord progression.