This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's theme is The Great Outdoors, which I suppose is a fairly broad theme. My first thought was to take it in a completely different direction and have films about people adrift at sea, but generally "the great outdoors" implies something that you like doing, so I decided to be not quite so unconventional. Still, they're all road trips of a sort:
The African Queen (1951). Katharine Hepburn plays a missionary in German East Africa in 1914 when World War I breaks out and the Germans march into the mission's part of the world, killing her brother. She being in danger, the operator of the mail boat, chronic drunk Humphrey Bogart, takes her down the river to possible safety. Hepburn is a selfish blankety-blank, but Bogart falls in love with her along the way. Filmoed on location in the then Belgian Congo.
River of No Return (1954). Robert Mitchum plays a man trying to put his life back together farming out west, when Rory Calhoun and his wife Marilyn Monroe stop by after losing control of their raft on the river. Calhoun shafts Mitchum, forcing him and Monroe to take a dangerous journey on the raft along with his son. The river scenes are in Idaho, with Canada's Banff and Jasper National Parks also used for some scenes.
Emperor of the North (1973). Lee Marvin plays a hobo during the Great Depression who's a hero to the other hobos for being able to ride trains the others get brutally thrown off of. He plans to ride the most difficult one of all, with nasty conductor Ernest Borgnine. But a young Keith Carradine decides he idolizes Marvin enough that he's going to try to hop a ride on the train too. The train travels through some lovely country in Oregon.
MEL BROOKS AT 97
3 hours ago
3 comments:
I LOVE River of No Return even if Marilyn didn't. She didn't feel the property was right for her, it really wasn't but it still works, and she hated Preminger. It has beautiful scenery and an enjoyable story plus she and Mitchum pair well together.
I'm not much of a fan of African Queen, its not awful but I don't get the reverence for it and that Bogart won for this performance is a same when he's been much better many other times.
Emperor of the North was middling but fits well.
I went with a whole survivalist theme.
A Walk in the Woods (2015)-Travel writer Bill Bryson (Robert Redford) decides to hike the Appalachian Trail and since he is no longer a young man at his wife’s (Emma Thompson) urging he is accompanied by his old friend Stephen Katz (Nick Nolte) who proves to be more of a hindrance than help. Based on Bryson’s best seller.
Alive (1993)-After crashing in the Andes Mountains, the Uruguay's rugby team struggle for survival as their initial hopes of a quick rescue dwindle. As days turn to weeks and their supplies run out they are confronted with grim choices that must be made. Brutal yet compelling and based on an actual event.
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)-After the Mexican-American War ends veteran soldier Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford), heads to the mountains to live in isolation. He meets seasoned mountain man (Will Geer) who takes him under his wing and over the years he carves out a life until he incurs the ire of the Crow Indians.
I forgot aBout The African Queen which is a great pick and I really like this film. Everyone got sick except for Bogie and Huston which they claim was because they only drank whiskey. I did finally see River of No Return and it was good, not greT but quite enjoyable and Mitchum and Monroe were good together. I haven’t seen your last pic but would like to as I like Lee Marvin.
I don't think I've ever heard of Emperor of the North; will have to search that one out.
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