Posts tagged true story
“The Sapphires” a Sweet Story Set During Vietnam War
Apr 20th
“Sweet Story Set During Vietnam War”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE SAPPHIRES is inspired by the unlikely, but true story of four girls from the aboriginal outback of Australia who form a singing group that entertains the American troops in Vietnam during the war.
The movie begins in 1958 in Australia, and we see four little girls who love to sing performing before an audience. Suddenly a group of government officials show up, and one of the little girls, Kay, is taken away from her family by the officials, because she has light skin, and forced to live in a city with a white family.
This was all part of a government program to integrate aborigines into Caucasian society.
Then the movie shifts to 1968, and we meet Dave Lovelace, played by Chris O’Dowd, who is sleeping in his car and arrives late to work in a bar where he is the emcee of a local talent show, and his boss puts him on his last warning.
Dave says to the audience, “I sort of start off slow, and then I slowly peter out.”
Two young aborigine girls, Gail and Cynthia, are singing in the talent show, they announce that they are from “black fella’ country,” and they sing a country song that the audience doesn’t pay much attention to.
But when their younger sister, Julie, suddenly joins them on stage, their singing becomes much better and so does the audience’s appreciation.
After the talent show, the girls approach Dave, show him a newspaper clipping about an audition in Melbourne for singers and dancers to perform for the troops in Vietnam, and ask him to help them go to the audition.
Dave agrees to help, but says they should sing soul music instead of country music and that Julie should sing lead instead of Gail, which doesn’t please Gail one bit.
Also, while they are in Melbourne, they track down their cousin, Kay, who had been abducted 10 years earlier, and she is able to join them for the audition.
Ironically, while Dave is coaching the girls and teaching them choreography, he says that they should sing their soul songs “blacker.”
So, the girls, accompanied by Dave as manager and chaperone, entertain the troops in Vietnam, where there is danger, conflict, and even romance.
The Sapphires is a sweet and mostly true story set during the Vietnam War.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Chasing Mavericks” More Like “The Surfer Kid”
Nov 3rd
“The Surfer Kid”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Chasing Mavericks is not a story about ranch cowboys chasing after motherless calves, but is instead based on a true story about one particular teenage boy who wanted to learn how to surf some of the most dangerous waves in the world.
Those waves are located near Santa Cruz, California, they are created whenever an El Nino weather system occurs, and they are called “the mavericks.”
The story begins in 1987, and we see 8-year-old Jay and his slightly older friend Kim playing near a beach with heavy surf. Jay jumps into the water to save Kim’s dog, but then Jay gets caught by the waves and could easily drown.
Suddenly a man who had been surfing appears, and he pulls Jay out of the water.
The man is Frosty Hesson, played by Gerard Butler, and surfing is his passion, his life, and his escape.
Jay learns how to surf, and then we jump seven years later when he is now played by Jonny Weston. Coincidentally, Frosty lives right across the street with his wife and two kids from where Jay lives with his alcoholic mother, played by Elisabeth Shue.
One night Jay hitches a ride on Frosty’s van when Jay sees him leave to go surfing, and he watches Frosty and three men surf the most powerful waves you can imagine, which are talked about in the area, but no one knew for sure that they existed.
As Frosty tells Jay, “That wave is a myth, and the four of us want to keep it that way.”
Well, you can imagine the rest of the story. Jay asks Frosty to teach him how to surf the mavericks, Frosty reluctantly agrees, and then we watch a regimen of training right out of the 1984 The Karate Kid, but fortunately without the “Wax on, wax off” scenes, only there are some shots of Jay waxing his surfboard.
Although the movie is about surfing and includes many scenes of surfing, there are additional subplots involving Jay’s personal and home life, Frosty’s relationship with his wife and family, and Jay’s relationship with Kim.
In other words, it is a traditional movie about a nontraditional subject, and the “big game” at the end this time is surfing the “big wave.”
Chasing Mavericks could even more likely have been called The Surfer Kid.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Argo” Is Funny and Serious
Oct 20th
Hotshots, October 17, 2012
“Funny and Serious”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Argo is an excellent film based on a true story you might never have heard about concerning the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy for 444 days by Iranian militants.
It is also a very funny film that pokes fun at the filmmaking business in Hollywood, which together makes it a sure-fire candidate to be recognized at the 2013 Academy Awards.
As a matter of fact, the film was a surprise hit at the 2012 Telluride Film Festival, where director Ben Affleck told a screening audience that he tried to make a film that was one part action thriller, one part comedy, and one part inspired by a 1970s film like the 1976 All the President’s Men.
He succeeded, and he should be very proud of the results.
What the world didn’t know at the time was that when the American Embassy was taken over in November 1979, six men and women managed to escape and hide out in the Canadian Embassy.
Affleck also stars as Tony Mendez, a CIA “exfiltration” specialist, and he comes up with a risky and dangerous plan to get the six Americans out of Iran without the militants knowing about it.
Once Tony’s plan is approved, his boss, played by Bryan Cranston, tells him, “The whole world is watching you; they just don’t know it.”
What Tony proposed was that he pretend to be a Canadian filmmaker, get into Iran with all the necessary documents for himself and the six Americans, and then convince the Iranian authorities that all seven of them were a Canadian film crew who were in Iran scouting for locations for a science-fiction movie they were making, using a script for an actual movie in turnaround called Argo.
However, in order to do that, Hollywood has to be convinced that the story is real, as well, and Tony gets the help of a producer played by Alan Arkin and a makeup artist played by John Goodman.
The title of the ARGO movie is used in a very funny and profane way, and you won’t be able to hear the word again without smiling or laughing.
When Tony tells the six Americans what he wants them to do, they aren’t completely cooperative, and the tension keeps building and building until the very end.
Argo is very funny and serious.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
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