Quick Hits, Back Pain Style with a Twist of 1991

My back locked up again...giving me a chance to lay on the yoga mat (first use in about two months). Using Salonpas heat patch, instead of the Bengay/Icy Hot patch, and that gives me the chance to compare the two. One main difference, IcyHot/Bengay is cold/hot/burnish, while the Salonpas provides a constant heat without the menthol iciness. Not bad, especially for back pain.

Caught two great guy movie/tear jerkers: A Time To Kill and Backdraft. The Grisham adaptation features a noble white guy (Matthew McConaughey in a non-chick flick role) defending a vengeful father (always awesomely indignant Samuel L. Jackson). If you don't get choked up with McConaughey closing argument, then you don't have a soul. I didn't watch this film when it released in 1996, but it features an amazing cast including Kevin Spacey, Donald & Keifer Sutherland, Sandra Bullock, and Charles "ROC" Dutton.

Speaking of Charles S. Dutton, I remember taking a TV/Film Appreciation Class, and having to watch those Roc Live episodes and documenting the different types of camera shots. Remember Roc Live? We can thank (or blame) Fox for introducing the novelty of filming sitcoms live (used as sweeps events on shows like Will and Grace, while giving an excuse for the Drew Carey show's final season). Funny how the selection of this show by my high school teacher kept a minor, three-year TV show fresh in my mind.

The second tear jerker...the incredibly awesome Backdraft. Send your minds back to 1991...a hell of a year for American movies. We had The Silence of the Lambs winning the Best Picture Academy Award (as well as increasing the name awareness of fava beans). Additionally, the following phrases entered our lexicon due to special movies: "Back and to the left" (JFK), "Counselor..." (Cape Fear), "...God my ass is swollen..." (City Slickers), and the ever eternal, non-English accent, Costner-inflectioned "I have a brother" (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). Amazing how Costner made minor league baseball so damned cool, yet, really, couldn't act out of a paper bag (or a Tin Cup).

Watching Backdraft, I'm amazed that the film hasn't stuck with us...the action, effects, and story line remain engaging. Additionally, with our greater appreciation for fire fighters, this film encapsulates the dangers, history, and fascination inherent in such a dangerous occupation. The movie has some pedigree as well, considering that Opie directed it while the writer was Greg Widen, who also penned the classic Highlander. The film clustered some good acting talent: Kurt Russell (who channels Wyatt Earp in his firefighter), Billy Baldwin (before he fizzled out with Sliver), De Niro (who gets the best monologue, posted below), Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Jason Lee, and Rebecca Demorney. Great cinematography, filming the sultry, deadly, fascinating fire as another character in the story. The tears should come with the death scene of Russell as the funeral procession through the streets of Chicago.

Here's some thoughts about Backdraft:

• DeNiro Doing DeNiro...so entertaining. Its like a good joke: you know the set up, the punchline, yet you hear it and it still kills. That's DeNiro.
  
• The soundtrack to Backdraft supplies most of the music for the original Iron Chef series. This blurb from Filmtracks: Yes this is the music used to the background of the Iron Chef show. Its funny the movie was called Backdraft because the credit on the show is "Music provided by Backdraft" which of course makes you think its just some out-of-business production company with really really good backdraft tracks.
  
• That sex scene on top of the fire truck...awesome.
  

Finally, just to hit back at the 1991 movie season: there were other amazing classics like Barton Fink, The Fisher King, Thelma and Louise, Boyz in the Hood, Terminator 2, Raise the Red Lantern, and Mediterraneo. That's a hell of a year, even leaving out Beauty and the Beast and Prince of Tides.

*****

Also, final thought, we ate at the rotating sushi bar last night. Seated to my right was a gaggle of Towson University co-eds all speaking that ever-present young spoiled MTV girl voice. While talking about her class, one of them stated that her class "was SO awful...it literally sucked."

I literally punched myself in the face because her stupidity literally took possession over me.