The Voice of Reason: A V.I.P. Pass to Enlightenment by Chael Sonnen Page A
Authors: Chael Sonnen
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mentioned. When you rewatch this movie, I am sure you will agree that Eli Wallach would have made a much better Don Corleone than Brando, and that Lee Van Cleef would have made a better Hyman Roth than Lee Strasberg.
ALL THAT JAZZ
Almost criminally underappreciated artistically, Roy Scheider was an actor of the very first rank. As a performer, he was powerful, talented, versatile, and assured. Scheider never turned in bad work. He was amazing in All That Jazz , Jaws , and Sorcerer , a Friedkin remake of Clouzot’s Wages of Fear . Without a doubt, Scheider would have made a better Sonny Corleone than James Caan.
VANISHING POINT
What a film. Check out Barry Newman in the white Dodge Challenger. Check out Cleavon Little as Super Soul. An existentialist essay on, well, I don’t know. I’m not going to go all “film school” on you. Just watch and enjoy.
AGUIRRE: WRATH OF GOD
In this film, Klaus Kinski, a true and proper man and one of the greatest actors ever, plays a hunchbacked, mutinous conquistador on a doomed mission to find a city of gold in the rainforests of South America. Personally, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with Kinski. Back in ‘88 when I was just a young buck, I can recall my father bringing me to Studio 54 in New York to attend the book-release party for Kinski’s autobiography, All I Need Is Love . I remember clutching my copy of the book to my chest, and brushing past Michael Musto and various other members of New York’s nightlife royalty, and approaching the Dark Prince Himself—Yes, Kinski in all his demented glory, a shock of blond-white hair perched slightly askew on his huge head, his full, blood-red rubbery lips, and wide-set, incredibly blue and almost supernaturally piercing eyes, staring down at me momentarily as I stood there with a book and pen, hoping for an autograph. Only to have him sneer at me in utter contempt and turn his back on me. I still have the book, and I recommend it to all of you. Not the garbage, stripped-down, ruined Kinski Uncut , a reprint that was criminally “edited” (translation: destroyed). That book came out many years later to yawns and crickets, after Kinski had given up the ghost in the redwood forest of Lagunitas, California. I suggest the book despite being snubbed. I remember that my father took me to Chinatown to eat as a consolation for my failure to obtain the autograph—and we may or may not have gone to a restaurant whose name rhymes with “Ho Wop,” and we may or may not have seen members of the New York arts-and-culture scene whose names rhymed with “Candy Marhol” or “Bavid Dowie,” and we may or may not have snorted heroic lines of white powder that may or may not have been pulverized vitamins off the red-enamel tabletop in full view of the assembled patrons. But back to Aguirre —a great film and a great achievement. Watch, learn, enjoy. You’re welcome.
So there is the list. As promised, all are better than The Godfather series. Again, The Godfather movies are not terrible, but they certainly don’t deserve their status as great films any more than their mutant, stunted, bastard TV offspring The Sopranos deserved its years of praise as a great TV show. The Sopranos was, in fact, mediocre at its very best, and excruciating to the point of being unwatchable at its most mannerist. The acting was atrocious, from the top of the cast to the bottom. (Just look at how well they’ve all done since that lame horse of a show was taken out behind the barn and shot. The best any of them have done is a tequila commercial.) Yet this show was anointed as brilliant by the punditocracy at the New York Times . It was called groundbreaking, creative, original, and excellent. It was RUBBISH. But like The Godfather films, people were told it was good, and instructed to act as though it were a work of art. So if you want to do yourself a favor, and I know that you do, check out my list above. If you
ALL THAT JAZZ
Almost criminally underappreciated artistically, Roy Scheider was an actor of the very first rank. As a performer, he was powerful, talented, versatile, and assured. Scheider never turned in bad work. He was amazing in All That Jazz , Jaws , and Sorcerer , a Friedkin remake of Clouzot’s Wages of Fear . Without a doubt, Scheider would have made a better Sonny Corleone than James Caan.
VANISHING POINT
What a film. Check out Barry Newman in the white Dodge Challenger. Check out Cleavon Little as Super Soul. An existentialist essay on, well, I don’t know. I’m not going to go all “film school” on you. Just watch and enjoy.
AGUIRRE: WRATH OF GOD
In this film, Klaus Kinski, a true and proper man and one of the greatest actors ever, plays a hunchbacked, mutinous conquistador on a doomed mission to find a city of gold in the rainforests of South America. Personally, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with Kinski. Back in ‘88 when I was just a young buck, I can recall my father bringing me to Studio 54 in New York to attend the book-release party for Kinski’s autobiography, All I Need Is Love . I remember clutching my copy of the book to my chest, and brushing past Michael Musto and various other members of New York’s nightlife royalty, and approaching the Dark Prince Himself—Yes, Kinski in all his demented glory, a shock of blond-white hair perched slightly askew on his huge head, his full, blood-red rubbery lips, and wide-set, incredibly blue and almost supernaturally piercing eyes, staring down at me momentarily as I stood there with a book and pen, hoping for an autograph. Only to have him sneer at me in utter contempt and turn his back on me. I still have the book, and I recommend it to all of you. Not the garbage, stripped-down, ruined Kinski Uncut , a reprint that was criminally “edited” (translation: destroyed). That book came out many years later to yawns and crickets, after Kinski had given up the ghost in the redwood forest of Lagunitas, California. I suggest the book despite being snubbed. I remember that my father took me to Chinatown to eat as a consolation for my failure to obtain the autograph—and we may or may not have gone to a restaurant whose name rhymes with “Ho Wop,” and we may or may not have seen members of the New York arts-and-culture scene whose names rhymed with “Candy Marhol” or “Bavid Dowie,” and we may or may not have snorted heroic lines of white powder that may or may not have been pulverized vitamins off the red-enamel tabletop in full view of the assembled patrons. But back to Aguirre —a great film and a great achievement. Watch, learn, enjoy. You’re welcome.
So there is the list. As promised, all are better than The Godfather series. Again, The Godfather movies are not terrible, but they certainly don’t deserve their status as great films any more than their mutant, stunted, bastard TV offspring The Sopranos deserved its years of praise as a great TV show. The Sopranos was, in fact, mediocre at its very best, and excruciating to the point of being unwatchable at its most mannerist. The acting was atrocious, from the top of the cast to the bottom. (Just look at how well they’ve all done since that lame horse of a show was taken out behind the barn and shot. The best any of them have done is a tequila commercial.) Yet this show was anointed as brilliant by the punditocracy at the New York Times . It was called groundbreaking, creative, original, and excellent. It was RUBBISH. But like The Godfather films, people were told it was good, and instructed to act as though it were a work of art. So if you want to do yourself a favor, and I know that you do, check out my list above. If you
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