Are you walking around with your “I Voted!” sticker proudly adhered to your chest? If not, get out there and do some lever pulling, chad punching, and ballot dropping. Then take the rest ofthe day off and watch one of these movies that’ll get you through the rest of election day and away from the nail-biting edge of election return coverage. There are a few minor spoilers inside, but don’t view that as me messing with the ballot box. You’ll still love the movies more than CNN’s infographics.
As real-life Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim–aka Dr. Death, who allegedly kept relics from his human experiments in his office!–is being “chased” through Chile (as much as you can chase a 94 year old), I’m sure Tom Cruise or Jerry Bruckheimer are watching CNN right now while furiously thumb-typing their lawyers on Blackberries to option the story.
But I couldn’t help reminisce about what could be argued as the genesis of torture porn, Marathon Man (1976). Dustin Hoffman plays marathon runner Babe who, like Cary Grant in North by Northwest, unknowingly has a connection that is too close for comfort with a Nazi war criminal known as–prepare to wince–The Dentist, played by Lawrence Olivier. Of course, Babe has some chronic dental problems that the Nazi dentist exploits in the anus-clenching torture scene. And Babe’s long endurance skills are important to him shedding his pacifist self in the movie’s climax. But this was action before action movies became formulaic, and it has a healthy dose of moral queasiness about the virtue of revenge. And, unfortunately, if there’s a Dr. Death released in 2010, I have a feeling we’ll be much better served by watching Marathon Man.
Although, I hope they cast Dustin Hoffman as Dr. Death to give the finger to those Nazis.
Today is Dustin Hoffman’s 70th birthday, and as David Hudson notes, the English-language media doesn’t seem to care (today’s #1 Entertainment story, according to Google News? Drunken British celebutards fight for MTV Award.) But because the internet moves in mysterious ways, while looking for Hoffmanania this morning I discovered a documentary-in-progress called Waiting For Ishtar.
The project apparently began when Canadian writer/comedian John Mitchell (who is co-directing the film with Jonathan Crombie), attempted to borrow a copy of the much-maligned 1987 Dustin Hoffman/Warren Beatty flop from his local public library, only to learn that he was #34 on a list of library members waiting to check out the branch’s sole copy of the movie. Mitchell then decided to make a documentary, in which he’d “find and interview the 46 other Toronto Public Library members ‘Waiting For Ishtar’.” The project has since expanded to include interviews with Ishtar director Elaine May and co-stars Charles Grodin and Carol Kane, as well as “film critics, songwriters, Ishtar fans, writers and directors, including well-known Canadian filmmaker, Don McKellar.”
Mitchell maintains a spottily-updated blog in connection with Waiting for Ishtar, subtitled “A love letter to the most misunderstood movie of all time.” The comments section on the blog is really amazing. The most recent post was apparently published in February of this year, but it’s still attracting comments from Ishtar lovers who seem overjoyed to learn they’re not alone. In one comment, dated June 28, Dave Elvin describes screening the first 20 minutes of the film at a party; as a result, a few of his friends “don’t speak to me anymore.” Discovering the documentary, Elvin says, “feels like going home.”
If you’re currently on the Toronto Public Library’s waiting list for Ishtar (or have been in the past two years), Mitchell wants to speak with you. You can contact him through the Waiting For Ishtarwebsite. And if you need an Ishtar refresher course, check out the ten-minute YouTube clip above.
As real-life Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim–aka Dr. Death, who allegedly kept relics from his human experiments in his office!–is being “chased” through Chile (as much as you can chase a 94 year old), I’m sure Tom Cruise or Jerry Bruckheimer are watching CNN right now while furiously thumb-typing their lawyers on Blackberries to option the story.
