Movie Hop - Focus on Bill Paxton

March Madness is long gone, but baseball season is in full swing.

What if you're not a basketball fan or your team got knocked out early? What if baseball bores you to tears? (Hey, don't look at me. I like the game.)

Perfect time for a MOVIE HOP!  I'm all set to honor Bill Paxton who died unexpectedly this past February. I'm a big Paxton fan. He often played a supporting role but worked consistently in Hollywood and was know as an all around good guy. So hats off to Bill!

Remember: a Movie Hop is like  TV series binge watching - one day, three great movies.

Bill Harding in Storm Whisperer mode!

TWISTER (1996) 

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

In this romantic tornado adventure, Bill plays the lead for the first time in his career. His character is  Bill "The Extreme" Harding, a storm-whispering scientist who can feel when a bank of storms is about to drop a violent tornado.  Bill left storm chasing for TV meterology after his marriage with his wife Jo breaks up. They meet again during the storm season when Bill tracks Jo down in the field to get her signature on divorce papers. And the storms begin, both literally and figuratively. His leading lady is Helen Hunt who plays Jo, a scientist driven to learn all she can about storms after her father is killed by a twister when she is 8.  The cast includes Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz and an early performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman. The story goes that director Jan de Bont asked Bill if he would be intimidated by things being thrown at him. Bill said he was OK with most things -- I'll bet he didn't expect he'd be dodging scythes, tractors or barn doors! This is a Keeper movie for me, and I watch it regularly. Scientists, tornadoes and romance. What's not to love?

APOLLO 13 (1995)

 9 Oscar nominations, 2 Wins.

"Houston, we have a problem."
If you've ever heard this tag line, now you know from whence it came. This is the terse notification from the captain of the Apollo 13 flight to the moon to mission control that the spacecraft has just experienced an explosion. Based on real events, Bill Paxton plays the role of Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise, Jr., one of three crewmen who are forced to fly around the moon without landing in order to reach Earth safely. For the actors, the challenges are close quarters, zero-G, and portraying professionalism battling fear,  The movie is a serious drama, and Bill is perfection. Again, the science and engineering guys bring their best to solving an array of problems. My favorite line: "This mission will show us at our best." True words for the mission and the movie. Another Keeper for me.

ALIENS (1986)

7 Oscar nominations, 2 Wins.

Bill plays Private Hudson, a marine off into space (again!) to save humanity, the world, the universe from the aliens. As several reviewers have mentioned, this may not be Paxton's best film, but it's got aliens and Bill got some of the best movie lines. Ever. Or maybe it was just the way he said them. Enjoy the mayhem!

There you have it. The Bill Paxton Movie Hop. We sure are going to miss you, Bill!

My Favorite Movies: Movie Hopping with Gregory Peck

Movie Hopping. Choose three movies currently showing in movie theaters and travel from theater to theater during a single day to watch them. Closely related to Binge Watching.

My Mom introduced me to the concept of movie hopping during a vacation in Atlantic City, NJ. At the time, there were no casinos along the boardwalk, but movie theaters were a popular entertainment. On a particularly cool and stormy day, she suggested we "movie hop". We started at 10 AM and finished late that night. We saw three movies. The only one I remember is "Thoroughly Modern Millie" with Julie Andrews because it became one of my favorites. Have I mentioned I'm a big fan of musicals?

Fast forward to today. With DVD, Netflix, Hulu, and other such services, you can do your own version of movie hopping (aka binge watching) right at home. Here at the Blog, I'll be sharing some of my favorite movies with you in threes, mini-marathons you can try out at home.  Movie hopping at home or in theaters makes for a great mini-vacation, too.

A Day With Gregory Peck

As a boy, my husband devoured old movies on TV, so when I married him, in addition to many other sterling qualities, he brought me his personal filmography. Gregory Peck figured high on my husband's list, and subsequently, on mine. These movies are all available for home viewing.

The Big Country

1958, with Jean Simmons, Caroll Baker, Charlton Heston, and Burl Ives
When sea-faring captain Jim McKay travels to the West to wed his fiance Pat Terrill, she requires him to prove his love for her again in her territory - cattle country. Enter Pat's best friend Julie. Add a land-and-water feud, stirring music, photography that is as sweeping as it is intimate, and a great cast. Western romance at its best. 

To Kill a Mockingbird

1962, with Mary Badham and Philip Alford
Peck won an Oscar for his performance in this movie, and Elmer Bernstein's musical score is haunting and tender. Racial hatred boils in the Alabama heat when defense lawyer Atticus Finch takes as his client a Black man accused of assaulting a white woman. Told through the eyes of Finch's young daughter Scout, this story is as relevant, touching, and compelling today as it was then. 

Captain Newman, M.D.

1963, with Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Bobby Darin and a strong cast.
It's near the end of Word War II, but in the US Army Air Corps, there is no shortage of neuro-psychiatric (NP) cases, what we know today as PTSD.  Doctor Josiah Newman treats his patients with tough love and compassion, all the while wondering why he helps them, only to send them back to battle. The antics of his assistant, the support of a lovely nurse, and a flock of sheep lighten the mood of this file that explores a serious subject. Bring the tissue. Tears, laughter and hope abound.

[Swap-out] Captain Horatio Hornblower

1951, with Virginia Mayo

Captain Hornblower leads the crew of his British Navy frigate with firm discipline, wisdom and sharp navigation skills, but when the lovely Lady Barbara, a relative of Lord Wellington, comes aboard, he has met his match. Alas, he is already married and she is betrothed to another. Adventure and romance on the high seas set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. 

That's our movie hopping for today. Look for another installment of My Favorite Movies, right here on "Writing in the Spirit".

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Have a wonderful day!

"The Finest Hours" - The Rescue Began 76 Years Before the SS Pendleton Sailed

Read the Book

Disney's recent movie, "The Finest Hours", tells the story of the most successful small-boat rescue in the Coast Guard's history. The movie has all the elements of a rousing tale - heroic men on a stormy sea, man-against-nature, and romance. The movie is based on a well-researched book of the same name published in 2009 by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman. Tougias has seen the film and applauds it for accuracy (read the interview), noting only two items changed for dramatic effect.

The movie was all the more exciting for me because I know that the SS Pendleton's rescue did not begin in 1952, but in 1871, the year that the US Life Saving Service (USLSS) was effectively established.

USLSS crew heading out in a surfboat.

Gas motors had not yet been invented to power the boats. Only "Norwegian steam" was available -- the power of 6 to 8 men pulling long oars against the churning waves, Just as in the movie, these men claimed the duty to sail from shore in the roughest weather and pluck sailors and passengers off doomed ships. The rescues these men performed became legendary; the men themselves hailed as heroes in magazine and news accounts of the day. Milton Bradley marketed a board game "Life-saver", and the colorful Life Savers(R) candy was invented in part to honor these "storm warriors". A grateful nation grew to depend on its government while it watched an organized system of rescue succeed again and again.

Station Chatham, from which the famous SS Pendleton rescue was launched, can trace its lifesaving roots back to the formation of the Massachusetts Humane Society in 1786. After the lighthouse and light towers were constructed in 1808, the station continued in its lifesaving activities and became part of the early USLSS. The lighthouse is currently home to an active duty Coast Guard Small Boat Station, with a primary mission of Search & Rescue, responsible for the safety of the local fishing fleet and recreational boating community.

The 36-foot life boat used in "The Finest Hours" rescue was a product of design and testing that started in 1876 by the USLSS on the East Coast and the Great Lakes. The life boats were self-bailing and self-righting, slow, steady and strong. Power could be supplied by "Norwegian steam" or by sails, and the craft could carry up to 33 persons. Motors were added in the 1890's. The crews of the USLSS tested the powerful craft and found them reliable and nearly unsinkable. They had names like Defiance, Retriever, Diligent, Valorous, and Resolute, apt descriptions for the character of the USLSS -- and its successor, the US Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard men joined an elite and historic group when they were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for valor in the SS Pendleton rescue. This first-class award and the second-class Silver medal had been originally established for the USLSS in 1874. The Gold medal has always been awarded for "cases of extreme and heroic daring."

In 1915, a merger of USLSS and the Revenue-marine created the US Coast Guard. As its website says...

For over two centuries the U.S. Coast Guard has safeguarded our Nation’s maritime interests in the heartland, in the ports, at sea, and around the globe. We protect the maritime economy and the environment, we defend our maritime borders, and we save those in peril. This history has forged our character and purpose as America’s Maritime Guardian — Always Ready for all hazards and all threats.   ~from the US Coast Guard website

Semper Paratus. Always Ready.  "...we save those in peril". The mission of the US Life-Saving Service brought into the 21st Century.

Reference: Frederick Stonehouse. Wreck Ashore: The United States Life-Saving Service on the Great Lakes. Association for Great Lakes Maritime History, Pub. B4. Lake Superior Port Cities Inc. 1994.

Read about my related work-in-progress set in a USLSS station on the Great Lakes -

 NO GREATER LOVE