Maestro: Lenny’s “Holiday Houndstooth” Jacket and Turtleneck on Thanksgiving

Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro (2023)

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Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein, acclaimed conductor

New York City, Thanksgiving 1971

Film: Maestro
Release Date: November 22, 2023
Director: Bradley Cooper
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-nominated sophomore directorial effort Maestro was released one year ago this month on Thanksgiving Eve 2023, the day before Cooper himself spent Turkey Day with the family of Leonard Bernstein, the legendary American conductor he portrayed on screen.

Also co-produced and co-written by Cooper, Maestro spans nearly fifty years of Bernstein’s life—prominently chronicling his tumultuous marriage to the stylish Costa Rican performer Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan).

The real Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), conducting rehearsals at London’s Royal Albert Hall for the Igor Stravinsky Memorial Concert in April 1972.

“There’s one scene in particular that I cannot stop thinking about,” wrote Britt Hayes for The Mary Sue. “And it involves a certain little guy from Peanuts.” Continue reading →

And Justice for All: Al Pacino’s Corduroy Jacket on Thanksgiving

Al Pacino in …And Justice for All (1979)

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Al Pacino as Arthur Kirkland, determined defense attorney

Baltimore, Fall and Winter 1978

Film: …And Justice for All
Release Date: October 19, 1979
Director: Norman Jewison
Costume Designer: Ruth Myers

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Al Pacino closed out the 1970s with his fifth Academy Award-nominated performance, portraying frazzled Baltimore lawyer Arthur Kirkland in Norman Jewison’s 1979 dark comedy …And Justice for All, satirizing the American legal system.

Kirkland’s host of issues that follow him through the fall and holiday season include troublesome clients like the unfairly arrested Jeff McCullaugh (Thomas Waites) and weekly visits to his steadfast but increasingly senile grandfather Sam (Lee Strasberg), whom he brings to Thanksgiving dinner with Sam’s slightly sharper friend Arnie (Sam Levene). Continue reading →

Kramer vs. Kramer: Dustin Hoffman’s M-65 Field Jacket

Dustin Hoffman and Justin Henry in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

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Dustin Hoffman as Ted Kramer, ad man and divorced dad

New York City, January 1979

Film: Kramer vs. Kramer
Release Date: December 19, 1979
Director: Robert Benton
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of my more recent posts focused on a movie where Dustin Hoffman played a conniving con artist, so let’s allow him to redeem himself as a workaholic learning how to be a more present dad in Kramer vs. Kramer, Robert Benton’s 1979 divorce-centric drama that won Hoffman his first Academy Award for Best Actor—in addition to Oscars for his co-star Meryl Streep, Benton’s screenplay and directing, and the Best Picture trophy.

Hoffman and Streep play the titular Kramer couple, who split after eight years of marriage when an overwhelmed Joanna leaves Ted and their seven-year-old son Billy (Justin Henry) in the New York apartment they once shared. Ted initially struggles with the demands of parenting, but he grows from an aloof workaholic to an engaged dad over the year and a half that he raises Billy exclusively before Joanna re-enters their lives and requests custody. Continue reading →

Murder on the Orient Express: Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot

Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Vitals

Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, meticulous Belgian detective

The Orient Express, December 1935

Film: Murder on the Orient Express
Release Date: November 21, 1974
Director: Sidney Lumet
Costume Designer: Tony Walton

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Ladies and gentlemen, you are all aware that a repulsive murderer has himself been repulsively, and, perhaps deservedly, murdered…

The first prominent—and arguably still definitive—adaptation of Agatha Christie’s mystery Murder on the Orient Express premiered 50 years ago today on November 21, 1974. The star-studded cast was led by a nearly unrecognizable Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, the fastidious Belgian detective tasked with solving the baffling murder of a gangster on a luxury train stuck in a snow drift. Continue reading →

When Harry Met Sally: Harry’s Leather Flight Jacket

Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally (1989)

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Billy Crystal as Harry Burns, sarcastic political consultant and recent divorcée

New York City, Fall 1987

Film: When Harry Met Sally…
Release Date: July 14, 1989
Director: Rob Reiner
Costume Designer: Gloria Gresham

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of the most aesthetically pleasing fall movies, Rob Reiner’s romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally celebrated its 35th anniversary earlier this year. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan—who celebrates her 63rd birthday today—star as the titular enemies-turned-friends-turned lovers. Continue reading →

Midnight Cowboy: Jon Voight as Joe Buck

Jon Voight as Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy (1969)

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Jon Voight as Joe Buck, naïve Texan wannabe gigolo and Army veteran

New York City, Summer through Winter 1968

Film: Midnight Cowboy
Release Date: May 25, 1969
Director: John Schlesinger
Costume Designer: Ann Roth

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Harry Nilsson recorded his cover of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin'” 57 years ago this week on November 13, 1967. This Grammy-winning folk hit has since become inextricably linked with the 1969 drama Midnight Cowboy—which celebrated its 55th anniversary in May—after director John Schlesinger chose it as the film’s theme song.

Adapted by Waldo Salt from James Leo Herlihy’s 1965 novel of the same name, Midnight Cowboy received a controversial if critically acclaimed response upon its release. Six months earlier, the MPAA implemented its voluntary rating system to classify age suitability for major releases, replacing the increasingly outdated “Hays Code” that had been enforced since the early 1930s. Midnight Cowboy was one of the first mainstream movies to be rated “X”, which forbade any audience members under age 17 to be admitted and was reserved for movies demonstrating the most extreme sexual themes, graphic violence or language. Despite the stigma of this dramatically restrictive rating, Midnight Cowboy was the third highest-grossing American movie released in 1969 and won three of the seven Oscars for which it was nominated—Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay—and it remains the only movie with an X (or equivalent NC-17) rating to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Continue reading →

The Cat’s Meow: Cary Elwes’ White Dinner Jacket as Thomas Ince

Cary Elwes as Thomas Ince in The Cat’s Meow (2002)

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Cary Elwes as Thomas H. Ince, Hollywood movie mogul

USS Oneida off the coast of southern California, November 1924

Film: The Cat’s Meow
Release Date: April 12, 2002
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Costume Designer: Caroline de Vivaise

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One hundred years ago this weekend was the mysterious party aboard media tycoon William Randolph Hearst’s luxury yacht that resulted in the death of pioneering filmmaker Thomas H. Ince.

Known a “Father of the Western” with more than 800 producing and directing credits to his name, Ince was celebrating his 44th birthday on Sunday, November 16, 1924 with Hearst’s invited guests aboard the USS Oneida when he reportedly suffered indigestion that led to his death of heart failure three days later. However, Hollywood lore persisted that Ince’s death was actually the result of foul play. Continue reading →

Silkwood: Kurt Russell’s A-2 Deck Jacket

Kurt Russell in Silkwood (1983)

Vitals

Kurt Russell as Drew Stephens, mechanic and former nuclear plant technician

Oklahoma, Fall 1974

Film: Silkwood
Release Date: December 14, 1983
Director: Mike Nichols
Costume Designer: Ann Roth

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Fifty years ago tonight, chemical technician and labor activist Karen Silkwood died in a mysterious car accident near Crescent, Oklahoma. Silkwood had recently testified to the Atomic Energy Commission about safety concerns at the Kerr-McGee Corporation plant where she worked and was subsequently found to be contaminated with plutonium.

On the evening of November 13, 1974, the 28-year-old Silkwood was en route to meet a journalist from the New York Times and her national union representative when her white 1973 Honda Civic crashed into the wall of a concrete culvert off Highway 74, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Contemporary findings strongly suggested foul play, though it was more likely that her pursuer’s intent was to intimidate Silkwood rather than to kill her.

The tumultuous last year of Karen Silkwood’s life was depicted in Mike Nichols’ 1983 drama Silkwood, starring Meryl Streep as the titular technician, Cher as her co-worker and roommate, and Kurt Russell as her boyfriend and fellow Kerr-McGee colleague Drew Stephens. Continue reading →

Killers of the Flower Moon: Leo’s Indigo Suit as Ernest Burkhart

Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon.

Vitals

Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, opportunistic jitney driver and World War I veteran

Osage County, Oklahoma, Spring 1919

Film: Killers of the Flower Moon
Release Date: October 20, 2023
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Jacqueline West

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today is Leonardo DiCaprio’s 50th birthday! Born November 11, 1974, the actor’s birthday always coincides with the November 11th observance of Veterans Day in the United States, though the real-life war veteran he portrays in Martin Scorsese’s historical epic Killers of the Flower Moon is far from honorable.

Ernest Burkhart may be Leo’s greatest “dumb guy” role to date as he plays just that, an easily manipulated sap with neither the brains nor the backbone to stand up to the murderous plot spun by his avaricious uncle, William King Hale (Robert De Niro), who poses as a benefactor to the oil-rich Osage. After serving as an infantry cook during World War I, Ernest returns home to his uncle’s Oklahoma ranch, where King recruits him into his nefarious schemes. Continue reading →

Star Trek: Captain Kirk’s Depression-era Workwear in “The City on the Edge of Forever”

Thanks to a suggestion from reader Rob Sundquist, today’s entry will boldly go where no BAMF Style post has gone before!

William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek, Episode 1.28: “The City on the Edge of Forever”

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William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, time-traveling starship captain

New York City, Fall 1930

Series: Star Trek
Episode: “The City on the Edge of Forever” (Episode 1.28)
Air Date: April 6, 1967
Director: Joseph Pevney
Creator: Gene Roddenberry
Costume Designer: William Ware Theiss

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Fans of Star Trek who are familiar with BAMF Style may not be surprised to learn that my inaugural post from this groundbreaking series covers “The City on the Edge of Forever”, the penultimate episode of the first season which has endured to be considered among the series’ best.

The episode begins on the USS Enterprise as first officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) reports that the starship’s turbulence is the result of “actually passing through ripples in time”. An accident results in medical officer Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) accidentally injecting himself with a massive dose of cordrazine, an in-universe stimulant that sends the doctor into a paranoid frenzy.

Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) recruits Spock, communications officer Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), chief engineer “Scotty” (James Doohan), and two redshirts onto the mysterious planet where Bones beamed himself, where they discover a time portal with the ability to transport entrants back to any time and place.

Bones leaps through the portal to evade capture, resulting in altering the past so dramatically that the crew’s reality—and ship—cease to exist. Thus, Kirk and Spock thus have no choice but to leap into the gateway in pursuit of Dr. McCoy… landing them in New York City, circa 1930, at the intersection of the Prohibition era and the Great Depression. Continue reading →