Tagged: Combat Boots
Allied: Brad Pitt’s Flight Jacket and RCAF Uniform Gear
Vitals
Brad Pitt as Max Vatan, Royal Canadian Air Force intelligence officer
London and Dieppe, Spring 1944
Film: Allied
Release Date: November 23, 2016
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Costume Designer: Joanna Johnston
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The 2016 World War II romantic thriller Allied centered around Brad Pitt’s character Max Vatan, an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF)—the high-flying branch of the Canadian armed forces that was officially founded 100 years ago today on April 1, 1924.
I’ve read simplifications of Allied‘s plot as “Casablanca meets Notorious“, with Joanna Johnston’s Oscar-nominated costume design maintaining much of the 1940s elegance from both of those acclaimed classics. And indeed, the romantic and action-packed first act of Allied is set in Casablanca, where Max’s dangerous mission for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) pairs him with the alluring French Resistance circuit leader Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard).
Upon returning to England, Max receives clearance to bring Marianne into the country, where they marry despite Max’s boss, British Army Captain Frank Heslop (Jared Harris) advising him that “marriages made in the field never work.” (In fact, there were a few real-life spies who served the British during World War II that would later marry, such as SOE officers Peter Churchill and Odette Sansom, both of whom had been imprisoned and brutally interrogated by the Germans and whose service and relationship formed the basis of the 1950 film Odette. That said, Frank may have been onto something as the two divorced in 1955 after eight years of marriage.)
With their newborn daughter, the couple lives in domestic bliss—and domestic Blitz—for over a year until Max’s superiors alert him to their suspicions that Marianne is a German spy! Though he reluctantly agrees to follow the SOE’s plan to test Marianne’s allegiance with a “blue dye” procedure, Max remains convinced of her loyalty and sets out to prove it. Continue reading
Fargo, Season 5: Sam Spruell as Ole Munch
Vitals
Sam Spruell as Ole Munch, mysterious mercenary and ancient sin-eater
Minnesota and North Dakota, Fall 2019
Series: Fargo
Episodes:
– “The Tragedy of the Commons” (Episode 5.01, dir. Noah Hawley, aired 11/21/2023)
– “Trials and Tribulations” (Episode 5.02, dir. Noah Hawley, aired 11/21/2023)
– “The Paradox of Intermediate Transactions” (Episode 5.03, dir. Donald Murphy, aired 11/28/2023)
– “The Tender Trap” (Episode 5.06, dir. Dana Gonzales, aired 12/19/2023)
– “Linda” (Episode 5.07, dir. Sylvian White, aired 12/26/2023)
– “The Useless Hand” (Episode 5.09, dir. Thomas Bezucha, aired 1/9/2024)
– “Bisquik” (Episode 5.10, dir. Thomas Bezucha, aired 1/16/2024)
Creator: Noah Hawley
Costume Designer: Carol Case
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
I recently received a request from BAMF Style reader Joe (thanks for the tip, Joe!) to review the interesting style of Ole Munch (Sam Spruell), an antagonist from the fifth and latest season of Fargo, which just ended last month.
For those unfamiliar, the series is a loosely connected anthology inspired by—and tangentially related to—the 1996 masterpiece film by the Coen brothers, who also joined as executive producers after being impressed by series creator Noah Hawley’s interpretation. Each season is primarily set in a different era and locale throughout the snowy American Midwest, pulling additional inspiration from other Coen brothers’ films.
With his relentlessness and terrible haircut, Ole Munch arguably takes a few queues from No Country for Old Men‘s Anton Chigurh… though the mysterious Munch ultimately demonstrates a more merciful sense of pragmatism than the psychopathic Chigurh. A self-described nihilist (which also echoes the philosophy of German technopop stars-turned-kidnappers in The Big Lebowski), Munch reveals himself to be over 500 years old, doomed to immortality as a sin-eater from 16th century Wales… delivered by fate to 21st century Minnesota. Continue reading
Brendan Fraser in The Mummy
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Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell, American adventurer and former Legionnaire
Egypt, Summer 1926
Film: The Mummy
Release Date: May 7, 1999
Director: Stephen Sommers
Costume Designer: John Bloomfield
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
A quarter-century after its release, The Mummy is finding renewed love among audiences, no doubt due to star Brendan Fraser who has been enjoying a own career renaissance following his Oscar-nominated turn in The Whale that has already won the actor more than two dozen awards.
Directed and written by Stephen Sommers, The Mummy updated Karl Freund’s 1932 thriller of the same name, released among a wave of Universal’s now-iconic horror films including Dracula and Frankenstein. Sommers’ adaptation retained the supernatural elements while playing down the horror in favor of a more lighthearted adventure story inspired by Errol Flynn’s screen swashbucklers and the classic serials that influenced the character of Indiana Jones, to whom Fraser’s roguish Rick O’Connell has been likened. Continue reading
The Bourne Supremacy: Karl Urban as Kirill
Vitals
Karl Urban as Kirill, determined FSB assassin
Moscow, Winter 2004
Film: The Bourne Supremacy
Release Date: July 23, 2004
Director: Paul Greengrass
Costume Designer: Dinah Collin
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After Wednesday’s post about Ford v Ferrari, today features another Matt Damon movie… but instead focused on one of his co-stars. In the spirit of Friday the 13th, let’s check out the style of one of the unlucky assassins assigned with exterminating the elusive Jason Bourne. Continue reading
The Thing: Kurt Russell as R.J. MacReady
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Kurt Russell as R.J. MacReady, helicopter pilot
Antarctica, Winter 1982
Film: The Thing
Release Date: June 25, 1982
Director: John Carpenter
Costume Supervisors: Ronald I. Caplan, Trish Keating, and Gilbert Loe
Background
We’re not gettin’ out of here alive… but neither is that thing.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The Thing, which premiered June 25, 1982 and remains the personal favorite of director John Carpenter. Four days ago on June 21, British Antarctic research stations would have observed their Midwinter Day celebration that typically includes watching horror movies about being trapped in the snow such as The Thing and The Shining.
Indeed, the action begins during “first goddamn week of winter” grumbles R.J. MacReady, a grizzled helicopter pilot embedded with an American scientific research crew stationed in Antarctica. The U.S. Outpost 31 crew is baffled by the sudden appearance of a Norwegian gunman shooting at what appears to be a relatively benign wolfdog (Jed). “Maybe we’re at war with Norway,” quips Nauls (T.K. Carter), the cook, who more helpfully offers that “five minutes is enough to put a man over down here” as the team mulls over the gunman’s possible motives.
That night, it’s not the Norwegian who the crew needs to be alarmed about, but instead the curious creature locked up with the dogs. As their canine handler Clark (Richard Masur) warns Mac:
It’s weird and pissed off, whatever it is…
No Time to Die: Daniel Craig’s Commando Bond Gear
Vitals
Daniel Craig as James Bond, retired British secret agent
Sea of Japan, Spring 2020
Film: No Time to Die
Release Date: September 30, 2021
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Costume Designer: Suttirat Anne Larlarb
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
What happens to the hero after he rides off into the sunset?
Aside from the occasional epilogue featuring James Bond and his lady du jour, we hadn’t really received much of an answer until No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s fifth and final movie as the stylish super-spy. On the 00-7th of March—which is Craig’s birth month, as the actor turned 54 five days ago—let’s revisit how his tenure ended after the martinis stopped being shaken. Continue reading
Tom Hanks in Greyhound
Vitals
Tom Hanks as CDR Ernest Krause, USN, commanding officer of USS Keeling
North Atlantic Ocean, February 1942
Film: Greyhound
Release Date: July 10, 2020
Director: Aaron Schneider
Costume Designer: Julie Weiss
Military Costume Consultant: Steve McColgan
Background
…the goods will be delivered by this nation, whose Navy believes in the tradition of “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
— Franklin Delano Roosevelt, October 27, 1941
Greyhound begins just over three months after the United States entered World War II and nearly five months after FDR’s address for Navy and Total Defense Day, in which he reinforced with the above words the protection that the U.S. Navy would offer merchant ships carrying supplies to support the Allied war effort. The eponymous “Greyhound” is the codename for USS Keeling, one of the American destroyers assigned to protect a 37-ship convoy on its way to Liverpool.
We join up with the multi-national convoy HX-25 as it enters its first of two days traveling through the “Black Pit”, the area of the North Atlantic considered most vulnerable as it was beyond the range of air cover. Leading the convoy’s military escort from the bridge of USS Keeling is straight-laced Commander Ernest Krause, played by Tom Hanks. Continue reading
The Beetlejuice Striped Suit
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Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse, boorish “bio-exorcist”
Connecticut, Summer 1987
Film: Beetlejuice
Release Date: March 30, 1988
Director: Tim Burton
Costume Designer: Aggie Guerard Rodgers
Background
Happy Halloween!
As delightfully and unapologetically weird as its director, Beetlejuice was Tim Burton’s follow-up to his directorial debut, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. The darkly comic story about a recently deceased couple summoning an unprincipled poltergeist was developed by Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren, and Larry Wilson, with Burton channeling the cheap B-movies of decades past in his interpretation that balanced humor and horror.
In less than a decade of screen roles, Michael Keaton had already established a range of versatility between zany comedy (Night Shift) and thoughtful drama (Clean and Sober) before he took on the outlandish quasi-title role as the uh, well, Julliard-trained Betelgeuse. Continue reading
Judas and the Black Messiah: Fred Hampton’s Corduroy Coat
Vitals
Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party
Chicago, Fall 1968
Film: Judas and the Black Messiah
Release Date: February 12, 2021
Director: Shaka King
Costume Designer: Charlese Antoinette Jones
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This year, Daniel Kaluuya won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his charismatic portrayal of Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, born 73 years ago today on August 30, 1948. Kaluuya’s Oscar marked one of many accolades for Judas and the Black Messiah, which was also nominated for Best Picture and won Kaluuya himself at least 15 additional acting awards. Continue reading
The Irishman: De Niro’s Brown Leather Jacket
Vitals
Robert De Niro as Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran, tough truck driver-turned-Mafia enforcer
Philadelphia, winter 1956 through spring 1961
Film: The Irishman
Release Date: November 1, 2019
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Design: Sandy Powell & Christopher Peterson
Background
Martin Scorsese’s latest crime epic, The Irishman, has been the subject of several requests since it was released on Netflix at the beginning of November. With one of my favorite directors helming some of my favorite actors in a subject and setting that held personal interest for me, The Irishman had been eagerly anticipated by me since the project was first announced… though I admit that I did have some hesitations about the running time and the advanced ages of all involved. As it turns out, the very factors I was most concerned about are what arguably contributed to the film being a modern masterpiece.