Tagged: Hiking / Work Boots
Interstellar: Matthew McConaughey’s Heritage Workwear and Hamilton Watch
Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar (2014). Photo credit: Melinda Sue Gordon.
Vitals
Matthew McConaughey as Joseph “Coop” Cooper, resourceful NASA pilot-turned-farmer and widowed family man
Colorado, Spring 2067
Film: Interstellar
Release Date: November 5, 2014
Director: Christopher Nolan
Costume Designer: Mary Zophres
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 57 years ago today on November 4, 1969, Matthew McConaughey was in the midst of his celebrated “McConaissance” when he starred in Christopher Nolan’s 2014 sci-fi epic Interstellar, which opened in select theaters one day after the actor’s 45th birthday. The charismatic Texan had spent two decades building an eclectic career, from his stoner breakthrough in Dazed and Confused (1993) through a succession of dramatic leading roles and romantic comedies. Following a brief hiatus, McConaughey returned to the screen on the other side of 40 with a renewed focus on more challenging material, culminating in his Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and his unforgettable turn as nihilistic detective Rust Cohle in the first season of HBO’s True Detective.
Interstellar marked McConaughey’s first—and, to date, only—collaboration with Nolan, who sets his ambitious spacefaring saga in a dystopian future where catastrophic blight and widespread famine threaten humanity with extinction. McConaughey stars as Joseph “Coop” Cooper, a widowed former NASA pilot now raising his teenage son Tom (Timothée Chalamet) and 10-year-old daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy) on a dusty corn farm in the Great Plains. When Coop and Murph follow a series of seemingly supernatural clues to a clandestine NASA facility, they encounter Professor John Brand (Michael Caine) and his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway), who are preparing a desperate mission to identify habitable worlds beyond our solar system. Coop’s experience as a skilled aviator makes him an ideal candidate to pilot the expedition, though accepting the assignment means leaving his children behind for what could be years—or even a lifetime.
Coop: So if we find a home… then what?
Professor Brand: That’s the long shot.
Though Coop is motivated by the hope of securing a better future for his children, his decision to leave devastates Murph, who feels betrayed by the father she fears she’ll never see again. As a parting gift, Coop gives her a watch—specially designed for the film by Hamilton—to accompany the Hamilton timepiece he wears himself. Continue reading
Aldo Ray’s M-1943 Field Jacket in Nightfall
Aldo Ray in Nighfall (1956)
Vitals
Aldo Ray as Art Rayburn, aka Jim Vanning, commercial artist and war veteran
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Winter 1956
Film: Nightfall
Release Date: December 5, 1956
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Costume Designer: Jean Louis (credited for gowns)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 100th birthday of Aldo Ray, born September 25, 1926. A tough and resilient U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, the raspy-voiced Ray often incorporated these traits into his characters—perhaps most skillfully in Jacques Tourneur’s 1956 thriller Nightfall, released 70 years ago this December. The film has been celebrated as a favorite by crime fiction experts James Ellroy and Quentin Tarantino, the latter citing it as inspiration for Bruce Willis’ character in Pulp Fiction.
Based on a 1948 novel by David Goodis, Nightfall both follows and subverts many film noir tropes; though often photographed against bright, snowy countryside rather than exclusively urban shadows, Ray’s protagonist Art Rayburn is cut from the noir mold, forced to reinvent himself (as commercial artist Jim Vanning) after running afoul of criminals. Continue reading
Tim Curry’s Safari Style in Congo
Tim Curry as Herkermer Homolka in Congo (1995)
Vitals
Tim Curry as Herkermer Homolka, desperate Romanian treasure-hunter
Central Africa, Fall 1994
Film: Congo
Release Date: June 9, 1995
Director: Frank Marshall
Costume Designer: Marilyn Matthews
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After last week’s back-to-back losses of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, my Letterboxd has been ablaze with fans rewatching 9 to 5, Clue, Steel Magnolias, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. While I’ve seen all but the latter (which seems best experienced among a knowing theater audience), I wanted to tackle my own blind spots in these legends’ filmographies… which led me to the Razzie-nominated Congo, adapted from Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name.
A characteristic survival adventure from director Frank Marshall, Congo follows an expedition led by a talking gorilla (“I know it’s not Mr. Ed”) into the Congolian rainforest in search of a communications team who disappeared near the “Lost City of Zinj”. The movie likely deserved many of its negative reviews at the time of its release, with at least some admitting its goofy camp makes it a fun watch. And with a cast that includes Laura Linney, Ernie Hudson, Joe Don Baker, Bruce Campbell, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Delroy Lindo, Joey Pants, Jimmy Buffett, and Tim Curry… of course it does.
Curry delightfully chews the scenery (and sesame cake) as Herkermer Homolka, “formerly of Romania, free from the chains of Ceaușescu, traveling the world and doing good.” This last bit of his introduction rightly comes into question until Hudson’s Errol Flynn-esque guide Monroe Kelly clarifies that “he is a Romanian and he has done a lot of good… but mostly for Mr. Homolka.” Continue reading
Steve McQueen’s Denim in Baby the Rain Must Fall
Steve McQueen in Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965)
Vitals
Steve McQueen as Henry Thomas, irresponsible musician and ex-convict
Columbus, Texas, Fall 1963
Film: Baby the Rain Must Fall
Release Date: January 23, 1965
Director: Robert Mulligan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Screen and style icon Steve McQueen was born 96 years ago today on March 24, 1930. After his breakthrough success in The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), and the TV series Wanted Dead or Alive, McQueen was plucked out of westerns and war movies into more dramatic fare like Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) and Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965).
Adapted by Horton Foote from his own play The Traveling Lady, the latter film was more aligned with McQueen’s rougher and tougher screen image. He stars as Henry Thomas, a small-time rockabilly singer estranged from his wife Georgette (Lee Remick) and their six-year-old daughter Margaret Rose (Kimberley Block), whom he’s never met… until the gals surprise him in his hometown of Columbus, Texas, where he’s recently been released from a jail stint. Continue reading
Train Dreams: Joel Edgerton’s Wabash Chore Coat as Robert Grainier
Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier in Train Dreams (2025)
Vitals
Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier, laconic logger
Pacific Northwest, Summer 1917 through 1920
Film: Train Dreams
Release Date: January 26, 2025
Director: Clint Bentley
Costume Designer: Malgosia Turzanska
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Train Dreams debuted at Sundance one year ago today but gained wider attention after its official November 2025 release, driving a momentum that led to its four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for director Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar’s treatment of Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella of the same name, Best Original Song for Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner’s contribution, and Best Cinematography for Adolpho Veloso’s majestic photography.
“His name was Robert Grainier, and he lived more than 80 years in and around the town of Bonners Ferry, Idaho,” narrates Will Patton as we meet our taciturn protagonist, portrayed by Joel Edgerton. “In his time, he traveled west to within a few dozen miles of the Pacific—so he’d never seen the ocean itself—and as far east as the town of Libby, 40 miles inside Montana.” Continue reading
Twin Peaks: Michael Ontkean in Khakis and Fleck Jacket as Sheriff Harry Truman
Michael Ontkean as Sheriff Harry S. Truman in Twin Peaks (Episode 1.03: “Episode 2″, aka “Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer”)
Vitals
Michael Ontkean as Harry S. Truman, small-town sheriff
Twin Peaks, Washington, February and March 1989
Series: Twin Peaks (Seasons 1-2)
Air Dates: April 8, 1990 to June 10, 1991
Created by: Mark Frost & David Lynch
Costume Design: Sara Markowitz (seasons 1-2) & Patricia Norris (pilot episode only)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
For Canadian actor Michael Ontkean’s 80th birthday, today’s post continues the Twin Peaks theme started this week with series co-creator David Lynch’s appearance as FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole. Born just four days after Lynch on January 24, 1946, Ontkean rose to fame through the 1970s on the TV series The Rookies and the 1977 sports comedy Slap Shot before he took on the role of the even-tempered Sheriff Harry S. Truman—no known relation to the president of the same name, though the sheriff does hang the 33rd president’s portrait in his office. Continue reading
The Grey: Liam Neeson’s Winter Survival Gear
Liam Neeson in The Grey (2011). Photo credit: Kimberley French.
Vitals
Liam Neeson as John Ottway, world-weary oil company sharpshooter
Alaskan Wilderness, Winter 2011
Film: The Grey
Release Date: December 11, 2011
Director: Joe Carnahan
Costume Designer: Courtney Daniel
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After a few reader requests that piqued my interest in survival stories, I recently watched The Grey, which premiered 14 years ago n January 2012 following its debut the previous month during the annual “Butt-Numb-a-Thon” film marathon in Austin.
Adapted by director Joe Caranhan and Ian MacKenzie Jeffers from the latter’s short story “Ghost Walker”, The Grey centers around Liam Neeson as the spiritually exhausted John Ottway, who describes his situation in the opening voiceover:
A job at the end of the world: a salaried killer for a big petroleum company. I don’t know why I did half the things I’ve done, but I know this is where I belong, surrounded by my own: ex-cons, fugitives, drifters, assholes. Men unfit for mankind.
The Amityville Horror: James Brolin’s Corduroy Jacket and Cargo Pants
James Brolin and Margot Kidder in The Amityville Horror (1979)
Vitals
James Brolin as George Lutz, surveyor and stepdad
Long Island, New York, Fall 1975
Film: The Amityville Horror
Release Date: July 27, 1979
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Men’s Costumes: Richard Butz
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Fifty years ago next month, George Lutz and his family moved into 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville on the south shore of Long Island. Amity, as you know, means friendship (as the mayor in Jaws has made clear), but there’s nothing friendly about the paranormal activity that drove the Lutz family from that Dutch Colonial Revival house after only 28 days.
Though the veracity of the events have been called into question (and, I believe, generally debunked), they remain in the forefront of public consciousness thanks to Jay Anson’s 1977 book The Amityville Horror and its subsequent film adaptations—the best-known and best-regarded of which being the 1979 horror thriller of the same name starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder as George and Kathy Lutz. Continue reading
Weapons: Josh Brolin’s Waxed Work Jacket
Josh Brolin in Weapons (2025)
Vitals
Josh Brolin as Archer Graff, housing contractor and concerned father
Maybrook, Pennsylvania, Spring 2025
Film: Weapons
Release Date: August 8, 2025
Director: Zach Cregger
Costume Designer: Trish Summerville
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Following the breakout success of his directorial debut Barbarian (2022), writer-director Zach Cregger returned with another provocative and unsettling horror film: Weapons, released this August.
Set in the fictional small town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania (but filmed just outside Atlanta), the film opens with a chilling mystery—seventeen elementary school children from the same classroom inexplicably flee their homes into the night at exactly 2:17 a.m., leaving only one—the quiet and withdrawn Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher)—returning to class the next day. What unfolds is a nonlinear descent into communal fear, grief, and suspicion, as the town struggles to comprehend the incomprehensible and, in doing so, turns inward with paranoia and blame.
On its surface, Weapons plays as a darkly comic horror thriller, but beneath the genre trappings lies a sharp allegory about how communities process trauma—or fail to, demonstrating the all-American patterns of reactionary hysteria that have cascaded over centuries from the Salem witch trials to post-9/11 nationalism and COVID-era scapegoating. Weapons particularly sparked interpretation on a broader commentary on America’s systemic failure to protect children as—rather than confronting the deeper institutional issues like gun violence, trafficking, or the opioid crisis—communal trauma habitually devolves into a blame game, lashing out at convenient targets from violent video games to a troubled new teacher.
The scapegoat here becomes the latter: Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), a recently hired teacher with a complicated past but no clear connection to the children’s disappearance. Suspicion still grows, fueled by the town’s need for closure and driven by panicked parents like local contractor Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), whose son Matthew remains among the missing. As his desperation increases, Archer ultimately pairs with an unlikely ally to channel his pain into action. Continue reading
Kenneth Branagh’s Antarctic Exploration Gear as Ernest Shackleton
Kenneth Branagh in Shackleton (2002)
Vitals
Kenneth Branagh as Sir Ernest Shackleton, prolific polar explorer
Antarctica, December 1914 to August 1916
Series: Shackleton
Air Dates: January 2-3, 2002
Director: Charles Sturridge
Costume Designer: Shirley Russell
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The Channel 4 series Shackleton aired in two parts during the first week of January 2002, winning Emmy Awards in two of the seven categories for which it was nominated among nods from the BAFTA Awards and Golden Globes. Kenneth Branagh stars as the titular Sir Ernest Shackleton, specifically depicting his leadership of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition toward the end of what many call the “Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration”. Though the specific expedition failed in its scientific objective, his leadership and the resourceful group’s survival have become legendary as a feat of, well, endurance. Despite this, Shackleton wisely avoids hagiography as it presents the titular adventurer with virtues and flaws intact.
After securing funding and approval from the British Admiralty despite looming war across Europe, Shackleton’s crew departed from Plymouth in August 1914 aboard the Endurance. Shackleton had purchased this Norwegian-built three-masted schooner, which was originally christened Polaris before he renamed it from his family motto (“By endurance, we conquer”), thus its journey from England through the South Atlantic was its maiden voyage. Following stops in Buenos Aires and South Georgia Island, Shackleton and his crew of 28 men—and 69 dogs—finally departed for the Antarctic on December 5th.
The real Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), photographed aboard the Endurance by Frank Hurley, circa 1914-1915.
Shackleton commanded the Endurance through the Weddell Sea, while Aeneas Mackintosh helmed a supporting party aboard the Aurora through the Ross Sea. Hoping to make landfall by Christmas, the seagoing expedition stretched into January 1915 when the Endurance became beset in pack ice. To conserve fuel for a potential return to South Georgia, Shackleton cut the engines and began drifting in the ice… for nine months.
110 years ago today on October 27, 1915—one year and a day after the Endurance left Buenos Aires—Shackleton finally gave his crew the orders to abandon ship, establishing a camp on the ice after—aside from Frank Hurley’s photographs and Leonard Hussey’s banjo—each man was instructed to dump all but two pounds of personal possessions from aboard the ship. Endurance finally sank just over three weeks later on November 21, 1915, starting a new chapter as the crew realized their mission shifted from science to survival.
My job now is to make sure you all live: every single one of you. To do that, I cannot afford to be sentimental. If I am, you will die—die starving, die frozen, die mad. I’ve seen it before, I do not intend to see it again.
You must be logged in to post a comment.