Tagged: Jeans
The Four Seasons: Alan Alda’s Fall Soccer Sweatshirt and Wranglers
Alan Alda in The Four Seasons (1981)
Vitals
Alan Alda as Jack Burroughs, married lawyer
Connecticut, Fall 1980
Film: The Four Seasons
Release Date: May 22, 1981
Director: Alan Alda
Costume Designer: Jane Greenwood
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The start of each new season this year tends to send me back to The Four Seasons for content. Written and directed by Alan Alda, this 1981 comedy follows three couples on their seasonal group trips as they navigate their own complicated relationships.
Alda stars as Jack Burroughs, stably centered in a marriage with Kate (Carol Burnett), who typically plans each vacation. The fall trip follows the Burroughses and their four friends up to Connecticut for Parents’ Weekend with two of their daughters who are enrolled in the same college, resulting in a hyper-competitive soccer game which reveals a deeper conflict within the group, from Jack’s anger at the womanizing Nick (Len Cariou) to Kate’s resentment at having to plan each trip. Continue reading
When Harry Met Sally: Billy Crystal’s Field Jacket as Harry
Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Vitals
Billy Crystal as Harry Burns, sarcastic political consultant and recent divorcée
New York City, Fall 1988
Film: When Harry Met Sally…
Release Date: July 14, 1989
Director: Rob Reiner
Costume Designer: Gloria Gresham
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Rob Reiner’s 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally is often (deservedly) included on lists compiling the greatest fall movies. As tomorrow will be the first day of autumn here, I return to my own frequent celebration of Billy Crystal’s fall wardrobe as Harry—specifically during his fateful visit to comfort Sally (Meg Ryan) at her apartment after she learns that her ex-boyfriend is getting married. Continue reading
Burt Reynolds in Double Denim as Gator McKlusky
Burt Reynolds in Gator (1976)
Vitals
Burt Reynolds as Bobby “Gator” McKlusky, paroled moonshine runner
Okefanokee Swamp, Summer 1975
Film: Gator
Release Date: August 25, 1976
Director: Burt Reynolds
Costume Designer: Norman Salling
Background
Burt Reynolds followed up his sweaty 1973 “hick flick” White Lightning with his self-directed sequel Gator, widely released 50 years ago today on August 25, 1976. The three-year gap had been kind to Reynolds, who had since grown his stardom… and that trademark mustache. (Unlike Sterling Archer, I prefer White Lightning over its lighter-hearted sequel.)
Reynolds reprises his role as moonshiner Bobby “Gator” McKlusky, recently released after serving 26 months in a Georgia state prison where he proudly learned how to make “quality license plates”. As in White Lightning, Gator is called back into government service, this time to help nab his one-time pal “Bama” McCall (Jerry Reed), now a ruthless crime boss in the fictional Dunston County. Of course, the government has to catch Gator first, kicking things off with a raucous speedboat chase through the Okefanokee Swamp. Continue reading
John Saxon’s Floral-collared Chambray Shirt in Moonshine County Express
John Saxon in Moonshine County Express (1977)
Vitals
John Saxon as J.B. Johnson, race car driver and occasional moonshine runner
Jackson County, Kentucky, Fall 1976
Film: Moonshine County Express
Release Date: June 1, 1977
Director: Gus Trikonis
Wardrobe Coordinator: Adrianne Levesque
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Moonshine County Express was produced by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures in 1977 during the height of the cinematic “hick flick” trend that often posited guys like Burt Reynolds as rural heroes driving fast cars full of booze. Directed by Corman favorite Gus Trikonis, Moonshine County Express stars the late John Saxon in its central role—no doubt due to the actor’s own considerable talent and his resemblance to a pre-mustached Reynolds—as well as Susan Howard, William Conrad, a post-Brady Bunch Maureen McCormick as a Daisy Duke protoype, and “hick flick” regulars Jeff Corey and Dub Taylor; Seinfeld fans may also recognize Uncle Leo (aka Len Lesser) in a supporting role as a bargain barn owner. (Both Saxon and McCormick share their August 5th birthday, with McCormick celebrating her 70th today while Saxon would have turned 90 this year.)
Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! Except it’s Betty, Sissy, and Dot.
It would be hard to recommend in good faith to all my readers, but Moonshine County Express is the kind of movie you throw on when you want that raw, Southern-fried tale of fast-driivng whiskey runners in the same authentic, dobro-twanging, semi-exploitative ilk as Moonrunners, the 1975 B-movie that directly inspired The Dukes of Hazzard, though Moonshine County Express also features many of the elements that would be familiar in Hazzard County: a corrupt and corpulent county boss, a white-suited antagonist, short-shorted Southern beauties, and a liquor-hauling hero speeding around in a Dodge muscle car. Continue reading
Sam Elliott’s Aloha Shirt in Lifeguard
Sam Elliott in Lifeguard (1976)
Vitals
Sam Elliott as Rick Carlson, charismatic 32-year-old beach lifeguard
Southern California, Summer 1975
Film: Lifeguard
Release Date: July 23, 1976
Director: Daniel Petrie
Wardrobe Credit: Margo Baxley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Before his magnificent mustache and gravely voice made him a mainstay of Westerns, Sam Elliott’s breakthrough performance was in the romantic drama Lifeguard, released fifty years ago today on July 23, 1976.
In the half-century since its release, Lifeguard continues to polarize audiences as some praise it as a thoughtful character stufy of American masculinity in crisis while others disregard it as a vapid endorsement of statutory rape. While my own response falls somewhere in between, I do agree with even the film’s detractors that Sam Elliott’s undeniable charisma can’t help but to shine through even the more problematic elements of Ron Koslow’s screenplay. As the filmmakers cycled through potential leads like Beau Bridges and Adam Roarke, Elliott was considered after director Dan Petrie and his wife Dorothea noticed the actor’s masculine yet mustache-less performance opposite Roarke in the 1972 eco-horror film Frogs.
A former lifeguard himself, Elliott stars as a career lifeguard Rick Carlson working the beaches of Los Angeles County, where his easy-go-lucky barefoot life picking up chicks is washed into an identity crisis after he receives an invitation to his 15-year high school reunion while also countering his father (George D. Wallace) constantly criticizing his vocation: “You know what’s crazy? I still wonder what you’re gonna be when you grow up!” Although swayed by the promise of more “acceptable” success selling Porsches in the Valley, Rick ultimately decides to continue his sun-baked career as a professional lifeguard, having honed his abilities to the point where the only drowning allowed on his beach is drowning in tail. Continue reading
Paris, Texas: Harry Dean Stanton’s Red Road Trip Shirt and Ranchero
Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas (1984)
Vitals
Harry Dean Stanton as Travis Henderson, once-wandering drifter
Los Angeles to Houston, Fall 1983
Film: Paris, Texas
Release Date: September 19, 1984
Director: Wim Wenders
Costume Designer: Birgitta Bjerke
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of my favorite actors, Harry Dean Stanton, was born 100 years ago today on July 14, 1926 in Kentucky. Following his U.S. Navy service during World War II, Stanton began an acting career that lasted more than six decades until his death from heart failure at age 91 in September 2017 after completing his penultimate film Lucky, which also afforded Stanton the rare starring role. He was a close, respected friend of many A-listers like Francis Ford Coppola, David Lynch, and Jack Nicholson, who included Stanton as best man in his 1962 wedding and habitually scrawled “H.D. Stanton” on the sets of his films.
Stanton typically made the most of supporting roles in films like Cool Hand Luke (1967), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Alien (1979), Escape from New York (1981), Christine (1983), Red Dawn (1984), Pretty in Pink (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The Green Mile (1999), and The Avengers (2012)—a filmography so prolific that Roger Ebert once declared that, with the sole exception of Dream a Little Dream (1989), “no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad.”
Despite his prolific supporting career, Stanton was cast in leading parts for back-to-back films released in 1984: Alex Cox’s dark sci-fi comedy Repo Man and Wim Wenders’ elegiac road drama Paris, Texas. The latter won the Palme d’Or when it premiered at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival and, though overlooked by most American award bodies, has grown its cult reputation as one of the greatest movies ever made. With additional style provided by Ry Cooder’s original score and Robby Müller’s masterful cinematography, the script was written by L.M. Kit Carson and Sam Shepard, who offered Stanton the part after the two connected at a Santa Fe film festival. Continue reading
Point Break: Keanu Reeves’ Pale-Blue Camp Shirt and Jeans
Keanu Reeves as FBI Agent Johnny Utah in Point Break (1991)
Vitals
Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, ambitious FBI agent
Los Angeles, Summer 1991
Film: Point Break
Release Date: July 12, 1991
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Costume Supervisors: Colby P. Bart & Louis Infante
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Point Break was released 35 years ago today on July 12, 1991, chronicling Ohio State football star-turned-FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) infiltrating a group of bank-robbing surfers and skydivers led by the enigmatic Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) while also buying two meatball subs for his supervisor, Angelo Pappas (Gary Busey). It feels especially appropriate to celebrate Point Break‘s cinematic legacy on the day after World Skydiving Day—observed on the second Saturday of July. Continue reading
Kill Me Again: Val Kilmer’s White Shirt and White Cadillac
Val Kilmer in Kill Me Again (1989)
Vitals
Val Kilmer as Jack Andrews, cynical private investigator
Nevada, Spring 1989
Film: Kill Me Again
Release Date: October 27, 1989
Director: John Dahl
Costume Designer: Terry Dresbach
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This summer’s Car Week wraps with Kill Me Again, John Dahl’s little-known (at least to me, before last year) 1989 neo-noir thriller starring the late Val Kilmer and Michael Madsen opposite Kilmer’s then-wife Joanne Whalley as a dangerous femme fatale.
I’ll admit I was drawn to this as a subject this week due to some stylistic similarities with one of my favorite “car movies”, Vanishing Point (1971), which also features a man in a white shirt and jeans desperately racing a white two-door hardtop V8 through the desert until the car meets a fiery end. In this case, it’s not the nihilistic Kowalski in a Dodge Challenger but our widowed gambler P.I. in his quarter-century-old Cadillac, racing through the sand for a bundle of stolen cash. Continue reading
Two-Lane Blacktop: James Taylor as a ’55 Chevy Driver
James Taylor with Dennis Wilson and Laurie Bird in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Vitals
James Taylor as “The Driver”, laconic race car driver
Arizona through Tennessee, Fall 1970
Film: Two-Lane Blacktop
Release Date: July 7, 1971
Director: Monte Hellman
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Monte Hellman’s offbeat cult classic road movie Two-Lane Blacktop was released 55 years ago this week on July 7, 1971, starring musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson as the unnamed driver and mechanic of a ’55 Chevy gasser that picks up a hitchhiker (Laurie Bird) and falls into a cross-country race for pinks against the blustering driver of a new Pontiac GTO, played by Warren Oates.
Always an unorthodox maverick, Hellman was inspired to cast Taylor after spying his face on a Sunset Boulevard billboard, recalling that he “just flipped over his face.” Both Taylor and his late co-star Oates recalled the first-time actor feeling frustrated with his lack of control as Hellman and his 30-person crew shot the film in sequence, offering the cast only a few pages of the script at a time. “I’m not talking out of turn when I say Jimmy Taylor had terrible struggles relinquishing control to Monte,” Oates later shared.
The on-set strife reached a point where Hellman convinced Taylor not to quit the production by finally allowing him to read the entirety of Rudy Wurtlizer’s screenplay… which he didn’t do. Still, Taylor didn’t see Two-Lane Blacktop as the detour to a new path in his career, explaining in a contemporary interview with the Los Angeles Times that “I’m not an actor. I’ll never do this again. If I ever did another film I’d have to be the director and writer, I’d have to be in control.” To date, this remains the six-time Grammy-winning Taylor’s sole big-screen acting credit apart from cameos.
As this summer’s Car Week feature stretches on, let’s follow Sweet Baby James in that primer-gray Chevy along America’s blue highways stretching east from Arizona. Continue reading
Kurt Russell’s Tank Top and Trucker Style in Big Trouble in Little China
Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall in Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Vitals
Kurt Russell as Jack Burton, troublesome truck driver
San Francisco, Fall 1985
Film: Big Trouble in Little China
Release Date: July 2, 1986
Director: John Carpenter
Costume Designer: April Ferry
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
John Carpenter’s cult classic Big Trouble in Little China was released 40 years ago today on July 2, 1986. Following their initial collaboration in The Thing (1982), Kurt Russell stars as cocky trucker Jack Burton, who indeed lands in big trouble in little China—specifically San Francisco’s Chinatown district—when his friend’s fiancée is kidnapped by a local street gang and then again kidnapped by henchmen serving the reclusive sorcerer David Lo Pan (James Hong), who needs a green-eyed wife to break an ancient curse. Jack and his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) are joined by appropriately named attorney Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall) on their quest through the literal underground to retrieve Wang’s betrothed. Carpenter has explained he envisioned Jack as a sidekick who thinks he’s a hero, while the more comparatively reserved Wang more closely exemplifies the traditional leading man. Continue reading
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