Tagged: Louisiana
Austin Butler as Elvis: Pink-and-Black Rockabilly Suit
Austin Butler as Elvis Presley in Elvis (2022)
Vitals
Austin Butler as Elvis Presley, country rock guitarist and singer
Shreveport, Louisiana, January 1955
Film: Elvis
Release Date: June 23, 2022
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Costume Designer: Catherine Martin
Tailor: Gloria Bava
Background
Elvis Presley was born 88 years ago today on January 8, 1935. Little introduction is needed for the King of Rock and Roll, who remains one of the most significant cultural figures of the last century even nearly 50 years after this death. Several movies have been made about Presley’s life and musical career, the most recent being the highly publicized Elvis, released last year with an astounding and immersive lead performance by Austin Butler that has been touted as a likely contender for an Academy Award. Continue reading
True Detective – Rust Cohle’s Navy Corduroy Jacket
Matthew McConaughey as Rustin “Rust” Cohle on HBO’s True Detective (Episode 1.02: “Seeing Things”)
Vitals
Matthew McConaughey as Rustin “Rust” Cohle, nihilistic Louisiana State Police homicide detective
Louisiana, January 1995
Series: True Detective
Episodes:
– “The Long Bright Dark” (Episode 1.01, aired 1/12/2014)
– “Seeing Things” (Episode 1.02, aired 1/19/2014)
– “The Locked Room” (Episode 1.03, aired 1/26/2014)
– “Who Goes There” (Episode 1.04, aired 2/9/2014)
– “The Secret Fate of All Life” (Episode 1.05, aired 2/16/2014)
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Creator: Nic Pizzolatto
Costume Designer: Jenny Eagan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Time may or may not be a flat circle, but birthdays come around every year and today is Matthew McConaughey’s 50th!
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Captain Marvel
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in Captain Marvel (2019)
Photo credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios
Vitals
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, “full-bird colonel turned spy turned S.H.I.E.L.D. agent”
Rosamond, California, to Louisiana, June 1995
Film: Captain Marvel
Release Date: February 27, 2019
Directed by: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
Costume Designer: Sanja Milkovic Hays
Background
Carol Danvers: Nicholas Joseph Fury… you have three names?
Nick Fury: Everybody calls me Fury. Not Nicholas. Not Joseph. Not Nick. Just Fury.
Carol Danvers: What does your mom call you?
Nick Fury: Fury.
Carol Danvers: What do you call her?
Nick Fury: Fury.
Carol Danvers: What about your kids?
Nick Fury: If I have them? They’ll call me Fury.
The 21st film released by Marvel Studios for the Marvel Cinematic Universe spends more time with Nick Fury than previous entries, giving us an ostensible origin story for the black-clad badass who’s been at the core of the MCU since his first appearance in the post-credits scene of Iron Man. As Captain Marvel is set in 1995, decades before the primary action of the MCU, Samuel L. Jackson was digitally de-aged to portray the character, then seen as a much lower-level agent in the S.H.I.E.L.D. bureaucracy and—perhaps most surprising—with both of his eyes intact. Continue reading
True Detective – Rust Cohle in 2012
Matthew McConaughey as Rustin “Rust” Cohle on HBO’s True Detective.
Vitals
Matthew McConaughey as Rustin “Rust” Cohle, nihilistic bartender and ex-cop
Lafayette, Louisiana, April 2012
Series: True Detective
Season: 1
Air Dates: January 12, 2014 – March 9, 2014
Creator: Nic Pizzolatto
Costume Designer: Jenny Eagen
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Don’t be assholes. You wanna hear this or not?
Rust Cohle challenges his interrogators at the outset of “The Long Bright Dark”, the premiere episode of HBO’s True Detective, indicating to us as well as detectives Thomas Papania (Tory Kittles) and Maynard Gilbrough (Michael Potts) that a wild ride is ahead. Continue reading
Clyde Barrow’s Death Suit (2013 Version)
Emile Hirsch as Clyde Barrow in part two of the 2013 mini-series Bonnie & Clyde.
Vitals
Emile Hirsch as Clyde Barrow, bank robber with “second sight”
Rural Louisiana, May 1934
Series Title: Bonnie and Clyde
Air Date: December 8, 2013
Director: Bruce Beresford
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance
Background
Eighty years ago today, six Southern lawmen pulled off a feat that the federal government had been failing to do for months with the first real victory in the United States’ “War on Crime”.
With the advent of the Great Depression following the stock market crash of 1929, criminals abandoned gangsterdom and bootlegging (both “Machine Gun” Kelly and “Pretty Boy” Floyd were known to be bootleggers early in their career) in favor of motorized banditry. In the spirit of the Old West, bank robbers took to cars all across the country – with a special concentration in the poorest areas of the Midwest and the South.
This crime wave did not go unnoticed by the government. Soon, names like John Dillinger, “Baby Face” Nelson, and Alvin Karpis were dominating the headlines, and they were surprisingly welcome by the people who were sick and tired of the perceived “fat cats” in the government. Some of the criminals, Dillinger and Floyd especially, even had the begrudging respect of some small-town lawmen. But the greatest disparity between public opinion and actual temperament is with the case of Bonnie and Clyde. Continue reading
Bonnie and Clyde (1967): Clyde Barrow’s Death Car and Attire
Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde (1967).
Vitals
Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow, slightly incompetent bank robber
Rural Louisiana, May 1934
Film: Bonnie & Clyde
Release Date: August 13, 1967
Director: Arthur Penn
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
Background
The sun was shining brightly on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana on Wednesday, May 23, 1934. An old Ford Model A truck idled by the side of the road. Hidden in the bushes by the side of the road, six lawmen sat in wait, armed with heavy duty Colt Monitors and Remington hunting rifles. They’d been there all night, sacrificing their skin for the many hungry insects in the woods. By dawn, they’d waited long enough. Tired, hungry, and dirty, the men planned to head back to their motel rooms after another half hour. Almost at that same time, the unmistakable sound of a Ford V8 engine was heard up the road. Continue reading
Brad Pitt in Killing Them Softly
Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan in Killing Them Softly (2012)
Vitals
Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan, freelance mob hitman
Boston*, November 2008
* The movie—like the source novel—was indeed set in the Boston area but was filmed in New Orleans.
Film: Killing Them Softly
Release Date: November 30, 2012
Director: Andrew Dominik
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Although it met with mixed reviews, many fans of George V. Higgins appreciate the recent film version of his 1974 book Cogan’s Trade, released as Killing Them Softly based on a line from the novel’s titular protagonist, Jackie Cogan:
They cry. They plead. They beg. They piss themselves. They call for their mothers. It gets embarrassing. I like to kill ’em softly, from a distance. Not close enough for feelings. Don’t like feelings. Don’t want to think about them.