Tagged: Sweatpants
Heaven Can Wait: Warren Beatty’s Gray Sweats
Warren Beatty as Joe Pendleton in Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Vitals
Warren Beatty as Joe Pendleton, ill-fated quarterback
Los Angeles, Fall 1977
Film: Heaven Can Wait
Release Date: June 28, 1978
Directed by: Warren Beatty & Buck Henry
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Warren Beatty and Elaine May collaborated on the screenplay for this cool and charming retelling of Harry Segall’s original play Heaven Can Wait, which was first adapted for the screen in the 1940s as Here Comes Mr. Jordan. The 1978 film retains Segall’s original title, re-imagining our hero Joe Pendleton as a football player, specifically a skilled backup quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams who looks forward to leading his team to the Super Bowl. Despite taking great care of his physique through exercise and meals like his liver-and-whey shake, Joe can’t avoid catastrophe when a reckless van driver crashes into his bicycle.
Joe wakes up in the clouds with his soprano sax in hand, escorted by a bespectacled guardian angel (Buck Henry) into the afterlife. Believing he’s merely dreaming, Joe performs a coin trick (“the only trick I know!”) and some impromptu push-ups while the escort’s supervisor, the urbane Mr. Jordan (James Mason), intervenes to try to urge Joe’s cooperation—until he determines that the overzealous escort fumbled his first assignment by extracting Joe from his earthly body too soon, as the late Mr. Pendleton wasn’t scheduled to die for another half-century, surviving until 10:17 a.m. PDT on March 20, 2025.
R.I.P., Joe! Continue reading
Tony Soprano’s Depressed Dad Duds in “Isabella”
James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano on The Sopranos (Episode 1.12: “Isabella”)
Vitals
James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, depressed New Jersey mob chief
Montclair, New Jersey, Fall 1998
Series: The Sopranos
Episode: “Isabella” (Episode 1.12)
Air Date: March 28, 1999
Director: Allen Coulter
Creator: David Chase
Costume Designer: Juliet Polcsa
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Since 1949, May has been observed as Mental Health Awareness Month. The first day of May aligning with the informal BAMF Style observance of “Mafia Monday” feels fortuitous as it was The Sopranos that helped me get more in touch with my own anxiety and depression.
I was starting college when I first watched The Sopranos, just months after the final episode stymied audiences when it cut to black. I had long loved movies like Goodfellas, Casino, and The Godfather, so I was excited when my roommate introduced me to this acclaimed HBO series centered around the mob… and I was instantly intrigued when it pulled me into a deeper exploration of identity, masculinity, and mental health. Tony’s psychiatric treatment with Dr. Melfi helped me recognize symptoms that I thought were just “normal” sadness as brought me to a point where—with the added help of real-life professionals (of course!)—I was more comfortable with healthy expression than repression.
The twelfth episode, “Isabella”, arguably presents Tony Soprano at his lowest point—heavily medicated to the point of hallucination, barely dressing himself, and hardly enough wits to fight back during an attempted assassination as two gunmen corner him on Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair. Continue reading