On Sunday night, my wife and I caught the tail end of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's one of my favorite movies, not only because it's filmed in Chicago, but because it brings back so many memories of my childhood (which may be a direct result of it being filmed in Chicago, but still). Plus, it's a damn good movie. I like movies where the actor talks to the camera. It feels more like a play at that point. Plus, we all have an inner monologue that we can relate to. Even when the character looks at the camera and doesn't say anything I get a kick out of it, because it's basically saying "Hey, what you saw just then was absurd or a good joke, you really ought to be laughing, if you're not, turn off the movie because you don't get it". I think that shows a certain amount of respect. It reinforces that the movie is all about the audience, not the actors.
So, the movie is just about over so we see what's on next. Low and behold, it's Ferris Bueller's Day Off again. I thought, gee, that's cool, we could catch the first part of the movie if we're really bored (and at that point we were, mostly because we were both exhausted from spending the day enjoying the gorgeous weather and doing yardwork/playing frisbee golf), but then saw that the movie was the "DVD" version. Well, turns out that it is just like pop-up video on VH-1 back in the day. Little blurbs come up every few seconds explaining this/that/the other about the movie. I'm pretty sure I've watched some other movie like this before, but totally forgot about that experience until watching it again. It's funny how the mind works. Memories are buried until a similar experience triggers a recollection.
The movie experience was highly enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised. It was even better than watching the commentary along with the DVD because you could actually hear all the dialogue and there wasn't any self-congratulations, or just plain asinine crap. I even learned that until "The Blues Brothers" Chicago didn't really allow many movies to be filmed there. I had no idea. I can't think of a more perfect movie to start allowing it though...
So, that's it, just a plug for a show. Here is the link to their "blog". Apparently I missed the showing of "The Blues Brothers" last week. Damn. Funny how there was a connection though. Serendipity. "Girl, Interrupted" is their next movie on May 13. Don't think I will be catching that one, perhaps my wife will though...
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Chicago started to gain much attention for filming until 1979 or so. This had more to do with Byrne being mayor than anything else. She was the 1st non-Daley Machine mayor in decades, which means she probably didn't require the kind of under-the-table graft to "allow" filming that Daley would have. Hollywood is loathe to doing that on films. However, they would buy all the cocaine needed during the production of Blues Brothers. While TBB is certainly a high-profile film that showcased Chicago in those early days of location filming there is one that came BEFORE that and the stunts filmed made headlines all over the papers. That movie would be "The Hunter" starring Steve McQueen as a bounty hunter. This would be his final role. McQueen did many of his own stunts, including scenes on top of a moving EL train. He did not perform the corker of a stunt that sent a car flying out of a parking garage on about the 10th floor and plunging into the Chicago River below. And now you know....the rest of the story. Technically, TBB was released before The Hunter but The Hunter was filmed first.
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