Though it was definitely graphically gory at times, I liked this Series.
It has a lot of good things. Great Writing, Characters, Dialogue, Action … It was an all around high quality production. So I watched it the first 4 seasons. Until they killed off this guy:
Travis Fimmel
It’s unquestioned STAR.
Vikings creator and writer Michael Hirst said that Fimmel was supposed to be knocked off at the end of Season One, but he was popular that he wrote him back in for three more seasons.
Smart.
The Series is still excellent.But after Season 4 Ragnar’s large ghost hung over the Series like a dark cloak that couldn’t keep the reign out.
Did you ever hear my lecture on
Star Power?
It’s short.
NEVER CREATED. ONLY DISCOVERED.
There’s no formula.
If you find it, exploit it.
Flaunt it.
Star Power turns crap into Gold.
Don’t throw it away.
This means the Vikings might well have died after Season One if they had killed Fimmel off at that time.
But after Season Four they wanted to do something different.
They figured the other Stars could carry the axe.
And they’ve done a great job.
They’re good.
Even gorgeous.
But they aren’t Fimmel.
OK Floki … Loki? …. ??
Waiting for
The Last Kingdom
You’re our last hope Alexander.
So what do we really know about the Vikings??? Well … we figure they didn’t really wear horns on their helmets. Other than that we know as much about them as we do
about the Mayans. Next to nothing.
As this video shows.
My personal question is:
How did a relatively small group of people defeat
army after army, country after country
and could have conquered all of Europe if they’d wanted to?
What superior warfare tactics/strategies did they know
that made them so formidable?
???
So … when you get to the Icefield you’ll see this place:
Except it was rainy. Drizzly rain. The Centre is full of people from every place on the planet. It has a restaurant/cafeteria; a gift shop; a viewing deck; historical displays; toilets … lots of stuff. This is also where you buy tickets for the Icefield Tour. They cost over 100 bucks each.
Then you head out back … … and jump on one of these things. They’re called buses.
This is Shawn … or Shane?. Our driver.
You can see the drizzly rain.
Published: Fri, September 20, 2019 6:58 PMUpdated: Fri, September 20, 2019 8:10 PM
Morgan Freeman is pictured in the 1992 Western “Unforgiven.” He plans to return to the Western genre as a producer of a TV series about legendary Oklahoma lawman Bass Reeves. [Warner Bros. photo]
Revelations Entertainment, the independent movie production company founded and run by Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary, has optioned Arthur T. Burton’s book “Black, Red & Deadly” for a TV series to be developed about legendary Oklahoma lawman Bass Reeves.
Revelations will work on the project with Malcolm Spellman, Ben Watkins, Josef Sawyer and “Grey’s Anatomy” actor James Pickens Jr., according to Deadline.
“When Morgan and I were editing the film he was directing ‘Bopha!’ back in the early ’90s, Bass Reeves’ story was brought to our attention. Morgan is so well read on U.S. and world history, yet both of us had never heard of him. We decided we had to figure out how to tell Bass’ story,” McCreary tells Deadline.
According to The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves was born as a slave in Arkansas Territory and grew up in Texas, where he belonged to Col. George R. Reeves. Bass Reeves was a young man when he escaped north into the Indian Territory, and he became acquainted with the Cherokee, Creek and Seminole tribes.
It is believed he served as a soldier in the Union Indian Home Guard Regiments during the Civil War, and he then became in Van Buren, Arkansas, occasionally acting as a guide, scout and tracker in Indian Territory for deputy U.S. marshals working out of the federal court at Fort Smith.
In 1875, when Judge Isaac C. Parker took over the Fort Smith federal court, Parker commissioned Reeves as a deputy U.S. marshal. He is believed to be one of the earliest African Americans to receive a commission as a deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi River, according to the encyclopedia.
Reeves worked for 32 years as a deputy marshal in the Indian Territory. He was the only deputy to begin with Parker’s court and work until statehood in 1907. Standing at 6 feet, 2 inches tall, Reeves became a celebrity as a lawman in Indian Territory.
Although he has been largely overlooked in modern popular culture, Reeves was one of the most accomplished lawmen in the history of the American West: He arrested more than three thousand men and women for violating federal laws in the territory, even apprehending his own son for murder after receiving the warrant, according to the Oklahoma encyclopedia.
The Reeves feature project was originally set up at Castle Rock with Freeman attached to play Reeves, Deadline reports.
“Back then we couldn’t quite crack the story, which was why we were thrilled when Malcom and Ben came in and opened up this world. Bass Reeves’ story speaks to what we are going through now in this country,” McCreary tells Deadline.
Revelations recently re-optioned Burton’s book “Black, Red & Deadly,” along with the author’s “Black Gun, Silver Star.” After seeing Freeman speak about Reeves in a TV interview, Pickens partnered with the Oscar-winning actor to develop the TV series.
It hasn’t been determined whether Freeman will star and direct an episode, according to Deadline.
Bass Reeves – Portrait of a Western Lawman
Morgan Freeman is pictured in the 1992 Western “Unforgiven.” He plans to return to the Western genre as a producer of a TV series about legendary Oklahoma lawman Bass Reeves. [Warner Bros. photo]
BRANDY MCDONNELL
Brandy McDonnell, also known by her initials BAM, writes stories and reviews on movies, music, the arts and other aspects of entertainment. She is NewsOK’s top blogger: Her 4-year-old entertainment news blog, BAM’s Blog, has notched more than 1…Read more ›
Climb Ev’ry Mountain / Peggy Wood
from The Sound of Music / Rogers and Hammerstein
The Columbia Icefield
The Icefields as they are today.
Coast Publishing Co (Publisher) . Athabasca Glacier and Columbia Icefield Chalet, Banff – Jasper highway, Canadian Rockies. Vancouver: Coast Publishing Co., Vancouver, B.C, cca. 1920.
Harmon Byron (Photographer) . Columbia Icefields. Banff: Photographed and Copyrighted by Byron Harmon, Banff, Canada, [before 1942].
Six-Hundred Lovat Scouts trained during the Second World War on the Athabasca Glacier in 1944. Yellowhead-Museum and Archives.
Finally we arrive at our modern Icefield conveyance:
The ICE EXPLORER!
Along with Clint Eastwood’s Pale Rider, Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado was supposed to breathe new life into the western genre in the mid-eighties. It failed to do so. Reviews were positive, the film was even nominated for two (minor) Academy Awards, but moviegoers where underwhelmed. It did a lot better when released on videocasette and was one of those movies that drew Hollywood’s attention to the new market.
The film’s story is classic western stuff: A cowboy named Emmett saves a man called Paden, who was left behind in the desert by bandits who had stolen all his possessions, including his horse and (worst of all) his hat. Emmett and Paden head for the town of Silverado, were Emmett was born. En route they pick up Emmett’s younger brother Jake, a womanizer and gunslinger, who invariably gets into trouble by courting the ladies and shooting their lovers (in self-defense, of course). They are joined by a fourth man, Mal, a former slave turned farmer, who is looking for the murderers of his father. The town of Silverado is dominated by the McKendriks clan, long-time enemies of Emmett’s and Jake’s family. The sheriff is one of Paden’s old ‘pals’, a guy with a very dubious background, and Mal also thinks the men he’s looking for are hiding out in the town of Silverado …
Silverado is a lot of fun to watch. The mosaic script with four leads and multiple storylines may cause some confusion, but there’s plenty of action and in spite of a running time of more than two hours the movie is over before you know it. But if a movie aspires to revive a moribund genre, it must shed a new light on traditional genre elements, and this is exactly what Silverado fails to do. Like I have stated before, movies reflect as much the time in which they were made as the time in which they are set. If Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunchwas the prototypical American western of the late sixties, Silverado is the prototypical American western of the mid-eighties. It was not only made in the 80s, it breathes the 80s. No surprise if you know director Lawrence Kasdan contributed to the scripts of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire strikes back. He called his own movie his ‘Western Raiders of the Lost Ark’.
The Sixties were a period of change and turmoil, and the best westerns from the late Sixties, early Seventies, were preoccupied with themes such as the closing of the frontier and the transition to a new era (The Wild Bunch, Monte Walsh), the outlaw as a folk hero (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid) or the plight of the red man (Soldier Blue, Little Big Man, Ulzana’s Raid). The excessive violence in some of these movies was often interpreted as a reaction to the Vietnam war. It’s significant that several movies from the period featured juvenile character who were exposed to dangerous situations (The Culpepper Cattle Company, Bad Company).
Those movies weren’t all masterpieces, but they were thought-provoking, and dared to be dirty and violent. The American society was re-inventing itself, and so was that American genre par excellence, the western. The eighties were a decade characterized by a new national (nationalist) awareness. It also was a typical ‘bourgeois’ decade, hostile to true art. Don’t get this wrong: Art has no specific political color, it can be either left-wing or right-wing, but it is by definition challenging, thought-provoking. Like Roland Barthes stipulated in his classic study Mythologies, bourgeois society has two ways of dealing with art that challenges its nature: it either denies it, or tries to convert it. Silverado is very much a conversion, bourgeois style, of what the western had been in the previous decades. Instead of challenging and thought-provoking, Silverado is reassuring; it’s crammed with action, but it’s never dirty or nasty, it’s all clean fun for the entire family. People who usually do not love westerns, tend to love it more that fans of the genre. The four leads are fine (especially Costner, who still was some kind of ‘coming man’ in those days), but their motivations and actions are purely rhetorical. No wonder some of the supporting actors steal the show: Jeff Goldblume is well-cast as a perfidious card player and Brian Dennehy is a true delight as the corrupt sheriff of Silverado. There are also a nice cameo appearances by Linda Hunt and especially John Cleese as a sheriff who’s definitely not from these parts.
(1985 – Dir: Lawrence Kasdan – Cast: Kevin Kline (Paden), Scott Glenn (Emmett), Kevin Costner (Jake), Danny Glover (Mal), John Cleese, Jeff Goldblume, Rosanna Arquette, Brian Dennehy, Linda Hunt)
Nicely done Simon. This is a Favorite of mine. I’ve got to get it up there soon. Every time it’s on TV I can’t help but watch it. You’re right about hopes of reviving the popularity of Westerns. That may never happen. BUT I still say that most Directors and Actors want to do a Western some day. And they will. So Westerns are not dead. The main problem (IMO) is that some folks seem to think they have to re-invent the Western. Why? We still have a ton of great stories, yarns and great Western literature to draw from. All Movie worthy. Yet some are getting it right: ‘Unforgiven’, ‘True Grit’ ‘The Revenant’ … Westerns are still coming and always will.
… Public Safety Warden Garth Lemke … said the individual went over the very top left-hand side of the falls at approximately 3:15 pm. … “It looked like every solid structure in his body had been broken,” … “It wasn’t a pleasant scene.” In the past 20 years, the park has reported five fatalities at Athabasca Falls, all of the accidents occurring in a similar location. … “Chances are the victim died from the impact of the fall into the rocky waters, but hypothermia can also be fatal if a victim survives the fall …” The area where the individual fell is blocked off by protective railings, along with signage warning visitors to stay back.
– 19 years old – Failed to qualify for the US Open on 2 previous attempts. – Ranked 159th in the World before the Tournament
– Ranked No. 243 in the World Last Year – Odds makers overwhelmingly picked Serena Williams to beat Bianca
– Bianca wasn’t listening
Tangle Ridge Mountain was named by Mary Schäffer in 1907 for the difficulty that climbers had descending down Tangle Creek from the ridge. The mountain’s name became official in 1935 by the Geographical Names Board of Canada.
Tangle Falls is a multi-tiered cascade that might be the most often photographed waterfall alongside the Icefields Parkway because of its easy access.
We heard about your failed attempt to buy Greenland. (Some people are so unreasonable)
However Fear Not! Canada is wide open! Most everything in Canada is already owned by outside Countries. (No other Country in the World would permit this, but we’re pretty easy) SO! Help yourself! Below I’ve listed some deals you might be interested in. BUT you better hurry!!!! Because somebody else will probably snap them up while you’re procrastinating.
“I always wanted to write a book that ended with the word Mayonnaise.” ― Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America
Yes Marilyn I know a lot of this stuff is pretty “unclear”.
That’s partly because of my style and partly because I probably wasn’t all that clear when I did it.
1967 / White Rabbit / Jefferson Airplane – written by Grace Slick
Coming back to me / Surrealistic Pillow / Jefferson Airplane / written by Marty Balin
“If Lake Louise is a pearl, Maligne is the entire pearl necklace.” – Mary Schäffer
Just in case you thought I snitched this photo of Spirit Island at Jasper off the Net … I didn’t. That’s mine. I could easily have done that though – many great shots of this famous scene. But I took this with my Sony DSC-HX80. A nice little camera – but not Pro level. And if I really knew how to operate that thing the photo would likely have been better. Yet it’s almost impossible to take a lousy pic up there.
I was hoping to get a nice reflection shot, but there was too much wind and rain. Still nice. We’ll be posting some more soon. Rose took a number of great shots.
Below isPeter Gales‘ famous photo of Spirit Island “Maligne Lake“.
Peter Gales‘ image of Spirit Island hung in Kodak’s Colorama showcase in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal in August and September of 1960.
This certainly helped to make Jasper famous.
(1861 – 1939) American-Canadian naturalist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. She is famous for her experiences in the Canadian Rockies in the early 20th century.
Samson Beaver
Samson Beaver and Family: daughter, Frances Louise and wife Leah.
Photograph taken by Mary Schaffer; artist, photographer, writer and naturalist, in 1907.
In 1907, Samson Beaver met Mary Schaffer, who had just failed in an attempt to find the route to a reputed large lake high in the mountains between Lake Louise and Jasper. Samson sketched a map showing the route to Chaba Imne.
I haven’t given enough attention to thisWesternSeries which was filmed in Alberta from November 6, 2011 to July 23, 2016 = 5 seasons. It was pretty good.
Hell on Wheelsis an American/Canadian Western television series about the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States, which broadcast in the United States and Canada on the cable channel AMC.
Hmmmm … Tinkering with your Blog Settings is like trying to tame a rattlesnake. DOWN BOY!
After fooling with the Settings I started to get emails every time I edited or worked on a Post. I wondered if those same emails weren’t being sent out to you all too??? That wouldn’t be a good thing.
So I fixed it.
If you were getting any of those emails I apologize.
Anyhow I’m back from Jasper National Park. My week there far exceeded what I expected. Wonderful. I’ll be posting some stuff right away.
Going to Jasper National Park for a week. In the Rockies. Haven’t been up that way in about 30 years. We’re going to take lots of pics Hope to post some.
“What is the point of being on this Earth
if you are going to be like everyone else?” – Arnold Schwarzenegger No point at all Arnold.
Alias Cactus Jack
A long time ago I stopped identifying Movie Stars as Actors. Because many Movie Stars are lousy Actors (or Actresses). Terrible. However, a lot of good Actors never become Movie Stars either. In the Entertainment trade, Acting, Talent, and Skill are secondary to Charisma: Star Power. Sex appeal enters here largely.
In all, it’s about Money. A Movie Star who is a good Actor/Actress with Star Power and Sex Appeal is a rare and Hot commodity. But Star Power and Sex Appeal are often all it takes to be Hot at the Box Office. Acting by itself rarely does the trick. Therefore a great Shakespearean Actor may never become a Movie Star.
This brings us to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a lousy Actor. Yet he became one of the biggest Movie Stars ever.
Star Power.
Arnold’s climb to Stardom didn’t happen overnight.
From 1963 to 1980 – age 16 to age 33 – he was in Bodybuilding competitions. 20 years.
Won everything.
Perhaps the greatest Bodybuilder ever.
So eventually – in 1979 – 32-year-old Arnold made his 3rd/4th? Movie: The Villain. (Also called Cactus Jack).
A Western Comedy.
This wasn’t his breakthrough Movie.
That was Conan in 1982.
In The Villain Arnold was terrible. His Acting was about as wooden as a cigar store Bodybuilder. Arnold claimed he’d been taking Acting lessons. They weren’t evident. This Movie should have ended his career.
So it’s rather incredible he was still around for Conan in 1982 where he was definitely Cast for his incredible physique – not his Acting chops.
Therefore, perhaps the strangest thing about The Villain was that Arnold’s only undeniable asset – his phenomenal musculature –
was not exploited in any way in the Movie!!?
He doesn’t bare even one muscle.
Which is rather mind numbing! So why was he in this Movie at all?
*shrug*
Beats me!?
“If it bleeds, we can kill it.” Arnold Schwarzenegger / Predator
That’s a theory.
I’d call this a very generous review.
This Movie is bleeding all over, but it’s still moving.
Apart from Arnold – the Cast in this thing was pretty good: Kirk Douglas, Ann-Margret, Paul Lynde, Foster Brooks, Ruth Buzzi, Jack Elam, Strother Martin, Mel Tillis … There certainly seems to be enough Talent here to make something happen.
So I have to blame things on Director Hal Needham. The Director is the guy in charge. And though Directors are not usually involved in the Casting or Writing he still had something to work with. A great Director can get a worthy performance out of a dead horse.
Kirk Douglas!!!?? in this thing!? What was he thinking?
Even the great ones make a couple of klunkers.
At least Arnold can say he was in a Movie with one of greatest Western Movie Stars of all time.
Hal Needham, who was one of the greatest Film Stuntman of all time (Legendary) went on to Direct Burt Reynolds, in Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, The Cannonball Run and StrokerAce.
Reynolds and Needham … ka-ching, ka-ching …
Those Movies made multi-millions.
Meanwhile …
Arnold Acting.
Even marvelous Paul Lynde can’t save this thing.
There’s no place to hide Kirk.
Yes that’s actual dialogue from the Movie.
Ann knows why she’s there.
Desistance is futile.
Kirk and Foster Brooks. If you’ve seen Brooks once that’s pretty well enough.
Kirk Douglas and Jack Elam
So … was this Movie a Contract Dump? You have to wonder. And how did Arnold even get a contract to begin with?
I’ll show you.
“Don’t be afraid to fail.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
My work buddy Jon and I quiz each other on music from a Golden Era of pop music that started in the mid 60’s and carried through to the 80’s – where it seemed to dwindle into the oblivion we have today.
So last week I quizzed him on who did California Sun (1964)?
My (shameful) recollection was that it was by Wayne Fontana and the Fireballs.
We mumbled and argued about it a bit – then finally looked it up on Google.
Wellllllll … the most famous version (of many) of California Sun was by The Rivieras.
(*Slap*ping my head! How could I forget that!?)
But I did.
Surf was Up … in 64′. Still a Classic.
45’s. Remember those? I had a pile.
Bet this would be a Hit if it came out today.
_________________________________________________________________________
OK … so who was Wayne Fontana then? and the Fireballs?
Wayne Fontanawas actually an English rock and pop singer,
best known for the 1965 hit “Game of Love” with a group called The Mindbenders. Yeah.
Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders
A good song, but definitely NOT Surf Music. (Bent my mind anyway.)
Notice that this was put out by an outfit called Fontana Records?!
Interesting.
__________________________________________________________________________
So what about thoseFireballs? The Fireballs – sometimes called Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs were an American rock and roll group, popular at the end of the 50’s and early 60’s.
who had a Hit song called Bottle of Wine (1967) (written by Tom Paxton).
Bonus Memory
Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs weren’t ‘One Hit Wonders’. They’d had a few Hits plus a previous
sweet little song called Sugar Shack(1963).
Not that we’re keeping score, but Due to my Mangled Monikers
I figure I lost about 20 Trivia points to Jon.
I plan to do better …
while I still have a little memory left.
Jeremiah “Jerry” Potts (1840 – July 14, 1896), (also known as Ky-yo-kosi, meaning “Bear Child”), was an American – Canadian plainsman, buffalo hunter, horse trader, interpreter, and scout of Kainai (Blood) and Scots heritage.
Potts is just one of many early Canadian Explorers and Frontiersmen. Canadians know disgustingly little of their own History or of such people.
We don’t celebrate them. We never developed a film industry like the US
that tells of them in any way. Their exploits were easily equal,
but they are almost completely unknown. Because of this I would guess
that the average Canadian knows more about US History than Canadian History.
Don’t know who these cowboys are? but it looks like they got a bag of pancake mix and 4 beers for posing.
But after Season 4 Ragnar’s large ghost hung over the Series
And they’ve done a great job.
![Morgan Freeman is pictured in the 1992 Western "Unforgiven." He plans to return to the Western genre as a producer of a TV series about legendary Oklahoma lawman Bass Reeves. [Warner Bros. photo]](https://cdn2.newsok.biz/cache/w620-b91910efd35121fbcc8ce681371f508b.jpg)
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