“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” is by far one of the best movies in the 1980s, as well as the favorite between the four movies in the “Indiana Jones” franchise. It is hard to top the combination between writer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg, except to add Harrison Ford and Sean Connery to the mix.
“The Last Crusade” is just the right combination of action and suspense complete with finding the lost infamous Holy Grail, dealing with a group of Nazi’s, some armed religious zealots and of course, a negligent father who is just a little bit too much like his son.
The “Indiana Jones” franchise started in 1981 and easily would make it to anyone’s favorite movies of the 1980s list. In the series Ford plays a 1930′s college professor and archeologist. From the first movie, Indy is getting into one fix after another as he tries to put together the puzzles to find hidden treasures.
During the 1980s Ford was making his way up a very long ladder into stardom. Although the Star Wars movies were highly successful, the awards and accolades were not given for acting performances, but for craftsmanship. Ford did not endear himself to the Academy in anyway with his role as Hans Solo in the Star Wars series of films. In the “Indiana Jones” series, he showed a little more of his style and charisma as fans watch him search for the Lost Ark in the first movie to the Holy Grail in “The Last Crusade”.
Along the way, Ford showed in true talent in other blockbuster hits. After his performance in “Witness”, he is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, as well as nominated by BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading role. His next movie, “Mosquito Coast”, he is again nominated by the Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama.
Ford also starred in other highly acclaimed movies in the 1980s including “Blade Runner”, “Frantic” and “Working Girl”. By the time “The Last Crusade” came to theaters the fans were fully aware of Ford’s talent in both action adventure movies and serious drama title roles. Bringing in nearly $200 million, “The Last Crusade” was one of the top grossing movies in 1989 beating out the first “Batman” and “Lethal Weapon” movies, as well as, “Back to the Future II” and “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”.
“Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” would have been just another action flick without the talents of legendary actor Sean Connery. Connery plays Indiana Jones’ father, also a professor and archeologist, who have spent his life obsessed with finding the Holy Grail. When Jones Sr. gets his chance to go after the grail, he is side tracked by the Nazi’s and sends a book back to his son hoping that Indy will be able to pick up where he left off to find the treasure. As expected Indy picks up clues immediately and even rescues dear old dad in the process.
Bringing in Connery’s character adds humor and provides more of an inside look into Indy’s character. Connery is easily one of the finest actors of his generation. He will long be remembered for his roles as James Bond, but Connery has many starring roles to his credit including his performances in “Murder on the Orient Express”, “The Wind and the Lion”, “The Man Who Would Be King” and “A Bridge Too Far”.
As always with Lucas, the script and the plot work perfect together and adding to the mix Spielberg’s directing performance and some surprises by having late actor River Phoenix play the role of a young Indy in the first few minutes of the feature makes the movie easily the favorite movie for the 1980s.
The movie has recently become available in DVD and Blue Ray and can be purchased online from various locations including:
www.indianajones.com
www.blockbuster.com
www.amazon.com
www.hotmoviesale.com
www.bestbuy.com
via http://hemorrhoidsremoval.com/
I came to know the music of Neil Young much the same way that many people of my generation did; through the MTV Unplugged sessions. I got the Neil Young Unplugged cassette (yup, cassette!) and I really enjoyed it. I always liked folk music and my growing understanding of the musical landscape actually took me back to my old Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young records of whom Neil Young was a member! “How exciting,” I thought; “not only does he have a solo career but he’s also on these great old records I’ve got.” Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young became Crosby, Stills, and Nash and still Neil Young chugged along.
As anyone who knows Neil Young is aware, he’s got something of a whiny, meandering, warbling voice. When I first heard his records it was in the then present moment for this aging rocker; he was an old dude so I just figured that his voice had deteriorated. Leave it to You Tube to school me on this front. The attached 1971 videos of a quite young Neil Young playing almost forty years ago show the same voice projecting from this wonderful folk singers performances.
Still, it’s instructive to listen to the delivery of a song from the younger Neil Young and hear how it’s changed later on. Like a Hurricane (1) appears to be rocking out and rollicking when Neil Young is younger. Still, if you listen to his borderline pensive delivery it’s almost as though Neil Young were preparing himself for the eventual rediscovery of his music of a later generation. The elder statesman Neil Young appears walloped up in this Hurricane, for sure.
Another Neil Young song which actually is a lot more appropriate when watching it during the time it was originally recorded is the song Old Man (2). Apparently not about his father, this song makes a whole lot more sense when taken in the context of this time in his life. (Still a line like “doesn’t mean that much to me to mean that much to you” has daddy-issue overtones). The story goes that Neil Young bought a ranch in California and his experience with the caretaker of the ranch was the conversation he’d had with the old man in the song. When you listen to Neil Young in the twilight years of his life sing the same song, it’s with that much more resonance because now he’s been in both stages of life’s journey. The line “Old Man look at my life, I’m a lot like you were,” really strikes a chord as the young man and the old man in all of our lives really are one in the same.
If you like Neil Young you should definitely check out some of these videos (3) of him playing as a younger man. Especially for those my age and younger who’ve never really seen these things, the visual sight of this young man singing like the old man we all know is a trip.
Sources:
(1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obfci1CIqq8&NR=1
(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVC2cszdTao
(3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0t0EW6z8a0&NR=1
Baylor head coach Art Briles
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
The Baylor Bears have often been seen by other Big 12 fans as nothing more than an automatic win for whatever conference team faces them. Having been in a bowl drought since their loss to Washington State in the 1994 Alamo Bowl, many expected the streak to continue.
But Baylor has surprised even the biggest doubter. Going into tonight’s homecoming game, the Bears were 5-2, their best start in years, and Briles’ boys would not be denied.
After a lengthy lightning delay, Robert Griffin threw a 28-yard pass to Josh Gordon to take first blood. However, an 11-yard run from Wildcat Daniel Thomas evened the score, and the two surprise teams traded off touchdowns until just before halftime, as Aaron Jones supplied a 22-yard field goal to give the Bears a 31-21 lead.
Another Jones field goal gave them a 34-21 lead, but a 100-yard kickoff return by William Powell silenced the 40,000-plus crowd at Floyd Casey Stadium. Running back Jay Finley responded with a 2-yard touchdown run, but the two-point attempt failed, making it 40-21. Griffin would throw one more touchdown pass to Kendall Wright, a 30-yard that assured the Baylor Faithful that their suffering would end in minutes.
The rest of the quarter, however, belonged to the Wildcat offense. Seconds after Finley’s touchdown, Kansas State quarterback Daniel Thomas aired a 67-yard pass to Aubrey Quarles to close the deficit to 12 points. After a bit of back and forth from the foes, which saw Baylor punter Derek Epperson’s first field time since the loss to Texas Tech, the Wildcats managed to squeak in one last bit of offense with a single-yarder from Carson Coffman with only seven seconds remaining. As the final seconds ticked down, every student, alum, faculty, staff member and fan was celebrating.
Bolton, DeSutter suggest New
START lacks GOP support
Bolton, DeSutter suggest New START lacks GOP
support. In an October 19 Washington
Times op-ed, Bolton and DeSutter wrote:
New START is
anything but noncontroversial. Four Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee voted against reporting the treaty, and the three Republicans who
supported it did so only after expressing serious concerns and caveats. One of
the three, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee,
made clear that his vote in the committee was no guarantee of how he would vote
on the Senate floor.
In
fact, numerous Republicans have urged ratification of New START
National security
experts, including numerous Republicans, support START. The
Partnership for a Secure America, founded by
former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-NH) and former Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-IN), issued a statement supporting
New START’s ratification signed by 30 former public officials and former
high-ranking national security and foreign policy experts, including George
H.W. Bush White House chief of Staff Kenneth M. Duberstein, former Sen. Chuck
Hagel (R-NE), former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and former Reagan Secretary
of State George Schultz. Below is the full list of the statement’s
signers:
Madeleine Albright Secretary
of State 1997-2001
Howard Baker US Senator (R-TN) 1967-85
Samuel Berger National Security Advisor 1997-2001
Linton Brooks Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration
2002-07
Harold Brown Secretary of Defense 1977-81
Frank Carlucci Secretary of Defense 1987-89
Warren Christopher Secretary of State 1993-97
William Cohen Secretary of Defense 1997-2001
John C. Danforth US Senator (R-MO) 1977-95
Kenneth M. Duberstein White House Chief of Staff 1988-89
Chuck Hagel US Senator (R-NE) 1997-2009
Lee Hamilton US Congressman (D-IN) 1965-99; Co-Chair, PSA Advisory
Board
Gary Hart US Senator (D-CO) 1975-87
Rita E. Hauser Chair, International Peace Institute
Carla Hills US Trade Representative 1989-93
Nancy Kassebaum-Baker US Senator (R-KS) 1978-97
Thomas Kean Governor (R-NJ) 1982-90; 9/11 Commission Chair
Richard Leone President, The Century Foundation
Donald McHenry US Ambassador to the UN 1979-81
Sam Nunn US Senator (D-GA) 1972-96
William Perry Secretary of Defense 1994-97
Thomas Pickering Under Secretary of State 1997-2000
Colin L. Powell Secretary of State 2001-05
Warren Rudman US Senator (R-NH) 1980-92; Co-Chair, PSA Advisory
Board
Alan Simpson US Senator (R-WY) 1979-97
George Shultz Secretary of State 1982-89
Theodore Sorensen White House Special Counsel 1961-63
John Whitehead Deputy Secretary of State 1985-88
Timothy E. Wirth US Senator (D-CO) 1987-93
Frank Wisner Under Secretary of State 1992-93
Brent Scowcroft: “rincipal
result of non- ratification would be … a state of chaos.” Appearing
before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, National Security adviser to
Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush Gen. Brent Scowcroft testified (accessed
via Nexis): “I think the principal result of non- ratification would be to
throw the whole nuclear negotiating situation into a state of chaos, and the
reason this treaty is important is over the decades we have built up all these
counting rules, all these verification procedures and so on, so that each side
feels, ‘Yes, we can take these steps.’” Scowcroft continued: “If you
wipe those out, you’re back to zero again, and they’ve taken since the late
1960s to put together. So that’s the real part of it.” [Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, 6/10/10]
Henry Kissinger: “I recommend
ratification of this treaty.” Appearing before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Henry Kissinger testified “In deciding on
ratification, the concerns need to be measured against the consequences of
non-ratification, particularly interrupting a [bilateral arms control] process
that has been going on for decades, the relationship to the NPT, and to the
attempt to achieve a strategic coherence. And so, for all these reasons, I
recommend ratification of this treaty.” Kissinger also stated:
“Concerns have been raised with respect to missile defense and with
respect to modernization. I agree with the Chairman. I do not believe
this treaty is an obstacle to a missile defense program or modernization. Those
are decisions that the United
States can and should take as part of its
own strategic design.” [Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 5/25/10]
Former GOP Sen. Jake
Garn: “The Senate should ratify [New Start] promptly.” In a
September 22 Washington Times op-ed co-written with Scowcroft, former Sen. Jake Garn
(R-UT) wrote: “We are writing to urge that the Senate move promptly to
ratify [New START]. The arguments that have been advanced in favor of the
treaty are strong and compelling.”
this is my brand new own blog!
I will write about my pets and also about remarkable nice countries like Australia or cities like Auckland and Paris.
I have travelled many times and think you will be interested in my reviews about them.
See ya
Jose Burns