Everybody's Still Linking for Glenda Jackson

Agh!  When I was doing yesterday's Everybody's Linking for the Weekend, I completely forgot my favorite link of the week-I blame this on Cara Delevingne's poor attitude and ridiculously hard-to-spell last name.  The post deserved its own link, though, so please make sure to click over to Luke's article about the 1970's Best Actress Oscar races!  Not only has Luke guest-blogged on this site before, but also he's a great writer and shares my love of all things Oscar minutia.  I was particularly interested looking at the link in his fascination with Glenda Jackson.  For those unfamiliar, Jackson was a MAJOR actress of the 1970's, netting four Oscar nominations and two wins (and likely came very close in 1978 with a third for Stevie, had the studio done a better job of releasing the film).  Normally I have heard some critics scoff Jackson's omnipresence in the decade frequently comparing her to another 1970's aberration Marsha Mason (who doesn't get as much love in the link), but Luke, a critic I frequently concur with, makes a strong case for her, keeping her in the top three for all of her competitions and even gives her two Oscars.  Click on over and find out for which films as well as for discussions on Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Diane Keaton, and Jane Fonda, and insist that Luke make us wait less time for the 1960's than he did for the 1970's (he's also profiled the 80's, 90's, and 00's, so you should really just feel the love in general over there and have an Oscar-tastic afternoon).

Ranting On...Film Availability

Recently, my brother Luke was on the hunt for a movie named Hedda.  Though relatively unknown today, the 1975 picture is the only major theatrical version of Ibsen’s classic play Hedda Gabler, features the film debut of Patrick Stewart, and won Glenda Jackson nominations for Best Actress at both the Oscars and the Golden Globes.   The film, however, has never been released on DVD and exists only in limited quantities on old VHS’s (a largely obsolete way to see the movies to begin with).

This got me to thinking A) if anyone knows a way my brother could get a copy of this movie, share it in the comments and B) why, in an era where we have so much access to television and movies at any given time, is the number of films that are available to the general public not expanding?

This isn’t just true of Hedda-I have dozens of movies that I try to record each month off of Turner Classic Movies because Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other streaming options don’t seem to have them.  Even something as cinematically friendly as Greencine frequently comes up short when delivering specific older films.

Turner Classic Movies has obviously been a major player in expanding the conversation about cinema and access to classic movies (and if they ever opened up their vault to a streaming service I’d be shelling out pretty much any dollar amount they asked to subscribe), but they are only a limited venue and can only put out so many movies a month.  What baffles me is that we are striving more and more to find original content on Hulu and Amazon Prime, but these channels aren’t really competitive behind the scenes.  Yes, all of them have access to Iron Man 3 on streaming, but what differentiates them other than Orange is the New Black?  And is a video subscription service really worth the monthly allowance if all you’re doing is comparing 3-4 original series?

This brings up a larger perspective, of course, on whether or not people want to actually see a film like Hedda anymore.  Awards fanatics like myself (and my brother) want to see it because completing the 1975 Oscars are at the top of our list, but the list of people who want to go out and find a random Ibsen adaptation from the 1970’s featuring an actress who gave up the cinema at the peak of her career some 35 years ago probably is not long.

Still, though, isn’t this the point of art preservation and creating these options?  If museums only cared about the hits, we’d have just a few paintings by Monet and Picasso, and we’d skip every below-the-line artist.  We’d have long ago given up on works by anyone other than the Beatles from the 1960’s and most novels would have gone the way of the dodo.  And sadly, there are centuries of music, art, and literature that have been lost due to just that: there was not a public interest in keeping around what was current and new at the time, and making it available to an audience that wanted to celebrate the works, and therefore they slipped into the backgrounds of history, to be lost or forgotten.

We’re coming to that point with the cinema, and with films as recently as the 1970’s.  In addition to Hedda, Hester Street, another Best Actress nominated film from that year, is basically without a modern venue to see it (aside from television, and it’s on Turner Classic Movies tonight, so set the DVR!).  1974’s Shanks starring Marcel Marceau in his first major cinematic role is considered controversial and bizarre if you look at IMDB reviews for guidance, but it’s never been released on any form of home entertainment despite an Oscar nomination and a famous main actor.  It’s a shame that these films, celebrated and Oscar-nominated in their time aren’t available for anyone to investigate and revisit.

I will say that if public demand is high enough, a DVD/Blu-Ray will become available.  26 years after the film was released (and seven years after it was released everywhere else on the planet), Ishtar became available in North America despite years and years of begging from cinephiles wanting to investigate the infamous Warren Beatty bomb.  Ally McBeal (TV, but still) took years of online fan petitions before FOX relented with a DVD release of all of the episodes.

However, these are fairly recent productions, and I think it’s high time the studios and AMPAS make a point of releasing all of these films to the public, whether through streaming services or hard formats.  AMPAS in particular should protects its legacy by making as many nominated and winning films available to the public as possible-it won’t matter that you’re celebrating films each year if they are considered disposable fifteen years down the road and not available for people to go and investigate.  It can hardly be supremely expensive (considering the billions of dollars of its membership) to use some of their dues and donations to bring nominated films back to those that celebrate the cinema of yesterday and today.  I know I’ve gotten on this high horse before, but I won’t rest until it’s not just TCM and Criterion doing this great work, but truly all of Hollywood. 

And for my brother’s sake, start with Hedda.

Top Ten Shows I Should Be Watching (But Am Not), Part 2

A few weeks ago, I went through the Top 10 shows that I should be watching currently on the air (though admittedly one of them is no longer on the air, and has probably been replaced with The Walking Dead).  I received a lot of great feedback from this article, so I decided to put together a sequel, because as Hollywood has taught us, nothing makes something better than adding a sequel!

Since the last write-up was about shows currently on the air, I thought I’d take an even more embarrassing approach and go through shows that are off the air that I never gave a chance.  Here they are:

10. The Wire (HBO)

Number of Seasons: 5

Reason I Never Started: I didn’t have HBO when it started, and HBO Go didn’t exist at the time.

Most Embarrassing Thing About Not Watching: Have you sat through a conversation with people discussing The Wire as being the greatest thing since Dante decided to start categorizing Hell?

Reason I’m Sure I’d Love It: I’m a huge fan of gritty ensemble dramas and particularly strong writing.

Odds I’ll Ever Give It a Shot: Doubtful-there’s a lot of grittier, more recent dramas on the air I need to get caught up with.

9. Upstairs, Downstairs (BBC)

Number of Seasons: 5

Reason I Never Started: I wasn’t born yet, which is at least a bit of an excuse (even though I’d never use it for not seeing a movie)

Most Embarrassing Thing About Not Watching: Glenda Jackson and Jean Marsh in a television series!

Reason I’m Sure I’d Love It: I’m a huge fan of period dramas, in particular British ones, and this has become a quintessential BBC classic.

Odds I’ll Ever Give It a Shot: Solid-this is the sort of show I’ll probably catch eventually, particularly when we get into the OVP’s of the 1970’s and 1980’s and I feel I need to see the great miniseries to stay informed on all of the acting of those years.

8. My So-Called Life (ABC)

Number of Seasons: 1

Reason I Never Started: Aside from being a child when it was on, I’ve always been a little bit leery on this one, since it just lasted a season and I don’t like unresolved cliffhangers (the rumor is the series has one).

Most Embarrassing Thing About Not Watching: This is a reference point for so many Entertainment Weekly television critics, and is just another in a long line of quality projects involving Claire Danes that for some reason I’ve never seen.

Odds I’ll Ever Give it a Shot: Really strong-with only one season, eventually I’ll just break down and add it to a Netflix queue or something.

7. The Larry Sanders Show (HBO)

Number of Seasons: 6

Reason I Never Started: Again, I was a child when this was on, and we didn’t have HBO growing up.

Most Embarrassing Thing About Not Watching: Television lists adore this show, even though it doesn’t get referenced nearly as much any longer, and I suspect I’d like it better than even Seinfeld.

Odds I’ll Ever Give It a Shot: Weak, to be honest.  This is a lot of seasons to invest in a show that's no longer on, and comedies (even brilliant ones) don’t usually date well after they’re off the air.

6. The X-Files (FOX)

Number of Seasons: 9

Reason I Never Started: Third show in a row that I was a kid when it premiered, and reruns/TV on DVD wasn’t what it is now for catching up on a series, particularly one with such a rich mythology.  I did, however, see the 1998 movie.

Most Embarrassing Thing About Not Watching: Because Lost fanatics seem to adore the film, and that’s enough for me.

Odds I’ll Ever Give it a Shot: Like My So-Called Life, I suspect that I’m in for an unsatisfying finale, but this is stronger than some of the other really long-running series on this list.  I think during some winter in the future I’ll probably just buy the box set and get through all of the seasons.

5. Freaks and Geeks (NBC)

Number of Seasons: 1

Reason I Never Started: Before I lose all credibility on this site, I did in fact see 1-2 episodes of this (or at least part of them) and also was a big fan of Undeclared.  That said, I really don’t have an excuse-I’m part of the reason this isn’t around anymore (hangs head in shame)

Most Embarrassing Thing About Not Watching: I watched Undeclared and yet didn’t give this a shot?!?

Odds I’ll Ever Give it a Shot: Superb-this is the show on this list I’m most positive I’ll watch someday.

4. Battlestar Galactica (SyFy)

Number of Seasons: 4

Reason I Never Started: I don’t think my college cable package had the SyFy channel (anyone who I went to college with can back me up on this), so I’m going to stick with that, because the shame is starting to get pretty solid in this Top 5.

Most Embarrassing Thing About Not Watching: An ensemble drama with strong science fiction elements and massive critical acclaim?  That’s the stuff that I seek out daily.

Odds I’ll Ever Give it a Shot: Strong-this is a series like The X-Files that seems like a great winter project.

3. Friday Night Lights (NBC)

Number of Seasons: 5

Reason I Never Started: You are aware the series is about football, right?

Most Embarrassing Thing About Not Watching: That the show clearly transcended the football metaphor, and had career-launching roles for Connie Britton, Zach Gilford, Taylor Kitsch, and my husband Michael B. Jordan.

Odds I’ll Ever Give it a Shot: I own the first two seasons on DVD, so pretty good.

2. Twin Peaks (ABC)

Number of Seasons: 2

Reason I Never Started: I was a child.

Most Embarrassing Thing About Not Watching: There is nothing about the description of this show that doesn’t make me want to watch it.  Nothing.  If it weren’t for the cultural impact of the number one choice, this would have made the top slot.

Odds I’ll Ever Give it a Shot: Incredibly strong-it might honestly be on the Netflix queue already.

1. The Sopranos (HBO)

Number of Seasons: 6

Reason I Never Started: It started when I was in middle school and we didn’t have HBO, but this is really unforgivable at this point.  When I say I haven’t watched this, I get the same looks I give people when they say they haven’t seen The Godfather or Casablanca.

Most Embarrassing Thing About Not Watching: It's generally considered to be the greatest television series in history?

Odds I’ll Ever Give it a Shot: Those looks will eventually give way to me watching the full series, I promise.

Those are my Top 10 shows-what are yours?  What shows on this list should I give the first go-through?  And what forgotten series from the 1960’s and 1970’s should I give a shot (television from that area isn’t as well-documented unless it’s something we’ve all seen like All in the Family or The Twilight Zone)?  Share in the comments!

Ranting On...Glenda Jackson & Margaret Thatcher

I will admit first-off that I have always been fascinated by Glenda Jackson.  When actors or entertainers get into politics, they usually have largely failed in their previous profession.  Yes, Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger are exceptions, but the ones who go onto a national stage usually were second bananas onscreen: Sonny Bono, Fred Grandy, John Davis Lodge were all rather forgotten quantities in the world of entertainment.  Heck, even Jack Warner pointed out, when told that Ronald Reagan was running for governor, "No, Jimmy Stewart for governor.  Ronald Reagan for his best friend."

The point being, extremely few people rise to the top of multiple fields, which is essentially what Jackson has done, which is something to marvel at in and of itself.  Jackson, became a two-time Oscar-winning actress, a two-time Emmy winner, and amassed four Tony Award nominations throughout her career.  She was one of the preeminent British thespians of the 1970's, and achieved pretty much every filmic accolade one could accumulate during that time.  Just left to that, she would have remained a legend in her field and have accomplished a great deal, but Jackson also took a foray into politics, and has been a Member of Parliament for over twenty years, becoming a figure on the national stage once again, and became a junior minister during the administration of Tony Blair.

This is all to say, before we get into a dissection of her recent speech on the floor of Parliament, that I do admire the woman going into the debate.  I have two major passions in my life: politics and film, and she's one of the few people who has achieved significant success in both, so my hat is off to her.

Recently (yesterday), Ms. Jackson took to the floor of Parliament and delivered a disparaging, biting speech against the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that proved why she could sell both politics and Shakespeare over her long career.  There were members of the Tory Party who tried to challenge her, and while the Speaker didn't wave one way or the other on what he thought of her speech, he did agree that she had the right to say it on the floor.  The speech brought up an interesting conundrum, one that, while this incident took place in the UK, resonates in the United States as well: when politics and grieving meet, what is the proper protocol?

The knee-jerk reaction to this sort of thing is that it was improper, and the adage "don't speak ill of the dead" comes to light quite quickly, but it really is more complicated than that.  For starters, we've gotten to a weird area in the past decade when it comes to the deaths of well-known people and how we treat them.  Looking into the world of celebrity, we see people like Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson, beloved by millions but disparaged by millions more, and yet when they die, the entire world comes out in an almost altar-worshipping manner to pay their respects.  I'm thinking specifically of someone like Perez Hilton, who had been writing horrible things about celebrities and then when they die, he does a complete, hypocritical 180 degree turn, but he's not the only culprit; this is something the media does in huge waves, and that we do ourselves.

Part of this is because we can separate the person from the issues that they are facing-the drugs, the scandals-and remember why we became enamored with them in the first place, but shouldn't that sort of understanding come when the people are still alive, when that sort of support could actually do some good?  And if we treated them like garbage while they were alive, what does that say about the public, and the media in particular, when it comes to their deaths?  It says that, even if what the people are selling is a product, we fail if we can't remember that they are humans underneath, and death is probably the worst time to remember that sort of empathy, as it does no one any good except perhaps ourselves with an ersatz nice feeling for buckling to a societal norm.

Where am I going with this, you may ask, aside from a random tangent of something I've had on my chest for a while?  I'll tell you right now.  The difference between Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson and someone like Margaret Thatcher is that, if you didn't like Houston or Jackson while they were living, you simply could ignore them.  That's not the case with a politician in power-for better or for worse, you have someone who is in charge of you that will make decisions that will greatly affect your life, and in the case of Thatcher, she affected millions of people.  Her policies regarding Monetarism had a huge impact on the unemployment numbers in the manufacturing industry in England, and her views on privatization, unions, poll taxes, and in particular, the poor, mentally ill, and unemployed are held in high contempt by many people, both in the UK and internationally.

Where the belief that people should mourn the person and not the deeds becomes an issue is when someone like Margaret Thatcher is in essence her own deeds.  These things happened as a result of Thatcher and her government, and therefore, I think it's wrong to chastise Glenda Jackson for her strong words against the late Prime Minister.  Where with someone like Whitney Houston you can separate the art from the life that was being lived by the artist, politicians are not celebrities-they are leaders who make decisions that affect our lives.  They are completely intertwined with the policies they are crafting, and since those policies affect people long after the politician leaves office, and are their principle reason for being in the public eye, it is not only fair but just to continue to call-out the beliefs of that public figure if we don't agree with them, as long as the issues they espouse remain relevant.  I'm not saying that people should constantly decry a person, but it's a dangerous path to sanctify someone just because they are dead.  With that sanctification comes justification for what they believed in life and what they did in life.  If someone like Glenda Jackson, or the people of Northern England who also derided Thatcher upon the announcement of her death, disagreed with her in life it would behoove them to point out that what she did was not all good.  She may have been a strong-willed person, someone who shattered multiple boundaries, but to ignore the bad of a politician's politics, the reason for their fame, would be an injustice to all of the people that were affected during her leadership and afterwards.

This is not that we wish ill of a person-far from it.  But we shouldn't be forced by societal pressure to turn a public figure, particularly one that we had a strong dislike of, into a saint, and I think that's where we have come as a society, which is a shame for multiple reasons, but primarily because it shuts down yet another avenue of political debate.  The issues of Baroness Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister are still alive, still issues that people feel at heart, and every opportunity we spend discussing a gaffe or a misspoken word or a sex scandal or some other nonsense is an opportunity we haven't taken to discuss an important issue of the day.  Public assistance, education, the environment, federal debts, the rights of unions are all still looming large in the UK and in the US, and pressing to be a part of the national discussion.  We need to stop mincing words because it isn't the "proper time" and start having a legitimate discussion without pretending something is what it isn't.

So, in summation, I don't 100% know how I feel about Margaret Thatcher and her passing as the end of a life is a bitter affair regardless of your personal opinions toward an individual, particularly one that you have never met and don't really know.  I am sad for her family and for those that loved her, and do wish her the best in whatever the next life brings.  But I am certain in my standing behind Glenda Jackson that she has every right, and should be encouraged, to bring back the debate to the policies of the woman, and to not cherry pick to sugarcoat a legacy that millions still disagree with, including Ms. Jackson and myself.

In fact, to quote a rather well-known politician, "I love argument, I love debate.  I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me-that's not their job."  That politician?  The Iron Lady herself.