Movies

On today’s bill here at the Bogardi Movie Palace is “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud.” This movie was released in early 1975 so I’m not sure where I saw it first. There are a few possibilities, first it could have been in the on-base movie theater in Patuxent River Naval Air Station, either with or without Donna. Or maybe I saw it along with a handful of fellow sailors on the hanger deck on the U.S. Midway. Another possibility is that Donna and I saw it on VHS sitting on our own couch in Millington, TN or Meridian, MS.

Where ever it was, it creeped me the f*ck out. The premise of the movie is, well, in the title. This guy is having very vivid and intense dreams, it feels like he is actually there and in them, but the guy doesn’t look anything like him. In these dreams there are these brief flashes of places, there is a very distinct bridge, a large church and a statue.

The thing is, I actually knew these places. I could picture them in my head, but for the life of me I couldn’t place them in the real world. Was I reincarnated too? I can’t remember exactly when I found out those images were tied to my childhood memories, could be anywhere from the 1980’s to the 2010’s. I also can’t remember how it came up in topic on the Santa Fe to Hammond to Santa Fe road trip with Sally, but I regaled her with my first being creeped out by the movie to my solving the riddle of those images.

In several summers growing up, we kids (Me, sister Diane and brother Paul) would go and stay with our grandmother in Springfield, MA for a week. Every time we went there it was pretty much the same routine. There was one thing planned for each day and after that we to be quiet and play in our bedroom. Three of the day’s events meant we would walk down a couple blocks to downtown, the first day was always to the toy store so we’d have something to play with. One was to the Natural History Museum and then the other, a favorite restaurant, The Waterfall, where we got to have a milkshake.

We drove across that bridge to get to Springfield, that church was right down the street from her apartment and the statue (The Puritan) was at the museum.

When I went to catch up on last week’s late-night talk shows I was pleased to see that Friday’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was just a 4-Part interview with Gary Oldman. Stephan traveled to London, Gary’s hometown, to do the interview. I did not realize that Oldman was British, I thought he was just putting it on when doing Slow Horses. On that note, Oldman mentions that he had played so many Americans in movies that he lost his natural English accent and had to resurrect for it for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

I watched the interview a segment at a time on YouTube and it wasn’t until afterward I remembered that if you go to CBS.com you can watch the whole show in one long episode with limited commercials. At one point in the interview Stephan asks Gary what his favorite movie is and his reply was, Francis Ford Coppola’s, The Conversation with Gene Hackman. I thought, wow, I love that movie too. I’ve watched it at least 3 times, but I haven’t seen it in about 25 years. I wondered if it was streaming somewhere.

One of the good things about looking up a movie on IMDB is that they serve up ways to watch what you are looking up. Sure enough, it was available on Prime Video, not for free, even for Prime Members, but you could rent it for $4. Today, I watched this movie from the 70s and all it cost was 250 cents because I had a buck and a half of promotional credit in my account.

Yesterday I was thinking about watching a movie. I have several favorites that I have watched recently so I needed to go back to pick one I have that I hadn’t watched in awhile. Because someone in a podcast recently had mentioned 90’s BMWs I thought – Ronin.

But before I opened Plex to watch it I thought I’d check our streaming services to see if there was anything new that might tempt me. Second one in on the “Movies we think you’ll like” line on Prime was a movie called The Comedian from 2016 starring Robert DeNiro. Hmmm, I was going to watch a Robert De Niro movie, this has him in it … I watched the trailer and was intrigued enough to give it a go.

De Niro plays an aging insult comic, but is best known for an old TV comedy he did and everyone remembers fondly except for him. The supporting cast are great and while there some slow spots, the movie was quite enjoyable. Until the ending. Do yourself a favor, at the one hour 51 minute mark when his stand up bit fades to black or if you see a chyron that reads “8 years later” stop watching. I’ve warned you.