Movie Clip Wednesday: Best Movie Set in Winter or Snow

I am late to the party today, but it gave me a chance to check out every one else's picks and avoid a blog jinx -and there would have been one (or two) too, but more about that later.

My admiration for the movie "The Shining" is well known by longtime K9 readers and I believe I have written about it before for MCW for the "best horror" week, but it is the best movie that takes place in snow. Like space horror, snow horror is interesting because of the hardship the environment presents. And in the horror category, snow makes a lovely contrasting canvas for blood spillage.

Thinking about blood and snow naturally led me to think of Fargo, eh, but Boxer already snagged that one so that was out. Next I thought about Dr. Zhivago, but Aunty chose that one. I would have focused on other aspects of the movie, not the tragic love affair between Lara and Zhivago, but the very instructive glimpse of the Bolshevik Revolution. Dr. Z is at first enthusiastic about the revolution but surprise! I never works out they way they say. A scene that stands out is Dr. Zhivago senior coming back to his own home to find that several other families had been moved in and he was now relegated to one room. And if he didnt like that, he could be shot instead. So the younger Z and his bride flee to the country house to try and escape the oppressive super-state. The scene where they arrive by sleigh at the house which is completely iced over inside and out is a truly gorgeous piece of celluloid. It's too long though and I would have only chosen it because of the snow.

Let's see...Ice Station Zebra? The Thing? already taken. what to do what to do?

K9. Trust the force.


Thirty years ago, there was a rare Hollywood occurrence. A sequel as good as, and possibly better than, the original. That movie was "The Empire Strikes Back" which features one of the best snow battles ever. Filmed at Härdangerjøkulen Glacier in Finse Norway, the winter and snow backdrop allows for some innovative scenes: Luke being kept from freezing to death by being inserted into the warm guts of a fileted Tauntaun and of course, the incredible battle with the Imperial Walkers:

Thank God some fanboy "maked a speeded up battle just for fun" because the battle of Hoth is actually10 minutes long. Enjoy, and Happy Movie Clip Wednesday.

MCW: Best Detective Movie

"I want more life, f*cker"

Made in 1982 and set in LA circa 2019 (nope! way too early, Ridley), Detective (Blade Runner) Decker (played by Harrison Ford) hunts a renegade band of Replicants who have escaped an off-world slave camp to return to earth and find their creator, Terrell, to reverse the programing that has their android DNA shut down before they are ready:



Classic Frankenstein set up: Creator destroyed by the Creature. Like many detective movies, our hero's journey is to not only solve a mystery, but to find humanity in himself and in his quarry. Stylishly dark, this is a favorite of mine because it has parallels for the now; the folly of GMO and hybridization of species; the dehumanizing effect of an over-technological world; virtual replacing actual; and isolation in a crowded world.

But the best thing about it is how it looks. It's pre-CGI; which gives it the lush and plausible look that you dont see in say, an Avatar-like movie. It's not too slick which is perfect for visualizing a messy future.

Happy MCW!!



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Movie Clip Wednesday is a game that is open to all. To Play, visit Milk RIver Madman to find each week's assignment, then post your entry by wednesday.

MCW: Best Foreign Actor: Toshiro Mifune

I don't know what modern Hollywood would have done had there not been an Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, my choice for best foreign actor. With feudal Japan as a backdrop for the rise of the warrior class, the samurai (specifically a masterless/ronin samurai) personified an archetype very familiar to us: an outsider with his own code of ethics; like Han Solo, or Eastwood's Man with No Name. The character Eastwood plays in A Fist Full of Dollars is essentially the same character Mifune plays in Yojimbo, the quiet stranger that rolls into town and unleashes some epic badassery where it is well-deserved. I can't watch Kill Bill without a million flashbacks to classic Mifune moments: sword fights in the snow; dealing with (literally) insane rivals, fights against impossible odds; betrayals by dragon ladies and so forth.

Here we have a neat little compilation (2:12) a fan made with clips from "the Sword of Doom" where Mifune's character (entering the clip at :22) battles the crazy as hell Ryunosuke (played by the excellent Tatsuya Nakadai) in a series of clips that will show you, definitively, where Quentin Tarantino developed his style.



Not only were these samurai movies big to Tarrantino, but George Lucas has said that the Hidden Fortress was a huge influence on Star Wars IV. The funny thing is how often Kurosawa, the best director paired with Mifune, drew upon western literature for his films - especially Shakespeare.

Epic struggles remain the same in every time and in every language. If you have never seen a Toshiro Mifune film, start with Yojimbo. Like all great art, it remains as cool now as the day it was made.



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Movie Clip Wednesday is a game that is open to all. To Play, visit Milk RIver Madman to find each week's assignment, then post your entry by wednesday.