November Preorders / Team Spirit
Posted by Mike Finnegan on Nov 1st 2017
Tender, funny and bracingly human stories that unfold in fabulous faraway places are the order of business for Twilight Time's thrilling lineup. Three of them mark anniversaries this year. Turning 60 is a ravishing and heartrending romantic saga set in Japan, a multiple Oscar® winner starring Marlon Brando. Celebrating its 50-year mark is a beloved and charming musical fantasy set in England and on exotic Sea Star Island that's been dazzlingly restored to its original roadshow splendor. A beloved and award-honored road movie of simple joys and complex emotions from Japanese master Yôji Yamada turns 40 with its first North American video release. The other two are just for laughs: the comic adventures of an iconic surfer girl for the first time on video in its original widescreen Cinemascope form, and the wild and woolly misadventures of a misfit nebbish who stumbles his hilariously anarchic way through political conscience-raising just to impress his activist girlfriend. Preorders open today at 4 PM EDT/1 PM PDT for the November 14 TT hi-def Blu-ray arrivals of Bananas (1971), Doctor Dolittle (1967), Gidget (1959), Sayonara (1957) and The Yellow Handkerchief (1977). Have handkerchiefs on hand for this collection of robust variety laced with pictorial beauty, gorgeous melodies and powerful and charming performances at www.screenarchives.com and www.twilighttimemovies.com.
With a nail-biting, roller-coaster World Series concluding the 2017 Major League Baseball Season this evening, and while awaiting Howard Cosell's legendary play-by-play commentary on a political assassination and connubial honeymooning coming soon in Bananas, why not assuage your jones for continuous sports highs by trying a spot of…cricket? From Australia by way of India comes the rallying cry of Save Your Legs! (2012), a jocular escapade about buddies of a suburban amateur cricket team trying to reclaim their youthful zeitgeist by undertaking a three-match "tour" in India. It was based on a real incident – a ragtag amateur cricket club from Melbourne, named the Abbotsford Anglers, did so in 2001 – and the guys' hapless culture clashes, ego bashes and dyspepsia flashes were affectionately chronicled in a 2005 video documentary directed by sometime club member Boyd Hicklin. One of the documentary's leading fans was Stephen Curry (who shares the same name, if not the athletic prowess, as the amazing Golden State Warriors basketball star), one of Australia's top comedian/actors who had just played another prominent real-life sports hero, legendary Melbourne Cup horse-racing jockey Damien Oliver, in The Cup (2011), and signed on to this Save Your Legs! somewhat fictionalized movie expansion in the role of never-say-die Angler president Teddy Brown. With Hicklin directing, another Angler alumnus Nick Batzias co-producing, Brendan Cowell (Harrag on Game of Thrones) co-starring and penning the script, and a host of Down Under entertainment entities backing it, the rowdy and colorful production became the embodiment of team spirit. Twilight Time's MVP essayist Julie Kirgo describes it as "a cricket movie, a wacky comedy, and a kind of shaggy Australian 'bromance' – while also being a visually stunning tribute to the pink-and-saffron beauties of India. Shot by Mark Wareham, a well-known Australian cinematographer, Save Your Legs! features some travelogue-worthy sequences, particularly those set in Varanasi on the Ganges, the holiest of the Seven Sacred Cities and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. If this sounds odd for a simple little cricket comedy, we should bear in mind that the film is also, in the words of the team's pothead/seeker (David Lyons), 'a journey of enlightenment.'" Unlike most World Series merchandise, it is also bargain-priced on an extras-loaded TT hi-def Blu-ray well worth a swing of the bat!
#Bananas
#Doctor Dolittle
#Gidget
#Sayonara
#The Yellow Handkerchief
#Marlon Brando
#Yoji Yamada
#Save Your Legs!
#Abbotsford Anglers
#Boyd Hicklin
#Stephen Curry
#Brendan Cowell
#Nick Batzias
#Mark Wareham
#Julie Kirgo