Sir Hilary Bray

RIP to a fine actor. I'm a great fan of his performance as Churchill in The Gathering Storm. 

0.55 to about 1.05/1.07
 
rewatching Ep1 last night and always like the Force Theme here. Qui-Gon as he tries to break through, the hint of desperation as the droids attack. 

0.55 to about 1.05/1.07
 
rewatching Ep1 last night and always like the Force Theme here. Qui-Gon as he tries to break through, the hint of desperation as the droids attack. 

"That's where you are, Quiller; in the gap".
 
Hilly, don't forget Max Von Sydow, as Oktober.

My apologies I think I was too dazzled by Fraulein Berger...
 
...but in seriousness you're quite right. Oktober is a quietly brilliant villain. Compared to the Bond villains of the time. 
 

Well chaps, 
 
The Quiller Memorandum.
 
1960s West Berlin, George Segal, Senta Berger, Alec Guinness and John Barry.
 
Boom.

Richard Herd has passed aged 87. 
 
Know him primarily for Hooker and his Star Trek guest turns. Always good seeing him in anything, classic guest actor. 

Elmer Bernstein's The Ten Commandments 
 
Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek The Motion Picture
 
 

I don't know if you've noticed, but he's not exactly firing on all thrusters

Been a few in past week or so
 
Goldsmith- Planet of the Apes (fantastic main theme and The Hunt is exceptional), Capricorn One, Islands in the Stream, Night Crossing, Players
 
Williams- Close Encounters, Jaws, Revenge of the Sith (still have my gold sleeved CD it seems), ET and Lincoln
 
Barry- Swept from the Sea, The Tamarind Seed, Petulia, Somewhere in Time, Body Heat and Dances With Wolves
 
been going to my Ben-Hur 2CD a few times lately and drawn to the music for the galley scenes. Particularly "The Galley (Rowing of the Slaves)". Relentless and increasingly so to the climax. Perfect for the film, Ben-Hur is the kind of film that screams EPIC.

The humour in Moore's Bonds admittedly could be corny/cheesy, but at least they never thought just saying 'homo', 'faggot' and 'rape' actually constituted wit.  

Keeping with TFA and specifically, 'Torn Apart'
 
1:29-1:58, after Kylo kills Han.  Reminds me of some of the dramatic sequences in ROTS when everything is going to shit for the heroes.  Just has an awfully dreadful feeling to it.
 
 

2:33 - 2:41 Gotta love those juicy brass hits in the low register.

0.55 to about 1.05/1.07
 
rewatching Ep1 last night and always like the Force Theme here. Qui-Gon as he tries to break through, the hint of desperation as the droids attack. 

Watching THE BIG BUS, I knew that I'd found my true love: Stockard Channing. Oh, yeah! 

Quite like the title score. Classic 70s sound but slightly 'dramatic' in line with Airport or whatever. Harbinger Curve and Springfield Sequence are two of my favourites. The film, well I've not seen it in years but it was good fun. 

It's a good score, from a largely unknown film. I saw this, in London, as a double-bill, with THE BAD NEWS BEARS.

Lawrence of Arabia, on blu ray for the first time
 
"He likes your lemonade".

In 1979, the Odeon Leicester Square had the biggest screen, in the UK. Yes, the meteor sequence was good, but I remember the Cygnus lighting up, with special fondness.

I saw, THE BLACK HOLE on its opening weekend, in London, in December, 1979. I liked it, then, and I like it, now.

The Black Hole (1979)
I saw a few films between 6-11 years of age that I likely shouldn't have, like Blue Thunder maybe but though this is a Disney film, there was something about Black Hole that was and remains...beyond dark. It's a film that as you work your way through, you wonder what the Hell and why you're bothering.
Anyway. When Robert Forster died a few months back, sure I had seen Jackie Brown but I felt embarrassed that I knew him more for this film and how...as is typical of what I saw as a child, be it the original Galactica, Buck Rogers, whatever, I wanted to be the hero type and Forster's Capt Holland was one such guy, especially when he rescues Yvette Mimieux from being lobotomised by the robots. What made it work was the John Barry score, until now moody, dark and horror-like, bursting heroically into life (the track is "Laser"). Holland leaps into action blazing away with his laser guns and saves her. 
But what made this film terrifying to a young me, was the Hell sequence at the end after the ship enters the black hole. Where Max Schell's crazed if creepy scientist becomes immersed with his robot-killer Maximilian ("You obey me!"...wait that line is from Moonraker?!) and you see this fiery landscape...God, it gave me nightmares. 
A note on the Barry score, it's one of his best. Yet listening to it this week, there are certain notes that sound out of Moonraker and one or two tracks fore-shadow his Raise the Titanic score. Either way, it's fantastic as a score.

 
The film is a bit of fun somehow. Neil DeGrasse Tyson said in 2013 or something the physics and science is the worst in any sci-fi movie, so be it. I like a crew that is heroic, especially when they flee across a gantry as a huge meteorite is coming at them.

“I've smelled that aftershave before, and both times I've smelled a rat.

I like to feel up my skywalker when thinking about Daisy Ridley.

Eating.