First, I have to say that our team is coming back to Chicago from St. Louis having split the two games. Go Cubs!
Okay, now back to the show.
On Tuesday I saw Matt Damon as The Martian.
OMG! I LOVED it!
NO Spoiler Alert: Run, no, jetpack over to your neighborhood movie house ASAP and see this wonderful picture. It’s rated PG-13 so be sure and grab any kid you know over twelve and take him/her, too. The Martian is life-enhancing. And funny. And exciting. And it has a very clever screenplay acted to perfection by a marvelous cast.
And it’s got a terrific soundtrack.
But most important of all, The Martian makes it cool to be smart. And if you know a child who feels indifferent to homework or whines about studying for his geometry test, he (or she) has got to see this.
(And who amongst us doesn’t know a kid like that? Hell, I was a kid like that.)
In short, I went nuts for The Martian.
But this comes as no surprise to me. Ever since I was a tyke, I have always adored outer space flicks.
And it all started with Gort.
“Gort, Klaatu barada nikto!”
(Which roughly translates to “Don’t destroy the Earth, kind robot. And while you’re at it, could you please resurrect Klaatu from death.”)
If you didn’t need me to translate, then take me to your leader, pal. We are of the same tribe. We are fans of The Day the Earth Stood Still.
(I mean the original, of course. With Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal.)
Here’s the earthlings’ first glimpse of mighty Gort.
Did you tremble at his awesome powers to destroy the soldiers’ guns and tanks? Neato-o.
Gort and Klaatu weren’t the only UFOs I was crazy about.
There was Flash Gordon, of course. Followed in 1963 by My Favorite Martian.
I had been a big fan of Ray Walston since Damn Yankees. And now here he was playing my favorite alien, Uncle Martin, right on my Sentinel television screen.
You’ve got to smile. All that out-dated hokey sci-fi machinery and bad FX. And that awful canned laugh track.
Pure classic camp tv.
But all that silliness ended in 1967 with Star Trek.
On Friday nights in Madison, crowds would gather in the University of Wisconsin’s frat houses and dorms and there we would watch riveted by the doings of a really smart ET named Spock.
Fascinating.
(Seeing that clip brings a big smile to my face. Mr. Spock is still one amazing alien.)
On the opposite end of the gravitas scale, I am wild for the movie that parodies Star Trek.
Galaxy Quest.
And who knows? Maybe all this sci fi stuff paved the way for me to participate in the ground-breaking ceremony at the Henry Crown Space Center at the Museum of Science and Industry.
I well remember the scarves Lester Crown handed out as mementos of that very special occasion. (It was a very cold Chicago day. Brrr.)
But my frostbite disappeared in 1983 when I got invited to the premiere of The Right Stuff. What a movie for a space buff.
Look who signed my program.
Isn’t that just out of this world?
Now- and carefully screened by Mission Control- is the official trailer for The Martian.
Peace, Earthlings.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,…
Thanks for the film recommendation, Ellen — my brother and niece concur (*). I came of age during the heyday of NASA. “The Right Stuff” is one of my favorite books, and I’ve seen the movie several times, ranging from when it first came out in the theaters, to presentations for multiple editions of a freshman seminar that I often teach at the University of Minnesota.
(*) Apparently, the earth scenes of “The Martian” were filmed in Budapest, Hungary, which my niece Isabelle visited this past summer as a reward for graduating from the University of Chicago. I am told that she has photos of the modern building that, for the movie, was repurposed as NASA headquarters.
Thanks, George. I wanted to know where the movie was filmed, forgot to google it and now, thanks to your niece, I do. Btw, guys like you- math and science aces- are the heroes of this movie. Wish I had known you in high school. I could have really used your help.
Some 46 years ago, when astronaut Neil Armstrong returned to the lunar landing for the beginning of his trip back to earth, he said — for reasons apparent to no one — “Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.” No one knew who Mr. Gorsky might be.
But in the late 1990s, in a speech, Neil Armstrong revealed that Gorsky was a neighbor in the Ohio town where Armstrong grew up. As a teenager, one of his friends had accidentally tossed a baseball in the Gorsky’s front yard and when young Neil Armstrong went to pick up the errant baseball, he heard Mrs. Gorsky say to her husband:
“…You want sex. I’ll tell you when you can have sex. You can have sex when the neighbor kid walks on the moon.”
Then the young Armstrong made history and perhaps made his old neighbor, Mr. Gorsky, smile.
This sounds too good to be true. What an anecdote! Thanks, Jack. This was an interplanetary gas.
Please see my puzzle on this matter: http://tinyurl.com/gorsky and be sure to read the “midrash” after solving it.
Since you are now my idol, I will do as you command, Dr. Zarkov. Love, Dale Arden
Ellen, great blog for us fans of the genre! Ah the memories! I loved The Day The Earth Stood Still and stil know the command phrase by heart today. Also, for some serendipitous reason, I attended the Hollywood opening for Galaxy Quest and of course had a blast(off). Finally, I wonder if you watched the film in 3D. I’ve heard it’s a real difference-maker. To infinity and beyond…maybe in The T-65 X Wing, G.
Yes, Commander. I did see it in 3-D. And I’m very jealous that you got to be part of the Galaxy Quest festivities. Never give up! Never surrender!
Did “Martian” star Buster Crabbe?
Yes. Love, Queen Azura.
I dated her!!
That’s out of this world! I’m impressed. Dale Arden
The book was GREAT! Gotta go see the flick!
Thanks for the review, Kennedy. I’m not surprised. Ridley Scott did right by it, I think. Let me know what you think.