Letterman to Receive Kennedy Center Honors

It was announced that David Letterman will be one of the Kennedy Center Honorees this year. The award, given to those who have contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world".

Also honored will be Dustin Hoffman, Buddy Guy, a ballerina and Led Zeppelin. Interesting.

Read more about it here. The ceremonies will air December 2nd on CBS.

Conan - Wife Auditions

Few people know that Conan actually found his present wife by holding open auditions. Here, Conan shows the video tapes.



OK, obviously this is just a comedy piece. In the mood for some irony?

Here's something the other tour guides won't tell you... Conan actually DID meet his wife by way of a comedy piece.

In 2000, Conan did a bit where he hired an ad agency to make a local commercial and that's where he met his wife. And that's a fact, Jack. Here it is:



Is it creepy that I know that? Probably.

Harry Kalas and 9/11

Rad - Top Ten Script Anomalies (5-1)

The Final Script to "Rad" has been uploaded to the internet.
The movie itself has been uploaded to youtube.

This post continues what was started in Part 1 - counting down my own personal Top Ten differences between the script for "Rad" and the final film.

Let's begin.

#5. No "Hollywood" Mike Moranda, Others

OK, the movie used real BMXers playing themselves for the final race (Hell Track). The script has none of that. No Kevin Hull, no Kirk Bihun, no Eddie Fiola, no Danny Millwee! I could live without all of those (barely)... but one thing I will not stand for is no "Hollywood" Mike Moranda.

Without "Hollywood" Mike Moranda, we are robbed of not one, but two dramatic exits in one day. Unacceptable, Rad script. Unacceptable. Oh, there are still plenty of wipeouts. The entire Hell Track race is a war of attrition. But it all looks like this:

Stuart Craine?! Are you serious?! Even a cursory glance at the text reveals it to be movie poison - poison that would destroy everything the film had built to that point. It obviously lacks both drama and that classic Hollywood sparkle. Fortunately, the makers of the movie rectified this clear oversight and did so just in time to prevent a chain reaction of cause-and-effect that could've dramatically exitted THE WORLD.

#4. The Continuity Mistake... Is In The Script!

Here's a weird one.

In the final race, at 1:21:20, the sequence goes as follows:

1. After one lap Cru is in front.
2. Cru fans are devastated. One yells, "GET UP!"
3. Cru is taken out by Rod Reynolds and crashes.

See, the fans react to him wiping out BEFORE he wipes out. It's clearly a continuity error and it's one I love to point out to the empty chair beside me as I watch "Rad" in the basement.

But here's the weird part.... it's written in the script! The script has the continuity error. Watch:

I know what you're thinking: "Recede from my face?" But put that aside, the point is the continuity. They clearly react to a wipeout before it actually occurs.

Now, arguably the text could interpreted to mean that they're reacting negatively because they are worried - worried something bad will happen, and then it does. Perhaps. But it seems pretty unlikely that someone would say, "Poor Cru." just because he's battling for first and in a tight spot. I've never seen football fans, at a game, start booing before the ball comes down from the air.

#3. Totally Different Track = No Hulk Hogan

There are some similarities between the script's Hell Track and the film's Hell Track and there are many differences as well. I won't go into all of them. Generally, the script describes sections such as "Lucifer's Lane" ( a "seventy-five yard strip of black sand"), "Freedom of Choice" (a split in the track where riders can choose one of two paths) and "Purgatory's Pools" ("two pools divided by an eight foot black wall").

The film's "Cliffhanger" where, as in baseball, you're either safe or you're out, is nowhere to be found in the script. But the biggest difference, in terms of consequences to world history, is the absence of the giant Kix Bowl. The absence of this obstacle combined with the fact that, as I already mentioned in Part 1, Cru is eating Lucky Charms in the lumberyard means that the "Rad" script goes 0/2 on Kix references.

Is that a big problem? Well, with no Kix Bowl, Cru has no springboard from which to do a back-flip! Indeed, the script contains no corresponding moment to that which occurs in the film. This means that if "Rad" had gone by the letter of the script, Hulk Hogan would have never had to eat his heart out and who knows how history would have changed as a result.

#2. The Deleted Scenes

I've already written extensively about the Deleted scenes of "Rad". But are they in the script? And if so, are they different?

Well,

• All the scenes of the kids being pissed off that Cru is being screwed are in the script (pp 79-80).
• The scene of Bart getting drunk and acting stupid is in the script (77-78).
• Cru being given a new bike specifically to race Hell Track - NOT in the script.

The only deleted scene I remember and the one I most care about is the one that isn't in the script. Not only can I not find it anywhere to watch it, but I can't even read about it.

Does my memory deceive me? Was it all a dream? Well, I still have IMDB as an independent confirmation... but this mystery continues...

#1. The End

Spoiler Alert!

So we should all know by now how the movie ends:

1.) Rod Reynolds takes out Cru, giving Bart a large lead.
2.) Bart and the Reynolds twins are running first, second, third.
3.) Bart takes out Rod Reynolds (good night, team strategy!).
4.) Bart stops and lets Cru catch up in order to race one-on-one.
5.) They run neck-and-neck until Cru does an unnecessary and risky 360 just to show off.
6.) Cru still wins somehow.

That's how it happened. But that's not how the script ends it!

First off, #1 and #2 are the same in both the movie and the script. Neither really explains what happens to Rex Reynolds. He's in second or third place and then he's never mentioned again. My theory is that he fell into a blackhole. See, the spacesuit he's wearing at the big dance was foreshadowing.

After that, it isn't Bart that takes out Rod, it's Cru. He catches up, takes away Rod's line and then this happens:

WHOAH. Carnage.
"Could we just show a few racers running over his limp body and allow the audience to imagine the rest?"
"NO. The audience will see a full ten tramplings in one long 2 minute shot. This must happen."
"Won't that interrupt, you know, the movie's momentum?"
"NO. Lifeless body trampling - do it."
"This is a kid's movie, right?"

Next, just as in #3 above (except Rex instead of Rod), Bart takes out Rex's front tire in order to take Cru one-on-one. But he doesn't wait up. Cru still catches up to Bart but only through grit, moxy, vitamins and 24-inch pythons.

So then Duke Best is all:

I think I found my Christmas card for this year.

So, then Bart and Cru race side-by-side. They simultaneously go over a gnarly jump and...

With the rest of the pack way behind, the race comes down to who will swallow the pain, get up and will their bike over the line first.

Cru...

Instead of a majestic explosion across the finish line, it's a clumsy stumble on foot. It almost feels like "Rad" predicts "Cool Runnings". Something tells me I wouldn't have liked that ending as much, watching it as a kid.

And Finally....

It doesn't differ much from what's on screen but no discussion of the "Rad" script would be complete without posting the written text of the most important and powerful speech ever given....

It makes me cry every time. The emotion is altered somewhat in the script. In the script, right after Sgt. Smith finishes the speech he's knocked out and run over by 19 motorcycles.

Serious Jibber-Jabber - Edmund Morris

Conan has a new web series where he sits down with people and does lengthy, completely serious interviews about potentially serious subjects. It's called "Serious Jibber-Jabber" and his first guest on the series is Presidential Biographer Edmund Morris.

Edmund Morris wrote biographies of Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Conan loved the three-book biography of Roosevelt so much, he had him on his show. You could tell that it was one of the interviews in which he was actually interested in the guest. Perhaps just having 5 minutes to talk to him was a main reason for starting this series.

Note: in case you haven't realized already, this isn't a comedy piece and it's 47 minutes long. I likes it.

IMDB 250 8.2 - Papillon (1973)

Papillon (1973)

"Welcome to the penal colony of French Guiana, whose prisoners you are and from which there is no escape."

As two prisoners are being transported to the penal system in French Guiana and make a deal. Papillon (Steve McQueen) will protect the more fragile Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman) and, in exchange, Dega will finance Papillon's prison escape.

The plot sounds like "The Great Escape" but it's actually closer to "Lawrence of Arabia". It's long, it's big and it's long. There are long sequences portraying long stretches of solitary confinement in a dark cell. There are long sequences portraying the attempted escape from prison. There are long sequences depicting what happens after that (not spoiling anything). And there are long sequences showing what happens after that. Like "Lawrence of Arabia", this movie has an "epic" feel to it - they're going to tell you a larger than life story and it doesn't matter if it takes longer than life to tell it.

The main strength of this movie is the acting. Dustin Hoffman is always good but Steve McQueen is phenomenal. Here, he gets to display a huge range of emotions and states from "old age" to "crazy" to "sick and at the point of death". And you'll never catch him "acting". Every second feels authentic. I was already a fan going in, and this movie only made me more of one.

For the first half of the movie one might think it's about the human spirit and human determination. But by the end, one can't help but wonder if it's really about obsession and insanity. And where does one draw the line?

7/10.
Total Top "250" Movies Seen: 363.