Image by K嘛 via Flickr
Time to take a break from our Movie Madness for a Friday Flick Faceoff. Voting for the first set of films is now closed and the second set will be shut down tomorrow morning. But who won? Tune in tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) for the results show. Yes, I am doing that to you. Stop stabbing me with mindsicles.
Today’s guest post comes to us from Renee over at Lessons from Teachers and Twits. You can also find her on Twitter. Renee is the original fryber (cyber friend), one of the first real connections I made as I got serious about blogging last year. She knows how to make a point, has a great sense of humor, and is not afraid to mix it up every now and again. She’s a wife and mom from New York, and did I mention she’s also a teacher?
Well, she’s also a fan of naughty things, so I’m not surprised with how she handled her first FFF. It’s a jailbreak folks. Time to round up the suspects and make your pick in this lineup. Don’t worry, it’s a one way mirror here. Probably.
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I’ve always had a thing for bad boys. There was the guy with the motorcycle. (Actually, there were four of those.) There was the dude with the earring. (I believe there were three of those.) And there was the dude who supposedly “did it” with a sheep. (Only one of those.) Maybe this weird attraction explains why I have a thing for prison movies. What are these films about? Bad boys… who get caught.
One of the earliest prison movies I remember seeing was Escape From Alcatraz (1979). Based on a true story, Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) is a cunning bank robber who gets caught and is told upon his arrival at Alcatraz that no one ever escapes. From that moment on, Frank is pretty much hell bent on getting off the island alive.
I knew I was supposed to reject Frank, but I found him handsome, persistent, creative and intelligent. I wanted him to get off the island. Honestly, I didn’t care if he went back to the streets of California and continued his life of crime. Weird how movies can get you to do that, n’est pas?
I remember seeing Silence of the Lambs (1991) in Buffalo, New York. A poor graduate student, I rarely had money enough to go to the movies but saw this one on a date. Newbie FBI agent, Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) has to earn the confidence from the brilliant but wildly psychopathic Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) so that she can stop a serial murderer.
What makes SOTL so dang delicious is that there are two hideous bad boys. We have a whack-job sociopath living on the outside with his moth collection, constructing a “skin-suit” out of plus-sized women’s flesh.
Then there’s the maniac in a cage: good ole Hannibal Lecter—brilliant, intense, well-schooled. And so thirsty for blood. We know they are both crazy as loons and unremorseful. Doesn’t get any better than that.
In The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is a talented banker accused of murdering his wife and her lover in Maine in the 1940’s. We never really know if Andy “did the deed” or not. That said, the real bastard in the movie is the warden who finds a way to use Andy’s accounting prowess to doctor the prison books for his personal gain.
Like Frank Morris in Escape from Alcatraz, Andy spends every day in prison focused on getting out. He dreams of a life by the sea in a place called Zihuatanejo. By 1994, I had been dating the same man for nearly three years. We had traveled to Maine together and knew we would one day marry. After seeing this film we decided that we would go to Zihutanejo, Mexico for our honeymoon. It’s true: our honeymoon destination was based on our shared love for this movie, which is (apparently) based on my love of bad boys–which my husband most decidedly is not.
By 1995, my fiancé and I had been living in New Orleans for two years, so you can imagine my delight when Dead Man Walking came to the big screen. I was excited because there were bad boys and also because there were names like Delecroix and Prejean and Poncelet: names I knew how to properly pronounce and spell. After all, a Robichaux, a Boudreaux, a Naquin, and two Biguenets had sat through my classes. I had driven on Tchoupitoulas, and I just had seen a rodeo at Angola State Prison.
In the movie, Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) admits to being guilty of his heinous crimes. And while the good nun (Susan Sarandon) tries to guide him to salvation, I wanted him to stay bad. Why? I have absolutely no idea.
At the time, New Orleans was a dangerous place. Friends had been robbed at gunpoint; my students had been car-jacked; two of my most beloveds had been stuffed in the trunk of a car and almost murdered. There were nightly news reports of tourists being fatally stabbed. And while I loved living in New Orleans, Dead Man Walking reminded me that life was not all about Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, sugar magnolias and crawfish boils. Danger lurked there too. And I liked it.
When my husband and I saw The Green Mile (1999), our son was a newborn. I was emotional. Tom Hanks played Paul Edgecomb, the most-seasoned prison guard at the Louisiana Cold Mountain Penitentiary, the fictional setting loosely based on death row at Angola, Louisiana in the 1930s.
I knew nothing about this movie going in. I was expecting a bad boy and didn’t expect John Coffey. Nobody did. He was eight feet tall and accused of killing two little girls. But viewers immediately recognize that John Coffey is gentle as a lamb and has an amazing gift: the ability to take away others’ pain.
The real bad guy is not the man behind the bars but prison guard Percy Wetmore, the evin and spoiled nephew of the governor’s wife. I was unprepared for the true horror of The Green Mile: that innocent people can die hideous deaths at the hands of “stupid and mean” people with strong political connections, folks who do things because they can. This movie unnerved me, and I sobbed even after the lights came on in the theatre.
So now you decide: which is the best movie? For me, they’re equally excellent and I cannot pick.
In each of these films there is a hope—for escape, redemption, salvation, relief. Sometimes that hope is realized; sometimes it is squashed. All I know is that if the television is on and I hear one line of dialogue from any of these films, everything stops. I stop and sit on my chocolate brown couch, box of Kleenex at my side, to inspect the invisible, thin line where naughty and nice collide.
The Friday Flick Faceoff features films that share a common thread. Cast your vote anyway you like and don’t worry if you’ve seen all the movies or not. Love to hear why you picked what you picked though!
Oh, RASJ, I’m not in the least bit surprised that you like bad boys! I think I have to go with SOTL, how can you not love Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter?
I love how Hanibal listens to classical music right before he eats that cop’s face off. Just outstanding. Wait, did that spoil something for someone…
Shawshank is an epic film! It was tough for me to decide between that and Silence. I went with which movie didn’t have some pretty bad sequels.
I loved the creepy blue moths flickering all over the place. And the night vision goggles. Brilliant. And that thing with the pig? Wait, now I’m thinking of Deliverance. And that wasn’t a pig squealing… Sorry! Those were some bad boys, too.
I seriously cannot pick a favorite. It makes my head hurt. And I had gone on so long, I could not even mention Bad Boys, Papillion, Generation X or To Kill a Mockingbird. (That Bob Ewell is bastard, even if he isn’t in prison!) Don’t get me started!
So tough to choose: do I vote for my favourite bad boy? (still trying to decide if that’s an oxymoron). Or, do I vote for my favourite movie? I chose the latter, and went with Dead Man Walking.
By the way, when I was in Grade 12 and was slaving away as yearbook editor, I made a list with my co-editor, entitled “10 Types of Guys We Have To Date Before We Get Married.” It included such descriptors as “a guy your parents hate,” “an older man,” “a guy who drives a motorcycle.”
Well, I got through more of the bad-boy list than my co-editor did.
Hmm. Maybe that’s an idea for another post. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Leanne
That is a great idea for a post! I bet I was bader-er than you were.
But now I’m the goodest mommy and bestest teacher in the land. (Which probably explains why I like naughty so much!)
WOW ! What a line up, good movie choice’s in there (Watch out Clay).. Have to go with Green Mile, Tom Hanks and the mouse. I will say the best part was John Coffey, if you could not feel for him at the end you just didn’t get the movie at all… Thanks for the line-up.. great FFF…Percy should of gotten the chair…
I hated that dang Percy! I was sooooo happy when JC gave him that “kiss.”
Oh Renee – this is a diabolical list! How can I possibly choose? SOTL is divinely disturbing and Green Mile is amazingly awesome. However, I am a fluffy pink bunny-loving sap at heart so I’m going to go with The Shawshank Redemption because it redeems with a happy ending. Plus I could happily listen to Morgan Freeman narrate anything – even the phone book – for days and days.
See? It’s practically impossible, right? But you are right. I could listen to Morgan Freeman narrate the ingredients on a package of Ho-Ho’s. *It’d sho sound mighty fine.* And I guess hubby and I kinda chose Shawkshank by going to Zihuatanejo by going there on our honeymoon… Check it out! http://www.zihua.net/
I was so hoping this post would be about Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s collective egos. Or perhaps about how one TV series spawned the rest of reality TV as we know it.
Alas, good post. I have to go for Green Mile because it caught everybody off guard.
Especially that damn weasel, Percy!
A very well-constructed post, Renee. I like your personal connection that you tie in with each film.
Shawshank for me. Morgan Freeman is always a treat. My favorite scene is the prisoners up on the roof having a beer after working on the roof.
Have to ask: was the sheep guy the one who took you to SOTL? There is something about that connection that is a bit unnerving.
Sheep guy was cheap. He would never have paid to take me to a movie.
I admit, I have only seen two of these movies in their entirety – and deciding between just those two is evil.
I went for Shawshank, because I love the relationship formed in it, and sticking it to the warden. Plus, it has that Dude Who Had the Cool Ice Pick Looking Thing That Killed Aliens from the X-Files as a prison guard.
Can’t beat that, but only by a hint.
SOTL came up in a chat I had just the other night, and partially inspired a piece of fiction I wrote for a writing prompt: http://writingwithchaos.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/the-hairy-yak-testicle/
My mind scares me sometimes.
VOTE SPACEBALLS!
This was a tough movie choice!
I dated one motorcycle dude, and then I learned to ride one myself. Problem solved!
Very tough choice, but I went with Shawshank. I’d watch any of them in a heartbeat!
Then you, sir, can watch TV with me anytime!
Prison movies, hmm, thinks…
My Swiss friend suggests – In The Name Of The Father – or – The Bird Man Of Alcatraz
But what about me – The Greast Escape – or – The Prophet
The side interest in many prison flics is spotting if they’ve used Kilmainham Prison in Dublin as the set. It pops up a lot. And they’re very friendly to visitors http://wp.me/pDjed-4f – it’s now a tourist attraction between film shoots.
Clay made me limit my choices. I blame him. I love every movie you list. And Papillon.
Ah yeah, Papillon, liked that one too.
Okay, I’ll admit…bad boys kinda scared me! I was much too nervous around guys in general, and bad boys just turned me into a slack-jawed yokel, that’s how poorly my brain worked around them
Having said that, I did not, in fact, vote for the non-bad-boy movie/character of The Green Mile. I voted for Silence of the Lambs. I saw it in Pittsburgh, where it was largely filmed, so I’m a little biased. But also, that movie scared the bejesus out of me. I don’t normally like scary movies at all, so the fact that I so enjoyed being scared while watching SOTL really pushes that movie up the list of movies I like.
My husband said SOTL is not really a prison movie. I was like, what? Hanibal is in a dang cage! What are you talking about? I agree: this one is different because it is a psychological thriller and it has a female protagonist. I just love it. Seriously, who came up with the idea of making a skin-suit? Scary. And so very naughty.
Great FFF, Renee!
I have to go with Dead Man Walking, though, after my English teacher (the awesome one I plan on stalking in May) took our class to hear Sister Prejean (the real one) speak. Not only was she smart, heartfelt, and relevant, her accent sure was purdy, too.
Love DMW. And I sho do miss that N’awlins accent. I really like your English teacher for bringing Sister Prejean to your class. I’ve heard her speak, too. So inspirational. (Are you in NOLA?)
Hey all, I’m back (in body anyway) from a loooooong night. I will explain in a bit during the video announcing the winners, but I want to thank Renee for such a sweet guest post and also for helping keep my bloggie (as she calls hers) running smooth like yesterday in my absence. Now, time to prepare the results of the March Movie Madness-Round 1.