Tag Archives: Los Angeles
COLORS 30
In the 1950s and 1960s Dennis Hopper was a young actor appearing in classic films like Rebel Without a Cause, Giant and The Sons of Katie Elder. But by the late 1960s Hopper was tired of directors telling him what to do. He felt like he knew better and he’d prove it if he could [...]
Sharp New Blade
I saw a media screening of Blade Runner 2049 on Monday night. Just so you know, it’s a very good addition to the Blade Runner universe that connects to the first film as well as one might ever expect. It differs from the Ridley Scott film in that it’s less of a pulp noir (especially [...]
Whisky Doors
Earlier today I saw a tweet about the 50th anniversary of The Doors first gig at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles. Of course I immediately thought “Oh, perfect — I can blog about that.” Turns out it’s the 51st anniversary of The Doors debut at the club, and while it’s not an [...]
Seeing Colors
Spike Lee’s controversial new film, Chi-Raq shines a spotlight on the out of control gang violence in Chicago. In 1988, Dennis Hopper similarly pointed a camera at the gang violence in his own Los Angeles backyard. Hopper’s film Colors was a gritty-for-the-time cop drama starring Robert Duvall and Sean Penn, but its most important contribution [...]
Jim Morrison’s HWY
45 years ago, in the summer of 1969, Jim Morrison shot his experimental film HWY in Los Angeles and in the Mojave Desert. Morrison had hitchhiked hundreds of miles in his younger days as a college student and the thumbs-up locomotion of the protagonist (played by Morrison) at the center of HWY finds the director/actor [...]