Friday, November 4, 2011

The Garner Files

I spent yesterday eating up the few details revealed during the press conference for Skyfall, the 23rd Bond movie (as well as the press release that provided the most intriguing plot for a Bond movie in a very long time), and reading the rest of The Garner Files by James Garner and Jon Winokur.

It was worth the wait since March, when I pre-ordered it from Amazon. At the end, in the "Films" section where all his movies are listed, Garner not only writes briefly about each, but rates them, and is not biased toward any of them, pointing out which were crap, which were done only because he was under contract. It makes me respect him even more than I already do.

Reading about My Fellow Americans, which I still hate, despite the presidential aspect, I always suspected this about director Peter Segal, because none of his movies are any good, save for parts of Tommy Boy: "I wish the director were so professional. He was a self-appointed genius who didn't know his ass from second base, and Jack and I both knew it. He had no idea where to put the camera, he didn't know what he wanted, and he was a whiner. The movie could have been a lot better."

The script by E. Jack Kaplan & Richard Chapman and Peter Tolan didn't help either.

5 comments:

  1. I always liked him, he says what he thinks!

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  2. I got exactly what I hoped for from his memoir: The beginning of the "Love Stories" chapter is all about Murphy's Romance, which he calls "one of my favorites." and it's one of mine too. In fact, early on in the book, when talking about Maverick and how he relates to Bret Maverick, he says in parentheses, "There's a line in Murphy's Romance that I think fits us both: "When I'm pushed, I shove."

    And the little he writes about "Victor/Victoria" is enough for me, though I wish he had written just a little more about Robert Preston.

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  3. I love Murphy's Romance. It's so sweet to watch a love affair bloom.

    Love,
    Lola

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  4. Rory, I'm so sorry. Your idol died.

    Love,
    Lola

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  5. Thanks. I read it this morning, though my first thought was, "If he died right after retiring from what his life was all about, I could live forever if I don't write any of these books." ;)

    It's a sign for me to get back to work, to get serious about these writing projects, especially since I was at Barnes & Noble and didn't find any copies of my first book there. I want to keep writing until something sticks, and hopefully that'll happen many times.

    I'm going to write to his children. Brian Rooney is based in Los Angeles, so I'll see what contact information I can find, and tell him what his father meant to me.

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