#(including secretly being the son of a godlike being)

[nitrateglow]

Thoughts on Fire Sale (1977)

I finally watched Fire Sale and tbh it wasn’t half as bad as I expected.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, Fire Sale was Alan Arkin’s second film as a director. It was also his last because everyone hated it. I’ve never seen anyone involved with the project say a kind word about it-- and that includes Sid Caesar, Rob Reiner, and Arkin himself.

It’s a very different beast from Arkin’s directorial debut, Little Murders. That movie is angrier, more socially aware, and more nihilistic, while also being very funny and shocking. Fire Sale is tamer, a familial farce about the dysfunctional Fikus clan. It involves several parts, each not too closely connected at first:

You have the abrasive, demanding patriarch Benny, who wants to collect the fire insurance on his failing department store business. He secretly arranges to have his brother-in-law Sherman-- a mental hospital resident who believes World War II is still going on-- burn it down by convincing him the store is a Nazi stronghold.

You have Benny’s son Russell, a neurotic, insecure person who nevertheless dreams of making the store a success and marrying his longtime girlfriend despite the resistance of his father.

You have Benny’s other son Ezra, a high school basketball coach who sucks at his job. With his career on the line and his wife threatening suicide if he doesn’t give her a child (they’ve been trying for a decade to no avail), Ezra kills two birds with one stone by adopting a 6′8′‘ Black teenager named Booker T. who happens to have godlike basketball skills.

The three stories become intertwined when Russell learns about the fire policy on the store and decides to cash it in, splitting the money with Ezra. Russell buys new wares, making the outdated store a success, but when Benny discovers what has happened, there is every chance the family could lose it all when Sherman lights up the building.

It’s a breathless farce, never stopping for a moment throughout its 88 minute runtime. There’s a lot of comic misunderstanding, some very un-PC jokes, tons of shouting, and tons of incredibly odd moments. It practically drips in 70s-ness, from the funky Dave Grusin score to the funky fashions to the general vibe of the film.

People either love or hate Fire Sale. You can find plenty of people praising it as a “masterpiece of Jewish humor” or as an underrated comedy. Others find it just as unbearable as critics did in the 1970s. I was more in the middle. I think stronger direction could have elevated the film-- there’s not a great amount of style to it and some scenes go on a bit too long. I also find the constant screaming tiresome after a while. I do appreciate how almost every character is terrible though and the film avoids sentimentality, giving it a little bit of bite.

If I had to give it a rating, it would probably get a 7 out of 10--- not great or a must-see, but if you like any of the people involved, check it out.

[headquartersforlievmuses]

► Oliver Queen

Green Arrow is a vigilante superhero who fights crime using archery, martial arts and technology. In his secret identity he is Oliver Queen, living in Star City as a wealthy playboy and billionaire industrialist turned outspoken socially-progressive politician. He is the leader of Team Arrow; he has also been a member of the Justice League and the Outsiders.

As a young child Oliver idolized his hero Robin Hood and was said to be a natural archer, frequently practicing with his bow and arrows. He was mildly traumatized the first time he accidentally killed an animal, but when his mother and father were mauled by lions in a tragic safari accident his hesitation to shoot cost them their lives. 

Afterwards he was raised by his uncle and eventually inherited the family fortune and business. Queen grew into a rich, thrill-seeking, and drunken playboy with no real sense of responsibility or direction in his life. Everything changed when he fell off his boat in the middle of the ocean and washed ashore on the remote isolated Starfish Island, clutching a bow – a memento from a Robin Hood movie – which he had used to keep himself afloat, where he was completely stranded. During this time spent without food or shelter Queen developed his skills as a hunter to survive and gained mastery over his bow. Having previously taken everything in his life for granted, this experience taught him self-reliance and made him into a man. His second test of new character was the discovery of drug smugglers on the island run by the ruthless international crime lord China White. Using his new skills, he attacked and destroyed their heroin operation, then delivered them to the authorities before returning home. Realizing that he had found his destiny, he chose to use his abilities and resources as a crime-fighter. With a nickname coined by the press, he made it his mission to protect Star City. He took his cue from Batman and built his own "Arrow Cave," complete with an "Arrowcar" and allegedly a yellow submarine. He and Speedy fought with trick arrows that were designed to be non-lethal.

A young man named Roy Harper idolized him. Harper was an incredible archer, having grown up on a Native American reservation. His mentor Brave Bow was dying and he needed someone to take care of him, so he wanted to become Green Arrow's sidekick. Proving his mettle by taking down several thugs faster than he could while they were both on the scene, Oliver adopted Roy as his legal ward. He would go on to fight crime taking the name Speedy. Speedy would later team up with a number of other costumed youths to form the Teen Titans, including Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin and Wonder Girl.

reen Arrow would go on to become a member of the Justice League of America, although there are multiple versions of this story. Originally the Silver Age showed him joining after he rescued the League from an evil alien named Xandor. Post-Crisis stories retconned Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman out of this story, making several other changes. Queen Enterprises secretly funded the early League, never revealing his identity and speaking to them through Simon Carr. Eventually the team voted him in as their sixth member. Infinite Crisis brought back the League's original founders and beginnings. Green Arrow is shown to have joined at the same time as Black Canary, proving their value in combat against the League of Assassins. He would go on to have many further adventures with them.

Green Arrow began developing a personal crisis about which of his identities was more important and doing more good, the crime-fighter or the politician. Giving himself a new look, he had a more modern costume designed. His entire fortune and control of Queen Industries was lost to a corrupt employee named John Deleon who stole everything from him through corporate fraud. The League fights manifestations of their inner darkness and he is confronted by his character failures in combat. Part of him has only chosen to be a hero for the thrill and glory, but he realizes that he defines himself by his ability to control those instincts for the greater good. Queen begins to reevaluate his priorities, and learns to focus more on the everyday problems of regular people.

In the ensuing year after losing his fortune, Ollie travelled the country with Green Lantern Hal Jordan while his left-behind ward dabbled with drugs that caused the two to go their separate ways.

Late one night while fighting an ambush under duress, Green Arrow's arm slipped an inch and he accidentally shot a criminal in the chest, killing him instantly. The experience was so traumatizing for him that he ripped up his costume, destroyed his equipment and decided to end his heroic career entirely. After destroying the Arrowplane, he went to live in a monastery to seek redemption and get back in touch with his roots for several months. A wise man named Master Jansen taught him the secrets of zen archery and encouraged him not to abandon his destiny, sending him home with renewed confidence in himself.

Green Arrow and Black Canary relocated to Seattle, Washington where they set up a flower shop called Sherwood Florist. Having decided that years of reliance on Trick Arrows had made him weak, he returned to his basic roots as an archer and began using exclusively regular arrows again. He asked Dinah to marry him, but she believed that the strength of their relationship was in the independence they allowed each other. Although Oliver wanted children of his own, she did not want to bring children into the dangers of their world. Black Canary makes a new suit for Green Arrow and the first criminal he takes down is a serial killer known as the Seattle Slasher. There is an assassin named Shado targeting men for personal reasons that Oliver tracks down, fights with, and loses to. James Cameron is the police officer he chooses to work alongside and develops a relationship with. Black Canary went undercover to expose a drug ring, but was captured and interrogated. By the time he got to her she had been brutally tortured and they were planning to rape her, although he stopped them by shooting her assailant in the chest without hesitation. Shado appeared mysteriously and took down the other men in the building to assist him. They would go on to take down a conspiracy involving C.I.A. cocaine shipments to fund foreign wars, ran by men Shado had sworn vengeance against for her father Tomonaga.

Dinah's injuries were extensive; she lost her "canary cry" and was subsequently found to be unable to bear children. This marked a major turning point in Ollie's life. When Ollie was injured and being cared for by Shado, she proceeded to rape him while he was unconscious, conceiving a son she would name Robert.[23] When Ollie found out about the son, Shado made it clear that he would have nothing to do with the child. It also caused a rift between Ollie and Dinah, since she despaired at not being able to give Ollie the one thing he had always truly wanted (not withstanding Roy and Lian).

Distraught with grief at having killed his best friend, Oliver returned to the ashram he had visited after his last murder. Master Jansen counselled him again in finding inner peace after he swears off super-heroics. The National Security Agency had determined that they must eliminate him after the things he had seen in their employ, and assassins are sent after him. A young archer and martial artist named Connor Hawke who idolizes him helps fight them off, and the two leave together in search of answers about who set him up. Connor has his own costume and becomes the second Green Arrow, which Oliver is supportive of. They quickly find themselves entangled in a government conspiracy and Eddie Fyers is enlisted to help solve their problems. Hal Jordan reappears again at one point still alive, and wishes to rekindle their friendship although he is still clearly insane and obsessed with his cosmic energies. Before parting he accidentally lets Oliver know that Connor is actually his son by an old girlfriend named Moonday Hawke. Furious that the young man didn't tell him about their relation, Oliver has an argument with Connor and Eddie then leaves to be on his own again.

The NSA was under new management and they offered Oliver a job as an agent. They needed him to go undercover and infiltrate the Eden Corps, an extremist eco-terrorist organization. On his first mission with them he was forced to fight his closest friends and allies; gaining their confidence he also started a romantic relationship with their leader Hyrax. He fought off Connor, Eddie Fyers, Arsenal and even the Force of July. Hyrax had a bomb named the Mutajek 9-9 and planned to destroy Metropolis with it. On the plane ride there was a massive fire fight with another deep-cover agent, and most of the terrorists were killed. Green Arrow's arm was inside the detonation chamber for the bomb, which would activate if he released his hand. Superman tried to help but had no way of saving him other than tearing off his arm. Rather than allow himself to be crippled Queen let the plane explode, sacrificing himself to save thousands of people. Having been completely vaporized in the blast, there was no body. A small funeral gathering of his closest friends was held in Warriors. There was nothing to bury, so his son fired an arrow into the air and marked its landing as his final resting place, as in the legend of Robin Hood. Connor Hawke then decided to continue on his legacy.

This wasn't Oliver's end, however, as Hal Jordan (during his time as Parallax) returned to save the earth during the Final Night and used his godlike powers to bring his old friend back from the dead. Unfortunately, the reanimated hero was an empty vessel with no soul, whose memories were replicated from his earlier days when he had a stronger liberal conscience. Ollie's more experienced soul remained in a Heaven-like place for a time, until it was reunited with his body in order to defeat an evil warlock named Stanley Dover. Now, the original Green Arrow was back in action with a rare second chance at life to make up for previous mistakes with his loved ones, all while renewing his vows to be a defender of the downtrodden.

With the death of Stanley Dover, Ollie inherited Dover's estate. He renovated it, and established it as the Star City Youth Center. During this time, Ollie rescued fifteen-year-old Mia Dearden from a life of drugs and prostitution. He took her into his confidence, and into his home. Mia developed a crush on Oliver, and began emulating his actions. She even began training with a bow and arrow. Eventually, her extensive training paid off, and she became the new Speedy.

The superhero community was thrown into chaos when Elongated Man's wife Sue Dibny was murdered. Green Arrow had been part of a conspiracy that covered up a mind-wipe performed by Zatanna on Doctor Light, altering his personality after he had raped Sue on the Justice League Satellite many years before. They hunted Light down and were forced to fight unprepared against Deathstroke as his bodyguard, who decimated them until Oliver leaped onto his back and stabbed an arrow into his empty eye socket. His memory triggered again, Light was able to escape. Having gotten into many compromising situations over the years, his was not the only memory erased, but altering his personality was the furthest they ever went. This is justified on the grounds that they did what needed to be done, despite what the opinions of others would've been.[50] The shocking revelation is that Batman discovered what they were doing and tried to stop them, forcing the group to wipe his mind as well.

Deathstroke blew up his house as revenge for their earlier fight. Realizing that someone has discovered his secret identity, Oliver puts his family on lock-down and relocates to an underground bunker before teaming up with Black Lightning to take on Doctor Light again.

One Year Later, Oliver Queen is the newly elected mayor of Star City, continuing his fight on the streets and through the system. He also has a new costume, which appears to be a combination of the classic Neal Adams costume and the Mike Grell Longbow Hunters costume. At the onset, it seems Mayor Queen is most interested in the "shock value" of his office, although his controversial decisions and statements are actually meant to draw attention to and benefit the devastated Star City. 

He uses an open interpretation of the town charter to perform same-sex marriages in Star City as a both a political statement and a way to boost the local tourist economy. He also exercises the power of his office to do things such as blackmail corrupt businessmen, or have the Star City SWAT unit back up his actions as Green Arrow while publicly condemning his alter ego. (He also used his connections to enable his longtime friend and former lover Black Canary to bring a young Vietnamese girl, Sin, into the country to be raised by Canary.)

During the year long hiatus, Queen also amassed a quite large personal fortune by manipulating stocks of companies he sees as unscrupulous. While never stated outright, it appears Oliver Queen is now worth billions. The former gangster Brick now fights crime in Star City and allies himself with Green Arrow, although he evidently still traffics in drugs and prostitution.

Before long however, Ollie faced problems from opponents who wore business suits as well as costumes. Deathstroke the Terminator, having been incarcerated at Alcatraz Island after a fight with Green Arrow, conspired with fellow inmate Constantine Drakon and Star City police commissioner Brian Nudocerdo to ruin Ollie politically.

In the midst of political scandal, Oliver Queen reignited his love affair with longtime paramour, Dinah Laurel Lance. After successfully fending off an attack by Deathstroke and Constantine Drakon, Ollie asked Dinah to marry him, but she was not prepared to give him an immediate answer. 

Shortly thereafter, Ollie and Speedy helped Black Canary when Merlyn abducted Canary's "daughter" Sin. To save Sin's life, Ollie was forced to fake the young girl's death, keeping the knowledge of the plan between himself and Mia, even at the risk of losing Dinah forever. After Sin was placed into safekeeping, Ollie told Dinah what he had done. Recognizing that he was willing to sacrifice his own happiness to save a life, Dinah finally agreed to marry him. 

Green Lantern decided it was time for an era of change in the Justice League, believing they had lost sight of their goals and the true meaning of justice. He set out to form his own League alongside Green Arrow as his partner, taking a less reactionary and more aggressive stance on crime-fighting. They spent weeks together hunting and tracking down super-villains. 

Following his murder of Prometheus, Green Arrow sets out to kill the Electrocutioner. Green Lantern and the Flash are the first to discover the corpse he left behind, and attempt to take him in. Black Canary tries to get him to listen to reason, but he pushes her aside. Now with his own community after him, he continues his personal vendetta for revenge. Connor Hawke gets into a heated argument with him about the troubles in their past with Oliver's fatherhood and how much of a bastard he's been, not sure if he can ever forgive him again. Mia Dearden is the only one of his allies in agreement with him, and she captures the Electrocutioner with the intention of murdering him in cold blood. Realizing that he can't drag a child into this, Green Arrow begins to regret his crimes and turns himself in. Finally he's arrested by Brian Nudocerdo and publicly unmasked, revealing to the world that he's former Mayor Oliver Queen. Black Canary visits him in prison and returns her wedding ring, telling him their marriage is over. On trial, the jury finds him not guilty, but the judge overrules this and sentences him to a complete exile from Star City.

Oliver Queen has a very dynamic personality. His passion and intensity make him strong, although he has always had difficulty finding direction in life. Born into wealth, he didn't need to work for most of what he had and was raised with very little responsibility. His experience on Starfish Island taught him self-reliance and showed him there was more to existence, giving him an outlet. In the beginning of his career he has been portrayed as a thrill-seeker, fighting crime not for moral reasons but the sense of adventure. It wasn't until he lost his fortune that he developed his strong social conscience, and outspoken left-wing political viewpoints. This character development has made him much less egotistical in the way he deals with problems.

Acrobatics: He has displayed on many occasions that he is an expert in acrobatics, and often uses this skill while evading enemy fire.

Archery: Oliver Queen is perhaps the finest archer ever known. He claims to be able to shoot 29 arrows per minute (he stated this himself, in the Sound of Violence story arc, when he corrected Black Canary for saying 26). He has a wide-variety of trick arrows, ranging from bola arrows to time-bomb arrows to his infamous boxing-glove arrow. In recent years he has used these arrows sparingly, preferring the time-tested simple arrow. Green Arrow has shown the ability to shoot an arrow down the barrel of a gun, pierce a drop of water as it leaves a tap, and shoot almost any part of the human body; although he aims only to wound and not kill when he shoots. He once shot two arrows down two different gun barrels while upside down, in mid-flip while somersaulting off a building.

Aviation: He used to own and fly his own airplane called the Arrowplane. He still has some skill in flying different types of planes.

Cooking: Green Arrow's Chili is one of the hottest foods on the planet.

Firearms: Although not his preferred weapon, Oliver is very skilled in the use of firearms. He has displayed great accuracy with handguns and machine guns. He was even told by Deathstroke that he handles himself well with firearms.

Hunting: Archery is by far Oliver's preferred method of hunting however the ability to hunt comes from years of training, patience and survival. He is proficient enough in hunting to pursue a cougar without it ever noticing.

Martial Arts: He is proficient in several forms of hand-to-hand combat including Judo, Kickboxing and Karate. Proclaimed as a martial arts master, he has shown the ability to take on seven people at once. He spent several months dedicated to making himself a better fighter and trained with many of the world's finest martial arts teachers and even went through training from Natas, the same person who trained Deathstroke.

Eskrima

Judo

Kickboxing

Karate

Peak Human Condition: Oliver spent a fortune to hire the world's foremost martial arts masters to train him until he was in peak physical condition.

Politics: Ollie ran for office and became the mayor of Star City for a significant amount of time. He has since resigned from being the mayor and has continued to lean on political issues from time to time.

Stick Fighting: Oliver has shown to be a highly skilled stick fighter, as displayed when he gained the upper hand in a fight with Arsenal, while using one of his Eskrima sticks.

Swordsmanship: Ollie is also very proficient with a sword, though it is not his preferred weapon of choice. He has beaten Jason Todd in a sword-fight and has deflected an incoming arrow with the sword he carries.

Throwing: Oliver is a master marksman and possesses great aim with projectile objects such as darts, in addition to his skill in archery.

Weaponry: Oliver is proficient in the use of an array of weaponry, including archery, sticks, and various bladed weapons.

Ollie has a rare Rh-negative blood type, the same as his former lover, Black Canary.

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