#jim depalma

[jimdepalma]

The Importance of Color Contrast in Web Design for Color Blind Users

When we envision the vast digital landscape, we often imagine it bursting with a riot of colors, helping us distinguish, comprehend, and engage with various elements. However, for a significant section of the global population, this color-rich experience is not a given. These individuals have color blindness, a condition that alters the perception of color due to the absence or malfunction of certain color-sensitive cells in the retina.

Color blindness can vary in type and severity, ranging from difficulty distinguishing between specific colors, such as red and green or blue and yellow, to the rare inability to perceive color at all. Understanding these nuances is pivotal in creating an inclusive digital environment.

Color contrast isn’t merely an aesthetic choice in web design; it’s a cornerstone of accessibility. High color contrast can significantly enhance content readability, making it more inclusive for users with visual impairments, including color blindness. Designing with color contrast in mind ensures that color blind users can interact with, understand, and enjoy web content just as effectively as those with typical color vision. It’s about ensuring an equitable and enjoyable user experience for all, irrespective of their visual abilities.

Color Blindness and Web Accessibility

Overview of the Different Types of Color Blindness

To design effectively for color blindness, it’s essential first to understand its various types. The most common forms are Deuteranomaly (green-weak), Protanomaly (red-weak), and Tritanomaly (blue-yellow), each affecting the perception of different color ranges. More rare forms include Monochromacy and Achromatopsia, where the color vision is almost or entirely absent. By recognizing these variations, web designers can make informed choices about color combinations, contrast, and visual cues in their design.

The Web Experience for Color Blind Users

The web experience for color blind users can often be frustrating and exclusive. Crucial information conveyed through color such as links, buttons, or notifications might be missed or misunderstood, making tasks like online shopping, reading, or data interpretation a challenge. The widespread reliance on color in web design necessitates an urgent shift towards more accessible practices, with color contrast being at the forefront.

Top 10 Tips for Designing Websites with High Color Contrast

1. Use of Contrast Ratios

A good starting point for enhancing web accessibility is the use of contrast ratios. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommend a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Using tools to calculate these ratios can significantly improve the readability of your content for color-blind users.

2. Selecting High-Contrast Color Pairs

When designing your site, choose high-contrast color pairs to enhance visibility. For example, black text on a white background offers a high contrast and is generally easily visible for most users. Experimenting with different color combinations can yield a palette that is both aesthetically pleasing and accessible. Read More

[hasellia]

Okay so I was scouring jojowiki.com as usual and it says there that Diego's dinosaur form is based on an outdated record of a Utahraptor, and I don't know anything about them but I have a slight suspicion they were found in Utah.

I dunno just thought it was funny how to the point the name is. "it's a raptor in Utah, let's call it Utahraptor"

You blame Jim Kirkland over on his twitter for naming them that.

But yeah, "[Place name]saurus [place name]ensis" is a meme in the paleocommunity for a reason. (The word "ensis" meaning "from [place name]".) Image souce: Adam-Loves-Dinosaurs.

I think Utahraptor is probably the most famous one. When another large dromeosaur was found in Dakota, DePalma felt it natural to smash the usual dromeosaur suffix of "raptor" with the prefix of [Place name] to name Dakotaraptor.

A dinosaur not many realise was intended to be named after a place is Mamenchisaurus. (Source: Cervente on Tumblr)

It was discovered in (yes I'm using Wikipedia's text) Mǎmíngxī (马鸣溪 'horse-neighing brook') by Yang Zhongjian (楊鍾健), grandfather of Chinese Palaeontology. However, Yang wasn't from the area and mistook the intonation for the locale name. So he ended up calling it (馬門溪龍屬), from Mǎménxī (马门溪 'horse-gate brook').

That's probably the most fun one I can think of, but the others are like...

Koreacertops. Aegyptosaurus. Argentinosaurus. Patagotitan (Patagonia). Chilesaurus (Chile, but apparently it sounds like "dick" in latin countries?) Edmontosaurus (Canadian province, Edmonton). Albertosaurus (Candadian province Alberta, named after Princess Louise Carolina Alberta... named after Prince Albert). Gondwanasuchus (A crocodile actually, that was found in São Paulo, you know where, which USED to be part of the supercontinent Gondwana). Adamantisaurus is named from the same formation the croc was found, Adamantina.

Probably the most common kind of argument on the internet regarding dinosaurs at the moment is names and... IMO, it's not worth it unless it's REALLY bad or a bit mishandled, like Kuru kulla or Mamenchisaurus. But then, that's what the ICZN (International Code of Zoological Nomenclature) is usually for.

Anyway, Thanos is the worst dinosaur name in current use. Grapes, I need your Brazilian Portuguese expertise to write a strongly worded letter to Rafael Delcourt and Fabiano Vidoi Iori on good naming conventions. Obrigado Uva!

[champagnepodiums]

I'm excited that Indycar is coming back to Milwaukee in 2024. Do you have any interesting facts about racing at the Milwaukee Mile?

DO I?

Oh of course -- it's hard not to with a track that has been around for so long.

Like a lot of race tracks in the beginnings of American Open Wheel, the track originated as a horse racing track, constructed in 1876. In 1891, the state of Wisconsin purchased the land that the track was on for the Wisconsin State Fair -- the track is still apart of those fairgrounds.

The first motorsport event was held at the track in September 1903. William Jones of Chicago set the very first track record with a 50 mph (80km/hr) lap (my how motorsports has changed). The Milwaukee Mile is considered the longest continuously operating motor speedway in the world.

The track attracted the biggest names of early American motorsports -- Barney Oldfield (who was like the first American motorsport star) and Walter Christie (who was also a really noted and respected racer who eventually went on to help invent a suspension system for tanks that was used in WWII) raced there in 1905 and again in 1907, setting track records both times.

Barney Oldfield returned to the track a decade later in 1917 to face off against Ralph DePalma (another era super star and honestly one of the best to ever do it imo). The car he drove is the interesting (to me) part because it was so far ahead of its time, I think.

It was called the 'Golden Submarine' built by Harry Miller and Fred Offenhauser (if those names sound familiar, they are the two who created cars that dominated the Indy 500 for decades) with the help of Barney Oldfield in response to the death of Barney's close friend Bob Burman who was killed when his open cock-pit car rolled. And while it was kind of primitive, it included a roll cage (and I think it's probably the first one?) But it looked like this:

(I actually just really love the Golden Submarine and will not pass up any opportunity to make people look at it)

Barney Oldfield was in fact victorious in the Golden Submarine over Ralph DePalma (who interestingly was driving a car that was outfitted with an aviation airplane... early motorsports was very zany).

Here's an article from the Sheboygan Press because I think this picture of Barney Oldfield is hilarious and wonderful:

ANYWAY I am off-topic so back to the Milwaukee Mile -- the track was both a horse and auto track so it was dirt in the early stages. In the late 1910's into 1920's there was this big fad of board tracks (which were exactly what they sound like, made from wooden board) so the Mile fell out of favor with the big name, nationally renown racers of that era.

In the early 30's, the track put in an improved grandstand that if my math is correct, about doubled the numbers of seats. In this time frame too, the Green Bay Packers played two games a year in the infield. Anyways, the improvements drew back the top level open wheel cars in 1933. A lot of sources credit this race as the start of the term 'rain date' but I can't find any independent evidence in newspapers to support this so take this as you will, I guess?

The track was first paved in 1954. Jim Clark won a race there in 1963. It also has hosted NASCAR.

I ran out of steam at the end, I'm very sorry but the Mile has a lot of historic value to IndyCar and I'm really glad to see it back on the schedule, I hope the crowds are big and the racing is good so we can enjoy the track for decades more <3

[ethanhuntfemmefatale]

(Same anon) the craziest part about the jim/ethan/claire Sin Motif for me is that it’s not just a sin, it’s one on the Ten Commandments (thou shall not covet) a fact that Jim literally throws back in Ethan’s face right before he kills Claire. Like it’s one of the Big Ones and to your point I think it is the most morally gray Ethan ever gets on a personal level. Like in the future we see him struggle with big decisions with huge moral ramifications on a worldwide scale, but I don’t think we can get there without baby Ethan having to navigate the worlds most toxic throuple.

As to it not being his fault, I do find it interesting to compare the beginning of the movie, where Ethan cups her face while she wakes up and it’s very obvious he has feelings for her (the only part where he actively shows his feelings for her unprompted) vs the rest of the movie which is her making moves at him while he reacts fairly passively, even before he knows Jim is alive, which is SO fascinating to me, especially because that first scene is the only one where the audience doesn’t know she’s married so it’s the only one free of Jim’s presence. I’m sorry it just really is the worlds most toxic throuple because any time two of them interact you can tell the existence of the third is the elephant in the room. Something I think you’ll really get a kick out of is that the track that plays when Claire and Ethan have their hand kiss moment after Ethan meets with Jim is named “love theme?” and that the same track plays (though quieter) when Jim and Ethan are talking, specifically starting when Jim talks about Claire. So who’s love theme(?) is it? And the answer is it’s all of theirs. I love Brian DePalma that crazy psychosexual freak

WAIT YOURE KIDDING OH MY GOD WAIT

oh my god

ok that information is everything to me i feel amazed. and a little in love with brian depalma

ugh ok anon thank you for writing this i hope you don't mind another rant i can feel it coming on. i have endless thoughts about these three i guess and every time someone pokes me with brilliant ideas like these^^^ they come spilling out

first of all i love your point about ethan being the most physically affectionate with Claire before the audience knows she's married to Jim. on a narrative level that makes sense but also in narrative it makes sense too? because in the whole movie that's probably the time when the omnipresent "Jim ghost" is the least pressing and painful. To get a bit into the weeds with Jim theorizing I think it's easy to imagine that part of the benefit of Jim being away all the time (beyond making it possible to conduct deals with Max and plan intricate murders) is that Jim being distant makes Claire's job of seducing Ethan way easier. It's obvious in the initial scene with the team that Claire and Ethan have bonded more in Jim's absence--'that sludge you made in Kiev' and claire's dry little 'thank you' gets me every time--part of this is that when Jim is away, the guilt of whatever is happening between Ethan and Claire is less pressing and immediate, it makes it easier for Ethan to be in denial about the reality of the situation. Part of this is also that with Jim gone, Claire acts as a proxy-Jim, a source of indirect connection to a Jim who is distant and untouchable.

One of the ideas that I was attempting to set up in the pre-Prague fic was this idea of uneasy peace that becomes comfortable through exposure--a big question of MI1 to me is how the hell do you get to that place where your dead(?) father figure's wife comes up to you, kisses you on the cheek, moves as if to kiss your lips and then backs away. and you react with--emotional pain, confusion, but not surprise. It really seems like he's used to it. And I think that the tightrope walk of The Sin is probably something Ethan has been walking for a long time when we meet him in MI1, and he's probably done a lot of mental work trying to convince himself that he's not going to fall over the edge.

the "thou shalt not covet" line made me lose my entire shit when i first watched the movie and still does every single fucking time i see it. but i have a really hard time being able to place exactly why it gets to me so much. part of it I think is The Sin being voiced. that scene between ethan jim and claire in the climax is so completely electric because it takes something unspeakable, that has been unspoken and unspeakable for probably the better part of Ethan's time in the IMF, and then speaks it in the most crude and cruel way possible. "tasted the goods." "thou shalt not covet." I love the one-two punch of those lines because they lay out Jim's moral perspective in a really brutal way. They basically really quickly establish Jim's obsession with--to go back to something I talked about in my last rant to you, anon--purity, religious purity that has nothing to do with genuine love and care, everything to do with superiority and power and control.

When Jim talks about Ethan's love for Claire, it's not as a personal betrayal (you're in love with my wife!) but as an abstract recognition of Sin. It's distant! It's paternal! He's scolding Ethan! And this comes literally seconds after he admits to the seduction plot. Which is fascinating in itself. It doesn't matter whether Ethan coveting Claire happened organically--he was vulnerable to it. He fell in the trap, and to Jim that signifies religious weakness. I've talked before about how Jim sees Ethan as similar to Claire, and I think this might be a good example of that. Jim points out this weakness in Ethan to convey the idea of, you can never be a hero, you can never win, because you are corrupt and sinful and vulnerable. It feels...almost gendered ngl?

Then there's the whole aspect that Jim's evidence for Ethan falling for the seduction, his evidence of Ethan's sinful weakness, is actually just the two facts that a) Claire doesn't want Ethan to die, and b) Ethan wants to believe that Claire is innocent. Which are both symptoms not of the fucked up seduction thing but of...love. Genuine care, even in the sea of lies. Jim's perspective then becomes some sort of awful merging of two ideas: first, 'love is a weakness and a moral impurity that destabilizes your ability to be powerful and superior and a hero'. second, 'there is no genuine love and care, it's all manipulative, covetous, lustful and sinful.' which is. A Lot. and again very indicative of Jim's worldview and the worldview that he's imposed on Claire for years, and Ethan more indirectly for years.

not sure if im making sense here.

anyway this is getting long i do genuinely have more thoughts but they're not totally connected so I think I might put them in another post. thank you so so much for this ask anon i am in your debt

[callmearcturus]

Just watched MI 1, on my way to watching the others (sorry I am incapable of not going in order and I'm really curious how all your fic differs from MI 3...)

Oh boy. Twinkthan, the knife, the elevator, Luther (Luther!!!), the fuckin train/helicopter?? I am so curious how the train and the helicopter stunt worked, it was so agonizing the whole way through. Wow. I am 100% down now and I was already like 80% down from the fic.

oh anon you are gonna have to get through the two worst movies that way but godspeed, glory 8C please know that once McQ gets his hands on the series, it's a tremendous rebirth

lmao the stunts in the first three movies are.... fine. i remember during our commentary of MI3 I told Punct the fulcrum jump was not real and they were SO MAD.

for MI1, the most impressive stunt is the Langley sequence. like, you can see TC's body control as he spins and tilts himself on those pivot points. and obvious he nearly didn't pull off the cable drop itself but managed it on the last take DePalma was going to give him.

the train was mostly CGI but i know there's a stunt where they used high-powered fans to blast TC from the helicopter onto the train. which would be impressive if it sadly didn't look dumb. (I'm not a fan of that entire sequence, MI1 to me ends with the Jim/Ethan confrontation and the lovely Luther/Ethan bit at the end is a coda.)

for MI2, I MEAN. THERE'S A LOT OF WEIRD PRACTICAL EFFECTS AND ALSO CGI EFFECTS? like the death star dive into the lab is obvsly greenscreened to hell and back and his building dive, that one too. HOWEVER almost all of the motorcycle shit is real and began TC's lifelong affair with decelerator cables--

which, basically from MI2 onward, if you see Ethan get thrown from a motorcycle or slide down a building or basically anything that makes you go "oh he'd be fucking dead at that speed" that is TC attached to a Decelerator Cables, invented by Dar Robinson, maybe the greatest stunt man of all time, and the cable will slow the stuntman (or batshit lead actor) down so they DON'T get squished on impact. the very cool hit-and-roll in Fallout is this.

ANYWAY yeah iirc even the stunt of the motorcycle jousting is real with both actors on cables but the truly Most Batshit stunt is the knife-to-the-eye stunt in the climax. which was TC's idea. and imo is like top three for Most Dangerous Bullshit This Idiot Has Done.

for MI3 there are only really two stunts in that movie but you haven't gotten there yet so hit me up later.

also if you wanna hear me expound on each stunt as it happens, Punct and I did those audio commentaries. they are Super Spoilery and full of Dubiously Fun Facts so maybe after you watch all the movies first.

[kwebtv]

Team Knight Rider - Syndication - October 6, 1997 - May 18, 1998

Action / Crime (22 episodes)

Running Time: 60 minutes

Stars:

Brixton Karnes as Kyle Stewart

Christine Steel as Jenny Andrews

Duane Davis as Duke DePalma

Kathy Trageser as Erica West

Nick Wechsler as Kevin "Trek" Sanders

Other FLAG members

Vince Waldron as Gil

Rick Copp as Clayton

Lowell Dean as Captain J. P. Wyatt

Steve Sheridan as Dr. Felson

Michael Lexx as Scott

Steve Forrest as Shadow

Other Characters

Bill Bumiller as Martin Jantzen

David McCallum as the voice of Mobius

Jim Fyfe as Dennis

Rainer Grant as Liz "Starr" Starrowitz

Jim Piddock as Max Amato (Amendes)

Marta Martin as Kayla Gordon

Roland Kickinger as Roland Laschewsky

[jimdapalma21]

Jim DePalma

Jim DaPalma graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from Bentley College in 1973. He began his career that same year with his acceptance of a position at the Big eight accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand. At Coopers, his work concentration included operations consulting, corporate transactions (divestitures, acquisitions, mergers, etc.), and process management. His industry specializations included defense and communications.

[jimdepalma]

Websites design & development, Web Accessibility: A Comprehensive Guide for Users with Dyslexia

Welcome to this comprehensive guide where we delve into the intriguing intersection of dyslexia, website design, and web accessibility. In this digital age, web accessibility is crucial to ensure that every individual can fully partake in the digital experience, and this includes individuals with dyslexia.

Dyslexia, as defined by the International Dyslexia Association, is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language, often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.

For individuals with dyslexia, reading and learning can pose significant challenges. These challenges can extend to the digital sphere, particularly when it comes to navigating and absorbing information from websites.

Web accessibility refers to the inclusive practice of making websites usable for people of all abilities and disabilities. This involves ensuring that digital content is accessible, whether the user is visually impaired, hard of hearing, or, as in the context of this article, dyslexic. By ensuring web accessibility, we are creating an inclusive digital space where no user is left behind, especially those with dyslexia.

Understanding Dyslexia and Web Accessibility

To truly appreciate the importance of web accessibility, we must first dive into a deeper understanding of dyslexia and how it can impact web usage.

Defining Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words, also called decoding. It affects areas of the brain that process language. While its effects can vary widely from person to person, common challenges include difficulties with spelling, phonological processing, and rapid visual-verbal responding.

The Impact of Dyslexia on Web Usage

Websites are essentially platforms of information delivered predominantly through written text. However, dyslexic users may find it challenging to read and understand this information, leading to feelings of frustration and exclusion. It can affect their ability to complete online tasks, interact with digital services, and use the web effectively. These barriers highlight the need for more accessible web design and development.

The Importance of Web Accessibility for Users with Dyslexia

Web accessibility isn’t just a nice-to-have feature—it’s a necessity. It is about providing an equal opportunity for all users, including those with dyslexia, to access information and services online. Designing with accessibility in mind enhances the user experience for everyone, not just those with dyslexia or other disabilities.

The Importance of Web Accessibility (Thought Leadership Piece)

We are at an inflection point in the digital era, where web accessibility is gaining significant attention. Yet, there’s much to be done to ensure its widespread adoption. Read More

[jimdapalma18]

Jim DePalma

Jim DaPalma graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from Bentley College in 1973. He began his career that same year with his acceptance of a position at the Big eight accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand. At Coopers, his work concentration included operations consulting, corporate transactions (divestitures, acquisitions, mergers, etc.), and process management. His industry specializations included defense and communications.

[jimdapalma16]

Jim DePalma

Jim DaPalma graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from Bentley College in 1973. He began his career that same year with his acceptance of a position at the Big eight accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand. At Coopers, his work concentration included operations consulting, corporate transactions (divestitures, acquisitions, mergers, etc.), and process management. His industry specializations included defense and communications.

[jimdapalma14]

Jim dePalma

Jim DaPalma graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from Bentley College in 1973. He began his career that same year with his acceptance of a position at the Big eight accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand. At Coopers, his work concentration included operations consulting, corporate transactions (divestitures, acquisitions, mergers, etc.), and process management. His industry specializations included defense and communications.

[jimdapalma13]

Jim dePalma

Jim DaPalma graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from Bentley College in 1973. He began his career that same year with his acceptance of a position at the Big eight accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand. At Coopers, his work concentration included operations consulting, corporate transactions (divestitures, acquisitions, mergers, etc.), and process management. His industry specializations included defense and communications.

[back-and-totheleft]

An artist of stark dualities and excesses

William Oliver “Ollie” Stone, child of Eastern privilege who eschewed at least some of that advantage to go through hard knocks on his own, a Vietnam Vet who enlisted and fought as an infantryman, later a pacifist and outspoken critic of American foreign policy and values, shock impact screenwriter and artful, sometimes poetic director — they’re all present in the 70something filmmaker’s rise-to-glory memoir, “Chasing the Light.”

I’ve been a fan pretty much since “Salvador.” My first reporting assignment at my first newspaper, where I was a freelance critic had me take five Vietnam War veterans to a showing of “Platoon” and buy them coffee at a local diner afterwards. Their harrowing stories, and tears at seeing their experience reflected so “accurately,” stick with me.

Stone remains a fascinating study in contradictions, champion of the underdog and occasionally an on-set bully, macho yet lefty, generous to every collaborator and teacher who helped him “make it,” learn his craft and get better at it, but almost always hitting them with a backhanded compliment or two. Or three.

From the beginning he has been an artist of stark dualities and excesses. He sees himself as Odysseus or a pirate, a rogue operator outside “The System.”

He comes off in print the way he’s always come off in interviews — passionate, thoughtful and somewhat dogmatic. I’ve interviewed him several times over the years, about his “Vietnamese POV” Vietnam film, “Heaven and Earth” (the third in his “trilogy” about his war — after “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July”), about “World Trade Center,” his post-9/11 tribute to first responders and most “pro-American” work, and that Latin American politics doc he did a few years back. He’s long had that confidence of his opinions, certitude that he’s “right” in a historical sense, quick to analyze a performance, a colleague’s film or judge his own — sometimes harshly.

There’s a lot of psychoanalyzing of himself, his parents, their failed marriage, his own failures and insecurities in “Chasing the Light.” He talks about his drug abuse, hits a few romantic relationships, and consults his decades of diaries to remember everything from his father’s death to his first brushes with triumph.

I didn’t recall that his first trip to Vietnam was before the “escalation,” as an English teacher. I had no idea he was in LRRPs in Vietnam (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol). That’s infantry on steroids.

I knew he had boarding school and Yale acceptance (he didn’t stick it out long) in his pedigree.

I didn’t realize he’d studied under wunderkind alumnus Martin Scorsese at NYU.

He understudied/worked for/was critiqued by the great screenwriter Robert Bolt (“Lawrence of Arabia,” “Doctor Zhivago”) in his 20s.

For this book about his long, long road to fame — “Seizure” (nobody saw it) to “The Hand” (a few more saw it) to “Salvador” (ditto) and then “Platoon” — Stone traces everything, from his scripts to his own saga, back to “The Odyssey.”

Stone’s lasting obsessions aren’t just Vietnam and America’s misguided way of throwing its weight around the world. It’s The Doors and Jim Morrison, as he quotes The Doors often, sees himself (and occasionally others) in Lizard King terms at several points in his memoir.

He details the ordeals involved in each early directing effort, and in his many screenwriting challenges — “Midnight Express,” “Year of the Dragon” and “Scarface” among them. Those are some of the most fascinating chapters in the book. He says Brian DePalma’s “operatic” take on his “Scarface” script has grown on him. Some.

Of Billy Hayes, the “hero” of “Midnight Express,” passed off in the media and the movie as just “a kid who made a mistake” — “stunned” that Hayes, contrary to the way he told his story, was caught on his “fourth” hash smuggling run out of Turkey, that Hayes led people to believe he was heterosexual, heightening (if that’s possible) the horror of prison sexual assaults and encounters.

“How do you live with yourself? I have no problem believing he can.”

Stone opens the book with an introduction to his love/hate relationship with the mercurial, motor-mouthed blowhard James Woods, telling tales out of school of Woods’ tantrums and fear-filled experiences filming “Salvador” on the fly in Mexico in the ’80s, fleeing a cavalry charge shot too early, exaggerating the danger and “Stone didn’t know what he was doing…but I did” way Woods described the experience.

Having interviewed Woods myself, a bantam rooster who can’t wait to work his (alleged) IQ into any introductory conversation, Stone seems on the mark in picking at the man being “the most insecure” movie star of them all. They worked together several times after their near-brawling “Salvador” experience.

The compliments mixed with slaps extends from Alan Parker, director of “Midnight Express,” who took his script and never invited him to the set, to Dale Dye, the formidable Vietnam vet and military consultant on many a war movie, who developed his “boot camp” for the cast of “Platoon,” and repeated that in other war films he worked on. Dye made “Platoon’s” cast a unit, with the right look and jumpy reflexes Stone remembered from his service. But keep politics out of the conversation, and Dye’s racial tolerance — filming in the Philippines — wasn’t the most enlightened.

Then again, he wasn’t the guy who kicked a Filipino production manager in the ass, on set, in front of the entire crew. That was Stone, who airs lots of his dirty laundry, even if he takes his shot at “explaining” or spinning that behavior. He also quotes freely from interviews conducted by a biographer who talked to many of those he worked for.

Stone is wise to limit this volume to his early years. His career has been winding down, although he has a small scale film, “White Lies,” in pre-production, “Snowden” didn’t set the world on fire and the Castro, Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin interview docs he’s made in the last haven’t done much for his reputation.

He turned 74 in mid September, and probably needed a better book editor to fact check his memories. He confuses the F4 Phantoms used in Vietnam with F16s — repeatedly (They didn’t come into service until ten years after his 1968 battles “in country”), gets a major plot detail wrong in “Gone With the Wind” just to make an analogy to his French mother taking up with his WWII American command staff officer father work. He thinks one-time producer-nemesis Dino DeLaurentis opened a movie studio in the middle of their ’80s kerfuffle in “Wilmington, Delaware” (Wilmington, NC sport).

But it’s a fair self-portrait, with enough colorful detail of research trips, filming ordeals and failing and failing and failing before finally succeeding, fine fodder for a film biography of one of the cinema’s grand mavericks.

-Roger Moore at Roger's Movie Nation blog, Sept 20 2020

[assignmentimprobable]

A Mission Impossible (1996) Appreciation Post

When I think about MI ’96, I think a lot about the aesthetic and stylistic choices it made  (how I’ve been chasing that high ever since) Allow me to enumerate some of those things in another list formatted post:

Sound: The movie’s comfort with total silence. not a beat pause. No a music drop and then a rising crescendo for triumph. The deeply uncomfortable *cough cough* *sniff sniff* silence. You never get the sense that the movie is desperate to fill the space, point in fact it thrives on your discomfort. As a viewer of any cloth, you know its likely that Ethan Hunt is gonna come out of this, but you really ask yourself how far the team pulls before the rubberband snaps.  Hearing Luther talk near the sound sensor makes you want to jump out of your skin…. The suspense. The urgency. Donloe is coming. He’s coming but they can’t move at any pace except the one they set. Because if it’s not the decibel monitor, it’s the heat sensor, if it’s not the heat sensor it’s the motion sensor, and if it’s not any of that it’s the fucking knife! The one thing we weren’t even worried about! 

Space: The claustrophobic & contained nature of space need to be talked about. An all white room so vast and sleek- yet so small. Max’s car, the diner, the elevator shaft, the train cars, the phone booths. The safe house too. There’s all this space around each, but the amount that the characters are allowed to occupy as is narrow. It’s paramount that they take up as little space as possible to pull off the NOC List heist. The sets themselves do a lot of work, but we have to give ms. camera her dues. which brings me to my next ‘S’; 

Style: motherfuckin dutch tilts baybee!!! You get two (2) things out of their use as a technique:  (1) a sense of urgency for Ethan and Sarah when they’re under the elevator. One wrong move and they’re crushed, the camera accommodates and gets some foreshadowing in on what happens to Jack from a top down perspective and (2) the sense Ethan’s entire world has been tipped on its axis when Kittredge drops the big bomb in the diner scene. It’s as shocking for him as it is for us that *it was all a trap*. 

The first Mission Impossible movie was made with a film style that doesn’t? really exist anymore? I think that’s a bit of a shame, really. Then again, I’m glad the time of grossly framed pat-downs and “Ethan fucked my wife” allegations have passed. Claire might’ve aided and abetted the slaughter of her teammates, but fuck you for treating her like a piece of meat anyway @Director.

[quasar1967]

Cinefantastique #14

Dec 1974

This issue includes the following: an interview with Jack Arnold; a retrospective of The Incredible Shrinking Man; an interview with Brian DePalma; reviews of Jaws, The Stepford Wives, and other movies; features on The Last Days of Man on Earth, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Space: 1999; and more. Cover: Phantom of the Paradise by Jim Thomas. 

[365days365movies]

January 2, 2021: Mission: Impossible (Epilogue)

Now, after all of that, I have my opinions about the movie, but I think we need to talk about the franchise first. Not the franchise that came after, but the one that came before. You might have wondered why I was so absolutely pissed about the whole Jim Phelps thing. Well, I’ll explain. Because, while this might not be the worst action movie of all time or anything, MAN, is it a contender for the worst adaptation of all time.

So, without further adieu, let’s talk about:

Jim Phelps

Poor, poor Peter Graves. You may know him from the film Airplane!, as the pilot of the plane, Captain Oveur. But, one of his most iconic roles on TV was as Jim Phelps, the director of IMF from seasons 2 to 7 of the 1966 series, and in the 1988 revival. Phelps was not only the leader of the group, but one of its most prominent and versatile members. Because of this, he’s arguably the most notable person involved in the IMF, and a faithful member, always taking on impossible missions for the greater good.

So, you can imagine how absolutely pissed off the 1996 film made fans of the original, the cast of the original, and Peter Graves himself, when the writers decided to make Jim a straight-up villain, and brought in no other members of the original team. It should be noted that this movie is indeed intended to be a continuation of the original series and its revival. And yes, Peter Graves was asked to reprise his role as Jim Phelps, but turned it down when he found out that Jim Phelps was meant to betray and MURDER IMF. Because, yeah, not cool!

Maybe this was intended to surprise people, including and especially fans of the original series, which did have quite a fanbase at the time. But this had two problems. One, by turning one of the longest lasting heroes of the franchise into a straight-up villain with a Cold War-chip on his shoulder, he immediately is acting extremely out of character as compared to the version of the character that got all of those fans together in the first place. And second, WHAT SURPRISE? As emphatically noted by me, I figured out that Phelps was the villain within the first 5 minutes of runtime. Seriously. IT WASN’T THAT HARD. 

Not to mention the fact that the original cast also hated this movie. Greg Morris, who played a character that I think Luther Stickell may be loosely based upon, literally walked out of the theater before the movie was finished, because he was reportedly “disgusted” by what they’d done to Jim. Martin Landau, another original cast member, said that the original plan was to have the entire cast come back, only to get immediately killed off so that Tom Cruise could be the only surviving IMF member, and he was very against that. He also cast shade on the script in the same interview, which is kind of funny.

So, yeah, with all of that said, this is a very bad adaptation. But is it a bad movie? Let’s go over it, shall we?

Cast and Acting

So, yeah, Cruise was Cruise again. But, he was definitely more likable as Ethan Hunt. Although, he also was a little less-defined as a character. I’d wager that that’ll be fixed in later films, but he was blander than Maverick, I’d say. Still, he wasn’t Maverick, so that’s an improvement. Voight as the main villain was...obvious. Sorry, but I’ve seen Voight not act somewhat sinister in any role. Hell, even in National Treasure, I didn’t trust him. Maybe that’s just me; Anaconda was a memorable movie from my childhood, what can I say? Emmanuelle Beart was fine, I suppose. But for me, the stars of the show were Rhames, Reno, and Redgrave. The 3 R’s dripped with charisma and energy in every scene they were in. Redgrave was regularly ravishing, Rhames was remarkably refined, and Reno was roguishly rakish. Right on.

Cast and Acting: 7/10

Plot and Writing

Well...OK, look, the writing in this film is mostly fine. And the plot is mostly (mostly) competent, but...it’s so obvious. IT IS SO OBVIOUS. Even without my Jon Voight-bias, his heel-turn is obvious within 20 minutes. Not hard to figure that out, seriously. And outside of that, this really is just a standard spy flick. It’s nothing really out of the ordinary and spectacular, at all. And that in and of itself definitely doesn’t make it a bad movie. However, it also detracts from the suspense. The significant other pointed out that this may be because I’ve seen movies that came out after this one, and that this film may have been a trope-maker. Which, yes, entirely valid point there. But even then, this film doesn’t go far enough out of the James Bond comfort zone that it’s nestled within. So, yeah, not bad, but also not spectacular. With a very predictable twist.

Plot and Writing: 5/10

Direction and Action

I just, that scene! That ending climax is amazing, seriously! I’ve put it up here in this review, chopped into GIFs, but seriously! Rewatch this scene if you haven’t seen it in a while. And if you haven’t seen this movie, I’m sorry that you’ve been spoiled, but still! Check this scene out! But outside of this scene, how was the movie? Well, first things first, the director was Brian DePalma, the director of Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito’s Way, and Phantom of the Paradise. When you look at his credits, he has a lot of great films under his belt, as well as some mediocre ones. But, he knows what he’s doing with this movie. While it might not bear the most stylish of directorial flourishes, it’s still a hell of a ride. And, in terms of action, this is definitely more of an action movie than Top Gun was. The movie literally cannot work without some of its most suspenseful and iconic physical sequences. Man oh MAN, it’s one hell of a ride throughout. So, yeah, this category is getting a high score. A perfect score? No. Like I said, not too many directorial flourishes that I really noticed. Excellent directing, but not 10/10.

Direction and Action: 9/10

Costume and Set Design

This was pretty good, honestly. Some character outfits stood out to me (Rhames in particular), and the set pieces that were present were great! The train-copter-Chunnel scene obviously stands out, as well as the fish tank scene in the beginning. Not much to say for this one, in truth.

Costume and Set Design: 8/10

Music

OK, so, here’s the thing about the M:I theme song. I VASTLY prefer the original version. Honestly, Danny Elfman is a competent composer and all (if not a bit overused and overexposed), but Lalo Schifrin’s song is so timeless that the update in the movie, in my opinion, actually kind of ruins the original. And given that I genuinely don’t remember most of the music in the movie outside of the theme song...yeah, this one weirdly isn’t going to get a high grade from me. All points go to Lalo Schifrin. Sorry, Danny Elfman.

Music: 5/10

And there you have it, Mission: Impossible (1996). Tallying up the scores, that’s a 34/50, leaving us with a 68%. And yeah, that sounds about right to me. Seriously, this is a by-the-books spy film, and I got exactly what I expected from it. Well, mostly. I expected a better plot and twist, and a better mystery. I got a much worse one. But I DID NOT expect the action, especially the climax. And yeah, that ending scene alone is worth the price of admission. Might make me sound shallow, but MAN, it was cool. Do I recommend this movie? I recommend scenes from this movie, at the very least. But, if you watch it, you’ll get about what you expected: a spy movie starring Tom Cruise and an obvious twist.

OK, that’s enough of Tom Cruise for one month (maybe for one year, let’s be honest). What about another iconic action film star of the ‘80s and ‘90s? I’ve seen a lot of Schwarzenegger (and the movies of his I haven’t seen will feature later this year), so...what about Stallone? Not Rocky, though; that’ll be for sports month. And First Blood is...we’ll see about First Blood. OH! Got it!

January 3, 2021: Cliffhanger