I like that that would be an interesting thing to read. You said an up and coming author would write this do you have a biography thought out for them?I'm thinking of drawing some inspiration from the Shahnameh, an Iranian myth, as well as Zoroastrianism. It expands into a vast universe of its own as well.
Shahnameh - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Blue Skies in Camelot (Continued): An Alternate 80s and Beyond
- Thread starter President_Lincoln
- Start date
Thank you for the reminder.
I didn't forget about all of these, I just didn't have a chance to fit them all into the pop culture update. I haven't been including the Nobel Prize winners because I fear that I may not know enough about each field to reasonably choose alternative winners from each year.
More Movies from 1981!
Pop Culture Update - More of Blue Skies at the Movies - 1981
Above: Promotional posters for Das Boot; Clash of the Titans; and John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, three “cult classics” that were first released in 1981.
Das Boot - American/West German war film. Neue Constantin Film. Written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Robert Redford, Herbert Grönemeyer and Klaus Wennemann. An adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim's 1973 German novel based on his experiences aboard German submarine U-96, the film is set during World War II and follows U-96 and her crew, as they set out on a hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country.
During production, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, the captain of the real U-96 during Buchheim's 1941 patrol and one of Germany's top U-boat “aces” during the war, and Hans-Joachim Krug, former first officer on U-219, served as consultants. One of Petersen's goals was to guide the audience through “a journey to the edge of the mind” (the film's German tagline Eine Reise ans Ende des Verstandes), showing “what war is all about”.
Produced on a budget of DM (Deutschmark) 32 million (equivalent to $18.5 million), this price tag was among the highest in the history of German cinema. The returns at the box office, however, more than made up for the hefty price tag. The film was picked up by Columbia Pictures for distribution in the United States (both the original German version with English subtitles and an English-dub, lead actor Robert Redford delivered his own lines in both versions). The film would gross $85 million internationally, and be nominated for six Academy Awards, including best director and best adapted screenplay.
…
Clash of the Titans - Fantasy adventure. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Desmond Davis and written by Beverley Cross, loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Starring Mel Gibson, Judi Bowker, Burgess Meredith, Maggie Smith and Laurence Olivier, the film features the final work of stop-motion visual effects artist Ray Harryhausen. Co-produced between the United States and United Kingdom, it was theatrically released on June 12th, 1981 and grossed $41 million at the North American box office on a budget of $15 million, making it the eleventh-highest grossing film of the year.
Critics largely praised the film (Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel gave it 3 and a half stars out of 4), calling it an “old-fashioned tale, a grand and glorious romantic adventure, filled with brave heroes, beautiful heroines, fearsome monsters, and awe-inspiring duels to the death. It is a lot of fun.”
The film’s star, 24 year old Australian actor Mel Gibson had only been featured in one prior leading role, in Peter Weir’s World War I drama Gallipoli (1981). Sensing that Gibson (with his good looks and impressive physique) might be a star in the making, MGM scooped him up for a multi-film contract.
Clash of the Titans also represented the next step in the popular boom of sword & sorcery/fantasy films in the 1980s. Arguably, the trend began the year before with Tristan & Isolde for Paramount, which launched that studio’s “Arthurian myth series”. 1981’s King Arthur served as the second entry in that series, and was even more successful than the first from a box office standpoint. Given audiences’ desire for escapism (and the popularity of the nerd subculture, including games like Dungeons & Dragons), fantasy films continued to see success in cinemas.
The concept of a “cinematic universe” - a series of connected films all set in the same continuity or “shared universe” - was still in its infancy at the time. Arguably, Universal Pictures first pioneered the concept in the 1930s and 40s with their horror films about the “classic movie monsters” - Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible man, etc. These characters could appear in one another’s films and interact, aiding or hindering the protagonists as needed (even if those protagonists happened to be Abbott and Costello).
Taking inspiration from Paramount, MGM decided to test out the concept for themselves. They would use Clash of the Titans to “test launch” their own cinematic universe based on Greek Mythology. A second film in the franchise, based upon the ever-popular Hercules, was slated for production in late 1981-1982, with a goal for a summer release in 1983. The first step was to have a script written, then to choose a director and cast a leading man. For the last of these, the studio turned to Lou Ferrigno, the former professional bodybuilder and star of The Incredible Hulk television series. This, if executed well, could be Ferrigno’s big break in film.
…
Escape from New York - Science fiction/Action. AVCO Embassy Pictures. Co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter. starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau and Harry Dean Stanton.
The film's storyline, set in the near-future world of 1997, concerns a crime-ridden United States, which has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's sole maximum security prison. Air Force One is hijacked by anti-government insurgents who deliberately crash it into the walled borough. Ex-soldier and current federal prisoner Snake Plissken (Russell) is given just 24 hours to go in and rescue the President of the United States, after which, if successful, he will be pardoned.
Released in the United States on July 10th, 1981, the film received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing more than $25.2 million at the box office. The film was nominated for four Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film and Best Direction.
The film also helped Kurt Russell finally begin to shed the “squeaky clean” image he was saddled with as a former child star who spent almost his entire career up to that point with Walt Disney Productions, appearing in toothless, bland family-friendly comedies. Russell engaged in a strict diet and training regimen to “get in shape” for the role. The film’s popularity ensured that Russell would be a go-to star for action films in the years to come.
…
Arthur - Romantic comedy. Orion Pictures/Warner Bros. Written and directed by Steve Gordon. The film stars John Belushi as Arthur Bach, a drunken New York City millionaire who is on the brink of an arranged marriage to a wealthy heiress - Susan Johnson (Jill Eikenberry) but ends up falling for a common working-class girl from Queens - Linda Marolla (Liza Minneli). It would be the sole film directed by Gordon, who tragically died in 1982 of a heart attack at age 44.
The film received critical acclaim - particularly the performances of Belushi and Minneli, who were said to have “excellent chemistry and comedic timing”. Though it underperformed at the box office per Warner Bros. expectations (probably due to a muddled and ill-conceived marketing campaign), its returns improved throughout the course of its run thanks to strong word of mouth. It would end up raking in just over $100 million at the box office against a budget of just $10 million, making it the fourth-highest grossing film of 1981 and one of the most profitable.
…
Cheech & Chong Join the Army - War comedy. Columbia Pictures. Directed by Ivan Reitman. Starring Cheech Martin and Tommy Chong, as well as numerous actors including John Larroquette, John Diehl, Conrad Dunn, Judge Reinhold, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Timothy Busfield, and Bill Paxton, who appear in their very first on-screen roles. Reitman wrote the film with Len Blum and Dan Goldberg, the latter of whom also served as producer alongside Reitman. Cheech & Chong wanted “complete creative control”, but eventually learned to collaborate successfully with Reitman. A summary of the film’s plot follows:
In the course of one day, Los Angeles cab driver (and stoner) Cheech loses his job, his apartment, his car, and his girlfriend Anita (Roberta Leighton), who has grown tired of his immaturity. Realizing his limited prospects, he decides to join the Army and persuades best friend Chong, a vocational ESL teacher, to join as well. The two visit a recruiting office and are soon sent off to basic training.
Upon arrival, they meet their fellow recruits and their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka (Warren Oates). Following in-processing, the recruits introduce themselves and explain their reasons for enlisting. One of them, the overweight Dewey "Ox" Oxberger (John Candy), wants to slim down and be respected by his fellow trainees and women in general. Cheech irritates Hulka with his slacker attitude, and he and Chong become romantically involved with MPs Louise Cooper (Sean Young) and Stella Hansen (P.J. Soles).
As graduation approaches, Hulka is injured when the haughty and dull-witted Captain Stillman, the recruit company's commanding officer, orders a mortar crew to fire without first setting target coordinates. Later, members of Hulka's platoon sneak off base and visit a mud wrestling bar, where Cheech persuades Ox to compete with a group of women. When MPs and police raid the club, Stella and Louise help Cheech and Chong escape. The rest of the platoon are returned to base, where Stillman reprimands them for being arrested and threatens to report them to the base commander, General Barnicke (Robert J. Wilke), and make them repeat basic training.
Cheech and Chong have sex with Stella and Louise, then return to base. John motivates the disheartened platoon with a speech and begins preparing them for graduation. After a night of practice, they oversleep and wake up an hour late for the ceremony. They rush to the parade ground, where Cheech leads them in an unorthodox but highly coordinated drill display. Impressed upon learning that they completed their training without a drill sergeant, Barnicke assigns them to a secret project he is overseeing in Italy.
Upon arrival in Italy, the platoon is reunited with a recovered Hulka and tasked with guarding the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, an armored personnel carrier disguised as a recreational vehicle. Cheech and Chong steal it to visit Stella and Louise, who are stationed in West Germany. When Stillman finds the vehicle missing, he launches an unauthorized mission to retrieve it, against Hulka's objections.
Stillman inadvertently leads the platoon across the border into Czechoslovakia. Hulka jumps from their truck before the Soviet Army captures it, and sends out a radio distress call that Cheech and Chong hear. Realizing that their platoon is in danger, Cheech, Chong, Stella, and Louise take the EM-50 and infiltrate the Soviet base where the platoon is being held, and rescue them with aid from Hulka.
Upon returning to the US, Cheech, Chong, Louise, Stella, and Hulka are hailed as heroes, and are each awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Hulka retires and opens a restaurant franchise; Cheech, Chong, Ox, Louise, and Stella are featured in various magazines; and Stillman is reassigned to a weather station near Nome, Alaska.
Cheech & Chong Join the Army was well-received by both the duo’s die-hard fans and by general audiences. Though critics were divided on the film, with the consensus generally being that it was “lazy, but amiable”, the film’s box office success largely spoke for itself. Join the Army made $86 million on a budget of just $10 million.
It also represented, in its own small way, a major step forward for the portrayal of interracial relationships on screen in Hollywood. Cheech, who identifies as Chicano, is shown in a romantic relationship with Sean Young’s character, a white woman, while Chong, who is of mixed Chinese and Scottish/Irish ancestry, does the same with P.J. Soles, another white woman. When the initial casting decisions were announced by Reitman and the producers, the studio executives at Columbia privately pressured them to recast Soles and Young. Reitman wouldn’t budge. When Cheech and Chong caught word of the attempted move, they threatened to walk out of the production as well. In the end, Young and Soles would retain their roles, and contrary to the expectations of Hollywood bigwigs, the sky did not in fact fall.
Some conservative groups denounced the film, but as Cheech and Chong pointed out, these groups probably would have anyway.
“We’re a couple of guys of color who make stoner comedies.” Chong later said of the “controversy”. “They’re not exactly our target audience.”
…
Mad Max; The Road Warrior - Australian post-apocalyptic/dystopian/action. Kennedy Miller Entertainment/Warner Bros. Directed by George Miller. It is the second installment in the Mad Max franchise, with Geoffrey Rush reprising his role as "Mad Max" Rockatansky. The film's tale of a community of settlers moved to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders follows an archetypical “Western” frontier movie motif, as does Max's role as a hardened man whose decision to assist the settlers helps him rediscover his humanity. Filming took place in locations around Broken Hill, in the Outback of New South Wales.
Following the release of Mad Max, director George Miller received a number of offers from Hollywood, including one to direct the Rambo film First Blood, but he instead decided to develop a rock and roll movie, the working title of which was Roxanne. After working together on the novelization of Mad Max, Miller and novelist Terry Hayes teamed up in Los Angeles to write Roxanne, but the script was ultimately shelved. Miller then became intrigued with the idea of returning to the world of Mad Max, as a larger budget would allow him to be more ambitious.
He said: “Making Mad Max was a very unhappy experience for me. I had absolutely no control over the final product”, but “There was strong pressure to make a sequel, and I felt we could do a better job with a second movie.” Inspired by Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces and the work of Carl Jung, as well as the films of Akira Kurosawa, Miller recruited Hayes to join the production as a scriptwriter.
The film was released on Christmas Eve 1981 to widespread critical acclaim, with particular praise given to Rush's performance, the musical score, cinematography, action sequences, costume design and sparing use of dialogue. It was also a box office success (generating more than $36 million against a budget of just $4.5 million), and the film's post-apocalyptic and punk aesthetics helped popularize the genre in film and fiction writing.
The Road Warrior is widely hailed as both one of the greatest action movies of all time and one of the greatest sequels ever made; fan clubs for the film and “road warrior”-themed activities continue well into the 21st century.
…
My Bloody Valentine - Canadian Slasher. Canadian Film Development Corporation/Paramount Pictures. Directed by George Mihalka and written by John Beaird. It stars Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, and Neil Affleck. The plot tells about a group of young adults who decide to throw a Valentine's Day party, only to incur the vengeful wrath of a maniac in mining gear who begins a killing spree.
Conceived and produced entirely over the course of around a year, the film was shot on location in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, in the fall of 1980. It was theatrically released on February 11th, 1981 by Paramount Pictures, coinciding with the Valentine's Day holiday. Despite a mixed response from critics (Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel both gave the movie a “thumbs down” and wrote it off as “yet another cheap rip-off of Halloween), and grossing $5.7 million at the box office (barely enough to break even on its nearly $3 million budget), the film has developed a large cult following over the years since its release.
Influential writer/director Quentin Tarantino has called My Bloody Valentine “[his] favorite slasher”, and other subsequent evaluations have been kinder than Ebert and Siskel were. My Bloody Valentine differentiates itself from other slashers of the era (Halloween; Friday the 13th; Prom Night; Black Christmas; etc.) by shifting the setting away from suburbia and the victims away from teenagers or college students and toward a working class mining town. Some see My Bloody Valentine as a commentary on the state of the Canadian and North American economy in the early 1980s.
…
The Shining - Horror. Warner Bros. Directed by David Lynch, produced by Richard Kobritz, from a script by Stephen King and Mark Frost, based on King’s novel of the same name. Already covered earlier in this chronicle, The Shining, as directed by auteur David Lynch was surreal and terrifying.
Jack Nance stars as Jack Torrance, a writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a new position as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Debuting child actor Sean Astin plays his young son Danny, who has psychic abilities ("the shining"), which he learns about from head chef Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers). Danny's imaginary friend Tony warns him the hotel is haunted before a winter storm leaves the family snowbound in the Colorado Rockies. Jack's sanity deteriorates under the influence of the hotel and the residents, and Danny and his mother Wendy (Meryl Streep) face mortal danger.
Though not as immediately successful as some of the other early King adaptations (Carrie and Salem’s Lot), The Shining has since undergone a critical reevaluation and is now widely considered one of the greatest and most influential horror films of all time. Lynch’s dark, nigthmare-fueled vision of the Overlook Hotel works perfectly with King’s macabre sensibilities and Mark Frost’s sincere dialogue and the cast’s grounded performances. Quite simply, it’s a horror masterpiece.
King would eventually write a sequel - Doctor Sleep - in 2014, which tells the story of Dan Torrance as an adult, coping with his own past, traumas, and alcoholism. A film adaptation of the sequel, with Sean Astin reprising his role as Dan Torrance, was made by writer/director Mike Flanagan in 2019, opening to rave reviews.
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: A Few More Films from 1981
I wonder would David Lynch And Stephen King would collaborate on many more movie projects for the years to come
Love Love this. Always nice to read how the butterflies affect different films.Pop Culture Update - More of Blue Skies at the Movies - 1981Above: Promotional posters for Das Boot; Clash of the Titans; and John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, three “cult classics” that were first released in 1981.
Das Boot - American/West German war film. Neue Constantin Film. Written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Robert Redford, Herbert Grönemeyer and Klaus Wennemann. An adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim's 1973 German novel based on his experiences aboard German submarine U-96, the film is set during World War II and follows U-96 and her crew, as they set out on a hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country.
During production, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, the captain of the real U-96 during Buchheim's 1941 patrol and one of Germany's top U-boat “aces” during the war, and Hans-Joachim Krug, former first officer on U-219, served as consultants. One of Petersen's goals was to guide the audience through “a journey to the edge of the mind” (the film's German tagline Eine Reise ans Ende des Verstandes), showing “what war is all about”.
Produced on a budget of DM (Deutschmark) 32 million (equivalent to $18.5 million), this price tag was among the highest in the history of German cinema. The returns at the box office, however, more than made up for the hefty price tag. The film was picked up by Columbia Pictures for distribution in the United States (both the original German version with English subtitles and an English-dub, lead actor Robert Redford delivered his own lines in both versions). The film would gross $85 million internationally, and be nominated for six Academy Awards, including best director and best adapted screenplay.
…
Clash of the Titans - Fantasy adventure. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Desmond Davis and written by Beverley Cross, loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Starring Mel Gibson, Judi Bowker, Burgess Meredith, Maggie Smith and Laurence Olivier, the film features the final work of stop-motion visual effects artist Ray Harryhausen. Co-produced between the United States and United Kingdom, it was theatrically released on June 12th, 1981 and grossed $41 million at the North American box office on a budget of $15 million, making it the eleventh-highest grossing film of the year.
Critics largely praised the film (Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel gave it 3 and a half stars out of 4), calling it an “old-fashioned tale, a grand and glorious romantic adventure, filled with brave heroes, beautiful heroines, fearsome monsters, and awe-inspiring duels to the death. It is a lot of fun.”
The film’s star, 24 year old Australian actor Mel Gibson had only been featured in one prior leading role, in Peter Weir’s World War I drama Gallipoli (1981). Sensing that Gibson (with his good looks and impressive physique) might be a star in the making, MGM scooped him up for a multi-film contract.
Clash of the Titans also represented the next step in the popular boom of sword & sorcery/fantasy films in the 1980s. Arguably, the trend began the year before with Tristan & Isolde for Paramount, which launched that studio’s “Arthurian myth series”. 1981’s King Arthur served as the second entry in that series, and was even more successful than the first from a box office standpoint. Given audiences’ desire for escapism (and the popularity of the nerd subculture, including games like Dungeons & Dragons), fantasy films continued to see success in cinemas.
The concept of a “cinematic universe” - a series of connected films all set in the same continuity or “shared universe” - was still in its infancy at the time. Arguably, Universal Pictures first pioneered the concept in the 1930s and 40s with their horror films about the “classic movie monsters” - Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible man, etc. These characters could appear in one another’s films and interact, aiding or hindering the protagonists as needed (even if those protagonists happened to be Abbott and Costello).
Taking inspiration from Paramount, MGM decided to test out the concept for themselves. They would use Clash of the Titans to “test launch” their own cinematic universe based on Greek Mythology. A second film in the franchise, based upon the ever-popular Hercules, was slated for production in late 1981-1982, with a goal for a summer release in 1983. The first step was to have a script written, then to choose a director and cast a leading man. For the last of these, the studio turned to Lou Ferrigno, the former professional bodybuilder and star of The Incredible Hulk television series. This, if executed well, could be Ferrigno’s big break in film.
…
Escape from New York - Science fiction/Action. AVCO Embassy Pictures. Co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter. starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau and Harry Dean Stanton.
The film's storyline, set in the near-future world of 1997, concerns a crime-ridden United States, which has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's sole maximum security prison. Air Force One is hijacked by anti-government insurgents who deliberately crash it into the walled borough. Ex-soldier and current federal prisoner Snake Plissken (Russell) is given just 24 hours to go in and rescue the President of the United States, after which, if successful, he will be pardoned.
Carpenter wrote the film in the mid-1970s in reaction to a number of social issues including: the assassination of President George Romney; the Cambodian Conflict; the Hoover Affair; and most notably, the near financial collapse and dissolution of New York City. After the success of Halloween (1978), Carpenter had enough influence to begin production and filmed it mainly in St. Louis, Missouri, on an estimated budget of about $6 million. The film was co-written by Nick Castle, who had previously collaborated with Carpenter, portraying Michael Myers in Halloween.
Released in the United States on July 10th, 1981, the film received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing more than $25.2 million at the box office. The film was nominated for four Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film and Best Direction.
The film also helped Kurt Russell finally begin to shed the “squeaky clean” image he was saddled with as a former child star who spent almost his entire career up to that point with Walt Disney Productions, appearing in toothless, bland family-friendly comedies. Russell engaged in a strict diet and training regimen to “get in shape” for the role. The film’s popularity ensured that Russell would be a go-to star for action films in the years to come.
…
Arthur - Romantic comedy. Orion Pictures/Warner Bros. Written and directed by Steve Gordon. The film stars John Belushi as Arthur Bach, a drunken New York City millionaire who is on the brink of an arranged marriage to a wealthy heiress - Susan Johnson (Jill Eikenberry) but ends up falling for a common working-class girl from Queens - Linda Marolla (Liza Minneli). It would be the sole film directed by Gordon, who tragically died in 1982 of a heart attack at age 44.
The film received critical acclaim - particularly the performances of Belushi and Minneli, who were said to have “excellent chemistry and comedic timing”. Though it underperformed at the box office per Warner Bros. expectations (probably due to a muddled and ill-conceived marketing campaign), its returns improved throughout the course of its run thanks to strong word of mouth. It would end up raking in just over $100 million at the box office against a budget of just $10 million, making it the fourth-highest grossing film of 1981 and one of the most profitable.
…
Cheech & Chong Join the Army - War comedy. Columbia Pictures. Directed by Ivan Reitman. Starring Cheech Martin and Tommy Chong, as well as numerous actors including John Larroquette, John Diehl, Conrad Dunn, Judge Reinhold, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Timothy Busfield, and Bill Paxton, who appear in their very first on-screen roles. Reitman wrote the film with Len Blum and Dan Goldberg, the latter of whom also served as producer alongside Reitman. Cheech & Chong wanted “complete creative control”, but eventually learned to collaborate successfully with Reitman. A summary of the film’s plot follows:
In the course of one day, Los Angeles cab driver (and stoner) Cheech loses his job, his apartment, his car, and his girlfriend Anita (Roberta Leighton), who has grown tired of his immaturity. Realizing his limited prospects, he decides to join the Army and persuades best friend Chong, a vocational ESL teacher, to join as well. The two visit a recruiting office and are soon sent off to basic training.
Upon arrival, they meet their fellow recruits and their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka (Warren Oates). Following in-processing, the recruits introduce themselves and explain their reasons for enlisting. One of them, the overweight Dewey "Ox" Oxberger (John Candy), wants to slim down and be respected by his fellow trainees and women in general. Cheech irritates Hulka with his slacker attitude, and he and Chong become romantically involved with MPs Louise Cooper (Sean Young) and Stella Hansen (P.J. Soles).
As graduation approaches, Hulka is injured when the haughty and dull-witted Captain Stillman, the recruit company's commanding officer, orders a mortar crew to fire without first setting target coordinates. Later, members of Hulka's platoon sneak off base and visit a mud wrestling bar, where Cheech persuades Ox to compete with a group of women. When MPs and police raid the club, Stella and Louise help Cheech and Chong escape. The rest of the platoon are returned to base, where Stillman reprimands them for being arrested and threatens to report them to the base commander, General Barnicke (Robert J. Wilke), and make them repeat basic training.
Cheech and Chong have sex with Stella and Louise, then return to base. John motivates the disheartened platoon with a speech and begins preparing them for graduation. After a night of practice, they oversleep and wake up an hour late for the ceremony. They rush to the parade ground, where Cheech leads them in an unorthodox but highly coordinated drill display. Impressed upon learning that they completed their training without a drill sergeant, Barnicke assigns them to a secret project he is overseeing in Italy.
Upon arrival in Italy, the platoon is reunited with a recovered Hulka and tasked with guarding the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, an armored personnel carrier disguised as a recreational vehicle. Cheech and Chong steal it to visit Stella and Louise, who are stationed in West Germany. When Stillman finds the vehicle missing, he launches an unauthorized mission to retrieve it, against Hulka's objections.
Stillman inadvertently leads the platoon across the border into Czechoslovakia. Hulka jumps from their truck before the Soviet Army captures it, and sends out a radio distress call that Cheech and Chong hear. Realizing that their platoon is in danger, Cheech, Chong, Stella, and Louise take the EM-50 and infiltrate the Soviet base where the platoon is being held, and rescue them with aid from Hulka.
Upon returning to the US, Cheech, Chong, Louise, Stella, and Hulka are hailed as heroes, and are each awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Hulka retires and opens a restaurant franchise; Cheech, Chong, Ox, Louise, and Stella are featured in various magazines; and Stillman is reassigned to a weather station near Nome, Alaska.
Cheech & Chong Join the Army was well-received by both the duo’s die-hard fans and by general audiences. Though critics were divided on the film, with the consensus generally being that it was “lazy, but amiable”, the film’s box office success largely spoke for itself. Join the Army made $86 million on a budget of just $10 million.
It also represented, in its own small way, a major step forward for the portrayal of interracial relationships on screen in Hollywood. Cheech, who identifies as Chicano, is shown in a romantic relationship with Sean Young’s character, a white woman, while Chong, who is of mixed Chinese and Scottish/Irish ancestry, does the same with P.J. Soles, another white woman. When the initial casting decisions were announced by Reitman and the producers, the studio executives at Columbia privately pressured them to recast Soles and Young. Reitman wouldn’t budge. When Cheech and Chong caught word of the attempted move, they threatened to walk out of the production as well. In the end, Young and Soles would retain their roles, and contrary to the expectations of Hollywood bigwigs, the sky did not in fact fall.
Some conservative groups denounced the film, but as Cheech and Chong pointed out, these groups probably would have anyway.
“We’re a couple of guys of color who make stoner comedies.” Chong later said of the “controversy”. “They’re not exactly our target audience.”
…
Mad Max; The Road Warrior - Australian post-apocalyptic/dystopian/action. Kennedy Miller Entertainment/Warner Bros. Directed by George Miller. It is the second installment in the Mad Max franchise, with Geoffrey Rush reprising his role as "Mad Max" Rockatansky. The film's tale of a community of settlers moved to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders follows an archetypical “Western” frontier movie motif, as does Max's role as a hardened man whose decision to assist the settlers helps him rediscover his humanity. Filming took place in locations around Broken Hill, in the Outback of New South Wales.
Following the release of Mad Max, director George Miller received a number of offers from Hollywood, including one to direct the Rambo film First Blood, but he instead decided to develop a rock and roll movie, the working title of which was Roxanne. After working together on the novelization of Mad Max, Miller and novelist Terry Hayes teamed up in Los Angeles to write Roxanne, but the script was ultimately shelved. Miller then became intrigued with the idea of returning to the world of Mad Max, as a larger budget would allow him to be more ambitious.
He said: “Making Mad Max was a very unhappy experience for me. I had absolutely no control over the final product”, but “There was strong pressure to make a sequel, and I felt we could do a better job with a second movie.” Inspired by Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces and the work of Carl Jung, as well as the films of Akira Kurosawa, Miller recruited Hayes to join the production as a scriptwriter.
The film was released on Christmas Eve 1981 to widespread critical acclaim, with particular praise given to Rush's performance, the musical score, cinematography, action sequences, costume design and sparing use of dialogue. It was also a box office success (generating more than $36 million against a budget of just $4.5 million), and the film's post-apocalyptic and punk aesthetics helped popularize the genre in film and fiction writing.
The Road Warrior is widely hailed as both one of the greatest action movies of all time and one of the greatest sequels ever made; fan clubs for the film and “road warrior”-themed activities continue well into the 21st century.
…
My Bloody Valentine - Canadian Slasher. Canadian Film Development Corporation/Paramount Pictures. Directed by George Mihalka and written by John Beaird. It stars Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, and Neil Affleck. The plot tells about a group of young adults who decide to throw a Valentine's Day party, only to incur the vengeful wrath of a maniac in mining gear who begins a killing spree.
Conceived and produced entirely over the course of around a year, the film was shot on location in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, in the fall of 1980. It was theatrically released on February 11th, 1981 by Paramount Pictures, coinciding with the Valentine's Day holiday. Despite a mixed response from critics (Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel both gave the movie a “thumbs down” and wrote it off as “yet another cheap rip-off of Halloween), and grossing $5.7 million at the box office (barely enough to break even on its nearly $3 million budget), the film has developed a large cult following over the years since its release.
Influential writer/director Quentin Tarantino has called My Bloody Valentine “[his] favorite slasher”, and other subsequent evaluations have been kinder than Ebert and Siskel were. My Bloody Valentine differentiates itself from other slashers of the era (Halloween; Friday the 13th; Prom Night; Black Christmas; etc.) by shifting the setting away from suburbia and the victims away from teenagers or college students and toward a working class mining town. Some see My Bloody Valentine as a commentary on the state of the Canadian and North American economy in the early 1980s.
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The Shining - Horror. Warner Bros. Directed by David Lynch, produced by Richard Kobritz, from a script by Stephen King and Mark Frost, based on King’s novel of the same name. Already covered earlier in this chronicle, The Shining, as directed by auteur David Lynch was surreal and terrifying.
Jack Nance stars as Jack Torrance, a writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a new position as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Debuting child actor Sean Astin plays his young son Danny, who has psychic abilities ("the shining"), which he learns about from head chef Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers). Danny's imaginary friend Tony warns him the hotel is haunted before a winter storm leaves the family snowbound in the Colorado Rockies. Jack's sanity deteriorates under the influence of the hotel and the residents, and Danny and his mother Wendy (Meryl Streep) face mortal danger.
Though not as immediately successful as some of the other early King adaptations (Carrie and Salem’s Lot), The Shining has since undergone a critical reevaluation and is now widely considered one of the greatest and most influential horror films of all time. Lynch’s dark, nigthmare-fueled vision of the Overlook Hotel works perfectly with King’s macabre sensibilities and Mark Frost’s sincere dialogue and the cast’s grounded performances. Quite simply, it’s a horror masterpiece.
King would eventually write a sequel - Doctor Sleep - in 2014, which tells the story of Dan Torrance as an adult, coping with his own past, traumas, and alcoholism. A film adaptation of the sequel, with Sean Astin reprising his role as Dan Torrance, was made by writer/director Mike Flanagan in 2019, opening to rave reviews.
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: A Few More Films from 1981
Glad to hear it
My pleasure!
I like to keep one or two actors in their roles if they were good picks
I feel you need a balance between keeping things the same and mixing it up.They're still albums and movies that weren't mentioned Mr. President, looking forward for these to be included in your next pop culture updates.
The reason that I've been pushing or pressing this suggestion geniuses is that I'm been doing the book version of your timeline Mr. President since February of last year on Google Docs. I'm still at 1965 ITTL on Act I because I've took many breaks just to keep it going and trying to get every detail on all of the information in this timeline you've been written since you've started this. I can't complete this without your answers. That's the reason and I'm going to show and post here the book version of Blue Skies In Camelot, Act I: The Kennedy Years once you've posted The Nobel Prize Winners from 1967-1981 ITTL.Thank you for the reminder.
Mr. President, you've done impressive update on your another Pop Culture Update on The Movies of 1981 ITTL. Wolfgang Petersen's directorial debut of Das Boot is still the same as IOTL. This movie is one of the cult classics, giving us audiences the emotion of battle during The Second World War, and was beloved by critics that was nominated for Six Academy Awards indeed. I'm looking forward for his next movie, The Neverending Story when we arrived in 1984 ITTL.
Clash of the Titans is still the same as IOTL, but with Mel Gibson in a leading role as Perseus, and we're continuing The Arthurian Legends Cinematic Universe ITTL. Were some of the actors and actresses in these movies are doing cameos to make it connected as possible? Fantasy Movies in the 80's ITTL were now a gem not just only for the nerd audiences, but also for both audiences and critics. Hope they keep improving throughout the decade, and also looking forward for Hercules to be successful by the time we arrived in 1983 ITTL.
Escape from New York is just as the same as IOTL, that launched Kurt Russell from appearing in live-action Disney Movies into Superstardom as the leading action hero Snake Plissken. John Carpenter and Nick Castle wrote this movie as a reflection of the dark times in the 70's ITTL. Now I'm wondering if President RFK (who was the Former US Senator of New York ITTL), would premiered this in The White House and imagined this post-apocalyptic setting in the future?
Arthur is also the same as IOTL, but now it's John Belushi as Arthur Bach instead of Dudley Moore ITTL. I would pay this version ITTL to see his interaction with Liza Minnelli as Linda Marolla. I think this is his First Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor, maybe for this moment would finally clean up his act, get into rehabilitation, and improved his acting skills after his recovery. Would they made Arthur 2 ITTL? IMHO, they shouldn't have done that and it's unnecessary to made the sequel because this movie stands alone. Hope Mr. President they never made the sequel ITTL and let it stays that way.
Stripes IOTL was now Cheech and Chong Joins the Army ITTL? You know what, why not and I'm going to let this one slide geniuses. Good for this comedic duo that they collaborate with director Ivan Reitman, who would later direct Ghostbusters later in 1984 ITTL. Would Cheech and Chong allowed to shaved their head and beard for this movie because they're going in the army, so they must look clean right?
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is just as the same as IOTL, but Geoffrey Rush returns as the titular hero ITTL. This is said to be one of the greatest sequel films ever made along with The Godfather: Part II, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, The Medieval Dead, and Superman II. Hope that Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome would be the final installment in the franchise to make it The Mad Max Trilogy ITTL. I do hope that George Miller directed First Blood ITTL with Sylvester Stallone still as John Rambo as IOTL. Whatever this Rock N' Roll Movie Roxanne is ITTL, we're looking forward to it geniuses.
My Bloody Valentine is just as the same as IOTL, making it one of the classic horror movies of the decade.
And finally, The Shining is now different ITTL with David Lynch as the director, Stephen King (who've written the novel of the same name) and Mark Frost wrote the script that keeps it close to the source material while improving the dialog; Jack Nance is now playing Jack Torrance, Meryl Streep as his wife Wendy, Sean Astin in a debut role as his son Danny, and you've remained Scatman Crothers as Dick Halloran who is the same as IOTL. Truly a horror classic of all time, but wasn't nominated for The Academy Awards ITTL? I hope they were included.
As I've said before Mr. President, hope some of the movies and albums that I've mentioned were included in the next pop culture updates geniuses.
Xman1287
Banned
Don’t forget to put out the futuristic swat riot gear wearing GhostSmashers Starring Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz John Belushi as Peter Venkman Jeff Goldblum as Egon Spengler Eddie Murphy as Winston Zeddemore John Candy as Louis Tulley Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett Sandra Bernhard as Janine Melnitz and Paul Reubens as Ivo Shandor aka the GhostSmashers interdimensional Employer and Slavitza Jovan as Gozer the Gozerian Ruler of the sixth dimension there final battle in a hellish reality and their Vehicle that all Black 1975 Cadillac ambulance with purple and white strobe lights for the theme song have Peter Aykroyd Hughes and Thrall NRBQ Lindsay Buckingham Huey Lewis Ray Parker Jr Kenny Loggins in a mashup music group for the theme song also for the other GhostSmashers Add both John Lithgow Christopher Lloyd and Christopher Walken Harold Ramis Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson Yaphet Kotto Richard Pryor and Jim Belushi yes John Belushi’s brother Michael Keaton Steve Guttenberg Chevy Chase Michael Richards Robin Williams Tom Hanks and if he is still alive and not dead from his suicide Freddie Prinze as the other GhostSmasher teams and for a couple laughs have Rick Moranis and Annie Potts as The Married couple who encounter Slimer who will be known as OnionHead.Pop Culture Update - More of Blue Skies at the Movies - 1981Above: Promotional posters for Das Boot; Clash of the Titans; and John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, three “cult classics” that were first released in 1981.
Das Boot - American/West German war film. Neue Constantin Film. Written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Robert Redford, Herbert Grönemeyer and Klaus Wennemann. An adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim's 1973 German novel based on his experiences aboard German submarine U-96, the film is set during World War II and follows U-96 and her crew, as they set out on a hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country.
During production, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, the captain of the real U-96 during Buchheim's 1941 patrol and one of Germany's top U-boat “aces” during the war, and Hans-Joachim Krug, former first officer on U-219, served as consultants. One of Petersen's goals was to guide the audience through “a journey to the edge of the mind” (the film's German tagline Eine Reise ans Ende des Verstandes), showing “what war is all about”.
Produced on a budget of DM (Deutschmark) 32 million (equivalent to $18.5 million), this price tag was among the highest in the history of German cinema. The returns at the box office, however, more than made up for the hefty price tag. The film was picked up by Columbia Pictures for distribution in the United States (both the original German version with English subtitles and an English-dub, lead actor Robert Redford delivered his own lines in both versions). The film would gross $85 million internationally, and be nominated for six Academy Awards, including best director and best adapted screenplay.
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Clash of the Titans - Fantasy adventure. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Directed by Desmond Davis and written by Beverley Cross, loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Starring Mel Gibson, Judi Bowker, Burgess Meredith, Maggie Smith and Laurence Olivier, the film features the final work of stop-motion visual effects artist Ray Harryhausen. Co-produced between the United States and United Kingdom, it was theatrically released on June 12th, 1981 and grossed $41 million at the North American box office on a budget of $15 million, making it the eleventh-highest grossing film of the year.
Critics largely praised the film (Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel gave it 3 and a half stars out of 4), calling it an “old-fashioned tale, a grand and glorious romantic adventure, filled with brave heroes, beautiful heroines, fearsome monsters, and awe-inspiring duels to the death. It is a lot of fun.”
The film’s star, 24 year old Australian actor Mel Gibson had only been featured in one prior leading role, in Peter Weir’s World War I drama Gallipoli (1981). Sensing that Gibson (with his good looks and impressive physique) might be a star in the making, MGM scooped him up for a multi-film contract.
Clash of the Titans also represented the next step in the popular boom of sword & sorcery/fantasy films in the 1980s. Arguably, the trend began the year before with Tristan & Isolde for Paramount, which launched that studio’s “Arthurian myth series”. 1981’s King Arthur served as the second entry in that series, and was even more successful than the first from a box office standpoint. Given audiences’ desire for escapism (and the popularity of the nerd subculture, including games like Dungeons & Dragons), fantasy films continued to see success in cinemas.
The concept of a “cinematic universe” - a series of connected films all set in the same continuity or “shared universe” - was still in its infancy at the time. Arguably, Universal Pictures first pioneered the concept in the 1930s and 40s with their horror films about the “classic movie monsters” - Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible man, etc. These characters could appear in one another’s films and interact, aiding or hindering the protagonists as needed (even if those protagonists happened to be Abbott and Costello).
Taking inspiration from Paramount, MGM decided to test out the concept for themselves. They would use Clash of the Titans to “test launch” their own cinematic universe based on Greek Mythology. A second film in the franchise, based upon the ever-popular Hercules, was slated for production in late 1981-1982, with a goal for a summer release in 1983. The first step was to have a script written, then to choose a director and cast a leading man. For the last of these, the studio turned to Lou Ferrigno, the former professional bodybuilder and star of The Incredible Hulk television series. This, if executed well, could be Ferrigno’s big break in film.
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Escape from New York - Science fiction/Action. AVCO Embassy Pictures. Co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter. starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau and Harry Dean Stanton.
The film's storyline, set in the near-future world of 1997, concerns a crime-ridden United States, which has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's sole maximum security prison. Air Force One is hijacked by anti-government insurgents who deliberately crash it into the walled borough. Ex-soldier and current federal prisoner Snake Plissken (Russell) is given just 24 hours to go in and rescue the President of the United States, after which, if successful, he will be pardoned.
Carpenter wrote the film in the mid-1970s in reaction to a number of social issues including: the assassination of President George Romney; the Cambodian Conflict; the Hoover Affair; and most notably, the near financial collapse and dissolution of New York City. After the success of Halloween (1978), Carpenter had enough influence to begin production and filmed it mainly in St. Louis, Missouri, on an estimated budget of about $6 million. The film was co-written by Nick Castle, who had previously collaborated with Carpenter, portraying Michael Myers in Halloween.
Released in the United States on July 10th, 1981, the film received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing more than $25.2 million at the box office. The film was nominated for four Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film and Best Direction.
The film also helped Kurt Russell finally begin to shed the “squeaky clean” image he was saddled with as a former child star who spent almost his entire career up to that point with Walt Disney Productions, appearing in toothless, bland family-friendly comedies. Russell engaged in a strict diet and training regimen to “get in shape” for the role. The film’s popularity ensured that Russell would be a go-to star for action films in the years to come.
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Arthur - Romantic comedy. Orion Pictures/Warner Bros. Written and directed by Steve Gordon. The film stars John Belushi as Arthur Bach, a drunken New York City millionaire who is on the brink of an arranged marriage to a wealthy heiress - Susan Johnson (Jill Eikenberry) but ends up falling for a common working-class girl from Queens - Linda Marolla (Liza Minneli). It would be the sole film directed by Gordon, who tragically died in 1982 of a heart attack at age 44.
The film received critical acclaim - particularly the performances of Belushi and Minneli, who were said to have “excellent chemistry and comedic timing”. Though it underperformed at the box office per Warner Bros. expectations (probably due to a muddled and ill-conceived marketing campaign), its returns improved throughout the course of its run thanks to strong word of mouth. It would end up raking in just over $100 million at the box office against a budget of just $10 million, making it the fourth-highest grossing film of 1981 and one of the most profitable.
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Cheech & Chong Join the Army - War comedy. Columbia Pictures. Directed by Ivan Reitman. Starring Cheech Martin and Tommy Chong, as well as numerous actors including John Larroquette, John Diehl, Conrad Dunn, Judge Reinhold, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Timothy Busfield, and Bill Paxton, who appear in their very first on-screen roles. Reitman wrote the film with Len Blum and Dan Goldberg, the latter of whom also served as producer alongside Reitman. Cheech & Chong wanted “complete creative control”, but eventually learned to collaborate successfully with Reitman. A summary of the film’s plot follows:
In the course of one day, Los Angeles cab driver (and stoner) Cheech loses his job, his apartment, his car, and his girlfriend Anita (Roberta Leighton), who has grown tired of his immaturity. Realizing his limited prospects, he decides to join the Army and persuades best friend Chong, a vocational ESL teacher, to join as well. The two visit a recruiting office and are soon sent off to basic training.
Upon arrival, they meet their fellow recruits and their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka (Warren Oates). Following in-processing, the recruits introduce themselves and explain their reasons for enlisting. One of them, the overweight Dewey "Ox" Oxberger (John Candy), wants to slim down and be respected by his fellow trainees and women in general. Cheech irritates Hulka with his slacker attitude, and he and Chong become romantically involved with MPs Louise Cooper (Sean Young) and Stella Hansen (P.J. Soles).
As graduation approaches, Hulka is injured when the haughty and dull-witted Captain Stillman, the recruit company's commanding officer, orders a mortar crew to fire without first setting target coordinates. Later, members of Hulka's platoon sneak off base and visit a mud wrestling bar, where Cheech persuades Ox to compete with a group of women. When MPs and police raid the club, Stella and Louise help Cheech and Chong escape. The rest of the platoon are returned to base, where Stillman reprimands them for being arrested and threatens to report them to the base commander, General Barnicke (Robert J. Wilke), and make them repeat basic training.
Cheech and Chong have sex with Stella and Louise, then return to base. John motivates the disheartened platoon with a speech and begins preparing them for graduation. After a night of practice, they oversleep and wake up an hour late for the ceremony. They rush to the parade ground, where Cheech leads them in an unorthodox but highly coordinated drill display. Impressed upon learning that they completed their training without a drill sergeant, Barnicke assigns them to a secret project he is overseeing in Italy.
Upon arrival in Italy, the platoon is reunited with a recovered Hulka and tasked with guarding the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, an armored personnel carrier disguised as a recreational vehicle. Cheech and Chong steal it to visit Stella and Louise, who are stationed in West Germany. When Stillman finds the vehicle missing, he launches an unauthorized mission to retrieve it, against Hulka's objections.
Stillman inadvertently leads the platoon across the border into Czechoslovakia. Hulka jumps from their truck before the Soviet Army captures it, and sends out a radio distress call that Cheech and Chong hear. Realizing that their platoon is in danger, Cheech, Chong, Stella, and Louise take the EM-50 and infiltrate the Soviet base where the platoon is being held, and rescue them with aid from Hulka.
Upon returning to the US, Cheech, Chong, Louise, Stella, and Hulka are hailed as heroes, and are each awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Hulka retires and opens a restaurant franchise; Cheech, Chong, Ox, Louise, and Stella are featured in various magazines; and Stillman is reassigned to a weather station near Nome, Alaska.
Cheech & Chong Join the Army was well-received by both the duo’s die-hard fans and by general audiences. Though critics were divided on the film, with the consensus generally being that it was “lazy, but amiable”, the film’s box office success largely spoke for itself. Join the Army made $86 million on a budget of just $10 million.
It also represented, in its own small way, a major step forward for the portrayal of interracial relationships on screen in Hollywood. Cheech, who identifies as Chicano, is shown in a romantic relationship with Sean Young’s character, a white woman, while Chong, who is of mixed Chinese and Scottish/Irish ancestry, does the same with P.J. Soles, another white woman. When the initial casting decisions were announced by Reitman and the producers, the studio executives at Columbia privately pressured them to recast Soles and Young. Reitman wouldn’t budge. When Cheech and Chong caught word of the attempted move, they threatened to walk out of the production as well. In the end, Young and Soles would retain their roles, and contrary to the expectations of Hollywood bigwigs, the sky did not in fact fall.
Some conservative groups denounced the film, but as Cheech and Chong pointed out, these groups probably would have anyway.
“We’re a couple of guys of color who make stoner comedies.” Chong later said of the “controversy”. “They’re not exactly our target audience.”
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Mad Max; The Road Warrior - Australian post-apocalyptic/dystopian/action. Kennedy Miller Entertainment/Warner Bros. Directed by George Miller. It is the second installment in the Mad Max franchise, with Geoffrey Rush reprising his role as "Mad Max" Rockatansky. The film's tale of a community of settlers moved to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders follows an archetypical “Western” frontier movie motif, as does Max's role as a hardened man whose decision to assist the settlers helps him rediscover his humanity. Filming took place in locations around Broken Hill, in the Outback of New South Wales.
Following the release of Mad Max, director George Miller received a number of offers from Hollywood, including one to direct the Rambo film First Blood, but he instead decided to develop a rock and roll movie, the working title of which was Roxanne. After working together on the novelization of Mad Max, Miller and novelist Terry Hayes teamed up in Los Angeles to write Roxanne, but the script was ultimately shelved. Miller then became intrigued with the idea of returning to the world of Mad Max, as a larger budget would allow him to be more ambitious.
He said: “Making Mad Max was a very unhappy experience for me. I had absolutely no control over the final product”, but “There was strong pressure to make a sequel, and I felt we could do a better job with a second movie.” Inspired by Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces and the work of Carl Jung, as well as the films of Akira Kurosawa, Miller recruited Hayes to join the production as a scriptwriter.
The film was released on Christmas Eve 1981 to widespread critical acclaim, with particular praise given to Rush's performance, the musical score, cinematography, action sequences, costume design and sparing use of dialogue. It was also a box office success (generating more than $36 million against a budget of just $4.5 million), and the film's post-apocalyptic and punk aesthetics helped popularize the genre in film and fiction writing.
The Road Warrior is widely hailed as both one of the greatest action movies of all time and one of the greatest sequels ever made; fan clubs for the film and “road warrior”-themed activities continue well into the 21st century.
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My Bloody Valentine - Canadian Slasher. Canadian Film Development Corporation/Paramount Pictures. Directed by George Mihalka and written by John Beaird. It stars Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, and Neil Affleck. The plot tells about a group of young adults who decide to throw a Valentine's Day party, only to incur the vengeful wrath of a maniac in mining gear who begins a killing spree.
Conceived and produced entirely over the course of around a year, the film was shot on location in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, in the fall of 1980. It was theatrically released on February 11th, 1981 by Paramount Pictures, coinciding with the Valentine's Day holiday. Despite a mixed response from critics (Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel both gave the movie a “thumbs down” and wrote it off as “yet another cheap rip-off of Halloween), and grossing $5.7 million at the box office (barely enough to break even on its nearly $3 million budget), the film has developed a large cult following over the years since its release.
Influential writer/director Quentin Tarantino has called My Bloody Valentine “[his] favorite slasher”, and other subsequent evaluations have been kinder than Ebert and Siskel were. My Bloody Valentine differentiates itself from other slashers of the era (Halloween; Friday the 13th; Prom Night; Black Christmas; etc.) by shifting the setting away from suburbia and the victims away from teenagers or college students and toward a working class mining town. Some see My Bloody Valentine as a commentary on the state of the Canadian and North American economy in the early 1980s.
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The Shining - Horror. Warner Bros. Directed by David Lynch, produced by Richard Kobritz, from a script by Stephen King and Mark Frost, based on King’s novel of the same name. Already covered earlier in this chronicle, The Shining, as directed by auteur David Lynch was surreal and terrifying.
Jack Nance stars as Jack Torrance, a writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a new position as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. Debuting child actor Sean Astin plays his young son Danny, who has psychic abilities ("the shining"), which he learns about from head chef Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers). Danny's imaginary friend Tony warns him the hotel is haunted before a winter storm leaves the family snowbound in the Colorado Rockies. Jack's sanity deteriorates under the influence of the hotel and the residents, and Danny and his mother Wendy (Meryl Streep) face mortal danger.
Though not as immediately successful as some of the other early King adaptations (Carrie and Salem’s Lot), The Shining has since undergone a critical reevaluation and is now widely considered one of the greatest and most influential horror films of all time. Lynch’s dark, nigthmare-fueled vision of the Overlook Hotel works perfectly with King’s macabre sensibilities and Mark Frost’s sincere dialogue and the cast’s grounded performances. Quite simply, it’s a horror masterpiece.
King would eventually write a sequel - Doctor Sleep - in 2014, which tells the story of Dan Torrance as an adult, coping with his own past, traumas, and alcoholism. A film adaptation of the sequel, with Sean Astin reprising his role as Dan Torrance, was made by writer/director Mike Flanagan in 2019, opening to rave reviews.
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: A Few More Films from 1981
Also add William Atherton a loanshark bureaucrat type jerk wad who is after the smashers for the gear.
Also add this song is from the dragnet movie that starred Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks implent Dance or Die as well as that song was a repurposed Ghostbusters reject theme song and it is catchy
Other ideas I have
1.) A film adaptation of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaro The first book suffered poor sales in part because an ill advised cover quote caused a lawsuit from the Burroughs estate which delayed release. If it's more successful, I can see it getting a feature film adaptation (Red Sonja I'm thinking could also be better received or written).
2.) For Bond. I wanted to elaborate on some of the thoughts I had.
I understand that what I'm suggesting is a retcon but I thought that overall it would make a much stronger story.
Connery Era:
Dr. No: Same as OTL. This one was already in the can when POD hit
From Russia With Love: Also pretty much the same.
Goldfinger: Again largely the same; that said Marilyn Monroe's pushback might cause them to make a few token attempts to make things better.
Thunderball: This might be asking but there's one REALLY unpleasant scene where after Bond is nearly killed he basically blackmails an employee at the sauna into sleeping with him. It's.....pretty fucking bad even by the low standards of the day. Maybe Marilyn's pushback causes them to slightly change the scene so that, while tacky and bad, it isn't quite as rapey. This might also keep Bond from being condemned by history.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Due to butterflies, the weather is good enough to shoot in Switzerland; Bond formally meets Blofeld for the first time in disguise, and he also falls in love with Tracy. One major change is that the events of Casino Royale are referenced, if obliquely. Bond will tell Tracy that he fell in love before and that she broke his heart. This makes her death at the end even more heartbreaking and makes the audience primed to see Blofeld go down.
You Only Live Twice: The end of the Spectre Saga. Takes place in Japan, just like the book (and also how in the Craig era the final battle is in the Kuril Islands). Not sure what Blofeld's evil scheme is; this fanfic (https://quarterdeck.commanderbond.net/t/spectre-1971-a-sequel-to-skyfall-1969/651) had Blofeld's plan be to unleash a plague that would destroy society. I think that at the very least he could be trying to push both the US and Soviets into open war with each other, though I admit the plague angle could also work (as a reference to the Poison garden). It wouldn't involve diamonds but we get to see the effects of the plague and it is HORRIFYING (this makes it one of the darkest bond movies).
A major element of the script is that Bond is still reeling from Tracy's death; the PTS scene might even be Bond seemingly killing Blofeld. During the investigation he gets close to Kissy Sizuki; she's a Japanese secret agent, and Bond comes to respect her and even feel for her on a personal level. She also helps him come to terms with Tracy's death. The climax is them rushing to stop Blofeld; the plan is thwarted, but Blofeld cruelly tries to make Bond watch as Kissy dies (saying that he will loose YET another woman he cares for). One thing that stands out is that Bond BRUTALLY kills Blofeld by strangling him to death; it's a very visceral scene. One thing that Spectre 1971 did that I liked was that it had a final chase in a boat; Bond's love interest is held by Irma Bunt and Bond gets on the ship, kills her, and gets his love interest off the boat before it crashes.
The film ends with Bond and Kissy tying the knot, and this time, it ends happily. Draco could get a cameo, thanking Bond for bringing justice to the killers.
Ultimately, YOLT goes down as one of THE greatest Bond films of all time. Critics praise the darker nature, Bond's character development, and the ballsiness of Bond having an interracial relationship. It also earns the (grudging) respect of feminist groups; Bond's relationship with Kissy is well regarded and praised.
Diamonds are Forever: It could be mentioned that it took some wrangling to get Connery to come back, and even then Connery extracted conditions (Bond is not only married to Kissy, but stays faithful. There's a scene where Plenty O'Toole hits on him, but Bond politely refuses her advances). It's a sort of epilogue to the Spectre Saga; the diamond smuggling is an effort to revive Spectre, and Bond is making sure they stay dead. Due to the difficulties this is Connery's last Bond film, which in turn leads to the Glover era. Some critics felt it was needless because of how well the Spectre saga ended.
Glover Era:
Live and Let Die: Somewhat similar to canon, though maybe things like the Alligator Hopscotch get cut. I also see they bite the bullet and decide to do a black actress even if it means pissing off south africa and the american south.
Man With the Golden Gun: A little bummed by the lack of Chris Lee, but I can see it will still be the black sheep of the family.
Tremor of Intent: Replaces Spy Who Loved Me, and honestly the plot seems pretty good.
Moonraker: Grounded Spy thriller, somewhat closer to book.
For Your Eyes Only: Glover's last film.
I've noticed that they're more episodic compared to the Connery Saga.
I think that later Bonds can vary. Some are more episodic, some have an overarching storyline.
1.) A film adaptation of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaro The first book suffered poor sales in part because an ill advised cover quote caused a lawsuit from the Burroughs estate which delayed release. If it's more successful, I can see it getting a feature film adaptation (Red Sonja I'm thinking could also be better received or written).
2.) For Bond. I wanted to elaborate on some of the thoughts I had.
I understand that what I'm suggesting is a retcon but I thought that overall it would make a much stronger story.
Connery Era:
Dr. No: Same as OTL. This one was already in the can when POD hit
From Russia With Love: Also pretty much the same.
Goldfinger: Again largely the same; that said Marilyn Monroe's pushback might cause them to make a few token attempts to make things better.
Thunderball: This might be asking but there's one REALLY unpleasant scene where after Bond is nearly killed he basically blackmails an employee at the sauna into sleeping with him. It's.....pretty fucking bad even by the low standards of the day. Maybe Marilyn's pushback causes them to slightly change the scene so that, while tacky and bad, it isn't quite as rapey. This might also keep Bond from being condemned by history.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Due to butterflies, the weather is good enough to shoot in Switzerland; Bond formally meets Blofeld for the first time in disguise, and he also falls in love with Tracy. One major change is that the events of Casino Royale are referenced, if obliquely. Bond will tell Tracy that he fell in love before and that she broke his heart. This makes her death at the end even more heartbreaking and makes the audience primed to see Blofeld go down.
You Only Live Twice: The end of the Spectre Saga. Takes place in Japan, just like the book (and also how in the Craig era the final battle is in the Kuril Islands). Not sure what Blofeld's evil scheme is; this fanfic (https://quarterdeck.commanderbond.net/t/spectre-1971-a-sequel-to-skyfall-1969/651) had Blofeld's plan be to unleash a plague that would destroy society. I think that at the very least he could be trying to push both the US and Soviets into open war with each other, though I admit the plague angle could also work (as a reference to the Poison garden). It wouldn't involve diamonds but we get to see the effects of the plague and it is HORRIFYING (this makes it one of the darkest bond movies).
A major element of the script is that Bond is still reeling from Tracy's death; the PTS scene might even be Bond seemingly killing Blofeld. During the investigation he gets close to Kissy Sizuki; she's a Japanese secret agent, and Bond comes to respect her and even feel for her on a personal level. She also helps him come to terms with Tracy's death. The climax is them rushing to stop Blofeld; the plan is thwarted, but Blofeld cruelly tries to make Bond watch as Kissy dies (saying that he will loose YET another woman he cares for). One thing that stands out is that Bond BRUTALLY kills Blofeld by strangling him to death; it's a very visceral scene. One thing that Spectre 1971 did that I liked was that it had a final chase in a boat; Bond's love interest is held by Irma Bunt and Bond gets on the ship, kills her, and gets his love interest off the boat before it crashes.
The film ends with Bond and Kissy tying the knot, and this time, it ends happily. Draco could get a cameo, thanking Bond for bringing justice to the killers.
Ultimately, YOLT goes down as one of THE greatest Bond films of all time. Critics praise the darker nature, Bond's character development, and the ballsiness of Bond having an interracial relationship. It also earns the (grudging) respect of feminist groups; Bond's relationship with Kissy is well regarded and praised.
Diamonds are Forever: It could be mentioned that it took some wrangling to get Connery to come back, and even then Connery extracted conditions (Bond is not only married to Kissy, but stays faithful. There's a scene where Plenty O'Toole hits on him, but Bond politely refuses her advances). It's a sort of epilogue to the Spectre Saga; the diamond smuggling is an effort to revive Spectre, and Bond is making sure they stay dead. Due to the difficulties this is Connery's last Bond film, which in turn leads to the Glover era. Some critics felt it was needless because of how well the Spectre saga ended.
Glover Era:
Live and Let Die: Somewhat similar to canon, though maybe things like the Alligator Hopscotch get cut. I also see they bite the bullet and decide to do a black actress even if it means pissing off south africa and the american south.
Man With the Golden Gun: A little bummed by the lack of Chris Lee, but I can see it will still be the black sheep of the family.
Tremor of Intent: Replaces Spy Who Loved Me, and honestly the plot seems pretty good.
Moonraker: Grounded Spy thriller, somewhat closer to book.
For Your Eyes Only: Glover's last film.
I've noticed that they're more episodic compared to the Connery Saga.
I think that later Bonds can vary. Some are more episodic, some have an overarching storyline.
By the way guys, do you think do to this America being more liberal then it was in otl around this time that perhaps they would be more welcome to the idea that animation isn’t just for kids
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Now here's the question for @President_Lincoln and @LordYam, would Ann-Margret Presley be in YOLT when it premiered in 1969 ITTL or not?
That's a fucking yes genius! Animation isn't just for only children and young at heart, it's for all of us in the name of entertainment. America, you're in a better place ITTL!
I'd like to add on to this:
Since Kissy Suzuki is an agent of the Japanese Secret Service both in our timeline and this timeline, I suggest she and Bond divorce in between Diamonds are Forever and Live and Let Die, reason being that they can hardly spend any time together, both of them being on other ends of the world at any given time.
But, while, Tremor of Intent comes up, she makes a re-appearance, working with Bond (because the movie is set in Malaysia and Singapore if I remember correctly). This will be the first portrayal of amicable exes in this timeline.
The next one is a zinger:
We establish Bond as bisexual in the '90s, (OTL Brosnan era), not in the typical sense, mind you, but in the sense that Bond is willing to sleep with anyone, male or female, for the mission, and for Queen and Country. He is the ultimate spy, and he doesn't care if he has to pump information out of a man or a woman. This will fit in well with the dark theme it's taking on ITTL.
Don’t see why not.
I also had another idea; the guy who did the fanfic I mentioned also did a version of Skyfall set in 1969. One notable change is that Bond does not sleep with Severine (realizing that she can’t really consent). One thing I felt was a major missed opportunity was that Bond introduces her to Felix.
My idea was that in Tremor of Intent one of the Bond Girls is someone he saves from a similar fate (the girl, like Severine, is a sex slave). Bond introduces her to Felix…..then whenever license to kill comes we find out that she’s Felix’s wife (it also makes Bond going after Sanchez even more personal. Sanchez didn’t just main Bond’s friend, he also murdered the woman Bond helped).