Posted on 03/02/2019 4:26:36 PM PST by Captain Peter Blood
If ony DeNiro weren't in it as the title character, I might want to see it. The cast and crew of thousands contains apparently every Italian-American male actor alive today. And probably a few who are dead.
It's a sin that in the U.S. media, the magnificent Italian culture is characterized mainly in terms of the small minority who are of the underworld.
You talkin' ta me...?
My wonderful paternal grandparents and extended family of that generation would never tell me why they left Sicily to risk starting over here with nothing around 1920. As I grew older I expected it had to do with "Cosa Nostra".
I am forever grateful that they came here LEGALLY and intentionally became part of the American culture. Their desire to be fully immersed in America led them to only speak English around us and never became part of any of the many Italian-American clubs that were in the city. They had become Americans and they loved it.
I absolutely love almost every film with Robert Duvall in it!
My wife and I just watched one I have never seen before “Get Low”...what an amazing actor.
I remarked to my wife what an astonishing face he has. I would love to follow him around for a day and take pictures of his face.
I have a compilation of pictures of my mother’s face I took in one 15 min episode while we sat on our back steps and she talked about life as she smoked her cigarette...in that sequence, her animated face seemed to touch a very wide range of emotions! My mother was a beautiful young woman, and when she got old, she had a beautiful old lady face...:) Unfortunately at the time, she was nearly killing herself trying to take care of my dad who had suffered a debilitating stroke, but she still shone through! Perhaps I will post it here.
Get Low -- what a fantastic Duvall movie. Also loved The Apostle extremely much (watched it several times), his grumpy old dad role in Something to Talk About, of course Tender Mercies and Apocalypse Now, his Tom Hagen role in the first two Godfather films, Gods and Generals, Secondhand Lions, Open Range, The Great Santini (you would looove that one), A Family Thing, and his unforgettable first movie role -- Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. There are many other of his films I've seen, but those are the standouts for me.
My top movie consumption for actors I like is around six films. His films, I've seen dozens.
A longtime woman friend of mine used to live near his yuge horse ranch out in Virginia, and for awhile he owned a small restaurant at a country crossroads, where he and his wife used to go there to eat and, presumably, keep tabs. My friend and I absolutely adore him and we used to go over there for lunch just to sneak peeks at him. He did not seek adulation and usually sat with his face to the windows and his back to the room, for privacy, and we never disturbed him, but suppressed a lot of totally immature giggles. He is surprisingly not that tall -- maybe 5'9", but what a screen presence.
He has since sold the restaurant, and my friend moved away, but I often wish I had slipped him a thank-you note for his extraordinary story-telling. He wrote and/or directed Get Low, The Apostle, A Family Thing and several other of his art films, IIRC. He is a Navy brat, raised not far from here in Annapolis. And—he is a conservative and has said so publicly.
In short, he has no equal. No wonder those vain, insecure award-show d***heads in Hollywood ignore him.
I love the faces of elderly people (I am old enough to see already what I will look like...I think like my dad...lots of crow’s feet and smile lines...I can live with that!) there is so much...life and experience there.
Ha...I could have guessed he must have been a brat! When I first saw “The Great Santini”, I thought “Wow. Really nailed the life of living on a base, being a military family and all...”
I love him in “Lonesome Dove”, but my all time favorite with him has to be “Open Range” followed by “Second Hand Lions”...hell, I am grinning while I type, that is how much I enjoy his work.
Yes, a treasure...
They could call it ‘The Walking Dead To Me.’
Du Vall is truly and amazing actor. When he was starting out as an actor in New York he roomed with Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. What are the odds of all three winning Academy Awards and being that successful.
"Absoloootely, doll!" What a great leap they made, and they did it right!
Some of the folks I met around the Market used to say, "We went over to It-lee to look up our relatives, and boy, am I glad my grandparents came to America!" I had the same experience on my roots tour in Ireland—the town one of my GGs came from was lovely, but other than farms, sheep and a couple of pubs, there wasn't much. I could see why he left. I love both those countries and they are inexpressably beautiful in their ways, but the U.S. became truly great in a class by itself. Our President is trying very hard to inspire people to make it that way again. It's an uphill battle, and it's going to take decades of presidents, even if it can actualy be done... because, of course, the fundamental problem is spiritual.
As for the Italian enclaves like the one I lived in, it really was a shame to see the 3rd and 4th generation kids who stayed in da nayb'hood and perpetuated what was essentially the working-class Italy of the 1930s. When Italian friends of mine came over from Rome to visit, they said it was like a time capsule, and warned me not to try to learn Italian from the way they spoke. And of course, most South Philly people's roots, like my Irish potato-famine side of the family, hadn't come with the monied and privileged habits of culture, so many of the youth identifying as Italian knew nothing about classical Italian art, music and opera, poetry, the real food, the artisanship, industries, agriculture and architecture, instead taking their cues from the Godfather-type movies and The Sopranos. Kulchah? D'shore! Da Iggles! Da Mummerz!
It was by no means all bad there -- in fact, it was heavenly in its way because it was still nominally RC Christian. But like most immigrant areas, by the 4th generation it is something wholly "other." I would love to go back there to live, if the "there" was still there, but it has changed too much. Even the Market is almost half Hispanic and Asian.
I agee! Even so, he is head and shoulders above the other two in every way.
Hey...easy on da Iggles!
I have said this over the years that GOD would have to etch the message on a wall with HIS finger for me to go back there...and this from someone who eagerly embraced living in a 4th world (bleep)hole, as you know, since that came with HIS full empowerment and anointing.
I remember sitting on my grandmother’s front steps one blistering hot July night (as we were there for a few weeks on our way back to Haiti) telling The LORD that I would need the aforementioned confirmation in order to return to living in Philly! While I enjoy the occasional swing-by, I am happy as I can be that HE has honored my request.
Buona Notte!
LOLs! Yes, you left the “environment” big time! I join you in praise!
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