Why I Like Japanese Samurai Movies

Last time I briefly went over a little bit of my involvement in martial arts which was intended to lead into this blog entry. Again, ever since I can remember (seems like I always say that), I have watched martial arts movies. I remember watching these guys when I was younger: GORANGER. I owned the Green Ranger metal figure/doll. Then Bruce Lee and badly dubbed kung fu movies. Then the ninja craze of the 1980's. While I have watched a lot of Hong Kong movies I do not enjoy those as much as the Japanese samurai movies.

It turns out that many of the old samurai movies tended to be influenced by the western. The gunfighter would be replaced by a master swordsmen in a poor town. While that is one of the reasons one can see why I might like them it is not the primary reason. Early on in my martial arts training I started losing interest in kung fu movies because they lacked the realism my training was emphasizing. Some fights in a kung fu movie may go ten minutes a real world street fight usually lasts only a few seconds. The choreography is more more "dance like" in these movies.

On the other hand, the Japanese swordfighting movie (chambara) tend to have a more realistic approach where getting the proper distances and angles of attack are usually more important. The thing is to spot some of this you do have to have some training to see some of the fine tuning that is done. There are a few things to keep in mind about this though. One, in these movies, no one is truely trying to kill each other. In a sense everything you see is fantasy. Two, the "swords" used are not real heavy swords. Three, almost all the actors have been told what to do by some professional martial artist who choreographs the fight scenes for them. In fact, sometimes the "bad guy" in the story is a much better martial artist in the real world than the star of the movie, but the "bad guy" must die for the sake of the story.

Sometimes I have seen people say some movie has really great sword fighting scenes. I then watch the movie and can tell the person probably has never trained, and probably never even touched a sword before. Usually what happens is the criteria used by the average fan is much different than I would use for judging a fight scene. There are a lot of variables here, but let me mention one or two. The average fan, without training, might be really impressed with some flashy tricky technique. I was told once that a certain actor was the most exciting swordfighter. The problem there is that what is "exciting" to him is not as impressive to me; if I were to counter with some one who uses more practical efficicent techniques the person would consider them "boring." Again, a lot of this has to do with training and what you are watching for. Another example is one who is impressed with bigger movements as opposed to more tight and compact movements. This may not seem like much, but it is the difference between watching a lop sided basketball game and nailbitting close game. The thing to keep in mind though is not every single fight scene is done at the highest level filled with substance. Still, I have found these movies to be a lot closer, in my mind, to what I had trained.

The Jidegeki (Japanese period film) is filmed with Japnese history and culture. I enjoy this aspect as well. Part of the thing with me is while growing up I lived in a area dominated by Chinese and Japanese kids. I was the "minority" white kid I guess you could say for the first 10 years of my life. I was exposed to a lot of different ideas, but a lot of my friends would always have me involved in what their families were doing. Martial arts and movies were all apart of this. I am not going to spend much time going over the various background issues regarding Japanese history and the samurai at this point, but let me just point to this link for good background reading:

Midnight Eye Samurai Cinema 101

Eventually I did get some exposure to Akira Kurosawa and something known as Shogun Assassin. Little by little I would see some Japanese movies, but during the time I was growing up they were not easy to find. Now with that said, in the Los Angeles area some episodic tv shows were on the air on the local cable channels. It was not until the last 1980's to early 1990's that some vhs movies started to hit the market that I started to see more. Then about the mid-1990's a lot more was released with english subtitles. It is amazing though that so much that was next to impossible to find about 10 years ago is easy to find today. A lot of people new to the genre (the last 8 years or so) do not really appreciate what is out there now as compared to what we had to wait around for during the 80's and 90's.

My favorite companies that put out some of the classics with english subtitles are Animeigo and Criterion. Those are companies that buy the rights and subtitle the movies. As I just mentioned, the situation is a lot better today than it was 10-20 years ago when a lot of these movies were so rare. During those years up to today, Merlin of Samuraidvd.com has doing fan subtitles that are sold on his site. Merlin is very knowledgeable, great to deal with, and is probably the most honest person that I have dealt with in the past in trying to purchase movies that have not had official releases with english subtitles. His prices are usually a lot higher due to the amount of money and time it takes to put up english subtitles from scratch. Almost anything you find on his site is worth watching. I will say this though, I do not care for some of the external sites on his page that he links too. More on this in my next paragraph. If you have a fast connection, can use bittorrent, and can keep a ratio (follow the rules!) then I recommend the Asian Dvd Club. A lot of the old samurai movies are uploaded there that do not have official releases; a lot of these tend to be classics that have played on tv with english subtitles. You can download whole dvd's of movies for the cost of bandwidth. I use it like I would Netflix. Netflix is good to for some of the official english subtitle releases as well. I would say there is probably about a few hundred movies you can get from these sources. The funny thing is if someone says they have a collection of 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 of these movies I would tell them they just got started. There are tons out there, but not all of the are english subtitled.

Now let me end this entry by saying this was blog entry I have wanted to do for a long time, but dreaded writing this for a few reasons that I will go into now. I used to correspond with a bunch online and trade movies via snailmail for a long period of over 10 years. Long story short, the personalities involved got really strange as time went gone on. What used to be a friendly thing turned into a greedy battle over movies. Since some of these movies have been really hard to find, can be quite rare, there is a market for selling them as bootlegs. Over the years I have never seen so much dishonestly, psychological disorders, and criminal behavior just to make a quick buck. It got to the point that I decided to back off on this hobby. Believe me, I could tell you some of the most wild stories regarding this.

So, from time to time, I will write about some of my favorite samurai movies, but I am not as inspired to talk about them online as I once was. I do have some insights and original research I have done over the years that I want to get "out there." However, this blog will not be loaded with Jidegeki blog entries. I will keep them for special moments.

The Midnight Eye article is a good introduction. Let me mention a few others. Galloway's book is a good popular level book on the subject. Silver's book, which did have a recent update, is more of a scholarly approach to it. The emphasis on cinematography and camera angles tends to put most people off. I like that sort of thing, but Galloway should be first. There are a few old articles I like too, but maybe I will list those some other time.

This Wikipedia article is okay for a start:

Samurai Cinema

Galloway, Patrick. Stray Dogs & Lone Wolves: The Samurai Film Handbook. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2005.

Silver, Alain. The Samurai Film. New York: Overlook Press, 1977.

Martial Arts and Me

This is the start of a few blogs I am going to do in order to introduce my interest in Japanese movies. I have been slow about bringing this about, and I will explain the reasons for this as I go along. It is NOT something that I will constantly have blogs about, but once in a while I will bring it up.

Ever since I can remember I have had some exposure to fighting arts. Be it TV and movies, relatives, boxing, etc. As I kid it would be and on and off things since school and sports were priorities. There did come a time though that I spent about a decade training at least 2-6 days a week. It was only a few years ago that I stopped training.

In all honesty, I was not the type of guy that would get into fights when I was growing up. If anything, If I were to get picked on I would just laugh it off and walk or run away. Usually, fighting would just seem to cause more trouble. I still believe that today, but I might stand my ground a bit more if pushed into an ugly situation. These days it is much easier for participants to end up in a court of law with lawsuits or criminal sentences over a simple altercation. Unless your life is truly threatened then it is not worth it.

My main interest in martial arts was the self-defense part of it. I was not into the sport fighting aspect of it. I watch a lot of mixed martial arts (MMA) and boxing, but those have rules. A big part of self-defense is learning how to defend against the sucker punch. The may seem like an easy thing to avoid, but when a person is having "words" with you in a confrontation there are certain things that need to be done to have the advantage. This is not something that professional fighting arts really train for. When I see people talking about "street fighting" sometimes I think they have this idea of two people putting up their arms and closing the distance like a boxer would. That is not what I am talking about when I refer to "street fighting" because that can be avoided by walking or running away.

I am not going to go into all the details of what I know about fighting and all the training I did. I have seen too much gloating on the internet about which martial art or artist is better than another and that is not the purpose of this. Nor will I go into any "ugly" fighting situations I have been in. Most soldiers who have been in war will not talk about their accomplishments gleefully. I feel the same way about this. Especially, apart from the grace of God, one could be in the wrong place at the wrong time or situations where some "luck" was involved. I consider myself "retired" from training, but it is always possible I could start up again in the future. I just do not see the need for it right now. I spent a lots and lots of years on techniques regarding punching, kicking, throws, seizing and locking techniques that I am content with what I know and there are other things I want to spend my time on. Honestly, I can defend myself, but I am probably a be a bit rusty on the fine tuning of some of the techniques I used to do.

I think there is a myth in the mind of the average person that someone who has trained in a martial art or has a black belt is invincible against those who have no training or little training. The same punch that knocks out the average Joe can do the same damage against black belt Joe. There are certain scientific ideas that apply to everyone regarding this. The difference between average Joe and Black Belt Joe is the awareness of these ideas.

As I said, I am not going to mention the necessary details of fighting since I believe you really can not get that online or in print. It has to be done in the studio or dojo environment. I will say this, learning proper distances between you and the other person is key. I would say a good percentage of ugly confrontations can be avoided by just learning how to walk away. I have had a bunch of situations where a confrontation had happened and I just started walking away. The funny thing is people seem to get really brave when you are 50-100 feet away. I have been called all sorts of names at that distance and, sometimes, how they want me to come back. Funny, they were not acting that way when I was 5 feet away from them face to face.
This takes proper experience, but if a person has to take a step to reach you with one of his hands (extend your right arm, but also rotate your shoulder forward in a motion like going across your chest) then you have your safety distance. Nothing will happen until you or he take that step to close the distance. Once that step happens then you need to do something. If you are within that step range then your hands really have to already be up to block or attack.

If one has a good grasp of the above concept then a good portion of fights can be avoided. The knowledge of it helps even if the fight does go down. In my own experience, if the best the guy has for you is a bunch of words then you win and he has lost. You just have to learn to walk away.

The point of this blog entry is just to give a little background so I can make the connection to some of the martial arts movies I enjoy. I probably will not say much more about this unless it is related to the movies. In the next blog I will talk about my favorite asian genre: the samurai movie!

The Iron Man Cave Location

(GPS: N36 30.990 W117 49.580)

The Iron Man dvd will be out on September 30. I recently visited the "cave" location. The shots in the scene are very quick, and I really did not have much to work with. Let me tell you the story...

This is one I have wanted to check out for a while now. I drove by at the end of July, but the road to Cerro Gordo was closed since work was being done on it. That was a bit frustrating and is one of the possible problems I have encountered with my location hunts. There are so many things that can go wrong, and the thought, "I have to come back here again," is not one I like.

On the way home a few weeks ago I drove back to Keeler, CA which is near Lone Pine, but on the other side of Owens (Dry) Lake. The road to Cerro Gordo (N36 29.180 W117 52.010) is where I pulled off at. The signs say you need a 4-wheel drive, but to get to the area I went to, which is into the canyon, looks like you can get by on a 2-wheel drive. Again, the sign said the road was closed. I thought about it and just decided to hike up the road and see if I would be forced to turn around.

Now hiking to this location was not too pleasant. Had I not been in good shape from a bunch of hikes I might have decided to turn around. In fact, I did turn around.

Finding this area was not easy. I thought I would just have to enter the canyon area, but they went much deeper than I thought they did to film this sequence. As I mentioned above, after walking more than an hour to this point at a very fast rate and taking sips out of my only drink (a gatorade bottle) I decided to turn around. The sun had just come up from the east side into the canyon. I could not see very well in trying to compare the few pictures I had with the landscape around me. I did not have the time to stick around, and it was starting to get warmer in what would end up being a very hot day. I was disappointed in that I thought for sure I would find this area.

Then, on the way down, I noticed a few rock formations that had been in my mind's eye. I got my pictures and started comparing them. I found it was one of the places that I had passed on the way up. It was definately not the way I visualized it. The area where the cave was located is more on the eastern side rather than on the western side. The bad news is, like I mentioned in the video, is that it was 9 a.m., the sun had just come up over the east side, and the conditions for video and pictures were terrible. So, I realized that I would have to come again someday, but I tried to make the most of the situation with what I could. I held my picture folder in one hand to block out the sun while I took a few pictures and video. Some of the pictures:

The cave entrance you see is not part of the natural environment and is the cave they "inserted" for the movie. I had hoped that the rock between the red and green ones I circled would be there, but that was part of the cave set. So, without the cave, I really had little to go on in trying to reproduce this shot. One thing I always do is try to look for rock formations that are unique. I found only two "major ones." You may have to click both pictures see them in a bigger format to see this.
The cave would have been just on the other side of the road. Those rocks seem to have been bulldozed over in front of where the cave was after the filming of the movie. I assume they cleared out the road a bit. If and when I go back, I will probably move to the right of this picture a bit. This was the only angle I could get at the time, without having spots on my picture, due to the way the sun was shining down on me. Now looking back down to the western side:
These were the rocks I saw that I knew I had the right place. This area below is where the firefight took place:
It is interesting that the road is on a slope so they were not filming everything on a level road. At least that is the way the road is when I was there.

Someday I will head back and take pictures and video later in the day. The pictures are good enough for now. BTW, I have never been to Cerro Gordo. It is privately owned, but you can visit there. Some interesting mining history and a few movies have had scenes there. I do not have a real desire to go there, but you never know. Refer to the following link for more info:

Cerro Gordo Official Site

Silent Places

Readers of this blog will know that I like to use the word silent and silence to describe what I like about the outdoors. I use those words rather vaguely because, although I think we all have an idea in our heads what is meant by those words, there is a mystical element to the way I use them in this blog. Meaning, I like to keep a mystery on somethings and not just clearly spell them out at every point.

Of course, tons of people, in the literary world, have done the exact same thing. I was recently e-mailed the following short article:

The World's Quietest Places by E. Readicker-Henderson.

Read the article, but I think most of what is said is common sense from our experiences. If you live in the big city it becomes much more obvious that quiet places are much more sacred. The article notes that it is not "absolute silence" we are trying to achieve in our quest for quiet places.

It is interesting to note that even in the most quiet places there probably are sounds that do not register to the human ear; sort of like blowing on a silent dog whistle. Even still, in most outdoor places that are quiet it is good to slow down, take in the air, and just listen to what you can hear. Recently, I was in the middle of a forest and my hiking friend was mentioning that it was pure silence there. Nothing. Sometimes at a quiet place you might hear the wind moving through, but not this time. It was absolutely silent.

A few weeks ago I was on my favorite exercise hike in the Eastern Sierra I usually do every few days during the summer and other times of the year when it is not snowed in. I consider the whole hike a quiet place. Although, it is usually not absolutely silent since up higher I occasionally encounter some wind and some wildlife making some sounds at some point. I rarely see other humans on this trail.

In any case, it is good to have these meditative moments where you can slow down. Being in the big city as much as I am I really look forward to these types of times. The longer I am at the silent places the more culture shock I get when I get back to city traffic. It does take me some time to recover and speed myself up again.

The Naked Gun Terrorist Headquarters Location

(N34 10.925 W118 16.605)

Here is the location of where the diabolical plot discussed takes place in "Beirut, Lebanon."

Here we are twenty years later. Some Palm trees, but lots of other trees have grown in.
This was originally the home of Leslie Brand and it was called Miradero ("A high place overlooking a wide view"). In the late 50's, the mansion was turned into a public library. I did a quick library search and it looks like they have a copy of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad on reserve. Here is what was funny to me about this. I remember seeing this movie the day it came out in 1988 with a bunch of friends and laughing our brains out. Ten years later I was here at Brand Park with some relatives. The park was being used to take pictures of young models that day. I remembered coming here and walking on the nature trail that day. There was a huge rattlesnake lying across the trail rattling so I turned around.

Now, although I remember that day rather well, I did not make the connection between Brand Park and The Naked Gun movie. In fact, it was not until after videoing and taking pictures on this recent trip to Brand Park where after walking around a bit I realized, "Hey, I have been here before!"

There is more to the park than the library you see above. Please refer to the links on this site for more on Brand Park, the Teahouse, and the Doctor's House. I am sure you can find more if you google "Brand Park in Glendale".

One of these days I need to re-hike that nature trail since I did not get very far because of that snake! :)

The Illusion of the All Knowing Google Search Engine

Some months back in April I wrote a few long blogs on my concerns about the issues of our sources of online knowledge. My main concern is that a lot of information found on the internet can be rather trivial, people are cramming their minds with this information, and, thus, become rather trivial in their knowledge. Someone who surfs the web for knowledge may think they are knowledgeable on subjects may turn out to either know little at all or have a bunch of bad information in their mind. With all the websites, blogs, message boards, chat rooms, etc., not too mention all the cable channels and other non-internet things, information has exploded that it is impossible to keep up with everything. The days are long gone where one could read the daily newspaper, possibly watch a few channels of television, and then go on with your day somewhat informed about the world. My conclusion is that we have to find ways to keep things in balance with what is important to us because there is not enough time to read everything. Still, there is a temptation to look for short cuts.

Recently, I received my monthly newsletter from an old friend J.P. Holding of Tektonics.org. J.P. spends a lot of time in the areas of issues within the scholarly realm of Christianity and the Bible with his emphasis on apologetics. As a sidenote, somewhere on his site is a essay we co-wrote years ago. An essay he recently wrote titled, Does Google Make Uss Stoopid: On Search Engines and Modern Ignorance, comes to some of the same ideas and conclusions that I have felt for quite some time. I have not talked to Holding about these issues, but it does not surprise me since we both encountered some of these issues in the past in dealing with research. He in turn quotes an article recently written by Nicholas Carr in the Atlantic Monthly called, Is Google Making Us Stupid? which is a good read too.

Basically, what both Holding and Carr are saying, and what I have said on here in different ways, is that Google and search engines are a good thing, but do not exhaust all knowledge on any subject. Holding writes, "I have used Google to find quotes many times, or to make it easier to locate something. But the error lies in thinking that ALL research is able to be done this way."

Some people may think the internet is reaching the level of omniscience, but we are far from that and it will not happen. The problem is people thinking it is. I mentioned recently when I was talking about the upcoming release of dvd's and that, at the time, I did not have a "link" for what I had learned outside of the internet. Another example is I was once challenged online when I was told, outside of the internet, that a book would be released a year later. Of course, I was asked for a link and the implication was that if I did not have a link then it must not be so. Of course, challenging blind assertions is one thing, but trying to explain that something exists outside ones area of knowledge is another. One last example is something I noticed last month on a message board. Someone was trying to get a book, but could not find it online other than on a few used books sites that were selling it for an overpriced few hundred dollars. He kept complaining that he could not find any copy of it. Then he was told that he could get it from the publisher, but since the publisher did not have it to order online it was troubling to him. I think he actually did order it from the publisher, but felt he was ordering it "blind" which is rather strange to me. Some people, based on the way technology is now, have a hard time understanding that some things exist outside the internet. That is a rather strange statement for me to make, but in some ways the internet is making people mentally challenged and has become a crutch.

The problem both Holding and Carr point out, again me too on here sometimes, is that people are looking for short cuts in research and knowledge. This is understandable because there is only so much time in a day and it is hard to keep up. Holding writes, "For our purposes, the critical point is that accuracy and truth are regularly being sacrificed on the altars of efficiency and the saving of time." I have said in the past that much of the internet, search engines and online dictionaries, are like the fast food approach to information. These tools are good and helpful for a start, but too much reliance on them is not a good thing. What is worse is if one lets these tools do one's thinking for him or her.

I am reminded of one exchange I was reading online regarding an issue in philosophy. The exchange went a few messages. It became apparent that one of the two people, who I will call David, who was arguing back and forth had the upper hand. The next message that showed up from who I will call Jack, who was not doing so well, took a few quoted paragraphs from an online essay written by another person. All Jack had done was do a quick search and found a response that supported his position. I was not convinced that Jack had any real grasp of what that article said.

So, again, Google and other online tools are really great tools to use, but should only be a part of one's overall quest for knowledge. I have to admit that I do end up doing a lot of skimming of online articles that Holding and Carr refer to as a problem that the internet has created for people. Of course, if the online article is something I really care about I will devour every word. The difference for me is that I can not read books online like I can with a paper book in my hands. I do not look forward to the day where books are replaced by electronic devices. Remember, the ways of the old media and knowledge are still important and are still the basis for the new types of media.

The 7 Men From Now Relay Station (The Alabama Hills Series)

(N36 36.550 W118 07.525)

Here is some nice movie archaeology. This is going to be the last one of these I do for a while so I thought I would end on fun one.

The station was out right next to Movie Road and most people just drive right past it. The Tyrone Power movie, Rawhide, was filmed in almost the same area. When you watch that movie look for some of the same areas I have shown here.
The camera for the movie was slightly to the right of where I was, but you should see the same rock formations all around.
After Randolph Scott rides across Movie Road he goes to this water well.
It does look like they knocked down the well, but left some of the stones there. There are some small cement fragments lying around. It does seem these are the remains of that well.
Here is another look at these stones.
There are other pieces of debris out near where the station was. This is the one I showed in the video. Was this from the movie? Maybe, maybe not, but things like this are unique to this area and you do not see debris like this just lying out in most of the areas in the Alabama Hills.

I am going to put a hold on the Alabama Hills stuff for a few months. I have a bunch more, but when I get back to doing videos and blogging I will be posting more about other things for a while.

8/8/8 Surprise

(AKA The Triple T on Triple 8)

I get a kick out of people that make a big deal about these calendar numbers. First, people really cared about 666 which I can kind of understand. Then it was 777 last year. Now we are up to 888. We go on and on until 121212. I think the people on youtube are the ones that make the most out of these with their "gatherings." Not that this day really has that much importance, but I thought I would "celebrate" it by mentioning two things.

Of course, I have talked about this area lots of times before. Here are some of the older blogs with old pictures:

The Tall T #1

The Tall T #2

"Come on, now. It's gonna be a nice day"

I have even camped out there too:

Reflections on Lone Pine Film Fest 2007 (at the Tall T)

Second, Since I am mentioning The Tall T I thought I would take this time to mention something regarding the dvd box set that is supposed to come out soon. Everyone knows that I love the Budd Boetticher/Randolph Scott movies and I have constantly put up videos and pictures of their locations on this blog. Let me give a little movie history background and tell you what I was told about what is coming.

Originally, the script for Seven Men From Now was wanted by Robert Mitchum. That did not happen because John Wayne was able to get it and intended to star in it. They got Budd Boetticher to direct, but Wayne was busy with The Searchers. Wayne decided that Randolph Scott would be good to get because he was near the end of this career and would be cheap. Wayne's group Batjac made the movie. It was only few years ago that some of the Batjac titles were released on dvd and Seven Men From Now was one of those made available by Wayne's son. This movie is what started the teamup of Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott for a series of movies.

The movies that Boetticher and Scott teamed up on after Seven Men were known as the Ranown cycle. Ranown is combination of Randolph Scott's and Harry Brown's names. Brown was the producer. In the credits you might see "A Scott-Brown Production." Those movies consisted of The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanon Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, and Comanche Station. There is another movie that Budd Boetticher directed with Scott during this period, Westbound, but it is not part of the Ranown cycle. Harry Brown was not the producer on that movie, Boetticher was brought in as a replacement director, and it was a Warner Bros. movie. The Ranown cycle of movies were produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Apparently, the deal with Westbound is there were some problems on the set and Scott called Boetticher asking him if he could help out. Boetticher never liked this movie and the consensus among viewers is it is not as good as the above movies. So, it is kind of left off the list if one is talking about Boetticher/Scott collaborations.

Sometime back I was reading something online where someone said that they had hoped someone like Criterion would release these movies. The problem is they do not own them. The movies were owned by Columbia Pictures which is now owned by Sony. Sony is the company that owns the rights to the Ranown movies.

These movies were been released on vhs ages ago. The question many have had is when they would see a dvd release. For quite sometime they have been shown over and over again on the Encore Western channel. In fact, a lot of the recent popularity of these titles seems to be due to them getting on the rotation on Encore Westerns for the past few years. I have seen lots of younger people in recent years claim they have been big Boetticher fans due to these movies, but I suspect this is due to Encore Westerns because these people were not around 10-15 years ago claiming this. In any case, it is good that these movies are finally getting the exposure they should be getting.

When are these movies going to get a dvd release? At this point let me mention what I was told. I was told sometime near the end of this year Sony will release the Ranown movies in a box set along with the 2005 Documentary, Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do that. Now with any company there is a difference between what they project as the release date and when the the product actually comes out. This is just my personal experience in dealing with music cds, video games, movies, etc. It is common for delays to happen in any business. If they are not out by the end of the year, then look for them sometime the next year. I can not remember if I mentioned this on this blog, but this was the same situation with the movies The Gunfighter and Rawhide. I was told they would be released about 6-9 months from when they were filming the extras. There was not anything online about this at the time, but sure enough six months later they were out. The same with How the West Was Won and The Law and Jake Wade that are coming out later at the end of this month. I was also told about some of the filmed extras that might be on the dvd's too, but these sorts of things I think it are best for Sony to reveal. Please do not ask for any "links" because as of right now I do not know of any. Not everything in the real world is found on an internet link. There is some "chatter" out there if you do some searches, but nothing official as to the exact date of release. When they do have a official link I will come back to this entry and add it right here.

(EDIT (August 13, 2008 and September 7, 2008): Well that did not take too long. TCM, Movies Unlimited, Deep Discount Dvd, and Amazon.com are now taking orders for a NOVEMBER 4, 2008 release date. Here are the links:

Budd Boetticher Box Set on TCM

Budd Boetticher Box Set listed on Movies Unlimited

Budd Boetticher Box Set listed at Deep Discount Dvd

Budd Boetticher Box Set listed at Amazon.com

For a listing of what the box set will contain here is the official Sony link (click here).It turns out the "Eastwood on Comanche Station" extra was the one I had been told about some time back as well as the set having audio commentaries. This is the last edit I intend to do because I think I have covered all the major links.) )

The main reason I wanted to mention this is because I often refer to these movies a lot in this blog and I get e-mail asking about where people can buy these movies. Sometimes I will see people advertise links to online vendors that sale these movies as bootlegs. In some cases, that is not a bad thing, but since we are so close to an official dvd release it is not worth spending money on movies that really are just burned dvd-r's taken from the Encore Western channel.

Tom Mix Ropes Them Up Location (The Alabama Hills Series)

(GPS: N36 35.860 W118 11.160)

Here is an easy one, but fun because it is a silent movie location:

Tom Mix made Riders of the Purple Sage in 1925. He made Just Tony (1922), Flaming Guns (1932), and Terror Trail (1932) here in Lone Pine as well. This is an easy to find location because they filmed in what is known today as Lone Pine Campground. In fact, if you reserve it, there is a camp parking spot right next to this rocks on the right side. Usually when I am here there is someone's car right next to these rocks.
The only movie I know of that has Henry Fonda in Lone Pine is How the West Was Won. In a scene, he had a cabin nearby that he lived in. John Wayne was nearby as well for North to Alaska. People tend to take pictures from here because you have a direct line to Mt. Whitney in the background.
You may have to click my picture to get a bigger view of it or look closely, but you can see the trail that was there in 1925. It looks like it splits around.
I like silent movie locations because those tend to be the harder ones to find. Most silent film areas are so old that they usually are built over unless you are away from civilization like this one.

Goodbye Links

First, let me preface this by saying that this has really nothing to do with the blog itself or anyone I know that reads this blog. Nor am I writing about any other blog here, but I am sure this happens on other blogs too.

I have decided I am going to take down some of the links that I have listed on the right side of the blog. Those links were put there primarily for me as a shortcut to a lot of stuff I try to keep up with. Not that they are a bad thing, but I have of burned out of a few of them. I never write about this in public, but will try to explain here.

Over the years I have noticed that many message board forums tend to gather a certain group of people. They are usually filled with the "die hards" that are really enthusiastic about whatever subject the forum is about. This is usually good because message forums often tend to be the first place new information comes out.

Certain patterns tend to take place in them though. It would be hard to categorize all the different types of characters you would get in them. Flamewarriors comes to mind. In almost every message board I have been involved in there are good and bad phases. Usually, some egos clash, frustration builds until a "war" occurs, then a period of resolution. Some may leave, but usually the cycle just starts again.

Some people have their own agendas when they write messages. I often read them and say to myself, "Okay, why was this person writing about this?" I ask that because usually there is something going on in the background that is not apparent in why they are writing their message. A person that is new to the message forum might not pick it up.

A lot of the same questions get asked over and over again. If it is an area of controvery then old debates usually start up again and again. It is a cycle after all.

Let me get to the point. It is not all the links I have listed here, but other things I follow too. Over the past month or so a lot of tension has built up on some sites I visit or receive by e-mail. It is the "war" phase. If one goes to these areas for fun after a hard day of work, then it can be really frustrating if you do not like this type of soap opera drama.

In the past year I have really backed off the amount of messages I write on open public forums. Someone may ask a question I know very well, but I decided it is best to "sit it out." I have mentioned this before in a different way a few months back, but sometimes there is a village idiot mentality out there. Meaning, some people start talking like they are experts on something when all they are doing is a few Google searches and not doing proper research on a topic. Their "knowledge" tends to be rather trivial.

I usually refer to this as the Dunning-Kruger effect which is where people that have little knowledge think they know more than do and those that think they know little know more. I have seen it happen a lot in my different areas of interest. Eventually, when I start talking about my martial arts background and bring up some of my favorite Japanese movies this will come up. There is one guy out there that has seen lots of Japanese movies, but flat out does not know what the heck he is talking about. If you try to correct him he gets bent out of shape and threatens to leave.

It seems like in my favorite areas there always is one person who is like this. They tend to post the most messages and, maybe not consciously, take over the board. The type that responds to just about every message. Soon, others stop writing messages, and the dominant personality tends to be the majority message writer. Then, after a period of time, they tend to repeat themselves over and over and it is like, "OKAY, I GET THE IDEA! FOR THE 100th TIME YOU HAVE WRITTEN THIS!"

In the next few weeks I will start taking down some of the links. If you like some of those areas you may want to make a note of them. Although I still intend to visit them at times, I do not use them as much as I used to for the above reasons.

With all that said, let me make a few notes:

1)I intended to go over my martial arts background and open my new area on my interest in Japanese Samurai movies at the beginning of this month. Unfortunately, a few days before I intended to do it my computer started to have problems where I had to wipe out my harddrive and start over. I will probably start that up in the next month or two. This will be a side issue that this blog will cover and not really replace anything that I do. If this is not something you have an interest in, then have no fear because it will not dominate this blog. I will explain when I start writing messages about it.

2)I have said this before, but let me say it again. I want this blog to have a bit of variety in how I do my blog entries. The stuff I do that a lot of you like is the movie location entries. I know this and I have tons of material to show and more areas I know about, but just a matter of getting to them. Some things I do are not as "popular" as the movie location entries, but I still like to throw them in so I do not burn out of just doing the movie locations. I have a few hiking videos I have really put off that I really want to put up. So, if you think there is a pattern here you are right. I tend to do a bunch of one type of thing and then throw in something completely different as a change of pace. That is just the way I am or I start burning out. I am going to start posting more movie locations again for the next few weeks and go from there.

The History of McDonald's (Part 3)

(GPS: N 34° 00.160 W 117° 56.185)

This is my last entry in this series about the history of McDonald's. This really is not so much a historical place, but it is something that still "really, really, really matters" for the franchise. So, without further ado, let me present The Mysterious McDonald's.

This is not a public McDonald's restaurant after all. Although it sure does look like one. Let me give you some intel from one of my secret agents. It will still be creepy and mysterious because it is rare to see someone there, but it might explain a few things:

This McDonald's is in an industrial area in, naturally, the City of Industry in California. It is production area that is a fully working McDonald's, but not for the public. As you can see, it is gated so if you drive by, do not go in expecting to eat there. Stay on the street. Again, private property, drive by slowly and use your eyes.

If a movie needs a scene from a McDonald's it could be filmed here and their commercials are filmed here as well. The products used to make McDonald's food are made in the City of Industry. So, this is why this is here. Right next door over they have this:

It is a training facility. Okay, so there you have it, I am sure there are more secrets that go on behind these gates, but we are not to know. That is the way of the greatest dominating worldwide fast food franchise. So, eat your cheeseburger with pride!

The History of McDonald's (Part 2)

(GPS: n34 07.520 w117 17.665)

1398 N. "E" Street, San Bernardino, CA

Continuing the "history that really, really, really matters." This is the area where brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald started the fast food restaurant that many know and love.

Last time I covered the oldest working McDonald's and mentioned some of the history there. You can look at the links below that give you most of the important stuff involved here. The brothers had been in the restaurant business for sometime, but decided to create a restaurant with the emphasis on making quick hamburgers.

Here is the little plaque noting the original site which is now a McDonald's museum and a historic Route 66 museum. Notice the original mascot, Speedee, on it.
This is a picture of the original menu. Click the picture to get a bigger view of it. I think you may be amused at some of the names they gave the food compared to what we have now. "Aristocratic Hamburgers?"
The second McDonald's was made in Phoenix, Arizona. It was the first one to use the golden arches.
Last time, in part 1, I showed the oldest working McDonald's in Downey which was next, but also has the golden arches. Eventually, Ray Kroc visited the Downey one, liked the idea, and purchased the franchise from the McDonald brothers. Ray started his restaurant in Chicago, Illinois:
For further information refer to these two links:
http://www.route-66.com/mcdonalds/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_and_Mac_McDonald

The History of McDonald's (Part 1)

(GPS: N 33 56.820, W 118 07.085)

10207 Lakewood Blvd (at Florence Ave) in Downey, Ca.

Here is some history that "really, really, really matters."

This is the oldest working McDonald's. It was the third McDonald's that opened in 1953. Some years later Ray Croc came here and like the idea of creating fast food like this. He bought out the name from the McDonald brothers and started the franchise we know today as McDonald's. It turns out this one ended up existing independently than the mainstream one.

By doing so, they ended up keeping the original mascot called Speedee. There were no clowns here. At night you can see him with neon lights showing his quick feet.
In 1990, the mainstream McDonald franchise purchased this one and it became part of the whole franchise. Click the following picture so you can read the whole history.

Mule Train Waterhole (The Alabama Hills Series)

(N36 36.385 W118 07.085)

Here is another man made artifact from the old western movie making era. This is very much like The Gunfigher Waterhole I chronicled last year.

Locations like this are not always easy to find due to the "open field" look it has. Just using the still picture below one would have a harder time finding the area unless one really already knew the area.

Even with the picture below it is still tough to compare. My picture is lower on the ground, but if you click both pictures and look closely in the background you should be able to line up some of those rock formations. Start with the small hill in the background of the far right side. It should make sense if you then compare the rocks going left in each picture.

In these two pictures I took, Gene would be on horse, Champion, between the two rocks just above the remains of the waterhole slightly to the right in each picture. They are not as easy to see because of the sagebrush that has grown in here and the rocks blend in with the dirt. Of course, the main reason we are here is to see is the concrete remains of the waterhole:One location hunting principle to note is that most movie filming is not done too far from a road. This is because to film a movie one needs to have the equipment at the location. Just about everything I show is near some road and not some backcountry area that has walking only access. As you can see in my pictures there is a road you can drive on just beyond the waterhole. I actually did drive on it to get to this location, but I have walked to here before since it is not too far from the main movie road.
Gene is standing just above the waterhole. Now, below, you can barely see the waterhole and you probably would not know without me saying so, but you can see that little rock rock in the middle that matches the one in the above picture. After you get that little rock you can start matching up all the nearby rocks. This is one of those cases where one might see the movie picture and the picture below and not think it was the same area.

There are a lot of movie locations in this area that are easy to find. Sometimes there are some that can be very difficult because I do not have much to work with in regards to the background and rocks nearby. If someone were to give me the above picture with Gene, told me to go find it, and that is all I had, then that would be pretty difficult. Unless I already had those rocks "burned into" my mind from my previous trips I would have little to go on.

There are lots of scenes in movies I have seen with rocks like the above and know I have walked passed them, but I can not always remember where they are. Even if I have pictures of those same areas it is not always easy to compare and identify.

Have a happy July 4th, and if you are from other parts of the world...have a happy July 4th. :)

Climbing Stairs (The Music Box Location)

(GPS: N34 04. 985 W118 16.510)

(Edit {1/10/2010}: Just an FYI for those that randomly come in here or new readers so there isn't any confusion. Originally, I had a video up with clips from Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges. The point of it was to show the same type of gag used going up and down stairs. At the end of the video I showed a walk I did up the Music Box Stairs. That video was taken down a long time ago. The areas in both movies were filmed nearby, but are not the same. I have never claimed they were the same location because it is pretty obvious they aren't. The video had an annotation noting this, but it is not up anymore and I took the link to it off this blog which also mentioned this during the time. However, I just noticed I still had the tags from The Three Stooges and the name of the movie still listed on here. I just erased the tags from this entry.)

Here is a still from the Laurel and Hardy movie:

I walked about 2.8 miles to get here from Downtown L.A. Short hikes like this do not bother me. Homeless demanding quarters out of me does not bother me either. A person exercising on the stairs for about ten minutes does not faze me at all because I can wait that out. Showing up on a day where trash cans have to be in a picture is annoying. Sometimes I have bad luck like this. Notice the house on the right is the same.
To celebrate this movie's location it was named Music Box Steps and you can see the sign here:
This plaque was added to one of the bottom steps. You can click it if you want to read a bigger version of the picture.
Here we are at the bottom looking up.
Here is how it looks these days looking down from the top.

Bad Day at Black Rock Location Hike

(GPS: N36 38.040 W118 02.390)

(EDIT: I have taken down this video. I will put up a new one at a later time).

I was tempted to call this one Bad Days at Black Rock. This is a blog entry I wanted to do over 6 months ago. Each time I went to this location there would be a few technical problems, and the weather was not always what I had wanted in getting some video and pictures. My latest trip was not too fun either with mosquitoes trying to get as much blood out of me as possible. It was a case where I had to keep moving they were so bad. What you are going to see in this entry is a combination of three trips to this location.

Honestly, this is not the location I would take someone to if they have not seen the movie and have no interest in the area. There are much better areas to check out compared to this one. Not all locations I go to are that inspiring to go to. Still, since this movie is a classic, I am sure there are some out there that might want to see where it was filmed at.

A little about this movie, Bad Day at Black Rock is probably my favorite of the post-western or modern westerns that has been made. In many ways it is very much like a western, but since the time frame is post-WW2 it is way out of the frontier era of the old west. It is often said that the western is dead, but we do get a few westerns out as big screen movies every few years and made for tv westerns come out each year. I do think we may start seeing more of these types of modern 20th century post westerns era movies due to the success of the recent No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. BTW, just as an aside, I see why people liked those movies, but I did not really care for them that much. No Country had some really good suspense in it, but after I watched both movies I felt like, “Wait, what was the point of this?”

Bad Day at Black Rock is very film nourish with the mysterious Spencer Tracy coming to the isolated town of Black Rock and being “welcomed” by equally mysterious Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Walter Brennan. They are trying to figure out why he is there and Spencer Tracy is trying to figure out why they do not want him there. There is much more to this, but if you have not seen the movie then I suggest you DO NOT read any reviews about this online or anywhere. Just watch the dvd or see it when it comes out on cable (TCM just showed it) or your local tv station (PBS is listed as playing it). I am starting to get more and more like this, but I usually do not read many reviews online. I used to write a few myself, but sometimes people write these long rambling things and spoil some of the good stuff you should see before you read about. There are some reviews and general descriptions of the movie that spoil some of the keys to the story that you are not supposed to know until later in the movie. I found out it is best just to watch something rather than read about it since only you can decide what you really like.

In the video I show how to get there. You have to take Narrow Gauge Road just outside of the main part of town in Lone Pine. Eventually, you encounter a gate on the northern side (to your left on the other side of the road). If the gate is closed you just open, drive through it, and then close it again. I usually just park here, pass the gated area, and start walking. It is about a mile.

Originally, there were a few real trains that traveled through here. The train and tracks used in the movie were taken down a long time ago. In the movie, don’t blink; you see the train crossing over a bridge. The following is where the bridge was at:
There is a gas station or garage that a few crucial scenes take place at. From the movie:

This area that I am standing at is where the garage would have been.
I mention this in the video and wanted to mention this a little more here. It is quite possible this is rubble from that garage. I am not going to say it is or is not. I have seen too much from other locations that could have been added much later. Many things can happen over the years with people traveling and visiting certain areas and making them dump spots. On the other hand, there are locations that I have seen something like this and I am virtually certain it is from the movie set.

I think when some people visit areas like this they have this idea that something must have remained from some set some 30+ years ago. They come, and to their great disappointment there is nothing there. So, they start searching the area for traces. They might find a piece of wood, etc. and think they have found something from the set when all it is something someone threw on the ground two months earlier. In many cases it is unlikely one would find something after all these years because people were hired to take down movie pieces.

I have noticed this on documentaries on cable channels too. I have seen people go out in fields claiming a medieval battle, never before revealed to the public, took place at some location just by looking at a map. I have seen crack pot adventurers look for lost treasure in these types of documentaries. With the recent Indiana Jones movie there was a real screwball one about a guy trying to find crystal skulls. I taped it, watched it while I was out of town, and wanted my two hours back. Somewhere in it they revealed that the skull the guy owned was originally purchased through an auction and was probably fake. A lot of these documentaries like to ham it up for the audience like you might see in a “reality” show. When the facts are known you have to wonder what you can believe about them. You get the idea.

Here is probably the best shot I have looking at what would have been the main street of Bad Rock. The main town building would have been on the right side of the road.

This is looking toward the north side. You can see where the train track would have been at one time here:
A few tidbits about this movie:

Ernest Borgnine was acting in this movie when he auditioned for the title role for Marty. He was at the Lone Pine Dow Villa where he gave a heart breaking script reading. When he saw that the people who were auditioning him started tearing up from his emotional acting he knew he had the part.

Supposedly, Spencer Tracy and Walter Brennan did not care for each other too much during this movie. Politically, there were on different sides of the spectrum with Tracy being more liberal and Brennan being more conservative. The story is that right before a scene would be filmed Brennan liked to throw three fingers in the air at Tracy and say, “THREE!” He would time it right so that Tracy was supposed to get irritated right as they started filming. It was a way of taunting Tracy as he had two academy awards compared to the three Brennan had earned.

As I said a bunch of times in the video and here, this is not really one of my favorite areas since it is so isolated with nothing really to see. It is just like the feeling in the movie of an isolated area in the middle of nowhere apart from civilization. It is not as scenic as other nearby areas. Not every location I visit I feel is gold, but I still like to show them anyways. I do have a few other locations from this movie I will show at a later time.

Mono Lake Crack

(GPS for Black Point: N38 01.680 W119 05.815)

Here is one I like because it has a spooky effect to it. The first minute or so is at Black Point which is not that impressive, but is to show you where I was at. A few hundred feet away is the opening to the area "Mono Crack."

If done correctly I would not consider this a major hike. A few years ago I came up from the wrong side during the hot summer making it almost a death march. If you have 4x4 you can get real close. I do not, but I knew a road that would get us within about 45 minutes of getting to the top of Black Point. It is the high point around Mono Lake, but I would not consider it a serious elevation hike. Although it looks impressive from seeing it from the 395 HWY. The picture below shows the type of terrain you have to go through to get to the top.

Since the area is really bushy you can not go straight to the top, but follow any dirt path you can around each bush. The bushes are not that crowded around, but enough at some points where you have to walk away from the destination you want to go to in order to get around. Once at the top I checked out the views of the area, but due to the excess of clouds and gray weather it was not as scenic as what you might see during the summer.
You will notice the islands above. Below you can see towards the south and the South Tufa where Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter was filmed. That area would be toward the middle on the other side of the lake. Eventually, I am going to head back over there. It has been about ten years since I was last there so I need to head back in one of my next trips there.

Here is what I really came for. There is an area to the southwest of the top that has a few areas that the earth has opened up a bit. You can stand on top of it and look down below. Some places you can jump across the crack easily, but if you mess up then you fall at least 30 feet if not more. This is not an area that one should go to alone, if you do becareful, because if something happens to you then you will be stuck out here for a very long time before another person shows up.

Note: the gps coords N 38 01.600, W 119 06.000 get you pretty close to the area, but it will be up to you to find where to go in. You will want to check out the area overhead first anyways standing over it before you head in. You need to keep heading west to find the entrance I used. Please be very careful when standing above the crack.
The area narrows a bit at different points. The picture below is where I like to stop and hang out for a little while.
I am at the same point as above, but this is looking down. This is why I do not continue through.
I have not tried, but am told that you can drop down here and continue through. There is someway out in the other direction. I do not know when or if I will go back, but when I do go back I will probably search for an exit from above before I try. Of course, if I had brought a ladder...

Let me list some of my old blog entries where I have shown a few different looks of Mono Lake:

Awesome View of Mono Lake
High Plains Drifter

The High Plains Drifter one is actually pretty old being taken some time back in the late 90's. As I mentioned, I really want to get back there and do a better job getting more precise locations on that one. It is okay for what I did at the time, but I can do much better these days.