(Brad Davis as Billy Hayes in the Alan Hopkins movie Midnight Express).
The Billy Hayes story, as presented in Midnight Express, offers the story’s protagonist attempting to board an airplane at the Istanbul, Turkey airport with his girlfriend Susan at his side and several pounds of hashish strapped to his chest. After a strip search and the supposed support of a translator nicknamed ‘Tex’ by Hayes, Billy identifies the taxi driver he bought the drugs from and is subsequently arrested by Tex at gunpoint after trying to escape. Irene Miracle and Bo Hopkins portrayed Susan and Tex, respectively.
(Bo Hopkins as ‘Tex’ in the Alan Hopkins movie Midnight Express).
The portrayal of life in a series of Turkish prisons proves brutal, cruel and difficult. Hayes suffers a severe beating by chief guard Hamidou following the ‘crime’ of stealing a blanket to keep warm in a cold prison, for example. Paul L. Smith portrayed Hamidou.
(From left, Irene Miracle as Susan and Brad Davis as Billy Hayes in the Alan Hopkins movie Midnight Express).
Hayes learns that foreign prisoners like himself tend to have a hard time in prison after finding himself transferred to a separate prison. Hayes gains some measure of friendship and advice from Jimmy Booth, Max and Erich, as portrayed by Randy Quaid, John Hurt and Norbert Weisser, while in this new prison.
(From left, Randy Quaid as Jimmy Booth, John Hurt as Max and Brad Davis as Billy Hayes in the Alan Hopkins movie Midnight Express).
A series of escalating cruelty follows for Booth, Max and Hayes that eventually brings the prisoner Rifki into the picture. Rifki, as portrayed by Paolo Bonacelli, spies on fellow prisoners for favors from the prison staff that bodes poorly for the Hayes and his friends. Billy Hayes begins losing connection with his sense of well-being when Chief Guard Hamidou reemerges to grant Billy Hayes his prisonbreak opportunity.
(Paolo Bonacelli as Rifki in the Alan Hopkins movie Midnight Express).
The effort, and dare I say audience manipulation, draws the character of Billy Hayes sympathetically, despite fighting off a man’s rape attempt with lethal force. Movies of the style and substance of Midnight Express are not likely to be filmed nowadays, at least as I see industry trends. I grant Midnight Express as directed by Alan Parker 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
(From left, Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade and Jerome Cowan as Miles Archer in the John Huston movie The Maltese Falcon).
The film opens in San Francisco, California with prospective customer Ruth Wonderly presenting herself to private investigator Miles Archer to find her missing sister. Wonderly’s sister had supposedly gone missing from the sisters’ New York home, having come to San Francisco with Floyd Thursby. Hours later, Archer’s private investigator partner, Sam Spade as portrayed by Humphrey Bogart, learns from the police that Archer had been killed. Mary Astor and Jerome Cowan portrayed Ruth Wonderly and Miles Archer, respectively.
(From left, Lee Patrick as Effie Perine and Gladys George as Iva Archer in the John Huston movie The Maltese Falcon).
Police Detective Tom Polhaus and Lieutenant Dundy, portrayed by Ward Bond and Barton MacLane, respectively, inform Spade that Thursby, too, has been killed. Spade, who had previously found that Wonderly had mysteriously checked out of her hotel in the intervening period, is suspected of having killed Thursby as retribution for the latter’s supposed killing of Archer. Gladys George portrayed Iva Archer, the widow of Sam Spade’s deceased partner, Miles Archer.
(From left, Ward Bond as Detective Tom Polhaus, Barton MacLane as Lieutenant Dundy and Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in the John Huston movie The Maltese Falcon).
The next day, the plot thickens as Sam Spade meets with Ruth Wonderly; Wonderly has taken to calling herself Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Admitting to Spade that Floyd Thursby was her partner, we learn that the fiction of a missing sister from the previous day had been fabricated. Spade agrees to investigate the killings despite O’Shaughnessy telling Spade that Thursby likely was Archer’s killer without knowing who had killed her former partner. Joel Cairo, as portrayed by Peter Lorre, eventually hires Spade to find the Maltese Falcon, the film’s MacGuffin.
(From left, Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo, Mary Astor as Ruth Wonderly/Brigid O’Shaughnessy and Sydney Greenstreet as Kasper Gutman in the John Huston movie The Maltese Falcon).
A complicated subplot surrounding the desire to obtain the MacGuffin reveals connections between Brigid O’Shaughnessy and Joel Cairo; Cairo and O’Shaughnessy demonstrate displeasure over Kaspar Gutman’s pursuit of the very same MacGuffin. Gutman, as portrayed by Sydney Greenstreet, is assisted by Wilmer Cook. Elisha Cook Jr. portrayed Wilmer Cook. An unburdening of the different strands by Spade foils the further pursuit of the MacGuffin to Istanbul, Turkey, points to the murderer and brings the possibility of a romantic entanglement for Spade and O’Shaughnessy to resolution.
(From left, Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade and Elisha Cook Jr. as Wilmer Cook in the John Huston movie The Maltese Falcon).
The mystery and crime of The Maltese Falcon hold up well enough to current storytelling, despite the plotting of the story being a bit dated for being nearly 80-years old at the time of this writing. I grant The Maltese Falcon as written and directed by the John Huston 4.0-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
(The cover for Phil Collins‘ No Jacket Required album, first released in the United Kingdom on this date in 1985).
As quoted here with background drawn from the VH1 program VH1 Storytellers, Sussudio started as a song title that happened in a semi-structured yet unplanned way. Phil Collins said “I started to sing into the microphone, and this word came out.” As the meaningless expression didn’t give way to anything better with the lyrics that were added to a set of chords with an uplifting and dance feel, a hit was born. As mentioned on the www.songfacts.com listing for the song, Sussudiowould peak at #1 in the United States and #12 in the United Kingdom.
(Released as a single in January 1985, Sussudio is the first track on Phil Collins‘ third solo studio album, No Jacket Required).
Only You Know and I Know follows the opening album hit with a heavy drumline mixed with horns. Lyrically aiming for the give-and-take of a relationship whose bonds are being questioned, I hear the song saying that the power to restore the relationship rests in honest communication focused on precisely such an outcome.
Moving to a sharply more meditative direction, Long Long Way to Go feels hurt and afraid in both mood and hopefulness. Taking the song as a metaphor for a romance at risk, the feelings and strength Collins wants as the song’s singer asks for the pain to stop rather than continuing to try. That’s a heavy message indeed.
I Don’t Wanna Know extends a theme of a relationship in peril, though musically upbeat in mood. There’s word getting around that Phil‘s love interest has been spotted romantically in the company of another suitor, which if true is precisely what the singer doesn’t wish to know. As the song progresses lyrically, optimism persists with the hope of picking up romantically where things have been for Phil Collins and his love interest.
One More Night offers a ballad seeking relationship redemption with the attempt to rekindle what has existed between Phil Collins and his romantic love interest. Peaking at #1 in the United States and #4 in the United Kingdom, the notion of pleading “with his lover to give him just one more night to prove his devotion” clearly resonated with many then and likely still now.
(One More Night was the first United States single in and the second United Kingdom single released in support of the No Jacket Required album by Phil Collins).
Don’t Lose My Number brings enthusiasm and a vague sense of storytelling to a seeming romance, budding yet not started or otherwise, with a person named Billy. Whether the number not to be lost is a telephone number never really becomes clear, as doesn’t the relevance to this and whatever follow-up Billy being findable means to imply. As with this song, sometimes a decent hook is all a song needs to stick.
(Peaking at #4 in the United States in September 1985, Don’t Lose My Number was never released as a single in the United Kingdom).
Who Said I Would sure takes an unexpected and unsympathetic turn in the world of romance. That the lady of Phil‘s longing would so readily and clearly reject his feelings lays the groundwork for the relationship’s end like little verbally could. The jarring quality of this message stands in such opposition to the musical statement I hear through most of the song is equally jarring.
(First recorded as a studio recording for No Jacket Required, Who Said I Would was not released as a single until released as a live version Serious Hits…Live! in the United States and Japan six years later).
The heavy opening of drums to begin Doesn’t Anybody Stay Together Anymore feels deliberate and indicative of the feelings I sense Phil Collins having with his song. As indicated in the quotes here, this “song was made in response to everyone around Collins getting a divorce, including his manager, friends and though he was happily married to his second wife, Jill Tavelman [spelling corrected], himself years before.”
I sense a recognition for moving on after a broken relationship ends with the song Inside Out. The inside out references the clear sense for where the end of that love has left him, with a sense of recovery on Phil’s own recovery being the priority. To me, following his own grieving process to recovery makes a lot of sense. This strength of this song musically pleases me.
As quoted here through VH1 Storytellers, Take Me Home‘s “lyrics refer to a patient in a mental institution, and that he was inspired by the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Ken Kesey wrote that novel. The song peaked at #7 in the United States and #19 in the United Kingdom.
(Take Me Home, the tenth song from the No Jacket Required album, was released as a single in the United Kingdom in July 1985 and in the United States in March 1986).
The ballad We Said Hello Goodbye was a bonus track added to the compact disc release of the No Jacket Required album. The sentiment underpinning the song of emotionally moving on from one situation to another, growing and improving with time as the only way is an inspirational take that places this song, lyrically, among the more impressive achievements on this album.
Published in September 2021, Anthony Doerr‘s Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel offers an interesting look into time, place and theme with a single book holding the threads of interpersonal understanding together. The term cloud cuckoo land itself critiques someone as living too much in their own narrow point of view, which helps those considering the parallel narratives bound together in the novel we view today.
(The book Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel pictured next to its author, Anthony Doerr).
The central characters of Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel aim to understand the world around them. First, characters Anna and Omeir appear on opposite sides of the formidable city walls during the 1453 Fall of Constantinople; Constantinople is modern day Istanbul, Turkey. Second, we meet teenage idealist Seymour in an attack on a public library in present day Idaho. Third, we meet Konstance, decades into the future, aboard an interstellar ship bound for an exoplanet. Anna, Omeir, Seymour, and Konstance are dreamers who find hope in the face of danger through their own initiative.
(An alternate cover to Anthony Doerr‘s most recent book, Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel).
A fictional story within Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel inspires the four central characters of the novel. A comedy titled The Birds by Greek dramatist Aristophanes inspires the fictional tale of Aethon, a shepherd longing to be turned into a bird. As a bird, Aethon wishes to fly to a magical land in the clouds without pain and suffering. Within Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel, Doerr attributes the fictional tale is attributed to GreekromanticAntonius Diogenes, a historical figure who would have written the piece roughly 500 to 600 years after the piece that actually inspired Anthony Doerr.
(Anthony Doerr‘s book Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel was released in September, 2021).
Many additional works of classical fiction are incorporated into the larger experiences of the central characters of this novel. The stories of Anna and Omeir overlap in real time, whereas the binding of the characters of rests with the love of Seymour and Konstance find their feet through the literature referenced within Doerr‘s narrative. I found charm in the journeys of the four central characters, each of whom experiences tragedy, grief and loss the almost begs for the escape one might find in a metaphorical cloud cuckoo land; the internally fictional Cloud Cuckoo Land attributed to Antonius Diogenes by Doerr, along with other classical pieces of literature that I will not name here, bring joy to the librarian or literature major alike.
(Anthony Doerr pictured next to his book, Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel).
The payoff for Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel rests in no small extent to the precocious quality of the central characters in coping with their realities. The charm of weaving classical references to other literature in time, both hypothetical and legitimate, adds charm for those well read in classics to pick up allusions made by the author. I grant Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel as written by Anthony Doerr 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt Lynn Digital 