Tomorrow night Public Television stations will broadcast Sunday’s Kennedy Center ceremony honoring Bill Murray for his unique blend of comedy and social commentary. The Mark Twain Prize, first given to Richard Pryor in 1998, is the nation’s top honor for comedians. Everything’s coming up roses for Murray this week as his favorite team the Chicago Cubs gained their first win of this year’s World Series, and Murray was a trending topic for a photo he took in Scotland in 2012 wailing with a toddler–a photo mistaken for Tom Hanks by many.
The 2016 awards event features Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver, and David Letterman, among several other celebrities mildly roasting the actor/comedian/golfer/celebrity and saluting his work. In the show Murray gives his own salute to one of his five brothers, the well-known character actor Brian Doyle-Murray. Two other brothers, Joel and John, are also actors.
So what’s Murray’s best work? Is it his classic comedy skits or Weekend Update work on Saturday Night Live? Or his assistant groundskeeper from Caddyshack? What about his Dr. Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters? You can’t forget his Army soldier John Winger in Stripes. Or how about his weatherman in Groundhog Day?
Murray is known for continuing to surprise us. Like when he earned an Academy Award nomination for his drama Lost in Translation, when he played Dustin Hoffman’s friend in the Oscar winning Tootsie, and when he gave us his own take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in Scrooged, portraying FDR in Hyde Park on Hudson, and a war hero in Monuments Men.
I have cried in many movies. It took me a while to allow the tears to silently flow instead of fighting them back to maintain a sense of dignity that I imagined more that I possessed. I can keep crying at the same scene after many viewings, but I’m not sure I can elucidate why. Recently I watched Spotlight–the Oscar nominated movie–and I cried for a very different reason than I have before. Before I get to that one though, I figure I will run down a list of some of the movies that made me cry and try to rationalize why on all of them.
Scrooged – Ever since I saw this film in the theater, there is one moment at the end that gets me every time. It’s the moment that Calvin Cooley walks up to Frank Cross and tugs on his coat. Bill Murray, as Cross, looks down after his big rambling speech, tears streaking his face and says, “Did I forget something big man?” Cooley whispers his first words since his father dies and says, “You forgot to say ‘God bless us everyone,’” at least how I remember it. Why does it still get me? Maybe it is Calvin’s story that we as the audience see as a companion to Cross’s story and the tragedy therein of his assistant. Maybe it’s stellar writing that makes a single character wait to speak until he has something magical to say. Maybe it’s just the sentiments that accompany Christmastime. I’ll bet it is the part of me that empathizes with Cross and all of the stress and responsibility of being an adult and remembering that sometimes being a child allows innocence to have the perspective to get to the point with just a few words.
Field of Dreams – Many a man has had his stoic expression cracked by this movie when Ray Kinsella and his father are reunited. It’s the moment where just before his father leaves again, Ray gets up the courage to stop him in his tracks and asks, “You wanna have a catch?” As the Ghost of Christmas Past says in “Scrooged,” it’s Niagara Falls for me. I remember kneeling before my TV during this scene as tears streamed down my face like never before or since. I sobbed out loud. I’m sure that’s why the Ghost of Christmas Past knows how to get Frank Cross to sob. It’s the memories of the times past, those fleeting moments with family that as an adult I want to have had more of those times. Even if they were plentiful, the past seems far away and the times few as life keeps pushing forward and spreadsheets replace baseball mitts.
When we decided to do a list of the Top Ten Fantasy Movies for each of the borg.com authors, the definition of “fantasy” became very simple – it had to have magic in it. I thought, no problem. That’s easy – and I was right. I had more than enough movies to make the list work without including super-hero movies or science fiction. (Though, there is one movie that could be seen as a super-hero movie. Technically.) Then, I came to a realization.
Of all of the movies that I found, there are an overwhelming number of romantic comedies. When I think fantasy, I think Game of Thrones, the Dragonriders of Pern, Xanth, Tasslehoff Burrfoot and many other series. It surprised me that love, true love, also has a fantasy aspect to it. Maybe it’s because finding your true love has turned out to be one of those ultimate myths like unicorns or white wizards. Maybe it’s because in order to find true love, you need a little supernatural push. Maybe I’m just being overly analytical and love itself is a kind of magic. (At this point, I’m sure you could be singing “Magic” by The Cars, “Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News or any number of pop love songs and convince yourself that love is magic because the bards say so.) No matter what the reason, there are more love stories than adventures in my list. If I read the other author’s lists and see more adventures, well, then I will assume that I’m a hopeless romantic. If they have romances as well, I’ll breathe a sigh of relief and think that my brain is not love sick, just good at finding magic in the everyday where relationships, not dragons, need to be shot out of the sky with large weapons. Wait…oh, never mind, on to the list.
10. Hawk the Slayer
This one is pure nostalgia. I could have put other, better movies that this one on my list like Big Fish, Stardust, Spirited Away, The Prestige, Stranger than Fiction, Ella Enchanted, Last Action Hero, The Fall, Kung Fu Hustle,* Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure or Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium on this list**, but I still remember staying up late and watching this movie a few different times with friends while I was in grade school. I look at the trailer (part of a site which may make a sequel!) and nostalgia makes me want to watch it again, but my mind tells me that I’d rather keep it unsullied in the memories of 10-year-old me. My favorite moment occurred outside the movie because my friend Russell and I would “play” Hawk the Slayer and fight over who got to be the elf.
*This is the movie that I think blurs the line between “fantasy” and “super-hero” but because it isn’t technically in my top ten list, I’m ok with it.
**Consider that the rough draft of my 11-21 movies, though not necessarily in that order. Bill and Ted is the nostalgic one in that list. Mr. Magorium could just be oxygen infused airline viewing and Natalie Portman that made it wonderful.
9. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
See #10, except this listing is for junior high/high school nostalgia and I still watch it occasionally, especially for the opening credits. Llamas will never cease to be funny for me. My favorite moment in the movie is always the anticipation of the first “wik” in the credits. If you’re looking for a fantasy moment, the whole scene with Tim is pretty darn great.
8. Midnight in Paris
My favorite movie of 2011, as I’ve posted before, and I think it belongs on this list. I still remember smiling and filled with such happiness when I walked out of that theater. My favorite moment happened when Owen Wilson waited for the car to pick him up a second time. He had found magic and he got lucky. The fear of that being a one-time shot made that moment exquisite in anticipation.
7. L.A. Story
Before I moved to L.A., I really liked this movie a lot. (I seem to place it, Last Action Hero, Hudson Hawk and Quick Change into the same place in my mind, probably due to release dates and also because I seemed to like them much more than anyone else.) The presence of this movie on my list made me look at the rest of the movies and that’s how I came up with my introduction. My favorite moment is the scene where the showers can change to slow motion.
6. Shallow Hal
Yes, the message hits you over the head like a +5 mace of creaming. Still, from both sides of a romance, don’t you want the person you date, you marry, to be able to see all the things that make you who you are, that make you beautiful? It’s a great concept, taking the parts of us in our heads and hearts and making it visible to everyone as abs or perky breasts or a full head of great hair or legs that go all the way to the ground. My favorite moment is the first time Hal (Jack Black) goes dancing in a club with his new sight and is just so happy.
5. Big
Yes, this has a lot of funny parts and there is a sweet kind of romance to this one, but I always have considered it to be one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. Not because of arc of the Elizabeth Perkins character, but because of Josh Banks not being able to live purely as a child again once he has become big. There’s no way to make his innocence magically return. He’ll forever be an adult. My favorite moment, “I get to be on top.”
4. Groundhog Day
Andie MacDowell is gorgeous and I think I could see how a man would spend eternity trying to woo her on her looks alone. Bill Murray is not as pretty and definitely not that cool in his role as weatherman Phil Connors. By the end of the movie though, Murray is definitely the one that is so obviously a catch as he seems to have so much more depth. However, this could just be my Murray Man Crush*** speaking. My favorite moment, out of many, is “Don’t drive angry.”
***I think it is a definite diagnosis for men from 20-50 that have seen Caddyshack, Meatballs, Ghostbusters, Lost in Translation, etc.
3. Scrooged
This cements the fact that I have a Bill Murray crush. If Frank Cross made my favorite character list, then his movie should be a part of my favorite fantasy movies, right? My favorite moment is my guaranteed Niagara Falls, “You forgot God bless us everyone.” But, a close second is, “Did you try staples?”
2. Fellowship of the Ring
Here is the truest of true fantasy adventures. A call to arms and heroes emerge to pursue the quests that need their help. (Just writing that last sentence makes me want to read some Joseph Campbell. The awkward construction was part of my plan to make the reader think of Joseph Campbell. Failing that, I’m just going to ram the name Joseph Campbell down your eye sockets.) I think this may be the best adaptation of a book that I have ever seen. Great visuals, great casting, great writing. My favorite moments in the movie involve the Nazgul. I love the dream glimpses of their human forms. I love the chase of Frodo and Arwen. Such awesome imagery actually might have beaten the visions I had in my mind from the books.
1. The Princess Bride
One of my favorite movies of all time, as soon as C.J. mentioned the list, I knew this would be at the top of it, the tough part being how the rest of it would look. I have two favorite moments amidst a movie filled with quotable moments and great scenes. “I do not think it means what you think it means,” and the moment Peter Falk turns back toward Fred Savage and says, “As you wish.” Ok, that settles it. I am a hopeless romantic.
Ok, here I am looking at a list of twenty characters that I have to cut to a quarter of that for this list. I didn’t even go crazy thinking about everything I’ve watched or read to find that one person that stood out above the rest. I just really looked at my bookshelf, which should contain most, if not all, of my favorites. But, is it everything? Do I have everything I want to own in pop culture circles? (No! I don’t own Firefly or Stalag 17 or every appearance of the Legion of Substitute Super Heroes!)
That problem aside, at least I had an idea from the beginning to focus the list. When thinking of my favorite characters, I chose good friends. I chose characters that support their friends and family, though sometimes it takes a little personal growth to do so.
To help narrow down the list, I made a choice not to include any of the characters from a previous borg.com essay on characters to make it more of a challenge.*
* Side note, the list I made then had three characters not on the list I made now. I bet I could make this list every day and find five new favorites. Eliminating Sam Gamgee and Hermione Granger though, those were tough blows to a list about supportive friends.
I then eliminated childhood favorite comic book characters since I know I’ll probably mine that idea for future essays just devoted to them.
That eliminated ten names. I still have to eliminate five more. Well, one actor played two parts so I’ll eliminate one of his. Nine. Picking one character from Doctor Who (or from Buffy, I can’t believe I forgot Buffy) seems unfair, so I have to lop them off. Eight. Ditto for Community** and The Simpsons. Six. Lastly, I have to get rid of Supes from Kingdom Come because as much as I love the friendship between him, Wonder Woman and Batman, it’s not about any one of them, it’s about how they approach things differently and yet work well together (eventually).
** Though I will say that I have to write a little about eliminated choice Britta Perry. She’s a hippie, she mispronounces things and she can be a bit awkward (though can’t they all be a bit awkward.) So, in those small ways, I can see a female me. The similarities start to fail once you realize that I don’t want to sleep with Jeff Winger. Now, if there were a Jennifer Winger…
So, without further ado, here are my top five characters*** in no particular order:
*** As of January 2012. It could change by February and I may put back in some of the eliminated ones. A good list is just a product of its specific moment in time.
Frank Cross – Scrooged****
Niagara Falls. Every time I watch Scrooged I always know I’m going to cry at the end. I can just think of little Calvin Cooley tugging on Frank’s sleeve and I start to get a little misty. Yes, it probably has everything to do with Bill Murray’s portrayal as he makes every scoundrel he plays lovable. But, for this role, you get to see his choices that led to being a scoundrel. It’s not like they are bad choices, just everyday choices that he doesn’t want to admit were wrong. As a friend, well, he’s not much of one until the end, but I think it was always there as a possibility. He just didn’t have an outlet for it until the ghosts showed him what was out there for him like Claire, the folks he meets at the shelter, the Cooley family and last, but not least, his own family. The S.S. Minnow, James, the S.S. Minnow.
**** He was the actor with two characters, though about any of his characters would probably qualify for a part on a list. The one I eliminated was Bob Harris from Lost in Translation as temporary friends we meet when we travel can be very powerful in our memories. I almost think I should go back and include Bob. Maybe summer camp and travel friends are a separate list. It would give me a chance to go back and look at Meatballs and Wet Hot American Summer for great characters. As an additional aside, I also think that credit should be given to Charles Dickens for his original creation of Scrooge that I feel Murray was born to play.
Jaye Tyler – Wonderfalls
Jaye. Hmmm. A good friend? Maybe? Well definitely, but not intentionally, which I think may be one of the points of the show. You can do all the things that a good friend should do and still not be a good friend. On the other hand, if you think you’re crazy and toys, stuffed animals and coins speak to you and you just do things to get them off your back, you can be a good friend by accident. You stop thinking of yourself and how it works for you and instead you put yourself at risk for embarrassment just long enough to do something good for someone else. The fact that it’s unintentional, does it mean it is any less good?
The Sundance Kid – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
I think Sundance embodies the evolution of friendship. At the beginning of the movie, Sundance defers to Butch because Butch is the smart one coming up with plans. By the end, Sundance realizes that he’s the smart one that knows Spanish and Butch is helpless and he wonders why he ever believed anything different. Still, they’re friends and have been for many a year. You don’t abandon something like that and at the end, as they hide, injured and desperate, Sundance has to have regrets, but I don’t think that their friendship is one of them. Not going to Australia on the other hand looms large in the pantheon of regrets.
Rorschach – Watchmen
He’s crazy, but there’s one person that mitigates that crazy and that’s Nite Owl and I think that Rorschach knows that. He’s at his best when he is with Nite Owl and he goes as far as to admit it, in a way. He talks of the days that they used to patrol together as a team and he misses those days. If Butch and Sundance would have made it to Australia, I think Butch would be like Rorschach and longing for the time that they were a team. Without the tempering influence of Sundance, Butch’s plans would be left unsaid, festering into crazy at their unrealized potential to make his world better in his mind. The friendship for Rorschach and Butch might be gone at that point, but it never really leaves, it just becomes a different form. You can’t go back to going out night after night and fighting crime, the body and mind is not built like that. Eventually the friendship matures and you find new ways to enjoy it.
Vladimir – Waiting for Godot
This one is personal. Yes, the existentialist play is about two friends trying to pass the time and on that level it’s a fantastic look at all the aspects of friendship. What elevates it to top five status for me is that I can’t think of the play without thinking of my good friend Jason Vivone. We did an excerpt from it for a duet scene in high school. We saw a touring company version of it performed in Lawrence, Kansas. We performed the whole thing as adults in Kansas City. It’s about friends and I will always associate it with a good friend. I’ve known Jason for over thirty years and no matter what, when I talk to him it’s like we’ve seen each other every day over that time.
The reluctant friend, the unintentional friend, the friend who knows your faults and still hangs out with you, old friends that you may not ever be as close to again and the mature friendship that will never go away are all different ways to express friendship. Believe me, there are many other ways out there as well and the good characters find ways to make that universal feeling we have with our fellow humans feel fresh again. Like writing about characters and friends with the characters and great friends that contribute to borg.com. See you next time.
Next up tomorrow–Art Schmidt’s favorite characters.
