IN WHICH OUR HERO LAYS OUT HIS PLANS TO MAKE A FORTUNE

Star Wars. Harry Potter. To a lesser extent, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tales on the big screen in which a young hero comes of age and defeats overwhelming evil with the help of a loyal band of companions. Simple premise and a time-honored tradition in story-telling that, oh, by the way, has resulted in ticket sales between those franchises of around $12.3 billion.

And as each of these film series became more and more of a cultural phenomena, it made me scratch my head in confusion that the Chronicles of Prydain was never given the same treatment. Five children's books with critical acclaim (including Newbery Honor and Newbery Medal winners), a story structure similar to proven winners...what gives?

Sure, Disney gave it a half-hearted go back in the mid-80's, doing an awful mash-up of the first two entries in the series, deleting out some key characters and making up a few new ones, changing the overall storyline and generally making it unrecognizable from the books. What they got for their laughable effort was a flick that barely recouped 40% of the cost to make it.

There's a way to make this work and stand out, but it would take an imaginative plan. And I'm just the fella to make those recommendations. More posts to come on this subject...

DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW? THE WIZARD OF PINK FLOYD?

It was winter term my freshman year at Franklin College. Just another uneventful night of sitting around with my fraternity brothers while watching basketball games in the upstairs chapter room. Then one of the guys came up the stairs with copies of The Wizard Of Oz in one hand and Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon in the other.

I suspect it was Jason Scheele who was the culprit, if I had to use deductive reasoning. He's the only one off the top of my head that I know was from the Ft. Wayne area. That fall, there was an article in one of the newspapers up there that was the first on record to detail the phenomenon I'm about to describe. I had not read the article so I had no idea what was going on when the CD was cued up and they pressed play when the MGM lion roared for the third time.

Now I must preface this by saying that the comsumption of five or six beers (none for me, thank you, but well beyond that for some of my fellow Tekes) has a great way of making you more susceptible, more receptive to seeing things that may or may not have happened over the following hour. But even in my stone-cold sober state, there were a number of things during "Dark Side Of The Rainbow" that flipped my lid.

There are over a hundred documented places where you can see eerie things when the movie and music are synched up, most of which fall into two main categories. One is that the lyrics of the song seem to be describing events taking place on the screen. The other is places that the mood or tempo of the music provide an impressive soundtrack for the movie. In particular, there were a handful that, when seen in the context of the first run-through of the CD, were pretty mind-blowing.

The best symbolically is when the house lands in Oz and Dorothy is making her way to the door to see what's outside. The soundtrack falls silent as she tentatively walks to the door, then as she steps off the front porch (and the film transitions from black and white to color) the familiar slot machine sound of "Money" kicks in.

The eeriest for me is the intensity of the shrieking of the female singer in "The Great Gig In The Sky" as the storm picks up and the tornado starts sweeping onto the farm, then fades off as Dorothy rolls over onto the bed after being knocked out (this leads into the scene mentioned in the paragraph above).

The most jarring comes with the Wicked Witch makes her first appearance (while still in Kansas), riding along the dirt road on her bicycle as she comes to the farm to take Toto away.

One of the more subtle coincidences comes as the album ends for the first time, with the rhythmic sound approximating a heartbeat while the gang are meeting the Tin Man ("if I only had a heart") for the first time.

Taken out of context, these clips probably seem rather random. Which watched in the flow of the movie and album, it's well worth taking a few hours out of your busy schedule. BTW...if you set your CD to repeat, you can make it all the way through the movie and see more incidents. Personally, I think one time through the CD gives you a good enough idea.

YOU SEEM A DECENT FELLOW; I HATE TO DIE

I'm terribly excited that I finally found this on the web. Two Octobers back I lamented on this blog that it was a crying shame that the single most entertaining sword fight in movie history was nowhere to be seen on the Internet. But no more!

It bears confessing...my ranking is based largely on the clever banter back and forth between the two. In terms of quality of swordsmanship or drama, perhaps these might be more to your liking. Sword, knife, or lightsaber!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Duel To The Death
The Empire Strikes Back (a close second)
The Mark Of Zorro
The Mask Of Zorro
Monty Python and The Holy Grail
The Phantom Menace
Rebel Without A Cause
Revenge Of The Sith
Rob Roy
Star Wars
Under Siege