Old School Heroes

I don't have a Twitter account. I keep going to think about setting one up, then I just... don't. It's the myriad of hashtags and RT's and people referring to each other as @. I close the page and be put the idea to bed. I'm like the annoying dieter pal who can open a fridge, have a squint and walk away, waistline unscathed.
I have nothing really against it. I can see why it's a good idea. It normalises celebrities and makes them more accessible to us everyday shlubs. Only time will tell whether this is in fact a good idea.

The question was "where are you going, ma'am?". You're in an actual cab.

 

I think I'm just nostalgic for simpler times. It's frightening that Kim Kardashian's tweet was one of the better spelled examples I could find. I would've loved to have been witness to the Golden Age of Hollywood, when film stars existed in actual film, not gossip mags and reality shows (although Living Lohan has given me more snarky pleasure than I could've hoped for). They were proper idols; enigmatic and charismatic, and rarely seen slipping a nip in drunken public. I don't doubt that they did... I just like that we didn't see it.

 

My dad has always been into the 'classic' movies, the old black and white gangster epics, Casablanca, moving images containing John Wayne's presence. "God you don't know anything about films" I tuttted with a none more teenage eye-roll. Usually while on my way to see an underdressed, sweaty cast of aesthetically pleasing no-names get hack 'n' slashed. Once I turned 20 and got over the snark I began to realise he wasn't so wrong. The old yins really are the good yins. I love LA Confidential and like most pasty, nerdy twenty-somethings am partial to all of the Tarantino but I always feel that these films are better appreciated when you see what came before them.

 

Since I'm a top daughter I got my dad tickets for White Heat which was showing as part of Glasgow Film Festival. Since I tend to just get ideas and run wildly with them like a child with scissors I overlooked the small detail of an 11am start. DOOM. The cinema was surprisingly busy though, a testament to the lasting power that a truly good movie can have. Despite having all of the flu currently available in the Glasgow area I pulled it together and actually enjoyed it. Despite its two-hour running time it didn't drag (aside from a slight technical glitch). The ending is apparently infamous but I'm glad for once I know about it in advance. Even if I did, the experience of seeing it on the big screen would've been well worth the repeat viewing.

 

Jimmy Cagney also originated the expression "boo, you whore".  

The action begins with a bold train robbery that involves Cagney jumping onto the top of a train. He kills people coldly for a big money heist. He starts fights and runs amok in prison, and even plots a daring escape. With hostages. It doesn't let up right until literally 'The End'. There are shorter films made for more money that don't have that kind of action.

 

Who knows, I might even be convinced to go and rewatch The Public Enemy, which I vaguely remember from a far off uni screening. And sometimes yes, it's OK to admit when a parent is right about something that you think you know everything about. It's totally a sign of being a grown up. However being the perma-rebellious teenager I am, my next visit to the film festival will be for the latest... umm.. surely cult venture from Rob Zombie, the gloriously titled Lords Of Salem. I'm fully prepared to love it in a completely opposite way to this. But I'm still not gonna tweet about it.