Lawrence of Arabia: Badass in Classical Clothing

Story:

“Lawrence of Arabia” details the story of T.E Lawrence during World War I. Lawrence was a British officer, who while quite intelligent, was also unruly and unorthodox. He is sent to Arabia to find one Prince Feisal, and take account of his intentions in Arabia. Once Feisal is found however, Lawrence ends up leading the various and divided Arab tribes on an epic journey to fight, and ultimately drive out, the Turks from Arabia. Not only is it an excellent story-driven film, but it also an wonderful character study, delving deep into the intriguing character of T.E Lawrence as well as those who surrounded him during his campaign.

This movie is epic. When I was first checking this movie out, I was like, “Four hours? Damn, this is gonna take forever to watch.”

I was so, so wrong— it’s four straight hours of awesome; and when you watch it, it seems more like forty minutes. It’s about this British guy called Lawrence (who is a total badass, as I will elaborate on later) who goes and curb stomps the Turkish Army in Arabia because he feels like it. This movie has everything: motorcycles, air raids, firefights, explosions, machine guns, canons… it’s crazy.

Sound and Cinematography:

Both the sound and visuals of the film are absolutely astonishing. The soundtrack was fitting and memorable, and the wide, beautiful shots of the majestic Arabian deserts and cliffs were simply awe inspiring. Due to circumstances, I was unable to watch this film on the silver screen. However, with the scale of grandeur I felt even seeing this film on a small screen; I can scarcely imagine the magnitude of grandeur when seeing the movie in its intended format.

This movie was made in 1962. 196-freaking-2. You can not tell by the things you see on the screen. I was watching and thinking, “Damn, that’s some nice CGI.” Then I remembered that this was made in 1962, and that there was no CGI. Everything was real. I want movies to go back to filming in real environments. Screw making everything on a computer, I wanna see more scenery in movies that actually exists.

Characters:

Lawrence is one of the most deep and interesting characters in cinema history. Throughout the entire story, we are shown Lawrence’s struggles with both who he is and what he is doing. A peaceful man, Lawrence is thrust into an environment of death and harshness. Yet, Lawrence’s strength is astounding. Each challenge he is faced with he meets with starch determination and resolve. His turmoil of the exterior and of the self is brilliantly portrayed by his actor, Peter O’Toole, who gives us an excellent display of Lawrence’s struggle to decide whether to follow what he feels is right, or what he knows is best.

Lawrence is one of the biggest badasses in film history. This man is virtually immune to pain—actually, ‘immune’ isn’t the right word. He just doesn’t give a shit. According to Lawrence, the ‘trick’ to withstanding any kind of pain is “not minding that it hurts.” This guy puts out fires with his bare hands, is tortured without so much as a grimace, and even brushes off getting shot. Lawrences gets blown off the top of a train, and he just stands up and stares at the guy who shot him. Mind you, this is while the guy continues shooting and him, emptying an entire clip at Lawrence. And the entire time, Lawrence just stands there, staring at him, deflecting the bullets with an aura of sheer awesomeness. I don’t have space to get into all the other epic shit he did, but essentially; if someone said something was impossible, Lawrence just said ‘Screw you,’ and did it anyway.

Overall:

It is easy to see why this movie is considered one of the greatest of all time: an intriguing plot, phenomenal audio and visuals, and fantastic characters and performances. This movie stands the test of time, and remains one of the greatest pieces of film ever made.

5 / 5 Stars

This movie is epic. It’s long, but doesn’t seem long. There is a lot of talking and not a lot of doing in a couple of places, but they get done with that fast. The movie has got a ton of action and it has an epic badass. If you haven’t seen this movie, you should.

4.5 / 5 Stars

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What other movies would you like to see reviewed? Leave a comment and let me know!

Update and Schedule

Okay, so I’ve figured out a schedule, and now have a better idea of what I want to do with this blog. I will still be giving multi-viewed reviews, but I won’t be making sports updates anymore. I figure focusing on one item will make for a more interesting blog than trying to juggle a couple of ideas at once.


Movies: Update once a week; Saturday at Noon

The movies I’ll be reviewing will, hopefully, be chosen by you, the readers. I love movies, so I’ll watch and review essentially anything. Old movies, new movies, foreign movies – anything goes. So let me know what you want to see reviewed. Until you let me know what you to hear my opinions on, I’ll just be reviewing AFI’s Top 100, starting with “Lawrence of Arabia.”

Two parts to explaining the movie reviews. Because I know a lot of people couldn’t give two bike horns about older movies, on the first Saturday of each month I will review a movie currently in theaters. Two reasons for this: One, I am a college student and can’t afford to go to the movies more than once a month. Two, I still want to review old movies because a lot of them (like Casablanca) are completely and unexpectedly amazing. (I am serious. If you haven’t watched Casablanca since you were at least sixteen, watch it again. Virtually every character is a total badass.)


Books: Update once a week; Monday at Noon

I'll choose books to review much the same way I choose movies. The ones I review will be decided by you, the readers. Once again: new books, classics, ancient literature – everything is fair game so long as it’s a book (and I can get my hands on a copy.)

For books, I have a personal queue I have been meaning to read, so I’ll be working from that until you let me know what you want reviewed.


And, that’s that. See you on Saturday.

Remodeling

Hey, I have been thinking about how I have been running this blog, and decided I need to make a few changes. I am still working out the details at the moment, but I am hoping to post an update on what direction this blog is going to go by tomorrow morning or evening (depending on whether or not I wake up on schedule for class). Either way, I’ll have an update schedule to post then, so it won’t be a random gamble checking to see whether or not I’ve posted an update.

Even the new format will be experimental. If anyone has any advice, or comments about what they’d like to see, by all means leave a comment. I’d appreciate it.

Sports Around the Leagues

Hurray for behind schedule postings. This time on Ducey IV: Sports!

NFL Championship games were great. Indie’s comeback surprised me, and the Vikings-Saints OT nail-biter is one of the best games I’ve seen in recent memory. Though, I do wish that the Vikings had played better than they did. It’s hard to take the Saint’s seriously as one of the Super Bowl participants when they barely won even with +4 turnover margin. There was also the major miss-call earlier in the game that gave the Saints a touchdown they had fallen short of. I personally think that Vikings – Colts would have been a more interesting Super Bowl match-up. But hey, the Saints are still a good team and it should be a good game. Also, at least now the seven Vikings players who might have had to sit out of the Pro Bowl for fear of injury can get in there. Maybe the Pro Bowl will be worth watching this year after all.

Fun Fact: Brett Favre’s last pass as an Atlanta Falcon was an interception. His last pass as a Green Bay Packer was an interception. His last pass as a New York Jet was an interception. And, if he decides to retire this year (again), his last pass as a Minnesota Viking will be an interception.

Caps are still hot; won 4-2 over the Coyotes on Saturday, extending their win streak to five. I am glad we got a two day break between the Coyotes and Islanders – we had been playing every other day for almost two weeks. We get a couple more two-day breaks until our final three games (two back to back, all on the road) and the Olympic Break.

In Baseball news – Yes, baseball; it’s our national pastime and Spring Training games are only a month away. As I was saying, in baseball news, it looks like the O’s came to an agreement and managed to get Miguel Tejada off the Free Agent market. Both sides have reportedly agreed to terms, and now the deal just needs to be finalized. I am pumped about this. Tejada is an amazing player, and we needed a strong anchor like him on one of our corners. This is gonna be a great year.

Book Review -- "Exposure: A Novel" by Brandilyn Collins

Synopsis:

Kaycee Raye is single woman with an incredible fear of, essentially, everything. All her life she has dealt with almost crippling phobias and paranoia. To Kaycee, there is always the possibility that someone is hiding in the shadows, watching her and waiting for a chance to attack. To cope with her fears, Kaycee writes a newspaper column where she discusses fears; both her own and fears her readers send into her. Kaycee has her world rocked when she returns home one day to find a camera sitting in her kitchen; on it, the picture of a dead man. Kaycee is forced to deal with her worst fear head on, all the while struggling to find out if the photo and her fear of being watched are real, or if she is losing her grip on reality…


Story:

“Exposure” is a simply intriguing tale of mystery and suspense. The story squanders no time initiating the conflict of the protagonist, and the story’s pace does not slacken in the slightest from that point forward. “Exposure” quickly introduces another storyline in the earliest part of the book; this one concerning a young man, and his struggle to support his unprosperous family of a young wife and a four year-old daughter.

The story is an exhilarating adventure of suspense and mystery, filled with serpentine cosa nostra, enigmatic abductions, and the arduous inner conflict of a woman trying to come to terms with not only her own fears, but attempting to unveil what it means to be afraid.

This book is awesome. Right out of the gate: BAM! Picture of a dead guy. End of Chapter 1. Damn, shit just got real. You wanna know what’s going on! But then zoom, you got this other guy. He’s a money-counter or something in a bank which just closed. Slowed down, right? Wrong. Bunch of guys with automatics just bust in right out of nowhere and rob the bank – AND it turns out they are from the mafia. Holy shit. It just goes back and forth between mafia bank robbers and a woman trying to catch a guy who won’t stop sending her this picture of a guy who was capped in the face. Then, here’s the great part, it all comes together in the end! You never see it coming. You’re just there reading, the book is being awesome, the stories get connected, and you are just like OH SNAP THAT JUST HAPPENED.

This entire thing is just awesome. You got the mafia, you got a psychotic killer, you got action scenes (Since it’s suspense, imagine all the action. It’s the same, only the bad guy is freaking invisible. Intense).


Characters:

The characters are deep and layered. No one is simply as they appear. Each person has their own past, their own life, and their own motivations. Of course, like all humans, none of them are flawless.

Kaycee is a truly interesting individual. Throughout the story, she attempts to cope with her fears, thinking back to a uneasy childhood with her mother and how that relationship shaped who she was. She grapples with her fears and her current relationships, striving to discover who she is as a person.

Martin Giordano, the primary protagonist of the robbery storyline is a proud individual, concerned first and foremost with the security and happiness of his family. His dearest wish is for his daughter, Tammy, to get well. He is an emotional character, full of love, as well as strife over what society dictates to be right, and what he knows is right for his family. Martin is a noble example of how far a father is willing to go for the sake of his family.

The secondary characters are intriguing as well: Mark, the well-meaning policeman who gives faith to Kaycee’s tale; Lorraine, Martin’s wife who fights a newly grown distrust of her husband; Hannah, a young girl very dead to Kaycee due to being estranged from her family and step-mother; and Nico, the Mafioso responsible for the bank robbery, and everything which must happen after.

For someone being stalked, Kaycee keeps her cool damn well. She’s damn smart too. As soon as she saw the picture of that dead guy, WOOSH – she was outta that house in a second. A lot of people probably woulda been stupid and stuck around, looked through the rooms, then followed a ‘strange noise’ they heard in the attic. Not Kaycee. She went straight to the police, told them to give her some damn help. She’s got serious guts – even though she’s got a creeper on her, she keeps her cool and goes on about her business.

Martin is all cool. When the bank’s getting robbed, he is just like, ‘Whatever, man. Tell me when you done, I don’t wanna be here late tonight.’ He’s even claustrophobic, so they toss him and his coworkers into the vault. But he stays cool – doesn’t give them the satisfaction. He also stays chill so his friends don’t panic. A true Bro.

It ain’t just the main guys who are awesome, either. Everybody is. You got Mark, a cop who’s always got Kaycee’s back. You got Lorraine, who works a job AND raises a kid at the same time (Respect). You got Hannah, whose family kept giving her shit, so she just up and left at eleven at fucking night (she’s nine by the way). Then you got Nico, who worked up the mob ladder from scratch to get where he is, and has still gotta to prove himself to his boss who hates him for being too awesome.


Overall:

This was a delightful read. The twisting plot, as well as the real and easy to relate to characters, kept me hooked from start to finish. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys suspense or thrillers. Even if you don’t know whether you like suspense and thrillers or not, I would still suggest this novel. I find it to be an excellent example of what an exquisite suspense story should be. 4.5 / 5 Stars.

This book was awesome. Whenever I had time, I was reading this thing. The chapters are nice and short, so even if you’re busy, you can still read this in small chunks. Give it a read, it’s great. 4.5 / 5 Stars.

Random Tidbits

Bit of awesomeness there to start us off. Yeah, yeah; it might be fake – still awesome though.

I’ve started to use stumbleupon.com recently. It is great and the second-most potent time sink I have ever had the terrible pleasure of falling into. Essentially, it’s a site which asks you what you are interested in, and then throws you to a random page on the internet relevant to one of those interests. So far everything I have come across has been SFW, so no need t worry there. I love the thing, massively entertaining and a great way to spend a few minutes hours.

Caps game tonight -- taking on the Red Wings. They aren’t doing that well in the standings, but they are still the freaking Red Wings. Theo has been playing a lot recently, so I think he might get the night off despite how dominant he has been. It’ll be interesting to see if Neuvirth does get the start over Theo, and if he does, if he can rebound from the Tampa Bay game. Outside of Goalie we are pretty healthy, though; I am looking forward to a good game.

UPDATE: Whoo! Caps win it 3-2. Theo got slotted in rather than Neuvirth, and he was god-like. Allowing only two goals on forty-six shots, hot damn. Offense wasn't on fire, but they were efficient enough to win. Nice game.

Anyway, to close things out: Today is Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday. So to celebrate, go read The Raven or anything else that Poe wrote. You know you want to.

Dashingly Dynamic David Ducey's Dismounting...Into Blogging.

Hey all, my name is David Ducey. To be more specific, my name is David F. Ducey IV. I am currently a Professional Writing major at Champlain College in Burlington, VT. Been looking at blogging for awhile now, but never really thought to start one of my own. Full name of this blog was gonna be, "Ducey's Deuce Dissertations and Discourses," but I decided it was too long and decided to go for something catchier.

A lot of this blog will be me writing whatever strikes my fancy on any given day. I plan to do reviews: movie, video game, and pretty much any media I encounter and feel like reviewing; I also plan to write short stories and a little bit of poetry and throw that up as well. I am also gonna be putting up a few sports postings, when they are relevant.

Now, you are probably wondering what makes my blog any different than any other of the millions floating around cyberspace. I am gonna tell you now. All my blogs have two opinions: one a critical and intellectual examination of the subject -- an opinion backed by facts and careful analyzing. The other opinion is how atomically charged, flamethrower-strapped-to-a-monster-truck, granite shatteringly AWESOME something is.

I've always been under the impression that critics take things too seriously. But, being a writer, I also like to know why I like the things I like, why the classics are considered classics, and how I can learn from that to get filthy stinking rich one day elevate my own work. So, I do both -- analyze and receive mindless entertainment.

Well, that's what this blog is gonna be about in a nutshell. I am gonna have a lot of fun writing this thing, and I hope you viewers have a fun time reading it.

--David Ducey