Author: DOuG pRATt

Mighty Young Joe

I’ve been trying to work through my thoughts and feelings about Joe Sinnott, but I haven’t made much progress. Although Joe’s passing was not due to the coronavirus, I feel the crisis had an indirect effect, because he couldn’t have visitors. Joe wasn’t able to see his family and friends, and Joe had a lot of friends and fans. I was proud and happy to have been one of them.

Joe was buried yesterday with military honors, following a private service with his family. There will be a future public event celebrating Joe’s life, if the pandemic ever releases its grip. Marvel Comics has published a remembrance of Joe at this link.

War Wary

Looking at the previous post, with Vera Lynn and the aircraft behind her, it reminded me of something, then Turner Classic Movies happened to show what it was. A Matter of Life and Death, from 1946.

I wrote about this movie here over ten years ago. Back then just getting a few minutes of it captured and posted as a Flash Video was a big pain, but now YouTube has a complete copy. As with most every Powell/Pressburger production, aka The Archers, it’s fantastic and strange, with striking visual designs.

Richard Attenborough, looking unbelievably young, appears early on. There’s a motorcycle ride starting at 38:45 into the video that was quite obviously borrowed by David Lean for the opening of Lawrence of Arabia.