December 2024

Scalps 1983 movie poster featuring Native American warrior, Scalps retro movie art, 1983 B-movie Scalps promotional artwork, Native American vengeance in Scalps, Vintage Scalps cult classic poster

Artist’s Blog #151 – Scalps (1987)

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I don’t work for a cartel, belong to the Hollywood elite, or work for the government so capturing people is not something I do. Of all the prisoners to have to watch, it would be a Native American one in their element. If they escaped, you would likely never find them. They knew the lay of the land better than you and didn’t need a map. Living off the land is what they did so, you couldn’t’ starve them out. Hunting food every day to survive made them masters of stealth and concealment – they literally practiced this to live. Tracking prey would make them great at tracking but also great at counter-tracking. In other words, they would know what a tracker would be looking for and could conceal these things to make finding them even harder. This is what I found to be a true stereotype in Scalps.

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Kevin Spacey in American Beauty iconic pose, American Beauty film cover art, Kevin Spacey and rose petals scene, Iconic imagery from American Beauty, Artistic representation of American Beauty

Artist’s Blog #150 – American Beauty (1999)

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An illusive idea presented well in American Beauty is mindfulness. I think that the path to this is through gratitude. The hardest part of American Beauty for me was the final scene where Lester’s monologue was playing. His little girl standing at the door hit me like a sledgehammer. Not long ago now, I had the privilege of seeing my daughter get married. I asked her just to come home but, she wanted to marry. She asked that I spread her veil out wide so that she would look as beautiful as she could for a man waiting for her at the end of the asphalt path. As I held the white elaborate lace train in my hand, a symbol of genuine purity in her case, I made a conscious effort to lock that memory in. To echo American Beauty, there really is so much beauty in life.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan in Conan the Destroyer, Sword-wielding Conan from 80s fantasy film, Iconic Conan the Destroyer movie still, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Barbarian role, Fantasy adventure film Conan the Destroyer

Artist’s Blog #149 – Conan the Destroyer (1984)

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I say this often and often I’m wrong, but I don’t expect this week’s collection of thoughts on Conan the Destroyer to be lengthy. If you read last week, we discussed Conan the Barbarian which is the first part in this movie series. These movies are each unique, and we’ll look at some of the things that establish each of their differences. There are a lot of similarities too. These similitudes are what I expect will make this week’s blog shorter. Sword and Sorcery tends to be Sword and Sorcery. I mentioned the question last week of which movie is better, Conan the Barbarian or Conan the Destroyer. We’ll jump into this first after now having watched these back-to-back. Grab a horse and princess and let’s some hit ice caves and fight some Godzilla monsters in this week’s discussion on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Destroyer.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan, Conan wielding his sword, iconic sword scene in Conan the Barbarian, Conan in battle stance, 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian

Artist’s Blog #148 – Conan the Barbarian (1982)

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In the world of sword and sorcery, it doesn’t get any better than Conan the Barbarian. I’ll go ahead and get this out of the way, there was only one Conan and that’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. In this film genre, I would put this movie number 1, Conan the Destroyer number 2, and Deathstalker at number 3. I’ve blogged about Deathstalker too and you can read my thoughts on this classic here. Another great film in this world, and character for that matter, is Red Sonya. This is another film I will eventually blog on. Anyway, back to the film at hand, Conan the Barbarian. It has all the elements needed for a great barbarian adventure movie in my opinion. There are swords, sword fighting, cool armor, castles, girls, horses, wizards, witches, and magic. We’ll expound upon some of these things in the following paragraphs.

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Artist’s Blog #147 – The Evil Dead (1981)

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Psychological torment seemed to be the focal point of The Evil Dead. When Ash’s GF is possessed, she doesn’t go after him right away. Perhaps she is baiting him. Another commonality is a possessed person turning back to normal. They plead with Ash or try to convince him they’re fine. Naturally, they switch back to the demon-possessed form. How terrible would it be to have to look at your GF who 10 seconds ago was demon-possessed and is now her normal pretty self begging you for her life to then put an axe into her skull? The mental strain of this would be astronomical. All the while, you have another possessed person peeking through a door in the floor, changing personalities, screaming, and mocking you. A person’s spirit would be broken by all this – this is why people in prison camps are starved and allowed very little sleep.

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