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Selected Cinema in 17 Syllables (annecal's Haikuing My Life Away Write Off!)Dec 18 '02 (Updated Dec 19 '02) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Since this w/o is supposed to be about my life, and since Cinema is life, here are fifty haikus on fifty great films. The Battleship Potemkin 1925 DePalma, Woody Gilliam, amongst others, Cop Odessa steps Gone with the Wind 1939 He broke her heart, so To help block Scarlett's tear flow Rhett could give a dam The Maltese Falcon 1941 The stuff dreams made of Pursued by Lorre, Greenstreet; But Bogey saves day The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948 Don't dare go to sleep, Guard self when gold is near by And Bogey's gone nuts The Third Man 1949 War in Italy Gave us art, the Renaissance; Swiss peace? Cuckoo Clock. Sunset Blvd. 1950 Face down in the pool Holden tells story of star Still big (small pictures) Rear Window 1954 Jimmy Stewart asks: Who committed the murder? It's Perry Mason! The Night of the Hunter 1955 Laughton's film explores Expressionistic matters Of inked Love and Hate The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 Colonel Bogey's March's Scores mad Brits building bridges; Not Humphrey's long walk North by Northwest 1959 Cary Grant: Hero. He tries to save his own face And George Washington's Psycho 1960 Watch the poor Bates boy Chomp on candy, kill the girl Go a little nuts To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 Peck stands for justice; Robert Duvall is here too But doesn't say Boo How the Grinch Stole Christmas! 1966 Meanie on the hill Steals merry cheer from Whoville; Townshend's not amused The Graduate 1967 For this fine movie That shows youth's pain and perils I've one word: "plastics" 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 Our villain requests: "Open the pod bay doors, Dave" I say: "That's Hal, folks" Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 Butch and the Kid learn Who's chasing them; also that The Old West is New M*A*S*H 1970 "MASH" is a tough sell; To cut through the scathing wit You'd need a bone saw The Sting 1973 Newman and Redford Nimbly pull off con; It's like Dancing on the Sun The Conversation 1974 A tight script, Hackman Coppola's direction, and Ripe sound to Murch on Chinatown 1974 Jack sought back end cut But tightfisted Polanski Just gave him a slice Jaws 1975 Roy thinks of the shark: "We will need a bigger boat" An A-bomb might help Taxi Driver 1976 Cause he can't read lips, Hard of hearing Travis asks: "You talking to me?" Star Wars 1977 Here comes the hero Wielding a light saber and Wearing pajamas Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 What would Rodin make Of a sculptor who worked in Mash'ed potatoes Annie Hall 1977 Anhedonia: Woody can't feel happiness; Di says: "La-ti-da" Manhattan 1979 Set to Gershwin tunes Wood's Black and white epic 'comes Rhapsody in blue Apocalypse Now 1979 The horror! Horror! Not talking of war's terrors: Brando's bulging gut Alien 1979 Lil' green guy arrives Watch it crack through the rib cage I hope John's not Hurt Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back 1980 Luke loses a hand If that wasn't bad enough He gains a father The Shining 1980 Maybe a stiff drink Will help cure Jack's dull boy blues: A Red rum and coke Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 When confronted by The power of evil's sword Jones uses his gun Blade Runner 1982 Dreams of 'lectric sheep Taunt androids in Scott's future Ford -- you just can't tell This Is Spinal Tap 1984 Tap goes t'eleven? Fooey! This haiku review Goes to seventeen Full Metal Jacket 1987 The Kings and The Queens Are born to breed men, start wars; Joker's "Born to Kill" Die Hard 1988 Spawned many copies: Like "…on a boat, "…on a bus"; McLane still the tops Miller's Crossing 1990 Joel and Ethan Coen Top off their gangster homage With a hat motif GoodFellas 1990 ”You think I'm funny? I'm a clown, amusing you?” Well, yeah Joe. Of course! The Silence of the Lambs 1991 The last person who Tested Hannibal Lecter? Served with Chianti Groundhog Day 1993 Bill Murray wakes up, Finds the calendar won't change; Bill Murray wakes up… Ed Wood 1994 Faulty filmmaker Ed Wood worked with two main themes: Angora and gore The Usual Suspects 1995 Who's Keyzer Soze? He's a spook story… and a Hackneyed plot device Se7en 1995 After seven days The killer's identity Will make you Spacey Fargo 1996 Macy feels happy Buscemi feels (wood) chipper McDormand feels sick Saving Private Ryan 1998 His brothers are dead Ryan gets a free ride home Hanks, not so lucky Run, Lola, Run 1998 With shocking red hair And industrial soundtrack Lola goes running The Matrix 1999 To rival Hamlet's Wachowskis write Keanu An epic speech: "Whoa!" Magnolia 1999 In order to get P.T.'s rambling, froggy flick Bring with a bible Being John Malkovich 1999 Floors one to six groom You for the odd'ty found on Floor seven-point-five American Beauty 1999 Now when I notice Floating refuse on the street I think of Beauty Gladiator 2000 Joaquin is lusty For his Dad's job, Crowe's demise And his sister's bod Almost Famous 2000 Still waters run deep But Crowe's rock and roll epic Makes profound splashes [This was my contribution to annecal's "Haikuing My Life Away Write Off" write-off. The challenge was to tell your fellow epinioners more about you, using only Haiku Poetry. Since I'm more comfortable reviewing movies than reviewing myself (my life'd probably get a "thumbs down" anyway), I thought I'd share some of my favourite Haiku mini-reviews. I've got more of them, but these are my fifty favourite. Check out the other participants: annecal, annexation, beckytcy, haggis, imprimis2, jankp, lemon_lime, mfunk75, rianleeann, unhappycarrie, youngchinq, zenmachado...YOU?]  |
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