From January 1, the iconic sailor falls into the public domain in Britain under an EU law that restricts the rights of authors to 70 years after their death. Elzie Segar, the Illinois artist who created Popeye, his love interest Olive Oyl and nemesis Bluto, died in 1938....
The copyright expiry means that, from Thursday, anyone can print and sell Popeye posters, T-shirts and even create new comic strips, without the need for authorisation or to make royalty payments.
In the U.S., by contrast, Popeye will be locked up until 2024. And the Popeye trademark, as opposed to copyright, is still in effect on both sides of the Atlantic, so if you were hoping to borrow the sailor man's name for a fried chicken restaurant in Belfast you're SOL.
For those of us who don't think anyone should have a monopoly on any fictional character, the history of Popeye provides two precious pieces of ammunition. One is the wonderful set of Popeye films made by Dave and Max Fleischer in the 1930s, a grotesque and surreal series that sometimes seemed closer in spirit to Robert Crumb than to Mickey Mouse. If it weren't for the Fleischers, it would be easier to argue that no one but a character's creator should be able to use him. The Fleischer Popeye shows the benefits of allowing artists to tinker with someone else's invention.
The second piece of ammo? It's the much less impressive Popeye comics and cartoons that appeared after Segar died and the Fleischers moved on to other projects. It may be valuable to let people play with Segar's creations, but that doesn't mean a single company has any special insight into which artists are suited for the job. It's telling that the one time the latter-day Popeye started to get interesting again -- when the underground comix veteran Bobby London took over the strip from 1986 to 1992 -- the suits who ran King Features didn't like the fact that its franchise was making jokes about abortion and other controversial issues. So London was fired.
As of Thursday, any British artist can try to make a Popeye as good as that of Segar or the Fleischer brothers. What's more, he can do this without worrying that he'll meet the same fate as Bobby London. Best of all, if he does a mediocre job, we won't have to wait until he retires before learning whether anyone else can do better.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked at 1968, it gave its Best Picture Oscar to the Dickens-goes-Broadway musical Oliver! I don't dislike the movie, but...best picture? That's just perverse.
1. Je t'Aime, Je t'Aime Directed by Alain Resnais Written by Jacques Sternberg
A New Wave film -- "New Wave" as in both New Worlds and Nouvelle Vague -- about a man who comes unstuck in time. It was shot at about the same time that Kurt Vonnegut was writing Slaughterhouse-5, so presumably the writers invented the idea independently.
2. Hour of the Wolf Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman
It isn't Bergman's only horror movie -- you can make a case for classifying The Virgin Spring, Persona, even The Passion of Anna under that header -- but it's the one most deeply indebted to the genre.
3. Shame Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman
And this Bergman picture is science fiction, though hardly anyone describes it as such.
4. The Lion in Winter Directed by Anthony Harvey Written by James Goldman, from his play
"If you're a prince, there's hope for every ape in Africa." (See also #19, below.)
5. High School Directed by Frederic Wiseman
An academic dystopia.
6. Coogan's Bluff Directed by Don Siegel Written by Herman Miller, Dean Riesner, and Howard Rodman
Clint Eastwood stars as a fool of a cop who stumbles his way through a case and somehow prevails. Suspenseful, quietly funny, thoroughly anti-heroic. Siegel's best movie.
7. Night of the Living Dead Directed by George Romero Written by Romero and John Russo
It was alternately ignored and damned at the time, but would anyone disagree today that it's one of the most important pictures of the '60s?
8. Once Upon a Time in the West Directed by Sergio Leone Written by Leone and Sergio Donati, from a story by Leone, Dario Argento, and Bernardo Bertolucci
The most revisionist of the revisionist westerns.
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey Directed by Stanley Kubrick Written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, from a story by Clarke
"Daiiisy, daiiiiiiiiiisy, give me your annnnnswer, dooo..."
10. Madigan Directed by Don Siegel Written by Abraham Polonsky and Howard Rodman
Much bleaker -- and better -- than the TV show it inspired.
Honorable mentions:
11. Les Biches (Claude Chabrol) 12. Faces (John Cassavetes) 13. Picnic with Weissman (Jan Svankmajer) 14. Spider Baby (Jack Hill) 15. Bullitt (Peter Yates) 16. Death by Hanging (Nagisa Ohima) 17. The Flat (Jan Svankmajer) 18. Salesman (David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin) 19. Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner) 20. Yellow Submarine (George Dunning)
DOUBLE PLAYLIST POST: Tuesday night I guest-hosted The Hop, WCBN's weekly hour-long selection of classic soul, funk, and rhythm and blues. When I do my own show, I usually try not to broadcast songs I've played in previous weeks, but that rule goes out the window when I sit in on a different DJ's shift:
Clarence Carter: Back Door Santa Jean Knight: Your Six-Bit Change Joe Tex: Skinny Legs and All Pigmeat Markham: Here Comes the Judge Jerry Lee Lewis: Hold On, I'm Comin' Herbie Mann: New Orleans Mariann: The Woman in Me Kip Anderson: I Went Off and Cried Etta James: Take It to the Limit Mavis Staples: Hard Times Come Again No More The Exotics: Let's Try to Build a Love Affair Candi Staton: Sure As Sin James Carr: Life Turned Her That Way The Meters: Live Wire Parliament: Ride On Bobby Womack: Across 110th Street Sly and the Family Stone: If You Want Me to Stay Slim Harpo: Mohair Sam Wayne Carson: Soul Deep
On Thursday I hosted a special Christmas edition of Titicut Follies -- or was it a special Titicut Follies edition of Christmas? Maya and Rona came in for the last 90 minutes or so, and the show got a little chaotic with a three-year-old girl running around the studio, but that's what makes community radio fun. (Yes, I played "Back Door Santa" twice in three days. It's a holiday, dammit!)
Bobby Gimby: When Bessie the Cow Helped Santa Rev. Edward W. Clayborn: Wrong Way to Celebrate Christmas Rev. J.M. Gates: Death Might Be Your Santa Claus Bob Rivers Comedy Corp.: O Come All Ye Grateful Dead-Heads William S. Burroughs: The Junky's Christmas Big Star: Jesus Christ The Kinks: Father Christmas Michael Nyman: Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds Vince Guaraldi: Linus and Lucy Mickey Rooney: One Foot in Front of the Other Thurl Ravenscroft: You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch Oscar the Grouch: I Hate Christmas! Stan Freberg: Green Chri$tma$ The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band: Cooking Bulgars Tom Waits: Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis Asleep at the Wheel: Xmas in Jail Brave Combo: Must Be Santa Mary Wells: Silent Night Saturday Night Live: Christmas for the Jews The Royal Guardsmen: Snoopy's Christmas Cheech and Chong: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas: The 12 Days of Christmas Michael Nyman: An Eye for Optical Theory Wynton Marsalis: We Three Kings of Orient Are Leon Redbone & Dr. John: Frosty the Snowman Charles Brown: Blue Holiday Clarence Carter: Back Door Santa Ray Charles: Santa Claus is Coming to Town Etta James: Merry Christmas, Baby Spike Jones: Nutcracker Suite The Roches: The Hallelujah Chorus The Impossibles: The Hallelouie Chorus June Tabor: Young Waters The Louvin Brothers: A Shut-In at Christmas/Shut-In's Prayer The Christmas Jug Band: Santa Lost a Ho Elvis Presley: Santa Claus Is Back In Town The Blasters: Trouble Bound John D. Loudermilk: No Playing in the Snow Today The Roches: Good King Wenceslas Kirsty MacColl & The Pogues: Fairytale of New York Bob Dylan: Wigwam
During the first Michael Nyman piece, I read a three-year-old essay of mine, "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians." (The second Nyman track served as a music bed while I listed the songs I'd been playing. So did the Chanukah-friendly tune by the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band.)
The great discovery of the afternoon is that Bob and Doug McKenzie singing "The 12 Days of Christmas" isn't nearly as funny as I remember it being when I was in the seventh grade. But hearing it gave me a warm nostalgic glow, and isn't that what Christmas is all about?
Also, February's print edition of Reason has just come out. I don't have any long articles in it, but I did write a review-cum-squib about Andrew Kirk's book Counterculture Green.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked at 1978, it gave its Best Picture award to The Deer Hunter. It's in my list too, but not at the top spot:
1. Gates of Heaven Directed by Errol Morris
"Death is for the living and not for the dead."
2. Dawn of the Dead Written and directed by George Romero
Everyone knows the zombies are a Metaphor For Mindless Consumption. What complicates that, and makes the film even more delightful, is that the shopping mall itself is depicted as a virtual utopia, at least until the undead hordes break in. There must be a dozen different ways to read that.
3. Blue Collar Directed by Paul Schrader Written by Schrader and Leonard Schrader
Ebert says: "The movie could have copped out in its last thirty minutes, and given us a nice, safe Hollywood ending. Instead, it makes criticisms of mass production that social critics like Harvey Swados and Paul Goodman might have agreed with. This isn't a liberal movie but a radical one, and one I suspect a lot of assembly-line workers might see with a shock of recognition."
4. The Deer Hunter Directed by Michael Cimino Written by Deric Washburn, from a story by Cimino, Washburn, Louis Garfinkle, and Quinn K. Redeker
The scenes in America offer closely observed realism, the scenes in Asia are a paranoid fever dream, and the contrast between the two magnifies the film's power.
5. The Last Waltz Directed by Martin Scorsese
The Band, R.I.P. For a while.
6. Days of Heaven Written and directed by Terrence Malick
The plot is the stuff of hard-boiled crime fiction, but the movie is something very different: more a pastoral mood piece than anything else.
7. A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist Written and directed by Peter Greenaway
The Tibetan Book of the Dead meets The Field Guide to Birds.
8. Powers of Ten Directed by Charles and Ray Eames
A quick guide to the universe, from the largest possible point of view to the smallest. If Olaf Stapledon made a classroom film, it would look like this.
9. Mongoloid Directed by Bruce Conner
Yes, it's a music video. I can include music videos if I want to, dammit. The song is by Devo.
10. The Driver Written and directed by Walter Hill
The car-chase movie as existential noir.
N.B.: Sources differ as to whether Powers of Ten was first screened in 1977 or 1978. Since I left it out of my '77 list last year, I'll include it in this one.
When the Motion Picture Academy looked at 1988, it gave its Best Picture award to a feel-good formula flick called Rain Man. Which isn't a bad movie, as such films go -- I've always liked the scene when Dustin Hoffman blithely confesses to counting cards -- but it also isn't as good as any of these:
1. The Decalogue Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski Written by Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz
The 10 episodes of this Polish miniseries were allegedly inspired by the 10 commandments, though I've never seen a compelling attempt to match Kieslowski's individual stories to Yahweh's individual instructions. At any rate, you shouldn't get hung up on the concept; take each entry on its own terms, and you'll see some of the most morally nuanced storytelling ever made for the screen.
2. A Fish Called Wanda Directed by Charles Crichton Written by John Cleese, from a story by Crichton and Cleese
Ealing meets Python.
3. Apartment Zero Directed by Martin Donovan Written by Donovan and David Koepp
"If that's a mask, either take it off now or leave it on forever."
4. Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser Directed by Charlotte Zwerin
Genius wrapped up in madness.
5. Paperhouse Directed by Bernard Rose Written by Matthew Jacobs, from a novel by Catherine Storr
Rose's early horror/fantasy movies are so much richer than his later, self-consciously arthouse-oriented Oscar bait.
6. My Neighbor Totoro Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki
My daughter likes it, too.
7. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen Directed by Terry Gilliam Written by Gilliam and Charles McKeown, from a novel by Rudolph Erich Raspe
"Have him executed at once. This sort of behavior is demoralizing for the ordinary soldiers and citizens who are trying to lead normal, simple, unexceptional lives."
8. The Naked Gun Directed by David Zucker Written by Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Pat Proft
In addition to featuring O.J. Simpson's finest performance outside a courtroom, this is the best baseball movie ever made.
9. Cane Toads: An Unnatural History Directed by Mark Lewis
Frogtown goes to hell.
10. The Thin Blue Line Directed by Errol Morris
It's on this list because it's an artful piece of filmmaking and an accomplished piece of journalism, not because it can credibly claim to have gotten an innocent man freed from prison. But that's a nice bonus.
Honorable mentions:
11. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodovar) 12. The Vanishing (George Sluizer) 13. Alice (Jan Svankmajer) 14. Miracle Mile (Steve De Jarnatt) 15. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Philip Kaufman) 16. Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet) 17. Virile Games (Jan Svankmajer) 18. Walker (Alex Cox) 19. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (Robert Zemeckis) 20. Tanner '88 (Robert Altman)
Daniel Clowes drew this picture's poster, and there's something about the movie that matches his sensibility. Whenever I think back to the dark and funny final scene, my mind distorts the memory so I'm imagining a Clowes comic, not a film.
2. After Life Wrtten and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
My favorite Japanese movie of the '90s.
3. Rushmore Directed by Wes Anderson Written by Anderson and Owen Wilson
Featuring Anderson and Wilson's best script, one of Bill Murray's best performances, and the best use of the Who on a motion picture soundtrack ever, and yes, that includes Tommy.
4. The Big Lebowski Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
"Fair? Who's the fucking nihilist here?"
5. The Celebration Directed by Thomas Vinterberg Written by Vinterberg and Mogens Rukov
It would be a spoiler to say what this story is about. I'll just note that there are about 10,000 movies on that particular subject, and that this is one of maybe five that treat the topic intelligently.
6. Oz 2 Written by Tom Fontana with Sean Jablonski, Bradford Winters, and Debbie Sarjeant Directed by Nick Gomez, Uli Edel, Bob Balaban, Keith Samples, Kathy Bates, Alan Taylor, Mary Harron, and Jean De Segonza
The second season of HBO's prison series isn't as much of a self-contained narrative as the first year, but there's enough of an arc to earn it a spot on the list.
7. A Simple Plan Directed by Sam Raimi Written by Scott B. Smith, from his novel
Raimi's best movie.
8. Henry Fool Written and directed by Hal Hartley
"OK, you got me outnumbered here four to one and you're gonna kill me here tonight and not a soul in this dimly lit world is gonna notice I'm gone. But one of you, one of you, one of you is gonna have his eye torn out. Period....One of you poor, underpaid jerks is gonna have an eye ripped out of its socket. I promise. It's a small thing perhaps, all things considered, but I will succeed, because it's the only thing I have left to do in this world. So why don't you just take a good look at one another one last time, and think it over a few minutes more."
9. Out of Sight Directed by Steven Soderbergh Written by Scott Frank, from a novel by Elmore Leonard
Part of a great run of Elmore Leonard adaptations in the mid/late '90s, along with Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty and Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown.
10. Kurt & Courtney Directed by Nick Broomfield
Someday I'll write a long essay about what an underrated director Broomfield is and what a crafty little movie he has made. This is supposedly a piece of investigative journalism devoted to the theory that Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain. But the mystery is a MacGuffin. The film is really a slapstick remake of Citizen Kane.
Honorable mentions:
11. Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes) 12. High Art (Lisa Cholodenko) 13. Pi (Darren Aronofsky) 14. O Night Without Objects (Jeanne C. Finley, John H. Muse) 15. Buffalo '66 (Vincent Gallo) 16. There's Something About Mary (Bobby and Peter Farrelly) 17. Dark City (Alex Proyas) 18. The Truman Show (Peter Weir) 19. The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman) 20. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg)
Yes, Saving Private Ryan. When it's bad it's very, very bad, but when it's good it's great.
N.B.: Henry Fool went into general release in 1998, but technically it was first screened in 1997. I didn't realize that when I posted my '97 list last year, though, and I hate the thought of excluding it -- if all of Hal Hartley's movies were to disappear from the world, this is the only one I would really miss.
SELF-PROMOTION: My review of Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet, Bill Kauffman's fine new biography of the Antifederalist attorney Luther Martin, appears in the new TAC. (The same issue includes appreciations of C. Wright Mills, William Appleman Williams, and Gabriel Kolko -- further evidence for my contention that The American Conservative, despite its title, is actually one of the best left-wing magazines in the country.)
Meanwhile, that same Bill Kauffman guest-edited the latest edition of The University Bookman, a special issue devoted to regionalism. I contributed an essay about country music, southern soul, and Jackie Brown.