It’s the 4th of July weekend, and the beaches are open!
BTW – Richard Dreyfuss was a snack in the ‘70s.
Tag: Richard Dreyfuss
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Richard Strauss Dreyfuss & Missed Birthday
Yesterday was the birthday of Richard Strauss, but I had another party to attend, and after an afternoon of carbs, sugar, and heat, I was more fit for a nap than “Also sprach Zarathustra.” I always thought the younger Richard Dreyfuss bore an uncanny resemblance to Strauss. Not so much now. Mr. Holland’s “opus” would have been that much more satisfying had the music sounded like “Ein Heldenleben.”
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The Competition 1980 Dreyfuss Irving Movie
Anybody else remember this piece of corn? I saw it in the theater back in 1980. Two pianists (Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving) improbably fall in love while preparing for the biggest competition of their lives.
Of course, I enjoyed “The Competition,” even if it was preposterous, but it gained an awful lot from Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 – a mid-performance substitute for a Mozart concerto (!) – and those creepy trees that were so memorably featured in the remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Sam Wanamaker makes a good caricature of a Bernstein-type conductor.
The whole thing is an eyeball-rolling throwback to the kind of classical music melodramas once overseen by middlebrow movie moguls in the 1940s. Was the always-pugnacious Dreyfuss the John Garfield of his day?
Limp trailer employing Lalo Schifrin’s love theme
More compelling TV ads using the Prokofiev 3rd
What’s the last Hollywood movie that gave us something like this?
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Close Encounters Returns to Theaters
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” is back in theaters this weekend in a new, digital restoration. In anticipation of the 40th anniversary of the film’s release on November 16th, a unique screening will take place tonight at the base of Devils Tower, the national monument that plays such an important part in the Steven Spielberg classic. Watching “Close Encounters” for the first time was a watershed moment in my movie-going experience. If you’ve only seen it on TV, you have not really seen it. This is a film that definitely deserves to be experienced in a theater. Say what you will about Richard Dreyfuss’ sideburns, for me this will always be one of Spielberg’s best films, with a transcendent score by John Williams. Do yourself a favor, and check your local listings.
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