4/30/2024 0 Comments Pirates 2005 cast and crewI was quite intrigued with the wooden leg Matthau's Captain has, it really looks like he has a real wooden peg leg! and this is before CGI folks, impressed. All the pirates, especially Matthau, look as they should do, covered in dirty rag-like attire, greasy facial hair, deep tans, golden teeth.every bit the stereotypical swashbuckling sea dog. I think this film is very similar to 'The Fearless Vampire Killers' in the fact that its actually kinda dull but looks beautiful. At the same time there is of course a love interest for the young dashing French sailor, mutinies, plenty of galleon boarding from both sides and lots of skullduggery on land and at sea. The story is naturally a typically salty one involving Walter Matthau's 'Captain Red' and his young French sidekick trying to pinch a golden throne from some fancy pant Spaniards. Roman Polanski doing what he does best which is creating lavish productions that tend to not be overly successful at first but gain cult status. And it does indeed make for a fascinating character study, but as a baseball fan, I was looking for a little bit more detail about the team's travails.Įven so, the book is engagingly written and is particularly worth a look for anyone who grew up punk - or surrounded by those who aspired to the punk lifestyle.Back before Johnny Depp revolutionised the pirate movie with his camp ways there were the odd rum fuelled flicks such as this. In reality, the games and practices were given only cursory glimpses, with the primary focus of Wrecking Crew being a series of interconnected stories about the teammates themselves. My one disappointment with the book is that I was expecting there to be a lot more baseball involved in the telling of the tale. There's a former heavy metal hair band star who had once been on the verge of making it big, and there's a young Japanese man who is taking acting lessons and also happens to be the best player on the team. The remainder of the cast of characters includes an aspiring actor who hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains and a convicted murderer (needless to say, his teammates give him a wide berth). When the younger guys basically imply that the guys are nothing more than has-beens, the comment rankles - and unfortunately rings true. An example that particularly resonates is a concert where one of the older gents finds himself in heavy conflict with the members of an up-and-coming band. Through it all, we see the disillusionment that a generation of punk rockers feel now that they're well into middle age and heading into later years. The team goes through numerous iterations as some people remain constant and others leave (occasionally falling back into old, bad habits). Wrecking Crew is full of small, anecdotal stories such as these. His big heart gets him in a bit of trouble, as he willingly gives up his comfortable apartment and beloved cats for a woman who had been working as a high-priced hooker when he met her. We learn a great deal about John throughout the course of the book, primarily that he has a habit of frequently falling deeply in love with the wrong women. One is John Navarro, cousin of rock god Dave Navarro. Many of them are former junkies and people who were almost famous. Slowly, the team comes together and although they're not particularly good, they do have a fair amount of pride and determination.Īlthough baseball is the backdrop of the book, the real story revolves around the characters. When one of his friends, Mike, becomes determined to put together a baseball team and join a local men's league, Albert is dubious about participating. It's a tenuous existence to be sure, but seemingly a huge improvement over his days as a junkie. At the time the Wrecking Crew story starts, he is partnering with another kindred spirit to work on screenplays. After suffering for years due to an addiction to heroin, he finally quit the stuff for good and started forging a living by writing. Like some of the people who were involved in that "scene", though, he fell under the spell of the drug culture that perpetuated. John Albert, the book's author, is a some-time punk musician who co-founded the hardcore group Christian Death and was a drummer for the legendary Bad Religion. Wrecking Crew: The Really Bad News Griffith Park Pirates exemplifies this emotion as it sees its real-life "characters" turning to the sport to find their own sort of solace. If I'm having a down day, I oftentimes look to the simple happiness of a baseball game on TV to perk me right back up. The Really Bad News Griffith Park Pirates Book by John Albert By Kim Hollis August 22, 2005Īs a longtime fan of the sport, I fully believe that baseball has amazing healing properties.
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