Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Tuesday Tuneage
The Mike Curb Congregation - "Burning Bridges"
1970

One day last week my accounting brain and writing brain were at war with each other, so I did what any reasonable person would do to avoid a complete intellectual breakdown: Took the afternoon off, made a pot of coffee, and fired up a film I hadn't seen since as a kid, Kelly's Heroes, on TV via Amazon Prime and the Roku box.

Among the many anti-war war movies of its sixties-into-seventies, it throws a little Me Generation philosophy in as well. A group of American soldiers go on a rogue mission well behind enemy lines to rob a bank of its gold. The town is in occupied France, and I never caught if they are intent on plundering French or Nazi gold, but who cares? It's a caper movie, and who doesn't love a good caper? And sure, it's considered an anti-war movie, but when the Nazis get blown away, they get blown away violently and in large numbers.

And if you're worried about any actor going against type, no such worries here. Telly Savalas talks tough. Donald Sutherland excudes a proto-beatnik cool vibe (he even rides around with a guy named Moriarty.) Carroll O'Connor yells a lot and his character is unintentionally funny. Donald Rickles rolls his eyes and makes smart remarks. Clint Eastwood squints.

So you're saying: "Yeah, I just looked this flick up on Wikipedia and it clocks in under two-point-five hours. How did it take up a whole afternoon?" Well, there's things going on with the music that had me hitting the pause button and headed to my iMac, and I'm not just talking about the abundant anachronisms. Like a Morricone-like moment near the end that nods towards Clint's role in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Or Sutherland's character leading a tank raid by blasting Hank Williams Jr.'s "All For The Love Of Sunshine" (forcing Coppola to top it with "Ride of the Valkyries" in Apocalypse Now.) Said Hank Jr. song was written by Mike Curb, whose own group sings the movie's hippy-dippy theme song, "Burning Bridges." Curb went on to become Lieutenant Governor of California. The Man can't bust our music? The Man made the music!