Occassionally, I see something on TV that stars someone in a rare appearance or makes reference to another piece of cinema. Then I see that same actor or referenced item on another show. I tend to find the coincidence immensely interesting. Then I tell a friend about it and he finds it immensely...coincidental. Damn it all! I say its interesting. An example of how far we've come that we can touch the past so simply.
This happened again yesterday. I was watching M*A*S*H (the TV show, not the movie). It was one of those episodes without any drama, all fun. The colonel surprised everyone with a movie to lift their spirits. It was an old western starring Henry Fonda called My Darling Clementine. It ends up being inconsequential to the episode as the film breaks and they have to entertain themselves until it is repaired. (OK. That was more info about the show than was necessary.)
Later that day, I was browsing the premium movie channels when I happened upon none other than My Darling Clementine (1946). Now how about that? The movie is sixty years old and I had never even heard of it before. Then I had the chance to watch it after having watch other people watch it. So I did.
I had missed the first couple of minutes but that was the part that the gang at the 4077th watched before it broke. So I was covered. As I watched, I became amazed that I had not heard of the movie before. It is pretty much the same story as Tombstone and Wyatt Earp. I love Tombstone. Its one of those movies that I can't help but watch when its on TV even though I own it on DVD.
That fact drew me into the movie even more. I wanted to see what differences there are in the story and how well it was made. I dig old westerns but the acting and staging is usually on par with the stuff that airs late night on Skinemax. This one wasn't bad though. We all know Henry Fonda was top shelf. However, I find it hard to think of him as a tough as nails gunman. But still pretty decent. Most of the characters were there as in the recent flicks but the relationships and story line are quite different. I ended up recording the last half of it because I was hungry (not from ruslin' cattle mind you but still in need of food) and had to mosey out to rangle up some chow. I'll finish watching later. Maybe there will be another reference embedded in MDC to a silent movie or something I would only find on mimeophone.
SEEYa
3 comments:
You're my huckleberry... From a statistical perspective, coincidences are inevitable and often less remarkable than they may appear intuitively.
Now anyone who was wondering who I was talking about knows.
In probability theory, the birthday paradox states that given a group of 23 (or more) randomly chosen people, the probability is more than 50% that at least two of them will have the SAME birthday. For 60 or more people, the probability is greater than 99%This is not a paradox in the sense of leading to a logical contradiction; it is described as a paradox because mathematical truth contradicts naive intuition.
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