Great Film Icon, Bud Spencer, Passes Away....

I have pretty strange tastes when it comes to the arts ... I really must say. Especially when it comes to movies. I like "Bad" movies ... I looooooove Bad Movies, and I've even tried to rationalize as to why on two occasions here over the years:


1. The Science Behind Why Bad Movies are Good (Sept. 2011)

2. Re-Visting QPE (June 2015)


Wow, 2011, I've been writing these silly articles in this thing for a long time now. I'm gonna throw that QPE Stupid Graph back up here and re-talk about it:




Basically, I think that It's a very U-shaped situation when it comes to Stupidity in movies. If you make a movie that has no Stupid at all (the Stupid on the graph above is the horizontal axis so no stupid is on the furthest left point labeled there as "1") ... then your movie is good. As it starts to increase in the stupidity it gets worse and drops in Goodness .... a really dumb movie that is no-good is labelled up there as "2".

Alright, but what happens if the movie is Really Stupid? What if the people making don't give a fuck and just go with it and enjoy it and embrace the Stupid? Then the Goodness starts to Re-Rise and hit "3"!

Then "4" and then "5"! The best movies, according to me anyway, are ones that are surreal in how stupid they are.

I don't even know why I'm like this. I just have bad taste in movies, that's all. I have bad taste in everything. I cannot explain it, I really can't. How does a human start thinking stupid movies are good? It just happens ... like one day you're laughing at how bad some shitty movie is and next thing you know all you ever want to watch is hilarious stupid shit. It just sorta happens, like one night you go to bed as a normal person ... and then the next morning you wake up and are just enamored with ridiculous nonsense. I can't explain why I'm this way ... it's not even my fault ... it just happened. You  just open your eyes one day and just want your entertainment to be comprised of only silly shit. You start realizing things like "Rocket Man" starring Harland Williams is a MASTERPIECE and your favorite recording artist is HEINO!

I love "Bad" movies, I do.


Rest in Peace Bud Spencer

If you're a fan of "Bad" movies like I am and you've never had the experience of seeing a Bud Spencer film then you are really depriving yourself. His work, along side his tag-team partner Terence Hill are some of the .... um ..... the ...... I don't even know how to describe them.

Bud Spencer was born Carlo Pedersoli and as a youth was a talented swimmer in Italy. As he got older he retired from swimming and tried his hand at acting. He chose his screen name of "Bud Spencer" because he was a fan of Spencer Tracy ... and of Budweiser Beer. 

He wanted to be a Hollywood star ... but in Italy. It seemed like a strange way to go about things but thus was born an Icon. He and Terence Hill made American style movies like Westerns, Cop Movies, and Redneck Beat-em-Ups ... in Italy.

Why? Who knows.... I guess some fun people who grew up in Italy and loved Hollywood movies and Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movies looked at each other one day and said ... "Hey it'd be fun to make our own!" and so they did ... and they were something, these movies. They were something ... or other.

How to describe it. It's like ... you know when a movie is trying to depict a different culture but the actors aren't part of that culture and something just seems off? I'm sure like when Asians watch a Tom Cruise samurai movie ... they are thinking something is off, you know? In regards to Bud Spencer movies ... for an American to watch American culture but through the lens of Italy ... it's just a bit off for us. It seems odd and funny to us.

Here, maybe this video can help explain the phenomenon. This is an Italian man who doesn't speak English but is singing an "American" song.

....this is just an example of "America through the Lens of Italy":

Something seems off right? It's weird. Bud Spencer movies aren't as pronounced as this video of the man singing is ... but it's like that ... it's America through the lens of Italy ... and it's just slightly odd.

I've never really seen these films talked about much by other sources of Bad Movie Likers ... the way I found out about the Legendary Bud Spencer was when I found a DVD in a Wal Mart bargain bin over a decade ago called "The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid." It looked interesting, I must say, as I tossed aside other $2 crap movies like "WaterWorld" or the "The Postman" that you couldn't pay me to buy .... there it was ... "Satellite Kid" ....

...I had never heard of this. The art didn't look like anything I remember from the 80s. I had never heard of this name "Bud Spencer" .... so I turned the DVD case around and looked at the other names involved and NONE OF THEM sounded even the least bit Americany. You'd think people associated with a guy named Bud Spencer would be American, but no, the back of the DVD had names like:

Directed by: Alredo Fedecine Alfredo
Written by: Luigio Papalogusi
Key Grip: Carmine Ragusa 

What? I'm thinking ... what the hell is this thing? In the end it was what I described it as above, it's people in Italy who wanted to make an American movie and they had about 10 grand all together to make it .... and it's so weird.

I saw the dubbed version so I don't know how good the original version is  .... but the dub is so funny. He's this Sheriff guy who befriends a child from outer space and they get into a buncha hyjinx and whatnot. They gave him a southern template for the audio dub in English but he doesn't really have a southern accent ... he just says southerny sounding words. I think they told the guy to dub the audio in the vein of Foghorn Leghorn. An example of the dialogue would be something like:

"Hey kid ... that's some mighty strange magic you got there, I say, what're those high falutin' gadgets?"

It's dubbed so bad you think you're watching a Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movie ... it's so "Bad" .... I love it. They are so good. I love all these movies they made. There's so many of them too. Spencer is 99% of the time teamed up with Terence Hill in them ... sometimes they are Cops, sometimes Pirates, sometimes Western gun slingers. One thing that's always certain though ... is Spencer n' Hill are gonna find there way into some loveable trouble.

The only reference by anyone in media I've ever seen to these wonderful Italian films, in any form, was on an episode of Eastbound and Down where they briefly watch a clip from the film Super Fuzz (which is a Terence Hill stand alone vehicle ... Bud Spencer does not appear in it) ... a scene where Terence Hill breaks out of an electric chair and then nose dives like a missile into a nearby lake.

Super Fuzz makes NO SENSE. Terence Hill is a cop who's a loose cannon and constantly getting in trouble with the police chief (Ernest Borgnine!) ... but things really get hairy when he is dispatched to a marsh to fight alligators .... when luck would have it ... a NUCLEAR BOMB is dropped on him and the alligator .... which gives Terence Hill super powers.

I can't believe Super Fuzz is only rated 6 on IMDB ... it's a genuine 8 or even a 9. It even has the added bonus of having its theme song written by someone who only knew a handful of words in English so you get great lyrics like ... "He is a Super, really Super Super, because he's Super Super!" What a great friggin' movie.

 

He's a Super Super ... really Super Doopah!!!! But he looks you and meee!

Oh my gosh. They don't make movies this "good" anymore. Super Fuzz is a damned Masterpiece. It honestly really is.

Conclusion

Rest in Peace, Bud Spencer, you were truly a Screen Icon ... and if anyone reading is a fan of "Bad" movies ... I can almost guarantee you will Love Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies ... they are truly unique. Truly unique cinematic creations ....I must say.

 

Rest in Peace, Bud.

Omni-Talent

The world is a world of specification and specialization. Some argue we've entered a world of Over-Specialization where people over-focus on one field/subject/skill/trade and never look into others ... which in turn leaves the individual narrow-minded and beholden to an echo-chamber of their own hyper specialization.


You're good at something ... and that's ALL you are good at.

You are smart at some field ... and that's ALL you are smart at.

You are talented at some skill ... and that's ALL you are talented at.


These hyper-specified skills then become your own personal identity, as you start to refer to yourself by your specification.... you're a basketball player, or a machinist, or a politician .... and that then becomes YOU, that is who you are. You are your specialization.

You are nothing more than an echo-chamber of the specification you have chosen to be. You are nothing short of a narrow-minded walking Human-Prison.

...and when you die? What will they say? They will say, Rest in Peace Basketball Player, Rest in Peace Machinist, and Rest in Peace Politician. That's what they will say.

Is there a way to break free from hyper-specification and narrow-lifedness of one's own Human Life? I think so.

There must be an example of a human being who lived a life that crossed into so many echo-chambers, so many areas, so many continents, so many fields, and participated in so many skills. If this example exists, if there has been a historic example of an Omni-Talent .... would there then be hope that humanity will break out of the constrained world of Hyper-Specialization? Yes.

It would take a unique human to be able to engage themselves in so many facets of Life that they could approach the title of Omni-Talent. You'd have to engage in such a variety of the facets of Life such as....


Fisticuffs

Training the body day and night to become a well oiled pugilist capable of standing toe-to-toe and mano-y-mano with anyone from the biggest brute to the stealthiest fist assassin.

Being able to win championships, Olympic honors, and many an accolade as you float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Jiving, dodging, and re-jiving at the blink of an eye and jabbing at the speed of light.



Political Activism

One would have to also have talent in the Political realm by standing up for what they believe is right ... even if that involved throwing an Olympic Medal into the Ohio River .... even if involved losing your titles and being imprisoned.

To make a mark in this field is very difficult because it can quickly change you from Champion into Villain in the blink of an eye. Unlike a boxing ring where the best pugilist wins, the realm of Politics is one where the answers are not as easily found and sometimes when you get the right answer ... someone just changes the question. To succeed and make a lasting historical mark in this field is incredibly difficult.

Religion


Tackling the world of Religion is unusually difficult for it's rife with nonsense and obstructions galore. For someone to leave a mark on the world of Religion would take a great deal of thinking. To take in all the many different texts of all the World Religions and forming an interesting opinion that would leave a mark on the world for the Future Generations would take a great mind indeed.

The world of Religion is so strange and ripe with nonsense that to have an interesting take on it is greatly difficult. An Omni-Talent would have to be able to tackle the "touchy thang" of Religion too.

Art

The Arts take many a form and it is actually the easiest field in many a sense to become talented at because the benchmarks are left quite wide open. You can paint, draw, make movies, make music, make macaroni landscapes on construction paper ... it's a vast world. To be good at art ... you just gotta find something you like and get out there and jam. If you're good at talking then maybe your art can even be talking.

Maybe your mark on the Art World could be just talking in rhymes to musical accompaniment. What should you talk about... Well, If you're talented at talking about how bad-ass a person you are ... then maybe that can be your Art.

Judging by the music world today, millions of people have made music based on themselves rhyming about how bad-ass they are ... it's called Rap Music. Now a days it's accompanied by electronic beats instead of Liberace ... but it's still in the same vein.

Did Ali invent Rap? It's debate-able but it's possible to argue that he very well might of.

Conclusion

Is there a way to break free from the hyper-specification and narrow-lifedness of one's own Human Life? Yes, it is possible.

It is possible to be an Omni-Talent.

Rest in Peace Muhammad Ali.......Omni Talent.