Who's the most #badass???

Motivation:

"The Action Hero: The ultimate badass with an unquenchable work ethic, Christopher Lee is still popping up in the likes of The Hobbit, while LOTR and Star Wars saw him kicking ass well into his 80s."

Here is the entire list of the oldest and coolest action heroes.

Guess who tops the list.
Thank you, thank you! Chuck Norris has nothing on Christopher Lee!

I knew that all along...

I am well aware that I am a nerd. But when seeing Hobbit my heart jumped at the scene of the White council, at that voice. Sir Christopher Lee has been in two of the greatest film sagas of the last decades, and now he is in a third series of great films... He is flipping epic. That is just the way it is.

For so long only nerds like me kept track of what he was doing. And now, and especially after LOTR and the launching of his metal albums, he exploded all over You Tube. His cult status has gone though the roof, he is the "coolest person EVER" - the "ultimate badass", the ruler of Chuck Norris (!) (when "Christopher Lee sings Chuck Norris sits down to listen"), and after Charlemagne most probably the ruler of the entire Universe. His voice is "legendary", sends "chills" down peoples spines. Some fans are swooning - "sexiest actor ever." "Sexy man god!"

An example:
"Christopher Lee killed Nazis with the guy who made James Bond, then went on to set the world record for number of films by becoming a legendary vampire, a Sith Lord, and a great wizard. And on top of all that, get this - he's a motherfucking metal musician. I'm not kidding. This guy, a 90 year WW2 vet/acting legend - plays fucking metal music. If that doesn't make him the single biggest badass that has ever walked the earth, I don't know what does. Move over, Chuck Norris. "

Or this:

He is 90 and he still kicks ass!!! A living legend.

Or this...

Christopher lee is a god among men


I knew all of this many years ago. Jeez, I wish I had had You Tube back then.

Here is a clip on how Peter Jackson persuaded SCL to film with him again. Pretty good impersonation. "Am I still in the movie?"

Got to love Martin Freeman, by the way.

Serial - a shift in gear

OK, Saturday evening I got a question on Twitter if I knew what a certain picture with SCL was from. He is sitting on a bed, holding a telephone. And he is dressed in a leather jacket. What is this? Was the question.

The answer: I think it is a scene from Serial (1980). SCL plays a mc-cult leader - and he plays gay.

I am qouting the synopsis from Films of Christopher Lee [which was published in 1983]: "Christopher Lee plays a self-proclaimed "barracuda" (i.e, man-eater) of an American busineess tycoon, who moonlights as the ringleader of a marauding gang of gay motorcyklists, in this satire of modern California mores."

It is the last entry in that book before appendixes. Notes of the authors in the book:

"Lee is brilliantly funny here (...) Serial (..) seems a highly appropriate place for us to pause, since it epitomizes the transformation of an English to an international performer."

"Startling as it undoubtedly is to see Lee playing so off-type a role as that of a gay American business executive, one hopes that this is not the start of a new trend for him, since he played a somewhat similar character later in a two-hour episode of Charlies Angels!"

Lee's own comments: "A satirical, completely outrageous comedy. In it, I play a head-hunter, an American. I play it as an American, with an American accent, which was totally acceptable to the studio and the audience, which I regard as a compliment. (...) I can assure any doubters amongst the public that this is my own voice and I was not dubbed (...). On weekends, I play the head of a gay motorcycle gang. What one would call a shift of gear, perhaps."

Eh, yup. :-)

I havn't seen this myself, but here is a trailer, and a very short snippet of eight (!) seconds with Lee as the gangleader, so don't blink!

Additional note: The plot thickens. The picture causing this blogpost might not be from Serial after all. But that doesn't really matter. It was a good reason to post these wonderful clips! I'll be back to update this if anything crops up.

 

The Disputation - one can't miss out on it

Next up is this rarely aired TV-film from Channel 4.

It is a chamber play, set in medieval times, during the reign of James I:st, King of Aragon. The Disputation was filmed in 1986, just right after Sir Lee had had a major heart surgery. (He looks a bit pale, I can't help thinking it might have something to do with it.)

I was lucky to catch it on TV as it was aried in Sweden a couple of years later, late 80's, but have seldom heard of it since.

I have understood that the marketing of this marvellous piece of acting on the behalf of Lee and all the others in the cast was virtually non-exsisting. Lee claims in Tall Dark and Gruesome that he was furious about this, nearly causing him a relaps of bad heart.

That is understandable. Forget all about sexy scoundrels, black magic, villains, Kurt Menliffs, or whatever he has played. This chamber play is, together with Jinnah, one of the finest piece of high-class acting I have ever seen him done. It most definitely has Shakespearian, or I Claudius - qualities about it:

The intelligent and proud character of Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (Alan Dobie) is summoned up to the court of the liberal but troubled King James to dispute wether Jesus was Christ or not.

King James gives the Rabbi all rights of free speech, and refuses to fold when the Church is protesting. ("I cannot and will not take back my word!")

The Rabbi easily outargues his opponent, much to the dismay of King James's wife, the narrow-minded and intriguing Queen Yolanda (Helen Lindsay).

I won't reveal anymore. You will have to see for your selves. The sound is, as usual, a bit off. But if you are a fan of Sir Christopher Lee's, and want to see him in a real high end production when it comes to acting - you simply cannot miss out on this. You just cannot.

IMDB on it.

Enjoy!

Part 1 :

Part 2:

The King of all cult movies

I have this special edition of The Wicker Man, (1973) containing both the uncut verision, such as the film should have been - and the theatrical version. This is the King of all cult movies, and damn it, it is scary. "OH GOD! OH JESUS CHRIST" makes my flesh crawl. That seargants howling on the top of that hill is horrendous. Call me a whimp, but that is the way it is.

First time I saw the film (about ten years ago) I felt I had taken part in something extremely disturbing. I havn't seen it since.

When I resaw it last night, that aha-surprise moment was gone, but the feelings of taking part in something I shouldn't have, was still there. "A martyrs death" - and by that white shirt we all know: This is going to be bloody awful.

The most creeping feeling is the realisation that these people don't see anything good or anything evil in anything - it just is. The set of values we otherwise take for granted (You shall not kill) is simply just not there. Not because the people are evil or overpowered by an evil demon, but because they have learned other things.

Sometimes this film is described as a film about a sect, and sure, you could see it like that. You should't be too political about these things, but in this day and age someone could very well see it as a symbol of a downfall of the christan civlization.

I prefer just to watch Lord Summerisle in kilt and forget about all that.

Makes me less uneasy.


Additional note: 
My collectors number on that special edition box shown above is number 34380.
This guy has number 6000 something...

 

Give the man an Oscar!

 "La Cosa cine requests an Oscar for actor Christopher Lee.

Iconic performer of more than 200 film roles, Mr. Lee have been directed by some of the greatest filmmakers ever: Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, Martin Scorsese, Terence Fisher, Tim Burton, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Richard Lester, Billy Wilder, Mario Bava, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, John Huston, Robert Siodmak, Raoul Walsh, Jesús Franco and Laurence Olivier.

From Shakespeare to Count Dracula, Christopher Lee played every kind of character in every genre. We ask the Academy of Motion Pictures (A.M.P.A.S) for this well deserved recognition to his actor career."

Agreed! Give the man an Oscar!

Sign the petition (started on 27th May, on Sir Christopher Lees birthday) here!

"He has a powerful weapon..."

New exhibition in London. More than 400 items are shown.
James Bond props - and of course the Golden Gun! :-)
Opened last week at Barbican - goes on until September! ITN reports.

The Daily Mail reports here.

A proper legend!

A trailer on The Resident with Hillary Swank. Can't help to think that this is a description of a proper legend!