Gay Patriot

Before I get back to the routine of blogging, I thought it would be fun to offer another movie trivia quiz. This time, I’ll be honoring the person who gets the most right by 9 PM Pacific on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 — extended to Sunday, February 20, 2005 @ 9 PM Pacific. Please e-mail your answers to me. Each correct answer is worth one point.
In honor of the release this weekend of the documentary “INSIDE DEEP THROAT,” I’m asking about some movies which reference the name of that celebrated porn flic.
(1) Making her feature film debut in (a) this movie, (a) this actress played a character who saved her life by walking out of a screening of “DEEP THROAT.” (c) What year was the movie released?
(2) For (a) which movie was she later nominated for an Academy Award in the same category as one of her co-stars? (b) Who was that co-star? (c) Did either of them win?
(3) (a) In what movie did that co-star appear which referenced Deep Throat? (b) What was her character’s relationship to Deep Throat?
(4) With (a) whom and (b) in what movie did this actress (of (2)(b)) enjoy a “roll in the hay”?
(5) In (a) what movie did (b) this actor say “I am serious and don’t call me Shirley?”
(6) In (a) what movie did (b) this actor say “Yep, two corpses, everything’s fine.”
(7) To (a) whom and (b) in what movie was this comment addressed: “When nine hundred years old you be, look this good you will not.”
BONUS QUESTION (5 points for (a); (2) for (b)) In (a) what movie did (b) this celebrated actress say: “I’m an old maid and nobody knows more about love than an old maid.”
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

Movie Triva–we have a winner to the Movie Trivia contest. Loyal reader Dave of the Somewhere in the Middle blog got all 12 right. I’m impressed that someone else would recognize the quote in (3) from The Naked Gun. I now know that I am not the only one who remembers great lines from good, stupid movies.
(1) In Blazing Saddles, Rock Ridge sheriff Bart (Cleavon LIttle) offered fetching chanteuse Lili Von Shtupp (played by the late beyond great Madeline Kahn) what she described as a “wed wose.” Her feature film debut was as Eunice Burns in What’s Up Doc?
(2) We find the Omega 13 in Galaxy Quest. It’s a device that turns time back for 13 seconds and was used in the movie.
(3) Leslie Nielsen‘s Frank Drebin speaks the line, “This is our hill; these are our beans” in The Naked Gun in a bid to prevent Priscilla Presley‘s Jane Spencer from killing him (as she had been hypnotized by the machinations of the evil Vincent Ludwig played by Ricardo Montalban). Nielsen’s Drebin is successful.

I thought I’d take a break from the normal routine of blogging to offer a quiz to see how well-versed our readers are in movie trivia. Please e-mail your answers to me. I will acknowledge the first person who gets all 12 questions right in the post where I reveal the answers.
(1) In (a) what movie did the town sheriff offer a fetching chanteuse what she called a “wed wose.” (b) Who played the town sheriff? (c) Who played the fetching chanteuse? (d) What was that actress’s feature film debut?
(2) (a) In what 1990s movie do we find the Omega 13? (b) What does it do? (c) Is it used in the movie?
(3) (a) Who speaks the line, “This is our hill; these are our beans”? (b) In what movie? (c) To whom does he address these words? (d) What he is trying to accomplish? (e) Does he succeed?
-Dan (aka GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com

A couple weeks ago, after finishing up two research papers for my graduate program in Mythology, I returned home (from mailing them), fixed myself dinner and collapsed in front of a movie. Many of us know that experience. After a hard day’s — or week’s work — we look forward, either at home, or in the theater, to a good comedy or action flick which will remove us from the anxieities of our lives and help ease the woes of the day.
I think that’s why bad movies upset us so. We had expected something which would allow us a moment’s escape — or repose — and instead they remind us of the troubles of the day. It’s why conservatives bristle at leftist messages in movies. We’re looking to be entertained, not indoctrinated.
Well, after I mailed in my papers, I had the chance to see Hollywood at its best, one of those thoroughly entertaining movies which reminds me why I like this medium so much, why I moved to LA. Last month, I popped in the DVD of Sam Raimi‘s “SPIDER-MAN 2” and for two hours was entertained by the exploits and struggles of this very human superhero.
Not only is this movie entertaining and engaging, it also has a nice message, a message which it shares with us not by preaching or pontificating, not by forcing it down our throats, but my weaving it naturally into the story line. In this flick, Toby Maguire‘s Peter Parker decides to give up being a superhero so he can just be a regular guy with time to put into his studies and to spend with the girl of his dreams, the red-headed Mary Jane Watson (ably played by the gifted Kirsten Dunst).
Yet, when Parker abandons his Spider-man identity, crime soars in the city while young kids lose a role model. Perhaps knowing that her nephew is really Spider-man, Aunt May (played to perfection by the amazing Rosemary Harris) reminds him why we love heroes:

Kids like Henry need a hero, courage, self-sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero. People line up for ’em, cheer ’em, scream their names. And years later, they’ll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them to hold on a second longer. I believe there’s a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble and finally allows us to die with pride even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams. Spider-man did that for Henry and he wonders where he’s gone. He needs him.

She reminds Peter — and through him, us — that sometimes to do what’s right, we have to give up something we most long for.
Her words do not fall on deaf ears and Peter once again dons his outfit and takes up his calling, preventing the tormented Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) from completing a project which could destroy the city.
When I had first seen the movie in a theater last May, Aunt May’s speech troubled me. And yet when I saw the flick last month, I knew she was right. Sometimes to do what’s right, to answer our calling, we do have to give up our dreams.