Mark’s movie corner.

[AndrewJohn 10,708]

On 1/19/2026 at 8:37 PM, Daddyjt said:

I also enjoy the unfiltered look at the oil business.

 

Having been in the oil E&P business at the senior executive level (I started out on a land drill rig in southeast Missouri right out of college)..., I see (and like) that Sheridan has taken liberties to capitalize on people's predisposed perceptions of the O&G industry.  It's much bigger and more complex than Landman can fit into a series - it just is.  Still, it's a great fictional watch and I love Billy Bob Thornton's portrayal.  He reminds me of the lawyer we had at TexasGulf 47 years ago who was our Landman.

 

Agreed, sucks to have to wait nine months for the next season.

 

I also was hoping that they would do a second "Goliath" with Billy Bob, I would be first in line!  Seems there could be more to that story's characters.

[Daddyjt 9,805]

4 hours ago, AndrewJohn said:

 

Having been in the oil E&P business at the senior executive level (I started out on a land drill rig in southeast Missouri right out of college)..., I see (and like) that Sheridan has taken liberties to capitalize on people's predisposed perceptions of the O&G industry.  It's much bigger and more complex than Landman can fit into a series - it just is.  Still, it's a great fictional watch and I love Billy Bob Thornton's portrayal.  He reminds me of the lawyer we had at TexasGulf 47 years ago who was our Landman.

 

Agreed, sucks to have to wait nine months for the next season.

 

I also was hoping that they would do a second "Goliath" with Billy Bob, I would be first in line!  Seems there could be more to that story's characters.

I get that, and my comment was in no way intended to imply that I believe the depiction to be 100% accurate or all-encompassing.

 

Just like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan is not 100% what it was like to land on the beach in WWII, Goodfellas is not 100% what it’s like to be in the mob, The Big Lebowski is not a 100% accurate depiction of stoner-life in LA…

 

I do nevertheless enjoy the “peek” into these lives/events, and I think there is at least a kernel of truth to the depictions portrayed in Landman…

[AndrewJohn 10,708]

Every once in a while, I need to watch a formulaic - predictable, "Western" .  A few days ago, I watched Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Keith David and Russel Crowe in "The Quick and the Dead."  I've seen it many times. 

 

It usually makes me want to watch "Unforgiven" a movie I think is the other best Gene Hackman western movie, also starring Clint Eastwood, Richard Harris, and Morgan Freeman.  I didn't find that last night to watch..., but I stumbled upon this one.

 

"The Last Outlaw" an understandable story about a band of 7 disillusioned Confederates - including one black gang member - assembled as a regiment - but unable to move forward after the civil war - so they became outlaws, robbing Union banks thinking they were still fighting the war. That's the high-level premise.  It  has several deeper themes underlying the story including leadership, challenging a leader, manipulation of do-gooders, and escaping justice while realizing the error of ways as time moved on.  It is not a remake of the 1919 or 1936 films of the same names.  It stars Mickey Roarke, Steve Buscemi and Dermot Mulroney who are in the gang of Confederates - and ultimately fight over what's left of the regiment post Civil War in the West.  It's a quick hour and a half long, and I think it was originally made for TV back in 1993 - but like all Westerns, nothing in the scenes dates the movie other than the appearing age of the actors.  One can get into it quick and easy in a single sitting or 2 or 3 beers or an old fashioned or two.

 

It was streaming on Amazon Prime.  The trailer below looks crummy - the movie was better..., trailer is typical "narrated TV trailer."

 

 

[AndrewJohn 10,708]

While thinking about Westerns...,  I stumbled on Kevin Costner's "Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1"

 

I had watched it one time before, when it came out.  My first take was that it was long, disjointed, and sometimes hard to follow..., this second time through the movie, much more of the movie made sense.  It was streaming on HBO-Max.

 

Bottom line I have renewed respect for the film, and now a strong interest in seeing the second chapter - alas, still not released.  If you watched it and didn't like it - watch it again, the details begin to pop, and more to the saga of life back then come forth and build a relationship with the viewer sending them back in time to a place where life was cheap, moral integrity was challenged constantly in a time of conflict among and between so many people and cultures in the West at the time, and truthfully, people were uneducated compared to what we are all blessed with in terms of education and knowledge from the last 100 years.  Like if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  In the old west the proverbial "hammer" was the "gun."  Solutions were executed fast, and often by whoever was fastest - not necessarily who was right.  Obviously, Horizon is way more complex and deeper than that - but it gave me an interesting lens to view the movie for the second time and gain much more from it.

 

Clearly, the last 15 minutes is a montage of scenes yet to come in chapter 2 and 3..., I'd like to see those, but not sure when they will come.

 

Is it "Yellowstone."  Nope, and, well, it's not trying to be - it is vastly different.  If you watched it once, and dismissed it, try it again with a different mindset..., YMMV.