When I first heard while watching the movie Nyad, about the all-time greatest long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad that it takes 60 hours to swim 103 hours from Key West Florida to Cuba I thought about how hard it must have been just to stay awake for 60 hours (the record is 19 days). Then add the incredible achievement of swimming in a dangerous shark and jellyfish ocean non-stop for 103 miles. This achievement is probably the most impressive of any long distance athlete in history.
During this very good drama/biography about Diana Nyad, her full story is revealed about the first attempt in 1978 to swim from Cuba to Key West followed by the years 2011 and 2013 and five more attempts, when Diana was over the age of 60. The odds are extremely high that nobody will ever be able to achieve this 103-mile swim from Cuba to Key West Florida again, no matter how old they are. There are too many problems with ocean currents, jellyfish, sharks and cold water. Most people would just give up after 1 attempt, especially if they almost died like Diana, who was in grave danger of dying several times.
On August 31, 2013, Nyad finally achieved her life long dream at age 64, of finally swimming to Key West from Cuba on 1:55 PM EDT on September 2, 2013 after 53 hours of swimming. The most impressive thing about this impossible task was that Nyad never gave up trying, even after everybody around her did.
The movie stars Annette Bening as Nyad and Jodie Foster as Bonnie Stoll, Diana’s lifelong friend and trainer. Both performances are excellent throughout this story which is entirely about Dianna’s nonstop obsession of achieving her impossible dream. This story has many highs and lows and after the 4th attempt that was close but once again failed, it seemed that this impossible dream was finally over until Diana tried one last time when she was 64 years old. One can only imagine the pain of swimming for 60 hours in the ocean while swallowing sea water, with your face constantly swelling and damaged by the harsh conditions.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Nyad are a very high 86% and I recommend this film.
The new Martin Scorcese film, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is about one of the most shameful and horrendous incidents in the history of the United States The Osage Indian Murders.
On the Osage Indian Reservation in 1897, oil was discovered and overnight some very poor native American Indians became very wealthy. When Oklahoma became eligible for statehood in 1907, the Federal Government allotted 657 acres to the Osage tribe and allowed for the heirs, whether or not they were Osage, to have rights to all of the Oil production. This one mistake made by the United States set the stage for a large number of murders as greedy murdering animals married their way into the tribe in an attempt to steal their oil rights.
In 1921 the United States Congress passed a law that required courts to appoint guardians to manage the oil royalties until the individual Osage citizens were able to demonstrate that they were competent to manage their own money. Local white lawyers and businessmen were initially assigned as the guardians, creating huge incentives for criminality and murder.
In Osage County, Oklahoma there were reported an increasing number of unsolved murders known as the “Reign of Terror” that lasted from 1921 to 1926. Sixty or more full blood Osage Natives were reported killed from 1918 to 1931. Future research into these murders showed the that the death toll may have been in the hundreds.
What is most impressive about this latest high quality Martin Scorsese movie is the amount of time and hard work that went into this project to create a movie that has a run time of 3 hours and 26 minutes. The entire cast and crew had to live in a desolate area of Oklahoma for many months, with a budget of 200 million dollars – currently the highest movie production budget in the history of the state. This movie is based on the book with the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon” .
The only problem with this film is that it is not necessary, to be true to the tragedy and to pay respects to the American Indian people of Osage Country to make this story 3 hours and 26 minutes. 2 hours and 30 minutes, based on the historical importance of the content, would have been enough. The screenplay is outstanding, written by both Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese.
The cast is as good as it gets with Robert De Niro in his 10th movie with Scorsese, and Leonardo Dicaprio in his 7th Scorsese collaboration. Newcomer Lily Gladstone, who plays Mollie Burkhart, the wife of Ernest Burkhart, played by Dicaprio is so good in her role that there is a major Oscar buzz for her performance. This movie will be nominated for best picture, and has a great chance of winning, despite the too long run time. Later in the movie, there are also appearances by Brendan Fraser and John Lithgow, who play lawyers defending and prosecuting this case. They are both outstanding in their roles.
The Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus is that this film did not need to be this long, no matter how important it was to tell this horrendous story as completely and accurately as possible. I agree with the high 92% ratings and highly recommend this film, about one of the most tragic stories in American history.
Anyone could easily argue that right now in the entire history of concerts, fame, money, and success in the entertainment industry Taylor Swift is the most successful of all time. At only age 33, she has surpassed all the most famous performers at the top of their careers, including Micheal Jackson in 1984, Whitney Houston in 1992, after the release of “The Bodyguard”, and even Elvis at his career peak. Swift most likely has one additional ability that the other 3 major superstars did not have – a level head and the ability to not let all of the white-hot fame go to her head.
Taylor Swift is now so popular that when she shows up to watch an NFL football game to see her boyfriend Travis Kelsie, the ratings skyrocket. Travis Kelsie’s NFL shirt sales have gone up 400%. The upside of this level of fame means more money for Swift’s record sales and more ticket sales for her concert tour. The downside, as the world has been seen too many times, is that when anyone is too famous and too hot, things tend to reverse at some point. The audience is always fickle. When the Eras tour is finished next year, Swift should take some time off to reduce the risk of overexposure. Too much white hot fame for too long is never a good idea as history has tragically proven too many times.
Her current Eras tour, still about halfway completed, has easily surpassed the ticket sales of any single performer or group in entertainment history. Due to unprecidented supply and demand for any concert venue, ticket sales have crashed the ticketmaster web site and the prices are the highest ever. This tour is scheduled for 146 dates in five continents, has 2.2 billion in sales just in North America, with each night generating 13 million in sales and an average ticket price of $1,425.
As far as “the movie “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour”, there is little doubt that this will be known as the best concert movie ever produced. Most performers, no matter how experienced, would probably show some level of stage fright while surrounded in front of 80-100 thousand fans – but not Taylor Swift. She is as natural and unaffected by her unique place in this world, as any peformer I have ever seen. One can only imagine what it must feel like to be in the center of so many thousands of fans, remembering and performing 44 songs over 3 hours. This has to be a high that is beyond all imagination. Her fans all seem to remember all the words of every song, and many others are crying during her entire performance. This production, included a continuously moving stage and 3D halogram effects, lighting and even a log cabin that pops up on stage are amazing to see, along with the appreciating some of Taylor’s greatest hits and the fact she writes all of her own songs.
The logistics of putting on a show as state of the art and huge as the Eras tour requires 90 trucks to transport all of the equipment to and from each venue. There are freight management issues, rerouting, redundancies, and administration work. The freight forwarders need 3-6 months to plan every aspect of transportation for a concert tour. Labeling technology is used to mark every item moved to each venue. Management companies must plan each route for Taylors concerts, accounting for every possible risk, that include a truck breaking down on a highway. Air freight companies will now have to transport the equipment in 90 trucks from the US to Europe for the next leg of the Eras tour. Then there are storage costs for warehouses that will store the equipment in between each show. The assembling of the huge mechanical stage and high technology lighting takes close to 2 full days, and then every aspect has to be tested thoroughly before the concert begins. The Eras tour has buffer stock, of all the equipment in case anything breaks during the transportation and assembling of the stage and lighting. The entire staff, both on and off stage, technical support, truck drivers and other people managing this concert, makes Eras tour likely the largest and most costly in music history.
The only problem with a phenomenon like the Eras Tour, is how can you top yourself? What can Taylor Swift do after this tour? How many years before the next one? The singer Bionce also has a concert tour and will also have a concert movie coming out December 1, 2023. This might start a new trend in the movie industry with movies following a major tour.
The movie tickets for this Eras film are more expensive than a normal movie, this time around Taylor Swift bypassed the middle man with movie distribution.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this concert film is a perfect 100% and I agree with this rating. Whether or not you are a Taylor Swift fan, this movie is a must see.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 