Movies and Glasses

Last night I was watching a repeat of a documentary called Reputations, this one was John Wayne: The Unquiet American. It was being shown to mark the centenary of his birth. It was quite interesting but nothing really new about him. I think I'd seen it before, it really dealt more with his controversial opinions and politics than his films. It was followed by a movie from 1949 called She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, directed by John Ford, and was the second film in Ford's trilogy about the US Cavalry. The film is set in 1876 immediatley after Custer's death at the Little Big Horn, and starred John Wayne as an elderly cavalry officer on the verge of retiring. It was quite a good film, although overly sentimental, but it was well-made and John Wayne put in one of his better performances in it. Later on I watched Rambo: First Blood Part II from 1985, directed by George P. Cosmatos, which featured Sylvester Stallone as one-man-army John Rambo, being released from prison to investigate reports of American prisoner of war still being held in Vietnam. Of course it's not long before endless stabbings, shootings and explosions start. It's not nearly as good as the first film, which actually is pretty good, but it's not bad. The script was co-written with Stallone by Aliens and Terminator director James Cameron.

I went out this morning to Specsavers, the opticians, where I met my mum. I'm getting a new pair of glasses, with Reactions lenses (basically they darken in the sunlight, so you don't have to carry a seperate pair of sunglasses with you). We've ordered them and it should take about two weeks for them to come in. For some reason, the Reactions lenses reminded me of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy where they have a set of special glasses which turn dark in the presence of danger, so you can avoid seeing anything that might scare or upset you. I have been thinking of getting contact lenses to replace my glasses, although I've heard they are expensive and difficult to maintain, and they can also be really painful. I just don't really like wearing glasses.

After that I went over and bought some DVDs in the sales. I got 28 Days Later..., Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and the original 1968 version of Night of the Living Dead. I enjoyed the first Pirates film and I'd like to see the new one, I've heard they all link together as a trilogy so I thought I would catch up on the story before I go to the latest one.