I'll leave you with the last thing Sam and Rhiannon saw that night -- only fitting.
Monday 25 February 2013
Post-script
Thank you to everyone who shared this journey with me. I had a great time posting Sam's words along with some anecdotes some of you may not have known. Thanks especially to Asher for commenting on Facebook about Sam, which led me to writing this blog. Thanks also to Terri for sending me four years' worth of reviews. And thanks, too, to Amanda and tracking group for those fabulous emails.
I'll leave you with the last thing Sam and Rhiannon saw that night -- only fitting.
I'll leave you with the last thing Sam and Rhiannon saw that night -- only fitting.
Sunday 24 February 2013
Annual Academy Awards Day!
SAM'S FINAL MOVIE RECOMMENDATION, WRITTEN TO ME (AND TO FRANK) ON NOVEMBER 10, 2007
Of the four movies my company is releasing this fall, this is by far the best. And the best movie I've seen so far this year.
It's written and directed by the Coen brothers, based on a Cormac McCarthy novel. It's a suspense masterpiece, and yes, filled with violence.
Also happens to be one of the best-reviewed movies of the year.
Of the four movies my company is releasing this fall, this is by far the best. And the best movie I've seen so far this year.
It's written and directed by the Coen brothers, based on a Cormac McCarthy novel. It's a suspense masterpiece, and yes, filled with violence.
Also happens to be one of the best-reviewed movies of the year.
Hope you see it.
AND IT WON OSCARS FOR BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTOR IN 2008 (along with best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor).
Mom's note: I got the poster and read the book -- I have never seen this movie although I have the DVD...I just can't do it.
As a result of the power of this movie, it received numerous awards, among them the National Board of Review Award for best ensemble. Scott Rudin dedicated this award to Sam and invited our family to the event. He has graciously allowed me to reprint the part of his acceptance speech related to Sam:
Tragically, we lost one of our family - our office family - on December 8th of last year, when our colleague and friend Sam Cassel was killed by a drunk driver at the age of 28. Sam had been with our company for five years. That’s a long time when you’re 28.
Sam joined us as a fantastic kid, and at the time of his death he was becoming a fantastic man. He was a faux-cynic and a true believer. He was finding his own voice. Sam was a movie maniac of ceaseless devotion, a deeply intelligent, passionately committed member of our nuclear family, and a resolutely optimistic believer in the possibility both of good things happening, and of merit being rewarded.
He loved Cormac’s book, and he loved the movie Joel and Ethan made of it. He loved being a part of it, and we loved him and we miss him. Sam’s family is with us here tonight, and so in his honor and in his memory I want to dedicate this award to NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN to Sam Cassel.
Saturday 23 February 2013
Day #1 - February 23
SAM'S BITTERSWEET MUSINGS ON THE YEAR HE DIDN'T SEND OUT HIS MOVIE REVIEWS...
A funny thing happened last year. I was finishing off my top ten list of movies for the year 2002. For those of you first receiving this: since 1998, I have done a list every year on the eve of the announcement of the Academy Award nominations. For me, it’s fun to write. For others, it may be fun to read, though you new readers should not count on such pleasure. Think of it more as a high school reunion: some fun times, but mostly an informational/slightly dull experience. Okay, hopefully I’ve lowered expectations enough.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I was finished the list actually. I had typed it into an e-mail and was in the process of adding all of the required e-mails of those who tolerate the list as something of an oddity, joke, or exemplification of Sam being a movie geek (yes, I just used ‘exemplification’ instead of ‘example’, sue me, I’m learned). But then. My computer crashed and the list and all those witty barbs were lost (BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE was #1 by the way). And not having the energy to rewrite the whole damn thing, I decided to give up. But here’s where the funny thing comes in. Friends I had lost touch with e-mailed me quite worried. They had not received my year-end list. They wondered whether I was mad at them. Or perhaps that I had forgotten them. Or even pondered if I was still alive. So I came to a realization. This list had become bigger than an exercise. It had become a standard of communication for friends forgotten in Pennsylvania, Illinois, or wherever they now live (remember, they’re forgotten). My list was a reassurance. A post-holiday coma treasure, if you will. Of course, knowing this new importance associated with my list made me rewrite the thing, right?
Nope.
Mom's note: Can't say much...quietly shedding a tear for my talented son.
A funny thing happened last year. I was finishing off my top ten list of movies for the year 2002. For those of you first receiving this: since 1998, I have done a list every year on the eve of the announcement of the Academy Award nominations. For me, it’s fun to write. For others, it may be fun to read, though you new readers should not count on such pleasure. Think of it more as a high school reunion: some fun times, but mostly an informational/slightly dull experience. Okay, hopefully I’ve lowered expectations enough.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I was finished the list actually. I had typed it into an e-mail and was in the process of adding all of the required e-mails of those who tolerate the list as something of an oddity, joke, or exemplification of Sam being a movie geek (yes, I just used ‘exemplification’ instead of ‘example’, sue me, I’m learned). But then. My computer crashed and the list and all those witty barbs were lost (BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE was #1 by the way). And not having the energy to rewrite the whole damn thing, I decided to give up. But here’s where the funny thing comes in. Friends I had lost touch with e-mailed me quite worried. They had not received my year-end list. They wondered whether I was mad at them. Or perhaps that I had forgotten them. Or even pondered if I was still alive. So I came to a realization. This list had become bigger than an exercise. It had become a standard of communication for friends forgotten in Pennsylvania, Illinois, or wherever they now live (remember, they’re forgotten). My list was a reassurance. A post-holiday coma treasure, if you will. Of course, knowing this new importance associated with my list made me rewrite the thing, right?
Nope.
Mom's note: Can't say much...quietly shedding a tear for my talented son.
Friday 22 February 2013
Day #2 - February 22
MORE FUN STUFF FROM THE TRACKING GROUP
SS: I went to The Kingdom premiere last night and felt the need to share the following observations:
-The movie isn't good
-Jeremy Piven essentially plays Ari Gold, but in Saudi Arabia
-Jennifer Garner is very pretty in person
-Premieres are awkward (especially when you need to pretend you likes the film)
Happy Tuesday....
SAM: Hilarious. Especially the "premieres are awkward" part. Nothing worse than having to pretend that you were moved by Cinderella Man or that you laughed uproariously at Fun with Dick and Jane.
In other news, I hate everyone.
SM: You can't hate everyone, because I hate everyone. There just isn't enough room. Hey, maybe that should be the name of our "group."
I HATE EVERYONE. Or is that too negative?
SAM: Perhaps the hating of everyone would cancel each other out and therefore we'd have a positive result.
Or is that an imaginary number? And who the fuck was I talking to about imaginary numbers last week? And why?
Mom's note: I love these email conversations -- Sam and his friends are so sharp and funny. I'm so glad that we keep in touch with the tracking group people.
SS: I went to The Kingdom premiere last night and felt the need to share the following observations:
-The movie isn't good
-Jeremy Piven essentially plays Ari Gold, but in Saudi Arabia
-Jennifer Garner is very pretty in person
-Premieres are awkward (especially when you need to pretend you likes the film)
SAM: Hilarious. Especially the "premieres are awkward" part. Nothing worse than having to pretend that you were moved by Cinderella Man or that you laughed uproariously at Fun with Dick and Jane.
In other news, I hate everyone.
SM: You can't hate everyone, because I hate everyone. There just isn't enough room. Hey, maybe that should be the name of our "group."
I HATE EVERYONE. Or is that too negative?
SAM: Perhaps the hating of everyone would cancel each other out and therefore we'd have a positive result.
Or is that an imaginary number? And who the fuck was I talking to about imaginary numbers last week? And why?
Mom's note: I love these email conversations -- Sam and his friends are so sharp and funny. I'm so glad that we keep in touch with the tracking group people.
Thursday 21 February 2013
Day #3 - February 21
THE PREFACE TO SAM'S LAST YEAR OF REVIEWS (2006 ) AND ONE OF HIS TWO BEST MOVIES FOR THIS YEAR
I normally do this year-end wrap-up right before the Academy Award nominations are announced so as to not be biased by those films that receive too much credit or none at all. So this article arrives much later than normal. The easy reason that it took me so long to do this list was that I didn't want to write it until I saw both DREAMGIRLS and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. I ultimately saw neither, making this the first year in probably ten that I haven't seen all five Best Picture nominees.
Why was it so difficult to finally write this article? I've been doing a wrap-up for ten years now. Some years are better than others. This year was the worst year for movies. At least for me. Only two movies this year deserved four stars. The other movies on my top ten list this year are either of the three-and-a-half or three star variety.
The question then is…have I lost interest in movies or have movies gotten worse? I sincerely hope that it's the latter but I'm fearful that it's the former. Has the sheer volume of movies I've seen over
the years destroyed my overall appreciation for the current crop of films? Is this merely a function of getting older? Honestly, I don't think I'm the only who thinks movies, I mean the "good movies", have dropped severely in quality. Where are the Insiders, the L.A. Confidentials, the Incredibles, the Rushmores, the Truman Shows? None of them arrived this year, right? Am I crazy or what? Or is it that movie studios either make movies for morons (e.g. NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM) or finance pretentious pap that features interesting filmmaking but are simply duds (e.g. BABEL)? It says something that the single most fulfilling entertainment I found this year was in the long-ignored TV series THE WIRE.
Anyways, only two movies blew me away this year. And as you will see, they're not exactly crowd-pleasers. Onto the list:
One of the movies that blew Sam away....
UNITED 93 – "I can't pull! I can't!"
I will never see this movie again. But there is no other movie this year that affected me more. Now, some would call it exploitation, I don't. This movie made me remember that even though 9/11 was a
severely tragic event, it started from the actions of only a few people. It made me reflect on the events that have transpired since. Made me angry about the Iraq war. And made me frustrated that all the good will that came from this event was wasted by a guy who wasn't even elected. Soapbox speech over. I also saw this movie with someone who almost puked on my lap, so there was an extra dose of suspense during my viewing experience.
SCENE TO REMEMBER: The final push to re-take the plane.
MORAL TO THE STORY: The actions of so few can affect so many. And don't depend on Sledge Hammer to fly your hijacked plane out of trouble (anyone else catch that strange casting choice?).
Mom's note: Maybe I dreamed it, but I remember Sam talking about this movie and saying that it was one of those movies where, even though you knew how it ended, you kept hoping that the good guys would save the day and the plane would land safely. Maybe it was when he tried to talk me into watching it. I did watch it eventually, but I didn't watch it until maybe 2010...
And the Sledge Hammer reference -- another Cassel family obsession. We have the DVDs, and guess who gave them to Bob?!
I normally do this year-end wrap-up right before the Academy Award nominations are announced so as to not be biased by those films that receive too much credit or none at all. So this article arrives much later than normal. The easy reason that it took me so long to do this list was that I didn't want to write it until I saw both DREAMGIRLS and LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. I ultimately saw neither, making this the first year in probably ten that I haven't seen all five Best Picture nominees.
Why was it so difficult to finally write this article? I've been doing a wrap-up for ten years now. Some years are better than others. This year was the worst year for movies. At least for me. Only two movies this year deserved four stars. The other movies on my top ten list this year are either of the three-and-a-half or three star variety.
The question then is…have I lost interest in movies or have movies gotten worse? I sincerely hope that it's the latter but I'm fearful that it's the former. Has the sheer volume of movies I've seen over
the years destroyed my overall appreciation for the current crop of films? Is this merely a function of getting older? Honestly, I don't think I'm the only who thinks movies, I mean the "good movies", have dropped severely in quality. Where are the Insiders, the L.A. Confidentials, the Incredibles, the Rushmores, the Truman Shows? None of them arrived this year, right? Am I crazy or what? Or is it that movie studios either make movies for morons (e.g. NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM) or finance pretentious pap that features interesting filmmaking but are simply duds (e.g. BABEL)? It says something that the single most fulfilling entertainment I found this year was in the long-ignored TV series THE WIRE.
Anyways, only two movies blew me away this year. And as you will see, they're not exactly crowd-pleasers. Onto the list:
One of the movies that blew Sam away....
UNITED 93 – "I can't pull! I can't!"
I will never see this movie again. But there is no other movie this year that affected me more. Now, some would call it exploitation, I don't. This movie made me remember that even though 9/11 was a
severely tragic event, it started from the actions of only a few people. It made me reflect on the events that have transpired since. Made me angry about the Iraq war. And made me frustrated that all the good will that came from this event was wasted by a guy who wasn't even elected. Soapbox speech over. I also saw this movie with someone who almost puked on my lap, so there was an extra dose of suspense during my viewing experience.
SCENE TO REMEMBER: The final push to re-take the plane.
MORAL TO THE STORY: The actions of so few can affect so many. And don't depend on Sledge Hammer to fly your hijacked plane out of trouble (anyone else catch that strange casting choice?).
Mom's note: Maybe I dreamed it, but I remember Sam talking about this movie and saying that it was one of those movies where, even though you knew how it ended, you kept hoping that the good guys would save the day and the plane would land safely. Maybe it was when he tried to talk me into watching it. I did watch it eventually, but I didn't watch it until maybe 2010...
And the Sledge Hammer reference -- another Cassel family obsession. We have the DVDs, and guess who gave them to Bob?!
Wednesday 20 February 2013
Day #4 - February 20
SAM ON "COOL HOLLYWOOD" THINGS HE'S DONE (IN RESPONSE TO A 2005 EMAIL FROM ME)
As for "cool Hollywood" things that I've done that I don't really care about anymore (it's called L.A. Blasé): I went to the CONSTANTINE premiere and I also went to the MILLION DOLLAR BABY post-Academy Awards party. The Oscar party was kind of lame because none of the winners were there. Of course, I was told later that I left 10 minutes after Clint Eastwood had shown up, but didn't actually see him. I guess I can say that I was at the same Oscar party at the same time as Clint Eastwood, even if I was unaware of it. I know this sounds exciting, but the price of giving up my life for these things rings hollow. I'd rather be a film critic.
Mom's note: Sam was always complaining about his work load and lack of time for a real life -- I know it was hard for him to have one day during the week for himself. He worked at least 10 hours/day during the week, took Saturday off, and spent Sunday reading, summarizing, and notating scripts. He would talk about how he should have become an accountant or something, but we all knew that he really loved films and would put up with a lot to be in the film business.
As for "cool Hollywood" things that I've done that I don't really care about anymore (it's called L.A. Blasé): I went to the CONSTANTINE premiere and I also went to the MILLION DOLLAR BABY post-Academy Awards party. The Oscar party was kind of lame because none of the winners were there. Of course, I was told later that I left 10 minutes after Clint Eastwood had shown up, but didn't actually see him. I guess I can say that I was at the same Oscar party at the same time as Clint Eastwood, even if I was unaware of it. I know this sounds exciting, but the price of giving up my life for these things rings hollow. I'd rather be a film critic.
Mom's note: Sam was always complaining about his work load and lack of time for a real life -- I know it was hard for him to have one day during the week for himself. He worked at least 10 hours/day during the week, took Saturday off, and spent Sunday reading, summarizing, and notating scripts. He would talk about how he should have become an accountant or something, but we all knew that he really loved films and would put up with a lot to be in the film business.
Tuesday 19 February 2013
Day # 5 - February 19
SAM "APOLOGIZING" FOR LIKING A DISNEY/PIXAR PICTURE
THE INCREDIBLES – "NO CAPES!"
Some people are Disney whores. For most of them, it's a high school thing. They just looove to go the Disney Store and/or DisneyWorld. I don't disparage these whores; it's their way to hold onto their
childhood. I am not a Disney whore. I was not first in line to see HERCULES or MULAN or even ALADDIN. Nor am I a Pixar whore. FINDING NEMO didn't really do it for me. THE INCREDIBLES did. It was the only movie this year in which I laughed, cried, and felt afraid. It
was the only movie where after I saw it, I had to tell everyone I knew to see it. It was a big popcorn movie that didn't treat its audience like they were morons. Awe and wonder, great storytelling, and
thoroughly enjoyable characters.
SCENE TO REMEMBER: When Violet finally masters her talent to create force fields.
Mom's note: Yet another movie that I probably wouldn't have watched if not for Sam's recommendation. And he did take me to that Disney place in Orange County that's like a town version of a Disney store! And did I mention that he worked in the original Animation building on the lot at Disney Studios in Burbank? Methinks he protested too much...
THE INCREDIBLES – "NO CAPES!"
Some people are Disney whores. For most of them, it's a high school thing. They just looove to go the Disney Store and/or DisneyWorld. I don't disparage these whores; it's their way to hold onto their
childhood. I am not a Disney whore. I was not first in line to see HERCULES or MULAN or even ALADDIN. Nor am I a Pixar whore. FINDING NEMO didn't really do it for me. THE INCREDIBLES did. It was the only movie this year in which I laughed, cried, and felt afraid. It
was the only movie where after I saw it, I had to tell everyone I knew to see it. It was a big popcorn movie that didn't treat its audience like they were morons. Awe and wonder, great storytelling, and
thoroughly enjoyable characters.
SCENE TO REMEMBER: When Violet finally masters her talent to create force fields.
Mom's note: Yet another movie that I probably wouldn't have watched if not for Sam's recommendation. And he did take me to that Disney place in Orange County that's like a town version of a Disney store! And did I mention that he worked in the original Animation building on the lot at Disney Studios in Burbank? Methinks he protested too much...
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