Tag: Murder

Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 4 (“Oathkeeper”) – Memorable Lines

Emma2 Comments

SPOILERS: Don’t read this review if you have not yet seen or don’t want to know details from the latest episode of Game of Thrones.

GoT_S4E4_Dany

I will answer injustice with justice.  -Daenerys tells Ser Barristan after the slave city of Meereen is freed  

Dany (Emilia Clarke) is badass here!  She’s going Old Testament (“an eye for an eye”) by having 163 of the slave masters crucified.  In the previous ep, we learned that this number of slaves marked the way to Meereen. 

I liked the scene between Grey Worm (Jacob Andersen) and Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel).  I hope they’re going to become friends (or maybe more?) in the future.  But I still need more Jorah (Iain Glen)! 

You were his first choice.  He [Tyrion] named you as his champion, because he knew you’d ride day and night to come fight for him.  You gonna fight for him now?  -Bronn tells Jaime

The roguish, yet effective, Bronn (Jerome Flynn) just gets the best lines!  And who didn’t love the (slapstick) scene where he beat Jaime with his own golden hand!?   

You really asking if I killed your son?  -Tyrion says to Jaime

You really asking if I’d kill my brother?  -Jaime replies

“The Kingslayer brothers” sounds catchy, right?  Peter Dinklage shows his leading man chops in this scene (as Roger Ebert said of his performance in The Station Agent).  See his eyes?  He’s so into the character!  Nikolaj Coster-Waldau continues to show more shades of Jaime.   

GoT_S4E4_Littlefinger

A man with no motive is a man no one expects.  If they don’t know who you are or what you want, they can’t know what you plan to do next.  So many men, they risk so little.  They spend their lives avoiding danger.  They they die.  I’d risk everything to get what I want.  -Littlefinger explains his motive for helping to kill Joffrey to Sansa

And what do you want?  -Sansa asks nervously

Everything.  -Littlefinger replies, sliding a hand down her arm

Let’s face it, we missed Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen)!  Who knows what he’ll get up to next?  And it looks like naïve/young Sansa (Sophie Turner) is finally getting how devious/dangerous he can be!  I loved the “Who’d trust you?” line!      

The following morning, Luther never made it down the stairs to propose to my sister, because the boy couldn’t bloody walk.  And when he could, the only thing he wanted was what I’d given him the night before.  I was good.  I was very, very good.  -Lady Olenna admits how she seduced her future husband, who was a better choice (for her) than a Targaryen

You don’t think I’d let you marry that beast, do you?  -Lady Olenna (nearly) confesses to Margaery re: killing Joffrey

Awww, Lady Olenna (Diana Rigg) is prepping to leave King’s Landing!  But, she still has some words of wisdom for granddaughter, Margaery (Natalie Dormer).  What weapons can a mere woman use in Westeros society?  Her body, of course!  And Margaery’s got wit, charm, and cleverness (thanks in part to Lady Olenna).  

GoT_S4_E4_Jaime

That will be all, Lord Commander.  -Cersei coldly dismisses Jaime

After that scene in the sept, what can we say re: Jaime and Cersei (Lena Headey)!?  It’s a very touchy subject.  Many viewers were deeply disturbed by how Jaime forced himself on Cersei.  George R.R. Martin blogged that “I didn’t write the scene that way.”  It was the choice of the showrunners and the director.  This show operates in shades of gray, keep in mind! 

We see Cersei drinking (not a shocker) and generally being bitter and formal with her twin.  Jaime is confused and hurt.  They are officially broken up now.    

GoT_S4_E4_Margaery_Tommen

Before we spend our lives together, we ought to get to know one another.  –Lady Margaery says to Tommen, the young king-to-be

This scene could’ve been creepy, but Margaery kept it sweet and innocent.  And how cute a name is Ser Pounce!?  Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) seems like a great little guy- so unlike Joffrey (thank the Old Gods and the Seven).   

GoT_S4_E4_Brienne

I’ll find her [Sansa] for Lady Catelyn… and for you.  -Brienne says to Jaime after he gives her his Valyrian steel sword and presents her with a new suit of armor

Brienne (Gwendolyn Christie) is very humbled and surprised when Jaime gives her his sword.  He explains that it was forged from Ned Stark’s sword, so it’s fitting that she use it to protect Sansa.  Maybe Brienne will meet Arya, too?  That would be cool!     

game-of-thrones-season-4-jaime-armor

They say the best swords have names…  Any ideas?  -Jaime asks Brienne before she departs (w/ Pod as her squire)

Oathkeeper.  -Brienne replies earnestly

Dressed in her new armor, Brienne looks more formidable than ever, but there is vulnerability in her eyes.  She and Jaime exchange some wistful looks before she rides off.  Is this romantic love?  No, I think it’s something beyond that.  They just seem to get each other, though one of them is a tarnished knight, while the other is pure of heart and still honorable.  Though she doesn’t use that title, Brienne is the classiest “lady” in the realm! 

Not sure what’s going to happen with Jon, Sam, the psychotic brothers at Crastor’s Keep, and Bran’s crew.  I’m esp. worried re: Meera- being a young woman in that place (shudder)!  Did you see Locke (Noah Taylor) among the new recruits of the Night’s Watch?  He’s one sneaky guy; he gets chummy with Jon right away.   

Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 2 (“The Lion and The Rose”) – Top 10 Moments

EmmaLeave a comment

SPOILERS: Don’t read this review if you have not yet seen or don’t want to know details from the most recent episode of Game of Thrones.   got_s4e2_bros 10) Tyrion toasts himself and the Lannister siblings:”…the Imp, the cripple, and the mother of madness” at breakfast w/ big brother, Jaime. 

got_s4e2_jaime9) Jaime and Bronn (who has graduated from common whores to the wife of a knight- “she’s a screamer, that one”) practice swordplay on a secluded cliff.  Jaime uses his left hand (of course); Bronn treats Jaime just like anybody else.  (Jerome Flynn continues to get some of the best/funniest lines!)

got_s4e2_ramsay

8)  We may’ve been happy to see Ramsay being dressed down by his father, Roose (“My banners not yours.  You’re not a Bolton- you’re a Snow.”)  However, as that (tense) scene goes on, Ramsay gains some points via Theon (who has revealed that Bran and Rickon Stark are still alive).  Roose, now Warden of the North, listens intently to his bastard, and gives him another task (“…maybe I’ll reconsider your standing.”) 

got_s4e2_reek

Theon now looks like a completely broken man.  He finally learns that Robb (who he thought of as a big brother) was murdered.  Alfie Allen will have some (more) acting challenges this season, I’m sure! 

7) Varys tells Tyrion that Shae has been found out (we know by one of Cersei’s spies), but he can help her escape across The Narrow Sea.  At the wedding breakfast for Joffrey, Cersei points out Shae to Tywin (who warned Tyrion in Season 2 that he’d kill “the next whore I find in your bed.”)  Then we have the break-up scene- Tyrion tells Shae that she’ll “have a comfortable life in Pentos,” how he wants to be true to his wife (Sansa), then cuts her down so much that she starts to weep loudly (though she’s a tough gal)!  Peter Dinklage surprised me in this scene, since I didn’t think Tyrion could be so harsh with someone he loved.    got_s4_e2_dragonstone 6) At Dragonstone (Stannis Baratheon’s stronghold), we see few men being burned at the stake for not converting to The Lord of Light; such occurrences were mentioned in Season 2.  Melisandre presides over the event.  One of these men is the brother of Selyse, but she doesn’t care, being a total fanatic.  My favorite character is back!  Ser Davos (Liam Cunningham), looks away while they’re burned.  He tells Stannis: “He worshipped the gods of his fathers, and his fathers before him.  They were the gods of your fathers, too.”  Stannis doesn’t like such comments, since he’s also devoted to this new religion.  

We learn more about Selyse later on in a dinner scene, where she tries to connect w/ her husband over their shared struggles during the war.  She misses, of course, as Stannis is a man cut off from his emotions.  Selyse calls their daughter, Shireen, “a stubborn little beast.”  Stannis commands: “She’s my daughter.  You will not strike her.” Hmmm… maybe he’s not all bad?  

Melisandre wakes up Shireen and tells her more about her religion: “There is only one Hell, Princess, the one we live in now.”  Carice Van Houten has such a screen presence! 

5) “Bastards are born of passion, aren’t they?  We don’t despise them in Dorne,” Prince Oberyn Martell coolly explains to Tywin and Cersei after introducing his “paramour” (lover/companion) Ellaria Sand.  This reminded me of one of Edmund’s speeches from King Lear:

Why brand they us

With “base,” with “baseness,” “bastardy,” “base,” “base”—

Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth within a dull, stale, tirèd bed
Go to th’ creating a whole tribe of fops
Got ’tween a sleep and wake?
Perhaps George R. R. Martin (who wrote this episode) was inspired by Shakespeare there?
4)  “And neither will you,” Loras Tyrell one ups Jaime with these words, when Jaime says he’ll never marry Cersei.  Good one!   Brienne-and-Cersei

3) “But you love him” Cersei replies to Brienne, who’s surprised by this accusation.  Jaime, the topic of this tense conversation, is watching both ladies (but can’t hear them).  Gwendolyn Christie reveals more of Brienne in this episode with just a few looks: social unease, innocence (of politics), and good manners (even toward King Joffrey, who cuts down her beloved Renly).   

2)  All the insults, looks (inlcuding reactions of other guests), and tension between Joffrey and Tyrion involving the cup of wine  got_s4e2_pie 1) Joffrey choking and eventually dropping dead- just what we wanted for so long!  (Twitter folks cheered with happiness, too.)  But what killed him?  The wine?  The pie?  And who planned it?  So many suspects… 

Criss Cross (1949)

Emma1 Comment
Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) watches his ex-wife
Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) watches his ex-wife

Tagline: The savage drama of an amazing double double-cross! 

This meaty film noir is a follow-up to The Killers (1946).  It reteams German director Robert Siodmak with star Burt Lancaster (age 35 here), who once again finds himself in a deadly love triangle.  Lancaster, cast against type as a loser, Steve Thompson, a man who returns to his native LA after a year of wandering about the country.  He doesn’t call up his ex-wife, Anna (Yvonne De Carlo), but they bump into each other. Steve still “has her in his blood,” much to the dismay of his mother.  Maybe it was bad luck?  Or fate?   

Anna (Yvonne de Carlo) & Slim (Dan Duryea) in the club
Anna (Yvonne de Carlo) & Slim (Dan Duryea) in the club

She’s all right, she’s just young.  -Steve

Hah! Some ways, she knows more than Einstein.  -Mrs. Thompson

Anna and Steve rekindle their relationship for a time, but then she sneaks off to marry gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea), who operates out of a local bar/nightclub.  Steve almost can’t believe his ears when the sympathetic bartender breaks the news.  Does Anna only care about money? 

That's young Tony Curtis!
That’s young Tony Curtis!

This is also the film debut (not credited) of Tony Curtis, who dances in the rhumba scene.  Later, Curtis and Lancaster would costar in Trapeze and Sweet Smell of Success. 

Steve is warned to stay away from Anna by old pal/cop Pete (Stephen McNally)
Steve is warned to stay away from Anna by old pal/cop Pete (Stephen McNally)

I should have been a better friend.  I shoulda stopped you.  I shoulda grabbed you by the neck, I shoulda kicked your teeth in.  I’m sorry Steve.  -Pete

This film is unusual for the genre, because Steve is not a loner, with no one to look out for his well-being.  He has a loving family- mother, jovial little brother, and future sister-in-law. He has a good friend in Lt. Pete Ramirez, a cop he’s known since childhood.  The many minor characters lend flavor to this film. 

Steve's fellow armored car guards at work
Steve’s fellow armored car guards at work

In time, he draws himself into Slim’s sphere, proposing an armored car heist.  This heist involves a elderly co-worker who’s seeing his widowed mother.  The main action scene was very well-done, as it looked quite modern. 

Love…  love!  You’ve got to watch out for yourself!  -Anna

The last scene of the film
The last scene of the film

He [Siodmark] fragments the narrative through flashbacks, counterposing the hopes of Lancaster’s return home with the desperation into which he has fallen.  He also slows down for virtuosic sequences that only a great director could bring off: a long scene when the heist is being plotted, with the bored DeCarlo smoking cigarettes (“It passes the time”) while the railway criss-crosses the window behind her; and an equally long one in the hospital, involving a cranked-up bed, a tilted mirror on the bureau, and a visitor in the corridor- a good Samaritan who turns out to be his worst nightmare.  -IMDB review excerpt

Anna is not like a typical femme fatale, as she’s not the planner.  Steve takes agency in the robbery, though he never wanted anyone to be killed, if possible.  He thinks naively, as he “wasn’t born into this” (Pete comments).  He cared about love, not the money.  The last quarter of the film is atmospheric, intense, and very well done.  Anyone can become a fool for love, even Lancaster.  Look at how young/sad/lost Steve looks when he sees Anna in the club (dancing carelessly) after so long.  This is a fine performance, layered yet accessible.

The Killers (1946) starring Burt Lancaster & Ava Gardner

Emma2 Comments
The Swede (Burt Lancaster) falls head over heels for Kitty (Ava Gardner)
The Swede (Burt Lancaster) falls head over heels for Kitty (Ava Gardner)

This film noir is based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway.  It was Burt Lancaster’s first film role (at age 32).  I thought he looked/acted much younger.  There is that openness and vulnerability in his eyes that fans will recognize.  Even battered and bruised, he has potential.  Lancaster plays Ole Andresen (known to most as “The Swede”), a quiet gas station attendant in Brentwood, New Jersey.  

Jim Riordan (Edmond O'Brien) investigates the why of the murder
Jim Riordan (Edmond O’Brien) investigates the why of the murder

We learn that there’s much more to The Swede than meets the eye, thanks to an insurance investigator, Jim Riordan (played by noted character actor Edmond O’Brien).  He later went on to play Big Daddy in The Long Hot Summer (starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward).  The movie gains momentum after a murder by two strangers to the small town.  Riordan comes to deal with the $2,500 insurance policy left behind by the deceased.   He eventually teams up with one of Ole’s oldest friends from Philly, Lt. Sam Lubinsky, to get to the crux of the matter.  The femme fatale of the story is Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner), the girlfriend of a well-known hood in Atlantic City.   

Kitty (Gardner) is the catayst in this tale.
Kitty (Gardner) is the catayst in this tale.

Most people seem to think I’m the kind of guy who shaves with a blowtorch. Actually I’m bookish and worrisome.  –Burt Lancaster

If you liked this movie, you’ll love Out of the Past (1947), starring Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, and Jane Greer.  BOTH Mitchum and Lancaster were able to show the masculine man’s sensitive side.  But maybe Mitchum had a BIT more danger and unpredictability?  They’re both fabulous actors who used their presence and physicality to enhance their roles (think Denzel Washington).  After all, it takes more than height and looks to make a leading man!