Time warp

by BRIAN LOCKHART

I was watching YouTube videos the other night. I came across a short clip from the movie Unforgiven, starring the legendary Clint Eastwood, as William Munny – a former gunslinger and outlaw responsible for killing ‘women and children” and “just about everything that walks or crawls.”

Munny is called back into service as a mad dog killer to avenge a prostitute who was attacked by a client.

The movie also stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, and Saul Rubinek. It was a great movie with a great cast, and it won several Oscars, including Best Picture.

Unusual for a Western, the main character has no redeeming qualities at all. There are no heroes.

I was watching the final scene where Munny kills half the people in the saloon to avenge the death of his friend and partner, Ned.

When he's leaving the saloon, in the dark, and pouring rain, he calls out a warning to the men who have gathered in the street to shoot him down.

“Okay, I'm coming out. Any man I see out there, I'm going to kill him. Any SOB takes a shot at me, not only will I kill him, I'll kill his wife, and all his friends, and burn his house down.”

That's one mean-spirited guy.

It was probably Eastwood's best movie – although personally, I consider ‘The Good, the Bad, and Ugly' to be my favourite Clint movie.

I wanted more info and looked up Unforgiven on the movie database, and was surprised to learn the movie was released in 1992. What? That was 32 years ago! How is that possible?

I could have sworn that movie was made, at most, 20 years ago.

Maybe my age is showing, but some days I feel like I'm living in some kind of weird time warp.

I still get a lot of news about Freddie Mercury, a former member of the band Queen, on various news feeds. They just made a movie about his life.

But Freddie Mercury died in 1991 – that's 33 years ago.

Frank Zappa was another rather famous musician, known for his off-beat style of music, as well as his trademark mustache and soul-patch.

I just saw a video of him performing in California a few days ago.

But Frank died in 1993 – 33 years ago.

I still see teenagers wearing Queen and Zappa T-shirts.

Somehow, that would be like me and my friends wearing, “I saw Perry Como in Vegas” shirts.

Sam Kineson was a well-known comedian. He was a former Pentecostal preacher, who turned his church act into a comedy routine. I liked him, but he was a little intense.

He died in a car accident in 1992.

Kurt Cobain was the king of grunge music and leader of the band Nirvana. His music still gets a lot of airplay and I still see people wearing Nirvana T-shirts.

Cobain died by suicide in 1994.

There are so many things that happened over 30 years ago that still seem to be relevant.

I have my own theory on this, and it has a lot to do with new technology.

At one time, when you watched an old movie or saw an old photograph, it looked old. Old movies had scratches, and photos were always black and white, not the sharpest, and faded over time.

That left the impression that you were seeing something that was outdated, and not relevant.

I still watch old black-and-white movies, even though the style of movie-making has changed dramatically. I enjoy old movies from the 30s and 40s, with the actors and their impressive Mid-Atlantic way of speaking – which by today's standards, simply wouldn't work on screen.

Old movies are not shown on television anymore with the exception of a few specialty channels, because a large portion of the population just won't watch A Night at the Opera with the Marx Brothers or Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, with W.C. Fields.

Digital technology has proven to have one very good property – and that is preservation.

When people see videos or photographs of Freddie Mercury or Kurt Cobain, it looks like it could have been shot yesterday. It is crisp, clean, and has good sound.

It is a lot easier to be interested in a video of a performance with excellent reproduction characteristics, so people become interested.

Time is a funny thing – it never stops. Here's a fun fact to wrap your head around.

Cleopatra was born at a time closer to the space race, than when the pyramids were built.