Dao ma zei

I went out to Trader Joe’s and came back to watch “The Horse Thief,” a film set in Tibet that looked impressive and told a timeless story.  Norbu is the thief who tries to change his ways after the death of his son.  There is hardly any dialogue, but it’s a good-looking film and well made.  When Martin Scorsese and Roger Ebert discussed their Top 10 movies of the 1990s, Scorsese chose “The Horse Thief” as his Number One choice.  Even though the film was made in 1986, nobody in the United States saw it until the early 1990s.  Scorsese admired the simple and elemental nature of the story, and Ebert commented that the film made him think of “The Bicycle Thief.”  That is what I would have said, too, because it is about desperation and survival.  Scorsese liked the way that Tian stayed simple and specific, and he said that “The Horse Thief” was a genuinely transcendental film.  One thing I will remember from this movie is the scene showing the burying of live sheep.  That was highly disturbing to me.  Even if I accept Scorsese’s cheat, I can’t think of this film as one of the best of the 1990s.  I can say that I liked “Dances with Wolves,” “Schindler’s List,” “Forrest Gump,” and “Saving Private Ryan” more, for starters.  Tian Zhuangzhuang was born in 1952.  He made “The Blue Kite” in 1993, and its criticism of Communist policies led to his being blacklisted by the Chinese government.  Tian did not direct another film until “Springtime in a Small Town” in 2002.  His latest film was “The Warrior and the Wolf” in 2009.  Tian is now 68 years old.  Based on what I have seen, would I consider Tian ZhuangZhuang as good a film director as Vittorio De Sica.  No, I have to believe that De Sica was one of the greatest film directors, if you don’t hold “A Place for Lovers” against him.  De Sica did make “Shoeshine,” “Bicycle Thieves,” “Miracle in Milan,” “Umberto D,” “Two Women,” and “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.”  “The Horse Thief” is a movie that you might want to watch a second time to give it a second chance.  You can see if you agree with what Martin Scorsese had to say about it.  I watched this movie on Paul McCartney’s birthday, so I used my computer to watch one of his concerts from the Freshen Up tour.  It was a lot like the concert I attended in 2014, except for “A Hard Day’s Night” and songs from the “Egypt Station” album.  Paul had some difficulty with some of those notes with his old voice.  Some of the people who died on September 8 include Richard Strauss (1949), Dorothy Dandridge (1965), Zero Mostel (1977), Jean Seberg (1979), and Brad Davis (1991).  Today is a birthday for Pink (41), Heather Thomas (63), and Bernie Sanders (79).  According to the Brandon Brooks Rewind radio segment for September 8, the first Star Trek episode, “The Man Trap,” aired on NBC in 1966.  Also in 1966, the “Tarzan” television series debuted on NBC.  Also in 1966, the first That Girl episode aired on ABC.  In 1973, “Star Trek: The Animated Series” made its debut.  Also in 1973, “Super Friends” made its debut.  In 1977, Zero Mostel died of an aortic aneurysm.  In 1978, David Bowie’s “Stage” album was released.  In 1988, “Earth Girls are Easy” premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.  In 1990, Jon Bon Jovi’s “Blaze of Glory” was the Number One single.