Day 3: Prizzi's Honor

Date: July 3
Film: Prizzi's Honor [usa, 1985]
Where: Tulsa/at home/DVD
Who with: alone
Movie rating:***1/2 [out of five]
Okie street-cred attending noodling event: *****!

I've been on a real John Huston kick in 2011. I've watched The Treasure of Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The MacKintosh Man, Wise Blood and Victory all in the past six months or so. Directed at 79 years old, Prizzi's Honor is the second to last film he made before passing away in 1987. Prizzi's Honor is an entertaining, sophisticated romantic comedy farce about two killers [Jack Nicholson works for the mob, Kathleen Turner is a contract "hitter"] who meet, fall in love and then must grapple with the complications that ensue by being together. This was nominated for seven Oscars in 1985 including best film and Anjelica Huston [daughter of John] won for best supporting actress. Not sure I agree with her winning, but looking at the other nominees that year [Oprah Winfrey for The Color Purple? Thankfully she didn't win.], Huston winning was just as good as the others nominated. 1985 wasn't a good year for movies based on the nominations of a lot of forgettable movies.

I wondered how soon in this "31 days, 31 films" thing I'd get home late, tired and not really in the mood to watch a movie. On the third day and it already occurred, but I sucked it up and watched Prizzi's Honor. I'd spent the previous four hours in Mannford, Oklahoma with my friend Mary Beth watching a noodling fishing event. Noodling, for those of you who aren't familiar with this word, is a form of fishing in Oklahoma where you use only your hands and feet to catch huge catfish. It's kind of dangerous with people getting all bloodied from the catfish literally using the human body as the bait. The men [maybe women do it too, but I've never heard of any] wrestle the catfish to the surface before they can claim victory over the fish [and then later eat it!]. Oklahoma is one of the few states where this style of fishing is legal and it has a deep tradition from Native Americans to rural, small town Oklahomans who do it now. This event was part of a new show that is going to appear on TV in the fall called "Mudcats." Check out the monster a couple of noodlers brought in to be weighed as part of the competition! Keep in mind, they caught this with their hands...which were all scraped, cut-up and bleeding.