#even better if the Pinkerton's are monster hunters

[miguel-owhora]

Hardcore thinking about a RDR Monster AU where the VDL gang (and I suppose the O'Driscoll's) are all monsters. Except they pass as humans pretty well. But, and get this, while they look like humans, actual humans (like the townfolks, or any non-gang related person) gets an uncanny vibe from them. They don't know what it is, or why they feel this way, but they're disturbed by the outlaws that pass through their town or loiter in the saloon.

[splat-dragon]

and he sits with Arthur as he passes, wishing nothing more that Arthur could know he was there, that he wasn’t alone, trying to run his fingers through his hair only for them to fall through, his tears dissolving before they land on Arthur or darken the ground. And when Arthur joins him, he holds him tight.

Based off this art by @kenconffetti

Hosea had known he wouldn’t live to see the end of it all.

 He’d tried to get them all out - he had. Had sat with Abigail, sat with John. Tried to convince them to leave, to get out, before Jack was old enough to start following in their footsteps, before he could become a thief, an outlaw, a murderer like they all were becoming. Had tried to talk Arthur into leaving but he was too damn loyal and that was his fault, wasn’t it? He’d impressed loyalty into the boy from the moment they’d picked him up out of the dirt, he couldn’t blame Dutch for it all, the man held a lot of fault but Hosea did, too.

 Javier, Bill. They weren’t monsters, they weren’t innocents but even he could see some good in them - Javier, who’d only wanted to do good from the beginning, a revolutionary in Mexico who wanted to keep his family safe now, but Dutch had saved him, had picked him up out of the dirt too, had put food in his stomach and a gun in his hand and he’d looked so unsettled that Hosea had known he was a lost cause, Bill had called him a crazy old man and the women were thinking of it but they were scared, what kind of jobs could they take if they left?

 He’d known he wouldn’t live to see the end of the gang. He was getting old and you don’t live to be old in their line of work, some did but only if they retired and hid away, and even then you still end up dead, shot by a bounty hunter or some upstart, Arthur had come to him all fussed up, talking about Flaco Hernández and Emmet Granger and Billy Midnight and Black Belle, all great gunslingers in their day, all but one he’d shot dead - and it hadn’t surprised Hosea that Black Belle had been the one survivor, he and Susan had known her in her heyday and she was a survivor.

 And he wasn’t anywhere near retirement. He could see that things were crumbling - Dutch was buckling, collapsing under the weight on his shoulders, the cloud behind his eyes growing dark and stormy. Their world was closing in on them, the Pinkertons always one step ahead of them, every con going wrong and there was a rat, he could tell you that and he could tell you who but Dutch wasn’t listening to him anymore, so all he could do was try to get them all out as the rat gnawed at their very foundation.

But then he’d been shot down in the street, looking Dutch in the eye as he died, and then all he could do was watch.

 Watch as Javier was tortured in Guarma, as he became even more enamored by Dutch though Arthur had saved him just as much, as Micah led the Pinkertons (and he’d been right, damn it all) back to Lakay, as Arthur was diagnosed, could only try to run his fingers through his boy’s hair as he fought for breath only for them to go through, could only watch as Dutch s l i p p e d, could only praise his boy as he got them out, helped the women and Pearson and Trelawney escape, as he tried to do good though he’d always been the best of them all.

 Could only pray that Dutch would keep his word as they found the bonds and the storms cleared from his eyes; could only watch as Dutch became unredeemable, screaming and begging ‘Help our boy Dutch!’ as he walked away and the boy died to save theirs, could only scream and beg ‘Help our boy Dutch!’ again as he left John to die though John never did join Hosea, the man kneeling at his side and praising him every time he made an attempt to his feet, coaxing him and promising ‘You can do it son, you can do it,’ until finally he was on his feet and Hosea was slowly, slowly following him back to camp.

Susan joined him, apologizing: she’d failed, she’d failed, she hadn’t saved their boys but it wasn't her fault it was Micah’s and Dutch’s, she faded away and it was just him again. Dutch had a gun pointed at Arthur and Micah - and he was horrified, they’d never hit their boys, never laid a hand on them and here Dutch was aiming a gun at him but he hoped, hoped Dutch would see through Micah finally, but “WHO AMONGST YOU IS WITH ME AND WHO, IS BETRAYING ME?” 

 and ‘Please Dutch, those are our boys!’ as his guns turned on Arthur and John, and John wasn’t even armed, they always gave someone a fighting chance and John was wounded and unarmed and then poor Javier was so confused, even aimed his gun at the sky, his family was falling apart and though he’d been so cruel he can’t hate him as he never did turn his gun on his boys.

 Never had he been glad to see the Pinkertons, but as they interrupted the stand down he could kiss the very dirt they stood on.

Arthur’s dying.

 Their baby boy is dying.

 He’d always thought Arthur would be one of the ones who made it - who started a new life, even took a wife and had kids, have the ranch they always dreamed of, work with horses like he always loved to do.

 But his boy is dying, and Dutch is just staring.

 They never hurt their boys, but Dutch had stepped on his fingers.

 Hosea had heard them break.

 He knows that breathing - that rattling, gasping, gurgling that always precludes death.

 And his baby boy is making it.

 “N...no…” 

 He’s never found himself without words before, but he can’t breathe and his boy can’t breathe either - he doesn’t even need to breathe but his chest feels tight and he needs to say something, to get Dutch’s attention because what is he doing, their baby boy is dying, they’d raised him and promised to never let him get hurt again and Arthur is dying.

 “I…”

  I can’t watch this.

  I can’t do this.

  I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.

  I’m so sorry I didn’t stop this.

  I’m so sorry I can’t do anything.

 Arthur’s begging Dutch, trying to out Micah who’s right there with his final words and he can’t breathe he should be saving his breath because maybe, maybe someone will come back for him and if he saves his strength he can hold on ‘til then, and Dutch is just staring,

 and Hosea’s reaching for Arthur though he knows there’s nothing he can do, can’t pick him up and hold him close, can’t doctor his wounds or comfort him, can’t even let him know he’s here, “Arthur, I…”

  I’m here.

  I know.

  I believe you.

  I’ve always believed you.

 Dutch takes a step back, a quiet, “I…” and Hosea snaps to him, meets his gaze and how could Dutch leave their boy on the ground? Leave him to Micah’s mercies? Micah is still standing there, huffing and panting for breath but still stronger than Arthur, still on his feet,

 “Dutch!” the sound startles even him, tearing from his throat in a way that would hurt if he could feel pain, shrill and panicked, “Help him!” but Dutch doesn’t respond, takes another step back, and Dutch has always been queasy, has always been the one to take watch-duty while the boys were sick because seeing people sick made him sick, but this is something wholly different, the clouds are gone from his eyes, Hosea can see that he’s seeing for the first time in a while but he’s not acting and

 “You…” he hadn’t known he could cry, in all this time he’s never cried but tears that dissolve before they hit the ground are trickling down his face, “You better help our boy!”

 but Dutch, of course, can’t hear him, and as Dutch staggers away he wonders if, even if he could hear him, he would help Arthur.

  “Dutch!” his feet move without him willing them, planting him between Arthur and Micah though the latter is screaming his rage and Arthur is laughing, a horrible rattling sound, but Dutch staggers over the hill and away and maybe it’s Hosea’s desperate, wishful thinking, or his own tears clouding his eyes though even when he blinks he sees, but he thinks there are tears in Dutch’s eyes but damn him he doesn’t get to cry when he’s abandoning their boy to die alone.

 And he’s never seen a sight so awful as Arthur, gasping and fighting for breath, dragging himself to the cliff’s edge so he can watch the sunrise and he remembers, clear as day, Arthur laughing what feels like a lifetime ago but is only a few months, if that, when they’d been talking about how they’d wanted to be buried - and hadn’t they been buried as they wanted? He’d been buried with Lenny, he’d heard Sadie say,

  “When I go, I hope they cover my grave with roses.”

  “When I die, I just want to be buried with friends,”

  “Me too. With friends, or with family. I don’t think it matters more than that.”

  “What about you, Arthur?”

  “Me? Aaah, I don’t care about that nonsense.”

  “Come on!”

  “Face me to the west, so I can watch the settin’ sun, remember all the fine times we had that way.”

  “See Tilly! I told ya Arthur had a soul!” 

 and he sits with Arthur as he passes, wishing nothing more that Arthur could know he was there, that he wasn’t alone, trying to run his fingers through his hair only for them to fall through, his tears dissolving before they land on Arthur or darken the ground.

 And when Arthur joins him, he holds him tight.

[daleisgreat]

Police Story I & II

I am not an ardent fan of martial arts films, but there was a fleeting moment in the mid-to-late 90s where I, and a hearty amount of the rest of America, hopped on the Jackie Chan hype train with his stateside breakout hit, Rumble in the Bronx. I did not go on to watch every single thing Chan did afterwards, but made sure to check out a few of his other hyped pictures in the theaters like the Rush Hour trilogy, Who Am I? and The Tuxedo. I dove into a handful of his pre-stateside hits also and have fond memories of a movie marathon sleepover night at a friend’s where we immensely enjoyed Operation Condor and the Supercop films. I then kind of fell off his films for most of this century as he seemed to pivot more towards family films that were not up my alley, and have neglected him for the most part since. Last year Criterion released a two pack of Chan’s Asian hits with 1985’s Police Story (trailer) and its successor, 1988’s Police Story 2 (trailer). I heard countless praise for these pair of films over the years, but never got around to watching them and decided tracking down this bundle was the perfect way to jump in. Jackie Chan portrays policeman, Chan Ka Kui in both films and the first Police Story has an intense opening scene where Chan’s crime unit goes on an intricate chase through Chinese slums that sees Chan reprimanded for breaking protocol to get his man and is assigned as police protection for a key witness, Selina Fong (Brigitte Lin). An overplayed trope of the first film is Chan being ridiculously arrogant to impress Fong and his girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung). Chan routinely talks himself into a hole and finds himself at the butt of his bragging, but the whole song and dance comes off as pure schlock and parts of the crude humor would not fly in today’s world. These instances are regrettably too frequent, and ultimately mar the first film. There is one comedy scene that did win me over when Chan is attempting to field multiple calls at the police station, but most of his riff raff with May and Selina are major groaners.

Thankfully Chan’s mastery at martial arts helps compensate for the rest of the film. Chan’s meticulously choreographed fight scenes with his acclaimed stunt team are a treasure to consume. The opening and closing fight/chase scenes are the standouts of the first film. Chan goes into hysterics against his fellow officers and runs into a final blowoff fight in the mall that is filled with motorcycles attempting to run Chan over, many flying bodies shattering panels of glass and culminates in a breathtaking stunt for the ages. The stunt has Chan shimmying down a light-bulb infested pole and crashing down onto a platform that is such a gripping moment that the film breaks the fourth wall and replays it two more times from different angles immediately thereafter. It is a great way to make up for the aforementioned comedy. Police Story 2 picks up immediately in the aftermath of the mall fight. Despite Chan saving the day, his police chief is not too happy with the wanton destruction he left in the mall so he gets demoted. Mae is initially thrilled, but soon enough the police rope Chan into helping track down a bomb threat-happy gang causing a ruckus in Hong Kong. The dynamic between Chan and Mae is drastically improved in the sequel. Chan dials back the pretentious-ness and cheesy double entendres exponentially which makes him incredibly more empathetic in his plight to track down the bombers and win back Mae’s heart. There remains an occasional lowbrow toilet humor gag with one of Chan’s superiors having bad bouts of gas throughout the film, but it is nowhere near the distraction as it was before.

About halfway through the film, Chan gets a support team specializing in the latest hi-tech gadgetry to track down the bombers. A few of their investigative and stealth tailing scenes of targets drag down the tempo of the sequel, but it is not that much of a detraction in the grand scheme of things. The bombers naturally kidnap Mae, and compromise Chan to work for them and it all leads to an awesome final fireworks factory fight scene where Chan goes ballistic dueling away with each thug at the factory. Police Story 2 is leagues better than the first film, but surprisingly the bonus second cut of the sequel included in the supplemental material is even better. It is the original Hong Kong release that is about a half hour shorter, and complete with film scratching/tearing defects for authenticity. As much as I like the Criterion Edition of the sequel, I wound up leaning towards the original cut more because it is a snappier watch, and uses alternate footage that helps fill in some minor gaps in the pacing of the Criterion cut. Additionally, the original cut has a different translation of the subtitles that make some of the scenes come across differently and I found myself taking in some scenes with a different perspective. Props to Criterion by the way with their first-in-class restoration work with their HD conversions of both films. Both Criterion cuts on the BluRays have brilliantly restored visuals and audio that stand out tremendously when compared to the original Hong Kong version of the sequel.

Speaking of supplemental material, the Criterion branding lives up to its name once again with the bonuses for both films. In fact I think I enjoyed the extra features for the first Police Story more than that film itself. There is just over an hour long extra titled Jackie Chan: My Stunts that is an excellent deep dive of the fight choreography and what minute details Jackie and his team implements to add that extra ‘oomph’ to the fights in the cinematography. Well worth your time checking out. There are two interviews with movie director, Edgar Wright about his fandom for Jackie Chan, and one of the interviews is with both Chan and Wright which was fascinating to take in. The last of the extras I highly recommend checking out on the first film is King of Kings II which is a 2017 television show excerpt where Chan is reunited with original members of his stunt team that provides some powerful moments with Jackie and his team. Aside from the original Hong Kong cut, the standout bonus of the hour and a half of extras for Police Story 2 is the extra, Reinventing Action. The 21 minute feature dissects how Asian action films from the 1980s like Police Story were a big influence for Western action films and how they helped evolved the genre over the last few decades. Finally there is a foldout poster included with the two pack, but on the flipside of the poster is an essay by Nick Pinkerton that provides a comprehensive look at Jackie Chan’s early ups and downs before finding permanent success with films like Police Story and proceeds to breakdown both of these film’s finer aspects.

I was surprised I found myself so mixed on the first Police Story. Maybe I would have appreciated it more if I was exposed to it in my childhood, but as it stands now the humor drags it down a few pegs. I would recommend instead watching its opening and closing fight/chase scenes. Police Story 2 is well worth your time however, and you cannot go wrong checking out either version of the film included on the Criterion. Finally, for as lackluster as the first film is the bonus materials compensates greatly for it and the complete package all together makes the Criterion two-pack of Police Story and Police Story 2 a worthy recommendation.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Last Action Hero Major League Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Not for Resale Pulp Fiction The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Pilgrim vs the World The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild The Wizard Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

[juliusdhuj610-blog]

Red Wine Tasting At My Top 5 California Wineries

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