#lord john whorfin

[poparthuriana]

For reasons which somewhat elude me, I made a meme.

[poparthuriana]

They're a mad scientist possessed by an alien dictator, the long-lost identical twin sister of the Queen of the Netherlands, and a physicist/neurosurgeon/rock star.

Why does this look like a shot from the Breakfast Club?

the literal definition of coolness

[rlsantucijr]

"History is-a made at night. Character is what you are in the dark." -- Lord John Whorfin / The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) #SaturdayMovieTVQuote

[dasmuggler]

John O'Connor

Dr. Emilio Lazardo/Lord John Whorfin

John Bigboote'

[the-richie]

“I’m sure in the miserable annals of the Earth, you will be duly enshrined!”

~ Lord John Whorfin AKA Dr. Emilio Lizardo

[radimus-co-uk]

“Character...is what you are in the dark” - Lord John Whorfin

[spiritbrosonthispartytrain]

I’ve been marathoning movies and occasionally doodling stuff since yesterday because the weather has been super crappy (flash flood warnings what uuup). I fucking love this guy. There’s a bit in the BB comic where he pulls out a Tamagotchi and explains that he enjoys watching it die slowly over and over. Just. Why you gotta be so extra, my dude?

[marktavaresartist]

Man, I missed last weeks #flatfilefriday, then I blinked and it was Friday once again! I have to get better about posting. In the meantime, since I missed one you get TWO posts this week to make up for it! Pic No. 1 is a caricature version of everyone’s favorite red lectroid-possessed mad scientist, “Dr. Emilio Lizardo aka Lord John Whorfin” (6 x 9, Acrylic on Recycled Paper). Pic No. 2 I simply call “Vincent Price with Jello Shots (with apologies to @danagould)” (9 x 12, Acrylic on Bristol) #caricature #portrait #buckaroobanzai #vincentprice #sketch #study #likeness #jelloshots https://www.instagram.com/p/CPt3BmUjvsr/?utm_medium=tumblr

[mobio]

My showing an educational video about orogeny. The narrator keeps saying "overthrust" which I keep hearing as "overthruster" in Lord John Whorfin's voice. (at Rochester, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4nTqDiBO_xHzNVunsffrMU7fJ24WrHjWlLCgg0/?igshid=tekhj2rvd6vf

[kevrocksicehouse]

John Lithgow, who can and will play anyone, is 75 today. Some snapshots from an adventurous career.

Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp. D: George Roy Hill (1982). Muldoon, a former Philadelphia Eagle who became a woman, could have been a joke (John Irving wrote her as a dare to himself) but Lithgow gave her  warmth, dignity and a wicked sense of humor (Informed of another character’s dismemberment she says “I had mine removed surgically under general anesthesia, but to have it bitten off…”). And the actor never suggests that she hasn’t become happier and more fulfilled by the change in gender. Even when she’s taking down a hostile fratboy at the knees.

Dr. Emilio Lizardo/Lord John Whorfin in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. D: W.D. Richter (1984). In this loopy, would-be sci-fi action franchise, Lithgow is a mad scientist who gets possessed by an extra-dimensional overlord, which just makes him even crazier. He looks like Jack Nance from Eraserhead as a Batman villain, and says things like “Sealed with a curse, as sharp as a knife. Doomed is your soul and damned is your life.” His craziest and most over-the-top performance and his most fun.

Ben Hull in Love is Strange. D: Ira Sachs (2014). A couple who’ve been together 39 years (Lithgow and Alfred Molina) are forced to sell their New York apartment and live apart after Molina loses his Catholic-school job. Lithgow perfectly captures the anxiety and sadness of having to upend your life at an advanced age, and his chemistry with Molina makes this tearjerker truly heartbreaking. They fit so well together it’s literally painful when they’re apart.

[poparthuriana]

Casting TAoBBAtED with Arthurian characters

A friend and I once spent a solid half hour coming up with a list of which Arthurian character best corresponded with which character from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension. This was the result:

King Arthur = Buckaroo

The False Guinevere = Penny Priddy

Bedivere = Rawhide

Gawain = Perfect Tommy

Hector de Maris = Reno Nevada

Percival = New Jersey

Dinadan = John Parker

Isolde of Ireland = John Emdall

Lucan = Billy Travers

Morgan le Fay = Lord John Whorfin

Sebile = John O’Connor

Nimue = John Bigbooté

Mador = Pinky Carruthers

Rationale:

Arthur, Bedivere, Lucan, and Mador are all pretty self-explanatory.

The False Guinevere and Penny Priddy are the identical twins (or, in one case, evil nearly-identical twin half-sisters) of Guinevere and Peggy, similar in name, appearance, and romantic entanglement with their sister's husband or former husband.

My friend and I strenuously disagreed about who Perfect Tommy would be. She believed that Lancelot and Tristan, particularly Lancelot, get the viewed-by-others-as-perfect treatment more often. I demurred on the basis that Perfect Tommy entirely lacks sad wet cat energy and I could see him ending up in situations like Gawain's.

We really couldn't figure out who Reno Nevada would be. Hector might be a bit too out there, but he is somewhat more reasonable than, say, his brother (this isn't saying much).

We were torn up about whether New Jersey should be Percival or La Cote Mal Taille. The costume weighed in favor of Brunor, but it didn't make sense for New Jersey to be John Parker's brother (they aren't even from the same planet), and Brunor is also a little edgier, so Percival won.

Morgan as Lord John Whorfin was funny, and if she was Whorfin, naturally Sebile had to be John O'Connor. Nimue as John Bigbooté is purely for the name joke--imagine her constantly protesting to Morgan that "it's pronounced Nih-moo-AY!"

With Morgan already taken, Isolde was our best candidate for John Emdall, and Dinadan as John Parker followed. John Parker might not joke around much, but he doesn't always see eye to eye with John Emdall and is a diplomat who failed flight school, and that fits. We almost changed it so that Mark was Whorfin, but Morgan was too funny in the role, and having Nimue as John Bigbooté would have made even less sense.

[johnlithgowflamboyantperfection]

John Lithgow as Dr. Emilio Lizardo/Lord John Whorfin in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

[movieassholes]

May I pass along my congratulations for your great interdimensional breakthrough? I am sure, in the miserable annals of the Earth, you will be duly enshrined. 

Lord John Whorfin / Dr. Emilio Lizardo - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)                           

[mickeyrossi]

#inktober John Lithgow is Lord John Whorfin/Dr. Emilio Lizardo

[artists-table]

Lord John Whorfin, me, digital, 2019 via /r/DigitalPainting https://ift.tt/32bHqtN by UncleHang

[wittypenguin]

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

This is what Mystery Men was trying to be. It’s fun, it’s campy, it’s ridiculous, and it’s filled with things of an idiotic nature which isn’t too full of itself. Basically, if you can’t keep up with what they’re throwing at you, they’re not going to slow down as a way of accommodation. The other film does that far too much for my liking.

Seriously, this film is so filled with little things that you cannot grasp all of them in one viewing. I’m still spotting things that either I’ve never seen before, or are things IU’ve forgotten about since the previous viewings. For example: Lindley’s Gas Station is also selling couches! While the market for people selecting furniture while they fill their automobile with fuel must be a limited one, they have cornered it. There are signs explaining how devoted they are to it: “Any Couch at Any Price.” “We Sell Anything!” adding “Including This Sign!” It’s like Looney Tunes and all the old vaudeville and ‘Borscht Belt’ gags were mashed up in the set & props departments. They also have a helicopter, with a sign declaring “Gas Wars!” on its side, making it possibly the only gas station to also have an airborne vehicle.

Why is President Widmark in a really elaborate hospital bed? We’re told he just had back surgery, but… why…? Why is Yakov Schmirnoff using his own stage name as a character identity? Why does the Secretary of Defence arrive via white, unmarked helicopter (an example of the Bell 206 Jet Ranger/Long Ranger series) and not a military edition? Why is Yoyodyne’s top-secret facility sporting a sign saying “Top Secret Facility?” It also has a sign saying it’s “Home of the Try-Wing Fighter,” but I’m less concerned about that. It actually looks more like an electrical power station outside, which is actually what was used for the filming.

Peter Weller is ‘Buckaroo Banzai’

Another word about the President. He’s clearly a stand-in for Orson Welles (who is referred to in the dialogue because of his War of the Worlds radio broadcast). The actor portraying the President is Ronald Lacey, famous for playing Toht and getting his palm branded in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but his voice — according to the IMDb trivia — “is dubbed by a well-known American actor,” who is not further identified. Now… that’s saying just a little too much and not enough, really. You can’t say that and then not go into more detail!

Within the dialogue they frequently speak about the ‘World Watch Wire’ as a network of communication. This is long prior to the World Wide Web, and a host of other things. Other than the silly gadgets, there are a surprising number of prescient technologies in the film. No doubt, someone will argue that is only because Buckaroo Banzai exists, so his support systems also do.

There’s a hand-held directional indicator which clearly uses a car’s turn signal relay. The Black Lectroids wear hockey gloves. There’s an entire set (behind the sign warning “no buddy come in here - sekrit”) consisting of clear plastic tarps, floor-positioned work lights, and some white corrugated tubing. Given all of that, I would have said that if this film cost $10M, I’d eat my hat. But, apparently the eventual revenue was an estimate of $6.2 million in North America, “earning back less than half of its production costs,” so it seems to have had a budget of $15 million, which seems… odd.

John Lithgow is ‘Lord John Whorfin’ / ‘Dr. Emilio Lizardo’

The evil aliens ‘John O’Connor’ and ‘John Bigbooté’ make the fatal mistake of using the ‘astoundingly slow killing technique’ with Penny Priddy. This is, obviously, their undoing.

To think this came out at the end of the original Star Wars trilogy, it’s surprisingly and fantastically low-budget in its technology, but the characters are delightfully over the top and unashamed of the fact. There is a troubling matter of the Black Lectroids being presented as Jamaicans and/or Rastafarians — albeit non-smoking ones — but beyond that, there’s no hint of racism per se. The Lindley family is black, and their vocabulary is mildly typical of ‘street’ vocabulary, but this seems more z matter of accuracy of the time than stereotyping. Given the mid-‘80s development and shortage of ‘humans of colour,’ it’s surprisingly comfortable to watch from today’s perspective.

This is a hell of a film. I love it and probably watch it more often than can be said to be good for one’s grasp of reality. It makes me laugh every time, however, so it has a treasured place in my heart.

★★★★★