Sam Neill passed away on Monday at the age of 78. I think most of my friends would associate him the most closely with the various “Jurassic Park” films in which he appeared (1993 – 2022), or maybe the classic 1990 film adaptation of Tom Clancy’s “The Hunt for Red October.”
But, being an older Gen X’er, my first memory of this fine actor wasn’t for his roles as a nice-guy paleontologist or an affable would-be Soviet defector. It was the goddam anti-Christ.
“Omen III: The Final Conflict” arrived in 1981. (I would have discovered it on VHS a few years later at my local mom-and-pop video store.) It never became a part of the zeitgeist the ways its predecessors did in the prior decade, but it was definitely my favorite. (I am linking below to MDB Trailers for the trailer.)
It had a “cool” factor that the other movies lacked — thanks to Neill’s performance as a charismatic devil incarnate. He was smooth and charming and persuasive, and was a hell of a lot more fun to watch than a bratty kid who screamed when he was brought to church. He could even psychically control dogs, for some reason.
The assassin-priest protagonists were also really cool. (I was an apostate even then, so it took a lot to make me root for the clergy.) I think I was also really impressed with the broad canvas over which the film’s plot was placed. I’d grown up on scary movies that were mostly standalone monster movies (or maybe slasher films). Seeing an epic battle with lots of combatants in a larger theological context really entertained me as an adolescent horror fan.
Neill made the movie. It just wouldn’t have been the same without his perfect blend of charm and menace. I think he always got too little credit as a fantastic bad guy. Think about it. If you took his Damien Thorne and inserted him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, would’t he be a contender for its best villain?
A few of my fellow horror fans have opined on social media that the film has not aged well. Maybe I was just easily impressed as a kid. I’m going to have to check it out again to decide where I stand today.
“All in the Family” (1971 – 1979) was an institution when I grew up. Even if you were a really young kid, you knew it was a pretty big part of the zeitgeist.
Both the opening and closing credits were filmed in Glendale, Queens. It probably didn’t look very different from Woodhaven, Queens, where I was a baby — though I obviously remember very little of that.
One of the show’s fans actually visited Glendale last year and found the house where the Bunkers were supposed to have lived. (The house’s fictional location was Astoria.) The guy posted a pretty neat video of his visit; you can find it right here:
The neighborhood actually looks a lot nicer (and greener!) than it did back in the 1970’s. But I guess that’s probably true about a lot of places around New York City.
So people still remember this 1986 ad as the “Gallo wines commercial with the classical music” that they loved but could never identify.
Well … it sounds like classical music. But the composer for the pretty piece is none other than Vangelis. (If you’re anybody who’s anybody in my particular corner of sci-fi nerd-dom, then you know that Vangelis was responsible for 1982’s legendary “Blade Runner” soundtrack.)
The name of the piece is “Hymne,” and it was originally released on Vangelis’ 1979 album, “Opera Sauvage.” The original song, which differs a bit from the version in the commercial, can be found right here.
I only learned while writing this that Vangelis wasn’t really “a group.” It was a single Greek composer — Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou — who passed away in 2022.
Ah, the halcyon days of yore — when the unhealthiest food you could eat was also the cheapest. (Nowadays, you’ve got to be fairly RICH to harden your arteries properly.) Another reason why the 1990’s were the goddam AWESOMEST decade.
I was a big fan of McDoubles back in the day. I’d buy five or six at a time, eat two, and throw the remainder into the fridge for later. Dollar-sundaes were kinda nice too.
Taco Bell was another fast food chain with some super-low prices. I remember rolling out of the dorm half-asleep on a Sunday morning, and riding along with another hungry student to the “Taco Hell” on Route 1 in Fredericksburg (just before Falmouth Bridge.)
Beef Meximelts were $1.50 a piece, if memory serves. And we don’t have those at ALL, today — they were discontinued!
It occurs to me only as I write this that this entire post is really just today’s version of our parents’ nostalgia in the 1980’s. (Do any other GenXers remember them talking about how candy and soda and double-feature matinee once cost … I dunno, a fifty cents or something?)
This catchy jingle comes to you courtesy of the grand old year of 1985. (Actually, it was the deftmahatma Youtube channel.)
Unlike the New Coke debacle that very same year, Cherry Coke caught on. I had one just yesterday, despite my dentist’s sage counsel. (It’s the acidity that’s bad for your teeth — not the sugar.) I think we can all agree that Cherry Coke is super-god-damned good.
By the way, nobody can tell me that 80’s fashion isn’t due for a revival.
This is a truly iconic 1990’s comic cover by the inimitable Sam Kieth; the image takes me right back to when I returned to comic book fandom in the first half of the decade. Kieth passed away on March 15th.
That’s right — the legendary tome saw its 40th anniversary last month. (I’ve always had the habit of referring to its graphic novel format, but of course it was initially published as a four-issue limited series.)
Forty years — I can’t wrap my mind around that.
For a little perspective, imagine being a young person in 1986 and discovering The Dark Knight Returns for the first time. (I myself was introduced to it a few years down the line, but still.) Now picture an older comics fan in 1986 trying to interest you in a title that was published 40 years prior.
THAT COMIC WOULD HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN 1946 — a year after the conclusion of World War II. It would have to be a title like Tintin or the Mark Trail comic strip.
“Apocalypse Now” (1979) was an institution in the house where I grew up. I think most fans will agree that Robert Duvall’s line here was the most iconic.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 