The Bearded Trio

Let's Go On A Movie Location Journey We are honoured to have a wonderful guest post from Justin Wilkinson from the excellent MovieLocationHunter website. Justin shares with us some of the iconic movie locations that we will be familiar with from being Lucas and Spielberg fans. Take it away, Justin! My fascination with movie locations all started when I was a young boy, awe struck by the outer-space settings of Star Wars, the time travelling in Back to the Future, the gadgets and glamour of 007 – ‘Bond, James Bond’ (Roger Moore was my childhood Bond) and the swashbuckling adventures of Indiana Jones. I never imagined as a child that these places were accessible – they were magical, mysterious all part of the alluring movie going experience. As I grew up my love of movies became stronger and my curiosity in what was involved in the process of movie making deepened. I would wait expectantly to watch the movies I had seen at the cinema again when they came out on different media – f...

Summer of Amblin' By Jeff Graber For Harvey Graber The Spark of Childhood Wonder. In 1981, a month after my 11th birthday in September, my father ushered me into the cool embrace of a movie theater. The film he had chosen was ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, a title unknown to my young mind. I wasn’t quite sure what I was about to experience, but my dad’s excitement was infectious. As the lights dimmed and the film began, the world outside ceased to exist. Indiana Jones, the whip-cracking, quick-witted archaeologist, leaped onto the screen and into my world. I found myself riveted, perched on the edge of my seat, my young heart drumming in my chest. Each chase, each narrow escape, each victory had me leaning forward, my breaths shallow, my palms damp with anticipation. I could feel the adrenaline surging, pulsating, echoing Indy’s every move.  When the film reached its climactic end, I found myself shaking slightly, a tremor born from the rollercoaster of emotions I’d ridden. As the thea...

Guest Post by Patty Hammond Originally posted in 2018. (I felt the article and the subject matter deserved a repost - Rob.) In my opinion, the Star Wars saga, at the heart, is about concept of ‘hope’. What is ‘Hope’? According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is both a noun and a verb. As a noun it is ‘A feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.’ and as a verb it is ‘Want something to happen or be the case.’ Star Wars embraces both of these definitions. There are many examples of these throughout the saga… In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the concept of hope is mentioned by three characters in the film. First by Cassian Andor, next by Jyn Erso and finally Princess Leia Organa herself with the last word, “Hope”. “Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you are my only hope” Princess Leia Organa in Star Wars: A New Hope. It is these words of hope, shown by the Astromech droid R2-D2, that steers Luke Skywalker towards the heroes path in Star Wars: A New Hope and again in T...

10 Best Star Wars Alien Races Star Wars is one of the rare science-fiction franchises that actually bothered to introduce a large chunk of its fictional universe, which – in this case – encompasses the whole known universe. Although we certainly haven’t seen the whole Star Wars universe, George Lucas and the other authors that have participated in the creation and development of the franchise have given us a solid look into the universe of Star Wars , into its different world and its races. In today’s article, we are going to be bringing you a list of the ten best alien (i.e., non-human) races in the fictional universe of Star Wars , so enjoy! 10. Bith The Bith race might not be the first to come to mind when you’re thinking Star Wars , but this race is actually quite famous and it is one of the “oldest” ones, as it was introduced in A New Hope . So, who are the Bith? Remember the iconic Mos Eisley Cantina scene and the jazz band? Well, the big-headed aliens who produce some me...

The Soundtrack of My Life by Colby Mead I had the privilege of growing up in the 1980’s. That meant a childhood filled with Saturday morning cartoons, action figures of all shapes and sizes, video games (the ones in the arcade as well as the ones at home) and movies. A lot of movies. My earliest movie memories were Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial and Return of the Jedi. Not a bad start. I guess one can say that I was partially raised by the Bearded Trio. While the stories, iconography and characters from these films have stayed with me until today, nothing affected me more than the music that came with them. And for that I have one person to thank:  John Williams This one human being is responsible for the majority of the soundtrack of my life and an innumerable amount of inspiration for millions around the world. His generations defining work that is Star Wars puts him in a category by himself. Just think about it, he alone ...

Michael Heather Takes A Look At The Humour In Star Wars An oft repeated maxim about John Williams music for Star Wars (that is episode IV, A New Hope) is that, rather than use a futuristic type score, the genius was using very traditional classical themes that would ground the action and make what was occurring on screen relatable to the audience.  This is, of course, absolutely true and his contribution, as ever, is absolutely key to the films success. One thing of note about the original film (and which follows through to the two original sequels, and that I loved as a young fan) was also how funny the film is. Star Wars... as comedy. Much like John Williams score it was key in making the film relatable and successful. Now I am not saying that if you fancy a good laugh you select Star Wars over Chevy Chase’s broken glasses (or Steve Martin having a conversation with a brain on a lake) but Star Wars definitely uses humour for effect and to humanise and sympathise the character...

Michael Heather looks back At Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and why it deserves more love My favourite Indiana Jones film is Raiders Of The Lost Ark, probably not the opening statement you expected in a piece celebrating the (fortune and) glories of Indy's second celluloid adventure. However, Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom has somehow become the somewhat unloved sequel/prequel dismissed even by its own director who claims that “the only good thing to come out of it was meeting my wife”. The undeniably perfect pacing, framing, composing and overall genius of ‘Raiders’ is well documented but I just as often these days feel like I need to defend the movie or part of a minority (albeit strong) that needs to champion the many awesome aspects of Indy's darkest escapade. No time for love? Far from it. Every recollection like this seems to start with its own authors personal context and I have no intention of straying from that formula, unlike the film itself. I w...

A Nostalgia Review – “Jaws” (1975) A Guest post by Tim Balogh Nostalgia is a funny thing. Think back to a TV show or movie you were in love with as a 6-year-old. If you were to experience it again now as an adult, it’s very possible that it did not age well; It may even be quite cringe worthy. Or perhaps a show or movie you didn’t like or blew off could actually be quite extraordinary. One movie that I was obsessed with as a kid was 1986’s “An American Tail”, which was produced by Steven Spielberg. I happened to catch a few minutes of the movie while channel surfing and I was horrified by how dark and terrifying the movie is and the underlying events that were occurring in the background. For example, as a kid I saw the Moskowitz family fleeing their home because of cats attacking. But what was really happening was an anti-Jewish arson attack on the humans that lived there. It’s amazing the things that innocence can hide you from in media. Anyways, this isn’t a story about ...

Guest Post by Author, John Booth Rob Wainfur was one of the very first total strangers to read my book about growing up on Star Wars called Collect All 21! (I mean, look: He has the now-uber-collectible author's amateur cover edition ) and he has been kind enough to publicly say nice things about it several times. This made for a seriously easy “YES!” when he asked if I'd like to contribute a guest blog for The Bearded Trio. Because I like to explore the memories and associations triggered by popular culture recollections and nostalgia, and because music so often comes with so many attached images and emotions, I decided to poke around in some not-often-explored corners of John Willams' work. John Williams was the first composer whose name and work I recognized - and who wasn't dead. He benefited, of course, from having his name attached to Star Wars , which, when I was a kid, made just about anything interesting. It turns out, for instanc...