TOUGH GUYS DO DANCE .... OR GET PAGE HITS

One of the fun things about doing a blog is being able to track who visits it, from where and why. I have tools on the blog that allows me to see how people find their way here ... luckily I don't have to know that once here they run away screaming in terror, I just assume that they did.

These tools let me track which particular posts get the most hits and they let me see the search words people have used that brought them here .. poor unwitting suckers.

Besides people searching for hairy porn links ... really I don't judge but if you can't find porn on the internet you may have some issues .... some of the popular searches have been: Last Emperor of China, Vikings, air shows. But the two most popular search phrases, way above and beyond everything else have been Audie Murphy and Charles Bronson.

I have written a couple of posts about Audie (This one for example) and a couple of posts with Bronson's name in it. I've written about Death Wish a couple of times but it was this post that really got things going or more correctly brought people here who were already searching for Mr Bronson

Both Murphy and Bronson have been gone for some time; Audie was a moderate movie star in his day but more correctly remembered today, I think, for his extraordinary military adventures. Bronson was a huge star in his day, at one point the most popular movie actor in the world but I have often wondered what his legacy is today; he made so many bad movies I fear that some of his very fine performances have been overshadowed by his persona as an unblinking killing machine

I can tell if people are searching for Charles Bronson but I don't know why: Are they searching for his movies, are they looking for images of wrinkly faced guys holding guns, are they searching for a new baby daddy, do they need something with which to scare their children ...

But for whatever reason, there clearly remains a strong interest in Charles Bronson. I'm getting almost daily hits from that name, from all over the world.

So, contrary to the title of a novel, tough guys indeed do dance .... or beat guys up on the screen, and we want to see them.

AUDIE MURPHY LIVES

Just a quick post about a little in-blog phenomenon I've noticed. Recently I wrote this post about tracking those who visit this site and the searches that bring them here. As an after thought, I mentioned my Audie Murphy post that had attracted some attention. Since that time I've noticed that Audie seems to be a pretty popular search topic. I have even had a comment from an Audie fan to my post, something I very much appreciate.

In the last 15 days or so, search engines have directed six different people to this site, searching for Audie Murphy. For the amount of traffic I get, that is a pretty significant number. Not totally shocking; Murphy was the most decorated American soldier in WW II and I understand that his exploits are still being taught in the U.S. armed forces. From an historical or military point of view, Murphy is a pretty important figure. What does surprise me somewhat is the number of Europeans who are searching for Audie; mind you, he fought in the European conference so he has some significance there. I wonder how popular a film actor he is in Europe. Primarily a cowboy star, Murphy seems like such an "American" icon.

Audie's war record gets more searches than his movie career but there are still fans of his films out there. Considering that Murphy mostly made Drive-in style B westerns, and his last real film was released in 1967, I find it rather heartening that Audie's movies still live. We can give a lot of thanks to DVDs of course and maybe even eBay.

The searches that have brought people to my original Murphy post are varied; at least two different people were searching for memorabilia, particularly his holsters and his pistols. There are the military searches of course, particularly his medals and one that was looking for the kind of tank destroyer he .... well .. destroyed. Searches about his family and searches about some of the darker aspects of his personal life; there were rumours of drug abuse and a story about Audie beating up some guy and what that may or may not have been about.

In the short history of my blog, Audie searches are right up at the top, behind dogs/dog parks and ... well .. hairy stuff. Let's not discuss this last one, it is, frankly, a little disturbing. So all I wanted to say is: Audie lives. Go check him out, if you are a military buff, read up about the battle for which he receive the Congressional Medal of Honour. For sure, check out his movies. Sure many of them are little unpretentious western adventure stories (for me, that sounds pretty much perfect) but he was an actor capable of humour, humanity and he really could carry a movie.

I will be very curious to see if my recent Paul Newman post gets the same number of hits. Paul was certainly the bigger star and objectively the bigger actor. But Paul has just left our eyes and there is lots of material readily available. Audie is a more historical character and literally so, in terms of his military career.

So rock on, Audie, rock on all you Audie fans. Let's keep the tough little Texan alive.

AUDIE MURPHY HOLSTERS HIS GUNS FOR ME

I am writing this post alone but I can imagine Collette leaning over my shoulder and reading the title and saying "Yes dear, Audie Murphy, dear" and going off in order not to waste any more of her life on Mr Murphy. I can't blame her. She has heard more about Audie Murphy than any person should be forced to tolerate. And my poor brother Ed. I was staying with him once and just launched into one my Audie monologues and I saw his eyes begin to go all glassy but I just couldn't help myself. When Eartha came into the room Ed turned to her and with this voice filled with desperation said "Hon, I've been learning about Audie Murphy .. and there is so much to learn."

I don't know why I love Audie Murphy. Reasonably, I should not. This post is not going to be a biography of Audie Murphy. If you are curious about him there is a lot of info on the net ... Google works here . Suffice it to say Audie was known for two things: The most decorated American soldier in WW II and as an actor in B grade movies, most of them westerns. I grew up with Audie Murphy. The aura of the war was still hanging heavy over the world when I was a kid and I grew up watching westerns, mostly on TV, and there always seemed to be an Audie Murphy western on TV

But my interest in him is more than nostalgic. He wasn't even a terribly important person for me, he was no icon. Movie wise he fit right in with guys like Rory Calhoun and George Montgomery who toiled in the B western trenches and at the time I really did not distinguish between them. But as time has gone on, its Murphy that has become the little splinter in my brain.

He works for me today on a couple of levels. I like the movies, or at least enough of them to keep me hanging in. He generally made the kind of low budget, Drive-in oriented westerns that used to be called "oaters". Pretty formulaic stuff, shot on back lots, with weak dialogue and an emphasis on badly staged fight scenes. Often he was miscast. The lone, stalwart hero, the tough guy, but physically he did not work for that at all. Murphy was a little guy, and soft spoken, and when he had fight scenes with big burly character actors it was hard to accept that he could actually be the victor. But he brought something to his character, the ah-shucks Jimmy Stewart/Henry Fonda American country boy feel and that was genuine. He was also a song writer, working in the country genre and many of his songs were recorded. Murphy was raised in west Texas, dropped out of school at eight to support his family and often lived off the land with his rifle.

Murphy could work against his character. I think I like him best when he has a bit of an edge to him. In Night Passage, with Jimmy Stewart, Murphy plays the "bad" brother, the outlaw with a heart of gold and in scenes of conflict with Stewart (who played the older brother) you can see this little spark come out. Like most actors, he benefited from working with someone who had talent. In Bullet For A Badman, Murphy plays one of a pair of outlaws, but he is the one that has gone "good". Darren McGavin plays his ex partner and the scenes between them get pretty lively. In No Name On The Bullet he plays a darker character, a gun for hire who holds a town at fear by his very presence. He was cast, once again, as a brother (this time with Burt Lancaster) in The Unforgiven where Murphy plays a character with an almost psychotic hatred against the Apache. This is one of his later movies and he's good in it, showing us a character who works from an emotional core even as he does despicable thing. Like Alan Ladd, you can see Murphy had a potential that was never fully realized and usually came when he was given characters with some darkness at their core. Legend says that director Don Siegel was considering casting Murphy as the villain in the original Dirty Harry movie ... damn, that would have been something. Murphy, then his mid forties, facing down against the young Eastwood, the actor who destroyed the old fashioned studio westerns with his work in Italy. Unfortunately, Murphy died in a plane crash before filming began.

So, he was a serviceable actor who made some entertaining western movies. Well, so was Alan Ladd, as I mentioned and although I still enjoy watching a few of his better movies, I don't often sit through his oaters as I will Murphy's. What's the difference? Well, as is usually the case in most narratives, I think its the back story. Remember, Murphy was not just a western actor, he had some other credentials to his name.



There is a lot written about Audie Murphy the "war hero". Winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor. He had nearly 30 other decorations. He was the most decorated American soldier in World War II (To Hell and Back is his movie autobiography, where Murphy plays himself but really, its pretty lame) He also received decorations from France and Belgium. He received the bulk of his medals before he was 21 years old.



I am ambivalent about war and warriors. At my present stage in life I really can't see many viable reasons to go to war and I have seen very few positive results come out of such conflicts. But when you read about war, when you hear combat stories, and try to put yourself in the boots of the men and women who fight them, it is difficult to dismiss their achievements; just surviving in a combat theatre is an almost miraculous act.



And we have young Murphy. An almost illiterate kid from Texas. An orphan. Basically no education to speak of. Stories say that when he first went overseas, his accent and his terrible diction were so bad people had no idea what he was saying. He was a skinny little kid who looked like a boy next to many of the men he fought with. But consider the event that led him to that Medal of Honour: He had been granted a battlefield rank of Lieutenant. He was leading a company in France when they were attacked by six German tanks and what is described as "waves of infantry". He orders his men back and begins to radio in artillery fire, holding the Germans at bay. One of his tank destroyers takes a direct hit and bursts into flame, and its crew gets out. The crippled destroyer leaves a flank open and the Germans begin to advance there. With his men under cover, he gets up onto the tank and takes hold of the .50 caliber machine gun and begins to unload with the thing. The story goes that alone, with that one machine gun, Murphy held off the enemy for an hour. They wounded him in the leg but he kept shooting, its described as one of the most accurate assaults with a .50 cal. It is a big, heavy weapon designed to spray across the killing zone but Murphy could, when needed, use it for pin point shooting. He took out an entire squad of Germans and held off three fronts of attack. He is personally credited as killing or wounding at least 50 enemy soldiers, single handely, in one fight. He held off the enemy long enough to regroup his men and take them down.



I'm not celebrating fighting or killing here. But when I read that story I don't know if I can understand it. This little, mild mannered guy, standing up on top of this busted tank, just calmly holding off several waves of enemy soldiers. At one point the Germans got within ten feet of him ... ten feet .. point blank for their Karabiner carbines. And they couldn't kill him. He just kept firing into them, directing his fire, picking them apart. It is a situation that moves beyond simple survival.



Another story I heard of Murphy's war experience was when he and some of his buddies were "leased" out to another company in France. The Americans had cleared out a section of farmland and were beginning to advance into the zone when Murphy comes up to the commanding officer (we'll say it was a captain but I'm not sure of the rank) and says something like "Excuse me sir, but shouldn't we clear them German fellas out of that field before we go down there?" The captain looks out across this open farm field and says "Soldier, are you nuts? What Germans?" Murphy just looks up at him and say "Well, them five or six right down there" The captain looks out. No enemy. Murphy just shrugs, unlimbers hi M-1 and begins to walk down the hill ....



Several yards into the field Murphy disappears. He just drops out of site. Pop, pop, pop. The M-1 goes off. Murphy pops again, hunched low, running fast, just his legs moving, the Garand held across his chest and he disappears again. Pop. Pop. Up comes Murphy. He slings the rifle and walks up to the captain. "That should do it sir" The field was riddled with gullies, not visible through the grass but it reminded Murphy of the arroyos of his home and the prey that would often shelter there ....



So I enjoy Murphy the actor and admire Murphy the soldier. Fair enough. You could say the same thing about Lee Marvin or Robert Mitchum, solid tough guy actors who saw real combat in WW II. These guys are two of my favorite actors and I certainly put them up on a higher acting "shelf" than Murphy, but I don't hold them to the same sentiment.

There is more backstory. The story that happens after the war, and during the movie making, the one that was never discussed in public during Murphy's lifetime. See, he wasn't just a hero he was the hero. He was a military recruiting office's wet dream; a simple country boy from a poor background who goes to fight for his country, performs some of the craziest acts of bravery ever committed, and lives the Hollywood dream. It was a dream that everyone wanted to perpetuate. The army, Hollywood, most of America's (and Canada's) citizens. Of course, the story was more fable than reality.

Murphy suffered from post traumatic syndrome for the rest of his life. I suppose back then they would have called it shell shock. He went through a couple of marriages. He gambled most of his life away. He had problems with violence, he beat a guy almost to death for kicking a dog .. though I can't really blame him for that. At the height of his success, with the big house and the fast cars he would often go to his buddy's sweaty boxing gym in Hollywood and sleep in the back, on a little cot. His first wife tells about how he slept with a pistol under his his pillow. And he often cried out the names of his dead comrades in his sleep. I marvelled at the young, country kid who could perform these crazy acts of bravery.

But how can we expect that kid to go through that, to see that carnage and watch his friends die, and not be affected by it. Well, that is how we wanted it, and we want it to this day. Several recent articles in the Toronto Star are examining what has happened to some of our Canadian soldiers who have returned from Afghanistan; the stress and emotional damage they are facing and how nobody really seems to give a fuck about it.

I suppose that is the thing that has elevated Murphy above the other cowboy actors I loved as a kid. This man was in fights I can never even conceive of and he managed to survive them. The fight he had afterwards, when everything was over, was probably his toughest because he was left to fight it on his own. Murphy did not self destruct. He was killed in a plane crash. He was beginning to get some more opportunities in Hollywood; Don Seigel liked him, as did director John Houston. But he strikes me as a lonely man. He had a family, children, but I have this image of him going into his friend's gym at night, a place he could have bought with his pocket change, curling up in the back on that little cot ...

Would he rather have been back on the plains of west Texas, moving alone across the land, searching for sustenance? Would he rather be back up on top of that tank destroyer, the big machine gun in his hands, calm in that moment, centered, not taking pleasure in the killing but understanding the necessity of it, simple and focused in that hour, simply doing what needed to be done ...

We all have our demons. I know people who fight monsters and darkness that would have me peeing my pants and they fight it everyday; sometimes they falter but most times they fight on. They hurt, they get scared, but they fight on. When they feel alone it is the worst and what we need to do, the best way to help them, is to just let them know that we are here, that we are with them.

So, I'm here Audie. After all these years, when so many people have forgotten, I'm here. The darkness and monsters are gone, for you, now. Its time to holster the guns.

INSPIRATION PART TWO

Do you wait for it? Or do you go out and make it happen? If you can do that, if you can make it happen, if you can call it up like a sorcerer summoning a djnn, is it actually inspiration at all?

Sometimes I feel the need to be inspired. I bump along through life, lucky enough to like what I do, lucky enough to do something with creative elements, but I feel myself wanting something more; something impractical and obtuse and ephemeral that serves no "purpose" whatsoever except perhaps to make you feel good. Something like art, I suppose. At those times I want to be inspired, I want to be moved, I want the spark that will get the juices flowing, the mental gears turning and the body moving ... don't be alarmed by the smell. I never said the gears moved smoothly.

There are times when I have no need to search for inspiration. It just falls down into my lap, or plops down onto my head, which gives it something in common with bird poop and perhaps explains whey I sometimes produce "art" that is similar to bird poop too. When I was a kid, I was inspired to write fiction by the sources around me; movies, comic books, short stories, song lyrics. And, indeed, what I produced was often fairly faithful emulations of those original sources. You call it derivative, I called it .. inspiration. The stories themselves were clearly pastiches of the originals but the question still comes: What inspired me to emulate that art in the first place? I never asked that question because I was too busy developing writer's cramp (yes, Virginia, there was an age before keyboards when you actually had to use a pen to write and when you did it as much as I .. it hurt.)

Inspiration comes sneaking or barrelling at us from different sources. Collette was inspired to take on her upcoming two day walk to end breast cancer (personally, I think a nice stroll and a drive around the block is sufficient but that's just me) by some of our family members who have gone through that rabbit hole and come out the other side. That, in turn, fills me with inspiration but I an uncertain how to channel it: Should I write a story? A poem? Make a video? Well, I am certainly shooting the event for posterity but am I going to make a simple "documentary" style video or something more subjective, something emotional ... something "inspirational"

Should you go out searching for inspiration or should it always just come to you, a creative response to some external source: A movie, a song, the experience of another? This speculation comes out of a vision of inspiration as something ethereal, deeply hidden inside of us; yes, perhaps something even spiritual. We are talking epiphany here, the bolt out of the blue, like Vic is bumping up Highway 400 in the Saturn and ka-boom: I'm suddenly seeing a family in an old Rambler station wagon moving up this highway except the road is deserted, the countryside is devastated, the father is hunched over the steering wheel, face sweaty, eyes flicking across the horizon and mom is in the back, her sick daughter at her side, an old M-40 in her hands ... And the vision is quickly dismissed because who needs another world-wiped-out scenario? But still, the image came unbidden, boom, out of the blue.

That's the way it usually works for me; the inspiration flooding in unbidden, regardless of the original source. So now I find myself searching for inspiration, somehow trying to manufacture it. I have this idea of grabbing my Samsung palmcorder, the one that fits in my pocket, grabbing one tape, one battery, taking the Metropass, jumping on Toronto transit and just seeing what the day and my city holds for me, basically going on a hunt for inspiration (be vewy vewy quiet, we're hunting muses .. hahahahaha). Is this somehow less legitimate than the bolt from the blue? Is there more creative cache if the inspiration finds you, or is it the same if you find it?

I'm not really questioning the creative process, I guess I'm examining what gets you there in the first place: First the inspiration, then the creation. Does it matter what leads you to the creation? Or is it the creation itself that is important? Works of art should stand on their own, I should be able to view a painting, read a book, hear a song and just take it as it is, as that singular work of art. But let's face it, some art is made more compelling by the story behind it, the inspiration that leads to it.

I am an Audie Murphy fan. Go ahead, Google him, I'm in no hurry. He was never a great actor, he made very few really good movies, but he churned out the kind of simple, straight ahead Western films I devoured as a kid and I can still watch those movies, and watch him, just for the simple pleasure of it: Audie did not make big, eloquent western sagas like John Ford or George Stevens, he made little, drive-in targeted cowboy movies. Audie was also the most decorated American solder in World War 2. This guy performed feats of individual combat that has rarely been matched. A poor, pretty much illiterate kid who grew up hunting for sustenance on the plains of West Texas. In one of his movies, (it may be Bullet for a Badman but you could pick several) Audie is in the showdown with the bad guy and does what every cowboy actor did at the time; he "fanned" his single action Colt, brushing the flat of his hand across the trigger in succession, allowing him to blast off shots quickly. Its a bullshit move. Even if the pistol did not misfire from such abuse you would not hit a damn thing. Yet, of course, in his movie, Audie mows down his enemies, all standard stuff. Yet: When Audie, a combat vet and expert with firearms, was first shown this "gag" by a stunt coordinator, he told the guy "It just won't work that way" The stuntman rolled his eyes at this naive kid (Audie was still in his twenties when he started making movies even after two or three years fighting in Europe) and told him it didn't matter, the bullets were blank and the bad guys would be levelled by squibs. Audie wasn't happy. Set his jaw and disappeared. The next day Audio shows up on set. The prop guy goes to find the pistol and its missing, Audie says "Its OK, I took the thing home" and takes the stunt and prop men to the back lot, loads the Colt up with live rounds and precedes to fan the Colt just like in the movie ... except he hits everything he aims at. He had spent the night modifying the weapon and practising until he actually could fan a single action pistol with efficiency. When you watch that scene it works in a very generic, predictable sense. But know the story behind it, knowing that Audie brought some spark of inspiration to the scene, it blows my mind: Damn, that skinny little dude could just mow you down.

So inspiration matters. It infuses the art, it is what the art is all about. But is the inspiration any more or less relevant depending on its source? I really don't know the answer to that. I just know I'm happy when that creative grease is slick on the wheels and perhaps I should not question it all.

If inspiration is a mystery, then Gaina at The Mouth on Wheels has summed up the entire process far more eloquently than I. Happy hunting to all.