Former monthly contribution by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz to the TCM newsletter Now Playing in November, 2019.
It will be challenging for me not to be hyperbolic about November's lineup on TCM. But it's perhaps the most exciting month of programming we've had in my 16 years at the channel. So much for avoiding hyperbole.
Saturday, November 2nd, features the first TCM appearance for a singer/songwriter from New Jersey named Bruce Springsteen. Now you can add filmmaker to his resume. Western Stars, co-directed with Thom Zimny, is their hybrid documentary/concert film now in theaters, and Bruce invited us to the studio housed on his farm in Jersey to discuss the movies that helped frame his music.
Over the course of roughly an hour, Bruce demonstrated the breadth of his classic film vocabulary. We talked in detail about Preston Sturges, Charles Laughton, Elia Kazan, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, John Wayne and, of course, John Ford. More than any other director from Hollywood's Golden Age, Ford has influenced Bruce's songwriting.
In Western Stars, a film featuring performances of the 13 tracks on the eponymous album, Bruce spends much of the time in between songs musing about the natural stress of an individual's desire for freedom and need to explore, set against the innate pull to be part of a community, to connect with others, to form a family. That conflict is at the heart of many of John Ford's best movies–and nowhere is it more evident than in The Searchers, one of the two movies Bruce will introduce with me late Saturday afternoon (the other is Kazan's A Face in the Crowd).
For Bruce, John Wayne's character represents the nature of that struggle. At his core, he's a loner, with only his brother's family connecting him to something greater than himself. Then a tragedy forces him out of his comfort zone–and ultimately toward a reconstituted family.
In Western Stars, the title track is the story of a fading Western actor who sounds as if he could've easily been part of John Ford's stock company. In the first verse, Bruce lets us know how far this character has fallen–he's now shooting a Viagra commercial. "On the set, the makeup girl brings me two raw eggs and a shot of gin," he says. "Then I give it all up for that little blue pill that promises to bring it all back to you again."
Later the connection to Hollywood Westerns is made crystal clear. "Once I was shot by John Wayne," the character says. "Yeah, it was toward the end. That one scene has bought me a thousand drinks. Set me up and I'll tell it for you, friend."
No artist has had a bigger impact on my life than Bruce Springsteen. For 40 years, through adolescence and into my professional career and fatherhood, his music has spoken to me, soothed me, inspired me. That's why I've been to more than 40 Bruce concerts since he put the E Street Band back together in 1999. So, it's an understatement to say that being able to talk movies with Bruce felt like a seminal moment in my work life. And, given that Bruce has described his music as a series of movies delivered in four minutes or less, it's no wonder that he consistently moved our conversation forward with a degree of thoughtfulness about classic movies that even some filmmakers lack.
But Bruce is hardly November's sole highlight. On the 14th, one of the finest actors of his generation, Sterling K. Brown, joins me as a guest programmer. Brown, an Emmy winner for “This Is Us” and “The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” was as measured and thoughtful as Bruce as he broke down his emotional connection to three pictures: To Kill a Mockingbird, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Cool Hand Luke.
Ed Norton will appear on the air as well for a night of "L.A. Noir" in support of his new film, Motherless Brooklyn. Norton will sit down with Alicia Malone to present The Big Sleep and Chinatown. And Fridays in November belong to Dennis Miller and his comedy friends. Dennis, a huge TCM supporter, spends each Friday night with a different co-host: Martin Short, Rita Wilson, Dana Carvey and Jay Leno. Their picks range from The Lady Eve to Soylent Green; from Marty to Tootsie; from Now, Voyager to A Hard Day's Night.
Finally, our on-air guests in November aren't confined to performers who appear in front of the camera or up on the stage. We'll celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American Society of Cinematographers every Wednesday night with one of the best directors of photography working today, Robert Yeoman, a regular collaborator with two top directors, Wes Anderson and Paul Feig. Robert and I will cover eight decades of the ASC, featuring a selection of movies from the most creative cinematographers in the history of the business, including Gregg Toland (The Grapes of Wrath and Citizen Kane), Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes), Gilbert Taylor (Dr. Strangelove), Vilmos Zsigmond (McCabe and Mrs. Miller), Robert Surtees (The Last Picture Show) and Gordon Willis (Klute).
So, I don't know, maybe this is the month for excessive hyperbole–a November where we can relax and play some pool, skip some school, act real cool, stay out all night, it's gonna feel alright.
