My first novel, Nine Mile Bridge, just came back from the editor and man am I seeing red! Not the angry kind of red but the “Holy cow did I write a bunch of crap?” kind of red. Haha. It’s all good though. I’m happy to go over the notes and learn more and I do still hope to have it out before the end of the year.
As much as I can’t wait for that to happen, I’ve had a blast writing my next novel. I mentioned in a previous post that this next novel is book one in a planned series. It begins in the late 80’s, my high school days, and will be rich in the pop culture that made those years so much fun. With that in mind, a year ago I made a post about some of my guilty favorite movies. These were movies that were perhaps less than stellar, but I adored as a kid and still have a soft spot for today. Originally I’d planned to have this as a recurring post, listing new movies from time to time as there are plenty of bad movies that I enjoy. I’ve also realized over time how these have informed my writing and what I consider to be heroic.
So let’s dive into another set of movies that give you a glimpse at what I’m thinking while writing, Bandit Rising. (I’m really diggin this title!)
Red Dawn: 
In this classic 80’s action flick, a group of teens must band together for survival in the mountains when the Russians stage a sneak attack on America. In time they become an elite guerrilla strike force set on defending their homeland. It stars Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, Lea Thompson, C. Thomas Howell, along with iconic actors Powers Boothe, Ben Johnson, and Harry Dean Stanton in smaller but still important roles.
Now I know what you’re thinking, but Jason isn’t this a classic? Heck ya, it is! At least in my world, it is. I know for some it is looked down upon as a silly movie, perhaps even bad, but for my friends and I growing up, Red Dawn was what we imagined we’d be capable of should such an occasion arise. If it’s on TV at any point in the movie, I’m watching it. The premise also heavily influences Bandit Rising in that our hero must also rise up after an invasion, the main difference being that in Bandit Rising, it’s an alien invasion instead of a foreign country. You can find the trailer for Red Dawn here.
Seeing as the first movie was technically not bad, I’ll list my second technically not a bad movie which is: Highlander. Cue the epic Queen soundtrack. Here we have Christopher Lambert in his “I’m still learning to speak English” days, Sean Connery in one of his iconic post-James Bond roles, and the devilishly fun Clancy Brown way, way before he began voicing Mr. Krabs in Spongebob Squarepants Seriously, you could quote his one-liners from this for weeks to come.
This was the original Highlander movie from 1986, the one that started it all. I was about a man, Connor Macleod (Lambert), who discovers he’s part of a race of immortal warriors who are destined to battle one another until only one remains to claim “the prize,” thus the tagline, “There can be only one!” One half of the movie is a highly entertaining flashback to Macleod’s origin story, where he learns of his birthright and
is trained by another immortal, Ramirez (Connery). The other half is set in the 1980’s when the last of the immortals have gathered for their final battle in New York. So if they’re supposed to fight, why would Ramirez train him you ask? Well, there’s a two-part answer to that. One is that Ramirez isn’t interested in a slaughter, lucky for Macleod. Two is that Ramirez wants to prepare Macleod for if he should face Kurgan (Brown) who is an evil, bloodthirsty immortal who wants nothing more than power and will do anything to gain it. If Kurgan should win the “prize”, then all of humanity shall suffer.
Personally, I don’t find this to be a bad movie at all. Is it cheesy? Yes. But it has its tender moments, particularly when discussing love as an immortal. Overall, it is a really fun movie and the soundtrack is amazing. Connery seems to have had a good time making this movie and Brown really cements himself as a career bad guy in his role as Kurgan. If only they’d stuck to the tagline before making the sequels! You can find the movie trailer here.
So, a little inside information about this post. I’ve been writing it off-and-on the past few weeks as, just like my Nanowrimo, trying to write when you’ve thrown out your back SUCKS! And I’ve done it twice in that time. Thank goodness for the Scrivener app which helps me get at least some words in on a semi-regular basis while it mends. Getting older stinks too.
Until next time!
Jason A. Meuschke 