Boom!

February 18, 2009 6:52 PM

Tennessee Williams said it was the best film version of any of his plays. Roger Ebert called it "awkward and hopeless on its most fundamental level". John Waters calls it a major influence on the development of his taste.

John Barry's soundtrack has been reissued.

posted by Joe Beese (14 comments total)

John Barry is the shit, man! If Isaac Hayes met John Barry, Isaac Hayes would have a bullet in his ass.
posted by Artw at 7:21 PM on February 18, 2009

I watched that entire clip and I didn't hear a word from Uncle John! Cool discourse though. I bonerously wish that I were a poet/gigolo/sword wearer. Well, 1 out of 3 is 33.1/3%!
posted by christhelongtimelurker at 7:28 PM on February 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

I watched that entire clip and I didn't hear a word from Uncle John! Cool discourse though. I bonerously wish that I were a poet/gigolo/sword wearer. Well, 1 out of 3 is 33.1/3%!

How is the gigolo business these days?
posted by govtdrone at 7:36 PM on February 18, 2009

Produced by John Heyman, father of David Heyman, the perspicacious young entrepreneur who optioned the first Harry Potter book before it became a publishing sensation. And John's wife (ex-wife, I guess) Nora is a theater and film producer as well.
Just some random facts with no links.
posted by emhutchinson at 7:40 PM on February 18, 2009

Sorry, that's Norma.
posted by emhutchinson at 7:41 PM on February 18, 2009

Well, that's the first film I've wanted to see from a clip for a long while.
posted by unSane at 8:04 PM on February 18, 2009

How is the gigolo business these days?

after seeing "33.1/3%", I'm guessing poet.
posted by GeekAnimator at 8:10 PM on February 18, 2009 [2 favorites]

IFC played a widescreen version of this sometime ago and a friend sent me a copy. It's an odd piece, not fully commited to camp like the classic Liz and Dick turkeys but an interesting transition from prestige efforts like [i]Taming of the Shrew[/i] to absolute garbage like [i]Hammersmith is Out![/i]. Before they commited themselves to right wing crankery The Medveds wrote a chapter on Boom! in their essential [i]Hollywood Hall of Shame[/i]. Seen in widescreen it's a goregeous film and highlights how even then Elizabeth Taylor was still too beautiful to play an eldery, dying matron and Richard Burton was already being eaten from the inside out by alchool and in no way a young, wise beyond his years gigolo.
posted by Ruby Stevens at 8:41 PM on February 18, 2009

Thank you so much for this-- the soundtrack is fantastic. I remember when I was a kid just how hugely famous Taylor and Burton were-- much more so, in some ways, that Jolie and Pitt today. Everybody knew their story, everybody talked about Elizabeth Taylor; she was an ubiquitous cultural icon. I'd never heard of Boom before, so this was a welcome bit of history for me.
posted by jokeefe at 8:55 PM on February 18, 2009

Gold! That clip was gold!

(though the aspect ratio problem makes my eyes bleed)

But still, gold! One thinks one has seen it all now that we seemingly have access to all information via our version of the Zardoz holocube - but then comes Boom!
posted by jettloe at 9:23 PM on February 18, 2009

John Barry is the shit, man!

Yes, Artw! To have written the incredible scores he did for Somewhere in Time, Dances With Wolves, Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa, Chaplin, Body Heat, The Deep, Born Free, The Cotton Club, the James Bond theme and dozens more, is just about as good as it gets.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 10:21 PM on February 18, 2009

John Barry is the shit, man! If Isaac Hayes met John Barry, Isaac Hayes would have a bullet in his ass
Artw, I'm excited to point out, is paraphrasing a couple bits of ambient speech (recorded with a Dictaphone, apparently?) found in David Holmes' version of the 007 theme ("Radio 7") on Let's Get Killed, released '97. Mr Holmes does some damn nice soundtrack work himself.
posted by $0up at 2:39 AM on February 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

I bonerously wish

Gosh. I wish I'd have said that. . .
posted by Danf at 7:59 AM on February 19, 2009

Ok, I'm sold... but Netflix doesn't have a copy!?
posted by Squid Voltaire at 11:03 AM on February 19, 2009