One More For the Gipper
Station manager Ken invited me to contribute to this Blog and I can't think of a better opening salvo than sharing this video of John Cassavetes punching Ronald Reagan in the face.
How did this happen? In 1964 Ronald Reagan, Lee Marvin, Angie Dickenson, and John Cassavetes stared in the Don Siegel film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Killers" According to the Criterion site it was a serious casting coup not lost on anyone: "Ronald Reagan, in his final screen appearance and his first-ever role
as a bad guy... turns out to be the most believable of heavies:
there’s nothing flamboyant or demonic about him, just a drab,
businesslike demeanor and an absolute coldness in the gaze"
The scene seems simple: Reagan's Jack Browning wants Cassavetes' Johnny North to keep his mind on driving for the heist and not on his girl (Dickenson's Sheila Farr) Browning slaps Farr and North punches Browning.
But none of those fake names matter anymore - In a strange way this clip ends up capturing an epic showdown between the forces of creativity and artistic expression and the forces of evil - and for a brief second the bad guy ends up with his face bloodied!
Download or Stream it from YouTube, and here is a link to a YouTube trailer for the Killers and Criterion link
The Reagan/Cassavetes punch is weak compared to Reagan bitch-slapping Angie Dickenson.
Posted by: Todd W. | June 30, 2006 at 09:25 AM