Losers Get Forgotten…Most of the Time

Tom Petty sang that even the losers get lucky sometimes, but still no one likes losers. But what about Rocky? Funny how only one of his movies ends with him losing, the other one has him lose but is about him getting revenge for the loss. The Olympics has a medal for second place and third place, which just reminds me of Archer telling one of his coworkers that he just got a medal for losing. We have participation ribbons for the kids just to make them feel better about not climbing the mountaintop.

After Trump lost, I didn’t see too many people waving flags of his anymore around the city. Save for some guy with a giant truck that was probably compensating for a lot of things. I have a Bernie bumper sticker that I thankfully never put on my car. I mean who wants to be reminded of a soul crushing defeat? I love the Chiefs but I’ll remember the Super Bowl victories over the losses, although I recall the losses, too, well the ones I was alive for, anyways.

History celebrates the winners, a cruel reminder, although plenty of Hollywood material still celebrates the losers, sometimes, anyways. Would Avengers: Endgame work as well if Avengers: Infinity War had not been so brutal? Probably not, and sometimes having the heroes lose is more interesting than seeing them win. Besides, Petty’s song was about even the losers winning, even if it was just once.

I finally watched my copy of the movie Walker last year, where Alex Cox used a man who foolishly invaded a Latin American country in the 1850s for a strong metaphor about Manifest Destiny and the Reagan Administration’s endless meddling in the region during the 1980s. What’s interesting is that William Walker obviously lost (spoiler, oh wait it’s an old movie at this point based on historical events you can look up online), yet thanks to the movie and the history books we actually recall a huge loser from history and use him as a cautionary tale against hubris and overextending one’s self. Not a bad message, actually.

Horrorfest 2018 Presents: Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994, Don Coscarelli)

After the first two radical entries in the series, I was ready to watch Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (what a cool title, too) and see more of what Don Coscarelli had to offer. Unfortunately this movie is a bit too uneven at times to match the others, and while I liked the new batch of characters sent to aid the timeless hero Reggie (Reggie Bannister, multi barrel shotgun and guitar in hand) parts of this flick are too just too weird even for me. Also the movie needed more Tall Man, not less-the trio of undead travelers that go after Reggie, his new buddies Tim and Rocky, are not really menacing or creepy. I feel that the second movie had the right balance of action sequences and freaky moments, something that for some reason or another Coscarelli failed to match at times. This is a reminder that often third installments feel too “Been there, done that, seen it,” a factor working against them.

On the other hand Rocky (Gloria Lynne Henry) is a great addition to the series, as Tim (Kevin Connors), who manages to be that rare child actor in a low budget horror movie who is not annoying. Jordy as a sphere is at times more amusing than strange, and he acts as a sort of super weapon as Reggie and Mike seek a way to end the nightmare. I think this series does not get enough credit at times for being a pure apocalyptic take on the American Southwest. And as a reminder that even when chasing a sinister alien man through deserted cities there is always time for some quality guitar playing.