In an Apatow World...

"An optimistic anthem for the normal schlub"

On the date of May 6, 2009, a New york City based comedy website by the name of CollegeHumor (http://www.collegehumor.com) released a video titled "In an Apatow World." Being rather familiar with producer Judd Apatow's work, I considered this video to be one of CollegeHumor's most orginal & most creative works to date! In this video, a duet of a overwheight guy (the fabeled "normal shlub") and a cute girl sing about the unique male-female relationship that is can be seen in almost all Judd Apatow movies to date.

I am full certain that certain people in this class (Nick and Shiran) who are avid fans of Judd Apatow will enjoy this video much more than others. In fact, I clearly remember Shiran saying something along the lines of Judd Apatow being her "favorite movie director of all time."

Here is a direct quote from Shiran Lugashi's own blog post titled as Unpopular Opinions:
"I tend to dislike the old cliche that all comedians come from terrible upbringings, and I find that it's just as often false as true, but I do know that Mr. Apatow had a sad, mundane little childhood. He's talked in articles about how he had very few friends, was the stereotypical nerd, and always looked to comedy as a way to escape, so much that it became an obsession for him. So it does really warm my heart to see that he's managed to do the same for so many people.

His movies really do all seem to be dedicated to the modern day Apatows (if that makes sense to anyone but me). Here's an example I find very apt: In the Knocked Up commentary, he talks about a blind date he went on once. He thought it was going really well until his date told him she had to go back home because her friend's dad had gotten really sick and she needed to check in on him. So, he proceeded to call her every fifteen minutes or so asking how everything was, until finally his date's roommate picked up the phone and said "She doesn't want to talk to you!" and hung up. At this point in the commentary Judd jokingly asks "How do you bounce back from that?" to which Seth Rogen answers "You make a bunch of movies about nerds winning. That's what you do."

Although I myself may not be as fanatical as Shiran when it comes to Judd Apatow, I can say that I do enjoy his work quite often & would recommend it to many of you - not to mention the fact that the majority of his films are geared towards an adolescent audience ;-)

Here are the lyrics to this brilliant song:


(Guy)
Take a look over here, won't you take a look at me
I'm nothing special, nothing much to see
I got a weird scruffy beard and a big beer gut
I smoke herb all day, I'm a loser but

There's a place I know where I can land
Any woman with a sweep of my chubby hand
A magic place where girls aren't guarded
All you need to be is socially retarded

In an Apatow world
You could be my girl
I'll be Seth Rogen
you'll be Kate Heigel

You're not out of my league
Stoner is the new stud
Cause a loser is a winner
In this world of Judd

Now my job's unique and it seems bizarre
Ugly guys aren't anchors or rock stars
My friends are lame but important to me
In fact the same guys are in all of these movies

But despite all that I catch your eyes
and you're charmed by my wit to my surprise
Somehow you love it when I talk to you shyly
Even though I look like John C Reilly

In an Apatow world
You would be my girl
You'll be Mila Kunis
I'm Jay Siegel

We will have a big fight
But no bad blood
Cuz it all ends happily
In this world of Judd


(Girl)
I think you got it twisted dude, I'm kind of mystified
That these unrealistic movies have blinded both your eyes
To the cold reality of basic sexual attraction
Jonah Hill only lands Emma Stone after 'action'

At the end of the day you're a gross man-boy slob
And you've played your PS3 longer than you've held a job
So I won't be your Applegate, your Fischer nor your Keener
You should take that hairy Ferrell ass to the cleaners

But in an Apatow world
Yeah, I'd be your girl
I'd run my perfect fingers
Through that Jew-fro curl

And the losers in the crowd
Now know they have a chance
Nevermind being awkward
All you need is romance

But before we conclude
Lemme have the last word
You would never touch this
In the actual world

Sabaton - The Price of a Mile

While browsing one of my favorite sites in the world (Youtube) in order to listen to some of my favorite music in the world (Northern European Metal), ironically enough, I came across a video that was quite applicable for my film class blog! ;-)

In this video, a montage of various clips from the 1979 version of All Quiet on the Western Front is accompanied with an epic, symphonic masterpiece by Swedish Power Metal band Sabaton. In my opinion, the song used to accompany the video fits the greater message of the film perfectly. (The song itself is about European trench warefare on the the Western Front during WWI)

The Lyrics:

Hear the sound of a machinegun
Hear it echo in the night
Mortals firing rains the scene
Scars the fields
that once were green

It's a stalemate at the frontline
where the soldiers rest in mud
roads and houses
all is gone
there is no glory to be won

know that many men will suffer
know that many men will die
half a million lives at stake
Ask the fields of Passchendaele

And as the night falls the general calls
and the battle carries on and on
How long?
What is the purpose of it all
What's the price of a mile?

Thousands of feet march to the beat
It's an army on the march
Long way from home
Paying the price in young men's lives
Thousands of feet march to the beat
It's an army in despair
Knee-deep in mud
Stuck in the trench with no way out

Thousands of machineguns
Kept on firing through the night
Mortars blazed and wrecked the scene
Guns in the fields that once were green

Still a deadlock at the frontline
Where the soldiers die in mud
roads and houses since long gone
still no glory has been won
know that many men has suffered
know that many men has died

Six miles of ground has been won
Half a million men are gone
And as the men crawled the general called
And the killing carried on and on
How long?
What's the purpose of it all?
What's the price of a mile?

Thousands of feet march to the beat
It's an army on the march
Long way from home
Paying the price in young men's lives
Thousands of feet march to the beat
It's an army in despair
Knee-deep in mud
Stuck in the trench with no way out

Young men are dying
They pay the price
Oh how they suffer
So tell me what's the price of a mile

That's the price of a mile.

Thousands of feet march to the beat
It's an army on the march
Long way from home
Paying the price in young men's lives
Thousands of feet march to the beat
It's an army in despair
Knee-deep in mud
Stuck in the trench with no way out

In regards to the movie itself -
Surpringly enough, I wasn't even aware of a newer version of the movie before laying my eyes upon this video. Surely enough, my insatiable curiosity caused me to research it over the internet...

The newer version of All Quiet on the Western Front was produced in full color by ITC Entertainment and released on the date of November 14, 1979. The developed under the thoughtful eye of American director Delbert Mann. Whern first released, most professional movie critics were of the opinion that the newer version failed to reach the magnitude of greatness established by Lewis Milestone's original 1930 version. Still, despite the vast disappointment of the critics, the newer film managed to win both a Golden Glode Award in the category of "Best Motion Picture Made for TV" and an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Film Editing for a Limited Series or a Special." After reading this, all that a reasonable person can say is, "Congrats Delbert Mann! =D"

Ironically enough, this one of the first Western movies to be filmed in a Communist block nation during the height of the Cold War (the majority of the movie was filmed in Republic of Czechoslovakia). This fact might show that the film's producers deeply understood the meaning that Erich Maria Remarque was trying to get across when first writing his novel. By seeing the utter uselessness of war, citizens from both the West and the East were able to momentarily set aside their ideological differences in order to make a beautiful work of art portraying the common humanity that we have in all of us, irregardless of where we stand on the political spectrum.

Correct me if I'm wrong Bennett, but I don't think that you ever mentioned to us that there was a newer version of the film. I'm pretty certain that you believe the original version to be a greater work of cinematography when compared to it's newer offspring, but why not show the two different versions of the film side by side? Not to mention the fact that the difference between a black-and-white film compared with a full-color version of the same movie would provide the basis for an intense discussion on the pros and cons of each... But I'm getting ahead of myself here, who am I to tell the teacher how to teach?

Back to the video,
The first few seconds (before the song rolls in) of the montage open with an enigmatic quote from an unknown author. A soothing female voice utters the words of, "Throw your soldiers into position once there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight." To me, this quotation epitomizes what the the imperialistic rulers/warlords of the early 20th century believed to be true. The soldiers and infantrymen under were not even considered to be "men" at all, they were merely tools to be used in order to accomplish the whatever short-sighted objectives their leaders deemed necessary in order to garner a greater glory for their respective empires.

***Update***
A couple of days ago, Bennett off-handidly brought up a certain brilliant point that managed to slightly change the overall analysis I had of the film. He said something along the lines of,
"Inherently, all anti-war films eventually become pro-war films. These anti-war films raise the death & destruction to such a high degree of relevance, that we are left with no other option but to look at war with a great amount of reverence. Even the characters who are there to convince us how horrible of a thing it truly is, are just looked upon as great heroes to be honored for surviving such a treacherous & deadly journey."

Bennett's analysis brought me to a somewhat different interpretation of the movie that I had watched quite a while ago... I can clearly remember wincing when the main character returned to the classroom that he had left years ago in order to discourage a bunch of youthful, battle-ready German patriots from fulfilling their dream & duty of defending the Fatherland from all of its enemies. I even can remember thinking to myself, "What the hell do you think you're doing idiot? Do you honestly think your little speech can change the minds of all of these youngsters who are dying to die for their country? The mere fact that you are standing before them in relatively good health will give them hope that fighting a war and coming back as strong as ever is not as far out of reach as may seem. (Not to mention the many medals and accoclades that will be given to you by your superiors as an after-effect of your noble deeds on the far-off battlefront.) You my friend are a hero, it is time to act like one." My unorthodox reaction to this scene made my reminisce about a certain scene in Fargo which stirred up similar emotions in its audience. Specifically, the scene in where the female police officer is trying to instill some sense & morality into one of the most brutal serial killers I have seen on the big screen. Many in the audience thought this scene to be utterly rediculous & laughable - similar to my thoughts about the scene where a decorated, battle-hardened veteran comes back to tell the eager youth there is nothing glorious about war.

The video ends with a quote summarizing the "moral of the story",
"This story is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war." - Erich Maria Remarque
In my opinion, this eloquent quote get across the author's message better than any anti-war film ever could...

P.S. The band Sabaton is a talented Scandinavian metal band who single-handidly pioneered the entire genre of "history metal." Every single one of their songs deals with some kind of historical battle or war. (And yes, the name of their band is a direct reference to the armor that Knights wore during the medieval ages.)Although they sing in English (a language which obviously isn't their native tongue), they sing their songs with no significant accent. Bennett, although you may necessarily not be a fan of metal music, I am sure you will be able to appreciate their creativity in writing epic songs based on their love for history. I already know that Nick is quite receptive to this kind of music. Hopefully, Sabaton will gain a couple of new fans after this blog is published...... ;-)
Here is a Wikipedia page about them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabaton_(band)

Come to think of it... Although the lyrics of this song are about the all of the depressing horrors that one can find when face-to-face with war itself, the song is sung in such a way that makes the war sound like a wonderful adventure that one would only be so lucky as to embark on...

The reason I couldn't take "Bad Neil Baxter" seriously...

I remember quite clearly when "Bad Neil Baxter" was shown on screen for the first time. But, How could I forget that moment? (Since it was at that exact very instant, I practically burst out laughing). The reason for such an unusual reactionwas the fact that I had already held a preconcieved notion about the face who played him... Having seen the actor in a previous comedic movie had implanted an image of what the performer himself could do. But, no matter how hard I tired, I could not remove this pre-concieved notion from my head.

To be specific, the actor who plays "Bad Neil Baxter" also satrred as one of the main roles in a 90s comedy by the name of Office Space. Although not a mega-hit the first weeks of its release (in fact, it waas barely able to recoup its production costs!), the movie became a cult classic within the years that followed. The actor in question, Gary Michael Cole, plays Bill Lumbergh, the main antagonist in the movie. He is the ultimate charicature of the sort of "everyboss" - the kind of jerk that hard-working Americans have the pleasure of dealing with every single day they wake up and go to work in their little cubicles.

In the context of the movie, Bill Lumbergh is the Vice-Presisdent of the software company Initech (the company that they all work for). Essentially, Lumbergh is the ultimate manifestation of the impersonal and oppressive corporate business practices of today. The deeper philosophical meaning of what the character represent is eloquently sumed up in a GQ Men Style.com's review of the movie. The editors are quoted as saying, "The guy who stops by your desk and says, "Mmm, yeah, I'm going to have to go ahead and ask you to come in on Sunday," is now an integral part of the soul-crushing corporte culture Lumbergh was created to satirize in the first place."

But surely, a Corporate-America office bully cannot possibly strike the same amount of fear into the hearts of men that a malicious serial killer should....

Here is short a video capturing the essence of the character known as Bill Lumbergh with a short mashup of a few of his wildly-popular saying & catchphrases ;-)

But sadly enough, I'm afraid that to me & a vast majority of people who've ever seen Office Space (there's quite a lot of them), Gary Cole will forever be the guy who played Bill Lumbergh in Office Space...

A Simple Plan - Love the Movie, Hate the Character

After watching the first half hour or so of the film A Simple Plan, I became quite intrigued with it. Although the plot of the movie is not the most original thing I have ever seen, the events unfold in such a way that instantly grips the viewer's imagination and only engulfs him into the story further. Not only does the pace of the film move very well, without not a dull moment in sight... But the camera-work is simply amazing! Just like in The Seventh Seal, I am sure (and hopefully many of you would agree), that if we were to still-frame a couple of the shots, several of the pictures would have a great aesthetic & symbolic quality that they could easily be made into works of art by themselves!

But alas, there are few things in this world of ours that can be considered flawless... There is one character that I have grown to absolutely despise within the short half hour that I had the pleasure of meeting him -----> and that character is non other than the movie's main protagonist, Hank! The more time I spend learning more about him through his thoughts and actions, the more resentment I feel when seeing this individual onscreen. Although this is utter garbage, surprisingly enough, he is rolled up in a non-threatening visually-appealing exterior. To me, he is the ultimate manifestation of everything I hate in this world ----> a false sense of morality, a holier-than-thou attitude, an upper-class pretentious attitude, uncontrollable paranioa, cowardice and overall deceptiveness to his close friends and fellow man. He exhudes each of these negative traits light as day through his actions.

The first event that made me start disliking Hank was the fact the he was so adamant about "returning the money" (as if he has any clue where it actually came from and who it truly belongs to). It took the combined forces of his brother & their close friend to convince him that returning the money to the "proper authorities" was an absolutely stupid idea. (If you want to know my full opinion on the subject matter, you may refer to the previous blog entry). What made me hate this guy ever more was the fact that he had the audacity to present his brother and their friend with his stipulations regarding the future of the money. Hank's condition for agreeing to keep the money is that he be the one to keep the money at his house & that no one spend any of it until the winter season comes along - a time when everyone will be able to move away and diwy up the cash. The audacity and sheer arrogance he displays by demanding they agree to these conditions is beyond my understanding. Hank expects them to move away from home and start the new life who-knows-where solely as a result of his own paranoid thoughts. Who the hell is he to tell them that the only way they will ever be able to see the money is though his own discretion - that is, is they agree to listen to his orders, and leave everything they previously thought was their's.
Next, he is a cold-blooded killer! He finishes the job that his dim-witted, yet good-natured brother mistakenly started as a result of his own clumsiness. For a guy who tries to present himself as being the voice of morality & reason by telling them that the money is not their's for the taking, he sure acts rather moral when smothering the poor sheriff to death. Dor God's sake, hedoesn't even kill the sheriff like a man! Call me a savage or a barbarian if you want, but I truly believe that if you actually plan on killing someone, you should give him the proper respect by looking into his eyes during the last moments of his life. Hank on the other hand, does the most cowardly thing possible in these regards - he looks away by averting his eyes. This tells me that he wasn't even sure that he was doing the right thing! Choosing between life and death is not a matter on can second-guess himself in, it either lets us stay in this wonderful world of ours or drags us deep into the dark, dreary abyss. He killed a man when not even being sure about it! So much for that holier-than-thou attitude Hank...
There was one other event in which Hank's colors shined right through, effectively showing us how much of a piece of human scum he really is. Before entering each of their respective homes, Hank tells Lou (the portly redneck gentleman) that if he were to even think about telling his wife about the money, there would be hell to pay. Sure enough, within the first five minutes of entering his house, he shows his wife every single dollar that they found that day. In all honest, I was about to jump out of my seat when witnessing this display of unabashed deceptiveness and treason.

Although I am quite sure that the Scott Smith (author of the book and screenplay) wished for us to be simpathetic to the character, being witnessing to the harsh transformation that he undergoes as a result of the "curse" of this unimaginble fortune, I have just outlined the numerous reasons why Hank is a piece of human scum. We must NOT show or feel any kind of remorse when anything catastophic happens to him in the near future.

Would I have taken the money?

HELL YES! ----> Without even giving it a second thought

Looking over the comments placed below Danny White's newset blog post put a vast plethora of many thoughts and opinions into my mind. At first I was just gonna address Cassidy's and Bennett's coments, but once I saw that my response was over an entire page in length, I decided to dedicate an entire new post on the subject at hand...

Over the years, I believe that the American populace has been brainwashed by the Government-Media complex into thinking that finding money and keeping it somehow equates to you actually stealing the money. In all of these movies, the audience has been duped into believing that there is some kind of legitimacy to the false sense of "honor" placed upon individuals returning the riches... Hell, half the time they even say that these people shouldn't even be rewarded since they were only "doing the right thing" (which is always expected of our law-abiding citizens). But I say this, these are all LIES, LIES, LIES pushed into our heads and shoved down our throats in order to keep us in line like the docile little sheep they want us to be.

Why is it that the person who would return all of the money considered a “perfect” human being in our modern society? To me, his is far from perfect. In fact, he is a God-damn fool! Only the most submissive human beings on the planet would be too timid to take the money. Only a man hiding a slavish mentality of epic proportions would be pathetic enough to throw away the oppurtunity that fate has placed squarely in his place by going and returning the money to the "proper authorites." Call me an anarchist or a radical, but I do not believe that the police or the local government have any claim to the money that you stumbled upon by the grace of God.

I have been a witness to a very disturbing pattern as of late... It seems to me that for the most part, the majority of people become more pessimistic and more hopeless as they get older. Unlike fruits and fine wines, humans are things that rarely ever get better as they age. I myself, have seen the life-loathing lackluster eyes of many of my fellow High School students. I am close to 100% positive that they had a greater lust for for life when they were still enrolled in elementary school. What happened to that life-loving joy that we all felt as schoolchildren? Where has all the fearlessness gone? Just cause everyone around you becomes a cynical, self-loathing bastard doesn't mean that you should succumb down to their level! Keep in mind, that when people are failing at certain aspects of their lives, they lash out at the entire world and try extra hard to bring down the people around them - cause misery loves company.

In regards to Bennett's opinion on the matter:
Interestingly enough, I remember Bennett bringing up the subject of how horrible it would be to stumble upon a treasure trove of money back in Freshman-year Global History (I faintly remeber Danny White a few others of our professional film critics being in the same class at the time). To my amazement, after talking for a little less than ten minutes, Bennett convinced the entire class that discovering a huge fortune could be one of the worst things that could ever occur to a human being (ahhhh, the sheer power of eloquent rhetoric).

Bennett's whole thesis is this:
Well, if you guys want to play this game, then you have to play it right. Let's imagine a scenario where you find the plane while walking by yourself in the woods. Nobody but you knows you have the dough. You tell nobody, hide itin your attic, wait until the plane is found, quietly move away a few years after that, and figure out a way to launder the money. Even in that scenario, the chance for disaster is great. Meanwhile, that money in your attic is making your life miserable. Yes, that's right. Miserable. You cant spend it. You can't tell anyone about it. You can't even risk having your house broken into becuase then it would come out. You are a prisoner of that money.

Now, let's add a few things to our scenario. A half-wit brother and his drunken friend, neither one of whom will be able to stay quiet about this thing for a week, let alone the years necessary. No, my friends, you would take every dollar and turn it over to the police. Then you would go home and sleep soundly. If you don't, in a best case scenario you may get a good night's sleep sometime in the next decade, but probably never again.

Well my friends, I completely disagree with this philosophy. Bennett assumes that there are consequences for everything you do in life, almost as if life is a game that must be "played by the rules." Correct me if I'm wrong, but this thought pattern leads us to the logical conclusion that that life is fair - there is some kind of karma keeping everything & everyone on the same playing field.

My view of life is quite different from this... Blasphemous as it may sound to many of you post-modern humanists, I do NOT regard human life as something holy or special. I believe that we a just another species under the umbrella of a vast animal kingdom. The only thing that seperates homo sapiens from all other animals is the disparity is cognitive ability. So taking the assumption that we are nothing but animals, we must look towards nature to get a better understanding on how our lives unfold. Did that zebra "have it coming?" Did he deserve to get ripped apart by that predator solely because of the fact that he ate a little more than his cohorts that morning. Absolutely Not! In a dog-eat-dog world, there can't be any room for rules or morality.

Now back to the movie,
There is one line that sums up what the treasure trove represents (well at least to me and other light minded people). When arguing with the main character as to whether or not they should turn in the money, the simple yet good-hearted Redneck utters something along the lines of, "We have just stumbled upon the American dream." Since the "American Dream" has no specific definition, it's meaning and implication varies from person to person. Time and time again, the media keeps pushing the fallacy that if a person works hard, does what he is supposed to, is courteous to his fellow neighbors, and just basically "plays by the rules", his is guaranteed to see success and fame in his lifetime. But this is just on of the biggest falsehoods to ever be imposed on the human psyche (second only to many religions). To me, "The American Dream" is much more of a destination than a journey. When looking at this topic from a newly acquired existentialist perspective, all paths to success & fame are equally valid.

And Bennett, being the ultimate existentialist scholar out there, I am sure you will agree with a more existentialist approach to the American Dream ;-)

God Bless Youtube!

So while browsing one of my favorite websites of all time (something I do quite a few times a day), I ran across something that gave me a slight pleasant shock. I was mainly surprised for the fact that on a site that I browse solely for the purpose of what many would call "lowbrow entertainment", I found something quite "highbrow" that would actually pertain to the class itself.

The wonderful discovery that I came across is something Youtube Classics - a recent phenomenon set up in order to make time-honored works of film more accessible to the masses (and yes, it seems that the words of a wise man by the name of Karl Marx are coming true.... "socialism is the future")

In this section of the website, Youtube "users" (and that means anyone, since you aren't required to have an account) can choose from a wide-variety of films that can can watch in their entirety as a single "video"
(and yes even some titles that were mentioned in class by the main man, titles such as the The Blue Lagoon)

And probably the best part is - the extensive film collection covers a huge plethora of different genres: anything from goofy comedies, serious dramas, foreign films and even a few thought-provoking documentaries can be found here....

This is the link to the Youtube Classics
http://www.youtube.com/movies?feature=ugcpromo_movies1

Everyone Enjoy!

References to Midnight Cowboy in Modern Popular Culture

Out of pure curiosity, I decided to investigate whether or not Midnight Cowboy truly withstood the test of time - and hence, deserving the honor of being named a true classic. The way in which I would go about my investigation would to take a look at how many times this film is actually referred to in the modern culture of today. Surely enough, a true classic piece of art (let's take Tolstoy's War and Peace for example) would be lampooned and paradied everywhere from the the most sacred bastions of highbrow radio broadcasting such as the Howard Stern Show to the most tasteful family-friendly children's programming such as South Park. Now let's see where this journey takes us...

While perusing the internet for Midnight Cowboy references, I come up with an exorbitant list of advertences top it. Although I can go on and on, analyzing just about all of them. Below, I will only go into the ones I have come across first-hand. Since (contrary to popular opinion) I am not always fond of talking out of my ass about things I have no idea about whatsoever.

1. Seinfeld
In the infamous 1990's sitcom, Midnight Cowboy was parodied in a 1994 episode by the name of "The Mom and Pop Store." In one scene, central character George Costanza comes to believe that he has had the fortune to purchase the actor Jon Voight's car. (Unbeknownst to Mr.Costanza, it is actually the car of a local neighborhood dentist of the same name). During one point in the half-hour episode, George becomes so overwhelmed with glee at his new purchase -he even bursts out into song! The lyrics go something along the lines of "Everybody's talking at me... I don't hear a word they're saying..." (Referring to the opening song of the movie with the same exact lyrics). Using his powerful imagination, Georgie even adds in couple of his own words to the wonderful tune - "Just drivin' around in Jon Voight's car."
The final scene of the episode is actually a shot of best friends Jerry Seinfeld and Kosmo Kramer sitting on a city bus. Their dynamic becomes very similar to the final scene of the Midnight Cowboy movie itself. Jerry falls into the role of respresenting Joe Buck, who finds himself dealing with the situation arising as a result of Kramer's bloody nose (Ratso's sickening affliction). Just as in the closing moments of midnight cowboy, the ultra-conspicous "Everybody's Talking" theme is played as a back-drop to the last moments of the episode.

2. Borat
In Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (a close favorite of mine very near & dear to my heart), the Kazakhstani journalist is seen doing various tactless things to the innocent populace of the metropolis that is New York City - of course, this is done to the background of "Everybody's Talking"

3. GTA IV
To my surprise, Midnight Cowboy's legacy seems to have permeated not just cinema & television, but also to the video game industry. In the wildley popular Grand Theft Auto IV, during a certain cinematic cutscene, a Russian gangster by the name of Vladimir is nearly hit by a speeding taxi while crossing the street. When this occurs, he shouts out Ratso's infamous line of, "Hey! I'm walking here!" Who knows, Maybe even the developers of violent video games want their predominantly teenage-male demographic to be well cultured in the knowledge of class cinema? ;-)