To Live and Grieve in LA, Part Two - My Mother and Dolph Lundgren
Grief as a screenwriter is weird, because I am still very sad and I miss my mom, but also I got good news that the screenplay I wrote that was inspired by her incredible spirit is a part of a screenplay showcase curated by The Stunt List featuring a brand new, never-before-seen script written by the legendary writer Joe Eszterhas (whose portfolio includes Showgirls, which should be in the Criterion Collection and I'm not even kidding). My mother is the reason I saw Basic Instinct at all, so I'm thinking it's fitting.
If you'll indulge me a chance to share more about her, my mother LOVED movies. Her favorites fit firmly into two very different categories: Biblical Epics and Action Movies 🙃 My sisters and I were the only kids who could quote both The Ten Commandments and Die Hard, or were familiar with both Charlton Heston and Charles Bronson. And listen - don't get her started about Victor Mature and Dolph Lundgren, okay?
The movies she loved were a perfect depiction of just how interesting and layered she was. She loved the grandeur and pageantry of the Sword and Sand epics as well as a good sweat and blood-stained street fight. I once asked her why she loved them so much, and she replied that she liked a good story. That’s it. She liked the Hero’s Journey of both genres, though she wouldn’t call it that exactly, nor would she care to formally label things. She liked stories about men and women who faced an obstacle, got through the obstacle (albeit with prayers or fists), and gained power and/or glory. Now, the protagonists of the biblical epics usually ended up in the Lion’s Den en route to Heaven, and action heroes usually had to limp away, bloody and broken, down a city street to an uncertain sunset, but they were heroes just the same. She just likes to see people overcome things. She also loved films about Drag Queens, which I think she included in the Action category. The same formula applies: a brave soul overcomes something terrible to be the bright and bold Queen they always were. Of course, it had a huge impact on how I view shaping stories - telling big tales in quiet or super loud ways. This extended to television - give her a procedural any day, any time. If there is anyone involved with the Dick Wolf Cinematic Universe - just know that she LOVED Elliott and Olivia and Fin, Chicago Med, Fire, and PD (she just called them all “Chicago”), and God help us if we called in the middle of any of them. And the One Chicago crossovers?! Forget about it. Appointment television.
It always tickled me how our conversations would move from what Walker, Texas Ranger, or Bubba on In the Heat of the Night got up to, to asking me why I don’t wear more makeup. But that’s who she was, she contained multitudes: Olivia Benson storylines, takes on Ruth and Naomi, Jean Claude Van Damme splits, and Michael Mann explosions, all topped with a proper church hat and perfume.
Some of her favorites, Amarintha’s Criterion Collection, as it were:
The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Story of Ruth
Death Wish Franchise
Rambo
The Robe
Ben Hur
Bloodsport
Universal Soldier
Hard Target
Terminator
The Ten Commandments
Quo Vadis
Samson and Delilah
Fists of Fury
Walker, Texas Ranger (OG Series)
Law and Order: SVU (“Olivia Benson”)
Chicago Med/Fire/PD (she just called them all “Chicago”)
FBI, FBI: International
The Equalizer
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything
Paris is Burning
In the Heat of the Night
The Rifleman
