RARA-AVIS: Re: A Willeford primer for miker...

From: Juri Nummelin ( juri.nummelin@postikaista.net)
Date: 09 Jul 2003


Bill Bowers (hi, Bill!)

> The "Hoke" novels, for which he finally received some fame, are actually
my
> least favorites of Willeford's canon; a little too over the top for me,
> although I do recommend the film version of "Miami Blues".

Me, too. I've always felt that it's heavily underestimated. On the Hoke novels: "Sideswipe" was the first Willeford that really made me think that the guy can write. On the other novels: "Pick Up" is also great, but maybe a bit dated now, don't you think? "Wild Wives" in all its exaggeration is a great one, too.

And on "Cockfighter", the film:

> [And, thanks to a discussion last year on r-a, I bought the DVD of the
> filmed version. Don't be put off by the fact that it is a Roger Corman
> film; it is a remarkably faithful retelling of the novel.

It's only produced by Corman. It's directed by Monte Hellman, one of my favourite directors, of "The Shooting" and "Two-Lane Blacktop" fame. It's reputedly the only film Corman ever lost money on, even though he hired Joe Dante to make a new trailer for it. Dante snatched a scene of a helicopter going down from some other film and thought "no one will notice". Didn't help, though.

Juri back from, what, two-year absence - it's great to be back!

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