Michael Caine

Movie Review: “The Great Escaper” with Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson

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The two British icons bring a huge amount of joy to the heartwarming true story of Bernard Jordan, the 89-year-old veteran who snuck off to attend the 70th anniversary of D-day

By Peter Bradshaw

Michael Caine and the late Glenda Jackson bring their A games to this true-life heartwarmer about the 89-year-old second world war Royal Navy veteran Bernard Jordan, who in 2014 jauntily sneaked out of his seaside care home (where he lived with his wife Irene) on a secret mission to get aboard a cross-channel ferry and attend the 70th anniversary celebrations of the D-day landings in Normandy — having failed to get included on an official group excursion. He was dubbed “the great escaper” in the press although then, as now, the care home insisted that there was no question of forbidding Bernard from going, so there was no escape as such. Facetiously representing them as busybody elf ’n’ safety camp commandants – tempting though this might have been – could have landed the film in legal hot water.

Caine is Jordan, of course, bringing plenty of droll and lugubrious spark to the role, shuffling up and down the seafront, grumpily denouncing the trendy cyclists almost running him over on the pavement as “tossers” and letting the air out of their tyres. But he is arguably upstaged by Jackson as Irene, or Rene, who is sarky and sardonic to everyone, including her care worker Adele (an excellent performance from Danielle Vitalis).

She gets laughs in a way Caine’s character doesn’t, or not as much. Rene has to cover up for Bernard; she is, after all, in on his plan, and tells the nurses and managers that her absent husband is just out on a long early walk, giving Bernard enough time to get on the ferry before the alarm is raised.

There’s a huge amount to enjoy from these legendary performers: Caine and Jackson are a great double-act, despite being apart for much of the film, and the film imagines an interesting and poignant rapport between Bernard and an elderly ex-RAF officer on the ferry, sympathetically played by John Standing, who is heading for Normandy while crucified by a secret guilt. Caine has a bold flash of rage by the official graves at all the criminal waste of lives created by war.

Set against this, the flashback scenes of the young Rene and Bernard are less strong and a flaw in the film is that it somehow can’t help drifting towards an officially sanctioned sentimentality and even stateliness, rather like the BBC news coverage of the D-day celebrations of which we see a glimpse. It’s a kind of piety which the (excellent) lead performances are always working against. I’m inclined to wonder how many movie versions of Captain Sir Tom Moore and his legendary lockdown charity walk were once in development in the same vein, with the same present day/wartime flashback structure, but which now have had to be abandoned or radically reimagined.

Well, Caine and Jackson and their ineffable class give this film some real grit: it’s a wonderful last hurrah for Jackson and there is something moving and even awe-inspiring in seeing these two British icons together.

 The Great Escaper is released on 6 October in UK cinemas, and in May 2024 in Australia.

Source: The Great Escaper review – Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson exude ineffable class

Call for celebs to save Cockney rhyming slang ‘which could be gone in 20 years’

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There are fears Cockney rhyming slang will die out ‘within 20 years’ if no action is taken

When Andy Green was born in London’s East End in the 1950s, Cockney rhyming slang was still in its heyday.

But the 62-year-old, self-described ‘minor celebrity from a micro niche’, says Cockney will die out within 20 years unless we act to preserve its relevance – which is why he started ‘Speak Cockney Day’.

Andy is passionate that our sense of identity, including where we are from, helps to define who we are, and wants to promote the importance of nurturing the Cockney dialect to maintain its relevance.

This is why he hopes to get East-Endcelebrity figures such as Adele, Russell Brand, Michael Caine, Danny Dyer and Madness’ lead singer Suggs on board with promoting its continued use.

The proud East-ender, who grew up in Balfron Tower social housing in Poplar, Tower Hamlets, and has written two books about London, has set out a seven-step manifesto to save his beloved East End lingo.

As well as getting London celebs on board, the manifesto includes promoting Cockney’s cultural inclusivity, maintaining its relevance to young people, and getting London’s museums and institutions to take part.

The construction of rhyming slang involves replacing a common word with a phrase of two or more words, the last of which rhymes with the original word; for example, ‘apples and pears’ for ‘stairs’, or ‘bees and honey’ for ‘money’.

It is thought villains invented the dialect so the police wouldn’t understand them.

In almost all cases they would omit the second word of the phrase, so the rhyming word would be implied to listeners in the know, while eluding those who weren’t.

Source: Call for celebs to save Cockney rhyming slang ‘which could be gone in 20 years’

“If by Rudyard Kipling – Read by Michael Caine

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Michael Caine termed this poem as one of his favorites. His father read it to him once, and to him it summed up what a man should be! It inspired him a lot.

“If” by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself  when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!

Mostly British film fest in SF celebrates ‘My Generation’ and  ‘Four Weddings’

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2019 Mostly British film fest in S.F. features an anniversary “Four Weddings and a Funeral” party and screening.

Are you a big fan of the Hugh Grant-Andie MacDowell romantic charmer “Four Weddings and a Funeral”? If so, RSVP pronto and come out to toast the 25th anniversary of Mike Newell’s film.

The Feb. 16 champagne and cookies reception is part of the Mostly British Film Festival, an annual celebration of films from Britain, Ireland, Australia, India and South Africa. The “Wedding” party pops its cork at  5:30 p.m. at the Laureate Bar and Lounge, 444 Presidio Ave., in San Francisco, and is followed by a 6 p.m. screening of the romantic comedy classic at the Vogue Theatre

This year’s fest bubbles over with many worthwhile films, including the entertaining documentary “My Generation.” Michael Caine serves as a welcoming narrator and guide through David Batty’s colorful first-person accounts of the rebellious ’60s in England. Roger Daltrey, Paul McCartney and Twiggy are a few of the featured celebs recalling that raucous and creative period. It screens 3:45 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Vogue

Source: Mostly British film fest in SF celebrates ‘Four Weddings’