Rambo Episode to Re-Run May 27th

Tune into Sounds of Cinema on Memorial Day weekend for a rerun of the Rambo episode. Originally recorded to coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of Rambo: First Blood Part II, the program features music and commentary on all four films in the Rambo series.

Also, check out the essay “Why Rambo Matters” as an addendum to the episode. Here is an excerpt:

First Blood Part II didn’t win any Academy Awards; the Best Picture Oscar for films of 1985 went to Out of Africa. But First Blood Part II did take Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture, Actor, and Screenplay. With the amount of effort and emphasis placed on the Hollywood awards circuit, we would expect the Oscar winner to be enshrined in cultural immortality and the Razzie “winner” to sink into obscurity. But, twenty-five years later, nothing could be further from the truth. While Out of Africa enjoys a healthy level of popularity, it is First Blood Part II that is played as a part of marathons on American Movie Classics and other cable television channels. It is First Blood Part II that is referenced as recognizable parody (the surest sign of cultural influence) in Hot Shots Part Deux, UHF, and Son of Rambow. And it is First Blood Part II that continues to stir the emotions of its viewers, who vent their love or hatred of the film in online message boards.

Sounds of Cinema Website Maintenance

I've spent the last couple of weeks retouching the website. The basic design and organization of the site remains the same but here are some of the changes:

• A modified homepage
• Playlists are up to date
• The Review Archive has been slightly modified with dead links fixed.
• The Links section has been updated with some new additions.

The Features section has been given the biggest overhaul. This area has been divided into subsections with End of the Year Wrap Ups, Interviews, Screenings, and Commentaries each getting their own navigation pages. The format of the End of the Year content has been changed to make it easier to navigate. Also, the offerings on the audio interview page have been expanded to include previously unavailable material including interviews with Gavin Baddeley, author of Lucifer Rising, Carl Gottlieb, screenwriter on Jaws, and David J. Skal, author of Vampires: Encounters with the Undead. I had also discovered a problem with the Lake of Fire commentary so that has been fixed.

Please let me know if you find errors or other problems with the site.