1974's noirish crime film, Buster and Billie, was directed by Daniel Petrie, who also helmed Fort Apache, the Bronx. This is notable to me only because in Las Vegas, out west of the Strip in the Summerlin area, there is a street named Fort Apache Road. Every time the wife and I are driving there and we pass the street sign, I always blurt out "Fort Apache the Bronx!" as if it is some kind of movie mantra. She puts up with it like a champ. I also have a tendency to answer her with fragments of song lyrics, which is a habit that is somewhat less entertaining to her.
Buster and Billie was reportedly the first American mainstream film to show a man's penis on camera. Fans of celluloid shlong rejoiced to find that it was Jan-Michael Vincent's member, not Robert Englund's. The scene had to be shot out in the woods near a small Georgia town so the good citizens would be shielded from the exposed johnson, no matter whose it was.
Now we need a wine to pair with Buster and Billie, and it had better be better than one we could order at Dave and Buster's. Three Penis Wine is a Chinese virility concoction made from the private parts of deer, dog and seal, and is better left alone, if you were to ask me. Stick with Viagra. For Buster and Billie, let's get a Georgia wine - and a damn good one at that. I'm a sucker for an overlooked and underrated grape variety, and Tiger Mountain Vineyards makes a great Petit Manseng. I had it several Thanksgivings ago, when the white wine wowed me while washing down sweet, brown sugar ham and chestnuts. You can have it with anything you like.
The Survivor was made in 1981 Australia, but its release in other parts of the world were rather hit-n-miss. Mostly miss. The pilot of a jetliner is the only survivor when it crashes, and he has trouble remembering what happened. That sounds like a horror movie to me. Director David Hemmings - you saw him acting in Blowup - chatted with the producer before the start of filming, and they decided to make The Survivor brainy rather than gory - a decision they lived to regret. The guy who wrote the book that inspired the film says he hated it. They did their best to keep him off the PR circuit.
South Africa's Survivor Wines is a slam dunk shot for the wine pairing, just on name alone. The winery says the name came along when a cattle truck "lost a passenger" on the road by the vineyard - a cow literally jumped out and is still living there. That's right, she couldn't be mooooved. The picture on the winery website makes me think someone may have pulled a switcheroo on them. The pic shows a cow with horns. That would be a bull. Survivor Wines' Western Cape Cabernet Sauvignon could pair well with ol' Bessie if she’s not nimble enough to avoid the lasso.
1979's Over the Edge told the story of bored teenagers left to fend for themselves, filling out their empty existences with booze, drugs and crime. To paraphrase Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, "well, it's always worked for me." Director Jonathan Kaplan says the script was inspired by a newspaper article which documented the teen angst in a planned community. The planned community in Over the Edge was set in Colorado, which had real-life violence erupt decades later in Columbine, and again in Aurora. Maybe we should take a moment here for a "don’t try this at home" warning.
Pairing a wine with Over the Edge is a tough choice, considering that many of the characters were in their teens at the time. Matt Dillon was only 14 when he got his career started in this movie. An Over The Edge Winery would be perfect here, but the one in Tasmania - see: "what for you bury me in da cold, cold ground?" - is no longer open. If you cannot get over the edge, that means you are still on it. Calistoga's On the Edge Winery is now called Vermeill Winery. Former NFL coach Dick Vermeill has been a vintner since the late '90s and provides a quick pairing for the next time the Eagles, Rams or Chiefs make the Super Bowl. For Over the Edge, his Cabs are pricey, but they are all blood red.
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