2012 Film Olympics: Time to cool off
Posted Saturday, July 28, 2012 at 11:28 AM Central
Last updated Sunday, July 29, 2012 at 3:54 PM Central
by John Couture
It's no secret that I'm more of a fan of the Winter Olympics than the Summer variety. I'm sure that has something to do with my upbringing in the Great White North.
No, not Canada, Detroit. Close enough though, eh?
Interestingly, this year's Summer Olympics will feature some of the coolest temperatures in the history of the Olympics as Great Britain isn't known for sweltering heat. Of course, the past week has seen London caught in a bit of a heat wave, proving yet again that nothing compares to Murphy's Law.
Given that temperatures weren't expected to surpass 90 degrees regularly, the decision was made not to install air conditioning in the dorms in the athletes' village. Well, make that every dorm save one.
That's right, in perhaps a cheeky move of home field advantage, the dorm housing the Great Britain contingent is the only one that has air conditioning. Everyone loves a good controversy, don't they?
Personally I don't think there was any malicious intent involved, but it does allow me to think of cooler temps. Caught up in our own little heat wave on this side of the pond, I'll take any chance to think of snow.
With that in mind, I present the medal winning films in the extremely competitive category of snow in film.
BRONZE
How competitive was this category? It's a Wonderful Life has been the gold standard for snow for decades and yet it only scores a bronze here. It seems that snow is a popular visual palette in film as many directors go out of their way to insure that snow is available when they shoot. Take this film, they had to revolutionize fake snow because they needed so much of it and the usual white painted corn flakes made too much noise during filming.
Paramount gets their first medal with this late acquisition after the dissolution of RKO Pictures.
SILVER
Any snowstorm that can kill Jack Nicholson has to rank up near the top, doesn't it? That's precisely what happens in The Shining. Oops, spoiler alert.
Snow is perhaps the main character of the film as it really sets all of the action into motion. The isolation is caused by the huge snowstorm and, of course, the chilling final scenes really shine on the screen.
GOLD
Did you really think any film other than Fargo would take home the gold? Of course, they are the "Dream Team" of snow films and it wasn't even given a stiff challenge as it cruised to the top spot on the podium.
If the wood chipper scene isn't enough to capture gold, just remember that this film actually led a Japanese woman to travel to North Dakota looking for the loot buried in the snow in the movie. Unfortunately, she died in her pursuit, but this film lives on.
The medal counts tighten up.
Make sure you come back tomorrow when we get a bit dreamy.