Dr No
[Moderator Omega - Wristscan]
35119
Special Master hs111 has delivered his recommendations . . .
. . . with typical aplomb.
So many interesting pics, movie clips, but also 'ingredients' to catch for this unusual personality,
and to shed some light to known, and less known facettes of this also controversial
person.
As the topics stretch from life, passions, such as Cars, Motorbikes and maybe even guns
(at least in several of his films), not to speak about his human relationships following
a difficult childhood, lack of warmth and difficulty to engage humanly, so to speak.
Anaesdoc has put it so nicely in his entry, and made the point about discerning
the actor Steve Mc Queen from the person, maybe revering one, pitying the other . . .
So, based on Art's intro and several of your contributions, I'll try to suggest for this separate 'category - award' for the best , and/ or most unusual contribution to describe the
phenomenon, and his charisma, knowingly that often it may have been ruthlessness,
behind coolness, fateful melancholy behind foreground machoism . . .
My ranking, of course is purely biased - just tried to judge on the 'best' mosaic of
this man, whatever that may mean here ; videos / clips, stills but also remarks or
behaviourly pecularities in order to try shedding some light into this controversial
character - idol, but also 'lost soul' probably . . .
1) To start with, I had 3 honorable mentions, 2 of which interestingly choosing the same film
as a characterization of Steve as an actor.
I chose these three contributions, with different tonality but interesting 'melange', and
approaching the character by some tidbits of pics, plus personal stories.
Would therefore call these entries as 3rd rank, as said before:
a) one from SalmanQ8, making the eclectic point of another side of Steve, and sharing from the hilarious and multi-layered 'cat-and-mouse' play between Steve and Faye Dunaway in the Thomas Crown film; he shared as a potential watch choice the superb Vianney Halter.
b) the entry by Nilo, also dealt with 'The Thomas Crown Affair' and four superb pics of his Reverso Duo, as an element of coolness and classy 'could be' timepiece.
c) our friend Crown Comfort, where he has taken the year 1964 and Steve's fascination with motocross biking on the occasion of a 6 days Int'l Trial Motocross Challenge in Erfurt, close to his former home town, previously in the Eastern part of Germany. His still photos are superb, of moments with Steve on the bike plus the inevitable cigarette smoking, which together with his exposure to asbestos during his time in the Marine Corps were main reasons for his untimely, early death, due to pleura - mesothelioma, a cancer of the pleural layer of the lungs.
CC's chosen watches were 2 GPs, a splendid Richeville and a superb Gyrate; thus not watches our hero in fact wore, but which he might well have done so. Lively choices, and matching tic-tacs . . . Well done, CC.
2) The second place and runner-up goes to pplater for his entry 'Steve wasn't half bad', but also mentioning his true better other half - Ali McGraw (for 5 years and something or so).
There are a bunch of absolutely beautiful Car photos, with Mustang, Chevy Corvette, Convertibles (Austin Healy? / actually I wasn't completely sure which); then a Porsche 911 and a shot, likely from his film 'Le Mans'. Whereby Steve once in fact had been participating with a Porsche 908, AFAIK.
pplater's choice of movies and presented clips are the chase in 'Bullitt', and the 'Motorcycle Jump' in 'The Great Escape' over a fence, dare-devil and cynical scrum as well.
The personal ingredients pplater so poignantly mentioned and contributed with a pic from his Persol 3019S, and the hypothesized match with an Haighs & Hastings watch - Australia's legend.
Altogether, I loved the various stones, outlined for this controversial character, which made pplater's entry a real multi-facetted contribution. Truly loved this 'mosaic' characterization.
3) My personal (biased) Kudos for the top spot in the 'Characterize Steve McQueen' goes to Ares501/Damjan.
He described the idol and heroism model for his own boyhood and young adolescence; his film example is an epitome for McQueen, in a way totally amoral acting, combined with breathtaking scenes and nail-biting shootouts in Sam Peckinpah's 'The Getaway'.
Damjan also shared some photos of Steve's softer side (if such a thing existed), and at the same time cynical attitude, with gun pointing or lazy smoking vs his interest for his gramophone, he would often carry along with him, when traveling or shooting films.
Ares501 also depicted his own Persol 714 with his Zenith, where the shot screams 'King of Cool'.
Damjan ended with the iconic, but in fact deeply lonesome statement of McQueen, which reveals quite a lot, if not all of his character:
'I live for myself, and I answer to nobody', showing him with a glass of spirit or such . . .
That pretty much says it all.
Well selected, Damjan, described with an eye without illusions, something Steve might have exercised as well, at times . . .
Therefore my Extra Award for this week goes to our Ares501.
Hope that wasn't too much rambling, it has been an interesting experience to look at this human puzzle.
Best,
hs"
In all seriousness, h, the reason I asked you to perform Special Master duties was precisely due to your penchant for expressing intimate pensées so effortlessly. Thank you so very much, and congratulations to Damjan for provoking your interest.
* * *
Two personal anecdotes regarding Steve. The first isn't truly personal, but a story told years ago by my cousin Eric.
He was on a business trip in Germany with an English colleague. On their 'off' time, they decided to go to a soccer match between the German team and England. In his telling, Germany was supposed to be a runaway favorite, but the English team routed the German squad by some ridiculous score.
On their way out of the stadium, he was struck by two sights. The first was of an angry mass of German fans setting fire to a BP gas station.
The second was of a crowd of English fans marching in unison and playing the theme to The Great Escape on band instruments.
Finally, the picture I shared . . .
. . . was cropped from the original, which was taken in my bedroom sometime in '72. That it was an image I had personally taken was mentioned, but perhaps not fully appreciated. Here is the photo without cropping:
That's my brother. And no, I've no idea what's on his head.
Thanks to all who participated this week, and hope to see you all this coming Friday for the next session of Wrist Scan.
Art
This message has been edited by Dr No on 2015-03-23 14:48:09
More posts:
Our judges this session are . . .
. . . Henry [log-in: halkcb] for Static, Eitan [log-in: Ubik] for Wrist Scan, and Carl for Watch of the Week.
Really disappointed...
If there was ever a session for me to judge, this is it! In fact I've got a perfect pair for Static ;-)
Watch of the Week goes to . . .
. . . Matt! "Art, Pretty rum selection this week. It was a tough choice between pplater's Aussie offering and Matt's Heuer Monaco. Matt . . . . . . just pips it. It's so dated - the pusher design and placement (angle) is just very odd. Awkward. Uncomforta...
Thanks, Carl...
...for even having the H&H in the mix. It has to be said, though: Matt's shot of his Heuer was an absolute walk-up winner the second it was posted. Cheers, pplater.
Static Photo honors have been awarded to . . .
. . . pplater! "Hi Art, In the spirit of the tribute to McQueen, two candidates scans were the most appropriate, imho. Matt's Monaco, both single and tandem shots would have done Steve proud, but were pipped to the post by pplater's amusing glasses' anecd...
The first, Nico...
...and certainly not the last! How many will you be ordering? ;-) Cheers, pplater.
Hey, thanks Henry!...
It's extremely gratifying that you found something worthy in Salman's story (for we may agree that it is his story, may we not?). Rest assured that the story was entirely true: only the names and the adjectives have been changed to protect the guilty. As ...
Thanks, and cheers to you, buddy, but...
...you know you should never drink alone: Cheers, pplater. ...
Obviously he had a few with Ali McGraw...
I believe they met filming one of my all time favorites...The Getaway. Doc was plenty "bad-ass" and she was plenty hot. So much so they got married.
Funny you should mention it, Miki...
That's just what they were doing here: The poor guy did it tough, no? :-) Cheers, pplater. ...
This might as well be the French Open . . .
. . 'cause Matt has scored twice - Watch of the Week and Wrist Scan, and with the same photo, no less! "Hey Art, A great theme this week and as always a tough call. My two special mentions are Salman . . . . . . for his Vianney, a very distinctive watch, ...
thanks guys!!!
Wow, double award with the same pic, that's a first for me! I feel blessed! Best Matt
wow thanks!
The Monaco 1133 is such a special piece, and I love the brushed metal of the 1133G in the sun light! Glad it caught your eye! Matt
Special Master hs111 has delivered his recommendations . . .
. . . with typical aplomb. "Friends, our dear Art has asked me to assist for this current WS about Steve McQueen: In fact, that was a pretty nifty job: So many interesting pics, movie clips, but also 'ingredients' to catch for this unusual personality, an...
If only I'd held onto those posters! . . .
. . . Bim would've loved having the Ickx Brabham on his office wall :-) . . .
Dear Heinz ...dear friend...
thank you for recognizing my genuine love and admiration for Steve Yours Damjan P.S. Art .... photo of your brother is precious..... there is nothing like brotherly love and now we know who is the wild one ;)
It was an awesome wristscan...
Had great fun reading everyones entries with special mention to pplater's wonderful/crazy/genius story LooooL :-) Thank You for sharing our great love for The Thomas Crown Affair :-) S
There aren't many films . . .
. . . I can watch repeatedly, Salman. Bullitt and The Getaway are on that very short list, along with Hombre , The Deer Hunter , and almost any film with Alec Guinness.
