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Stupid, Unwarranted Arrest in NYC Allows Canadian Student to Feel Even More Smug Re: USA
From the web-soundings of movie
reviewer, blogger, and writer extraordinaire Alan
Vanneman comes this tale of life in Nanny McBloomberg's New
York City.
New York Magazine reports on the case of Aaron Vansintjan, McGill University student visiting the Big Apple over the holidays. After shopping at Macy's and heading way uptown to meet some friends at The Cloisters (sight of the one of the very dumbest chase scenes in one of the very dumbest Clint Eastwood flicks,1968's Coogan's Bluff), Vansintjan was tackled and arrested by some of the NYPD's finest.
Someone had identified him as the burglar in the theft of a Macy's bag that it turned out never happened. The accuser was sent to a psychiatric hospital, but no one told the kid that. Instead, Vansintjan was interrogated and scolded for his antique pocketknife. He says police never explained to him his right to stay silent or get a lawyer.
The wrongfully accused tourist was eventually released in the evening, but probably wouldn't have been "[i]f I weren't white," Vansintjan said; he noticed that everyone else in his holding cell was of color and being held on marijuana charges.
Just so there's no discussion about my evaluation of Coogan's Bluff, here's a great nightclub scene from that flick. It takes place at a hippier-than-thou club called the Pigeon Toed Orange Peel, fer chrissakes. Come for the flower children who look like 4-F rejects from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but stay for the naked black chick who zip lines down from the ceiling and into Clint's 10-gallon hat around the 1.35 minute mark.
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|1.11.12 @ 6:02PM|#
Pigeon Toed Orange Peel!
FTW
|1.11.12 @ 6:04PM|#
Whoa, didn't even see that in the article, just saw "Coogan's Bluff" and jumped on that shit like a goddamn puma.
Buthcered by the State|1.11.12 @ 7:47PM|#
I don't have the time or energy to investigate this claim; suffice it to say, I am outraged by whatever it is that Nick is saying.
invisible furry hand|1.11.12 @ 6:13PM|#
This is my happening... and it freaks me out! Naked zip-lining girl does at least correctly identify Clint as groovy.
|1.11.12 @ 6:13PM|#
This is why you should never go to Macy's. Fool should have gone to Barney's or Bloomingdale's.
Hugh Akston|1.11.12 @ 6:15PM|#
Actually, this is why you never go to NYC.
|1.11.12 @ 6:20PM|#
So you're saying you prefer Saks? Poser.
anon|1.11.12 @ 8:24PM|#
I only like clothing sewn by tiny chinese children's hands. Anything less is not satisfactory.
Ice Nine|1.11.12 @ 6:14PM|#
C'mon, fess up, did anyone come for the naked black chick
|1.11.12 @ 6:14PM|#
Every time I drive into NYC I think of a quote from "Coogan's Bluff".
"Just trying to imagine what it looked like before people screwed it up."
Paul|1.11.12 @ 6:20PM|#
I always wanted to be Clint Eastwood.
Almanian|1.11.12 @ 8:18PM|#
A man's GOT to know his limitations...
|1.11.12 @ 6:23PM|#
That's not Clint, that's Raylan Givens. I was wondering where he's been.
AlmightyJb|1.11.12 @ 7:44PM|#
1/17
|1.11.12 @ 6:32PM|#
McGill: The Harvard of Canada. I think you have to get that tattooed on your ass when you graduate.
|1.11.12 @ 6:38PM|#
McGill is more the Tufts of Canada. Maybe the Wesleyan of Canada.
|1.11.12 @ 7:53PM|#
I thought it was more like the Hopkins of Canada?
Almanian|1.11.12 @ 8:21PM|#
McGill is the Altoona Junior College of Canada.
Jess|1.11.12 @ 9:31PM|#
Ah - went to Queens, did you?
invisible furry hand|1.11.12 @ 6:32PM|#
It gets better - the guy is a Belgian living in Canada. So, second-rate Dutch (or French) meets second-rate American (or French).
|1.12.12 @ 9:04AM|#
Aren't they Flemish?
well|1.12.12 @ 11:43AM|#
nope
|1.11.12 @ 6:33PM|#
I recommend that Reason add naked ziplining black chicks to ALL their articles.
|1.11.12 @ 6:56PM|#
It's always funny to see Eastwood referred to as an irresistible sex object (as he is any time he encounters the counterculture in Coogan's Bluff which is, incidentally, pretty lousy). Of course he is, plenty of women will tell you so, but Hollywood has been so committed to the idea that the ideal meal is a boyish-looking 5-footer and tall rangy guys like Eastwood have been relegated to playing psycho neo-Nazis and fallen angels with bald heads in movies these days.
|1.11.12 @ 6:57PM|#
Jeebus H. Crisco, stupid spellcheck changing male to meal. That's just too damn Freudian.
Live Free or Diet|1.11.12 @ 8:53PM|#
Maybe that's what happened to Nick with sight instead of site.
The "Crisco" (solidified vegetable oil) reference reminds me that it was originally going to be marketed as "Cryst," and that "christ" derives from "smeared with oil." OK, so maybe I'm the only one in the room to think any of that's interesting...
|1.11.12 @ 7:05PM|#
movie reviewer, blogger, and writer extraordinaire Alan Vanneman
*barf*
Either Nick owes Vanneman money, or Vanneman owes Nick a *lot* of money.
Coeus|1.11.12 @ 8:39PM|#
The proper spelling is Anal Vain-man.
Shmenge|1.11.12 @ 10:40PM|#
Any film that inspired McLeod is alright by me.
HJA|1.12.12 @ 10:56AM|#
You're spelling "McCloud" like "McLeod" as in "Gavin McLeod"? I —
|1.12.12 @ 4:44PM|#
Conner McLeod - there can be only one. Except for that time when we were aliens trapped on Earth and then that part somehow never happened.
Jesse Walker|1.11.12 @ 7:06PM|#
Coogan's Bluff is brilliant, dammit.
|1.11.12 @ 7:54PM|#
+1
|1.11.12 @ 8:04PM|#
Agree.
Almanian|1.11.12 @ 8:23PM|#
Hey - it's no "Every Which Way But Loose".
Thanks science...
HJA|1.12.12 @ 11:21AM|#
Every scene with and mention of (in the movie) the crazy hippie-chick villain is off the hook.
|1.11.12 @ 8:19PM|#
I prefer to think of it (and its Dirty Harry descendants) as the inspiration for Sledge Hammer.
Almanian|1.11.12 @ 8:26PM|#
I think one of Clint's most-underrated roles is in "Where Eagles Dare", which of course is never on the TEEVEE enough.
Richard Burton, Clint, chicks with guns, busses with snowplows, Fokker tri-motors, ton o' assplosians, turncoats jumping out of airplanes to commit suicide once they've been found out - EPIC!
Coogan's Bluff? Not such a great Clint movie.
Jesse Walker|1.11.12 @ 8:39PM|#
What makes Coogan's Bluff great is that the Eastwood character is basically incompetent. From the set-up, you expect it to be a movie about a country lawman who shows all those city slickers how crime-fightin' is done. Instead you get a poker-faced version of an Inspector Clouseau movie.
|1.11.12 @ 8:57PM|#
Also, the hat. I can't believe you forgot the hat.
|1.11.12 @ 9:58PM|#
...and the girl in the bathtub.
|1.11.12 @ 8:56PM|#
Who wants to bet $10 this guy beats off to stock photographs of Karl Marx on Discovery documentaries while tonguing an OWS T-shirt?
sounds real good|1.12.12 @ 1:52AM|#
Damn, you didn't warn us about the theme song.
Alan Vanneman|1.12.12 @ 7:40AM|#
Fun fact: Dean "Dinky" Reisner, who helped write the script for "Coogan's Bluff" and other Clint classics (back in the days when Clint had balls) played the little kid who stole Charlie Chaplin's hat in "The Pilgrim," way back in 1923.
Anal Vanneman|1.12.12 @ 9:07AM|#
Stop mis-spelling my name!
I, Kahn O'Clast|1.12.12 @ 8:41AM|#
I miss the semi-casual nudity in movies from the 60's and 70's. Random boobies happens not these days.
Inwoodian|1.12.12 @ 1:10PM|#
I always loved the chase scene in Coogan’s Bluff because you can see two great Manhattan parks that were awesome to hang out in during the 70s and 80s, Fort Tryon and Inwood. The woods there are so thick you could have big bonfires and keg parties and not one outside the park ever bothered you.