On August 10, 1984, the action thriller Red Dawn, starring
Patrick Swayze, opened in theaters as the first movie to be
released with a PG-13 rating. The Motion Picture Association
of America (MPAA), which oversees the movie rating system,
had announced the new PG-13 category in July of that same
year.
On August 3, 1977, “The Spy Who Loved Me,” starring Roger
Moore as the suave superspy James Bond, known for his love
of fast cars and dangerous women, was released in theaters
across America. The film features one of the most memorable
Bond cars of all time–a sleek, powerful Lotus Esprit sports car
that does double duty as a submarine.
On July 28, 1978, National Lampoon’s Animal House, a movie
spoof about 1960s college fraternities starring John Belushi,
opened in U.S. theaters. Produced with an estimated budget
of $3 million, Animal House became a huge, multi-million-dollar
box-office hit, spawned a slew of cinematic imitations and
became part of pop-culture history with such memorable lines
as “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”
Set at the fictional Faber College (the University of Oregon
served as a stand-in during filming), Animal House centered
around the disreputable Delta House fraternity.
John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982)
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876.
On July 24, 1998, the director Steven Spielberg’s World War II
epic, Saving Private Ryan, was released in theaters across the
U.S. The film, which starred Tom Hanks and Matt Damon, was
praised for its authentic portrayal of war and was nominated
for 11 Academy Awards. It took home five Oscars, for Best
Director, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Film Editing
and Best Sound Effects Editing.
The film’s lengthy opening scene was a bloody re-enactment of
American troops landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France,
on June 6, 1944.
On July 15, 1988, Die Hard, an action film starring Bruce Willis as wisecracking New York City cop John McClane, opened in theaters
across the U.S. A huge box-office hit, the film established Willis
as a movie star and spawned three sequels. Die Hard also became Hollywood shorthand for describing the plot of other actions films,
as in “Speed is Die Hard on a bus.”
Walter Bruce Willis turned 67 in March.
On March 30, 2022, Willis’s family announced that
he was retiring as he had been diagnosed with
aphasia, a disorder caused by damage to the area
of the brain that controls language expression and
comprehension.
