Monday, July 28, 2014

Six Degrees of Separation Blogathon

I don't do a great number of blogathons, but when they fit into my posting schedule, I like to play along. This time, I was chosen by Jay Cluitt at Life vs. Film to participate in one that I have an interesting connection to. The Six Degrees of Separation Blogathon was started by Nostra at My Film Views. This is a fun one, so I'm happy to jump in with both feet. The idea here is pretty simple: connect one actor to another through six or fewer steps.

I said I have a connection to this, so it's time for a story. Years ago, I worked with a guy named Ted. One day, Ted returned from a vacation back home in Virginia. He said he'd met a guy in a bar who taught him a game where you connect actors to Kevin Bacon through six or fewer steps. About six months later, I was at work and my mom called me and told me to turn on the television. There was a group of guys on the Today Show explaining this book they'd just written about the Six Degrees of Bacon. I flipped on the television and Ted pointed to one of the guys, saying, "That's the guy I met in the bar." I don't claim to have invented this game, but I do claim to have known about it for about six months before almost everyone else.

Anyway, the task before me is to connect Daniel Bruhl with Vinnie Jones. We get here via the following list of previous posts in the series:

Drew from A Fistful of Films (Charlie Chaplin to Jason Statham)

Sati from Cinematic Corner (Jason Statham to Michael Haneke)

Alex from And So It Begins (Michael Haneke to Stephen Dillane)

Steven from Surrender to the Void (Stephen Dillane to Ingmar Bergman)

Chris from Movies and Songs 365 (Ingmar Bergman to Toshiro Mifune)

Josh from Cinematic Spectacle (Toshiro Mifune to James Stewart)

Shane from Film Actually (James Stewart to Spike Lee)

Tom from At the Back (Spike Lee to Birth of a Nation)

And finally, Jay at Life vs. Film (Birth of a Nation to Daniel Bruhl)

So, this seems easy enough. Daniel Bruhl was in Inglourious Basterds with Brad Pitt, who was in Snatch with Vinnie J...what's that? Jay used Inglourious Basterds in his list? The unwritten rule is that I can't backtrack through the previous connection? Okay...

Let's try it this way:

Daniel Bruhl was in 2 Days in New York. Evidently, his character in this film is named "The Oak Fairy." That's neither here nor there. I haven't seen the film, but rest assured, it's on the man's IMDB page.

Starring in that Julie Delpy project is Chris Rock. I know this because Chris Rock is a part of the picture on the box. Rock has done a lot of work, perhaps never so annoyingly as in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. You know the clip, right?

As it happens, Vinnie Jones voiced Freddie the Dog in Madagascar 3. Boom.

So now the question is who's next and what am I going to make that person do? Unless he objects, I will tag Chip Lary at Tips from Chip, who gets the unenviable task of connecting Vinnie Jones to Jean Gabin. Good luck!

11 comments:

  1. I know you're supposed to follow a chain established by previous bloggers, but it might have been interesting to trace the connection between Sandra Bullock and Master Pan Qingfu ("Iron and Silk" among other films: he played various kung-fu villains).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I stick within the rules. There are lots of potentially fun connections out there.

      Delete
  2. I wasn't aware that a) Bruhl reprised his Fairy role from 2 Days in Paris (which is worth checking out if you haven't seen it, I've not seen New York either) or that Vinnie Jones appeared in Madagascar 3, because that's a terrible movie I try to forget. Hence why this was perhaps easier than some other peoples' have been.

    My spit-balling non-researched solution would be:

    1. Bruhl to Chris Hemsworth (Rush)
    2. Hemsworth to Chris Evans (The Avengers)
    3. Evans to Robert Redford (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
    4. Redford to Robert Duvall (The Natural)
    5. Duvall to Vinnie Jones (Gone in 60 Seconds)

    For some reason there's a self-imposed rule that all my links be called Chris or Robert.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I worry about Chip's path to Jean Gabin. I did it in my head, but my path took an extra step.

      This was one of those situations where having kids paid off. Once I saw the Chris Rock connection to Bruhl, it was done.

      Delete
  3. I accept that challenge. I'll post it tonight. I made it in 5 steps, and believe it or not, probably the single easiest step is the one that I had to look up. Actually that look up gave me a second way to do it, although in the same number of steps.

    If you did it in less than five, I'm impressed. I spent about 10 minutes trying connections other than the ones I got off the top of my head to see if I could reduce the steps and I couldn't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No--the steps I did in my head took 7. In my own defense, that was done on my drive to work, so I did it without any reference material.

      With a little research, I knocked it down a few.

      Delete
    2. Sorry, I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow. I've got the post written, but I hadn't factored in the time difference for the next person I was thinking might want to do this. I'll hopefully get a response during the night tonight or tomorrow morning.

      Delete
    3. No worries. I'm curious to see how you did it.

      Delete
    4. fyi - I've posted it, but for some reason it's not showing on the right in your "My Blog List".

      Delete
    5. Okay, four hours after the comment above it is there now and says I posted it 3 hours ago. I guess it has something to do with that time change from Eastern to Central. Either that or a black hole is involved. :-)

      Delete
    6. Dunno--I crashed hard after a very difficult day yesterday, so I just saw it now.

      Delete