Finding the apocalyptic visions of the last episode too sobering, Sean and Cody liquor up with some California chardonnay to tackle the first comedy on the Green Screen list. In Bottle Shock, wine academy president Stephen Spurrier (Alan Rickman) tries to shake up the Paris wine scene by pitting the snobby old guard French vintners against the rebellious upstarts of California’s Napa Valley in a famous 1976 tasting competition. Can the mostly golden but sometimes poop-brown fluid wrought by the awkward father-son combination of Bill Pullman and Chris Pine, as the beleaguered vintners of Chateau Montelena, stack up against the European heavyweights? Environmental issues explored include the history of viticulture, settler colonialism in old California, and peoples’ relationship with the land they live and work.
What really happened in the 1976 “Judgment of Paris” competition? Why did California wine have such a terrible reputation for most of the 20th century? How did a handful of Eastern European refugees from Communist oppression save the California wine business? Who wouldn’t be flattered to have Alan Rickman play them in a movie? How do you pronounce “terroir”? What was up with those Orson Welles wine commercials from the early ‘80s? Did Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters play at Woodstock ‘94? How can Chris Pine’s wig be even worse than William Shatner’s in Star Trek IV? Why were you so much more likely to watch this movie on the back of an airline seat than in a theater? The answers to these questions flow like cheap cabernet from a bottle of Two Buck Chuck in this tasty episode of Green Screen.
Bottle Shock at IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0914797/
Bottle Shock at Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/bottle-shock/
Next Movie: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
