Tag Archives: 2002

virginia madsen in american dreams

American Dreams

American Dreams is a show on NBC that ran for three seasons from 2002 to 2005. The show is primarily about the Pryor family who live in Philadelphia in the early 1960’s, more often that not the Pryors daughter, Meg (Brittany Snow) would be central.

Although the Pryor family are fictional, the show has real life events that affect the characters as though they lived through them. The assassination of Kennedy for example is depicted.

The Pryor family are the owners of a TV and Radio store, well, John Pryor (Tom Verica) is at least. His wife, Helen (Gail O’Grady) is a homemaker. As well as Meg, John and Helen have three other children, John (Will Estes) is the eldest, Patty (Sarah Ramos) is younger than Meg and then finally Will (Ethan Dampf) the youngest.

The show itself celebrates American Music, and many classic songs from the time would feature via the inclusion of American Bandstand into the show’s plot. Famous artists from the time would perform on the show and would often be portrayed by famous musicians of the nowadays. Today’s Musicians would also frequently take other roles on the show, Art Garfunkel would appear as the Record Store owner for example. There are too many to list here but a full list can be found on the Wikipedia page for the show.

Virginia Madsen would only appear in the first Season, she played the character of Rebecca Sandstrom, Helen’s Book Club friend. Rebecca isn’t the typical 1960’s stereotypical woman and she encourages the Book Club to expand their minds by pushing progressive literature on the Club.
Virginia Madsen as Rebecca Sandstrom in American Dreams, wearing a dark scarf and jacket. She has a warm, knowing expression while standing in a dimly lit room with vintage decor, including a Zenith electronics sign in the background.If you’ve read any of my other pages in historical films then you’ll know that these kinds of thing aren’t for me. I’ve zero interest in period stuff, even if the music is cool.

I actually did give this one a go but I got to the end of the second episode and I’d had enough.

I do believe it was actually worth the watch though if this is your kind of thing.

Availability:

Region 1 DVD isn’t a problem and is easily found at a reasonable price which is good as it doesn’t appear that Seasons 2 and 3 ever made it. Even more odd that so much effort was put into the Season 1 DVD with a special extended edition.

Trailer:

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virginia madsen in american gun

American Gun

American Gun is a film from 2002, probably most well known for being the final film role of James Coburn more than anything else.

Which is a shame on many levels. I first came across it while in my local Blockbuster not long after its release and picked it up because of Virginia’s name on the cover. I’d not heard of it before and, to be honest it’s not really one I’ve seen anyone else talk about other than in reference to James Coburn.

American Gun follows the travels of Martin Tillman (James Coburn) as a grieving father following the history of the gun that was used in his daughter Penny’s (Virginia Madsen) fatal shooting.
Virginia Madsen as Penny Tillman in American Gun. She is outdoors, dressed in a camel-colored coat over a light green turtleneck sweater, her curly blonde hair framing her face. She appears to be engaged in conversation, smiling warmly at an older woman in a patterned sweater. Behind them, a man in a red plaid jacket and cap stands near the entrance of a rustic barn, adding to the rural setting.So, yeah not a happy feel-good kind of film by any stretch of the imagination.

Martin, somehow, manages to get hold of the gun from the Police Station after the event and uses the serial number to track it back through its life. He starts at the factory which it was made and follows it through Gun Stores, Gun Shows and individuals who have owned the gun.

It’s not a totally linear story, and I also feel that this is a film that should be experienced without knowing a lot about it, so I don’t really want to dive into much of the story here. It’s honestly best watched blind, at least on your first go. That’s how I experienced it at least and I’m glad I did. I’m not even going to tempt your fate with spoiler tags.
Virginia Madsen as Penny Tillman in American Gun. She stands in a doorway, wearing a camel-colored coat over a green turtleneck sweater, her curly blonde hair framing her face. Her expression is serious and uncertain as she looks into the dimly lit room. The contrast between the warm red interior and the floral wallpaper in the foreground adds a sense of tension to the scene.As a warning though, it’s very much, and deservedly so, a James Coburn film. Virginia Madsen is in it, but only in flashbacks as the film is set after her death, and she’s not in it a lot. BUT, when she is in it, you’re paying attention. It’s one of her better acting roles and gives her the chance to show what she can do, no matter how briefly. It’s weird to say it for a film in which she has so little screen time, but if you’re a fan, and I assume you are, then you want to see this one.

All of that being said. When I re-watched this, it had less of an impact on me than the first time. I was blown away with it then, but not so much now. I don’t know if it’s because I’d seen it before, or times had moved on. I think I picked up on a lot of, I hesitate to use the word problems, but I guess that’s what they are. Things sometimes aren’t explained well, or, right at least. Apart from one thing I guess most of them can be explained away but you know, irks me a little.
Virginia Madsen as Penny Tillman in American Gun. She wears a light green turtleneck sweater, her curly blonde hair framing her face. She has a slightly amused or skeptical expression as she looks at someone off-camera. The warmly lit room in the background, with various objects and decorations, suggests a cozy yet lived-in spaceAmerican Gun is another film with divided reviews. There seems to be a lot of love for it, but I don’t know if that’s because of James Coburn, he gets mentioned a lot. It is his film, don’t get me wrong but you can see they were written after his death.

I’d be comfortable recommending this one. If not for the story for Virginia herself, this is a performance that deserves to be seen – Brief as it is.

Availability:

Not too troublesome on DVD Region 1 and 2 – I see VHS copies floating about as well. Varying prices though. It can also be found on some streaming channels depending on your locale, you might need a VPN.

Trailer:

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virginia madsen in the justice league brave and the bold

Justice League – The Brave and The Bold

And with that Virginia Madsen embarked on the path of providing voices. 2002 would see her lend her dulcet tones to the DC Animated Universe in Dr Sarah Corwin. She’s a new character never before seen in either the mainline DC Comics Universe or the Animated one.

Sarah would debut in the Justice League cartoon episodes The Brave and The Bold which made up the 12th and 13th episodes of the first season.

In the episodes The Green Lantern and The Flash uncover a plot by Grodd to destroy the hidden Gorilla City.

The story starts when The Flash is chases down a truck that is wreaking havoc in Central City, he stops the truck with help from The Green Lantern. Once the chase is over they find it been driven by two scientists, but both men don’t really seem to have any clue what they’ve done. In the back of the truck they find some isotopes, but no explanation.

Flash and Green Lantern visit the Laboratory where they work and speak to Sarah Corwin. She’s unable to help them, or so she says…
Virginia Madsen voices Dr. Sarah Corwin in Justice League Unlimited, depicted here with sharp features, cat-eye glasses, and a stern expression. She wears a white lab coat and gold earrings, standing in a high-tech facility.While there they get a call about a Gorilla raising hell downtown, they take off to find the Gorilla trying to escape the Police. Once again they stop the car but while talking to the Gorilla Flash is shot by a ray beam by none other than, Sarah Corwin.

This sends The Flash into a hallucinatory fit and when he wakes up he’s in Jail. The police show him video footage of him stealing the isotopes from the Police compound.  Unable to explain his actions he enlists the help of The Green Lantern again to track down the Gorilla they stopped earlier.

When they eventually do find him they find out he’s actually the Security Chief of a Gorilla City in Africa where a species of super intelligent Gorillas have hidden themselves away. He introduces himself as Solovar and goes onto explain that a rogue Scientist named Grodd has invented a way to control all the other Gorillas in the City and has nefarious ideas about his new found power. Grodd was able to be stopped by the other Gorillas but now he’s seeking his revenge.

Solovar has tracked down Grodd to Central City by finding emails between him and, Sarah Corwin.

This is all The Flash needs to hear as he tears off to confront Sarah, but before he can do he’s caught by Grodd.virginia madsen in the justice league brave and the boldIt’s a typical story from the DC Animated Universe, I won’t ruin any more of it in case you want to watch it for yourself – And, I recommend you do.

I’m a BIG fan of the DC Animated Universe, I’ve watched it for years and while I won’t claim to have seen all it has to offer I do own more than a couple of the Blu-Rays etc.

Virginia does her thing here. She doesn’t have a massive amount of lines to say but when she does, well – Unless you knew it was her then you wouldn’t be able to tell. She uses her voice to good effect here and actually acts with it, unlike others that show up in the DCAU in guest roles.

Availability:
Good. You can pick up the episodes as part of the bigger box set, or it got a stand alone disc release known as Justice League: The Brave and The Bold with two other episodes from the show included.

 

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