I’m watching Sergio Corbucci’s Spaghetti Western Django as I write this. The image of Franco Nero in the title role, dragging a coffin along a dirt road as his bright blue eyes glitter, fills my TV screen.
The recent struggles of Seattle’s much-loved film mecca Scarecrow Video have been widely documented by the local press, but the thing that’s truly hammered them home for me is this imagery. It’s a vivid reminder of why I (and so many others) love the store–courtesy of a DVD I purchased there last week.
This weekend, Scarecrow’s devoted fans get a chance to help support the store, take home plenty of their own mementoes, and celebrate a milestone for this Northwest landmark to boot.
The store’s celebrating its 25th anniversary with a Holiday Sale, serving up a bevy of discounts on VHS tapes, laserdiscs, used stuff, and Criterion Collection gems. They’re also pulling out the stops with a slew of other events, including raffles, giveaways, scavenger hunts, and screenings of some of the owners’ all-time favorite movies in the Screening Room.
Like a lot of Seattleites, my love affair with Scarecrow’s been a long-standing one. I browsed their old Latona location in the early ’90’s, mightily impressed with their selection. But it was their current digs in the University District–a two-story temple of a space with a library that’s swelled well into six digits over the years–that converted my respect to adoration.
(Photo: dailygrindhouse.com)
It’s no surprise that filmmakers like Bernardo Bertolucci and Claire Denis have publicly extolled Scarecrow’s praises, nor that Quentin Tarantino literally hiked from the heart of downtown to the U-District to pay respects several years ago. Just in the last year I’ve scratched scores of movie itches there, from obscure films noir to Italian sword and sandal flicks to surrealist silent classics to depraved exploitation flicks of every grungy hue. And when the store opened its Screening Room last June I was front and center, watching Scarecrow’s intrepid podcasters Matt Lynch and Kevin Clarke lovingly curate a screening of Michael Bay’s craptastic Bad Boys II.
Happy Birthday, Scarecrow: I couldn’t quit you to save my soul, and I’ll sure as Hell be there at some point this weekend to lose myself among your endless shelves. Now if you’ll excuse me, Franco Nero’s facing down a small army of red-hooded thugs in a mud-caked western town, and I’m not about to miss what’s next.
