chrtbsh
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Posts posted by chrtbsh
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The Last Wagon
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Harvey - you already brought me into the conversation further than I'd like to go. I will just say 2 things: I believe many contemporary films do belong on TCM; while you understandably want to limit the conversation to your concerns about nudity and language, I believe the issues that others take offense to are relevant to this discussion. I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on both of those.
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Hi Harvey,
Thanks for the post. I respect your point of view.
However, you suggest that you just want to limit what you consider morally objectional content to "nudity and profanity" and want to "leave it at that."
Well, how can you just leave it at that? We receive more complaints about films that contain blackface scenes than anything else - plenty of people (understandably, in my opinion) find those films extremely morally problematic. Several Native Americans have complained about the westerns we play because there are caucasians in Native American roles.
A lot of people complain when we have war-movie marathons because they feel those films glorify war, or films that are particularly violent.
Now, your particular concern seems to be with profanity and nudity - and I understand a lot of people feel that way. So we play those films later and night, in deference to those moral values. We also label them "TV-MA" before the film starts so people can know what to expect. There are also many films that we just won't play because the content is too strong.
But, I believe there are many films made in the last 40 years that are very appropriate on our network - as truly great, important classics (examples: "The Pawnbroker," "Raging Bull," "The Conformist") or as part of a festival devoted to a piece of film history (examples: we have a "Cars in the Movies" festival coming up that includes "Back to the Future"; "When Harry Met Sally..." as part of a Romantic Comedies festival).
Anyway, as I said, I respect your point of view and I appreciate you taking the time to post. You're certainly not alone in your beliefs.
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We certainly appreciate the support of everyone, and I accept the skepticism of many of you. I guess I am a "corporate suit," since I'm employed by a mega-corporation, but I wear jeans to work every day and am as cynical as anyone else on these matters. And I've always said there may come a day when the company decides to take TCM in a different direction (hopefully I will be gone when and if that happens). But I can promise that, as of now, there's no pressure from anyone. In fact (dont' hate me for this), I have to fight with my boss to play a lot of the contemporary films sometimes, because I do believe they're a legitimate part of the mix.
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Arg! I don't understand.
This month we have festivals devoted to Orson Welles and Mexican cinema. We play silent films at least once a week, and often a whole lot more than that. We just had a comedy festival that included Charley Chase, Fatty Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin. We're playing Ingrid Bergman's Swedish films next month. How can anyone really say we're becoming AMC?
I have always believed we should play some contemporary films (uncut, commercial-free, in letterbox) in the proper context (as part of festivals where they're appropriate). I continue to believe that and have explained the reaons in previous posts. I respect that many people don't like it, just as some people don't like it when we play silent films (I'm looking at you, Leo).
But, having been the head of programming here for several years, I can tell you with certainty that there is no "direction" toward AMC or any other network.
Sorry, sorry - I guess I have to calm down. Talk like this makes me crazy, though.
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it's fun to read the comments and we appreciate and respect everyone's opinions
but, I just want to say 2 things:
- we aren't AMC, Bravo or any of the others; I've been hearing that since I arrived 7 1/2 years ago
- the ratings slate at the beginning of every film indicates the "content level" - a TV-MA rating suggests the content may not be appropriate for children (with further descriptors attached - "D" for dialogue, for example); maybe we should put something on the website that further explains this
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we licensed most of the films from Televisa, who controls the rights; a couple of the Buneuls are from Janus/Criterion
Koch/Lorber is working on a deal with them for "Los Olvidados" - they're premiering a restored version in Cannes later in the month; we had licensed the restored version, but Koch/Lorber wasn't able to provide it in time (they told us at the beginning of this week it wouldn't be ready)
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one note - while I'm very excited about the festival, I want to warn everyone that the version of "Los Olvidados" that we have isn't in the best shape
we were supposed to receive a restored version, but the distributor contacted us to let us know it wouldn't be ready by the airdate
we have a version that's in much worse condition, unfortunately, but it was the best we could do
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it's planned for December - the original versions of films that have been remade recently
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we cheated a little bit this month - since the theme is April Fools, we're using the Ealing comedies (from the UK) as our imports in April
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my very brief thoughts:
- we don't plan do edit the films in any way; as many have suggested, we can't (and shouldn't) rewrite history
- I do understand why many people are offended by the films; while we can't rewrite history, we can't ignore it, either, and I think we should acknowledge there's a lot to be offended about
as I said in an earlier post, I hope we can address this topic directly on the network at some point
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I just want to briefly reply. First, this isn't exactly my area (our studio production group is in charge of the Private Screenings), so I'm not sure of all of the reasons for who is interviewed and who isn't. But I do know that many of the people on your list have been contacted and nearly everyone has been considered. (Maybe they hadn't thought about actors like Duvall and Caine, who would be very interesting, and I will send along the suggestions.)
Thanks.
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Please get well soon, Mary Lou. You're such an important member of the community and we miss you very much.
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wow, this is a great thread
I have very strong feelings about all of this, but hesitate to share them because I don't want to represent TCM (as opposed to my own opinions)
but I do want to say I really appreciate reading the opinions expressed - thank you everyone
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before I came to TCM (I've been here about 7 1/2 years) they were planning on playing "Birth of a Nation" and there was a bit of an outcry; the network handled it by bringing on film historians and members of the African-American community to talk about the film's place in history and how it's still so offensive to African-Americans today - the discussion preceded the airing
we often receive complaints about films that contain blackface, or that portray Native Americans inappropriately (particularly when they're played by white actors), and we try to reply honestly and respectfully, but making sure that everyone understands that we don't intend to stop showing the films
one of the festivals I did a few years ago was devoted to classic documentaries, and it included "Triumph of the Will" - there were complaints (very passionate) about it and I spent about an hour and a half on the phone with a holocaust victim; I certainly came away with an appreciation for his point of view, but am very glad that we played the film in that context
I'd like us to take a more comprehensive look at race in Hollywood, so we can address this topic as directly as possible; it's something we might do next year (I hope)
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yes, we were lucky with "Mokey" - we didn't plan it that way
honestly, the April Fools festival had so many pieces to it that the connection to Robert Blake didn't even occur to me
as I said, we would have played both the Little Rascals and Three Stooges if they were easily available, but our priorities were on the feature film comedy teams
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jonkun77 - we would like to play those cartoons, but the context has to be exactly right; it's a very sensitive issue and the company as a whole is nervous about how it would be done
it's my hope that we will be able to play them at some point (we're working on it), but nothing is iminent
Leo - sorry you don't care for the silents; you're right, ratings would be better if we never played them (in fact, they'd be higher if we just played action movies from the past 20 years and a few color westerns - but that's not who we are or want to be and since we aren't ad-supported we don't have to do it)
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"The Paleface" did play at 8PM; because it's a short and was mistakenly (by me) put into a slot that was an hour too long, the documentary was put in until the next film started
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it's a point well-taken - the two groups we were very aware that were missing were the Three Stooges and the Little Rascals
there are a couple of reasons for this: first, they weren't easily available (it's possible - for a whole lot of money - we could have acquired a few shorts from each group); second, both are primarily known for their short subjects, as opposed to feature films (I know with the silent comedians we include a lot of shorts, but as we moved into the sound era we wanted to focus on features); third, they have been around quite a bit and it seemed a little more interesting to play people like Chase and Arbuckle
having said all of that, if we had easy access to either of those two teams, we probably would have included them
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While we normally do have access to "The Sea Hawk," it's currently licensed out to one of the HBO networks, so it isn't available for us to play this month. We'd definitely play it if we had it. It comes back to us at the beginning of '06.
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regarding the sound - our technical department has figured out that there was a particular tape deck that was causing problems over the past couple of weeks; I was told that it was replaced yesterday and that it shouldn't happen again
I hope that's the end of this one - if not then please don't hesitate to let us know
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jimnxsq - the problem with "Easter Parade" is what made me think it was a transmission problem with the Laurel & Hardys; from what I understand, there was an equipment issue during the first airing of that film - the way the system is set up (and I just learned this myself last week), the server records anything that's scheduled to replay within 24 hours and just replays it as it went out
the fact that there wasn't any issue with the Osborne intros/outros on the Laurel & Hardys does suggest it was with the tapes themselves
honestly, this isn't my area of expertise, but I do promise to try to figure it out and correct it
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Based on these comments, it sounds like there was an equipment/transmission problem last night. I will figure it out on Monday and we will certainly replay the movies in a couple of months.
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For some reason "The Fixer" is not in our library. It is an MGM title, and I'm not quite sure why we don't have access to it, but according to our database it isn't available.
I'm going to try to figure out why, but for now we can't play it.
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