sewhite2000
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Posts posted by sewhite2000
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1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:
I've also seen her in The Fury, Micki & Maude, A Show of Force, Carried Away, The Confession, Traffic, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Hide and Seek, and 2018's Unsane
I have seen Micki & Maude. I'm unfamiliar with most of those others. Is Traffic the Steven Soderbergh movie? I've seen that, but I guess I forgot she was in it.
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Without "cheating" and looking at imdb, I must say that, while I've always been struck by her beauty, I'm really hard-pressed to think of many films Amy Irving has been in. Carrie, Honeysuckle Rose, The Competition, Yentl, and ... I'm stuck after that.
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3 minutes ago, Lost In Space said:
I thought you were using Z as in sleepy. HA! It was recorded to my DVR at least two years ago.
2017 was the most recent year TCM did the A-Z theme for 31 Days. Your recording is probably from then.
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It's okay. It kept me entertained, and I'm generally not a fan of slasher films. Jamie Lee Curtis is the main reason to see it.
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January 2
Fiddler on the Roof (United Artists, 1971)
Source: Amazon PrimeMild Spoiler Alerts
While I'd seen bits and pieces on TCM over the years, I'd never before sat down and watched this entire three-hour movie from beginning to end. While I think most film histories would have us believe that road show musicals were completely dead by this time, I'm reading on imdb that this film did better at the box office in 1971 than Shaft, A Clockwork Orange or The French Connection, which beat it out for Best Picture. If it was made today, they'd probably cut out a few of the songs and try to get it closer to two hours than three. It definitely requires a patience to watch that most people don't have anymore, and I did check the clock on my phone a few times, but there were long stretches where I was completely absorbed. I feel like the sense of time and place is very authentic, and I enjoyed the story, too.
I have a vague recollection that maybe there was a thread on here one time that brought up the possibility that this was something of a feminist film. And it's certainly a story of young women breaking with tradition, asserting themselves and pursuing what their heart desires rather than what society says they have to do. Granted, this freedom comes within a fairly limited context: they're only asserting the freedom to choose their marriage partner. It's not like they're running out to get jobs or crusading for the vote.
Topol, who originated the role of Tevye on the London stage, and who was chosen by Walter Mirisch and Norman Jewison over original Broadway star Zero Mostel, to the anger of Mostel and his supporters, brings what I'm sure was more depth and nuance than a Mostel performace on film would have given us, gifted as Mostel was in his own way. Amazing to think he was only 36 when this movie was released. He very believably convinces us he's 20 years older than that. Funny to think he probably wasn't much more than 15 years older than the girls playing his daughters, if even that.
So, it's the story of a milkman in a shtetl in the Ukraine a dozen years or so before the Russian Revolution, who despite having an abiding love for tradition, must come to grips with the fact that his three eldest daughters all want to marry for love and not because an arrangement benefits two families: the eldest loves a peniless tailor, the second a "free thinker" who's studied at the university at Kiev - obviously a Marxist, though this word is never used - and the third a Gentile. He acquiesces fairly easily to the first two marriages and seems to be coming across as quite the progressive, but the third marriage, outside of the faith, breaks his heart, and he declares this daughter to be dead to him. These scenes and the one where he bids farewell to the daughter going to join the Marxist in his Siberian exile carry considerable emotional heft. I'm reading the Broadway production has more emphasis on levity, and while there's definitely quite a bit of broad comedy in the movie version, there's also often a certain somber tone. The naturalism of the on-location surroundings (in Yugoslavia!) add to the effect. The specter of anti-Semitism and pogrom also hangs heavily over the proceedings.
Anyway, I felt it was a film I needed to see, and I'm glad I saw it, and I enjoyed it, but it probably won't become one of those movies I feel compelled to watch every time I come across it. It has a very impressive 8.0/10 rating on imdb, for whatever that's worth. It's free this month if you have an Amazon Prime membership.
Total Movies Watched This Year: 2
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Just noticed I misidentified the first song title which, of course, is actually "New York Mining Disaster, 1941"! 1967 would be the year of the song's release, which I guess I was thinking of. Apologies
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My iTunes collection is almost entirely pre-1970 material, and while I grew up on disco-era Bee Gees, I've been exploring their '60s output, with which I'd been previously almost entirely unfamiliar. They were making great music even back then! Here are their songs I have in my iTunes collection:
New York Mining Disaster, 1967
World
Words
**** and Specks
To Love SomebodyEdit: Ooops, didn't consider the first word of one of those song could be interpreted as a racial slur!
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3 minutes ago, jakeem said:
She also had a nice bit part in "The Blues Brothers" (1980) opposite Dan Aykroyd as Elwood Blues.
As I recall, later in the movie, when the Blues Brothers are fleeing for their lives from about a thousand people trying to either arrest or kill them, we cut to a quick shot of Twiggy actually waiting for Elwood at the hotel!
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On 12/30/2018 at 10:37 PM, Princess of Tap said:
The Bee Gees originally come from the Isle of Man and some of the younger ones like Andy Gibb were probably actually born in Manchester England where they all grew up.
Barry Gibb was indeed born on the Isle of Man and didn't move to Australia until he was about 14.
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9 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
She's also still much remembered by many it seems for Heathers and Reality Bites. Girl Interrupted and Dracula also come up from time to time. But I think her best films were Little Women, The Age of Innocence, and How to Make an American Quilt.
She was definitely in a costume drama phase there for a while. She was also in The Crucible, making her possibly the only actress to be paired romantically onscreen with the much-acclaimed Daniel Day-Lewis twice. Seemed like she was pretty low-profile there in recent years, but she's now playing a leading role in the smash-hit Neflix sci-fi suspense drama Stranger Things.
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On 12/30/2018 at 1:20 PM, rayban said:
The true stars of this film are the Banks children -
Nathanael Saleh as John, Joel Dawson as George and Pixie Davies as Anabel -
The child actors are indeed all terrific. I assume the casting department deserves credit for being able to spot which children are going to work out best.
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4 minutes ago, Princess of Tap said:
That would be James Stewart, Cesar Romero, Maureen O'Sullivan and Asta just name a few.
You also see a debut for Sheldon Leonard who was to become very prominent in TV production.
Ruth Hussey, Sam Levene and Donna Reed also make early career appearances in Thin Man movies.
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1 minute ago, LawrenceA said:
I can't imagine what kind of lunatic would do such a thing.
Well, I've made it one day. We'll see how it goes!
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Happy New Year's, everybody!
I've got this crazy idea in my head that I might try to post every movie I watch this year on here! I'm kind of curious myself just how many movies I watch in a calendar year and what kinds of movies I tend to watch, so here would be a record for posterity. Also I will note with each movie how exactly I watched it: theater, TCM or another channel, streaming service, etc. I will try to keep most of my reviews brief, or I will probably never keep up. I will note if my discussion of a movie gets into Spoilers. Also, I will only count DIFFERENT titles watched, though if I see a movie more than once, I might at least mention it. Hope some of you will come along this long (and possibly very boring!) journey with me!
So, here we go. I've watched one movie already.
Jan. 1 - The Harvey Girls (MGM, 1946)
Source: Amazon PrimeThis movie plays often on TCM, so I probably don't need to elaborate too much on the plot. Judy Garland is a small-town Ohio girl who becomes a mail-order bride for a rancher in what I think is supposed to be Arizona (Flagstaff is mentioned to be a couple of hundred miles away from the fictional town in which the movie is set) in the Old West. On the train ride out, she meets and befriends the Harvey Girls, who will be waitressing at the town's first-ever restaurant. She's fallen in love with the writer of the letters she's received, but this turns out not to be the actual rancher, who in fact is a much-older Chill Wills, kindly but lacking in much couth. The letters were written Cyrano-style by the local saloon owner (John Hodiak). Garland mistakenly believes she's been the victim of some elaborate laugh at her expense. Wills doesn't hold her to her promise to marry, but instead of going back to Ohio, she joins the Harvey Girls, where she becomes part of a battle royale between the forces of civilization and the forces who want to keep out the restaurant and the church and stick to gambling, drinking and, presumably, prostitution, although this aspect is only hinted at in the most subtle fashion. Hodiak is confident he can drive out the new restaurant through lasseiz faire (however you spell that) capitalism, but "The Judge" (Preston Foster), apparently the only representation of law enforcement in the town, wants to use intimidation and worse, if necessary. Nineteen-year-old Angela Lansbury (whoever started that thread that couldn't believe anyone ever found her attractive needs to watch this movie!) plays a saloon girl who's stuck on Hodiak and takes an instant dislike to Garland. And Garland to Hodiak, though he's fascinated with her and how different she is to the local girls. Their potential romance is complicated by the fact they're on opposing sides of the local conflict.
The above plot description is probably too detailed for a movie that's mostly about showpiece musical numbers, including the Oscar-winning "On the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe". Garland is in top form, with her singing and dancing. She's feisty and independent but also melts into stupor-like confusion when kissed, just like she was in Meet Me in St. Louis. Hodiak I really haven't seen a lot of, but I like his easy, slightly dangerous charm and nobility he tries to keep hidden, and he's not required to sing. Angela Lansbury could sing, but her voice is curiously dubbed in her two brief numbers. The extremely talented supporting cast includes Virginia O'Brien, Kenny Baker, Ray Bolger, Marjorie Main and an early-career Cyd Charise (only on this umpteenth viewing did I realize this was her! Her long hair in this movie is uncharacteristic). It has a 7.1/10 on imdb. Neither Westerns nor musicals are typically my favorite genres, but on what is possibly the final day of my holiday visit (depends on the weather tomorrow), I thought my parents would enjoy it.
Movies Watched This Year: 1
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2 hours ago, Sgt_Markoff said:
We all know that Hollywood mythologized, exaggerated, and distorted western cowboys.
We all know that Hollywood mythologized, exaggerated, and distorted WWII fighting men.
We all know Hollywood did the same for many other 'groups' besides these.
Policemen are always jovial and Irish, librarians always spinsters (glasses hanging from neck on beaded chains), bakers are usually Italian, tailors usually Italian or Jewish, every lumberjack is a Norwegian. Every Greek has a thick accent, talks with his hands, is a good businessman. Stereotypes galore.
So how come none of these groups take offense? Is it only when a negative stereotype is applied, that someone objects?
If someone tells you that you come from a 'race famous for great chefs'--or 'you come from an island known for heroes'--do you leap up angrily to deny it?
Just occurs to me to ask this tonight.
I don't know that we can definitively say no one from these groups ever expressed offense. I seem to recall some articles indicating not every Greek-American was thrilled with the mega-smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding, for example, even though the stereotypes presented in that film were relatively benign. Possibly with the older movies, there wasn't really a forum for these groups to express themselves about such things, or not one that was seen by the public at large, anyway.
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I was hoping to bust Sarge on Jessica Lange, but damn if she wasn't born in 1949, something I'm sure he checked out before he posted that pic.
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Well, dagnab it, I don't knew if this is new, but Vulture is now owned by New York Magazine, from which a friend of mine sometimes sends me links, and between the stories he sent me and my occasional time on Vulture, I've reached my monthly limit to read anything on the Internet owned by New York Magazine unless I get a free trial subscription. I feel like this is new. I used to read Vulture all the time without reaching some monthly limit.
So, I can't even look at this list until next month.
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I think that when they have to write his movie epitaph (I hope that day is still far off!), The Mule will probably not be in the first tier of films that get mentioned. Those will be The Good, the Bad & the Ugly, Dirty Harry, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Unforgiven, maybe Million Dollar Baby. But it might be in the second wave of films that gets mentioned, especially if it turns out to be his final acting role. I think Eastwood was looking for something he could still credibly do as an actor, and like Cary Grant, he doesn't seem to have any interest in sliding into character roles. If he can't be the lead character, he's just not going to act, I think. And here was this true life story about a guy who was actually a few years older than Eastwood. But no, sadly, I don't think it will be considered one of the greats, even among his films.
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I saw it. I wish maybe I hadn't seen the trailer first, because every moment of high tension in the movie is packed into the trailer making it seem like it's going to be quite different in tone than it actually is (but then again, the trailer got me to see the movie, so it's kind of chicken or the egg). It's more leisurely paced than you might imagine from the trailer. The first several drug runs go well and are without incident, so we kind of get into a groove of what the whole experience is like before the tension amps up. There's a lot of family backstory and scenes of federal agents very slowly trying to pinpoint their man, with stumbles along the way.
There are some Eastwood-isms thrown in along the way that he just seems to like as an actor and a director, his character making several clumsy but well-intentioned racial and sexual orientation comments. I'm unsure if we're supposed to laugh at his character or the comments.
Bradley Cooper seems almost too big a star to have such a generic part as the lead DEA investigator, but maybe he just wanted to work with Eastwood. My understanding is Eastwood was originally supposed to direct A Star is Born, but when he decided to do The 15:17 to Paris instead, Cooper decided to direct Star himself. Diane Wiest and Laurence Fisburne are a couple of other actors you'll recognize, and Eastwood's real-life daughter Allison Eastwood plays his daughter in the film.
Anyway, good but not great. I give it a B.
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I was about to post a movie I thought featured Donlevy, but made a quick check on imdb (you gotta stay on your toes around here - it only takes 10 seconds for someone to let you know when you've made a mistake!) and discovered the movie I was thinking about actually starred Brian AHERNE. I'm afraid I may have those two actors a little confused.
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2 hours ago, Gershwin fan said:
Uhhhh... I think his "masculine persona" comment was supposed to be sarcastic or facetious, James.
Well, sure it was, but it was also meant to be demeaning and derisive, IMO. Being masculine is not necessarily something a male teenager has to strive for anymore and should not be made to feel shame for not attaining someone else's standard of masculinity. Par for the course for these message boards, though.
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Oh. My original post was about Mary Poppins Returns! I had to scroll back up to make sure I said that. I don't know that there were any black people at all in the original Mary Poppins.
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6 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
Then why not cast the main role of Mary Poppins with a black actress? They really weren't being that progressive when you think about it.
There's definitely a trend in that direction, and it could happen if they ever do another Mary Poppins movie. Hamilton, the biggest Broadway smash in years, was loaded with a multicultural cast playing roles of historical white people. This was deliberate casting, I think to be provocative and to make a point about America becoming a nation of immigrants (the British are all played by white people, to further reinforce the point). There was a lot of buzz about the fact that Idris Elba might becomes James Bond, although he's apparently not interested. The Marvel movies are loaded with characters played by black actors who were white in the original comic books (Nick Fury, the Valkyrie, the Angel, Heimdall). There was, in fact, so much anger over a white actor being cast as the martial arts expert Iron Fist (who was also white in the comics), that the show got canceled. JK Rowling has said that she wishes she'd made Hermione black, and in the new Harry Potter play, Hermione is played by a black actress. It has been a slow process, to be sure, but there seems to be a general trend in that direction.
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35 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
The revisionism in some of the newer films does not ring true.
I saw Mary Poppins Returns last night, which is set during the Great Depression, and there are black actors cast in several roles of professional prominence that almost certainly don't reflect the reality of being black and living in London in 1930: there's an attorney, a milkman, a receptionist to a bank president. I don't know how you feel about this kind of revisionism where the casts of period pieces are "multicultured" up, even if that's not historically accurate. I made a mental note of it, but it doesn't bother me. Seems wrong to deny roles to actors of color because "that's not the way it was".
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
Jan. 3
Yankee Doodle Dandy (Warner Bros., 1942)
Source: Amazon Prime
This is a really pleasant movie. I suppose some might find it boring, because there really is no traditional dramatic arc. We just sort take a leisurely stroll through George Cohan's life with no real conflicts or villains. Oh, there are a few short-sighted theatrical impresarios who can't recognize Cohan's genius, and we see (only) one time in his 50-year career that he has a flop, but we just keep moving on to the next incident in his life. The story is pretty meandering, but there are lots of individual scenes that make a strong impression: George's father (Walter Huston) deciding where to spank his too-big-for-his-britches son; George's meet-cute with future wife Mary where she initially thinks he's 80 years old; the politics of that boarding-house communal dinner table where those behind on their rent are relegated to "Starvation Corner" and receive only noodles and syrup (syrup!); S.Z. Sakall's brief but as always memorable appearance; the lovely bit where George gives away Mary's song and is stunned to find only beatific understanding from her; the verbal sparring with Eddie Foy, played by one of his actual fabled seven children (although it was more fun when megastar Bob Hope played Foy), etc. I could go on an on. Lots of little vignettes that don't really connect to one another but sort of hold the plot together by spit and bailing wire and keep our attention. And of course the numbers. I had a piano songbook as a kid with at least three Cohan numbers in it, so I was more aware of his work than the average second grader in the '70s. And you sort of get overwhelmed with the sense of, "Oh, wow, the same guy wrote ALL those songs!" while watching.
And Cagney's dancing! I'm no scholar of dancing styles and prowess, so I don't really know where Cagney rates alongside an Astaire or Kelly. I do know all that crazy, exuberant leg-flailing and those gooney-bird steps tend to make my jaw drop. He certainly had a lot of energy, if nothing else.
Joan Leslie was only 17 when she made this movie! And at the risk of sounding creepy, I must say she's very attractive in a completely adorable way. Looking at her imdb resume, I'm learning she was a grizzled Hollywood veteran already, having been one of the autograph seekers at the beginning of Love Affair and having appeared in such heavy-hitters as High Sierra, Foreign Correspondent and Sergeant York. Makes me want to re-watch those movies just to see if I can spot her. Walter Huston is great, as always.
Movies Watched This Year: 3