ValentineXavier
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Posts posted by ValentineXavier
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Geeze... all these posts, and no one has yet mentioned the 1935 classic *Dante's Inferno*, starring:
Spencer Tracy ... Jim Carter
Claire Trevor ... Betty McWade
Henry B. Walthall ... Pop McWade
Alan Dinehart ... Jonesy
Scotty Beckett ... Alexander Carter (as Scott Beckett)
Robert Gleckler ... Dean
Rita Hayworth ... Dancer (as Rita Cansino)
Gary Leon ... Dancer
Willard Robertson ... Building Inspector Harris
Morgan Wallace ... Captain Morgan
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026262/
You folks otta be ashamed of yourselves!
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> {quote:title=Sepiatone wrote:}{quote}
> 1. Harrison Ford looked as bored making this movie as I was WATCHING it.
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Ford's character was bored with, and tired of, life.
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> 4. If "replicants" were created as "slave labor", then what were the REST of us supposed to do for a living?
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Replicants were created to do things too dangerous or dirty for ordinary humans, and as servants for the rich. They were not created to be a general labor force.
> 5. As slavery in this country is supposed to be ILLEGAL, how is creating "replicants" for slave labor justified?
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The central theme of the film, which you probably would have picked up on, had you watched it all, is What does it mean to be human? In the context of the film, Replicants aren't considered human, thus slavery does not apply. This is, of course, grossly unjust, a point the film makes.
IMO, *Blade Runner* is one of the greatest sci fi films of all time. I've thought so since I saw it in it's first theater run. It does a great job of creating its own world. It raises important questions, and begs the viewer to answer them for themselves, without being preachy.
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Perhaps TCM could do a month of David Cronenberg films on TCM Underground, then a month of Guy Maddin films. I'd go for that!
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Well, you're really trying to cut it to a fine line, there. There is precedent - a number of years ago, TCM ran some The Man from U.N.C.L.E. movies that were recut from multi-part TV eps. I'm a fan of both TMfU and The Green Hornet, but to me, that's stretching it just a bit too far, unless there is an important tie-in to a special theme, or actor they are using for a series of films.
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> {quote:title=darkblue wrote:}{quote}Trying to.
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> I think what's affecting your thinking is that you think TCM's 'mission statement' is to show ONLY the greatest movies of all time.
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> From the very beginning that was clearly not the case. TCM has always shown a very wide spectrum of good and bad movies, including shorts, serials, old tv interviews, cartoons, .....
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> So, it has never given a great deal of shrift to its choice of the word 'classic' and 'movies' has always meant any motion pictures preserved on film or videotape. It's obvious that when it says it shows the "greatest movies of all time" it means it does that, just not all of the time. As long as it does some of the time, it feels okay with its mission statement. I think we can understand why it would not include the word 'only' in there - can you imagine the disagreements over its schedule if it had.
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> It has never veered from this programming policy - not from the very start.
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> So, Val's assertion that it's you who is providing a 'literal translation' to prove your 'veered' opinion makes a great deal of sense.
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> Your response to that didn't make sense for me. It seemed convoluted, evasive, illogical - and worst of all, petulant, inasmuch as you directed him to provide you with an essay.
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> However, rather than say that to you - which I felt you'd not like hearing - I simply said I don't understand your answer. Which I didn't. That makes it my problem rather than yours - and I wished Val luck in responding as I felt he'd have no more capacity to figure out your unfocused response than I did. Advising me that I should be ashamed for my honesty about not comprehending your answer to Val was the most petulant remark of all.
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> I notice he hasn't even tried to figure it out, and I can't say I blame him one bit. My impression of you is that you have a very difficult time letting any discussion come to an end - or even just moving on from a point. Who needs it?
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Darkblue, you responded much as I would have. I haven't been back to the board until now, to respond. So, thanks to you and Kyle for understanding and defending my position.
Infinite1 -
I won't be writing any essays. We've been down much of this road before. People have posted TCM's actual mission statement. Several people have analyzed old and current schedules by film date release. It is very clear that on the whole TCM's current programming is virtually identical to their original programming.
They never intended that EVERY film they showed would be a certified classic, or from the classic studio era. I'm quite glad of that. I love lots of B films that would never be shown anywhere else.
What is "drivel?" I'm not inclined to use the term much. If I did, it would most likely be applied to much of today's commercial television. Certainly TCM shows lesser films that I don't care for. Often, I read posts from others, who liked them quite a bit. Then, there are lesser films that I enjoyed a lot , but others disliked. One person's "drivel" can be another person's entertainment.
Back squarely OT, I'll reiterate what I first posted here. There are lots of classic episodic TV shows, and dramas, that I would dearly like to see, totally uncut. Perry Mason, East Side, West Side (with George C. Scott,) and Topper come immediately to mind. But, I don't believe that these are appropriate to TCM.
What classic TV I DO think would be appropriate on TCM, in moderation, is classic, non-episodic, theatrical type dramas, like Playhouse 90, and Four Star Playhouse, which was directed by Tay Garnett, and - "This show featured four rotating stars, Charles Boyer, David Niven, Ida Lupino and Dick Powell in individual episodes consisting of everything from comedy to drama." There were other similar high quality dramatic series that I think would also be appropriate.
I'll admit that I think the bulk of made-for-TV movies are junk, but there are a few good ones, and a few good TV miniseries, that rarely, if ever, see the light of day. I wouldn't mind seeing one of those once in a while. I already mentioned that I think the 1980 TV miniseries The Martian Chronicles would make a fine tribute to Bradbury.
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> {quote:title=darkblue wrote:}{quote}143,912,771
The exact figure is 143,912.770.666666...
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I loved the humor of his character in *Help*, and liked him in lots of other roles.
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> {quote:title=darkblue wrote:}{quote}Now the worst thing is a socialist.
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> Progress or deterioration?
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Deterioration of progress.
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> {quote:title=infinite1 wrote:}{quote}
>... as long as the channel already veered from it's name and mission statement, showing classic, iconic TV shows uncut would not be so terrible. Also, I acknowledge that others here may feel differently, but they are basing their opinions on a literal translation of the name Turner Classic Movies...
On the contrary. I think it is YOU who are using "a literal translation of the name Turner Classic Movies" to make your claim that "the channel already veered from it's name and mission statement." I don't think it has "veered" at all.
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I've never seen *The Damned*, and was looking forward to seeing it. I hope it will be reprogrammed.
I've seen *L'Avventura* several times. It's far from my favorite Antonioni film. I'd describe it as *Knife in the Water*, without the knife.
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I didn't see my dad a lot when I was little. He worked on oil rigs, and would be away two or three weeks at a time. Later, when he rose to be an executive, he had to work a lot after he came home. Then, when I was 14, my parents divorced, and I went with my mom, because I was afraid of what would happen to her, if I didn't. So, I remember seeing movies with my mother and grandmother, more than my dad. But, I do remember a few things.
I don't think my dad liked war movies. He fought in the South Pacific during WWII, and real war left a lasting impression on him. I remember once in 1955, a kid threw a firecracker in our back door. When he heard the explosion, he dived under the table so fast, you couldn't see him move. That WWII reflex was still there.
I remember watching the serial Tim Tyler's Luck on TV with him, and he said that it was his favorite, when he was a kid. He also liked Our Gang a lot. I vaguely remember him pointing out Chill Wills to me, as a favorite actor of his, but I don't recall the film.
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> {quote:title=hamradio wrote:}{quote}I am watching "Gojira" and I thought this suppose to be the uncut *original* Japanese version. I see something a little off, first some of the printed material i.e. the calandar that says "TSK Lines" and the map are in *English*. The subtitles still refer to the monster as "Godzilla". Out of respect to the original title, shouldn't it say "Gojira"?
The original version was not released to the US until 1982. I suspect that since the film was already known as "Godzilla" in the US, they kept that name. I agree that they should have used "Gojira," out of respect to the original. But, I'm glad they showed the original. It's a great film, ten times the film that the US release is, easily.
*Rodan* is an old favorite of mine, and I was glad to see the original for the first time. I loved *Mothra*. It was so bizarre, wacky, and full of deliberately obscure political satire - I suspect that the "Rolisicans" were an amalgam of the Russians, and the US, implying that there was little difference between us.
It was also nice to see the great Japanese actor Takeshi Shimura in two of the films. He was in more Kurosawa films than Toshiro Mifune. Perhaps his best known role is as the older, head samurai in *Seven Samurai*.
Edited by: ValentineXavier on Jun 17, 2012 9:23 PM
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> {quote:title=hamradio wrote:}{quote}How about Flip the Frog and Betty Boop before the Hays Code? Maybe a tribute to Ub Iwerks and Max Fleischer to their early works.
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I'll second that! How about some Koko the Clown and Felix the Cat silents, as well?
I'm such a Betty Boop fan that I have managed to collect all but three of her known cartoon appearances, and make them into a 9 DVD set, that I call The Compleatest Betty Boop. Of the three missing, there are no known prints of two, and one, Accordion Joe, only exists in the UCLA Film Archive.
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> {quote:title=SansFin wrote:}{quote}It has truly been a fun night going from Gojira to Rodan to Mothra!
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> I am very pleased that you are delving so deeply into the true meaning of world cinema that you presented the proper version of these movies.
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> It is sad to say that most Americans know only the versions which were stripped of their spirit and identity by distributors who wished only to satisfy monster-lust. I hope many viewers were able to appreciate the subtle implications presented in these original versions and were able to recognize the cultural differences they exemplified.
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I agree completely! Seeing all three in their original form was wonderful. *Gojira* is ten times the film *Godzilla* is. *Mothra* was great fun, including trying to figure out just exactly who they were satirizing with the "Rolisicans." I haven't watched the Oshima film yet, but look forward to it very much. *Hausu* is perhaps the best psychedelic horror film ever made. TCM had shown it before, but I wouldn't mind if they ran it again.
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I'd like to thank TCM for showing all three films - *Gojira*, *Rodan*, and *Mothra*, in their original release form, with subtitles. They were magnificent! *Gojira* was ten times the film that *Godzilla* is. I hadn't seen the original in about 30 years.
*Rodan* is an old favorite. I don't think I had seen the Japanese version before. It seemed the least improved of the three to me, even though it was 10 minutes longer than the US release. Bob was fed some bad info for his intro. He said that the caterpillars were changed into eggs by the heat, and the eggs hatched into the two Rodans. Not so. The caterpillars were totally different creatures, in fact we see Rodan feeding on them, right after hatching.
*Mothra* was the most fun of all. What was Bob's quote from the NYT? I know it included bizarre, and bizarre it was. I was trying to figure out the political implications - bad guy Nelson seemed like US CIA, but turned out to be a swindler. He was a "Rolisican," which I took at first to be like a Russian, especially given some of the pronouncements attributed to that government. But, he went to "New Kirk City," in Rolisica. I'm thinking the intent was to say that there was little difference between Russians and Americans, and that they were sort of blended together.
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> {quote:title=clore wrote:}{quote}My least favorite situation is when they fit subtitled movies to an HD screen without taking into consideration that the subtitles are now outside of the viewable area. That's happened several times too.
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> Oh yeah. That happened during the most recent airing of ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS. So, I had to watch it on the SD channel.
Well, actually, the subs were all there for *Rocco*. If you could set your TV to underscan, or set overscan to 0, you would have seen all of the subtitles. Most TVs come from the factory with 3-7% overscan, meaning that much of the picture is lost on each edge of the picture, and it will vary from edge to edge. Of course, the makers of DVDs, and distributors of movies for TV know this, and should plan accordingly, but they don't always.
You can pay to have your set professionally adjusted, so that there is no overscan. Some (very few) sets will let you do that yourself, or let you select underscan. You can buy test discs, which will show you exactly how much you are losing on each edge. I was only able to see all the subs for *Rocco* because I have a converter that converts WS component HD> anamorphic S-Video SD, and it can be set to underscan. I use it for making anamorphic DVDs.
Another possibility is that some sets have special settings for computers, that will put the uncropped picture in an inset, with thin black bar edges. This sort of setting may only be available on selected inputs. On my set, it is available with the DVI and firewire inputs only.
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Before *Gojira* actually ran, my Comcast OSG had it ending at 9:45pm, so all was shown, no problems. I don't think I had seen the Japanese version in almost 30 years. It is a much better film than the US edited version. I don't think I'd ever seen the Japanese versions of *Rodan* and *Mothra*. I enjoyed them very much.
When I started this thread, I meant to post regularly, when I found discrepancies in films I planned to watch. Well, it hasn't worked out that way, but hopefully, I'll do more in the future.
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I don't really want TCM showing classic sitcoms, even ones I liked. They did show Screen Directors' Playhouse, and I was fine with that. If they could show some Playhouse 90, I'd love that as well. So, quality, classic, theatrical type drama, in moderation, would be fine with me. But, I wouldn't go beyond that.
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Seems to me it's pretty much either/or. Either the ghosts are real, or she is insane. I lean towards thinking that the ghosts are real, because the boy was conjuring the dead, and he dropped dead when she seemed to exorcise him of the ghost. I don't think that her insanity would be the best explanation of those things. If the ghosts were real, I think she was sane throughout. But, seeing the child dead could easily have driven her insane. If so, we didn't get to see it, because the film ended.
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WIZARD OF OZ QUESTIONS
Watch *Zardoz* backwards, and all your questions will be answered.
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> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}Who is guitarist John McLaughlin?
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> Edited by: finance on Jun 9, 2012 1:00 PM
Jazz-rock fusion music:
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> {quote:title=infinite1 wrote:}{quote}BUMP!
Just one letter away from DUMP!
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Of course there is. I had one with dinner.
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So, HF, is *MATINEE RANCH* available on DVD? It sounds like something I would enjoy seeing.
Movies with Amusement Park Scenes, Especially Carousels
in General Discussions
Posted
*Dante's Inferno* is a great film, very noirish, beautifully shot. Or, perhaps I should say frighteningly shot. TCM has shown it before, but not for a couple of years, IIRC. Wish they'd show it again!