ValentineXavier

> {quote:title=willbefree25 wrote:}{quote}But the people weren't really killed, the animals were and still might be. > > Big difference. > > I don't appreciate gratuitous violence in movies, even with humans. There is NO "gratuitous" violence in *Forbidden Games*. >2: not called for by the circumstances : unwarranted It is a film about children trying to cope with the horrors of war. Showing that horror was absolutely necessary. If the parents, and/or the dog had been blown to bits, and we saw the bloody lumps of flesh, even that might be justified, given the reality of that war. The way the dog is treated, in the context of the film, is much as one would expect under the circumstances. But, how was the dog treated, in reality, while making the film? That question concerns me too. I did some poking around on line, but couldn't find a definitive answer, only speculation. Certainly, I hope that the dog wasn't hurt, but I can't be sure that it wasn't. In our times, TV and the movie theaters are filled with mindless, gratuitous violence. So, I had to respond when you said that a powerful, beautiful, humane film like *Forbidden Games* had "gratuitous violence." It doesn't. Of course, if you don't want to ever watch a film that includes violence, that is your prerogative. But, that doesn't leave you much to watch, not even *Bambi*. I have NO idea why this came out all underlined, and tinted. I had no such intention. Sorry. Edited by: ValentineXavier on Apr 17, 2012 9:20 PM

Sans Fin says it well. I'll add a bit. My DVDR, using 8x or 16x discs, which are standard, will record a two hour film from the HDD to DVD in 12 minutes. This saves wear and tear on the lasers, since they are on for 12 minutes, not 2 hours. HDDs will hold a lot of films. You can keep transferring them from your cable DVR to your DVDR, then edit them down, and dub to disc, whenever you have the time. Those editing abilities that SF speaks of are very nice. You can insert chapter marks at favorite scenes, lots of different stuff. There are some tricks to unattended dubbing of films from DVR>DVDR w/o a HDD. You must know exactly how long the film is, and set up the recording to run just a tiny bit longer. One way is - say the film is 96m long. Say your DVDR does One-touch recording in 30m increments. You start the recording, start playing back the film on the DVR, and wait 7 minutes. Then, you hit the OTR button 3 times, for 90m. Or, most units you can set up a timer recording of the appropriate length, and start playback on the DVR, and the timer recording, at the same time. Either way, you'll get just a bit of non-film at the beginning, and end. With a DVR with a HDD, you can always trim that off, before burning to disc. Edited by: ValentineXavier on Apr 17, 2012 7:16 AM

I have not noticed any general lowering of TCM's volume level. But, I find it rather common for some of the older films to have a very low volume level, and get lower as they play. I do turn them up, but it doesn't seem to help much.

I wouldn't mind seeing made-for-TV movies, once in a while, if they are good. TCM has already shown a few, including Man from Uncle movies a few years back, and more recently, at least a couple from a 50's TV series about Rodger's Rangers. One TV movie I'd really like to see is 1988's *Gotham*, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Virginia Madsen. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095246/

Yeah, that one always brings tears to my eyes, and a lump in my throat.

I have a DVD recorder with a hard drive, which makes life a lot easier. It's just a little bit trickier to dump a film from your cable (or sat.) DVR to your DVDR, if it doesn't have a hard drive, to get the timings right. But I'm sure you can do it. Another word of caution - most cable boxes don't output an anamorphic (squeezed wide screen) signal over the S-Video output. So, to make anamorphic DVDs, (what they call "enhanced for wide screen" on commercial DVDs,) which uses all the pixels to hold the picture info - none wasted on black bars - you'd have to buy an adapter. You'd want one that converts the three wire picture outputs from your DVR, called component outputs, into S-Video, which would give you the squeezed anamorphic picture. Of course most people don't get that involved with it.

> {quote:title=Sepiatone wrote:}{quote} > Odd, but I never thought of *The Treasure of Sierra Madre* as a "western". > > Sepiatone > A lot of people don't. But, it has gold prospectors, bandidos, indios, burros, gun fights, and gila monsters. You just don't see a lot of horse riding. So, I wouldn't call it a horse opera, but it's clearly a western to me.

I also recall seeing it on TCM. I'm glad that someone posted about this doc. I meant to!

> {quote:title=NoraCharles1934 wrote:}{quote} > Now my understanding is that I require either an HD box or DVR from Charter in order to reunite me with my film fix. Is there any way of still using a DVD-R, or do I have to opt for the DVR, move my movies to a flashdrive and learn how burn discs on a computer. Yes, I really am this ignorant. Sorry. :8} > I have Comcast, not Charter, but the situation is similar. Cable companies are dropping their analog channels, to free up bandwidth to hold more digital HD channels. If you have a HDTV, get a HD box, or HD DVR. With a HD box, or DVR, or SD digital box,you can run the S-Video output, and right/left audio outputs from your cable box to your DVDR (DVD recorder.) Then, you can record whatever is selected on the box, to your DVDR. If you opt for a cable box, HD or SD, some can be programmed to change channels, so your DVDR can record from them while you are away. Many can't be programmed, and the cable CSRs don't seem to know what's what. If you opt for a DVR, (my recommendation,) they have two tuners. So, you can record one channel, while watching another. If you want something you have recorded on your DVR on your DVDR, to make a DVD, you must play back the recording in real time, and record it on your DVDR. You can set this up to run when you leave the house, or when you go to bed. If you want to program record several things from cable to your DVDR, it gets a bit more complicated. That requires setting up short dummy recordings that start just before what you really want. This will make the program you want show up on the displayed tuner, not the undisplayed tuner. At any rate, no computer or flash drives are needed. Slaytonf also gave you good info. Edited by: ValentineXavier on Apr 15, 2012 2:30 AM

In no particular order - *Pursued* *Blood on the Moon* *Little Big Man* *The Ox-Bow Incident* *The Treasure of the Sierra Madre* *Run of the Arrow* *One-Eyed Jacks* *The Appaloosa* *El Topo* *Johnny Guitar* I'm sure there are some others I like at least as well, but these are the ones that come to mind at the moment.

Yep, it was a good interview. I was also surprised to see two friends of mine in the audience shots, about six times.

Sounds good enough to watch both versions back-to-back.

> {quote:title=Sepiatone wrote:}{quote} > The only thing worse than that print was the choice of Ronald Reagan as Custer. Now, in spite of my politics, I've stated that I always thought Ronnie was a good actor. But NO actor can do EVERYthing. And shouldn't. Perhaps because of my politics, I've always thought of Raygun Ronnie playing Custer as type-casting. But then, I've never thought of him as a good actor. I think the source of my bias was when I was a little kid, Reagan replaced the Old Ranger as host of Death Valley Days, one of my favorite shows. I loved the Old Ranger, and thus hated Ronnie.

Thanks, but wait until you hear a few of my bad puns - you'll question my maturity...

True, and you are more likely correct as to what film is in question. But, the communication with Dimitri, in Moscow, might make it the target in one's memory. Actually, perhaps my memory is failing me. I haven't seen either film in quite a while, but I can't find Dimitri, or a Russian Premier, on the cast list of either film. I certainly remember the US Prez talking to him on the phone. But, we never see him. Perhaps that accounts for no listing in the cast. Edited by: ValentineXavier on Apr 10, 2012 2:18 AM

I also tend to end my emails with "thanks." Obviously, if said email contains a complaint, the "thanks" is for reading your complaint, and thanking them in advance, for doing something about it. Being friendly and polite is almost always more effective than ranting, raving, and being rude to people, especially when you want them to do something for you.

WARNER ARCHIVE DROPS BALL ON KAY KYSER DVD I hope that the ball wasn't heavy enough to damage the DVD. I'm sure that someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but it is my understanding that WB's -R releases are virtually always bare bones, no extras, and minimal, if any restoration. If that's the only way we can get movies that may not be popular enough to support a more expensive release, so be it.

Well, it's hardly a surprise that when you are satirizing things, the resulting satires will resemble what they satirize. Brooks did a lot of brilliant stuff, and a lot of mediocre stuff. I like even some of the mediocre stuff.

Another possibility is *Dr. Strangelove:* http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/

Personally, I think the film *Titanic* is one of the most over-rated of all time. But, it was a social phenomenon. I saw it once, and that was enough for me. But, for someone who likes the film, well done 3D could be nice, especially in the confined spaces. I doubt that Cameron's diving on the Titanic was done for publicity. He enjoys that sort of exploration. On 3D - I didn't care for the old 3D of the 50s - it didn't work for me, and gave me a head ache. Modern 3D systems work very well, when done properly. At one time, movies were silent, then they talked. They were black and white, then they came in color. Both changes were moving closer to appearing real. 3D, when done naturally, and not with throw-it-at-the-screen gimmicks, is closer to reality. I'm sure that one day, 3D will be the norm.

> {quote:title=TheManWhoLaughs wrote:}{quote} > > 2. The director, in return, must brand her a liar. > ??? I think one of us was bit by a dead bee...

Well, I saw the redux version, and liked it. But, it has been so long since I saw the original cut, I can't really compare them. I would say that as a rule of thumb, if the director was happy with the original cut, it probably shouldn't be revisited. But, if the studio demanded cuts that the director didn't like, and later, they have the opportunity to issue a cut that better matches their original intentions, go for it. Several films that I think are better in their later, longer, directors' versions are *Brazil*, *Heaven's Gate*, *The Man Who Fell to Earth*, *The Wicker Man*, *The Devils*, and *Touch of Evil*. Some of these were released as U.S. cuts, and later we got the European cuts, which were much better. The Welles film was restored as closely as possible to his original intent, using a 50 odd page letter he wrote, requesting the changes.

*The Manster* isn't a great film, but it is an interesting film, if you like Japanese film. Although the director and cinematographer are from the US, many who worked on the film are Japanese, including the art director, and the second unit/assistant director. It is a moderately cheesy horror film of the era, with the look of a classic Japanese film of the era.

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote} > Then, all of a sudden we heard that he and some other "captured" German rocket scientists were coming here. We were told in newsreels and newspapers that the Russians had captured a bunch of German rocket scientists too, and they were putting them to work making long-range missiles. I was in 7th grade in 1961, at John Marshall in Oklahoma City. This was post-Sputnik, and we had a missile engineering course in HS! Back then, the word was that the US got most of the German guidance people, and the Russians got most of the propulsion people, and this could be seen in our products. In the 50s, V2s were often shown in Sci Fi shows as the "space ship" involved. Or, if it wasn't real V2 footage, the ship shown at least looked a lot like a V2. Back in the late 50s, I had three picture books by Willy Ley, conjecture on future space ventures. His space station looked very much like the one in *2001*. I don't know if he got credit in the film, but he should have.

Sorry, Miss W., I certainly didn't mean to creep you out. I meant it to be a silly take-off on the film *The Manster*, which I was reminded of in the other thread, when someone referred to Ben as "the Mankster." Ben, if you are reading this, I'm sure Miss W. is not the least bit dangerous, an obsessed stalker, or any thing like that. She is indeed very amiable, and I'm sorry I've embarrassed her.