Dargo

Well, if we've NOW decided that this thread was REALLY about the END of life, and NOT some talk about the "Afterlife", then might I suggest for consideration the penultimate ending to THIS movie, and a scene which after over three-quarters of a century since its filming can STILL stir up a minor little debate as to Cagney's final actions. (...me?...well, I'm PRETTY sure he went out this way as a final favor to his ol' pal O'Brien)

Yep Tiki, I agree. And besides, Jack's "Wendy! I'm Home!" line was always MUCH more fitting and really deserves to be better remembered anyway. And while I agree with most of your other points, sorry, I JUST could never get past Shelley Duvall and her, well, sorry again, WEIRD look and manner about her. And thus she's the one who's always kinda sorta lessened my enjoyment of this film a little, 'cause I never ever find myself rootin' for her in this movie. Yeah, yeah, I know that's a shallow comment to make...so SUE me! (...but HEY, she DID make one hell of an Olive Oyl in that sloooooooow-movin' POPEYE flick, now didn't SHE?!) LOL

Sorry Sepia. Didn't mean to rag on ya here...OR your bro-in-law for THAT matter. But hey, what do I know, HUH?! Years ago I SWORE Johnny Carson(before he turned grey) looked a lot like John Garfield!!!

Eeh! Don't worry about it, Sans. The ONE thing we Agnostics DO know for SURE is that some of you Believers AND some of you Atheists out there can sometimes get carried away about this subject. (...and we've come to accept that fact!) LOL

Hill House, in THE HAUNTING... (...if THAT isn't the main "character" in a film, I don't know what is!)

Yep, just a few minutes ago I was over in Joe's "Candids" thread and saw what you said about Maria. And so I covered the lower half of her face with my hand, and found you might have a point there.

Well then, you DO know what this MEANS, doncha lavender?! It means that in about a year from now I'll state this very same thought in another thread and then won't remember who I got it from! (...and then when you call me on it, I'll confuse YOU with Char!!!!) LOL

Yep, I always have too, lavender.

TB, while it doesn't surprise me at all that because of how you predicated your initial post and by a few of your replies to others in it, this thread has begun to delve into the theological. I "believe" your primary intent was more specifically geared toward the idea of presenting your opinion that you felt the film A GUY NAMED JOE was mawkish and manipulatively sentimental. And if that WAS your primary intent, then I have to say I agree with you, as the last time I watched this movie I remember more than few scenes contained within it which caused me to involuntarily "roll MY eyes to the heavens", too! However, having said this, sorry, I also think you might have been placing much too much importance upon this film in regard to it being some form of an "essay" about "the Afterlife", as I got the impression you also wanted(and maybe more than you realize) to use this movie as some sort of an example to press your own theological opinion(s) here. I'd like to add that even though this Agnostic HERE isn't inclined toward a belief in some Afterlife, some of my favorite films are ones I "believe" to be well made and extremely entertaining and which touch upon this very subject, such as Lubitsch's HEAVEN CAN WAIT. (...and THAT'S probably because I like movies about this subject that don't take themselves all that seriously, because MY "belief" is that the more people DON'T take themselves all THAT seriously, the better THIS "life" becomes!)

OH yeah! Gotta admit these two are very understandable, redhook.

Bogie?! REALLY, Sepia?!! If Dick Wesson reminds me of ANYBODY, it's Jerry Lewis. (...and as per by mentioning of this in that "Destination Moon" thread)

Why, I don't know WHAT you guys are talkin' about here! Ya see, just a while back I purchased from the TCM store "The Dick Wesson Collection", aka, "The first guy to do the whole Jerry Lewis shtick before Jerry did it". (...and MY copy of "Destination Moon" is SUPERB!!!!)

And yet ANOTHER interesting old story about William Boyd... Unlike most other areas of the country, Ironically in Brooklyn NY, the locals actually pronounced his name: "William Bird"! (...betcha NOBODY knew THAT around here, now DID ya???!!!...and yep, if you're wonderin', those SAME folks would ALSO call the guy who played Messala in the '59 remake of BEN HUR, yep, you guessed it: "Stephen Bird")

While I agree with some of your thoughts here MM, I highlighted that word "revisionist" up there in your text primarily because I'm of the mind that it's somewhat misplaced in its use, and because I believe many if not MOST of the westerns made during the studio era WERE actually "revisionist" in their presentations of the Old West to begin with and didn't and don't in many cases present that era in as true a depiction as many of the newer westerns have.

Yep Iz, good point also. And thus Andy's contention(and which I earlier stated I believe Andy actually offered up tongue-in-cheek) would also imply that ANY John Ford movie in which he was given enough money to film it in Technicolor, would fall into this "Neo-Western" genre too, and NOT just "The Searchers".

And btw Joe, while I think I understand your reasoning here, at least I think your basic and underlying rationale for this "Neo-Western" category being that many of the newer westerns seem to have matured into stories that are presented without clearly defined "good guy/bad guy" characters(or this whole "antihero" thing which has been mentioned), I would suppose Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" would then fall into this "Neo" category, correct? (...well, at least in MY opinion anyway, THAT movie is STILL one of the greatest westerns ever made and regardless if one wishes to tack-on a "Neo" prefix to its genre or NOT!)

And Andy, while I got the feelin' your post here was offered up in sort of a tongue-in-cheek fashion, that whole "dude" thing especially doesn't hold up to scrutiny. (...unless you're going to place both Greg Peck in "The Big Country" and Jimmy Stewart in "Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" in this new "Neo-Western" category?!)

So Joe, what you're sayin' here is... "When legend becomes fact, FILM the legend!"...RIGHT?!

Wow! REALLY, Kid??? Yeah, well, I suppose I could see Danton as the nerdish engineer father of Dennis the Menace. (...that is if he moonlighted as a GANGSTER!!!)

And this is exactly what I noticed quite a lot while working the boarding gates at LAX all those years. and not ONLY the older stars, but also many of the younger ones too...without their makeup on, you really wouldn't look twice at 'em because they're not nearly as good looking in person as they are in the movies or on television in many cases.

I occasionally wonder when I hear or read this alternate English language title for Leone's "A Fistful of Dynamite", if it might have contributed to the poor showing at the box office and being far less remembered than most other Leone westerns, as I always thought in many regards it was as good as any he ever made?

All this talk of "fallout shelters" is remindin' me of one of my favorite MTV videos back in the early '80s(and when everyone thought "video had killed the radio star")...Donald Fagen's(he of Steely Dan) jazzy and tongue-in-cheek "New Frontier" song/video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBruAooXPNU

Are you KIDDIN', lady?! Why, I'll have you know that even THIS ol' Angeleno HERE never passes up the opportunity to tell the waitress at the Cracker Barrel that I'll take the grits whenever I order that delicious Country Breakfast special there! So yeah SURE, I've tastes grits, and I LOVE 'em!!! (...but that really wasn't my point)

SEE?! Like I was sayin' here...we ANGELENOS were probably goin' to be THE FIRST to get hit in a worst case scenario!!! (...and mean, why would those Ruskies even BOTHER with those little podunk places in the South, right?!...WHAT?!...would they REALLY need to worry about destroyin' all the GRITS in the world???!!!) LOL

Thanks Dothery. Good catch there.