NipkowDisc
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Posts posted by NipkowDisc
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robert rossen's boring alexander the great and later on two charlie chans. terrific. they couldn't have given us a sunday primetime showing of bye bye braverman?
not watchin' tcm tonite for sure.
admittedly, I might sit through alexander the great. it's no spartacus but it is somewhat well-acted.
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robert rossen's boring alexander the great and later on two charlie chans. terrific. they couldn't have given us a sunday primetime showing of bye bye braverman?
not watchin' tcm tonite for sure.
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The mystery of 55 DAYS AT PEKING- to me- is just why it plays so often on weekend afternoons.
I mean, it is what it and is, and there's been enough good stuff on for me to allow it, but every time I see 55 DAYS AT PEKING on a Sat/Sun afternoon, I can't help but think they were close to sealing the deals on the schedule for the month and were all "damn, we have three hours we have to fill on a Saturday" and someone tossed a dart and it landed on "55 DAYS," barely missing the deeply-pocked post-its bearing the names of DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, ICE STATION ZEBRA, and THE GREAT RACE affixed to the wall nearby.
I could forgive it if it was any damn good, but it isn't, and I LOVE Nic Ray.
I agree. it ain't that good.
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ps: I have to admit, when I started this thread I wasn't sirius about it.
sirius, the dog star.
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The Boxers were supposed to be so ferocious--like the ISIS brigands, they were very fond of decapitation--, yet through all this movie they are shown as halfhearted combatants who give up the fight real easily. In the several battles of the movie they fall back almost at the moment they face determined resistance, and always fail to exploit their numerical superiority. Did they really have such poor leadership and discipline?
I would imagine that samuel bronston wanted the boxers portrayed as essentially cowards.
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I couldn't sleep at four a.m. this morning, so I came into the living room and turned the television on...I clicked the button for Amazon Prime and thought I'd find a two-hour movie that could put me back to sleep, so I'd at least snooze till six. I shouldn't have picked Sam Peckinpah's THE GETAWAY, because it was so good I had to stay awake and see the whole thing. Why I hadn't seen this film before, I have no idea. And why people do not talk about it more or rate it as highly as Peckinpah's other works, or Steve McQueen's other films, I have no idea about that either.
But people should be discussing this truly excellent film, and that is why I am mentioning it here in this thread. Maybe someone will come along at some later point and do a search for this title, quote this review and add to it. I can only hope so. A side note-- in another thread a year or two ago, I chose my top ten Hollywood films by decade. Definitely, if I had seen THE GETAWAY, I would have put it on the list for the 70s. I may go back and revise that.
For the film itself, how can it get any better than Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw in an anti-establishment fable directed by Peckinpah? There is the requisite violence, but it is arguably needed in this story and cannot be implied. It has to be shown, so we can see what kinds of dangers (and odds) the main characters must overcome on their way to freedom. Probably because I had seen THELMA AND LOUISE and had it in my memory, I half expected Steve & Ali to not really getaway and to wind up shot or driving over the edge of a cliff as they cross the border into Mexico. That doesn't happen, and if you haven't seen the film, you can find out for yourself how it doesn't play out that way.
What makes the film so excellent, in addition to its well-crafted, well-directed and mostly well-acted story, is the use of location filming, tense chase scenes that give us action-action-action...and a smattering of supporting players (many having found greater fame on television by the time they were cast in these roles) that give the story flavor, energy and colorful characterization. Among these folks, I want to mention Jack Dodson as a hostage forced to drive; Dub Taylor as a seedy motel manager; Slim Pickens as a cowboy; and of course, Sally Struthers as Fran, a wannabe Bonnie Parker whose heart inevitably gets broken on the run. Struthers should have had a supporting actress nomination, because she is that good. Do not miss the rib-throwing scene about two-thirds of the way through the movie. It's classic.
As for the leads, I understand they fell in love during the making of this picture and divorced their respective spouses to marry each other. To say they share a special chemistry is underestimating the laws of physical attraction. I expected MacGraw to be a bit of a pushover, but she is given some powerful moments where her character explodes and gets exploded at. She is deceptively calm and then when she faces a crisis, we are wondering how she will react, and if she will ever fully self-destruct. McQueen is perfectly cool, and there is a great scene where the runaway couple emerges from a pile of trash that has been dumped along a gulch in a remote waste site. In this scene, we see him stand up, grab the bag of money and his rifle, then move off with MacGraw as only he can. Nothing rumples him. In fact, nothing rumples this movie. It's as crisp as a new twenty-dollar bill.
a great, great, great, great film probably peckinpah's best, topbilled. so many great scenes and fun. gloria stivic ain't no friend to poor howard sprague. well, at least al lettieri threw him some chicken wings while he was driving.
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I watched the conqueror last nite all the way through. I'm sorry but I doan think it's all that bad a film. name a better film about genghis khan.
hey, it's no lawrence of arabia but it certainly better than that 1965 film with omar sharif.
personally, I think wayne's portrayal is pretty good and susan hayward is smokin'.
but certainly the film is nowheres great but just fair.
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Yeah, true ND.
BUT, I hope you know Hibi was talkin' about the Alfred Hitchcock movie here, NOT that "debate" that was on TV yesterday!
(...sorry again, Hibi)
I think the opening in phoenix should be in 3D!
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susan hayward is a tartar princess and the duke has got 'er!
tonite at ten 'the conqueror' with john wayne as temujin, the genghis khan!
preceeded by demetrius and the gladiators which is even more fun with jay robinson as that crazy caligula. -
whatta jip. it's already been on TV.
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What is really being said: I'm a space cadet and I forgot things and as well as being disorganized. Please adjust your schedule accordingly.
I guess I'm just a bellyacher.
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it ain't anywhere near december 7th or june 6th.
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I forgot about Bye Bye Braverman being on late last nite. I was gonna get it on my vcr. nice goin', tcm. please schedule it better next time.
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if that 70% won't support trump then let them have 4 or 8 years of hillary or joe biden. that'll teach 'em!
you know what biden will probably do? he'll pick hillary as his vp and then we'll all get it up the ol' kazoo.
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But I want him to be the nominee. His current supporters might be the largest group compared to the other Republican candidates, but sooner or later the 65 or 70% of the rest of the Republican voters who DO NOT support him and who vote in the primary will be looking for a candidate, as others begin to drop out. They won't stand for the crap that his current supporters enjoy. He's got to appeal to them.
if that 70% won't support trump then let them have 4 or 8 years of hillary or joe biden. that'll teach 'em!
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I watched the speech. Some of it was well done -- I'm speaking not as a Trump supporter. Not surprising that Fox didn't carry as much of it, they're in league with the GOP establishment. CNN carried a lot of it because it's publicity for their debate on Wednesday; MSNBC carried it because they know they're viewers like a good laugh and want Trump to screw up the Republican pot.
But -- speaking objectively -- Trump started by saying he doesn't use a teleprompter, and that the other candidates can give the same speech over and over, because they don't get much media coverage, so no one in different places would know that they give the same speech. But after Trump said that about them -- he proceeded to give the same speech he always gives! The same stories, the same shtick, the same bit about Carl Icahn, the polls, the same exact sentences about how he's a great deal maker, etc. There were one or two new slants, but mostly, to paraphrase William Demerest in The Lady Eve, "It's the same speech!".
yeah it is but his supporters doan care.
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The moderating was quite moderate until recently.
Someone clearly said something to someone.
Hey, maybe someone wrote a real complainy letter to management or something.
I hope it was nothing I posted.
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I loved Dickie Moore as Marlene Dietrich's son in BLONDE VENUS.
man, she is beautiful in that shot. no wonder duke liked her.
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donald trump was so stupendous and energized tonite on cnn and msnbc. fox didn't seem to carry it so much. he knocked it home...as usual. I actually hope carly fiorina does try to get cute with the donald wednesday nite so he can show everyone what pugnacious tenacity looks like.
I agree with what his national campaign guy sam clovis said afterwards...
"there is something going on here in this cycle and the gop establishment is either in denial or disengaged from their electorate."
I hope trump can talk to somebody like Richard Trumka and can reach him because that would change the whole election dynamic and alotta pants would drop off alotta schtootzes and schtootzettes.
another hopeful sign is trump is getting some african-american support because they too are fed up with losings jobs to illegals. -
And I still say you sleep well because you don't care. Refusing to vote is evidence of that lack of caring. You don't care about wingnuts and you don't care about voting and you don't care about the policies of your government.
So you sleep well because you don't care. How many times should I make this point?
I doan ever plan to vote again after wasting my last vote on that foul-up mccain but if trump gets the nomination I'm a-gonna feel like ordering pizza.
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So, not the Tea Party. You think they're smart, I guess.
just the ones who like trump and cruz.
the ones who like rand paul and his bleeped up dad are the real excrement heads.
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most of the Boehner-McConnell stupes in the house and senate with a few exceptions like cruz and sessions in the senate and rational conservative house republicans and most blue dog democrats.
most of boehner's crew are rinos and alotta McConnell's too
to provide a few examples. in the senate excrement heads like orrin hatch, linda murkowski and bob corker are most definitely rinos and in the house too many to name. michele bachmann's not a rino she's just stupid.
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rinos? You mean the Tea Party faction? Religious-Right Kentuckian clerks? Boehner's staff? Who you talkin' about here?
most of the Boehner-McConnell stupes in the house and senate with a few exceptions like cruz and sessions in the senate and rational conservative house republicans and most blue dog democrats.
most of boehner's crew are rinos and alotta McConnell's too
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Canada has a fascist government at the moment - and for the past decade. Conservatives, ay.
This happens every so often. People forget how much better the country gets under our more center-left Parties like the Liberal Party and its shadow, the New Democratic Party - and do something stupid and regressive like elect too many Conservatives to Parliament.
that's what's wrong with the current gop. too many stupid dumb as excrement rinos.
''somebody kick me in the face and never mind the glasses."
I doan believe it!...
in General Discussions
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and that film is probably the source of the duke/pilgrim association.