JonParker
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Posts posted by JonParker
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> You're not a Vietnam vet, I take it.
Nope, too young.
>
> You are correct, I was wrong about the notes and the
> tank, but Hanoi Jane is still a traitor and I would
> only watch Osborne interview her if he spat tobacco
> juice at her:
Whatever. I'm no Jane Fonda fan, but this stuff happened so long ago it seems pretty irrelevant to me. I'm also not in favor of judging the quality of the work by the life of the person creating it. Reifenstahl was a fantastic filmmaker, even though she used her talent in the service of odious ideas.
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i don't have a problem with sex in movies -- in fact, I don't have problem with showing just about anything in movies. I do think sex is often used as a crutch to cover up bad acting or directing though.
Most of what people fondly remember as the days when "things were left to the imagination" was the result of the odious Production Code, which had negative effects on the art of film for years.
I kind of object to what I'm hearing in this thread, not because I'm necessarily advocating for more sex in movies, but because it's not taking into account the intent of the filmmaker. Sometimes it's appropriate, sometimes it's not. It depends on the purpose and how it fits into the overall movie.
(edited only to change "negative affects" to "negative effects" -- gawd, shoot me).
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JonParker
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Tanga is a site that offers a daily deal, one thing very cheap. They sell them until they run out, then it's nothing until the next day. Today's deal is a Philips DVD recorder for $69 plus $10 shipping.
If anyone who doesn't have one of these machines wants to grab one, this is an unbelievable price.
Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in this, nor am I responsible for any issues. The site is similar to Woot, which has been doing this kind of daily deal for a while now. I'm posting this because I thought maybe someone who has not yet upgraded to a DVD recorder might want to jump on this.
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I wish I could remember where I read this, but once in a book review of a Grant biography the reviewer used the line "Cary Grant made men seem like a good idea."
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> For the ignorant who have no eyes and
> know not history, Fonda made a trip to North Vietnam,
> visited POWs, took notes handed to her for transport
> back to the U.S., and promptly handed them over to
> the Viet Cong. The traitor also posed for cheesecake
> on an enemy tank. Ask a vet about Fonda.
I don't know why on earth I'm bothering, but several of the POWs named in those stories have denied the rumors about the note passing, and no evidence has surfaced to show that they are true. Also, it wasn't a tank, it was an anti-aircraft gun. It wasn't cheesecake, it was a fully clothed candid shot. She did apologize for the photo, although not for her anti-war stance.
Feel free to nurse 35 year old grudges if you wish, but at least try to get your facts straight.
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I have Panasonic model, and you can edit films, burn them to DVD and delete them, keep them on the hard drive, whatever. It's really sweet, and it's helped me see a lot of movies that I might not have otherwise bothered with.
I'm with allieharding. These things are great. I wish I'd bought one long before I did.
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> Okay, it might not make TCMU, but after reading your
> comments and going to IMDB and looking up "Shanty
> Tramp", I really, really want to see it.
Shanty Tramp is definitely worth seeing. A friend of mine used to do theme movie nights a few years ago, and did a K. Gordon Murray night with "Shanty Tramp" and "Savages from Hell." I had never heard of him before that. It was awesome.
> I'm kinda bummed I missed the Russ Meyer movies
> yesterday night, but it's not something I'll be
> crying over.
If you need them just ask. I think "Faster Pussycat" is canonical viewing if you want to understand 20th century film.
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Well since the article says that Mr. Karsch reads these message boards, I'll post the following just for him:
TCM is doing a fantastic job. I don't love every movie, nor should I, but I'm consistently seeing challenging and innovative programming that expands my knowledge of film.
I don't want you fired. I think you and the rest of the TCM staff are doing a great job, and my TV set is almost never tuned to any other channel.
Keep up the excellent work. I've never been so in love with a TV channel as I am with TCM.
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I remember the anime, but not the Mexican wrestling. When was that?
Also, I don't think TCM is undergoing a decline in quality at all.
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JonParker
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> Who is K Gordon Murray? And why I haven't I heard
> about him??
>
> What movies did he make and when?? I'd like to
> know.......
K, Gordon Murray is ... well, there really are no words to describe him. His masterpiece, Shanty Tramp, is about as sleazy a picture as you're ever going to see. His last movie, Thunder Road, actually featured Mickey Rooney in a part that he'd probably just as soon forget.
I'm not sure Murray belongs on TCM. I love TCMU, I loved the Meyer films, but there are limits.
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Rusty,
Those are amazing. I love them. Can you PM me a price list?
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> And yes, I was a young teenage idiot once myself. We
> had too much teen-oriented media in the '50s and
> '60s, and that media taught us to be irresponsible,
> goofy, foolish, and idiots.
I agree that the rise of the teenager as a distinct stage of life is a relatively recent phenomenon. I don't agree that the media is to blame -- I think it's the comfort level of being in a wealthy society. Where life is nasty, brutish and short there's a need to become an adult quickly -- there simply is no other choice.
The media reflects our lifestyle, it doesn't cause it.
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It's good to see you back. I've been worried that all my favorites were deserting.
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I don't even know how to count the number of times I've watched some films, but here's 5 that I know I've watched at least 25 times, some quite a bit more.
1. The Godfather I & II
2. The God, the Bad and the Ugly
3. Seven Samurai
4. Heathers
5. The Passion of Joan of Arc
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> I know
> what you mean about the Zombie thread. Unfortunately,
> there's even more popping up. I feel like this has
> been the Zombie message board
> lately.......................LOL
Aren't zombies supposed to come back from the dead?
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PLEASE shut up. All of you. And quit with the homophobic comments. If you just can't keep from calling other people names, go do it to someone in real life and see where it gets you.
You're killing these boards, and I'm willing to gamble that I speak for the majority here when I say that we're damned sick and tired of it. If you can't behave, just go away.
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> Now, there is one film that is supposed to be
> hilarious, but I can't stand: "Safety Last!". To
> me, this film was not funny in the slightest, but was
> instead absolutely TERRIFYING. Of the 'big three'
> slient commedians, Howard Lloyd is definitely my
> least favorite...and I can't help wondering if the
> reason is because this was the first film of his I
> saw. NOT funny.
I don't find it terrifying, but I don't find it a good film either. My main issue is that Lloyd's character is not sympathetic at all. He's mean, opportunistic and a liar. My favorite example of what's wrong with the movie is summed up in the scene where Lloyd, pretending to be a big shot, slips a dollar to an office boy, but steals it back a second later.
Compare that to the scene in "Sherlock Jr." where Keaton not only returns a lost dollar, but ends up giving away one of his own to another person who lost money. It's just as funny and builds sympathy for the character. In "Safety Last," the fact that Lloyd had given me no reason to care about his character worked against him in the building scene. I really didn't care if he fell or not.
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Thomas Doherty has a book on the subject. It's fairly dry reading, but the thrust of his argument is that after the war with the rising popularity of television, the audience changed. Before that movies were the primary source of entertainment for adults, but that it wasn't easy for a couple to get away from the kids for the evening. In addition, the explosion of the suburbs meant that movie theaters weren't as convenient to much of the population.
There were a lot of ways that the movie industry tried to cope with television, such as widescreen formats, but one of the most prominent was the rise of movies aimed at the one demographic that was still going to theaters -- teenagers. Doherty chronicles the ways in which a teen audience changed the face of film, not just in movies specifically for and about teens, but even the effect the change had on movies ostensibly aimed at an adult audience.
Now even horror films are routinely cut before release in order to capture a PG-13 audience, while adult oriented films, with a few exceptions, are relegated to arthouses.
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> I want to see Yolanda and the Thief and am
> happy to see that TCM will be playing it in January.
> "Coffee Time", at last!
I had never heard of it until your earlier post. Now I want to see it too.
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> No one gets offended if you open your mind a little
> bit before posting. Same song and dance on this
> forum: older film buffs thinking their opinions make
> them more important, and the blazing young guns that
> don't want to hear it.
This sort of equivalency bothers me in the political arena, and it bothers me here. Most of the vitriol has come from those who object to TCMU being shown at all. There are different opinions, yes, but the hateful expression of them has been decidedly lopsided. You'd expect it to be the other way around, but it's not.
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Stoney,
If you haven't seen the Japanese version of Godzilla, you should. It did the art house circuit last year and I was lucky enough to catch it. It's really a very different movie than the American Raymond Burr version -- much darker and more of a nuclear parable.
It came out on DVD last month, so try to pick it up or NetFlix it if you can. I know I'd have a hard time seeing the American version after watching it.
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> I often hear of people who got rid of
> their records because they didn't know what to do
> with them. It kills me, as I always find out after
> they've dispensed with them.
I was one of those. Back in the late 80s I was at a period in my life where I was moving around a lot, and I just got sick and tired of lugging them everywhere. I had a collection of nearly 400 albums, mostly post-punk and new wave, including a lot of rare 12" single remixes and European imports.
I regret it now, although it's some comfort that I didn't have a hell of a lot of choice in the matter.
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> And
> really, any kids who are going to stay up that late
> to watch him are probably already down the wrong
> road.
I would argue, as I have over violence in video games and movies, that any kids that are home watching television aren't out causing trouble.
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> Are you nuts? Hello? No sleazy modern movies? What
> do you call Russ Meyer films? "Faster Pussycat" is
> exactly the kind of thing I mean, airing this Friday.
> It didn't take long to go from harmless fun b-movies
> to pseudo-porn. That's what I'm talking
> about.
I don't call a 40 year old movie "modern." And I don't consider it pseudo-porn either, but that's a judgement call that you're free to disagree with. I think "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" is nauseating garbage, but I'm willing to share the planet with people who don't agree.
> And seeing those promos for that movie should not be
> running during all hours of the day! Since the
> movies are not appropriate to show during regular
> hours, they should not be advertised during regular
> hours.
I do agree that the constant promos are tiresome, but so are all the promos. I just fast forward through them, since I watch everything on my DVR.
maybe i'm just old fashioned...
in General Discussions
Posted
Anne,
First off, I know you don't advocate censorship, and that's one of things I admire about you. You're able to separate what you want to see from what anyone should be allowed to see, and there's too few people who can do that.
My response was to the thread in general, which was about the "less is more" theory. I agree that sometimes that's the case, but not always -- it depends on the skill of the filmmaker. Todd Solondz makes movies with fairly explicit sex that's almost never about love, and usually ends up being a horrible mistake on the part of the character involved. They're good movies though, and the non-erotic way in which sex is presented is important to the story.
If you want to show love on screen then sex is not the way to do it -- there are many other ways to get that message across that are far more effective. But that doesn't mean that sex isn't an important part of people's lives, and by extension an important part of the lives of fictional characters.
I'm hard pressed to think of many movies in which sex was important to a love relationship, even to the present day. Sex is usually shown between characters who are cheating on spouses or in other situations in which sex and danger are intertwined.
I'm not sure this is a good thing. As much as I love film noir, the attitudes towards sex are fairly repulsive -- a sexually aware woman is either willing to murder or to make some poor **** murder on her behalf. For all the hipness in noir, the films are pretty biblical in their sexual attitudes. I don't think modern films are much better. From a female perspective, the last era when female attitudes toward sex were presented as healthy was in the pre-codes.