The 13TH Hall of Fame

Tools    





Legend in my own mind
I don't think I've ever even heard of Flesh and Blood. I hope it's good.
Me too or I will be PM ing @Camo saying that I have a problem with @Blix
__________________
"I don't want to be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me" (Frank Costello)



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
great start, @Blix the Goblin. I remember when this came out and Ricci was looking to break out of kid roles and did so with very impressive, over the edge roles. Gotta respect that.
__________________
What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes
~Mr Minio



I will probably see either Wings of Desire or Jagten this weekend. Didn't actually know that City of Angels was a remake of WoD. I only vaguely remember it through flashes, but I don't think I thought too much of it, when I watched it few years ago.

Also, welcome Blix !



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
Flesh and Blood



@Blix the Goblin nomination.
My reaction to seeing the nom, play-by-play, as I just did it 30 seconds ago:

Sees the poster

- That looks familiar...

Stares at it some more

- But where could I have seen it before?

Stares at it for another ten seconds, then turns to the pile where the unwatched movies are...and on the very top sits Flesh + Blood.

- ....huh...I guess fate/Blix has decided what the next new film will be.
__________________
Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?



Dances with Wolves


This was my first time seeing this movie, along with Schindler's List, probably the biggest movie I hadn't seen up to this point. I was never that interested in it before, even though I really knew nothing about it. I was just going by the impression that I had of what it might be. I don't know how much I would have enjoyed it 27 years ago, but my taste has definitely expanded since then. Just in the last couple years I have become much more fond of Westerns. I was always curious of it since it beat my beloved Goodfellas for the best picture Oscar. I still don't think this should have won, but in another year, sure.

It started out a little shaky for me. Even though I didn't exactly dislike what I was seeing, I thought the beginning went a little overboard trying to be dramatic. In fact, I think much of the movie was sappy and cliched. In that way, it somewhat reminded me of Hacksaw Ridge, which I recently saw. Those are words that most people probably use in a negative fashion, but they're characteristics that I usually don't mind at all. I always thought that this movie would perhaps be dull, but I was never once bored despite it's substantial runtime.

Portraying the white man as bad and the Indians as good is nothing new. I'd say that a lot of 50's Westerns started going that route after it being the other way around for the vast majority of movies beforehand. I believe there was good and bad on both sides, although portraying the Indians as good feels more just to me. Most of this movie is sweet and good natured, and I think the viewer gets lulled into a certain comfort before some of the major conflict comes, making it all the more effective. I checked afterward to see if this was on the top 100 cheers list, and sure enough it is. It's just that kind of movie.

Kevin Costner is perfect in the lead role. I've never thought of him as a great actor, but I've always thought he was one of the most likable actors I have ever watched. His likability transfers to the character seamlessly. I don't know what happened to him. He seemed to go from A list to B list overnight. His direction is spectacular, with beautiful scenery and camerawork throughout. There is very little humor, but it works when it comes. The musical score is an asset. In the end, I think it's a very well made and rousingly entertaining film. I'm so glad it was nominated, or else who knows when I would have finally seen it.

-



Good review, Cricket. I'm looking forward to rewatching that one more now. I haven't seen it since I was a kid and remember very little about it.

Kevin Costner is perfect in the lead role. I've never thought of him as a great actor, but I've always thought he was one of the most likable actors I have ever watched. His likability transfers to the character seamlessly. I don't know what happened to him. He seemed to go from A list to B list overnight.
I've always just blamed Waterworld.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
Good review, Cricket. I'm looking forward to rewatching that one more now. I haven't seen it since I was a kid and remember very little about it.


I've always just blamed Waterworld.
Me too. This actually came up shortly after I joined Mofo.





The Quiet Earth
(1985)

Dir. Goeff Murphy
Starring: Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Pete Smith

I didn't get very far into the Last Man on Earth tv series. I'm not entirely sure I finished the second episode. I didn't like the main characters, with Kristen Schaal being particularly insufferable. Being inspired by similar films and novels, it's understandable that this film and that tv series would be eerily similar, but I wasn't expecting so many events in the first act to be near copies of each other. As such, I began to dread the inevitable female characters' appearance. Luckily, Joanne is nowhere near as grating as Carol was. Similarly, The Quiet Earth as a whole was definitely more suited to my tastes than The Last Man on Earth.

At the beginning of the film, it seemed like Zac started to unravel unusually quickly. I thought that perhaps more time was elapsing between scenes than what appeared, but discovered that wasn't the case whenever time was mentioned in the film. I guess also trying to cope with guilt didn't help matters, but it still seemed very odd to me. The film was certainly engaging enough despite that, and it's nice to see a character in one of these films actually have a theory as to what happened from the very start.

Except for the ending, I think the visuals in the first part of the film are much stronger than the ones that follow. It sets a tone and builds intrigue early on, but then the second and third acts don't quite meet those raised expectations. The powerful ending does make up for that somewhat, and is easily my favourite part of the film. So while The Quiet Earth is a little uneven, it is still rather enjoyable the entire way through. Considering how often we see films with a similar premise to this, it's nice to find one that still holds up.

Attachments
Click image for larger version

Name:	Quiet.jpg
Views:	293
Size:	154.8 KB
ID:	30071  



Wait, you mean you guys don't have Hitler cut-outs at home?
Ha (I'm using two emoticons, because I see two!) I swear Hitler has made more appearances in Hof movies than any other historical figure



Anyway thrilled to see you enjoyed Dances With Wolves so much, Cricket. It's been a favorite of mine since I was like ten years old, back when Costner was my favorite actor.



The most loathsome of all goblins
I love both of those movies.
Waterworld is great fun, I also saw a live version at Sea World as a kid that I will never forget. The Postman I think I enjoyed, but I don't remember it too well.

Regardless, they both bombed. Once you're seen as a box office jinx it's hard to shake it.





The Great Dictator
(Charlie Chaplin, 1940)


I'm glad this was nominated. I had been wanting to see it for a long while. It was worth the wait! I knew that Chaplin often took on social issues in the films he wrote, directed and starred in. But I had no idea that this film was so potent....all while being humorous.

The opening act, set in WWI was fun in a comical way. At that point I thought the movie would be just, fun prat falls, but then the film takes a serious turn after Hynkel rises to power as dictator of Tomania.

Chaplin the writer/director puts the viewer at ease with the simple WW1 scene. Then when we are off guard and expecting a fun little movie, Chaplin throws the seriousness of Nazism squarely in our faces. And that is something that was needed in America in 1939, as it was all too common to turn a blind eye to what Hitler was doing in Europe at the time.

Hollywood itself at the time refused to make films that took a stand against the rising threat of fascism. In the years before WWII Louis B. Mayer head of MGM studios actually conferred with the Nazi Consulate, showing them films and agreeing to remove scenes that the Nazi's found objectionable....all so MGM could sell the movie rights to Germany. I mention that to show what kind of personal courage Charlie Chaplin had to make The Great Dictator, a film he paid himself to have made, as no studio would finance him.

I wasn't prepared myself for how serious the film is. Amid the antics of Chaplin, we see the fate of the German Jews who are being targeted by the Storm Troopers. Even more ominous than the action scenes are the 'quieter' speeches, that speak volumes of the real horrors to come:

I was chilled to the bone when Henry Daniell as Garbitsch (based on Joseph Goebbels) tells the Dictator...."We've just discovered
the most wonderful poison gas. It will kill everybody..."

I mean wow, talk about a prophetic script. The movie pulls no punches, it clearly lays out Hynkel/Hitlers evil plans:

We'll invade Osterlich(Austria) first.
After that we can bluff.
The nations will capitulate.
The world will be under your thumb

Chaplin tried to warn the world of the threat at hand, but America was complacent until after Pearl Harbor. Chaplin's effort alone makes this the most important movie in this Hof and one, if not the most important movie I've seen.

What touched me most was the speech at the end of the film given by the Jewish Barber, who's been mistaken for Hynkel the Dictator. As I looked at Chaplin's face and listened to the words he had wrote, I realized I wasn't watching a character in the movie anymore...I was hearing Charles Chaplin's own plead to the world to stop the madness and embrace humanity and kindness.







Attachments
Click image for larger version

Name:	The Great Dictator Barber Scene (2).jpg
Views:	621
Size:	123.9 KB
ID:	30077  



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Before The Great Dictator was released, M-G-M put out The Mortal Storm, and about the same time they also released Escape, both showing fully the horrors of Nazi Germany. That's not to take away from what Chaplin did, but it puts it in context.
__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page



I don't know the production start dates of those two films, but Chaplin took something like 600 days to make The Great Dictator which I believe makes his movie the first to start production of such a story. It can even be argued that those other two movies were made, in part, thanks to Chaplin's courage.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
very poignant review for a poignant movie, @Citizen Rules!!

And glad to hear you enjoyed, Dances With Wolves, @cricket. Since you've enjoyed westerns recently, have you, by any chance, seen Costner in Open Range. Can't really rave enough about that movie.