The 29th Hall of Fame

Sent one.

Thank you. I’ll hop on it tonight.

Link didn’t provide subtitles for some reason. It’s ok, started Body Snatchers and going to finish it up now.

I'll PM you a link for Tomboy with subs.

Thank you.

Whoops, it didn't have subs. I forgot I had to add .srt file with the subs. But I can look tomorrow for another copy, it's bedtime for me. Catch ya later.

Sounds good

If you click on the settings on that link and then captions, it will allow you to select "forced" which will put on the English subtitles.

I sent a link with subtitles.

__________________
IMDb
Letterboxd

I guess I don't have to look now

I’ll have a review for Body Snatchers sometime today, and I’ll probably finish Tomboy tonight.

Just got that Das Boot rewatch left. Should get to it next week.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers


Invasion starts off fast and never slows down. Tension and suspense builds up with each scene, as our hero narrates in flashback the events that leads up to the present, that is the beginning of the story.

We know the story. There term “pod people” was a popular term that originated from this film, although the term itself was never used as far as I saw.

Each scene involving the pod people has a sinister vibe, as they are emotionless but exacting in their take over. Even with the allergies political allegory, which Bears mentioning that the screen writer and director have both denied any political allegory was ever intended. Nevertheless, it has endured, and it actually makes the film all the better for it.

That director was Don Siegel, of Dirty Harry fame. Here he manages to layer the suspense with enough human elements as well, particularly the moments between Dr Miles (the narrator) and Becky.

What we get is a Sci Fi classic

Let's quickly go through the very few things I liked about this. The opening credits are some of the best I've ever seen. The song is great, and the visuals accompanying it are pretty dope. The car gadgets are cool. The laser scene was genuinely tense, but only because of the anticipation behind how Bond was supposed to get out of that kind of predicament, as obviously there was no tension that he would actually get hurt in any way. I think that's about it for me. Oh, and whoever came up with the name Pussy Galore deserves all the royalties. Although her character in and of itself was disappointing, at least it was entertaining to hear Connery call her Poossy as if that was the most normal first name there ever was.

Continuing on with all about Miss Galore, someone with that kind of name has no right to be done as dirty as they were done by whoever wrote this movie. You would think that a character with such a stature would be for example what Mystique was to the X-Men. You would think she'd be the main villainess and a considerable threat against our protagonist. Instead, she abruptly gets converted to the heroes side after kissing the most dashing Sean Connery...what!? First of all, let's get one thing straight: none of this is played for laughs, and the film in general delusionally takes itself way more seriously than it ever should. More importantly, such a change in character makes no sense whatsoever. Months and months I presume of preparation and commitment, all thrown away because why? I mean seriously, what did she gain from this betrayal? And about the controversy, no, I don't think Bond raped Pussy, there was obvious consent shown, however, the movie is still filled with misogyny, sexism, chauvinism, and lowkey some undertone racism as well.

Connery's Bond is far from being cool, smart, or sexy, so seeing all these women fall so blindly and instantly for him is just unbelievable. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if this version of Bond was just some meathead's sexual fantasy. I mean the fact that this guy seems to physically struggle to contain himself after seeing a female is not only concerning, but it adds to the stereotype and bad stigma against men. Especially when you take into account his overall behavior towards all of the women he encounters, along with how he's so accepted and even praised in this fictional world as well as in real life.

As for the plot, it's dumb. After a long chase sequence during the night, Bond gets captured by the Chinese minions, and only one of them decides to accompany him in his car, that was dumb. As soon as that happens you know it's solely for the sake of utilizing that ejector seat, they're so see-through. The sister of the girl pictured in the above photo was useless and purposeless, I have no idea why she was kept in the story. They had the opportunity to give her a cool send off, by having her head chopped off by Oddjob's hat, but of course not, you didn't think this movie had any true intentions of actually being fun, did you...I mean just look at all the physical fights that we're being showcased here, they're all uninspired, sped up, lazy, and are simply boring. Choreographing something decent would've been the least they could've done. The conclusion is dumb. Pussy spills the beans to "Washington", and we're supposed to believe that they not only quickly believed her, but also conducted this broad plan overnight that even the nearby civilians were apart of. But these same incredibly smart people couldn't even recognize Goldfinger as he stood right in front of them, and they just let him easily escape. I'm done.

Attachments

 

__________________
"A film has to be a dialogue, not a monologue — a dialogue to provoke in the viewer his own thoughts, his own feelings. And if a film is a dialogue, then it’s a good film; if it’s not a dialogue, it’s a bad film."

- Michael "Gloomy Old Fart" Haneke

Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981)

Okay so war films are definitely not my bag for the most part and this is not an approach to the subject matter I get much from. The author of the novel had described the film as "a blend of a cheap, shallow American action flick and a "contemporary German propaganda newsreel from World War II" and I feel where he's coming from. Until like the last 5 minutes the film has the tone of a grand, romantic adventure and that's not really what I would personally want from a war film. I can't claim to know anything about submarine durability or the effectiveness of depth charges or torpedoes at various depths but the ship getting absolutely pummelled for the entire duration of the film with only manageable damage taken its pretty hard to feel any of the tension the film is trying to build. The horrendous score does not help in this regard, really adding to that cheap American action film tone. The film does look quite good though and they get quite a bit out of that tiny set but there's only so much you can do with 3 hours in the same confined space before it gets repetitive. I wish that party scene at the start went way longer as the film never has that kind of energy again afterwards. Like, I get why people like it, its digestible and entertaining enough but for me its just too weightless to really feel much of anything towards it.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but this is a common thought from the younger generation that always cracks me up a little. Sean Connery is like Marilyn Monroe, one of the biggest sex symbols there's ever been, regardless of if either one of us believes it's warranted. He was the oldest man to ever win People's sexiest man alive, and he's a man who never spent a night alone, unless he wanted to. I would say for him to play a fictional character akin to a superhero who has the gift of being irresistible to women is a role made for him. It may be a meathead's sexual fantasy, but it may also be a woman's fantasy, and plus it was a reality to the man.

Sean Connery was considered a sex symbol ?! Sounds like a dark timeline. But fr, there's a huge difference between Connery, a wealthy celebrated celebrity having women flock to him left and right, and James Bond barging into a hotel room, and having the woman residing there instantly (and I do mean instantly!) betray her boss and fall for this guy she's never met instead of immediately wanting to kick him out.

You'd be surprised at what some women would do. But of course you're right about the difference, but then the other big difference is that Bond is a fictional character and the movie is not meant to be realistic. I've said before how I see Bond as a superhero before we had superhero movies, and you even mentioned how you would have liked Pussy Galore to be more like Mistique from the X-Men. Goldfinger didn't have the luxury of movies like the X-Men series in terms of special effects, so one of Bond's powers is that he is irresistible to women. I don't think that's so unrealistic when compared to what we don't criticize in other movies, but rather I think it comes from an attitude prevalent in the times we live in. Again, I'm not saying that you're wrong, I just think it's very interesting that the younger generation often pinpoints something like that to criticize.

As a heterosexual male I think Connery was very suave, sophisticated and handsome at a young age.

People should remember to take Bond with a grain of salt, especially from that period. It wasn’t meant to be “believable”, considiring all the gadgets and megalomaniacal villains bent on world domination and such.

Is his behavior acceptable by todays standards? Absolutely not. But I don’t think they were seriously advocating his actions.

Now that I’m home (I was out of town the last several days) I’ll be able to finish this.