What is your movie speciality?

Ok, grand scale, check; Johnny Depp, check; but history??? Old sea tales about ghost ships and Davy Jones to the contrary, there are no such things as the living dead or people who are part human, part fish--not even mermaids.

You listed several of the more recent epics, but how do you feel about older epics? The Big Country, The Alamo, The Way West, The Longest Day, The Robe, two versions of Ben Hur, two versions of Cimmaron, Greed, Intolerance, Giant, The Big Parade to name a few.

And I don't know if I go so far as to call myself an "expert" or anything, but you'd have a difficult time stumping me on the films of or the minutiae and trivia relating to the works of Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Sam Peckinpah, Akira Kurosawa, John Huston, Robert Altman, Terry Gilliam, Orson Welles, Sam Fuller, Preston Sturges, Stanley Kubrick, Albert Brooks and many other of my all-time favorite filmmakers. Not only have I seen virtually every single one of their films, most of them many multiple times, but I've also done a lot of reading about all of these filmmakers. My DVD/LD library is impressive, to be sure, but nearly as impressive is my personal film-related book library (biography, criticism, theory, history).

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

I suppose mine would be musicals. I certainly am more knowledgeable about them than I am any other genre.

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"I'm a man." "Not everybody's perfect!" - Some Like It Hot

never mind

I would say what a pity, about the horror movies, but you have killer taste in Sci-fi, so I'm willing to let that go.



I'm about the same, in that I like pretty much everything except Anime . . . ation. I've seen a very few animated movies, like Beauty and the Beast, etc ... and even though they are real good, I just can't get into that genre. As far as Anime goes, I wouldn't even bother trying it.

I divide my movies by genre, and I have one self set aside, for that very same genre.



What is that, exactly!?!

I would pick Classic Horror. I can't rightly say any Horror, because I don't watch the new Horror, and I despise gore. I know a lot more about the classics.

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Westerns, mostly. That's also my favorite film genre as well. Eventually I will make a Top 10 westerns list.

Quick question if you don't mind me asking, but what exactly do you do for a living? Is your library/book library out of pure interest, or is it required for your job. I actually find your love for movies very interesting and inspirational. Do you think you could take a picture of your collections? Would be neat to see what it looks like/how much space it takes up.

Wait...what??? There's no such thing as the living dead? No ghost ships???
Say it ain't so.

lol you're right, rufneck, no history there. I do love the "sea tales" feel of the trilogy.

Funny you should mention that, because when I wrote the post I was wondering why older epics weren't coming to mind. I'd have to say of the ones you mentioned, Ben Hur and The Robe were favorites.

As to the some of the others, you list a few westerns there and I grew up on westerns and it would take a lot of thought and memory (which I have in short supply) to list all the westerns I loved as a kid. I can, however, state that anything by John Ford is a favorite.

(I showed the final scene of The Searchers to my students, using the excuse that it was a dolly shot and I was teaching camera movements. Truth is, I wanted them to see that fabulous ending!)

And Intolerance? Do you really like it? (of that era, Eisenstein's Potemkin is infinitely better.)

I'm a shepherd.


Nope, the sheep don't care if or what I read.


No thanks. Don't have a digital camera or way to upload photos, anyway. Besides, few have seen it and lived to tell the tale.

Well isn't that something interesting. I'm a knight errant, and the best knight errant in the world, might I add. The travails of my journey have impressed my Lady Dulcina and I must thank Rocinante for taking me on this most arduous journey.

..

If you're a shepherd I suppose only people that come and buy your sheep have lived to tell the tale.. if you let them live. Blasphemy!

Talking about "historical" pirates brings to mind Burt Lancaster's great film, The Crimson Pirate. It plays fast and loose with history, but boy what an adventure! Could say the same about Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, and a bunch of Errol Flynn's other films, including Robin Hood. And Tyrone Power's films, especially Captain from Castille.

I knew I was leaving out some great epics, but jeez how did I skip over Potemkin? What a great, great film! And it also brings to mind other Russian epics like Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible. And some western epics about Russia like Doctor Zhivago and War and Peace. But Potemkin is certainly the best of the bunch. Lawrence of Arabia—surely someone has mentioned that. I did mention The Way West, but I’m not sure that film with Kirk Douglas, James Mitchum, and Richard Widmark really can be classed as an epic; maybe just on the verge of being one. But the one I actually was thinking about was How the West Was Won. I think Little Big Man might be an epic, too. Certainly A Bridge Too Far.

As for your question, yeah, I liked Intolerance, especially the way the different stories were entwined. Not as great as Potemkin, I agree, but very much worthwhile.

Rufnek, I mentioned Lawrence in my original post.

BTW, I still love the staircase scene in DePalma's The Untouchables because of its reference to Eisenstein. I love everything about that scene, even the way Costner and Garcia walk in step as they enter the train station.

To be truthful, the only silent films I ever re-watch now are Chaplin. As you can tell from my user name, I'm quite the fan.

Maybe these epics can be added to the list, along with your mention of Doctor Zhivago (how could I have forgotten that??):

Ryan's Daughter
Patton (war epic?)

Oh, and yea, I'm a big fan of Errol Flynn and swashbuckling films. That's really the reason I love the Pirates trilogy. I have a thing for swordfights! LOVE THEM!!

I would have to say exploitation films, although that's not quite what I'm driving at. What I mean are unapologetically violent or possibly objectionable films that are nevertheless well worth the time it takes to watch them. Essentially the Tarantino-genre as it's come to be known, although it existed before him in early 70s and 80s biker/grindhouse movies.

Some more recent examples: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Sin City....

Are you a film lecturer?

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Undercoverlovers 100 REDUX

Nothing quite so prestigious! Nah, I teach a media literacy class to 8th graders where I have units on journalism, advertising, video production, and film history/appreciation.

It's a really fun class to teach. And I get to decorate my classroom with movie posters!

Thats cool.

Anything Sci-Fi, and that includes a lot of B-movies. But hey I like what I like.

And I will take a low budget Sci-Fi flick over any sorry attempt on the genre by Spielberg. Jurassic Park was awesome, but I'm not so sure I'd classify that as a Sc-Fi movie.

I read a ton of Sci-Fi as well, tis easily my favorite genre.

According to IMDB Spielberg has announced that he will direct another Sci-Fi film entitled Interstellar. Should be a complete disaster, but of course I will have to watch.

Also I really enjoy apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic films, and war movies of any shape or form.

EDIT: I should be less negative. I hope that Interstellar proves worthwhile.

My movie specialty:

The great, golden oldie-but-goody classic film, West Side Story
not withstanding, my overall movie specialty is prominent 1960's film classics.

only horors...............

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