17 posts tagged “movies”
(a) Dick Cheney
(b) Donald Rumsfeld
(c) Charles Graner
(d) George W. Bush
(e) none of the above
there is a reason why The Pentagon screened The battle of Algiers in 2003. the flyer for the screening read:
Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range.
Women plant bombs in cafes.
Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor.
Sound familiar? The French have a plan. It succeeds tactically, but fails strategically.
To understand why, come to a rare showing of this film."
commissioned by the Algerian government, based on the memoirs of one of the rebel leaders, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, scored by Ennio Morricone, The battle of Algiers is a riveting film.
the movie chronicles the uprising of the Casbah, an episode in the Algerian war of independence. the uprising uses urban guerrilla tactics against the French authorities
the local police is overwhelmed. soon, a battalion of French paratroopers arrive in Algiers with a plan and a strategy
I don't often talk about movie 'extras', but I'll make an exception for this movie. The Criterion release of Battle of Algiers consists of three discs: the movie is in the first one, the second has a long interview with director Pontecorvo and technical details of the film, the third goes into questions of warfare and national security. all three discs are must-watch.
you don't have to spend too long in teh internets to find tons of accolades for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre:
John Huston's greatest film!; a triumph; Bogart's finest role; Walter Huston is a revelation; and so on.
the powers that be agreed: Treasure... won three Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture.
all that praise misses one thing. the one thing that makes Treasure... special
Dobbs:
"Nobody puts one over on Fred C. Dobbs.”
trailer
one of the greatest dialogues in American film. referenced in dozens if not hundreds of movies and TV shows:
Gold Hat: We are Federales... you know, the mounted police.
Dobbs: If you're the police, where are your badges?
Gold Hat: Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!
check it
Three Kings takes place in a far away place a long time ago: Iraq and 1991. the (first) Gulf war has just ended officially but there is still much chaos on the ground. as American soldiers disarm some surrendering Iraqi soldiers, the American soldiers find a document.
a war movie that is a heist movie that is a comedy movie.
a sharp critique of Bush I war, its victims, and those who became victims after the war.
great dialogue. check
"Archie
Gates: Sit down. What do you see here?
Chief Elgin: Bunkers,
sir.
Archie Gates: What's
in them?
Troy Barlow: Stuff
they stole from Kuwait.
Archie Gates:
Bullshit. I'm talking about millions in Kuwaiti bullion.
Conrad Vig: You mean
them little cubes you put in hot water to make soup?
Archie Gates: No, not
the little cubes you put in hot water to make soup.
”
trailer
a great, funny movie. 'tis sad to consider that at the time it was made, the Gulf war was a fast receding memory
WEIRD SEX – OBSESSION – COMIC BOOKS
instead of a tagline it looks like an equation, no? weird sex + obsession = comic books
and it could easily be, if your subject is R. Crumb
its been about 15 years, and Crumb remains remarkable for its candid approach to documentary biography..
R. Crumb, his wives (current and ex-), children, mother, brothers (his two sisters refuse to participate), friends, girlfriends, all agreed to sit with writer/producer/director Terry Zwigoff.
what results if a portrait of the artist as a deeply fucked up man from a deeply dysfunctional family - yet the most touching moments focus on R.'s older brother, Charles, profoundly psychotic and unable to leave his mother's house. as the brothers talk, we see some of the drawings and comix they made while growing up; and we see that Charles was by far the most talented. 'tis heartbreaking to watch.
clipx
no one would admit eating or stealing it. it remains a mystery.
it was like the 7th time I looked at the DVD cover that I *got* the "bigger, longer and uncut"
part. [hangs head in shame]. considering the battles M. Parker and
Stone had with the MPAA, it's surprising they allowed that bit to stay.
musical numbers, animation, war, satire, 'social issues', death, the afterlife all tied up in a ribbon = SP: B, L, U
excessive profanity? yes, please
trailer
"Uncle Fucker" from Asses on Fire
the school is concerned
who to blame, who to blame...
of course!
(is not like it's a real country anyways)
English title: City of God
many large cities in the developing world are surrounded by large slums . Rio de Janeiro is (in)famous for the sheer size of these slums, ( favelas ). the larger favelas often have limited access to electricity and water, and barely any sewers or paved streets. there is no police presence, and residents are accustomed to having to fend by themselves. the largest and worst favela in Rio is Cidade de Deus (City of God), where the movie takes place.
Cidade de Deus main characters are Busca Pé (Rocket) and Zé Pequeño - they are close in each, and while not exactly friends, they know each other and are interrelated in several ways. Busca Pé, who narrates the movie, is shy and ill at ease; from an early age he's trying to get out of the favela. Zé Pequeño is, we learn early on, very different
during ~ three decades we see the two young boys watch their older brothers and cousins engage in petty crime. one night Zé comes along as a lookout.
jump a few years - Busca Pé has acquired a camera and is documenting the world around him. Zé Pequeño is quickly becoming the top dealer and boss of the favela.
is not an uncommon story, here told via cinematography and editing. in several scenes the camera jerks and bobbles as it follows a character or another through the narrow passages of the favela. there is an open exploration of Zé's character, his fear of women, his inadequacies, how jealous he is of handsome, popular fellows.
as previously mentioned, this is me own damn fault
ahem. let's take a break in this little sojourn we may call 'some movies I like' and lets consider movies I don't like. there are a lot of movies I don't like, but if we were looking at categories, they'd include:
- movies about sports
- biopics
- 'inspirational' movies
let's pause and give a hand of applause to HotRod, for suggesting the one movie that brings all three of those categories together: The pride of the yankees
The pride... is a straight biopic, beginning with young Lou playing backlot baseball in the neighborhood. after he breaks a grocer's window (because he's such an powerful hitter, natch) we are introduced to Lou's German immigrant parents, right out of the stereotype book. meek father, check; domineering mother, check; we came to America for the opportunities speech, check; baseball? baseball is a game. you go to college and become famous engineer speech, check.
so Lou begins playing in college, on the downlow from dear Mamma, until dear Mamma takes ill and must go to hospital; there is no money, so Lou decides to sign up with the Yankees and conspires with dear Papa to keep it a secret from dear Mamma.
so... Lou goes to the minors, Mamma gets better, but when Lou is called by the Yankees (which of course, is front page news. what else ever happens in New York?) Mamma finds out, gets angry and eventually comes around. d'Oh.
Lou is straight-forward, naive, and a hard-worker. never parties with his fellow Yankees (including Babe Ruth, playing himself). Lou meets the future-Mrs.-Gehrig in Chicago, they court, marry, and he continues to play.
2,130 consecutive games.
until... he begins to stiffen and weaken. the homeruns become base hits. noone knows why. eventually a doctor dx
'a third strike' (ALS - amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis -
is never mentioned). after Lou decides to quit baseball for good, the Yankees arrange to have "Lou Gehrig's Day" at Yankee stadium in his honor. that is the setting for the famous
"Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" speech, which ends the movie.
here's the speech from the movie
English title: Throne of Blood
I'm not a Shakespeare scholar, but I know what I likes, and of his plays, I like MacBeth best. and of the film versions of MacBeth, I like Kumonosu-Jou best. it is a fantastic movie that rates among Kurosawa's best
(Isuzu Yamada), of what the witch predicted, and she encourages him to make it happen.
the best of the movie is the Lady Washizu. it takes a lot to outact Toshirô Mifune, but Yamada does it. and how.
her figure is overwhelming and her presence is everywhere. she drives the action in a way that Shakespeare's Lady MacBeth could only hint at.
from serene, calculating, planning
his fate is not any better
clips
original trailer:
I don't like romantic movies
I lie. I wish I could say "I don't like romantic movies" and if it wasn't for Truly, Madly, Deeply, it'd be true. TMD is not only a romantic movie I like, it is a romantic movie I love. loooove. even wuv
TMD is a love story between she who is here, and he who is not. he dies right at the beginning of the movie. she grieves, and grieves, and grieves to the point of paralysis. she simply cannot go on. and then he returns.
clippage:
NOTE about clippage: there is an abundance of clips in YT. however, the great majority are remixes based on Twilight or worse - so be careful
trailerino
after she and he reunite, what do they do? sing, obvy
Were we always like this?
I wish I could send y'all to watch, but incredibly, TMD is not available on DVD. I just very recently and with much regret, discarded my VHS copy. like she in the movie, I must move on.
Oliver Stone is a blowhard. I think we can all agree there. he's not a very good director, notwithstanding the undeserved Oscar he got for a middle-of-the-road war movie, Platoon. one of the reasons I dislike his movies is Stone's tendency to beat the viewer over and over and over with a story's moral; he doesn't allow for any ambiguity or trust the viewer to get the point - makes most of his works ponderous and boring.
there are a couple of exceptions - rather, 1-½ exceptions: the ½ he gets for JFK, because, let's face it, most of us still can't swallow the 'magic bullet' theory. the other exception is Salvador
based on the experiences of journalist Richard Boyle (played by James Woods), Salvador chronicles the events of 1980-1981 in that nation at the height of the civil war, death squads and atrocities committed by both sides. it is a graphic, brutal movie; I could not turn away from the screen.
it is worth noting another achievement of Salvador: it may be the only movie or TV show ever made were Jim Belushi is bearable to watch - his character, Doctor Rock, accompanies Boyle to El Salvador on a lark and is entangled in the amoral atmosphere of the capital, while Boyle attempts to capture what is happening and get it out.
trailer
another trailer (graphic)
Boyle and an American photographer travel to rebel-held territory
