What was the last movie you saw?

SONG OF THE SOUTH 1946 - Had not seen this before and was curious to see what all the fuss was about given that it has never had a North American video release. The animation is really good--I was impressed how elaborate they were with the live action-animation mixing. The songs were of course very memorable. The plantation scenes are hokey and obviously dated and the marital problems between the parents was confusing to me---why did the father have to leave? What was he writing in his newspaper? It picked up when James Baskett came in as Uncle Remus-- a captivating performance. The film is notable for giving a major role to a child, I imagine not common at the time, but the importance of the Remus character had to have been most groundbreaking for a major release film. This was a sincere effort at multicultural outreach in 1946 and unlike other films where black characters were reduced to not exactly flattering supporting roles (in Casablanca and others)--here the most pivotal character in the story is black. I think the fixation on the plantation scenes--it does feel a little artificial that the residents are so musically oriented--but if you are doing a story on Uncle Remus you need a framing device, and this was the most logical mainstream way to get a white child to be sitting down with an older black man for 1946 audiences. And the interactions with the poor white family down the lane was also intended to broaden one's thinking.
The real message of the story which comes out in the final scene with the children is rather touching if not looking naive by a glance at today's headlines- there's a common heritage between everyone, regardless of creed, economic status, or age as participants in the pageantry of Nature. Whether that message comes through is up to the individual viewer. It's ironic and fitting that someone decided to preserve the film since Disney was not going to--someone who was in a shack down the road from the big house or big mouse.
 
The Wild Bunch

There are several Westerns that claim to be the greatest of all time; this is one of them. When you take John Wayne and Clint Eastwood out of the equation, it comes down to a straight shoot-out between this movie and 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. But whereas 'Once Upon' is more melodramatic, Wild Bunch is far more intense, with large dramatic gunfights interspersing the gunfighter's realisation that their time is rapidly coming to an end on the eve of WWI.
 
I can only respectfully disagree. The best straight shoot-out western is Tombstone, (joke intended) particularly due to the amazing performance of Val Kilmer, not otherwise my favorite actor. As pm says, there are several Westerns that could be thrown into the mix, but since he picked one, I will also.
 
I can only respectfully disagree. The best straight shoot-out western is Tombstone, (joke intended) particularly due to the amazing performance of Val Kilmer, not otherwise my favorite actor. As pm says, there are several Westerns that could be thrown into the mix, but since he picked one, I will also.


Fair enough.:)

I agree that Val Kilmer is a standout performance in this movie. After watching it, it's hard to see Doc Holiday as being any other way, so convincing was his character acting.

It would be good though to see a version of the gunfight that doesn't portray the Earps as the heroic good guys, as I'm not sure it was as clear cut as that.
 
Part of my interest in Earp/Doc Holliday was a book by Mary Doria Russell, a noted SF author ( The Sparrow) and a descendent of the Holliday family. Doc , her fictionalized history of Earps and Hollidays is excellent reading. If you like books that deal with the west with an actual sense of reality, read it.
I thought to go on about various westerns, but the title of this thread is "---Last Movie You've Seen", so I'll restrain myself.
Earp et al were indicted for the shootout at the Corral. Getting straight stories would be next to impossible. As shown by the later documented actions of Wyatt and his crew, there is no question that they were set on vengeance.
 
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Message From Space - Oh my dear gods!

There is a scene I remember in Midnight Cowboy where a couple are energetically banging away on a bed and their feet are whacking a remote which keeps changing the channels on the bedroom TV. This allowed director John Schlesinger to edit in a montage of TV footage that showed up the vapidity and shallowness of contemporary American life (or, at least, the vapidity and shallowness of American television). It was the sort of thing European film makers, given a chance to spend vast amounts of American money on an American film liked to do in the 60s. Cynically I could think this made them feel like they hadn't sold out and were still artists - but it was the 60s. (BTW I really like Midnight Cowboy - it's one of those unrequited love stories that makes me cry.) Anyway... I was reminded of that scene while watching Message From Space because I had this idea, half way through, that that's how Message From Space was made.. One Saturday morning in Japan in the 70s, a film producer was Weinsteining some poor wannabee actress, and the video recorder he had set up to immortalise the event for his own sordid purposes had got accidentally wired up to the TV... and the remote was in the bed. He mistook the resulting 90 odd minutes of channel hopped kids' Saturday Morning TV that he later found on the tape as a production he'd forgotten he'd made and released it quickly to cash in on the Star Wars craze that was sweeping the world. There is no other way this... thing could ever have been made.

The only other critical thought I had during it was that the huge set in which a lot of the action took place looked exactly like what you would get if you asked Philippe Druillet to design a Chinese restaurant.
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TELEFON 1977 - Charles Bronson vs Donald Pleasence who is causing murder and mayhem by reciting poetry over a pay phone.
 
Contact.

I’d forgotten just how beautiful this movies is and I felt it dealt with the topic of faith, in god, science and in others really well. The cast is superb and i felt that Director Rob Zemekis got brilliant performances from the all. Great film, totally recommended.

The radio signal is only bettered by Jango Fett’s seismic mines.
 
Contact.

I’d forgotten just how beautiful this movies is and I felt it dealt with the topic of faith, in god, science and in others really well. The cast is superb and i felt that Director Rob Zemekis got brilliant performances from the all. Great film, totally recommended.

The radio signal is only bettered by Jango Fett’s seismic mines.
One of my favourite films. I used the radio signal as my ringtone for years.
 
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Based on the Upton Sinclair novel, Oil. Extremely well made and superbly acted but a long and slow two and a half hours. Will probably be studied in acting classes. A good movie, maybe even a great movie, but have a pot of coffee or box of wine handy.
 
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Based on the Upton Sinclair novel, Oil. Extremely well made and superbly acted but a long and slow two and a half hours. Will probably be studied in acting classes. A good movie, maybe even a great movie, but have a pot of coffee or box of wine handy.


Brilliant movie. To some extent it reminds me of 'Gangs of New York'; DDL certainly seems to play a similar type of role.
 
THE BOSTON STRANGLER (1968) Introduced by Muller, though not shown as one of his Noir films. A very different type, as the screen was occasionally divided into as many as five (5) smaller ones, each showing action happening simultaneously.

Bodies are piling up, City government guys Henry Fonda and BLACULA talking about the situation. Fonda is pressured into forming a group in which Police Departments from various areas can share their information, etc.

So, the strangler Albert DeSalvo (Tony Curtis) goes about his gruesome business for nearly half the film, before we see his face. He is a husband & father of two young children, and is seen with them in normal situations.

He says he needs to go out for some reason, and goes to an apartment building, buzzes on a name of a woman, and says he is sent by the management to correct plumbing or whatever problem. she admits him, and, he ties her to the bed posts and, as he is close to her face, she bites his wrist, thrashes around, escaping her bonds. He flees. But not having satisfied his craving, he must find another victim. Trying another apartment, he is confronted by a man, who pursues him several blocks, until he is struck by a car, while crossing the street. Taken to the hospital, physicians determine that he is psychologically abnormal. Now they have him.

Surprised me! He was suffering from what was called split personalities back then. Now, as I recall, it is called dissociative memory, or something like it. He had no memory of ever killing any of those women. Sad.
 
Message From Space - Oh my dear gods!
.....He mistook the resulting 90 odd minutes of channel hopped kids' Saturday Morning TV that he later found on the tape as a production he'd forgotten he'd made and released it quickly to cash in on the Star Wars craze that was sweeping the world. There is no other way this... thing could ever have been made.
I believe there is a series as well :)
 
There are several Westerns that claim to be the greatest of all time; this is one of them.

It is pretty amazing, especially the colossal gunfight at the end. It always feels to me like a weird hybrid of the old-fashioned "clean-cut" westerns and something much more violent and new, as if David Eddings had written a fantasy novel with Joe Abercrombie.

I think I am in a very small minority of people who find Daniel Day Lewis pretty hammy. He resembled an enthusiastic pirate managing a circus in Gangs of New York.
 
It is pretty amazing, especially the colossal gunfight at the end. It always feels to me like a weird hybrid of the old-fashioned "clean-cut" westerns and something much more violent and new, as if David Eddings had written a fantasy novel with Joe Abercrombie.

I think I am in a very small minority of people who find Daniel Day Lewis pretty hammy. He resembled an enthusiastic pirate managing a circus in Gangs of New York.

For me this is done purposely, to show the death of the old West, and the birth of a new way of warfare. The action takes place just a year before similar guns were mowing down tens of thousands in WWI. Its ironic that the ageing cowboys make use of this new technology to win.

I agree that D-DL is a bit OTT in some films; Gangs is definitely one.
 
For me this is done purposely, to show the death of the old West, and the birth of a new way of warfare. The action takes place just a year before similar guns were mowing down tens of thousands in WWI. Its ironic that the ageing cowboys make use of this new technology to win.
However the "machine gun" was used to kill thousands in the Boer War.

Machine Gun used in war.
 
EL CONDOR (1970) Luke (Jim Brown) is shackled to another prisoner (Elisha Cook Jr.) in a work detail breaking rocks, or whatever. When the warden summons him, and offers him amnesty if he will work for the Army, he, having already filed his chain very weak, breaks it, stuffs the paper in the guy's mouth, leaps out the window and runs. Eventually, meets and teams with Jaroo (Lee Van Cleef), and they begin what might be called a series of comic misadventures.

They target a Mexican fortress that is believed to contain millions in gold.

Thoroughly amusing film, even contains female nudity :devilish:; though at a distance.
 
However the "machine gun" was used to kill thousands in the Boer War.

Machine Gun used in war.

Yes, since the earlier multi-barrelled Gatling gun and its type, these type of guns became more portable, easier to operate and less likely to malfunction. By the time of WWI, and the advent of the type of gun used in the movie, they'd created probably the most lethal to date. One man (but usually two) could kill hundreds if not thousands - within minutes. Sad really that we tend to be at our most inventive when we are creating the most destructive.
 
EL CONDOR (1970) Luke (Jim Brown) is shackled to another prisoner (Elisha Cook Jr.) in a work detail breaking rocks, or whatever. When the warden summons him, and offers him amnesty if he will work for the Army, he, having already filed his chain very weak, breaks it, stuffs the paper in the guy's mouth, leaps out the window and runs. Eventually, meets and teams with Jaroo (Lee Van Cleef), and they begin what might be called a series of comic misadventures.

They target a Mexican fortress that is believed to contain millions in gold.

Thoroughly amusing film, even contains female nudity :devilish:; though at a distance.


I can't imagine Lee Van Cleef as anything other than a bad guy; and never in a comedy. Then again, I would have said the same about Jack Palance until he was in City Slickers!
 

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