Displaying 0 To 0 Of 0 Comments Emails From PlanetPOV Are Now Twice Daily Works for me. » Posted By McGinty On January 10, 2010 @ 8:47 pm When To Give Terrorists What They Want And When Not To NYPD: No bomb inside van abandoned in Times Square By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press Writer Colleen Long, Associated Press Writer » Posted By McGinty On December 30, 2009 @ 10:17 am There was clearly intentional racism in films, GWTW and Birth of a Nation are Exhibit A and B, but the insidious thing about racism is that children can grow up in a society where it is just accepted as the way things are. I’ve run into a number of people in my life who have said racist, anti-Semitic and/or sexist things and are completely surprised when I object. Black face was unfortunately accepted in the vaudevillian days and the film days that followed as “just the way things are”. The first talkie, “The Jazz Singer” has Al Jolson singing in black face as he no doubt did in vaudeville. Was he a racist? I don’t know but I’m sure we agree that what he did continued to re-enforce racism. Many films had black face scenes in them. A common gag in comedies was for a black man to have his face covered in white flour or batter and for white comedians to get black car exhaust, black oil, shoe polish, etc. on their faces. Were Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges intentionally being racist? Or was the “norm” racist and just taken for granted as “the way things were? » Posted By McGinty On December 1, 2009 @ 8:09 am Jeunet is a wonderful filmmaker, “Delicatessen” is hilarious and “Amelie”, as already mentioned, is a masterpiece of a romantic comedy. » Posted By McGinty On December 1, 2009 @ 7:47 am As Pepe says, it was a joke about movies being made based on toys, like Transformers. Soon, movies will be made that are based on breakfast cereals, “Lucky Charms – The Movie!” » Posted By McGinty On December 1, 2009 @ 7:44 am Yes, it is terrible how the casual racism of the day was obliviously woven into the films of the day. The worst of the offenders was likely DW Griffith’s now infamous silent film, “Birth of a Nation”. In it, the KKK are heroes and the portrayal of blacks is disgusting. It was hailed for decades as one of the greatest films of the silent era, took a long time for it to be seen as offensive. » Posted By McGinty On November 30, 2009 @ 10:01 pm Loved the screwball comedies of the 30’s and 40’s, especially those of Preston Sturges, “Sullivan’s Travels”, “The Palm Beach Story”, “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek” and of course, his edgy political comedy/drama, “The Great McGinty”. » Posted By McGinty On November 30, 2009 @ 9:54 pm Strongly agree here too. The Man Who Would Be King is a great film that somehow flew beneath many people’s radar. John Huston had originally cast Bogart and Gable in the leads then had to wait many years to finally make it. After seeing Connery and Caine in those roles, one could hardly imagine Bogart and Gable making it anywhere near as amazing as Connery and Caine did. » Posted By McGinty On November 30, 2009 @ 9:48 pm A great film indeed. I would add Fran » Posted By McGinty On November 30, 2009 @ 9:43 pm Yes, it’s pretty much only in the last 10 – 15 years or so that the weekend boxoffice of films became a regular news item for the public. What’s unfortunate is that it created a measure for the public as to what the “best” film is based solely upon initial popularity (read “marketing”). Again, if we were to allow popularity to dictate taste in what is best to us, then a McDonald’s hamburger would need to be defined as the best tasting, most enjoyable hamburger one could ever eat. The lowest common denominator or the most pandering item is often intentionally created to be as bland as possible so as not to offend the majority’s taste and thus have the potential to appeal to the widest possible amount of consumers. And bland, mediocre (at best) films, like Transformers 2 or The Twilight Saga: New Moon are intentionally targeted at the lowest common denominator. Just because either film is huge at the box office, just because a McDonald’s hamburger is the most popular in the world…doesn’t make it taste any better. » Posted By McGinty On November 30, 2009 @ 10:07 am Very cool. I’d bet the real test of a good film to someone in your position is if it pulled you in so much you forgot about looking at the technical aspects. » Posted By McGinty On November 30, 2009 @ 9:54 am Out of the excellent films you listed, every one would be classified as an independent film. The studios certainly appear less interested than ever in making great films. In terms of a film being “great”, that is of course subjective. My approach is to look at a film that, like a great book, has qualities that appeal not just to today’s audience but will appeal to future audiences. IMO, “great” art stands the test of time. So when I mention the Golden Ages of film, such as the 1930’s – 1940’s (and specifically 1939 which is considered to be the greatest year for films in which the following were nominated for Best Picture: “Gone With the Wind”, “Dark Victory”, “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”, “Love Affair”, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, “Ninotchka”, “Of Mice and Men”, “Stagecoach”, “The Wizard of Oz” and “Wuthering Heights”), I’m referring to films that audiences in the future will enjoy and also regard as great films. » Posted By McGinty On November 30, 2009 @ 9:51 am Many haven’t seen Andy Griffith in “A Face in the Crowd” for which he should have received an Oscar nomination, amazing performance and a great movie. Love “The Party”, aside from the Pink Panther films, my favorite performances by Sellers are in “Dr. Strangelove”, “Lolita” and “Being There”. » Posted By McGinty On November 30, 2009 @ 9:34 am Agreed, if you look down the list of films I gave, they include Animal House, Blazing Saddles, Bananas, Monty Python and the Holly Grail. I remember the first time I saw The Magic Christian, totally by accident, couldn’t believe how fun and surreal it was, was like finding a hidden treasure. » Posted By McGinty On November 30, 2009 @ 9:31 am Very nice choices of French films and good advice about the library, people often overlook it. Unfortunately, due to the shift in the ways films are distributed, foreign films don’t get much theatrical distribution in the U.S.. Instead we have 4 screens of Transformers 2 at the 10 screen multiplex. It used to be that a foreign or indie film could play in a handful of theaters, build up a following or critical attention and expand. Nowadays, you have one or maybe two weeks to bring in a big box office or you’re toast. The studios have painted themselves into the same kind of corner, the majority of their box office revenue on a film needs to happen in the first two weeks so they spread their films out on many more screens than they used to then they’re knocked off most of those screens by the next film coming out. So, like tv shows too, films don’t have time to build an audience anymore. If they don’t debut as a smash, they’ll disappear fast. » Posted By McGinty On November 30, 2009 @ 9:23 amComments Posted By McGinty
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