Galaxie500xl
Member
My favorite western.......GREAT choiceThe Searchers. IMO the best summing up of the dark side of the American experience in a single picture. Violence, racism and self imposed loneliness.
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My favorite western.......GREAT choiceThe Searchers. IMO the best summing up of the dark side of the American experience in a single picture. Violence, racism and self imposed loneliness.
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Bad day at black rock
Small town racism, and a hidden secret. Great actors and story.
Also The Caine Mutiny
Early PTSD, and the breaking point of a man. One of the greatest looks at the military and the struggles of command and those serving under it.
Both these films dealt with issues not often touched in film before.
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Thank you for the insight on the book version. Am looking for a good read for my week at the beach this spring. Think I found it.Great call, Bad Day at Black Rock is superb.
I'm torn on Caine Mutiny though. Although PTSD is a factor, its the continual undermining of Caine's command by Fred MacMurray's character (Keefer) that is of equal importance. The film gets into it briefly but what most recall is strawberries and ball bearings. In the book Keefer's actions are well detailed but never fully put in context until the trial when Greenwald (Jose Ferrer) digs it out and reveals it. This is ~1/3 of the book.
I know, I know, books rarely translate satisfactorily into the film, just look at how badly the Divergent Trilogy was messed up... /s. So my critique is of the director's vision for the film adaptation. In The Caine Mutiny he puts too much emphasis (IMO) on Caine as the self-made nut rather than someone that was gleefully pushed over the edge by a subordinate's gaslighting. It is a good movie and certainly a great performance by Bogart but read the book. It flows like it was written yesterday and is possibly Herman Wouk's best. Certainly an accurate accounting of WW2 USN shipboard life. Wouk was exec on 2 minesweepers so you'll not likely find better writing about that life than his.
Thank you for the insight on the book version. Am looking for a good read for my week at the beach this spring. Think I found it.
...its the continual undermining of Caine's command ...
In The Caine Mutiny he puts too much emphasis (IMO) on Caine as the self-made nut ...
Definitely a magnum opus and a tour de force besides, although if you have a taste for the bizarre and trashy, "Touch of Evil" could qualify just as easily. They call it the greatest B-movie ever made.
Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey (a nod to the OP) would be the two for me as well. I've watched both recently and what really grabs me is the cinematography. These are movies that I'll never tire of. Some of these images are forever burned into our minds.I have 2 that changed things.
Apocalypse now. To this day it set the bar for Nam movies and it wasn't even about Nam. Nam was just going on in the background.
Enter the Dragon. It makes you wonder where would Karate movies be today without that one. It started the ball rolling at full speed. We may not even have a Kill Bill, without it.