What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Big J]

Amistad was ok. Lots of English actors faking American accents. I wonder why?

Off to check out Mad Max now.
I love this semi-retirement thing!

 

[Big J]

Amistad was ok. Lots of English actors faking American accents. I wonder why?

Off to check out Mad Max now.
I love this semi-retirement thing!

Update; Mad Max starts off well, but ultimately is about as interesting as watching someone else play Playstation for an hour and a half. 2 years on the cutting room floor, and still couldn't make a good movie? The director is a fail.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Mwa ha ha ha ha!!!!! Sugi who owns the Spectrum has little love for SOME seniors.... she's in the same biz!

www.spectrum8.com

You two should trade war stories!

Worf

Oh yes. Looks like they're scrambling for the same slice of the demographic that we are. Lord help anyone who gets between a 67-year-old upper-middle-class woman in an LL Bean sweater and her seat in the front row of the balcony.

Speaking of which, we just finished "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel." The original was the highest grossing film in our history. This one wasn't even second best.

 

[AmateisGal]

That did a ton of business here, and attracted, for some reason, the pushiest and most disagreeable crowd we've ever had. And we had it for a month. A very very long month.

Really? That surprises me. It's such a quiet film, though it has a lot of hot button issues.

 

[AmateisGal]

Matilda. Such a cute film from the 90s.

Tonight is TCM's Summer of Darkness film noir! Parking myself in front of the tv for the entire evening.

 

[2jakes]

Off at noon...ready for the weekend.
First thing is to set my dvr for this classic at 1PM on TCM
before I go riding the country backroads.

 

[AmateisGal]

Off at noon...ready for the weekend.
First thing is to set my dvr for this classic at 1PM on TCM
before I go riding the country backroads.

That looks like a good one!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Really? That surprises me. It's such a quiet film, though it has a lot of hot button issues.

I think it's more the "Judi Dench" audience. We have a claque of people around here who'd go to see anything La Dench stars in, no matter how mechanical it is, and they tend to be extraordinarily abrasive and demanding. WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CANT GET IN TWO HOURS BEFORE SHOWTIME?

The very best Dench film, at least among those we've shown, is "Mrs. Henderson Presents." Absolutely loved that one, to the point where the audience didn't bother me a bit.

 

[Big J]

Thanks, i'll keep an eye open for The Burmese Harp. I found it interesting that the Germans produced "The Bridge"(1959) in the same year as the Japanese produced "Fires on the Plain". The Bridge leaves you with the same sort of dark, disturbed feeling as Fires.

The Burmese Harp is an interesting book (and therefore film) in that it achieved fame and became a film because of the books UN recognition. Interestingly, the UN recognition went to the English language translation which is full of things such as 'the local villagers gave us food', when the original Japanese text says 'we took food from local villages'. I suspect that the version of the story presented to the world is part of Japan's long running effort to 'beautify' it's wartime history.

 

[Big J]

I just watched "Emperor" last night. I completely missed this one when it came out last year - didn't hear a thing about it - and only stumbled on it by accident on Netflix. Being a fan of WWII movies and the Golden Era in general, I assumed it must have been a terrible movie or I wouldn't have missed it, but I gave it a shot anyway and was pleasantly surprised.

It is a good, not great, movie that tells the story - with some poetic license, based on my limited knowledge of this particular piece of history (let me emphasize, I am no expert), but not egregiously inaccurate - of General Douglas MacArthur's decision, at the beginning of the American occupation of Japan, whether or not to put the Emperor of Japan on trial for war crimes.

MacArthur assigns the investigation into the Emperor's involvement in Japan's decision to go to war to a general on his staff who had a pre-War relationship with a Japanese women - who had attended college in America. While this love story could have been hokey (and I have no idea how accurate it is), it is reasonably well done and helps to advance the story and expose some of the nuances and dimensions of Japan's thinking throughout the period. And on this point, the movie shines as it does not portray the events and decisions in black and white - Japan bad / America good - nor does it bend the other way to one of extreme moral equivocation where no judgements are made.

Books have been and will continue to be written on this moral teeter and no movie will have enough time to cover it in detail, but this one does a good job of setting a three-dimensional tone without shying away from making some firm judgement calls. It did what a good movie will do: it encouraged me to look to find something to read on this specific event.

The movie also shines in its cinematography, period sets and clothes. Let me acknowledge upfront that many on this board, who are meaningfully more knowledgable than I, will know how accurate or not all the details are, but as a lay fan of the era, the film is beautiful to watch and has that time-travel feel that allows you to loose yourself for a hour and a half in another era. And the building that houses the American Occupation offices is a stunning combination of Art Deco and Imperialist scale (that could have come right out of nazi Germany).

My last favorable point is that the movie tells a story through dialogue not explosions, builds characters not cardboard heroes and shows nuance and open-mindedness which, for today, is an achievement in itself. Not a great movie, but a good solid one worth watching if the period and topic interest you at all.

This is another one of those films that has as it's objective 'beautifying' Japan's wartime history. The script for Emperor is based entirely on the recollections of one old Japanese lady who is recalling the anecdotes her grandfather told her. Very few of the human drama events in the film can be historically verified. The film attempts to portray MacArthur as having a certain sympathy and respect for Hirohito because that's how the old lady wants to believe Hirohito made him feel. MacArthur shedding tears for Hirohito, she claimed. Really?

 

[Big J]

I'm only replying to these old posts about Japanese movies because I was searching for a comment I saw by AdeeC about Japanese wartime propaganda films not having much propaganda, but I can't find his original post.

Anyway, the point that I wanted to make is that Japanese wartime propaganda had an ideological element that differentiates it from most other nations propaganda. For example, European and US propaganda from WW2 (and WW1 for that matter) focuses on how 'evil/brutal/animalistic' the enemy is so as to ensure the viewer understands that this is 'a good war'.

The Japanese in WW2 however, saw themselves as being the 'chosen people' in a holy war. In line with this ideology, Japanese wartime propaganda, rather than focusing on de-humanizing the enemy, focuses on the 'purity' and 'righteousness' of the Japanese as justification for why they will win. Hence Japanese wartime propaganda is full of monologues about 'nature' and 'my family home in the pre-industrial countryside'.

This is a format that has largely continued in the post war period. See this article about Kamikaze I linked above to see how the format (and the ideology behind it) has continued for the last 70 years;

http://japanfocus.org/-M_G_-Sheftall/4326/article.html

The Japanese have made some really good war films, Grave of the Fireflys, Black Rain, and one other (the name escapes me) where Japanese soldiers eat each other as a matter of course. But like The Harp of Burma, even these films are about 'the Japanese as victims of WW2', which is just a little more than dishonest selective memory IMHO.

 

[jamespowers]

I'm only replying to these old posts about Japanese movies because I was searching for a comment I saw by AdeeC about Japanese wartime propaganda films not having much propaganda, but I can't find his original post.

Anyway, the point that I wanted to make is that Japanese wartime propaganda had an ideological element that differentiates it from most other nations propaganda. For example, European and US propaganda from WW2 (and WW1 for that matter) focuses on how 'evil/brutal/animalistic' the enemy is so as to ensure the viewer understands that this is 'a good war'.

The Japanese in WW2 however, saw themselves as being the 'chosen people' in a holy war. In line with this ideology, Japanese wartime propaganda, rather than focusing on de-humanizing the enemy, focuses on the 'purity' and 'righteousness' of the Japanese as justification for why they will win. Hence Japanese wartime propaganda is full of monologues about 'nature' and 'my family home in the pre-industrial countryside'.

This is a format that has largely continued in the post war period. See this article about Kamikaze I linked above to see how the format (and the ideology behind it) has continued for the last 70 years;

http://japanfocus.org/-M_G_-Sheftall/4326/article.html

The Japanese have made some really good war films, Grave of the Fireflys, Black Rain, and one other (the name escapes me) where Japanese soldiers eat each other as a matter of course. But like The Harp of Burma, even these films are about 'the Japanese as victims of WW2', which is just a little more than dishonest selective memory IMHO.

Many bad things start from the assumption that "we are the chose people." :doh: From that we have the we can never be wrong because we are the chosen and the what we do is right because we were chosen to do it......

 

[2jakes]

Tonight is TCM's Summer of Darkness film noir! Parking myself in front of the tv for the entire evening.

Don’t forget !

 

[Big J]

Many bad things start from the assumption that "we are the chose people." :doh: From that we have the we can never be wrong because we are the chosen and the what we do is right because we were chosen to do it......

It's a very slippery slope of extremely bad 'logic' indeed! Luckily for us, we really were on 'the good side' in WW2. I know it's fashionable for a great many to fake that they have a 'burden of guilt' that we won and 'wrote the history' (or some such nonsense), but I really think that it's tough for many modern Japanese to accept that their grandparents generation weren't very nice people really. In the same way that I take no credit for winning WW2, modern Japanese don't have to feel any guilt about what previous generations did IMHO, as long as the historical record is straight.

Micheal Herr wrote that great book about Vietnam, where he says something like war happens because 'you can't take the glamor out of war', mainly because the only way to do that is to go to war for yourself and realize you had it all wrong, of course, by then it's too late (or something like that).

 

[jamespowers]

H.i.p.p.i.e.s. automatically changes to "********."

Hey now, that is a good trick.

 

[jamespowers]

Probably because of all of the bashing from James.

It ain't bashing if it is true. H.I.P.P.I.E.S stink.

 

[AmateisGal]

I think it's more the "Judi Dench" audience. We have a claque of people around here who'd go to see anything La Dench stars in, no matter how mechanical it is, and they tend to be extraordinarily abrasive and demanding. WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CANT GET IN TWO HOURS BEFORE SHOWTIME?

The very best Dench film, at least among those we've shown, is "Mrs. Henderson Presents." Absolutely loved that one, to the point where the audience didn't bother me a bit.

I adore Judi Dench - but I haven't seen Mrs. Henderson Presents. Hmm. Will have to go look that one up.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Mrs. Henderson Presents is a delight to anyone interested in the thirties and/or theater. I'd be very surprised if you don't love it.

 

[AmateisGal]

Mrs. Henderson Presents is a delight to anyone interested in the thirties and/or theater. I'd be very surprised if you don't love it.

Then I definitely need to check it out!

 

[Denton]

The Japanese have made some really good war films, Grave of the Fireflys, Black Rain, and one other (the name escapes me) where Japanese soldiers eat each other as a matter of course. But like The Harp of Burma, even these films are about 'the Japanese as victims of WW2', which is just a little more than dishonest selective memory IMHO.

I would add Dr. Akagi (1998) to this list. A country doctor fighting an epidemic of hepatitis at the very end of the war. Because the very existence of hepatitis is considered a military secret, he has practically no authority or resources to do his work. The villagers think he's crazy because he just repeats the same diagnosis over and over, "You have hepatitis!" Perhaps he is crazy. When he sees a mushroom cloud at the end of the film, his diagnosis is the same: "Looks like a liver . . . extremely hypertrophied."

One critic suggested that the actor who plays the doctor modeled his performance, in particular his walk and abrupt diction, on Groucho Marx. I can kind of see that. His performance has a broad, manic quality that contrasts with the seriousness of his work.

Shohei Imamura, who also directed Black Rain, made some extraordinary movies.