You know you are getting old when:

[2jakes]

1967. Black & white.

Feeling homesick, went to the military base theater that only had one feature.
I was not familiar with Capote's work!

I would not recommend if you are feeling down.

 

[Fading Fast]

A few days ago, I watched a small part of "Bull Durham" for the fifth or so time this month (stitch together, I've now seen about 80% of the movie this way) as some obscure cable channel is running it quite frequently. The movie would have been better if (1) filmed in black and white and (2) the Tim Robbins character had been less goofy as he became an annoying caricature of what could have been an interesting character.

 

[2jakes]

Sometimes for kicks I will edit the film to B&W to enjoy.

My favorite "film noir", The Big Sleep.
original 1945 and the revised version 1946.

I added deleted scenes from 1945
to the '46 version which is mostly seen
on TCM.
If I enjoy a movie, I like to see every
scene no matter how long the film
is. I think Dorothy looked best with her
natural hair color.

 

[tonyb]

View attachment 110635
1967. Black & white.

Feeling homesick, went to the military base theater that only had one feature.
I was not familiar with Capote's work!

I would not recommend if you are feeling down.

Great movie, and a great book, too, even if its writer strayed quite some distance from journalistic standards.

The film is among the few based on books that do the book justice.

 

[tonyb]

Years later I read the book.
I have no idea about journalistic standards,
I only know that I didn't stop reading until I finished the book at one time.
But like the film, "Shindler's List",
viewing it once was enough.

I've read it many times, mostly as a refresher course in compelling, straightforward storytelling. No hifalutin diction, no self-satisfied "writerly" flourishes.

But there are entirely fictional sections in the alleged work of nonfiction. Having read it so many times, I can point to a couple of those sections and say, "of course this is made up. How could he have known this?" And a few of the characters in the story are on record saying he had it all wrong, and he must have known that. And in exchange for access to the law enforcement officials he handled them with kid gloves. The big break in the case was a tip from one of the killer's former cellmates. Solid police work didn't do it.

Still, though, a great piece of work. It's no wonder it is among the most-read books of our time. Great story, if a tragic one.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Cold Blood" was one of the first works in a genre now known as "faction," which is basically the novelization of actual events. Alex Haley's "Roots" was another prominent example.

 

[Fading Fast]

Every time a movie starts off with "Based on actual events..." you know you are in for a ride through "faction" land and, it seems, the fiction parts of "faction" is increasing today.

It's not so bad if you have a good handle on the history of the period as you can kinda keep it straight, but it's when you don't that it, unfortunately, plants some of the false narrative in your head as fact.

And, now, contradicting myself, even when you do have a decent handle on the history, if you see enough "faction" works on it, overtime, it blends together in your head and you find yourself doubting what you remember was history and what was fiction.

Recognizing that all "history" is "faction" at some level, there is a difference between sincere attempts to examine history and attempts to tell a fictionalize account with intentional errors to either enhance the story or advance some point of view.

It's all hard.

 

[2jakes]

Every time a movie starts off with "Based on actual events..." you know you are in for a ride through "faction" land and, it seems, the fiction parts of "faction" is increasing today.

It's not so bad if you have a good handle on the history of the period as you can kinda keep it straight, but it's when you don't that it, unfortunately, plants some of the false narrative in your head as fact.

And, now, contradicting myself, even when you do have a decent handle on the history, if you see enough "faction" works on it, overtime, it blends together in your head and you find yourself doubting what you remember was history and what was fiction.

Recognizing that all "history" is "faction" at some level, there is a difference between sincere attempts to examine history and attempts to tell a fictionalize account with intentional errors to either enhance the story or advance some point of view.

It's all hard.

I once asked David Crockett's family from Tenn. at the Sesquicentennial
ceremony of the fall of the Alamo (1836) if they could provide something
that may enlightened whether “Davy" died fighting to the end or was among
the few that surrendered and soon after slaughtered by orders from
General Santa.
In typical Crockett fashion (IMO) one of the family member, smiled and
told me, "Son... nobody will ever know the truth...nobody kept records,
nobody heard about it until weeks later."
The accounts given by captured Mexican soldiers later at San Jacinto,
and the defeat of Santa Anna were probably made to the satisfaction
of the Texans and what they wanted to hear.
The women from the Alamo were inside the chapel when the fighting began.

Spelling was not a priority and different points of view were expressed in later
years to the local newspapers that now have become as factual in some cases.

And you know you are getting old when you can remember Topps 1955 “Davy
Crockett” baseball cards which included a stick of chewing gum for 1¢.
Calling it “chewing gum” is stretching it a bit.
More like rubber or tar!

 

[tonyb]

"Cold Blood" was one of the first works in a genre now known as "faction," which is basically the novelization of actual events. Alex Haley's "Roots" was another prominent example.

Capote himself referred to it as a "nonfiction novel," meaning an imparting of a "true" story employing the novelist's storytelling techniques.

"Roots," besides being largely fictional, is also partially plagiarized. A good story, in its way, but a "story" by more than one definition.

 

[tonyb]

Every time a movie starts off with "Based on actual events..." you know you are in for a ride through "faction" land and, it seems, the fiction parts of "faction" is increasing today.

It's not so bad if you have a good handle on the history of the period as you can kinda keep it straight, but it's when you don't that it, unfortunately, plants some of the false narrative in your head as fact.

And, now, contradicting myself, even when you do have a decent handle on the history, if you see enough "faction" works on it, overtime, it blends together in your head and you find yourself doubting what you remember was history and what was fiction.

Recognizing that all "history" is "faction" at some level, there is a difference between sincere attempts to examine history and attempts to tell a fictionalize account with intentional errors to either enhance the story or advance some point of view.

It's all hard.

Any story "inspired by actual events" is all but certainly fictional.

My actions are "inspired" by Mohandas Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Schweitzer, Jesus of Nazareth, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Joan of Arc.

Anyone want my autograph?

 

[LizzieMaine]

When we showed "The Darkest Hour" recently the scene that made the biggest impression on the audience was the bit where ol' WSC gets on the Underground and mingles with Mr. Riff and Mrs. Raff. I had to explain to several people that this, in fact, was a complete fabrication. Quite a few lillies were gilded in the making of that "faction" film.

The majority of all newsreel footage you see of people being interviewed was staged -- it was shot multiple times in multiple takes to get the best camera angles, and the interviewees were usually expected to repeat themselves verbatim on each shot. Often their "answers" were read from cue cards held off camera. And all that impressive WWII battle footage was shot silent -- the explosions and the roaring planes and all the rest were stock sound effects added in the dubbing studio.

"Faction" is very much a thing in modern television -- all of the infotainment type shows use it. I've participated in it myself -- those "casual conversations" with participants usually take the better part of a day to shoot, and every aspect is fully staged.

 

[3fingers]

Radio interviews with servicemen in WW2 were awful. It was so painfully evident that they were reading from cue cards as to make the story they were telling much less powerful. I've wondered many times who thought that this was a good idea.

 

[2jakes]

Martians Are Landing!

It’s true...I heard it on CBS radio!

 

[Fading Fast]

View attachment 110637
Sometimes for kicks I will edit the film to B&W to enjoy.

My favorite "film noir", The Big Sleep.
original 1945 and the revised version 1946.
View attachment 110642
I added deleted scenes from 1945
to the '46 version which is mostly seen
on TCM.
If I enjoy a movie, I like to see every
scene no matter how long the film
is. I think Dorothy looked best with her
natural hair color.

A very good movie, but not my favorite noir as - even though I've read the book now and, thus, can follow the story (which I could never do from the movie alone) - the story in the movie is just too muddled for me to fully enjoy it the way I do "The Maltese Falcon" or "Out of the Past -" a couple of my favorite noirs.

That said, that scene ⇧ - The Scene - is one of the best in movie history and, IMHO, the best "pick-up-leading-to-sex" scene ever. And while Bogie does a more-than-admirable job, it's Malone's scene - she controls the tempo, she provides the amperage and she brings a ridiculous amount of smoldering sexuality without being gratuitous.

Odell Beckham Jr. is a super-talented athlete who, hopefully, has a lot of career still ahead of him, but no matter what he does, he will probably never top "The Catch," and will always be know first for that extreme feat of athleticism. The "Bookshop" scene is Malone's "The Catch" moment. Yes, she had a long successful career with many fine performances, but she only caught the ball - feet off the ground, body vertically suspended and falling backwards - in one hand and for a touchdown once in her career.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Radio interviews with servicemen in WW2 were awful. It was so painfully evident that they were reading from cue cards as to make the story they were telling much less powerful. I've wondered many times who thought that this was a good idea.

The Office of War Information, the official US propaganda agency that controlled all news and public information about the war. Nothing was allowed in print or on the air that wasn't approved by the OWI. Can't have the troops going off-message.

Scripted interviews predated the war, though -- network censorship did not permit extemporaneous interviews of ordinary people on network programs. Fred Allen used to have a feature on his show called "People You Didn't Expect To Meet," where he interviewed ordinary people with unusual jobs, and all of these interviews had to be completely written out and approved by NBC's censorship office before they were allowed to be broadcast. In one case this led to problems --Allen planned to interview the last street organ-grinder in Manhattan, only to find that the man was illiterate. He had to learn his interview by rote and recite it at the microphone, with a censor sitting by with his hand on the button waiting to cut him off if he departed from the script.

 

[2jakes]

View attachment 110659

A very good movie, but not my favorite noir as - even though I've read the book now and, thus, can follow the story (which I could never do from the movie alone) - the story in the movie is just too muddled for me to fully enjoy it the way I do "The Maltese Falcon" or "Out of the Past -" a couple of my favorite noirs.

That said, that scene ⇧ - The Scene - is one of the best in movie history and, IMHO, the best "pick-up-leading-to-sex" scene ever. And while Bogie does a more-than-admirable job, it's Malone's scene - she controls the tempo, she provides the amperage and she brings a ridiculous amount of smoldering sexuality without being gratuitous.

Odell Beckham Jr. is a super-talented athlete who, hopefully, has a lot of career still ahead of him, but no matter what he does, he will probably never top "The Catch," and will always be know first for that extreme feat of athleticism. The "Bookshop" scene is Malone's "The Catch" moment. Yes, she had a long successful career with many fine performances, but she only caught the ball - feet off the ground, body vertically suspended and falling backwards - in one hand and for a touchdown once in her career.

"Maltese Falcon" & "Out of the Past" rank up there as my all-time favorites as well.
Although I’m not fond of the ending where not only Mitchum and Greer but also
the woody station wagon gets it in the end.
I don’t believe “spoiler warnings” are required!

 

[Zombie_61]

Every time a movie starts off with "Based on actual events..." you know you are in for a ride through "faction" land and, it seems, the fiction parts of "faction" is increasing today...

Even when I was very young I'd watch a movie "based on actual events" and see a scene that was nothing more than two people in a room having a discussion about something, and I'd think, "Now, how do they know that's what they said to each other? Did they record the conversation?" And that sort of thinking often led to me doing the research to find out for myself how accurate the movie was...or wasn't. As such, I even learned to take documentaries with a grain of salt.

On the other hand, I came to realize long ago that a lot of people really don't care whether or not such a movie is accurate; they just want to watch a good movie. Sadly, when such people accept everything they see or read so easily, it only muddies the historical waters further.

And, of course, there are those people who are just clueless. My wife and I, and a couple of friends, went to see James Cameron's Titanic when it was released in 1997. As we were leaving the theater we were discussing the movie as we usually do, and I made some sort of wisecrack about the ship sinking. A woman who appeared to be in her early-20s was standing in line for the next showing, heard my joke, and angrily shouted at me, "Thanks for ruining it for us!" If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Maltese Falcon" & "Out of the Past" rank up there as my all-time favorites as well.
Although I’m not fond of the ending where not only Mitchum and Greer but also
the woody station wagon gets it in the end.
I don’t believe “spoiler warnings” are required!

Could not agree more - in the crazy code of noir, Mitchum did not have to die. He had acted with honor according to the code of that dishonorable world he lived in. It is the biggest flaw in a pretty flawless movie.

I was okay with Greer getting it - she had no honor. Virginia Huston was the keeper out of those two anyway.

And shame about the wagon.

 

[2jakes]

Even when I was very young I'd watch a movie "based on actual events" and see a scene that was nothing more than two people in a room having a discussion about something, and I'd think, "Now, how do they know that's what they said to each other? Did they record the conversation?" And that sort of thinking often led to me doing the research to find out for myself how accurate the movie was...or wasn't. As such, I even learned to take documentaries with a grain of salt.

On the other hand, I came to realize long ago that a lot of people really don't care whether or not such a movie is accurate; they just want to watch a good movie. Sadly, when such people accept everything they see or read so easily, it only muddies the historical waters further.

And, of course, there are those people who are just clueless. My wife and I, and a couple of friends, went to see James Cameron's Titanic when it was released in 1997. As we were leaving the theater we were discussing the movie as we usually do, and I made some sort of wisecrack about the ship sinking. A woman who appeared to be in her early-20s was standing in line for the next showing, heard my joke, and angrily shouted at me, "Thanks for ruining it for us!" If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it.

Brings a smile when someone writes about events and specify what was going through people’s mind
when in reality, they weren’t even born at the time it was happening, just something that
either they read or were told by someone.
Worse is that others will read it and accept it as the gospel because of who
the writer happens to be.

 

[tonyb]

Radio interviews with servicemen in WW2 were awful. It was so painfully evident that they were reading from cue cards as to make the story they were telling much less powerful. I've wondered many times who thought that this was a good idea.

We moderns, with the benefit of another several decades of exposure to electronic media, are perhaps more savvy and less accepting of the artifice in those old "interviews."

I don't know that. Just wondering, is all. Did the audience back in the day roll their eyes at those productions? Did they play along? Or were they oblivious?