Posted on 09/25/2013 11:46:14 AM PDT by exist
“Paths_of_Glory (1957) is truly a classic WWI movie.”
Yes!
It was also made during the period of time when Stanley Kubrick was a director, not a “film maker”.
Impy - Paths_of_Glory is on cable (the Enclore stations) often enough, you should be able to catch it. It’s good stuff!
Timothy Carey is fantastic in that film. He was always one to improvise (much to the frustration of directors). Kubrick wanted him to remain silent during an execution scene, but Carey would have none of that and absolutely let loose with a genuine reaction. Kubrick realized Carey was in the right and kept it with his improv (but he still ended up firing him !).
I did not know that - thanks, FM!
I guess I enjoy the older movies so much because they show a slice of the times; I mean, even though there films and actors, they STILL represent a lot of the thought processes and ideas of the day.
“The French Connection” or “The Seven Ups”; look at how they dealt with criminals in those films.
And the folks in these movies could actually ACT. Unlike most of the wastage in Hollywood today.
“Guadalcanal Diary” is another of my favorites. Also “Battleground” (1949); since my old man almost lost his life in the Ardennes, I have a connection with that film. Whenever it was on, he and I would watch it together. He’d get real quiet, and pretty much all he’d say was “That’s pretty damn accurate...”
I watched ALL the WWII movies with him when I was a kid; Dad’s brothers (my uncles) were in the Pacific, some of Dad’s cousins were also there (one of them never made it off Iwo Jima) as well as in Europe. That war, that time, pervaded everything in my young life - even though I was born 18 years after it ended.
Maybe that’s why I love those films from those days; it connects me to my old man. I dunno...
Believe it or not, I also like the old Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers/Rita Hayworth/Elenor Powell movies too.
“Singing In The Rain” and “White Christmas”....
ANYTHING with Cagney, Bogart, and Gary Cooper; “The Fighting 69th”.... “The Roaring Twenties”.... “Sgt York” and “High Noon”... “For Whom the Bell Tolls”...
Yeah... they are ALL great. And I’ve even got my 18 yr old son and 21 year old daughter into the old flicks as well... they see how different it was back then, and of course, I say “Yup... this has been stolen from you by the libs”...
EVERYTHING is indeed, political...
A few years ago, “The Lost Battalion” came out (HBO release, I believe). Rick Schroeder was in it, about a battalion of the 305th Regiment/77th Infantry Division cut off and surrounded in the Argonne right near the end of the war.
It was a great movie - well made, good special effects, good acting...
But it didn’t have the soul that something like Paths of Glory does. Maybe that’s not the right term for it, but something was missing.
Still a good flick though, and worth the watch.
Also - another one to catch is 1992’s “Stalingrad”; a German made English subtitle flick. Their version of “Saving Private Ryan”. Brutal movie, and very well done.
I really have never had full confidence in Rand Paul. This just confirms my skepticism!!
If he was on the floor with Cruz.....he is a two-sider guy!
Which ever the wind blows, go with it....Not my kind of politician!! NO WAY!
bump
“I guess I enjoy the older movies so much because they show a slice of the times; I mean, even though there films and actors, they STILL represent a lot of the thought processes and ideas of the day.”
“’Yup... this has been stolen from you by the libs’...”
Back when America was America, populated by American-Americans.
IOW, when things were good.
So much of the problem with actors today is that they all look like they’ve stepped out of a gym or off a model runway. Pretty boys who simply can’t act (Channing Tatum Syndrome). A couple generations ago, many of the Hollywood actors had active military experience (or other real-life experiences). It’s sad and embarrassing (and the PCisms have stifled creativity, and the lockstep ultraleft ideology).
bump
Thank you!
Abandon Ship (1957) "Seven Waves Away"
A ship sinks way out in the Atlantic and 20 passengers share one life-raft made for 9 and provisions made for 9, and then they realize no SOS was ever made.
The ranking officers soon realize that they all will likely die unless something drastic changes. So the senior decides that to survive they are going to have to row hundreds of miles on little provisions meaning some have to be kicked off the boat.
Talk about death panels
Towards the end the survivors thank him for saving them inspire of their horror and outrage at his ruthless actions previously to save them. But of course upon rescue they all indict him.
Really good. I love moral conflicts versus survival movies, like Alive 1993 with the plane crash
Clearly Rand has demonstrated his non-pureness as has Thomas Sowell too by not agreeing 100%,
traitors and cowards everywhere, (rolling marbles in hand), time for firing squads
“...A couple generations ago, many of the Hollywood actors had active military experience...”
True that, and it showed in the way they handled their roles and the weapons too.
For example, take Steve McQueen, in “The Sand Pebbles” (GREAT movie); He’d been in the Marine Corps, and he looked COMPLETELY “at-home” with the B.A.R and the M1903 Springfield rifle, like it was second nature - because it was for him.
Some of these contemporary schlubs look like they’re ready to crap their panties when they have a gun in their hands. Not only that, finger on the trigger, muzzle sweeps of people standing near them or pointing directly AT them... little things that you notice that make it harder to get over the “threshold of disbelief”.
Check out some of these biographies: Politics aside, these guys all put in time in service. (Wikipedia is convenient and quick for this kind of stuff):
Steve McQueen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McQueen#Military_service
Charles Bronson: US Army Air Corps WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bronson
Charles Durning: US Army, Infantry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Durning#Military_service
For his valor and for the wounds he received during the war, Durning was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart
Ernest Borgnine: US Navy WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Borgnine#Naval_service
Borgnine joined the United States Navy in 1935, after graduation from James Hillhouse High School[5] in New Haven, Connecticut. He was discharged in 1941, but re-enlisted after Pearl Harbor and served until 1945,
Eddie Albert:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Albert#Military
He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat “V” for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943,
Clint Eastwood:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Eastwood#Early_life
Robert Ryan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ryan#Early_life_and_career
January 1944, Ryan enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served as a drill instructor at Camp Pendleton, in San Diego, California.
Burt Lancaster:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Lancaster#Circus_career_and_military
Kirk Douglas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Douglas#Early_life
Douglas enlisted in the United States Navy in 1941, shortly after the United States entered World War II. He was medically discharged for war injuries in 1944.
Jack Palance, perennial movie villain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ryan#Early_life_and_career
military career began as a member of the United States Army Air Forces (B24 Liberators).
Richard Jaeckel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Jaeckel
US Merchant Marine, 1944-1949
Here’s a pretty good list of the actors we grew up watching - all of them served during WWII:
http://jodavidsmeyer.com/combat/military/actors_in_wwii.html
Even “Uncle Fester” Jackie Coogan and “Captain Kangaroo” Bob Keeshan is in there...
Thank you, Geronl!
RE “Alive”:
I read that book when it first came out. Amazing story of survival in one the single MOST inhospitable places on the planet - the Andes Cordillera. Bad place to crash.
Here’s a movie you should check out:
“This Land Is Mine” (1943)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036431/
Doesn’t get a lot of airplay, but when it’s on make it a point to see it. Complete with “Officer Friendly” - “Hey, we’re just doing our JOB, friend... go along to get along” helping the National Socialists round up “suspected terrorists and enemies of the people”... iow, normal folk who disagree with being occupied.
In Alive 1993 they are forced to eat flesh of those already dead to survivor, fortunately (and unfortunately) they are in the snowy cold so it provides nature refrigeration for the dead bodies. And so they have plenty of water from snow and those give them time.
That movie is much more positive than Abandon Ship 1957 where if they were to be ethical and humane they probably all would die. In that one people are selected for their un-fitness to row to be shoved off to die in the water, naturally the one officer making the pick spares his own wife.
That is a bad situation.
“...people are selected for their un-fitness to row to be shoved off to die in the water, ...”
Sorta like “Lord of the Flies” but at sea...
That was another chilling book, by the way.
Except in Lord of Flies the kids did it for sport, in Abandon Ship the situation was setup such that they really would have all died in that crowded liferaft, about 5 or so were already in the water just hanging on the sides. It was survival.
That made it impossible to row far, that plus a shortage of water.
It is setup so you know they are unlikely to survive
This plot was the opposite of talk radio world were every problem has a simple clean moral solution that never get tried for some reason (those GOPe just ruin everything HAHA) .
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