Monday, December 28, 2015

Ride Lonesome - Budd Boetticher - 1959


The Randolph Scott character claims to be interested in seeing justice done by taking a young man in to be hanged for a senseless murder; yet, it turns out he has ulterior motives. We see the possibility between a person's true motives and the perfectly legitimate moral justifications he can give to obfuscate his true intentions.

The Pernell Roberts character wants to take the young guy in as well, but his motives are also less than direct.

Everybody wants justice, but they all want it for different reasons.

Münchhausen - Josef von Báky- 1943


Not every film shot in World War 2 in Germany was propaganda...or would you disagree after seeing this film?  Lots of folks really like this movie,even though it was shot in Germany during the war.

Triumph of the Will - Riefenstahl - 1935



You can see this film by clicking on this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4gVcHE2HcU

I once took a sociology of religion course in which our professor asked us to watch this film and to look for how Riefenstahl used religious symbols and motifs to glorify Hitler and Nazism. Don't forget that the swastika itself was an ancient religious symbol. You might want to view this film the same way I did for the first time, or you can simply just watch it and derive whatever conclusions you are able to.

This film was made after Hitler had performed an economic miracle in Germany - reducing unemployment to negligible levels. Some perceptive folks still recognized Hitler's threat to civilization, but many were, apparently,bamboozled.

Riefenstahl would later go on to say that she was not a Nazi propagandist, but she seems to be shooting for a very clear and precise political message in this film. It is unmitigated propaganda. Some say it is the finest example of propaganda in the history of film.

The Man with a Movie Camera - Vertov - 1929


Monday, December 21, 2015

Devils on the Doorstep - 2000 - Jiang Wen



Click to see the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Agc-AwQuQ8

Sorry - I thought there were English subtitles....well, I'll keep the film up in case any Chinese folks want to watch it. Please pass it on...

The List of Adrian Messenger - John Huston - 1963



An entertaining mystery by John Huston. If you need to sit back and relax for awhile, lose yourself in this film.

Aparijito Satyajit Ray 1956

Satyajit Ray was one of the greatest film-makers ever...there's a deep sense of humanity and compassion in his films.


To see the film, please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncDVUW4GrWY

Friday, December 18, 2015

Monday, December 14, 2015

The Front Page - 1931 - Lewis Milestone

Great old movie, very funny, about an ambitious reporter trying to balance ethics with selling papers.

The sound isn't that good, so I chose a version with captions....


Click on link for film:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS49lyn7568


Sunday, December 13, 2015

Detour - 1945 - Edgar G. Ulmer

Film noir classic. A piano player, due to dire poverty, is forced to hitchhike from New York to LA and accepts a ride from a guy who turns out to be a shady character. The guy is no direct threat to the piano player and even tries to help him, but this leads to even more of a downward spiral in the piano player's life.

You know you are watching a film noir classic when you hear a line like: "There oughta be a law against dames with claws. Give a tomato a ride and you expect her to be nice."