There are a zillion great, old films for free on youtube. I wanted to bring them together on one blog for lovers of older films or people who want to learn about film history and see some of the best films ever. When I was younger there was a theater called the Parkway (in Chicago) that showed such films. It was torn down (so it goes). So this blog is kind of my own personal Parkway. djg51qu@gmail.com I will post new films each Saturday.
A man loses his family in Europe during the Holocaust and becomes completely numb to the world. Apparently this was the first Hollywood film to deal with the Holocaust after WWII.
I recently saw the war movie "Fury" on DVD. It was a total piece of crap - a film for war mongers. Also, I don't know whether to believe that a tank crew in World War II really might have treated each other as that tank crew did. Based on all the World War II documentaries and films and TV shows I have seen, US guys in World War II tended to cooperate with each other better than in Fury. I tend to think that all recent war movies have been influenced by narratives that came out of the Vietnam War concerning totally dysfunctional men and units partly at war with each other while fighting a common enemy for unknown or unjustifiable reasons.
Well, let's go back to the early 1960s and see the mythology that was created around World War II. This is a highly organized effort where the men treat each other with respect and there is 100% cooperation. Fury and The Longest Day are probably two extremes in the portrayal of combat in WWII.
Five different directors worked to make this film and probably every actor in Hollywood at the time was in this film. The funniest thing is that they chose macho-man John Wayne to play General James Gavin of the 82nd Airborne Division. Gavin was a scholar as well as warrior - not sure the casting was really perfect for this film.
So basically in the 1960s you had older English actors who could ACT and younger upstarts who could ACT. The older and younger guys combine in this film about Becket, adviser to a corrupt king who had the audacity to tell the king that his behavior was wrong (and who suffers the consequences).
Based on a play by Jean Anouilh.
So this is a very pro-England film. Remember that the "Saxons" are the English and the "Normans" are the French. Becket is the English guy who supported England under the French oppression of Henry II (according to this movie).
Actually, I think this movie is a lot of fun to watch because these are serious actors really acting badly. The acting is way over the top and if I had to bet money I would say these guys were drunk for half the filming. These are members of an exclusive acting secret society clowning around together and making a film. It's kind of disgraceful actually, but fun to watch.
The film follows a young woman who was in a boat off the shore of Japan when the Hiroshima bomb was dropped. While in the boat, it began to rain but the rain was black and like ink. Because of this experience it becomes difficult for her to later find a marriage partner - everyone is convinced she will not live for a 'full' life.
This film does a great job of showing how people who were near Hiroshima died many years later and how they suffered before they died.
At one point in the film a man who has radiation sickness is listening to the radio about news from the Korean War and he hears the announcer say, "The USA is considering the use of nuclear weapons in the Korean War..." He then says, "Nobody ever seems to learn anything. An unjust peace is better than a just war."
I liked this line - an unjust peace is better than a just war - because it reminded me of the debates before the USA attacked Iraq in the early 2000s. It also seems to apply to Syria. Maybe the character was right - an unjust peace is better than a just war.
