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  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    Shady Tree wrote:
    Last week I watched 'The Deer Hunter', which is what put me onto my current Meryl Streep kick. (And like 'The Post', 'The Deer Hunter' is concerned with the Vietnam War.) Streep's always been a very mannered performer, but she's fascinating to watch on screen and part of a generation of 'new wave' and method actors who helped transform film in the 70s. Watching 'The Deer Hunter' again reminded me, too, what a phenomenal performance Christopher Walken gave in that 1978 classic, winning him an Oscar. (Although Walken stands out as a fine actor in AVTAK - by comparison with the rest of AVTAK's cast - it's obvious that he was just 'phoning in' Zorin when 'The Deer Hunter' is considered alongside it!)

    I watched this recently too - the first time in over 30 years - and this was my diary entry:

    "What a dreadful film. A Vietnam PTSD experience movie full of macho, misogynistic male posturing, characters who can't express themselves with any eloquence however paltry. Their alternative is to get drunk, curse and shoot deer. In preference to not saying anything, these tawdry people choose words which don't mean anything. The script is appalling, the acting crass, the story simplistic, unexplained and full of symbolism that would play no part in a Pennsylvania steel worker's existence. It's loud, overblown and overwrought for all the wrong reasons. Horrible."

    I don't think I enjoyed it very much.
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,965MI6 Agent
    edited January 2021
    On 'The Deer Hunter'
    chrisno1 wrote:
    I watched this recently too - the first time in over 30 years ... I don't think I enjoyed it very much.

    Haha! Always interesting to read a negative review of a movie one admires... Then again, I can't think of a single movie I like that doesn't include characterisations of flawed people...


    Having completed, this evening, my 'double-bill' viewing of 'All The President's Men' and 'The Post' I can compare Jason Robards' and Tom Hanks' respective portrayals of Ben Bradlee, the Washington Post's editor during a period when the paper had hard fights on its hands to exercise its right under the First Amendment to expose covert governmental skulduggery. While achieving a closer imitation of the real-life Bradlee, complete with gravelly voice, Tom Hanks makes a more conventional Hollywood hero of the character, while Robards' portrayal is hardbitten: his Bradlee is a gruffer, sometimes intimidating defender of constitutional values. A difference is that in 'The Post' Hanks' Bradlee is a principal character alongside Streep's Kay Graham, whereas in 'All The President's Men' it's obviously Redford and Hoffman who occupy centre stage as Woodward and Bernstein.

    'All The President's Men' feels more dated today than it would have done even a couple of months ago. Hal Holbrook's shadowy Deep Throat character may give Woodward 'shock horror' hints that collusion in the Watergate affair goes 'right to the top' of the White House - but even that seems small potatoes at a time when the outgoing POTUS has been impeached for a second time, now for inciting insurrection!
    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,965MI6 Agent
    Hardyboy wrote:
    Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, on Netflix. This is basically a filmed play, so it's kind of claustrophobic, but it's still a fascinating, beautifully-acted look at 1927 America, when the only way a black person could make it was as an entertainer--and even then there were limits. It also has the final performance of Chadwick Boseman, who's excellent as an ambitious trumpeter; but it's hard to overlook how thin he is. . .and the knowledge of what caused that thinness.

    That sounds like a great show. Will definitely watch it when I next renew my Netflix subscription.
    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    On a lighter note, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

    We all know what we think of this. Great fun, only a bit too cartoony in a couple of scenes (the Nazi shaking his fist at the departing air ship, for instance) and in a way it's a homage to those Will Hay movies, the jokes are as prevalent.
    I'll admit the look of Raiders is a bit grittier, a bit more realistic even if I never personally got behind that film.
    The movie is.a reset after Temple of Doom, but the next film undid all that of course.
    I suppose you could argue it's a rare attempt to see Christian propaganda in a mainstream Hollywood film. It doesn't happen that often, does it?
    The 'younger' Henry Jones gets his own credit, oddly, though he's just a shadowy figure in the early scenes and we don't see his face. Maybe a scene was cut. I don't know if Connery did the voice.
    It's a shame that for the next film they didn't have a more recent picture of Connery as Henry Jones for Indy to gaze at contemplatively as that might have meant he had a credit in that movie, but what am I saying. That film was as rubbish as League of Extraordinary Gentlmen.
    I enjoyed travelling across the US by Greyhound looking forward to the summer's big movie releases such as Batman, Indy, Lethal Weapon 2 and that year's Bond movie. I saw the Last Crusade in Flagstaff if I recall.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    Gymkata wrote:
    LAST CRUSADE is a good one. It's a little too 'cute' funny in places but it's overall a very satisfying film if you're looking for something that, spiritually, is akin to RAIDERS. My big issue with LAST CRUSADE is with the quality of the special effects; many of the shots really, really look quite poor (the blimp, in particular, is never convincing).

    Fun movie.

    For some reason when I first watched Last Crusade (which was sometime in the early 2000s) I found the obvious artificiality of some of the effects (such as the airship which you mentioned) to be a charming and endearing aspect of the film. To me it added to the mid-20th century feel of the film. I feel similarly about old films which have obvious matte paintings and miniatures.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    Shady Tree wrote:
    chrisno1 wrote:
    I watched this recently too - the first time in over 30 years ... I don't think I enjoyed it very much.

    Haha! Always interesting to read a negative review of a movie one admires... Then again, I can't think of a single movie I like that doesn't include characterisations of flawed people...

    Thanks :) :)
    'All The President's Men' feels more dated today than it would have done even a couple of months ago. Hal Holbrook's shadowy Deep Throat character may give Woodward 'shock horror' hints that collusion in the Watergate affair goes 'right to the top' of the White House - but even that seems small potatoes at a time when the outgoing POTUS has been impeached for a second time, now for inciting insurrection!

    After reading your reply, I noticed All the President's Men was on the Beeb at midnight on Sunday. I didn't mean to watch it, but once I started, I couldn't stop. I enjoyed it after a sort of retro-fashion. Hoffman does his usual scuttling-harrassed- immediate thing which he perfected around this time and which I find extremely annoying. His Carl Bernstein is an unlikeable hero. Bob Woodward, being personified with Redford's suave, smooth, calm ego comes across as more sympathetic. The bits I really enjoyed were in the Post editing office, where Jason Robards' Bradlee holds court over his sub-editors.
    I think you mentioned Spotlight earlier.That's a film I admire greatly. I wasn't aware of the exact circumstances of the Spotlight child abuse investigation, but what Tom McCarthy's film does which ATPM fails to do is provide a clear outline of what is being investigated and why. Here a lot of information is thrown at the viewer without any accuracy. It is only in the final reel, when Redford's (Woodward's) informer 'Deep Throat' tells him that everyone is involved and no one is safe, that it becomes clear the two journalists were following up a case larger than the misappropriation of campaign funds. This introduces tension for the first time - when Redford believes he's being tailed, turns, sees no one and his face betrays the fear he noted on all the CRP interviewees - a particularly fine piece of editing from Robert L. Wolfe.
    Unfamiliar with the exact ins-and-outs of the Watergate case, except in a vague historical context, I was none-the-wiser at the end. This is not the case with Spotlight, which is deliberately painful in its explanation of the investigation, leading to moments of tension and power throughout.
    Both films feature superb supporting casts. Mark Ruffalo is a more dynamic hero than either Redford or Hoffman.
    The final shot of ATPM inside the Washington Post newsroom, a television playing Richard Nixon's '73 swearing in, upholding freedom and justice and the constitution, while the journos are seen typing their exclusive story, is a pertinent direction from Alan J. Pakula, suggesting the clear agenda he had in making the movie. McCarthy too has a fine closing shot as the telephone's ring with hundreds more witness stories.
    Both movies reflect a certain way to make a movie - at a certain time, too - and ultimately both succeed, although I'd probably prefer Spotlight's more precise telling.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Shady Tree wrote:
    Last week I watched 'The Deer Hunter', which is what put me onto my current Meryl Streep kick. (And like 'The Post', 'The Deer Hunter' is concerned with the Vietnam War.) Streep's always been a very mannered performer, but she's fascinating to watch on screen and part of a generation of 'new wave' and method actors who helped transform film in the 70s. Watching 'The Deer Hunter' again reminded me, too, what a phenomenal performance Christopher Walken gave in that 1978 classic, winning him an Oscar. (Although Walken stands out as a fine actor in AVTAK - by comparison with the rest of AVTAK's cast - it's obvious that he was just 'phoning in' Zorin when 'The Deer Hunter' is considered alongside it!)
    chrisno1 wrote:
    I watched this recently too - the first time in over 30 years - and this was my diary entry:

    "What a dreadful film. A Vietnam PTSD experience movie full of macho, misogynistic male posturing, characters who can't express themselves with any eloquence however paltry. Their alternative is to get drunk, curse and shoot deer. In preference to not saying anything, these tawdry people choose words which don't mean anything. The script is appalling, the acting crass, the story simplistic, unexplained and full of symbolism that would play no part in a Pennsylvania steel worker's existence. It's loud, overblown and overwrought for all the wrong reasons. Horrible."
    I don't think I enjoyed it very much.
    I gotta say I don't like The Deer Hunter either, despite some great actors in the lead roles.
    The whole pacing of the film is completely wrong, and its a very long film.
    Seems like nearly half the film is just that neverending wedding party establishing the characters. Then the actual VietNam content comes and goes in about ten minutes. We rejoin our heroes overseas in midbattle, they are immediately captured, and most of the VietNam content is the prison they escape from. deNiro goes home alone, and once again we're right back to the smalltown life we just wasted a whole damn slowmoving hour in waiting for the war film to start, and after another long chunk of the film he's finally persuaded to go back to VietNam and find his buddy.

    I don't have an issue with the characters being macho and inarticulate - they are small town factory workers, that part makes sense. Compare with Apocalypse Now, in which the characters quote T. S. Elliot!! That is by far the better film, but the dialog is surreal.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Farewell, My Lovely, 1975
    with Robert Mitchum as Phillip Marlowe, the first of two films he'd do

    yup, I shoulda watched this one first.
    This is actually set in prewar Los Angeles, as its supposed to be, all sepia tones and period decor. Looks aesthetically like a less ambitious version of Chinatown, which is exactly as it should be.
    Been a long time since I saw Murder My Sweet (the 1944 version of the same story), but this seems to be a closer adaptation of Chandlers' book, including scenes left out of the 1940s version, such as a bordello, intravenous drugs, and homosexuals. The ending is closer to what I remember from the book too.
    Mitchum is good as Marlowe when the context is right, though still too old.

    Not so many big stars as the Big Sleep, but Anthony Zerba (he's one of ours) plays the big gang boss. He always looks slimey whatever role I've seen him in. Charlotte Rampling as the femme fatale (Claire Trevor's role in the original). Harry Dean Stanton as the bad cop. and Sylvester Stallone has an early cameo as a thug!

    soundtrack by David Shire is quite good, evoking that doomed rainy noirish vibe.


    Lew Grade produced this, but his names not quite so prominent as it was in the Big Sleep. If he knew Chandler was meant to be set in prewar LA, why the blazes did he decide to transpose the sequel to modernday Britain??
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    The Stunt Man
    1980

    a near-metafictional satire of Hollywood filmmaking

    hey! this is another VietNam film! but more like Taxi Driver, its about a PTSD'd vet trying to find his place in America after the war, his sense of reality shattered by his experiences. Vet played by Steve Railsback, an actor Ive never heard of but all sources say he is most famous for previously playing Charles Manson, and it shows.

    The veteran is on the run from the police, for a crime we are never definitively told the truth of. He stumbles into the middle of a filmshoot, where he witnesses the death of a stuntman, then is himself offered the stuntman's job.

    Second best parts of the film are the bravura sequences showing the film-within-the-film being shot, a WWI battlefield epic. Levels of reality shift up and down within these intricately choreographed sequences, featuring, as the tile promises, much deathdefying stuntwork.
    I would say the film is not pure metafiction, as there is a main level of consensus reality within the film, although all filtered through the unreliable eyes of our paranoid protagonist. Still, when he finally explains to his ladyfriend Barbara Hershey why he is wanted by the police, that too turns out to be a multilayered performance and we may or may not have been told the truth.
    But the constant questioning of reality means the actual baseline of reality is us, the audience in the movie theatre, watching both the revelation of how the magic is done while indulging in the fantasy at the same time.

    First best part of the film is Peter O'Toole as the director of the film-within-the-film, a godlike personage literally descending from the heavens in and out of the other characters dialogs, infuriating with his irresponsible commitment to his art yet charming all into following him to the end. Best ever O'Toole performance?

    speaking of the end...
    ...I was disappointed at the seeming copout, in which there is a logical explanation for everything and all live happily ever after. The story has been building up to a suspenseful thriller finale in which either the good guys should have got away, or died tragically. But upon reflection, the ending we are given is consistent with the ideas that have been developed throughout, as our vet on the run finds his place in Hollywood fantasyland and ultimately accepts the safest choice is just to Believe in the fantasy.
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 2,965MI6 Agent
    edited January 2021
    Compare with Apocalypse Now, in which the characters quote T. S. Elliot!! That is by far the better film, but the dialog is surreal.

    To be fair, 'The Deer Hunter' isn't setting out to be a 'war film' in any conventional sense, though Vietnam obviously has a critical impact on the lives of all the characters and their smalltown community. The film also features the brilliant John Cazale's last performance. Cazale was Meryl Streep's partner at the time, terminally ill, unwell during filming but determined to give it his all...

    Imho 'The Deer Hunter' is a more nuanced film than 'Apocalypse Now' - which is impressive but flawed. Coppola ruins the climax of 'Apocalypse Now' by allowing an improvising Brando to mess up Joseph ("The horror!") Conrad: Brando's Kurtz claims that "words cannot express" "the horror" - only to ramble on for several minutes, mixing garbled metaphors in an excruciating attempt to "express" that very "horror" which words supposedly can't convey! I prefer the honest taciturnity of 'The Deer Hunter''s De Niro, any day of the week!

    Having said that, it was a stroke of genius on Coppola's part to re-imagine Conrad's harlequin as Dennis Hopper's hippie, a character who today would be like some sort of QAnon shamen.
    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • JoshuaJoshua Posts: 1,138MI6 Agent
    The Anderson Tapes. Today on TV. This is the first time I have seen this film. It stars Sean Connery. It is a great film and one which I will definitely watch again.

    Knowing that I am a fan of Connery, a friend of mine at work is going to lend me 'The First Train Robbery'. Apparently that is also a very entertaining film.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Shady Tree wrote:
    To be fair, 'The Deer Hunter' isn't setting out to be a 'war film' in any conventional sense, though Vietnam obviously has a critical impact on the lives of all the characters and their smalltown community. The film also features the brilliant John Cazale's last performance. Cazale was Meryl Streep's partner at the time, terminally ill, unwell during filming but determined to give it his all...
    you're right, its a problem of me expecting it be something its not.

    Because it came out and won awards while Coppola was behind schedule on Apocalypse Now, it has this reputation as having stolen the claim to be the first great VietNam epic, but its not the same sort of film at all. Its about small town life being disrupted.
    Still, those two digressions into VietNam come at the middle and the end, and contain the shocking images we all remember.

    Other than the two VietNam sections, the one part that really sticks with me is the actual deer hunt, when Walken confesses he doesn't care if they bag a deer, he just "likes, um, er, how the trees are". An incredibly inarticulate line, but I think I know what he means: communing with nature is good for the mental health, almost spiritual.
    But his character can't form those words, and its a bit suspect amongst his manly friends even thinking such things at all when theyre supposed to be killing something. This is his character's brave but frustrated attempt to express an unusually sensitive thought, and the scene would not work with more clever dialog. We learn Walken is the sensitive soul in the gang, and this is why his final fate is such a tragedy.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    Joshua,
    You are right, The Anderson Tapes is a brilliant film. It's very prescient considering the amount surveillance we all endure these days - most of it without even realising.
    If you can try to catch a copy of THE OFFENCE from around the same time: quite possibly Connery's best performance ever.
    He had a good run of movies in the 70s, even if they were not all commercial or critical hits, they were hardly ever less than interesting.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    Joshua wrote:
    The Anderson Tapes. Today on TV. This is the first time I have seen this film. It stars Sean Connery. It is a great film and one which I will definitely watch again.

    Knowing that I am a fan of Connery, a friend of mine at work is going to lend me 'The First Train Robbery'. Apparently that is also a very entertaining film.

    I also saw The Anderson Tapes quite recently and found it a very entertaining film, which builds up some good tension as the robbery unfolds. Connery is on good form, and is surrounded by quite a decent ensemble. Martin Balsam's extremely camp performance is a bit over the top, but funny nonetheless.

    One of my most recent films watched was another Sidney Lumet film starring Connery - The Hill. Really top notch prison drama, with an outstanding ensemble of British character actors alongside Connery, who is at his best in this film. Also beautiful stark black and white cinematography, some interesting and unsual editing, as well as a very fine script. Highly recommended for all fans of film, but especially fans of films with a military/prison context.

    Chrisno1's recommendation, The Offence, is definitely on my list of films to watch. I hope to get my hands on the Masters of Cinema blu-ray of The Offence soon.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,177MI6 Agent
    Golrush,
    I wrote a review for The Hill a few weeks (pages!) back. Yes. Definitely worth a look. A superb film with great performances all round.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    chrisno1 wrote:
    Golrush,
    I wrote a review for The Hill a few weeks (pages!) back. Yes. Definitely worth a look. A superb film with great performances all round.

    I've read your review and I think your analysis of the film is spot on!
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    An early 70s film about a love triangle, Sunday Bloody Sunday.

    Stars Peter Finch, Glenda Jackson who are both messed about by lithe young lad Murray Head.

    Quite ahead of its time but what charms and delights now is the interior decor of its time, it's like a time capsule. The whole thing is wonderfully directed by John Schlesinger who also did Far From the Madding Crowd, also with Finch.
    The acting is brilliant throughout and sums up the fag end of the 60s and follow-on disillusionment
    Something of it puts me in mind of The Ipcress File, also a time capsule set in London.
    This film spawned the phrase uttered by one camp partygoer: 'Here come those tired old tits again....'
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • 00730073 COPPosts: 977MI6 Agent
    Last night I watched on TV the ITV production of Miss Marple. The episode was "Murder is Easy" and it had Benedict Cumberbatch as Luke Fitzwilliam in yellowing houndstooth check.

    Just saying....


    138446c49497e31bac5d3916d09cbf66.jpg
    "I mean, she almost kills bond...with her ass."
    -Mr Arlington Beech
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    was he already Sherlock Holmes at this point?
    thatd be almost like a Doyle/Christie shared universe crossover!
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    was he already Sherlock Holmes at this point?
    thatd be almost like a Doyle/Christie shared universe crossover!

    I think that Miss Marple episode was done in 2009, and Cumberbatch may have done the unaired pilot for Sherlock by that point. But the actual series hadn't started yet.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    All the President's Men - I don't know if any of you have seen it.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls


    12 years or so after appearing as Bond, Connery returned in Never Say Never Again, and around 20 years or so after he starred with Connery in The Last Crusade, Harrison Ford returned as Indiana Jones in this.

    It's not far off Never Say Never Again really :# though it's not fair, it does have more going for it though if anything Spielberg's polish makes his film's flaws more jarring.
    Above anything there's an odd sense that this Indiana isn't quite the same as the previous one. I know they're trying to make a point about getting older, and irascible, but still. Ford's hair like Connery's so-called hair in NSNA, varies from tawny brown to grey.
    Some nice touches such as when Ford is on the back of La Beouf's bike, his mannerisms are similar to Connery's - looking unimpressed at his son's heroic antics. Later going 'intolerable' like Connery did but the point is artlessly made.
    There's.an odd sense this is less an Indiana Jones movie than nods to other things... it starts off like Superman: The Movie and the Clark Kent in Kansas scenes, the scene in the warehouse makes you expect the Ark of the Covenant so it blindsides you a bit, the chase in the town is like Back to the Future.
    The scene set in the atomic test site is superb, I don't care about the nuke the fridge thing, it's a highlight.
    But ultimately well I guess many of us instinctively believe in the Bible on some level due to our upbringing, not sure we believe in UFOs. The plot just didn't really get me, it's like one or two Bond films just are never going to grip you no matter what they do, because of the plot - DAD or QoS for instance.
    Indy doesn't fight Nazis in this, he doesn't ride a horse... he does seem a man out of time somewhat, actually more so than Connery did in NSNA. I'd prefer it if it went for a more low key vibe but this is the film Lucas wanted to make so we had to make do.

    I look forward to Ford's swan song as Jones due out next year or whenever - rather like the 'new' Bond film. :o
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    Thanks Gymkata, I enjoyed reading that before turning in for the night. -{

    I think I know in part why the aliens thing doesn't work for me. Firstly Williams' score doesn't really nod to it. The Last Crusade I now realise had that knightly theme to it, in anticipation of the final scene - even the jousting on the motorbike nods to medieval stuff, Knights of the Round Table and all that, it hangs together well.
    But Williams doesn't really have a recognisable theme for this and doesn't produce anything Mayan-sounding or eerie that might put you in that space. The exotic locations all look on the sound stage of course. You don't quite believe they've actually gone anywhere - did they, in fact? Location work is frankly a poor return compared to the other films.
    There was another reason for not believing the aliens but I guess it's that somehow the film is a pastiche and it's just hard to take it that seriously, that's all.
    They borrow a line from the previous film: 'I've heard that bedtime story before...'
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    Posted a reply but the internet went down cos of the snow here probably... Anyway, I didn't mind the CGI wasn't the worst of it but home-made effects do have charm, which this film lacks. CGI has a lazy phone-it-in later feel to it.
    The co-stars also lack charm. Indy imo isn't that great a hero as Ford tends to be mumble y so it needs Marion in Raiders or Dr Henry Jones in Last Crusade to compensate, as if to point out his reserved nature and take the Mickey a bit. The co-stars in this lack charm, though Marion's return is welcome it's part of an ensemble. Plus, Indiana's bookishness and reserve were a welcome paradox in a young, vile leading man originally, but less so in this one now he's older.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    The space alien plot in ...Crystal Skull made sense to me, because if the character had his original adventures when the world looked like weekly movie serials and a bit of Universal horror, and he has since aged twenty-odd years, the world around him should now look like 1950s flying saucer invasion sci-fi. The fictional universe in which he lives, a pastiche of the popular films of the time, should age along with him.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    edited January 2021
    Escape to Athena
    1979 (a few months before Moonraker)

    in which an ensemble cast of zany characters seize control of a Nazi-occupied Greek island during the final days of WWII.

    stars Roger Moore, Telly Savalas and David Niven
    (thats three of ours!)
    also stars Stephanie Powers, who was once a rival 1960s superspy (and that characters name April Dancer was invented by Ian Fleming, so she too is kinda sorta one of ours)
    also stars Richard Roundtree (Shaft), Sonny Bono(!!) and last billed Elliot Gould.

    our Roger is really stretching his acting chops (a bit beyond the breaking point), as he plays a sympathetic Nazi PoW camp commandant. He really fancies Powers, but cant figure out how to seduce her without Gould pimping for him! Rogers More playing a guy who has trouble getting laid just is non-credible!

    Elliot Gould is last billed, but gets the most dialog and is the most interesting character. He gets to indulge in his vaudevillian song-and-dance man skills he used to show off when hosting SNL. And he gets to pursue an escaping Nazi in the big motorcycle chase scene through narrow mediaeval alleyways, best action sequence in the film.
    (good thing I'm an Elliot Gould fan, because if I was watching this for Roger Moore I might be disappointed)

    Ancient Greek architecture and scenery is the biggest star of all in this film, spectacular establishing shots and lots of fun exploring the buildings. Compare with For Your Eyes Only, two years later: four of the characters (but not our Roger) climb a rocky cliff to an inaccessible monastery at the top. when they get there, what they find is more like the finale of a typical Bond film then the ending of the Bond film which it resembles! imagine if we could somehow splice these monastery scenes into the end of FYEO...
  • James SuzukiJames Suzuki New ZealandPosts: 2,406MI6 Agent
    I saw that film a few months back and I loved it! The opening titles with the "one shot" and the fabulous music was wonderful. I also appreciated Telly's Greek dance, and a particular David Niven one shot kill. -{ -{

    Last film I saw was the 1954 "The Last Time I saw Paris" starring Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson, and a very fresh faced Sir Roger Moore in his first film role. Taylor stole the film, Moore's role was slight but entertaining, though i feel he wasn't that convincing as a gigolo tennis player champ. It was odd seeing him in such an old fashioned film.
    “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. "
    -Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    The classic film noir The Maltese Falcon.

    This Humphrey Bogart classic features two co-stars from Casablanca - Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet and is directed by John Huston.

    For all that, it's way too talky and doesn't imo capture the imagination in the first half hour. The characters are all rather reprehensible or behave as if they are. Some of it is a bit preposterous too.
    It pulls together a bit for the last half hour and there's a touch of Indy's Holy Grail about the Falcon which draws people into going after it - fyi the Maltese Falcon is a Crusader-era statue made out of all manner of jewels that was destined for King Charles V of Spain I think but the ship was seized by pirates and many have been seeking it ever since.
    But it's a long slog before it gets to that point.

    The film just didn't convey anything sinister or mysterious to me, the sexual chemistry between Bogarde and his lead Mary Astor isn't really quite there, for me there was something missing all round. I'd go so far as to say that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a far better film!
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    edited January 2021
    The classic film noir The Maltese Falcon.
    did you read the book?

    if you seriously don't like the Bogart film, there were actually two previously filmed versions no-one talks about much.
    The first from 1931 included more sexual content from the book, and therefor had to be pulled from circulation once the Hayes Code was a thing.
    Then they remade it in 1936 as a "comedy" called Satan Met a Lady. with Bette Davis in the Mary Astor role. About as funny as the "funny" version of Casino Royale, so that wasn't worth anything to the studio either.
    Finally they remade it straight with Huston, Bogart et al and film buffs have been studying obsessively ever since.
    There is a dvd edition that includes all three versions.


    I hadn't made the Indiana Jones connection. The scrolling text at the beginning explaining the ancient history of the Falcon reminds me of Lord of the Rings of all unlikely things, and the statue has the same sort of hold on men's minds as Tolkien's One ring.
    Its a weird sort of mystery if you're expecting clues and suspects and a logical solution. More of a psychological study how easy it is to corrupt somebody.

    If you were watching it for the first time, did you spend most of the film believing Bogart seriously wanted the Falcon as much as Lorre and his rivals? That he is as bad as them?
    I know my first time I was surprised when the movie got to the end, and he was still investigating a murder all along. I'd forgotten about his partner.
    And when does he figure that out? The book makes that clearer, but Hammett's writing is tricky: you gotta pay attention to how many cigarettes Sam Spade smokes in one sitting to guess when he solves the real mystery.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    That's interesting and looking around on imdb I did notice the earlier version and may watch that, esp if it's on YouTube.

    Sorry, the film just didn't work for me, daft because I had seen it before and felt the same way but with the Casablanca stars I figured it was worth another shot. I've looked on the imdb reviews and the one-star ones say pretty much what I thought - that doesn't make it 'true' of course, but y'know.
    Yes, I guess it's a twist if you think Spade is after the money and that's all but in fact he's playing detective. But I'd lost interest not least because, well, first half hour or more it's just all over the place. IMO. I didn't care about any of them. 'Hey, I'm sleeping with my partner's wife!' 'Hey. this woman everyone is trying to bump off I'll send her to live with my secretary!'

    That gormless henchman Wilmer had a real career acc to imdb, and I did recognise him from the madcap Hellzappoppin!
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
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