TV/Movies Megathread

[11B4V]

Now don't get me wrong, there are some very enjoyable 50's style westerns. Hell it's what I grew up on.

the gunfighter
The searchers
Liberty valiance

[11B4V]

Disagree.  Mohicans and Revenant were not Westerns.  They're Daniel Boone/Davey Crocket wilderness/frontier movies.

Westerns can start from 1849, when you had the gold rush, but really shouldn't start until 1865, when Quantrill's raiders went outlaw.  Then they end around 1880/1890, with all the railroads laid, all the Indians pacified, all the homesteads homesteaded.  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are a perfect marker for the historical end of the Western.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is one of the best westerns ever and it's set during the civil war.

It's good, but I think Once Upon a Time in the West is better

[celedhring]

Once Upon a Time in the West is simply magnificent. It's actually one of my favorite films ever.

A tragedy that Leone died right when he was about to shoot his Eastern Front WWII pic 

[Savonarola]

The Taming of the Shrew (1929)

There's an anecdote in "The Disaster Artist" where Greg Stestero tells of an acting class he and Tommy Wiseau attended.  The teacher had given up on Tommy at that point so when they did a scene she had them deliver their line and then smack the other guy with a pillow.  This film is like that, except Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks hit one another with whips between lines.

By 1929 the years had finally caught up with Mary Pickford and she had started to develop noticeable hips () and breasts ( ).  The public was not pleased and they were even less pleased when she cut her hair.  As a last desperate attempt to save her career an their marriage Pickford and Fairbanks starred in this lavish retelling of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" (aided and abetted by Sam Taylor.)  The result was a notorious bomb and stars' careers were largely over.  Also making a movie with Mary Pickford turned out to be even worse than being married to her and they ended up in divorce court.

This film is actually decent; especially by the standards of 1929.  Fairbanks gives one of his better performances as Petruchio (allegedly spurred on by his constant real life battles with Pickford.)

At the end Pickford delivers Katherine's speech about being a dutiful wife and then follows it with an enormous  .  That may be the single most American interpretation of the Bard's work.

[dps]

Now don't get me wrong, there are some very enjoyable 50's style westerns. Hell it's what I grew up on.

the gunfighter
The searchers
Liberty valiance

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance wasn't made in the 50s.  And it's definately deconstructionist, though probably not revisionist.  Though to be honest, if you think that having moral ambiguity in a Western is revisionist, a lot of the Duke's work in the 50s has some degree of revisionism to it (The Searchers would be a good example).  Same thing with the Westerns Stewart made in the 50s with Anthony Mann, and some of Stewart's later Westerns as well.

[celedhring]

Now don't get me wrong, there are some very enjoyable 50's style westerns. Hell it's what I grew up on.

the gunfighter
The searchers
Liberty valiance

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance wasn't made in the 50s.  And it's definately deconstructionist, though probably not revisionist.  Though to be honest, if you think that having moral ambiguity in a Western is revisionist, a lot of the Duke's work in the 50s has some degree of revisionism to it (The Searchers would be a good example).  Same thing with the Westerns Stewart made in the 50s with Anthony Mann, and some of Stewart's later Westerns as well.

Budd Boeticher's 1950s westerns are certainly ambiguous. You also have Johnny Guitar.

Obviously it's not like people woke up in the 1960s and decided to start making revisionist westerns. Old Hollywood was already in decline in the 1950s so you had people trying new directions. But that was the exception rather than the rule.

[Oexmelin]

I have this vague impression that the Superhero movies of today will be the Westerns of tomorrow. Really popular genre that have become so formulaic that only a few examples of the genre will survive. Most of them are utterly forgettable, even if enjoyable, and those that aren't already feel as if they can no longer take themselves seriously. But even then, I am having a hard time of thinking of superhero movies with remarkable cinematography. Burton's first Batman? Dark Knight, Watchmen? perhaps?

[celedhring]

I have this vague impression that the Superhero movies of today will be the Westerns of tomorrow. Really popular genre that have become so formulaic that only a few examples of the genre will survive. Most of them are utterly forgettable, even if enjoyable, and those that aren't already feel as if they can no longer take themselves seriously. But even then, I am having a hard time of thinking of superhero movies with remarkable cinematography. Burton's first Batman? Dark Knight, Watchmen? perhaps?

Raimi's Spider-Man flicks, certainly. They pretty much set the standard for the "bright, hyper kinetic" Marvel style.

And yeah, Burton's and Nolan's batflicks are good examples too. The Dark Knight is probably the best-directed superhero film ever.

[Ed Anger]

The Eagle has Landed

Best part? Larry Hagman getting shot in the head. Followed by Donald Pleasance's creepy Himmler.

[The Brain]

Who shot JR?

[mongers]

Who shot JR?

Eric Clapton.

Or was that some other stetson wearing victim?

[Josquius]

I have this vague impression that the Superhero movies of today will be the Westerns of tomorrow. Really popular genre that have become so formulaic that only a few examples of the genre will survive. Most of them are utterly forgettable, even if enjoyable, and those that aren't already feel as if they can no longer take themselves seriously. But even then, I am having a hard time of thinking of superhero movies with remarkable cinematography. Burton's first Batman? Dark Knight, Watchmen? perhaps?

Funny to think in a bungalow in the year 2060 a little old lady is sat watching old school 3D superhero movies whilst her grandkids yawn and count the minutes tick by.

[Eddie Teach]

Shame Seedys not here to remind us 2060 is a pipe dream. 

[Liep]

I have this vague impression that the Superhero movies of today will be the Westerns of tomorrow. Really popular genre that have become so formulaic that only a few examples of the genre will survive. Most of them are utterly forgettable, even if enjoyable, and those that aren't already feel as if they can no longer take themselves seriously. But even then, I am having a hard time of thinking of superhero movies with remarkable cinematography. Burton's first Batman? Dark Knight, Watchmen? perhaps?

Funny to think in a bungalow in the year 2060 a little old lady is sat watching old school 3D superhero movies whilst her grandkids yawn and count the minutes tick by.

Im looking forward to Bale's comeback as a drunken old Batman.

[Tamas]

I have this vague impression that the Superhero movies of today will be the Westerns of tomorrow. Really popular genre that have become so formulaic that only a few examples of the genre will survive. Most of them are utterly forgettable, even if enjoyable, and those that aren't already feel as if they can no longer take themselves seriously. But even then, I am having a hard time of thinking of superhero movies with remarkable cinematography. Burton's first Batman? Dark Knight, Watchmen? perhaps?

Funny to think in a bungalow in the year 2060 a little old lady is sat watching old school 3D superhero movies whilst her grandkids yawn and count the minutes tick by.

Im looking forward to Bale's comeback as a drunken old Batman.

Even I'll be 80 by then, assuming I'll live to see it.