Movie Recommendations/Want To See List (2007-2011)

[houston-nat]

I am so goddamn excited for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I just finished reading the novel and it is an absolutely brilliant thriller: there are four top guys in British intelligence high command. One of them has been a Soviet mole for 30 years. Time to find out which.

Oh and about the movie: Gary Oldman is hunting down the mole. John Hurt is the dead chief who had deduced his existence and paid for it dearly. And then there are Ciaran Hinds, Tom Hardy, Toby Jones, and Colin Firth...

Trailer


Yes, to clarify, that's Commissioner Gordon, Eames, King George VI, the Sherlock Holmes villain, and Adam Sutler all in one movie.

[1995hoo]

After visiting Disney World earlier this month and riding Splash Mountain, I have been wanting to see Song of the South again. Unfortunately it STILL isn't available on either VHS or DVD in the USA and likely won't be any time soon, and all the copies I can find on eBay are PAL versions that won't play on an NTSC VHS machine. Guess I'll have to watch what I can find on YouTube. Parts of it are on there, at a minimum.

I last saw it at the old movie theatre that used to be at Loehmann's Plaza sometime in the early 1980s.

I watched this late last week. Cross-posted comments I made elsewhere:

Finally saw it again for the first time since the 1980 re-release in the theatres. I thought of it when I was riding Splash Mountain at Disney World last month because the ride is about the only public acknowledgement of the movie that the Walt Disney Company makes. I loved the Uncle Remus stories when I was a kid and I remembered having seen the movie, although I didn't remember it very well. The movie has never been released on home video in any format in the United States, although it's been released on PAL VHS in other countries and on a very limited laserdisc run in Hong Kong that was made using a bootleg from the PAL VHS. So I set out to find a copy and succeeded with some effort.

It's an outstanding movie and it deserves a re-release, probably as part of a special edition. Disney's concern is that some people may construe some of the content as racist towards blacks. The movie was originally released in 1946 and there was controversy even then because the NAACP leaders—without even having seen the film!!!—complained that it showed a falsely idyllic picture of a master-slave relationship. Never mind that the movie is set AFTER the War Between the States during Reconstruction (although this is never stated in the film, but it's clear towards the end when Uncle Remus decides to leave and move to Atlanta—if he were a slave, he couldn't have done that). I know nowadays some people would complain that the black characters' dialogue, as well as the dialogue from the animated characters (Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox in particular), sounds like a stereotypical black accent with poor grammar and the like—for example, in the story about the time when Brer Rabbit decides to run away, Uncle Remus comes along to see him at the briar patch and Brer Rabbit says, "I ain't goin' to no party 'cuz I ain't goin' be here. I'm gonna leave this ole place." Uncle Remus says, "You mean you's leavin' your old briar patch?" Brer Rabbit replies, as he's hammering nails into his door, "Yes—I—is." Later in the same story when Brer Rabbit gets caught in Brer Fox's trap, and then tricks Brer Bear into taking his place by saying he's watching the crops for a dollar a minute, when Brer Fox sees Brer Rabbit in the trap he hollers, "I got him! I gots Brer Rabbit! I sure has got 'im!" I'm certain if the movie were released nowadays some people would complain about the dialogue. On the other hand, in the 1940s when the movie was made, that was still a fairly common dialect among Southern black people, and it was even more common in the period in which the film is set (the late 1800s). The Uncle Remus stories come from the Negro oral storytelling tradition during the 1800s when most of them were illiterate and passed down their traditions by word of mouth. Not using their dialect would arguably have been the bigger insult. I have no doubt that the dialect in the movie was lessened a bit to help audiences understand it. I remember meeting black people in Tuskegee, Alabama, who had such thick dialect that I simply could not understand what they were saying, and that was in the 1990s. If the dialect in the 1940s was even stronger, it would have been totally incomprehensible.

Some people also might object to the Tar Baby story because a tar baby is considered a racist image nowadays. On the other hand, the Tar Baby story (or "De Tar Baby" as it was called in the best-known book of Uncle Remus stories drawn from the movie) was one of the original Uncle Remus stories from Joel Chandler Harris. More importantly—as discussed more in the next paragraph—it's the bad guys who use the Tar Baby to ensnare Brer Rabbit, but he outwits them.

But the people who focus solely on that sort of thing completely miss the point of the movie and the stories. The black characters are the SMART ones and all the bad guys in the movie are either white people (Johnny's mother being the chief antagonist) or the animated characters who symbolize white people. In the Negro storytelling tradition Brer Rabbit symbolizes the wily black man who outwits the white man (symbolized by Brer Fox and Brer Bear). Also, at the beginning of the movie Johnny's father leaves the plantation to go back to Atlanta—Johnny isn't told that his parents are separating, but I think that seems to be pretty clear from the context and the way his parents act towards each other. Uncle Remus becomes the lost father figure in his life until the end of the film, when the father returns and Uncle Remus symbolically steps away. Does the movie present an idealized picture of race relations? Maybe, but Johnny is a seven-year-old boy, and part of the point is that he's a boy who's innocent enough not to know about racial prejudice. From everything I've ever read, even during the days of slavery it wasn't that unusual for the plantation owners' white kids to play with the black slave children who weren't old enough to work in the fields or around the house. It doesn't strike me as odd at all that they play together. Uncle Remus himself shows his fallibility when he overreacts to Johnny's mother misunderstanding him—he forgets the moral of the stories he tells and decides to leave, and in a sense he becomes Brer Rabbit trying to run away from his troubles. Of course he returns and in the end everything is MIGHTY satisfactual.

There is so much to this movie that it's a shame that Disney won't let it be shown. Seeing it again as an adult makes me see that there's so much more to the movie than I ever understood as a kid. As a kid I thought the animated parts with Brer Rabbit were the best part and I didn't understand any of the deeper storylines or the symbolism. The whole thing about black people and white people never occurred to me at all. I think that's partly because kids don't start out thinking about race and color—they learn it from other people.

It wouldn't be hard for the Walt Disney Company to record a short prologue-type introduction to the film for a Blu-ray or DVD re-release that could address a few of the issues like the film's time period and the reason for using the dialect in the oral tradition. No doubt some people would still complain, but there's always going to be someone who complains, whatever you do. I suppose there is one other issue in a re-release. Because so many people consider Disney movies to be for kids—and because of the animated sequences that will surely make little kids laugh—I suspect that a lot of people would let their kids watch it on their own, say the way many parents put DVD players in their minivans as a way to keep the kids quiet, and if that happened all those people would really miss the point. This movie deserves far more than that.

Currently Disney is officially mum on whether they will ever release it again, but I suspect they eventually will because copyright is not indefinite. Under current US copyright laws, it will pass into the public domain in the United States in 2039 (it's already in the public domain in Japan). I feel pretty certain that Disney will want to profit from the film while they still can and that they'll release it before then.

But 2039 is a long time from now. If you can get yourself a copy now, Song of the South is worth seeing again.

[Frau Mau]

That was one of my favorites, that and Robin Hood. Saw it in the theater.   

So much better than once Disney we all Princess and $hit.

[sportsfan882]

freaking can't wait for Planet of the Apes on Friday

[MarquisDeSade]

freaking can't wait for Planet of the Apes on Friday

Are you serious?  I'll watch any POS that FX puts at 2pm on a Saturday but that looks awful.

[Frau Mau]

I have to confess, I want to see 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'.

   

[sportsfan882]

Are you serious?  I'll watch any POS that FX puts at 2pm on a Saturday but that looks awful.

It looks riveting actually. Supposed to be one of the better movies of the year. Getting rave preliminary reviews actually.

The one trailer they keep showing on TV makes it look bad but there is another better trailer that does it more justice.

[MarquisDeSade]

   

This is from the guy that's watched "Commando" 127 times so take that for what it is. 

[MarquisDeSade]

It looks riveting actually. Supposed to be one of the better movies of the year. Getting rave preliminary reviews actually.

The one trailer they keep showing on TV makes it look bad but there is another better trailer that does it more justice.

Is it a Red Band trailer?  Regardless, post it and I'll remove my prior post dooding on it. 

[Frau Mau]

This is from the guy that's watched "Commando" 127 times so take that for what it is. 

Oh no worries, this comes from someone who plums the depths of Syfy and Chiller on a regular basis. You know it's bad when AtBC comes in the kitchen and is like 'what the fcuk is that?'.

[sportsfan882]

Is it a Red Band trailer?  Regardless, post it and I'll remove my prior post dooding on it. 

Here ya go:

[Nathan]

I am so goddamn excited for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I just finished reading the novel and it is an absolutely brilliant thriller: there are four top guys in British intelligence high command. One of them has been a Soviet mole for 30 years. Time to find out which.

Oh and about the movie: Gary Oldman is hunting down the mole. John Hurt is the dead chief who had deduced his existence and paid for it dearly. And then there are Ciaran Hinds, Tom Hardy, Toby Jones, and Colin Firth...

Trailer


Yes, to clarify, that's Commissioner Gordon, Eames, King George VI, the Sherlock Holmes villain, and Adam Sutler all in one movie.

How I will always remember John Hurt:

[UMDNats]

Moneyball trailer #2



I like it, I'm glad there seems to be a focus on Billy Beane's struggles with the whole system. Can't wait.

[MarquisDeSade]

Does it have him ignoring the open air steroid market and not doing crap after 2006?  Any coverage of his obsession with futbal?

[UMDNats]

Does it have him ignoring the open air steroid market and not doing crap after 2006?  Any coverage of his obsession with futbal?

[hammondsnats]

bout to watch silent hill ... is it good?

well i guess that's a stupid ass question, because anything sean bean is in is good.

[hammondsnats]

nobody's seen silent hill?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!

has my wish finally been granted and everyone has me on ignore!

[Frau Mau]

nobody's seen silent hill?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!

has my wish finally been granted and everyone has me on ignore!

what is it?

[houston-nat]

Rober Ebert saw Silent Hill.

I had a nice conversation with seven or eight people coming down on the escalator after we all saw "Silent Hill." They wanted me to explain it to them. I said I didn't have a clue. They said, "You're supposed to be a movie critic, aren't you?" I said, "Supposed to be. But we work mostly with movies." "Yeah," said the girl in the Harley t-shirt. "I guess this was like a video game that you like had to play in order to like understand the movie."

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060420/REVIEWS/60421001/1023

[BerkeleyNat]

nobody's seen silent hill?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!

has my wish finally been granted and everyone has me on ignore!

I played the first couple of Silent Hill games and I didn't even like the movie. It really got stupid at the end. Supposedly...they are re-releasing the game series on the PS3. It's all on one blu-ray disc.

[sportsfan882]

3.5 hours to Planet of the Apes We'll be at Tysons AMC

[BerkeleyNat]

3.5 hours to Planet of the Apes We'll be at Tysons AMC

I've actually read some decent reviews on it. I might have to check it out myself.

[MarquisDeSade]

3.5 hours to Planet of the Apes We'll be at Tysons AMC

The second trailer definitely looked better.  Let us know if it kicks anii or not.

[houston-nat]

Finally watched Anchorman.

I know, I know.

But hey, it was awesome!

[Lintyfresh85]

Off to see the Planet of the Apes prequal.