Strange movies are appearing

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mrsl
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Strange movies are appearing

Post by mrsl »

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Recently a lot of foreign language western movies are being shown on Encore. Some of them are all right, but most of them are too bloody for my taste. Although watching Gene Autry, and some of the old Gunsmoke, High Chapparal, Bonanza, etc. shows, I scoff when someone gets shot obviously in the chest and there is not even a tear in the shirt. So I'm not completely against some form of seeing a wound, I just don't care to see stuff flying all over as is done in todays' programs and movies.

Actually, I keep in Western tune by watching Gene. In fact I find myself ignoring shows like NCIS and Castle in favor of watching a DVR copy of a Gene Autry. My grand daughter was over and pretty much figured out how to copy from video to disc, but had to leave before we could get to the store to pick up some blank videos.
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Anne


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movieman1957
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Re: Strange movies are appearing

Post by movieman1957 »

Encore must be cyclical. I thought at one time, like you, they were playing way too many spaghetti westerns. Not too many are for me. Maybe it's a matter of what studios can or will make available.
Chris

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RedRiver
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Re: Strange movies are appearing

Post by RedRiver »

I get more sensitive to violence on film with each passing day. Yes, some stories are about murder, gunplay and fisticuffs. That's OK. But I'm not sure there is ever a need for extreme suffering. That's not story. It's sensationalism. Just shoot the bad-guy and move on!
tinker
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Re: Strange movies are appearing

Post by tinker »

get more sensitive to violence on film with each passing day. Yes, some stories are about murder, gunplay and fisticuffs. That's OK. But I'm not sure there is ever a need for extreme suffering. That's not story. It's sensationalism. Just shoot the bad-guy and move on!
I could not agree more.I know I keep saying it but when they started to use westerns as a metaphor for violence, rather than a way of writing stories about heroism, or the lack of it, of human emotion, and conflict, then they killed them. Westerns (and science fiction ) were always a way to place men ( and occasionally women) in situations where they had to search their souls, prove themselves. I think that was why the best of them really become mythology. I cannot see the conflict between Matthew Garth and Tom Dunson played out over a stock market deal rather than real stock ( I know a bad pun) nor could I see Will Kane's final throwing his badge on the ground seem so tragic in a current cop show. In a western setting you never forget them though.

The western setting makes them larger than life and their stories mythologies. Yes they had their formuale but there was a purpose for ritualising the shooting because westerns are not about the shooting but the reaction. When later westerns just became vehicles to show horrible ways to die and you could not tell the hero from the villian or emphathise with anyone (often the bad guy) the western ended. Could anyone imagine empathising with Jimmy Ringo in The Gunfighter or Shane if they showed the violence of their crimes and fights. What made both men such tragic characters was that both men knew the violence of what they had done.,The audience did not have to see it. In fact it was better we did not.

I think part of the reason that The Searchers is so powerful is that for the most part you never saw the terrible things that happened. I cannot imagine showing in great detail what happend to Martha and Lucy (and which would have been shown if the film wa made in the late 70's ) would have been as powerful as only seeing Ethan's reaction.

I think you are right. They lost the art of telling good stories and acting through abreviating the violence. Was it Errol Flynn who said when told to emote everyhing into one word they would have to write him a speech because he was not that good an actor. ( I think he underestimated himself) . The same thing could be said about extended violence.

dee
[b]But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams[/b]. (William Butler Yeats )
[b]How did I get to Hollywood? By train.[/b] (John Ford)
RedRiver
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Re: Strange movies are appearing

Post by RedRiver »

Dee, if I live to be 100, I'll never sum up this situation as accurately as you have. There's really nothing I can add!
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mrsl
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Re: Strange movies are appearing

Post by mrsl »

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Red River said: "I get more sensitive to violence on film with each passing day."

A perfect example of this for me was in watching Duel at Diablo, with Jim Garner and Sydney Pointier, made in 1966. Movies were starting to become truly more lifelike and in one scene, not expecting such forthright camera work, I almost lost my lunch when they showed Dennis Weaver, tied to a wagon wheel burned to a crisp. The scenes before that had you hearing him screaming horribly so you knew something awful was happening, but the although they only showed his arm, it was enough to make me literally gulp several times to keep it all down. As with Martha and Lucy, you knew it was bad, you didn't have to have it thrown in your face. It must have been in the 60's that things started to get so graphic. Now, I don't get sick, I just get angry and say to the T.V. - okay, I know it's bad, just get on with it as Red said.
Anne


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]***********************************************************************
tinker
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Re: Strange movies are appearing

Post by tinker »

RedRiver wrote:Dee, if I live to be 100, I'll never sum up this situation as accurately as you have. There's really nothing I can add!
Thank you :D :D :D
[b]But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams[/b]. (William Butler Yeats )
[b]How did I get to Hollywood? By train.[/b] (John Ford)
RedRiver
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Re: Strange movies are appearing

Post by RedRiver »

I'm one of the few people who don't appreciate the films of Martin Scorsese. Who couldn't tell a story about people getting their brains blown out? What takes talent is NOT falling back on that.
clore
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Re: Strange movies are appearing

Post by clore »

RedRiver wrote:I'm one of the few people who don't appreciate the films of Martin Scorsese. Who couldn't tell a story about people getting their brains blown out? What takes talent is NOT falling back on that.
Have you seen Scorsese's film HUGO? This is simply amazing, one of the best that I've seen since the last century. A love song to Melies, to cinema in general and to literacy. I only caught up with it last week, but I watched it twice in 24 hours.
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Re: Strange movies are appearing

Post by MissGoddess »

1. Dee, that was flat out BRILLIANT what you wrote. Oh my goodness, that should be published.

2. RE: Scorsese. I may be his biggest fan who avoids 95% of his movies. I love The Age of Innocence and I really want to see Hugo...I must see if it's on Netflix streaming...but I don't have any interest in seeing the others (I've seen Good Fellas, didn't like). I adore him, though, from his interviews, because he is so passionate, childlike yet super intelligent to speak on film. I hope I can meet him one day, before I leave NY, just to talk Ford, movies, Ford, movies, Ford....

As for violence in movies, I can definitely attest that the more you watch the more tolerance you build up. I've become too desensitized (though I still can't stomach today's violence). There was a time 1970s violence was beyond toleration by me, now I find myself watching it sometimes (like the Eastwood films). Not good. I don't enjoy it, though---I find it pointless.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
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RedRiver
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Re: Strange movies are appearing

Post by RedRiver »

Even my crazy brother says, "A movie can be violent. It shouldn't be ABOUT violence." Not bad!
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