Tag: movies

Renewing the heroic Superman of America

11:57 am

The heroic Superman as envisioned in the 1950s
George Reeves as the heroic Superman as envisioned
in the 1950s television show, emulated later by Richard
Donner in his 1978 movie. Click for show’s opening credits.

Not surprisingly, the newest Hollywood attempt to tell the story of Superman appears by all accounts to be on the verge of another movie disaster, for all the usual reasons. Though the first weekend receipts were acceptable, a closer look suggests they also have feet of clay. When compared with the 2013 attempt to reboot the 1978 classic Richard Donner film, the numbers do not look that good.

Now, look at the number of tickets sold:

Estimated tickets sold opening weekend:
MAN OF STEEL (14.3M)
SUPERMAN (10.7M)

Sometimes a win isn’t quite a win.

The article also notes that the movie is having problems attracting foreign audiences.

The reviews meanwhile have been horrible. Take for example this review:

I’ve seen a lot of superhero movies, and this one — given the level of investment involved, the promotional push, the iconic nature of the character and the importance to the future of DC and Warner Bros. — is by far the worst. I would have left the theater if I hadn’t gone with a friend. There are minor Marvel entries with more to their credit than this. It doesn’t even manage to be fun.

Why should this new movie about the first true American super-hero standing for “truth, justice, and the American way” be having problems at box office? Isn’t the story exactly the kind of thing audiences love and normally consume with eager anticipation?

The problem is that this modern Superman movie is not about “truth, justice, and the American way.” Instead, the film’s director and producer, James Gunn, decided it should instead be about “truth, justice, and the human way,” a statement that is not only meaningless and carrying far less substance, it is a slap in the face of the very noble American ideals of this very American legend.
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Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

10:01 pm

A Christmas Eve pause: As I have done now for several years on Christmas day, I bring you the classic 1951 version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, starring Alastair Sim. In my opinion still by far the best adaption of the book and a truly wonderful movie.

And as I noted in a previous year:

Dickens did not demand the modern version of charity, where it is imposed by governmental force on everyone. Instead, he was advocating the older wiser concept of western civilization, that charity begins at home, that we as individuals are obliged as humans to exercise good will and generosity to others, by choice.

It is always a matter of choice. And when we take that choice away from people, we destroy the good will that makes true charity possible.

It is also most important that we all heed the words of Christmas Present: ‘This boy is ignorance, this girl is want. Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy.’”

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Gina Lollobrigida – Pagan dance

6:01 pm

An evening pause: I think this makes a great start to the weekend. Clips from the 1959 movie Solomon and Sheba, centered on Gina’s pagan dance as Sheba, and edited to a piece of music by Dead Can Dance, called Cantara, which the youtube website labels “genuinely pagan music.” If you want to see the original film, go here and go to about 90 minutes. In the original, God steps in to stop all this hanky-panky.

Hat tip Judd Clark.

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John Gabriel & Nelson Riddle – El Dorado

6:01 pm

An evening pause: I think this song quite fitting to end the summer season. Sung by George Alexander, it plays over the opening credits to the classic 1966 John Wayne film of the same name, directed by Howard Hawks. The magnificent paintings that form the backdrop to the credits were painted by Olaf Wieghorst.

My daddy once told me what a man ought to be.
There’s much more to life than the things we can see.
And the godliest mortal you ever will know
Is the one with the dream of El Dorado.

So ride, boldly ride, to the end of the rainbow.
Ride, boldly ride, till you find El Dorado.

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Salomé’s Dance

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Music by Charles Barber. This comes from the 1913 silent film, Salomé, based on an Oscar Wilde play. Rarely seen, the movie represents a very early attempt to do something “edgy”. It succeeds about as well as modern “edgy” films, showing us a very shallow representation of human existence. But the visuals give us a glimpse into that early film world, when sets and costume were usually the only way to show something strange and striking.

Hat tip Judd Clark.

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Voidwalkeraudio – Desire

6:01 pm

An evening pause: The visuals come from the 1927 German film by Fritz Lang, Metropolis, and cover the scene dubbed “Maria’s Dance.” You can see the full movie here, as well as many other places on line.

Hat tip Judd Clark, who adds, “To understand what’s going on here, one needs to see the whole movie, preferably the latest restored version, and to really understand, one needs to read Lang’s wife Thea Von Harbou’s book “Metropolis”.

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Movies when our culture was not run by barbarians

2:58 pm

Today’s essay will in a sense be part two of an essay I wrote earlier this week, entitled “We are becoming a nation of barbarians”. Then, I tried to show the decay in the western civilization by describing the accepted — almost encouraged — crudeness of modern language. While public cursing could easily be consider only a small and trivial issue, I think the increased use of obscene language in normal discourse is equivalent to the “broken windows theory” of psychology, which posits that minor visible signs of disorder and misbehavior encourage further and worse disorder and misbehavior, eventually leading to collapse.

Today I’d like to instead give some examples of the much more civilized nature of popular entertainment from only a half century ago, in order to contrast this with the present. To do this I will cite just four movie examples, and challenge everyone today who is a passionate fan of modern films to watch them (all of which are available for free on the internet) and recognize the differences that I will describe. If you like movies, you will enjoy the experience, but I warn you, modern popular entertainment films do not compare well with these mid-twentieth century pop movies.
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Busby Berkeley – Tap dance sequence from Lullaby of Broadway

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Time for another Berkeley extravaganza. This except is only a small part of the full thirteen-plus minute Lullaby of Broadway number in the movie Gold Diggers of 1935. This movie was made when the talking pictures were still new, and making films that highlighted “All Talking! All Singing! All Dancing!” was the rage. It was also a time when all Americans danced arm-in-arm as one of their main forms of entertainment, so interest in great dancing like this was at its height.

Hat top Judd Clark.

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John Williams – Imperial March

6:01 pm

An evening pause: What is most important about this performance is that Williams was doing the conducting on his 90th birthday. The only sour note of this performance is the idiotic masks they made some members of the orchestra wear. Obviously, a horn player can’t give anyone an infection, but a violin player can. Note too how all the VIPs on the front of the stage (such as Steven Spielberg) were also immune from COVID and didn’t need masks either. What fools and hypocrites.

Hat tip Phil Berardelli.

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Glenn Miller Band – I’ve got a Gal in Kalamazoo

6:01 pm

An evening pause: From the 1942 film, Orchestra Wives. The word “brass” in all its meaning captures the sense of this music and the American free culture then. Everything and anything was allowed, within the moral confines of Judeo-Christian ethics.

Hat tip Wayne DeVette.

I am in need for evening pause suggestions. If you are interested in suggesting an evening pause, please say so in the comments (without providing a link to that suggestion). I will contact you so you can forward it directly to me to schedule. The guidelines for submitting Evening Pauses:

1. The subject line should say “evening pause.”
2. Don’t send more than one per email.
3. Variety! Don’t send me five from the same artist. I can only use one. Pick your favorite and send that.
4. Live performance preferred.
5. Quirky technology, humor, and short entertaining films also work.
6. Search BtB first to make sure your suggestion hasn’t already been posted.
7. I might not respond immediately, as I schedule these in a bunch.
8. Avoid the politics of the day. The pause is a break from such discussion.

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January 3, 2023 Quick space links

3:11 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer, who trolls the web to make sure I don’t miss any important stories.

  • Astronaut Walt Cunningham has passed away

    • Cunningham only flew in space once, on Apollo 7, the first shakedown flight of the Apollo capsule in October 1968. The flight lasted ten days, had no technical problems at all, though all three astronauts caught colds. Its success paved the way for the Apollo 8 mission around the Moon two months later.

 

 

  • The trailer for the Russian sci-fi movie, The Challenge, that was partly filmed on ISS last year, has now been released

    • It is very clear that they got a lot of good footage when they were on ISS. It is a shame however that this trailer doesn’t have English subtitles, because I think it probably could make some money from American filmgoers.

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John Williams – The Cowboys Overture

6:01 pm

An evening pause: It is more than a decade since I last posted this magnificent piece of music from the 1972 John Wayne film, The Cowboys. Time to post it again, because I think it makes a great start to a new year. Rather than John Williams conducting, this time we have a 2018 performance by the Stanisław Moniuszko School of Music Orchestra in Bielsko Biała, Poland, Andrzej Kucybała, conductor.

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Dick Cavett – Burt Lancaster in the circus

6:01 pm

An evening pause: This interview of Burt Lancaster on the Dick Cavett Show took place on July 21, 1969 (the day after Neil Armstrong took that first step on the Moon).

I could not help noting how humble and gracious Lancaster seemed. He might have been one of the world’s most charismatic actors, but he surely did not appear full of himself. The second part of this interview can be watched here.

Hat tip Cotour.

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