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Post by contourcreative on Oct 16, 2008 13:50:47 GMT 12
Flying Down to Rio (the Flying Boat Sequences a good) Very average film.
Battle of Britain is great except for the editing. You know where the guy find the church his wife and kids are in burned out then cuts to him waking up and CEO says: "I'll give you advice..never get married!' I watched this film when I was a kid (You know when everyone stood up in the theater to God Save the Queen played by bandsmen in Red Suits) and even today I can't figure THAT one out.
(Watched this one tooo much. 'Don't you shout at me Mr Warwick' became a byline in the family)
Tora Tora Tora. Anything with Kurasawa's hand in it is bound to be great to look at the acting stiff as starch...but the Japanese pilots..um...too exuberent..even after they had to re-shoot their sequences.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 16, 2008 14:24:40 GMT 12
I don't think much of Kurasawa's work, if any, made it into the film did it? They reshot everything he was working on because he was nuts.
I never realised about that line of never get married to a recently widowed man, good point.
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Post by contourcreative on Oct 16, 2008 15:21:11 GMT 12
The opening credits with the Japanese battleships are all Kurasawa. He insisted on the books in the Japanese prime minister's office all being of the correct vintage so his actors could 'feel the mood' or whatever.
Ran, the Seven Samauri etc are mind numbingly slow. A director in love with his technique. Beautiful composition, a poor director of actors (I think) and really didn't know much about editing.(For a brilliant Sino-Russian film I would recommend Dersu Usala..but Off Topic)
So, here's a question: Has the Aircraft/War Film genre actually produced anything that you could call a masterpiece?
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Post by FlyNavy on Oct 16, 2008 16:03:29 GMT 12
'Dersu Usala' is a most amazing film. What a joy. ;D
If you include "spacecraft" then '2001, A Space "Oddity"' would have be my pick. ;D
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Post by contourcreative on Oct 16, 2008 17:48:44 GMT 12
My goodness someone who has seen Dersu Usala in NZ! (Hold on! you're in Aussie!) Kubrick's masterpiece would definitely up there. What did you think of 'The Right Stuff'? (I'm not suggesting it was a masterpiece however).
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Post by FlyNavy on Oct 16, 2008 19:11:43 GMT 12
Not a bad book (Right Stuff) if taken with a grain of salt. Disappointed with the US gungho silliness of the fillum though. Most of these movies with the obligatory group walk in flight gear to the camera is just ridiculous now. ;D The "Right Stuff" is a good story badly told most likely.
Dersu Usala must be seen on a wide screen movie theatre. Maybe a wide screen big TV would do but I don't have one to say. Having seen Dersu on a small TV screen - it is not the same.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 16, 2008 22:53:31 GMT 12
I like the film The Right Stuff much more than Catch-22, which apart from the B-25 scenes I didn't think much of. Good but not great. And as for M*A*S*H I simply couldn't get into it after being so fiond of the series and finding it was so flat by comparison, so switched it off. Everyone has different tastes I guess.
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Post by hardyakka on Oct 16, 2008 23:39:13 GMT 12
The end credit sequence from Top*Gun where two F-14s go into reheat for a rolling tail chase into a spectacular sunset is one of my favourites.
Going way back to a post made by flyingkiwi, about "Behind Enemy Lines", I got to meet and listen to a talk by Scott O'Grady at Oshkosh in 1995, telling the story of his Bosnian shootdown and rescue. He was a very modest bloke who seemed embarrassed at his enforced USAF poster-boy status (no true fighter pilot really wants to be remembered as "that guy who got shot down").
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Post by FlyNavy on Oct 16, 2008 23:42:47 GMT 12
Dave, if you like reading novels then you must read "Catch-22". The film tells only a small part of a rich story. The film will make more sense once you read the book. MASH the film is/was always better than the crass TV series, which was only OK because of RADAR.
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