tommyrot "Buffista Movies 4: Straight to Video" Jul 15, 2005 6:29:40 pm PDT

That's odd, I thought it'd been in the public domain for ages, hence the reason for some many dvd versions being available.

In case anyone hadn't noticed, archive.org also has the original Night of the Living Dead available for download. It too is in the public domain apparently.

A friend sent me the "UK Revokes US Independence" essay from John Cleese, and this bit made me laugh and think of the recent Brits Are Bad Guys discussion:

Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

Though either there were translation problems or a lot of it made no sense at all.

I've read that the English translation makes a lot less sense than the Japanese version. For example, the whole subplot about the scarecrow being the missing prince whose disappearance is the cause of the war felt like it came out of nowhere in the English version, but apparently was much clearer in the Japanese.

There was an amazing tiny movie theatre (which also served snacks and beer so it was like watching in someone's living room) in Cambridge called Off the Wall, which showed mostly short subjects. They had a GREAT programmer so the nights might be "Hygiene Films" or "Cartoons about Movies" or some evening devoted to a modern animator. They also showed longer films once in a while and did an entire Ed Wood retrospective. SO terrible, but so fun to watch.

I loved Off The Wall, scrappy. I saw Baum's silent Patchwork Girl of Oz there, and lots of Warner Brother cartoon programs.

Watching Andie McDowell attempt to speak on film anywhere, ever, is like that, John. She belongs to the Elizabeth Rohm "How does she keep getting jobs?" society imo.

I shoulda known you'd have been there, Hec! Great theater, great vibe, great movies.

Okay, so I searched the thread to read people's comments on Sin City when it first came out, and I have to say how relieved I was to read Hec's take on it:

First of all let me note that his movie is not Noir. This movie is a big Catholic passion play. It's a meditation on how much fleshly suffering you are willing to endure to be good. And not good in the eyes of the world, but to die justified. That is not Noir. Noir is Calvinist, fated. You don't die redeemed. You die because you fucked the wrong girl. You die because you made some stupid little half-assed mistake.

How many wounds to the male genitals were there in this movie? Six or seven at least. Because dicks are evil. Again...Catholic. Wounding the flesh again and again.

About 2 minutes into it, I knew it was never meant to be considered Noir. It was, for one thing, too self-consciously stylized to be Noir. And the characters were -- not stereotypes, but almost Jungian archetypes.

Where the Catholic sensibility of it struck me was in how women are portrayed. It doesn't matter that they're whores who kill to protect their territory, it doesn't matter that luscious Carla Gugino is a lesbian -- the women are portrayed as Righteous. Absolutely they are. Marv goes to operatic extremes to avenge Goldie, the whore who used him for protection but still made him feel loved. That's a twisted and almost beautiful 21st century version of courtly love, basically. Worship of The Woman as righteous and pure -- not sexually pure, not legally righteous, but you betcha they're portrayed as morally pure and righteous. Not just Marv avenging Goldie, but the whole clan of hookers, defending their territory so that they can work the streets on their own terms -- sure, it isn't legally righteous, and whores aren't generally seen as "pure," but defending your territory to maintain your own agency in the world? Righteous. Avenging angels.

And then there's Nancy. Little icon of innocence saved from the clutches of a rapist at the age of 11, who essentially "saves herself" for Hartigan, her savior, the man who is old enough to be her grandfather. (Understand, I *don't* think that 19-year-old Nancy is a virgin when Hartigan returns, but, again, I'm not talking about *sexual* purity; I'm talking about a purity of intent, and emotion.)

That's a very very Catholic take on women, twisted through Miller's psyche though it may be.

Nice analysis, Tep. Makes me want to see the movie again.

But you haven't said what you think of Clive Owen.

But you haven't said what you think of Clive Owen.

I gotta say, from still photos of him, he left no real impression on me, other than being kind of dark and Heathcliff-y. However, in motion -- I get the whole OMGhoTTTT!!!1! thing. Some people are just appealing (to me, that is) only when they're in action, not still photos.

I saw Heights this afternoon. A really good, gritty movie about people's lives crashing down around them that is somewhat ruined by the tacked-on Hollywood ending where four of the six main characters pair off in upbeat fashion. Also, Jesse Bradford in scruffied up mode is eerily reminiscent of Victor .