you haven't seen Dr. Strangelove ?

Heh. I have kind of a hate-on for Stanley Kubrick by transference. I used to hang out on movie forums back in pre-LJ, pre-Buffistas days and there were some really obnoxious tools there who worshipped the ground Kubrick walked on and was nasty to anyone who didn't get the master's "genius." Or something. I mean, I liked him fine before! I loved Path of Glory and enjoyed Spartacus as the fun spectacle it is. OK, Clockwork Orange totally traumatized me but I recognize it's a brilliant film, etc. But after that, I purposefully refused to watch Kubrick's films. Wow, that's petty. I should probably get over myself.

I do plan on watching Godfather movies one of these days. Still feels like homework though.

Hey, at least it protected you from Eyes Wide Shut. But I'd add my voice to the Dr. Strangelove recommendations, it's great fun.

Dr. Strangelove is a really hilarious film. George C. Scott and Peter Sellers are especially funny in it.

"You can't let him in here! He'll see the big board!"

I hated Eyes Wide Shut ! Loathed it! Wanted to grab Tom Cruise by his ankles and beat the whole cast and crew with him!

enjoyed Spartacus as the fun spectacle it is.

It's that, but it's also got a clever and classically mid-century Freudian script by Dalton Trumbo. There's this whole other story in there, about spectacle, and about how being put on for show is a trait associated with femininity. I can't say it's a feminist movie, but it's certainly got its gender-trouble, and all the while it has oiled pecs! And Jean Simmons! And flaming logs that roll! Sort of getting your cake and eating it too, you know?

Oh, fine! I'll watch the stupid movie. Geez. :p

Actually, I believe this is only true in the American version. The original has narration by Carol Reed.

Oh, you're right. I checked my copy of the DVD, and it's Reed narrating. I think when I first saw the film back many years ago, it might have been Joseph Cotten doing the narration.

I looked up the Wiki on the film and wow, apparently Graham Greene wanted a hopeful ending (with Holly catching up with Anna) instead of the lacerating one we got. Thank Jebus Reed and Selznick prevailed. That ending is one of my fave film scenes ever.

That ending is one of my fave film scenes ever.

Yeah, she's the ultimate in world weary Euro-disdain. I was very pleased and surprised to find that actress again in Eyes Without A Face.

"You can't let him in here! He'll see the big board!"

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

DAMMIT. I just realized that I lent out my copy of Dr. Strangelove to someone, and I forgot who, and now I'll never get it back. Bollocks.

Wanted to grab Tom Cruise by his ankles and beat the whole cast and crew with him!

Apparently, so did Kubrick: [link]

R. Lee Ermey, the actor who played the menacing drill instructor in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987), says that two weeks before his death, Kubrick phoned him to express his despondency over Eyes Wide Shut, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, which reportedly had taken longer than any film in history to film and which was only in a rough-cut state. "He told me it was a piece of s**t," Ermey said in an interview with the online Radar magazine, "and that he was disgusted with it and that the critics were going to have him for lunch. He said Cruise and Kidman had their way with him -- exactly the words he used...He was kind of a shy little timid guy. He wasn't real forceful. That's why he didn't appreciate working with big, high-powered actors. ... He would lose control."

The solution to that problem, of course, would have been to hire R. Lee Ermey as your AD.