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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 22, 2016 20:04:02 GMT -5
Big Jake was a nice way to while away an hour and a half. John Wayne in all his Johnwayneness!
I was flabbergasted by the film's intro, which roughly covers what was going on in 1909. It's amazing to think that Einstein's theory of relativity is contemporary to Ford model T and cowboys and desperados antics!!! Talk about contrast!
So... bad guys abduct John Wayne's grandson, and he goes after them. You can imagine how it all ends, in a hail of bullets! Great spectacle.
The use of cars and of a motorcycle (for a little while) add something a little new to this western, but its charm mostly hangs on the personality of Wayne's irrascible character.
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Post by Prince Hal on Nov 22, 2016 20:31:58 GMT -5
Big Jake was a nice way to while away an hour and a half. John Wayne in all his Johnwayneness! I was flabbergasted by the film's intro, which roughly covers what was going on in 1909. It's amazing to think that Einstein's theory of relativity is contemporary to Ford model T and cowboys and desperados antics!!! Talk about contrast! So... bad guys abduct John Wayne's grandson, and he goes after them. You can imagine how it all ends, in a hail of bullets! Great spectacle. The use of cars and of a motorcycle (for a little while) add something a little new to this western, but its charm mostly hangs on the personality of Wayne's irrascible character. Always have enjoyed this, though it struggles against the bad acting of Patrick Wayne and James Mitchum. The scenes between Wayne and Richard Boone are great, however. It's this movie that John Carpenter and Kurt Russell pay homage to in Escape from New York when everybody who encounters Snake Plissken says, "Snake Plissken? I thought you were dead." Snake always responds the way Jacob McCandles did: "Not hardly." And then both of them shoot the other guy, unless they did already.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 22, 2016 21:00:06 GMT -5
Big Jake was a nice way to while away an hour and a half. John Wayne in all his Johnwayneness! I was flabbergasted by the film's intro, which roughly covers what was going on in 1909. It's amazing to think that Einstein's theory of relativity is contemporary to Ford model T and cowboys and desperados antics!!! Talk about contrast! So... bad guys abduct John Wayne's grandson, and he goes after them. You can imagine how it all ends, in a hail of bullets! Great spectacle. The use of cars and of a motorcycle (for a little while) add something a little new to this western, but its charm mostly hangs on the personality of Wayne's irrascible character. Always have enjoyed this, though it struggles against the bad acting of Patrick Wayne and James Mitchum. The scenes between Wayne and Richard Boone are great, however. It's this movie that John Carpenter and Kurt Russell pay homage to in Escape from New York when everybody who encounters Snake Plissken says, "Snake Plissken? I thought you were dead." Snake always responds the way Jacob McCandles did: "Not hardly." And then both of them shoot the other guy, unless they did already. Neither Patrick Wayne nor Christopher (not James) Mitchum ever had any business being in any movie. But any time I can see John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara together is a very good time. And I'm a sucker for "end of the West" movies, though Wayne did that far better in The Shootist.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2016 18:24:41 GMT -5
Big Jake was a nice way to while away an hour and a half. John Wayne in all his Johnwayneness! I was flabbergasted by the film's intro, which roughly covers what was going on in 1909. It's amazing to think that Einstein's theory of relativity is contemporary to Ford model T and cowboys and desperados antics!!! Talk about contrast! So... bad guys abduct John Wayne's grandson, and he goes after them. You can imagine how it all ends, in a hail of bullets! Great spectacle. The use of cars and of a motorcycle (for a little while) add something a little new to this western, but its charm mostly hangs on the personality of Wayne's irrascible character. This is definitely one of his better latter day westerns. It was great seeing him with Maureen O'Hara one last time in a movie together. They always had great chemistry. I especially love the scene between Wayne and his son when the son calls him "Daddy." Wayne: "You can call me father, you can call me Jacob, you can call me Jake, you can even call me a dirty son of a bitch, but if you ever call me "daddy" one more time I'll finish this fight. " It's been years since I've seen it but I always remember that scene. Is this also the one where the dog is just called "dog?"
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 23, 2016 19:20:19 GMT -5
Big Jake was a nice way to while away an hour and a half. John Wayne in all his Johnwayneness! I was flabbergasted by the film's intro, which roughly covers what was going on in 1909. It's amazing to think that Einstein's theory of relativity is contemporary to Ford model T and cowboys and desperados antics!!! Talk about contrast! So... bad guys abduct John Wayne's grandson, and he goes after them. You can imagine how it all ends, in a hail of bullets! Great spectacle. The use of cars and of a motorcycle (for a little while) add something a little new to this western, but its charm mostly hangs on the personality of Wayne's irrascible character. This is definitely one of his better latter day westerns. It was great seeing him with Maureen O'Hara one last time in a movie together. They always had great chemistry. I especially love the scene between Wayne and his son when the son calls him "Daddy." Wayne: "You can call me father, you can call me Jacob, you can call me Jake, you can even call me a dirty son of a bitch, but if you ever call me "daddy" one more time I'll finish this fight. " It's been years since I've seen it but I always remember that scene. Is this also the one where the dog is just called "dog?" Yep, that's the one. My favourite line is when he says to his son "if you haven't learned to respect your elders, it's time you learned to respect your betters" before throwing him into a mud pool. Not the most sensitive of parenting, I'll grant, but a pretty bad ass line nonetheless!
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Post by Prince Hal on Nov 24, 2016 0:23:05 GMT -5
Big Jake was a nice way to while away an hour and a half. John Wayne in all his Johnwayneness! I was flabbergasted by the film's intro, which roughly covers what was going on in 1909. It's amazing to think that Einstein's theory of relativity is contemporary to Ford model T and cowboys and desperados antics!!! Talk about contrast! So... bad guys abduct John Wayne's grandson, and he goes after them. You can imagine how it all ends, in a hail of bullets! Great spectacle. The use of cars and of a motorcycle (for a little while) add something a little new to this western, but its charm mostly hangs on the personality of Wayne's irrascible character. Is this also the one where the dog is just called "dog?"Yep.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 24, 2016 12:26:01 GMT -5
Thanksgiving Day movie: Zabriskie Point (1970). For some reason. If I have time this evening, I'm going to watch Broadway Melody of 1938. Eleanor Powell!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2016 13:49:21 GMT -5
Thanksgiving Day movie: Zabriskie Point (1970). For some reason. If I have time this evening, I'm going to watch Broadway Melody of 1938. Eleanor Powell! I would watch that movie - Broadway Melody, Eleanor Powell is terrific in it! ... Very Entertaining and Fun Movie to watch!!
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 24, 2016 14:11:24 GMT -5
Thanksgiving Day movie: Zabriskie Point (1970). For some reason. If I have time this evening, I'm going to watch Broadway Melody of 1938. Eleanor Powell! I would watch that movie - Broadway Melody, Eleanor Powell is terrific in it! ... Very Entertaining and Fun Movie to watch!! I love Eleanor Powell! I wish her movies were as good as she was. Some of them are quite enjoyable and have some pretty good scenes - Born to Dance and Broadway Melody of 1936 come to mind - but she wasn't in anything as good as Footlight Parade or Shall We Dance. But I've never seen Broadway Melody of 1938. Fingers crossed!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2016 14:47:14 GMT -5
I would watch that movie - Broadway Melody, Eleanor Powell is terrific in it! ... Very Entertaining and Fun Movie to watch!! I love Eleanor Powell! I wish her movies were as good as she was. Some of them are quite enjoyable and have some pretty good scenes - Born to Dance and Broadway Melody of 1936 come to mind - but she wasn't in anything as good as Footlight Parade or Shall We Dance. But I've never seen Broadway Melody of 1938. Fingers crossed! I have seen Born to Dance and Shall We Dance ... and I haven't seen Footlight Parade yet!
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 24, 2016 14:51:40 GMT -5
I love Eleanor Powell! I wish her movies were as good as she was. Some of them are quite enjoyable and have some pretty good scenes - Born to Dance and Broadway Melody of 1936 come to mind - but she wasn't in anything as good as Footlight Parade or Shall We Dance. But I've never seen Broadway Melody of 1938. Fingers crossed! I have seen Born to Dance and Shall We Dance ... and I haven't seen Footlight Parade yet! And 42nd Street! That's another one of the greats. A great musical from a slightly later time period that (I think) should be better known is The Harvey Girls.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2016 20:21:25 GMT -5
I have seen Born to Dance and Shall We Dance ... and I haven't seen Footlight Parade yet! And 42nd Street! That's another one of the greats. A great musical from a slightly later time period that (I think) should be better known is The Harvey Girls. I see both 42nd Street and Harvey Girls - and I just loved Ray Bolger and Judy Garland in that movie and I was taken by surprised of both Angela Lansbury and Kenny Baker as Terry O'Halloran. John Hodiak was impressive as Ned Trent.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 25, 2016 12:04:04 GMT -5
Heads up! One of the movies discussed above – Shall We Dance – is showing on TCM later today at 1 p.m. Pacific, 4 p.m. Eastern. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers films, and one of the highlights of the 1930s.
I recognize that black and white 1930s musicals may not be everyone's cup o' tea. But Shall We Dance is so entertaining, so well-made, so funny and such a perfect delight from start to finish that I highly recommended it for any film buff who appreciates great movies, even those that aren't in his or her favorite genre.
On an unrelated note, one of the movie channels was showing a bunch of John Wayne films, including several of the key Wayne films I've never seen. I only DVRed one of them because I don't want to load up the DVR (too late!) and also because I want to ration out John Wayne's films so that I'm still seeing new ones when I’m 80 or 90. The one I DVRed was The Sons of Katie Elder.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 25, 2016 12:22:16 GMT -5
I stayed up real late last night watching Broadway Melody of 1938 and … well, it has its moments. But it's too long, way too close to two hours, and there are long stretches where they are merely advancing the plot, such as it is, and the script just isn't good enough to justify so much time spent on trying to get it to all make sense.
But, oh, it does have its wonderful moment. Judy Garland has a couple of great numbers. They use Buddy Ebsen enough to make you smile, whether he's joking around or saying something stupid or just dancing. He's such a wonderful dancer, with his own comic style. I liked all the scenes at the boarding house.
And of course, Eleanor Powell! She's magical! Dancing with Ebsen and George Murphy on the boxcar with the horses, the number at the park where she and Murphy end up dancing in the rain, and that big finale is really quite amazing!
OK. So maybe it has more than a few magical moments. I'm just being a little harsh because poor Eleanor Powell made a bunch of movies, and they're all watchable, and she's an all-around amazing performer, but she never lucked into one of the true classics of the genre, like some of the films discussed above. She should be as famous as Ginger Rogers or Cyd Charisse.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Nov 25, 2016 16:24:38 GMT -5
I order new release DVDs through the library. I thought I ordered this one and got an email that it was ready for pick up Instead, what was waiting for me was this It was my error but it's a win-win. Never saw this Richard Widmark film but will tonight. And put in a new reservation for my original choice
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