Movies

Movies Seen

• The Surprising World of Cold Cuts, History Channel, very good.

• The Imitation Game, about Alan Turing. Quite false to history, but pretty good.

• Korean dramas Anna and Stranger. Modern dramas, not historical, but still good. Anna (2022) is about a girl who pretends to be a rich girl she meets; Stranger about prosecutors fighting corruption. Both are gripping.

• Kung Fu Hustle (2005). A comedy about a slum tenement warring against the Ax Gang. Pretty good. Cartoonish, which helps with the violence a lot-- sort of Road Runner style. Could be watched twice or more.

• The Great Gatsby movie with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow (1974). Faithful to the book.

• Hum Do Hamare Do (Two of Us, Two of Ours) (2021). A sentimental, Hindi comedy with a predictable ending. An orphan software guy needs to come up with temporary parents.

• Toy Story II (1999). Okay, but not up to the standard of Toy Story I.

Movies to Watch

• Sweeney TOdd.

• The Blue Max and Paths of Glory nad the 1930 and 1979 All Quiet on the Wstern Front are recommnded wwI movies.

• The Zone of Interest is what you don’t see: the Jews, the harsh labor, the gas chambers. director Jonathan Glazer parachutes us into the bucolic world adjacent to the world of Auschwitz-Birkenau: the villa inhabited by commandant Rudolf Höss; his wife, Hedwig; and their five children. They’re an upper-middle-class German family doing ordinary things—eating dinner, going to school, going to bed, having a drink—while an extraordinary evil is perpetrated next door.

• Days of WIne and Roses

• American Fiction the story of a hyperintellectual black writer, played by Jeffrey Wright, whose books sell poorly since he doesn’t fit the white liberal view of what a black writer should be. His books are categorized in bookstores as “black writing,” even though the topics aren’t particularly “black” at all,

• "Compared to other historical K-dramas, Moon Embracing the Sun does a stunning job at making sure that the costumes, set, and even cinematography truly reflect the time period it's in. The story also flowed flawlessly and didn't cause viewers to get bored and tired of its narrative." https://screenrant.com/best-k-dramas-historical-period-piece-ranked/#love-in-the-moonlight-2016

• "The 2015 historical K-drama and medieval TV show, Six Flying Dragons is seen as a loose prequel to the 2011 drama, Deep Rooted Tree. This is due to the storyline focused on real fictional characters and their foundations in the rise of the Joseon Dynasty. That being said, Six Flying Dragons exceeded its predecessor in terms of its critical acclaim." Ben saw this, I think.

• Love in the Moonlight, "a scholar named Hong Ra-On gives men dating advice by posing as a eunuch. Eventually, she meets the crown prince who soon gets invested in her."

• Double Indemnity

• The Best Years of Our Lives SEE

• Witness for the Prosecution SEE

• Quintissential French Comedy Films list, well described.

• Steve Sailer on the psychology article on the Big 5 Personality Traits and what movies people like, a very good article in Taki's (2020). Based on "We Are What We Watch: Movie Plots Predict the Personalities of Those who “Like” Them," Gideon Nave, Marketing Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and Jason Rentfrow,Social & Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge, and Sudeep Bhatia. See Supplementary Table 1.

• Birth of a Nation (1915).

• Great old 1946 movie ("The Stranger", Orson Welles & Edgar G Robinson)

• https://oldmovietime.com/ and the better Oldmovietime.com site

• 1947 New Orleans, with BIlly Holiday and Louis Armstrong.

• Leonard Bernstein's classic music TV series.

• Kiss Me Kate(not on Amazon Prime)

• The Death of Stalin.

• Bowfinger King OF Hollywood, Steve Martin, eddi Murphy around 9199. (not on Amazon Prime) BOUGHT

• Stnaely Tucci on Italy travel TV show.

• Crimes of Grundelwald looks pretty good. (not on Amazon Prime)
• Polyanna book and the Hallmark movie, not the Disney one.(not on Amazon Prime)

• The Dam BUsters
• Downfall (about HItler's last 10 days) and The Last Days of Hitler (Alec Guiness) and The Bunker (Anthony Hopkins) and Valkyrie (assassination plot).

• Hacksaw Ridge
• All QUite on the Western Fron t(1930)

To Watch with the Kids

• Doctor Strangelove

• Free Burma Rangers, Patrick Scott recommended.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey

• Cixin Liu’s science fiction masterpiece The Three Body Problem— , the 30-episode Chinese series (available free with Amazon Prime as Three Body)

• The world at War 1973 documentary Lawrence Olivier

• BIll Murray Scrooged Not worth rewatching.

• "Meet me in St. Louis." The 1944 Judy Garland film is a romantic musical comedy that focuses on four sisters, and it's rarely met a disapproving critic with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.

• "A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas"

• Chrstimas with the Kranks.

• T34 See that. With Ben. On You-TUbe, with ads.

• 1941 Bill murray JohN Belushi comedy.

• The Munsters.

• The Duellists (1978) follows two rival French officers through the Napoleonic Wars. A minor insult sets off a decades-long series of duels between the men, neither willing to abandoned his honor.

• Excalibur (1981) condenses several Arthurian legends into a single spectacular epic. One of the most hypnotic and visionary films of all time.

• The Lady Eve (1941) an extremely funny romantic comedy about a beautiful card shark trying to seduce a bumbling millionaire.

• Russian Ark (2002) follows a ghost and his long-dead aristocrat companion through the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, bouncing through several hundred years of shared history and culture. Innovative and beautiful; shot in a single take

• Брат (Brother) follows a recently-discharged Russian conscript as he moves to the big city in Yeltsin-era Russia to follow his hitman brother.Брат 2 (2000) picks up immediately where the first film left off, with the conscript and his brother embarking on a twisted adventure to the South Side of Chicago.

• Maverick (1994) is a cocky western comedy starring Mel Gibson as a fast-talking and cowardly gambler trying to scrape together enough money to enter a once-in-a-lifetime poker tournament. Pretty bad. Not worth watching.

• Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) is about a good-hearted dockworker unable to fight in WW2 due to hayfever, but too ashamed to go home. He is befriended by a squad of recently-returned Marines, whose scheme to return him to his family without losing face quickly snowballs.

Unknown Soldier (2017) tells the largely-ignored story of the Continuation War, a massive conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union that lasted from 1941-1944. Probably the most realistic depiction of WW2 era infantry combat ever filmed.

• In the Line of Fire (1993) is a thriller in which Clint Eastwood faces off against John Malkovich.

Eastwood plays the sole remaining agent from JFK's secret-service detail. He's tasked with stopping an ex-CIA agent from killing the President.

• The Counselor (2013) was Cormac McCarthy's first ever work for the screen.

It was universally panned by critics. I liked it so much I bought the screenplay. One must judge the movie on its own terms, rather than expecting "No Country for Old Men 2." It is profound.

Cape Fear

1962 version.(not on Amazon Prime)

Documentaries

The Battle of the Somme

Official documentary. On You-Tube.

Bajirao Mastani

Great Maga King Dance, about a Marathi warrior king. (not on Amazon Prime)

Citizen Kane

"Why Citizen Kane Is Called The Greatest Movie Ever Made" (2022), a good article.

Life is Beautiful

A movie about a father making life better for his child in a Nazi camp. Recommended by friends.

Our Man in Havana

A 1959 British spy comedy film shot in CinemaScope, directed and produced by Carol Reed, and starring Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, Maureen O'Hara, Ralph Richardson, Noël Coward and Ernie Kovacs.[2][3][4] The film is adapted from the 1958 novel Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. (not on Amazon Prime). On You-Tube.

The Goodies

(not on Amazon Prime) Available on You-Tube.

Greyhound

Forester's THe Good Shepherd put on film. BilL Reilly highly recommends (the tax guy). (not on Amazon Prime)

Kampf um Rom

"A 1964 German epic, Kampf Um Rom, complete with Narses as a dwarf, Justinian played by Orson Welles, stock scenes of Byzantine decadence, and Goths in black leather."(not on Amazon Prime) Not on You-tube with subtitles in English.

Kurosawa

Several prominent directors of Samurai films and Westerns in the 1950s and 60s shared a mutual admiration and openly made their art with direct reference to one another. In Akira Kurosawa’s brilliant movie Yojimbo, for instance, a masterless samurai played by the sublime Toshiro Mifune is standing at a crossroads and throws a stick up in the air to “decide” which direction to go. The scene is a direct reference to the John Ford film Young Mr. Lincoln, in which Ford’s version of the American president does the exact same thing. The Western remake of Kurosawa’s classic The Seven Samurai became The Magnificent Seven. In fact, the mutual “admiration” between purveyors of the two genres became so intimate that Kurosawa was forced to sue Sergio Leone over the movie A Fistful of Dollars, which was clearly a plagiarized version of Yojimbo by Leone.

--https://lawliberty.org/the-embarrassing-eleven/, 2020

Created Equal (Clarence Thomas documentary)

Created Equal, the Clarence Thomas documentary by Mr. Pack, is extremely good. Very simple, low budget. The family went over to Bob's House to watch it with him.

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)

1. 2 - Godzilla vs Destoroyah (second best Godzilla movie)

"It’s impossible to decide what’s most memorable about this final film of the Heisei era. Is it Godzilla’s stunning new “Burning Godzilla” appearance? Could it be the many clever callbacks and references to the original 1954 film? Or maybe it’s the ghastly design of Destoroyah, one of Big G’s all-time scariest opponents? Or perhaps it’s the fact that Godzilla Jr. finally emerges as a decent character? The truth is, it’s all of those things, plus so much more. But what makes this existential epic truly worthy of classic status is its profoundly emotional ending. For the first time in history, you’ll find yourself sobbing in a Godzilla movie as the final credits roll. Compassionately directed by Takao Okawara, “Godzilla vs. Destoroyah” elevates the kaiju genre to the level of Greek tragedy."https://variety.com/lists/godzilla-movies-ranked/godzilla-final-wars-2004/?cx_testId=48&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=3#cxrecs_s

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

"Here’s a valuable tip for you. Never, under any circumstances, trust a race of sunglass-wearing aliens from Planet X when they arrive on Earth asking to “borrow” Godzilla and Rodan for a little while. One of the all-time craziest sci-fi themed entries in the franchise, this sixth Godzilla movie has a lot going for it, especially the welcome presence of American actor Nick Adams, playing a cocky astronaut who shows the pleather-clad extraterrestrials who’s boss. Adams was no stranger to kaiju movies, having costarred in Toho’s giant monster pic “Frankenstein Conquers the World” shortly before appearing in “Invasion of Astro-Monster.”"

https://variety.com/lists/godzilla-movies-ranked/godzilla-final-wars-2004/?cx_testId=48&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=3#cxrecs_s\

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Jab We Met (2006) Bollywood (not on Amazon Prime)

Very good.

The Last Man

"Let's do a film recommendation. F.W. Murnau's 1924 film Der Letzte Mann - which means The Last Man (this side of Twitter's ears perk up), but for whatever reason is called Last Laugh in English. Hitchcock called it a "perfect film."" Silent movie. Emil Janning.

The Lives of Others

its depiction of East German speech codes and surveillance state, is probably the most relevant movie around today. Very very good.

Return to Mayberry

Return to Mayberry, TV Movie(1986).1h 35m

But see The Andy Griffith Show Reunion: Back to Mayberry on YouTube-- interivew ith 4 big people.

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The Producers

(not on Amazon Prime)(not on You-Tube)

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AlphaGo: The Movie

AlphaGo is a You-Tube documentary about Go.

State Funeral

Netherlands, Lithuania, 2019 Documentary, History 155 minutes Russian On Stalin's funeral. (not on Amazon Prime) (not on You-Tube)

Fauci Unmasked,

@michaeljknowles

documentary series Fauci Unmasked, (not on You-Tube)

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Winifried Wagner und die Geschichte des Hauses Wahnfried von 1914-1975

In 1975 Syberberg released 'Winifried Wagner und die Geschichte des Hauses Wahnfried von 1914-1975' - a documentary about Winifred Wagner, wife of Richard Wagner's son Siegfried. (not on You-Tube)