Secrets of the City

“Death of a President” is a waste of a clever idea. Don’t bother.

I actually preferred The Prestige to The Departed. Borat is funny but quite disconcerting. The best thing going nowadays is The Office and Battlestar Galactica, and they’re both teevee shows.

We’re going to see “Sweet Land” this weekend. It will also be at the Heights, I think.

borat and the departed are both very good in very different ways

I liked both The Prestige and The Departed. I think I preferred The Prestige. Has anyone seen Babel? We are thinking of seeing it this weekend.

And on this topic, where do you see movies? I like stadium places because, it seems otherwise, I get someone tall in front of me. So, I go up to Brooklyn Center for movies. Or, sometimes to Block E, depending on what is going on downtown. I’d like to support theaters in the city, but I’m a baby about having the nice seats.

I go to the st. anthony/main theatre because, well, it’s like two blocks away. It’s also decently priced and not usually that busy during the week.

I go to Block E a lot, because it is walking distance, but it is not my favorite local theater.

I want to know which scenes in Borat are staged; some have to be. I still enjoyed it in the confines of the Block E theater though, which is awsomely comfortable. Did you know movies are $5 Monday thru Thursday nights and parking is free? Yee-ha!

You cannot beat movie films at Roseville 4.

Har Mar, dudes.

You know, I’ve heard that Har Mar has rats…

Throw popcorn at them, they run away. Away with the popcorn.

Good idea. Anyone know when the AMC Roseville is scheduled to open?

Good idea. Anyone know when the AMC Roseville is scheduled to open?

I heard December.

The editorial rules are going down the tubes — this doesn’t even have to do with Dylan.

Anyway, I saw Borat and Idiocracy last Saturday. Not that you’ll be able to catch the latter, because it only got a midnight showing at the Uptown, but I recommend both, the former more so than the latter. Thank You For Smoking had Nick Naylor, whose personality drove the whole film, and the situation is very much the same with Borat, except that we’re lucky enough to get a complete story to go with the joke, rather than a tacked-on plot with an (anti-)lesson.

In a futile attempt to quasi-localize this thread, anyone see Jesus Camp yet? I wanted to write a story about it, but never got around to it.

And more local stuff: It looks like Aurora Borealis (previous discussion) is coming to town in a few weeks. And did anyone see the Al Franken monstrosity (previous discussion)?

Jesus Camp has been closed. I’m guessing forever. When you shine the light of day on this kind of fecal matter it tends to dry up.

I wrote about Jesus Camp. Did you hear it closed?

Good review, Max.

I grew up an hour from where this jesus camp was located. I could tell ya a hundred stories about North Dakota evangelicals….

I did see something good lately.

It is called, “The Big Lebowski”.

I saw Sweet Land, The Departed (er, The Depahted), and Borat recentlyall good in their own ways, though I think I enjoyed Sweet Land the most.

I’ve still got to see The Prestige, Stranger than Fiction, Babel, and Casino Royale. Uh oh, I sense the year-end movie blitz a-comin’.

I haven’t seen a decent film in less than five years or more; most often, I watch the best ones on my apple computer, which has a built-in DVD player. Hollywood these days no longer make good films anymore; the studios are reducted to mediocare leadership in which bad film scripts are now the status norm. There is no orginal story on the market anymore, abandon by recycle plots from previous movies and basic remakes from old films. For example, how many times we need to see “Gone with the Wind” again?

in vegas…seeing Prince @ the Rio in 24 hours. hopefully I will get some slep before then. out.

I just caught Sweet Land at the Grandview. It’s every bit as good as they say.

We just had a baby so we have been watching “The Wire” seasons 1-3 on DVD.

Best show on T.V..

We’re thinking of taking our 3 week old infant to a “Borat” matinee.

Is that wrong?

Very nice!

Raindog66-

The new season of “The Wire” currently playing on HBO is outstanding as well.

You guys are right, “The Wire” is an awesome show. I’ve only seen a few episodes so far but I love it. As for movies, the last one I saw that really knocked me out was that Brazilian movie, “City of God.”

I hope Omar is back for season 4 of the Wire. Can’t wait for the release on DVD.

Jesus Camp was simultaneously the funniest, scariest and saddest movie in recent memory. But it didn’t beat the real-life terror of Bachmann being elected. She totally would have been at home speaking in tongues and bowing down before the cardboard cutout of Bush in that film.

There. The subject is back to politics. You’re welcome.

OK, that shouldn’t say “real-life” terror … because the movie was real-life, too. But you get my point.

I saw Stranger Than Fiction last night. It is probably the best movie I’ve seen all year. Plus, they were using Spoon songs as the score. It is very fitting as the name of their last album is Gimme Fiction. I also enjoyed that they used a song named My Mathematical Mind during a climactic scene which features Will Ferrel as an IRS agent.

Mrs. Lungs and I are settling in this Veterans Day (we are both Army vets) and watching The Great Escape on Channel 2 tonight. One of the rare “all star” movies that really works. Lots of great trivia on this movie:

1) The actor who plays the timid British POW who befriends Yank Jim Garner (the late, great Donald P.) was the only member of the cast who actually WAS a POW in WW2. Yes, he was in the RAF, like his character.

2) The Germans chasing Steve McQueen on motorcycles are actually — Steve McQueen. When the German stunt doubles refused to do some moves they considered too dangerous, McQueen voluntered to play his pursuers.

3) The story is (very loosely) based on a true story of a mass escape from a German camp. It was strictly a Brit show, no Americans were involved.

On this Veteran’s Day, we also mark the passage of tough guy actor Jack Palance. If you wonder if Jack could act, see him in “Requium for a Heavyweight” and try not to have tears in your eyes at the end. His “pure evil” gunslinger in Shane is unforgetable. How did he get that distinctive face? As a fighter pilot in WW2 — jumping out of his burning aircraft. Somehow, he survived the crash to live — and perform — until his death this week.

Goodbye, Jack, and thanks!

Shane! I knew you could, Shane. I knew it. I knew it just as well as anything. Was that him? Was that Wilson? That was him. That was Wilson, all right. He was fast, fast on the draw.”

Masazapa wipes tear.

Too much firewater prevents mazasapa from spelling own name correctly. Anyway, I’ve often thought that one of the defining variables between our generations is the western movie. My generation grew up on western movies. John Ford and John Wayne taught us how to be men. The generation following mine missed out on this indocrination and it shows.

Yeah. Your generation glorified the slaughter of the true Native Americans (”Fort Apache”)while the younger generation values people of all race, colors, and creeds (”Little Big Man”).

And it shows.

Interesting theory, Maz. Let’s test it.

Anyone here not seen a John Wayne movie?

…

Hm, from the show of hands, everyone here has a seen a John Wayne movie.

Like I said, it shows.

Raindog, if you’d ever seen a Ford movie, you’d know that Ford and the Wayne characters had enormous respect for Indians, even while fighting them. Fort Apache was the story of the Henry Fonda character, who had no respect for “savages”, and you’ll recall, (or maybe you won’t,) that the Wayne character had ultimate respect for them, and was called a coward by Fonda, and sent to the rear in disgrace.

In She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, the Wayne character tries to head off an Indian war, by (gasp) actually talking to them.

In The Searchers, Wayne plays a man who hated Indians, and he was protrayed as hateful, bitter and totally unsympathetic.

It wasn’t a Ford movie, but in Chisum, Wayne threatened a soldier who had disrespected an Indian with, “Sergeant, if you ever lay a hand on White Buffalo again, I’ll kill you.”

I could go on. But the basic truth is John Ford did not trade in cliches, unlike you.

True enough, Daddy B. Raindog is not a very sophisticated (surprise!) movie fan, or he/she/it would know what even marzasapa knows — the Ford westerns were among the first american films to portay NAs as something more than murderous savages. Watch the Ford/Wayne trilogy: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, For Apache and Rio Grande. The Searchers raised the Western to a even higher level.

Best scene in Yellow Ribbon: retiring Capt. Brittles (Wayne) fighting back tears when presented with an pocketwatch by his troops. The inscription on the watch:

“Lest we forget…”

No one has mentioned Shortbus yet and I figure that has to be done. Nothing earth shattering, but very funny, sexy, even tender and well made. John Cameron Mitchell’s new film project works =) And, it has a stellar soundtrack. Lagoon.

I happen to have a degree in film and I know 3 things:

1) Ford along with his buddy Wayne were Fascist Pigs.

2) TBartel & Aqua Lung are pompous assholes (surprise!).

3) Ford’s cinema was nothing but cliched porpagandistic crap.

I happen to have a degree in psychology and I know one thing:

1) You’re nuts.

In The Searchers, Wayne plays a man who hated Indians, and he was protrayed as hateful, bitter and totally unsympathetic.

But in the end, his humanity, long buried since probably the war, emerges when he lifts Natalie Wood to the sky. What a scene!

It’s funny that raindog would think that Ford was a fascist. John Wayne was a conservative republican and John Ford was a liberal democrat and they had hellacious political arguments. But they agreed on one thing, and that was the history of this nation and the character that made it great was in never giving up and never backing down from a fight … traits that they portrayed in the characters that John Wayne played. Wayne, of course, was married to a Mexican woman so any claims that he was a racist obviously didn’t include his taste in women. When John Wayne came to visit us in the war zone, everyone clamored to meet him … including the indians in the company. heh

But don’t take my word for it (heh):

To put it more simply, ‘The Searchers’ is a pretty racist film. It paints “Indians” as barbaric caricatures with little humanity or honor, and whose viciousness only serves to contrast the purity and innate goodness of the white man. Which would be more laughable if it wasn’t for the film’s seemingly unwavering and sincere belief that we, as a culture, had the right to arbitrarily exterminate the Native American people without remorse or just cause. Certainly, ‘The Searchers’ reflects the cultural attitudes and prevailing beliefs of its time, but still, is that really an excuse? Sure, I can laud ‘Gone with the Wind’ and ‘A Birth of a Nation’ as technical achievements, but I can’t deny I feel awfully queasy watching them.

More here

and here

I have a degree in theater, and I know this:

You’re all FABULOUS!

Every Indian I know. Every one. Loves The Searchers for it’s pull-no-punches realism. Warriors respect other warriors, especially those who manage to defeat them. Of course, I don’t hang around with liberals, so maybe some liberal indians don’t like the movie because the wasichu told them they’re not supposed to like it. That’s how that works.

Do your “Indian friends” live with you in your Mom’s basement?

For the first time ever, I agree with Maz.

Warriors respect other warriors, especially those who manage to defeat them.

So does that respect extend to the Democratic Warriors who kicked your clown ass on Election Night?

What an Idiotic statement. Are you suggesting that Native American Warriors all embrace their oppressors?

Jewish Wariors respect the Germans who tries to exterminate them??

The Japanese respected the american A-Bombs that destroyed them?

Saddam Hussein must surely respect Bush Sr. & Jr. for ousting him.

Romanticize war and racism any way you want but in the end it’s all just your way of “whitewashing” the truth.

I change my mind — I love political fights on MNspeak. (But only if they’re about old movies!)

More on “The Searchers”

But for such an open text, The Searchers still abides by a predominately Anglo-Saxon code of ethics. Scar is of course, the villain, and the story will only redress balance with his death, for anything less would be far too revolutionary a narrative. Native Americans still represent an untamed savagery in comparison to White pilgrims, and the march of the cavalry, which results in a terrifying massacre of a Comanche camp, is still played as a heroic last stand at the films bloody conclusion.———————————————————————————–

I would suggest that the reviewer, Shahir Daud, who’s from New Zealand, I believe, knows very little about the American West and even less about America Indians.

Another note about the movie:

What people seem to forget is that the Indians in The Searchers were Comanches. These people were bad dudes. They made their living by stealing horses, women and children and trading them to the Mexicans. So not only was the storyline fair and historically accurate (the homestead raided and two young girls stolen), but those who see the Indian as victim here don’t know much about the Comanche. My people were the “blood-thirsty” Sioux, but even the Sioux avoided these assholes.

Oh I see. Stereotyping an entire race of people is okay as long as they’re not “your people.”

You certainly are a born Republican. I’ll give you that.

Your logic is why the criminal justice system is such a mess:

The unequal treatment of minorities in our criminal justice system manifests itself in a mushrooming prison population that is overwhelmingly black and Hispanic; in the decay of minority communities that have given up an entire generation of young men to prison; and in a widely-held belief among black and Hispanic Americans that the criminal justice system is deserving neither of trust nor of support. All these factors contribute to a perception that lawlessness is a colored problem, and that the disproportionate treatment of blacks and Hispanics within the criminal justice system is a rational response to a statistical imperative.

I just saw stranger than fiction this weekend and it was pretty good too. I quite enjoyed the soundtrack, as mentioned above, plus I had a soft spot for the protagonist because I live in a world of numbers too … but I’m not that OCD about it.

And since other people mentioned television shows, I’m going to say that Battlestar Galactica is fanfuckingtastic. I netflixed the first two seasons a few weeks ago and caught all the way up, and then I’ve been watching this season on the internet so far. They started the third season off with a bang (literally) when they broached topics like occupation, suicide bombing and the such … and this is a sci-fi tv show!

The Japanese respected the american A-Bombs that destroyed them?

[sarcasm mode on]

Must be so. The Japanese haven’t started a war anywhere, or even raised a sword, since 1945. And the Occupation of Japan sure went a lot better than the one going on now in Iraq.

[/sarcasm mode off]

Not to be political here (ahem) but military historians will praise Rumsfeld for his dash to Baghdad in 2003 but will condemn him for not using overwhelming force in the occupation. Turns out, 400,000 troops would have been better in that it probably would have discouraged any so-called insurgency. FDR, Churchill, Truman, et al didn’t have to deal with the world of political correctness when they were firebombing german cities and turning entire japanese cities into boulder-sized rubble. But it sure was effective, wasn’t it?

Ok, no more politics.

“Turns out, 400,000 troops would have been better in that it probably would have discouraged any so-called insurgency. “

- – -

Tough call. 400,000 would have discouraged an insurgency while in place, certainly. But you just know that Sadr and the AQ contingent would have still been there, waiting, and while the main Iraqi population would have been busy getting back on with their lives, Sadr’s guys and the AQ people would have been doing everything possible to get their people into the security and police spots, and then, once we pulled the 400,000, the insurgency would simply erupt.

At that point, it would be in a much stronger position, having infiltrated the functions best suited to stopping an insurgency, plus we’d then be gone.

So, I think it’s more complicated than “we needed more people.” The real answer, infortunately, is that we would have been better off had Saddam’s army fought harder and longer, and given us a chance to wipe out his people openly in war instead of one by one as they hide amongst the population.

(This isn’t politics. It’s strategy.)

.

Since this is a “what have you seen” post, and not a strategy post . . .

Thought hard about Alice In Chains tonight, for old time’s sake, but Alice without Layne Staley seems just . . . wrong. Like Jane’s without Perry. Zep without Page. Eagles without Walsh.

Chili without spice.

.

If given a choice of several theaters playing the same interesting film, popcorn can pull me in one direction or the other. The E Block theater had really good popcorn when they opened, but they seemed to have changed it. Where can I find really good popcorn? I like it crunchy and salty – not that stuff that pastes your teeth together when you bite down on it, even when it’s fresh. What popcorn would Wayne and Ford like?

…and I’d like to see most of the movies listed above, but I get behind on movie watching. I finally saw Crash – excellent film. It should be required viewing.

I know I am the only person in the world who thinks so, but Borat SUCKED!!!! It was totally, untterly stupid and filled with cliche’-done that been there humor(see jackass, the man show or Andy Kaufman.) The fact that the rest of America “loves” it, scares the hell outta me. what’s funny about carrying a bag of poop around, showing naked pictures of what is purportedly your son or having a fat naked troll 69ing him?! What a stupid world we live in.

Har-mar theaters are disgusting…every time I have gone there the theaters appear to not have been cleaned for days-even weeks(leftover food everywhere and stuff smeared on the seat backs.) Plus the concessions are REALLY expensive. It’s really too bad they can’t keep a clean house-they do have the coolest bathrooms around though. Im spoiled, as I live within walking distance of the grandview-cheap movie prices and very affordable concessions(best movie popcorn around!)

shut up about politics and talk with me about how awesome battlestar galactica is!

what’s funny about carrying a bag of poop around, showing naked pictures of what is purportedly your son or having a fat naked troll 69ing him?!

What isn’t?!?

I’ve never needed an interrobang as much as I do at this moment.

Not everyone in America loves Borat. Apparently, he got the snot beat out of him when he did his unfunny act on the streets of New York.

UHF

Best Movie Ever

“If nobody comes down here and buys a car in the next hour, I’m gonna club this baby seal. That’s right. I’m gonna club this seal to make a better deal. You know I’ll do it, to, cause I’m crazy.”

“Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs – -all next week on Town Talk.”

not2sure = way2bitter

Oh really?

I’d say I’m relatively giddy compared to those people “Borat” seems to have exploited to make his film. When I heard the drunk North Carolina frat dorks suing, I said yeah, whatever, then I read this, I’m starting to waver.

i saw 51 birch st when it was playing at the lagoon. good documentary, but seriously depressing.

and i saw shortbus when i was in canada a month ago and totally loved it.

ps) Borat was wicked pissah!

Hilarious link Not2sure!

I especially loved this line:

But feelings in Glod are running so high that The Mail on Sunday saw angry villagers brandishing farm implements chase out a local TV crew, shouting that they had enough of being exploited.

Very Nice!