The last movie you saw Thread

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Did you like it?

[Frelga]

I believe With Fire and Sword is on Netflix, and now is a good time to watch it. It's a Polish-Ukrainian adaptation of the Polish classic novel, set in the period of time when Ukraine cast its lot with Russia and against Poland.

It's banging epic clearly inspired by the Dumas romances, and might provide some insight into the geopolitical roots of the current clusterfuck.

Also some actors are smoking hot.

[Sunsilver]

Today I discovered what Christopher Plummer was up to the year before he filmed Sound of Music.
In 1964, he gave an absolutely incredible performance in Fall of the Roman Empire, as Commodus. Sophia Loren played his sister, Lucillia, and Alec Guinness, his father, Marcus Aurelius.

I've been watching quite a few films on the Silver Screen channel lately. Most of them don't bear up very well over time, and I wind up deleting about 80% of them after watching for less than half an hour. This was definitely NOT one of those films!

The acting was mostly superb, and no money was spared on the sets, costumes or extras. The scene where Marcus Aurelius is greeting all the different leaders of the far-flung parts of the Roman Empire featured a very large number of extras and horses and chariots. It was obviously one of the big budget 'Sword and Sandal' epics of this particular era in Hollywood, which also featured Ben Hur, Cleopatra, The Ten Commandments, The King and I, etc.

The thing about the film that impressed me the most was its relevance to today's world. Marcus Aurelius has brought the Pax Romana, by making the tribes Rome conquered full citizens of Rome. As he explains in the above scene, Rome now has peace on all but two small areas of its borders. Then, of course, he dies (is poisoned) and his son, Commodus, proceeds to undo everything he has accomplished. He demands such heavy tribute from other areas of the empire that their people are starving. When they will not bend to his will, he crucifies their people and burns them at the stake.

At the end of the movie, he declares himself not just emperor, but also a God, and is prepared to have a large group of barbarian leaders burned alive, along with the man who had been his second in command throughout his reign, but has now turned against him. This man, Livius, is also very much in love with Commodus's sister, and he is prepared to burn her as well. At the last moment, he backs down, and challenges Livius to a fight to the death. Livius wins, but Commodus, dying, still shouts for his men to burn the Barbarian leaders. As they are being burned alive, the people try to get Livius to proclaim himself Caesar, but he is so disgusted by their behaviour he refuses. As he walks away, they are auctioning off the position of Caesar to the highest bidder.

[RoseMorninStar]

Sadly, the world hasn't learned or changed much.

[Sunsilver]

Another film from the Silver Screen channel that has stood the test of time, and is still very relevant today, given the resurge of White Power in America.

In the Heat of the Night definitely stands the test of time. I can't think of a single thing in the film that made it seem out of place due to its age. Even the way people were dressed - Poitier's immaculately cut business suit, in contrast with less professional look of the Sparta police officers - worked well. Poitier's acting was, of course, excellent. One thing I noticed was how well he uses his hands to express himself, especially in the scene where he's dealing with the widow of the murder victim. He has long fingers, and it looked like his nails had been professionally manicured, which helped draw attention to his hands, as well defining his character as someone who was a complete professional.

The most chilling part of the film is realizing that things like this are still happening in the States. It may be no longer acceptable for a white man in a position of power to slap a black man's face, but there are still people willing to kill to make sure their race stays in power.

[Sunsilver]

Another great movie from the Silver Screen channel: Meet John Doe.
Frank Capra at his best!

Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper were top notch, too. I was quite surprised to find this film didn't win any Oscars.
My one criticism of it would be it seems hopelessly naïve, given the way our society is now.
Interesting that one of the rules of the John Doe clubs was no politicians were allowed to join...

[Maria]

We watched "The Sun Dagger" this week. It's a documentary about an archeological site in the southwest US where they found a very impressive set up for keeping track of sun and moon movements.

https://solsticeproject.org/the-sun-dagger/

I used to be impressed by Stonehenge. This Chaco Canyon thing is waaaaay more intricate. But smaller. Much smaller.

[RoseMorninStar]

What service did you watch that on Maria? That looks like something I would enjoy, not to mention I really enjoy Robert Redford's voice.

[Maria]

Vimeo. I hadn't used that one before, but it was pretty straightforward.

[Alatar]

I know I'm crazy late to the party, but just watched Coco. What an absolute gem of a movie.

[RoseMorninStar]

If you haven't seen it, Kubo & the Two Strings is in a similar vein and also very good.

[Frelga]

Kubo is amazing, a feat of stop-motion puppet animation and a nice break from the Disney aesthetic. Definitely recommend.

Coco is also excellent, if you don't mind bawling your eyes out. But in a good way.

[Impenitent]

Son came over for dinner and talked us into watching The Big Lubowsky, which I had never seen before.

Ridiculously stupid premise, really, really funny.

[RoseMorninStar]

I rarely watch movies on YouTube but the other night 'My Friend Dahmer' showed up on my home page/recommendations. I didn't think it was the kind of movie I'd really want to watch but Jeffrey Dahmer hits closer to home for me than many and my curiosity was piqued. It's definitely a psychological drama, based on a graphic novel written by a former classmate who was a 'friend' of Dahmer's. The film takes place in Dahmer's formative teen years and ends just prior to his first murder.

While Jeffrey Dahmer is (was) a little older than me, the late 1970's smallish mid-west town high school experience is one familiar to me. Also in common, a move to Wisconsin. I live not far from Milwaukee, where most of his gruesome murders took place. The officer (Joseph Gabrish) who failed one of Dahmers young victims, Konerak Sinthasomphone, later became the Police Chief (and at that time only) police officer in my little township. He retired this year. While Dahmer's arrest was big news around the country (and perhaps the world?) This hits very close to home. The film highlights the early warning signs that were missed and although Dahmer would later state in an interview that he & he alone was responsible for his actions (true) one cannot help but recognize failures in the adults and institutions around him and the effects of bullying and cruelty. It's a chilling look at the making of a killer.

[Snowdog]

I hate to admit it, but my wife and I went to the theatre to see Black Adam. That is 2+ hours I'll never get back.
At least we went to the first showing and the popcorn was fresh and hot.

[Sunsilver]

I now have Amazon Prime, and am starting to watch Rings of Power. Am doing this with my brother and sister-in-law, so it's going to be slow.

But going to save that for the appropriate forum...

Watched Spiderman: No Way Home last night, and really liked it! Lots of little humorous bits to break the tension, and main actors did a really decent job. Always enjoy seeing Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange!

What surprised me was seeing Tobey Maguire, then checking his resume on IMDB, because I was wondering why the last time I saw him on the big screen was in Seabiscuit in 2003. The poor man has done very few movies since the original Spider Man trilogy, and most of what he's done were voiceovers for Spider Man video games and animated movies! Although he's not your typical Hollywood leading man in terms of looks, he's a decent actor IMO, and I would have hoped better things for him.

[RoseMorninStar]

When we visited NYC in .. I'm going to guess it was 2006, we saw Toby McGuire filming on the street in front of a store called Yellow Rat Bastard. They must have been filming Spider man 3. We watched the movie to see if we could catch the scene they were filming but we weren't able to pick it out so perhaps it was cut.

I think he is rather introverted so perhaps the type of work he does, or lack thereof, is by choice.

[Sunsilver]

I missed that he is involved in two projects which haven't been released yet, and that he's also formed his own production company. One is a film called Babylon, starring Brad Pitt, and the other is a TV series, Extrapolations. Kit Harrington (Jon Snow in GoT) has a part in the series.

[Túrin Turambar]

Glass Onion. Far more polished and entertaining than I expected.

[Sunsilver]

Angela Landsbury's and Steven Sondheim's final film: Would like very much to see it.

https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainmen ... ut-sequel/