Going to the Movies: past, present, future.

Town Heretic

Out of Order
Hall of Fame
Hacksaw Ridge is an excellent film. It has a great deal of graphic violence, therefore, it's not for Kids.
It's the only one on that list I haven't gotten to and for the same reason you note. It will have to be on a day when Jack visits the grandparents for a few, but it's one I'm looking forward to. Say what you will about Mel, he knows how to tell a story.
 

Jerry Shugart

Well-known member
Prior to the time of the first atomic explosion at Hiroshima a person could have some feeling that even in a terrible war he had some control over his existence. However, the bomb finished that. Then came the hydrogen bombs and the neutron weapons.

Civilization can be gone overnight and everybody knows it. Then in 1959 the movie "On the Beach" hit the big screen and my age of innocence ended at thirteen. Never before had a film changed my outlook on life in such a dramatic fashion and there will never again be a movie which can possibly impact my life as much as that one.

I am sure that some of you have seen the movie and I would like to hear your opinion of it.

Thanks!
 

Town Heretic

Out of Order
Hall of Fame
Prior to the time of the first atomic explosion at Hiroshima a person could have some feeling that even in a terrible war he had some control over his existence. However, the bomb finished that. Then came the hydrogen bombs and the neutron weapons.

Civilization can be gone overnight and everybody knows it. Then in 1959 the movie "On the Beach" hit the big screen and my age of innocence ended at thirteen. Never before had a film changed my outlook on life in such a dramatic fashion and there will never again be a movie which can possibly impact my life as much as that one.

I am sure that some of you have seen the movie and I would like to hear your opinion of it.

Thanks!
Don't know how I missed it over the years, but I went and read through it. I can imagine that was pretty powerful for a youngster that close to the worst of the scare. A bit like that ABC mini series The Day After for teenagers and others in 83.
 

Arthur Brain

Well-known member
Prior to the time of the first atomic explosion at Hiroshima a person could have some feeling that even in a terrible war he had some control over his existence. However, the bomb finished that. Then came the hydrogen bombs and the neutron weapons.

Civilization can be gone overnight and everybody knows it. Then in 1959 the movie "On the Beach" hit the big screen and my age of innocence ended at thirteen. Never before had a film changed my outlook on life in such a dramatic fashion and there will never again be a movie which can possibly impact my life as much as that one.

I am sure that some of you have seen the movie and I would like to hear your opinion of it.

Thanks!

Gregory Peck in the lead role if I recall correctly and based on a Nevil Shute novel of the same name. I remember a car race in it where several die as all the characters believe they're under an impending death sentence of radiation sickness within weeks of wind blown fallout. Depressing stuff for sure and the end is just an empty city where everyone's already committed suicide or dead although it's been a while since I've seen it. It's a fine piece of drama although it's not well rooted in science. The chances are there would still be survivors after a nuclear war although the more pertinent question is would you really want to survive into the remnants of society and 'civilization' that were left after it which ties into my reply to TH below.

Don't know how I missed it over the years, but I went and read through it. I can imagine that was pretty powerful for a youngster that close to the worst of the scare. A bit like that ABC mini series The Day After for teenagers and others in 83.

It wasn't a mini series, it was a stand alone film although specifically made for television broadcast and without commercial breaks if I remember which was kind of a first. I won't deride it for the effects it would have had although again, it wasn't scientifically accurate and as depressing as it was it didn't fully encapsulate the sheer horror and lasting legacy of nuclear war as it even makes mention in its closing credits. 'Threads' did a far grittier job of that as did it's predecessor 'The War Game' back in the sixties, as with the former it showed the knock on effects of over a decade after the initial exchange and the grueling toll and effects it would have on survivors with disease, lack of education and a society sent back to medieval levels.

'Countdown To Looking Glass' is America's best where it comes to looking at nuclear war from a sober perspective, pretty much confined to a news broadcasting office for the most part and the escalating ensuing.

They're all still relevant now and these 'saber rattlers' who think any country will survive in a recognizable way after a nuclear conflict are just flat out demented...
 

Nick M

Plymouth Colonist
LIFETIME MEMBER
Hall of Fame

That is the first Star Wars trailer I have seen where I said "huh?" at the end. It is good in that it reveals nothing overall.
 

Jerry Shugart

Well-known member
'Countdown To Looking Glass' is America's best where it comes to looking at nuclear war from a sober perspective, pretty much confined to a news broadcasting office for the most part and the escalating ensuing.

After the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and all of the talk of fallout shelters a great move emerged from it all to provide a little comic relief about such a serious subject:

Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

It was directed by Stanley Kubrick and had a great cast with Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Keenen Wynn and Slim Pickens. One of the best movies ever!
 

Arthur Brain

Well-known member
After the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and all of the talk of fallout shelters a great move emerged from it all to provide a little comic relief about such a serious subject:

Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

It was directed by Stanley Kubrick and had a great cast with Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Keenen Wynn and Slim Pickens. One of the best movies ever!

Classic film, still made a salient point but through brilliant satire so the serious side was still keenly there. Some hysterical stuff in it though and Kubrick was a film genius anyway...

Fast forward to the eighties though and it's no wonder there were sobering films showing just how devastating any sort of nuclear conflict would be during the arms race and the ramifications. Kiss goodbye to life as we know it now.
 

Arthur Brain

Well-known member
Posh and piddle, everything was a mini-series in the 80s. The nightly news was a miniseries. I...oh, I see now that neither Peter Strauss nor Nick Nolte performed. Point taken. Also, Jason Robards starred and everyone knows that Jason Robards never starred in anything that drew a sequel, let alone a series.

And Steve Guttenberg went to great things like Police...Academy...

Um...

:plain:
 

Arthur Brain

Well-known member
Guttenberg? An actor you could always count on if you were pressing. :drum:

And don't forget Three Men and a Baby, Three Men and a Little Lady, Cocoon, Cocoon: the Return, Short Circuit, and Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus.

I dare you. :plain:

Challenge accepted.

And passed!

:devil:
 

Jerry Shugart

Well-known member
Speaking of the advent of the Atomic Bomb and the events surrounding it did anyone see the movie "Seven Days in May"?

"Seven Days in May is a 1964 American political thriller motion picture about a military-political cabal's planned take-over of the United States government in reaction to the president's negotiation of a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union. Directed by John Frankenheimer, it stars Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, and Ava Gardner. The screenplay was written by Rod Serling based on the novel of the same name by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II, published in September 1962"

Great movie. See it here:

http://yify.tv/watch-seven-days-in-may-online-free-yify/
 

Town Heretic

Out of Order
Hall of Fame
Speaking of the advent of the Atomic Bomb and the events surrounding it did anyone see the movie "Seven Days in May"?
"Seven Days in May is a 1964 American political thriller motion picture about a military-political cabal's planned take-over of the United States government in reaction to the president's negotiation of a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union. Directed by John Frankenheimer, it stars Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, and Ava Gardner. The screenplay was written by Rod Serling based on the novel of the same name by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II, published in September 1962"

Great movie. See it here:

http://yify.tv/watch-seven-days-in-may-online-free-yify/
I've watched it more than a few times. Really good film and one of my favorites by Douglas. You know, I don't know if I included him yet in my Film Icons thread. I need to check on that. Another good pairing of those two is in The Devil's Disciple, a comedy about the revolutionary war that has Olivier thrown in to boot. And it was written by G.B. Shaw, so the dialogue is sharp enough to cut yourself with.
 

Jerry Shugart

Well-known member
I've watched it more than a few times. Really good film and one of my favorites by Douglas. You know, I don't know if I included him yet in my Film Icons thread. I need to check on that.

Kirk Douglas should be included based on nothing more than his portrayal of John Burns in the film "Lonely are the Brave." Though set in the middle of the 20th century Alex Cox of the New York Times said that "there is no greater western, and certainly no more tragic one."
 
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