Just watched 49th Parallel (1941) off the DVR tonight, and despite missing the last few minutes because of a scheduling glitch, I would have to say it’s the best Nazis escaping across Canada movie I’ve ever seen. And why wouldn’t it be, with an all-star cast — including Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, and Raymond Massie — featured prominently in the credits? It was even nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1942. ...
Written by Jim Emerson on Roger Ebert’s website (?), these rules for predicting Oscar winners do ring true. :) Link courtesy of Metafilter
A pastor asks why so many churches urged their members to go see The Passion of the Christ but aren’t urging them to see Hotel Rwanda. Having seen neither movie yet, I couldn’t tell you what their relative merits are. However, I can make a guess as to two reasons why: First, The Passion had a truly amazing marketing push behind it. To talk about it as a purely grassroots hit movie is to ignore the accomplishments of Mel Gibson and the distributor in promoting this film as a must-see for Christians. There is a common mistake made when talking about evangelical Christians. Despite the talk about cutting ourselves off from the world, we are very much aware of it and are exposed to the tools used in the rest of culture. In other words, it’s hard to separate “religious” church and/or school life from the “secular” world of working and shopping. The evangelical community has always had a large community concerned with marketing to it, just like any other niche market with special interests. ...
I appear to be shorter (5'6") than almost every famous modern male. Makes me feel like a hobbit. Of course, I have to wonder about some of the reported heights. Bea Arthur is only 5'9"? For that matter, Cher is 5'4"? That’s the same height as Alan Ladd. (Seriously. They used to have him stand on things to look taller than his female costars. Except for Veronica Lake. 4'11". The Glass Key. Good movie.) I personally think the best height is for Charles Schulz. They report him as 5'12". :) ...
Possibly as an antidote to the mind-altering tedium that is the working world, Lorrie and I decided to watch three documentaries on DVD over the weekend: The Kid Stays in the Picture Very good. Based on the book by the same name, the documentary tells the rise, fall, and rise again — sort of — of Robert Evans, possibly the movie industry’s most influential producer during the Seventies ( The Godfather, Love Story, Rosemary’s Baby, etc., etc., etc.). Since the movie is narrated by him, and the story is told completely from his perspective, part of the fascination is how much could possibly be real. However, no matter what, it’s a great Hollywood story. ...
One brief moment of paralysis, right after you open a blog, seems to be “What’s important enough to be the first post? What momentous thing is going on in the world?” Well, there are a lot of momentous things happening, but I have to say the one article I’ve read lately that absolutely fascinated me is this one, about Josef Stalin’s movie habits. Any article that mentions Stalin, Scorsese, and Eszterhas in the same sentence has to be worth reading. That, and Khrushchev talking to John Wayne about an assassination attempt. ...