Non Civil War Books and Movies

[Joshism]

Big Country. An epic western where Gregory Peck combats toxic masculinity.

Also a one hit wonder from an album of the same name by a band of the same name.

 

[diane]

We're watching old movies at our house, focusing especially on movies we should have seen, know all about, can quote lines, yet somehow never have seen.

The Great Dictator: Charlie Chaplin's take on Adolf Hitler. Very good in parts, especially Chaplin's lustful dance with a floating world globe.

In the Heat of the Night. They call him MR TIBBS!

Guess Who is Coming to Dinner? White girl lucks into marrying Dr. Perfect played by Sidney Poitier Earnestness ensues.

Big Country. An epic western where Gregory Peck combats toxic masculinity.

Saturday Night Fever. A gritty tale of young Italian Brooklynites going nowhere, seeking fulfillment and escapism by strutting and performing in a rundown disco. More toxic masculinity.

The Big Country has fantastic photography! Like a music motif, the landscape can become part of the cast of characters. Giancarlo Esposito noted that about Breaking Bad - the way the stark but beautiful New Mexico landscape provided effect, contrast, and sometimes drama.

 

[Joshism]

Saturday Night Fever. A gritty tale of young Italian Brooklynites going nowhere, seeking fulfillment and escapism by strutting and performing in a rundown disco. More toxic masculinity.

A good example of a movie calling out toxic masculinity before the term existed. And in an ethnic culture where it's particularly rife.

People seem to remember this movie with nostalgia goggles, or maybe just turn it off after Tony "wins" the contest. It's got a dark plot that contrasts with the flashy marketing and soundtrack.

 

[diane]

The best actor for psychological darkness was affable, good-natured, average guy Jimmy Stewart. Harvey and It's A Wonderful Life were dark fantasies about suicide and mental health problems. With Wonderful Life, I always get a smack in the back of the head for saying, you know when brother came back from college with his new missus and all - I think I'd be saying you know, I've been holding the fort here for quite a while and there's some things I'd like to do! Brother was the designated Bailey family success, so George always stepped aside for him.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

The best actor for psychological darkness was affable, good-natured, average guy Jimmy Stewart. Harvey and It's A Wonderful Life were dark fantasies about suicide and mental health problems. With Wonderful Life, I always get a smack in the back of the head for saying, you know when brother came back from college with his new missus and all - I think I'd be saying you know, I've been holding the fort here for quite a while and there's some things I'd like to do! Brother was the designated Bailey family success, so George always stepped aside for him.

Mr. Potter was a TOTAL a-hole, but Clarence did get his wings

 

[diane]

Mr Potter was definitely sinister. Ever notice the skull paperweight on his desk? There were several little things like that around him. Or tricks like the super low chair George had to sit in so Potter could look down on him from his wheelchair!

 

[Matt McKeon]

A good example of a movie calling out toxic masculinity before the term existed. And in an ethnic culture where it's particularly rife.

People seem to remember this movie with nostalgia goggles, or maybe just turn it off after Tony "wins" the contest. It's got a dark plot that contrasts with the flashy marketing and soundtrack.

The clothes and music...my youth! But the movie was surprisingly dark. Tony was dedicated to dancing, being the king. So the rigged contest was a betrayal of the thing he thought was most important in the world. He's man enough to lose to a better dancer, and to reject a false victory. Sign that he's growing.

 

[Matt McKeon]

The best actor for psychological darkness was affable, good-natured, average guy Jimmy Stewart. Harvey and It's A Wonderful Life were dark fantasies about suicide and mental health problems. With Wonderful Life, I always get a smack in the back of the head for saying, you know when brother came back from college with his new missus and all - I think I'd be saying you know, I've been holding the fort here for quite a while and there's some things I'd like to do! Brother was the designated Bailey family success, so George always stepped aside for him.

Stewart's very angry in that film.

 

[diane]

Stewart's very angry in that film.

He is - he couldn't even throw the 'frustrated old man' insult at Potter without getting 'frustrated young man!" back. That anger always made the foundation of most of his best characters -The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; Winchester 73; Shenandoah, Destry Rides Again. Tom Destry was not what he seemed to be!

 

[Matt McKeon]

The Zone of Interest
This is an Oscar nominated film about an upwardly mobile, traditional family. The husband is a workaholic, the wife, assisted by house keepers and staff, raises their five children, in a beautiful house and garden she has renovated and made her own. The villa and grounds are surrounded by a high wall.

The husband is Rudolf Hoss, and his wife Hedwig. He is the commandant of Auschwitz.

The director, Jonathan Glazer, films them moving about the house, business meetings, family outings, household routines. Right beyond the wall in Auschwitz, and smoke, stenches, the echoes of screams and gunshots are so routine they are ignored. Only their frantic dog, a continually crying infant and the rare visitor seem to realize something terrible is happening.

Most reviewers quote Adrendt's phrase "the banality of evil."

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Good to see you again Matt, you were always one of the good Mods 'over there' in Popcorn land, I always took your ass whippings w/ ease when I went a bit 'over the top'.

 

[Matt McKeon]

The Zone of Interest
This is an Oscar nominated film about an upwardly mobile, traditional family. The husband is a workaholic, the wife, assisted by house keepers and staff, raises their five children, in a beautiful house and garden she has renovated and made her own. The villa and grounds are surrounded by a high wall.

The husband is Rudolf Hoss, and his wife Hedwig. He is the commandant of Auschwitz.

The director, Jonathan Glazer, films them moving about the house, business meetings, family outings, household routines. Right beyond the wall in Auschwitz, and smoke, stenches, the echoes of screams and gunshots are so routine they are ignored. Only their frantic dog, a continually crying infant and the rare visitor seem to realize something terrible is happening.

Most reviewers quote Adrendt's phrase "the banality of evil."

I'm not 100% sold on this approach, with the main business of the Holocaust, killing, and Hoss' main task, killing, being off stage. Hoss, historically, wasn't emotionally dead, he was vicious. But it is a very intense and interesting film.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Good to see you again Matt, you were always one of the good Mods 'over there' in Popcorn land, I always took your ass whippings w/ ease when I went a bit 'over the top'.

I feel now that I wasted a lot of time and effort there.