Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[struth]

Forrest Gump, 1994... 4K bluray ....Director Robert Zemeckis....






Tom Hanks was not paid for this film. Instead, he took percentage points which ultimately netted him in the region of $40 million. (smart guy)

Tom Hanks signed onto this film after an hour and a half of reading the script, but agreed to take the role only on the condition that the film was historically accurate. He initially wanted to ease Forrest's pronounced Southern accent, but was eventually persuaded by Robert Zemeckis to portray the heavy accent stressed in the novel, and he patterned his accent after Michael Conner Humphreys (young Forrest), who actually spoke that way.

Tom Hanks' younger brother, Jim Hanks, doubled for him in many of his numerous running sequences. According to Jim, "Tom had other doubles but they couldn't do the run", referring to Forrest's geeky stiff stride "that's a stupid Hanks thing"

The necklace worn by Lieutenant Dan is a rosary with a Saint Christopher medal, inscribed "Protect Us In Combat." It was worn in Vietnam by Gary Sinise's brother-in-law, Jack Treese, in 1967-68.

[struth]

Another classic now with the Coen's .. O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000....






The film's soundtrack became an unlikely blockbuster, even surpassing the success of the film. By early 2001, it had sold five million copies, spawned a documentary film, three follow-up albums ("O Sister" and "O Sister 2"), two concert tours, and won Country Music Awards for Album of the Year and Single of the Year (for "Man of Constant Sorrow"). It also won five Grammys, including Album of the Year, and hit #1 on the Billboard album charts the week of March 15, 2002, 63 weeks after its release and over a year after the release of the film.

George Clooney agreed to do this film without having read the script. The Coen Brothers visited him in Phoenix while he was making Three Kings (1999), wanting to work with him after seeing his performance in Out of Sight (1998). Moments after they put their script on Clooney's hotel room table, the actor said "Great, I'm in." He stated that he liked even the Coens' least successful films.

The prisoner's musical chant from the beginning of the movie (and soundtrack) was actually an old recording of a chain-gang.

[struth]

Outbreak, 1995.





When investigating the village in Zaire, several huts are burned down. This is the traditional tribal method for controlling the spread of an infection in many parts of the world. Food and water are left outside the entrance to the dwelling, and the occupants cannot leave. If several days (usually three or four) of these supplies are not used, then the dwelling is burned down to stop the infection from spreading.

[struth]

Agatha Christie's Poirot, 1989... season 1....

a bit more poirot before retiring for a rest. he really is an excellent poirot imo.

[struth]

A riproaring western now, with John Ford's STAGECOACH, 1939. Criterion Bluray remaster....





A cruel stunt known as a "Running W" was used to cause the Indians' horses to fall during the sequence where they are chasing the stagecoach. Strong, thin wires were fixed to a metal post anchored in the ground, while the other ends of the wires were attached to an iron clamp that encircled the legs of each horse. A horse was then ridden at full gallop, and when a wire's maximum length was reached--just when the rider was "shot"--the animal's legs would be jerked from beneath it, causing it to tumble violently and throw off the "shot" rider. A rider could anticipate the fall, but the horse could not, resulting in many horses either being killed outright or having to be destroyed because of broken limbs incurred during the falls. The use of the "Running W" was eventually discontinued after many complaints from both inside and outside the film industry.

Louise Platt, who played the very proper Mrs. Lucy Mallory, wasn't quite so prim off-camera. Observing John Wayne on the set one day, Platt turned to Claire Trevor and said, "I think he has the most beautiful buttocks I have ever seen."

The screenplay by Dudley Nichols is an adaptation of "The Stage to Lordsburg", a 1937 short story by Ernest Haycox.

[struth]

Related by Andy Devine's son Dennis....The Stagecoach river crossing.... For true west...

Nobody could overstate the impact of 1939’s Stagecoach on film in general and on the Western in particular. It rescued the genre from the “just-for-kids” B-movie ghetto, made an “A” star out of “B” star John Wayne and brought the maestro of the form, director John Ford, back to the range after a decade-long absence. Orson Welles called the film “perfect”—he watched it 40 times while preparing Citizen Kane.

Stagecoach was nearly in the can. Andy Devine, the rotund, screechy-voiced actor who played stage driver Buck, was ideal for the part, bringing welcome comedy relief. But he knew the other reason he’d been cast. When Ford got impatient, and said, “You big tub of lard. I don’t know why the hell I’m using you in this picture,” Andy replied, “Because Ward Bond can’t drive six horses.”

Andy’s son Dennis tells True West: “He grew up on his father’s ranch outside of Kingman, [Arizona], so Dad knew how to drive wagons and horses. Dad did all of it [in the film], the driving in and out of towns and stations. But that wasn’t Dad on the dry lake, the big chase. Not that he couldn’t do it, but because [the studio] was afraid he’d get hurt.”

Andy had seen a rough cut of the film and loved it. But he faced one more scene. Perhaps not so coincidentally, Andy was asked to do a risky stunt on the last day of shooting, so the film could be completed no matter if something went wrong. Dennis says, “John Ford wasn’t stupid, and frankly, my dad was scared of doing that thing.”

The scene would come before the big Indian chase. When the stagecoach reaches the hoped-for safety of the river, Buck discovers Geronimo’s men have burned the ferry. The script called for two trees to be cut down, lashed to either side of the stage, to float the stage across the river. Ford had already discarded the sequence: “The wranglers tell me it can’t be done.”

But just as Ford had plucked Wayne from the B films, Wayne returned the favor by bringing along ace stuntman Yakima Canutt. “It can be done,” Canutt told Ford, “and I think it will look terrific.”

During three days of preparation, Canutt had a Paramount special effects expert build four hollow logs for flotation. Setting up on the Kern River, Canutt rigged an underwater cable to the bottom of the wagon—the cable ran through a pulley to an off-camera truck, which would pull the stagecoach into the river and across to the far side.

Andy faced that last day of shooting with trepidation. “He didn’t know what was going to happen—the stagecoach could sink or the horses could drown,” his son Dennis says.

Canutt took the reins for the first take, a long shot, and everything went smoothly. The second shot was set up with the camera mounted to the stagecoach roof, looking over the shoulders of George Bancroft, as the marshal, and Andy. Happily, the river crossing went off without a hitch: no retakes needed.

Andy was so relieved, he called up friends to go out and celebrate—Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. They had just sat down with him and his wife, Dorothy, at the Brown Derby and ordered their meals when Dorothy went into labor. Dennis was born January 24, 1939, the day Stagecoach wrapped.

[struth]

Another film i can watch as often as i want.. HOPSCOTCH, 1980.. Criterion Bluray remaster again..






Sam Waterston arrived late to begin filming because his role in Heaven's Gate (1980) ran much longer than anticipated. By the time he began his work as Cutter he was exhausted. As a result people mention how awful he looks two times, and he blames jet lag.

Walter Matthau, who lost family and friends in the Holocaust, only agreed to travel to Germany to shoot the opening Oktoberfest scene on condition that his son, David Matthau, was cast as Ross.

According to the DVD special feature "Introduction by Neame & Garfield", Walter Matthau's agent suggested the film include music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as this would be pleasing to Matthau. So they made Matthau's character Kendig a lover of Mozart's music. Conductor and arranger Ian Fraser located many pieces of Mozart's music but was at a loss for the scenes where Kendig is typing his book. So they asked Matthau if he could make any suggestions and he obliged by finding some.

[Pigmy Pony]

Another classic now with the Coen's .. O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000....






The film's soundtrack became an unlikely blockbuster, even surpassing the success of the film. By early 2001, it had sold five million copies, spawned a documentary film, three follow-up albums ("O Sister" and "O Sister 2"), two concert tours, and won Country Music Awards for Album of the Year and Single of the Year (for "Man of Constant Sorrow"). It also won five Grammys, including Album of the Year, and hit #1 on the Billboard album charts the week of March 15, 2002, 63 weeks after its release and over a year after the release of the film.

George Clooney agreed to do this film without having read the script. The Coen Brothers visited him in Phoenix while he was making Three Kings (1999), wanting to work with him after seeing his performance in Out of Sight (1998). Moments after they put their script on Clooney's hotel room table, the actor said "Great, I'm in." He stated that he liked even the Coens' least successful films.

The prisoner's musical chant from the beginning of the movie (and soundtrack) was actually an old recording of a chain-gang.

Wonderful film, great cast, and an equally brilliant soundtrack. I no longer have the DVD, but still have the soundtrack CD.

[struth]

just finished...

now part 3, ..

[struth]

Classic adventure now with Zoltan Korda's The Four Feathers, 1939.. Criterion Bluray remaster.




What is stunning about the image, though, is that the digital transfer itself comes off just about perfect. I think what most impressed me was how it handles film grain: as mentioned it gets heavy in the film and had the potential to create a noisy mess but it’s handled perfectly and looks completely natural throughout. The image is also incredibly sharp with a stunning amount of clarity, and the film’s colours look wonderful but still retain that Technicolor look. Halos pop up in a few places but past this I didn’t notice any other issues with the actual transfer.


The action scenes, photographed by Osmond Borradaile, were not only filmed where the historical battles had taken place, but also included among the many extras, people who had witnessed or participated in the fighting more than forty years earlier. These battle scenes further benefitted from Director Zoltan Korda's expertise at large-scale action and his early experience as a cavalry officer.