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Podcast

MOV086: “Be Brave, Fear God, Honor the King”

Join Jeff, Steve, and Ray on the inaugural reel of 2012 as the boys take a jump back to 1942 and watch Casablanca, exploring all the ways that this movie has influenced popular culture. Is it worth the hype and stand the test of time? From one world war to the next, the boys jump over the Mediterranean and back into the trenches of World War 1 to discuss Spielberg’s take on the 1982 Children’s novel, War Horse. Is this trip into No Mans Land worth the price of admission? Finally from the distant past we warp into the future to look at the new trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. The long anticipated return to a genre he helped define in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Is it enough to get our butts into the seat? All this and news about Akira’s development nightmare, Zombie Trilogies, and the return of the debate, to post convert or not on this 86th reel of COL Movies “Be Brave, Fear God, Honor the King”

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News:

The Past: Casablanca (1942)
Rotten Tomatoes: 97% Fresh, 94% Audience

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Director: Michael Curtiz

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid

Trivia:

  • The Allies invaded Casablanca in real life on 8 November 1942. As the film was not due for release until spring, studio executives suggested it be changed to incorporate the invasion. Warner Bros. chief Jack L. Warner objected, as he thought that an invasion was a subject worth a whole film, not just an epilogue, and that the main story of this film demanded a pre-invasion setting. Eventually he gave in, though, and producer Hal B. Wallis prepared to shoot an epilogue where Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains hear about the invasion. However, before Rains could travel to the studio for this, David O. Selznick (whose studio owned Bergman’s contract) previewed the film and urged Warner to release it unaltered and as fast as possible. Warner agreed and the premiered in New York on November 26. It did not play in Los Angeles until its general release the following January, and hence competed against 1943 films for the Oscars.
  • Michèle Morgan asked for $55,000, but Hal B. Wallis refused to pay it when he could get Ingrid Bergman for $25,000.
  • The script was based on the unproduced play “Everybody Comes to Rick’s”. Samuel Marx of MGM wanted to offer authors (Murray Burnett and Joan Alison) $5,000 for it, but MGM boss Louis B. Mayer refused; Irene Lee of the Warner Brothers story department praised it to Jack L. Warner, who agreed to buy it for $20,000.
  • Dooley Wilson (Sam) was a professional drummer who faked playing the piano. As the music was recorded at the same time as the film, the piano playing was actually a recording of a performance by Elliot Carpenter who was playing behind a curtain but who was positioned such that Dooley could watch, and copy, his hand movements
  • Captain Renault’s line, “You like war. I like women,” was changed from “You enjoy war. I enjoy women,” in order to meet decency standards
  • Reportedly, many of the shadows were painted onto the set.
  • In the German version, the immortal line “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid”, became, “Ich seh’ Dir in die Augen, Kleines” which translates as “I look in your eyes, honey”.
  • Many of the actors who played the Nazis were in fact German Jews who had escaped from Nazi Germany
  • The letters of transit that motivate so many characters in the film did not exist in Vichy-controlled France – they are purely a plot device invented by the screenwriters.
  • In the famous scene where the “Marseillaise” is sung over the German song “Watch on the Rhine”, many of the extras had real tears in their eyes; a large number of them were actual refugees from Nazi persecution in Germany and elsewhere in Europe and were overcome by the emotions the scene brought out.
  • Casablanca, Morocco, was one of the key stops for refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe, which is why the original playwrights chose the city for the setting of their play (though initially they had opted for Lisbon)
  • Rick’s Cafe was one of the few original sets built for the film, the rest were all recycled from other Warner Brothers productions due to wartime restrictions on building supplies
  • Humphrey Bogart had to wear platform shoes to play alongside Ingrid Bergman.
  • It is never revealed why Rick cannot return to America. Julius J. Epstein later said that “My brother and I tried very hard to come up with a reason why Rick couldn’t return to America. But nothing seemed right. We finally decided not to give a reason at all.”
  • It is unclear where the line, “Here’s looking at you, kid,” originated, but it definitely predated both Casablanca and earlier stage work by Bogart. On March 9, 1932 – 10 years before Casablanca – Eddie Cantor signed his name in cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theater and wrote, “Here’s looking at you, Sid” (referring to Sid Grauman, owner of the theater). Cantor certainly meant it as a take-off on “Here’s looking at you, kid”, which evidently was a line in circulation at the time.
  • Given the extraordinary chemistry between the two leads, it’s curious that Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman never appeared in another movie together, this being their one and only joint venture.
  • No one knew right up until the filming of the last scene whether Ilsa would end up with Rick or Laszlo. During the course of the picture, when Ingrid Bergman asked director Michael Curtiz with which man her character was in love, she was told to “play it in between”. Since the ending was not the final scene shot, there are some scenes where she *was* aware of how everything would turn out, and these include the scene in the black market with Rick and the scene in the Blue Parrot where Ferrari offers the Laszlos one exit visa.
  • Ingrid Bergman considered her left side as her better side, and to the extent possible that was the side photographed throughout the film, so she is almost always on the right side of the screen looking towards the left regardless of who is in the shot with her. However, there are several shots where she is to the left and Humphrey Bogart is on the right

Talking Points:

  • All the pop culture items from this movie –
  • Play it again Sam – was never said in the movie.
  • Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” #65/100 greatest, #20 by AFI – often misquoted
  • “Round up the usual suspects” #32/100 by AFI
  • “We’ll always have Paris” #42/100 greatest movie lines.
  • “Here’s looking at you kid” #1/100 greatest movie lines. , #5 by AFI
  • “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine” #67/100
  • “I Stick my neck out for nobody” #42/100 greatest movie lines – dont recall this one being as famous
  • “As Time Goes By” #2 on AFI’s 100 years / 100 Songs.
  • AFI 100 Years lists – http://www.afi.com/100years/
  • If this was made today – In the 1980s, this film’s script was sent to readers at a number of major studios and production companies under its original title, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s”. Some readers recognized the script but most did not. Many complained that the script was “not good enough” to make a decent movie. Others gave such complaints as “too dated”, “too much dialog” and “not enough sex”.
  • A lot of the extras and actors had actually fled from Nazi Germany.

What We’ve Learned:

  • Morocco is full of vultures…vultures vultures everywhere.
  • Its ok to be a parasite, just not a cut-rate one
  • The winning side pays much better…maybe
  • Drunkard makes you a citizen of the world
  • You get much more than a penny for your thoughts in France.
  • No one is supposed to sleep well in Casablanca
  • Friends of Rick get the special discount!
  • The problems of three little people don’t mount to a hill of beans in this crazy world

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: There’s a reason this is #2 on AFI’s Top 100 movies and #3 on the 10th Anniversary Edition of the list. Brilliant story telling of the era and the acting was wonderful. Everyone should see this at least once. Some people may be turned off due to the black and white style and the acting style but it’s definitely earned it’s place on AFI’s list.
Ray: “I attempted to watch this movie once before when i was much much younger..and didn’t make it. I think now that I’m older I enjoyed this movie a lot more. I think everyone should watch or at least attempt to watch. If only for seeing where so many of these little influential pop culture things came from.
Steve: First time I’d watched this from beginning to end. I liked being able to see where some of the popular lines actually fit in with the actual movie! I liked it and actually found myself rooting for Rick.

The Present: War Horse
Rotten Tomatoes: 77% Fresh, 77% Audience

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis

Trivia:

  • Steven Spielberg’s first film to be edited digitally. He has famously held onto editing traditionally, by cutting films manually on a flatbed editing table.
  • Based on both a children’s novel of the same name set during World War I, by Michael Morpurgo, first published in the United Kingdom in 1982, and the 2007 stage adaptation, also of the same name.

Talking Points:

  • The First 30 minutes or so.. too slow? or necessary
  • The “Hidden” Violence leading up to the Front.
  • The Barbed Wire scene.
  • The Private

What We Learned:

  • If you’re going to plow, you need something solid.
  • There are big days, and there are small days.
  • There aren’t words for some things.
  • It’s good to be proud, when you done something good.
  • I might hate you more, but I’ll never love you less.
  • Time spent on reconnaissance is time rarely wasted.
  • The Germans spent their time in trenches reading books and knitting sweaters.
  • The women in Italy, are not as good as the food.

Trailer:

Recommendations :
Jeff: Brilliant epic and I think a return to form for Spielberg . . . in the live action sense considering he did come back to form with Tin Tin but that was animated. Definitely a worth see . . . but maybe more of a movie night at home verses the theatre, but that’s just because this isn’t my style of movie.
Ray: Beautifully shot, and if you give the movie enough time to actually engage you, it’s a pretty emotional flick, and I don’t even like horses!
Steve: OK, scenery was amazing. Story was annoying. I didn’t hate it like I thought I would, but I felt emotionally raped afterward because it was forcing an emotional response from the audience. Felt like Crash with horses.

The Future: Prometheus

Release: June 8, 2012

Director: Ridley Scott

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson

Summary:

A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Trivia:

  • Was originally intended as a prequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien, but Scott decided to turn it into an original film with Noomi Rapace (who was already set to star in the prequel) still in the cast as one of five main characters. Some time later however it was confirmed that while the movie will take place in the same universe as Alien, and greatly reference that movie, it will, for the bigger part, be an original movie and not a direct prequel
  • For the role of Vickers, Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie were considered. Theron got the role.

Talking Points:

  • Shared Alien DNA.
  • Title “Scroll”
  • Stone Edifice that look like egg chamber
  • The Space Jockey head / chair
  • Smoking acid in the space helmet
  • The Screaming sound effect
  • The ship.
  • His use of Strong Female Leads

Trailers:

Alien Trailer:

IGN Rewind:

Excitement:
Jeff: I need more. This was just a teaser and I couldn’t get off the fact that Alien was completely implied by the appearance of the title and the flash of a guy holding his helmeted head looking like he was screaming with the scream sound from the soundtrack playing. And it was only for a split second. Applause to Ridley Scott to get people excited by reminding everyone of Alien but I’m not quite buying it yet. Poo poo on this teaser, but HELL YEAH I’m seeing the movie, but not because of this teaser.
Ray: I have a raging sci fi boner for this movie….June cannot get here fast enough.
Steve: Definitely an epic looking trailer and clearly has a lot of similarities to Alien. A must see!

Coming Attractions

The Past

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The Present

The Future

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Podcast

MOV077: “Beauty Always Gives Me A Hardon”

On this reel of COL movies.. The boys skirt the very limits of decency delving into John Waters crazy, campy and raunchy dark comedy “Female Trouble” Was it divine? or make them feel like throwing acid into their own faces? Next up the boys jump into the present to talk about the….. 30th attempt at the now classic french story, “The Three Musketeers” After so many attempts have they finally gotten it right? And Last but not least they look into the not so distant Christmas movie season future to talk about the upcoming Spielberg World War One epic “War Horse” Will we be galloping into the theaters this Christmas to see it? Or will we be bringing ol’ trigger to the glue factory? All this movie news and more, so mainline some mascara and strap on your Cha-Cha heels and join us for the next reel of COL Movies # 77 “Beauty always gives me a hardon”

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News:

The Past: Female Trouble
Rotten Tomatoes: 79% Fresh, 84% Audience

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Director: John Waters

Starring: Divine, David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pearce

Trivia:

  • The film is dedicated to Manson Family member Charles “Tex” Watson. Waters’ prison visits to Watson inspired the “crime is beauty” theme of the film and in the film’s opening credits, Waters includes a wooden toy helicopter that Watson made for him.
  • The lyrics to the title song of the same name, sung by Divine, were written by Waters and set to a pre-existing piece of music.
  • A scene was filmed in which Concetta (Cookie Mueller) burst into the courtroom in an attempt to rescue Dawn Davenport (‘Divine’). According to John Waters, the scene was “technically bad” (visible boom mic, light poles, etc.) and not included in any released version.
  • Dawn Davenport’s stage performance is based upon an act performed by Divine at San Francisco’s Palace Theatre. Divine would wheel a shopping cart full of mackerel on stage and hurl them into the audience while claiming responsibility for various high-profile crimes.
  • Many of the principal actors’ and crews’ parents played the jurors in the final courtroom scene, including the mother and brother of David Lochary (Donald Dasher) and the mother of set designer Vincent Peranio.
  • John Waters still has the “lectric’ chair” and keeps it in his Baltimore home.
  • The female prisoner kissing Dawn in her cell at the end of the movie previously appeared in Pink Flamingos as “Chick with a Dick.” The actress is a male-to-female transsexual.
  • This film marks the last time that John Waters would work with his friend and regular David Lochary. Lochary bled to death while under the influence of PCP before he could appear in Waters’ next picture, Desperate Living.
  • Although released in 1974 the copyright date at the end of the credits is MCMXCIX or 1999.
  • At the time that the electric chair scene was filmed, the death penalty had been banned in the State of Maryland. The day before John Waters had his “sneak world premiere” at a prison, Maryland reinstated the death penalty.
  • Although Dawn Davenport was executed at the end of the film, US capital punishment was suspended from 1972 to 1976 due to the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Furman v. Georgia. Maryland didn’t formally reinstate capital punishment until July 1, 1975 and its constitutionality wasn’t passed until 1976. Furthermore, asphyxiation in the gas chamber was the authorized method of execution, not electrocution.
  • The birth scene was saved until the end of shooting, when Dreamlander Susan Lowe gave birth to a son. The umbilical cord was fashioned out of prophylactics filled with liver, while the baby (Ramsey McLean) was doused in fake blood. The scene created quite a scandal for Lowe’s mother-in-law, who arrived on the set in a state of confusion.
  • The unique production design is by Dreamlander Vincent Peranio, who created Dawn’s apartment in a condemned suite above a friend’s store.
  • Divine chose to perform his own stunts, the most difficult of which involved doing flips on a trampoline during his nightclub act. Waters took Divine to a YMCA, where he took lessons until the act was perfected.
  • On the 2004 DVD Director’s Special Comments, Waters states that the original working title of the film was “Rotten Mind, Rotten Face”.

Talking Points:

  • Do we have a Modern Day John Waters?
  • NC-17 rating… deserved?

What We’ve Learned:

  • Nothing says Merry Christmas like Running away from home and screwing some random stranger in the woods.
  • There’s no need to learn about, the presidents, wars, numbers, or science. ‘
  • Feel depressed? Just get your hair done.
  • If they are smart, they’re queer and if they are straight they’re stupid.
  • Nice girls don’t wear Cha-Cha Heels.
  • Bumping Pussies is a violation of jail rules (Eww-Jeff)

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: Wait, I think I found a movie worse than “Starbooty”.
Ray: I think this is the movie that “Starbooty” was trying to be.. and failed miserably. You are a John Waters fan.. or your not. It’s not something i’d recommend to just anyone.. but I did think it was funny.
Steve: I tend to love wacky stuff like this, but I was honestly just bored to tears. It did nothing for me. I feel like my gay card should be taken away…

The Present: The Three Musketeers
Rotten Tomatoes: 24% Rotten, 49% Audience

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Starring: Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen and Ray Stevenson

Trivia:

  • At the beginning of the movie, the map of Europe shows several states and kingdoms of that era. However, in Germany, a fictional kingdom west of Bavaria called “Wurzburg” is shown (slightly misspelled, as the original spelling is “Würzburg”), the name of a Franconian city where major parts of the movie were shot.
  • The substitute for Versailles in the movie is a German palace, the Fürstbischöfliche Residenz (the prince-bishop’s palace) in Würzburg, Lower Franconia, Bavaria.
  • Christoph Waltz (Cardinal Richelieu) has the same birthday (October 4) as Charlton Heston, who played Richelieu in The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers.
  • Playing Rochefort, Mads Mikkelsen in this movie wears an eye-patch over the very same left eye that his Le Chiffre character wept blood in Casino Royale.
  • A sizable proportion of the funding for the film came from German sources: $4 million from Bavaria’s bank fund (BBF) and film and TV fund (FFF), about $1.3 million from the federal German Film Board, about $10 million in tax rebate cash from the German film fund, the DFF and $1 million (€800,000) in subsidy financing from the Berlin-Brandenburg Medienboard. The production budget was $90 million.
  • Milla Jovovich criticized Summit Entertainment for not “promoting [the film] properly” as a “family film” in the United States. Deadline.com reported that Summit responded with “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about and we don’t know where she’s coming from.” and that “Wouldn’t you think she would call us first about this? It’s frustrating. It’s not the right way to behave. If she has a problem then come to the studio and talk about it”.

Talking Points:

  • Use of the super slo-mo over used?
  • Is this trying to cash in on the popularity of Sherlock Holmes, and the release of the sequel?
  • Annoying variety of accents (Steve)
  • Steampunk and period films? Really? (but not as prevalent as others)
  • Anyone else think the king was going to come out? Or kiss D’Artagnan?
  • Do we think there will be a sequel?

What We Learned:

  • French Spies are arrogant, foolish, and sexy!
  • Trust no one, especially women.
  • Never bring a sword to a gun fight.
  • Dignified and Dashing are equally important
  • Evil is just a point of view.
  • History isn’t written by heroes it’s written by victors.
  • Green is sooooooo last year.
  • Oh, Porthos. *dreamy sigh*

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: It was alright. I supposes. Oh, Porthos. *dreamy sigh*
Ray: I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would… Although I think the pacing got really slow towards the end…and it ran a little long.
Steve: Enjoyable. Not Shakespeare, but fun. Felt like it had elements of Sherlock Holmes and the Wild Wild West. What is it with steampunk in these kinds of movies?

The Future: War Horse

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson and David Thewlis

Summary:

In Devon at the outbreak of World War I, Joey, young Albert Narracott’s beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. He serves in the British and German armies, which takes him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before being alone in No Man’s Land. But Albert cannot forget Joey, and, still not old enough to enlist in the army, he embarks on a dangerous mission to find and bring Joey home

Trivia:

  • Steven Spielberg’s first film to be edited digitally. He has famously held onto editing traditionally, by cutting films manually on a flatbed editing table.
  • Based on both a children’s novel of the same name set during World War I, by Michael Morpurgo, first published in the United Kingdom in 1982, and the 2007 stage adaptation, also of the same name.
  • In 2009, film producer Kathleen Kennedy saw the critically acclaimed production of War Horse in London’s West End with her husband, fellow producer Frank Marshall and their two daughters. They were very impressed by the story and Marshall has recalled how he was amazed that no-one had already bought the film rights to the book.
  • Steven Spielberg was told about War Horse by several people, including Kennedy, who was his colleague at Amblin Entertainment. It was announced on 16 December 2009 that DreamWorks had acquired the film rights for the book, with Spielberg stating: “From the moment I read Michael Morpurgo’s novel War Horse, I knew this was a film I wanted DreamWorks to make … Its heart and its message provide a story that can be felt in every country.” Spielberg saw the London production of the play on 1 February 2010 and met some of the cast afterwards.
  • Spielberg films are renowned for the levels of secrecy and security during filming, and War Horse was no exception: filming took place under the codename Dartmoor.
  • Filming of War Horse began with the cavalry scenes being filmed at Stratfield Saye House in north Hampshire, the estate of the Duke of Wellington, where incidentally Wellington’s war horse “Copenhagen” is buried.
  • Filming on location on Dartmoor, Devon started in August 2010. Dartmoor locations included the small village of Meavy, and near Widecombe-in-the-Moor. Ditsworthy Warren House, an isolated Grade II listed building near Sheepstor on Dartmoor served as the Narracott family’s farmhouse.
  • Working with horses on this scale was a new experience for Spielberg, who commented: “The horses were an extraordinary experience for me, because several members of my family ride. I was really amazed at how expressive horses are and how much they can show what they’re feeling.”

Talking Points:

  • Do you feel that the trailer conveys any of the story we are going to see?

Trailer:

Excitement:
Jeff: Sweet, epic, war movie feel to it, just something doesn’t work quite right. It’s feels like it’s trying to get me to watch Seabiscuit. Which means I don’t want to see it. I dunno, just doesn’t work for me.
Ray: It exudes that certain… “Spielbergness” that you come to expect from his movies. If anything some of the visuals make me interested in seeing this, and the fact that its set in WWI which we don’t get to see too much of these days.
Steve: The setting looks beautiful and I’m sure it will be shot extremely well. But, it won’t be on my Christmas list…unless I want to take a long nap.

Coming Attractions:

The Past

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The Present

The Future

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