What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[LizzieMaine]

Unlike the TV show, the radio series rotated a number of different epigraphs over its run. "American Way" began to show up as an occasional variant around 1945 -- but the "American Way" being referred to there was not the National Association of Manufacturers' "American Way" of the fifties. Right after the war the radio program began to crusade very openly against racism, ethnic hatred, and anti-Semitism, and it was *this* "American Way," the idealized American Way of respecting everyone regardless of "race, color, or creed" that was being promoted. The addition of a rippling US flag behind the figure of Superman in the TV show opening gave the phrase a jingoistic connotation that totally shifted the meaning.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Please don't tell me Batman was a muslim...

Although Bob Kane was Jewish, it's pretty obvious that Batman was, as the saying goes, a goy.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Lizzie - Thanks for that bit of detail on the radio show, which is one area of Superman lore about which I can't claim to be an expert.

Batman's DNA includes a lot of influence from The Shadow, the original dark avenger of the night who hid behind a society playboy persona. As Fading Fast pointed out, there are earlier precedents for all these characters and stories. These same characters and tropes keep bubbling up from some Jungian primordial ooze... I'm a great believer that the stories that we tell over and over throughout time explain a lot more about humanity than all the endless facts of history.

Which leads me to my big decision of this weekend: go see Batman V Superman: Dawn of Bushwa, or wait a week or two, if only to protest by not contributing to the opening-weekend gross? I fully expect to mostly hate it, not being fond of the Frank Miller fascist Batman or much of what Synder did with Superman in Man of Steel. But as a lifelong fan of these characters, I can't pretend I'm not interested!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Kane himself admitted to being heavily influenced by Douglas Fairbanks' 1920 movie version of "The Mark of Zorro," a character which might well have been the father of all the masked mystery-man characters of the '30s. And it's well known that the other great figure in the Batman mythos, the Joker, was inspired specifically by Conrad Veidt's makeup in the 1928 silent movie version of "The Man Who Laughs."

This points up another thing nearly all the comic artists of the 1930s and 1940s had in common -- they grew up watching silent movies in the 1920s, and you'll find that just about all of them lifted concepts from that source.

I saw a picture in the paper promoting the new movie, and why is Batman wearing some kind of ridiculous robot-looking helmet? Besides, aren't Superman and Batman the best of friends? They certainly were on radio, and in all those issues of "World's Finest Comics" I used to read in the drugstore...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Deadpool in the cinema.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yes, Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel were fop-by-day/adventurer-by-night influences on Bob Kane and Bill Finger (the writer who co-created Batman but has only recently received credit). You're right that silent and thirties films, and pulp mags, were huge influences on these guys. "The Man Who Laughs" (a VERY weird film based on a Victor Hugo story) being the inspiration for the Joker's look is indeed well-known.

Google up "The Dark Knight Returns" to see the origin of the robo-suited Batman fighting Superman. This 1986 series written by Frank Miller, done outside established comics continuity, with its older, pissed-off Batman having gone full-on fascist, was extremely influential on everything that came after, starting with Tim Burton's 1989 film. But while it's an intersting take on the character, it shouldn't be THE take on the character.

Excellent article on the history of Bats and Supes relationship:

http://www.vulture.com/2016/03/batman-v-superman-c-v-r.html

 

[AmateisGal]

Deadpool in the cinema.

What did you think of it? My husband and daughter went to see it and loved it.

 

[Fading Fast]

... "Nobody but a Jew would call himself Clark Kent." ...

Definitely line of the day.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I saw a picture in the paper promoting the new movie, and why is Batman wearing some kind of ridiculous robot-looking helmet? Besides, aren't Superman and Batman the best of friends?...

To answer the first question, he's engaging in a street fight with an apparently impervious and super-human being from another planet; the armored suit increases his odds of surviving that.

To answer the second question, not in this incarnation of the story. Not initially, anyway; I haven't seen the movie yet, so I don't know if they come to some sort of understanding before the credits roll. When Superman first appeared in 1938 the people of Earth in the DC Comics universe readily accepted him for what he appeared to be--someone with a strong moral compass who used his abilities to help people. In the current version, which is more jaded and cynical, mankind isn't as willing to accept him at face value, especially after all of the damage Metropolis incurred in Man of Steel.

 

[Stearmen]

starting with Tim Burton's 1989 film. But while it's an intersting take on the character, it shouldn't be THE take on the character.

I never had to say I'm Batman. I showed up. People knew I was Batman. Adam West: The Big Bang Theory!

 

[AmateisGal]

Hooked up the DVD player to my TV (we just moved so everything has been a shambles) so I could relax and watch a classic movie. I picked Sands of Iwo Jima.

 

[green papaya]

I just watched "THE WIND and THE LION" starring Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith as President Teddy Roosevelt.

the story line, Morocco in 1904 an American woman is abducted in Morocco by Berbers. The attempts to free her range from diplomatic pressure to military intervention.

it's a well made film from 1975

 

[belfastboy]

Just finished watching "Brooklyn" Spoiler alert!!!!! I am such a sucker for happy endings!!!

 

[2jakes]

I love “Chinatown” .
Last night I watched the sequel “The Two Jakes” (1990).
I enjoyed the scene where Jake Gittes drives a ’49 Hudson Commodore
Convertible with the Fulton Sun-visor.
An olive drab 1946 Chevrolet truck passes by. (I own a similar truck)
This is the start of the scene, but something is not quite right...

This is a continuos scene about a minute,
but the sun-visor disappears on the close-up shot.
The same 1946 truck passes by twice.
The sun-visor reappears.

Way to go 2jake Gittes !

 

[Fading Fast]

"Watch on the Rhine" which I've seen a few times over many years, but found I enjoyed it the most this time in part because I didn't focus on the plot - since I knew it well - but on the characters and how they developed. In particular, Paul Lukas and Lucile Watson do an outstanding job of making well-written, but still, propaganda dialogue believable. These two are such pros that you forget they are acting. Overall, it's a good solid WWII propaganda film.

 

[Bushman]

U-571

Not historically accurate at all, but it's still a lot of fun.

 

[Worf]

Hooked up the DVD player to my TV (we just moved so everything has been a shambles) so I could relax and watch a classic movie. I picked Sands of Iwo Jima.

Unh... and you find that "relaxing'? What'd you do for a chaser? "The Steel Helmet"? I luv's ya but sometimes you is strange!

Worf

 

[Touchofevil]

I love “Chinatown” .
Last night I watched the sequel “The Two Jakes” (1990).
I enjoyed the scene where Jake Gittes drives a ’49 Hudson Commodore
Convertible with the Fulton Sun-visor.
An olive drab 1946 Chevrolet truck passes by. (I own a similar truck)
This is the start of the scene, but something is not quite right...

This is a continuos scene about a minute,
but the sun-visor disappears on the close-up shot.
The same 1946 truck passes by twice.
The sun-visor reappears.

Way to go 2jake Gittes !

I too love Chinatown. I also like The Two Jakes, much moreso than most of the world. It would have been nice to see the third story in the series.

 

[2jakes]

Hooked up the DVD player to my TV (we just moved so everything has been a shambles) so I could relax and watch a classic movie. I picked Sands of Iwo Jima.

This also is a movie I watch when everything is in shambles.

Cheers !
Another “strange one”.

 

[AmateisGal]

Unh... and you find that "relaxing'? What'd you do for a chaser? "The Steel Helmet"? I luv's ya but sometimes you is strange!

Worf

Hahaha! Oh, Worf, you made me smile.

Actually, I wanted to get my mindset back into WW2 since my novel's main character is a WW2 Marine. I haven't worked on it for a month due to moving and family health issues, but I'm raring to go now.