What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Formeruser012523]

Jurassic World. Enjoyed it, despite finding myself randomly giggling at Chris Pratt throughout much of the movie. No matter how serious I am supposed to take him, he will always be Andy Dwyer. lol

 

[Stearmen]

Ace Of Aces. (1933) A WWI flying movie. Funny how in each of these movies, one of the pilots is giving the other one the Extended Middle Finger!

 

[2jakes]

The movie Shane with Alan Ladd & this one are among my all time favorite westerns .
Also, both films have great ending scenes that I remember & loved since I was a kid.

 

[AdeeC]

I recently watched three Japanese war films made during WW2 around 1943/44. JUBILATION STREET, THE LIVING MAGOROKU and ARMY from the recently released KINOSH.ITA WORLD WAR II DVD set. All excellent films and quite a revelation. ARMY would have be one of the most interesting war themed films I have seen for a long time. Heavy on honour and tradition, and light on jingoism and propaganda. Two more in the set to watch.

 

[Benzadmiral]

"Young Bess," with Jean Simmons in red hair as the soon to be Elizabeth I of England, Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr as Henry VIII's last wife, and a small appearance by "Mr. Waverly," Leo G. Carroll. Oh, and Charles Laughton recreating his Henry. One of those colorful "historical" romance novels brought to film.

 

[Big J]

One of my favorites I've watched numerous times ...."Sorcerer" staring Roy Scheider (1977) Is a William Friedkin film about four desperate men from different parts of the globe who agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous South American jungle. (It's a remake of the 1953 French Film "The Wages of Fear" staring Yves Montand it's another great movie to catch). The soundtrack of Sorcerer is especially interesting as it's done by Tangerine Dream. William Fiedkin said that if he heard Tangerine Dream earlier TD would have composed the soundtrack for "The Exorcist"

Watched Sorcerer last night- it was really good!
Thanks for the tip!

 

[Big J]

I recently watched three Japanese war films made during WW2 around 1943/44. JUBILATION STREET, THE LIVING MAGOROKU and ARMY from the recently released KINOSH.ITA WORLD WAR II DVD set. All excellent films and quite a revelation. ARMY would have be one of the most interesting war themed films I have seen for a long time. Heavy on honour and tradition, and light on jingoism and propaganda. Two more in the set to watch.

'Honor and tradition' is the propaganda.

Fire on the Plains is being remade, but the director is getting slammed. Apparently, cannibalism amongst Japanese soldiers is an evil Chinese lie.

 

[AdeeC]

'Honor and tradition' is the propaganda.

Fire on the Plains is being remade, but the director is getting slammed. Apparently, cannibalism amongst Japanese soldiers is an evil Chinese lie.

Propaganda heavy or subtle is an ingredient of just about every film made during the war by all protagonists. Interesting that Kino****a was branded a traitor for the way ARMY turned out. He was banned from making any further films during the war. This film was supposed to be idealising dying for the Emperor to be the be all and end all of everything. Somehow Kino****a was able to subvert this message and still got the film released.

 

[Big J]

Propaganda heavy or subtle is an ingredient of just about every film made during the war by all protagonists. Interesting that Kino****a was branded a traitor for the way ARMY turned out. He was banned from making any further films during the war. This film was supposed to be idealising dying for the Emperor to be the be all and end all of everything. Somehow Kino****a was able to subvert this message and still got the film released.

Yeah, I understand. A paranoid fascist junta was punished him because in the final scene of the movie the mother is crying, with the possible inferred meaning that she is crying because she might lose her son in the war (how selfish and unpatriotic!).
But it's easy to claim that's the truth of the matter, and the directors true intention after the defeat. Nice little story to rehabilitate the director.
It overlooks the fact that the film follows one family's three generations of fighting for the junta, and aforementioned mother worrying that her son won't be healthy enough to join up. The alleged meaning of the end denies the meaning of the rest of the film- and therefore isn't credible IMHO.
Kurosawa also spent the wartime period making films that exhorted the masses to get themselves killed, but in the postwar period he was rehabilitated. Considering what they were complicit in making others do, we need to be very critical. None of these directors followed the advice they were giving others and got themselves killed, nor did they get themselves killed defying the junta.

 

[AdeeC]

Yeah, I understand. A paranoid fascist junta was punished him because in the final scene of the movie the mother is crying, with the possible inferred meaning that she is crying because she might lose her son in the war (how selfish and unpatriotic!).
But it's easy to claim that's the truth of the matter, and the directors true intention after the defeat. Nice little story to rehabilitate the director.
It overlooks the fact that the film follows one family's three generations of fighting for the junta, and aforementioned mother worrying that her son won't be healthy enough to join up. The alleged meaning of the end denies the meaning of the rest of the film- and therefore isn't credible IMHO.
Kurosawa also spent the wartime period making films that exhorted the masses to get themselves killed, but in the postwar period he was rehabilitated. Considering what they were complicit in making others do, we need to be very critical. None of these directors followed the advice they were giving others and got themselves killed, nor did they get themselves killed defying the junta.

It's not just the ending of the film but also the role of the main hero in the film played by Chishu Ryu. Normally he plays noble and sympathetic figures but here he comes across as a jerk. His patriotic fervour and bullying hostility with other characters who behave in a way that can be interpreted as more realistic and reasoned to what was happening in the war comes across as almost comicaly stupid and very selfish.

 

[Big J]

comes across as almost comicaly stupid and very selfish.

To a western observer.
But that doesn't mean that wartime Japanese would have seen it that way.
I'm being presumptuous, but without the cultural context, we superimpose our own cultural values on these things, and draw the wrong conclusions sometimes. I do it all the time even though I am aware of the dynamic.
We can agree to disagree, but ultimately the movie went out, and supported the war effort rather than undermining it in any way.
I think the director was just covering his back.

Anyway, I think you'll enjoy The Eternal Zero, in which a boy-band star plays the ever so 'deep' kamikaze pilot who 'kills for peace'.
It was a massive smash and played in cinemas for about 6 months. Veterans have decried it as being a load of rubbish that plays up to every kamikaze myth in the book, the PM watched it and cried that he wished Japanese young men were still like that, and the author of the screenplay went on the campaign trail for the former commander of the Japanese airfoce (who was fired for writing an essay in which he denied war crimes, and I'd on record as saying he wants to nuke America), where he decried virtually everyone as 'anti-Japanese communist scum'.

You'll love it, I'm sure.

I'd also reccomend The Men of the Yamato, and I Go to Die for You, both financed by former novelist and four times Mayor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara. Ever since an occupation GI licked his ice-cream, he's had a mental illness about hating America. When he retired this year, he told reporters his greatest unfulfilled wish was to start a war with China that the US would win for Japan (and he tried- his attempted purchase of the Senkaku Islands in 2011 prompted the government to step in and precipitated the current dispute with China).

Japan is adept at hiding its nationalism through language barriers and cultural differences.

You have to remember with all these Japanese films is that until 1868 'Japan' didn't exist. It was a collection of feudal kingdoms, each ruled by it's own 'king' who made all the rules and collected taxes. The ordinary person had no concept of the Shogun in Tokyo cajoling these local kings into a very loose alliance. Suddenly, Japan is invented as a country. There is a national government using steam trains and telegraph (almost overnight) to tell people in sleepy rural backwaters that they are now one nation and one people, with one government. This is a brand new concept for them. To make sure that these people spoke the new national language, paid taxes, and didn't ignore the draft, the function of Japanese propaganda wasn't to denigrate the enemy, but to reinforce this new Japanese identity. Even at the time of the Second World War, it was still within Japanese living memory that this 'Japan' was a new fangled thing that destroyed their local institutions, language, and lords, economy, and cultures, and replaced them with made up concepts of Emperor loyalty and fake tradition (read Hobspawm & Ranger; Inventing Tradition, and Vlastos; The Mirror of Modernity to see how traditions are invented here).

The hangover from this massive 'Japan' propaganda effort resonates through the culture to this day, with the strongest criticism thrown at criticism of the state in any way is that 'you're not real Japanese'.

If I was to criticize Nazi propaganda (and unlike Japan, it would be illegal to make it in this day and age in Germany), I wouldn't get labelled 'anti-German'. But here I have to use an alias because criticism of any part of Japan is seen as criticism of Japan in it's totality, and I don't want some nutcase to stab my kids or burn down my house.

That's the power of 'tradition' and 'honor'.

 

[Stearmen]

Y
It overlooks the fact that the film follows one family's three generations of fighting for the junta, and aforementioned mother worrying that her son won't be healthy enough to join up. The alleged meaning of the end denies the meaning of the rest of the film- and therefore isn't credible IMHO.

It must be propaganda if they are saying, three generations of soldiers were fighting under the same fanatical code as the WWII army! The Japanese Army of WWI was far less fanatical, the way they treated their German prisoners had no comparison to how they treated the WWII prisoners. In fact, they treated the German prisoners so well, many stayed after the war and opened bear halls, many are still operating today! Of course, this may have contributed to the later ill fated alliance with Hitler.

 

[Big J]

It must be propaganda if they are saying, three generations of soldiers were fighting under the same fanatical code as the WWII army! The Japanese Army of WWI was far less fanatical, the way they treated their German prisoners had no comparison to how they treated the WWII prisoners. In fact, they treated the German prisoners so well, many stayed after the war and opened bear halls, many are still operating today! Of course, this may have contributed to the later ill fated alliance with Hitler.

Ha ha! Very possibly! A very large number stayed, and there are many German style beer halls in Japan. And German style sausage shops. Oh, and the cake scene here is totally German. Baumkuchen, anyone?

Something changed between the wars. The Japanese did treat prisoners well in WW1, yet in the Russo-Japanese war, at Port Moresby in 1905, the fighting was brutal, and the Japanese generals threw lives away like toilet paper. I don't know, but I think the effect of WW1 poetry in the English language (for example) had an effect on the culture that made that sort of heartless sacrifice impossible for the Allies in WW2. Hell, even the Germans have All Quiet on the Western Front. But there's nothing comparable to that in Japanese literature. I guess there was a culture of soldiers being brutalized by their commanders, and never finding an literary outlet that disgusted popular opinion to the point where it affected military planning, brutalization of Japanese troops continued. So I guess that it's no wonder that they eventually learned to take it out on those they saw as 'beneath them'[huh]

 

[AdeeC]

You have to remember with all these Japanese films is that until 1868 'Japan' didn't exist. It was a collection of feudal kingdoms, each ruled by it's own 'king' who made all the rules and collected taxes. The ordinary person had no concept of the Shogun in Tokyo cajoling these local kings into a very loose alliance. Suddenly, Japan is invented as a country. There is a national government using steam trains and telegraph (almost overnight) to tell people in sleepy rural backwaters that they are now one nation and one people, with one government. This is a brand new concept for them. To make sure that these people spoke the new national language, paid taxes, and didn't ignore the draft, the function of Japanese propaganda wasn't to denigrate the enemy, but to reinforce this new Japanese identity. Even at the time of the Second World War, it was still within Japanese living memory that this 'Japan' was a new fangled thing that destroyed their local institutions, language, and lords, economy, and cultures, and replaced them with made up concepts of Emperor loyalty and fake tradition (read Hobspawm & Ranger; Inventing Tradition, and Vlastos; The Mirror of Modernity to see how traditions are invented here).


That's the power of 'tradition' and 'honor'.

One of the other films in this set THE LIVING MAGOROKU from 1943 deals with a similar theme to what you say here. It's about a wealthy land owning family who happen to own a large parcel of valuable agricultural land that was once an ancient battle field where Tokugawa Ieyasu achieved a great victory. The family refused to cultivate the land for over 400 years in fear of desecrating the battlefield and also the fear of an ancient curse that will strike down male heirs if the land was cultivated. It was even an affront to walk on it. The battle itself is very well recreated for this film. The family is under pressure from the local community and authorities to give up their old ways for the war effort and release the land for cultivation as well as handing over a famous Magoroku sword to an officer who wants to use it in battle against the Americans. The film centres around how this family was persuaded to change their ways of old thinking that was holding the country back in times of crisis.

 

[AdeeC]

It must be propaganda if they are saying, three generations of soldiers were fighting under the same fanatical code as the WWII army! The Japanese Army of WWI was far less fanatical, the way they treated their German prisoners had no comparison to how they treated the WWII prisoners. In fact, they treated the German prisoners so well, many stayed after the war and opened bear halls, many are still operating today! Of course, this may have contributed to the later ill fated alliance with Hitler.

The theme was more about the great honour of dying for the Emperor. Not so much about fanatical fighting codes and no demonstrated hatred of the enemy. In fact the harshest words were reserved for the rival clans being fought during the period of the Meiji Restoration where this films first generation of soldiers fights. The main character in this film was the frustrated 2nd generation soldier who because of illness never managed to get into battle in the wars he fought and never had the chance to die honourably. So he instills this belief relentlessly into his son. It was the greatest honour and highest duty to return ones spirit to the Emperor in battle but it was not necessary to be hero. It was considered presumptuous and selfish to wish to die a hero's death before the event. Just to die in battle was enough.

 

[Big J]

One of the other films in this set THE LIVING MAGOROKU from 1943 deals with a similar theme to what you say here. It's about a wealthy land owning family who happen to own a large parcel of valuable agricultural land that was once an ancient battle field where Tokugawa Ieyasu achieved a great victory. The family refused to cultivate the land for over 400 years in fear of desecrating the battlefield and also the fear of an ancient curse that will strike down male heirs if the land was cultivated. It was even an affront to walk on it. The battle itself is very well recreated for this film. The family is under pressure from the local community and authorities to give up their old ways for the war effort and release the land for cultivation as well as handing over a famous Magoroku sword to an officer who wants to use it in battle against the Americans. The film centres around how this family was persuaded to change their ways of old thinking that was holding the country back in times of crisis.

Well, there you go, you know all this stuff already, which I why I can't really understand why you keep saying these propaganda films don't have a lot of propaganda.

 

[Big J]

The theme was more about the great honour of dying for the Emperor. Not so much about fanatical fighting codes and no demonstrated hatred of the enemy. In fact the harshest words were reserved for the rival clans being fought during the period of the Meiji Restoration where this films first generation of soldiers fights. The main character in this film was the frustrated 2nd generation soldier who because of illness never managed to get into battle in the wars he fought and never had the chance to die honourably. So he instills this belief relentlessly into his son. It was the greatest honour and highest duty to return ones spirit to the Emperor in battle but it was not necessary to be hero. It was considered presumptuous and selfish to wish to die a hero's death before the event. Just to die in battle was enough.

You see, you've just done it again right here.
Everything you describe is brainwashing Japanese Imperialist propaganda. Like I said before; anglophone propaganda focuses on how evil the enemy is, but Japanese propaganda focuses on being Japanese.

 

[AdeeC]

Have you watched any of these films? I don't believe you have. Certainly there is a propaganda element. Subtle compared to blunt and cleverly done. No demented banzai charges here. No different to watching TITANIC with its cultural values and I don't mean the Nazi version.

 

[Big J]

Have you watched these films? Certainly there is a propaganda element. Subtle compared to blunt and cleverly done. No demented banzai charges here. No different to watching TITANIC and I don't mean the Nazi version.

I think you're missing the point or misunderstanding what propaganda is. You should read Dower; War Without Mercy.

You don't have to take my word for anything, but this is kind of what I do for a living, for the last 15 years, with sources in Japanese (no subtitles).

 

[AmateisGal]

"Back to the Future 3." Great Scott!