American Cinema

The Golden Globes and Pre-Code alternatives for the cheap and broke

The First Golden Globes Ceremony was not until 1944 so I’m not going to try and do a retro comparison to the current and past nominees.

Here are the nominees for 2010 all of which I cannot afford to see in the movie theatre.

The Hurt Locker-about the military bomb squad disarming roadside bombs.

Avatar-which looks incredible, but is obviously a message film about the Iraq War and Capitalism devouring the world. I could be wrong, all I saw was the trailer.

Inglourious Basterds is about Killing Nazis, great movie and Christoph Waltz is jaw dropping. They need to create a new category for this guy. Best performance in a movie EVER! He is unbelievable.

Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire about incest and abuse. I did not see this movie, but I will.

Up in the Air-about a guy who fires people and has a hard time committing. I can’t imagine people don’t relate to this. Didn’t see it yet, but I adored Thank You for Smoking and Juno.

So if you got fired from your job, are stuck on the couch because you are pregnant with your second child from your father, have PTSD from disarming roadside bombs in Iraq, are too busy to having a Nazi Revenge fantasy, or you are too broke to go pay the $15 to see Avatar at the Sony IMAX here are some Pre-Code options.

The Hurt Locker-Heros for Sale

Here’s a review from IMDB

“HEROES FOR SALE is terrific because it shows how an ordinary man can beaten by an ordinary life and still be great. As Barthelmess suffers the misfortunes of war and life he seems to grow as a spiritual person. The hypocrisy around him never seems to get to his heart. There’s a great scene where Barthelmess is sitting in the rain in a hobo camp when his eyes meet another man’s. It’s the banker’s son (Gordon Westcott) who took the war glory after he thought Barthelmess had been killed. The sanctimonious banker had fired Barthelmess for his morphine addiction, but finally gets caught for stealing from the bank’s depositors. The banker and son also did jail time (as Barthelmess did for leading a riot). The ironies of life become full blown there in the rain. A terrific scene.”

Avatar-King Kong because it was a huge break thru in special effects at the time. Peter Jackson is a big fan. If you haven’t seen it, you should.

Inglourious Basterds-pre-code brother would be Triumph of the Will primarily because if you haven’t seen it and you don’t get all the Leni Riefenstahl references you lose a lot of the flavor of the movie. Watch the famous Nazi propaganda film, get in the mood, then go see the Nazi Killing movie. You’ll enjoy it more, I promise.

Precious-Well, you get my favorite. Baby Face. About a girl who comes from a home where her father prostitutes her out and works her way up the corporate ladder with her natural talents. Ahem. I think Precious actually uses her brains.

Up in the Air-Madam Satan, this film is about a philandering husband and his wife who have a pointless life of leisure and get an invite to a costume ball on a zeppelin. I’m not kidding. Cecil B. Demille directed this movie. It exists.

With Friends Like These

I have alot of good friends. Supportive, lovely people. I am a very lucky person. My friends and family have been incredibly supportive throughout the dating, engagement and my recent wedding. I have been thinking alot as to how to thank them. Thank you notes seem just not enough. Gifts seem to express the wrong thing. How would I ever buy them something that is the equivalent of what I feel. (Well I’m sure if I had the ability to give out cars no one would be to offended) This is my attempt to thank them. I was thinking of what precode films my friends may enjoy. My dear friend who assisted me in my wardrobe choices I was thinking this little gem I recently found. The Search for Beauty (1934)


about debauched connoisseurs of young flesh. It just sounds like so much fun. Three on a Match is another one which I think is a good film. I love the idea that it is about girls talking about old times in a restaurant and light up a cigarette. (I don’t think that the superstition that the third member to use the match will become unlucky is what I’m trying to suggest) What I like about it, is that it follows the lives of friends who separate, live their lives and then reunite.

Movies to Celebrate with as GM goes Bankrupt

So I was reading the headline in the New York Times today about how GM is about to bite it. I am someone who grew up in a car manufacturing community. I saw them close their plant in the ’80s and honestly the place I grew up in is better off for it. Now I don’t think this is a universal scenario, but survival is possible.
Anyway, while you are crying on the couch from the loss of your job, pension, life, car, home…okay while you are watching a VCR in some homeless shelter with a bunch of people you don’t know, find some comfort in this classic Pre-Code film The Crowd.(directed by King Vidor and can I just say that King is a baby name that needs to make a comeback)

It is basically a great story of going to New York with hopes and dreams and…the concept that you could have a future. And way you become a drone and the machine destroys you. I haven’t seen it in a while but I think there is a great uprising and everyone is better off for having bucked the man in the end. Very profound lovely movie and I have read it is the first time a toilet has ever been filmed in American Cinema…so..you know keep your eyes peeled.

This is exciting stuff. I wonder when the first stainless steel appliances were first filmed in American cinema.

Another film I think is pretty obvious, but is appropriate for this moment is Metropolis (directed by Fritz Lang…Fritz not as fun a name as King), now for all you special effects buffs out there, I know this doesn’t look like much to you now, but I dare you to actually sit there and create all those models and drawings that they shot against now without Vectorworks. I think they were glass paintings…wait, I’ll check back later, glass painting came later. Someone let me know if I am wrong.
Anyway, Happy End of the American Dream and know that the world has turned after such tragedies and will continue to turn. You may just not get to spin around the planet with your HD Flatscreen TV.