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Author Topic: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions  (Read 163540 times)

colonel_mexico

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions
« Reply #750 on: October 28, 2018, 09:13:11 PM »
FRAILTY is great and while I am not sure that film alone would make Paxton great director, he was certainly good and definitely iconic on a lower actor level. Lots of Texas boys in FRAILTY, Powers Boothe RIP and McConaughey in one his better roles. Those jump cuts/flashes of knowing the evil doers makes me wonder was Paxton's character the father or grandfather of David Dunn (UNBREAKABLE)?
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The Deer Hunter

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions
« Reply #751 on: October 29, 2018, 02:32:23 AM »
Does anyone know of a site that tells you if a movie has subtitles or not? I’m watching Solo and I’m wondering if I’m going to miss out on some dialogue.

Junior

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions
« Reply #752 on: October 30, 2018, 02:50:08 PM »
Was reading Ben Urwand's book The Collaboration which is about the relationship between the Hollywood studios and Nazi Germany in the pre-war years. It is completely fascinating. Basically, in order to retain access to the German market (which was big enough to care about), studios were mandated to not criticize Nazis/m or to depict Jews at all. Even when the first rule fell to the wayside as Germany's imperial desires also ruined the European market for films, the years and years of following these rules were hard to break. In The Mortal Storm, for example, a whole scene about Jewish pride was taken out of the film and any mentions of the word "Jew" was changed to "Non-Aryan."

In explaining why the first rule collapsed, William C. DeMille (Cecil's brother) said the following: "By killing the sale of American films in most of Europe, Mr. Hitler, aided by the leaders of various other totalitarian states, has finally removed that chance of commercial gain which lies so close to the heart of international politeness. With all hope of profit gone, we can, at last, becomes properly indignant and raise our voices in shocked protest without any pecuniary regrets."

Kind of sickening, but it also makes me wonder what similar things are happening currently (perhaps with the Chinese market?).
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions
« Reply #753 on: October 30, 2018, 03:21:35 PM »
Yea, the Chinese market is a growing concern as Hollywood continues to try to make its films globally inoffensive and "apolitical" in the global context so as not to offend the growing Chinese market. I'm fairly certain the erasure of Taiwanese people as characters in Hollywood films is a thing that has happened (see the Doctor Strange controversy). Also condemning or vilifying the country in general is something films seem to have avoided doing in recent years (see Red Dawn remake). 

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions
« Reply #754 on: October 30, 2018, 03:43:38 PM »
I was thinking if the Red Dawn remake but had forgotten about Doctor Strange. I'm not smart enough about China to know how bad they are relative to Nazis. I will be following more closely, though.
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jdc

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions
« Reply #755 on: October 30, 2018, 05:36:13 PM »
I was thinking if the Red Dawn remake but had forgotten about Doctor Strange. I'm not smart enough about China to know how bad they are relative to Nazis. I will be following more closely, though.

In China's case, I think it is less about losing the potential market for the films as they don't allow too many to play domestically, just 34 per year. But they do help fund a lot of the films which has a similar effect, you can't bite the hand the feeds you.

They apply this pressure in other industries as well. A few major corporations like hotels and airlines have had to redesign their website or face penalties or possible loss of access to the China market. If you have a site that has a drop-down menu where you can change your location, HK, Macau, or Taiwan have to be embedded as territories of China and can not be called out as individual countries.

I have friends that originally come from China the way of Taiwan as well as a wife born in China, always a good dinner conversation to be had.



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Dave the Necrobumper

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions
« Reply #756 on: October 31, 2018, 05:07:15 AM »
China flexed its muscles with studios years ago, back in 1997 it punished the studios and some cast members (the director, Brad Pitt and David Thewlis were all banned for life from entering China, although 2 of them have since been allowed in) involved in 7 Years in Tibet. Disney released Mulan in 1998 which was seen at the time to used to try and smooth relations with China over Kundun the year before. While Mulan would have been in production before Kundun was released, it is likely they were already thinking about the possibility.

Still I wonder what the Chinese version of Kong: Skull Island was like, the version I watched had a Chinese woman in the cast who did very very little, I wonder if the studio changed that for the Chinese market. A little of Wiki reading and the only mention is that her role in the film was reduced.

Still it reminds me that it was not that long ago that Mad Max was dubbed for the US market, because of concerns it would not do well with Australian accents. The things companies will do to soothe the waters in different markets.

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions
« Reply #757 on: November 01, 2018, 09:44:35 PM »
Bought a ticket to the Director's Cut of The House That Jack Built and have Mirai the night after. Going to be a fun time.

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions
« Reply #758 on: November 02, 2018, 11:58:07 PM »
Got back from Mid90s, which I really liked, and A24 is just great for getting interesting things out there. But boy oh boy are they CINECAST!ing Under The Silver Lake hard. I get it's, from what I heard, at best, divisive, just bummed that this thing's getting the How To Talk To Girls At Parties treatment. Like that one, I assume, it's harder to sell, but they're getting these things to show at Cannes, slating releases, pushing them back, and eventually just dumping them out. Thought this thing was hitting in December, but now apparently it's up for April. It has been screened, just not locally, so I'm extra bummed. Same thing happened with The Lobster, though that ended up working out for them. I don't know. I just want to watch this thing. Gives me more time to catch up on American Sleepover, I guess.

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Re: Random Movie Thoughts and Questions
« Reply #759 on: November 05, 2018, 09:33:11 PM »
So you think that Michael Cera just was helping out on the set one day and someone thought he was an actor and he was too shy to tell them that he wasn't so he just kept acting until it was too late to back out?
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