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Movies you've seen lately
40hz:
Twelve O'Clock High (1949) with Gregory Peck as Gen. Frank Savage.
In this story of the early days of daylight bombing raids over Nazi Germany, General Frank Savage must take command of a "hard luck" bomber group. Much of the story deals with his struggle to whip his group into a disciplined fighting unit in spite of heavy losses, and withering attacks by German fighters over their targets. Actual combat footage is used in this tense war drama.
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Classic WWII military "bomber buddies" coming of age tale that's unusual in that it raises the issue of the fundamental insanity of warfare without getting either rah-rah patriotic or surreal about it. (Like the brilliant Catch-22 did.) One of the few military movies from the period that openly recognized what war can do to an individual's mind after a while.
A "good old-fashioned" yet somehow very modern-feeling war movie, populated with all the usual characters. All presented in a short 132 minutes worth of glorious B&W! Who could ever ask for more?
Well worth a viewing. :Thmbsup:
mahesh2k:
Predestination.
Loved ethan hawke and sarah snook in it and the story, cool. :up:
Vurbal:
I'd never seen a "One Step Beyond" episode before this evening.
The first episode? Pretty darn cool.
-Renegade (February 11, 2015, 09:40 AM)
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I really liked OSB and sprung to get it on DVD along with a multi-disk Hitchcock TV collection.
The short story format was definitely experiencing a Golden Age between the late 40s and early 60s. Especially in the scifi, mystery, and horror genres. Some of the finest writing those genres ever produced got penned during that era. All the biggies (Asimov, Ray Bradbury (who was probably the best), Bob Heinlein, Harlan Ellison, Sam Delaney, "Doc" Smith, Ellory Queen, Rex Stout, et al were all busy cranking out these fantastic short stories. So it was only natural that TV shows like OSB, Thriller, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, (and the much later Night Gallery) would benefit from their existence. These were stories written by actual writers rather than just some backroom network hack screenwriter - with the utterly brilliant Rod Serling being the notable exception.
-40hz (February 11, 2015, 10:45 AM)
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I think that's why The Twilight Zone holds up better for me than any of the other anthology shows. He wasn't necessarily a great wordsmith, but he had the soul of a storyteller and knew great writing when he read it. If nothing else, he deserves credit for bringing Richard Matheson's work into the mainstream and helping launch Richard Donner's career.
I didn't even realize how much a fan I was of Matheson's work until about 15 years ago. Besides all the Twilight Zone episodes, like Terror at 20,000 Feet and Little Girl Lost, he wrote The Night Strangler (the second TV movie preceding Kolchak: The Night Stalker), Duel, the Star Trek episode The Enemy Within, where he invented the alternate universe goatee, and Trilogy of Terror. Second to my father, who introduced me to all that at a young age, Matheson deserves the most credit/blame for how I turned out. That's without even getting into all his movies, the ones based on his stories, or the numerous authors he inspired.
40hz:
^I'd add Thomas Ligotti and Poppy Z. Brite in with Matheson as well. Brilliant - utterly brilliant storytellers both. And, with Matheson, are some of the very few that can instil that same sense of 'absolute otherness' and cosmic dread that Lovecraft strove for.
Renegade:
^I'd add Thomas Ligotti and Poppy Z. Brite in with Matheson as well. Brilliant - utterly brilliant storytellers both. And, with Matheson, are some of the very few that can instil that same sense of 'absolute otherness' and cosmic dread that Lovecraft strove for.
-40hz (February 12, 2015, 02:57 PM)
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As a fellow Lovecraft fan, I'm curious now. I don't know the references to Ligotti or Brite or Matheson (or not by name anyways).
Where should I look?
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