Movies We Like: ‘Godzilla, King of the Monsters’ (1956)

So, when it came time for our little girl to watch her first grown-up movie, I was torn between Saving Private Ryan and a film I have loved since I was a kid, Godzilla, King of the Monsters.  Now, Private Ryan teaches important, practical lessons that every American should learn, like how to maneuver your infantry company across a beachhead under fire to wipe out a Nazi crew-served weapons bunker. On the other hand, Godzilla has a hideous dragon with radioactive breath.  Tough call, but we decided to save Private Ryan for when she’s six – better late than never.

–

What is the enduring fascination with a 55-year old flick that stars a fake Japanese reptile stomping Toyko into matchsticks?  The first thing is that Godzilla is a truly entertaining movie.  Actually, it’s two movies.  The version most Americans have seen on TV is the 1956 re-cut version of the 98-minute original Japanese movie, Gojira.  Some American producers decided it could make them a bundle, but it needed a bit of familiarization before the American audience would accept it.  They hired a pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr to film some awkward footage as American reporter “Steve Martin,” cut out a lot of draggy filler, and shipped the slimmed down 80-minute final product to drive-ins all over the fruited plain. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: 40th Infantry Division, A Nightmare on Elm Street, A-Bomb, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, Asahi
Posted Nov 8th 2009 at 6:24 am in Classic Hollywood, Featured Story, Film, Reviews | 25620250 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/11/08/movies-we-like-godzilla-king-of-the-monsters-1956/Movies+We+Like%3A++%27Godzilla%2C+King+of+the+Monsters%27+%281956%292009-11-08+14%3A24%3A12Kurt+Schlichter

Heroic Hollywood: The Moral of the Story

Jurassic Park – a family-friendly nature preserve featuring 7-ton prehistoric carnivores.
What could possibly go wrong?

If you’re a writer struggling to put together a screenplay, but it’s a big mess and you don’t know where to begin, this is the post for you. I’m going to explain the easiest way I know how to bring structure to your screenplay and solve the problems you’re having.

In my last post, I suggested that “doing the right thing is worth the struggle” is a common inspirational message found in many of the most stirring Hollywood movies. However, each individual film has it’s own particular moral theme that it wants to get across to the audience. And it’s this moral theme that will be your guide to figuring out how to solve the problems in your screenplay. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Heroic Hollywood, jurassic park, Michael Crichton, screenwriting
Posted Apr 7th 2009 at 4:24 pm in Entertainment, Politics | 9797036 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/rdvonch/2009/04/07/heroic-hollywood-the-moral-of-the-story/Heroic+Hollywood%3A+The+Moral+of+the+Story2009-04-07+23%3A24%3A56Russ+Dvonch

‘Two Lovers’: One of the Best of 2009

Lots of filmmakers set out to make an evocative picture without concern for making an engaging one. Their motivation, I believe, is to do something out of the ordinary that will set them apart as artists. They see storytelling as a conventional skill, subject to, well, convention: Why bother with tension and release and plot? Anybody can do that. I, the artist, will evoke a mood. And that certainly can turn out okay, but most of the time it does not. Most of the time, it results in another volume for the ongoing arthouse library of self-indulgent twaddle.

Two Lovers is a splendid exception, both evoking a mood and telling a story. Not a complicated story, not a Jurassic Park story, and not even a Moody Family Drama story, but a story of familiar feelings in what for most us will be an unfamiliar setting populated by unfamiliar people. Two Lovers is mood-heavy account of a young man’s simultaneous romances with two women. Instead of ending up in bathos–the usual destination–the filmmakers show this young man carrying around his past while he tries to find a happy future. This conflict directs the nature and depth of the romances. In the end we see how happy endings are sometimes the saddest of all. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: best picture 2009, Gwyneth Paltrow, james gray, Joaquin Phoenix, jurassic park
Posted Mar 16th 2009 at 3:55 pm in Reviews | 8054623 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mlong/2009/03/16/review-two-lovers-is-one-of-the-best-pictures-so-far-of-2009/%27Two+Lovers%27%3A+One+of+the+Best+of+20092009-03-16+22%3A55%3A22Mike+Long