Your favorite "outpost" movie? [Vanity - light relief]

11/7/09 | Paine in the Neck

[Paine in the Neck]

I don't know about you but I need to come up for air from calling Congressmen. Here's a bit of light diversion.

I was watching the movie Zulu on TCM a few of weeks ago and it got me to musing about the "edge of civilization" genre. I thought it would be good weekend fun to make a list. Here's a few more to get things started and to focus on what I mean by the type.

Gunga Din - Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sam Jaffe

Fort Apache - John Wayne, Henry Fonda

Guns at Batasi - Richard Attenborough, Jack Hawkins

Dark of the Sun - Rod Taylor

The Sand Pebbles - Steve McQueen

The Real Glory - Gary Cooper

Last of the Mohicans - Daniel Day Lewis

Northwest Passage - Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan

Your favorites?

[1rudeboy]

Ice Station Zebra.

Thread over.

[DemforBush]

The Sand Pebbles is an outstanding film.

This might not quite qualify as edge of civilization, but Jeremiah Johnson is an all-time favorite of mine. Easily Redford’s best role (IMHO).

[mware]

55 Days of Peking

[wally_bert]

Mine too.

[uncitizen]

Wouldn’t Gone with the Wind count as an “edge of civilization” film? If i’m understanding what that means.

[Northern Yankee]

One of my all time favorites is Unconqured with Gary Cooper.

The defense of Fort Pitt is a great scene; including the arrival of those dead Soldiers from the Scottish Black Watch.

[sueuprising]

“Wouldn’t Gone with the Wind count as an “edge of civilization” film? If i’m understanding what that means.”

I guess, if you consider anything North of Atlanta, uncivilized!

[Bad Jack Bauer]

The Wild Geese. British Mercenaries blowing up half of Africa as they fight their way to safety. Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Roger Moore, Hardy Kruger. How can you go wrong with a cast like that.

[JoeProBono]

[uncitizen]

HAHAHAHA I’ll have to think that one over.

Maybe i was thinking more along the lines of END of a civilization, rather than EDGE.

[LS]

Oh come on! “Siege of Firebase Gloria” and “Zulu” are head and shoulders above anything else.

[Global2010]

Lady of Fatima (the old black and white version)
Is that on track to subject at hand or am I just totally stuck on my own home Catechism of this subject? : )

[Clemenza]

"Straw Dogs" can be considered an outpost movie. Really cool to see Dustin Hoffmann butch up:

[csvset]

Breaker Morant

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The Africa Queen

[raybbr]

Outland with Sean Connery. Mostly because Connery is so good in this movie.

I liked "Beau Geste" with Doug McClure.

[Ammo Republic 15]

The Alamo - John Wayne

Unconquered - Gary Cooper

The Bridge On The River Kwai - William Holden

The Longest Day - John Wayne

[Tax-chick]

I love “Zulu.”

Another excellent example is “Beau Geste,” and don’t forget “The Alamo.”

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The movie Zulu could not be made today.

[raybbr]

Didn't realize there was a "Beau Geste" with Gary Cooper in it. It's got an 8 star rating. I hope to see that one one day. I really like Cooper. Saw "High Noon" the other day again. That one probably qualifies too.

[Tax-chick]

“Khartoum,” with Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier (snicker), and a gazillion shrieking Sudanese with spears.

[chargers fan]

The Siege of Firebase Gloria. It won’t win any Academy Awards but it’s a fun 80s movie about a firebase in Vietnam under siege to watch on a Saturday afternoon (especially if you love movie cliches of the tough sarge, the cocky chopper pilots, every base on Vietnam under rocket attack 24/7)

[sueuprising]

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness with Ingrid Bergman as the missionary, Gladys Aylward. Aylward was missionary to China and famously led a group of 100 orphans over the mountains into safety. The movie places the action during the Second World War, but in actuality the occurrence was in 1937 during one of the many fights the Chinese were having with the Japanese. It is a very moving story, and worth watching for the inspiration alone.

[DuncanWaring]

+1 vote for The Alamo.

Honorable mention to Zulu.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Let's not forget about the Sci-Fi genre.

I rather like "Outland" with Sean Connery.

[wally_bert]

I had forgotten about that one, thanks for bringing it up.

[PeteB570]

It is interesting to watch Zulu and then Zulu Dawn.

Even though for the time line Zulu Dawn should be watched first.

Big difference in the early 60s movie vs the 70s movie.

I like them both but for different Reasons.

And nobody has picked Sahara with HB as the hard nosed Sergeant?

For shame - for shame. :-)

[chargers fan]

Go Tell the Spartans: A group of advisors and Vietnamese are under siege in 1962 Vietnam. Depressing ending.

Saraha: A WWII film that has Bogart and essentially a cross section of every Allied nation defending a "oasis" against the Germans in 1942 North Africa. It's a good movie and one of the few that was actually made about the North African front. You see an early Lloyd Bridges as well.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Laurence Olivier (snicker)

Wonder what the shoe polish budget for that movie was?

[chargers fan]

LOL everyone keeps posting the movies I was thinking about right before I post them.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Road Warrior

Flight of the Phoenix (original OF COURSE)

[PeteB570]

And nobody has mentioned “The Desert Rats” with Richard Burton and Long John Silver in support :-) never did figure out where he hide the pirate ship out there in the desert.

Arrrrr, matey, dem’s that die be the lucky ones!

[Paine in the Neck]

I’ve been thinking about “Straw Dogs” a lot lateley and not from the Hoffmann character’s viewpoint. De-liberalizing the countryside so to speak.

[mel]

Zulu my choice also. Absolutely unforgettable movie

[Condor51]

'Edge of Civilization' Movies. Cool.

1. King Solomon's Mines. , 1950
   Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr and Richard Carlson
   (one of my Fave actors of the time. Highly underrated IMO.

2. Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954
   Richard Carlson, Julie Adams and Richard Denning
   also with 'Whit Bissell', whatta name :-)

3. It Came from Outer Space, 1953
   Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush and Charles Drake

4. The Thing (from Another World), 1951
   Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite and Douglas Spencer as 'Scotty'

5. 'Them', 1954
   James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon

6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956
   Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter (she was hot!) and 'King Donovan' (another funny name)

I've got more but that's enough.

[Paine in the Neck]

I was trying to avid the Sci-Fi stuff but will make a decided exception for the anti-Commie warning flick “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.

[BibChr]

Forbidden Planet.

[Condor51]

Well the Sc-Fi movies I listed like Creature from the Black lagoon, that was on the Edge of Civilization in the Amazon, 'Them' was in the desert of New Mexico, The Thing was in the Arctic.

Maybe you should have clarified, otherwise King Kong would be excluded :-)

[MadJack]

King of the Khyber Rifles - Tyrone Power
Sorcerer - Roy Schreider
The Black Rose - another Tyrone Power flick w/Orson Wells
The Mission - Robert Deniro
KIng Arthur - the latest remake with that guy from Sin City

[par4]

Another missing genre - comedy:

Father Goose w/ Cary Grant and Leslie Caron

[Ax]

“She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” with John Wayne and Victor McLaglen.

[joelt]

I love TheSand Pebbles. I picked it up on Blu-ray disk. It is a much better movie when seen uncut..

[Tallguy]

Outland - Sean Connery

[Errant]

I second "The Thing" and would like to add:

The Thing (1982)
War of the worlds (1953 & 2005)
Blood Alley (1955)
Mission to Mars (2000)
Aliens (1986)
Omega Man (1971)
One Million Years B.C. (1966)
Red Dawn (1984)

[Chode]

the man who would be king...

[VU4G10]

Ravenous (1999)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129332/

[Tallguy]

2 More:

The Man Who Would be King - Sean Connery & Michael Caine

Fairwell to the King - Nick Nolte (Gag, but he was really good in it)

[Tallguy]

Did they eliminate the “Intermission” segment on the Blu-Ray disc? I watched “Sand Pebbles” recently on AMC and they had the full showing that included the antiquated intermission. It was a long movies, so it really needed it.

[Tax-chick]

Well, the Sudanese extras were legitimately brown.

DP and I have been watching Michael Palin’s “Pole to Pole” series, which passes through Sudan. When his boat pulled up at Khartoum, it looked exactly like the scene of Charlton Heston’s arrival!