Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 08/20/2026 1:53:38 PM PDT by Chickensoup
Looking for Film DvD Bluray recommendations. Life is hard right now and I am looking for immersive films and shows that aren't too treacle sweet but have a bit of depth. Not violent, complex is good. Nice is good.
My beloved Morse trilogy has worked, Gentlemen prefer Blonds, Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend, Harvey, the original All Creatures Great and Small, the Poiot series, Babbetes Feast, Primer, Signs, singing in the Rain, It happened one night,Mrs Miniver, Blast From the Pat, Galexy Quest, Christmas in Connecticut, An ebayer is trying to screw me over by having sent me the wrong region when i asked for Make Way for Tomorrow.
I guess I am looking for feel good black and whites and early color films. Some films that have left you smiling. Not haha comedy. Just nice. Like Singing in the Rain nice.
Ones without a message.... just watched the film Pleasantville and found it beyond stupid. Was it marketed to young teens?
Anyhow again I will compile and put together a lost and post it at the end of the thread for everyone to have to print off.
Thank you.
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
-PJ
It Happened in Brooklyn. Kathryn Grayson, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante
The Gumball Rally: "Franco is ready. The race-eh, can begin." (YT video)
The Gumball Rally: "River Race" (YT video)
Late to the party, but ....
Immersive? Ok, that can mean anything if you can identify with the characters and/or the themes. Not too treacly sweet; ok. A bit of depth, not violent, complex, nice is good. Ok again, but depth and complexity suggest that you don’t want pure escapism.
Your second ask points to older films and shows. That puzzles me. There have been so many good ones over the years, and many have already been suggested. The list is essentially limitless. Are you on a deliberate hunt for golden oldies, or are you prompted by a general distrust of what the film industry has been producing lately?
I’ll toss some relatively recent movies into the discussion. Good stuff is still being made, and some of it feels surprisingly old-fashioned. Classic drama has never gone away; the big studios may have terminal tentpole disease, but small movies are still produced, even if they’re not heavily promoted. Finding them is the trick.
If you have high speed internet, you can stream just about anything. If you really need physical media, that’s a different ask, but I’m not going to cross check for that.
The element in your ask that gives me pause is, “life is hard right now.” You also ask for “movies without a message” ... but do you mean “The Message” (i.e. the modern Hollywood woke stuff)? Most movies with complexity and depth have a message, and I have a soft spot for movies that depict good people behaving well in the face of adversity. If facing death, loss, hope, redemption, grace, finding a friend, finding the courage to start over are too serious ... well, watch the trailer and you decide.
Since most freepers drift towards golden oldies, I’ll toss in some recency bias.
Nouvelle Vague (2025): the most delightfully old-fashioned film I’ve seen in a long time, and funny in a very dry and sophisticated kind of way.
Song Sung Blue (2025): starting over, accepting a second chance with the intent of going things right for once, ending in tragedy met with grace and serenity.
The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025) and The Friend (2024): gentle humor, finding a companion to cope with loss and move ahead.
Love at First Sight (2023) and American Fiction (2023): a completely wholesome throwback romantic dramedy that is ultimately about forgiveness, making good choices and keeping promises, and a complete subversion of the woke racial idiocy wrapped in a story about self-acceptance.
See How They Run (2022): a completely delightful Agatha Christie style film with a completely perfect comedic tapdance between Constable Stalker (Saiorse Ronan) and Insector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell); the verbal tapdance is hilarious in a dry British sort of way. Yes, there’s a bit of Agatha Christie level violence, because you can’t have an Agatha Christie murder mystery without someone getting killed.
Coda (2021): a throwback comedy that caught the perfect actress at the perfect age with the perfect script that IMHO marks the point at which Hollywood passed Peak Woke, as it beat out the gay cowboy movie for Best Picture in a rather unexpected upset; the sane people in the industry finally revolted against The Message and voted for a movie that audiences actually liked.
The Dig (2021): Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes have an excellent backyard excavation.
Little Women (2019): another remake of a classic story; good people stumble their way to happy endings.
Tolkien (2019): how Beren met Luthien in real life.
Arrival (2016): high concept sci fi with two lonely people accidentally finding each other in the process of saving the world.
That goes back ten years. It’s almost time for freepers to start discovering them as golden oldies.
I’ll stop with the thumbnails there, but there are quite a few very good recent small movies that I’ll characterize broadly as serenity prayer/coming to terms with the past/moving on movies. You DID list Primer and Signs as favorites. Anyhow:
Hamnet (2025); Sentimental Value (2025); The Outrun (2024); The Promised Land (2023); The Holdovers (2023); Past Lives (2023); Living (2022); Drive My Car (2021); After Yang (2021); I’m Your Man (2021); Another Round (2020); The Professor and the Madman (2019); Leave No Trace (2018); Columbus (2017); Paterson (2026).
The last group may be darker than what you are looking for, but by “darker” I don’t mean any kind of toxic or selfish behavior. These are stoic characters with deep hurts who behave decently as they find a way to move ahead.
You know: the kind of thing that Shakespeare and all them dead Greeks wrote about, although Shakespeare and all them dead Greeks piled a lot more bodies on stage.
None of these movies are violent because these aren’t violent people. Many of them have a solid undercurrent of humor because the filmmakers obviously like the characters, as will you. You may not be smiling at the end, but you will be rooting for them as they break free. They fit your ask for immersive films (if you can identify with the characters), not treacly sweet, some depth, not violent, and complex. Watch a few trailers and you decide.
Not everyone in the industry is high on coke and swinging from chandeliers. Or woke. And even woke people sometimes make surprisingly conservative films.
Father Goose is delightfully Cary Grant at his best.
One of our tech gurus will probably be along to give you a better answer, but video quality has steadily improved in the production of movies and tv, as well as in the capabilities of your computer monitor and/or tv.
When we upgraded to a 4k OLED tv a few years ago, the guys at Best Buy were quick and emphatic in raising the yin yangs that can catch you unaware.
A lot of older movies have not been remastered to bring them up to par with modern streaming and display options. If the source material is low quality, there's nothing you can do about it except maybe invest in a new smart tv that offers native upscaling (which can improve the visuals to some degree, but does not work miracles).
You may need to check with your ISP and see if you are buying enough capacity in your cable or wireless connection to handle high resolution content. We still have cable, and we upgraded our subscription to get 4k.
And of course, your tv has to have the capacity also, so all three have to be in sync: the source material, the ISP, and your tv. Many of the streamers offer different capacity levels, with 4k coming at a premium. If you rent or buy something via PVOD, check to see if you are buying SD, HD, or 4k; you often have the option.
Really old content will probably be inherently poor quality by modern standards unless it has been remastered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agbfCd_T-Gs
“I can't swim.”
👍🏻
is the Jeremy Brett Sherlock that old? I will try scaling down my TV.
The visual quality is important to me.
Love Babbetts Feast. Just bought it
“Galaxy Quest” made fun of Star Trek”
Great movie and I have never seen one Star Trek episode. Though I have seen clips and so many of the cultural references to it. That one cannot avoid seeing/reading.
By the way, this is one of the best movie threads in a long time on FR. It is free of the usual ranting about the sins of Hollywood, which is just venting. There are many excellent movies and shows out there, and we should spend more time applauding the good stuff.
My ongoing addition to the discussion is a reminder not to overlook recent movies. The big studios and the streamers may have gone off the rails, but there are still people trying to do good work.
We should be their natural audience. But they are swimming against the current, and they need viewers now, not just people who don’t find their films until they’re certified golden oldies on Tubi. They’re always pitching their next project and shaking the money tree to get low and mid budget movies made.
Bringing up Baby.
The Music Man.
The Quiet Man.
Pride and Prejudice miniseries (the David Rintoul or the Colin Firth versions)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (with James Cagney)
Sherlock Holmes (the Jeremy Brett and/or Basil Rathbone versions)
Galaxy Quest is an homage to both Star Trek and its fandom.
That’s why the movie is so loved. :-)
I will be making a list for everyone. I have made several here on fr.
It is not so much about recent films as it is that there are lovely films from the 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s that I don’t know and that some are now with the smile factor I am looking for.
The King’s Speech is very good!
Legend of 1900
Jazz musical prodigy, fiction where baby born on a ship is abandoned by his mother and adopted by a coal worker on the ship. He has no nationality, grows up and lives on ship
entertaining guest with his musical gifts.
Found it at the local library (since discarded) also
Knute Rockne, All American
Thomas Edison
Young Thomas Edison
LOL, that gave me a laugh this morning! I love that scene!
“Ah No More Jokes!”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.