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Hollywood Babylon
The New American ^ | March 21, 2005 | William F. Jasper

Posted on 03/11/2005 11:00:10 AM PST by w6ai5q37b

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To: technochick99

I think he was being sarcastic. It's a solid film.


41 posted on 03/11/2005 11:49:27 AM PST by Borges
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To: colorado tanker; Borges

Yes, Borges, I am very disappointed in the Cap Alert. They seem to think Hollywood should just make 50's Disney movies. Audiences have moved beyond the kind of cotton candy world they seem to want.

The Hayes Code was dead by 1965. Audiences were ready for heroes who shot first. Culturally, the audience fragmented as the country did between Right and Left.

In Hollywood studios, I suspect a major reason the Left won is that the Right tried in vain to recreate the success of "The Sound of Music" by blowing money on lame big budget family musicals while the Left made harder, edgier films with generous amounts of nudity. Nudity is the cheapest special effect and the most cost effective (they didn't have VCR's or cable soft porn then). The "family market" couldn't support money pits like "Hello, Dolly" or "Paint Your Wagon" and just about any woman taking off her top was more entertaining than "Song of Norway".


42 posted on 03/11/2005 11:49:51 AM PST by Sam the Sham
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To: Borges

Coppola, Scorsese, Depalma

3 leftwing Italian Americans who have only made movies about killing, cursing, and the disrespect of life.

Coppola is the worst - a friend of Fidel Castro. Coppola needs to shave, loose whgt, and take a bath!


43 posted on 03/11/2005 11:50:45 AM PST by mandingo republican (Libs are Baal & Moloch worshipers I tell ya! - FREE HK, CUBA & IRAN - www.geocities.com/nccwatch)
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To: Darkwolf377
What is your source to the movie audience increase since the 1980's? I'm not arguing your point, but wouldn't it make sense that because of DVD's and pay-per view theater attendance would drop? Produce a source because that's an interesting argument.
44 posted on 03/11/2005 11:51:03 AM PST by ComplexUnion182
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To: snarks_when_bored
>>I'm doing my part.<<

So am I snarks. I just don't go to see that tripe. But I differ with you. Hollywoody would just sell overseas. And maybe eventually move there. In my opinion, many of our leader across this land just suck. It's all about their pockets regardless if they are preachers, actors, politicians, school boards, local gov. etc. The list just go on. I have reined in many of my money leaks.

45 posted on 03/11/2005 11:51:45 AM PST by Pit1
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To: timtoews5292004

But isn't that very largely because of cable, VCR's and DVD's ? Hey, a lot of movies these days are never meant to be in movie theaters.



46 posted on 03/11/2005 11:53:18 AM PST by Sam the Sham
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To: colorado tanker
Box office goes up, but not attendance

Assuming that's true, it makes perfect sense given that most of us now have DVD or VHS players, pay-per-view, cable TV, cable TV movie channels & movies on network TV.

Would you expect otherwise?

I rarely go to see movies in the theater. But it has nothing to do with quality & everything to do with the fact that I know I'll soon see those movies on DVD or PPV in the convenience of my own home.

47 posted on 03/11/2005 11:53:29 AM PST by gdani
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To: Borges

Never said that the people couldn't decide for themselves. Never said that you were a kid, but good argument. Government has everything to do with it. It was also an analogy.


48 posted on 03/11/2005 11:53:45 AM PST by ComplexUnion182
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To: snarks_when_bored
The schism occurred as the old directors and stars of the thirties and forties died out. They were replaced by a very nihilistic breed. Frank Capra was forced out of Hollywood, for example. I think 1969 was the break over year. Midnight Cowboy won the best picture Oscar that year.
49 posted on 03/11/2005 11:54:17 AM PST by Richard Kimball (It was a joke. You know, humor. Like the funny kind. Only different.)
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To: Sam the Sham

But 'Song of Norway' had Florence Henderson and Peer Gynt! 1965 was the watershed year of sorts. the Pawnbroker came out which was the first mainstream film to have nudity albeit in a very serious context (about Holocaust survivors). The Sound of Music and Doctor Zhivago were hugely popular and could not be duplicated. Even by their own directors (Robert Wise and Julie Andrews tried it again with Star!, David Lean with the disasterours 'Ryan's Daughter' the failure of which pushed Lean out of film making for over a decade.)


50 posted on 03/11/2005 11:54:27 AM PST by Borges
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To: Richard Kimball
They were replaced by a very nihilistic breed.

Who? the 70s produced The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Close Encounters. Capra had completely lost his touch by the end of his career.
51 posted on 03/11/2005 11:56:30 AM PST by Borges
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To: Borges

>>most of those Soviet favoring films were essentially war porpaganda that was sanctioned by the goverment.<<

Yup. Once Uncle Joe turned on the Nazis, the enemy of our enemy became our friend. And since the liberal elites in both Hollywood and the government had always been sympathetic to the Soviets anyway, they regared this as a natural evolution toward a better world.

Remember that during the Depression, many Americans came to believe the capitalist system had failed and that socialism/communism was the solution. After WWII, when the Soviets began to take over eastern Europe, and the truth about purges, mass starvation, etc., began to come out, most Americans turned away from the Soviets. Liberals, however, never did. They promote socialism to this day.


52 posted on 03/11/2005 11:56:46 AM PST by American Quilter
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To: Borges
" It was like watching a 2 hour march to the scaffold."

Yeah--that was the whole point.

As for it not saying anything new about the subject, I must have missed all those dozens of movies that depict drug addiction in aging women with no lives. I've never seen the horrors of addictions depicted so believably.

If you have a list of all these other movies about the same subject, I'm all eyes.

BTW, being faithful to the source material is a good thing. I prefered the movie's actual depiction of the situations to the book, which was even worse than Last Exit to Brooklyn.

53 posted on 03/11/2005 11:57:01 AM PST by Darkwolf377 (This space for rent)
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To: Borges

LOL. I thought maybe, but couldn't really tell!


54 posted on 03/11/2005 11:59:47 AM PST by technochick99 (Self defense is a basic human right ; Sig Sauer is my equalizer)
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To: American Quilter

They turned away from Stalin. Who modern communists claim perverted their movement. But in the 1930s communism in America was much more common and mainstream then it is today. It seems like every other American film of the 30s was based on class differences in some way.


55 posted on 03/11/2005 11:59:48 AM PST by Borges
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To: w6ai5q37b

And yet, are these not reflections of what is going on in our society?


56 posted on 03/11/2005 12:00:03 PM PST by UCANSEE2
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To: ComplexUnion182
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/

Ignore the actual income (which is huge but distracting) and look at the numbers for "change" and "tickets sold".

As you can see, the actual number of tickets sold has grown substantially since the first year tracked, 1980.

57 posted on 03/11/2005 12:02:34 PM PST by Darkwolf377 (This space for rent)
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To: Sam the Sham

not sure what you mean. Less people are going to movies, some for moral reasons, some because they know they can wait 4 months or less and catch it on pay-per-view in their own home.


58 posted on 03/11/2005 12:02:47 PM PST by timtoews5292004
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To: Darkwolf377
Early on in RFAD, Ellen Burstyn's character literally recites the themes of the film. It was extremely hamfisted. The movie was a pumped version of various early 70s drug films like 'The Panic in Needle Park' and the drug addict scenes in 'French Connection 2'. I didn't gain any insight from it other then that drugs are bad...which I already knew. The material was dated. IMHO
59 posted on 03/11/2005 12:03:57 PM PST by Borges
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To: Darkwolf377

the National Association of Theater Owners has similar information on their site as well.


60 posted on 03/11/2005 12:05:08 PM PST by timtoews5292004
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