Indy24LA

Watched Glengarry Glen Ross for the first time. There should be a drinking game assoicated with this movie, take a shot every time someone says "leads" and see who dies from alcohol poisoning first.

davidh777

Bravo on your excellent choice!

I've seen every Fred & Ginger film multiple times so I consider myself something of a minor authority on the subject. Swing Time is still my favorite, and it's the first one I saw. Way back when Fred Astaire died, one of the local channels paid tribute by airing Swing Time late that night, and I was transfixed. (Note: They cut the blackface scene so I didn't see it till home video many years later.)

It's totally true about the song. The studios hired top-drawer Tin Pan Alley talent, so a lot of Gershwin/Kern/Berlin standards came out of these and other films. Side note that two great standards--"One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" and "My Shining Hour"--came out of a relatively obscure Fred Astaire-post-Ginger movie called The Sky's the Limit, which has never been released on DVD. Warner Archive hinted that they were working on it, and they also released A Damsel in Distress last year--that's a Fred picture without Ginger (they did a few more together though) that introduced "A Foggy Day" and "Nice Work if You Can Get It." This is not just film history but pop-culture history.

Darkgod

I get your point but... even if someone hits 150 movies in the oscars... at 2 hours apiece thats 300 hours.... tops on the horror was 333, at 1 1/2 hours thats still 500+ hours.

Darkgod

No need.... the ruling shows you were doing it right, and I was wrong. I figured I was wrong.

Ash Ketchum

Astaire clearly made an effort to avoid the "minstrel show" aspect of doing blackface. His makeup is not dark-skinned and doesn't have thick white lips the way Al Jolson's and Eddie Cantor's blackface makeup did at the time. (Check them out for contrast.) Also, Astaire's number, "Bojangles of Harlem," was a tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, the greatest and most influential tap dancer of the era. Astaire would have been horrified if anyone thought there was any element of disrespect in his portrayal. I imagine Astaire must have been asked about this later in his career and I wonder what his response was.

lisadoris

Good info to know, thanks!

I could tell that the makeup was different but the blackface was still problematic for a couple reasons. First, that ghastly parade float mock-up of Robinson told the audience that the dance number was supposed to be a tribute - Astaire didn't need the makeup to get that point across. Second, Astaire kept the blackface make-up on throughout the entire next scene which had absolutely nothing to do with the preceding musical number or Bill Robinson.

Through no fault of my own I ended up watching three movies whose main characters were just horrid for one reason or another. I didn't care at all for There Will Be Blood and Daniel Day-Lewis certainly played an extremely convincing bastard. Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady wasn't nearly as horrid but good grief my modern-day sensibilities kept screaming for Audrey Hepburn to run far, far away from his character. And I have always pitied Adolph Caesar's character in A Soldier's Story. That film is one of the few instances where I'm happy they changed the ending from what is was in the original source material.

shadokitty

Just finished Bride of Frankenstein. As far as I know, I think it is the only Classic Universal Monster Movie to be nominated for an Oscar, though I may be wrong as I don't own them all. I only own the Frankenstein, Dracula, and Creature from the Black Lagoon Legacy Collections.

Mao

Tonight marks the halfway point of the challenge!

Hoping to inch past last year's total....I have to hunker down tomorrow!

Back to the flick!

Travis McClain

Just finished Training Day, another first time viewing. I don't think I've ever seen Denzel Washington appear to have as much fun as in the first ~20 minutes of this! I'm rather surprised at the nominations, though, for him (Best Actor) and Ethan Hawke (Best Supporting Actor) for a film that is largely a run-of-the-mill turn-of-the-century crooked cop story. They did a spectacular job creating environments, and had some great OMG moments but it was still fairly predictable overall and I found myself wondering about some plot holes along the way. Fun movie, though!

Training Day [2001 Awards]
(W) Actor in a Leading Role - Denzel Washington ("Alonzo")
(N) Actor in a Supporting Role - Ethan Hawke ("Jake")

HyperWeather

I also watched my first Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie (The Gay Divorcee) and fell in love, really looking forward to discovering more of them.

I've been sticking to my rule for this challenge so far of only watching new to me movies, or movies from my unwatched pile but I think I'm going to have to break my rule this weekend, the West Side Story episodes of Glee have been making me want to rewatch it.

BobO'Link

There was also:
The Invisible Man Returns: 1940 - Special Effects (Photographic Effects)
The Invisible Woman: 1941 - Special Effects (Photographic Effects)
Invisible Agent: 1942 - Special Effects (Photographic Effects)
Phantom of the Opera: 1943 - Art Direction, Cinematography, Music, Sound Recording

BobO'Link

All this talk about Swing Time reminded me I have several Astaire/Rogers films I'd not opened/watched so as I finished Farscape this morning, wrapping up my TVonDVD watching, I thought "why not?" and started Academy Award films with 4 from that team, 3 of which were nominated (1 win). I really enjoy watching them dance. Even though I know those dance routines took *lots* of practice they look effortless. Most of the music is excellent, although in 2 of the films I felt the "main" production number went on *way* too long (one was 20 minutes, the song won the award for the category, and neither the song nor routine was that good IMHO). I'm sure audiences in those years ate 'em up in spite of the length.

Greg MacGuffin

So it looks like James Earl Jones, Dick Smith and Oprah Winfrey are receiving this year's Governor's Awards. Am I correct in assuming that any films that their work appeared in would be eligible for the challenge, regardless of whether they received nominations?

Ash Ketchum

Why is Oprah receiving a Governor's Award? What the hell has she done to enhance American cinema?

lisadoris

She received the Humanitarian Award which is less about enhancing cinema and more about helping humanity. She's not the best actress by any stretch but she's coughed up a ton of cash and time for various causes.

davidh777

Just knocked a big one off the unwatched list: The Dirty Dozen! I never realized it was a caper flick rather than a combat picture. Basically all I knew about it was: Lee Marvin's mug, big cast, and the bit in Sleepless in Seattle.

I love all this talk about Fred and Ginger--I'm among my peeps! It's totally true about the final production numbers in the first few movies--they go on forever, like "The Continental." Offhand I don't know which ones qualify for the challenge but I tend to think of them in a variety of tiers: Top, for the best films; second, for the very enjoyable films with minor drawbacks such as too much time devoted to second-banana characters; and third, for the ones that are still worth watching but have some significant flaws.

Top tier:
Swing Time
Top Hat

Second tier:
The Gay Divorcee
Follow the Fleet
Shall We Dance
Carefree

Third Tier:
Roberta
Flying Down to Rio
The Barkleys of Broadway
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

Indy24LA

Just checked off Lawrence of Arabia from my never watched list (the ultimate sausage fest film). Now on to The Wild Bunch.

Ash Ketchum

How many of you who've seen THE DIRTY DOZEN haven't seen THE WILD BUNCH yet? Or vice versa. You can't see one without the other. (Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan are in both.)

Travis McClain

I love Lawrence. It would be #1 on my Flickchart, except for my longstanding love affairs with Batman and The Wizard of Oz. I might even break down and give it another view this month, though I'm trying to hold off until the forthcoming Blu-ray release. I don't know why it seems important that I not watch it on DVD again before then.

As for me, last night I popped in Ghost World for my third viewing in as many years. I love that movie! Its lone nomination was for the screenplay. I recently bought the published version of the screenplay and I think I'm gonna carve out a little while in my evening tonight to read through it.

Ghost World [2001 Awards]
(N) Writing (Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published) - Written by Daniel Clowes & Terry Zwigoff

Travis McClain

I have yet to see either. I almost watched The Wild Bunch ten years ago when I visited a friend of mine out in Vegas (he was stationed at Nellis AFB at the time), but his DVD wasn't in its case.

Indy24LA

Sounds like I need to get The Dirty Dozen for next weekend. I honestly can't remember if I've seen it.

I think Blu-ray was invented for films like Lawrence of Arabia.

BobO'Link

While I've seen both I've not yet watched/opened my copy of The Wild Bunch. It's been *years* since I've seen that film (20+?). I went through about half of my unopened piles today pulling out the films which qualify for this challenge and that was one which made it into the "hope to get to it this year" pile.

I watched a couple more musicals before moving on. One was Kiss Me Kate, which I was surprised to learn was originally filmed in 3D. While watching, one shot was of Howard Keel literally flying feet first toward the screen. I though "that looks like a cheesy 3D move" and watching the on disk documentary I found it was that exactly! That documentary also indicated it only had a few 3D showings as the fad had started to die off by the time it made it to the theatres.

Watching Kiss me Kate got me wanting to open The Taming of the Shrew but after watching The Band Wagon I moved on to Brazil. I picked up the Criterion a few months back and it's been *years* since I've watched this film. It was a blast! Much better than I'd remembered (I last saw it over 15 years ago).

I currently trying to decide what to watch next. That unopened pile has some *great* titles in it - it's a tough choice!

... and I just found 3 Audrey Hepburn films (Funny Face, Roman Holiday, and Breakfast at Tiffany's) in another unopened pile I'd forgotten about!...

CardiffGiant

I just watched Midnight Cowboy and I was underwhelmed. I had very little expectation going into it (the only clip I'd ever seen is the famous, "I'm walking here"), but I found the performances to be good (especially Hoffman), but the storyline seemed uninteresting. Perhaps someone can shed some light on what I'm missing. Or, maybe the film feels underwhelming to others as well.

Tomorrow, I'm tentatively planning to finally see The Sound of Music; how it has eluded me this long is a mystery, which probably has to do with my earlier aversion to most musicals.

Ash Ketchum

MIDNIGHT COWBOY was a total fantasy even at the time (which must have been why it managed to win the Oscar despite being "X-rated"). I was taken in by it because I was a naive 16-year-old when it came out and "Everybody's Talkin' at Me" kind of suckered me in. Hell, I even read the book. But when I saw it again a few years later I was appalled at how dated it was. (Kind of like EASY RIDER, in that regard.) The least dated 1960s counterculture film? Roger Corman's THE WILD ANGELS. Still bowls me over. But, of course, it got no Oscar noms.

gp1086

Checked out Braveheart for the first-time tonight. Loved it! A 3-hour film deserving of its runtime - it really allowed the story to unfold and was paced brilliantly.

We just passed the halfway mark and I'm 50% through my checklist with this one!