Sort-of history related, albeit history of film... what is the correct terminology for that number? I started seeing it on enough films that I almost started writing them down, but now I wonder if somewhere there's a masterlist of films by Number. I'd be interested in such a thing, if only to occasionally think it amusing to watch film number #.....

I think this is what you are looking for (it obviously isn't up to date):

http://filmsonsuper8.com/mpaa/mpaa-f...ers-52000.html

Zulu Dawn, available on NetFlix, is a surprisingly good movie on an interesting subject and the highlight so far for me htis challenge. It's apparently a prequel to Zulu, which I am loading up now.

I was wrong to dismiss Valkyrie, it was surprisingly suspenseful despite being able to guess early on the likely outcome of the plot.

It's likely going to be in 4 different sittings, due to the length of the movies, but I decided to revisit two of my favorite movies for this challenge, Gods and Generals, and Gettysburg.

Gods and Generals is dramatically improved (with the new editing and footage) and better than the original theatrical cut by a landslide.

saw two movies today that were almost set in the same time period:

Queen Margot (4K restoration) Director's Cut - DCP / at the Angelika DC in-town theater
Bathory - which I must say, didn't wow me in that the cinematography looked like cheap TV work at times and very inconsistent acting - ranging from abysmal to just good.

Love Gettysburg. But I would want to watch it straight through. Gods and Generals is good, but the lesser of the two I think.

for me personally, 'Gods and Generals' is dramatically improved (as I noted before) not with just the pacing, but at the end of it, I honestly was more moved and had an emotional connection with the story and it's characters.

Straight through sounds like an idea, but I would need to set aside 4 hours each.

Company left so I've been doing a bit of catch-up.

Last night I watched The Train Robbers (1973). I liked it overall but the score just didn't fit. It sounded like something for a WWII action movie and *not* a movie about Cowboy train robbers. It kind of took me out of it when the full score version played, which was frequently. Other than that it was a fairly standard story with some good photography and location work.

Today I watched a few westerns before turning back to WWII with the film Midway (1976). I thought it was fairly well done with only a couple of exceptions. A group of Japanese Generals is shown and all of a sudden I hear the voice of Paul Frees doing one of the Generals! It *absolutely* did not fit the character. Part of that was because every time I'd hear it I'd flash back to George of the Jungle and other voice parts he did. Then there was the "Sensurround" audio track. During the battles the explosions were *far* too loud. If I had the voices at a "normal" level the explosions would rattle the windows! Well... not quite but they were much louder than you would expect even for a war film. I turned on the subtitles and kept the explosions at a tolerable level.

Still haven't been able to really get into the challenge, but I have broken into my M*A*S*H sets. I've watched them all before, but there are a couple seasons I haven't watched in a long time, so decided to work on those. They are always easy to watch and seem to fly by.

Yeah, that threw me out of the movie, too. You have all these Japanese-American actors playing Japanese officers and speaking in their normal voices and then when the one bonafide Japanese actor in the film starts talking--Toshiro Mifune!!!--they dub him with Paul Frees doing a fake Japanese accent! Which took me back to all those English-dubbed Godzilla films from the 1960s, when Frees would dub all the Japanese generals and scientists, not an association I think the makers of MIDWAY wanted.

Started rewatching my North America set. While no David Attenborough, I have to say Tom Selleck is far better than Oprah.

Watched 2 documentaries on YouTube about Dean Reed, an American singer of the 50's who went on to become a superstar in communist countries. One (AMERICAN REBEL) was done by a friend and was complementary. The other (DIE ROTE ELVIS), went into his dark side. You wouldn't have realized that the 2 documentaries were about the same person.

Just watched an interesting documentary about the story of the Blackburn Buccaneer on one of the Roku Channels, under the military documentary headings. It was quite informative.

Dean Reed made a number of Italian westerns, although the only one I've been able to see is ADIOS SABATA (1970). There's one called GOD MADE THEM...I KILL THEM, although I can't imagine it living up to that title.

I've been wanting to see AMERICAN REBEL since it came out, so I'm glad it's on YouTube. Thanks for the heads-up.

Yeah... I was impressed when I see the opening credits and the Japanese and Japanese-American actor names only for them to do such a poor dub job. Mifune was *obviously* speaking the English lines so someone must've thought his accent was too thick for Americans to understand. I absolutely know that'll negatively affect my desire to rewatch the film.

I know. It's just about impossible to do. I could maybe do one of the two. But I would have to push it very hard. In all reality I would have to split it up into different days, like you.

I finally got around to watching my copy of Ken Burn's Prohibition Saturday and Sunday. I'd seen bits and pieces when it originally aired but this was pretty much a first viewing. It was quite good and informative.

That's one of those eras I've not spent much time with and was surprised to find it was almost 14 years after approval of the 18th Amendment before it was repealed by the 21st. I'd always thought it was a far shorter period. Also surprising was how long temperance movements had attempted to get prohibition in place and that it almost seemed to be as much about abstinence from alcohol as it was a prejudice movement against many of the immigrant groups, especially the German and Irish, whose groups the documentary indicated were some of the larger consumers of alcohol in the 1800s. Those groups seemingly endangered the way "real" Americans lived as they did things "differently." Sound familiar?

Another surprising bit of information was that passage of the Sixteenth Amendment, which replaced alcohol taxes that funded the federal government with a federal income tax, basically opened the door for Prohibition since the government no longer needed the liquor tax to stay solvent. It was temperance groups that lead the push for getting that one through as it was a needed stepping stone for getting Prohibition in place.

I really expected the documentary to focus on the gangster element but that only came out in the last third of the series. It was more about everyday people, why they wanted Prohibition, and why it ultimately failed. I'm amazed that such behavior still goes on today on *both* sides of the equation.

If I were a congressional candidate, I'd campaign on going back to pre-16th Amendment funding of the federal government: end the income tax/go back to the liquor tax!

One of my goals this month was to watch Roots which has been sitting unwatched on my shelf ever since that ridiculous Big Lots box set sale (remember that? it's been five years). I accomplished this and really enjoyed it, but it sorta soured me on the challenge. After finishing it, I was so sad and depressed that I've have been focusing mostly on watching episodes of funny shows like I Love Lucy and fluff shows like One Tree Hill, neither of which are very demanding on my brain.

In order to get me out of this funk, I decided to watch River of No Return; its seemed like the ideal film to revive my interest: Robert Mitchum, Marilyn Monroe, westerns, a glorious BD transfer. Unfortunately, I was wrong, and the film's gender politics and a scene I can only describe as sexual assault again soured me. So last night I decided to watch The Sound of Music and was so very glad. It's a wonderful film that's uplifting and also nostalgic for me. It was the perfect film to watch after a particularly lousy week.

However, I promised myself I would finally watch Schindler's List this month, so we'll see how that goes. Wish me luck!

I've been watching so many documentaries lately, I find myself half the time just browsing Roku for something that would interest me, challenge or not. I've even started dipping into some occasional sci-fi.

There's a great game called Democracy 3 in which you play the president or prime minister of a country. When I play, I generally hike up things like liquor and corporate taxes to scale back the income tax. Unfortunately, I also keep getting assassinated by fringe groups because I usually make the free market quite a bit less free. So there you go!

I know this isn't the forum for such things, but it's really an excellent game that I would wholeheartedly recommend. Also, the Steam summer sale is currently going on, and I noticed yesterday that they have Papers, Please (in which you play the new customs agent for a poor, isolationist country) and Gone Home (in which you play a college student returning home from Europe to find her family's house empty). Both of these are just great!

Watched a great movie for the first time last night as part of the Challenge: Carl Foreman's THE VICTORS (1963). It follows the members of a company of soldiers during World War II. Parts of it are absolutely harrowing, most notably an execution scene where Frank Sinatra's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is played in the background (THE VICTORS has now replaced MEET ME IN ST LOUIS as the film I will think about when I hear that song. The basic premise of the film is that there are no victors in war: even the good guys are ravaged. Really interesting cast of up and comers: George Hamilton, George Peppard, Albert Finney, Jeanne Moreau, Eli Wallach, Elke Sommer. (Hamilton and Peppard are surprisingly good.)

For some reason this movie has disappeared from the landscape. Given the cast, you would think that Columbia would have released it by now, but it's not even part of their MOD program. I ordered a Region 2 DVD from the UK. It's somewhat shorter than the original running time and does not include an Elke Sommer nude scene (dammit!).

Hopefully, someday this great film will get the Region 1 release it deserves.

I was hoping The Monuments Men would be an all-star caper-type flick, but it was one of the dullest war movies I can remember watching. It wasn't bad, and there were some funny moments, but overall a disappointment.

I'm watching the last episode of Galapagos on BD right now, and I have to say it was worth the wait. I enjoy it even more than I did Wild China. Awesome nature spectacles, coupled with a beautiful soundtrack, and a great narration by Tilda Swinton.