What are you watching?

The Right Stuff is a good movie and a long one at 3 hours.

We accept distortion of the truth only in movies, we don’t accept it in books, documentaries, encyclopedia, yet many “truth life” movies bend it badly. For example, Argo’s ending never really happened in real life.

Here both Gus Grissom (because he was dead) and LBJ are cartoon characters of what they really were and that bothers me. Grissom was the only astronaut hosen for all three Space programs: Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. When his capsule was discovered just a few years ago, they learned that he was telling the absolute truth. In real life, no one disputed his claim, but this movie made him look a childish and inefficient.
 
'The Right Stuff' (193 min)

Movies mean fictional. ...Not accurate reality, just interpreted depictions (the director's view). ...Books too (the writer).
The true reality is the one outside, in real life, surrounding us, and them. We can even touch it.
...And that, is our own right interpretation of the moment, and it can certainly change with time (our interpretation). And there as many interpretations as there are people witnessing one event; depending of our seat (viewpoint, angle, and distance from that event), and our rationality (way of thinking based on education and personal life's experience; uprising). ...Plus how we assimilate this with that, and how old we are, of course.
Because, with time we see more clearly too, we understand much more deeper and better, if we do take the time to do so, evidently. And what we narrate in our own words in books is just that, our own description with the vocabulary we're familiar with, and each person imagine in his own mind what each word means when put before and after another one.
We visualize the narration, the story, in our own mind with our own pictures.

And at just over 3 hours it still ain't LOTREE, at roughly 4 hours each one of the three in the trilogy. ...Pure fantasy though.

How long is a baseball game?
 
You mixing apples with oranges. A Baseball game is not a movie and it is a live event. Movies tend to be about two hours. Thirty years ago so were baseball games. But a Broadway show can be three hours, but that’s not a movie.

I went to the OED. A no time does it say a movie means fictional. In fact, documentaries are movies that are Not fictional.

No, Books are often meant to be factual. Fiction is fiction and nonfiction is nonfiction.

I am glad you are happy with your definition of reality. There is a lot of reality I cannot touch, I need reported to me or explained. And I want it accurate. Or as accurate as anyone can legitimately do.

There is a tremendous difference between a researcher trying hard to be factual and reporting it and someone making it up as he goes along. And let us NOT forget that many of the people in the Right Stuff were alive at the time the movie was made and could of and should have been sued for reference. They only picked on the guy, at the time, Gus Grissom, who died. And he died a hero!

History is rewritten all the time. There were hundreds of books out about how we won WWII by the 1970s. And many, many books about D-Day.

Then the Enigma Machine, the Ultra Secret was revealed. That is, we had broken the German codes and were aware of much of what they were doing and all those books on D Day were wrong. People had to write new books with the newly revealed information.
 
Lefisc said:
You mixing apples with oranges. A Baseball game is not a movie and it is a live event. Movies tend to be about two hours. Thirty years ago so were baseball games. But a Broadway show can be three hours, but that’s not a movie.
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I'm just making conversation Barry. ...A baseball game like you just said is a reality sport event.

I went to the OED. A no time does it say a movie means fictional. In fact, documentaries are movies that are Not fictional.
Click to expand...

Documentaries aren't movies.

No, Books are often meant to be factual. Fiction is fiction and nonfiction is nonfiction.
Click to expand...

Even factual books can be fictional (lots of examples here with non-accurate facts or twisted truth: lies).

I am glad you are happy with your definition of reality. There is a lot of reality I cannot touch, I need reported to me or explained. And I want it accurate. Or as accurate as anyone can legitimately do.

There is a tremendous difference between a researcher trying hard to be factual and reporting it and someone making it up as he goes along. And let us NOT forget that many of the people in the Right Stuff were alive at the time the movie was made and could of and should have been sued for reference. They only picked on the guy, at the time, Gus Grissom, who died. And he died a hero!

History is rewritten all the time. There were hundreds of books out about how we won WWII by the 1970s. And many, many books about D-Day.

Then the Enigma Machine, the Ultra Secret was revealed. That is, we had broken the German codes and were aware of much of what they were doing and all those books on D Day were wrong.
People had to write new books with the newly revealed information.
Click to expand...

Just like I said before. :)
 
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It's not a baseball game; for me it is much more educational/essential. ...Sorry Barry, I'm just telling it like it is for me. :)

I watched the first Blu-ray disc last night; it's a 4-disc set with just over 640 minutes total (from the first season).
Oliver Stone is one of my favorite directors from the United States of America.
This is a Must See Documentary, for everyone living in this country and abroad.

It's an History school book, it's an essential read (vision).
 
I am not a fan of “lists” especially since everyone decided to have one on the internet. That, is, for me, there are great movies out there and there are more then 10, 15, or 25. I mean there might actually be 57 great movies but it has to be a round number.


And people get “great” confused with their favorites. One of my favorite movies is “The Summer of 42” but it is not necessarily a great movie. And when it comes to great movies, I don’t want to argue whether Casablanca was better than the Godfather, 2001 or Fantasia.


But last night I saw one of the greatest and moving movies of all time, “The Brest Years of Our Lives.” It is a totally absorbing, current, never outdated movie that draws you quickly and keeps you for almost three hours.


It is the story of three men, of three different economic and social backgrounds, returning from WW2. The opening scenes immediately shows you that now that the war is over, society thanked them and then pushed these men aside.


Homer, comes home having lost his hands in the war and he is played by a “new” actor who really did loses his hands during the war. What happens to him and to the others both breaks your heart and moves it. Dana Andrews plays a vet so important in the war, yet cannot find a job at home. And there is no one there to help him.


The issues they face are current, timeless. They talk throughout the movie that this will be the last war. Nuclear weapons are so terrible there can never be another. Yet, at the end they acknowledge that this is not true, there will be others and more men will have to go through this.


You can see this happening to the men who have returned from Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and Iraqi (twice).


If you haven’t seen this movie, please see it. Video and Sound are 4 and 3.5 out of five. I did not find the Blu ray to be much better than the DVD. It is in black and white, Full screen, mono, no LFE no nothing. But great writing and acting and directing are there and I have seldom been moved as much.
 
Thanks a bunch Barry for your latest posts (dual ;)), from the previous page.
You just incited me to purchase that flick on Blu. :cool: ...And should be only $10 around Christmas.

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* Last night I watched the second disc of that Oliver Stone's documentary about the untold history of the US.
 
Thanks. You know I kind of feel sorry for a movie that follows The Right Stuss and Best YeArs. Those were such great movies and many films would pale in comparison. But this time I felt sorry for me with The Story of Us. This is a Rob Reiner film that stars Bruce Willis, Michelle pfeffier and many other Ramos people. It wAs a 2 hour TV sitcom that wasn't funny. It's about a married couple that seems headed for divorce, but they make up at the end. This may have been the shortest movie I saw all week but it felt like the longest. Please miss it!
 
That!

It don't matter at all what BD/HD DVD/DVD/VHS/LaserDisc movie or documentary or music concert video or sport's game or TV sitcom or Netflix video entertainment or Vudu film or TV soap opera or TV series or TV history or TV National Geographic or TV news or youtube video or hi-def video download follows which flick and what have you.

This thread is about all and any of them, good and/or bad, and in no order whatsoever. ...It's about what we watch.

It's the same with all the music threads. ...And it's also the same with all the girlfriends we had/have in our lifetime.
...Good and/or bad. :)
 
I thought Goodfellas was the best movie of 1990. The Academy Award went to Dancing with Wolves, but what movie really has lasted? But that’s not eh movie I just saw. I had seen Casino before and really enjoyed. Written and directed by the same pair who did Goodfellas, it had a similar feel and it also seemed a bit like a documentary.

It seems that, in looking back, Nevada let the mob rule their gambling world in the 1940s and 1950s because they knew gambling and because they brought jobs and money to basically the desert. Things began to change in the 1960s-1970s and Nevada wanted the criminal element out, and so did the Feds.

What prompted me to watch the movie again was a wonderful Discovery Channel documentary: The Real Story: Casino. I was surprised to find out how very accurate the movie was, in substance and tone, of the real things. Of course, they changed the names, but this was still a very accurate picture. The documentary didn’t get into the Sharon Stone part, but that appears to be close to the truth too. Everyone was great, DeNiro and Pesci of course, but Sharon Stone and Don Rickles were great, even Tom Smothers.
 


--- I finished ^ watching it all, even the special features. ...It was fascinating!

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For the next two days, starting tonight, I'll be watching this Documentary:

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=> I DREAM OF WIRES: THE MODULAR SYNTHESIZER DOCUMENTARY
 
Barry, 'Goodfellas' is simply the best gangster movie ever. ...And always impactful to revisit.

And 'Casino' is quite violent as well.

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It's interesting; some people don't like violent films, and yet I don't know anyone who dislike Marty Scorsese as a director.
 
I saw Man of Steel on Blu Ray and liked it less than I did when I originally saw it. The Chris Reeves Superman was so much better and the fight scenes here had great special effects but no substance.

Here are my comments on my blog!
 
I am not quibbling with you. Goodfellas is a great movie, however, competing for the best on my list would also be Godfather I and II. Johnny Brasco comes in third, but a good third.

One of the things I liked about A Goodfellas is that it was the “anti-Godfather.” Here, you didn’t root for the characters, they were all sleezy. Somehow they were noble in the Godfather.
 
Lefisc said:
I saw Man of Steel on Blu Ray and liked it less than I did when I originally saw it. The Chris Reeves Superman was so much better and the fight scenes here had great special effects but no substance.

Here are my comments on my blog!
Click to expand...

I bought the 3D version yesterday; I'll watch it sometime. ...When my brain is at a very low level. ...I might have to wait quite a while ...
 
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