WHY I LOVE STREAMING

 You know, I consider myself something of a film buff - I'm a life long film fan and my leanings tend to go more towards classic movies.

 

Westerns, - love those.

Film Noir - Bring them on.

 I've got a large DVD, Bluray and 4K collection - I've been buying DVD's since day one, and over the years have moved to Bluray. I also pick up a 4K issue from time to time - Mind you, my 4K collection is a lot smaller than my DVD or Blurays, but then I don't consider 4K to be that much of a jump from Bluray, in terms of picture and audio quality, but that's an argument for another post. 

 

It's streaming I want to talk about and why I think, as a physical media collector it is the best thing to happen since those cranky old VHS tapes were replaced by the shiny discs. 

You see, I do stream shows - I've binged the new remastered Beatles Anthology on Disney this past week, and I do enjoy Prime's Bosch. Netflix too, has some gems amongst a lot of crud.

 

When I settle down of an evening - a glass of whisky, feet up then it's an old movie I reach for - Last night I watched the new 4K restoration of John Ford's Quiet Man. Blown away is an understatement! 

That was physical media, of course since finding a classic movie, that something you fancy, on the various streaming platforms is....well, good luck with that. 

And when you do find something you fancy they are never broadcast in the same quality as a good physical disc. Bandwidth, you see. 

And of course titles can be removed from streaming platforms at the drop of a hat, but my discs are always on my shelves.

 So why love streaming?

 All I've done above is illustrate how inferior streaming is compared to owning the film physically.

I've highlighted how owning titles physically is the only option for the true cinephile. 

 

Still I love streaming.

Why? 

 Well you see, since streaming became mainstream the bottom of the market as fallen out of the physical market, which means you can now pick up blurays for next to nothing. This week I trawled the charity shops and got ten blurays, one of these was a 4k Apocalypse Now, for ten quid.

 

That's thanks to streaming. 

I love streaming! 

 

Is Hollywood bad for the movies?

There was a fascinating documentary on the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4 that explored the dominance of America and more specifically Hollywood in the global film industry. The first part titled Hollywood: The Prequel, broadcast this week looks at how Hollywood came to dominate whilst the second part, Hollywood: The Sequel, to be broadcast next week will ask if the digital revolution means that Hollywood is losing its dominance in global cinema.

Francine Stock hosts the program and the first episode was very enlightening and explains how Hollywood came to dominate in the first place. The answer is simple, so simple in fact that I wonder why I've never thought of it before. Once Europe was equal to Hollywood in film production - France pioneered epic films and it was Britain that first introduced colour into the movies. Hollywood was but one player in a truly global base of film production and indeed it was only the First World War that allowed Hollywood to take the lead. With most of Europe affected by hostilities, Hollywood were able to take the lead and have enjoyed the position ever since. Film Historians put the date that America gained the upper hand variously between 1915 and 1917. There is greater consensus on the reasons: the outbreak of war in Europe, limits imposed in London on the export of flammable materials (film stock and gunpowder were close relatives), and the increasing integration of US industry.

Asta Nielsen - early Danish sex symbol

Not long after Henry Ford introduced a moving assembly line at the Ford Motor Company in 1913, ambitious film companies spotted the benefit of their own production lines – from the cameras to the popcorn. They controlled shooting stages and distribution and they built and ran movie theatres. The Americans soon had a huge internal market for their home-grown product and began attracting the brightest European talents.

Hollywood The Prequel featured vintage interview from the likes of Mary Pickford and can be found on the BBC iPlayer for the next week. Film buffs and those interested in movies will find it an informative and captivating listen. One particularly interesting section stated that another of the reasons Hollywood overtook British films were that they were better paced and this is something I largely agree with. The example of the old Brit comedies was given where we would constantly see characters running up and down stairs. In American they cut out those parts and got straight to the point. It's not that the UK can't make blockbuster type movies it just seems they don't want to.

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COME P.I. WITH ME

The Lady in Cement
Directed by Gordon Douglas

The 1968 sequel to Tony Rome - again available on budget priced DVD as part of the Studio Classics Collection. There are no extras but the picture quality is above average and the soundtrack has been given a polish. The film looks and sounds wonderful with natural flesh tones - which I'm sure you'll appreciate when Raquel Welch is on screen.

The film wasn't as critically successful as its predecessor but I think I preferred it. The plot is better and far more original and the Sinatra plays the character with more charm and grace. There are also some stylish shots such as when the dead girl is found in the crystal clear Miami waters. And it's great to see old Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker) as a kind of Moose Maloy type character who hires Rome to find a mysterious girl.

The world of Tony Rome is one of seedy strip joints and rundown slums where everyone's a hustler and life comes cheap.

A excellent neo noir thriller.

MADE IT MA!

WHITE HEAT
1949
Directed by Raoul Walsh

After ten year away from the genre Cagney returned to what is arguably his best gangster performance - the character of Cody Jarrett is certainly miles away from Tom Powers, Rocky Sullivan or Eddie Bartlett. Where Cagney's previous mobsters had been flawed diamonds, the character he plays here contains no inner good buried beneath the tough guy exterior. In short Cody Jarrett is a psychotic, incestuous monster, a man of weaknesses rather than strengths. Physically it a a far more world weary Cagney we see in this movie - since he last played a mobster his face had rounded out and lined, his waist had extended and he had a pudgy but powerful look about him. And where in the past gangster flicks there had always been the theme of society being to blame for the gangsters, of the poverty thrown into their faces as they grew from innocent boys into men who would be hoods, this time there's none of that and Cody Jarrett is a product of an overbearing matriarchal upbringing - it's all comic book Freud but man, it's a fun movie.

Excuse the language but it has to be said Cagney fucking rocks in this picture.

Right from the first time he appears on screen, nervously looking at his watch as he sits in the passenger seat of a speeding car, mobster looking guys in the back and another beside him in the drivers seat, we can see that this guy means business.

Cagney's performance is flawless and amazing, no matter how many times you see the film you can't help but be affected by his characterisation of Cody Jarrett. The scene where he breaks down in prison after learning that his mother is dead is genuinely gut wrenching - it looks as if he is having his finger nails torn out and the scream that works its way up from his throat becomes a cold and desolate wail of utter blackness. And later when Cagney discovers that one of his men is an undercover cop his fury is so intense that he is almost crying as he turns menacingly on the man.

The supporting cast are superb - Virginia Mayo, as Cagney's wayward moll, plays her role in a similarly over the top style as Cagney and the intensity between the two of them sets the screen on fire. She is the essential femme fatale -desirable, deceitful and deadly. The climax is one of the best in motion picture history as Cagney standing, arms astride, yelling like a rabid monster, is consumed by the fires of Hell itself.

The Warner's DVD of this movie is great because it's packed with extra features including a newly produced documentary on the movie but the best option, least for film buffs, is the Warner Night at the Movie. Select this option and your given the same programs cinema patrons got when the film was first released - a 1948 news reel, a comedy short entitled, So You Think You're Not Guilty, The Homeless Hare which is a cartoon and a series of trailers before the main feature starts. This really is a fun option and shows the value for money that films fans got back in the day.

THE ARCHIVE MULTI-MEDIA ROUND-UP

ALL THE GOSS-

The long awaited Sinatra bio-pic is now one step closer to reality with Martin Scorsese taking the director's seat. The film will be scripted by Field of Dreams, writer Phil Robinson. There is furious speculation of who will play Sinatra himself - with Harry Connick jr and Adrian Boyle reported to be on the short list.

Ex- 007 Timothy Dalton is currently filming with the BBC - the actor will play a timelord in the final adventure for outgoing Doctor, David Tennant. The Bond actor has already filmed his scenes in the South Wales studio where the Doctor Who production is based.

Rebellion, owners of 2000AD have teamed up with Firestar Productions for a series of animated adventures of the comics greatest characters for television. It's no surprise that Judge Dredd will be the first character to go into animated production.

The popular Stargate series is to have another spin-off series with Stargate Universe. The new series is mooted to be like the Deep Space 9 of the Stargate universe and stars Robert Carlyle.

Liam Neeson is to play John "Hannibal" Smith in the upcoming A-Team movie.

Arnold Schwarzenegger goes digital - as California governator he has called for text books to be scrapped in schools and replaced with E-Books. He claims that the money making move will help plug a finances problem but also sees the move as inevitable in the long run.

The Governator said - "It's nonsensical and expensive to look to traditional hard-bound books when information today is so readily available in electronic form," Schwarzenegger wrote. "Especially now, when our school districts are strapped for cash and our state budget deficit is forcing further cuts to classrooms, we must do everything we can to untie educators' hands and free up dollars so that schools can do more with fewer resources."

A live action movie of cartoon favourite, The Jetsons will go into production in 2010.

CUSTER OF THE WEST

Custer of the West
134 mins 1968
Dr by Robert Siodmark

Historically inaccurate but quite spectacular bio-pic telling the legend rather than the facts surrounding the life and death of General George Armstrong Custer and culminating in the infamous last stand at the Little Big Horn.

Robert Shaw's Custer is a man at odds with his direct superiors and showing sympathy for the plight of the Indians. In one early scene General Sherman even admits that taking the lands in the Dakota territory is nothing short of theft and murder but nevertheless, the newly formed United States want the lands for expansion and development and what must be done, must be done.

The film was one of the few made with the Cinerama process which doesn't really transfer well to the DVD medium but at least there are no visible lines on the screen and it does look like a decent enough transfer.

If the fact that it's not historically accurate doesn't bother you and you can watch it as an epic western then you'll be in for a treat. The performances are good all around, the photography brings out the beauty of the landscapes and there are some breathtaking action sequences.

Great entertainment.

Kelly's Heroes -

Kelly's Heroes
Dr by Brian G. Hutton
Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Don Rickles
Running time 138 mins

The DVD is part of the Clint Eastwood Collection and unfortunately it's a vanilla release with just a trailer and scene access listed under special features.

The transfer is fine, though and the 5.1 soundtrack certainly packs a punch especially in the battle scenes.

Eastwood plays his usual laconic self as an American GI who stumbles upon the whereabouts of over $16 million in gold bullion. The problem is that the gold is situated in a bank behind enemy lines.

Eastwood goes about building a team for the unofficial mission behind enemy lines. Donald Sutherland steals every scene he's in as WWII'S only hippie, Oddball - blasting rock music from huge speakers in his Sherman tanks as he goes into battle and Telly Savalas is on hand to claim any scenes Sutherland missed out on.

It's a comedy of sorts but it doesn't trivialize the true nature of war and some of the battle scenes are harrowing and bite to the bone.

The film was designed to be a vehicle for Eastwood after the success of Where Eagles Dare and indeed the same director is on board, but although cinema's greatest living legend handles himself well, the film belongs to Savalas, Sutherland and an excellent Don Rickles as crap game.

A great movie.

M

Directed by Fritz Lang
1931
Peter Lorre, Gustaf Grundgens and Ellen Widmann

Fritz Lang had previously made silent movies concentrating on monsterous criminals but for his first talkie he turned to more mundane and altogether more frightening horrors. Originally he had planned to make the movie about a set of poison pen letters and their effect on a small community but the director decided to change tack after hearing about the exploits of real like killer, Peter Kurten, known as the Dusseldorf Vampire.

When the film studio learned what Lang and his screenwriter wife were planning, they gave up on the project and the director took it to the small studio Nero Films. This limited the budget and forced the director into a six week shoot between Jan and March 1931.

Peter Lorre is truly chilling as the child killer and he received universal praise for his performance but he didn't get on with the director and would forever resent the way he was forced to throw himself down some steps twelve times before Lang was happy with the take. Maybe this contributed to the haunted look Lorre carries through the entire picture.

The movie is a classic but is sadly unavailable on DVD and given the current paedophile hysteria it looks set to remain that way for quite some time.

COGBURN RIDES AGAIN

I'm not really sure how I feel about the reports that the Coen brothers are to remake True Grit. On one hand I'm always pleased when there's a big budget western in the works and the remake of 3 10 wasn't too bad, if not the equal of the original. But True Grit is such an Iconic John Wayne role.

Ahh well, let's hope and I pity the actor who takes on the Wayne roll - he'll have some mighty big boots to fill.

LOS ANGELES : Following a mixed reception to 2008's "Burn After Reading", the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, are back with "True Grit", the classic movie which earned American screen icon John Wayne an Academy Award.

However, the directors are putting their own spin on the novel by Charles Portis, telling the tale from the point of view of the 14-year-old girl at the heart of the story.

"The book recounts the girl’s story," Joel told the Daily Mail. "In the John Wayne film, she was played older. We want her to be her real age - it’s her story!"

The 1968 novel, as well as the film directed by Henry Hathaway the
following year, focussed on Wayne’s character, the irascible and aging US Marshall Rooster Cogburn, the man whom the girl hires to hunt down her father’s killers. (NOTE - THIS IS UNTRUE. THE BOOK WAS FROM THE GIRL'S POV BUT THE MISTAKE IS IN THE ARTICLE SO I'VE LEFT IT THERE.)

Aside from Wayne, the original movie featured Kim Darby as the young girl, Glen Campbell as one of the lawmen and Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper as outlaws.

There has been no mention of any of the original cast returning to reprise their roles in the remake.

Producer Scott Rudin, who worked with the Coen brothers on the Oscar winning film "No Country for Old Men", is set to join them once again. The Coens will squeeze in this film before they begin working on their next film, “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union”, based on the novel written by Michael Chabon.

The original "True Grit" spawned two sequels, 1975’s "Rooster Cogburn" and 1978’s "True Grit: A Further Adventure". The latter was a made-for-television follow up of the two films.

Western icons - the saddlebum

Wanderer, drifter, saddlebum - the lonely yondering man would become a mainstay of the western genre both in literature and on film right from the formation of the genre.

Early silent screen cowboys William S. Hart and Harry Carey were good bad guys who were often out of step with the law but would always throw their weight and guns behind the cause of justice.

With the advent of sound the lone figure was watered down somewhat with the darker edges of Hart and Carey lightened up considerably for the B-westerns that had very clear definitions of right and wrong.

However by the Fifties the western genre changed and became much more complex than it had ever been before. Film Noir was doing big business and its inky tendrils spread to the good old oater. Even the once bright western landscapes looked darker - shadows twisted natural formations until locations like Monument Valley looked as much sinister as beautiful.

The western heroes became far more passionate and would often walk a very thing line between good and bad.

A good example of the change in western heroes is in the movie Shane.

Alan Ladd's character is an aimless drifter with a mysterious past when he rides into the homesteaders lives. Indeed it is hinted that there is something sinister in his past but this is never really discovered by the homesteaders or audience. The character is also driven by a love that can never be fulfilled and there is much happening in Shane's eyes when he looks at the homesteader's wife.

That Shane looks like the classic western hero - Aryan blond hair, dressed in buckskin and when he first appears in the film it is as if he has ridden down from the clouds - this introduction has been used again and again in movies as diverse as Pale Rider and The Gunfighter.

There is also something of Shane in the Ethan Edwards character as played by John Wayne in John Ford's, The Searchers. Ethan too drifts into the film and he too is the slave to a love that can never be forgotten or fulfilled, this time it is a love for his bothers wife. Ditto for the Eastwood character in Pale Rider which is basically an unofficial remake of Shane.

Most of Anthony Mann's classic western heroes can be fitted into the saddlebum role, men drifting who carry an inner guilt that keeps them alone and prevents them from ever becoming a part of a community. The same goes for directors like Sam Peckinpah, Raoul Walsh and just about anyone else who ever stepped behind a camera and pointed it at a western landscape.

In the 60's Clint Eastwood's Man with no Name (who did actually have a name in each movie) was a grotesque mutation of the wandering bad good man. In fact most of the good in the characters had been erased and they were only good in comparison to the much worse and psychotic bad men of these movies.

Indeed in Leone's movies the distinction between good and evil was so obscured as to be non - existent. The protagonist were often motivated by greed or revenge however like the saddlebums of previous westerns they would ride off, alone, into the sunset just in time for the end credits. That was, of course, if they survived.

The great westerns of the seventies - The Beguiled (perhaps the most noir of westerns) ,Josey Wales, High Plains Drifter, True Grit, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid would always present their protagonist as a loner, someone who walked alone. And the tradition continues to the present day - William Munny was never more at home than when out in the wilderness with only his horse for company and the heroes of Lonesome Dove just needed that one last cattle drive before retiring to the rocking chair and their memories.


Wherever the western goes in the future one thing is certain - the lone saddlebum will always have a part to play.