Obv I should probably check out The Letter sometime.
― sir-mounter (Eric H.), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 14:20 (fourteen years ago) link
interesting that at least 2 of the nominees are more or less pro-war propaganda (great dictator, foreign correspondent). and are not penalized for it by critics because of the small matter of being on the right side.
― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 14:23 (fourteen years ago) link
are more or less pro-war propaganda
Sorry to quibble but for me the emphasis is less on pro-war than on anti-fascist.
― Le présent se dégrade, d'abord en histoire, puis en (Michael White), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 14:24 (fourteen years ago) link
true, but at the time that was the same thing, making the case for american intervention. (that's why the bad guy in foreign correspondent is the leader of a peace group.)
― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 14:27 (fourteen years ago) link
Both of grandfathers were commie, pinkos pre-mature anti-fascists converted from pacifism in the mid-Thirties to a stance of wishing to resist the Axis by the end of the decade. One of them looked at 'the war' as starting with the Japanese invasion of China.
― Le présent se dégrade, d'abord en histoire, puis en (Michael White), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 15:18 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah it was a somewhat tricky philosophical evolution for a lot of leftists -- especially the doctrinaire party members who took the hitler-stalin pact seriously. i recently read about pete seeger's real bewilderment when the daily worker practically overnight went from being anti-interventionist to fight fight fight! (seeger had spent the previous year singing about fdr the warmonger, and suddenly had to shift gears to go-get-em-boys tunes.) so anyway i just think those movies are historically interesting.
― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 4 August 2009 16:03 (fourteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 13 August 2009 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Friday, 14 August 2009 23:01 (fourteen years ago) link
the only thing that kinda bothers me in philadelphia story is that scene where cary starts lecturing kate about how she'll "never be a human being" until she learns to love or some nonsense like that -- seems totally arbitrary and mean. the rest of it is a delight.
Dexter's speech is self-serving but honest (he's bitter that she treated his alcoholism with contempt, not sympathy); much worse is the speech she gets shortly after, in which her father tries to blame his affair on her because she didn't make him "keep his youth" by admiring him unquestioningly.
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 15 August 2009 02:17 (fourteen years ago) link
I survey the decade. A couple of these deserved to win Best Picture.
― a Stalin Stale Ale for me, please (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 14 February 2019 23:31 (five years ago) link