Grandest 'Film Folly' Of All

"Operation Upshot-Knothole" I mean can I just . . .

xp lol

Overseen by General Bick Dutt Wass-Sipe

Holy shit @ these Conqueror clips

The whole thing is just insane. I taped it off TV back in the early nineties and good god almighty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXXZ6URb4VU

Meantime, if you want a full ten minutes of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gey8eAFe5uw

Stop it!

Hahah. (There's not that much more on YouTube, for which we should all be grateful.)

"The Conqureror" is absolutely dreadful from beginning to end, not even entertainingly bad, just grim and dull.

"Upshot-Knothole" I at first thought was some guy's lol-WP edit, but no, it was for real, there are video clips of it on youtube, a nuclear shell fired from a big field gun!

"The Conqureror" is absolutely dreadful from beginning to end, not even entertainingly bad, just grim and dull.

Yeah, good camp it ain't. At least some of the lines are great in isolation given who was speaking them:

Temujin: Come and take me, mongrels - if you dare. While I have fingers to grasp a sword, and eyes to see your cowardly faces, your treacherous heads will not be safe on your shoulders. For I am Temujin, the Conqueror. No prison can hold me, no army defeat me.

I was thinking of starting a similar poll, but limited to American films from approximately At Long Last Love to One from the Heart--seems like every big American director of that period had an oversized disaster (sometimes more than one). I want to check first, though (not sure what search term to use): has this been done already?

hard to know which criteria to vote on exactly here (fitzcarraldo for the stories, greed for the legend, apocalypse now for the heart attack), but since playtime is one of my favourite movies i guess i'll go for that.

i think lola montes is one of my all-time "wished i liked it better" movies

surprised not to see 'napoleon'

yeah!

jesus READ THE BOOK

totally agree about Lola

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/FQdlY0-0fhM/

snowball fight starts at about 2:30 and shit starts to get crazy at around 7:00

Napoléon is one of my all-time favorites. I wish I could see the complete 6-hour film projected with the three screen finale but that'll probably never happen.

I was thinking of starting a similar poll, but limited to American films from approximately At Long Last Love to One from the Heart--seems like every big American director of that period had an oversized disaster (sometimes more than one). I want to check first, though (not sure what search term to use): has this been done already?

Don't think so, but that would be a good one too. I like a lot of those movies.

LOVE One From The Heart, and would actually like to revisit At Long Last Love. It's been (probably justifiably) OOP for years. Clemenza, please do poll.

I have only seen 3 of the films in the OP, and haven't read the book, so won't vote, but Fitzcarraldo has some imagery that has stuck with me since 1982. I've never seen the making-of doc Burden Of Dreams; need to.

Great, I'll set it up tonight--it's always been a group of films that fascinated me. No reading list, suggestions and omissions encouraged. (Sorry, Eric H., couldn't resist.)

Please include Song of Norway if you intended for us to vote for the worst.

Hahah. THAT film.

Good Lord yes, was dragged to that as a school field trip. Others off the top of my head: Waterworld (if you're going that late), Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, 1941.

Just realized there's only 2 years separating Waterworld and Cowgirls. Sorry to derail this thread, will wait for other one.

(Sorry, Eric H., couldn't resist.)

No worries. I guess I torpedoed this one without even realizing it.

My own window of interest is the '70s. Waterworld and Cowgirls[i] certainly belong on a folly poll somewhere, but I know more about the '75-'82 debacles--all the [i]Easy Rider/Raging Bull directors meeting their Waterloos. Maybe someone who knows more about the late-'80s could set up a second poll?

Try again (italics are my own Waterloo):

My own window of interest is the '70s. Waterworld and Cowgirls certainly belong on a folly poll somewhere, but I know more about the '75-'82 debacles--all the Easy Rider/Raging Bull directors meeting their Waterloos. Maybe someone who knows more about the late-'80s could set up a second poll?

i think lola montes is one of my all-time "wished i liked it better" movies

Seconded.

Good Lord yes, was dragged to that as a school field trip.

You saw Song of Norway in a theater?!? I'm 1% jealous, 99% ready to help you with grief counseling.

Seconded.

― look at it, pwn3d, made u look at my peen/vadge (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, December 8, 2010 3:15 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

technically, you thirded me, but who's counting

Lola Montes was one of those movies where I should love it but I ended up being indifferent.

I like Lola Montes just fine.

Wow @ "The Conqueror"...I never heard that story. Crazy...

Inspired the Mekons song "The Flame That Killed John Wayne."

I had heard the Conqueror stories, had never seen any clips. That looks wretched.

But not as wretched as Song Of Norway!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKHKQ1p4HZk&feature=related

I do think Cleopatra is sort of the odd one out among these choices in that it really does seem to be a pretty irredeemable misfire, as opposed to glorious. (Never managed to get through it, myself.)

that's probably because it's an huge epic made by a guy who was essentially a screenwriter.

^^^

That would explain a couple things.

Watch it as Liz and Richard's first vacation films and it's a treat. (Legendary line from Mankiewicz during one of their love scenes: "Cut...CUT!...I feel like I'm intruding!")

Also it's just weird to be watching and see all these familiar people in different contexts. "Oh hey, Carroll O'Connor."

I made it through it (pan-and-scan) on TV in the '70s. The 4:30 Movie on WABC would show it in a 90-minute slot, all week, in 4 or 5 parts.

Uncut it's something like four hours -- allegedly the original cut was *six* hours. There's a couple of ridiculously rough edits where you can tell they chopped out something after Mankiewicz lost control of the cut.

Filmed in Super Panavision 70 by Davis Boulton and presented in single-camera Cinerama in some countries, it was a clear attempt to capitalise on the success of The Sound of Music but suffered from a weak script, poor editing (by the director's wife), unappealing animation and an ill-advised stunt sequence (directed by Yakima Canutt) which appeared to portray Grieg as an action hero.

yakima canutt? im fucking sold!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Still think you cocked this one up, Clemenza.

My own window of interest is the '70s.

Posts so in character they didn't even need to be posted.

LOL this thread, memories

No Ludwig (Visconti, 1973), no credibility.

I liked L'Inhumaine, but as a precursor of the more epic lol-80s music videos. (Which I suspect were made by film students who had been trained on whatever version of Metropolis was in circulation.)

Foolish Wives is almost restrained compared to The Merry Widow (1925) or The Wedding March (1928). I haven't seen Queen Kelly, but all accounts suggest it's in the same vein.

Classic ILX right here.