BOT's Top 50 Historical Fiction Films - The Countdown

[The Panda]

 

 

"Life is a cabaret ol' chum so come to the Cabaret."

 

Historical Setting: Rise of the Nazi Party, Germany

 

Source from the Period

 

"“The capital of our new German Republic was like a bubbling cauldron. You could not see who was heating the cauldron, but you could merely see it merrily bubbling, and you could feel the heat increasing. There were speakers on every street corner and songs of hatred everywhere. Everybody was hated: the Jews, the capitalists, the gentry, the communists, the military, the landlords, the workers, the unemployed, the Freikorps, the Allied control commissions, the politicians, the department stores, and again the Jews. It was a real orgy of incitement, and the Republic was so weak that you hardly took notice of it.

 

All this had to end with an awful crash. It was a completely negative world, with gaily-coloured froth on top that many people mistook for the true, the happy Germany before the eruption of the new barbarism. Foreigners who visited us at that time were easily fooled by the apparent light-hearted, whirring fun on the surface, by the nightlife and the so-called freedom and flowering of the arts. But that was really nothing more than froth. Right under that short-lived, lively surface of the shimmering swamp were fratricide and general discord, and regiments were being formed for the final reckoning. Germany seemed to be splitting into two parts that hated each other, as in the saga of the Nibelungs. And we knew all that – or at least we had forebodings.”"

 - GEORGE GROSZ RECALLS THE GOLDEN AGE OF WEIMAR (1946)

 

Historical Context

 

"As early as the turn of the century, Berlin’s gay scene was attracting such notoriety that it frequently was mentioned in tourist literature, lifting up the city’s gay scene as proof of the evils of urban life and the dangers of modernity; in them, Berlin became the country’s Sodom and Gomorrah put together, a sure sign of the land’s degeneracy.  On the stages of Berlin, the Tiller Girls showed off their legs, dancing a Rockettes-style performance that amazed and titillated spectators. In crowded cabarets, audiences admired “tableaux” of women posing naked or watched actors telling risqué jokes and singing lewd songs

 

Clubs full of men wearing powder and rouge as well as shorthaired women dressed in tuxedoes offered images of a world seemingly turned upside down. For the general public, this world was bewildering—and quite possibly terrifying.  For Germany’s gay men and lesbians, though, Berlin represented promise. Its gay scenes offered exciting places to hunt for love and happiness. Christopher Isherwood, whose short stories based on his stay in Berlin eventually became the basis for the 1972 film Cabaret, with Liza Minnelli, put it simply enough: “Berlin meant boys.”

 

...

 

The chief Berlin attractions were the transvestite venues. By far the most famous was the Eldorado a nightclub whose festive atmosphere attracted not only homosexuals but also artists, authors, celebrities, and tourists wanting to admire a piece of “decadent” Berlin or catch a glimpse of someone famous.    Lesbians could also be found in some of the bars that were devoted mostly to gay men [and were] often seen in the larger clubs of the 1920s, such as the Topp and the Eldorado. The Dorian Gray, one of the oldest and best-known gay clubs by the Weimar era, had a special night set aside for women.  By the turn of the century, there were also a handful of exclusively lesbian bars in the city. After the First World War, the number of lesbian clubs and cafés exploded, and by the mid-1920s there were over fifty of them in the city, which were as diverse as the male establishments in terms of size, class served, and entertainment offered."

- Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: A History, 1880-1945 by Clayton J. Whisnant

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"The 1972 film was a huge hit at the time of release and became infamous for beating out “The Godfather“ for most of the Oscars the following year. With wins including Best Actress for Liza Minnelli, Best Supporting Actor for Joel Grey, Best Director to Fosse, Best Art Direction and Best Musical Score. “Cabaret“ is set in 1931 Berlin, during the calm before the storm as the Nazi party was speedily rising, but hadn’t yet proclaimed war. Cabaret performer Sally Bowles (Minnelli) is the protagonist, along with her roommate turned boyfriend Brian Roberts (Michael York), who teaches English lessons to Germans. At the time of production, Minnelli still hadn’t completely stopped being referred to as “Judy Garland’s daughter,” and her Americanized portrayal of the formerly British character would become just the push she needed to fly into superstardom.

 

Her nightclub numbers, along with Grey’s numbers, create the eerie, sexy vibe that underground Berlin was feeling at the time while the country was politically changing outside. The title song and “Mein Herr” would be staples for Minnelli, and the ballad “Maybe This Time” compares to her mother’s “The Man That Got Away.” The one number not performed in the Kit Kat Klub is “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” chillingly sung by the Nazi youth in town. I’ve seen some bloggers online compare the sequence to some of the sudden open hatred and prejudice that’s occurred on social media the past week, and I couldn’t help but feel a similar vibe when I watched the musical again this week. The satirical duet “Money” performed by Minnelli’s Sally and Grey’s Emcee is always relevant, and Grey’s opening number “Willkommen” completely sets the mood for the club setting."

 - Megan Bianco, Times of San Diego

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"In 1930's Berlin, American Sally Bowles works as a singer in the Kit Kat club. At her rooming house she meets Englishman Brian Roberts who has come to Berlin to improve his German. He hopes to pay his expenses by giving English language lessons. Sally is unconventional and she and Robert have a number of adventures together. The romp continues with several of their friends, including the very rich Maximilian von Heune. Life takes a sudden turn for Sally however and throughout it all, the rise of Nazism casts a shadow over everyone."

 

Critic Opinion

 

""Cabaret" explores some of the same kinky territory celebrated in Visconti's "The Damned." Both movies share the general idea that the rise of the Nazi party in Germany was accompanied by a rise in bisexuality, homosexuality, sadomasochism, and assorted other activities. Taken as a generalization about a national movement, this is certainly extreme oversimplification. But taken as one approach to the darker recesses of Nazism, it may come pretty close to the mark. The Nazi gimmicks like boots and leather and muscles and racial superiority and outdoor rallies and Aryan comradeship offered an array of machismo-for-rent that had (and has) a special appeal to some kinds of impotent people.

 

"Cabaret" is about people like that, and it takes place largely in a specific Berlin cabaret, circa 1930, in which decadence and sexual ambiguity were just part of the ambience (like the women mud-wrestlers who appeared between acts). This is no ordinary musical. Part of its success comes because it doesn't fall for the old cliché that musicals have to make you happy. Instead of cheapening the movie version by lightening its load of despair, director Bob Fosse has gone right to the bleak heart of the material and stayed there well enough to win an Academy Award for Best Director.

 

The story concerns one of the more famous literary inventions of the century, Sally Bowles, who first came to life in the late Christopher Isherwood's 'Berlin Stories,' and then appeared in the play and movie 'I Am a Camera' before returning to the stage in this musical, and then making it into the movies a second time -- a modern record, matched only by Eliza Doolittle, I'd say."

- Roger Ebert

 

Factoids

 

Cabaret was directed by Bob Fosse.  It received 41 points and 7 votes

 

 

Countries Represented: Algeria (1), Austria (1), England (1), France (1), Germany (2), Israel (2), Korea (1), Japan (3), Spain (1), United States (12), Vietnam (1)

 

Time Periods Represented: 16th Century (1), 17th Century (2), 18th Century (1), 19th Century (2), 1930s (2), 1950s (2), 1960s (5), 1990s (1), 21st Century (2), Classical Period (2), Middle Ages (1), World War 1/1910s (1), World War 2/1940s (4)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 18th Century - United States (1), 19th Century - United States (2), 21st Century - United States (2), 1930s - Germany (1), 1930s - Korea (1), 1950s - Algeria (1), 1950s - United States (1), 1960s - United States (4), 1960s - Vietnam (1), 1990s - United States (1), Classical Period - Israel (2), Middle Ages - England (1), Sengoku Period - Japan (1), Tokugawa Shogunate - Japan (2), World War 1 - France (1), World War 2/1940s - Germany (1), World War 2/1940s - Spain (1), World War 2 - Austria (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Park Chan-Wook (1), Francis Ford Coppola (1), David Fincher (2), Bob Fosse (1), Anthoney Harvey (1), Terry Jones (1), Philip Kaufman (1), Masaki Kobayashi (1), Stanley Kramer (1), Akira Kurosawa (1), Michael Mann (1), Penny Marshall (1), Adam McKay (1), Steve McQueen (1), Theodore Melfi (1), Sam Mendes (1), Gillo Pontecorvo (1), Martin Scorsese (2), Steven Spielberg (2), Oliver Stone (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1), Robert Wise (1), William Wyler (1)

 

Decades Represented: 50s (1), 60s (5), 70s (3), 80s (3), 90s (2), 00s (3), 10s (9)

 

 

[Plain Old Tele]

“Tomorrow Belongs to Me” is an amazing scene and probably one of my favorites ever. So chilling. (And it was updated and re-used well by The Man In The High Castle too.)

[TalismanRing]

But in the cases of those who are playing brief roles, such as Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift, the spectator has insufficient time to divorce actor from character." --  - Variety

 

Variety really whiffed this review of Judgement at Nuremberg.

[Cap]

[The Panda]

 

 

"Maybe there ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue, they's just what people does. Some things folks do is nice and some ain't so nice, and that's all any man's got a right to say."

 

Historical Setting: The Great Depression, United States

 

Source from the Period

 

"We go all around dressed in rags

While the rest of the world goes neat

And we have to be satisfied

With half enough to eat.

We have to live in lean-tos

Or we else we live in a tent

For when we buy our bread and beans

There's nothing left for rent.

 

I'd rather not be on the rolls of relief

Or work on the W. P. A.

We'd rather work for the farmer

If the farmer could raise the pay

Then the farmer could plant more cotton

And he'd get more money for the spuds

Instead of wearing patches

We'd dress up in new duds

 

...

 

Now if you will excuse me

I'll bring my song to an end

I've got to go and chuck a crack

Where the howling wind comes in

The times are going to better

And I guess you'd like to know -

I'll tell you about it

I joined the C. I. O."

- I'd Rather Not Be on Relief, Lester Hunter 1938

 

Historical Context

 

"The Great Depression of the thirties remains the most important economic event in American history. It caused enormous hardship for tens of millions of people and the failure of a large fraction of the nation's banks, businesses, and farms. It transformed national politics by vastly expanding government, which was increasingly expected to stabilize the economy and to prevent suffering. Democrats became the majority party. In 1929 the Republicans controlled the White House and Congress. By 1933, the Democrats had the presidency and, with huge margins, Congress (310-117 in the House, and 60-35 in the Senate). President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal gave birth to the American version of the welfare state. Social Security, unemployment insurance, and federal family assistance all began in the thirties.

It is hard for those who did not live through it to grasp the full force of the worldwide depression. Between 1930 and 1939 U.S. unemployment averaged 18.2 percent. The economy's output of goods and services (gross national product) declined 30 percent between 1929 and 1933 and recovered to the 1929 level only in 1939. Prices of almost everything (farm products, raw materials, industrial goods, stocks) fell dramatically. Farm prices, for instance, dropped 51 percent from 1929 to 1933. World trade shriveled: between 1929 and 1933 it shrank 65 percent in dollar value and 25 percent in unit volume. Most nations suffered. In 1932 Britain's unemployment was 17.6 percent. Germany's depression hastened the rise of Hitler and, thereby, contributed to World War II.

 

The depression is best understood as the final chapter of the breakdown of the worldwide economic order. The breakdown started with World War I and ended in the thirties with the collapse of the gold standard. As the depression deepened, governments tried to protect their reserves of gold by keeping interest rates high and credit tight for too long. This had a devastating impact on credit, spending, and prices, and an ordinary business slump became a calamity. What ultimately ended the depression was World War II. Military spending and mobilization reduced the U.S. unemployment rate to 1.9 percent by 1943.

 

With hindsight it seems amazing that governments did not act sooner and more forcefully to end the depression. The fact that they did not attests to how different people's expectations and world politics were in the thirties. The depression can be understood only in the context of the times."

- Great Depression, Robert J. Samuelson

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"When considering the historical accuracy of The Grapes of Wrath, keep in mind that Steinbeck wrote a novel based on tenant farmers, the Dust Bowl, and the Great Depression--not a documentary work on these subjects. The Great Depression was a time of major economic crisis in the United States that lasted for a decade (1929-39). During this period, the Dust Bowl, a severe drought, plagued several mid and southwestern states. A novel, by its very nature, is an extended fictive work, and The Grapes of Wrath is not categorized as a historical novel but simply a novel. That said, it would be remiss to merely consider The Grapes of Wrath as a work of fiction with occasional references to the historical times in which it was written. Having seen tenant farmers' suffering firsthand, Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath with the intention of giving voice to thousands of real people who were homeless, hungry, and repeatedly taken advantage of by landowners and banks. Hence, the story of the Joads.

 

While the Joad chapters could form a novel on their own, the intercalary chapters, chapters that break away from the main narrative arc, could not. So we must ask ourselves, why do they matter? A reasoned answer tells us that Steinbeck uses intercalary chapters in The Grapes of Wrath to provide a larger context to the Joad narrative. Without these chapters we would not have so thorough a picture of tenant farmers, land owners, banks, and the economy during the Great Depression, all of which affect the Joads. Consider the following excerpt from Chapter 1: '' A gentle wind followed the rain clouds, driving them on northward, a wind that softly clashed the drying corn." 

- Jenna Clayton

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"The Joad clan, introduced to the world in John Steinbeck's iconic novel, is looking for a better life in California. After their drought-ridden farm is seized by the bank, the family -- led by just-paroled son Tom -- loads up a truck and heads West. On the road, beset by hardships, the Joads meet dozens of other families making the same trek and holding onto the same dream. Once in California, however, the Joads soon realize that the promised land isn't quite what they hoped."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"It took courage, a pile of money and John Ford to film the story of the dust bowl and the tribulations of its unhappy survivors, who sought refuge in inhospitable California. Picture is “The Grapes of Wrath,” adapted by Nunnally Johnson from John Steinbeck’s best-seller. It is an absorbing, tense melodrama, starkly realistic, and loaded with social and political fireworks. It is off to a smash boxoffice career, hot on the heels of “Gone With the Wind,” which precedes it by a few weeks into the first runs.

 

Here is an outstanding entertainment, projected against a heartrending sector of the American scene. Through newreels and rotogravure, the public is familiar with the ravages of drought over a wide agricultural area in Oklahoma, Colorado, the Texas panhandle and western Kansas. The film interprets the consequences of national disaster in terms of a family group–the Joads–who left their quarter-section to the wind and dust and started ‘cross country in an over-laden jallopy to the land of plenty.

 

Considering the rumpus caused by the book, Darryl F. Zanuck’s decision to film the yarn could not have been reached without complete realization of the inevitable repercussions. It is not a pleasant story, and the pictured plight of the Joads, and hundreds of other dust bowl refugee families, during their frantic search for work in California, is a shocking visualization of a state of affairs demanding generous humanitarian attention. Neither book nor film gives any edge to citizens of California who are working diligently to alleviate suffering and conditions not of their origination. Steinbeck offers no suggestion. In this respect the film ends on a more hopeful note. Someway, somehow, Ma Joad declares ‘the people’ will solve the unemployment riddle."

- Original Variety Review

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"aside from the rather blunt message, it's quite fantastic. great atmosphere and photography." - @luna

 

 

Countries Represented: Algeria (1), Austria (1), England (1), France (1), Germany (2), Israel (2), Korea (1), Japan (3), Spain (1), United States (13), Vietnam (1)

 

Time Periods Represented: 16th Century (1), 17th Century (2), 18th Century (1), 19th Century (2), 1930s (3), 1950s (2), 1960s (5), 1990s (1), 21st Century (2), Classical Period (2), Middle Ages (1), World War 1/1910s (1), World War 2/1940s (4)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 18th Century - United States (1), 19th Century - United States (2), 21st Century - United States (2), 1930s - Germany (1), 1930s - Korea (1), 1930s - United States (1), 1950s - Algeria (1), 1950s - United States (1), 1960s - United States (4), 1960s - Vietnam (1), 1990s - United States (1), Classical Period - Israel (2), Middle Ages - England (1), Sengoku Period - Japan (1), Tokugawa Shogunate - Japan (2), World War 1 - France (1), World War 2/1940s - Germany (1), World War 2/1940s - Spain (1), World War 2 - Austria (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Park Chan-Wook (1), Francis Ford Coppola (1), David Fincher (2), John Ford (1), Bob Fosse (1), Anthoney Harvey (1), Terry Jones (1), Philip Kaufman (1), Masaki Kobayashi (1), Stanley Kramer (1), Akira Kurosawa (1), Michael Mann (1), Penny Marshall (1), Adam McKay (1), Steve McQueen (1), Theodore Melfi (1), Sam Mendes (1), Gillo Pontecorvo (1), Martin Scorsese (2), Steven Spielberg (2), Oliver Stone (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1), Robert Wise (1), William Wyler (1)

 

Decades Represented: 40s (1), 50s (1), 60s (5), 70s (3), 80s (3), 90s (2), 00s (3), 10s (9)

 

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by The Panda

[Jake Gittes]

52 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

“Tomorrow Belongs to Me” is an amazing scene and probably one of my favorites ever. So chilling. (And it was updated and re-used well by The Man In The High Castle too.)

I was lucky enough to rewatch the movie on the big screen a few years back. The audience was audibly having a good time in the first half and then that scene happened and there was nothing but pure tomb-like silence. One of my favorite moviegoing experiences. 

[Plain Old Tele]

5 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

I was lucky enough to rewatch the movie on the big screen a few years back. The audience was audibly having a good time in the first half and then that scene happened and there was nothing but pure tomb-like silence. One of my favorite moviegoing experiences. 

Ah, the joy that comes from seeing people getting their happiness crushed by burgeoning fascism.  

[Cap]

19 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

Ah, the joy that comes from seeing people getting their happiness crushed by burgeoning fascism.  

It’s the coded old Jewish man that always gets me.  

[The Panda]

 

 

"To love... to have children..."

 

Historical Setting: World War 2, Belarus

 

Source from the Period

 

"Now when the German offensive which started in 1941 and this more or less German Army’s way to Stalingrad not too far from Krasnodar.  Farther east.  Well that’s one polite way more or less to explain what happened to my father.  The regime difficult time of panic or close to panic mode with German armies coming closer and closer and eventually my city Krasnodar was overwhelmed by the Germans.  So there were what officially will become perferactic arrests ah repressions of suspected people that included unfortunately of without any Evidence of potential desire to cooperate with Germans.  He was totally crucified in that sense so there was absolutely nothing like that on his mind but you know we are talking about Soviet Union under a gentleman called Stalin very suspicious man. So my father was arrested and perished during evacuation of prisons most likely simply killed because again the conditions were so difficult and the retreat was so retreat of that Russian authorities came or happened under very difficult circumstances. By that time I had already finished my high school and was about to be called upon to serve in the army and in the due time which was in a matter of weeks or months.  And I ended up in famous battle for Stalingrad large city to the east from Krasnodar which was the place of one of the probably the largest battles of the whole war.  I was captured by the Germans. Sort of not an individual way but it was a bad time for the Red Army large numbers of Russian disorganized by that time and often left to themselves. Troops who were being captured by better organized better equipped Germans. Really bad time for the Red Army.  Very important in that respect, turning point in the whole war.  The fact that I was son of a person suspected of, without any reason, but nevertheless officially suspected as a potential collaborator of Germans didn’t help but on the other hand had nothing to do with my capture.  By that time tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of soldiers shared my fate, for me, toward of the very end of 1942.  And then for me, next page in my biography I was prisoner of the German Army and my next several years would be spent as a prisoner of war.  The document I wanted to show you was a very interesting document.  Let me some how find it back way back to my line.  Just to show you.  Look that that German chicken At some point well my advantage over others pitch for learning foreign language was my advantage over many other prisoners was that I spoke German from early childhood. I ended up in a construction building under German as a German prisoner,brigade or whatever.  Changing you know Europe has still today different railing for railroads.  West European railroads including German are a bit narrower than the Russian.  Built originally by French.  Measure something in the way of 15 or 20 centimeter difference.  So the Germans made an effort to make it easier, not to have to unload or change from one type of whatever gage of railroads.  So I was in the battalion that changed the railroads from narrower to wider.  So if you ever hear of anyone that needs that type of work, please remember me as an expert." 

- An excerpt from an interview with a Soviet soldier who survived the Battle of Stalingrad.

 

Historical Context

 

"Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenka frequently refers to the Second World War in his quarrels with the West. Lukashenka added to the Soviet Victory Day celebrated on 9 May another official holiday, 3 July, the day when the Red Army took Minsk in 1944. In 2003 the government introduced the History of the Great Patriotic War as an obligatory and separate subject not only in schools but also at all universities. The authorities are also building a new grand museum devoted to the war.  The attitude to the role and suffering of Belarus elsewhere in Europe is different. Although only a fraction of  Russian territory had been occupied by the Germans, they exploit their victory to the fullest extent possible even now. Belarus had been the main Nazi-Soviet battleground for years, but many in the West also prefer to label Belarusian territories and its people as "Russian". It may sound simpler to them, but to Belarusians this sounds unfair to say the least.

 

Today the Russian authorities exploit the Soviet victory in the war against Nazi Germany and neglect the fact that the war touched just a very small part of Russia. The war devastated the non-Russian lands of the Soviet Union and in particular Belarus, which saw the most fierce and prolonged fighting. No wonder, when Belarus was sandwiched between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany in 1939. German troops occupied the land at the very beginning of the war and the Nazis retained the Belarusian territory for three years.

 

As a result, literally every Belarusian village saw at least some fighting at the beginning and end of the war. Many regions suffered as the frontline stayed there for many months, or partisan activities resulted in brutal collective punishment on behalf of the German administration. There is no Belarusian family which did not suffer in the war directly. This was certainly not the case in Russia, only a fraction of which was actually occupied.   It is common to hear or read in Russia and in the West the western territories of the USSR called “Russian”.  However, even now, two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is common to hear or read in Russia and in the West the western territories of the USSR being called “Russian.”  No need to go far to see evidence of it. The museum on Nazi terror in the centre of Berlin names the residents of Belarus “Russians”."

- Siarhei Bohdan, Why Belarus is Missing in World War II History

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"Come and See—adapted by Klimov, with Ales Adamovich, from the 1978 book I Am from the Fiery Village—is a war narrative about a teenage boy, Flyora (Aleksey Kravchenko), who digs a discarded gun out of a sandy trench with the intention of joining the Soviet partisans gathering in his village. The setting is Nazi-occupied Belarus, 1943. As a local man warns and as Flyora’s own mother pleads, merely digging up the gun is a dangerous idea; it will raise suspicions among the Nazis. Their fear is not abstract. Soon, the boy is conscripted into the partisan forces and launched, like a damned man supplicated to a foregone fate, into an encounter with unthinkable evil. Soon, most everyone the boy knows is dead.

 

This isn’t that kind of movie. I’ve seen the film more than once, and I still can’t accurately sum up its impact in terms of what I’ve “learned” from it, though Come and See has taught me very much: it has defined my sense of what Nazi occupation felt like in the realms other movies have tended to ignore. I can point to specific images that have shaken me to the core each time: a Nazi woman cracking open a crab leg as that farmhouse burns, for example, or a guilt-ridden Flyora sticking his head in the mud, or his companion turning, unexpectedly, to find a pile of dead bodies stacked up against a wall: Flyora’s family.

 

Klimov was hardly the first survivor of WWII to make a film about it. But with Come and See, he became and remains one of its most worthy chroniclers. This film endures because it obscures nothing. Its title was inspired by Chapter 6 of The Apocalypse of John—an invitation to see what hell the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse hath wrought. You will want to turn away from this hell. But through Klimov, you are forced to live it."

- Austin Collins, Variety

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"The feature film directed by Elem Klimov, shot in the genre of military drama. The action takes place on the territory of Belarus in 1943. In the center of the story is a Belarusian boy, who witnesses the horrors of the Nazi punitive action, turning from a cheerful teenager into a gray-haired old man for two days."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"Rumours abound that Klimov used hypnosis on his fledgling actor Aleksei Kravchencko, the twisted soul of his story, to extract the emotional, even existential, shock of reaction to unknowable things. Whatever the case, it must stand as one of the greatest child performances. Through a series of intense close-ups, reactionary shots to death's myriad forms, Kravchencko's face is a map of terror and incipient madness, but there is a gradual closing up, a sealing off from horror. It is one of the film's pressing themes - how humans become inured to extremity, how the annihilation of innocents can become the norm.

 

The physical representation of war, not of battle but of the Nazi's genocidal sweep across the pastoral plains of Byelorussia, is shot with a raptured precision like a netherworld from a Grimm Brother fairytale. But none of their moral nightmares, for all their trippy gloom, could compare to the carnival of abhorrence as the Nazis hound an entire village into a barn ready to burn them alive. Spielberg for Schindler's List borrowed their clapping, deranged, subhuman enjoyment of the process. Klimov's guile is to offer up, all-too briefly, moments of emotional connection as Florya escapes in the company of a luminous peasant girl, played with a mild delirium by Olga Mironova, through those desolate woods - they shower by shaking sodden tree branches and when she quicksteps on his case top it is like a moment stolen from a dream. War's unbearable reality forces humanity into surreal pastures, and this landscape, fogged and unending, feels like nowhere on Earth.

 

Unforgettable and deeply traumatic - while never forcefully gruesome, the death rent across the screen tests you to the limits - Come And See is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking. More than that, though, it is a cry of indignant force: how could something so indisputably wrong ever come to pass?" 

- Ian Nathan, Empire

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"One of the most horrifying war movies ever.

 

Also it is not because it is violent.

 

It is the background and the emotion and the events you see.

 

Then it hits you at the end, 'OMG this all really happened"" - @Lordmandeep

 

Factoids

 

Come and See was directed by Elem Klimov.  It received 42 points and 6 votes

 

 

Countries Represented: Algeria (1), Austria (1), Belarus (1), England (1), France (1), Germany (2), Israel (2), Korea (1), Japan (3), Spain (1), United States (13), Vietnam (1)

 

Time Periods Represented: 16th Century (1), 17th Century (2), 18th Century (1), 19th Century (2), 1930s (3), 1950s (2), 1960s (5), 1990s (1), 21st Century (2), Classical Period (2), Middle Ages (1), World War 1/1910s (1), World War 2/1940s (5)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 18th Century - United States (1), 19th Century - United States (2), 21st Century - United States (2), 1930s - Germany (1), 1930s - Korea (1), 1930s - United States (1), 1950s - Algeria (1), 1950s - United States (1), 1960s - United States (4), 1960s - Vietnam (1), 1990s - United States (1), Classical Period - Israel (2), Middle Ages - England (1), Sengoku Period - Japan (1), Tokugawa Shogunate - Japan (2), World War 1 - France (1), World War 2/1940s - Belarus (1), World War 2/1940s - Germany (1), World War 2/1940s - Spain (1), World War 2 - Austria (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Park Chan-Wook (1), Francis Ford Coppola (1), David Fincher (2), John Ford (1), Bob Fosse (1), Anthoney Harvey (1), Terry Jones (1), Philip Kaufman (1), Elem Klimov (1), Masaki Kobayashi (1), Stanley Kramer (1), Akira Kurosawa (1), Michael Mann (1), Penny Marshall (1), Adam McKay (1), Steve McQueen (1), Theodore Melfi (1), Sam Mendes (1), Gillo Pontecorvo (1), Martin Scorsese (2), Steven Spielberg (2), Oliver Stone (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1), Robert Wise (1), William Wyler (1)

 

Decades Represented: 40s (1), 50s (1), 60s (5), 70s (3), 80s (4), 90s (2), 00s (3), 10s (9)

 

 

 

 

[Plain Old Tele]

^^ Yeah, it’s really really good. 

[Fancyarcher]

15 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

^^ Yeah, it’s really really good. 

Come & See is an incredible film. That ending absolutely wrecked me, but the entire thing is fantastic. 

Edited May 11, 2020 by Fancyarcher

[The Panda]

 

 

"Dances with Wolves! I am Wind In His Hair. Do you see that I am your friend? Can you see that you will always be my friend?"

 

Historical Setting: 1863, United States

 

Source from the Period

 

"This song was sung before the departure of a war party.  The successful warrior had the right paint his face black,  this paint being worn during the dances which followed his return from war.

 

Literal translation:

 

Friends, the many lands you fear

In them without fear I have walked.

The black face paint I seek

 

O, my friends, as I stand

Here before you all assembled

I hear you sing of the lands where the warriors travel

O, my friends, the many lands that you fear,

In them all without fear I have walked

 

O, my friends, even now

I can see the distant mountains

Where the snows never melt in the summer time

O, my friends, I have walked without fear in those lands

For there I sought the black face paint

 

To the west and the north

Lies the country of the enemy.

In all those lands I have walked without fear of harm

O, my friends, in them all I have won the right to wear

The warrior's badge of victory"

- Poems from Sioux and Chippewa songs, Frances Densmore

 

Historical Context

 

"The Dakota non-combatants arrived at Fort Snelling on November 13, 1862, and encamped on the bluff of the Minnesota River about a mile west of the fort. Shortly after, Marshall and his soldiers moved the Dakota to the river bottom directly below the fort. In December soldiers built a concentration camp, a wooden stockade more than 12 feet high enclosing an area of two or three acres, on the river bottom. More than 1,600 Dakota people were moved inside. A warehouse just outside the camp was used as a hospital and mission station. Throughout the camp's existence, soldiers of the Sixth, Seventh, and Tenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiments guarded the stockade, controlling movement in and out. It is estimated that between 130 and 300 Dakota people died over the winter of 1862–63, mainly due to measles, other diseases, and harsh conditions.

 

The concentration camp at Fort Snelling was not a death camp, and Dakota people were not systematically exterminated there. The camp was, however, a part of the genocidal policies pursued against Indigenous people throughout the US. Colonists and soldiers hunted down and killed Dakota people, abused them physically and mentally, imprisoned them, and subjected them to a campaign calculated to make them stop being Dakota.  On February 16, 1863, Congress passed an act that "abrogated and annulled" all treaties with the Dakota people. The act also stated that all lands held by the Dakota, and all annuities due to them, were forfeited to the US government. A second bill, providing for the removal of the Dakota from their ancestral homelands, passed on March 3, 1863. The aftermath of the US–Dakota War of 1862 also engulfed the Ho-Chunk, who were living at Blue Earth at the time of the war. The desire of colonists to remove all Indians from Minnesota led to a similar bill to evict the Ho-Chunk, who had been uninvolved in the war but resided on prime agricultural land that colonists wished to obtain.  In early May, the army put the Dakota captives from the Fort Snelling camp aboard steamers and took them to a desolate reservation at Crow Creek, Dakota Territory. The removal of the Ho-Chunk people coincided with that of the Dakota. For a brief time, the US army held hundreds of Ho-Chunk at Fort Snelling before they, too, were removed from the state.

 

After the US government forcibly removed the non-combatant Dakota from Minnesota, the war against the Dakota entered a second phase, and the concentration camp at Fort Snelling served a different purpose. In the summers of 1863–64, the US Army launched the Punitive Expeditions into Dakota Territory, intent on carrying war to the Dakota people. Fort Snelling became a center for marshalling supplies, stock, and troops for these efforts. From the spring of 1863 until the late summer of 1864, Dakota who had surrendered or been captured by the army were held at the Fort Snelling stockade before being exiled from Minnesota.  In November of the following year, an event marked the close of the US-Dakota War era at Fort Snelling. Bdewakantunwan (Mdewakanton) leaders Sakpedan (Little Six) and Wakan Ozanzan (Medicine Bottle), who had been involved in the war (though to what degree is still not certain), helped guide hundreds of Dakota people, including non-combatant women, children, and elderly, to safety in Canada after the fighting. US Army officers asked John H. McKenzie, who was then living near Fort Garry, Winnipeg if he would abduct the Dakota leaders and bring them across the border. McKenzie agreed to do so, enlisting a colleague named Onisine Giguere and others to help him capture Sakpedan and Wakan Ozanzan. McKenzie and his cohorts drugged the two Bdewakantunwan men using opiates, kidnapped them, and delivered them to the US Army at Pembina. The army then imprisoned them at Fort Snelling and tried them by military commission."

 - Minnesota Historical Society, Historic Fort Snelling

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"Movies have rarely, if ever, depicted the grace and inner spirit of North America's first people in the way Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves succeeds.  The Orion film production is being hailed by critics and Natives for its honest and effective portrayal of a society too often slandered by Hollywood's fairy-tale approach to aboriginal history.  Directed, co-produced and starring Kevin Costner, Dances With Wolves is an epic set in the 1860s as the white settlers began their westward journey into the lands of Native Americans. Dances With Wolves is the extraordinary story of an ordinary hero's search for humanity in the ultimate frontier - himself.

 

Lured by the desire to witness the last frontier before it vanishes, Union soldier John Dunbar (Costner) becomes trapped between two worlds as he's slowly drawn into the loving and honorable fold of a Sioux tribe living in the Dakota territory.  The movie's honest, sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans is unlike any seen before on film, according to many critics, and shows the often devastating impact of history on an entire people through both sides of the conflict.  The film opens in the midst of the Civil War as Lieut. Dunbar who, as a reward for an act of heroism, chooses reassignment to the frontier. Upon arriving he discovers the fort in the Dakotas is abandoned and he soon becomes involved with the Sioux. Dunbar meets with the Holy Man, Kicking Bird (Graham Greene), the Warrior, Wind In His Hair (Rodney Grant); tribal chief Ten Bears (Floyd Red Crow Westerman); Black Shawl (Tantoo Cardinal) and Stands With A Fist, a white woman adopted into the tribe as a child and Costner's eventual love interest in the film.

 

Gradually, through acts of bravery and honesty, he and the Sioux develop a mutual respect and admiration.  By this point in Dance With Wolves, which is the name the Sioux gave Dunbar, the audience has developed its own respect and admiration for the characters and story line in this movie as witnessed by the standing ovation and hugging, which followed a recent showing in Calgary.  It was the support and co-operation of local Native Americans that made the project a success. With much of the film's action set in the village of the Sioux tribe, upwards of 150 locals were needed as extras throughout the shoot. The community, according to Orion, embraced the project for its fair and genuine treatment of its heritage and was eager to participate. Dances With Wolves was, according to many people of the community, one of the few honest cinematic portrayals of Native Americans losing their culture and identity to the white man."

- Aboriginal Multi-Media Society

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"Lt. John Dunbar is dubbed a hero after he accidentally leads Union troops to a victory during the Civil War. He requests a position on the western frontier, but finds it deserted. He soon finds out he is not alone, but meets a wolf he dubs "Two-socks" and a curious Indian tribe. Dunbar quickly makes friends with the tribe, and discovers a white woman who was raised by the Indians. He gradually earns the respect of these native people, and sheds his white-man's ways."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"Ignore the cynics who prematurely pegged this venturesome three-hour western, which is star Kevin Costner’s directing debut, as Kevin’s Gate. For all its excesses in detailing racial fears and violence between whites and Indians in South Dakota in the 1860s, the film is heartfelt and engrossing. Costner rarely indulges in the look-at-me-Ma tricks of most new directors. His expansive style shows a genuine feel for the muscular poetry of the landscape and the Sioux’s language, spoken by a largely Native American cast and translated in English subtitles.  Costner plays Lieutenant John J. Dunbar, a battle-scarred Union soldier who requests a transfer to the West. Assigned to an abandoned prairie post, Dunbar ends up talking to his horse, Cisco, and a friendly wolf that he names Two Socks because of the “milky white socks on both feet.” Dunbar provides a running narration; Costner’s flat delivery deflects pomposity as neatly as it provides humor. It’s an exceptionally astute performance.

 

Dunbar’s first encounters with members of the Sioux tribe – the fierce Wind in His Hair (Rodney Grant) and the reflective Kicking Bird (Graham Greene) – are magical interludes. Grant and Greene, both Native Americans and experienced actors, make indelible impressions. And screenwriter Michael Blake, who adapted his vividly idiosyncratic 1987 novel, sets up the contrast between two cultures with economy, grace and authenticity.  There are conventional elements, such as Dunbar’s romance with Stands With a Fist, a white woman raised by the tribe since childhood. Though well played by Mary McDonnell (Matewan), the character seems lifted from John Ford’s 1956 masterpiece The Searchers, in which John Wayne rescues his kidnapped niece (Natalie Wood) from the Indians. Ford’s Cheyenne Autumn, in 1964, also examined government mistreatment of Native Americans. Both films clearly influenced Costner – he has good taste – though Dances lacks their psychological depth.

 

In trying to project a positive image for the Sioux, Costner sometimes fosters the clichéd contrast between the white devil and the noble savage. But there’s no denying the historical justification for the tribe’s pain and rage. Costner’s strength lies in his sturdy depiction of the daily life of the Sioux. Through Dunbar, who slowly becomes assimilated into the tribe, the audience is introduced to a culture of enormous pride and sophistication. With the invaluable aid of cinematographer Dean Semler, Costner tells a personal story that never loses touch with the vast Western spaces encompassing and defining it. Dances With Wolves is an epic that breathes. And it’s a beauty." 

- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"I've always had a soft spot for this film and now thinking back to the first time i watched it(probably I was only 9 or 10), I greatly enjoyed it. Having watched it since then I have come to appreciate this film even more, from the performances, to the scenery, to the buffalo chase scene and the sorrowful part where the cowboys decide to kill the wolf for no reason(the scene still chokes me up everytime I watch it). I have unfortunately never been able to watch the 4 hour unedited version, but if I have the chance I certainly will. Costner showed overwhelming potential here, something that he hasn't been able to replicate since then. But I will always remember him for this movie and not all of his failures. Furthermore I feel cinema has been at a great loss due to the lack of genuine westerns in the last two decades(Cowboys & Aliens doesn't count) because since this movie we've really only had two greats, Unforgiven and True Grit(a great remake, but a remake nonetheless)." - @tommycruise

 

Factoids

 

Dances with Wolves was directed by Kevin Costner.  It received 41 points, 6 votes and won the tiebreaker over Come and See by having 1 Number 1 Placement.

 

 

Countries Represented: Algeria (1), Austria (1), Belarus (1), England (1), France (1), Germany (2), Israel (2), Korea (1), Japan (3), Spain (1), United States (14), Vietnam (1)

 

Time Periods Represented: 16th Century (1), 17th Century (2), 18th Century (1), 19th Century (3), 1930s (3), 1950s (2), 1960s (5), 1990s (1), 21st Century (2), Classical Period (2), Middle Ages (1), World War 1/1910s (1), World War 2/1940s (5)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 18th Century - United States (1), 19th Century - United States (3), 21st Century - United States (2), 1930s - Germany (1), 1930s - Korea (1), 1930s - United States (1), 1950s - Algeria (1), 1950s - United States (1), 1960s - United States (4), 1960s - Vietnam (1), 1990s - United States (1), Classical Period - Israel (2), Middle Ages - England (1), Sengoku Period - Japan (1), Tokugawa Shogunate - Japan (2), World War 1 - France (1), World War 2/1940s - Belarus (1), World War 2/1940s - Germany (1), World War 2/1940s - Spain (1), World War 2 - Austria (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Park Chan-Wook (1), Francis Ford Coppola (1), Kevin Costner (1), David Fincher (2), John Ford (1), Bob Fosse (1), Anthoney Harvey (1), Terry Jones (1), Philip Kaufman (1), Elem Klimov (1), Masaki Kobayashi (1), Stanley Kramer (1), Akira Kurosawa (1), Michael Mann (1), Penny Marshall (1), Adam McKay (1), Steve McQueen (1), Theodore Melfi (1), Sam Mendes (1), Gillo Pontecorvo (1), Martin Scorsese (2), Steven Spielberg (2), Oliver Stone (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1), Robert Wise (1), William Wyler (1)

 

Decades Represented: 40s (1), 50s (1), 60s (5), 70s (3), 80s (4), 90s (3), 00s (3), 10s (9)

 

 

 

[The Panda]

 

 

"I will speak for you, Father. I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint."

 

Historical Setting: Classical Music Period, Austria

 

Source from the Period

 

"I`m writing this in bed as I`ve been suffering from acute rheumatism for the last week and have been laid up since the 17th. The pain was in the joint of my left thigh but after a few days it moved down to my left knee and is now affecting my right knee too. I`ve tried only burr root tea, 3 or 4 large glasses of which I`ve been drinking every day, I`ve also had to lie on the mattress as the room is often colder than the street, the most depressing part about it is that I have to cover my painful thighs with coats, furs etc. in order to keep warm and make myself sweat because otherwise I have only one or 2 single sheets to cover me. I`m lying here in my dressing gown and furs simply to keep warm, so you can imagine their weight on my legs and the inconvenience that they cause whenever I try to move. Once you`ve received this letter, you shouldn`t write to Milan any more as I hope that with God`s help I`ll be able to leave here during the first week of next month, assuming I`m not detained by the copyists working on the music that I`m having copied for Hs Grace and which they can`t do at present because they have to work for the theatre as the second opera is not opening until 30 January. If you write to me on 5 Feb., send the letter to Roveredo and write Ferma la Posta on it. Wolfg. is sorry that Leitgeb will arrive too late and won`t be able to hear his opera. Every day the theatre is amazingly full, it`s being performed 26 times. The rest of the time is for the second opera, while on Fridays and the odd feast day there`s no performance at all, [ I`ve sent ] Wolfgang`s [ opera to the Grand Duke in Florence ] . footnote3 Even if there is [nothing that we can hope to obtain from him, I still hope that he`ll recommend us. But if it`s all in vain, we shan`t go under, God will help us, I`ve already given it some thought]. Best wishes to all our good friends inside and outside the house. Lasting health to H Joseph Hag, we kiss you many 10000 times & I am your old
Mzt."

- 281. LEOPOLD MOZART TO HIS WIFE IN SALZBURG, In Mozart's Words

 

Historical Context

 

"While working on The Magic Flute, Mozart received a commission from a stranger to compose a requiem, but under conditions of secrecy.  Count von Walsegg wanted a requiem for his wife, to be played every year on her anniversary – and some have suggested he might have wanted to pass it off as his own work.  With the encouragement of his own wife, Mozart accepted the challenge, and was paid a part-fee, with the rest to follow on completion. The deadline, according to one report, was four weeks. But Mozart had to go to Prague to conduct Tito – and the deadline continued to hang over him.  Mozart starts work, concentratedly, on 8 October 1791.

 

On 20 November, he takes to his bed with a worsening of the spells of ill health he had suffered during the last year. On 3 December, his condition appears to improve – and the next day a few close friends gather to sing over with him part of the still-unfinished Requiem.  That evening, Mozart’s illness worsens, and just before 1am on 5 December, he dies, aged 35 with an initial cause of death registered as ‘severe military fever’.  At Mozart’s death, only the Introitus of the Requiem is fully scored. All the other movements, from the Kyrie fugue to the end of the Hostias, are only sketched. Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who has written the recitatives for La clemenza di Tito, completes much of the Requiem.

 

The presence of an incomplete Requiem as Mozart’s very last work delights scholars, commentators, playwrights and novelists to the present day. Again, the temptation to fuse life and work must be resisted: Mozart’s last commission just happens to be for a requiem, after all.  But on the day he died, Mozart himself declares: ‘Didn’t I say before that I was writing this Requiem for myself?’ And, according to one eyewitness account, ‘his last movement was an attempt to express with his mouth the drum passages in the Requiem.’  On hearing of Mozart’s death, Haydn says: ‘Posterity will not see such a talent again in a hundred years!’ And, as the American musicologist HC Robbins Landon later added, ‘Posterity has not seen it in two hundred.’"

- The mystery of Mozart's Reqiuem, BBC Music Magazine

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"On January 2, 1793, the completed Requiem received its first public performance, in Vienna. It was clearly understood to be Mozart’s work; it was organized as a benefit for Frau Mozart. Antonio Salieri attended the rehearsals, and many of Mozart’s friends celebrated the performance. In December of that same year, Walsegg conducted a performance of the Requiem, claiming it was his, and he repeated this the following February, the anniversary of his wife’s death. But by this point, it was becoming known that the work was actually Mozart’s. To save himself from embarrassment, Walsegg falsely claimed that he had been a student of Mozart and had sent the work to Mozart for approval. He claimed that after Mozart died, Constanze had mistaken the work for one of her husband’s.

 

In 1799, as Constanze explored the possibility of publishing the Requiem with Mozart’s other works, she revealed to the potential publisher that Süssmayr had completed the work; this was the first public acknowledgement that Mozart was not the sole author. When Walsegg learned of the impending publication, he sent his attorney to confront Frau Mozart, pointing out that she had promised him the only copy of the manuscript and that legally it belonged to him. She lied and told him that the publication was happening from copies of the Requiem that she had no control over, and at that point Walsegg accepted the inevitable and abandoned all pretense of having written the work.  The web of secrecy, half-truths and lies that surrounded the Requiem’s composition and early performances allowed for the emergence of a set of myths around the work. A biography of Mozart issued in 1798 claimed that Mozart had been entirely unaware of the identity of the commissioner, that he fainted numerous times during the composition process, and that he had had forebodings of his own death during the process, among other stories. The same year, Constanze claimed that he had been working on the composition the day he died, that the Grey Messenger had arrived shortly after her husband’s death and claimed the manuscript, and that she never learned the identity of the commissioner. The details about the mysterious Grey Messenger and Mozart’s supposed foreknowledge of his death providing the materials for a wonderful ghost story that helped stir interest in the work.

 

By this point, rumors were already circulating blaming Salieri for Mozart’s death, although no one seems to have taken them very seriously. But the first person to connect Salieri to the mysterious Grey Messenger was Alexander Pushkin, in his 1831  story “Mozart and Salieri”, which Peter Shaffer subsequently adapted into Amadeus. What Pushkin and Shaffer did was simplify the story of the Requiem’s composition and build it into a more dramatically satisfying narrative by substituting the malevolent Salieri for the vain Walsegg and turning the Grey Messenger into the more ominous Black Messenger.  Obviously, involving Salieri in the story of the Requiem is a substantial deviation from the facts. But the fact that the Requiem Mass was anonymously commissioned by someone who wished to pass it off as his own work is true. It’s a good example of the cliché that historical fact is often more interesting than historical fiction, and one that I wish more screenwriters would try to follow."

- An Historian Goes to the Movies, Amadeus

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"Antonio Salieri believes that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's music is divine and miraculous. He wishes he was himself as good a musician as Mozart so that he can praise the Lord through composing. He began his career as a devout man who believes his success and talent as a composer are God's rewards for his piety. He's also content as the respected, financially well-off, court composer of Austrian Emperor Joseph II. But he's shocked to learn that Mozart is such a vulgar creature, and can't understand why God favored Mozart to be his instrument. Salieri's envy has made him an enemy of God whose greatness was evident in Mozart. He is ready to take revenge against God and Mozart for his own musical mediocrity."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"But from a historical standpoint, Shaffer’s script abandons strict detail to instead tell a compelling story with moments that may never have occurred but contain a pronounced drama. Biographical references to and characteristics of the film’s historical figures are exaggerated or altogether fabricated for their dramatic resonance, employing bits and pieces of historical fact or mystery as their source of inspiration. Consider how in the film Salieri uses his position to stop Mozart from acquiring a pupil—and thus a much-needed source of income for the talented but destitute composer—in the Princess of Württemberg. Historical record shows that Mozart applied for the position, but Salieri took the job instead, whereas the film puts forth that Salieri sat on the board that chose another composer entirely. In another subplot, it is suggested that singer Katerina Cavalieri (Christine Ebersole) has an affair with Mozart, though Salieri had long held affections for her but did not act upon them out of his chastity; historians have suggested that in all likelihood, Salieri, whose chastity was invented by Shaffer, no doubt bedded the singer. The greatest deviation comes from the detail which finds Salieri donning the black costume worn by Mozart’s disapproving father (Roy Dotrice) earlier in the film; Salieri appears at Mozart’s door and, terrifying Mozart with the notion of a ghostly reminiscence of his dead father, commissions a death mass. History suggests the obscure figure Count Franz von Walsegg, a minor composer, hired an anonymous garbed figure to commission Mozart’s Requiem Mass with the intention of passing it off as his own.

 

Pointing out these historical deviations is not to discredit Shaffer’s screenplay or Forman’s production, only enhance the viewer’s appreciation of how cleverly both men have manipulated history into a compelling story about the artistic process and its consequences. After all, Amadeus does not have an objective presentation told in the stodgy, timeline-following manner of most historical biopics. Instead, Shaffer chooses to create this melodrama through Salieri, who, by all accounts cannot be trusted to give us an accurate depiction of what really happened. In Salieri’s mind, perhaps Mozart laughs the way he does because Salieri finds the man absurd, an embarrassment to piety everywhere. Perhaps Mozart jumps up and down like an angry adolescent who wants a toy because Salieri sees him an ill-mannered whiz kid that never grew up. Mozart’s character has been so distorted by Salieri’s resentment that to bother with any kind of historical assessment of Amadeus equates to believing every word of an insane person, and in the final scene, Forman shows us how truly mad Salieri has become by placing him out among the lunatics. In the film’s last scene, Salieri is rolled out among them and he greets them with open arms, smiling, absolving them of their madness. And from this man we expect historical accuracy? Forman capture the chaos of Salieri’s nineteenth-century lunatic asylum recalls similar scenes of madness in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, scenes littered with naked, decrepit men running about, screaming obscenities and other nonsense, some shackled to the wall and others locked inside pens that in scale are smaller than a birdcage."

- Brian Eggert, Deep Focus Review

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"I was avoiding this movie because I got burned by other tedious overlong historical epics of the 80s that won BP (Gandhi,Out of Africa, Last Emperor) and it looked just like them.

 

This movie is nothing like an average historical biopic. Instead of this genius did this and then he did that - (childhood flashback!) - and then in the end he changed the world blah blah blah like so many tedious biographies of great and/or iconic personalities, Milos Forman did something else. He turned the famous historical figure into a supporting character in order to talk about how it is to be mediocre and striving for excellence. The movie is fun, surprising and heartbreaking. 

 

I would recommend it to anyone who has reservations because of its genre." - @Joel M

 

Factoids

 

Amadeus was directed by Milos Forman.  It received 43 points and 9 votes

 

 

Countries Represented: Algeria (1), Austria (2), Belarus (1), England (1), France (1), Germany (2), Israel (2), Korea (1), Japan (3), Spain (1), United States (14), Vietnam (1)

 

Time Periods Represented: 16th Century (1), 17th Century (2), 18th Century (2), 19th Century (3), 1930s (3), 1950s (2), 1960s (5), 1990s (1), 21st Century (2), Classical Period (2), Middle Ages (1), World War 1/1910s (1), World War 2/1940s (5)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 18th Century - Austria (1), 18th Century - United States (1), 19th Century - United States (3), 21st Century - United States (2), 1930s - Germany (1), 1930s - Korea (1), 1930s - United States (1), 1950s - Algeria (1), 1950s - United States (1), 1960s - United States (4), 1960s - Vietnam (1), 1990s - United States (1), Classical Period - Israel (2), Middle Ages - England (1), Sengoku Period - Japan (1), Tokugawa Shogunate - Japan (2), World War 1 - France (1), World War 2/1940s - Belarus (1), World War 2/1940s - Germany (1), World War 2/1940s - Spain (1), World War 2 - Austria (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Park Chan-Wook (1), Francis Ford Coppola (1), Kevin Costner (1), David Fincher (2), John Ford (1), Milos Forman (1), Bob Fosse (1), Anthoney Harvey (1), Terry Jones (1), Philip Kaufman (1), Elem Klimov (1), Masaki Kobayashi (1), Stanley Kramer (1), Akira Kurosawa (1), Michael Mann (1), Penny Marshall (1), Adam McKay (1), Steve McQueen (1), Theodore Melfi (1), Sam Mendes (1), Gillo Pontecorvo (1), Martin Scorsese (2), Steven Spielberg (2), Oliver Stone (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1), Robert Wise (1), William Wyler (1)

 

Decades Represented: 40s (1), 50s (1), 60s (5), 70s (3), 80s (5), 90s (3), 00s (3), 10s (9)

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2020 by The Panda

[The Panda]

And the honorable mentions for today

 

 

66.    Chinatown
67.    Kundun
68.    Kingdom of Heaven
69.    There Will Be Blood 
70.    Argo 
71.    Inherit the Wind 
72.    Fiddler on the Roof
73.    The Thin Red Line
74.    Little Women (2019)
75.    BlacKkKlansman 
76.    The Wind Rises 
77.    The Shawshank Redemption
78.    Letters from Iwo Jima
79.    Casino
80.    MASH 
81.    Roma 
82.    The King’s Speech 
83.    Unforgiven 
84.    The Last Samurai 
85.    Alexander Nevsky 
86.    Aguirre, The Wrath of God 
87.    Spotlight
88.    (Tied for 88) Platoon 
88.    (Tie for 88) L.A. Confidential 
90.    1776  
91.    The Godfather Part II
92.    Persepolis 
93.    A Man for All Seasons 
94.    Blood Diamond 
95.    Becket 
96.    Barry Lyndon 
97.    First Man 
98.    Ugetsu 
99.    The Searchers 
100.    Cinema Paradiso
 

Edited May 11, 2020 by The Panda

[Cap]

4 minutes ago, The Panda said:

66.    Chinatown
 

This list is a cruel and unforgiving god. 😂😂😂😂

[Jake Gittes]

12 minutes ago, The Panda said:

And the honorable mentions for today

 

 

66.    Chinatown
69.    There Will Be Blood 

 

10 hours ago, CJohn said:

Numbers Panda when he reveals yet another trash in this trash.

 

[The Panda]

 

 

"Lina. She can't act, she can't sing, she can't dance. A triple threat."

 

Historical Context: End of the Hollywood Silent/Golden Era, 1920s

 

Source from the Period

 

"Since that time, the industry has rushed head over heels into the sound picture. New devices began almost instantly to appear on the market. Intensified selling campaigns were launched in the exhibitor fields in order that there might be a market for the synchronized product.2 Studios equipped themselves with special stages for producing sound. Synchronizing companies worked day and night to meet the demand for sound effects. Legitimate stage began to think of the patronizing, and slightly caustic, remarks they would make to the youthful stars of Hollywood who, of course, would be needed no longer now that speech was required of them.

3 Dreams of new wealth drifted up before the disappointed old timers, who had looked enviously and with disapproval at the movie sheiks and queens with their Rolls Royces, and who now, for the first time, saw visions of themselves enjoying the same opulence. Hollywood palpitated with excitement. Proud stars, it was said, who took orders from no one, were meekly submitting to voice tests. Eighteen thousand extras began filing information with the Central Casting Office as to their experience in speaking lines. And the first complete talking picture with dialogue came along amid press agent didoes [antics]. One company after another announced that it had acquired rights to sound devices. Even the comedies were to be produced with sound, that we might hear, as well as see, a pie spatter a comic’s face. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began an intensive study of the situation. Difficulties arose and cast weird shadows before the producers’ eyes. Broadway heard that every legitimate actor was being flooded with contracts and that 

Hollywood was going to move to Manhattan. It was sound, sound, sound. Differences of opinion arose at once as to the future of “talkies,” as the dialogue films came instantly to be known in picture circles. One producer sailing for Europe on Monday would give out a statement that in five years there would be no more silent screen. The next day another producer, sailing for Europe, would warn the industry that the picture was still the important piece of entertainment and that sound would have to be subordinate. A third producer, sailing for Europe on Wednesday, would predict a complete new order in motion picture production—new scenario writing, new acting, new direction, new effects which would double the attendance. The results of thirty-two years’ endeavor were to crash before this new startling device. Everybody predicted something, and nearly everybody predicted something different. Never in the history of the industry was there, or is there, such divergence of opinion, or such feverish activity."

 - Monta Ball, The North American Review (1928)

 

Historical Context

 

"While many moviegoers had initially been excited by the idea of hearing their favourite actors’ voices, they were disappointed when the image of the actor and the voice did not match their preconceptions. This came to be known as “Talkie Terror” amongst long-time silent film stars whose careers ended along with the silent film era as a result of this phenomenon (Doyle 2010). In the December 1929 issue of Photoplay, an influential magazine in the film industry, the cover read “The Microphone – The Terror of the Studios” with another tagline, “You Can’t Get Away With It In Hollywood” (Doyle 2010). The issue dealt with the introduction of the new sound technology as it created a division between Old and New Hollywood. An actor had to be more than just beautiful to thrive in New Hollywood; so the new talkies starred stage actors who had more experience with dialogue (Doyle 2010). Many actors left their film careers due to voice issues due to the new technology, including Colleen Moore, Gloria Swanson, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and others were pushed out by studios using their voice as an excuse to demote or fire them (Doyle 2010). The silent-to-sound transition did not only affect the stars; it ushered in a new breed of directors who had experience working in theatre and thus had a better understanding of the power of voice; it gave great importance to newly-hired, all-powerful sound technicians who shushed the Old Hollywood directors as they shouted orders to actors on set; and cameramen found themselves cramped in soundproof booths that did not allow for the same fluidity that silent films were loved for (Doyle 2010).

 

During this transitional phase, Hollywood produced several hybrid films like The Jazz Singer, which were both silent and had dialogue. The studios also experimented with sound on film by adding only music and sound effects using the new technology. Another hybrid version that came to exist was a process called “goat glanding” where existing silent films were re-mastered with sound effects and dialogue in some key scenes (Miller n.d.). Another way that studios ensured their success while they gambled with the new sound technology was to continue to release silent versions of their talkies. This was a tactic to ensure box office sales, and ideal for smaller movie houses that had not yet been wired for sound (Miller 2010). When the last silent film was finally made, not only did the art of the silent film die but it also marked the end of the art of intertitle writing. Musicians who had played accompaniment to silent films also found themselves out of work and replaced by what the American Federation of Musicians referred to as “canned music” (Miller n.d.).

 

The musical, Footlight Parade released in October 1933, starts with a declarative farewell to the silent film era: an electric billboard announcing the death of the silent film (Miller n.d.). The six-year transition period is an indication that silent films did not go silently. The 2011 release of the Academy Award winner The Artist, a French silent film about Hollywood, has brought silent-cinema back into the spotlight and, at the same Academy Awards, Martin Scorsese was nominated for Hugo, a film that celebrates the beginnings of French silent film. The silent-cinema era is certainly not forgotten and judging by the popularity of the recent Academy Award winners, perhaps it will even enjoy a revival. As Crafton says of the transition from silent films to talkies, “It was a complicated and messy business, owing in no small part to the vicissitudes of mass audiences” (Crafton 1999)."

- The End of an Era: From Silent Film to Talkies, Sheza Naqi

 

Historical Accuracy

 

"“Singin’ in the Rain” is one of the greatest movie musicals ever made. It is a film of enormous artistic achievement, brilliant on every level. The movie represents the pinnacle of studio movie making – where every phase of the production was controlled by seasoned experts with great skill and obvious love for the final product.  The silent film era of the 1920s produced some of the greatest masterpieces in the history of film. Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin chaplin-the-musical-broadway-nyc-jer-johnscreated films which can still mesmerize, enthrall, and entertain us. Although the silent film era was quickly overshadowed by the talkies, leading to the Golden Age of American movies, their influence was enormous. By the 1950s, as the studio system was on the wane, motion pictures had become bigger, more powerful, and more influential than even the early visionaries of silent film could’ve anticipated. However, as the silent film era receded into the mists of memory, film critics, historians, and educators began to realize that we were losing an important part of our cultural heritage.

 

...

 

Although it may seem superfluous to talk about the plot of a movie musical, “Singing in the Rain” is a delightful exception. The film centers around the difficulties of the transition from silent films to talking films. At all points during the production, the silent era is treated with respect and warmth. After establishing that Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) had been a burlesque performer, images-2working his way up through the sticks alongside his buddy Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor), the film follows his rise in the new silent film industry. Although his story is fictional, parallels can be found in the careers of many film stars who more or less wandered into Hollywood. The early scenes in “Singin’ in the Rain” depicting the wildly innovative, almost anarchic beginnings of the modern film industry are actually very accurate to that innovative and improvisational time. Significantly, they are also shown with a warm nostalgia that indicated the great respect of the filmmakers for their predecessors in the silent era.
Lina Lamont, played by the sublime Jean Hagen, is not a figure of fun because she’s a silent film star; she is ridiculous because of her own pretentiousness and lack of self-awareness. I’m sure that many in Hollywood today could identify more than a few movie stars with those qualities! “Singin’ in the Rain” then re-creates – both hilariously and accurately – the difficulties of transitioning from silent films to talkies. The significance of this is that Hollywood was acknowledging its own creation story. Not only is “Singin’ in the Rain” a breathtaking example of 1950s studio filmmaking, and one of the greatest musicals ever filmed, it is also one of the greatest movies ever made about the history of the movies."

- Barry Bradford

 

 

The Film Itself

 

The Story

 

"In 1927, the former stunt Don Lockwood becomes a successful actor with the company of his best friend Cosmo Brown forming a romantic pair with the actress Lina Lamont. In the period of transition from silent movies to talking pictures, Don accidentally meets the aspirant actress Kathy Selden while escaping from his fans and fall in love for her. Lina has troubles with the sharp tune of her voice, and Cosmo and Don decide to dub her, using Kathy's voice, to save their movie. When the jealous Lina finds out the strategy of the studio, she does not want to share the credits with Kathy and tries to force the studio to use Kathy in the shadow to dub her in other productions. But when Lina decides to speech and sing to the audience, the truth arises."

 

Critic Opinion

 

"Singin' in the Rain, a gay, tuneful spoofing of the picture business in the late '20s, contains everything to make it a solid hit. With the names and versatile talents of Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds, supported by lilting melodies, wonderful dancing and some very funny comedy, the show just can't miss being another MGM top-grosser. Arthur Freed's production is a handsome one, with lavish but tasteful settings, enhanced by beautiful color by Technicolor which makes the film as pleasing to the eye as it is to the ear. Direction, by Kelly and Stanley Donen, is lively, maintaining a tongue-in-cheek quality that keeps the emphasis on laughs. 

 

The production numbers, also staged by Kelly and Donen, are spectacular, although possibly over-long, but even here is the same kidding quality that makes the film so delightful. Particularly impressive are Kelly's "Broadway Melody" routine, beautifully danced with Cyd Charisse, and the "Beautiful Girls" number, a colorful and amusing satire of the old-time styles show. And for sheer joy there is the riotous "Make 'Em Laugh" song-and-dance interlude by Donald O'Connor in which the likeable young performer almost slays himself and the audience with his nimble footwork. The only complaint about O'Connor is that the more you see of him the more you want. Kelly also pulls a show-stopper with the title song number, his hoofing ranging from the graceful to the spectacular. 

 

Light-hearted story is merely a framework for the songs and dances. Kelly and Jean Hagen are silent film stars, the sensations of motion pictures, when along comes sound. About to do another romantic film, the same type that has made them famous, they confidently make it a talky film. But disaster strikes at the preview when it is revealed that the female star has a voice reminiscent of a nail being scratched along a blackboard. Kelly saves the day by dubbing in Debbie Reynolds' voice for Miss Hagen's, and surrounding the film with song, thus converting the flop into a hit. Miss Hagen then tries some dirty work, attempting to keep Debbie confined to remaining as her behind-the-scenes voice, but Kelly thwarts the plan and Debbie soars toward stardom."

- The Hollywood Reporter, 1952

 

BOT User Opinion

 

"Even more amazing that (the brilliant & sexy) Gene Kelly had been ill for days and the day of filming the Singing In The Rain number had a 103°F fever and spent all day soaked and getting sicker.

 

The movie is pure joy.  One of my all time favorites.

 

No. No. No. Yes. Yes. Yes." - @TalismanRing

 

Factoids

 

Singin' in the Rain was directed by Gene Kelley and Stanley Donen.  It received 45 points and 7 votes.

 

 

Countries Represented: Algeria (1), Austria (2), Belarus (1), England (1), France (1), Germany (2), Israel (2), Korea (1), Japan (3), Spain (1), United States (15), Vietnam (1)

 

Time Periods Represented: 16th Century (1), 17th Century (2), 18th Century (2), 19th Century (3), 1920s (1), 1930s (3), 1950s (2), 1960s (5), 1990s (1), 21st Century (2), Classical Period (2), Middle Ages (1), World War 1/1910s (1), World War 2/1940s (5)

 

Cross Section of Times and Countries: 18th Century - Austria (1), 18th Century - United States (1), 19th Century - United States (3), 21st Century - United States (2), 1920s - United States (1), 1930s - Germany (1), 1930s - Korea (1), 1930s - United States (1), 1950s - Algeria (1), 1950s - United States (1), 1960s - United States (4), 1960s - Vietnam (1), 1990s - United States (1), Classical Period - Israel (2), Middle Ages - England (1), Sengoku Period - Japan (1), Tokugawa Shogunate - Japan (2), World War 1 - France (1), World War 2/1940s - Belarus (1), World War 2/1940s - Germany (1), World War 2/1940s - Spain (1), World War 2 - Austria (1), World War 2 - United States (1)

 

Directors Represented: Park Chan-Wook (1), Francis Ford Coppola (1), Kevin Costner (1), Stanley Donen (1), David Fincher (2), John Ford (1), Milos Forman (1), Bob Fosse (1), Anthoney Harvey (1), Terry Jones (1), Philip Kaufman (1), Gene Kelley (1), Elem Klimov (1), Masaki Kobayashi (1), Stanley Kramer (1), Akira Kurosawa (1), Michael Mann (1), Penny Marshall (1), Adam McKay (1), Steve McQueen (1), Theodore Melfi (1), Sam Mendes (1), Gillo Pontecorvo (1), Martin Scorsese (2), Steven Spielberg (2), Oliver Stone (1), Guillermo Del Torro (1), Robert Wise (1), William Wyler (1)

 

Decades Represented: 40s (1), 50s (2), 60s (5), 70s (3), 80s (5), 90s (3), 00s (3), 10s (9)

 

 

 

 

[Cap]

Over his historic career Gene Kelly's danced with Les Girls, an animated mouse, and sports legends, choreographed a twenty-five minute ballet for the Paris Opera, directed Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song’s original Broadway production, directed movie musicals like Invitation to Dance and Hello! Dolly, received an Honorary Academy Award for his achievements in dance and Kennedy Center Award for his contribution to the Arts.

 

And, yet, out of everything he ever did, nothing brings me to tears like watching him splash around in a puddle.  It is the perfect ending to a perfect number.

 

There are times I sometimes feel like another movie musical is better, or it's my "favorite", and then I rewatch Singin' In The Rain, and realize how utterly foolish I am.  It's perfect. 

[Plain Old Tele]

Moses supposes his toeses are roses,

but Moses supposes erroneously. 

[MrGamer]

12 hours ago, The Panda said:

 

 

 

66.    Chinatown
67.    Kundun