This may mean something to some, but nothing to others…
Lists…I’m forever making them, but only regarding films, of which I have too many…
Every year, I make a list of recent films at the cinema that I never watched - but feel inclined to buy on Bluray, in preparation for watching them at Christmas every year…
To my mind, it is something to look forward to…
This month. I’ve had an issue in my own mind as to whether or not to keep purchasing from my ‘Christmas Premiers’ list - (recent BD hits, that I may not like) - or to spend this month buying films that I truly like, and will always enjoy.
In other words…do we buy films because we truly enjoy them, or is it to simply to maintain/sustain a tradition (Christmas premiers); keep up with the trend? Do we buy to complete a collection; or simply buy because it is the thing to do…and do we get pleasure out of buying for buying’s sake?
Anyway…preaching over…I’ve bought the first two Blurays, because I like and love them…
Old films, yes…but the best reason, sometimes, for buying them in the best quality available…
Two ‘Oldies’……
And 'Yes…I love ‘Brannigan’…the UK equivalent of Eastwood’s ‘Coogan’s bluff’…
Almost anything from the 1960s and early to mid 70s is a good thing for me …
I also enjoy ‘Brannigan’ … not at all to be taken seriously for a second, but great fun - and ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ (1971) is a great yarn well told, with gripping performances and fab music from John Barry.
Regarding newer films … I’m almost totally out of touch with new releases - I no longer go to the cinema to watch mediocrity with philistines and morons. If anything really good turns up (once every 10 years ) I will hear about it … but otherwise I am totally disinterested in contemporary cinema.
I totally agree, my friend. But, ‘Brannigan’ is bloody good fun!
I never saw 'Brannigan’ on the big screen (Wish I had!), but I do remember ‘Mary’ If I remember correctly, my Dad got really pissed off because some of the stabbing/killing scenes in that upset me so much at the time (sorry Dad), that we had to leave the cinema. I may be wrong with that memory…
The period atmosphere in ‘Mary’ is second to none…and the John Barry music?..to die for…
I suppose it says something for how things have changed so much, that this film is now being shown on TV in the afternoon.
I guess, as older viewers, we are an ancient race…
That’s a very interesting and relevant observation, T … I’ve noticed quite a few movies from the 1960s and 70s, which were either AA or X cert when first screened, turn up on TV, including one of the ‘scariest’ Hammer films, ‘The Witches’ (1966) which had me feeling uneasy when I watched it only a few years ago. This was an afternoon showing.
I know that at a certain age, kids try to outdo each other by watching or claiming to watch the strongest stuff available to them … as I remember my younger sister aged about 12, watching a rented VHS of ‘Silence of the Lambs’ as a birthday treat, and couldn’t sleep properly for weeks afterwards.
Are kids more hardened to onscreen violence and scary stuff these days ? … thankfully I don’t know any, so I can’t say … I’m guessing their threshold for boredom kicks in before anything too nasty happens on screen and they go back to playing with their phones, which is potentially really scary!
I don’t know why we did have respect to a large degree for parents, the police, and authority in the ‘old days’…
In my opinion, it was a ‘you know how things are’ respect…you (I) didn’t question it, because it seemed to abide by a normal/not normal…black/white…code of thinking.
We don’t have that now…and, as a result of kids knowing how much they can get away with, without being named (because of their age), we have anarchy.
Anyway…getting away from the fact that kids can (in the UK) can engage in robbery, murder, rape, and worse…‘but not be named for legal reasons’, we can only hope that other kids will heed the message of behaving themselves…not.
Not that the good old days were all that good in many ways, but you’re right about kids and adolescents getting away with shit ‘We’ wouldn’t have dreamed of doing … They have no respect or fear of authority or the concept of just being a decent human being.
Bring back the old ‘cuff’ around the ear from your friendly neighborhood policeman, or concerned adult.
Unfortunately many of us kids growing up in the 60s and 70s were bullied and brutalized by teachers and cops etc … so we have gone from one extreme to another, and things do feel out of control.
In my opinion, this is not only an excellent Western, but also one of John Wayne’s finest and most iconic moments on screen - which, sadly - turned out to be his last. It was also a very personal, poignant, and heart-felt film, for so many reasons…
I remember as a child this movie playing a lot of schools and church halls etc on 16mm prints … it was a cinematic treat, but also used as a very powerful anti smoking campaign … It had the big scare factor about death by cancer, which no doubt saved some lives.
Today I was in the first 10 people to pre-order this and the queue to get access to the Imprint website page is now around 400. For a ‘flawed’ film The Keep certainly has plenty of fans…
