Topic: YOU'RE A BETTER MAN THAN I AM, GUNGA DIN (Read 30248 times)

bk · « **on:** February 06, 2005, 11:59:17 PM »

Well, you've read the notes, the notes were a ripping adventure yarn, and now it is time for you to post until the cows come home, which is a ripping adventure yarn in itself.

bk · « **Reply #1 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:08:07 AM »

The word of the day is: OOZE!

bk · « **Reply #2 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:09:23 AM »

Let me get this straight or, for that matter, let me get this crooked: Ann finally catches up and then DOESN'T POST? She just tunes in, turns on, and drops out? No, no, this will NOT do.

OOZE!

bk · « **Reply #3 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:10:48 AM »

Welcome six GUESTS. We're talkin' about a pricey collectible you'd treat yourself to if you had wealth beyond your wildest imagings, and we're talkin' about OOZE.

George · « **Reply #4 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:10:56 AM »

Well, the Topic of the Day is certainly an interesting one (not as interesting as the word of the day

)...but one which requires sleep to thoroughly contemplate the question. So, to sleep I must go. But I wanted to post this so that I can say that I posted before Wussburgering out.

bk · « **Reply #5 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:11:35 AM »

I feel we should all say the word OOZE in unison. On the count of three or the Duke of four: One, two, three - OOZE.

Love that.

bk · « **Reply #6 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:11:55 AM »

What am I, doing a monologue all of a sudden?

George · « **Reply #7 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:12:46 AM »

OOZE!! Okay, I'm a bit late, but still I Oozed.

bk · « **Reply #8 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:12:56 AM »

A mere forty more posts to my new LARGE plateau. And after I attain my LARGE plateau I shall attain a LARGE chateau.

bk · « **Reply #9 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:13:18 AM »

One simply must OOZE.

Ann · « **Reply #10 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:13:51 AM »

Ooze...interesting word.

I want something sweet to eat...but what?

George · « **Reply #11 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:14:27 AM »

Quote from: bk on February 07, 2005, 12:12:56 AM

A mere forty more posts to my new LARGE plateau. And after I attain my LARGE plateau I shall attain a LARGE chateau.

It is quite possible, BK, that you could attain the 5-digit plateau today! Good luck!

George · « **Reply #12 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:15:00 AM »

Quote from: Ann on February 07, 2005, 12:13:51 AM

Ooze...interesting word.

I want something sweet to eat...but what?

Pie! What else??

George · « **Reply #13 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:15:38 AM »

Good night, BK and Ann!

bk · « **Reply #14 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:19:58 AM »

Oh, I see Ann has tuned in, turned on, dropped out, and tuned in again.

bk · « **Reply #15 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:22:59 AM »

Welcome seven GUESTS. OOZE.

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #16 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:23:55 AM »

I fairly OOZE with unbelieveability that you have not watched GUNGA DIN in over thirty years. I must watch this film three or four times a year. If I'm flipping channels and I catch part of it, I will watch it to the end. And I never tire of it. I always say that ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD is my favourite film, but GUNGA DIN is so close, it is virtually a toss-up.

If you have not watched it in over thirty years than you have never seen it in its restored pristine condition which Rudy Behlmer I believe had a hand in about fifteen years or so ago. Rudyard Kipling, long gone shortly after its initial release, is back in. The extended punch bowl scene is restored and other little bits and pieces here and there.

Every actor in it is at the top of his form. And George Stevens directs with his usual meticulousness. It is full of nuance, detail, and delicious bits. The battle in Tantrapor (sp?) is one of the best action scenes ever filmed. I could teach a course in film studies with this one film. It has everything you need to know in it how to make a great film. As you suggest, as near perfect as anything gets.

Ann · « **Reply #17 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:26:35 AM »

I haven't dropped anywhere, dear bk, I am still here.

I don't have much to say, though. Oh, I go to the doctors for my two week post-op appointment tomorrow. Hopefully they'll give me the goahead to work a few days this week.

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #18 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:30:24 AM »

What collectible would I buy if I had a fortune? Well, a first folio Shakespeare might be fun.

Or an original Frazetta.

I might go to that dealer in foreign movie posters we always see at the Courts show and get some of the ones with the particularly beautiful artwork I've had my eye on for years...The Mask Of Fu Manchu, The Mark of Zorro, The Thief of Baghdad, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and the 1935 SHE poster.

bk · « **Reply #19 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:44:23 AM »

Pogue, don't you agree that if the Gunga Din script were taken to a studio exec today that they would laugh at it.

bk · « **Reply #20 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:44:57 AM »

Oh, and Adelphia struck again - totally down for the last ten minutes. I've been on hold with them for ten minutes as well.

bk · « **Reply #21 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:47:01 AM »

Well, I suppose I'll OOZE off to the bedroom environment. I'll wait another five minutes or so to see if these disgusting Adelphia people answer the call.

bk · « **Reply #22 on:** February 07, 2005, 12:53:10 AM »

All right, I shall now toddle off to the bedroom environment. Adelphia has not picked up. So, may I just say to them: OOZE. And they shall be hearing from me first thing in the morning.

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #23 on:** February 07, 2005, 01:00:24 AM »

I don't know that they'd necessarily laugh at it...but I suspect that they gut it of everything that makes it great, simply because they'd try to make it politically correct. Oh, you can't have these colonials brutes treating indigenious people that way. We have to balance everything. Make it all even-handed. Everything would lose it's edge and it would all be processed...like processed...bland and tasteless.

But actually one of the great things about this movie is that the racism of colonialism is addressed without hitting you over the head with it. You see in the reflective, contemplative glances at the end while the poem is being read...their questions, their shame, their pride in the efforts of their companion. You also get an eloquent defense and viewpoint from the other side in Edouardo Cianelli's speeches.

Have you seen any of the new FOUR FEATHERS? I caught some on cable and what little I saw was disappointing. Instead of keeping it about the story of one man trying to prove to his friends he is not a coward by performing unusual acts of heroism and giving them their white feather back, they tried to tackle the bigger issues of colonial conquest and,while what I saw was not terrible, I felt it was off-point and paled from the '39 film.

They even gave the hero a sort of native mentor/deus ex machina who often bails his ass out of trouble...which, of course, dilutes the whole crux of the matter. He has gone off alone to fight his own battles in his own way and prove, not just to his friends, but also to himself he is not a coward...not question the motives and value (or not) of Imperilism.

We always have to throw in shallow, simplistic, politically correct lessons instead of just accepting this historical perspective of the day and understanding those were the values and times we live in.

I remember one guy who had trouble with Russell Crowe as a hero in GLADIATOR because the film started out with him making war against the Germans.

It was the time and the name of the game was conquest, people! Get over it!

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #24 on:** February 07, 2005, 01:09:51 AM »

While I'm on my rant of political correctness and historical perspective. I hate the revisionist historical rap Columbus gets. Oh, that beastly man came over here and slaughtered those poor Indians...oops...Native Americans. They neglect to mention that long before Columbus came, the Native Americans were warring on each other, torturing, enslaving, slaughtering each other...carrying off and raping each other's women.

And I'm a Native American too...and it's not because I've got one sixteenth Cherokee blood in me (or some fraction like that). It's because...duhhh...I was born in American. That makes me a Native American.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #25 on:** February 07, 2005, 02:53:47 AM »

OMG DRCP - I am also 1/16th Cherokee Indian. Can you imagine our ancestors bitching around the fire? "I hate the way those young braves dress....and that makeup!"

GUNGA DIN - well I can only concur with its wonderful-ness. Back in the day, our local non-network affiliated Channel 4 would, in the summertime, show a movie - the SAME movie - at 10 am and 10 pm five days in a row. This is the way I first saw KING KONG and all the Astaire-Rogers films. I would make sure I saw the movie at 10 am on Monday morning, and if it was a keeper - I saw it 10 times in five days. GUNGA DIN was one of them as well. By the time of the battle I was watching standing up, couldn't sit down because of the excitement.... Never liked Fairbanks, Jr. in much of anything else - but Cary Grant as an action hero was perfect - and Victor was the perfect big brother figure....and it was so scary. How do you fight against a group of people who hate you because of your race and/or politics? GUNGA DIN.....and Sam Jaffe, who at the time was on BEN CASEY was a revelation as well. I kept thinking he must be a hundred years old!

Jrand73 · « **Reply #26 on:** February 07, 2005, 02:56:51 AM »

MR BK you are leaving me in the dust post-wise. Congratulations on what will happen later this day.

Rainy day today - but that's okay.

Collectible with cost no object. Hmmmmmmm.....if it could be found, the scrapbook that Frances Farmer's mother Lillian kept of Frances' career, and the audio tapes that Frances made for her biography.

Otherwise - a Monet and a signed first edition of ATLAS SHRUGGED.

Jrand73 · « **Reply #27 on:** February 07, 2005, 03:14:52 AM »

DRGEORGE - I like the music to XANADU as well. I play the CD rather than watch the movie....although what's nice is to see actual dancing in some of the sequences as opposed to the JiveAss Street crap that passes for dancing now. Those girls who play the other muses are obviously trained dancers - not strippers. Sandahl Bergman is stunning with her terrific body and perfect moves. Olivia doesn't stand a chance dancing with them....but her solo work in "Suspended In Time" which is just one shot that begins far away and moves in and in and in to end on a closeup of her face is probably my favorite ONJ moment on film!

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #28 on:** February 07, 2005, 03:21:51 AM »

We Din-o-philes are in good company. It's William Goldman's favourite movie too. His first novel was entitled TEMPLE OF GOLD, after the movie, which features prominently in the book.

Yep, I got my Cherokee blood and am proud of it. And, yes, I can see our ancestors round the campfire, bitching about those thong-like loincloths the young squaws are wearing instead of the nice doeskin tunic that has some discretion to it.

Ben · « **Reply #29 on:** February 07, 2005, 05:37:07 AM »

Hi, Ginny, Joey, Jennifer, Hisaka, and Larry.

I need to think about the TOD before I answer.

I do love caramel that OOZES all over a scoop of ice cream.

Tonight begins my theatre marathon with a performance of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Mr. John Lithgow and Mr. Norbert Leo Butz. I shall report tomorrow morning.

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Author Topic: YOU'RE A BETTER MAN THAN I AM, GUNGA DIN (Read 30248 times)

Ben