Short Video Clips (from Youtube, etc)

[Art Blade]

 

[Art Blade]

not exactly short, but very cool..

[fragger]

Nice one Art, very entertaining. It's easy in this day and age of technical SFX whizzbangery to forget how groundbreaking Star Wars was back in the day (when it was just simply called "Star Wars", without the "Episode IV: A New Hope" appellation, and as far as anyone knew at the time, might have been destined to be a one-time-only thing).

Something else that would probably come as a surprise to many young folks today was the fact that movies like Star Wars would run at the cinema for months and months. The (original) Poseidon Adventure, Jaws, Star Wars, and many other big-budget films of the 60s and 70s could easily run for a couple of years or more - in the same cinema. The reasons being: a) there were no such things as "home entertainment" systems for movies to compete with - no DVDs, no VHS even, and; b) movies weren't churned out with anything like the frequency that they are nowadays, especially effects-driven extravaganzas.

I remember seeing Star Wars in the first couple of weeks after it opened, and I thought it was fantastic. I saw it again about a year later (in the same cinema) and still hugely enjoyed it, but not quite as much. Then I saw it a third time yet another year later, just before it ended its cinema run (and STILL in the same cinema) and I enjoyed it a third time but markedly less so. Some of the cracks in it were really beginning to show (especially during the attack on the Death Star sequence, just as that SFX guy commented in the video) and I kind of knew it would be the last time I would ever watch it (which it was). I couldn't bear to watch it nowadays, even with the revamped visuals.

Beginning with the first sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, I thought the series began to go downhill even then. I saw that, and The Return Of The Jedi, just once apiece, and I didn't like the latter at all. The law of diminishing returns applies from then on. The last Star Wars movie I watched was way back in 2000 or thereabouts with Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and I hated it. I haven't watched a Star Wars movie since because I simply don't like them. From what I can gather, the overall story has become more and more of a convoluted mess from a point of view of continuity. This what usually happens when people try to retroactively create prequels to things (such as with the Alien "precursors", Prometheus and Covenant. Ugh).

But I still do admire Lucas for his perseverance and dogged determination to get the original Star Wars made, and also for daring to take such a chance with it. It wasn't mentioned in that video at all, but he had terrible trouble just trying to get someone to back it. Practically every major studio turned him down when he was trying to pitch the idea, and even 20th Century Fox, who ultimately did back it, took a heck of a lot of persuading. Apparently Universal told Lucas, "Nobody is going to watch a space movie..." A year or so later: Face, meet egg.

[Art Blade]

in that clip they mentioned something related to that, I think it was a subtitled information, stating that Lucas had run out of time and money and subsequently delivered a film that was only 80% of what it should have been.

And indeed, the resulting hype was unprecedented. I too watched it at the cinema when it was just released. People would queue at the entrance for hundreds of metres, at least it felt like that, all the way down the street. The queues really were enormous.

And the industry took notice. They renamed films only so they contained "star," like Battle STAR Galactica, hoping to attract more people. Glenn A. Larson had been struggling to find a producer for his film (I believe originally it was called "Adam's Ark" based on his 1960s concept) and only after the success of Star Wars everyone wanted to push out space stuff, like Buck Rogers and so forth.

[fragger]

Yep, it sparked a whole slew of space and sci-fi movies which hasn't really abated to this day. In addition to the things you mentioned Art, it also led to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which ultimately led to the "Next Generation" franchise and all the spin-offs. Even James Bond got into the space act with Moonraker.

It was also around the time of the first SW sequels (The Empire Strikes Back et al) that the whole practice of sequel-making really began in earnest. Prior to then, sequels were far more scarce, even for movies which did exceptionally well. There were exceptions, including such notable franchises as James Bond, Dirty Harry and Sergio Leone's "spaghetti westerns", but now sequels have become pretty much obligatory, especially for all the superhero stuff (from which a bit of a break would be nice - I mean, how many more times are they going to retell Batman's and Spiderman's origin stories? Cor blimey... I was never into superheroes to start with, not even as a kid, and they haven't grown on me any). As long as a franchise does well, they'll keep churning out the sequels, remakes and "reboots".

Apparently there's a female Thor movie coming up (what are they gonna call her - "Thorax"?) and the next 007 will not only be female but black. This SJW-influenced approach to repackaging the same tired old dreck with gender-switched leads is really getting stupid. I guess "Dirty Harriet" will be along any day now.

[Art Blade]

Thorax & Dirty Harriet

There were indeed kind of serial releases of films before Star Wars really kicked it off, like those Jerry Lewis or John Wayne or Marilyn Monroe films that didn't care about titles but it was revolving around the same stereotype acting of those stars. There were not only American movies or spaghetti Western. The Japanese had for instance Zatoichi who kept returning and of course, Lone Wolf & Cub. The French had for instance Luis de Funes titles, the Italians for instance Bud Spencer & Terence Hill (real names: Carlo Pedersoli & Mario Girotti) and so on and so forth. All of those films, even though they didn't have numbers behind the titles, were franchises of a best-selling theme, either revolving around an actor like Charles Bronson or a theme like "007." But as you said, fragger, the real serial releases were kind of sparse compared to the entire menu. I think "Jaws II" is the first film I remember with a number behind it.

Regarding super heroes, same here, fragger. Didn't like them as a kid, haven't managed to like any of them. I might have watched one or two but I have really never been a fan of any of those at all.

And I want to pick up on how long films used to run, my favourite example is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We had a cinema here that used to run it, I don't know for how many years. People would keep returning and many if not most of the audience knew the entire script by heart, they would kind of dub their favourite scenes like a choir, they would arrive at the cinema disguised and using theatre makeup for their faces, all dressed kind of gothic style. And they'd wave lighters and sparklers along a specific song, and all would then sing, "there's a light (over at the Frankenstein's place)" so the show inside the cinema, the audience acting, was almost more impressive than the show on the silver screen. It has been unforgettable

[Dweller_Benthos]

I remember Star Wars of course, saw it 6 or 7 times when it came out in the theaters. It was still running on several screens over a year later. No other film that I recall has ever done that, running so long on so many screens. It was just about that time that multiplexes were becoming popular, so they could run a film like that and have other screens for other films.

Lucas and Spielberg were good friends, and at the time Spielberg was making Close Encounters. Lucas was worried his film was not going to make any money and Spielberg offered to trade him something like 5% or 10% of the profits on Close Encounters for an equal share in Star Wars. Now, Close Encounters was a popular film, but he sure made out good on that deal.

Rocky Horror also played for a long time, but usually only at midnight shows and they'd usually have two screens showing it, one for the ultra fans who came dressed up as Art mentions and would sing along and they'd even have people acting out the scenes standing in front of the screen as the movie was playing. The other theater was for more sedate people who just wanted to watch the film. I've only ever seen clips and pieces here and there and don't get the attraction, it's not something I'd like to see once all the way through, much less several times, but different strokes and all that.

[fragger]

Rocky Horror was never my cup of tea either, but I do have a kind of a link to it.

A number of actors played the role of Frank N. Furter in the various stage versions of The Rocky Horror Show in Oz, and I was fortunate enough to become good friends with one of them, a talented actor/director named Max Phipps. I met him some time after his Rocky Horror days, when he was still acting but had taken to directing stage productions. I got to know him while I was working as a sound designer/engineer at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney and he came in to direct a play, a funny satirical piece called "Was He Anyone?" He had had a long affiliation with that particular theatre but had been away from it for some time doing other things, and it was while he was away from it that I came aboard. I subsequently got to w0#k with and know him through the late 70s and into the early 80s. He passed away sometime in 2000, which was long after I'd lost touch with him but was nonetheless quite a wrench for me to hear of. He was a wonderful character actor, an AFI (Australian Film Institute) award nominee, with one of those faces that was just made for his profession. He was a lot like the British actor Edward Woodward to look at, I thought, and had much the same kind of persona.

In addition to his theatrical accomplishments he racked up a fairly impressive film and television resume here over the years. But to me, his signature performance will always be his portrayal of former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in the 1983 TV miniseries "The Dismissal". Max's performance in that show was tremendous, even among a cast that was like a who's who of Aussie talent at the time.

About the only film I can think of with Max in it that anyone outside of Oz may have seen is The Road Warrior (that was its American title - it was released in Australia simply as "Mad Max 2"). Max (Phipps, that is) played the role of "The Toadie" in that film. He's the guy in the scene below who tries to catch the razor-boomerang thrown by the "Feral Kid" ("I got it! I got it!") and loses a few bits of himself in the process (and later in the film, he gets blown up and loses the rest of his bits. He really doesn't have a very good time of it in the movie ) It's a tiny role which doesn't even begin to adequately showcase his abilities, but that's him.

Rocky Horror was never really my kind of thing, but my friendship with Max is sort of my tangential connection to it, I guess He was a lovely guy, one of the kindest and most considerate and thoughtful people I've ever known. And a ton of fun to be around

[Art Blade]

Interesting trivia, D_B, about Lucas and Spielberg sharing shares Oh, regarding George Lucas and his Han Solo/Harrison Ford, I just remembered "Inbanana" Jones, as MAD comics once called it. Indiana Jones was also a massive series of films but those I enjoyed for a change.

Cool story, fragger, albeit a bit sad, too, losing such a nice friend. Regarding Aussie actors, I liked the series of Crocodile Dundee with Paul Hogan

I wasn't a true fan of the Rocky Horror Picture Show but I was told stories about how crazy the fans were and I wanted to see that along with the film. The fans were cool, the film.. well, OK, there certainly were some fun parts in it that I enjoyed but I only watched it twice at the cinema. The first time in a crazy fan-laden one and the second time when.. well, let's just say a girl was involved when making that decision.

I was never a fan of Mad Max, by the way. I couldn't and still can't quite understand why so many people were so hyped by that 1980s style of stupidity and violence. Kind of the same thing with Rambo or Rocky. Those by the way kept increasing the numbers behind the title

[fragger]

I don't like Mad Max films either, can't stand them. But that was the only video of Max Phipps that I could find on YT showing him in any movie/TV show that anyone outside of Australia might have been familiar with.

The only part of any Mad Max film that I liked was in that very one, MM2 (a.k.a. The Road Warrior), during the climax while the bad guys are all chasing Mel Gibson down the road in his petrol tanker. I like it just for the stunt and camera w0#k, and vehicular action, which had a raw, spontaneous feel to it (even though it was of course meticulously planned out). It was quite an exciting sequence. The rest of the movie was terrible.

[Art Blade]

hehe, that "could find" is something I was wondering about what the heck you were doing: I noticed you were posting then and thought I'd be going to read it in a few. Like half an hour later, no post but you were gone (idling makes you appear offline after a while) then you showed up and were gone again, I reckon it took you like at least one hour to find that vid. Maybe closer to two hours When it was finally posted, I understood what you had been doing. Before that, I thought what the hell is he writing, a post of twenty pages or what

[fragger]

I think I was also having to do my eye-drops along the way, which I have to keep up for another couple of weeks. There are three of them and I have to use them five minutes apart, three times a day, and they make my eye go funny for a few minutes, so I think that was part of the delay as well

[Art Blade]

I know exactly how that feels (got my own eye history..) I don't mind people taking their time but in that case, or in those cases, when I see someone posting, I'm already anticipating it and hanging around like a vulture ready for a nice read.. and then, nothing.. nothing.. nothing.. makes me wonder what the hell it will be all about Most people are rather quick, doesn't take too long after they start to post until they publish it.

Well, there's one exception: when I see mandru posting, I already know that I don't have to bother checking every five minutes. It always takes ages until it goes live

[nex]

I think I'm also guilty Art 

[Art Blade]