Random 10: Random Films for Comment

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4186. Them!, 1954 (dir. Gordon Douglas)
3001. My Son John, 1952 (dir. Leo McCarey)
3195. Our Daily Bread, 1934 (dir. King Vidor)
4353. Treasure Island, 1950 (dir. Byron Haskin)
2860. Miracle on 34th Street, 1947 (dir. George Seaton)
2273. Jeremiah Johnson, 1972 (dir. Sydney Pollack)
1887. Gremlins, 1984 (dir. Joe Dante)
1362. The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, 1921 (dir. Winsor McCay)
2752. La marie du port, 1950 (dir. Marcel Carne)
3181. The Organizer, 1963 (dir. Mario Monicelli)

Hmm.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Sunday, 5 September 2004 22:39 (twenty years ago)

ILE Edition

― Girolamo Savonarola, Sunday, 5 September 2004 22:50 (twenty years ago)

Them! - severely overlooked grebt 50's sci-fi flick about bugs gone huge via atomic bomb tests' radiation. "They ate all our sugar! You bastards!"

Gremlins - I used to know this film by heart when I was younger. Joe Dante is just awesome, man. I still crack up at the flasher gremlin - I think there used to be a plastic lifesize model you could get of him back in the day....why oh why don't I have one? The "Snow White" scene is also perhaps the best use of a movie within a movie in a long time. Did I mention that Joe Dante is god?

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 6 September 2004 09:19 (twenty years ago)

Gremlins - Cold War paranoia dressed up as children's action film.

Okay..maybe not... children's action film with implicit Cold War paranoia subtext. Memorable for being particularly unpleasant and gruesome in several parts. I remember, as a child, liking the part where the gremlin went in the liquidiser. So did most of my friends.
I'm wondering if this makes me disturbed, or just normal??

That's the only one I've seen. Dream of a Rarebit fiend sounds...odd.

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Monday, 6 September 2004 13:58 (twenty years ago)

Them! and Gremlins are such huge events in my childhood that talk of "subtext" almost makes my head explode! Not sure I'll ever be able to look at them that way, not sure I'd want to really. They are films through which all my subsequent experiences with movies are filtered. i really want to see Gremlins badly right now.

havent seen any others. have carefully avoided Miracle on 34th Street.

― ryan (ryan), Monday, 6 September 2004 18:59 (twenty years ago)

Them Ah, the Early Show on Channel 6, every afternoon from 4-6 p.m. "Creature Week," "Horror Week," "Sci-Fi Week," "Tarzan Week"--it makes me misty. My wife and I were just talking about this movie the other day.

Jeremiah Johnson I saw this on an airplane; it was one of the first movies I ever saw, and I haven't seen it since.

― Formerly Lee G (Formerly Lee G), Tuesday, 7 September 2004 14:51 (twenty years ago)

i like how redford defuses the rampant miliusness of jj.

― :|, Tuesday, 7 September 2004 23:15 (twenty years ago)

Theres a fantastically creepy scene in Jeremiah Johnson where Redford finds the corpse of a hunter frozen and upright in the snow. I always liked that scene.
And Redford seems as comfortable in that role as he ever has in any - the hermetic qualities of the character appealed to him, I think I read him say. That remoteness his beauty gives him put to use for once by a film..

― David N (David N.), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 00:19 (twenty years ago)

4186. Them!, 1954 (dir. Gordon Douglas)

Unbelievably classic. The best of the "giant bug" movies and one for the "Los Angeles apocalypse" canon. The scenes in the LA storm drains creeped me out when I was a kid and they still do.

4353. Treasure Island, 1950 (dir. Byron Haskin)

Haven't seen this in a long time, but it's like any of the other Disney adaptations of the time. I like the version from the 70s with a nutzor Orson Welles as Long John Silver.

2273. Jeremiah Johnson, 1972 (dir. Sydney Pollack)

Second runner-up to McCabe and Mrs. Miller in abstract anti-hero westerns filmed in winter. I honestly can't remember a thing about this though I've seen it a couple of times.

1887. Gremlins, 1984 (dir. Joe Dante)

What Girolamo said about Dante. He's a hero.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 05:16 (twenty years ago)

"Okay..maybe not... children's action film with implicit Cold War paranoia subtext."

no, i think it's more of a jokey riff on wholesome "americana" cliches(small town life, family pets, christmas, "it's a wonderful life", 50's/60's sci-fi movies, etc.)

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 12:25 (twenty years ago)

the cold war subtext is more a residue from those influences than actual political subtext methinks.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 8 September 2004 13:19 (twenty years ago)

I'll have to watch it again, Latebloomer! That sounds quite feasible, given that its a movie with a scene featuring some being eaten through their toilet.

I wonder if there will be more of these 'random film' threads..there hasn't been for a couple of weeks, but I like them.

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 13:08 (twenty years ago)

I was gone last week, so that's why we're outta sync. Gotta new one in a sec...

― Girolamo Savonarola, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 22:37 (twenty years ago)

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Random 10: Random Films for Comment - Week 15