| And The Academy Award Goes to; On The Waterfront | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 5 2013, 02:48 PM (566 Views) | |
| becky sharp | Feb 5 2013, 02:48 PM Post #1 |
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I enjoyed this ...an interesting listen of the story behind the fim On The Waterfront Paul Gambaccini returns with the series about how some of the greatest Best Picture Oscar winning films were made, and what they tell us about the history of the time. The 27th Academy Awards, for the films released in 1954, were dominated by ON THE WATERFRONT, a gritty, black and white masterpiece, which takes us down to the highly unionised New Jersey docks, then controlled by the mob. A real tale of corruption and murder on the waterfront is transformed into a fiction - as a simple minded ex-boxer, played by Marlon Brando, wrestles with his conscience as he turns informer to win the girl he loves. ON THE WATERFRONT not only gives us the most famous scene ever to take place in the back of a taxi, ("I coulda been a contender!"), it also showcases the talents of director Elia Kazan, and an astonishingly strong support cast - Rod Steiger, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb and newcomer Eva Marie Saint- Method Acting at its height. It also marks the end of the powerful team of director Elia Kazan and Method actor Marlon Brando - blown apart by Brando's horror at Kazan's decision to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, HUAC - then investigating the red-scare in Hollywood. Is it a coincidence that ON THE WATERFRONT tells the story of a man who informs - snitches on his friends - but holds the moral high ground? With a rich mix of archive and original interviews with actors, screen writers and film critics, and a revelatory interview with Thomas Hanley, a real life longshoreman who played Brando's young friend Tommy back in 1954, Paul Gambaccini presents "And The Academy Award Goes to... On The Waterfront." http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qctqr |
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| Mobson | Feb 5 2013, 05:24 PM Post #2 |
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I heard parts of this and will try and get back to hear it in full 'cos I really love watching this black and white classic - I wore out the vhs before getting it on dvd! Even though turncoat director Kazan had a momentary moment of madness....and let's face it Marlon, who I've just been reading about in one of five biographies that I seem to have acquired, was beyond the pale at times. It is a film that has such power and dark excitement with every character so believable, that you easily transported back to that bleak waterfront. Karl Malden is excellent as the Father of Faith trying to keep his dispirited flock together against all the corruption and violence, eked out by the cruelest of employers, Johnny Friendly, played by Lee J Cobb. Marlon's Terry Malloy is a spunky and handsome hunk of brawn who holds Eve Marie Saint in his arms like a delicate butterfly afraid she will lose all her patina if he crushes her too tightly, and mortified that he will lose her once she knows he has had a hand in the death of her brother....but it is Rod Steiger, the magnificent Rod Steiger, who really hits the mark as Marlon's big brother Charley, completely swallowed up by the Mob and unable to steer his brother from harms way when he orders him to throw a fight that Marlon desperately wants to win.... Once in a bar quiz (it should be pub but it wasn't) I won our sides film quiz by reciting that back of the taxi speech when Marlon says to his brother after he was ordered to throw that title fight......."He gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville! You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short-end money." I won a bottle of something very handy and got nicely drunk that night
Edited by Mobson, Feb 5 2013, 08:06 PM.
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| becky sharp | Feb 25 2013, 02:56 PM Post #3 |
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I've enjoyed each episode of this excellent series ...I was mesmerised by this scene from American Beauty when I first saw it ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKg6OJ6zhhc |
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| May-Cee | Feb 28 2013, 12:06 PM Post #4 |
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I missed the "Amadeus" one but enjoyed the other three. Not long ago I read the first volume of Christopher Bigsby's biog of Miller. It ends with the writing of (but before the production of) "After The Fall"; which reunited the Miller - Kazan team. So I also enjoyed that recent Afternoon play about Miller and Kazan. It was nothing special, really; but it dramatised nicely enough the ambiguous relationship they had at that moment. |
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| Mobson | Feb 28 2013, 12:35 PM Post #5 |
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Bugger! Missed that one - at the National Gallery to see 'Seduced by Art' - will have to wait for second time around......http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pthkc |
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| Mobson | Feb 28 2013, 12:56 PM Post #6 |
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There are so many aspects of American Beauty that one wants to discuss remembering how original and scandalous it was when it first hit our screens, but listening to the section on Thomas Newman who scored the music - with Sam Mendes describing himself as a music fascist turning down Tom's suggestions, he describes how he came up with the plastic bag sequence. I was so impressed with his score and the other tracks of music selected, that I remember going into HMV in Leicester Square to buy the film's cd immediately after I saw the film at a screening just before general release.... Mendes used Thomas Newman again for the score of Skyfall and he was rewarded with a Bafta at last month's award ceremony for Original Music after the film won Outstanding British Film; also nominated at the weekend's Oscars for Original Score, which he should have won! Good series....
Edited by Mobson, Feb 28 2013, 01:05 PM.
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Bugger! Missed that one - at the National Gallery to see 'Seduced by Art' - will have to wait for second time around......
Good series....
12:17 AM Jul 11