September 14, 2004

• I have such grand designs sometimes, and as a result of such, I sometimes do not create web pages, or enter blogs, because I’m thinking of presenting the page a certain way, and I’ll lose the inspiration or wherewithal after a certain amount of time, and then lose the whole thought. A lot of these pages concern my love of movies, and since movies are a “visual” medium, and I love graphics, I sometimes “leave my thoughts” alone because I don’t have the proper graphics with which to illustrate the thoughts I have about a particular film. My movie pages, ElectricMovies, are woefully out of date. My last full review was for “The Pianist” two years ago. I have written a few reviews in the Xanga review section of my site, but movies reviews are always pages for which I seem to have grander designs than I can ever muster, and I watch lots of movies. My ElectricMovies Blog Diary, which I created in April of 2002, has about 36 entries, detailing films I “critiqued” at the time I viewed them, plus has a lot of images, but I stopped writing that blog around the time I started this one, which details all sections of the AllThingsMike webhub. I mention this because I had a grandiose plan to write a review the other night, and because I didn’t have the images I wanted at the time I wanted them, I didn’t “write the review”, and possibly now won’t ever write one, because I’ve already seen about six films on either the Tivo or DVD since then. Now that my back is better, I can probably brave going to a theater again, and that’s good news, because I’m really looking forward to Kerry Conran’s “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”, almost with as much anticipation as I had for “The Fifth Element” in 1997. The review I didn’t write, however, is not for a “new” film, but for an “old” classic, David O’ Selznick’s production of “Gone With The Wind”, the Best Picture of 1939, directed (among others) by Victor Fleming. I have the 50th anniversary laserdisc, restored and released in 1989, and still one of the best “looking” transfers I have ever seen. I viewed the film on my HDTV, with my “red velvet curtains” over the unused parts of the widescreen TV, and again, for about the hundredth or so time, fell into the romance, spectacle, and epic filmmaking that went into what I consider the second best motion picture of all time. (“The Wizard of Oz”, “Citizen Kane” and “Titanic” are #1, #3, and #4 on my list. (My list of 20 best films of all time is here.) I don’t own GWTW on DVD yet, but the laserdisc is still glorious. I saw the film in 1966 during one of the re-releases before it was ever shown on television, at the El Monte Theater where I grew up. Even the other night, I was bowled over by the lush look of the film, which did have numerous problems during the making, but the only thing on screen are the powerful performances and the fantastic production design, by William Cameron Menzies. I paid particular attention to the costumes this viewing, and am convinced that Selznick should have renamed Vivien Leigh’s character “Emerald O’Hara” instead of Scarlett, as most of the costumes, including the famous “drapery dress” are shades of green to show off the actresse’s eyes in Technicolor. Even today, it is possible to fall in love with the character, as most of the men in the picture do when they set eyes on her. This film is certainly a part of my history, and it made a great impression on me when I saw it as a child, and each and every time since. I make it a point to see my favorite old films in a theater whenever I can, and have seen GWTW in a movie theater with an audience just three years ago when the last restoration was struck before manufacturing the DVD. Well, this isn’t a “review” per se, rather than an “appreciation”. I have cringed somewhat at the portayals of the black folk in this movie, as it was made in a less tolerant time, and of course the plot is about the “Old South”, but Hattie McDaniel (who won Best Supporting Actress), Butterfly McQueen, and Oscar Polk do very fine jobs with the material, and I tried to look through the charicature to find the character. The sets are magnificent, the scope of the story is epic, and even if someone were to remake “GWTW”, in full digital glory, it probably wouldn’t come close to the “original”. The film is over three hours long, and even though I have the capability to “pause” until later, I watched the complete movie, front to back, in one sitting, just as I always do. I really wanted to make some “captures” from the laserdisc of Scarlett’s costumes for inclusion in the blog, but didn’t make time this time around. I’ll have to add this grandiose plan to the others and try to make time for it in the future. My plan is to actually capture the images from the HDTV screen with the camera instead of using the inputs. With the right lighting, I get real nice soft images, which complement the Technicolor nicely. So to conclude this post, which is about one of the most beautiful films of all time, I do not have any glorious images to show for it, but didn’t want to leave the words in my thoughts for now. I also watched a really nice looking MGM musical from 1953 on the Tivo from Turner Classic Movies yesterday. “Easy to Love” with Esther Williams, Van Johnson and Tony Martin, directed by Charles Walters. Esther Williams movies are somewhat special, since she began her career (like Johnny Weismuller) as a swimming champion. Busby Berkely directed the musical/aquatic numbers, and the films are great fun. I’d never seen this one, which centers on the Cypress Gardens water park in Florida, also seen in the film “This is Cinerama”. Sometimes my favorite times of all are sitting in front of one of  my bigscreens, in the dark, watching a classic film in all it’s glory. These movies are timeless, and take me back to my youth, with all the promise that youth implied.

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