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Post by OldAussie on Dec 16, 2019 3:11:25 GMT
hitchcockthelegendBig fan of Saddle The Wind here. And since I saw it on Youtube which I mostly can't stand for movies, it must have grabbed me. 8/10 Where Eagles Dare....loved the first 2/3 but the non-stop explosions at the end were much too much. The last 5 minutes nearly redeems the movie. 6/10
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Post by mikef6 on Dec 16, 2019 15:52:37 GMT
hitchcockthelegend Here most of what I had to say when I saw When Eagles Dare in 2013, the first time I have sat down with it since 1968:
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Dec 16, 2019 19:33:24 GMT
hitchcockthelegend Great review of “The Birds.” My sentiments, exactly. Just one comment about the cross-cutting between Melanie and the crows on the climbing frame (in the U.S. we call it a “jungle gym”). Hitch cross-cuts until about a half-dozen birds have landed and then, in an impossibly brilliant stroke, he HOLDS on Melanie, making us wonder what’s going on behind her. When she sees a crow flying over, she follows it with her eyes until it lands and she sees that the jungle gym is filled with birds. Hitchcock repeats the trick about a minute later when Annie tells the children to walk out quietly but run when she tells them. Again, we expect cross-cutting, but the camera goes to the flock in the schoolyard and HOLDS THERE until we hear running feet off camera and the birds take flight. Gives me goose bumps just writing about it. Two years ago, I finally achieved a dream I have had for a long time. My Lovely Wife and I got to spend some time in the northern California towns of Bodega Bay and Bodega. In Bodega Bay, the Tides restaurant has changed very much since the film shoot (there had been a serious fire), but if you go to their outdoor seating overlooking the bay, you can see the dock where Tippi Hedren rents an outboard motor boat from 1930s comedian, Doodles Weaver. It has hardly changed a bit. The schoolhouse was an abandoned building in 1962. The film crew dressed it up a little bit and hung a sign on it. The house next door where Suzanne Pleshette lived was a façade. That entire site is now filled with mature trees. The “schoolhouse” is completely remodeled, a private residence, but there is so much interest that the owners have put in a small parking lot for visitors’ convenience – but you park right in front of a sign asking you to stay behind the fence and respect privacy – which everyone was doing when I was there. This building is located in the nearby town of Bodega. When the school children flee down the hill, they arrive at the Tides which, in Reality, is seven miles (11km) away from where they started. Movie magic. I was wondering how much interest people still had in a 50+ year old movie so I asked the two nice ladies in the Bodega Bay Visitors Center how often they get questions about “The Birds”? They laughed at me. They had copies of maps to locations on hand to pass out. They said that one-third of all questions they get are about “The Birds” locations. That made me feel good. The school building in the movie ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/O54yZpawlts/hqdefault.jpg) The school building today ![](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/13/e7/21/1a/potter-schoolhouse-taken.jpg) Thank you for finally letting me actually see what a Jungle Gym is (I presumed it was Jim!!). "Hitchcock repeats the trick about a minute later when Annie tells the children to walk out quietly but run when she tells them. Again, we expect cross-cutting, but the camera goes to the flock in the schoolyard and HOLDS THERE until we hear running feet off camera and the birds take flight. Gives me goose bumps just writing about it."Gods truth, I was staying at an ex girlfriends house a few years back and it was on the box, her sister and boyfriend were at the front door waiting to come in for the dinner my girlfriend was busy in the kitchen cooking - just as that sequence was coming up. They could see me through the window and I was just waving them away until the sequence had finished! I didn't get any sugar that night... Thanks for sharing your wonderful story, and how great it is to see the schoolhouse still in such great shape and untampered with aesthetically. ![](https://s26.postimg.cc/s8tffwvq1/cheers.gif)
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Dec 16, 2019 19:41:30 GMT
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Post by OldAussie on Dec 16, 2019 20:57:59 GMT
hitchcockthelegendNow if you watch The Guns of Navarone again soon and give it 9/10 there will be no argument from me. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) BTW, Zulu was on tv here the other night and it had the cut - so the real version seems to be disappearing.
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Dec 17, 2019 19:01:55 GMT
hitchcockthelegend Now if you watch The Guns of Navarone again soon and give it 9/10 there will be no argument from me. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) BTW, Zulu was on tv here the other night and it had the cut - so the real version seems to be disappearing. The Guns of Navarone is off the shelf for an airing over the next couple of weeks. My dad also watched Eagles and I said to him the next day that I'm right in the mood for good long war epics/men on mission machismo pieces this holiday season. So naturally I suggested we could watch Navarone or Von Ryan's Express together if he liked, he has selected Ryan's for Xmas Day! Which this time we are convinced that Von Ryan will live this time because it's Xmas - we keep watching this until he bloody lives at the end! . Zulu - I will have to look into if the Blu-ray release(s) are without the cut since I have always been happy with my special edition DVD (without the cut), but I would like an upgrade for the cinematography.
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Dec 17, 2019 19:14:33 GMT
hitchcockthelegend Here most of what I had to say when I saw When Eagles Dare in 2013, the first time I have sat down with it since 1968: The violence is also sometimes disturbing in its body count and in Clint Eastwood’s performance as a blank-faced, almost sociopathic, killer.Hah, yes. When I first watched Inglourious Basterds I thought about this link to characters years previously, where of course over 40 years later QT is able to expand upon the killing machine madness by way of Eli Roth's maniacal Donny Donowitz And yes, it's a goof central, and as stated previously by myself, the production cost deserves better than some of the "cheapness" in the pic, but it's such a blast, a pure adrenalin rush with some crafty brain teasers into the bargain. I love it. Thanks for sharing your edited review me old mate ![](https://s26.postimg.cc/s8tffwvq1/cheers.gif)
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