Movies Part 1

It has been a goal of mine to try to watch more classic movies and movies that are more off the radar than the stuff we see at the movies. Generally we reserve our theater going to the big special effects movies and the Pixar movies. We almost never check out dramas or comedies on the big screen, and rarely check out 'independent' or 'art' movies. That, up until now, has been left to renting, a thing we don't do all that much of either. And even if we did, the rise of Blockbuster and the other similar chains with 60 copies of whatever crap movie is new at the moment, has squeezed the life out of classic movies. Add to that the $4.50 cost of renting, be it new release or old, and Blockbuster sucks.

Sadly, we don't have a independent video store near us, so we really only had Blockbuster as a source. Cable, even if we upgraded, couldn't and wouldn't provide the sorts of movies I'm hoping to watch.

To that end, I've decided to try out Netflix. They have a few range of cost options, starting at $10 for 4 movies a month, $15 for unlimited movies per month (2 at a atime) and so on. At $2.50 per movie, their most basic package saves $2 per movie versus Blockbuster, and the selection is out of this world.

The rub is that you have to plan at least a little in advance, and be willing to watch what comes, at least within a reasonable amount of time. 4 movies a month should be very doable.

The latest two, of the first four, that I've gotten, go to the heart of my interest of this idea.

Dr. Strangelove - Stanley Kubrick movie from the mid 60's about nuclear proliferation gone bad, and an assortment of odd characters to whom we've entrusted our national and global security. Peter Sellers plays 3 roles, George C Scott is an overly zealous Air Force general, and Slim Pickens plays an Air Force major charged with dropping the bomb. James Earl Jones takes a turn as a member of the bomber crew.

Plenty of good stuff though clearly meant as a farce so the situations on the one hand are very realistic, while people's motivations and reactions to those situations are not. In an unexpected bit from the movie, there is one small section of combat filming that is very rough and hand held in a way that Saving Private Ryan earned much acclaim for, but done 30 years earlier.

Shorter than expected (about 90 minutes) - remember my family watching it when I was young and it seeming to last forever. Defintely glad I checked it out.

Next - The Seven Samurai, by Kurasawa - the film that inspired The Magnificent Seven, a classic western starring nearly everyone. Samurai is 3 1/2 hours long, so will wait for another night.