Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Sum Updates

First of all, I'd like to thank you guys for the comments yesterday. I was seriously trying not to fly off the handle and start ranting, since censorship is something I'm very passionate about.

And on the subject of the Hays Code, in response to dogimo's comment: Government crack down might have been worse, but the code itself was pretty stringent. It pretty much guaranteed that every movie had a happy ending of some sort since one of the rules was that evil couldn't be shown unless it was ultimately punished. It got pretty ridiculous sometimes too. Check out the ending of The Bad Seed for a particularly ridiculous example.
Some good did come out of it though. It forced filmmakers to be subtle. I recently watched The Young Philadelphians (1959) with Paul Newman. A very young Adam West has a bit part at the beginning and ends up committing suicide. Or at least thats what's implied. (He crashed his car). It's also subtly implied that he was gay.
And then there's all the implied sex characters were having in various films. Pretty much whenever the hero walks off screen with the girl, you know what they're doing and I'm pretty sure audiences of the time did too.
And then there's the burst of gritty violent films that came in the 1970s after the code was abolished, but I've already blabbed on enough.

I really just wanted to say that I got Wizards in the mail today and am really itching to watch and review it. Do you guys mind if I move this movie club experiment thing to this Friday instead of next?

Currently Reading: The Preacher series. Best. Fucking. Comic. Ever.
Currently Listening to: The Birthday Massacre's new live album. It's sort of a greatest hits sort of thing, but the live versions are almost better than the studio ones. Chibi's voice is fucking amazing.
Youtube video of the now:

Garfunkel and Oates are a gift from the comedy gods. We don't get gifts bestowed upon us all that often from them (can we send Dane Cook back?) so I for one am very grateful.

And that is all. I have to say. For now.

3 comments:

Justin said...

This Friday is fine with me.

I've never read Preacher. It's really acclaimed and all, that's the extent of my knowledge of it.

Ian Andersen said...

That works for me as well; this way it will still be fresh in my mind, I was planning on watching it tomorrow.

Kurdt said...

Alright, so this Friday it is!

Preacher is the kind of comic I would make if I had any drawing talent. It's blasphemous, incredibly violent, hilarious, and at times very squick inducing. I'd highly recommend picking up the first trade paperback to see if you'd be into it. It's quite a long series though, 10 friggin' TPBs!