MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: THE ROCKET MAN (1954)

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It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

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Friday, July 12, 2013

THE ROCKET MAN (1954)

Sentimental nonsense about an orphaned tyke who gets a honest-to-God working Ray Gun from an honest-to-God apparition of a SpaceMan. And the gizmo sure comes in handy when he spends a foster week with a kindly Justice of the Peace who's going to need all its magical powers to stop a big bad political boss from buying the orphanage in a money-making scam. Charles Coburn & frog-voiced George Winslow, who’d just played old & young satyrs against Marilyn Monroe in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES/’53, are reteamed, along with a decent enough cast with Spring Byington, John Agar and a very young, very pretty Anne Francis. But the kicker to all this slop is that the film represents the one & only Hollywood writing credit of Lenny Bruce! Yep, that Lenny Bruce. You won’t find much scatological, counter-culture attitude in here, but hipsters may want to check out this Lenny Bruce road-not-traveled.

DOUBLE-BILL: One of the weirder Eisenhower Era pics on kids getting into Sci-Fi trouble is THE INVISIBLE BOY/’57 with Robbie the Robot from FORBIDDEN PLANET/’56. (It comes as a BONUS on the FP-DVD.)

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Friday, July 12, 2013

THE ROCKET MAN (1954)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE