Although rabid fans usually object to updating masterpieces like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), The Pink Panther (1963), or Planet of the Apes (1968), Hollywood studios rarely listen. In fact, they tend to prefer self-cannibalizing their movies or reprocessing ready-made "content" from earlier hits rather than taking risks. Let's compare the following six sets of movie modernizations, and see how they fared.

1. A Guy Named Joe (1943) vs. Always (1989)
The war-time fantasy A Guy Named Joe (1943) tells the tale of an Air Force commander (Spencer Tracy) who gets shot down during a bombing run in Germany -- and returns as a guardian angel out to help novice pilots. He grows conflicted when one of the pilots (Van Johnson) falls in love with his girl (Irene Dunne). Steven Spielberg remade his favorite classic film as Always (1989), a weaker update that changes the tale from bomber pilots in WWII to daredevil forest-fire-fighting pilots in the Pacific Northwest in the late '80s. Without that crucial war-time setting as backdrop, the romantic triangle between Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, and Brad Johnson is nowhere near as urgent.

2. Death Takes a Holiday (1934) vs. Meet Joe Black (1998)
Disc Two of the "Ultimate DVD Edition" of the over-indulgent, big-budget Meet Joe Black (1998) is a 79-minute black-and-white work Death Takes a Holiday (1934). Meet Joe Black is a pseudo-redo of the original fantasy drama, about a personified "Death" (Fredric March) who takes bodily form to learn what it's like to be human. In the lavish modern version, Joe Black/"Death" is played by sexy star Brad Pitt, opposite Anthony Hopkins as 65-year-old telecommunications mogul, and Claire Forlani as Hopkins' pretty daughter. For all the extra minutes in the remake, one would think it would have made more profound statements; but no. The most important lessons Black learns are about the splendor of two earthly pleasures: Peanut butter and prolonged love-making.

Continue reading "Movie History - Six Significant Movie Modernizations: Original vs. Remake " »

Yes, you read that right! It's time to attempt the (seemingly) impossible: Compiling a list of the most transcendent works committed to film in the past century. Is there anything more subjective than coming up with a list of the 100 greatest movies of all time? The artistic greatness of movies (and other works of art) can never be scientifically rated or quantified, though critics, reviewers, and fans certainly do their best -- and if you follow their musings, you'll find that there are certain movies that appear on all-time best lists again and again. I've come up with my own list of picks that have left an indelible mark upon our lives and reflect the defining moments of the last 100 years -- movies that give us pieces of time we can never forget. The only criteria? That they be English-language, theatrically-distributed, narrative feature films. As always, your criticism (and accolades!) are most welcome.

Hollywood has always been a little fearful of television. Indeed, in the early days, the studios forbade their movies and stars from appearing on the small screen at all. In the 1950s, the industry went even further, competing with the medium via wide screens, enhanced color technology, and 3D gimmickry. But inevitably, the studios came to see that TV wasn't going away and that collaboration could be mutually beneficial. Here's a timeline of how the interrelationship of movies and television evolved from enemies to friends.

Theater Television, Late 1940s to Early 1950s
All of the major Hollywood studios fought television with what they called "theater television": Closed-circuit screenings of TV programs in movie theaters. Since the Big Five studios owned extensive theater chains, this strategy was easily implemented. The Theater Television Network, founded in 1951, aired shows in participating theaters where audiences were provided with costlier programs incorporating political news coverage, prizefights, NCAA games, etc. Although over 100 U.S. theaters had installed theater television by 1952, the phenomenon faded shortly thereafter.

Hollywood Gimmicks vs. TV, 1950s
Still fearful of losing audiences to the screens in their living rooms, Hollywood enticed filmgoers with expensive epics, gimmicky 3D releases, stereo sound, and widescreen formats such as CinemaScope, VistaVision and Panavision. Bwana Devil (1952) was the first full-length 3D talkie; This is Cinerama (1952) was the first to use a wrap-around, widescreen format; and The Robe (1953), the first movie released in CinemaScope, was recorded in four-track stereo.

Continue reading "Movie History - The Ever-Changing Landscape of Movies on Television " »

From the earliest days of cinema, audiences have been entranced by the moving image, whether viewed via coin-operated devices, in converted churches or at movie palaces. Improvements in sound, color, and screen-size, as well as the introduction of new venues (planes, drive-ins, multiplexes, etc.) encouraged the medium to grow. Recent technological advancements have made the film-going experience available anywhere, anytime. Here's a quick look at how the movie-watching has evolved from a peep show novelty to your Netflix subscription.

The Kinetoscope, 1894
The Kinetoscope is a single-viewer, peep show device. On April 14, 1894, the Holland Brothers opened the first Kinetoscope Parlor in a converted shoe store in NYC. It consisted of a row of coin-operated kinetoscopes on which spectators watched short films for 25 cents apiece. The mostly male audience was entertained by short reels depicting clothed female dancers and sparring boxers, as well as everyday scenes.

The Electric Theatre, 1902
The first permanent movie house exclusively designed for showing projected motion pictures was Thomas Tally's 200-seat Electric Theater, built in downtown Los Angeles. It was a precursor to the more ubiquitous nickelodeons that followed shortly thereafter.

Continue reading "Movie History - Foundations of Movie Watching (With a Few Recent Developments)" »

If movie marketing's most outrageous stunts for the much of the 20th century focused on the salacious (teen nudity, skywritten breasts, and pseudo-sex-education), the gimmicks from the '70s onward tend more toward the experiential, as audience members are provided with various ways of feeling like they're part of the action. Want to experience an earthquake or join the cast? Read on.

Earthquake (1974): Disastrous Rumblings Feel Real With Sensurround
This disaster hit introduced Sensurround, a short-lived gimmick that used high-decibel bass and large speakers to create tactile vibrations in the audience. Accompanied by low-frequency rumblings, the movie's scenes of the destruction of L.A. by earthquake ended up earning it an Oscar for Best Sound. Only three other movies went on to employ this technology: The all-star war pic Midway (1976), the summer thriller Rollercoaster (1977), and the feature-length TV pilot for Battlestar Galactica (1978). Three serious detriments to Sensurround's popularity: Costly speaker installation, potential structural damage to old theaters, and disruptions in adjoining theaters.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975): Birth of the Midnight Movie
Writer-director Jim Sharman's movie adaptation of this hit musical bombed when released. Repositioned as an interactive midnight movie (with fans dressed as characters acting out scenes with props), the film achieved cult status and is now considered the longest-running midnight movie of all time. Other off-beat, low-budget flicks from this era to find success via midnight theatrical screenings or late-night television broadcasts include Night of the Living Dead (1968), Targets (1968), El Topo (1970), Harold and Maude (1971), Pink Flamingos (1972), and Eraserhead (1977).

Continue reading "Movie History - Greatest Movie Hoaxes, Gimmicks, and Stunts, Part II" »

If you think The Dark Knight's "Why So Serious" campaign or Joaquin Phoenix's outlandish behavior on the Late Show with David Letterman are something new, you're sadly mistaken. Stirring up controversy and publicizing the sensational have long proven surefire ways of generating ticket sales at the box office. This first of two parts looks at the history of gimmickry up until 1960. With movies, sex, as always, sells.

The Broken Oath (1910): The Publicity Hoax
Independent Motion Picture Company founder Carl Laemmle stole Biograph Studio's then-anonymous Florence Lawrence by promising her marquee recognition. (Up till then she was simply "The Biograph Girl".) He also generated massive publicity by fueling a false story about how Lawrence had been killed in a NYC streetcar accident. Once enough sympathy had been raised, Laemmle admitted it was a "cowardly... silly lie" via an ad in Moving Picture World. Shortly thereafter at the premiere of The Broken Oath (1910), Lawrence made an appearance with leading man King Baggot at a St. Louis train station. These events mark the first major movie industry publicity stunt to receive widespread press.

Child Bride (1938): Teenage Nudity
Legendary producer/promoter Kroger Babb took his pic Child Bride on the road and made the most of its sexploitation content with taglines like "A throbbing drama of shackled youth!" and "Where Lust was called Just." Banned in many locations because of its underage nudity, the "educational" aspect of the plot about the dangers of underage marriage was designed to circumvent Production Code restrictions. The movie claimed to have a positive goal, too: "If our story will help to abolish Child Marriage -- it will have served its purpose."

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In movies from the '70s onward, Computer-Generated Imaging (or CGI) has become a constant tool for visual effects artists. Today, the multi-billion dollar CGI industry has the ability to create characters as well as crowds, and entire sets as well as the explosions that destroy them. Here's a recap of how we got there.

Westworld (1973)
This Michael Crichton thriller is the first major feature to use 2D CGI: In a "computer vision" sequence, audiences see an infra-red POV of the titular amusement park's malfunctioning android Gunslinger (Yul Brynner) as he goes on a killing spree. Interestingly, the first use of 3D wireframe CGI imagery would come with the movie's sequel Futureworld (1976) which features a brief view of a computer-generated face and hand.

Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
The first major production of George Lucas' F/X company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) took a big step forward for CGI with A New Hope. Before the massive Death Star assault, Rebel Alliance pilots are given a Trench-Run Briefing which incorporates a very basic but extensive, untextured, unshaded 3D wireframe view of their target.

Continue reading "Movie History - CGI's Evolution From Westworld to The Matrix to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" »

As noted in Part 1 last week, extreme violence on screen came of age in the late '60s and early '70s. But soon thereafter, filmmakers took on-screen depictions of graphic violence even further. Sometimes the results were profound; sometimes gratuitous. Read on.

Taxi Driver (1976)
Much of Martin Scorsese's output -- from Mean Streets (1973) on through Raging Bull (1980), GoodFellas (1990) and most recently, The Departed (2006) -- has been awash in frightening scenes depicting excessive violence committed by unlikeable Italian-Americans and other unstable personalities. But with Taxi Driver, John Hinkley's assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan gave the final explosion of anger an unexpected immediacy.

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
This incendiary cult classic is the uncredited inspiration for the faux-documentary The Blair Witch Project (1999). A disturbingly grisly sexploitation flick, Cannibal Holocaust is presented as the true story of a film crew in the Amazon who are gang-raped, impaled, beaten, castrated, dismembered, and even forced to have an abortion. The numerous real animal killings (which include a horrific turtle beheading) led Italian authorities to suspect that director Ruggero Deodato's footage was real. He was arrested on suspicion of murder for making a snuff film, and faced the possibility of life in prison following the movie's 1980 Milan premiere.

Continue reading "Movie History - Extreme Violence in Film, Part II: Taxi Driver, Tarantino and Torture Porn" »

In the movies, extreme violence has always been controversial, although standards for what's considered shocking or offensive have changed drastically over the years. Today, on-screen violence has escalated considerably, and it's far different from the sanitized, mostly suggestive content of cinema's early days. The following films -- from the late 1960s and early 1970s -- are milestones of provocation. Check back next week for a look at the movies that pushed the envelope even further into the new century.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Director Arthur Penn's landmark film redefined and romanticized the gangster genre, not to mention on-screen depictions of violence. Widely denounced by reviewers for glamorizing its attractive, Depression-era killers (portrayed by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty), the movie culminates in a graphic bullet-ridden ambush often referred to as a slow-motion "ballet of death." If the initial reactions of the critics were negative, the reassessments shortly thereafter were highly glowing: critical acclaim, a Time magazine cover story, a re-release with advertising that stressed its artistic merit, a huge box-office take, and ten Academy Award nominations.

The Dirty Dozen (1967)
Robert Aldrich's highly-popular gritty, macho war pic is built on an anti-Establishment premise that rapists, murderers, and sadistic misfits can be trained to be kill-crazy, "dirty" commandos for a suicidal mission behind enemy lines against the Nazis. The nihilistic film was released during the summer of '67 -- coinciding with a series of race riots in numerous American cities, and increasing protests against the Vietnam War. Reviewers labeled the film as irresponsible, unrestrained, and revolting since it appeared to celebrate war and erase the line between "good guys" and "bad guys," particularly in the finale: A mass death scene in which an underground bunker filled with German generals and innocent civilians is blown up with a combination of live grenades and gasoline.

Continue reading "Movie History - Extreme Violence in Movies, Pt. 1: Bloodbath Ballets and Killing Orgies" »

When the movies first began, lip-on-lip action -- as in The Kiss (1896) -- was considered scandalous. How times have changed! What follows are ten major milestones in the depiction of sex on the big screen. Every one of these selections broke barriers, challenged the ratings, and led to further developments.

Ecstasy (1933): The first non-pornographic film to depict the sex act
Czech filmmaker Gustav Machaty's romantic drama tells of one sexually-frustrated child-bride (a 19-year-old Hedy Lamarr) and her impotent, elderly husband. Censored for a nude bathing swim, a naked forest romp, and a love scene that depicts the first female orgasm from oral sex (albeit off screen), the film is credited in part for inspiring the Hays Code even as the U.S. Customs Department destroyed the movie, making it one of the first films blocked for censorship. Even until only recently, versions were revised with the nudity removed.

The Outlaw (1943): The Howard Hughes film that challenged the Hays Code
Many movies of the '30s and '40s troubled the Motion Picture Production Code but none quite as much as the sexed-up western The Outlaw.

• Actors Who Like to Get NakedSome actors, like James Franco and Kate Winslet, repeatedly take it all off.
• Greatest Kisses in the MoviesThe big screen's most memorable lip-on-lip action from 1896 on.
• History of Erotic FilmsEverything you ever wanted to know from the first sex symbol to the birth of porn.
• History of Sex in CinemaA comprehensive look at the scandals as well as the changing laws.
• Scenes That Challenged the RatingsA survey of milestones that changed what was acceptable for audiences.
• Top 10 Steamiest Sex ScenesA photo gallery of the hottest moments in movie history.
• Sex in the Movies Quotes QuizThink you already know it all? Prove it in five questions.
• The Sex Scenes of Woody Allen QuizFive fun trivia questions about Woody's great obsession.
• World's Oldest Profession QuizFive not-so-easy trivia questions about prostitution in film.

Bankrolled by eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, this melodrama had its release delayed for years thanks to Jane Russell's cleavage. Hughes' salacious marketing campaign and refusal to excise any controversial shots fueled the fires. Although first screened for the Hays Office in 1941, The Outlaw didn't get wide release until 1946 (and without a seal of approval even then).

Continue reading "Movie History - Sex in Movies That Challenged the Ratings" »