Monthly Archives: July 2011

Oscar Vault Monday – Born On The Fourth of July, 1989 (dir. Oliver Stone)

I think I first saw this film when I was in High School. If I remember correctly, I rented it because I was going through a Willem Dafoe phase (yes, really). My mother watched it with me because she had really enjoyed the film when it first came out. Then she told me about how she’d seen the real Ron Kovic speak at an event once and she thought Cruise had really captured his spirit. There’s a lot of themes in this movie; because it is directed by Oliver Stone, it isn’t particularly subtle with its point of view. But, from what I gather, neither was Ron Kovic. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning two:  Best Sound, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing (Won), Best Actor, Best Director (won), Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were Dead Poets SocietyField of DreamsMy Left Foot and winner Driving Miss Daisy.

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Movie Quote of the Day – The Patriot, 2000 (dir. Roland Emmerich)

John Billings: I say we drink the wine, eat the dogs, and use the paper for musket wading.
Reverend Oliver: [alarmed] Eat the dogs?
Benjamin Martin: [joking] A dog is a fine meal.

Movie Quote of the Day – Born Yesterday, 1950 (dir. George Cukor)

Billie Dawn: All that stuff I’ve been studying, what Paul’s been telling me. It just mixed me up. But when you hit me before it was like everything knocked itself together in my head and made sense. All of the sudden  I realized what it means. How some people are always giving and some taking; and it’s not fair. So I’m not gonna let you anymore. [beat] Or anybody else.

Movie Quote of the Day – Paper Moon, 1973 (dir. Peter Bogdanovich)

Moses Pray: You don’t have to worry. I ain’t about to leave some poor little child stranded in the middle of nowhere. I got scruples too, you know. You know what that is? Scruples?
Addie Loggins: No, I don’t know what it is, but if you got ’em, it’s a sure bet they belong to somebody else!

Movies, Theaters, Joseph Cotten, Popcorn and Fun – June 2011 in Film

So I saw far less films in June than I did in the first five months of 2011 (you can see all those lists here), but I also had a lot of personal changes in June. For one, I moved back to San Francisco at the end of May. This has led to 1) more movies in theaters and 2) mostly movies at the Castro Theatre and the Red Vic (which, sadly, is closing on the 25th!). I saw several films that I’d already seen before at those theaters. It also takes time to get to those theaters, thus less time to sit in my room watching movies. But the experience of seeing these great films (I saw Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm and Wings of Desire, among others!) more than makes up for the time it takes away from seeing other films. I have eaten so much popcorn in the last 30 days, you don’t even know. Haha. The other big change was I started grad school two weeks ago. While it is film school that I am going to, the classes do not just consist of watching films. Actually, we just watch clips and so far it’s mostly been of films I’ve seen before. And in the one class that we are watching feature films (on our own), I’ve already seen 9 of the 15 films, so that is exciting! Long story short, I saw less films in June than previous months. That being said, I also saw more really great films this month. Picking just five films to talk about is going to kill me. As I write this intro I still haven’t decided which five I am going to emphasize. I will say most of the films I watched in June deserve your time, so if you see one on the following list that you’ve always meant to watch but haven’t, just go ahead and watch it already!

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Movie Quote of the Day – Bringing Up Baby, 1938 (dir. Howard Hawks)

Aunt Elizabeth: Well who are you?
David Huxley: I don’t know. I’m not quite myself today.
Aunt Elizabeth: Well, you look perfectly idiotic in those clothes.
David Huxley: These aren’t my clothes.
Aunt Elizabeth: Well, where are your clothes?
David Huxley: I’ve lost my clothes!
Aunt Elizabeth: But why are you wearing *these* clothes?
David Huxley: Because I just went gay all of a sudden!
Aunt Elizabeth: Now see here young man, stop this nonsense. What are you doing?
David Huxley: I’m sitting in the middle of 42nd Street waiting for a bus.