Paramount Celebrates Centennial with contest and a PEEK at new Blu-rays on the way..... (1 Viewer)

[Mark Oates]

It doesn't look like the rest of the world is invited to the birthday party - certainly not the UK. There seems to be some kind of iPhone app to celebrate Paramount's Centenary, but with the exception of Polanski's Chinatown (coming out almost two months after the Region A release), there seems precious little in the way of catalogue titles coming out in the UK or Europe. You can't even get a squeak out of the PR companies handling the publicity for Paramount, which is frankly amazing as you often can't get PR firms to shut up.

 

[James L White]

Really hoping for Ordinary People,and Terms of Endearment,

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by James L White

Really hoping for Ordinary People,and Terms of Endearment,

I'd love to have both of those, too.

 

[jim_falconer]

So glad to see Hondo is coming out on blu this year. A great film from start to finish (well, the Indian attack at the end is a little drawn out, but I had read that Farrow was ill during it, and had the AD film that part). Regardless, it's a film I can watch again and again.


What I do not understand in this thread is the love for HATARI!. Now I'm about as big a John Wayne fan as there is, but I never felt HATARI! was even remotely his best work. The script is very basic, the writing is corny, and the secondary actors are weak. Even the great Red Buttons painfully overacts. The action scenes were first rate, and the color photography is nice to look at, but that doesn't help the juvenile mood of the film.


Instead of HATARI, how about The Shootist or Sons of Katie Elder. These are truly some of Duke's finer works.

 

[darkrock17]

So glad to see Hondo is coming out on blu this year. A great film from start to finish (well, the Indian attack at the end is a little drawn out, but I had read that Farrow was ill during it, and had the AD film that part). Regardless, it's a film I can watch again and again. What I do not understand in this thread is the love for HATARI!. Now I'm about as big a John Wayne fan as there is, but I never felt HATARI! was even remotely his best work. The script is very basic, the writing is corny, and the secondary actors are weak. Even the great Red Buttons painfully overacts. The action scenes were first rate, and the color photography is nice to look at, but that doesn't help the juvenile mood of the film. Instead of HATARI, how about The Shootist or Sons of Katie Elder. These are truly some of Duke's finer works.

Hatari! is an overall great movie, one of The Dukes, films I actually love. What makes Hatari! so memorable is Mancini's soundtrack. The soundtrack moves the film, not many soundtracks can do that.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by jim_falconer

So glad to see Hondo is coming out on blu this year. A great film from start to finish (well, the Indian attack at the end is a little drawn out, but I had read that Farrow was ill during it, and had the AD film that part). Regardless, it's a film I can watch again and again.


What I do not understand in this thread is the love for HATARI!. Now I'm about as big a John Wayne fan as there is, but I never felt HATARI! was even remotely his best work. The script is very basic, the writing is corny, and the secondary actors are weak. Even the great Red Buttons painfully overacts. The action scenes were first rate, and the color photography is nice to look at, but that doesn't help the juvenile mood of the film.


Instead of HATARI, how about The Shootist or Sons of Katie Elder. These are truly some of Duke's finer works.

I agree with you about HATARI. I like the film as I do most Wayne films, but it's far from being one of my favorite Wayne films.

 

So glad to see Hondo is coming out on blu this year. A great film from start to finish (well, the Indian attack at the end is a little drawn out, but I had read that Farrow was ill during it, and had the AD film that part). Regardless, it's a film I can watch again and again. What I do not understand in this thread is the love for HATARI!. Now I'm about as big a John Wayne fan as there is, but I never felt HATARI! was even remotely his best work. The script is very basic, the writing is corny, and the secondary actors are weak. Even the great Red Buttons painfully overacts. The action scenes were first rate, and the color photography is nice to look at, but that doesn't help the juvenile mood of the film. Instead of HATARI, how about The Shootist or Sons of Katie Elder. These are truly some of Duke's finer works.

How about all three of them! Sorry, i don't agree with you about HATARI. I like HATARI because it is different from the usual John Wayne film, but still a John Wayne film and lots of fun. It would be great to see THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER (my favorite Wayne film) and THE SHOOTIST as well.

 

[Douglas Monce]

So glad to see Hondo is coming out on blu this year. A great film from start to finish (well, the Indian attack at the end is a little drawn out, but I had read that Farrow was ill during it, and had the AD film that part). Regardless, it's a film I can watch again and again. What I do not understand in this thread is the love for HATARI!. Now I'm about as big a John Wayne fan as there is, but I never felt HATARI! was even remotely his best work. The script is very basic, the writing is corny, and the secondary actors are weak. Even the great Red Buttons painfully overacts. The action scenes were first rate, and the color photography is nice to look at, but that doesn't help the juvenile mood of the film. Instead of HATARI, how about The Shootist or Sons of Katie Elder. These are truly some of Duke's finer works.

Hatari! is one of my favorite films of all time. Its interesting to watch Howard Hawks later films. From about Rio Bravo on, he becomes less and less interested in the plot, and more interested in simple situations for the characters to react to. Hatari! is episodic and it meanders all over the place, but it is done so artfully, that I just don't care. I just enjoy spending a couple of hours with these people. And of course the score by Mancini is wonderful. Another great Hawks/Mancini collaboration from this period is Man's Favorite Sport. Doug

 

[Matt Hough]

My most vivid memory of Hatari after not having seen it for quite some time is that everyone smokes A LOT in this movie. I do need to haul it out and take another look at it.


(Seriously, I do remember the wonderful Mancini score and the great cinematography.)

 

[darkrock17]

Hatari! is one of John Wayne's very few comedies he did along with Donavan's Reef and Mclintock.

 

[lukejosephchung]

Don't know about the rest of you, but my favorite John Wayne/Paramount western is "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence", which co-starred him with Jimmy Stewart and Vera Miles...all three of them were brilliant in that picture!!!

 

Don't know about the rest of you, but my favorite John Wayne/Paramount western is "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence", which co-starred him with Jimmy Stewart and Vera Miles...all three of them were brilliant in that picture!!!:patriot:

That is a good one too. All of the 1960s Westerns would be great on Blu-ray. I would like to see North To Alaska (Fox), El Dorado, War Wagon (Universal),and Chisum (1970, WB), among others.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by darkrock17

Hatari! is one of John Wayne's very few comedies he did along with Donavan's Reef and Mclintock.

Those latter two I enjoy a lot more than Hatari and are among my favorite Wayne titles.








Crawdaddy

 

[jim_falconer]

Originally Posted by Robert Crawford



Those latter two I enjoy a lot more than Hatari and are among my favorite Wayne titles.








Crawdaddy

Very true. I enjoy the ending scene in McLintock of John Wayne chasing after Maureen O'Hara thru town, a whole lot more than the ending scene in Hatari! of John Wayne chasing after a baby elephant thru a town. One played out with spectacular laughs, while the other just dragged on-and-on.


Now, all this said, I'd still get HATARI! in a heartbeat, if it ever arrives on blu. Like I previously mentioned, there is still lots of parts of the film that are enjoyable. But much like Rio Lobo, Hawks just didn't have a firm grasp on a tight story, nor did he hire the correct character actors to compliment John Wayne's leading role.

 

[darkrock17]

Hawks just didn't have a firm grasp on a tight story, nor did he hire the correct character actors to compliment John Wayne's leading role.

Excuse me, but I disagree, he knows exactly how to tell a story and all the actors were perfect for their roles. Remember, Hawks is one who brought us Bringing Up Baby, an excellent film of the screwball comedy era. Hawks, was a director of many genres, only so few directors today can direct that wide of genres.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by darkrock17


Excuse me, but I disagree, he knows exactly how to tell a story and all the actors were perfect for their roles. Remember, Hawks is one who brought us Bringing Up Baby, an excellent film of the screwball comedy era. Hawks, was a director of many genres, only so few directors today can direct that wide of genres.

Hawks was a great director and one of my personal favorites. However, I don't like all of his films in the same vain. Some, I adore like His Girl Friday and others, like Hatari are okay films. With film appreciation being so subjective, people will always disagree about them. Furthermore, late in his career, Hawks had a tendency to recycle familiar storylines which some might appreciate more than others.

 

[jim_falconer]

Originally Posted by darkrock17


Excuse me, but I disagree, he knows exactly how to tell a story and all the actors were perfect for their roles. Remember, Hawks is one who brought us Bringing Up Baby, an excellent film of the screwball comedy era. Hawks, was a director of many genres, only so few directors today can direct that wide of genres.

Well, of course Hawks made some of the finest movies ever put to film. Red River and Bringing Up Baby are in a class by themselves. That does not mean everything he did was of the same quality. Just like John Ford made some of the cinema's great classics, he also had a few misses.


Not taking anything away from the genius of Hawks. He was a master, no doubt. However, Hatari! and Rio Lobo was not Hawks at his finest.

 

[Frank Ha]

Those latter two I enjoy a lot more than Hatari and are among my favorite Wayne titles. Crawdaddy

Agreed.

 

Those latter two I enjoy a lot more than Hatari and are among my favorite Wayne titles. Crawdaddy

Some people like this, some people like that. I just hope we get a burst of Wayne title like last May/June.

 

[darkrock17]

Some people like this, some people like that. I just hope we get a burst of Wayne title like last May/June.

That would be nice, but I don't think Paramount will, it dosen't seem to fit into their big picture.