Last movie you saw?

[Mono no aware]

I don't know if I want to make defending ZZ Top the hill I die on (heaven forfend), but they are a better group than the gimmicky beards and videos suggest.  They were around for a decade before the video era.  Songs like "Tush" and "La Grange" have a raunchy drive and blistering guitar solos.  They have a stupid name and a comical appearance, but I think you might be underrating them slightly.  They play decadent & sleazy roadhouse blues better than almost anyone else (if you're in the mood for that kind of thing).  There was a kid in my high school who listed ZZ Top as his all-time favorite group (to each their own, I guess) and when I signed up for Facebook I was pleased to see that he wore a ZZ Top beard as an adult.  They were also a favorite of the neoconservative President George W. Bush.  They played at his inaugural ball.  I like to think that President Bush entered wearing a tuxedo and his famous smirk, with Laura Bush on his arm and ZZ Top playing "Sharp-Dressed Man."  Somehow ZZ Top are enjoyable.  A guilty pleasure.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GOH2vw2q0A[/yt]

[Mono no aware]

While I have your attention, Gerard, I might let you know that St. Columba (the SD user) is asking for your participation in this thread.  You probably already know and are composing a response.  But, just in case you overlooked it.  Anyway, I always enjoy reading your thoughts on music and the arts.

[Matto]

In this Corner of the World
  - available on Netflix.

Very beautiful and moving. A lot like "Grave of the Fireflies," but even sadder in some parts.

I thought this was very high praise and since it was you recommending it and I value your opinion, I decided to watch it. I guess with both movies being Japanese animes about civilians trying to survive during World War 2 in Japan with scenes of bombing and a cute young girl featured prominently, the movies are about as similar as movies get. I liked it a lot but I would not say it was "even sadder" than "Grave of Fireflies." I did not cry watching this movie. I am glad you recommended it and that I watched it, and I was happy that it was not objectionable (the closest thing to objectionable was a short second with a little anime partial nudity) because the last anime I tried to watch turned into pornography halfway through. But I rate "Grave of Fireflies" very highly. Not only do I consider it one of the best Japanese animes I have ever seen, but I would also consider it one of the best animated films I have ever seen and would put it somewhere on my list of the best movies I have ever seen. This movie was really good and definitely worth watching, but I was more greatly moved by "Grave of Fireflies" and I cried more. Thank you for the recommendation and I would recommend it also.

[Gerard]

While I have your attention, Gerard, I might let you know that St. Columba (the SD user) is asking for your participation in this thread.  You probably already know and are composing a response.  But, just in case you overlooked it.  Anyway, I always enjoy reading your thoughts on music and the arts.

I'll check that thread out.  Thanks for the heads up.  To finish up on the music thing, I don't have a problem with liking a pop group, I have plenty of eclectic things in my own collections of LPs, cassettes, CDs and downloads.  Back in the day, I used to put ZZ's "Stages" as the first song in my "jogging mix tape" to use with my sports Walkman.  My main point is not the liking of something.  It's the disliking of something genuinely good like classical music for basically immature reasons. 

[red solo cup]

Gotti with Anthony Quinn. Disappointing.

[Counter Revolutionary]

On Wings of Eagles (2016)

A pretty good movie about the Olympic runner Eric Liddell, a Protestant who admirably refused to compete in an Olympic race he qualified for because it was on a Sunday (although this refusal of his to run does not get much attention in this particular film).

Cleanest movie I have seen in a while. Nothing too morally objectionable. 

[Miriam_M]

Did you also see Chariots of Fire? (Same topic, different movie.)

[Counter Revolutionary]

Did you also see Chariots of Fire? (Same topic, different movie.)

It has been over a decade since I last watched Chariots of Fire. When I saw it last I thought that there were too many drawn out scenes that were on the boring side, but I think that I would appreciate the film much more now that I am a little older. It is one of my Father's favorite movies.

For those who don't know, as Miriam M already mentioned, Chariots of Fire is about the same Protestant Olympic runner, Eric Liddell.

[Jacob]

Chariots has Vangelis!

[Gerard]

Chariots has Vangelis!

Vangelis did the music for "The Bounty" as well which is some of my favorite music of his.  (in all its drawn out 1980s minimalist glory.) 

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLgUOiZUbTk[/yt]

[Mono no aware]

The theme for Chariots of Fire is more recognizable, but Vangelis' best work was his soundtrack for Blade Runner.  That, and Tangerine Dream's music for Legend, are the two best soundtracks of the 80s; come to think of it, they both have the same director.  The perfect marriage of sight and sound.  Synthesizers sounded cheesy in pop music, but somehow they worked in film.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfOWehvvuo0[/yt]

[Jacob]

The theme for Chariots of Fire is more recognizable, but Vangelis' best work was his soundtrack for Blade Runner.  That, and Tangerine Dream's music for Legend, are the two best soundtracks of the 80s; come to think of it, they both have the same director.  The perfect marriage of sight and sound.  Synthesizers sounded cheesy in pop music, but somehow they worked in film.

Heh.  I have to admit that I only know Vangelis in Chariots from the famous opening on the beach.

I agree that his work on Blade Runner is excellent.  I won't concede though that his work and TD's in Legend is the best of the decade, but I can't offer any counterexamples given it's been too long.

What do you think of Basil Poledouris' score for Conan the Barbarian?

[Mono no aware]

What do you think of Basil Poledouris' score for Conan the Barbarian?

It's been more than thirty years since I saw that (and only once), so I'd have to re-visit it.  I owned well-worn and much-cherished copies of both Blade Runner and Legend on VHS, though, and those remain foremost in my memory.  (I was always a staunch defender of Legend over Labyrinth, which all my friends seemed to think was the superior of the two).  I just found out that Tangerine Dream also did the soundtrack for Risky Business, which rings about right in my memory now, recalling the Eurotrash-y synth music of the scene on the train.

Currently I'm revisiting the catalogue of Darren Aronofsky, so the last movie I saw was Noah, which I think I rated middling the first time I saw it.  The second time around was altogether different, and now I consider it excellent.  Like all controversial movies, people will tend to see in it what they want to.  I went back to Bp. Barron's review and was impressed at how much Catholic symbolism he found in it (while admitting it may not've been intended).  I think I'm in a more apocalyptic and pessimistic mindset these days, and I found a terrible beauty to it.

[Gerard]

The theme for Chariots of Fire is more recognizable, but Vangelis' best work was his soundtrack for Blade Runner.  That, and Tangerine Dream's music for Legend, are the two best soundtracks of the 80s; come to think of it, they both have the same director.  The perfect marriage of sight and sound.  Synthesizers sounded cheesy in pop music, but somehow they worked in film.

A guy I know used to take scenes from Blade Runner and make music videos out of them. He was a film major in college at the time.  He did some really cool stuff with Sting's "Fragile" and "Red Rain" from Peter Gabriel.  Blade Runner is a weird movie in how it has more visual rhythm than and visual motifs than it does actual overt story. 

But it's hard to really pick a "best" due to the vast variety of musical types.  Obviously compositionally, nobody alive then or now is going to hold a candle to the genius of Mozart which served as the soundtrack to "Amadeus."  And you have the more classically romantic music of Ennio Morricone with "The Mission" and John Barry with "Somewhere in Time." 

[Mono no aware]

A guy I know used to take scenes from Blade Runner and make music videos out of them. He was a film major in college at the time.  He did some really cool stuff with Sting's "Fragile" and "Red Rain" from Peter Gabriel.  Blade Runner is a weird movie in how it has more visual rhythm than and visual motifs than it does actual overt story. 

But it's hard to really pick a "best" due to the vast variety of musical types.  Obviously compositionally, nobody alive then or now is going to hold a candle to the genius of Mozart which served as the soundtrack to "Amadeus."  And you have the more classically romantic music of Ennio Morricone with "The Mission" and John Barry with "Somewhere in Time."

I think I'll pass on the "classically romantic" soundtracks, but I do like classical music in a movie.  Stanley Kubrick, of course, had a run of three films where he really made that all his own: 2001, A Clockwork Orange, and Barry Lyndon.  There are portions of 2001 where I think it would've been better served by something like Pink Floyd, who were doing exceptional space-rock soundtrack work around that time.  (I hate to be a heretic, but I have to be honest: the Blue Danube Waltz in space is a bit silly).  But pieces like Zarathustra and Lux Aeterna work so perfectly it's difficult to imagine it without them.  I would say the synth-&-classical hybrid work of Walter (later Wendy) Carlos on A Clockwork Orange was influential on bringing synthesizers into soundtracks.  I guess the synthesizer really took off in horror films, such as the prog-rock score for Dario Argento's Suspiria and the early work of John Carpenter (a director who composed his own soundtracks).  I know a lot of people consider that stuff dated and corny, but it's what I imbibed in my formative years of watching movies and I love it.

Agreed on Blade Runner being a weird movie.  It's hard to determine what it does better, its "visual rhythm and visual motifs" (great phrase) or its story, which really does "philosophical existential sci-fi" to perfection.  Speaking of Peter Gabriel, he wrote the soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ.  It has a bit of synth, but it's more along the lines of "Red Rain."

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0EYRC4NQ-Q[/yt]