Has anyone seen this movie?
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TheManWhoFellToEarth — 18 years ago(May 23, 2007 01:04 PM)
I DVRed this when TCM showed this recently. I had never seen it. The scene near the end where the truth about Forrest is explained was incredible. I think he didn't actually have ties to Hitler but was using Fascism as a model for a New America.
I'd really like to have a transcript of that scene. If I can't find one online then I'll transcribe it myself.
It seems to me the "Forrest plan" has been enacted in the USA, repeatedly.
"YOU REMIND ME TODAY OF A SMALL MEXICAN CHIHUAHUA"
http://tinyurl.com/yqwurw -
dmh7-1 — 17 years ago(May 28, 2008 07:56 PM)
Just saw it. Hepburn and Tracy are perfectly fine in the film, which reminds one in part of "Citizen Kane" with its unraveling of a "great man's" past, and the huge Gothic house, etc. There is some intelligent dialogue, the sets are stunning, the camera work superior, butthe ending is hysteric, blunt, and didactic, ruining what could have been a much better psychological bit of cinema. A disappointment finally despite all its apparent virtues. The manner in which a very compelling piece of suspense is blown is a disaster.
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dmh7-1 — 17 years ago(August 16, 2008 10:57 PM)
Yes. It's a marvelous looking film, it has all the atmosphere a film could use, and it has both great leads, and the usual "salting" of reliable character actors, but the storyline is not only terribly dated (and preachy/pompous about its politics) but - as you also note - seems to turn from a 1500 meter run into a short sprint at the very end. One wonders what the problems were - a pushy producer, an impatient director, a disinterested editor. Who knows? There are plenty of films about that era, about Nazis and the like that are still greatly enjoyable today ("Casablanca" stands out of course), but it's because the themes are rendered universal, the creators refuse to take themselves too seriously, and the real story is one of love or loyalty, etc. Here, we are led to believe something "important" is being revealed to us, and yet - the film wraps up in a headless rush. Very disappointing
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lordhack_99 — 17 years ago(August 18, 2008 01:35 PM)
Yes, the preachiness, even for its times, is tiresome, along with the somewhat Italianate pronunciation of 'fascist'. A fash-chist! Of course, if we begin thinking of films whose themes are above the, shall we say, intellectual station of its makers, or are made juvenile in an assumption that the viewer is a straw-chewing bumpkin, we could have a list here that runs for miles. I am thinking right now of SABOTEUR, but I really digress
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teaandoranges — 15 years ago(June 16, 2010 05:14 PM)
Wow.didn't occur to me when I was watching but of course it is based on Lindbergh Could also have been based partly on Joseph Kennedy.I enjoyed the movie and Hepburn/Tracy are wonderful to watch as usual.
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gbennett5 — 15 years ago(June 16, 2010 07:00 PM)
I saw this years ago, but hadn't seen it again until this afternoon on
TCM. Unlike other posters, my problem is the beginning, which is
muddled and highly irritating (credit Audrey Christie) in spots. But the
final 45 minutes unfold beautifully, with Hepburn and Tracy giving fine
turns in their roles. -
tireless_crank — 15 years ago(August 20, 2010 04:22 PM)
Lindbergh is more likely, he was a huge populist hero, he loved the Fascist ideology, touring Germany and meeting German leaders. He was an expressed racist and believed in eugenics. Not a pretty character up close.
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simplemines — 10 years ago(April 11, 2015 11:55 PM)
Eugenics was a huge movement in the US, starting around the time of Woodrow Wilson. It was, btw, a leftist movement (but then Nazis were National Socialists.) Nazis learned a lot about eugenics from American eugenics.
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molly-31 — 15 years ago(August 20, 2010 10:35 PM)
I'm getting distinct Lindbergh vibes off it. Especially the minute the guy mentioned "true Americanism".
It's like a twisted Capra movie. The dark side of that stuff. Or like what everybody thought Senator Paine was like vs. what he was really like.
Let's just say that God doesn't believe in me. -
X-Evolutionist — 15 years ago(August 22, 2010 07:13 AM)
I just finished watching it. I had never heard of it before. The beginning of the "mystery" story reminded me of Citizen Kane.
X
Reasons Why I Believe in God:
http://X-Evolutionist.com/ -
neighturboy — 15 years ago(January 19, 2011 05:27 PM)
Nothing to contribute to this already interesting discussion, but wanted to let you all know the film is finally being released on DVD by Warners on April 12th, 2011. It and "The Sea of Grass" (also new to DVD) will also be part of the 10-disc box set, "Tracy and Hepburn - The Definitive Collection" containing all the Tracy/Hepburn films. In addition to their nine films it'll also contain the documentary "The Spencer Tracy Legacy". This will be a joint effort from Warners, Sony and Fox, similar to the combined effort to release "The Elia Kazan Collection" last year.
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whitetigerzone — 13 years ago(April 18, 2012 09:57 AM)
This film was a thought experiment reflecting on unspoken assumptions and questions in the nation's reaction to what was happening in Germany at the time: What if America had a Hitler? Could it happen here? How might it happen? Could someone who is a sufficiently charismatic speaker spellbind this nation with patriotic idealism and then lead it down an ugly murderous path? The story structure the film takes, with a reporter covering the figure's untimely death, which occurs at what would have been a pivotal moment in his ascent, is a device that allows a widening circle of truth to be revealed about this figure throughout the course of the film; the reporter is meant to be the audience's surrogate within the film, leading us through a transition of feelings of first admiration, then discomfort and ultimately horror for the absent figure.
The movie cheats a little bit on the experiment: the ugly side of the Hitler character in the movie is revealed as a secret plot to be implemented after his rise to power. The real Hitler was quite upfront and open about his race hatred and warlike intentions from the beginning and rose to power anyway. Was this discrepancy written in because the makers of the film thought this a genuine distinction in American vs. German culture: that a completely parallel series of events could not actually happen here? Or because they feared the American audience would reject such a portrayal of themselves? Or was it to give the story the elements of mystery and suspense?