Movies to to watch/think about on the 4th of July

[John Sprung]

It was Franklin Roosevelt who took us off the gold standard in 1933. Silver certificate dollars were issued from then until the 1960's. Redemption for silver dollars was stopped in 1964 under the Johnson administration, and all silver redemption stopped in 1968, before the election. I remember when real silver quarters were replaced by the copper/nickel sandwich we have now. We called them "Johnson slugs".

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Guest Glen Alexander]

It was Franklin Roosevelt who took us off the gold standard in 1933. Silver certificate dollars were issued from then until the 1960's. Redemption for silver dollars was stopped in 1964 under the Johnson administration, and all silver redemption stopped in 1968, before the election.

 

-- J.S.

 

It was Nixon who ended the fixed price of gold and money is only worth the paper it is printed on and not backed.

 

"The Bretton Woods system ended on August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon ended trading of gold at the fixed price of $35/ounce. At that point for the first time in history, formal links between the major world currencies and real commodities were severed".

Edited July 9, 2008 by Glen Alexander

[David Rakoczy]

Ya know.. it is threads like this that really hurt Cinematography.com. They really do. You have one idiot singing songs against the President... not bothering to thank him that we have not been hit by a Terrorist Attack since 9/11.. who would have thought we wouldn't?... no one.. we were all waiting for round two.. which would have actually been round 8 or 11. There is another idiot telling you all to go F@#% yourselves... I have read other snide comments from other Euro idiots stating that Americans don't get subtle humor. This is all divisive.. of course these comments are meant to divide.. just like the Film vs Video topics. These are just meant as chum for the sharks to swim in and feast... (while we all know Film wins every time :-). I guess we are all very lucky to have such time on our hands that we can spend it like this and not scratching around for food... looking for a stolen daughter... taking our last breathes as we die from a curable illness. How lucky we are! Lucky and spoiled rotten!

 

Back to CML.

Edited July 9, 2008 by David Rakoczy

[Tom Lowe]

It was Franklin Roosevelt who took us off the gold standard in 1933. Silver certificate dollars were issued from then until the 1960's. Redemption for silver dollars was stopped in 1964 under the Johnson administration, and all silver redemption stopped in 1968, before the election. I remember when real silver quarters were replaced by the copper/nickel sandwich we have now. We called them "Johnson slugs".

 

-- J.S.

 

Quarters used to be made of real silver? Solid silver or a percentage?

[Ruairi Robinson]

Ya know.. it is threads like this that really hurt Cinematography.com. They really do. You have one idiot singing songs against the President... not bothering to thank him that we have not been hit by a Terrorist Attack since 9/11.. who would have thought we wouldn't?... no one.. we were all waiting for round two.. which would have actually been round 8 or 11. There is another idiot telling you all to go F@#% yourselves... I have read other snide comments from other Euro idiots stating that Americans don't get subtle humor. This is all divisive.. of course these comments are meant to divide.. just like the Film vs Video topics. These are just meant as chum for the sharks to swim in and feast... (while we all know Film wins every time :-). I guess we are all very lucky to have such time on our hands that we can spend it like this and not scratching around for food... looking for a stolen daughter... taking our last breathes as we die from a curable illness. How lucky we are! Lucky and spoiled rotten!

 

Back to CML.

 

You know calling people idiots might be considered divisive too...

 

Just saying.

[Tim O'Connor]

Ya know.. it is threads like this that really hurt Cinematography.com. They really do. You have one idiot singing songs against the President... not bothering to thank him that we have not been hit by a Terrorist Attack since 9/11.. who would have thought we wouldn't?... no one.. we were all waiting for round two.. which would have actually been round 8 or 11. There is another idiot telling you all to go F@#% yourselves... I have read other snide comments from other Euro idiots stating that Americans don't get subtle humor. This is all divisive.. of course these comments are meant to divide.. just like the Film vs Video topics. These are just meant as chum for the sharks to swim in and feast... (while we all know Film wins every time :-). I guess we are all very lucky to have such time on our hands that we can spend it like this and not scratching around for food... looking for a stolen daughter... taking our last breathes as we die from a curable illness. How lucky we are! Lucky and spoiled rotten!

 

Back to CML.

 

 

There is that old saying "It is better to light a match than curse the darkness."

 

As a result of this thread, I'm looking forward to watching "Glory" and "The Civil War", or some of it anyway, this weekend.

They are both really good suggestions and I'm going to be thinking about cinematography and filmmaking a lot by watching them,

particularly because they are telling stories in such different ways. In fact, isn't "The Civil War" a film in which the narrative

is enhanced with a technique that actually added a phrase, "the Ken Burns' effect" to the lexicon of filmmaking?

 

If you wanted to watch a movie on the Fourth of July, or recommend one that would offer a look at some part of the story of the USA,

what would be your suggestion?

[David Rakoczy]

There is that old saying "It is better to light a match than curse the darkness."

 

As a result of this thread, I'm looking forward to watching "Glory" and "The Civil War", or some of it anyway, this weekend.

They are both really good suggestions and I'm going to be thinking about cinematography and filmmaking a lot by watching them,

particularly because they are telling stories in such different ways. In fact, isn't "The Civil War" a film in which the narrative

is enhanced with a technique that actually added a phrase, "the Ken Burns' effect" to the lexicon of filmmaking?

 

If you wanted to watch a movie on the Fourth of July, or recommend one that would offer a look at some part of the story of the USA,

what would be your suggestion?

[/quote

 

 

Well said Tim. Well said.

 

Thanks.

[Guest Glen Alexander]

There is that old saying "It is better to light a match than curse the darkness."

 

There is nothing is the light or darkness that wasn't already there. G Alexander

Edited July 10, 2008 by Glen Alexander

[Jason Maeda]

There is nothing is the light or darkness that wasn't already there. G Alexander

 

uhhh... ok.

[Jason Maeda]

Anyhoo, I threw "Paris, Texas" in as a result of this thread. So, thank you fellow cinema lovers.

Edited July 10, 2008 by Jason Maeda

[Tim O'Connor]

Anyhoo, I threw "Paris, Texas" in as a result of this thread. So, thank you fellow cinema lovers.

 

 

Excellent suggestion and it makes me think also of how many good films are made by people who aren't native to a place and

so may see things that others are so used to that they take them for granted.

 

 

Call it mainstream Hollywood but I love "Witness" directed by Peter Weir and the culture clash between the worlds of the Philadelphia city

cop and the Amish widow and how that...well, in case you haven't seen it I'll stop here.

 

Peter Weir seems to work well with situations in which a protagonist is set into a new and strange society. "The Year of Living Dangerously"

is great too.

 

"Local Hero" is set only briefly in the states before shifting to Scotland but look at how Bill Forsythe caught the mix of clultures, from the opening shot of the Porsche in Houston on the highway with the country announcer/music bed and then to Scotland with the capitalist Russian fisherman in Ferness.

 

I saw "Man push Cart" this year about a former Pakistani pop star operating a sidewalk coffee push cart in New York City. Excellent movie of

the familiar hard working low paid immigrant to America story with fresh and specific details.

 

Just thought of "The Right Stuff" too and how the movie takes the astronaut rock stars and shows how they struggled against being presented that way and against being deprived of the autonomy that made them great pilots in the first place. The movie also showcases the vanishing world of the cowboy test pilot and the its evocation if not embodiment of the Old West and pioneer spirit, as the suits move in ready to turn pilots into "spam in a can".

[James Steven Beverly]

I'll add Red Dawn to the list. It seems to be constantly shown on one cable channel or another.

 

The sad fact is that while in the movie, the Russians invade the US by parachutting into the American heatland, in the past ten years, we've allpwed an organized invasion under the guise of "religious refugee".

If you want a terrific movie about the Russians invading the US, (by accident this time) thy "The Russians are coming!, The Russians are coming! (1966) WONDERFULLY funny movie with a great cast starting with Alan Arkin and Carl Riener. Great fun and maybe a 4th movie. Actually one of my FAVORITE "invasion" movies is Viva Max (1969) with an incredible cast with Peter Ustinov, Johnathan Winter, Harry Morgan among others. It's about a Mexican General who decides to retake the Alamo to impress his girlfriend, VERY funny!

[Guest Glen Alexander]

Yeah........Riiiight, OK. You're ABSOLUTELY right! The one thing we Americans fear is the awsome power of the Euro. It's right up there with Nuclear annihilation, Global warming and a sequel to Bio-dome. :rolleyes:

 

A bit of FYI

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080702...rg/ah0_cygs8avc

 

Bush's Dollar Drop Maps Loss of U.S. Clout at Final G-8 Summit

G-8 finance ministers last month identified surging commodities prices as a bigger threat than the credit squeeze to the world economy. Prices for 19 commodities in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index rose 29 percent in the first half, the most since 1973. Rice, corn and wheat futures have all touched records this year.

^^^^^^^ NIXON!!! AGAIN ^^^^^^^^^ :blink:

 

Sagging faith in the dollar -- it now makes up 63 percent of global currency reserves, down from 71 percent when Bush took office -- complicates efforts to tame commodity prices because they are primarily denominated in the U.S. currency.

 

America's dependence on imported capital to finance a $9.5 trillion debt -- up from $5.7 trillion when Bush took office -- has driven down the currency. The decline was accelerated by the subprime crisis that plunged the U.S. into an economic tailspin

 

 

No wonder Bushes' popularity is about the same or worse than Tricky Dick, he's reincarnated as NIXON: The Sequel!!!

[James Steven Beverly]

You'll get no argument about Bush being as bad or worse than Nixon from me. :D