Red Letter Media

  • 🏰 The Fediverse is up. If you know, you know.
  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account

Favorite recurring character? (Select 4)

  • Jack / AIDSMobdy

    Votes: 257 24.0%

  • Josh / the Wizard

    Votes: 77 7.2%

  • Colin (Canadian #1)

    Votes: 460 42.9%

  • Jim (Canadian #2)

    Votes: 230 21.4%

  • Tim

    Votes: 386 36.0%

  • Len Kabasinski

    Votes: 208 19.4%

  • Freddie Williams

    Votes: 274 25.5%

  • Patton Oswalt

    Votes: 27 2.5%

  • Macaulay Culkin

    Votes: 541 50.4%

  • Max Landis

    Votes: 64 6.0%
  • Total voters
    1,073
Hazel Motes said:
No mention of John Ford's brilliant classics like The Searchers or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Click to expand...

Good Bad Ugly is one of my top ten films so I'm glad they liked it and introduced it to a wider audience, but I was just a little annoyed that they said they couldn't really judge older westerns John Ford films specifically because they hadn't seen them, but kept dunking on them anyway. The Searchers and Liberty Valance immediately sprang to mind as films that could change their minds.

I have to admit I have to watch or even rewatch others on your list, myself.

Fun fact: A Fistful Of Dollars is a ripoff as in, Sergio Leone was successfully sued over it of Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo. Who was one of, if not the biggest influence on Kurosawa? John Ford.
 
Newman's Lovechild said:
Good Bad Ugly is one of my top ten films so I'm glad they liked it and introduced it to a wider audience, but I was just a little annoyed that they said they couldn't really judge older westerns John Ford films specifically because they hadn't seen them, but kept dunking on them anyway. The Searchers and Liberty Valance immediately sprang to mind as films that could change their minds.

I have to admit I have to watch or even rewatch others on your list, myself.

Fun fact: A Fistful Of Dollars is a ripoff as in, Sergio Leone was successfully sued over it of Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo. Who was one of, if not the biggest influence on Kurosawa? John Ford.
Click to expand...
I didn't know it was successful.
 
Jay's had to have seen Yojimbo right?

The only reason I think he wouldn't have interjected Rich's synopsis of A Fistful of Dollars is because EVERYONE knows it's a rip-off at this point, I guess.
 
Newman's Lovechild said:
The Searchers and Liberty Valance immediately sprang to mind as films that could change their minds.
Click to expand...

It's kind of amazing that two of the guys responsible for the definitive Star Wars prequel takedown videos have not mentioned and may even not be aware of The Searchers's influence on the original movie. The shot of Owen and Beru's farmstead after the stormtroopers wreck it is pretty much taken directly from Ford's movie.

Also, goddamn, guys, there is a ton more shades of gray in that film than they seem to imagine. John Wayne's character is practically going on a one man ethnic cleanse.
 
Mola Ram said:
It's kind of amazing that two of the guys responsible for the definitive Star Wars prequel takedown videos have not mentioned and may even not be aware of The Searchers's influence on the original movie. The shot of Owen and Beru's farmstead after the stormtroopers wreck it is pretty much taken directly from Ford's movie.

Also, goddamn, guys, there is a ton more shades of gray in that film than they seem to imagine. John Wayne's character is practically going on a one man ethnic cleanse.
Click to expand...
This is like... the idea I was trying to figure how to express earlier. That it's easier than people realize to have parody and pop culture perceptions of a work overwrite the reality of it.

And then you struggle to get people to understand that it's more nuanced and richer than that and so often get a "nah, I know all I need to about it."
 
Flexo said:
This is like... the idea I was trying to figure how to express earlier. That it's easier than people realize to have parody and pop culture perceptions of a work overwrite the reality of it.

And then you struggle to get people to understand that it's more nuanced and richer than that and so often get a "nah, I know all I need to about it."
Click to expand...

John Ford in particular was light years ahead of where people imagine racial nuances in filmmaking were during the time of his career. Indians, as far as I can remember, were never simple "How, white man! Much wampum for firewater!" stereotypes, and he even made at least one movie (Sergeant Rutledge) that explored white/black issues during the period.

Honestly, as much as these guys seem to be more aware of filmmaking than 99% of other YouTubers, I was a little shocked how unfamiliar they seem to be with Ford, a genuine titan of American cinema. I have to imagine Mike is more conversant with his stuff, but this so surprised me it's entirely possible he's on the same wavelength.
 
Mola Ram said:
John Ford in particular was light years ahead of where people imagine racial nuances in filmmaking were during the time of his career. Indians, as far as I can remember, were never simple "How, white man! Much wampum for firewater!" stereotypes, and he even made at least one movie (Sergeant Rutledge) that explored white/black issues during the period.

Honestly, as much as these guys seem to be more aware of filmmaking than 99% of other YouTubers, I was a little shocked how unfamiliar they seem to be with Ford, a genuine titan of American cinema. I have to imagine Mike is more conversant with his stuff, but this so surprised me it's entirely possible he's on the same wavelength.
Click to expand...
Yeah I caught a bit of the 72 John Wayne film The Cowboys on tv once.

Racism? Maybe. But there's a lot of depth, nuance, and common humanity in that scene too.
 
Flexo said:
Yeah I caught a bit of the 72 John Wayne film The Cowboys on tv once.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=R4ULSyJobWs
Racism? Maybe. But there's a lot of depth, nuance, and common humanity in that scene too.
Click to expand...

The Cowboys is a ton of fun, and I really can't imagine thinking it's racist. The reference to "Red Indians, " maybe, but even that's just language of the period. Roscoe Lee Brown's character practically steals that movie, and he's treated with so much respect he eventually becomes the boys' second mentor. (Also, this isn't a Ford film, although it's so obviously meant as a tribute to his style it's sometimes hard not to think of it as one.)

It occurs to me that the core RLM guys are of my generation, and my generation largely despised Westerns because our parents were absolutely saturated with them. I only started watching them in my late teenage years, and only because it was a nice way to bond with Papa Ram. The more I watched the more I started to see how many of them were actually great movies. Are 90% of them cliche trash? Probably, but that's true of almost any genre that gets that big.

If nothing else, they're much better American mythology than capeshit.
 
tehpope said:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=17N8_E40Nl0the boys talk spaghetti.
Click to expand...
The first film I ever saw that made me realise the importance of the cinematographer. They didn't go nearly enough into the technical aspects of the shots as it deserved. It truly is a masterpiece.
KrewlKween said:
RLM touch on the "but she not strong like man" thing. They point out that you had fucking Arnold Schwarzenegger and it didn't matter because you're not arm wrestling the predator. It's about out gunning or out smarting it. Technically, a woman could do both of those things.
Click to expand...
That was really the entire point of the Predator. Arnie was famous for being big strong tough guy, now he's out of his element. He and his squad begin as the ultimate special forces hunters, and then immediately are turned into easy prey themselves. It's The Most Dangerous Game turned up to 11, showing even at our most desperate and most emasculated, we are a species to be reckoned with. Required viewing for any and all potential alien forces.
reptile101 said:
i forgot that much like every other corrupt entity on this planet they leave a massive paper trail so the public can know how corrupt they are.
Click to expand...
Like any conspiracy theory, if it involves hundreds to thousands of people and public records, it probably isn't true. Billionaires can't even avoid taxes without it leaking like the Panama Papers.

Again, we can blame the continuance of wokeshit on far more realistic happenings.
 
It really was surprising how dismissive they were toward John Ford movies, and that they've never really seen any. He directed so many movies and big name ones too. It's been a tradition in my family to watch The Quiet Man every St Patrick's day.
 
Bush King said:
Averaging a $2,000,000,000 profit every year = collapsing?

People were saying super hero flicks would end for the past ten decade.
Click to expand...

yes and losing money recently

but theirs your paper trail and blackrock implementing woke political changes you wanted proof of
 
Last edited:
Bauman has watched probably scores of giallo films, I don't see why he wouldn't watch any of those spaghetti movies which after giallos had some of the best titles.
God-Forgives_I-Dont-6-1.jpg

KILLTHEMALLANDCOMEBACKALONE.jpg

have-a-good-funeral-my-friend.-sartana-will-pay_mp_poster.jpg

Crows.jpg
 
Hazel Motes said:
There are many westerns long before The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly which go far beyond the simple story of good cowboys vs bad Indians. Many of the greats are directed with a great eye and are not flat, the era was simple awash with so much middling tripe it might make a cursory glance make it seem that way. No mention of John Ford's brilliant classics like The Searchers or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. High Noon, Red River, Shane or, in my opinion the greatest trilogy of westerns, Anthony Mann's Winchester '73, The Man from Laramie, and my personal favourite The Naked Spur.
Click to expand...
Indeed. And after The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as well. You don't even need to stray that far from TG, TB & TU either as even a cursory consideration of Eastwood's 70s westerns, High Plains Drifter being my personal favourite, demolish that idea of the simplistic cookie cutter western.

There seems to be a wider issue with people being content to wallow in their ignorance of what happened "before their time" instead just writing them off based on generalised false stereotypes. I'm not going to criticise Unforgiven but the pervasive view (since release) that it was the first and only film to move away from the ideal good cowboy hero is nonsense. It's ironic that so many of those also appear to be the same people who delight in and promote modern simplistic cookie cutter films.
 
Internet War Criminal said:
I hope they do more of these in the future. Way more of these, and less of the mainstream shit. There are so few movies that justify a HitB nowadays...
Click to expand...
I agree that we need more of these.

I disagree that there are few movies that justify a HitB.

Some of my favorite HitB of the last couple years were them reviewing just odd yet current things they felt the need to comment on because they knew they had something to say. Moneyplane, Verotica, Moonfall, Malignant, The Fanatic.

Really, look at the HITB of 2022. How much less mainstream shit could they even be doing?

Prey
The Black Phone
Everything Everywhere
2 Midyear 2022 Catch up Episodes
Dr. Strange
Moonfall
Pam and Tommy
Bruce Willis Factory
2021 catchup

That's like...one Blockbuster tier mainstream in Dr. Strange. And three 'this has a lot of people talking so I guess we have to watch' movies in Prey, Everything Everywhere, and Moonfall.

They're shoving the majority of their mainstream reviews into the Catch-up episodes because they know that they don't have an entire episode of interesting things to say about New Marvel TV Show on Disney Plus.
 
Kit Marz said:
It really was surprising how dismissive they were toward John Ford movies, and that they've never really seen any. He directed so many movies and big name ones too. It's been a tradition in my family to watch The Quiet Man every St Patrick's day.
Click to expand...
I love the guys and think they’re really informative for YouTubers but it’s obvious their Knowledge of film history drops off a cliff when it comes to anything before 1970.
 
There is no way to work this into the debate (more like agreement) on westerns being awesome so I'm just going to say that I really like High Plains Drifter. It's not spaghetti western, but I still watch it every few years...

... also blazing saddles but ignore me
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom