Mister Roberts (1955) is the dullest movie I’ve sat through in some time. I did not turn it off because the characters have enough potential that one keeps thinking something might happen.
I was mildly surprised to find that To Catch a Thief (1955) is in color; I must have seen part of it before 1981. — The phrase cat burglar is never used in the film; how old is it?
Samurai Trilogy (1954-6) might make more sense if the subtitles covered more than half of the dialogue.
Simple Men (1992), recommended on an INTP list. Extremely indie. I abandoned it, bored.
Les diaboliques (1955), a murder story with a twist. From a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac; when they heard that Hitchcock had sought the rights, they wrote one with him in mind, and it became Vertigo.
Guys and Dolls (1955), a musical about gamblers, based on a story by Damon Runyon. The characters are quite engaging, and the songs amusing. Frank Sinatra sings, and as usual I wonder why.
Du rififi chez les hommes (1955). The title means either “Some violence among men” or “Of the violence in men”, I can’t say which. An impeccable suspense picture.
Funny Girl (1968). An unknown becomes a Ziegfeld Follies star through chutzpah; after that the plot gets boring, but the songs are still enjoyable.
if the shoe were on the other foot, it would be a glove
Worth a giggle: What if Scientists Behaved Like Fundamentlists?
wouldn’t want to give anyone ideas
Justice Department Censors Supreme Court Quote
The mind reels at such a blatant abuse of power (and at the sheer chutzpah of using national security as an excuse to censor a quotation [from a Supreme Court decision] about using national security as an excuse to stifle dissent).
Why Nerds are Unpopular — an essay by Paul Graham blaming the neuroses of adolescence on the pointlessness of schooling. I’m surprised to find I haven’t blogged it already; so here it is so I’ll be able to find it again.
As far as I can tell, the concept of the hormone-crazed teenager is coeval with suburbia. I don’t think this is a coincidence. I think teenagers are driven crazy by the life they’re made to lead. Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance were working dogs. Teenagers now are neurotic lapdogs. Their craziness is the craziness of the idle everywhere.
. . .
This is the sort of society that gets created in American secondary schools. And it happens because these schools have no real purpose beyond keeping the kids all in one place for a certain number of hours each day. What I didn’t realize at the time, and in fact didn’t realize till very recently, is that the twin horrors of school life, the cruelty and the boredom, both have the same cause.
Ronald Bailey slaps Francis Fukuyama silly. Thanks to Monica White and Perry Metzger for the link. (See also Happy Fun Pundit‘s response to Fukuyama’s previous bio-luddite essay.)
It struck me today that Buffy fans ought to enjoy College Roomies from Hell!!!.