America America

Is that an open-faced salt mine? No! It’s a glacier.

So evil!

This is apparently about the Armenian genocide (when the Turks were killing everybody in occupied territories). But more importantly, it’s the final movie in the Elia Kazan box set! After watching this, I’m free! Free, I tells you! I’ve now completed all the box sets I was watching! Except the Maya Deren one! Oops! Never mind!

(But that is a very small box.)

The Turks are so evil! You can tell by their glued-on moustaches.

(And by them killing old, nice Armenian uncles.)

I love me a good melodrama, but this guy… I dunno. I don’t mind that he’s a bad actor (that sometimes works very well in melodramas), but he’s just not that interesting? Whenever he’s on the screen, it’s like *sigh*.

He did do a handful of other things after this, though.

This was shot in 1.85:1, but cut down to 16:9 for this DVD. Or… wikipedia claims that it was 1.66:1? imdb and wikipedia are fighting! Bits of the movie are missing in any case in this version!

Comedy Turks. It’s pretty painful.

Oh, OK:

The faults are mostly at the beginning, (it’s worth sticking with it), and the scenes of peasant oppression and revolt don’t ring true. The casting of American players doesn’t help or maybe Kanzan was just too close to his material.

I was totally ready to ditch this movie, because it’s, well, awful, but this guy says that it’s going to pick up, so I’m giving it a go.

Heh heh:

The rest of the acting is very uneven and Giallelis is certainly no James Dean, (his career was short-lived).

OK, this is brutal. Brutally awful. I may not last until Constantinople (not Istanbul).

With a more compelling lead, this might have been OK, I guess? But it’s not.

You see, he wants to go to America America, so he ogles models a lot. I’m not sure whether he’s supposed to be developmentally challenged… I guess not, since it’s modelled after Kazan’s uncle or something?

No, I can’t take it any more. I’m ditching this movie before the halfway point. Perhaps the last half is the best movie ever, but I’ll never know.

America America. Elia Kazan. 1963. ⚀

Moonage Daydream

I really like that Morgen didn’t interview anybody — it’s all snippets of Bowie talking, and footage of Bowie.

The first (I’d say) two thirds of this movie really work: It’s interesting footage, and Morgen lets the songs play to completion, etc etc. It’s all good stuff. But then when we get to the mid 80s, the film starts sagging, and Morgen’s lack of enthusiasm for Bowie’s 90s (and beyond) years make the last third a slog to watch.

Moonage Daydream. Brett Morgen. 2022. ⚃