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sounddude
From that small beginning, Rob has worked his way into first call production sound mixer status. Based out of central Florida, Rob has worked all over the world for top clients in the film and television industry.
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Reviews
Pony Express (1953)
Total Fiction But Still Fun
I'll be brief here. This is what we called "inspired by real events" in the film production world, which I spent 29 years. The only thing in this movie that is NOT fiction, is the event, the creation of the Pony Express, and a couple of names, Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok. In reality, Cody was 14, not Heston's age of 29. And Hickok was 15, not Forrest Tucker's 34. And their colorful names had not yet been established. Two fictional characters in the film are the Hastings siblings who opposed the Pony Express when in reality, the B. F. Hastings building was the western terminus in Sacramento, California. And while there were indeed issues with bandits and Indians, the Pony Express ended after only 18 months because it wasn't financially feasible and the telegraph was finally completed to the west coast. Still, if you like westerns, it worth watching at least once just to watch Heston, Tucker. Jan Sterling and Ronda Fleming.
SEAL Team: All Along the Watchtower: Part 1 (2019)
Uh...where did they find her?
This and part two are excellent episodes...but where did they find the woman who played the Ambassador? Absolutely terrible! Worse supporting performance so far on the show. Drugs? Brain damage? She just didn't care?
South Pacific (1958)
A Classic Film Treatment Of A Popular Play...complete with it's problems.
My parents took me to see this film when it came out, and it had a powerful affect on me. I sensed the profound sadness in the film, concerning the loss of life and love as a result of war. I loved the musical numbers and to this day, some of these songs still reverberate in my mind. South Pacific was also one of the motion pictures that would influence me to seek a career in the film industry.
If by some chance you've never seen this film, rent the DVD, turn up the home theater system, pop some corn and enjoy it for what it is, a slice of cinematic history. Accept it for what it is, a beautifully photographed movie about war and race acceptance, advanced for it's day.
Try to ignore the negatives that have been written about it here. Yes, the directing seems like it could have been better. I think director Logan wanted the visuals and music to tell the story, rather than the typical, unrealistic overacting of the day. To me, this is not deary or plodding, it is the way real people are. Plays typically push acting over the top, to get the audience involved in what is going on up on the stage. Understatement is a real film technique in which Logan was probably ahead of his time with. Another technique he used, which breaks another rule, is having Mitzi Gaynor sing "I'm In Love" directly into the lens of the camera. This breaks down the traditional "fourth wall" found in most theater and film. He seemed to want to push new, radical ideas, while at the same time, pull way back on the performances.
The one thing I have trouble getting past, and forgiving him of, is the filming of musical and other scenes through colored gels. He actually shot the raw footage with the gels on the front of the camera lens, which means that all the film is stuck with the color and other affects. Even in that day, this could have been easily done in post production, when the final master print was being created. That way, the original would not be "ruined" with an experiment that doesn't work. Of course, with today's computer technology, most of the color could be stripped from the film. But, that would be revisionist and monkeying with a classic film and won't ever happen. Plus, the expense would be high. So it is what it is. A distracting and annoying experiment that didn't work.
I've also read some remarks here about the sync of the film, critical of the actors lip syncing. As most movie buffs know, the actors sing along with a prerecorded sound track, that was recorded in a sound studio, sometimes months prior to filming. They do practice to the track before filming and typically can match the song perfectly, even if they didn't sing the original. But I've noticed as I watch the film today, that the whole sync is out. This would be an artifact of digital technology, in which the picture and sound are processed separately, and when broadcast, don't always arrive to your TV set exactly at the same time, as it appears to be the case as I watch it on TCM. Also, if the sync is out in the original film, that is more the fault of the film editor, than the actor. By the way, this whole film was looped, which means all the dialog was re-recorded afterward in a sound studio, with sound effects added afterward. But this was pretty standard for the day, as well.
Personally, I think the strong but restrained performances and wonderful songs make this a film to be watched at least once if you are a fan, lover, or student of classic cine.