I think that it’s time for me to share some of the things that I’ve enjoyed lately. First of all, the people who follow my blog probably realize that most of the films that I see are old films. There’s a reason for this. When it comes to Hollywood films, old films are much better than the films that get made nowadays. When it comes to TV series, I don’t even watch any modern series because I don’t want to waste my time on watching unoriginal and poorly made shows. The only new TV show that I’ve seen in the last few years is Switched At Birth, and I watched it only out of curiosity. It started out well, I suppose, but then became dull after the second or third season. I haven’t watched Game Of Thrones, but I might read the books by George R. R. Martin simply because I’m curious to see what propaganda messages from the establishment they contain. Anyway, in the last several months, I’ve seen a number of Westerns. For some reason, I very much enjoy seeing American Western films now. And they don’t have to be old ones. I enjoy seeing newer ones too, but, in my opinion, the old ones are especially enjoyable. I particularly like Westerns that were made in the 1950s and the 1960s. I enjoyed seeing Raintree County (1957), Shenandoah (1965), and Pale Rider (1985). Hostiles (2017), for example, isn’t an old Western, but I still enjoyed seeing it, for the most part. It features a good performance from Christian Bale. But this is only a small number of examples from my rather large film collection. I haven’t yet seen a large chunk of the films that I have in my collection. I’ve seen only a small number of recently released films in the last several months. Movie theaters are obviously closed for now. Out of the ones that I’ve seen, I can recommend Trolls World Tour (2020), Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark (2019), Knives Out (2019), 1917 (2019), Bad Boys For Life (2020), Ford v Ferrari (2019), and The Invisible Man (2020). I found Bad Boys For Life to be particularly enjoyable, and I think that it’s the best Bad Boys film yet, though that’s not saying much because the previous two films aren’t masterpieces of filmmaking. Bad Boys For Life is a good mix of comedy, action, and even some drama. Now that I’ve got these films out of the way, I can mention the films that I’ve enjoyed rewatching. The Ring (2002), which I saw again in January, is one of my favorite horror films. It’s one of the films included in the book Movies Of The 2000s from Taschen. I’ve got to say that I saw it for the first time years ago, when I was in my early teens. I saw it together with my sister and her friend. Back then, I had a difficult time watching horror films because I found them to be frightening and difficult to watch. I also don’t have a fascination with horror and death, which is something that many Western people have. So, even a mildly frightening film like The Ring was difficult to watch for me. I couldn’t finish watching it. Seeing horror films now isn’t a problem for me because I’m an adult now. The Ring is a particularly good remake of the Japanese film Ring (1998). I like the Japanese film, but I like the American remake even more. There’s a good performance from Naomi Watts. There’s a spooky, interesting story. There’s a good music score from Hans Zimmer. The cinematography by Bojan Bazelli is fitting too. All of this added together makes the film one of the best horror films of the last few decades. I rewatched the Matrix trilogy and the Scream trilogy. I think that they work fine as trilogies because even the lesser films in the trilogies have something enjoyable in them. I won’t say much about them because they’re very popular and many people have seen them. Iceman (1984) is a fantastic film. I’m surprised that it even got made. Well, I suppose that in the 1970s and the 1980s good science fiction films like Iceman could still be made in Hollywood. Ground Zero (1987) is a good Australian thriller that I’ve never even heard of before I was going through a list of all of the films that were released in the 1980s. Resurrection (1980) is another film that doesn’t get enough attention, to my surprise. On second thought, however, I shouldn’t be surprised that films like Resurrection don’t get as much attention as they deserve. The films that do get attention from the Western media, from the movie industry, and from the publishing industry are ones that have propaganda messages from the establishment. Therefore, good films that don’t contain propaganda, or ones that contain little propaganda, don’t get mentioned and become forgotten. These films have to be dug up by movie enthusiasts and discussed on independent internet blogs. When it comes to propaganda in films, I can bring up The Silence Of The Lambs (1991) as an example. Some people may think that it’s propaganda free, that it’s very well made, and that it’s an intelligent, gripping, and mostly realistic portrayal of FBI work and of solving murder cases. This is true. The film is fantastic. But even this supposedly propaganda free film actually contains propaganda from the American establishment, as it turns out. In the film, the FBI is portrayed as an agency that works for the benefit of the American people. The main character, Clarice Starling, is an FBI trainee who’s dedicated to her job and who wants to help people, especially because of a personal reason. By the end of the film, she, with the help of the agency, gets to solve the case and get the villain. In reality, however, the FBI has been used for many decades already as an instrument of class oppression by the American establishment. This is a side of the FBI that’s not shown in the film. The FBI is an institution that has been engaged in terrorist acts and in crushing political opponents in the USA. The agency works in the interests of the American ruling class. So, as you can see, even a good Hollywood film like The Silence Of The Lambs, which appears to contain no propaganda on first viewing, has a propaganda message. Quite shifty, if you ask me. And, finally, I’m also in the process of watching all the Godzilla films of the Heisei period and the Star Trek films that feature the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I remember the day when I saw a Godzilla film for the first time. I saw it with my mother and her friend in a theater, in the summer, when I was little. I still remember that sunny day well, and the film was Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993). Needless to say, back then, I enjoyed seeing the film very much. Therefore, the Heisei Godzilla films are somewhat special to me. I had a similar, memorable viewing experience when I saw Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith (2005) when it was released, in a theater, on a sunny day, in the summer. I saw the film by myself, but the fact that the auditorium was filled with Star Wars fans and the fact that I saw the film at my favorite cinema in the center of the city made it a very memorable and enjoyable experience for me. Unfortunately, that old theater, which was called Granville 7 Cinemas, no longer exists. I can mention that I recently bought the book Cosmos by Carl Sagan. What’s interesting about this book is that it’s the hardcover copy from 1980. It has 13 chapters with illustrations. The illustrations and the writing by Sagan are so much better than what you find in modern educational books. I’ve already listened to the book on Audible, and I’ve seen the TV series, but the copy that I found at a used books store is so appealing that I decided to buy it. I can recommend it to anyone else as well.
The blog of Igor Boyar 