Actually, the zombies were vanquished (or at least the ones that were besieging the house) but the African-American hero (something else that was also fairly new for a horror movie) ended up being “accidentally” blown away by the rednecks who initially looked like were coming to his aid. Nonetheless, the bleak look and tone of the NotLD was something you’d expect in some downbeat foreign film about existential despair and not a monster movie. It’s also worth noting that the movie was probably the most nihilistic thing that had ever been seen in American movies at that time. I think it’s those factors that made NotLD all the more disturbing.
And in the old monster movies of the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, the fact the monster gets killed at the end of the previous film wasn’t necessarily a bar on bringing it back for the sequel. If the box office receipts justified it, they’d always find some lame loophole to explain how the monster survived.
Does anybody know of an earlier movie than Sunset Boulevard where the first person narrator dies? That’s another of those “forks not taken” to any great extent, but the technique has been used in various guises as the “unreliable source” or whatever the official term is for the gimmick.
Toy Story, first fully CGI-animated American production The Little Mermaid, revived the Disney animation empire Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, brought a new dimension into film relationships for American audiences, demonstrated that the Hays code was effectively dead The Jazz Singer, talkies
Blazing Saddles for the various humor taboos it smashed, especially racial stereotypes. I believe it also has the Silver Screen’s first fart. Also the first time I ever saw a man coldcock a horse.
Someone earlier mentioned 48 Hours as one of the first Black/White buddy films, and I still agree, but I would note that Blazing Saddles has a similar gimmick and came out 12 years earlier, though it’s not really a “buddy movie”.
And I doubt movies are now “typically” between 2 and 2 1/2. How many comedies can you name with that sort of length?
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming
There were the teamings of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in 1976’s **Silver Streak ** and 1980’s Stir Crazy before 48 Hrs. I think both of those would qualify as “buddy movies.” However, I think 48 Hrs differed in that it was more of an action flick whereas the other films were comedies.
In Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, Eli Kotch (James Coburn) gets away with it (sort of)The elaborate robbery/con is successful but if he’d stuck around, the dupe he married to further his scheme (Camilla Sparv) inherited a lot more money.It was released about a year earlier than The Thomas Crown Affair
Grand Prix had multiple image shots, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen it, I don’t remember it they were simply duplicates of the same thing (which I remember) or also had different views of the same moment.
I’m not sure what triggers your vitriol, T T, unless you’re maybe Ralph Bakshi or something.
Another great reason to frequent these boards - I generally learn about something new. I’d never heard of Oskar Fischinger before, but after viewing some his work it doesn’t surprise me to find that he initially worked on Fantasia.
Technically ya got me on the incorrect chronology of my OP, but it could be argued that Fantasia had a greater influence just because of it’s wider distribution.
One “first” I did forget to mention about Fantasia, it was the first feature-length movie released with Stereophonic sound, which was pretty important for a movie about music.
I think there’s another way Jaws was a forerunner. Unless I’m overlooking an earlier film, it’s the first movie in which the monster, so to speak, was not supernatural, or the product of a mad scientist, or radioactive, or anything that can’t occur naturally. The Jaws shark didn’t do anything that a real shark couldn’t do. There was no talk of a curse or anything, either; it was just a shark doing what a shark does. And that was what made it so scary.
I’d like to mention some directors who I think three huge influences: DW Griffith for “Birth of a Nation”, Lois Weber for “Hypocrites”, and John Ford for “Searchers”.