# Movies that still hold up but only God knows why **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 4, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541 "2019-07-04T23:02:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/141 "2019-07-15T22:20:50Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Chronos Johnson is right. _ **RRaarrbushh!** _ ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/142 "2019-07-15T22:44:11Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Another family movie: > > **Swallows and Amazons (1974)**… Not available in the USA, sadly due to that crappy regions stuff. ---
**Author:** ![cieskokid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cieskokid/32/5374_2.png) [@cieskokid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cieskokid)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/143 "2019-07-16T01:44:09Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > _The Wizard of Oz_ should have sent filmmakers into a dizzying spiral of one-upsmanship, the way _Star Wars_ did 38 years later. Maybe the war got in the way? > > I agree with an earlier post about _Multiplicity_. I think they tried to get Blll Murray to star in it, and this was the beginning of Bill Murray refusing to take Harold Ramis’s phone calls. I think Michael Keaton hit the ball out of the park, but not enough people agree with me about that. I also liked his remake of _Bedazzled_, but this was the beginning of the end for Brendan Fraser’s star power. I hear what you’re saying about Michael Keaton being the key to making “Multiplicity” work {“Hi Steve!”} Each copy of his Doug character needed 2b distinct from the others; Bill Murray, while a comedic master who can also hold his weight in drama IF given the right material [“Lost In Translation”] wouldn’t have been able 2do what Keaton did in playing subtly different versions of the same guy. Keaton has ALWAYS been a finely tuned actor, in almost all of his movies he gives each character what it needs needs to 2make the film’s narrative work. Even in his 1st one, “Night Shift”, when his character Bill does the sad Xmas tree scene, talking about how him mom went kinda crazy after his dad left them. Then what? =\> Keaton does “Clean And Sober” for his 2nd film, his portrayal of Batman is still best one [more so in the 2nd one, “Batman Returns”], then “Mr. Mom” THEN freakin’ “Beetlejuice”! And who the hell else could’ve made “Birdman” work. {I love the Straight\*Dope boards but this what happens w/me after too much kaffee on a Monday!} ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/144 "2019-07-16T07:09:32Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Not available in the USA, sadly due to that crappy regions stuff. It _is_ available in the USA - it’s on Amazon USA - only with a warning that it’s region 2. There are various legal ways to play region 2 DVDs/Blu-rays in the USA. You can easily change the region of the drive on your computer. You can rip the disk or copy it - either of which will eliminate the region encoding. This is 100% legal if you own the DVD/Blu-ray. The books are also public domain in Canada and many other countries, and are available [here](https://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php?author=Ransome,%20Arthur). A must if you love children and/or sailing. The children are in many ways the most realistic children I’ve seen in fiction, and mostly based on real children the author knew. He also owned a series of sailing yachts and sailed his whole life. The books all revolve around sailing. > [@](#): > > I have often been asked how I came to write Swallows and Amazons. The answer is that it had its beginning long, long ago when, as children, my brother, my sisters and I spent most of our holidays on a farm at the south end of Coniston. We played in or on the lake or on the hills above it, finding friends in the farmers and shepherds and charcoal-burners whose smoke rose from the coppice woods along the shore. We adored the place. Coming to it, we used to run down to the lake, dip our hands in and wish, as if we had just seen the new moon. Going away from it, we were half drowned in tears. While away from it, as children and as grown-ups, we dreamt about it. No matter where I was, wandering about the world, I used at night to look for the North Star and, in my mind’s eye, could see the beloved skyline of great hills beneath it. Swallows and Amazons grew out of those old memories. I could not help writing it. It almost wrote itself. >   — Arthur Ransome ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/145 "2019-07-16T12:33:30Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I suggest you seek out his _The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec_, It’s delightfully bizarre, with pterodactyls flying through 1912 Paris, mummy’s curses, and a woman with a hatpin in the brain. > [@DrDeth](#): > > It has moments. It’s like Indiana Jones but with a French woman, but as it’s a French film there is less punching and more nudity. Still fun though. > [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > Lawrence of Arabia is just so weird in view of the events in the Middle East since it was made. Someone said that it is a film that could not be made nowadays. And that’s true. But Peter O’Toole just steals the film. See also: _The Ruling Class_ (which is bizarre but still very watchable) and _My Favorite Year_. Really, Peter O’Toole is watchable in pretty much anything. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/146 "2019-07-16T12:35:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Corrupt governor is in cahoots with corrupt railroad tycoon (or were they they same guy? Either way.) Different characters. Gov. LePetomane was played by Mel Brooks, and Hedley Lamarr was played by Harvey Korman (respectively). Yes, I’ve watched this movie at least a few dozen times. 🙂 Nearly 50, and still laugh myself silly at the campfire scene. I especially like how the fire flares in time with the sound effects. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/147 "2019-07-16T13:24:33Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Back in the 80s my mother was excited to watching Blazing Saddles with me and was quite upset that they edited all the rude sounds from the campfire scene. The cowpokes would rise up while eating, sometimes grunt, and sit down but without the rude sounds the scene was much less effective. I took the audio from that scene and set it as the Windows startup sound on my daughter’s computer. She was appalled! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/148 "2019-07-16T13:33:23Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > Lawrence of Arabia is just so weird in view of the events in the Middle East since it was made. Someone said that it is a film that could not be made nowadays. And that’s true. But Peter O’Toole just steals the film. It’s interesting for the contrast between the nomadic warring tribesmen shown in the movie and the wealthy plutocrats now running things in Saudi Arabia. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/149 "2019-07-16T14:48:20Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > It’s interesting for the contrast between the nomadic warring tribesmen shown in the movie and the wealthy plutocrats now running things in Saudi Arabia. What? The top Arab leader portrayed was Faisal\*. Read his [bio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal_I_of_Iraq). Hardly nomadic. Sherif Ali was partly based on his cousin. Same deal. As rebels during a war against a then-superior enemy they had to go to ground but that wasn’t their normal style of living. While not portrayed in the film, Lawrence also worked with the other Arab leaders. Examples: The main Arab royal family are the descendants of [Ibn Saud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Saud), founder of Saudi Arabia. His family had been rulers of Riyadh and weren’t nomads. He did go on the run a couple times. First after a failed attempt to regain Riyadh and then during the conflict with the Ottomans. Again, not the usual lifestyle. The first king of Jordan, [Abdullah I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan), was a brother of Faisal who initially served in the Ottoman goverment before joining the rebellion. Note that [Auda Abu Tayi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auda_Abu_Tayi) was an actual Bedouin and a well respected military commander. His experience in the desert was important. But he did not have any other governmental role and did not produce any national dynasty. - Not to be confused with the later Saudi king. ---
**Author:** ![Clawdio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Clawdio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clawdio)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/150 "2019-07-16T14:57:48Z")
Yet another vote for **The Fifth Element** , and here’s my guess why: It did a similar thing that the original Ghost Busters did - it totally nailed the mix of comedy/adventure/spoof in such a perfect way that you almost can’t really categorize it very easily. Get one element (heh) of that mix a little bit off and you end up with something mediocre that we’ve already seen a million times… but nail it and you end up with something truly memorable and unique. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/151 "2019-07-17T06:21:08Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > The original Planet of the Apes. > > The whole premise is, their spaceship has landed on an alien planet far from earth…and the big M Night Shyamalan reveal at the end with the Statue of Liberty…that they’re STILL on Earth? > > We saw feral humans, sentient chimps, gorillas, and orangutans, traditional horses, oxygen atmosphere, normal gravity and temperature, a dug-up human doll that says “mama”. > > I’m sure if he cared to check he’d find earth-native vegetation and salt water in the ocean. > > How can anybody be surprised this is earth? > > (Far in the future or parallel universe, but still earth!) > > Yet it is an awesome concept and movie! Fucking Charlton Heston mannnn…always gave 110%. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/152 "2019-07-17T11:41:16Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > The original Planet of the Apes. > > The whole premise is, their spaceship has landed on an alien planet far from earth…and the big M Night Shyamalan reveal at the end with the Statue of Liberty…that they’re STILL on Earth? > > We saw feral humans, sentient chimps, gorillas, and orangutans, traditional horses, oxygen atmosphere, normal gravity and temperature, a dug-up human doll that says “mama”. > > I’m sure if he cared to check he’d find earth-native vegetation and salt water in the ocean. > > How can anybody be surprised this is earth? > > (Far in the future or parallel universe, but still earth!) > > Yet it is an awesome concept and movie! I had all the same thoughts about the original movie when I first saw it – and I was 12 at the time. But I wrote it off when I learned that Rod Serling had written the original script. Serling could write a helluva script, but he frequently gave Science and Reality a pass, as he’d proven endless times in _The Twilight Zone_, where asteroids could have earth-normal gravity and atmospheres, or people could crash-land on an asteroid and have no idea where they were, or the like. The first Planet of the Apes film feels, despite all the rewrites done by others, like a very big, expensive, color episode of TZ. (And there are other things about the film that annoy me, although those are the work of other writers, I think. The ape society doesn’t feel like a society on the brink of disaster because of food shortage. The Ape City is too small to support the kind of society it claims to be doing. Certainly no city that small and starving ought to have a freakin’ museum! Serling apparently wanted to depict a society with cities the size of modern cities.) But I have to admit that the overall design of the Ape City and the music really do put this film in a class of its own. Despite the major stupidities, it’s worth the watch. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/153 "2019-07-17T15:14:59Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > We saw feral humans, sentient chimps, gorillas, and orangutans, traditional horses, oxygen atmosphere, normal gravity and temperature, a dug-up human doll that says “mama”. > > I’m sure if he cared to check he’d find earth-native vegetation and salt water in the ocean. > > How can anybody be surprised this is earth? > > (Far in the future or parallel universe, but still earth!) Note also that the the constellations would have been recognizable as well (even if a bit distorted) (and if Heston ever saw the moon, it’s game over man). ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/154 "2019-07-17T20:16:58Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > Different characters. Gov. LePetomane was played by Mel Brooks, and Hedley Lamarr was played by Harvey Korman (respectively). > > Yes, I’ve watched this movie at least a few dozen times. 🙂 Nearly 50, and still laugh myself silly at the campfire scene. I especially like how the fire flares in time with the sound effects. All these years later I still love Blazing Saddles, have watched it dozens of times, and I can’t believe that I never noticed this. Now I’ll have to watch it again! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2019, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/155 "2019-07-17T20:54:58Z")
I’m of the opinion that farts are not always inherently funny. But sometimes, they can be, and that scene is one of the proofs. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/156 "2019-07-18T06:23:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > (And there are other things about the film that annoy me, although those are the work of other writers, I think. The ape society doesn’t feel like a society on the brink of disaster because of food shortage. The Ape City is too small to support the kind of society it claims to be doing. Certainly no city that small and starving ought to have a freakin’ museum! Serling apparently wanted to depict a society with cities the size of modern cities.) Not sure I understand. Was the ape society _supposed_ to be on the brink of disaster? As for the size of the Ape City, I assumed that what we saw was only part of a larger civilization. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/157 "2019-07-18T11:26:10Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Not sure I understand. Was the ape society _supposed_ to be on the brink of disaster? As for the size of the Ape City, I assumed that what we saw was only part of a larger civilization. Yep. Pay attention to the debates in the Ape council. The human problem is becoming intolerable. And while the intent may have been that the Ape society was much larger, the depiction in the film really didn’t give tat impression. There certainly may have been a few more Ape communities, but then again, they’re restricted by that Forbidden Zone. The film doesn’t really give the _feel_ of a big, worldwide Ape civilization – it gives the feel of a largely desert world with few, possibly only one, ape cities. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/158 "2019-07-18T12:20:56Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Serling apparently wanted to depict a society with cities the size of modern cities.) There was the Saturday morning cartoon _Return To The Planet Of The Apes_, which followed the original French novel in having the apes have an approximately 20th century level of industrial tech. P.S. My fanwank is that the television series of Planet of the Apes followed the post-movie altered timeline, where humans weren’t driven out into the desert to become mute savages, but they did become a discriminated minority reduced to serfdom. ---
**Author:** ![BonnyB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71c47a/32.png) [@BonnyB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BonnyB)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/159 "2019-07-18T13:59:05Z")
Titanic ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541/160 "2019-07-18T14:27:27Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > My nom is Buckaroo Banzai: Across The 8th Dimension. NOW we’re talking. That’s one I always want to watch, can’t find readily, and for some reason can’t bring myself to buy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-still-hold-up-but-only-god-knows-why/836541.md?page=9)