FYI, it’s Meggie, with an E. (My wife took a class with her last year.) Also, for the record…
…she would have been up “only” $15,200, not $30,000, if she hadn’t gotten the DD wrong. She had $7,600 at the time, and bet it all.
I, too, was surprised that none of them got FJ right. Like terenti, all it took for me was “1935” and “motorcycle accident.”
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I usually find the little mime scenes some contestants do for their opening intro shot (all of them did one last night) contrived, cutesy, and annoying.
Off-topic, but this is why movie theaters are here to stay. You obviously have a good home viewing setup, but I guarantee you that if you had seen it in 70mm film on a big screen in a good theater with an audience, you would have found it a completely different, and I dare say, more compelling, experience. It is a *great *film, but it *has *to be seen on a giant screen. As long as great filmmakers keep making films to be seen on big screens, no home theater is going to provide the same experience as a real theater.
There’s a whole discussion on r/Jeopardy about this. They do a daily poll about the FJ. A third of the users were completely confident and got it wrong. 2/3rds didn’t have a clue. There was very little “I guessed and got it right.” It’s something you either know or you don’t.
I think among the “great” movies, it doesn’t have quite the same cultural status as the others like Casablanca or Gone with the Wind. It’s in a weird spot of being fairly old, but not THAT old. It’s never on TV, it’s never streaming, you really have to search for it.
I guessed “Martin” thinking it had something to do with cars/racing. Chamberlain was an obviously wrong guess (and Will knew that), but frankly, a pretty good strategy for “British person talked about by Churchill” is to guess Chamberlain.
I had no idea for Final Jeopardy. Lawrence of Arabia is one of those films I’ve heard a lot about, and feel like I should see, but I never have. It’s so long that you really have to make a commitment!
The famous scene that I’m familiar with is not Lawrence’s motorcycle crash, it’s Omar Sharif appearing out of the desert.
My favorite scene is the one where Lawrence turns the Arabs loose on the wrecked Turkish train. I remember reading about the indicent in Jablonski’s book.
Interesting. What did the third who were confident but got it wrong think the answer was?
I have seen the movie on television, but not all that often. Considering how many awards it won, I’m surprised it hasn’t been shown more. But yeah, committing to four hours (or more) on the small screen does take an effort.
David Lean was one of the giants of the film industry at the time, but I get the feeling he’s kind of faded into the background now. Historical epics are also somewhat out of vogue, I think.
Sorry, I meant a third were confident and got it right. As in, almost all the people who got it right were confident they knew the answer. Almost no guesses.
Whoops, I guess I must have seen the motorcyle scene if it’s right at the beginning. I just hadn’t absorbed it.
Nice cite. That confirms my sense that these teachers were pretty sharp overall. I think it’s just that they had some odd blind spots on questions that seemed easier than a lot of the ones they did know.
Off-topic cinema discussion:
[spoiler]
I see lots of films in both ways, and I just don’t agree about “completely different experience”. It’s definitely a better experience in the theater, which is why I still go (along with being able to see it sooner), but not “completely different”. I’d say, having seen some films like the Blade Runner sequel and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood both in the theater and at home, the difference between the theater, and sitting close to my 70" 4K screen in a dark room with subwoofer and Dolby surround, is about equivalent to the difference between my newer TV and my older, 40" 1020p HD set. Not to mention, for a long movie, having to make calculations about whether to eat popcorn and then slake my thirst, vs. having to go to the bathroom and miss part of the movie (which I really hate to do).[/spoiler]
I agree; the mugging does nothing for me. But I guess some people must like it.
I’m going to disagree with you on this one, even though L of A is an amazing sight on the big screen. Few could deny that the Super Panavision 70 was masterfully used on this one.
But the movie’s screenplay (by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson) is a classic. It is, in fact, extraordinary. The same goes for the score, to my ears. On television you get both stellar features----so a TV viewing can be very satisfying to those who love the movie’s dialogue and music.