Nitpicking On NetFlix

I recently received the 1st DVD of season 1 of the much buzzed about HBO show Flight Of The Conchords from NetFlix. The 6 episodes on the disc were very funny with crazily catchy songs by the kooky kiwi folk/rap duo – but trouble was that I had waited for it for 3 months! That’s right – since it was released on December 17th, 2007 it had been at “very long wait” in my queue. I enjoyed it but can’t quite say it was completely worth the wait. During this “very long wait” I had composed a rough draft list of 10 complaints about NetFlix but abandoned it because it wasn’t really thought out and also the next day my next DVD came broken in half – so I thought karma was against me. And I hadn’t even posted it! So being newly frustrated with the DVD mailing program I decided to refine the list of pet peeves and pair it down to 5 complaints. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love NetFlix and think overall they provide an excellent service. I do think some other high volume users and film buff geeks like me will find something to relate to in this persnickety list which I call:

5 Snivelling Bitchy Beefs About NetFlix

1. Lack Of New Release Special Editions Of Undeniable Classics – I noticed that the 50th Anniversary Edition of 12 ANGRY MEN – the 1957 Sidney Lumet Best Picture winning cinematic standard – has just been released on March 4th and contains 2 hours of bonus material. There’s a new transfer of the best available print, a commentary by historian Drew Casper, and 2 “making of” featurettes. Sounds pretty sweet, huh? Well, NetFlix doesn’t carry it. They only have the 2001 non-anamorphic Vintage Classics release that has only the trailer as bonus material available. Wha? Also, NetFlix doesn’t carry The 40th Anniversary Edition of THE GRADUATE, The WALL STREET (20th Anniversary Edition), and even the 26th Anniversary of THE JERK is nowhere to be found! Okay, so maybe they have something against anniversary editions but Criterion re-releases are often dissed too – THE ICE STORM – Criterion Collection, set to be released tomorrow (March 18th), is nowhere on their schedule. The idea that NetFlix doesn’t upgrade from the old original releases to the new enhanced editions with better transfers doesn’t give the impression that they are catering to the real film fan. Seems like these titles would get more action if their definitive new models were available. To their credit they did have BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT available right off the bat.

2. The Removal Of Their Upcoming New Releases page – What gives? When I previously went browsing under the tab that says “New Releases” I used to have the option to see upcoming releases on a page that wasn’t flashy, just informative about all the releases coming out the next week. Now that page is gone with just a basic showcase, movable by arrows, that shows 4 titles at a time – none of which are either brand new or upcoming just labeled as “Popular New Releases”. It seems like they don’t want us to know what to put in our queue in advance – the lack of a release date on say, GRACE IS GONE (Availability – Unknown) when Amazon lists it as May 27, 2008 seems a bit suspicious. Just sayin’.

3. No Saturday Service – Yes, they specify this on their website that they process “rental returns Monday through Friday, except holidays, via the United States Postal Service”. Okay, but damnit for the “world’s largest online movie rental service, providing more than seven million subscribers access to more than 90,000 DVD titles plus a growing library of more than 5,000 choices” – shouldn’t Saturday be added to the workweek? I mean I hate that if I mail a disc on Friday (or sometimes Thursday) they won’t get it until Monday and I won’t get my next movie til Tuesday or Wednesday possibly! I mean, I just hate that.

4. Odd Inventory Practices – Sometimes as a heavy user a transaction can be a bit baffling. I had FACTORY GIRL, a movie that was not a hit or critical success in my queue at “very long wait” last year and it’s status kept changing – availability: “short wait” then “now” then back to “very long wait”. I got many releases in the meantime that were much more popular and sometimes sent to me on the Monday before their release while FACTORY GIRL kept hanging back. When it finally came the actual disc had printed on it: “Sale copy – not for rental”! Uh, NetFlix – is that even legal? I mean, I’m just wonderin’.

5. They Turned My Site Down To Be A NetFlix Affiliate – Yep, sour grapes.

Okay! So that about sums up my issues with the San Francisco based corporation that is successfully annihilating Blockbuster as well as Ma and Pa videostores across the map. And I’m all for that – videostores are pretty anachronistic and irrelevant these days and will soon be extinct for a lot of technological advances they can’t adapt to. From the point of view that to truly love something one can see its flaws all the more and shouldn’t be afraid to point out what could be improved I hope this isn’t taken the wrong way. Otherwise I just may have to get used to an empty mailbox.

More later…

Post GRADUATE Studies

This Friday director Mike Nichols’ latest film CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR is getting a full release but it’s another Nichols’ movie released 40 years ago to the day (Dec. 21st, 1967) that I’m blogging about here – THE GRADUATE. That’s right, the much beloved classic that featured a young Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock – a college graduate who’s worried about his future. His affair with Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), his courtship of her daughter Elaine (Katherine Ross), and the famous wedding crashing climax are all the stuff of legend so Film Babble is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the film this time out.

There are spoliers in this post so if you have not seen THE GRADUATE go immediately get a copy and watch it then get back to me. Everybody else should know the cast, the plot, and remember its widely quoted dialogue (even the now playing I’M NOT THERE quotes the “good evening Mr. Gladstone” line) as well as the Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack but here’s 5 things you may not know:

5 Fun Facts About THE GRADUATE

1. Paul Simon’s soundtrack submission was originally called “Mrs. Roosevelt” – According to Wikipedia Simon played the director a bit of a new composition and said “‘It’s a song about times past — about Mrs. Roosevelt and Joe DiMaggio and stuff.’ Nichols advised Simon, ‘It’s now about Mrs. Robinson, not Mrs. Roosevelt.'”

2. It was Richard Dreyfus’s first movie – Albeit a brief appearance but he’s visible over landlord Norman Fell’s (yep, he was also the landlord on Three’s Company) shoulder in the boarding house scene. Dreyfus’s only line: “Shall I call the cops? I’ll call the cops.”

3. The could have beens – Imagine alternate universe versions in which Benjamin is played by either Robert Redford, Charles Grodin (who both tested for the part) or Warren Beatty (who did BONNIE AND CLYDE instead) with Natalie Wood or Sally Field in the role of Elaine. Pretty much impossible to picture, huh? Also consider that Marilyn Monroe was originally slated to play Mrs. Robinson and that the part was also offered to Doris Day and you really get a Bizarro world thing going. Thank goodness the stars aligned casting-wise because if it went any of those directions I don’t think I would be blogging about it today.

4. The leg in the poster isn’t Anne Bancroft’s – it’s Linda Gray’s. Gray, the Dallas TV star, later played Mrs. Robinson on stage in the West End and Broadway play adaptations.

5. Benjamin is driving in the wrong direction – In Dustin Hoffman’s DVD commentary * he says “I remember after the film opening, for years, people coming up and saying ‘you know you’re going the wrong way?’ ” It’s true Benjamin is driving his Alfa Romeo west on the upper deck of the San Francisco Bay Bridge though he’s supposed to be on his way to Berkeley, which is to the east. On a separate commentary track Nichols tells Steven Soderbergh: “If you went to Berkeley you wouldn’t be visible to a helicopter – you’d be on the lower level – I said screw it, you know? What are they going to do to us?”.

* The new 40th anniversary DVD set has a recently recorded and very entertaining commentary with Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross. Hoffman does most of the talking – even when he confesses to Ross that he had a crush on her back in the day she has little to say.

I recently re-read the 1962 Charles Webb novel of THE GRADUATE (that’s my own personal yellowed beat-up paperback pictured on the left) and was surprised at how close an adaptation the movie was. Only a few notable differences – Benjamin shortly after coming home to Pasenda takes a hitchhiking trip for a few weeks and claims to his father upon his return that he helped fight a large forest fire, washed dishes, and spent time with prostitutes. Since Benjamin twists the truth throughout the whole story we are not sure whether to believe him but it’s a telling footnote. Also the iconic line “plastics” is not in the original text. However, “Mrs. Robinson, you are trying to seduce me” is.

There has been much talk of a sequel – Buck Henry’s (playing himself – he was the original co-screenwriter of THE GRADUATE) pitch to studio exec. Tim Robbins in THE PLAYER (Dir. Robert Altman, 1992) of course comes to mind: ‘‘Okay, here it is: The Graduate, Part II! Ben and Elaine are married still, living in a big old spooky house in Northern California somewhere. Mrs. Robinson, her aging mother, lives with them. She’s had a stroke. And they’ve got a daughter in college — Julia Roberts, maybe. It’ll be dark and weird and funny — with a stroke.’’

In 2004 Nikki Finke in LA Weekly resonded angrily when she came upon a report of a sequel being produced with Kevin Costner, Jennifer Aniston, and Shirley MacLaine. The resulting film RUMOR HAS IT… (Dir. Rob Reiner, 2005) turned out not to be a sequel but a regular ole rom com with the premise that a woman (Aniston) with the same Pasenda background discovers that her family was the inspiration for the characters in the book and movie. Costner plays Beau Burroughs (get it?) and MacLlaine is the boozy cynical Mrs. Richelieu (of course you get it) and the whole affair is lame and badly written (they should’ve gotten Buck Henry to do a re-write) adding nothing to THE GRADUATE legacy. Looks like it has finally quashed the possibility of a sequel and uh, that the fact that one of the pivotal principles is no longer with us – the late great Anne Bancroft (1931-2005).

Okay! So once more Happy Birthday THE GRADUATE! Yet again, Benjamin and Elaine board the bus that drives off into the sunset and we all sigh.

More later…

Movies And Books, Movies And Books,,,

Pony-boy (C. Thomas Howell) – “All I did was walk home from the movie.”
Darrel (Patrick Swayze) – “Movies and books, movies and books! I wish you could concentrate on something else once in a while”
Sodapop (Rob Lowe) – “Try girls and cars. Works for me.”

THE OUTSIDERS : THE COMPLETE NOVEL (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola 1983/2005)

A recent Time magazine article titled Books Vs. Movies (I’d link it but it’s premium content – greedy corporate bastards!) again put up the ancient argument – “which is better” in the context of such event movies coming out before this years end like THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA and MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA as well as the already released HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE, SHOPGIRL, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, and even WALK THE LINE which was based on 2 Johnny Cash’s autobiographies – Man in Black and CASH – The Autobiography.

I’ve only seen a few of the movies I mentioned above (SHOPGIRL and WALK THE LINE) but lately I have noticed I have a tendency to read or re-read the book before I see the new movie version. Anticipating CAPOTE a couple of months ago I bought a paperback of In Cold Blood and also watched the 1967 movie – I guess as a way of doing some homework on the subject or maybe just a geeky habit of wanting to know all the source material available. Sigh. This makes me recall that back in ’92 I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X months before Spike Lee’s epic cinematic rendition hit the screens. Jeez! I guess I got it bad.

Anyway the old cliche “the movie is always better than the book” while often true there are a number of notable exceptions like say BEING THERE, THE GODFATHER and FIGHT CLUB. Many people love certain movies never knowing there was a book and vice versa. I for years never knew that HAROLD AND MAUDE was originally a novella written by Colin Higgins who wrote the screenplay for the film.

A few movies I’ve seen lately that were based on books:

COLD MOUNTAIN (Dir. Anthony Minghella, 2003) – Yes, I know just about everyone read it at the end of the last decade and then saw the movie a couple years ago but I only did both recently. The book was elegantly written and the details were almost too much to absorb but I enjoyed it immensely. The movie not so much. While well cast (Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zelleweger, Philip Seymour Hoffman were all perfect for their roles) was ickily glossy and stupidly reduced the love story elements into romance novel fodder. They TITANIC-ized it!

THE OUTSIDERS : THE COMPLETE NOVEL (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola 1983/2005) I read the S.E. Hinton book of this way back in Jr. High School in the early 80’s like most people in my demographic I guess and was interested to hear that Coppola had restored footage to the movie to make it closer to the book. It does work a little better though despite its boys-club cast (Swayze, Cruise, Lowe, Estevez, etc) its still the feminine cheesy melodrama it will always be in our hearts. Or at least my demographic’s hearts.

THE WARRIORS (Dir. Walter Hill, 1979) This is another one that I didn’t realize til now was based on a book (by Sol Yurick) until recently. Though it was originally a pulp novel the new director’s cut has wipes and transitions added to make the film look more like a comic book – characters morph into still frame cartoons contained in black border boxes at the end of sequences and then we are whisked away to another panel. The effect doesn’t bother me but on this here internet there are many fan-boy complaints about Lucas-like tinkering and some such spoiling of a masterpiece. Yeah, its like someone painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa, sure. Whatever.

Now for another reliable fimbabble feature which fits right into this film/book shiznit:

THE HAROLD AND MAUDE SOUNDTRACK BREAKDOWN

Yes, again we take another movie notable for its soundtrack and give you a musical play by play. This particular film is especially notable because it features just one artist (Cat Stevens) kinda like THE GRADUATE with Simon and Garfunkel guiding the way – sure , we’ll go with that –

The film begins with Harold Chasen (Bud Cort) preparing to hang himself in the elegant din of his mother’s mansion. He puts on a record on an old-stlye phonograph. It is “Don’t Be Shy” by Cat Stevens. As this a song not on any Cat Stevens record – written for the film no less – Harold is very privileged.

“On The Road To Find Out” accompanies and introduces Harold’s funeral fetish. “I Wish, I Wish” concludes the sequence.

“Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1” (performer unknown according to IMDB) plays as another Haorld suicide attempt – drowning face down in a pool as his mother swims laps.

“Miles From Nowhere” sets another funeral scene – this one rain drenched. Just as that tune fades and the congregation exits the cemetery with Maude and her bright yellow umbrella leading the way “Tea For The Tillerman” plays. Jeez, Cat was racking ’em up with on this flick! (Well, not really – there was no officially released soundtrack)

Another spiritual Stevens song – “I Think I See The Light” lifts us away from Harold’s successful sabotage of his mother’s dating set-up to Maude’s artistic nude modeling.

As Harold and Maude (Ruth Gordon) get acquainted “Where Do The Children Play” – another passionate Cat tune sets the tone. Instrumental snatches from it play over the next few scenes.

Back at her place – after an emotional moment concerning Maude’s mysterious past our protagonists engage in a sing-a-long of “If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out” on Maude’s player piano which amusingly plays after she gets up to dance. Like “Don’t Be Shy” this song was written for the movie and is definitely its unofficial theme song. A piano version sans vocal decorates the next scene as Harold’s mother presents him with a new Jaguar.

Johann Strauss’s “On The Beautiful Blue Danube”(again, performer unknown) accompanies a sweet night time close dance by Harold and Maude again at her place.

“If You Want To Sing Out…” again serenades our movie couple in a montage – Harold’s Jaquar now souped-up Hearse-style tools down roads through the countryside, Harold and Maude dancing and frolicking in the sun, and it nicely concludes with a tender moment in a junk-yard at dusk.

The energetic jamming finish of “I Think I See The Light” which faded out earlier now emerges again to illustrate Harold’s now consumated relationship with Maude. In morning light coming through the window of Maude’s abode Harold, in a love-daze blows bubbles while she sleeps.

Another instrumental of “If You Want To Sing Out…” now played on a banjo punctuates Harolds confident walk away from his Mother’s bedroom after telling her that he intends to marry Maude.

“Trouble” powerfully fills out the final sequence which cuts back and forth from Harold in Jaquar/Herse recklessly driving the winding roads of previous scenes and the ambulance drive and Maude’s admittance to the hospital on the night of her death – unbearably untimely in Harold’s eyes.

“If You Want To Sing Out…” of course takes us through the end credits right after a now newly inspired Harold plucks a few chords on his Banjo – a gift from Maude – right after discarding the Herse/Jaquar – a gift from his mother – in a particularly dramatic fashion.

More later…