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It's a decent story but suffers from Yugoslavian production values and editing.

domino harvey wrote:

It's a decent story but suffers from Yugoslavian production values and editing.

Tomer Ben David wrote:MASTERPIECE. A masterpiece visual artwork. A masterpiece sound artwork. A masterpiece fenomenal psychological movie. This movie is not for lame another we killed the bad guys movie. This is one hell of a psychological masterpiece artwork. Its hard to find quality movies like this one. I didn't watch this at night only over days - I'm being careful when it comes to david lynch.

sir_luke wrote:[quote="A Dinosaur-Shaped Car "Nelson 'burning in hell' Mandela""]I think David Lynch may be a charlatan

This is David Lynch's autobiographical account of a heavyset man with stupid hair who has a baby or an abortion or something. I think. It's okay but I don't recommend spending a million dollars for the criterion blu-ray for, what, one extra pixel worth of grey wasteland and cow fetus babby? I don't know how blue rays work but they seem stupid to me. Also you know you're never going to watch it more than once, even if you talk a lot about how great it is. David Lynch wants to eat your panties.

The movie tells a good story somewhat about the prophet mohammed. but the decision NOT to show the prophet is silly. HE is a prophet not a devine being that we can't see. It gives the film a wierd aspect as the camera becomes mohammed. OF course we could expect some of the fanatic idiots to riot if they showed him I guess. How intolerant can you be?

i was so excited for night moves, i looked for it online fairly regularly for the past six months or so, and then finally i got a copy of it yesterday and got totally bored after five minutes of jesse eisenberg’s grumpy dude act. another movie ruined by men.

Ah, yes… this movie where Dakota Fanning, Jessie Eisenberg, and Peter Sarsgaard are so into saving the environment that they’re willing to blow shit up… but not willing to be vegan. I should probably just turn this movie off now.

Minkin wrote:Jeffrey Kauffman's Bluray.com review of the latest rehash of Young Frankenstein on blu.

AMalickLensFlare wrote:

Minkin wrote:Jeffrey Kauffman's Bluray.com review of the latest rehash of Young Frankenstein on blu.

Maybe I'm overlooking something, but what's ridiculous about it? Seems a straightforward rundown. "Same release, with new packaging and disc art."

Minkin wrote:

AMalickLensFlare wrote:

Minkin wrote:Jeffrey Kauffman's Bluray.com review of the latest rehash of Young Frankenstein on blu.

Maybe I'm overlooking something, but what's ridiculous about it? Seems a straightforward rundown. "Same release, with new packaging and disc art."

The entire review is just "see what my colleagues had to say about this."
So what was the point of even bothering or giving Kauffman the job? Why doesn't Bluray.com review every steelbook cover change or Universal "I love the 80s" editions (stickers placed over cover), or second pressings, or all 20 versions of A Clockwork Orange.

Somewhere out there in the vast halls of academia perhaps there's a doctoral thesis in sociology exploring the kind of weird concatenation between the apparently complacent 1950s and the rise in popularity of the western, both in film and (especially) on the then nascent medium of television. The "Eisenhower" decade was a study in contrasts—seemingly calm and placid on the surface, but roiling with both geopolitical and maybe even sexual tension (of the Masters and Johnson variety) just beneath that surface. The threat of the Cold War getting very warm via the hydrogen bomb perhaps made American audiences yearn for a world where any threat of disorder was usually met with a guy in a white hat galloping in with guns blazing. The very term "western" brings along a host of preconceptions, usually including locations that might not initially suggest Florida to some aficionados. While Distant Drums was marketed as a western and even bears some genre conventions, especially some midcentury conventions, it's a somewhat uniquely sited piece that highly fictionalizes a long gestating conflict in America's southernmost clime between the Seminole and United States Navy forces in the 1840s.

For Teachers
...
Breakfast of Champions is rife with content that lends itself to an exploration of nationhood, human nature, literary significance, environmentalism, and historical and societal, as well as personal experiences of oppression. Although the novel has been challenged because it addresses strong and controversial issues like racism, war, sex, and mental illness, it would be a beneficial text for middle and high school students to discuss and work with in an academic setting. Young learners are likely being exposed to these issues at a much earlier age than educators have been prepared for in the past. Because of the uncensored position contemporary society and the media places adolescent learners in, it's important for them to approach and reach understandings about complex concepts in a safe and educated environment, instead of on their own or under the guidance of more corrupt or ignorant friends, family, or self-researched sources. Without the proper support and community, young learners may develop stark misconceptions or skewed understandings that lead them to make irresponsible, dangerous, or developmentally detrimental decisions. A text like Breakfast of Champions can be used in a classroom like Antero Garcia (2013) claims Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian can - to offer "myriad avenues for critical, necessary discussions," and "as a tool for productive development and articulation of societal injustice, regardless of the skin color," social standing, or sexuality of the reader. The harsh and bluntly detailed issues that Breakfast of Champions confronts would ultimately give young learners the opportunity to understand multiple perspectives, cultures, and everyday experiences in safe, accepting classroom spaces.

Throughout the novel, Vonnegut simplistically touches on troubling historical themes in United States History such as slavery, sexism, and general instances of oppression and inequality. Because these themes are referenced without context, teaching this novel in conjunction with a unit in Global would prove to be an effective means of making them both relevant and meaningful. The overarching theme of mental instability, manifested in Dwayne Hoover's character, would also be worth exploring in conjunction with a health course. These themes would not only make the novel relevant across a variety of content-areas, but also prove to be an effective means of inquiry for young learners, who may feel inclined to challenge, compare and contrast, or find alternate meaning in Vonnegut's complicated, often perplexing narrative. This kind of literature can act, as Garcia notes, as a portal for addressing, challenging, and improving sociopolitical contexts of schools and their communities. Young learners can be engaged, expressive, and active both in and outside of the classroom using knowledge and value they draw from making meaning of the text. Vonnegut furthermore offsets his narrative using self-illustrated sketches of common objects like flags, headstones, hamburgers, and even an anus and vulva. This unconventional structure makes it easily accessible and a simple entryway for readers - especially those students who shy away from reading based lexical density and word count.
Furthermore, its meta-fictional nature makes Breakfast of Champions a great opportunity to explore the literary significance of reliability, both through an authorial and character lens. The narrative itself is fictional, and main character Kilgore Trout is a widely published author of science fiction. When Dwayne Hoover reads one of Trout's books and takes it as literal truth, his insanity reaches an apex and Vonnegut's peppered interpretations of sex, racism, and war come to a violently disturbing intersection. Ultimately, Vonnegut writes himself into the narrative (and arguably has been using Trout as the voice for expressing his personal thoughts and feelings throughout the entire narrative), seemingly in fear of his own abuse of power over the characters he's created, confronts Trout, and allows him the choice to be free of his written existence. The narrative is written from alternating third and first person omniscient points of view. It is not only important for students to be able to recognize these literary elements, but to be able to determine how they affect the meaning of the story as a whole and the author's purpose in making these kinds of decisions. What is Vonnegut saying about authorship in general? How do his choices with point of view affect the development of his characters? Are his interjections in the novel helpful or confusing? How do they affect how you make meaning of the text? These are all valuable social, personal, and culturally relevant points of inquiry that will facilitate engaged discussion and vibrant explorations of understanding.

Interestingly, Breakfast of Champions was made into a motion picture film in 1999, and almost instantly panned by critics. One of the main critiques of the movie was that it was an "incoherent mess". Arguably, this incoherency originated with the novel. Vonnegut presents his readers with a jumbled collection of points of view, interpretations of truth, and blunt explanations of historical trends. It's worth exploring then, why is the written story so popular and widely respected? It would be interesting to lead young learners in a discussion of how a text that is so unpredictable could translate to real life - or at least, how real life might be portrayed on the big screen. Is the content realistic? Is the uncomfortability of the novel's major themes the reason viewers couldn't relate to or follow the movie? How can we, as readers and viewers, differentiate between our experiences of a text in different modes? And finally, how do differing genres and the contexts in which we make meaning affect our understandings of an author's purpose?

Reasons for challenging or banning Breakfast of Champions abound, but the benefits of incorporating such a rich and controversial text into a contemporary curriculum appear to outweigh them nonetheless. It would be a missed opportunity to refuse to teach Vonnegut's works, and novels that strike a similarly unconventional chord. Now is the time to foster inquiry, engagement, and discovery in young learners and I believe that a book like Breakfast of Champions makes those goals freshly attainable.

Yeah I was slightly tempted by those Will Rogers sets, but didn't think I'd like them. Most classic films that are comedies (including the Three Stooges), I tend to not like.