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My father who's of the older generation than even Norris himself always preferred MIC films over Rambo, as they were more realistic, I agree that this film in particular retains that European independent glamour that any big Hollywood production can only dream of. Welcome to the advantage of low budget guerilla-type filmmaking, especially when it comes from guys of the Israeli descent. Menahem and Globus were a key to the look of their films, perhaps why their films fared so much better outside the US.
It is a known rule among many filmmakers that to create tension in horror or thriller you have to bring in humour to relieve the tension in order to build it again, it comes in waves. Horror and comedy are indelible parts of almost all horror films. It's not really comedy per se in these films, only a humour that many people use when being scared or under great pressure as a way how to cope, the humour is part of life, which is in this film, not intentionally cooked up elaborated comedy to laugh at. It's all about rythm and mood.
GD seems trendy when everyone speaks about it, as it helps to spread awareness and solutions, but even without existing definition the unique biology of the transsexual's physiology that stands for GD existed for a long long time. I have struggled with GD myself since birth, not with the concept though.
The concept of the film is beautiful at a spiritual level, it implies dettachment from the body and the overall materiality of the reality, and more about being in touch with the spirit of things that is bodyless/genderless in essence, and that we have a capability to fall in love with the spirit more than the body or gender, those on the pansexual side are very often perceived to be by nature the most spiritually developed in this particular aspect, the body becomes secondary when it comes to initial attraction, it comes from the energy to energy, from spirit to spirit, not hormones or chemicals as much.
To me Every Day is indeed one of the most beautiful and timeless films ever made, the theme reaches far beyond all cultural movements. Michael Sucsy is such an amazing filmmaker, isn't he, when it comes to characters, the emotions, he's also done The Vow in 2012. The story of this film could have been taken further, it would be interesting to see a sequel to this, where it could go.
I wouldn't say this has an equal precedence in previous decades, we got filmmakers from older 50's/60's generation (Steven Spielberg, Chris Wedge, Sly Stallone, etc..) who have recently made films as homages to 80's as well. I don't feel like the 80's had such a strong 50's or 60's vibe, to me rarely any film did besides those set in those days. Since 2014 I see every third or fourth picture made that kind of feels 80's to me. In my view it also has a lot to do with Trump and his link to Reagan era that many people associate him with.
90's brought out cynicism and even more pretense and fakeness, while allowing to be aware of it as well. The 80's was the time what I call the age of innocence, physicality and naivity, which comes with style, but style that doesn't want to hide what lies behind, only to embellish and celebrate, the 90's was starting to use style for covering the core, the truth, the heart. The 80's had the best music for me, it was uplifting, the spirit of winning and getting real of who we are in our heart, which is needed, especially at this time, people are bringing back that aspect into our culture, and ignoring 90's as a decade of decadence (reaching the highest peak), Mtv could be used as a perfect reflection of that, the mask to hide behind (thank you Eyes Wide Shut for reminding us). With the gradual death of media manipulation and artifice we're getting back to our humanity and individuality again, that is the age of uplifting rennaisance we're ushering in right now, and understandably many people are seeing resonance with some of those key aspects very prevalent in the 1980's and 1960's decade, that often allowed to express love and freedom freely without worrying what others think or feeling embarrased, ashamed, offended, cheesy, etc... It is a gradual process, the next decades are bound to bring in even more characteristics of this cultural transformation.
So much of the 80's is felt nowadays, I'll use an example of one song released in 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kSgTtrBAbE
Just like movies, the shorter the better, the less I see the more left for my imagination, it applies to everything, any art. Stranger Things is one of those shows that deserved to be made as one season only, it overstayed its welcome in the first ep of the second season already. I love this series too much to watch more of the same diluted while gradually losing authenticity and believability, 1st season stood perfectly as the start and the end, everything else would be just repeating itself, and it did since then, once again second season following the main formula of the 1st season, the same basic style, music, nostalgia, nothing that justified the series to continue. I stopped watching other seasons, unless it changes completely, whether it is different main characters, structure of storytelling, different creators of the show, style, etc. So far I've already seen the end of the show.
I saw both T1 and T2 when I was 8, very impressionable age, and even at that age I was not as impressed by T2 as much as by T1. 1991 film was cool for me though, because I liked technical side of it, the mood and feel, like a great pop song, and I'm sure that's the real thing that made the film as popular, not the emotional authentic side that I felt in the first film, I believe we're reaching a time collectivelly when more people start embracing the original, simply because the audience crave authenticity, and that's what is there, you can believe it is all happening, the sequels are so Hollywoodized/dramatized and far fetched that it becomes too removed from the relatable aspects of life. It was the 90's when commerciality was creeping in so much into media, The early 80's still had remnants of the 70's aesthetics and true experimental daring independent cinema, so they are a perfect reflections of what was happening. I believe Terminator 1 is the film that is bound to find most audience in the years to come, including kids and teenagers.
By far my favorite James Bond film out of all of them, laws of physics should never be part of concern when it comes to story-telling imo, on contrary I prefer films that create its own world or universe and laws, I would say this philosophy generally proves to be always welcomed by the most audience, as it usually has been sci-fi or fantasy films that gained the most popularity throughout the history. Moonraker is pure cinema, you get lost in its magic. I would prefer more Bond films would use this film as a template how to make these films. Bond is more like Indiana Jones, it's meant to be cartoonish, comic bookey and magical, I would say in general the reality is not as exciting as fantasy anyway.
My favorite scenes are by far those involving Jaws, so much fun.
I will add one, Switch from Blake Edwards, about a man dying and coming back as a woman, learning about that gender's situation in today's society, a lot could be done with that story. Even though Switch is already kind of (in denial) a remake of Goodbye Charlie from 64.
As a kid I watched more originals too, but at the time there were not as many remakes, and truthfully at that age you don't care whether they are remakes, I would enjoy remakes too without knowing some had originals. Growing up I watched The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956, and didn't know it was a remake, and didn't care, to me it is completely irrelevant that some films are remakes, it means nothing, they're not imitations anyway, because there is always something different in them, even if it's just a prop or a different actor, it seems like the younger generation doesn't care as much as older ones, if remakes are original and different enough in their vision, they're valuable enough to exist for me and be seen.
Very interesting choice, the greater the film the more it usually deserves a remake, as it often has an important story to be told through different eyes, however Taxi Driver would be like a kick in the face of the modern cinema that rarely dares to cross its safe space, in good hands it could take it into pretty gritty realm and push some boundaries.
Remakes are original stories when done by someone else in a new way once again, they create an original take on the story. It's never repeating if it's not a copy of the film itself, but made as another film. Someone else's interpretation is already original in and of itself. That's the paradox.
West Side Story deserves to be made by someone like Spielberg in my opinion, it's intriguing to see how different filmmakers can re-work the same story in their own way, it shouldn't matter whether the original film was famous or not, I would be honoured myself to see my film's story remade dozens of times, so much joy seeing so many interpretations, it's like listening on youtube to people covering the same songs, every take is different and original and reveals a lot about the artist.
You haven't heard anyone play Mozart symphonies??! Or in the church singing Hildegard's songs all over the world? People do Hamlet all the time, I dont have to name anything, it's understandable that this is a standard practice since the dawn of humankind. We do things someone else invented before us.
Thank you for this film, never heard it before, if it's story has a lot to say today, then I'm going to watch this film myself. :)
Remakes are extremely important, as those stories need updated clothing that people can relate to, and also different interpretations for every artist sees one things in a different way, that's why they will always be made, the same like plays or classical music has been been remade for the past 2000 years, from Hildegard Von Bingen to Mozart. To me all films are great anyway, it is irrelevant to the topic, as I talk about popularizing the old stories for the expansion of consciousness of the public. Larger public is not going to experience original films as much en masse as the newer ones, simply by the fact of exposure and greater relatability.
Beautiful thread, for me from the early stages of cinema it would be Jack Cardiff, Howard Hawks, Sam Fuller, John Guillermin and Richard Fleicher, essentially people with a child-like playful spirit. From a bit more modern filmmakers it's people like Tsui Hark, Larry Cohen, Mark Pellington, Joe Johnston, Frank Darabont... Adventurous unpretentious artists who embrace all kinds of different work in order to build their experience and have fun, not for being seen a certain way.
Since 91 I have perceived every single Terminator as a film that stands on its own separated from the others, film franchises are not mini series shows filmed back to back, except for extremely few cases. T2 has its own universe, like all the others. That way I like to watch Terminator end without assuming T2 continues the story, instead I imagine myself how it continues. People should engage in discussions about possible futures after each Terminator films, how everyone thinks it goes on without relying on films to tell them. T1 and T2 seem so great when you don't know what the future holds at the end. In 84 and 91 no one was promised sequels, now people assume sequels are meant to come and show more or explain more, people were left a lot more to their own imagination then. For this reason I prefer to watch sequels first, and then maybe originals later on.