Do you watch TCM?

we watch a lot of TCM. However, I dont have patience to watch Griffith movies. I watched "Birth..." and after getting over the obvious "train wreck" of its premise, I kep wondering where the damn thing was going. SO I never watched "Intolerance" .
We like the classic "noire" movies of the 40's and its hard to imagine how movies lost the desire (mostly) to incorporate plots into their alloted time.

TCM is, however, a real treasure. We subscribe to the "monthly marquee" where they list the time of the upcoming months movies. We use this to "tape" the movies .

We mostly use the "On Demand" an streaming features of our cable and NetFlix and ACORN.

I see how Fios new business model is recognizing that "on demand" tv watching will take over from fixed program times.

The only thing that bugs me is that, with the "On Demand" feture of the cable company, we cannot delete the commercials, whereas , if I "tape" a show via a DVR (and player), we can delete the commercials quite easily.
I like som "reality" shows like PAWN STARS and I blow through commercials that they put on cable cause cable commercials are entirely too damn long.

Thats all I have to say about that.

Well, I'm a tad embarrassed because after I posted "Intolerance", I sat back to watch it. Turns out it's dreadful, and I fell asleep, woke up and scratched my head because I still couldn't make heads or tails of it, fell back asleep.

They do show some interesting silent flicks occasionally, some are really good. But I did try to watch 'Intolerance' I suppose because that time period and the silent film stars led such unconventional lives, and suffered the same sort of notoriety and cover ups that are still occurring. Everybody from Alice Roosevelt on up have intrigued me, it's just a hobby.

have you seen Griffith's "Birth of a Nation". It shoulda been called "Birth of a Klavern"

Oh well, chacun a son goute.

Intolerance is a brilliant film made by a brilliant director. Modern audiences may have difficulty enduring its epic length (a full cut lasts over three hours), but then The Wolf of Wall Street was a minute shy of three hours, so it's not like nobody can sit through a three-hour movie any more. And I'll grant that the four intertwined storylines may, at times, be hard to follow (the Babylon and modern scenes were patched together and released as separate movies in an effort to recoup some of Griffith's enormous expenses).

Still, it's a landmark of cinematic history and still, after a century, a pretty good film. The famous crane shot of the Babylonian palace is not just visually stunning but marked a technical advance in film making (such shots weren't attempted because it was difficult to keep everything in focus).



And the finales of the four tales are skillfully intercut - as the action gets more intense, the editing becomes more frenetic (thus predating both Gance's Napoleon and Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin). In particular, the ending of the modern tale, as Mae Marsh speeds to rescue the unjustly condemned Bobby Harron before he is executed for a crime he did not commit, remains one of the best chase/race scenes in the movies.

It's also interesting that religion and social "do-gooders" are often portrayed as the villains. The film, was, after all, Griffith's reaction to the controversy that swirled around The Birth of a Nation, and he viewed many of his critics as canting hypocrites. Officious do-gooders would continue to get their share of criticism (see, e.g., Chaplin's The Kid), but it would be a long time before Hollywood would be as daring as Griffith in challenging organized religion.

Huh, my dad knew Mae Marsh; I am guessing that she had something to do with the old family theater program.. though maybe not. (He was a film editor back then, knew other film editors who became directors). I was a little kid but I remember family talk about her (nothing rancorous).

Back in those days directors had casting couches, Ann Sheridan once said couches are better than the cold floor.

“What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is WHAT WE DO.” John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

I have seen Birth of a Nation, but it's important to realize D.W. Griffith political views. He made that film 50 years after the Cival War, and it had a lot of loaded images, such as the sheet wearing 'Vigilantes'. That movie was released 100 years ago, and if you can ignore the uberglamorization of the purity of white people, it was a remarkable film.

I really have to give 'Intolerance' another chance, I kept falling asleep, waking up to confusing action, and back to sleep.

I suspect D.W. Griffith is suspect because of his lamentable views on race, kind of the earlier version of Leni Riefenstahl, a talented director who made several films flattering to the Nazi Party, very controversial film maker.

I'm really starting to regret posting this thing. I thought 'Intolerance' was going to be riveting, but I should never make a desicion like that at such a late hour.

Watching either directors films does not make a person a racist or pro-Nazi, the films are interesting for their techniques and vision of the directors.

Are you trying to instruct me on that? Or imply something?

Family Theater was quite religious in intent. Father Peyton (rosary crusade) was part of all that, which was how my father got into it.

I'm not now religious but I have memory and I paid attention as a child.

Don't slime either Mae Marsh or my father with your insinuation.

You're in luck. As Intolerance is in the public domain, there are multiple versions of the film available on the internet. Be advised, though, that many of them are of bad quality.

Thank you for the link to that clip. I've just saved the separate Babylon ''film'' to watch more of it.

His father was an interesting character and had been brevetted TWICE at the end of the War because of his bravery in action against the Union forces.
Griffith was captured while helping escort Jeff Davis in an escape attempt.
I dont know if they were ALL in drag or not.

Was DW, honoring his father's memory? (His father died of wounds not fully healed 15 years after the war ended and DW recounted the events.

Well since many folks still insist that the Civil War was a War of Northern Aggression, instead of the foul practice of being able to buy people that could be counted as personal property. I'd say there were hard feelings.

Griffith made "Birth" with the oversite of the author of "The Clqnsman", (its original title0. The author, a REv Dixon, changed the movie title when it became clear that the original title wouldnt help ticket sales.

The problem with being a cord cutter. No cable, no access to channels like Turner Classic Movies.

I don't get TCM, but I have to say that I generally prefer older movies to the other fare that is offered on air TV.

youd like it Edgar. It hs almost ALL the classics, and when its Academy Award season, they have a thing called "30 Dys of Oscar" in which they show all old movies that hd won some kind of Oscar. They even have the old Harryhausen movies where he was either nominated or awarded an OScar for special effects.

which makes youtube and vimeo and sites like that all the more valuable (to me)

I'm always amazed what's available. Luckily (?) I'm a big fan of documentaries so I can always find something I like to watch.

I have friends who use Netflix, they say it's great. I haven't looked into it yet, but I think (I'm probably wrong) they can stream video to several devices. So far the fees are low compared to cable. I have Comcast, I think they are a bunch of &:@&$?#%'s. They offer "On Demand", and even though I pay for HD, if I want to watch an on demand show in HD, it cost an extra dollar. Plus they offer a lot of movies that never make it to the theater and they jack up the prices for unheard of duds. Plus they offer you a chance to buy or rent, I don't want to buy films that reside somewhere in my hard drive or where ever they go now. I think NetFlix still mails DVD's that you can use on your DVD player.

There are probably a million ways to access movies but my knowledge of that is limited.

Back to what Farmerman said, I record the AMC , TNT, USA and Spike channels if they're running something I want to watch. You can zip right past the commercials.