As we approach another anniversary of August 9, those who participated in “the decision” are all but gone.
But the reminders are with us, thanks to a new book by Evan Thomas, “Road to Surrender,” the forward for which reads “To save lives, it was necessary to take lives — possibly hundreds of thousands of them.” And, of course, Christopher Nolan’s epic portrait of the man who was never allowed to forget, Robert Oppenheimer.
We can’t hide under our desks anymore, but we can view ten other works that scared the hell out of us.
“On the Beach” (United Artists)
“On the Beach” (1959)
As a little girl in 1959, I found my parents watching this black and white film on TV. Excited, I asked if it was the latest with Annette and Frankie Avalon. Uh, no. They allowed me to stay, and two hours later, I was shaken to the core.
But the reminders are with us, thanks to a new book by Evan Thomas, “Road to Surrender,” the forward for which reads “To save lives, it was necessary to take lives — possibly hundreds of thousands of them.” And, of course, Christopher Nolan’s epic portrait of the man who was never allowed to forget, Robert Oppenheimer.
We can’t hide under our desks anymore, but we can view ten other works that scared the hell out of us.
“On the Beach” (United Artists)
“On the Beach” (1959)
As a little girl in 1959, I found my parents watching this black and white film on TV. Excited, I asked if it was the latest with Annette and Frankie Avalon. Uh, no. They allowed me to stay, and two hours later, I was shaken to the core.
- 8/9/2023
- by Michele Wilens
- The Wrap
We’re happy to report that this Goddard – Abrams – Reeves monster thriller holds up, when most everything else from the years of shaky-cam nausea and ‘found footage’ boredom disappoints. The ‘found’ video recording of the end of NYC is more than a gimmick, and it brings the panic for a you-are-there night of mayhem, chaos and destruction. The show was engineered to look like low-grade amateur video footage . . . so . . . why a 4K presentation? Curious format-philes will want to know.
Cloverfield 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code
Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment
2008 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 85 min. / 15th Anniversary Limited Edition SteelbookStreet Date January 23, 2023 / Available from / 30.99
Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Odette Yustman, T.J. Miller, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, Mike Vogel.
Cinematography: Michael Bonvillain
Production Designer: Martin Whist
Art Director: Doug J. Meerdink
Film Editor: Kevin Stitt
End title Music: Michael Giacchino
Written by Drew Goddard
Produced by J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk
Directed by...
Cloverfield 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code
Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment
2008 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 85 min. / 15th Anniversary Limited Edition SteelbookStreet Date January 23, 2023 / Available from / 30.99
Starring: Michael Stahl-David, Odette Yustman, T.J. Miller, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, Mike Vogel.
Cinematography: Michael Bonvillain
Production Designer: Martin Whist
Art Director: Doug J. Meerdink
Film Editor: Kevin Stitt
End title Music: Michael Giacchino
Written by Drew Goddard
Produced by J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk
Directed by...
- 1/17/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Joan Barnett, the Emmy-nominated producer of the television movie Adam, died in Boston at age 74 after a prolonged illness.
Barnett was an executive producer for Adam, a 1983 film about the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh and the attempt by his parents (including later reality crime drama host John Walsh) to pass national child protection laws in its wake.
At the end of each broadcast of the film, missing children’s photographs and descriptions were displayed along with a telephone number for tips on their whereabouts. Some 37 children were found as a result. President Ronald Reagan provided a voiceover on the photographs segment for the 1985 airing.
Barnett began her career as an associate producer and general manager for Alexander H. Cohen in New York, working on television specials, films and Broadway shows. In 1974, she moved to California and opened a casting company with Linda Otto.
Otto/Barnett Associates cast more than 100 network pilots,...
Barnett was an executive producer for Adam, a 1983 film about the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh and the attempt by his parents (including later reality crime drama host John Walsh) to pass national child protection laws in its wake.
At the end of each broadcast of the film, missing children’s photographs and descriptions were displayed along with a telephone number for tips on their whereabouts. Some 37 children were found as a result. President Ronald Reagan provided a voiceover on the photographs segment for the 1985 airing.
Barnett began her career as an associate producer and general manager for Alexander H. Cohen in New York, working on television specials, films and Broadway shows. In 1974, she moved to California and opened a casting company with Linda Otto.
Otto/Barnett Associates cast more than 100 network pilots,...
- 10/15/2020
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Is satire obsolete? Our appalling present political reality has surpassed some of the wildest jokes in director Joe Dante's 'exaggerated, outrageous' 1997 cable movie. An immigration squabble snowballs until a renegade state governor closes his border and threatens to secede from the Union. It's a 'political idiocy' version of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World ... and nineteen years later, we're stuck living it. The Second Civil War DVD (2005) HBO Video 1997 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date August 30, 2005 / 14.98 Starring Beau Bridges, Joanna Cassidy, Phil Hartman, James Earl Jones, James Coburn, Dan Hedaya, Elizabeth Peña, Denis Leary, Ron Perlman, Kevin Dunn, Brian Keith, Kevin McCarthy, Dick Miller, William Schallert, Catherine Lloyd Burns, Jerry Hardin, Roger Corman, Rance Howard, Robert Picardo, Alexandra Wilson, Belinda Belaski, Jennifer Carlson, Sean Lawlor. Cinematography Mac Ahlberg Film Editor Marshall Harvey Original Music Hummie Mann Written by Martyn Burke Produced by Guy Riedel Directed by Joe Dante...
- 4/23/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Special Mention: Un chien andalou
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel
France, 1929
Genre: Experimental Short
The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. In 1929, Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable 17-minute surrealist masterpiece. Buñuel famously said that he and Dalí wrote the film by telling one another their dreams. The film went on to influence the horror genre immensely. After all, even as manipulative as the “dream” device is, it’s still a proven way to jolt an audience. Just ask Wes Craven, who understood this bit of cinematic psychology when he dreamt of the central force behind A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film intended to be an exploration of surreal horror. David Lynch is contemporary cinema’s most devoted student of Un chien andalou – the severed ear at...
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel
France, 1929
Genre: Experimental Short
The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. In 1929, Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable 17-minute surrealist masterpiece. Buñuel famously said that he and Dalí wrote the film by telling one another their dreams. The film went on to influence the horror genre immensely. After all, even as manipulative as the “dream” device is, it’s still a proven way to jolt an audience. Just ask Wes Craven, who understood this bit of cinematic psychology when he dreamt of the central force behind A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film intended to be an exploration of surreal horror. David Lynch is contemporary cinema’s most devoted student of Un chien andalou – the severed ear at...
- 10/28/2015
- by Ricky Fernandes
- SoundOnSight
What happens when you take San Francisco and mash it together with the anime aesthetic of Neo Toyko? Well if you're Disney Animation Studios, you toss in robots and telekinetics then sprinkle with a group of teens loosely based on Japanese Sentai (think 'Sailor Moon' or 'Power Rangers'). Shake it together with an Origin Story™ and you've got the basis for 'Big Hero 6.' Earlier today Disney released the first official trailer for their latest in-house CGI offering. And quite frankly, it looks adorable. Who doesn't love a robot who manifests drunken behavior when his battery runs low? But while the characters and comedic timing in the trailer shine through, repeat viewings reveal a couple of sly Easter Eggs. What? You don't actively seek out the hidden gems lurking in the background animation of every Disney film? Are you new here? The trailer focuses on an exchange between...
- 7/15/2014
- by Donna Dickens
- Hitfix
Every year, we here at Sound On Sight celebrate the month of October with 31 Days of Horror; and every year, I update the list of my favourite horror films ever made. Last year, I released a list that included 150 picks. This year, I’ll be upgrading the list, making minor alterations, changing the rankings, adding new entries, and possibly removing a few titles. I’ve also decided to publish each post backwards this time around for one reason: that is, the new additions appear lower on my list, whereas my top 50 haven’t changed much, except for maybe in ranking. Enjoy!
Special Mention:
Outer Space
Written and directed by Peter Tscherkassky
Austria, 2000
Outer Space has gained a reputation over the years as being a key experimental film alongside the works of such legends as Stan Brakhage and Michael Snow. Horror buffs will recognise the actress in the short as Oscar nominee Barbara Hershey.
Special Mention:
Outer Space
Written and directed by Peter Tscherkassky
Austria, 2000
Outer Space has gained a reputation over the years as being a key experimental film alongside the works of such legends as Stan Brakhage and Michael Snow. Horror buffs will recognise the actress in the short as Oscar nominee Barbara Hershey.
- 10/13/2013
- by Ricky da Conceição
- SoundOnSight
WGA to honor Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz with 2012 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television
By Sean O’Connell
hollywoodnews.com: The WGA plans to reveal its nominees for the top features of 2011, but before that announcement (scheduled for Thursday), the group revealed that writing partners Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick will be honored with the 2012 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television.
Recipients of the honor are recognized for lifetime achievement in outstanding television writing, according to a release. The duo certainly qualifies, with credits that include “thirtysomething,” “Love and Other Drugs” and “Once and Again.”
They will receive the honor at the Writers Guild Awards’ West Coast ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 19 at the Hollywood Palladium.
“Beginning in the 1980s, Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz were among a small group of writers who revolutionized the television drama. So much of what is on television today is a direct or indirect descendant of their seminal work, thirtysomething,” Wgaw president Christopher Keyser said. “So many writers of...
hollywoodnews.com: The WGA plans to reveal its nominees for the top features of 2011, but before that announcement (scheduled for Thursday), the group revealed that writing partners Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick will be honored with the 2012 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television.
Recipients of the honor are recognized for lifetime achievement in outstanding television writing, according to a release. The duo certainly qualifies, with credits that include “thirtysomething,” “Love and Other Drugs” and “Once and Again.”
They will receive the honor at the Writers Guild Awards’ West Coast ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 19 at the Hollywood Palladium.
“Beginning in the 1980s, Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz were among a small group of writers who revolutionized the television drama. So much of what is on television today is a direct or indirect descendant of their seminal work, thirtysomething,” Wgaw president Christopher Keyser said. “So many writers of...
- 1/4/2012
- by Sean O'Connell
- Hollywoodnews.com
Long time readers of the site will have seen this before as I’m reposting my love letter to Stephen Volk’s Ghostwatch on the occasion of Hallowe’en. A year shy of its twentieth anniversary it remains a landmark of paranormal drama and has just been reissued on DVD at a ridiculously low price.
Things have changed since the initial (and only) BBC broadcast. Reality TV has infected almost every aspect of television and Most Haunted and the recent Paranormal Activity films simply would not exist without it. Familiarity with the presenters may have made he suspension of disbelief a little difficult initially but nineteen years on there is no such problem.
Ghostwatch joins The War Game, Orson Welles’ Hallowe’en broadcast of War of the Worlds, and the Us TV programmes Special Bulletin and Without Warning as moments in broadcast history which signalled a shift in what was possible,...
Things have changed since the initial (and only) BBC broadcast. Reality TV has infected almost every aspect of television and Most Haunted and the recent Paranormal Activity films simply would not exist without it. Familiarity with the presenters may have made he suspension of disbelief a little difficult initially but nineteen years on there is no such problem.
Ghostwatch joins The War Game, Orson Welles’ Hallowe’en broadcast of War of the Worlds, and the Us TV programmes Special Bulletin and Without Warning as moments in broadcast history which signalled a shift in what was possible,...
- 10/31/2011
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Just when you think that surely, by now -- especially after this year of nonstop Nazi movies! -- we’ve heard every story to come out of the Holocaust, along comes yet another new one. Another true one. And another one that’s all about the limits to which people get pushed -- and to which we push ourselves -- in extreme situations. Yea for us, that we find ways to survive the seemingly unsurvivable. Yea for us, that we’ve been able to find the humanity in the middle of one of the worst things humans have ever done to one another. But, man, what a way to learn this lesson... and to keep learning it over and over again in the stories we tell one another. I’m not saying, “Enough with the Nazi movies.” I’m saying, “Enough for the crimes against humanity.” Note to whomever is...
- 1/8/2009
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
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