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ljones41 · 15 days

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"THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" (2022) Commentary

"THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" (2022) COMMENTARY

During the height of my high regard for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), among the movies of which I had been a major fan were the Captain America releases. At least two of them. The third film in this mini franchise - 2016's "CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR" proved to be a major disappointment for me. However, when I heard that Disney and Marvel Films had plans to air a miniseries about the characters Sam Wilson aka the Falcon and James "Bucky" Barnes aka the Winter Soldier, I must admit that I felt a renewed interest in the franchise again.

When I said a renewal of the MCU franchise, I meant it. Aside from a few movies like "ANT-MAN", "BLACK PANTHER", "CAPTAIN MARVEL" and "ETERNALS"; the MCU had become a major disappointment for me ever since the release of 2015's "THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON". One might ask . . . what about the MCU television productions that aired on the Disney Plus streaming channel? Aside from one production that I somewhat liked and one that I loved, most of them have been disappointing to me. Unfortunately, I have to include this follow-up to the Captain America movies, "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER".

Set six months after 2019's "THE AVENGERS: ENDGAME", "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" followed former war veteran/Avenger Sam Wilson, who has resumed working the for the U.S. government, while using his role as the Falcon. When the government recruits Sam to track down and deal with a group of enhanced anarchists known as "the Flag Smashers", former World War II veteran/HYDRA tool/Avenger James "Bucky" Buchannan aka the Winter Soldier decides to join Sam in his mission, due to his lingering guilt as a former HYDRA assassin and their shared experiences as Steve Rogers' close friends and battling Thanos and his army.

Since "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" had aired on the DisneyPlus channel in six episodes, I had seriously considered ranking the episodes. But like Season three of the Marvel Netflix series, "DAREDEVIL", the more I watched "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLIDER", the more it disappointed me. Aside from complaints about its pacing, the limited series had received a great deal of praise from critics and fans alike. Because of this, I believe it was one of the most overrated productions in the MCU history. People had seemed so focused on little moments and scenes that very few had noticed how the series' narrative seemed to be all over the map. For example:

Sam Wilson This limited series is supposed to be a follow up to the events of "ENDGAME" in which Sam had received the Captain America shield from an aging Steve Rogers, a sign for him to take up the latter's costumed role. Was this an attempt by Marvel Films/Disney to make Sam a more relevant character? If so, why? Why did a MCU character have to replace Steve as the new Captain America to be more relevant? Why not allow Sam to continue as the Falcon, only push his role to the forefront as one of the franchise's new leading characters? Some might accuse me of not wanting a black man as Captain America, a topic that was brought up in the series. Frankly, I never wanted another character - regardless of race, gender or ethnicity - to become the new Captain America. That includes Bucky Barnes. Allow Steve Rogers to fade into the background and let Sam (as the Falcon) shine as one of the franchise's new leads. However, the die has been cast. One can only sit back and see if moviegoers are willing to accept Sam as the new Captain America.

Perhaps the MCU had to make Sam the new Captain America in order to make him more relevant. Why would I say that? The showrunner for "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER", Malcolm Spellman, came dangerously close to shoving Sam into the role of the second lead or worst, a role he has been since his debut in 2014's "CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER" - a supporting character. During the series' first three or four episodes, someone other than Sam (either Bucky Barnes or Helmut Zemo - two white men) made decisions that allowed the plot to move forward, not Sam. He was simply regulated to being an observer or reactor. The series even managed to undermine Sam's decision not to support the Sokovia Accords in "CIVIL WAR". In thee 2016, Sam became the first Avenger to speak out against the Accords and declare his intentions not to sign it. Yet, according to Bucky in this series, Sam had merely followed Steve's example in rejecting the Accords. And Spellman did nothing to allow Sam to correct this misconception.

James "Bucky" Barnes One of the few aspects of "CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR" I found enjoyable proved to be the interactions between Sam Wilson and Bucky Buchannan. Despite their lingering jealousy and competition over the role as "Steve Rogers' best friend", the pair's interactions proved to be very entertaining, thanks to the screen chemistry between Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. Unfortunately, Mackie and Stan could not save "CIVIL WAR" for me. Nor could they save "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER", due to its problematic writing. A good deal of that writing surrounded Bucky's character. I have so many questions about his role in this series. For example:

*Why would any official of the Joint Counter Terrorist Center allow Bucky to visit and question Helmut Zemo, the man responsible for the U.N. conference bombing in Vienna, in "CIVIL WAR"? That made very little sense to me. Surely the JCTC authorities remembered how Zemo managed to brainwash Bucky into making his own prison break in "CIVIL WAR"? Also, Bucky was on parole for his activities as a brainwashed HYDRA assassin. Yet, the JCTC had allowed him to visit Zemo? Surely, the showrunner could have allowed Sam, who was serving the U.S. government again, to be the one to visit and question Zemo?

*How on earth did Bucky managed to evade being arrested and charged for helping Zemo escape from the JCTC? The U.S. and other governments should have been suspicious of Bucky after learning about his visit to Zemo.

*Bucky came off as an arrogant school jock, who thought he was entitled to get his way - especially in his interactions with Sam. I found it hilarious that many fans had criticized John Walker aka Captain America aka U.S. Agent for such toxic behavior. Yet, they had turned a blind eye to Bucky's own behavior. And so did the series - up until the last two episodes. Why did the showrunner allow Bucky to get away with this behavior toward Sam for so long without any complaints from the latter?

*I did not care how Bucky had bullied his way into Sam's mission without the latter's consent. What I found even more annoying was the U.S. government's decision to allow Bucky to join Sam's mission after that ludicrous "therapy session" they were forced to attend together.

Racism A good number of MCU fans had complained about the inclusion of racism in "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER". I had no problems with this direction, considering the story was about Sam, an African-American man, becoming the new Captain America. However, I had a good deal of problems with how the production explored the topic of racism.

The story of Isaiah Bradley, Marvel's second Captain America, had originated in the comics. In the MCU, he was a Korea War veteran whom the United States Army used as one of several unwilling African-American test subjects for their version of the Super Soldier serum. I realize that both Marvel Comics and the MCU had attempted to use Bradley's experience as a metaphor for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The problem is that I cannot see the U.S. government and the Army - both racist organizations in the early 1950s - be willing to risk the possibility of creating a non-white super soldier. Despite the recent desegregation of the Armed Forces in the late 1940s. And both the government and the Army had been more than willing to use white soldiers in other experiments.

After saving a group of black American super soldiers from a prison camp, Bradly was imprisoned by the U.S. government for thirty years. I saw nothing wrong with this twist in the character's narrative, until I remembered two things - Bradley had been able to free his fellow soldiers without anyone's help; and nearly sixty years later, Steve Rogers managed to break into the Raft and free those Avengers who had refused to sign the Sokovia Accord. Why was Bradley unable to free himself from prison? This is the man who had defeated the Winter Soldier by breaking the latter's metal arm. And he was not powerful enough to make a prison break, let alone evade capture?

I had assumed Sam's difficulty in becoming the new Captain America would stem from the government's reluctance to recruit a black man for the position. That would explain their decision to recruit the blond-haired John Walker instead. But the series never really made it clear whether political racism had played a role in Walker's recruitment. The series also had James "Rhodey" Rhodes had paid Sam a visit, emphasizing the importance of the new Captain America being black. As it turned out, Sam's own insecurities about becoming Captain America had more to do with him not initially assuming the role. There was also that interesting scene outside Bradley's Baltimore home where the police arrested Sam during verbal argument with Bucky. Although the cops backed away when they recognized Sam as an Avenger, they ended up arresting the parolee Bucky for missing his required therapy appointment. This scene was supposed to be a case of racial profiling. But . . . we might as well be honest. In the real world, the police would not have backed down from hassling Sam. What I found more disturbing was the production's handling of Bucky's arrest. Once the police discovers that Sam was an Avenger; they turned to arrest Bucky for failing to show up for his missing his therapy session. Not only did the police arrest Bucky with a more gentle behavior, they did so, accompanied by Henry Jackman's mournful score, something that did not accompany the moment of Sam being arrested. Were the audiences expected to notice the hypocrisy and racism in the police's handling of the two men? Expected to feel sympathy for Bucky? Or both?

The last episode featured a scene of two black kids playing with toy Captain America shields. Someone had commented that the shields (especially in the hands of non-white children) represented hope to the future of race relations in the United States. Why? How? This country had a biracial president for EIGHT YEARS. Yet, U.S. racial policies have remained problematic even to this day. I can say the same for other countries. The so-called symbolism of this scene only reminded me of how human beings put so much faith in imagery and symbolism. And this strikes me as a FALSE FAITH. Why was taking up the mantle of a costumed hero that had been previously occupied by a white man, the only way for Sam Wilson to become relevant within the MCU franchise? What was wrong with him being "the Falcon"? Sam becoming the next Captain America was not going to save the U.S. in regard to race relations - not in real life and not in the fictional world of the MCU. Looking back on the series, the series' only scenario that seemed to expose racism in a realistic manner, proved to be Sam's failure to acquire a bank loan for his family's fishing boat in Louisiana.

Sharon Carter I am certain many MCU fans are aware of this. One of Marvel Comics' most iconic couples happened to be Steve Rogers aka Captain America and Sharon Carter aka Agent 13. She also happened to be the great-niece of Peggy Carter, Steve's love interest during World War II. Portrayed by Emily VanCamp, Sharon was first introduced as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in "CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER" as a potential love interest for Steve. Despite Sharon's appearance in the following Captain America movie, "CIVIL WAR", their romance never really developed. Many blamed the lack of chemistry between VanCamp and Chris Evans. I never had a problem with their screen chemistry. I had a problem with the lack of relationship development between Sharon and Steve. And I blame Kevin Feige's decision to transform the third Captain America film into a third (and badly written) pseudo Avengers movie. The change in the film's narrative, along with Sharon's failure to appear in "THE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR" and "ENDGAME", left no opportunity for Sharon and Steve to become the romantic pair they had been in the comics. Instead, Sharon became a fugitive from the U.S. government after helping Steve and Sam hunt down Bucky, moved to Madripoor, a city-state with no U.S. extradition and became an embittered criminal known as "the Power Broker".

After "CIVIL WAR", nearly five years had passed before Sharon appeared in another MCU production - namely this series. And what happened? The franchise, with Spellman, ended up completely destroying her character by transforming her into the villain known as Power Broker, the criminal leader of an Indonesian city-state called Madripoor. After helping Steve and Sam acquire their suits and equipment in order to go after Bucky in "CIVIL WAR", Sharon lost her job with the C.I.A. and became a fugitive. She eventually moved to Madripoor, a city-state with no U.S. extradition, to evade capture, survived Thanos' Snap and became an embittered criminal nicknamed "the Power Broker" in order to survive the new world.

What really pissed me off about Sharon's arc between "CIVIL WAR" and "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" is that her development into a major villain all happened OFF SCREEN. Off screen. Apparently, screenwriters for "INFINITY WAR" had written a draft that included Sharon in the movie. But according to Christopher Markus, he and Stephen McFeeley could not imagine scenes featuring Steve and Sharon trying to make it work in an apartment, because the 2018 movie did not have time to focus on their personal life. Why did Marvel simply fail to allow Sharon to be part of Steve's vigilante team - like Sam and Natasha Romanoff? I mean . . . good fucking grief! And why did Malcolm Spellman believe the only way Sharon could be interesting was to become a villain in "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER"? This was his idea of improving Sharon's character?

Helmut Zemo aka Baron Zemo Why did Malcolm Spellman, Kevin Feige and the MCU thought it necessary to bring back Helmut Zemo, the Sokovian-born villain from "CIVIL WAR"? What role did he play in "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER"? I realize that Bucky, of all people, visited the incarcerated Zemo to acquire information on who had created the super-soldier serum that empowered the Flag Smashers. But why did he believe Zemo could provide the answer? Because he thought HYDRA was involved? Bucky or Sam could have searched for information from sources other than Zemo, who had been incarcerated for . . . what? Eight years? Eight years. Zemo managed to become something of a crowd-pleaser, thanks to Daniel Brühl's performance. Otherwise, I found his presence in this series unnecessary.

The Big Bad Why on earth did it take this series so long to finally reveal the main villain's identity? At first, the series hinted the Flag Smashers, led by Karli Morgenthau. However, the series tossed other potential candidates for the Big Bad before viewers - John Walker, Helmut Zemo and yes, Sharon Carter. But in the end, Morgenthau and her group proved to be the main villains.

The Flag Smashers were a group of empowered people who believed the world was a better place between Thanos' Snap and the Blip (resurrection of those who had died during the Snap), when Humans around the world managed to unite and form a borderless society, one in which people helped others without any thought to nationalism and bias. Thanks to the Avengers, the world resumed its conflicts between nationalities and other groups. In other words, the borders returned.

Frankly, I have nothing against this ideal. Only Ms. Morgenthau and her followers resorted to violence and terrorism to achieve their goals. Does this sound familiar? It should. The Flag Smashers proved to be another example of characters with a progressive goal, resorting to extremism and becoming villains. This seemed to be a growing trend within the franchise, which I believe began with Erik "Killmonger" Stevens aka Prince N'Jadaka in 2018's "BLACK PANTHER". Since then, the MCU has not looked back at its growing roster of progressive villains. Perhaps I should not have been surprised. The franchise's ambiguous portrayal of an unconstitutional document like the Sokovia Accords, should have been the wake-up call. It seemed as if Kevin Feige, Marvel Films and Disney Studios had finally exposed themselves for the faux progressives they pretend to be. Frankly, this form of villainy has become tiresome to me.

After writing this article, I had considered ranking the six episodes featured in "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" anyway. But I decided against it. My dislike of the series made it impossible for me to even bother. Being a fan of the first two Captain America movies, I had truly hoped this series would redeem the franchise. Unfortunately, it proved to be just as disappointing as "CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR". Pity. Perhaps the fourth film, "CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD" will do the trick. I hope so.

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informersinc · 10 months

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Jack’s Plan

Check out our soap podcast episode 28 for Soap Discussions Press like and leave a comment Thanks https://join.wisdom.audio/TMk2

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#adam #Ashley #Billy Abbott #Brooke #CBS Soaps #Jack #Phyllis #Sally #Sharon #Shelia #Soap Spoiler alert #spoiler alerts #Steffy #The bold and the beautiful #the young and the restless #Thomas #Victor #wyatt

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blackdollenthusiast · 11 months

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Black Dolls by Contemporary Black Doll Artists

The video in this installation was presented as a PowerPoint slideshow presentation for the Motor City Doll Club’s May 21, 2023, meeting. The presentation, now converted to an MP4 video, includes dolls that fall into the museum categories of modern and one-of-a-kind black dolls. Some of the dolls are installed in the museum. View the video and then follow the links to the installations below the…

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#Ann Myatt #Crystal McMurry of Birds and Lilies #dolls by black artists #Frantz Brent-Harris #Karen Oyekanmi #Rachel McCullough Sherrod #Sharon Pittman Art Dolls #starkey&039;s daughter cloth dolls #Trish Williams Darling Divas and Friends #Vivian Colette #Wyatt Hicks

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chaosintheavenue · 2 years

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Fallout Opinion Survey- Results!

Thank you so much to all those who took part! We had 421 usable responses in total :D

One quick note- the nature of the data this time around means that most of the auto-generated charts are usable as they are, which does mean this post will be very image-heavy. I’d be very appreciative if someone who knows how to write image descriptions for charts could add them on!

Without further ado, let’s get into the results...

The Basics:

Favourite DLC:

Dead Money- 115 (...nice) Old World Blues- 94 Far Harbor- 76 Lonesome Road- 53 Nuka World- 27 Point Lookout- 17 Honest Hearts- 11 The Pitt- 9 Mothership Zeta- 7 Automatron- 3 Operation Anchorage- 3 Broken Steel- 2 Vault-Tec Workshop- 1

Favourite faction:

Followers of the Apocalypse- 146 Railroad- 62 Minutemen- 45 NCR- 23 Kings- 22 Brotherhood of Steel (all chapters combined)- 20 Yes Man/Wildcard Courier- 18 Great Khans- 14 Enclave- 10 Caesar's Legion- 8 Raiders (76, Nuka World and general combined)- 8 Institute- 6 Chairmen- 5 Unity- 4 Atom Cats- 3 Mr House- 3 Boomers- 3 Freeside- 2 Responders- 2 Children of Atom- 2 Ghoul settlements in general- 2 Hubologists- 2 Tunnel Snakes- 2 And the list of those with one vote each: The Family, Think Tank, Reaver Movement, Ciphers, Broken Hills, Powder Gangers, Reilly's Rangers, Acadia, Goodneighbor, Underworld, White Glove Society, Omertas, Jacobstown, post-Legion Ulysses, Cult of the Mothman, 80s, and talking Deathclaws from Fallout 2

Favourite companion:

Arcade Gannon- 75 Nick Valentine- 53 Hancock- 39 Veronica- 38 Deacon- 30 ED-E- 26 Raul- 23 Boone- 22 MacCready- 13 Christine Royce- 12 Dogmeat (all)- 11 Fawkes- 10 Preston Garvey- 10 Charon- 9 Rex- 9 Butch Deloria- 8 Goris- 8 Cait- 7 Danse- 7 Piper- 7 Lily- 6 Marcus- 6 Rose of Sharon Cassidy- 6 Curie- 5 Porter Gage- 4 Dean Domino- 4 X6-88- 3 Strong- 3 Ulysses- 3 RL-3- 3 Ian- 2 Dog/God- 2 Codsworth- 2 Joshua Graham- 2 Old Longfellow- 2 Lenny- 2 Ada- 2 And the 'list of ones': Tycho, Katja, Follows-Chalk, Sydney

The Lore:

(other titles specifically mentioned in the final question: Metro and Doom)

Characters headcanoned as synths: The Sole Survivor (by far the most common theory), Sturges, Deacon, Preston Garvey, the Lone Wanderer in Broken Steel, James/Dad, Dogmeat, Three Dog, Parker Quinn, Charon, Courier Six, Tinker Tom, Zeke, Arthur Maxson, Father/older Shaun, Piper, Travis Miles, Mysterious Stranger, Caesar ('cause funny'), Joshua Graham, most Children of Atom, Desdemona, Myrna, Marcy Long, Mr Burke, Vault 76 Overseer, Trashcan Carla, Cricket, many BoS and Enclave members, Reaver Movement members, Redeye, Moira Brown, Dr Zimmer, Ranger Ghost, most birds, Arcade Gannon, Elijah, Lizzie Wyatt, Kellogg, Mama Murphy, Nat Wright, and Sierra Petrovita

(please note I'm not all that familiar with Fallout 4 lore, if any of the FO4 peeps here are canon synths then I didn't know about it lol)

Fan theories/headcanons from the final question that cropped up repeatedly (in approximate order of popularity):

Vault-Tec started the Great War

Alien involvement with the pre-war US government and/or the Great War

Horses are still around

Talking Deathclaws are still around

Occult/eldritch influence (e.g. the Dunwich building) is widespread

Charon is a survivor of Vault 92

Deacon is a founder of the Railroad and his 'real' backstory was another lie

Veronica and Christine reunite

Sarah Lyons is alive

Gen 3 synths and ghouls still need to eat, drink, sleep and so on

Ghouls only turn feral in specific circumstances (suggestions include prolonged isolation and relying too heavily on radiation instead of food as a source of energy) and it is not inevitable

International travel and immigration continues

Danse and Harkness were sent to the Capital Wasteland by the Railroad together

X person is actually multiple people- suggested for Deacon, Legate Lanius and Vulpes Inculta

The US is the either the only place that was nuked or the only place that hasn't rebuilt and recovered, and the rest of the world is just ignoring them and carrying on as normal

Cass is the Chosen One's daughter

Mama Murphy is the Chosen One

No-Bark Noonan is the Chosen One (lots of Chosen One theories popping up lol)

All subsequent Dogmeats in the series are named after the legend of the original Dogmeat

Father is not really Shaun

MacCready is lying about Duncan being ill (or one person even suggested Duncan existing)

Yes Man overthrows the Courier after being upgraded

The real Lone Wanderer died at the end of the vanilla game even if Broken Steel is installed, and the Broken Steel LW is a synth

Deacon once worked for the Institute

Deacon deliberately leads people to theorise that he is the Lone Wanderer to throw them off

Deacon is or was once a ghoul (also plenty of Deacon theories)

The Mysterious Stranger is a time traveller who protects the various PCs to maintain the timeline

Appalachia was turned into a barren wasteland by the nuclear trigger-happiness of the Vault 76 Dwellers (possibly interesting aside: my brother, who buys into this one, has gone as far as to theorise that the original Great War used very low-yield weapons and wasn't that severe on the environmental level (as far as literal nuclear war goes, that is), and it was the Vault 76ers nuking the hell out of Appalachia that triggered a continent-wide nuclear winter and sent the ecology of the wasteland into the state it's in in all subsequent games)

Glory is not a synth

The (in-game) reason for lore clashes and retcons is that the plot of each game is a retelling of the story as it's passed around in the wasteland, so some details have been embellished or mixed up

I’ll be coming back to the theories from the final question at some point, but aside from that, that's a wrap! There isn't really much potential for me to play around with the data here like with the OC surveys, so this was more just me presenting the data as it came in without commentary. Still, I hope this is somehow interesting/insightful!

#fallout #survey #this was a bit all over the place lol #but as I said there's not much actual analysis I can do with this data

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filmnoirfoundation · 8 months

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We are proud to announce the the winners of the FNF's NOIR CITY Magazine #38 donation drive held September 14 - 20, 2023:

1) The three winners of the four NOIR CITY Magazine - digital - back issues -- #11, #12, #15, #16 -- are:

Mark Hesse, St. Cloud, MN

Martin Zandstra, The Netherlands

Linda Fox, Cherry Hill, NJ

2) The winner of the Fantagraphics Books’ The High Cost of Dying and Other Stories by Reed Crandall, EC Comics virtuoso illustrator, and a copy of Alan K. Rode’s recently released Blood on the Moon:

Dean Curtis, Alameda, CA

3) The winner of the three FNF restorations on Blu-ray/DVDs from Flicker Alley – The Guilty/High Tide (1947), Trapped (1949), and The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950) – all with FNF-produced special features – and a signed copy of Alan K. Rode’s Blood on the Moon:

Michael Adams, Marietta, GA

4) The winner of the NOIR CITY Passport to the NOIR CITY 21 film festival, January 19 – 28, 2024 at Oakland’s Grand Theatre:

Sharon Boelhouwer, Lompoc, CA

5) The three new-subscriber winners of the five NOIR CITY Magazine back issues -- #15, #22, #23, #32, #34 -- are:

Segundo Nallatan Jr, Pingree Grove, IL

David Pedigo, Euless, TX

Gregory Montana, San Francisco, CA

6) The new-subscriber winner of Flicker Alley’s Blu-ray/DVD releases of two FNF restorations of 1950 films shot on location in San Francisco -- Woman on the Run with Ann Sheridan and Dennis O’Keefe and The Man Who Cheated Himself with Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt, and John Dahl:

Elizabeth Helfgott, Brooklyn, NY

7) ADDITIONAL WINNERS: Thank you to ALL contributors for the response to this issue's donation drive. Additional winners who will receive three FNF restorations on Blu-ray/DVDs from Flicker Alley – The Beast Must Die (1952), Too Late for Tears (1949), and The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950):

Christine Kuchler, Bismarck, ND

Darrel Chase, Bel Air, MD

Scott Witmer, Ann Arbor, MI

Lise K. Wall, Idleyld Park, OR

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Film Noir Foundation! A reminder that anyone who contributes $20 or more to the FNF and signs up our mailing list always receives a free year's subscription to the dgital version of NOIR CITY Magazine. Contributors may receive additional FNF thank you gifts depending on the amount of the donation.

#noir city #noir city magazine #eddie muller #film noir foundation #film restoration

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kwebtv · 2 months

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From the Golden Age of Television

Series Premiere

The Range Rider - Six Gun Party - Syndicated - April 5, 1951

Western

Running Time: 30 minutes

Writen by Samuel Newman

Produced by Louis Gray

Directed by George Archainbaud

Stars:

Jock Mahoney as The Range Rider

Dick Jones as Dick West

Elaine Riley as Sharon Miller

Earle Hodgins as John "Whiskers" Miller

Denver Pyle as Barney Kimball

Dick Curtis as Henchman Max

Wes Hudman as Henchman Pete

Al Wyatt as Sheriff

#Six Gun Party #TV #The Range Rider #Western #1950's #1951 #Syndicated #Jock Mahoney #Dick Jones #Elaine Riley #Earle Hodgins #Denver Pyle #Series Premiere

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thebibliomancer · 2 months

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Earth X #1

We’ve recapped billions of years of Marvel Earth history in issue 0, so now we’re ready to get into what’s happened since Uatu was blinded.

As the cover suggests, our focus character for this first chapter is Captain America. His life has gone in such a weird direction that he’s wearing a flag as a toga. With a rope belt.

Also featuring is Wyatt Wingfoot, Cap’s new partner to replace Falcon. But instead of taking on the name Falcon, Wyatt has been named Redwing after Falcon’s pet falcon. Gets named after a pet and with red in the name in case you forget he’s a First Nations guy.

The cover also has a squid, which is very important, and a new Daredevil, who is not important to this issue at all and doesn’t even appear in person.

Even in Bad Future, lying covers.

As Aaron serves as Uatu’s seeing eye robot, he observes the Inhumans returning to Earth.

So the grand tally of Earth X stuff that inspired later Marvel material is at 2. The Inhumans fucking off into space? Earth X did it first.

Black Bolt’s new look with the cowcatcher mouth? Later used as the look for Vox and Vox Supreme, a recent Inhumans and Captain Marvel foe.

The Inhumans are returning to Earth to marry off Luna (daughter of Crystal and Quicksilver) to an unnamed Inhuman prince (son of Black Bolt and Medusa).

Crystal and Medusa are sisters and all the Inhuman royal family are cousins so I guess they’re aiming to recreate the Hapsburg chin.

The Inhumans find Inhuman sanctuary Attilan abandoned. So they figure that the Prince must be hanging out with heroes. So they go to New York, where heroes hang out.

But the world got fucked while they were gone. Everyone in the world was mutated somehow. The Inhumans arrive at a New York that’s weirder than ever.

And elsewhere in the city, Captain America and Wyatt fight a new Hydra. Not neo Nazis in green and yellow uniforms but a mind-controlling space squid hivemind of some kind.

The squids have already assimilated Falcon, She-Hulk, and Sharon Carter.

They can only control you if you give up. Unfortunately, Cap is old and tired and he doesn’t want to fight friends and the world he’s fighting for hardly seems worth it.

According to this issue’s appendix, American democracy is dead. There’s no Congress and President Osborn controls everything. Osborn Industries is basically the economy now.

He is known as the Goblin King so add another tally to things Earth X inspired.

Based on the state of the world being fucked, Cap finds it hard to resist the Hydra’s calls to just give up. But he does find some strength to fight off the squids long enough for Stark’s Purge to start.

Related to the world being fucked? The Avengers are dead. And Tony doesn’t go out anymore.

He’s created the Iron Avengers to replace his dead friends and calls them by the same names.

Add another tally. Iron Avengers is a concept that gets some use in various places. Thanks Earth X.

The Iron Avengers start purging the squids from the streets, causing them to retreat.

But before they left, Cap managed to grab a piece of fabric from them. With a skull on it that looks like the Punisher’s but red. A red skull…

Nobody wants the Red Skull back. As Cap bitterly comments about the Iron Avengers, dead should mean something.

(Steve, what world do you think you live in?)

Other heroic cameos in this issue: An older Cyclops rescues a presumed mutant from the squids but the kid freaks and runs away.

Luke Cage is a cop.

Peter Parker is bitter and retired, having decided that a world where everyone has powers means he doesn’t have any great responsibility anymore or possibly rather that he’s not special anymore so why bother.

It’s a very craphole, this Bad Future. With many mysteries to unpack. What fucked the world? Where’s the Inhuman Prince? Who blinded Uatu and why? Why the fuck did Cap decide to wear a flag toga?

The book is a coward if it doesn’t answer that last one.

#Earth X #captain america #wyatt wingfoot #Inhumans #liveblog

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luna-rainbow · 2 years

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Welp, Bucky confirmed for Thunderbolts… This is troubling lol. I feel like there might be ways to make it work but I really just have no faith in these people so I guess I’ll watch it, hate it and die mad about it. Excellent!

I was avoiding all MCU news in the hopes this wouldn't eventuate =/

I'm going to attempt to look at this as objectively as I can. Firstly, neither Zemo nor Sharon were announced. This doesn't necessarily mean Zemo won't appear, but if he does this probably means it's a smaller role, which is good.

Secondly, it's a decent team of actors. I mean, in general the MCU has been blessed with fantastic actors, but I'm sure Seb will enjoy playing off people like Florence Pugh and Wyatt Russell, who are both capable of such nuance and pathos. Before anyone jumps down my throat - because fandom has a propensity to do this - I'm not saying Seb's previous co-stars were not capable of them, but Seb has talked a lot recently about how much he enjoys working with new people and learning things through that experience.

Third, the main writer announced is Eric Pearson, so let's look at his track record. On the positive side, he was one of the head writers for Black Widow, which managed to acknowledge that the Widows were victims of brainwashing and could not be blamed for what they did under that brainwashing. The script also alluded to the fact that the Winter Soldier program was working on removing the subject's voluntary control over even basic motor functions such as breathing, and drawing a parallel between that and the Widows. If I looked purely at Black Widow's script, I would be cautiously hopeful that the Thunderbolts would do justice not just to Bucky, but to Yelena and Ava as well, who were both also victims of having their autonomy taken away from them.

What worries me, though, is that Pearson was also on the team for Thor Ragnarok, which didn't deal too well with nuance and grief. He was also the writer for at least 8 episodes on Agent Carter, and I haven't seen any good neutral writing (particularly where Bucky is involved) recently from Carter fans in the MCU writers room. And finally, it's unclear just how much his Black Widow script was polished up by other writers - after all, wasn't he the one that came up with the god-awful "are you on your period" joke, and ScarJo talked about how she, Florence and Cate Shortland were all horrified when they did their first reading and felt compelled to turn it into a statement?

What really grinds my gears about the concept of the Thunderbolts is that for the last few years the MCU has gone by protagonist-centered morality. Neither Yelena nor Bucky had a say in what they chose to do, Ava was indoctrinated in a similar way to Wanda was, and you could even argue Walker was too by military propaganda and Alexei by Russian propaganda. These are not people who made a moral decision to be grey, and I don't see why they get to be called a bunch of reluctant antiheros who have to be conscripted to do something good when many of them have been wanting to do good...when rage-driven mass murderers like Clint still gets the hero treatment. Thunderbolts would be a fantastic way for people like Bucky and Yelena to address their tormentors, and for people like Ava and Walker to make a statement against large military/para-military organisations indoctrinating their people by dehumanising both them and their enemies.

But let's be real, Disney won't do that.

(Tumblr glitching again D=)

#anti thunderbolts #yes getting the new tag ready #anti mcu #bucky barnes #asks

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superghfan · 1 year

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Way back Wednesday! John J York, Tristan Rogers, John C. Reilly & Sharon Wyatt!

#john j york #tristan rogers #john c. reilly #sharon wyatt #general hospital #1990s

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ghclassic · 2 years

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#general hospital #gh #soap opera #80s tv #gloria monty #genie francis #tristan rogers #john reilly #Sharon Wyatt #Tiffany hill #sean donely #robert scorpio #laura spencer

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bdzonthareel · 10 months

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Barbie

When I first heard about a Barbie movie, I like many people rolled their eyes at the very thought of it. Barbie media has often (at times unfairly) lambasted for being a cash grab and that was my initial reaction, however we I heard that Margot Robbie was involved and her production company was fitting the bill, my interest was piqued. So without further ado, (and I never thought I would ever say these words) let’s talk about Barbie!

We’re introduced to the fictional world of Barbieland, where every concept of Barbie exists and lives in perfect harmony with a respective Ken, and Allan (there’s only one of him.) But the harmony is disrupted when Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie begins to suffer from an existential crisis and in order for her to fix what’s wrong she must go to the real world and meet the girl who is playing with her and figure out what’s wrong.

In all genres of entertainment, comedy is one of those that I am insanely harsh on, as comedian myself I feel like there should be a flow to long form story, especially in comedy. But I can say that Director and co-screenwriter Greta Gerwig created a work that was heartfelt and hilarious in this film.

The cinematography is nothing short of brilliant, lots and lots of pink paint was used to bring Barbieland to life and it felt like one massive play set. And the various Real World shots were not to be out done giving off a stark contrast to each other.

The soundtrack was a delightful mix of classic top 40s, newer hits and self-aware comedic songs. The score was equally light poppy and fun, composers (pop music legend) Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt brought an amazing upbeat energy to this film.

Co-writer Noah Baumbach, helped with some very well-timed jokes, and you know they worked because they triggered a metric ton of incels, and that alone was worth the price of admission. Together with Gerwig, I was throughly impressed with the amount of meta commentary on display, and despite what some might lead you to believe, the film doesn’t demonize men; the film’s message is far more complex than that. I also appreciate the fact that they made the movie about the titular character, with seems to be something that franchises like Transformers can’t seem to get right.

And the performances were hilariously well done, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gossling have great chemistry as they lampoon the ideas of these characters’ roles. Simu Liu, is amazing versatile and brings the same amazing timing that he brought to Kim’s Convenience and it was delightful. Although my favorite Barbies were Issa Rei as President Barbie and Sharon Rooney as Lawyer Barbie. And I would be remised to ignore Hari Nef whose Doctor Barbie was whimsical and charming, Also since I’m madly in love with Alexandra Shipp I can say that she another of my favorite parts. America Ferreira and Ariana Greenblat served as great moral support for the various inhabitants of Barbieland and then there Will Ferrell I was almost convinced was Ken at one point given his goofball behavior. I also enjoyed seeing Rhea Pearlman as one (spoilers), she just gets better with age. Kate McKinnon really went all in as Weird Barbie as did Michael Cera as Allan (easily my favorite character in the film.) And last but certainly NOT least, Dame Hellen Mirren as the narrator brought a nice touch of her

Barbie was more than what I and many others initially expected, it was packaged as a goofball fish-out-of-water comedy which is a tired cliché in its own right, I sat down on this for a good while before writing this and I feel like its one of the best comedies I have seen in a very long time. It was very funny, but it also had a lot to say about growing up, holding on to thing that we love, and letting go of them. The biggest message that we all have to find our own way, because we are all more than just an idea and life doesn’t exist in just a straight line and at the end of the day isn’t that what it means to be human?

I give Barbie a well-deserved, 5 out of 5.

#movie review #hollywood #barbie #ryan gosling #margot robbie #barbieheimer #ken doll #micheal cera #dua lipa #john cena #greta gerwig #will ferrell #comedy #matel #barbie doll #barbie girl #barbieland #barbie world

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