Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Fighting Errors in the Modern World => Topic started by: Viva Cristo Rey on April 15, 2020, 12:31:25 PM
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What are some of your favorite movies?
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At this time of year, 10 Commandments, Ben Hur , Quo Vadis 1950s version
The BBC production of the chronicles of Narnia
It does not matter that I do not have any children of my own. FOr I remain a bear cub at heart ;)
And how could I forget that horrible classic the
Sound of music… LOL teehee 🙃
Seriously, if I ever did have a physical copy of said movie I would be obliged to put several bullet holes into it. LOL
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"When in Rome"with Van Johnson -- set in 1960 when an escaped convict and a Catholic priest get mistaken for each other.
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I don't want to start a dumpster fire here, but precisely what is "wrong" with The Sound of Music?
I am fully aware that HE Bishop Williamson doesn't care for it, and that is his prerogative, we all like what we like, and don't like what we don't like. I find Michael Buble's music insanely annoying. But that's just me. Some people love his music, and that's just them. De gustibus non est disputandum.
Aside from that, though, the only thing I could possibly find disagreeable about the movie, is that Maria was deemed by her Mother Superior to be a poor fit for religious life (and, by implication, if Maria had possessed a different personality, she would not have been a poor fit). That's the Mother Superior's prerogative. Being cheerful and ebullient is no sin. Maria went, she offered herself, but she just didn't pack the gear. Happens all the time. How many vocations might be saved if every young person who detects such a prompting, went to seminary/monastery/convent for a time, and gave it a try? How many vocations are lost because young people don't do this? (Affections for a member of the opposite gender, and egging on these affections, can kill a vocation --- this modern business of "date while you're discerning" is a vocation-destroyer if ever there were such a thing.)
But I digress. Back to the original question --- "why should we dislike The Sound of Music"?
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What are some of your favorite movies?
Movies should teach something noble to the children. We do not watch TV or go to Movie theatres. In the last 5 years my wife started buy used movies on Amazon that she liked as a child, she is in her early 40's now. That was a big mistake, for what she saw as a child was not really noble and I do not see where they teach anything- All the episodes of Get Smart, The Beverly Hillbillies, Adams Family, Hogans Heroes, Star Wars and such. Big mistake in my opinion. If I had to do it all over again I would have said no to all of them. Two excellentt movies that teach noble values to children are:
Little Lord Fountleroy (1930's)
Captains Courageous (1930's)
I highly recommend them.
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"When in Rome"with Van Johnson -- set in 1960 when an escaped convict and a Catholic priest get mistaken for each other.
Set in the Holy Year of 1950.. Van Johnson and Paul Douglas. One of the best movies ever for the WHOLE family, humour, drama, faith.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHwEbfFe5mI
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyVDP5lJQBQ
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A Man for All Seasons.
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A Man for All Seasons.
:fryingpan:
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?
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Interesting.....the actor who played the fat murderous bastard Henry VIII, I just discovered, played Quint the nutty shark fisherman in Jaws.
One can certainly explore symbolism between these two roles.
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His Excellency and The Sound of Music.....wherein it is explained why this movie is cinematic crapulence.
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Dear Friends and Benefactors,
As the Christmas season comes round again, no doubt many Catholic households, especially but not only in the U.S.A., will be preparing to watch, on public television or on video-tape, The Sound of Music. This Hollywood film has repeatedly been the object of critical remarks in this letter. If readers have wondered why, let it now for the season be explained at length.
The problem with The Sound of Music is that it is not just the innocent entertainment that it seems to be, as will be shown. Nor is Hollywood alone to blame. For the 1965 film was the cinema version of the 1959 Broadway (New York) stage musical. Now Hollywood and Broadway, like all entertainers, are responsible for what they do to elevate or debase their public, but they cannot be primarily to praise or blame for the state in which that public comes to them.
Interestingly, in the years of grace immediately following World War II (it did teach some people some sense), the valiant Catholic magazine Integrity called in question the whole modern expectation of "entertainment", just as between the wars Fr. Vincent McNabb, O.P., preacher in London, England, had called in question the whole of modern city-life because of the pressure it exerts on married couples to use artificial means of birth control. Obviously few souls paid much attention to Integrity or to Fr. McNabb, which is why we are now in the situation where few Catholics can see any problem with The Sound of Music. Let us then be aware that the problem runs deep, but let us here concentrate on its immediate manifestation in this one film.
Its story is based on a real-life incident which happened in Catholic Austria just before World War II. The wife of an Austrian naval captain dies, leaving him with a number of children to look after. The captain appoints as governess for them a young unmarried woman who has just left the convent where she was trying her vocation. Fortune smiles as the captain and governess fall in love, but fortune frowns as the nαzιs take over Austria in the Anschluss of 1938. To avoid serving the Third Reich, the captain manages to flee Austria with his new wife and children.
It would be interesting to read the original book by the real-life governess, Maria von Trapp, to see just how far Hollywood departed from reality in the film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. However, we need not know the original to see what Hollywood has done!
Firstly, Julie Andrews is nice (of course), but she is too high-spirited to be a nun (of course), for instance she dances over the Austrian mountain meadows, in springtime (of course), waving her arms around and singing (presumably to the grass) that "The hills are alive with the sound of music". The hills seem unmoved but they do look beautiful, as does Julie Andrews (of course. We know she would wear perfume and make-up to go jogging).
Fortunately the Mother Superior is also nice (of course, at least in 1965. Today she would be a child abuser), so she and the other nuns are very understanding and let Julie Andrews go, to try out being governess of a tyrannical widower's unruly children who have (of course) chased away several governesses before her. What shall she do? Have no fear! The Power of Positive Thinking (of course) – she sings a gutsy little number along the lines, "...I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain... besides which you see, I have confidence in me". Bravo.
Sure enough, once inside the door she gives a dazzling demonstration of the superiority of liberty and equality over stuffy old Austrian ways! Immediately undermining – in front of the children – the Captain's tyrannical discipline over them, she proceeds to win their hearts (of course) by a combination of being their friend, taking their side, making them sing and have fun, all this without a trace of motherliness and all the time looking as cute as a kitten. She even looks cute when she prays, in fact who would not pray when it makes you look so specially cute?
Of course the stern Captain is soon won over by his domain being turned into a gigantic play-pen, so he breaks out in that favorite Austrian number Edelweiss, whereupon they all burst into song because the family has been re-built on the liberty-equality model. By now Julie Andrews is looking goofy around the Captain (of course), so there is a ball, and they dance (of course), and dancing reveals more of her charms (of course), whereupon the Captain also looks goofy around her (of course).
But enter now the villains! Firstly a glamorous Baroness previously engaged to be married to the Captain, who schemes to get Julie Andrews out of the way, back to the Convent (but didn't you know, "The path of true love never did run smooth"?). Secondly, villain of villains, a – a – a nαzι! (Original sin? – never heard of it! Isn't all sin nαzι sin?)
Pan back to the Convent for a heart-warming feminine dialogue: Mother: "You're unhappy". J.A.: "I'm confused". Mother: "Are you in love?" J.A.: "Oh, I don't know." Mother: "Go back to him". Him is of course delighted when she returns, so there is a duet of swooning, spooning and crooning by – guess what! – moonlight! "But will the children approve of our marrying?" Of course! Shiny white wedding dress (of course), wedding bells all over the place and a lovely ceremony (of course), to be spoiled only by the brutal re-appearance of the nasty nαzι – the Captain must report for duty to the Third Reich!
The family tries to sneak away. The nasty nαzι spots them, so now they all break out into singing Edelweiss. The nasty nαzι is foiled when the family escape to the convent (where else?), but drama rolls as the nasty nαzιs close in on the convent. (But didn't you know, "Life is not just a bed of roses"?) The Captain is heroic (of course), but the dastardly villains are only foiled for good when their car is incapacitated by the nuns turned into mechanics (of course), and the last shots show the "family" climbing a mountain path to get out of the Third Reich, amidst hills which are once more – go on, don't tell me you couldn't guess! – "alive with the sound of music". How truly heart – warming.
Dear friends, please excuse this long excursion into the audio-visual scenery of an average modern Christmas, but no less maybe necessary to rub noses in the falsity of this soul-rotting slush. Clean family edification? Nothing of the kind!
As for cleanness, many films may be worse than the Sound of Music, but stop and think – are youth, physical attractiveness and being in love the essence of marriage? Can you imagine this Julie Andrews staying with the Captain if "the romance went out of their marriage"? Would she not divorce him and grab his children from him to be her toys? Such romance is not actually pornographic but it is virtually so, in other words all the elements of pornography are there, just waiting to break out. One remembers the media sensation when a few years later Julie Andrews appeared topless in another film. That was no sensation, just a natural development for one rolling canine female.
As for being a family film, by glorifying that romance which is essentially self-centered, The Sound of Music puts selfishness in the place of selflessness between husband and wife, and by putting friendliness and fun in the place of authority and rules, it invites disorder between parents and children. This is a new model family which in short order will be no family at all, its liberated members flying off in all different directions.
Finally as for edification, in The Sound of Music the Lord God is mere decoration. True, His Austrian mountains are beautiful (beautiful decoration), but His nuns are valued only for their sweetness towards the world and their understanding of its ways, while His ex-nun is wholly oriented towards the world.
Dear friends, any supposed Catholicism in The Sound of Music is a Hollywood fraud corresponding to the real-life fraud of that "Catholicism" of the 1950's and 1960's, all appearance and no substance, which was just waiting to break out into Vatican II and the Newchurch. Right here is the mentality of sweet compassion for ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖs and of bitter grief for Princess Di, of sympathy for priests quitting the SSPX for the Novus Ordo . Everything is man-centered and meant to feel good, the apostasy of our times.
But, somebody may object, The Sound of Music is only entertainment. Reply, is the world in a mess, or not? Now, has the world got to where it is by people listening to sermons in church? They do less and less of that. Then what do they drink into their hearts and souls and minds? Is it not their "entertainment", The Sound of Music in season and countless films more or less like it out of season? Then if the world around us is corrupt, it sure fits these films being corrupt, whereas if someone can see no problem with The Sound of Music (1965), how can he see a problem with Vatican II (1962-1965)? The simultaneity in time is no coincidence.
Dear friends, "entertainment" requires serious attention. Then what is to be proposed in place of The Sound of Music? For family time, amongst live human beings, better in general live games, talk or reading than mechanical TV or VCR, even good video-tapes, let alone video-tapes as false as The Sound of Music. Make your children (and your wife!) a Christmas present of your personal time, attention and guidance. That is more valuable to them than anything that comes in glitzy store-bought wrappings!"
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The Cardinal, For Greater Glory, and The Passion of the Christ.
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Movies should teach something noble to the children. We do not watch TV or go to Movie theatres. In the last 5 years my wife started buy used movies on Amazon that she liked as a child, she is in her early 40's now. That was a big mistake, for what she saw as a child was not really noble and I do not see where they teach anything- All the episodes of Get Smart, The Beverly Hillbillies, Adams Family, Hogans Heroes, Star Wars and such. Big mistake in my opinion. If I had to do it all over again I would have said no to all of them. Two excellentt movies that teach noble values to children are:
Little Lord Fountleroy (1930's)
Captains Courageous (1930's)
I highly recommend them.
There is such a thing as light entertainment that does not have to "teach" anything. The TV series you mention are all wholesome family entertainment and provide comic diversion. The Beverly Hillbillies is actually a very edifying show --- simple, decent, God-fearing mountain people who are smarter than anyone else around them, in spite of their lack of sophistication. Jethro was written into the show because Buddy Ebsen insisted on Jed being written as a wise, intelligent man possessed of much common sense, instead of a buffoon as the producers had originally wanted.
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Molokai The story of Father Damien
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZEKSHBJtdc
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjokO41yjq4
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Set in the Holy Year of 1950.. Van Johnson and Paul Douglas. One of the best movies ever for the WHOLE family, humour, drama, faith.
I saw this movie decades ago and wanted to watch it again but could not remember its name. I watched it today with my family and it was as good as I remembered it.
My thanks to Cera and Miseremini for posting about this. I finally got my wish to see this movie and I got to share it with my family members. They liked it a lot too.
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Thank you so much for posting these films Miseremini. It is hard to find good films.
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Marcelino Pan'e Vino.
The story of a little boy orphaned at birth and raised by monks.
He has beautiful conversations with Jesus on the Cross.
I hope you can find an English (dubbed) version, though it is worth watching in Spanish or Italian.
Miracle Of Marcelino - Trailer - YouTube
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iDCiXoNPnTk
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I loved " On Borrowed Time" with Lionel Barrymore ( 1939)
I saw it first only a few years ago when a friend loaned me the video.
It has a spiritual premise , ( not Catholic) but was extremely entertaining. The little boy who plays Barrymore's grandson was one of the best child actors I have ever seen.
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To name a few...
The adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Basil Rathbone.
Adam-12
Dragnet
Most John Wayne Westerns, all the drinking aside, are usually pretty good.
One thing I find interesting about the old police shows is that the drug and crime problems, which were relatively new in the 50s and 60s and which the shows strove to blot out, only got a lot worse over time. I remember seeing a Dragnet where dogs were first trained to sniff out drugs from a warehouse, it was something never tried before and worked marvelously, they really thought they finally found a way to stamp out the importing of drugs.
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I loved " On Borrowed Time" with Lionel Barrymore ( 1939)
I saw it first only a few years ago when a friend loaned me the video.
It has a spiritual premise , ( not Catholic) but was extremely entertaining. The little boy who plays Barrymore's grandson was one of the best child actors I have ever seen.
https://youtu.be/4aBC-TknLhA (https://youtu.be/4aBC-TknLhA)
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A classic from Ingmar Bergen.....for mature family audiences
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4yXBIigZbg
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By Dawns Early Light
Below is a poor link to a fantastic movie for teens and pre teens.
It's the story of an obnoxious california teen who is sent to his grandfather for the summer in Calorado.
All my grandsons just love this movie and it's an "in your face" story that many teens need to see.
Can be purchased on ebay for $3-$4. Stars Richard Crenna
In the movie below someone wisely shows the picture of another movie to get teens to watch a good one.
Be careful there is another movie with the same name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs21-ifmdMc
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"Emergency!" Virus (TV Episode 1972) - IMDb (https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0570723/)
(https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/ip3/m.imdb.com.ico) (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=emergency!%20tv%20show%20virus%20youtube+site:m.imdb.com&t=iphone)https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0570723/ (https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0570723/)
Directed by Lawrence Dobkin. With Robert Fuller, Julie London, Bobby Troup, Randolph Mantooth. A sick lady with a monkey provides the key to a mysterious, highly contagious, and deadly ASIAN virusthat strikes both Dr. Brackett and John Gage. Meanwhile, the firemen rescue a boy from a treehouse and a man from a scaffold. ( maybe the cure could be in this episode.
It is cool to watch this show and compare it to today. First of all, no obese nurse, doctors or firefighters. Nurses are wearing white dresses and caps. see how present day society has really became lame.
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I saw this movie decades ago and wanted to watch it again but could not remember its name. I watched it today with my family and it was as good as I remembered it.
My thanks to Cera and Miseremini for posting about this. I finally got my wish to see this movie and I got to share it with my family members. They liked it a lot too.
Hi Jayne, If possible DVR or somehow copy this movie as it is very difficult to obtain.
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I saw this movie decades ago and wanted to watch it again but could not remember its name. I watched it today with my family and it was as good as I remembered it.
My thanks to Cera and Miseremini for posting about this. I finally got my wish to see this movie and I got to share it with my family members. They liked it a lot too.
Where did you find it or did you have a copy?
I copied mine from TV decades ago on to VHS Then in 2018 when it again came on TV again I copied it to DVD.
It has never been released to DVD.
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Where did you find it or did you have a copy?
I copied mine from TV decades ago on to VHS Then in 2018 when it again came on TV again I copied it to DVD.
It has never been released to DVD.
I just googled and found it on a Russian site. https://ok.ru/video/1515480550032 (https://ok.ru/video/1515480550032)
Normally I wouldn't try watch something on a strange site like this because they often have malware, but I took the risk this time because I wanted to see it so badly. Nothing bad seems to have happened, but sometimes there is a delayed reaction, so I recommend caution if anyone else wants to try this.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray is a very thought provoking movie from a Catholic perspective but not for the whole family.
The 1945 version is excellent. Haven't seen the remake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp7xAM-ZCCg
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We just watched the agony or passions of St. Joan of Arc done in 1928 black and white. Very good. French/English captions. Can find on TCM.
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We watched this touching movie today, about a man just out of prison after 22 years. He goes to his father who is demented, befriends a young boy, and encounters and defeats prejudice. Religious themes. Uplifting and heartwarming.
Mr What - Full Movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNEjshyRvhE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNEjshyRvhE)
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Cute family movie especially for baseball fans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=337WMg4rygA
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The little angel of Columbia. One hour docuмentary - very inspirational and moving
https://youtu.be/8bLIL_MAqwE (https://youtu.be/8bLIL_MAqwE)
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Thank you Nadir and everyone for these movies.