The "last movie I saw" thread

[Paperback Writer]

Last month Northwestcoug presented a trivia question concerning what three performers or performing groups had No. 1 and 2 hits simultaneously during thee 50s-70s. The Beatles and Elvis were obvious; the less obvious third answer was The Bee Gees. Whether you like the Bee Gees or not, I strongly recommend you watch The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, one of the better music documentaries I've seen. A lot of interesting background on how they started, evolved, reconciled familial differences, and wrote some great tunes. The segment on the meteoric rise and rapid fall of disco, the production of Saturday Night Fever, and the debacle at Comiskey Park was especially interesting. Near the end you see how many great songs they wrote for others. I wouldn't put them past Lennon/McCartney as songwriters, but they're close. We're going to have to watch Saturday Night Fever again.

Should have mentioned the documentary is on HBO Max...

Thanks for the recommendation. SNF brings back some memories. My older brother and I were teenagers during the disco era with my brother fully embracing it with silk shirts and a polyester suit while I continued to dress in jeans and t-shirts. Our musical tastes were almost opposite as well when he embraced the Bee Gee's and disco while I liked Springsteen and traditional rock. But the attraction or reaction of girls with my brother's choice of wardrobe and music was not lost on me. At last I had an opportunity to see SNF with friends that included a girl I had a crush on so I had a built in excuse. I didn't publicly admit to liking disco music and continued to predict (accurately) that disco was a fad that would fade like so many other fads of the 1970s. I did get busted though when my brother went to play his SNF soundtrack and found the records missing from their covers and discovered them on my turn table.

[beefytee]

Saturday Night Fever would have been a zero movie without the Bee Gees soundtrack. The Bee Gees were white hot at the end of the 70's.

Yep. Much like the movie Footloose: Crappy Movie with great music.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Yep. Much like the movie Footloose: Crappy Movie with great music.

I think SNF is a far better movie than Footloose. The music's great of course, but there are some interesting themes, like blue collar kids aspiring to something more, the Brooklyn Bridge traversing a chasm between a hopeless lower class future and the unreachable glamour of Manhattan, young men recognizing and trying to overcome their misogyny, and more. John Travolta received and deserved a Best Actor Oscar nomination. As I recall, SNF was Gene Siskel's favorite all-time movie. With even a so-so soundtrack it'd still be a good movie. Thanks to the Bee Gees, it's a great one. That said, it's been 30+ years since I last saw it. I'm going to try to find and watch it in the coming week. I'm curious if it still holds up.

[Non Sequitur]

Yep. Much like the movie Footloose: Crappy Movie with great music.

You have that backwards. Disco music is tedious, but the movie was great.

[beefytee]

I think SNF is a far better movie than Footloose. The music's great of course, but there are some interesting themes, like blue collar kids aspiring to something more, the Brooklyn Bridge traversing a chasm between a hopeless lower class future and the unreachable glamour of Manhattan, young men recognizing and trying to overcome their misogyny, and more. John Travolta received and deserved a Best Actor Oscar nomination. As I recall, SNF was Gene Siskel's favorite all-time movie. With even a so-so soundtrack it'd still be a good movie. Thanks to the Bee Gees, it's a great one. That said, it's been 30+ years since I last saw it. I'm going to try to find and watch it in the coming week. I'm curious if it still holds up.

You make some good points. They aren’t in the same level of bad movies, with Footloose being much worse. SNF isn’t the superficial fluff story that Footloose is.

I was young when SNF came out. I ended up watching the movie about 15 years ago (the TNT/TBS version of it so that might have affected my view of it) and have only seen it once but didn’t enjoy it at all. I’m sure the movie is more appealing to those who lived through the era.

Spoiler for Might run the ending for someone:

The part that had me rolling my eyes and thinking ‘oh brother’ was at the end when the girl made some glib comment about hanging out with someone who tried to raped her. I’m sure it was a plausible ending, but it didn’t do anything for me.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I think SNF is a far better movie than Footloose. The music's great of course, but there are some interesting themes, like blue collar kids aspiring to something more, the Brooklyn Bridge traversing a chasm between a hopeless lower class future and the unreachable glamour of Manhattan, young men recognizing and trying to overcome their misogyny, and more. John Travolta received and deserved a Best Actor Oscar nomination. As I recall, SNF was Gene Siskel's favorite all-time movie. With even a so-so soundtrack it'd still be a good movie. Thanks to the Bee Gees, it's a great one. That said, it's been 30+ years since I last saw it. I'm going to try to find and watch it in the coming week. I'm curious if it still holds up.

It sort of does, although I'd downgrade my rating from "great" to "very good." Forty years later, I had forgotten some details and blurred others (the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge plays a much bigger role than the Brooklyn). It's interesting how the attitudes toward women have evolved (with still a long way to go). beefytee is correct that it's probably more interesting to those of us who were in our teens and twenties during that period.

[Northwestcoug]

"Stay" through the closing credits. The music is good and some interesting factual tidbits pop up.

We watched this last night and really enjoyed it. What a career they had. They were able to reinvent themselves at least 3 times. And crazy how many songs they wrote, not just for them but for other groups.

[Northwestcoug]

"Soul". Loved it. LOVED IT.

Loved the trippy animation with abstract concepts. Loved the characters and score (Trent Reznor!). Loved the message, which is about as close to the mormon doctrine of preexistence as you're going to see in popular culture. Loved everything of it. It is most definitely in the upper tier of Pixar movies. I'm not ready to knock off 'Finding Nemo' as the best, but I'm kind of contemplating putting it in a tie. I didn't have to hide my emotions as much as much as Nemo or other automatic emotion tugging Pixars, but my wife could definitely tell I was touched. I still need to do better with my random eye wiping movements.

I don't do this often, but I'm giving it an A. No minus, just a solid A.

Don't waste your life away searching for your purpose, or waiting for it to arrive. Just follow your spark.

[Donuthole]

Squarely in the middle tier of Pixar movies for me. Not their best. Not their worst.

But an average Pixar movie is better than most movies out there.

[Northwestcoug]

But an average Pixar movie is better than most movies out there.

On that we completely agree.

[Bo Diddley]

Yeah, we watched that Saturday night. I thought it was really well done. For me, Toy Story is the best ever.

[Jeff Lebowski]

We loved it.

[Non Sequitur]

What in the hell has happened to America cinema? I know I'm a grumpy old man, but whatever happened to movies that weren't cartoons or about comic books, space people or elves?

[Now who’s the dean?]

What in the hell has happened to America cinema? I know I'm a grumpy old man, but whatever happened to movies that weren't cartoons or about comic books, space people or elves?

The one about imaginary friend Hitler was pretty good


**And I don’t agree with that in the workplace**

[beefytee]

Seems like most of the good content has migrated to tv series.