HOW WE FIGHT!

In praise of OLD MOVIES—watch 'em, BUY 'EM, savor 'em! (now!)

This is a long’un so git yerself a cuppa Joe ‘fore readin’ it!

(I know it probably could use some editin’ but it’s been mighty bizzy here so kindly forgive any redundan-sees an’ take in what ya can, ‘kay? thanks! SO….)

This postin’ here, was inspired by THIS POST HERE:

A Story We Need: Why "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" is the Perfect Antidote to Our Time by Mary Poindexter McLaughlin:

A Story We Need

Mary is a fine poet and writer AND also a "thee-ate-her" compatriot likewise summarily sidelined by this dang blasted plandemic—as most'a ya readers here know is the case for nearly all of us non-jabbed folk in the Ahrts who opted outta the dag-nabbity "interven-shuns.”  I'm proud ta know her (thank heavens fer Substack y'all an' gratitude ta another talented pal Tonika from Visceral Adventure fer introducin' us virtue-ly!) and it goes without sayin' that we ahrtsy folks inspire each other no end.  

So with all that in mind, go read Mary's piece above (check out the other nifty stuff on her awesome Stack too!) AND…next, do LISTEN UP up to what I'm a' saying here—

GO BUY OLD MOVIES!  NOW!
(an' that's an order private!)

As ta getting' inta the weeds of it all, I don't mean just ANY old movies (nope, I ain't sayin' go out an' git yer own copy've "Smokey & The Bandit" or the likes’ve “Malibu Beach Vampires” posthaste…)  I mean THE CLASSICS an' the MAVERICKS…  I'll 'splain a bit on what n' why as I go on with some suggestions too!

So, Mary's worthy piece on the classic American film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (starring Jimmy Stewart and a HOST of other truly marvelous actors!) got me thinkin' how culture as we know it, from the end of the 20^th Century BACK, is goin' fast down the flume-y-gated log ride inta the proverbial gutter with a dose'a toxic chlorine thrown in after ta sanitize what little survives (an' to eliminate the best parts've it).

We CANNOT have this we-know-better'n-you-do Big Brotherly "CLEANSER-ING" of our hairy-tage (meanin’ the documenting of them hairy n’ hoary days too!) 

It's WRONG an' wrong-headed to boot! 

We’ll take (thank ye kindly) the romantic, the fanciful, the sappy an’ the sweet with the scandalous, the unadulterated, the cold-blooded an’ the creepy and all that’s in-between without the interference of Censorious Inc! (or “ink” either for those with one’a them red pens…).

Hollywood, which produced these flickerin’ phantasms fer us, performed puhlenty of SELF-censorin’ “cuts” not ta mention doin’ the Hays Code Hully Gully in hoppin’ around lotsa things considered “risqué” (like married couples sharin’ a bed—ha!) or blasphemous (language!), but problematic as such things were with films havin’ ta self-censor ta git distrubuted, who the heck would want MORE superfluous insensitive bone-headed post-Golden-Era non-diegetic Critically-Theorized Simonized Sannytized an’ artistically unwelcomed knife CUTS o’ the splicer piled on what besides?! Bring it ON???? Really? An’ I say this EVEN for the films not “pre-ventatively” an’ summarily pulled from the market already to mollify the monsters tryin’ to orchestrate our pasts and dash our long-established bona-fide culture against the cliff-sides.

As Orwell said, "Who Controls the Past Controls the Future"…

And thus…HOW WE FIGHT matters!

We “do-wit” by lit’rally ownin’ the productions themselves (nope, not the “means of production” — not Marx but ‘ruther the tangible hard-copy works of the mischievous Marx BROTHERS !) Got it? good!

We do so here, with a knowin’ nod ta Mr Smith's brilliant director Frank Capra, who also created a crackerjack-yet-cringe-worthy-yet-BRILLIANT- 7-Part (pro-)war series of hour-long patriotic films entitled "WHY We Fight!" (even us plucky paci-fists kin learn from it…no snobbery allowed!)  

Times have changed BUT takin’ OWNERSHIP of our history IS HOW WE FIGHT and that includes OUR history on the Big Screen!

So folks, WHY and HOW we FIGHT is a means to defending AMERICA. 

And by golly, YES we are fighting for what we smarties know is "THE" American Myth aka the American Dream, a fiction yup, but it's STILL one of OUR STORIES (one=the many) and we can and should OWN our stories WITH the myths that make them both a reality and a fiction. 

HOW we tell of ourselves, of our nation, our bravery, our failures, or our triumphs (collective and individual), THAT telling is ours to own, not “theirs” to erase!

SO….

HOW DO WE FIGHT?

YO! I'm tellin' y'all to:

Git out ta yer thrift stores n' resale shops or go online (even on EBAY yes, evil Ebay),  go to all yer used bookstores in person and online and:

BUY up the good flicks…OWN 'EM OUTRIGHT !!!!

Friends, if we do not actually OWN the good ol' movies—I soon fear—they're a’ gonna disappear!  

AND….

• If ya got time, start a club, share 'em! 

• If yer a parent, host a movie night fer a bunch'a teens (make sure the eats is tasty!).

• Or invite the kids and the parents alike!

• Or invite friends over an' gather 'round the ol' lumpy sofa ta wartch together (then chat about what y’all saw) 

• Group-up some other way if ya like—enjoy the flicks together

I know this sounds NUTZ but I wouldn't be advisin' it if I didn't think it's this kinda organic American NUTZ that's GOOD FER US! (nutritious fer our noggins too!)

NOW (Not Now-or-Later ) – Do not delay!

If ya wait too long I'm sure ya won't even be able to even find 'em used in any shape! 

Why’s this? Wull, a few years back as ya might know, "certain" Dr Seuss creations that were pulled by the publisher (because'a so-called racism, micro-aggressions… all that pseudo-woke-baloney that denied kids some great books…) got summarily BANNED from STORES and even on Ebay! In fact, one'a my favorites, Mulberry Street was included in this dastardly nastily ban.  (Side note fer all us New Yawkers: I wuz always a lil' bit disappointed to learn, as an adult, that the storied street warn't my fav-o-rite adorable Mulberry Street in NYC's Little Italy but ruther a'nuther' one in M.A…oh well…) But anywho, it's hard ta believe that even RESELLERS banned USED books…but they did, an' there ya go.  So it already happened with KIDDIE books (kiddie books! repeat it!) so don't fer a moment imagine that movies couldn't be next…. they are possibly even LESS protected!

Recently SCAmazon an' Pow-Walls an' some other deluded be-wokened book stores edited their shelves and stopped carryin' certain "tainted" titles.  Indeed, many such bookstores (includin' my FORMER favorite USED book store in NYC, The Strand) would NOT even carry RFK Jr's "The Real Anthony Fauci"—not even ONLINE; you couldn't even ORDER the thing.   GUESS who stopped goin' ta The Strand? Yup! GUESS who called 'em up 3x on diff'rent occasions to try to ORDER "The Real Anthony Fauci" (creatin' intererest…) an' was told NIX?  Yup, you guessed it, yerz truly. Damn.

SO… if bannin' books is NO LONGER just a dark piece've shameful American His-Story…. (Nazi his-story too!), then films / flicks are even easier to disappear.

FILM BANNIN’

Above a still from the famously banned “Song of the South”—yup, white kids and black kids sharing stories and friendships TOGETHER and warmly surrounding the BEST Story Teller ever, the kindest most sensible feller in the entire film (more so than the white folks!)… yup, ya wanna ban that one sure…

The bannin' of some films ALREADY (eg. "Song of the South"—an’ don't git me started on that one as the supposedly racist character portrayed by James Baskett who won an OSCAR for his stellar performance is full-out the finest an’ most sensitively drawn character in the entire film—anyone'd think he's the only SANE one in the house an' a wonderful “father figure” too! An' now the whole thing’s banned… …Talk about bein' mis-represented an' hist'ry erased! an’ dang, it’s black history too!) but anywayz, the bannin' of this an' MANY other films (y’all know Gone With the Wind is bein’ hit with that same “gust” o’ hot foul breeze) has sounded a death knell among "collectors" fer some time. 

Already old cartoons have Debbie-Downer trigger warnin's on the viddeeyo cases or via inter-titles an' with the mid-century animations of Diz-Knee, ya git some pre-show recorded speech-i-fryin' by the ever-borin' Leonard Malted Milquetoast MilkShake…i.e. Maltin) which'll deflate yer enjoyment of whatever comes next like a gallon bag’ve-ice chips dumped onta the pants of the frisky fellers in the audience of a burlesque show. FOLKS… even if something IS racist or offensive, ya don't BAN history fergawdsakes—ya STUDY IT (dolts!!!!)  Ya talk about it! Erasure IS a crime! So…

TODAY, even if ya ain't a collector, even if ya'll trusted the "coda" / refrain fer all obscure films which is not ta worry cuz "it's online…"— times've changed and WHAT YA DON'T OWN MAY DISAPPEAR soon!

Stuff’s even pulled from the WayBaaaaack machine… to the NeverWuz so my take is:

IF IT CELEBRATES THE GOOD "OL" USA it'll be GONE TOMORRA IF NOT (ALREADY) TODAY!

Great flicks—'specially the patriotic ones!—may be hard ta come by!  It's considered (ha!) UN-Amerikan to celebrate any'thin' patriotic or that lends dignity to our nation (now a "nay, shun").  Why during the lockdowns I 'member seein' a NY Slimes nooz interview with one hoppin'-mad lady cuz her neighbor DARED put a LARGE American Flag on his lawn on July 4^th, an' this "sensy-tive" lady found it racist and offensive (an' imply'in of Orange Man Bad as if the comb-over dude = patriotism).  True (awful) story!

We need neighbors like her like an airplane needs mudflaps! But who gits prime-time an' front page space in the MSM?  THESE sensitized whiney America-bashin’ fools DO!

What gits swept inta the patriotic red-white-an’-blue trash can? Good Ol’ America—includin’ on film! An’ I ain’t whistlin’ Dixie (ha! ) or tappin’ out Yankee Doodle like my triple-threat idol Jimmy Cagney here in sayin’ it either! First they debase it, then they demean it, an’ then they go POOF!

LIKE “MAGIK,” IT JUST WON'T BE THERE…

Given that SO MUCH is in digital format, it only takes a moment to DELETE something, or to WAY BACK it into OBLIVION and BEYOND….  One Click an’ gone!

Collect such films like blessin’s—cherish ‘n keep ‘em like ya wuz married to ‘em!

Be’KUZ as I said, countin' on downloading this stuff when ya get 'round to it won't cut the mustard any more given the rapid fast art of sleight of hand digi-tale DELETION.

In a pinch if ya act NOW mebbe you can start downloading the good stuff an' burn some DeeVeeDeeze (sssh, they'ze just for yer own home viewin' an' NOT fer profit…) or put together a special drive dedicated to GOOD OLD FLICKS.  Ye can' put it aside fer safe keepin' even…but I still wouldn’t delay if that’s yer plan….

Honestly, EVEN PURCHASIN' FLICKS MAY BE ON AN EGG TIMER NOW….

The sands are siftin’ down down down…

Let's not fergit that "THEY" (them Evil Weenies!) can cut us off from the WHOLE danged inner'net if this social credit malarkey happens, so while the folks on the likes've the newest in-tar-nation of Lil' St James EYE-Land kin' download what-so-ever they please (likely raunchy stuff but the ideas is theyze privvy-ledged!), us normies may be limited to downloadin' The Woman King (but NOT The African Queen which'll be banned on name alone—ha!)

Why I hear they may throttle the innertubes anyway for everyone, not just fer those've us that speak out.  And I mean EVERYONE (even in the blue states!) cuz, ya know inducin' trauma (no internet, oh noooooo!) is the way to keep folks skeered….

So sure, if there's a full out EMP (to “benny-fit” Mister Global & friends) and all is fried, we'll could all be outta luck with anything that needs a "device" (i.e. an ape-lie-ants!) to play it or show it.  BUT (but but) they say that if it's just a power crash (or many’ve ‘em to keep us on our toesies!) an' not a whopper EMP on the menu, then at least if you own some blu-rays or dvd's all you'll need is some cheap player (many sell cheap now-a-daze at resale shops…) and any old (post yr 2000) teevee or monitor to show the things—an’ enjoy ‘em—an’ keep that good ol’ campfire flame burnin’ bright!

At least if ya own 'em, ya own 'em.

YER MOVIES SHOULD BE SAFE WITH YA EVEN IF THEY COME FER YER GUNS & GOODIE BAGS…

Thinkin' dysto-peon-ly, IF the Horrible WHO Treaty gets signed (so everyone'll be forced ta have a digital health ID which means bein' spied on 24/7) and IF (per lawless laws on them books…) our gawd-fersakin' gubbamint "in times of emergency" comes down ta confiscate our STUFF—I DO THINK they'd take guns first, food next, supplies (paper goods, bandaids, etc) after that… and (at least inititally) not bother with the books n' viddeyos. 

SURE, that "could" happen if Ray Bradbury gets the last "CRY-not-laugh" and the predictions of Fahrenheit 451 become a reality… I say this not in jest too… (tho' I still think viddeyo's ain't gonna be first…)

I do scratch my head given book BURNIN's seem to have no small connection with the recent scrib-a-tory-rape of the fictional werks of both Dahl an' Flemming…SO this COULD happen… but again, I DO think ownin' movies (AND BOOKS too!) buys us time and is a SAFER BET for the moment. 

Time bought means TIME to share with our children (or grandchildren for those in that position…) these important themes an' messages, time to share with friends (who might not've been movie fans formerly), time to gather TOGETHER and bond over these important tales, however fictional or true, of great men, great women, gutsy undertakings and American pride!

Above, a still from the 1961 episode of the Twilight Zone, “The Obsolete Man” which (this site details) “envisioned the prosecution of a librarian for being obsolete in a totalitarian state of the future.  “Since there are no more books, Mr. Wordsworth, there are no more libraries, and, of course, it follows that there is very little call for the services of a librarian,” he is told. TELLINGLY, after expounding that ministers of religion are similarly seen by the state to have no function given that God has been “disproved,”* the Chancellor in the legal case goes on to tell Wordsworth the following (over the librarian’s interjected objections):

You are obsolete, Mr. Wordsworth. . .  You have no function, Mr. Wordsworth. You're an anachronism, like a ghost from another time.... a crawling insect.  An ugly, misformed, little creature, that has no purpose here, no meaning! . . .You're a librarian, Mr. Wordsworth. You're a dealer in books and two-cent finds and pamphlets in closed stacks in the musty insides of a language factory that spews meaningless words on an assembly line. WORDS, Mr. WORDSworth. That have no substance, no dimension, like air, like the wind. Like a vacuum, that you make believe have an existence, by scribbling index numbers on little cards. . . .Delusions, Mr. Wordsworth, DELUSIONS!! That you inject into your veins with printer's ink, the narcotics you call literature: The Bible, poetry, essays, all kinds, all of it are opiate to make you think you have a strength, when you have no strength at all!!! You are nothing, but spindly limbs and a dream, and The State has no use for your kind!!!! 

*of course Rod Serling was ever-prescient and it’ll be NO SURPRISE to any of us “thinkerz” that with the erasure of books AND films also comes the erasure of FAITH / GOD / RELIGION…

Lordy I hope it will not come ta them actually torchin' houses for ownin' contraband books OR viddeyos--but even if none'a this happens an' MIRACUOULSY America starts to rebuild, prosper, no longer have to depend on Chyyyyna…then, my fella readers, 'm STILL SURE as heck no-buddy's gonna say, hey! PRIORITIES!!!!  let's FIRST dig up a lotta old Frank Capra  / John Ford / William Wyler / Billy Wilder / Orson Welles films and reprint 'em pronto. Really.

REALLY. 

The stuff that American DREAMS were MADE OF—will not be A1-top-priority IF we DO get to rebuild our blessed nation back from the ashes. 

REGARDING the LADIES…

OH and re. the above-mentioned male directors, I'm mighty sorry indeed ta leave out the laydees on that mini-list but few women made major classic films back in the day. Natch, I know 'bout Dorothy Arzner, Ida Lupino (LOVE her actin' too!), an' others … not ta mention Germaine Dulac 'er Maya Deren—but these latter ladies (however talented—they WUZ) didn't helm the Hollywood (vs Hollyweird…) hits of the time, of the Golden Era—not that they couldn't a dunnit given the opportunities (they could've sure!) but things warn't confectioned thatta way so this is why I'm sing'lin' out the men folks’ flicks a-priori.  Got it? GOOD!

I'll ADD (though) that many of the great women of Hollywood (to be specific to our America) were indeed behind the scenes (as writers, editors, designers, etc) OR as actresses!  An' ta harken back to Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Jean Arthur is BRILLIANT in her role there… Bein' (among other things, ha!) an actor-ess mee-self, I cannot help but point out that fact that while many folks didn't know who the heck directed this or that "Big Picture," they more 'n often came ta the the-ate-erz to see their favorite actors & actresses!  Hepburn! Davis! Stanwyck! Garland! an' dancers too! Eleanor Powell & Ann Miller & Cyd Charisse (ta name a couple personal favorites!).  So the ladies DO play a big role in shaping The American Story / The American Dream / The American Myth (to name those celebratory) on film, it’s just that MEN directed them shapes… 

SO, back ta my message….

WHY HERE? WHY NOW? WHY BUY? (an’ not wait…)

Simple Sherlocks!

a. it's VERY doable and affordable STILL and

b. it ain't gonna be doable or affordable for long!

At some point too -- given gas shortages (no delivery of goods!) AND the paucity of stuff being produced in the good ol' US of A PLUS what may be a real mess ahead (for years…) with us no longer getting' cheap DVD'ease from Chynna where they are all made ya know… cuz they're now pushin' a new-found "blame CCP for the FauxVidPlandemuck" narrative--an’ thus n’ so they may issue CCP boycotts yadayada…  and ANYWAY getting' cheap stuff from Chynna is becomin' a thing of the past already… SO given all those issues, my take is that with no more cheapo Chinese DVD production ayand upcoming delivery issues, I ain't seein' a new in-dust-try poppin' up here from the ashes to reproduce restored copies of Meet Me in St. Louis (even in viddeyo-on DEMAND format).

MAKIN’ IT !!!!

(c’mon now ya gotta crack a smile…a toothy cheesy one if ya please!!!! An yup, David’s older brother is one tee-riffic musical the-ate-’er actor too!)

Actually folks, we Americans SHOULD be making our OWN dang pressings of music and DVD-eeze & BluRays HERE in the USA anyway… Lordy, we invented the format, we don’t HAVE TO farm out the fabrication… Who knows? if ENOUGH Americans were actually BUYING UP all the classic films like hotcakes (unlikely but I can muse…), it might trigger a NEW small starter industry, an odd boutique market for classic quality films, no?—and here I’m not sayin’ bootlegs, no sirree, but someone securin' the rights an' doin it RIGHT with quality pressin’s an’ fine “post art” reproductions, liner notes, the woiks!

Before mentionin' some'a them flicks themselves in a moment (I'll share a short list..), my message here is that  I think we all need to SEE how IMPORTANT this all is (nope it ain’t just oh, movies fergittabout it…) and what remains at risk—i.e. that We the People will NOT be able to OWN our own dang history (as portrayed in cinema…an important medium in spite of its ephemeral nature) unless we buy it now. (Ironic, of course…)

YES (yaz indeedy) in doing so we are buyin' concocted stories—FANCI-FULL tales!  Often the good guys depicted were really the baddies an' vice versa (or we root for the villians until the last four minutes of the movie, right ?!).  OFTEN they soft-soaped sad tales ta sanitize 'em fer public consumption (poor Jerome Kern!). BUT BUT BUT it's the MYTH of America (at it’s best)—Land of the FREE, Home of the Brave! that we an' our ancestors grew up with—the stories, the BELIEF in our country and in ALL the good that came out of it…

And I for one, don't want to see the STORIES DIE because IN THEM IS HOPE, in them are DREAMS. And in some more sly there are the important “reality checks” that allow a FREE America to continue (if some things DO get fixed!).

FICTION is POWERFUL
(and CAN BE a WEAPON against tyrants).  So…

SAVE IT (RESCUE IT!) OWN IT…

This means BOOKS (big time!), MOVIES, MUSIC –all of it! 

The young'uns are bein' told to be not just paperless but object-less. To own NOTHING and be happy. Minimalism—no attachments…

And you do not think Marie Kondo (Con-dough!) is part of the NWO? The Globalist Minimalist Wet Dream (not the messy American Dream, ha!). The NW “Order NOTHING” an’ be happy-tails? The “I own one white box and just one clean unrumpled book… it’s by….Marie Kondo.” (Right?…of course I’m right!) Sorry to be crude but, fruk Marie Kondo an’ her prison-cell cold colorless white-walled white-warshed lived-self-denial hellish fever-dream! (I’ll take pillin’ afghans an’ lots of fuzzy socks with holes in ‘em an’ old books an’ funky videyos an’ 20th C detritus ANY DAY over priss-teeny bare-bones life modeled after a museum piece solitary Donald Judd book table!…sorry Donald, I like yer stuff — in MOOSEUMS!) Add about 30 vintage cracked cawfee cups ta boot! (ha!—an’ I DO use ‘em too!)

These neo-fight'erz / fie-turds!  promoting PAPERLESS NOTHINGNESS in the ether already use their danged phones (boo hiss!) to watch MOVIES (oh the scandal of it! Lawrence of Arabia on a 4” screen really?) an' to "read" books (!) and of COURSE to listen to music.

It's all virtual, nothing tangible.  THUS nothing really matters (sing it Freddie!)…. unless you make it solid, tangible, fungible MATTER! Real!

On a “schmart” phone (no matter how spendy a phone it ‘iz), music sounds like mud, movies look like the dickens, an' books are not savored but rather are quickly swiped and skimmed with no cream on top (no pleasure and barely can be read that way).  It's all DONE ON PURPOSE with nothing REAL or sensory or enjoyable. (How’d’ya take the joy outta life, digitalize it! AI it’s way inta the cornfield, that’s how! Ain’t that why we say phonin’ it in—for phoney, ersatz in a performance?—sure iz!)

SO we semi-luddites MUST also go against the phone-it-tie-zation (phoning-it-in-itis) of the nation!

We must OWN stuff and enjoy REAL food, real books (you hold in yer hands) and MOVIES too!

Sure, maybe some danged drone can deliver the latest Part 36 of Trans-Women Superheroes on Ice with the climate-friendly-approved meal of “Maggot Supreme Taco Salad,” but I promise ya—no deranged drone is gonna drop off the likes of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" or "Since You Went Away" or "My Darling Clementine" with them Maggot Tacos or the Paramecium Pizza.  Trust me…

I make it a point to OWN our history artifacts on purpose—real hold-able non-virtual things!  

I OWN books, records (yes,the vinyl kind with the big cover art!) and DVDs—and I / we love them! 

I will NOT OWN NOTHING AND BE HAPPY 'cuz the  Schwabbian forecast of the future happens to be stoopid-ridiculous—or  "re-Dick-u-Lost" as it were… both apply! 

So again' (I'm drivin' home the idear…) buy'em up NOW, and buy the oldest stuff first. There's less of it!  

In general…WHAT DO I MEAN by the OLDEST STUFF FIRST?

BUY OLD PRE-1980 MOVIES—startin' with the silents—
Griffith, Chaplin, Keaton, Roach, and onward!

Most folks can start with famous directors like Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, Orson Wells, Howard Hawks, William Wyler, George Cuckor, James Whale, John Ford, Ernst Lubitsch, Michael Curtiz, George Stevens, Jacques Tourneur and Fritz Lang…There are SO MANY MORE! (but this is a good start!) And of course all things Kubrick, Robert Wise, Frank Tashlin… Durn, OK I'm a gonna stop now 'fore this post turns into a tome!

You can also find goodies by actor if ya like!  Heck, the John Wayne Collection (which has a metric ton've John Ford brilliance baked inta it) or the Bette Davis collection or even the Complete Bette Boop too Boot!  (if ya like yer Bettes n' Betties as I do—not ta mention that dyno-mite Fleischer bros. animation!)

So yes, there are great films made post 1980 but hear me out…you want to nab the older stuff FIRST—20^th C for sure. That's the stuff that'll go AWAY or be eliminated ‘fore the later works…

Many young'uns don't even know the earlier flicks. SOME are even NOW outta print or available in super limited editions for a select audience (oddly, some American films are only available in PAL or UK format—crazy, no?).  For some time ya could ONLY git this one in the UK…

I also think it's VITAL that as soon as kids are ready to watch films (age 8 or 9?), they’re shown at least a few well-made “fambly-friendly” musicals like… Sound of Music or The Music Man. Stuff that shows some hope for humanity! Frankly, I cain’t much “stomach” new DissNay—but older Disney animation like in Bambi and even Snow White (spooky ‘er sad stuff aside…) is actually beautiful. But the idear is not to show kids rank sin-o-matic “garbiage” but feed ‘em good acting! good stories! High production values! Kids are STARVED of this nourishin’ film history now-a-daze.

My younger daughter (all of 15) has some friends that LITERALLY do not even know the original Wizard of Oz (some have heard of it but never saw it!!!.) let alone classics like Easter Parade or Citizen Kane, or West Side Story (the Robert Wise version, natch) or EVEN such "chestnuts" as Gone With The Wind which I think should be near-mandatory viewin' ! How is it they’ve seen super scary horror films but not James Whale’s extraordinary Frankenstein which is like poetry? (as is anything performed by the GREAT Lon Chaney…)  To me, seeing GREAT American films is ESSENTIAL education—no less important than readin' Little Women or Tom Sawyer!  (Some've these kids—HOMESCHOOLERS I need ta add—have not read these classes either!  Drives me bats! an’ not the woo-han kind either!)

As Doris Day sang….

…not the new Hollyweird… the old stuff, the solid gold stuff!

‘Cause as I said, if anything IS gonna be released at all in any type of "hard copy," I'm near-certain Hollywood 'll offer just the latest stuff (n’ nonsense) or if not, the semi-recent non-intellectual Box Office Hits like Superman (part whatever..) or Black Panther (part whatever…) or perhaps the most recent action film Tom Cruise has made into a box office mega-hit.  Sure, there is more "egg-heady" stuff they'll put out every so often… but it's not gonna be juicy-rich delights like Ball of Fire or Broken Blossoms or All About Eve!

Hence, OLDIES FIRST…

This message kin be modified a tad fer any country that has it's own ripe tradition of cinema (however mythical)—France, Italy, England are just a start!  BUT fer us Yankees I'd say FIRST purchase the old Hollywood classics.  Unopened or used, as long as it ain't scratched up!.

For one, they are tee-rific and SO worth watchin' (read Mary's piece mentioned above and DO watch Mr Smith pronto even if ya sawr it years ago!).

PLUS this is American history! Myth and tellin' stories about ourselves (truth or fiction) is part of American history… Even beautiful and ugly LIES are part of our dang history.  We (here) KNOW much of our history has been fiction but heck…it's a history that I, frankly (my dear), do NOT want to end up losin' !  

As I said, MANY thrift shops carry ol' DVDs. Many used bookshops too includin' some that have an online presence. Alibris is one I like… 

KEEP THEM (share'em). SHOW THEM TO YOUR KIDDOS on the biggest screen ya got.  Obviously NOT on a phone, not on a tiny tablet fer gawds sake.

Watch an' rewatch—then DISCUSS!!!!  Compare! Contrast!  By all means bring out a few history books while yer at it if the young’uns are attendin’. For these films—OUR CINEMATIC HISTORY is part of American History—and it's a living history that needs to be kept alive, vital, and ever-appreciated!

Here's a SHORT LIST…

in no particular order…of about 50-some films with a view towards telling AMERICAN stories (American life, Americans abroad…etc), often with music!, an' includin' good patriotic ones AN' darker ones too cuz it's all part've the cloth that is made up of America…and the spirit of we Ameri-CANS! Some of my FAVORITE directors are missing… triage is hard!

The "ties" are other works by same director that also offer worthy slices’ve American life! Some clearly are for the kiddos, others far more grown-up…some dark, some light… (This was HARD ta do cuz MANY good'uns are missin' but this should be a nice starter package if you aren’t already collectin’!)

Mr Smith Goes to Washington (tied with) It's a Wonderful Life
Miracle on 34th Street
The Best Years of our Lives (tied with) Jezebel
Since You Went Away
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Meet Me in St. Louis
Gone With the Wind
My Darling Clementine (tied with) Stagecoach AND The Grapes of Wrath
Harvey
My Little Chickadee
The Great Dictator (tied with) The Gold Rush
Casablanca
Birth of a Nation (tied with) Broken Blossoms
Angels with Dirty Faces
Citizen Kane (tied with) Touch of Evil
Duck Soup (tied with) Going My Way
42nd Street
On the Town (tied with) 7 Brides for 7 Brothers AND Pajama Game
Destry Rides Again
Annie Get Your Gun (tied with) Bye Bye Birdie
Show Boat (ALL versions!)
Sullivan's Travels (tied with) Christmas in July
1776 (the 1972 version)
West Side Story
White Christmas
Mr Skeffington 
Easter Parade
Holiday Inn
Little Caesar 
The Music Man
Advice & Consent
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (tied with) Guess Who's Coming to Dinner AND Judgment at Nuremberg (which also dabbled in myth like his Inherit the Wind)
Oklahoma
The Philadelphia Story (tied with the timely) Gaslight AND Born Yesterday
High Noon
The Producers
Wonderful Town
Giant (tied with) Rebel Without a Cause
The Manchurian Candidate
Dr Strangelove (tied with) 2001: A Space Odyssey
Network
Day of the Locusts (tied with) Midnight Cowboy
The Philadelphia Story (tied with) Adams Rib AND Gaslight
His Girl Friday (tied with) Bringing Up Baby
Sunset Boulevard (tied with) Some Like it Hot
The Maltese Falcon
Nashville (tied with) Mash
The Godfather (tied with) Apocalypse Now AND One from the Heart
Rocky
Chinatown
Rear Window
The Wizard of Oz

FEEL FREE to add yer own in the COMM-MINTS section!

Our nation and its history is being auctioned away to the highest bidder —goin' goin' gone! BUT we with shallow pockets can BUY BACK a piece of it—by grabbin' up American movies, the classics!

For the younger generation, if they ain't been raised to see stuff in black an' white or if they're only used to NEWER BIGGER BETTER stuff with special effects, as they used ta say, Try It You'll Like It! (we sure do here at Chez Daisy!)

Oh and though I only mention DVDs, it's only cuz I can report that I've not had much luck with old VHS tapes. Even those in pristine shape all went wonky and started getting' stuck in machines…SIGH.  If ya have better luck with 'em more power to ya'll!

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND—FOREIGN SHORES TO EXPLORE!

If ya got pennies ta spare after collectin' American classics OR if ya hail from somewhere other than the US of A, by all means go ahead and buy the internationl cinema wonders of WHATEVER nation you or yer fambly's from – thinkin' of Autant-Lara, Luis Bunuel, Federico Fellini, Yasujiro Ozu, Michael Powell, Andrei Tarkovsky, Satyajit Ray an' a personal fave'o-mine Jerzy Skolimowski…(there's room fer expats too! Joseph Losey, Richard Lester…)  I'm name droppin' here fer speed but if these names come up in yer browsin' slow down—check out the offerin's!

The powers that BE ain't gonna produce anything physical now that they're all about things virtual. This may change—we may be ABLE to turn this back.  I sure hope so!

But it's important to recognize that our past is deeply physical.  Something we can HOLD and hold ONTO! 

Even if the thing is reproduced using digital means, having something you can hold in your hand MEANS something to us human beans.  There's a cover with "art" or a photo (the old posters are INCREDIBLE art in and of themselves!), there's a set of credits to peruse, there's a way of linin' up these titles on a shelf so you can SEE a very real collection!

SEEKING OUT REAL LIVE PROJECTED FILM EXPERIENCES

Watchin' old movies on a teevee (or homescreen) SOITENLY ain't the same as goin' to the movies with a livin' breathin' laughin' cryin' public—in the magical cocoon of a real the-ate-her (which is the BEST way ta see the goods!) but it's SOMETHING—and that something IS important. All of us sitting together in a darkened room whether it's yer living room or a friend's basement or just yer borin' home office (dim them lights though!). Folks together having the same experience in real time, enthralin' excitin' maudlin' silly dramatic movin' breath-takin' spicy…and MORE. That too is part of being HUMAN so movies reinforce something very important—the sharin' of stories TOGETHER!

We cain't all have actual movie projectors ourselves but some do!

Or if they do in your town ‘er city, GO! If you can start something locally, mebbe at the library even? mebbe at a coffee shop? DO IT!

AND…if ya do see they're showin the good stuff—head fer the movie palace (or screenin' room) an' bring the kids too! (assumin' age-appropriate subject matter). 

Back in my former "true" home 've NYC I an' my fam often went ta see real-film screenin's all the time!  Denny Daniel /Museum of Interesting Things and Tommy Stathes of "Cartoon Carnival" show real 16mm prints of short subjects monthly—ta give ya two clam-happy examples of the real deal!  Also if yer in the NYC area, I highly recommend Ben Model & Steve Massa's Silent Clowns film series (with MAHVELOUS simply MAHVELOUS live musical accompaniment by Ben)!   MOMA (the moo-seum) also has many great real-film screenin's includin' silents with accompaniment.  GO!

BACK TO MARY…
(which is also a nice song by George M. Cohan, featured in Yankee Doodle Dandy! )

So back ta Mary and this perceptive an’ important post'a hers.

The director of Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Frank Capra (who is one of the BEST directors ever imo!—he does so with feeling, finesse, and a true LOVE for great ensemble acting!) is, as many 've ya likely know, is also the director of It's a Wonderful Life (another tee-riffic classic to definitely OWN per my list!) 

Capra made a very patriotic series of WWII movies, previously mentioned, called Why We Fight, as mentioned above.  Though not his typical work, these too are worth watching (an’ discussin’ of course).  This is SO even though we "truther folks" know that much of what we "learned" about American History is BUNK! (from the Paperclip-free version of WWII fed to us like so much pablum to learnin' how all our wars were really banker bonanzas… to the now ignoble scam that resulted in the creepy United Nations. So, yes, we gotta LOT to learn and relearn includin' that much of our history IS somewhat invented bull-oney but that history IS also Hollywood… and learnin’ of our own inventions… ain’t bad!

Knowing all we do NOW does NOT undermine the importance of these movies one bit because THE STORY OF AMERICA is a BEAUTIFUL MYTH and HOLLYWOOD told that story OVER AND OVER…brilliantly!  And the myth—WAS lived! For generations!

In fact, that myth that was America was LIVED by many of us! 

How many here have family rags-to-riches success stories?  How many overcame discrimination?  How many married happy and lived good lives in the US of A?  MANY MANY….

Nearly none of these Americans knew about the Mister Globals behind the scenes stirrin' the Evil Soup Pot an' having illuminati Sausage Parties.  

Knowing the truth does not negate REAL AMERICAN LIVES LIVED (under the awning of myth) nor does it besmirch the fictional image of the America that rests in our hearts but rather—I'd venture that what we IMAGINED was (in part) true (even when it wasn't “quite”).

The MYTH that was a free America, a be-who-you-want-to-be-America…. could yet and still be made far more real if we all share the same stories—the good'uns!   

And Mr Smith Goes to Washington is one such-like and indeed a GOOD ‘un—indeed a GREAT story for our times! The values of keeping one’s convictions, one’s faith in humanity!, one’s faith in OTHERS, even in the dang Boy Scouts!, in truth-seeking, in trust, in hard work in spite of exhaustion, in redemption — and in friendship! SO many meaningful messages there and a great example set, one to emulate!

May we all be blessed with representatives as brave and as optimistic as Jimmy Stewart's Mr. Smith!

Not ta state the obvious…DO see Mr Smith Goes to Washington—there ain't no better time than now!

Last notes…

I hereby share some "com-mints" I made in response to Mary's important postin' about Mr Smith Goes to Washington. Since she seemed ta like 'em, here ya go too in case helpful:

Landsakes this is a good piece here and it speaks ta me true and clear.

One'a my favorite films too--and indeed SO timely--we Moses's wartched it last year as films like this are ESSENTIAL remedies to the plandemic down-on-America blues. They shine in SPITE of what we know--of what Capra knew (quite a lot Ill bet!). Brilliant ensemble actin' aside (THAT alone has me grinnin' like a droolin' fool jack-o-lantern cuz it's THAT good and eat-able to wartch!). But as ya know Mary, you kin have a gimlet eye for the truth, see the ugly underbelly (the value of Dr. Strangelove or Manchurian Candidate or Network) AND YET... yet LOVE what is also an equally prevailing truth--that "dang I'm'a gonna do it" American Spirit, the belief that humans DO have good in 'em even if they have to bring it up from the lost corners of Scrooge-like amnesia (Paine...i.e pain), and that against all odds--the UNDERDOG can WIN.

One other thing I like 'bout Smith--is that it's NOT the career experts (ex-spurts! git yer ex-spurts! trust the ex-spurts...) that SAVE US. It's the folks comin' from left field--from WAYyyyyy outta their wheelhouse who have NOT been pre-cannibalized and indoctrinated by the system; it's these unpolished outliers that really become our heroes--voir Smith, a rube in short pants, green, stammerin', hopeful and able to think outta the box cuz he ain't been in it yet! HONEST patriotic Boy Scout leaders may indeed make better polly-tisch-ins than those who spent their whole dang lives steepin' in citified politi-cull swamp water. Is this not why SO many non-doctors make up some of the best / wisest medical voices and newly minted journalists speakin' out against the jabs and the mandates an' all?

In a way we are ALL Smiths and village smithies! poundin' out our thoughts, usin' Substack as our bellows, makin' new tools cuz the old ones rusted out and the known ones wouldn't recognize most've us. (An' thank ya so kindly Mary for includin' me among the alt. "journalists"--it's an honor! You're in there too!--theater folks denied the boards, pickin' up pencils!) While there are some right-fielders who were well-steeped experts but left the toxic brew (Yeadon, Zelenko, McCullough, Kory, etc) here, I'm thinkin' of all the left-fielders, not unlike Smith, who brought fresh-faced non-medical insight to the fore and heretofore untapped skills into their writin' and speakin' making them FAR better voices in journalism AND in health info perspective than all "them expurts" together!

To name just a few well-knowners--randomly listed here...there's Steve Kirsch (invented the optical mouse!), there's Naomi Wolf (who majored in poetry and worked on speeches for the Clinton admin), there's Ed Dowd (ex-banker and financial numbers guy), ya got Amazing Polly (a brilliant info detective if ever there was), there's Mark Crispin Miller (a "banned" media studies professor), Mel K (a former film actress), there's RFK Jr (environmental lawyer) and Katherine Watt (a legal /para-legal scholar--and another citizen detective), Sascha Latypova (medical researcher and fine art painter) and then there's REALLY left fielders like Stew Peters who was a bounty hunter and rap artist BEFORE he found his voice and created his show. I mean DANG (whether you like the guy or not--he's had BRILLIANT shows and has done amazin' interviews). This is just the tip of an iceberg but sayin' there that some of the finest insights and help come from newbies to the lion's den--SMITHS! The risks are similar too--gettin' banned, censored, struck down, lied about... We too write as if this is OUR filibuster!

And also, today the woke-i-fried pundits are sayin' that bein' resilient is "racist" not because it "is" but to take us down--to take America down by convincin' folks that they are too fragile, too weak, too lame to fight--in the name of being brittle, breakable, easily destroyed. It's SO blatant, though some folks are too bone-headed ta see it. But the American spirit--as embodied in Mr Smith--IS all about bein' resilient. He keeps comin' back like an EverReady Bunny! Like a Timex (takes a lickin' keeps on tickin'!) That's yet another reason to love this film--it IS about resilience and those who get on board to prop it up (like Saunders).

It's no coincidence that OLD Hollywood ('fore it was Hollyweird) is bein' erased just like much of America's history (warts and all). Movies that seem too gung-ho American run counter to the Soros "bring it down" narrative. Instead they bring on dystopian hopeless AI bullcrap (mostly at least). So yup, some think this WONDERFUL movie is cornball but why? Are they bein' groomed (literally) to dismiss what I surely would call a masterpiece as uncool? Dated? What the heck is wrong with Norman Rockwell? (I love that stuff, genuinely! I can love Dali....and Rockwell, Capra AND Kubrick). Git them arbitrary arbi-turds 'a taste outta the room. This movie is GREAT. And ya know what....another one of my FAVORITE films is even more cornball flag-wavin' and PURE JOY. It's Yankee Doodle Dandy--and though I like the first 3/4's the best (and know full well they left out Cohan's first wife entirely!), I STILL get teary-eyed wartchin' a (playin' old) Jimmy Cagney tap his big-hearted way up the White House stairs to meet FDR. (FDR, philanderer, socialist, gold stealer... yup, that guy...) And still the American Dream flies high like the flags. Because the TRUTH of the American Spirit--just like your son and you finding this anew in different ways Mary--IS about American Dreams and holdin' 'em high there in spite of what we know, of what Smith knew.

And I loved the story about yer friend there... And THIS is why we need our BRAINS to navigate--GPS (digital) will not save ya. May we ALL catch our flights--every kind--includin' the soarin' ones we thought we lost. Callin' all the Mr Smith among us--complimentary soap boxes available in Left Field--take one while ya can!

OKay folks, live the American Dream—and do BUY OLD MOVIES!!!

And by all means, if ya can, WHEN ya can, GO TO THE MOVIES too!

cinematically yerz an’ a collector at heart!,
Daisy

Now ya kin buy me a cuppa java if ya like, alwayz grateful fer y’all!
https://ko-fi.com/daisymoses

An here’z ta all ya movie collectors! (with some fine tunes too!)