Youtube, or T-34, or Russian Movies In General Or Something

[aggienaut]

   So Pandora finally figured out how to block my VPN a bit ago, and spotify quickly showed itself to be so awful at predicting music I might like that about 90% of its choices were awful, and then Ii discovered that youtube does a pretty good auto-mix predicting music I might like. Well that was good for awhile and I actually discovered a fair number of songs I liked, but what it's not good at is anticipating when I've heard a song I like _too_ much and now I'm starting to become a bit frustrated with youtube always serving me up the exact same selection.

   But the other consequence of this is that I've been logging into youtube on the daily, primarily for the music, but its always optimistically suggesting other things. So I rediscovered my love of Stephen Colbert, and then tentatively branched out to other stand up hosts: I found Jimmy Kimmel bareable, Jimmy Fallon can get a chuckle if one is really bored but somehow his demeanor comes off like he's skulking in a corner like a chastised dog, and this guy Seth Myers, is it just me or is he like 0% funny? He's like a guy reading the news in a desperate trying-too-hard tone with the occasional dead-on-arrival joke punctuated by a "that was funny wasn't it??" expression. It's painful to watch.

   Anyway what I came here to write about was that so I got served up this compilation of scenes from a movie:

   And I felt quite compelled to watch the movie. It turns out it's not easy being a pirate any more. It took me quite I bit of fiddling with torrents and wading into dodgy website before I finally managed to get the movie, T-34, and even then it didn't have subtitles but surprisingly downloading and integrating subtitles only took 5 min or less.
   I didn't really have high hopes, but late Saturday night I was finally in the mood to lean back, pour myself a glass of mead, and watch a mindless shoot em up movie. I was actually pleasantly surprised. Don't get me wrong, it's not exactly deep and meaningful with subtle analogies future generations will analyze or inspiring character development arcs, but as a shoot em up movie it delivers. It's heavy on the sort of CGI you see in the above video but I thought that was well done as far as CGI goes. And wheras most shoot em ups are people running around with guns or random explosions, it was kind of fun to see a shoot em up that was specifically tanks doing their tank thing. There was even a surprising twist about a third of the way through which caught me totally by surprise because I wasn't expecting any twists.
   Its also hilariously propagandistic. It's clearly made by and for a Russian audience and the "rah rah rah Russia is the best!" component is a bit eyeroll and giggle worthy. The movie would have you believe the Germans were absolutely shaking in their boots at the utter prowess of all Russian tankers. For a context not given in the movie: the Russian T-34 was, I believe, an inferior tank to the German tanks it was facing though it was pretty good for its "price point" and Russia was able to churn out a bazillion of them, stuff them with scarcely trained farm boys and "Zerg rush" the Germans with them. So to have one T-34 destroying joblots of panthers is... very optimistic ;)
   I took a Russian Film class back in college and one thing I had enjoyed actually was the way propagandistic themes were woven into the films, so for me personally it had the added layer of comparing the specific thrusts of its propaganda with old classics of the Soviet era such as Chapaev and The Cranes are Flying.
   But all that being said, the jingoism wasn't sickeningly saccharin just kinda laughable, and we can all get behind nazis getting what they deserve anyway, so I enjoyed the movie and felt in a silly good mood by the end. So can recommend as far as shoot em up war movies go. A-


   As long as I'm on about Russian movies, my favorite soviet classic is The Reds and the Whites (the director actually got in real hot water for portraying the Whites (anticommunists) too humanely and the war not as a heroic affair but as awful and brutal); and favorite more recent film is Prisoner of the Mountains which takes place during the (first) Chechen war in 1996.

Comments

[nick-101.livejournal.com]

Colbert is definitely #1 for me.

[mexpatriot.livejournal.com]

You might like Tangerines.

Tangerines (Georgian: მანდარინები Mandarinebi, Estonian: Mandariinid) is a 2013 Estonian-Georgian film directed, produced and written by Zaza Urushadze. Set during the 1992–1993 War in Abkhazia, the film is a morality tale addressing issues of conflict, reconciliation and pacifism.[3][4] It was filmed in Guria, Georgia.

It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards[5][6] and was among the five nominated films at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.[7]

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oh that does actually sound really good I'll have to look for it!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Update, have successfully downloaded it, looking forward to watching! (:

[mexpatriot.livejournal.com]

Hope you enjoy.

I watched Prisoner of the Mountains. That was good! Thanks!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Watched Tangerines finally, after lots of subtitle problems. Will post a review entry. It reminds me a great deal of two similar enemies-stuck-together-in-the-combat-zone movies, No Man's Land in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Into the White in Norway during WWII. Comparatively, Tangerines had less action but I enjoyed the scenery.

[mexpatriot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the scenery is very pretty. I saved this image from the film:



I feel like I've seen these other two, but I just downloaded them to make sure. I will watch them again anyway. :)

[lenine2.livejournal.com]

I was a big Colbert fan on The Daily Show, then a faithful viewer of The Colbert Report. When he took over the Late Show I was turned off by the band, of all things. And the screaming audience. John Baptiste seemed to be pandering to the audience, playing that stupid air-keyboard as if it required talent of any kind.

Then the shut-down, and Colbert taping at home, and Baptiste no longer had an audience, and actually spoke to Colbert, and I could hear him play the piano. Wow! He is fabulous, and endearing. He seems like a music dork who isn't quite used to being a personality. I got hooked on Colbert again. I feel that his show is much better without an audience.

I caught Jimmy Fallon a few times while he was taping at home, and then tuned in just to see his house. I lost interest when he moved back into the studio.

And that's all there is to know about my late night feelings!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'd only tuned in once Colbert was already at home so I never got the studio audence thing. In general I hate laugh tracks and/or live studio audiences. I don't need to be told something is funny. It's cute on the Colbert show though how you sometimes hear his wife or producer laughing at a joke.

I wonder if the problem with Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers is the opposite, that they've totally failed to adapt to not being in front of a studio audience.

But even with Colbert I usually get bored with the interviewss and never tune in for the live music act because why would I do that when there's plenty of music available on youtube. So being able to catch _just_ the monologue (and quarantinewhile) is ideal.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

i gave up on Pandora very quickly. The first time I tired to use it I punched in that I liked the Beatles and it threw Madonna at me so I was all "well, fuck you, Pandora."

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

ahahaha :X

[aerodrome1.livejournal.com]

'The Red & the White" was brilliant.

Have you seen the film version of "The Master and Margarita"? YouTube should have it, albeit in 10 minute clips.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I have not, is it good??

[aerodrome1.livejournal.com]

Yes. The novel is brilliant, and the film is very well done.