The X Files (1998)
Netflix, original English
As I was struggling to follow another Swedish silent film (haven’t finished it yet), I decided I needed to start mixing in movies I already know I will enjoy because I have seen them dozens of times already.
Not much to say about this one that I haven’t been saying for [some number I don’t care to internalize] years. Forget “How the hell did Mulder manage to rent a SnowCat on a continent completely controlled by the world’s militaries?” and ask “Why is he not wearing a hat? Even with all that hair, he’s going to be losing body head through his head…”
I tell you what, though: after a year and a half of governments around the world suspending daily life over a virus, it feels a lot less fiction than earlier.
Old Shatterhand (1964)
ZDFNeo, original Deutsch
A Karl May story, with many of the recurring characters from the Winnetou series. Some humorous bits and nice explosions at the end, but there is a lot of sadness. A child is murdered in broad daylight with no justice, and yet another of Winnetou’s loved ones is killed when Shatterhand fails to deliver on a promise. Not a bad way to spend an evening, but in five years I won’t remember watching it.
Fantasia (1940)
Library DVD, original English
I have no actual memories of seeing this “Disney Classic” all the way through as a child, and I cannot imagine any 21st-century first-grader is capable of sitting through the whole two hours. Mr Radish barely made it (he particularly objected to the narrator). The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is ubiquitous, and the dancing hippos looked familiar, but the dinosaurs and fairies and Pegasus babies were completely new. Also–and I was surprised by this–there were frolicking demons.
Turns out it was never meant to be a standard children’s film, it was an experiment in animation, quite near to Uncle Walt’s heart, that never quite caught on.
I liked it, but I also like watching symphonic concerts on Arte, so take what you will from that.
Santa Fe Trail (1940)
Plex, original English
So I thought this would be a normal Western, but Kansas is as far west as they go because it’s actually about famous West Point graduates on their first assignment, fighting the abolitionist terrorist John Brown. I chose it for the casting: the Australian Errol Flynn as J.E.B. Stuart, the English Olivia de Havilland as the Kansas tomboy he falls in love with, and Ronald Reagan as George Custer…yes, that Custer. Brown is played by Canadian WWI vet Raymond Massey, who is in a lot of pictures I should probably see, but Johnny Cash is always going to be my favorite John Brown.
Fun facts! De Havilland was also in Fackeln im Sturm with Cash (which was a crazy sensation at the time of its airing in West Germany, it’s still on public TV here occasionally), and once played Custer’s wife in an earlier biopic.
Anyway, it’s a bit old-fashioned but it’s worth a watch.
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