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Ishtar
(May, 1987)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (OOP)
(Ross, 1976)
The Devils
(Russell, 1974)
The Pirates of Penzance
(Papp/Leach, 1983)
The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)
-30-
(Webb, 1959)
Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)
Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)
The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)
Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)
In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)
That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)
Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)
Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)
Brewster McCloud
(Altman, 1972)
Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Reader Submissions
1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Saint Joan
(Preminger, 1957)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
The Chalk Garden
(Neame, 1964)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
The Whisperers
(Forbes, 1967)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
The Landlord
(Ashby, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs (OOP)
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Slither
(Zieff, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Girlfriends
(Weill, 1978)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
Resurrection
(Petrie, 1980)
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Fast-Walking
(Harris, 1982)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

January 8

Bitch Slap

Waiting for Armageddon

Wonderful World

Youth in Revolt

January 15

January 22

Drool

Extraordinary Measures

The Girl on the Train

Make Him Sweat

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I'll be attending the first six days of the 2009 L.A. Film Festival this year -- Thursday, 6.18 to Tuesday, 6.23. Which means I won't be around for what could potentially be a fairly newsworthy event -- i.e, a discussion with Jon Voight just prior to a "Behind The Scenes" screening of John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy on Thursday, 6.25, at 7:30 pm at the Billy Wilder theatre.

You know what I'm going to say now, right?

If I could attend I'd damn well ask Voight about the rightie rhetoric he's been spewing about Barack Obama over the last year or so. And I'm suggesting here and now that in my absence that someone should man up, stand up and ask him to explain the facts and attitudes behind his views.

Voight obviously has a perfect Constitutional right to say whatever he wants and yes, he's a fine actor who delivered a legendary performance in Midnight Cowboy (and in several other films including Coming Home, Runaway Train, Enemy of the State and Ali), but isn't it fair in a q & a setting to respectfully question the guy about certain belligerent remarks he's made?

Remarks that Obama is a "false prophet" and that his leadership is making us a "weak nation" and that his leadership will cause the "downfall" of the country," I mean? And that stuff Voight said last summer in a Washington Times piece about Obama having "grown up with the teachings of [the] very angry [and] militant Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger" and that "we know too well that [he] will run this country in their mindset"?

Especially given the rightwing-nutter hate killings that have occured in recent weeks and how guys like Frank Rich and Paul Krugman are concerned about how intemperate and questionable remarks by rightwing demagogues may be enabling the haters and fanning the flames?

If no one brings up Voight's Obama rants and Thursday's q & a focuses entirely on a movie that was made 41 years ago...well, fine. It's a film festival setting and why cause trouble, right? But if no one does there will be a huge elephant in the room. Don't you just hate those discussion-session vibes when there's something that everyone wants to ask about and get into but nobody brings it up because they don't want to seem impolite or ungracious?

Cinevegas Champs<< previous | next >>"Start The Movie!"

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 15, 2009 at 9:53 AM

comment #1

OtownRog says ...

He did a similar celebratory Q & A here in Orlando in April. His politics never came up. He had loads of anecdotes about Midnight Cowboy and was very generous with the fans, who weren't there to mock him for An American Carol or why Angelina has issues with him or his wingnut tendencies.
Which is another way of saying, You want to challenge him on his politics (And why not?), maybe you should alter your plans to be the one to do it. Do it yourself or don't suggest, from safely on the sidelines, that somebody else do it.

Posted by OtownRog at June 15, 2009 11:10 AM

comment #2

JaySmack says ...

Wow Otown you sure are hyper-defensive about old Jon. You're going to tell people what they can or cannot suggest? Sounds almost like you want to say, "Do it yourself or don't suggest that somebody else do it while you're hiding behind a computer somewhere!!"

Look, if a guy stands up in front of a Republican gathering and calls the president a "false prophet" then why should that person not be asked about it, especially in a political climate where angry, unhinged people are looking for a permission slip to do something violent in order to express their anger that they didn't get their way?

Voight and Palin are two sides of the same stupid coin. Their kind of rhetoric is EXACTLY what led to the recent violence from rightwing nuts. Repeating the lie that it's the end of the country, we're falling into socialism -- because after all NOTHING says "dictatorship" like closing secret prisons, eliminating torture, and restoring judicial review and habeus corpus.

Voight's WAY out of line. People like him and Palin must want to see something violent happen, otherwise they wouldn't be using the most inflammatory language they can in order to incite the most reactionary, least self-disciplined, most radical elements in this society.

Posted by JaySmack at June 15, 2009 11:21 AM

comment #3

OtownRog says ...

Nothing wrong with calling Voight on everything he has said. But fans showing up at a celebratory screening of Midnight C. aren't going to think that way. You want to do it, don't suggest, backbencher style, that somebody else take the baton. "Let's you and him Fight." Challenging somebody in public takes guts, as JW is well aware. Do it yourself.

Posted by OtownRog at June 15, 2009 11:25 AM

comment #4

Mark says ...

How would an opening to further express his political views "make him sweat"? he's obviously not embarrassed or shy about his beliefs. What light could you reveal to him? He is who he is, and all such questioning would serve would be to frustrate those in attendence hoping to celebrate him as the actor.

Maybe if you could do within some sort of cinematic context, like "who would Luke Martin voted for last year?"

Posted by Mark at June 15, 2009 11:26 AM

comment #5

Travis Crabtree says ...

I believe that Jane Fonda was a traitor. I think Danny Glover and Sean Penn are naive at best and borderline traitorous for hanging out with / singing the praises of tyrants like Chavez and Castro.

I'm also a very big fan of movies. I also happen to think Fonda, Penn and (to a lesser degree) Glover and excellent actors.

I've always rather prided myself on a an ability to keep politics and entertainment separate, though I know others can't. (my mother could never watch a Jane Fonda film)

It's a shame so many other people can't.

So he says a bunch of stuff that you may or may not agree with. If he's speaking at a political forum, let him have it, both barrels. Ask him the tough questions.

But it's a film festival. Let it go.

I honestly think there are people here who are so politically invested they'll never, ever be able to watch another Voight film. I envision mass DVD burnings.

Maybe he is kooky. Aren't a lot of actors, in one way or another?

Posted by Travis Crabtree at June 15, 2009 11:28 AM

comment #6

corey3rd says ...

ask him what he'd do with free time in a Bangkok hotel room

Posted by corey3rd at June 15, 2009 11:28 AM

comment #7

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Wells to Mark: "Who would Luke Martin have voted for last year?" Good one! Wells to Corey3rd: "What would he do with free time in a Bangkok hotel room?" Bad one!

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at June 15, 2009 11:29 AM

comment #8

Kristopher Tapley says ...

I have to say, I'm tempted to be the guy for you. But I hate asking questions like this because I know -- KNOW -- it'll be met with tap-dancing and repetition and nothing illuminating at all.

Posted by Kristopher Tapley at June 15, 2009 11:54 AM

comment #9

LexG says ...

He certainly still has a nice head of (obviously real) hair. How does one get to be 70ish and retain their hair on top?

My shit looks like Robert Forster by way of Mel Gibson -- that total crop-erosion shit where my hairline's okay but you can see the scalp under lights. Fucking depressing as hell.

On topic, I'm with Travis above. It's easy for me to separate art from politics, and when you start yelling at Jon Voight when he's there to talk about Midnight Cowboy, you've essentially become Dirty Harry (Big Hollywood's reigning douchebag John Nolte) and his unsavory crew: Always going out of the way to view every new Penn, Damon, Clooney, Leo film through a paranoid prism of "Oh my God evil hollywood is attacking my cornpone Christian heartland values, waaaaaaaaaah."

Just saying, if Nolte posted, "Hey, Sean Penn's in town for an anniversary screening of Fast Times, let's all go down with signs and interrupt the movie to yell about Chavez and Castro," that would be a dick move that would infuriate just about all of us. Flip side of the same coin.

Posted by LexG at June 15, 2009 12:00 PM

comment #10

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Crabtree - you certainly are naive about what it actually means to be an American, that's for sure. It's folks like you who are the real traitors - to every ideal and right we have.

Time and time again, the conservative response to dissent is to attack the dissenter's patriotism to the point of it being a laughable cliche of a knee-jerk response. No wonder these guys always have a certain William Shirer book on their shelves, because deep down that's how they want to deal with dissent.

Posted by Deathtongue_Groupie at June 15, 2009 12:16 PM

comment #11

Travis Crabtree says ...

Speaking out against the Iraq war at, for example, a rally on the D.C. mall (like Susan Sarandon) is dissent. Freedom of speech, that sort of thing.

Hanging out with NVA and / or Viet Cong soldiers on an AAA gun (that was being used to shoot down U.S. planes) and actively rooting for the success of a nation we are at war with IS, for lack of a better term, traitorous. It just is. That's not some right-wing, Sean Hannity, rabble-rousing "hate talk". It is what it is.

I love (less-recent) Jane Fonda films.

Posted by Travis Crabtree at June 15, 2009 12:23 PM

comment #12

BurmaShave says ...

LexG is speaking the truth today, in every thread.

Posted by BurmaShave at June 15, 2009 12:23 PM

comment #13

Travis Crabtree says ...

Here, here, LexG.

Posted by Travis Crabtree at June 15, 2009 12:24 PM

comment #14

Rich S. says ...

I'd love to be a fly on the wall while Jeffrey and Travis' mom watch Coming Home together.

Posted by Rich S. at June 15, 2009 12:47 PM

comment #15

Phatang! says ...

Is this really a "speak truth to power" moment, or more of a "make everybody bored and uncomfortable for no reason" situation?

Posted by Phatang! at June 15, 2009 1:37 PM

comment #16

Mark says ...

Crabtree; what's your beef w/ Chavez?

Posted by Mark at June 15, 2009 1:42 PM

comment #17

Travis Crabtree says ...

"Crabtree; what's your beef w/ Chavez?"

WHAT?!!

(not Caesar Chavez....)

And Rich S., that's just it... my mom would never be watching "Coming Home" in the first place..... in fact, years ago she walked in while I was watching it.... I was a teen and of COURSE it was the scene where Jon "Used to Be Cool But Now We Must Hate Him" Voight was going down on Jane.... she thought it was a porno.... I told her what it actually was and she told me she'd rather I be watching a porno....
true story

Posted by Travis Crabtree at June 15, 2009 2:52 PM

comment #18

Travis Crabtree says ...

By the way.... bad news for you Labelers-

Turns out the old man museum shooter is a 9/11 Truther (surprise!) who hated the Iraq War and despises "neo-cons".
(oh no! complexity!)

Posted by Travis Crabtree at June 15, 2009 3:14 PM

comment #19

Mark says ...

Huh? Hugo. You labelled someone traitorous for hanging out with Chavez. i just want to know what specifically you have against him. or do you just simply prefer your SA rulers acquiescent?

Posted by Mark at June 15, 2009 3:25 PM

comment #20

Travis Crabtree says ...

Yeah, I know.... you meant Hugo...

(btw... what do you mean by SA rulers?...... and let me know if you're one of those good guys/bad guys people who think that just because I have a problem with a thug like Chavez, that makes me a Hannity,etc,-loving Rethuglican... it'll save me the trouble of actually debating you)

My problem with Chavez? You mean other than him being an anti-free speech, anti-democratic, pseudo-Marxist, dissent-crushing, FARC-supporting asshole?

Posted by Travis Crabtree at June 15, 2009 4:11 PM

comment #21

sumo-pop says ...

He is insane. Remeber that pathetic crying rant he made about Angelina Jolie? It's amazing that girl has any mental health with that crazy deadbeat as a father.

Posted by sumo-pop at June 15, 2009 4:16 PM

comment #22

Rich S. says ...

Okay, I changed my mind, Travis. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when your mom walked in on you watching Coming Home (though I still think it would be a kick to watch her debate with Jeffrey which actor each one hated more).

Posted by Rich S. at June 15, 2009 6:51 PM

comment #23