HE: “One wonders if the all-white** Oppenheimer (Universal, 7,21) will be excluded according to the Oscars’ about-to-take-effect diversity/inclusion rules. They’ll probably be okay given the last two rules, but they definitely don’t pass the first set of rules with that mostly all-Anglo cast.”

Friendo: “I’m sure Oppenheimer will slip through because nothing won’t pass from a major studio.”

HE: “Major studio releases can sidestep the diversity/representation standards because of their sizable economic footprint?”

** As we all know, the term “all-white” generally refers to a seeming absence of African Americans, at least in a visually prominent sense. Technically speaking Oppenheimer‘s cast includes Skyler Pierce and a trio of Middle-Eastern cast members — the Oscar-winning Rami Malek (son of Egyptian parents), Aamir Yusuf and Yaser Al-Nyrabeah.

Six months hence “Anyone Who Had A Heart” will be 60 years old. Composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Dionne Warwick recorded the melancholy love song in one take at Manhattan’s Bell Sound Studios (237 West 54th Street). The session happened a week or two before JFK’s murder. And then along came Elvis Costello‘s collaboration with Bacharach in the late ’90s, and I’m sorry but his version of “Anyone Who Had A Heart” just blew Warwick’s away.

HE’s hand-held iPhone footage, captured around 10:15 pm on a Saturday evening (1.23.16) at Park City’s Eccles Theatre — the Sundance Film Festival launch of Kenneth Lonergan‘s Manchester By The Sea.

Casey Affleck was asked by an audience member how playing Lee Chandler had affected him personally, and one of his first reactions was “that’s a good question” — which meant he was unsure about how to best answer it.

Amazon/Roadside wouldn’t open the film for another ten months (11.18.16), but when you’ve got an absolute winner nobody worries about starting too early. Everyone knows it works, and they can’t wait to share it.

Manchester opened a year before the first stirrings of the woke plague, and today, seven and one-third years later, early ’16 seems like such a tranquil or even a magical moment. We didn’t know what we had until it all began to slip away.

From a just-posted discussion between Oliver Stone and Vulture‘s Olivia Nuzzi:

This morning Kino Lorber announced a new Bluray of Mark Robson‘s The Bridges at Toko Ri (’54); ditto a forthcoming 4K Bluray of John Frankenheimer‘s The Manchurian Candidate (’62). I immediately wrote KL’s Frank Tarzi, who became a true HE hero nine years ago after releasing a boxy (1.37:1) Bluray of Delbert Mann‘s Marty, and asked him what the aspect ratios would be.

Tarzi’s reply broke my heart.

Despite a wonderfully boxy, extremely handsome version of Toko Ri having streamed on Vudu for several years, Kino Lorber’s forthcoming Bluray will be presented at the dreaded 1.85. Hearing this was like getting stabbed in the chest with a ballpoint pen. As one who greatly respected Tarzi’s decision to release that boxy Marty Bluray, I was naturally hoping that KL’s Toko Ri Bluray would be issued at 1.37 or at the very least 1.66. Aaagghh!

The Manchurian Candidate was mastered at 1.66 for many years, and then, for no reason whatsoever, was slightly cleavered down to 1.75:1 by Criterion when they issued their Bluray in late 2015.

Tarzi: “KL’s Bridges at Toko Ri, The Manchurian Candidate, 12 Angry Men and Night of the Hunter are all presented at 1.85:1. That’s how they played in theaters. We have the needed documentations for all.

“Kino’s Marty re-release (’22) included both 1.37 and 1.85 versions.

“As far as Juggernaut is concerned, the master is the same 1.85 master we had previously released. The packaging had said 1.66, but that was a typo. It’s the same transfer but encoded at a higher bit rate and on a dual-layered BD50 disc, giving the feature 30mbps or more. So it should look better than the previous release that was on a BD25 single layered disc. We also added a TV Spot.”

HE reply: “Frank, you’ve broken my heart. 12 Angry Men was shown at 1.85 in theatres on ‘57, you say? So the Criterion guys who cropped it at 1.66 are improvising or irresponsible?

“Manchurian began its home video life with a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Then Criterion whacked it down to 1.75. Now Kino has chopped it down further to 1.85. Terrific.

“Toko Ri is drop-dead beautiful at 1.37. You’ve decided to eliminate…what, 30% or 35% of that 1.37 image?

“What can I say, Frank? I thought you were a bro, at least as far as that 1.37 Marty Bluray was concerned. Now, it appears, you’ve gone over to the dark side. You’ve apparently been Bob Furmanek’ed.

“It really doesn’t matter what aspect ratio panicked theatrical distributors went with in 1954 or ‘57. All that matters is how good and true the film looks by today’s whatever-works standard. We can choose any aspect ratio that seems right and pleasing to our eyes, as you did with Marty.

“It is my conviction that Bob Furmanek is a sworn enemy of HE’s concept of pictorial big-screen beauty. He only cares about what distribs we’re scared of…about uncovering historical documentation that shows they were projecting with 1.85 aperture plates.

“Loyal Griggs’ Toko Ri cinematography was clearly framed or protected for 1.37. Paramount was a 1.66:1 studio in ‘54, as you know. If you had to whack it down, you could have at least held yourself to 1.66. But cropping it to 1.85 is unconscionable.”

18-month-old Sutton Wells recently encountered a professional photographer…the first of many such sessions, I’m presuming.

Early this morning a friend sent along his “top ten films of the 1960s” list, and it’s certainly a decent roster for the most part. Okay, better than decent. But he put The Guns of Navarone (’61) in his third-place slot, and that, I replied, is a definite no-go.

The first 45-50 minutes of J. Lee Thompson‘s WWII adventure thriller are terrific (the main title sequence + Dimitri Tiomkin’s score are bull’s-eye), but after the commandos reach the top of the cliff the film becomes rote and lazy and even silly.

How many Germans do they kill? Four or five hundred?

Two scenes are top-notch during the second half — (a) the S.S./gestapo interrogation scene with Anthony Quinn moaning and rolling around all over the floor and (b) the killing of Gia Scala for treachery. But the believability factor is out the window.

The more I watch this film, the more I’ve resented Anthony Quayle‘s “Roy” and his idiotic broken leg. Mission-wise Roy is a total stopper — an albatross around everyone’s neck. I don’t agree with Quinn’s assessment — “One bullet now…better for him, better for us” — but I almost do.

And the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve become sick of David Niven‘s demolition expert, who’s mainly an effete selfish weenie and a huge pain in the ass. Gregory Peck: “And what about the men on Keros?” Niven: “I don’t know the men on Keros but I do know Roy!” God, what an asshole!

A crackpot is a person whose views and philosophy are regarded as way too eccentric or fantastical to be taken seriously. A crankpot, according to Manhattan gadfly and all-around smartass Bill McCuddy, is a fellow who’s regarded as overly influenced by a skeptical sourpuss attitude about life and movies and whatever else — i.e., too Andy Rooney-ish.

Which, of course, is nowhere close to being a fair description of yours truly. For years I have claimed with a certain degree of sincerity to be a 21st Century incarnation of Klaus Kinski’s anti-Bolshevik in Dr. Zhivago — “the only free man on this train.” Okay, perhaps that’s putting it too strongly but it’s a reasonably close assessment, especially considering the general fanaticism out there.