'The Big Parade'

Utterly shocked to see how King Vidor portrayed war in this film. Especially for the time (released in 1925 .. seven years after World War I ended), that big battle scene is as terrifying as you'll find on the big screen.

Outside of the first five minutes of Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan I don't remember a better full-on battle scene and a more realistic vision of war. As it should be.

'Amerika'

A most bizarre novel for a number of different reasons. First and foremost, you will not find another work from Franz Kafka quite like it. More realistic, Kafka admitted to taking cues from rereading Charles Dickens in addition to his own affinity for travel writing. This is more Jack Kerouac than anything else Kafka ever published.

Then again, Kafka didn't really publish Amerika at all. It was published posthumously by his executor, Max Brod, who disobeyed instructions to burn all unpublished works.

Amerika stems from a short story, "The Stoker," which serves as the novel's first chapter. The gaps therein, never completed by Kafka, are large. The questions unanswered turn maddening. Why exactly did his uncle -- who went through all the trouble of unexpectantly taking Karl in -- simply disown him for visiting another person? What was the intentions of Mr. Pollunder and Clara, especially in the scene involving Karl and Clara alone in the room and her fiancee lounging in the next bedroom? What were Karl's experiences with Delamarche and Brunelda, how did he escape?

Admittedly, these were never completed while Kafka was alive. And, by all accounts, we were never supposed to read this story in the first place to get so upset. So, I must blame Mr. Brod.

'The Great Gatsby'

The Great American Novel.

The Great Gatsby may or may not be this. I do know that it's great, it's American and it's a novel. A beautifully written novel about America at its most glorious and its most vulnerable. The Roarin' '20s showed America at an odd time: Conspicuous consumption mixed with the self-righteousness of Prohibition and those in-between years after the Great War, before the Great Depression and a good 20 years before any able-bodied men were shipped back to Europe for another Great War.

It was a time of innovation. Ironically or not, in terms of this blog, it was pretty monumental. It was high tide for literature, the birth of film and popular recorded music was not far from being in every home as part of a mass medium.

Funny thing, friend saw what I was reading and she noted that she "hated" Daisy. I found Daisy, actually, was probably the most sympathetic character in the entire novel.

She was a product of a mysogonist culture where pretty young females were supposed to "marry up" and just enjoy the ride and ignore the other women. Tom was the real asshole, naturally. Daisy was caught in this trap that it was impossible to get out of. Maybe she was melodramatic or whatever, but she was the real victim. She's the real story here. Gatsby was only "great" because of Daisy.

'Pandora's Box'

As much as The Smiling of Madame Beudet was a groundbreaking film in terms of being made by a female director and having a feminist theme, Pandora's Box pushed its fair share of envelopes.

Let this film be a lesson to all of us. If you go around messing around with a bunch of guys, you are bound to be gutted by Jack the Ripper.

That's the lesson here: Lulu was a free-living socialite piece of ass who played every rich guy for the fool until it all caught up with her and she winds up as a prostitute. The film has everything from lesbian overtones, double crossing and Jack the Ripper gutting the main character.

Lulu was portrayed by American actress Louise Brooks, who partied, drank and philandered more than any male counterpart in film at the time. She had any number of lovers, even quite a few lesbian affairs. She was a heavy drinker since 14. Even during the filming of Pandora's Box, she frustrated director Georg Pabst by going out partying every night with her boyfriend of the time.

Brooks acted sparingly after Pandora's Box as her career failed to flourish with films with sound. Her final film was in 1938. She would die in 1985.

'The Smiling Of Madame Beudet'

This film is notable because it is considered the first feminist film. Certainly, it had to be a film directed by one of the first female directors, Germaine Dulac.

Dulac was a military brat eventually winding up in Paris living with her grandmother before the turn of the 20th century. She grew up as an artist, but eventually turned to journalism and criticism writing for the feminist publication La Française, where she later became a theater critic.

Dulac was visiting Italy before World War I when a friend of her was scheduled to be in a moving picture. Here, she learned the ins and outs of the artform and industry. She returned to France as a filmmaker and hit the ground running.

The Smiling of Madame Beudet was released in 1922 or 1923. It is just 54 minutes long. It is about a husband, who threatens to shot himself in the head to his wife. Pissed, the wife puts bullets in the chambers ready for the next time he thinks he is faking the end of his life. Unfortunately, things go all screwy.

With the unveiling of talkies, Dulac's took a bad turn and she spent the rest of her life doing movie newsreels. Dulac died in Paris in 1942. Such an important figure and not one "feminist" espousing The Feminine Mystique in a college classroom today knows her name.

'Docks Of New York' & 'The Blue Angel'

Both films were directed by Josef Von Sternberg about two years apart. Of course, they are different breeds of film.

Docks of New York was silent, released in 1928. The Blue Angel was a talkie, the first in German, released in 1930.

The Blue Angel also was the debut of Marlene Dietrich and the first of eight collaborations with Von Sternberg. Oddly, typically when there are this many opportunities to work together, there is more than likely some kind of relationship. Reading both of Von Sternberg's and Dietrich's bios, they apparently didn't have, at least, a very open relationship. Anyway, it's not reported and the idea that Von Sternberg never got to sleep with Dietrich is sort of tragic.

Dietrich's portrayal of Lola Lola was the apparent inspiration for Madeline Kahn as Lili von Schtupp in Blazing Saddles, despite I thought it was built more around Dietrich's character in Destry Rides Again (a film in which she co-starred with James Stewart ... and they had an affair ... what was Von Sternberg doing?)

The film was also a collaboration between Von Sternberg and Emil Jannings, the first being The Last Command. The pair had a massive dispute before reconciling and starting a project about Rasputin and finally doing The Blue Angel.

Von Sternberg died of a heart attack at the age of 75. Having never slept with Marlene Dietrich. We think.

'The Phantom Carriage'

Victor Sjöström directed and starred in The Phantom Carriage. He directed 50-60 films a majority of which were released during the infant years of cinema and was instrumental in making the country a cornerstone for filmdom.

He was taken by his family at an early age to Brooklyn and moved back at age seven when his mother died. A decade later, he'd join a touring theater group. How different would his life have been had he stayed in the United States? He probably would have been poor. Would he have the time and money to act? Is going to Sweden, where his native tongue is spoken, the lynchpin in him making it in acting?

Sjöström undertook adapting a number of novels from Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf. In fact, there was an agreement between Lagerlöf and a production company to adapt a novel per year. That was a pretty sweet agreement, although at the time I don't know, financially, how that might have helped the writer.

The Phantom Carriage (and Sjöström) was a huge influence on the greatest Swedish director of all time, Ingmar Bergman. Clearly, the concept of visualizing death was a big influence as Bergman would do the same for Seventh Seal. He would also caste Sjöström as the grandfatherly professor in The Wild Strawberries.

'The Kid Brother'

The Kid Brother is Harold Lloyd's best film. It is about the town of Hickoryville and its sheriff, Jim Hickory, and his three sons, the youngest and weakest being Harold.

By far, the most interesting aspect of the film are the "gags," the bits that the writers and Lloyd would write into the film. For example, the chase scene of Lloyd as he's getting chased and the series of elaborate hiding opportutnies. Or how Lloyd washes the clothes, drying on the tail of a kite.

Lloyd was one of the most prolific actors of the silent era rivalling Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Lloyd made 12 films in the 1920s compared to Chaplin's three. Furthermore, Lloyd made about $15 million in his career, while Chaplin barely paid the cable bill at $10 million.

He know how to spend it, certainly. His Beverly Hills home -- Greenacres -- took four years to build and included 44 rooms, 26 bathrooms, 12 fountains, 12 gardents and a nine-hole golf course.

A small price for stardom.

'The Sun Also Rises'

When I decided that reading books was a pretty good thing to spend my time doing, Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises was one of the first I took on as I delved into his vast bibliography.

It's still one of my favorites. Not unlike Jack Kerouac's On the Road, The Sun Also Rises made me want to hit the road more than any other piece of art. I wanted nothing more than to be swept away to Paris in 1925. Then take the train to Spain. Drink the wine, soak in the Spanish hospitality and a country that soon would be ripped apart by civil war. It's at this moment -- the second before the storm -- that is the sweetest.

To a certain point, Hemingway was exceedingly lucky. Granted, anyone could jaunt around the world -- big-game hunting in Africa, drunken sprees in Spain, fighting in wars that aren't yours, living the life in Paris. All on a journalist's salary, no less.

Yes, I could do this. However, there's something about the time. The freedom and the relative value of living abroad (folks didn't flock to Paris in the 1920s because they were rich ... the exchange rate was such that a dollar went a long way) was advantageous for this lifestyle. You could go anywhere without any real fear and just find a job doing something. It was a completely different time and place.

Add to the fact that Hemingway came about during a literary and artistic heyday of the world -- the writers, painters, artists, politics and activism. The world was changing. Art was changing. Everything was about to change.

Still, today, I'd give just about anything to be getting shitfaced in Pamplona this spring.

'Steppenwolf'

Steppenwolf is a book within a book about man, Harry Haller, who forever battles internally these urges of the carnal (the wolf) and that of the man.

At a place where he wants to end his life, Haller meets Hermine, who instructs him on the life of a bohemian, dancing, laughing, drinking, doing drugs and listening to jazz. It's at this point that Haller finds healing and growth. Where he's able to almost ignore the "wolf" living inside of him.

Haller learns to laugh and take himself (and art) less seriously. His anger toward a silly painting of Goethe and classical music take backseats to jazz and making love to young, beautiful women.

Hermann Hesse contends it was the most misunderstood of his books. It was his 10th novel. He said the attention paid to the struggle of wolf and man overshadows the healing and transcendation of the Haller character.

Also, it's full of Eastern and Buddhist philosophy, Hesse being a big proponent.

The book is defined during the latter half when Haller enters into the Magic Theatre and reality is turned on its head. Here, Haller lives his fantasties and lives out the phantasmal. By the 1960s, the counterculturists had adopted the novel due to its philosophical nature, dependence on Eastern culture, drug use and dallying with the layers of the mind.

'Foolish Wives'

In 1922, Foolish Wives was the most expensive film ever, apparently breaking the $1 million mark. It was also originally intended to be 10 hours long, which is ridiculous. At more than two hours, it was a total beating of a film. At 10 hours, I would've passed it up. That would've been a travesty in filmmaking.

Criticisms of the film were based around the cost. Winding up costing $1.2 million, I'm sure that was seen as incredibly ridiculous. It seems ridiculous now even though an actor of any decent popularity costs you $15 million. Not to mention other actors, sets, CGI and all the varying costs going into a film. Also, it took 11 months to film. Eleven months! Blockbusters these days take a couple of months. Indie films take even less. Weeks perhaps.

This film is pretty ridiculous. It's too long, has a boring plot and does absolutely nothing for nobody.

Production note: Lead actor Rudolph Christians died of pneumonia in the middle of shooting and they had to pull in another actor to finish it, all with his back to the camera for whatever was needed. In comparison, Heath Ledger died in the middle of that Terry Gilliam film and they had Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell step in. With their faces to the camera.

'Red Harvest'

I had planned on reading some more Dashiell Hammet in the time I readRed Harvest. It didn't happen, so I thought I'd better include it before I forget it.

Red Harvest is the story told over and over. The street-savvy detective rolls into town in order to take down the powerful gangs controlling the city. Because he's so street smart, he doesn't get caught up in women (much) and he always plays one game ahead of the other people in the story.

Our protoganist winds up winning over the city and beating the bad guys.

The difference between Red Harvest and the rest of filmdom that's used the same plot is that we don't have to be paid to write a movie.

'The Garden Party'

Nothing much to this story, but it's just as strong as any lengthy novel or longer short story.

The upper-class Sheridans are hosting a garden party. As their servants prepare for the party (and the family worries and idles without too much worry), they find out a local working man died in the street. Laura thinks the party should be cancelled in consideration to the family that lives nearby. The rest of the family disagree assuming the man was probably drunk and that's why he died; as if, if this were true, he deserved to die. Quite the classy family.

The party goes on without a hitch. Following, Laura takes a basket of food to the man's grieving family where she sees the body against her will.

In about 15 pages, Katharine Mansfield says more than Franz Kafka or Albert Camus often say in 400 pages. This is a really simple tale of the class conciousness and the eventual breakdown of extreme classism and the burgeoning development of the middle class.

Never was there some kind of death of rich people. They've always existed and there's more of them today than there ever has been in the history of the world.

But attitudes have changed, although that seems hard to believe. It's not so black and white anymore.

'The Age Of Innocence' & 'The Age Of Innocence'

I couldn't imagine a more boring plot than the one introduced by Edith Wharton. Although, I haven't found myself overwhelmed with Wharton's stories so I shouldn't be too shocked.

It's a turn-of-the-century American novel set in New York about high society and young gentleman, Newland Archer, who is engaged to and eventually marries May. But he falls in love with May's cousin, Ellen Olenska.

There are years of give and take as Ellen struggles with the social implications of a divorce and Newland wrestles with his desires while maintaining his own status and that of his family and wife, May.

It's a criticism of the institution of marriage or the way society forced certain norms upon us no matter how unnatural those maxims actually were to the human soul.

Ellen prevents Newland from making the sacrifice of his wife (and, as we find out, family) and the story ends 30 years later after May is dead, Newland is old and their children are grown. Although time and the joy of family has filled the hole left by Ellen's love, there's still an emptiness there.

There's a lot of fluff in both the book and the film. Costumes, name dropping, the opera, reading rooms and this snobbish, over-the-top way of explaining even the simplest of notions.

It's this fluff that drives me bananas and bores my pants off. It's the evidence of a bygone era and a bygone way of writing. Thankfully, it's as extinct as the dinosaur.

'Sunrise'

Blech. More silent films. This one boring.

Despite it being a critical favorite, Sunrise was a flop. It forced producers to put F.W. Murnau on a leash for his next several movies.

Sunrise was also released right after The Jazz Singer, the first talkie. Sunrise is kind of the swan song for an incredibly overrated and boring time for filmmaking.

'Way Down East' & 'Intolerance' & 'Orphans Of The Storm'

While riding with a friend recently, he plugged in his iPhone and put his downloaded songs on shuffle.

One of the songs that comes up is Run DMC's "It's Tricky." I don't necessarily react, but my friend states that the group and, thusly, the song were relevent because they were pioneers of the rap or hip-hop genre.

I got to thinking about this. It's a common substantiation of particularly artists, that they were some of the first to do it therefore they are due some sort of respect or props for doing so. For essentially being at the right place at the right time.

Are Run DMC a better group because they were one of the first to perform rap at a high level?

Is D.W. Griffith a good director or just one of the first of the prolific ones?

I tend to believe he's the latter: Someone that was at the right place and the right time. The guy who invented baseball, but he was no Babe Ruth, Willie Mays or Frank Robinson.

Again, I'll be tickled pink when I'm done with these silent films. I've had enough. I've never seen someone say less in three hours than Griffith.

'Dr. Mabuse The Gambler'

There are 10 Dr. Mabuse films. This is the first. Luckily I only needed to watch one of them.

I'll certainly be thrilled when all of the three-hour silent films are out of the way because they are by a million miles the most difficult things to watch in the history of mankind.

'Storm Over Asia'

One of the major inaccuracies of this film (which is Russian) is that the British never invaded Mongolia.

Of course, the film focuses on a Mongolian herdsman who is thrust into a battle between the Russian and British forces as they angle for control of this region.

The herdsman is caught and executed by the British. But once they learn the herdsman is the descendent of Genghis Khan, they retrieve and rehabilitate the man to be the face of the British puppet regime.

Of course, the British were never around. The Russians were.

In 1928, of course, Russia was mired deep into an oppressive communist regime and were not allowed to make real films in lieu of propaganda. This film endears the Russian government to the indegenous peoples of their land, which is very diverse. Russia's a weird country. You don't get stuck on the Asian and European continents and not collect a diverse melting pot of people. Asians of mongoloid background are a large part of the Russian tapestry.

Maybe the Russians were trying to reach out to these people. Maybe they were just trying to run down the imperialist England and, in turn, Americans.

'October: Ten Days That Shook The World'

The Russians were quick to embrace film for their various propaganda drives. They took it a bit further in making these actually good, early films.

The film was released in 1927, right when Stalin had grabbed control of the country after Vlad Lenin's death. Already, the screws were being loosened as Stalin starting exiling some, murdering others and starving the rest. That is 10 years after the revolution. To put that into prospect, we're one year away from the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11, which still feels like yesterday.

Intresting note, the storming of the Winter Palace is actually based on an re-enactment of the same event held in 1920 by Lenin. The re-enactment played host to 100,000 spectators. Apparently, they took liberties with the initial storming of the palace. Not unlike what Disney has done to a dozen or so sports films over the last decade.

Could you imagine someone making a film today re-telling the story of a battle and basing that visual on the re-enactment of that battle? Then again, isn't a film just an expensive re-enactment? "October" is just a re-enactment of a re-enactment.

'Man With A Movie Camera'

The premise is simple: Mother Russia is the character. Life is its plot.

I don't know if this is the first ever documentary, but it has to be close. Silent, "Man With a Movie Camera" is purely people walking about and doing whatever they do on a regular day.

It's filled with a ton of innovative film techniques like slow motion, freeze frames, fast motion, double exposure and split screens. All sound like campy comedy titles. "This summer. Tim Allen in Fast Motion!"

I think about life and death a lot nowadays and all I could really think about while watching this film is that a vast majority of these people are dead. Then I wonder how many died in World War II on the eastern front or how many perished in Stalin's gulags or starved to death in the country.

It's a portrait into a civilization that had no fucking clue the number of figurative atom bombs about to be dropped on them. Just smiling, hamming it up going to work and drinking beer and coffee. Clueless.