Badmovies.org Forum

I had to vent. Nobody at my work that i directly work with anyways, is 'cinematically cultured'. So ok, i accept they probably haven't seen some of the obscure movies i have. But for the love of god and everything holy!!!! I was having a chat today with this guy who's only like a few years younger than me (making him like 27ish) and he's never seen...nor HEARD OF:

Barbarella
Clash of the freaking titans!
Flash gordon

I was making joking references from these movies in a personal email and he was oblivious to the joke until i questioned him and found out the truth - he's never seen them. Wasn't clash of the titans one of those movies that they showed in almost every 8th grade class to introduce kids to greek mythology?

Absolutely unforgivable

Don't worry about it Susan. I know people that know no movies before the year 1999 or don't bother to watch any movies before the 90s and claim to be movie buffs. Night of the living dead? what the hell is that.


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You can’t give it, you can't buy it, and you just don't get it!-Aeon Flux

"Wasn't clash of the titans one of those movies that they showed in almost every 8th grade class to introduce kids to greek mythology?"

27?  So he was in the 8th grade around 1992?  Yeah, they stopped teaching Greek Mythology in schools and replaced it with Recycling Awareness, Victimization Studies, and Underwater Fire Prevention around 1990.

Wow, they used to show  Clash of the Titans during school? The best we could look forward to was "The last of the mohicans" in American History. I never even had a class that taught Greek Mythology or dinosaurs. Man, just realized what a crappy school I attended.
Little off topic, but i'm only 19. Most of the movies on this site are older than me. I got interested in B-movies during the impressional age of 3-5. I would stay at home all day with my dad and watch old cheesie flicks and on TCM like Night of the Triffolds (sp?). I distinctly remember the voice over guy  calling the movie "Attack of the Killer Brochlii" and had to learn it's real title many years later.
So, in putting this topic back on track, yes Susan, you do work with fools.

2xSlick wrote:

> Wow, they used to show  Clash of the Titans during school? The
> best we could look forward to was "The last of the mohicans" in
> American History. I never even had a class that taught Greek
> Mythology or dinosaurs. Man, just realized what a crappy school
> I attended.
>

??

I thought Eirik was being at least a little bit cynical, but you have NEVER had a class on Greek Mythology or dinosaurs?  Wow.

Yes, Clash of the Titans was shown/taught during school.  I saw it several times, in several different classes, actually.  We also watched Roots, Jeremiah Johnson, Where the Red Fern Grows, and, well, too many others to name.

School has changed a LOT in twenty years.

Man, the tried to teach mythology using Clash of the Titans?  Must have been awfully hard then trying to explain that about 80% of the stuff in the movie was wrong afterward.

Yeah, I'm in Canada, and we got Clash of the Titans in school here too. It was high school English class for me. Over the years, we saw lots of classics, usually those with literary or historical ties - Clash of the Titans, The Ox-Bow Incident, In the Heat of the Night, Lord of the Flies (B&W version, as it hadn't been remade yet), and a few others. I even saw Stand and Deliver in math class, although I wouldn't call it a classic. It was actually fairly new at the time.



Post Edited (05-04-05 09:06)

Brother Ragnarok wrote:

> Man, the tried to teach mythology using Clash of the Titans?
> Must have been awfully hard then trying to explain that about
> 80% of the stuff in the movie was wrong afterward.
>

Well, actually, they way I remember it the teacher that really used it specifically focused on the things that were wrong.  That is, it was up to us, while watching the movie, to find the errors.  It was not used as a primary reference to "teach" mythology.

There were some underlying things in the movie that were right, and we talked about those, too.  Like how the Gods were always messing with people, sometimes for their own good/enjoyment.

I'd call 'Stand & Deliver' a classic! That's one of those movies that I can watch any time it's on cable. "Odelay, feenger man! What's 5 times 9? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. . 45." I still use that finger trick when multiplying by 9. I'm not a bright man. . .

But, to get back on topic, I'm even more disturbed that Susan's co-worker didn't know about 'Flash Gordon'! It was on TNT, WPIX  (in NY), and cable at least once every day from 1980 to 1999. Usually 'Clash of the Titans' followed it.

Rob
The KO Picture Show (http://http://www.geocities.com/rtillisch/KOPictureShow.html/)

In our case, the movie was usually a treat after we'd finish studying a book. I don't recall having to do much more than watch it. We got Clash of the Titans after spending about a month on mythology. Stand and Deliver, on the other hand, was just something to fill the last two math classes of the year, when it wasn't worth doing any work.

I can't understand how anyone that isn't living under a rock wouldn't know anything about those movies so I'd have to agree Susan, you do work with fools. That's ok because I work with morons.
As far as teaching the stuff...up until 6th grade, I was in a private school and this is where I learned Norse and Greek mythology (I loved the Norse stuff, can you tell?). But... once I was delivered to public school, all of that went out the window. They didn't teach it and they certainly didn't show Clash of the Titans. I am unsure why this was but I think it had something to do with it not being "real". As a side, this was the school system that would also not teach anything about the Vietnam War. In history class we just skipped Vietnam completely and I asked my teacher about it because we got to a point in history that I was actually interested in learning (I hated school really). He told me that they were not allowed to teach anything about Vietnam and he was not allowed to even touch on the subject or he could be released from his position. On top of this...In English class (in 11th grade) we were given an assignment of picking a fictional book that was based in a true war. I picked a book about a platoon in Vietnam, read it, wrote the report and then was told that I couldn't do that because it was Vietnam. I was given time to do another report due to the mix-up but I told them to give me an F on it because I did my end of it and wasn't about to do it again. Anyway, this school was in NJ and I don't know if this was just related to that particular school system or if it was all of NJ. Forgive me for throwing this off topic. I wanted to point out that some schools are just plain screwed up.
And again Susan, you work with fools but I need to know...what is "Clash of the freaking titans!" because I haven't heard of this one. It sounds good though.

Odin - I went to public school in Jersey as well, and the only mentions we got of Vietnam were in my Sociology class, and that was because the teacher was a Vet. In history class we basically stuck with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and the cotton gin time period. We probably got as far as the Depression, but the 1930's is where history stopped, apparently. Come to think of it, any war-related history was skipped for the most part, outside of the civil war.

Wow, this post just got WAY OT. Sorry Susan. Just to reiterate, your co-workers are, in fact, idiots.

Rob
 The KO Pictue Show  (http://www.geocities.com/rtillisch/KOPictureShow.html)

Diablo44. wrote:

> We probably got as far as the
> Depression, but the 1930's is where history stopped,
> apparently.

Interesting.  I read a couple of years ago that the official, canonized "American History" textbook begins American History with Susan B. Anthony.  G. Washington, T. Jefferson, The Federalist Papers, Abraham Lincoln, etc. are not even index entries.

Susan, what movies do your coworkers really know about?  Gigli?



Post Edited (05-04-05 13:46)

Maybe this is a bit off topic.

Do you learn about the Middle Ages in school, too? I heard that the Ancient Greeks and the Roman Empire is being learned. So what about the Middle Ages?
(esp. the Crusades, Witchhunts, Renaissance, Martin Luther etc.)

"Man, the tried to teach mythology using Clash of the Titans? Must have been awfully hard then trying to explain that about 80% of the stuff in the movie was wrong afterward."

When I was in school they didnt bother. I think watching it was more of an excuse for the teacher to kick back and do nothing than it was to teach. We even watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in my World History class my freshman year of highschool. What was the freakin point of that? I wasnt complaining though.

Around here, school kids get the middle ages fairly young, but it's sort of a watered down version in which you get the basics of medieval society without a lot of the actual history. Often seems to wrap up with a feast where kids eat with their hands while wearing bathrobes and cardboard swords.

We do, however, have a bit more enhanced program in my own commmunity the last couple of years, because the local high school drama teacher gets his students together with a bunch of actors, vendors, blacksmiths and such, and puts on a pretty good medieval fair in the park. Huzzah! They actually do a weekday program for schools, with lessons on weapons, games, music, etc. of a particular period. Hundreds of kids get bused in to do it. Then they do a public thing on Saturday with staged fights, human chessboards and bands of ruffians roaming the park.

I don't mind going to it, but covering it for the paper can be a pain. Ever try to have a serious discussion with somebody who insists on staying in character? Or take a picture? "What manner of witchcraft be that box in thine hand? Will it stealeth mine soul? Perhaps I should waylayeth you and taketh it, blah blah."

Shut up and smile.

OK, this is getting way off topic, but it's so much fun.



Post Edited (05-04-05 21:13)

Sounds about like my history classes.  Four years studying slavery, a week on WWII, and like everyone else of my generation if the topic of cotton gins should ever come up in conversation, I will be prepared.  Of course, if someone mentions Nepal, I start wondering if that's in South America, or maybe Brazil?  Which is somewhere around Spain, right?

Hm, I saw Clash of the Titans in the theaters, when it came out.  Now it's being used in school?  We only got film strips of Peter and the Wolf.  (I always rooted for the wolf.)  fortunately I learned my Greek, Norse and Egyptian mythology on my own.  (Yes, I was a nerd in grade school.)

I'm appalled that schools wouldn't teach about Vietnam  (My 7th & 8th grade History teacher was a vet, he discussed it in 1977-78) but not surprised.  Schools don't like to touch controversial issues.

Directed mostly at Odinn7 and Diablo44:The Vietnam war  banned from High school? That's just sad.  When did ya'll go to school? I might be able  to see it being too controversial if the war was still going on at the time. I  attended a rural school in Middle Georgia and we studied everything in American History from Colonization up to the first World War.  Actually,  throughout my education, the most modern event we ever discussed in history was Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination. Most of our time in  the class was studying the Civil War. We always spent a great deal of time on Abe, Grant, and Lee.  Stonewall was usually glossed over so we could spend more time on Sherman's march. Always great to hear teachers trying to explain that Sherman's plan and The Reconstruction was a good thing.
To return to topic Susa: at least you can chat it up with coworkers . I worked a summer job as a temp in an office last year and was suprised the company wasn't in the red with all the morons working there.  The cafeteria had a tv that would show the young and the restless during lunch. All the guys there talked about chicks they'd like to bang (they were all married and would play golf during lunch) and the women would show me pictures of their kids (All the kids were older than me). Sucks when you have to keep your mouth shut and work hard to avoid annoying coworkers. This has stretched on for too long. Susan, we all feel your pain.

Man, the only movies I got to see while I was in school were "Born Free" and "A Christmas Carol" (Though we did get a recomendation to see ''Damn Yankees"). Otherwise, it was the typical one and two reelers and film strips/slide shows.



Post Edited (05-04-05 17:59)

I saw Jeremiah Johnson in school a bunch of times, on TV too. Can't figure out how I've managed never to have seen either version of Lord Of The Flies. Clash Of The Titans was one of Ray Harrihausen's last movies, about Perseus, Andromeda, Medusa, Pegasus, a Kracken (from Norse mythology I think), and a cute robotic owl he pulled out of his ass (someone asked). I never saw it in school, but it used to be on TV a lot. When something that's on TV all the time dissapears for a decade or so, I wonder if someone bought the rights to it or something and are planning a remake years and years from now. I saw Flight Of The Phoenix more times than I can count, then it vanished for a really long time until the remake came out.

I knew a girl who claimed not to know who Charlton Heston was, but she might have just been jerking me around.

2xSlick wrote:

> Directed mostly at Odinn7 and Diablo44:The Vietnam war  banned
> from High school? That's just sad.  When did ya'll go to
> school? I might be able  to see it being too controversial if
> the war was still going on at the time.

I graduated in '85. I don't know for sure why they banned learning about it but to me it's just wrong. It did happen, it is history, we should have spent at least a few days on it.


"I knew a girl who claimed not to know who Charlton Heston was, but she might have just been jerking me around."

Charlton, who? Was that the chick from Charlies Angels?

Foolish co-workers?  I think everyone has some of those...

I don't really think that its such a big deal not to know those three films personally.

Ok, so I have never seen Clash of the Titans [or if I have, I've forgotten it] and I only recently have seen Barbarella and Flash Gordon, at least I have known of their existence prior to that.

Also, AndyC;  that medieval fair thing sounds quite funny, in the sense that I'm laughing because it sounds like such a pain in the ass to you to even take a photo!  I'm cruel, I know, but to anyone else watching that sort of exchange you mentioned, I bet that would have been hilarious.

I think greek mythology was something we learned in english class or one of those classes where we read stuff about homer. :)  It was one of the few films we ever saw in school, i know i saw it a couple of times in fact. (music class we watched amadeus when it came out on video) but good lord, it's clash of the titans! To have never even heard of it. We didn't learn from the movie, it was one of those things they showed to get us interested in what we were learning. And sometimes they'd show it on one of those 'nothing' days toward the end of the schoolyear when the teacher didn't want to teach anymore. But my parents had it on vhs, so i saw it way before i ever did in school.

Yeah i'm a HUGE flash buff so when i was telling him i was going to feed my supervisor to the bore worms he looked perplexed. But I also let him listen to my queen soundtrack for that movie, which I thought would help ring a bell since he likes queen. No luck. The funny part is he's seen more diverse movies than anyone else in my group (who is mostly younger)

Sigh, I just don't know what to do with this new generation of kids that gets spoon fed hollywood remakes or sequels so that they never have to bother with watching the original amityville horror or exorcist. Even when I was a kid i watched old black and white stuff, in fact my mother is pretty amazed i've seen more movies from her era than she has. Ok yeah, i'm going to have to get back to this thread - my show "LOST" is on, my hair is wet and i'm still venting about my apartment manager sticking me with a late fee on my rent when there was a computer error on their part and it was really my discount month and..well i digress.  I live with idiots, remind me to tell you about my neighbor who does drugs, listens to loud bass and recently failed to use an oil pan when changing his oil. arghhhh!

dean wrote:
> Also, AndyC;  that medieval fair thing sounds quite funny, in
> the sense that I'm laughing because it sounds like such a pain
> in the ass to you to even take a photo!  I'm cruel, I know, but
> to anyone else watching that sort of exchange you mentioned, I
> bet that would have been hilarious.

It is funny in hindsight, but it's such a pain in the ass at the time. Last time, I didn't even bother with posed pictures, just candid shots.

I also once interviewed a clown (she won an award) who came to my office in full regalia and stayed in character most of the time. Clowns make me nervous anyway, and here I was, shut in a room alone with one (shudder).

It's these sorts of things that make me want a badge that says "REPORTER, NOT SPECTATOR - You are yourself around me."

I also work with fools - none of the guys in my department share my love of this crap. There is a girl in the next department over who has fairly geeky taste in movies (ie sort of partly like mine), but haven't got around to socialising with her yet(we're both married - to other people - with kids, so it can get complicated), but I occasionally get a good discussion going with her - other than her I am surrounded by fools.

Although I did go and see Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy with my boss last week. But that doesn't count, cos he only wanted to see it cos he thought it looked funny on the ads.


BTW, the final movie I ever watched at school was "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover" (In yr12 drama of course). Not bad considering it is rated R18+ here in Australia, and I don't think any of us were quite 18 yet.....

Rombles wrote:

>There is a girl in the next
> department over who has fairly geeky taste in movies (ie sort
> of partly like mine), but haven't got around to socialising
> with her yet(we're both married - to other people - with kids,
> so it can get complicated).

Okay, this is OT for this thread, but I gotta ask.  Why is it complicated to talk to someone about movies?  Just because you are talking to her about a common interest doesn't mean you are hitting on her or cheating on your spouse.

Back On Topic:  I could say I work with a fool...I'm self employed.

Susan wrote:

>  I live with idiots, remind me to tell you about my neighbor who does drugs, listens to > loud bass and recently failed to use an oil pan when changing his oil. arghhhh!

Holy crap, you're my neighbor?! Sorry, I couldn't resist. Remember kids, stay in milk,  drink your  drugs and don't do school.

Stop the jibba jabba, I need work!

 >>>>"i was going to feed my supervisor to the bore worms"

I have seen the movie, yet completely missed out on that reference when another friend of mine was crapping on about Flash Gordon last week and mentioned bore worms.

That said, I don't work with fools, though they don't have nearly the same movie tastes as me. [on a side not, I had to really try hard to explain the main differences between Muslims, Christians and Catholics to one of the junior staff members since she didn't know]

So I guess we all have foolish people in our lives.  Its just how much we ridicule and embarrass them for being fools that defines us!!! [I do alot]

"So I guess we all have foolish people in our lives. Its just how much we ridicule and embarrass them for being fools that defines us!!! [I do alot]"

I live for it.

Wow, really trying to get into heaven aren't you dean? ;-)  When people haven't heard of , time and time again, very well known movies, that is crazy. When they don't watch movies made prior to the 80's, foolish, simply because the convenience that hollywood will give them a modern remake and that older movies all eventually go out of style and are lame. It's almost an attitude hollywood is responsible for, and perhaps current day society as to giving kids everything they want and everything must be brand new. Nobody refuses to go to a museum because the painting is too old and lame. A foolish attitude is one who assumes that new is better. That seems to be the motto of most young people today.

Now many of those my age may not have seen all the older movies i have, but they certainly have heard of them. My generation grew up on tv where friday and saturday nights were old movies, b movies and you were grateful because there was no cable and we didn't always have the money to go to the movies. Now on weekends or weeknights those same channels, including uhf no longer show old movies, let alone any movies at all. The main cable channels focus mainly on recent and popuar stuff. It is pretty sad tah through the next generation of kids coming up, most of these really popular films will have been forgotten, simply because they don't wanna watch anything old, and god forbid it's black and white.

Susan,

You do speak a sad truth.  Many people of my generation (20-30) just want to see the newest and flashiest flick out there.  Few of us ever take the time to go back and watch the classic films.  

It's funny that you mentioned Clash Of The Titans.  When I was in school, I would say that I probably saw the film five times or so.  We had one teacher in middle school who was overly strict until the end of the school year when he would let us watch films from his collection.  The guy was a burly weight lifting football coach but he would let us watch Legend, Clash Of The Titans, Star Wars, etc.  I'll never forget the groans that would issue from the class when he would announce that we were going to watch Clash Of The Titans again.  I was always sitting there smiling.

I was introduced to a whole lot of musicals throughout those years as well.  We had the same music teacher from 1st grade right up until 8th.  I remember him as being a happy guy when he first started teaching us, but by the time we hit 7-8th grade he had gone through a divorce and pretty much hated teaching us.  He would just throw on Fiddler On The Roof or Sound Of Music and let us watch one of those.  I would say for an entire school year we had a contstant repition of those two films.

As High School hit, I took a film literature class my freshman year.  I convinced the teacher to let me take it each year of high school and get credit each time.  We watched some great films: Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Alien, Maltese Falcon, etc.  

My wife unfortunatly is one of the types of my generation that will not watch anything made before 1980 (preferably 1985).  Case in point - She bought me Duel on DVD for my birthday but refuses to sit down and watch it being as it was made in the 70s.  And, if the film is B&W then forget about it.



Post Edited (05-07-05 10:18)

The whole Black and white 'debate' is oh so very sad, yet quite appropriate.

I know I'm a cruel bastard for doing this, but one of the only other friends of mine who actually had the balls to sit and watch Plan 9 From Outer Space, he watched the colourised version.  So I sort of forced him to watch my black and white copy, so he could get the original feel for the whole thing.

Also on the topic of flashy and fast films of nowadays: at least there's alot of wannabe film buffs out there who are studying up on the older films.  I don't know if I could handle not having a friend who is obsessed with Spaghetti westerns and anything involving Clint Eastwood, a friend who loves crappy horror films and sub-standard B-grade movies, and a friend who is anime crazy.  That and my entire cinema studies department at uni, as to which I wouldn't the genius of 80's musicals.

But like the person I mentioned earlier who needed to be taught religion [btw I wasn't preaching, maybe I should throw in a few trick questions to her next time, just to mess with her head!]  I can really imagine her not knowing any movies made before 1990 that doesn't include a pop-driven, thumping/exciting soundtrack and big name actors.

Maybe my next lesson should be on John Waters, and theories of the absurd.

Somebody thought it was worth colorizing Plan 9. Kind of misses the point, doesn't it?

Whoa, I never heard there was a colorized version. Couldn't you just turn the color setting on your tv all the way down? Now that I mention that, I might try that to see if it lends proper atmosphere to certain shows.

They. Colorized. Plan. 9. from. Outer. Space.?!

(recovers)

Death is too good for them.

But why? That's what I'd like to know.

There can't be that many people sitting around thinking "I'd really like to watch something old, badly made and ridiculous, but it's gotta be in colour."

> Barbarella
> Clash of the freaking titans!
> Flash gordon
>
> I was making joking references from these movies in a personal
> email and he was oblivious to the joke until i questioned him
> and found out the truth - he's never seen them. Wasn't clash of
> the titans one of those movies that they showed in almost every
> 8th grade class to introduce kids to greek mythology?

That IS kind of weird Susan, I mean, I'm just a year older than that guy and we learned a bit about Mythology (and yes, saw a part of Clash of Titans) in ninth grade.  (Course, I was in the "Advanced" English class, dunno what the guys in English Lite were doing.)  But still, Barbarella I might be able to understand, but Clash of Titans??  Even if he didn't recognize the title, he should have AT LEAST seen parts of it.

Did you say something, "Well, you know, that movie with the Medusa??"  

(And if he stares at you blankly and asks what a Medusa, then he really IS an idiot...)  

Course, I feel the same way about some people I know when I mention books... I mean, I'm dont' exactly read all the old classics and stuff, but hell, even I know, for instance, who Ahab was....

Just it's a death of culture thing.. too many people these days are more style over substance these days (which explains why so many people, for instance, left the theater of The Day After Tomorrow going, "Wow, that could really happen!!" )

Don't even get me STARTED on that subject...

Mike

"Are you the one telling me to beware?  Cause I'll tell you where to be!"
     -Master Shake, Aqua Teen Hunger Force

I work with a lady who called the latest Stiller / Deniro film "Meet the Faulkners"

Kind of loses the joke when you say it that way.

I know people who actually thought the title was "Meet the F*ckers." And that asterisk is not an O.

Yeah, it's supposed to sound like that, but come on.