I have LOVED Matthew Modine since 'Birdy', an extraordinary film from the early 80s that's stayed with me all these many decades later. An absolutely haunting performance from Matthew Modine. Super-talented actor, & it's great to see his love & joy for cinema shining thru here.
Nothing I love more than people in the film industry that actually appreciate and LOVE cinema, when it becomes clear it’s more than just having a job they’re good at it.
G'day Matthew, Thank you for your outstanding body of work. I've been a fan since I saw your first film, back then I was a film critic for newspapers and radio. On Dr Strangelove, Kubrick used, of course, as his main source, 'Red Alert' by Peter Bryant (Peter George). I finally got around to reading this book in 2015 and found it to be one of the most engrossing and at the same time, possibly, the most depressing book I've ever read. I read 'Red Alert' while on vacation in Paris, one of the obvious nuclear targets of the 50s and 60s. I spent two days sitting in one of my favorite bistros in Paris reading this book. A deep depression overcame me and I understood immediately how Kubrick must have felt and why his stroke of genius to play this as a satirical comedy was his only alternative. Peter Bryant was the pen name of Peter Bryant George who had actually been a member of the Royal Air Force when he wrote 'Red Alert' in 1958 as a way to exorcise his personal 'demons' about the fundamental futility of nuclear war, barely kept from happening because of the M.A.D. concept of mutually assured destruction. Peter George was an RAF navigator during WW2 and then re-joined the RAF in peacetime working as a Flight Controller for fighter wings on 'scramble stand-by' for nuclear attacks. He wrote many books, part-time during lulls in his RAF duties. He briefly co-wrote with Kubrick on 'Dr Stangelove..." but he was never comfortable with Kubrick's comedy approach. Perhaps because he was still bearing the scars of his insider knowledge of how WW3 would go down. Sadly, so sadly, Peter Bryant George, even after this book, and writing others, he could still not cope with his fears for nuclear war. Convinced that WW3 was an inevitability, he took his life in 1966. I confess that after reading 'Red Alert', I have not been able to bring myself to see 'Dr Strangelove...' again. Thank you for your participation in this series of videos. Kind regards, BH.
My favorite Criterion Collection films: 1. Madadayo (1993). Akira Kurosawa's last movie and to me his best. 2. Chungking Express (1994). Life isn't complete without spend a couple of nights at the Chungking Mansions. Weird place in a beautiful city. This movie makes me feel like I was back there. So much great cinema has come out of East Asia.
People today don't realize how scandalous it was for Kubrick to make a black comedy on nuclear war at that time. One critic wrote, "Russia could not buy more harm to America." But the film was at the forefront of the zeitgeist change in realizing the nuclear arms race was utterly insane.
I kind of appreciate how he's more of an artiste than an actor. Like he made the decision to as much as possible go out and tell stories, worthwhile stories about people and life (sure he has some Hollywood in there and some of the films overall were duds)
I find it shocking, considering their connection, that when he mentions the player he doesn't mention Vincent D'onofrio as one of the main characters in that movie.
@@williamshaw9047 I actually had the pleasure of meeting Stanley Kubrick when I was living in England I was a postman and I was delivering something to his house
@@videotrash it’s about how the stereotypical American hero (Wayne) never had to fight a war like the Vietnam war. Instead, it was teenagers. Joker was mocking this fact when he said that line
@@funkmachine9094 I think the point is that he clearly aged but aged well. He looks healthy and not like some puppet who tried to keep his youth with surgery.
His picks: Tanner 88 - 0:44 The Player - 1:10 Night of the Living Dead - 1:39 Midnight Cowboy - 2:08 Black Stallion - 2:32 Dr. Strangelove - 3:22 High and Low - 4:10 Being There - 4:56
instead of NOTLD, i woulda picked Romaro's The Amusement Park; Midnight Cowboy?? Little Big Man!...Dustin's masterpiece with superb work from Jeff Corey
NintendianaJones64 Yes, Being There and Dr. Strangelove are both amazing films with great performances from Peter Sellers. Robert Altman’s The Player is another great movie.
You can definitely tell that he thinks highly of his father, who instilled a love for movies. His face lights up when he sees a title that brings back memories for him. Great video.
@Saddam Zimmerman Actually, it is Keef - he's spent lockdown at the same Swiss clinic ( full service ( untouched for decades): face-lift, vocal pipes cleanse, etc.; the staff were paid a bonus) at the one Mick uses , bi- monthly, to cleanse his blood by laser.
High & Low is a truly great movie. What he described makes up only half of the movie too, the rest is the subsequent investigation to track down the kidnapper making up a really smart & detailed investigative thriller. Definitely top three Kurosawa for me.
Thank you, Criterion, for showing us that, yes, there IS a Matthew Modine drinking game. Every time he says, "I had the pleasure of working with," you do a shot! ☺
@@Wired4Life2 Aww, be a sport, Blue Fox! It's fun! It's like I was telling my cat, who I had the pleasure of working with. Oops! Time to pour myself some Monkey 47; the best gin in the world! ☺
Granted, the movie is 60-years-old, but I somehow feel there still should have been a spoiler alert... Also, I hope that when I’m an old man I too can dress like a sophisticated French woman and make it work.
Lynch is very well versed in the auteurs of cinema; not so much in popular culture directors or contemporary cinema. But yeah, it would be epic if he just picked Eraserhead and left. :D
It’s rather funny looking back now, how Matthew Modine talks about why Stanley Kubrick realized you couldn’t truly make a serious atomic bomb film because how ridiculous the whole thing really was. Then Matthew ends up being cast in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”.
"I'm so happy that I am in the Criterion Closet. In one piece, and short. I'm in a world of shit, yes, but I am in the Criterion Closet, and I'm not afraid".
He probably already owns all of the movies in the closet. And being Tarantino, he probably owns them on 35mm so he can show them at his movie theater in Los Angeles, the New Beverly Cinema.
