Stronger Than You

Salt of the Earth (1954), dir. Herbert J. Biberman

Damn, son.

EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH SALT OF THE EARTH

Salt of the Earth actually has a crazy interesting history- OP already said it was made in 1954, but that was in the middle of the Red Scare (communism scary cold war hysteria)

Congress’s anti-communism target fell hard on Hollywood, and those in the industry who were suspected of communism at all were blacklisted from all jobs, because studio’s didn’t want to face backlash from Congress

Salt of the Earth was made nearly 100% with blacklisted crew members from Hollywood, and had such difficulty finding actors that they hired local citizens and miners from the actual strike the plot is based on. There were only 5 trained actors involved, and one of them (Rosaura Revueltas, the woman in the gif) was deported to Mexico before they finished filming on accusations of communism, with no proof and no substance. The filming was plagued with police harassment and threats (according to my professor they were shot at more than once), and the local union hall was burned down.

The movie itself not only covers a real 1950′s labor strike demanding safer and more equal labor conditions for Mexican-American employees, but after the miners were facing arrest, their wives and children took up the strike in their place. The movie’s combination of blacklisted crew, civil rights and feminist message, and pro-union plot (during the red scare) got the movie blacklisted and only 12 theaters in the entire United States would show the movie- it was successful in Europe, but didn’t actually achieve viewership in the US until the 60′s

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/10/salt-of-the-earth-labour-workers-blacklisted-filmmakers

I bet in the 20s all the weird German emo girls were thirsting after the Somnambulist

German emo girls be like “ich will 😍🥺”

Don’t hide this magnificent piece of info in the tags.

The bloke (Conrad Veidt) was an outspoken opponent of antisemitism, and when he refused to divorce his wife (who was Jewish), Joseph Goebbels had him blacklisted.

He also donated tons and tons of money to poor children who had been negatively effected by the Blitz in London after he moved to the US, following his becoming a naturalised-British citizen after leaving Germany in the 1930s.

Don’t forget that in 1919, he starred in “Different from the Others”, a German film protesting the anti-homosexuality laws in place. It’s widely regarded as the first pro-gay film. Conrad Veidt was a goddamn hero.

I just feel like this pic is relevant to the discussion

He was also the highest paid member of the cast in “Casablanca” (where he played a Nazi officer, again), even if he only got second billing, because he was THAT big a star.

He and his first wife divorced after… well she said it better than I ever could.

“I excused a lot of his failings and whims because I loved him. But one day he did something to me that I couldn’t forgive. I was singing that evening at the cabaret. I left him home and he told me: “I invited a few friends; we’ll dine while we wait for you.” And it just so happened I had received a new dress from Paris. That evening, after work, I arrived home and what do I see? All these gentlemen dressed as women. And Conrad had put on my Paris dress. At this point, I divorced!”

And as  Anita Loos put it

“Any Berlin lady of the night might turn out to be a man; the prettiest girl on the street was Konrad [sic] Veidt.”

Good to see the tumblr sexyman precludes even tumblr

great mouse detective saving disney animation studio’s ass is so fucking funny imagine being the executives of that branch of the studio and you’re being threatened with closure after black cauldron got the shit beaten out of it by the motherfucking care bears movie and you go to the creative team (the only ones who actually care about making good shit) and you’re like “okay guys we need a HUGE hit to save us, what have you got” and they’re like “mouse sherlock holmes with a striptease scene. vincent price is here,”

Im sorry there was a striptease scene in the great loud detective????

The striptease scene is explicitly what saved Disney. The execs were getting ready to shut down the animation branch altogether, and the only scene the GMD team had finished was the bar scene. They showed that to the higher ups, and it impressed them enough to let them keep working on the movie.

Mouse burlesque is the sole reason why Disney Animation still exists today.

are you telling me the mouse striptease is the sole reason we got beauty and the beast

marvel: ‘infinity war is the most ambitious crossover event in history’ 

me:

It’s true! Especially given a) the technology they had at the time to pull this off, and b) that they had characters from TWO separate companies as opposed to different characters from the same comics publisher.

So yeah, Roger Rabbit wins the ambitious crossover award, hands down. Sorry Marvel.

The agreement with Disney and Warner Bros was that they could only use their biggest characters (Mickey and Donald, Bugs and Daffy) if the other corrosponding character had the exact same amount of screentime. This is why, in the movie, Bugs and Mickey are sharing scenes, and Daffy and Donald are sharing scenes.

It’s also worth mentioning that every single animator in the industry that wasn’t already working on something was called in to work on this film. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

take a look at this crowd shot

that’s nuts! It’s also a legitimately great movie, a noir comedy that ties in the actual history of Los Angeles alongside the history of animation comfortably alongside the gratuitous silliness. And Bob Hoskins is a fucking CHAMP for his acting in this, one of the earlier examples of green-screen acting with characters who mostly aren’t there and he can make you totally forget that he can’t see what’s happening a lot of the time.

Bob Hoskins is also a fucking champ because what he could see was Charles Fleischer (Roger Rabbit) delivering lines off-camera dressed like this:

This was his work environment.

A casual reminder that this was LONG before inter-company crossovers became a thing. The very idea of Bugs and Mickey officially sharing screen time was UNTHINKABLE in the 80s. And then throw in Betty Boop, Droopy Dog, Woody Woodpecker, and Felix the Cat, all from different studios/rightsholders? Yowza. (If only King Features had let them put Popeye in.)

same energy

How dare you. The animation for Shrek at the time was INSANE.

I feel like what people who were born after Shrek always miss is that it was actually a huge unironic cultural sensation. The minions want what Shrek had. The mcu sits awake at night cursing lord farquaad because they could never have a villain as well written as him

Shrek was a revolution for 3D CG animation.

Compare human figures in Toy Story (1995)

Toy Story 2 (1999)

Monsters Inc. (2001)

Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001)

and Shrek (2001)

Even Shrek himself counts

Look at that detail - Shrek and Farquaad have subtle stubble, Shrek has liver spots on his scalp, characters have pores on their skin, Shrek’s ears here even have a subtle transparency like real skin and cartilage. His linen tunic has scruffy and rough edges and lint bobbing on the shoulders. Shrek doesn’t just represent a step forward, it represented a BIG jump. Look back at the early 3D Pixar films and you’ll see a progression in what 3D software could effectively render - first plastic toys, then chitinous insects, then scaly or leathery monsters with an enterprising look into the astoundingly complicated field of hair and fur. Shrek is a joke now, but it revolutionised the field of animation. Shrek finally prompted the Academy to add an Award for Best Animated Feature; after Beauty and the Beast lost Best Picture a few years before, Shrek was the point they could no longer dismiss the art and effort that go into animated films.

It also killed interest in 2D animation in the west but that’s none of my business

Never forget that they had to tone down the detail on Fiona’s hair because it looked TOO realistic to the point it was distracting.

since my writing post was received pretty well, i though i’d make other, to give some insight on the racism in the film industry and why it’s still a big problem now as it was in the past.