The Return of the TCM Ten and a Nod to Chaplin’s Great Dictator
As some of you may have noticed, things have been a tad slow around here the last few weeks. No TCM picks, very few reviews and little else to enjoy. Mostly it was a lack of inspiration and the general struggle to come up with anything worth sharing lately. With TCM, the last two Stars of the Month before June were Robert Taylor, an actor I don’t care for at all, and Donna Reed, who not only wasn’t a movie star but didn’t even have the lead role in a single movie that TCM showed all month. I don’t think she was ever top-billed. Regardless, if you come back on Friday you’ll see a fresh TCM Ten for the first time in too long.
I’ve also recently been hammering away at reviews for what is now The Digital Fix and used to be called DVD Times. I’m quite proud of some of these and want to share a link to my write-up on Chaplin’s masterful The Great Dictator. In my moments of optimism a few people out there are reading and appreciating these reviews. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you Friday.
Nice zinger to the Chaplin critics. You’re right about the somewhat self-indulgent tendency of The Great Dictator, which happens to be one of its greatest strengths. Hinkel’s speech probably goes on a bit too long, but what I love is the British fury in Chaplin’s performance—that glint in his eye. No doubt he saw his country alone against such terrible odds and here’s where impassioned nationalism could be a beautiful, beautiful thing. I always get welled up when I think about Britain fighting alone, which is odd considering I’m not British. I think you can see the determinedness in The Great Dictator just as you can in Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech. I must admit that I’m rather fond of movies invoking nationalist sentiments (Pickup or Nashville) and I’ve never had problems with them like some people do.
Good to see you posting.
Note to self learn more about Robert Taylor :). Good to see you back on the TCM posts. I’ve always read (lurking) your posts, but don’t always reply.
A few of the well known critics of The Great Dictator have been Woody Allen (who doesn’t like any of the later films from Woody) and Groucho Marx. I’m glad I have the box set of The Great Dictator from WB (packaging’s a little big).
Hang in there, blogging and/or reviewing can be a lonely old game at times but ultimately there’s a lot of satisfaction to be gained.
IMO, your DVD Times/DigitalFix write-ups are the pick of the writing there so you ought to feel justifiably proud of your efforts. Just out of curiosity, what’s your take on the success or otherwise of the new platform? The whole thing has a very different feel to me and I don’t visit nearly as often as I used to. I’ve also noticed that I get significantly fewer hits for my blog from the DF links than was the case with DVD Times.
Thanks Livius. I’ve found that the personal satisfaction tends to hit me upon completing a piece I’m proud of, only to turn into something like self-doubt when it’s met by silence. Gradually, over time, I’ll sometimes go back and read what I wrote and become sort of defiant enough to appreciate it.
Visually, I like the look of the latest incarnation just fine. I grew to loathe the “new” DVD Times that preceded it. Still, the site does seem to be shedding view counts and that can be bothersome but I’m hoping that plugging away at adding new content might be part of the solution. Finding new reviewers with the ability and patience to write quality pieces for little more than free discs (often just screeners) and a few extra headaches seems virtually impossible nowadays. Just look at what passes for the non-technical parts of reviews at some of the other sites (not naming names, though one prominent site seems to have become more of an advertising gig and less of a helpful resource). I’m hopeful that The Digital Fix can retain a significant niche that includes a solid, intelligent readership. I’m really trying and will continue to try to pick up some of the slack left behind by other reviewers’ leaving and/or getting burned out, though it can be tough.
Yeah, I’ve no problem with the look either and I agree it is still a valuable resource - maybe more than that considering the shortcomings apparent at some competing sites. I don’t know, there just seems to have been a shift in focus and maybe a stronger emphasis on the more populist content at the expense of lower profile material. The forums, however, have continued on the kind of downward spiral that began some time ago and are now only a shadow of what they were in their heyday. I’ve essentially abandoned them and I’d hate to see the DF site follow down the same path.
I’ve expressed some displeasure over that shift in focus you too seem to have noticed. It hasn’t been a calculated shift I don’t think. What happened, as far as I can tell, was that the “new” DVD Times site had that large image of featured content that seemed to frequently promote newer, more popular films. I really disliked that, but the reasons were a combination of only being able to find high quality images for those sorts of titles - I tried repeatedly to track down high resolution images of some older and/or less mainstream films to no avail - and the own interests of the reviewers and admin. The great thing about DVD Times was that there had always been room for everything so I bristled at seemingly showcasing these big (often dumb) blockbuster types.
Anyway, things can improve at The Digital Fix in that regard because the featured images are smaller (and I’ve gradually won or maybe seized more freedom, for better or worse, in suggesting what to put there). In terms of what actually gets reviewed - and there were a ton of horror titles not too long ago it seemed like - that’s entirely up to the reviewing staff. Some of the writers who tended to come up with what I found to be the most interesting stuff have taken some time off away from reviewing. That’s clearly a problem that I don’t think has really been addressed so far. The only thing I know to do is try to increase my output, though the consistent lack of comments on my reviews lately makes me wonder how many people that will please. Again, that falls into the category of primarily writing for yourself and hoping for the best. If nothing else, the DVD/Blu-ray labels seem to appreciate the coverage (and I definitely appreciate their hard work in still bringing new things to the R2 marketplace when R1 has become so stagnant over the past year, year and a half).