HIGHLY RECOMMENDED – PART 3 – Old / Black & White / Recent Movies

Old / Black and White Movies

The Day of the Jackal – Flawless thriller aesthetically presented and Day_of_the_Jackal_1973_Posterbrilliantly executed. I was falling asleep and I wanted any old movie b/w or old song that would put me in deep sleep but as things turned out, I was wide awake, refreshed at the end of the film. I have not seen any thriller that has covered so much of minute details that even a layman can understand the sophistication carried out during the investigation without any hiccups, slow movements or flaws in between, the day of the jackal is one of the perfect thriller that keeps you engrossed or at the edge of the seat till the very end.  A Classical Gold Mine!!!

modern-times-poster-starring-charles-chaplinModern Times 1936 – Another Charlie Chaplin movie that I Laughed like a hell right from the beginning. It was just fantastic and best of the three movies which I have seen recently of him. The factory scene is one hell of a laugh riot and so till the first half. Then it takes a romantic angle but still it keeps you smiling & laughing till the end.

M 1931 – If bollywood came up with Special 26 in 2013 let me remind you that there was a film with Special secrete agents (you will be surprised) in 1931 which is 1000 times better than the so called S26. It is a short film compared to other white and black movies but the idea behind the movie makes it a Classic. A serial child killer has created a havoc 2012-09-27 05.31.16in the city and police couldn’t even find a single clue about the culprit. Due to continuous harassment and raids by police, criminals take the task of finding and killing the serial killer in their own hand.

220px-Double_indemnityDouble Indemnity 1944 – Another brilliant movie with brilliant narration by the actor presented as an anecdote of an Insurance Sales man who obliges to surrender himself for the crime he committed with regret. It is totally engrossing and keeps your mind engaged with “what will happen next” type of worries. The boss of the Insurance sales man has done one hell of an incredible job, his body language, conversations, high pitched arguments, his tactical deduction skills are some of the highlights of this movie that makes a must watch.

220px-Goldrush2The Gold Rush 1925 – These few silent films of Charlie Chaplin is pure Gems. I am making sure that I preserve these films for long enough to watch even after my kids grow up. It still brings natural laugh out of you so much so that your stomach starts aching and it also makes you emotional with some touchy story in second half. The expressions, body language of Charli Chaplin is unbeatable.

Chinatown – Another fantastic flick that deserves every accolade it received. Jack Nicolson was perfect in the role of a private detective and his body language added up to his one of the finest performance.  He is hired by an impostor to keep an eye on her chinatownhusband that leads him into more lies, deception and the dark secretes of the murderer of the man he once used to spy.

Recent Movies

Tropa de elite – Elite Squad 2007 – Brilliant and must watch movie 38088about the Elite Squad of Rio De Jaeniro called BOPE (Special Police Operations Squad of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police) and is the first installment of the series which is based more specifically on BOPE, its fight against Drug dealers, scumbags, corrupt officers etc… This Installment starts with the recruitment and training of BOPE squad and also to find a perfect replacement of its Captain Nascimento, that is narrated by Nacimento himself.

Elite Squad 2 2010 The Enemy within – Fantastic and Mind-blowing stuff from the director Jose Padhila and excellent narration, acting and performance by Wagner Moura in an Epic of its own kind. Nacimento – A Lieutenant Colonel in BOPE (Special Police elite-squad-dvdOperations Squad of the Rio de Janeiro Military Police) is promoted to Undersecretary of Public Safety for Intelligence after quite a showdown in one of the Prison Riot unwillingly in order to gather support of public which embraced Nacimento and his operation. However he soon realizes that his system that helped eradicate drug peddlers, dealer etc…. from the state is not the bigger problem but the system itself is the bigger problem. One of the best movies of last decade and Highly Recommended!!!

New World 2013 – Brilliant movie and though it looks inspired from Internal affairs/the departed it has its own uniqueness. Even if there isn’t much of real action, the movie pumps up the flow of adrenaline in your body. Excellent performance from the new world 2013lead, his friend and police chief Kang. The attitude of the movie, the psychological game played by the police, the loyalty and betrayal is executed brilliantly with excellent editing & special thanks to Nirjhar.

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16 Comments
  1. sputnik 11 years ago

    Disagree that The Day of the Jackal is a flawless thriller. Firstly the way the guy guesses Jackal means CHA CAL and how they land up at that Charles guy’s who happens to be abroad but whose passport is found at home with a Dominican Republic stamp but no exit stamp which leads them to search for new passports is height of incredibilty. Wouldn’t they be looking for the guy whose picture is on the passport?

    Jackal creates a fake passport by visiting a grave of a kid. Why does he need a fake passport in the first case? And if he is this great professional assassin would he not have a fake passport/s already? They magically know that Jackal must have created a fake passport using a dead person’s DOB and they find out his fake name? Even if he used this fake name to get in why would he keep using that name everywhere.

    And when he creates a new fake identity why would he tell the guy who he starts living with the same name?

    Spoiler Alert The Deputy Police Commissioner asking that police constable or whomever the last minute was totally ridiculous. Why did he suddenly decide to ask him?

    And Jackal killing all those people with those hand chops or whatever looked so ridiculous. How did he kill the woman he slept with? The surveillance scene that they show of the guy who goes to the post office looked like it was shot with a video camera. How does he not know someone is filming?

    The movie was slow paced and it took so much time for the build up. The indoor cop scenes reminded me of old TV serials. The outdoor scenes were very well shot.

    Edward Fox was very good as Jackal. Michael Lonsdale was good as the Deputy Commissioner.

  2. Author
    FS 11 years ago

    Spoiler Alert

    About the name Charles Charltrop

    I think you didn’t hear the conversation they had very well. One of his associate said that they got unconfirmed report abt an englishman mixed up with an assassination of dominican dictator “Trujillo” (flashback: trujillo – same name aroused when they decided to chose the assassin) and his name is charles harold charlton. he was the carribean rep for small armament firm. Now the jackal code name was more of a testimony or confession from the right hand man of the person who is planning the current assassination. Now, they doubted charles charlton coz of the rumour of his association in the murder of trujillo not coz of code name jackal.. He said may be coincidently his jackal could be first three letters of charles and chalrton to which even he laughed.

    Secondly, real charles disappearance from his apartment made the audience skeptical but their investigation had little effect coz since the passport was present in the apartment it was obvious that he had fled with different passport,. Detective even told every ministers and officials will get the passport photo copy & instructed how to handle it. Since they didn’t know whether he was present in the country or not they had to look out every hotel with that name.

    About birth certificate:

    Since the person was flying with different passport obviously he would impersonate other person (dead to be safer side) who could be of his age by now. thats why they asked to check the application against the death certificate.

    ” Even if he used this fake name to get in why would he keep using that name everywhere.” — lol, what sort of question is this? if he can get in without caught then why he shouldn’t use the fake name everywhere? suppose he gets busted obviously he will have another fake id and thats wht is shown in the film. And why would someone use fake name? to keep it hidden? lol

    “Spoiler Alert The Deputy Police Commissioner asking that police constable or whomever the last minute was totally ridiculous. Why did he suddenly decide to ask him?”
    — But he also asked many other police officials and why didn’t you noticed that in the beginning of the procession?

    PS: I think you should watch the movie again carefully. Either you are confused or over reacting. Yes there are cinematic liberties like the surveilience or the last scene but they are not flaws.

    • sputnik 11 years ago

      I did hear the conversation. The cops raiding a place and finding the guy is out of the country but his passport home which makes them assume that he is travelling on a fake passport which he only applied recently is too much of a stretch.

      If he is a professional assassin who killed the Trujillo dictator and may be others in other countries too he would already have a fake passport. He would not need to go and apply for a passport just then so that it becomes easier for them to track him by looking at recent passport applications.

      Just because he used a fake name to get into the country he does not have to go around using the same name to people he met who are not officials. By doing this he is leaving a trail. When his fake name is found out those people will tell the cops oh we met him here. Only a idiot would do that and he is supposed to be very smart.

      And why would he take the risk of the woman calling the cops by going to her house. Read on IMDB that in the book the woman leaves the hotel before the cops raid and so she is not questioned and that he stays with her for a week and then kills her. In the book he kills the guy just after reaching his house.

      The Deputy Commissioner should have noticed something strange and then talk to the cop and accidentally find out. Its like he already knew the answer that’s why he asked the cop the right question and he told him what he did which leads them to his hiding spot.

      • Author
        FS 11 years ago

        you didn’t get it, do you?

        There is no confirmation whether the hired assassin is the real assassin of dictator or was he the lone person to stage the assassination. British intelligence said “rumours that englishman may have been mixed up”. The person who hired the assassin said its truth coz of limited market of such personnel. So it could be duggan (assassin) masquerading as charles (fake) staged the assassination or both charles as well as duggan together might have staged the assassination. Since his fake name is already busted and famous in england he have to have fake name for next mission. Why would he continue with the same fake name for every mission? Didn’t real charles show up in his apartment at the end? what will you make up for that?

        Even if would have been in the apartment after interrogation they would knew all about him or his partners in crime or whether he was really innocent, his partners hiding place blah blah blah and whole movie would have taken different path from there on.

        As Tulmul said, book is exceptionally brilliant and obviously very few who have read the novel might have liked the movie as it’s hard to bring such novel characters live on screen.

        “And why would he take the risk of the woman calling the cops by going to her house” — As if he knew cops went to her apartment and interrogated her lol. it is known to audience and not the assassin. As soon she disclosed it, he killed her.

        • sputnik 11 years ago

          The movie shows him as a lone assassin. There is no mention of him working with others. We know from ending that Charles is different – that he is not the assassin. And in the book they give explanation of who he was and why does not have a exit stamp. So its just fooling the audience. When a Hindi movie like Special 26 or A Wednesday does it people have a problem.

          There is nothing in the movie to say thet the assassin faked Charles identity – his passport is at home. So he did not steal his passport and if he stole it why would he put it back? He steals passport of another guy in the movie.

          So if he can steal someone’s passport why would he go through the whole process of applying for a birth certificate and applying for a passport based on that? That whole thing is there just so that they can find out from the newly applied passport thing. And the guy just says go and look for passports applied in last 3 months and check them against death certificates. How did he know that’s how the assassin did it? He could have stolen a passport or created a fake passport. The writer/director create something and someone magically finds out that’s how its done.

          People apply for birth certificates in their city. So there is no way that they would be able to know which city he applied in to go and look at the registrar in pre-computer days to find the name.

          He is already told that Jackal is blown on phone so why would he continue to use the name Duggan? He leaves the hotel early when he had booked it for 2 days. So he knows they are going to come for him. And he should also know that they will interview everyone at the hotel and specially her because they were sitting together.

          After he leaves the hotel he calls the number which tells him to lay low and that’s when he changes the number plates.

          And after driving rashly and almost killing himself he starts using the white car. So why would he run away in that woman’s car after murdering her. To make it easier for cops to track?

  3. Tulmul 11 years ago

    I have Read book long back, memeory fails me now and can’t participate lively discussion happening here..

    As I said, Novel was part reality and part fiction. About hitman, his name was Carlos in novel, and i dont rmbr was name inspired from famous carlos or he got inspired from novel… have they shown carlos hiding gun in crutches in novel?? Most say If ever carlos wld have been successful the history of france wld have changed for ever…. as usual how carlos was killed is secret and ending will alwys be with loopholes as what really transpired in end is top secret still…

    as you dont read books, so cant say another book for which I went here and there in India is Jack Higgins, ” Eagel has Landed ” . This book was most favourite of Jaddu Krishnamurthy So I started looking for it… Its again based on reality and fiction and rumors swarming during hitlers WW with Allies… It is assume as Winston churchill was most imp cog of the wheel so he had many impersonations so that he is saved and how Hitler plans to Kill Him.. Its also adapted to screen with same name but again movie loses its tension and grip which book possesses in abundance …

  4. sputnik 11 years ago

    From what I read on IMDB the book has less plot holes.

    I watched the movie again this time with subtitles. Now they do show the Deputy Commissioner speaking to some cops initially and then he just decides to tap on that cop and ask him. Now we were earlier told there are going to be 100,000 people in security. So what’s the chance he gets to meet the same guy who let in Jackal. If he noticed something abnormal like may be the only window open in that building and asked him it would have made more sense.

    • Author
      FS 11 years ago

      Even after u watched with subtitles u still stick to your arguments abt the assassin & his passport & birth certificate issue?

      Yeah, last scene could hav made more sense if they did wht u said but still sometimes benefit of doubts shud go to the story teller n he balances tht with failure to kill the president with first shot. If he had it on first shot then killing of assassin wud hav meant nothing thn.

      • sputnik 11 years ago

        Yes because he could have stolen a passport and used it like he does later. Secondly since he is a professional assassin he may already have a bunch of fake passports applied using dead people. The whole elaborate thing of applying for a passport recently and them finding out just like that was too much for me.

        Though they built up the suspense well the actual De Gaulle was not killed so they could not have shown him as being killed in the movie.

        • Author
          FS 11 years ago

          Sputnik – We all have seen govt secrete agents having multiple passports of different names & nationalities in recent films but in this film they have also shown hw 2 hav passports with fake identity (a kind of loophole tht existed) & may b tht portion made u yawn but for me it was an interesting insight which is why i said with minute details yet interesting

  5. Anjanpur685Miles 11 years ago

    Have seen only 1 movie out of this – day of jackal and Chinatown. Liked Chinatown very much – mostly for its Hitchcock feel – I know its not by Hitchcock but I am fond of him and havent seen much of Polanski.

    I guess “The day of jackal” is different than the Bruce Willis “The Jackal” – I had seen the later one and I had liked it back in late 90s – but on repeat viewing I had same thoughts as Sputnik. Not sure if it was frame to frame remake or story was different.

  6. Tulmul 11 years ago

    Don’t forget the time period. Its early 60’s and don’t expect passport scrutiny or forging to be caught as now with all latest technology… See movie in that time period. my 2 cents

    • sputnik 11 years ago

      Yes that’s why I don’t think he would have had to apply for a real passport using a dead person back then. Also I find it hard that someone can so easily say “Go check for newly applied passports against death certificates”. There should have been some evidence that points him in that direction.

      Even if they go checking against death certificates its almost an impossible task in the pre-computer 60s as people apply for birth certificates in their cities and they would have to manually check those records in multiple cities of UK and match against death certificate details of every person who applied for a passport.

  7. Mmj Bhalgamda 10 years ago

    Modern Times The good film…..

    • Author
      FS 10 years ago

      Indeed. Watching with kids is much more fun than watching alone. Its a family entertainer… Watched it twice the same day and both the times laughed out loud…

  8. sputnik 9 years ago

    Thanks @password for recommending Double Indemnity. Had been in my queue for a long time since you recommended it here but kept putting it off as it was a Black & White movie from 1944. It was expiring from Netflix here so had to finally watch it.

    Loved it and agree with you completely – “It is totally engrossing and keeps your mind engaged with “what will happen next” type of worries. The boss of the Insurance sales man has done one hell of an incredible job, his body language, conversations, high pitched arguments, his tactical deduction skills are some of the highlights of this movie that makes a must watch.”

    Here is my comment.

    “Excellent movie. Its a 1944 Black & White movie but is still engrossing. No wonder its considered a classic. Billy Wilder’s direction was excellent and the dialogues were brilliant. The movie was nominated for 7 Oscars but it did not win any.

    Fred MacMurray was excellent in the lead role. Barbara Stanwyck was excellent too as the Femme fatale. Edward G. Robinson was absolutely brilliant as the claims adjuster. Its a shame that he was not even nominated for an Oscar for his brilliant performance.”

    https://tanqeed.com/movies-you-watched-this-month-november-2014/comment-page-1/#comment-145605

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