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George C. Scott Dead at 71
ozzie writes "George C. Scott, the actor we all know and love from such unbelievably great movies as Dr. Strangelove and Patton died yesterday at the age of 71. Check out ABCNews for more. " Given the current poll, this seems strangely connected - in any case, I remember his role in Dr. Strangelove with fondness. If you haven't seen that classic, rent it tonight.
Personally, George C. Scott holds a special place in my heart because he is in two of my favorite movies of all time: Dr. Stangelove and Patton. While he was definately a character actor, I think that George C. Scott plays the powerful person who has a fatal weakness like no other. He had the ability to present a character that could otherwise be dissmissed as a typical arrogant bastard with a skill that I think is still unmatched.
I have been reading past interviews with him this morning and it is very refreshing to see how humble he was. Check out here for a very good bit on his life. It was done before he died.
Come play Heroes of Might and Magic Mini online.
Patton (the movie) does not actually glorify war or even Patton (the man) himself. I have always felt that the movie exposes that while Patton was a brilliant military tactician that he was a flawed individual: he had a bad temper, he had more care for history and his image than his men, and that he was a prima dona.
:-)
But at least he admitted it.
-Markvs
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
"[Madam], please forgive me if I get an erection, and please forgive me if I do not."
Anyone know anything more about this?
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My mom's going to kick you in the face!
I saw the headline and thought "That's weird" I just rented Dr. Strangelove from Netflix.com yesterday on DVD. It'll be here probably tomorrow so that I can watch it for the first time. Of course, I'm only posting this now that I've confimed mine has shipped, as I don't want the whole of Slashdot attempting to rent the DVD I want *grin* For those who haven't checked it out before, Netflix is pretty cool, they rent DVDs through the mail. No I don't own any part of them, or get any money from them, it's just a handy service, since my local video store has a rather small (but still growing) collection of DVDs.
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When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --Robert A. Heinlein
His facial expressions and gestures are even better than his quotes in Strangelove. Watch the movie and just pay close attention to those. It'll leave you in tears. It's even funnier than any of the three Sellers characters or Slim Pickins' plane ride.
:-)
Strangelove's brief apperance was pretty good tho
Fun fact about the movie: The plane captain was going to be a fourth Sellers role, but he was unsure about the Texan accent, so they used Slim Pickins instead. And, when the movie was being filmed, Kubrick didn't tell Pickins that the movie was a comedy. He thought he was the hero.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwww.....
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grappler
Vidi, Vici, Veni
He didn't want to be Scrooge, but aced it anyway. "I played him as the lonliest man in the world." he said, and managed to go through an entire spectrum of emotion in two hours. From his solitary Christmas eve meal (of Scotch oatmeal, very much in period) to cowering in fear at the thought of his own demise, to hoisting Tiny Tim aloft in wild manic glee, he made you BELIEVE the story, so much so that I kept saying "This is modern. This is not Dickens at all. The scriptwriters must have tossed this or that in for TV." Nope. I wanted to break my own nose. And I'm a girl.
teleny, friend of cats.
Here is a link to the IMDB info page on Mr. Scott. I think it is safe to say that he will be greatly missed. It's just too bad that in recent years he has mostly been in TV guest appearances.
To quote his character from Dr. Strangelove... "Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines." Well, now you don't need one. :-(
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
The stareotypical thing about geeks is that they rarely fit into a stereotype.
;)
Yes, we're all quite technophilitical (new word!) but our interests span the full spectrum of all other groups.
Besides, politics and philosophy are a means of programming people, as well as programs that run on people - who are actually just massively parallel, distributed computers. So there!
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
Dr. Strangelove is a satire. The characters are based on real-life people and events, just exaggerated. A number of people have been nominated as the models for Dr. Strangelove. Much of the effectiveness of the movie is that it isn't far removed from the reality of the time.
The USA and Western Europe were in the middle of a cold war with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. Stalin was dead, but his memory was fresh in many people's minds. The USA was trying to come up with a strategy for fighting a war in the nuclear era. The Strategic Air Command was on nuclear alert 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In American politics, perceived "bomber gaps" and "missile gaps" were major political issues. The USA was concerned that Communism would spread to South-East Asia and Latin America, just as it had in Eastern Europe.
If you don't have some of the historical context, it is easy to write off the characters in Dr. Strangelove as right-wing lunatics detached from reality.
It is too easy to say that the people in some earlier era were stupid, primitive and irrational, as opposed to the more intelligent, evolved and sophisticated people of today (us, of course).
Priest: "I saw a bible by your bedside, do you find time to read it?"
Patton: "Every god damn day" =]
Patton: "Rommell! you magnificent bastard... I READ YOUR BOOK!"
GSC as the general in Dr Strangelove: "You can't let him in here... he'll.... he'll see the big board!"
when he and the ambasador from russia are fighting,
President: "Gentlemen.. you can't fight in the war room!" hehe oh the irony
And the whole scene about the bombers flyin' in low, "if the pilot is real good" =] heh oh my
argh I know I'm forgetting some REAL good ones... lets make this a quote thread =]
Patton: "My soul thirsth for thee",
Ecc
The Yahoo / Reuters news piece notes that he twice turned down awards -- first a best actor Oscar for Patton, then an Emmy the next year for an Arthur Miller play. Turned them down on grounds that "he did not feel it was right to compete with other actors."
I can't speak for anyone else, but I admire that. Would any of today's actors do that? I doubt it.
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Was he the lunatic American camp commander with the thing about flouridisation? That was a great role, and played hilariously.
On a similar note, what's the name of the actor who played the air force pilot in Dr. Stranglove? The one that ends up sitting on top of his plane's H-bomb. I've seen him in loads of films playing tobacco chewing Louisianans (at least I guess that's what his accent was).
Chris Wareham
There was a mid-eighties British band that lifted their name from the film All ABout Eve. Unfortunately they went from being an exciting live band to a dismal studio band - something to do with signing to a major label with big ideas on what they should sound like ...
Chris Wareham
Oh great. now Blockbuster is going to get /.-ed.