Films that teach you stuff that is good to know

[Tommy Tainant]

Just been watching The Kentuckian with Burt Lancaster. Havent seen it in 50 years but it is well worth a watch if you get a chance.

One of the key scenes in the film sees Burt humiliated when he sends a fresh water pearl to the President. He thinks that they are valuable and the whole town laughs at him when he finds out they are worthless.

Ive always remembered that fresh water pearls have no value since then.

Its strange how some facts become more accessible when you sugar the pill a bit.

Northside 777 is another film that taught me stuff. How lie detectors work is one of them.

Have you ever watched a film and learned something ?

 

[Confederate Soldier]

I watched the 1993 Movie Gettysburg when I was 11 or 12, and since have been an avid researcher into the lives of civil war soldiers, and a collector of old battlefield found relics.

 

[Adrenochrome Junkie]

Pretty much what is happening right now.

You’re on the side of the lockdown facists

 

[Tommy Tainant]

I learned how to cook "grits" from My Cousin Vinny.

 

[candycorn]

I learned how to cook "grits" from My Cousin Vinny.

Thats where I learned the laws of discovery. LOL. Marissa Tomei was good in that one.

 

[whitehall]

Books teach you stuff that's good to know. Films, not so much.

 

[Polishprince]

Watching "The Conqueror" I learned that the Tartar people were white when The Duke referred to white chick Susan Heyward as "that Tartar woman".

 

[JOSweetHeart]

I learned from the U.S. Marshalls film that certain people who come to America can only be deported should they be arrested for anything. In other words, a charge can not be brought against them.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

 

[Tommy Tainant]

Books teach you stuff that's good to know. Films, not so much.

Films can be more fun than dry history books though.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Years ago....
Emeril Live
Good Eats
More recent...
Alone
Naked and Afraid
About 50 Documentaries

 

[Flopper]

Just been watching The Kentuckian with Burt Lancaster. Havent seen it in 50 years but it is well worth a watch if you get a chance.

One of the key scenes in the film sees Burt humiliated when he sends a fresh water pearl to the President. He thinks that they are valuable and the whole town laughs at him when he finds out they are worthless.

Ive always remembered that fresh water pearls have no value since then.

Its strange how some facts become more accessible when you sugar the pill a bit.

Northside 777 is another film that taught me stuff. How lie detectors work is one of them.

Have you ever watched a film and learned something ?

Both fine films, however, I wouldn't be too quick to accept a scriptwriters words of wisdom.

Remember the movie "Resident Evil" where the simple fact that hair and nails continue to grow after death becomes part of the foundation for the movie's plot. The fact is hair and nails do not continue to grow after death. They just appear to. Then there's "Water World" where we learn that the melting of all sea ice would cause the seas to rise 25,000 feet to cover the world with water wiping out all civilization. However the fact is the melting of all sea ice would cause seas to rise 225 feet, a real problem for costal cities but it certainly would not wipe out all civilization. And there's the 1973 movie "Double Jeopardy" where apparently no one connected with the production actually read the definition of Double Jeopardy.

I think back in 1955 when "The Kentuckian" was made, if Lancaster got it wrong about the pearls, many movie watcher would be shaking their head in disgust. I remember seeing a movie with my dad that showed an airport with a commercial jet airline taking off and he starts laughing and shacking his head. After the movie I found out why. The movie was set in 1952 and the first commercial jet airliner service didn't start in the US till the late 50's.

I think today's audiences are so accustom to realist fantasy and where many movies are mostly created on a computer, actually facts tend to be immaterial and most people don't even question them. When Bruce Willis explains in a Die Hard movie that you put a Glock 7 through a metal detector and it will sail right through undetected. The fact is there is no Glock 7 and Glocks have far to much metal to go through a metal detector. The problem is that many people remember these tidbits of information and believe them. Guns dealers are often asked if they have a Glock 7.