Reviews

Love it, except too many stereotypes of "typical Texas families". The writers must think Texas is nothing but overweight Southern Baptists, no blacks, no Latinos, no Hindis or Vietnamese.. The United States of Hollywoodland" needs to burst out of their bubble and go see the rest of the country. An ethnic Vietnamese Catholic who is clueless about his faith, is too much of a stretch for me. Tan replies to Sheldon's question about what Catholics believe in and he says, "...we pray to Jesus, and Mary, and the guy in Rome with the big pointy hat." Sheesh! It's like watching a 1970s disaster movie with senior military officers having their uncut hair trying to escape from under their their caps, looking like Qaddafi.

As for scenes, Texas state and FM highway signs, and Louisiana state highway signs, rural scenery, and the NASA visit, in road trip episode scenes all make it look pretty realistic. I have to wonder if some of the episodes were shot on location although obviously the high school and the subdivision and Radio Shack were on a back lot.

I recall in this episode that upon seeing in the Time Tunnel, an image of numerous waves breaking over each other, the General calls them "the tidal wave". Scientists, even in the 1950s and 1960s, did not refer to tsunamis as "tidal waves", but as "tsunamis", the Japanese lexicon, or "seismic sea waves". In books I read on the subject, it was stated in each that this phenomenon had nothing to do with astronomical tides.

One might think that the writers would have been be up on that subject. To their credit, the images shown appear much like the videos of the 2004 Indian Ocean event, and of the 2011 tsunami in Japan. The issue remains as to why more research was not put in.

When Dr. Ann McGregor sees the image of a dark, dust filled vortex in the Time Tunnel, the General says, "...I'm seeing a miracle...". She then becomes exasperated and states, fuming, that "...a tornado is a natural phenomenon caused by a centrifugal whirlpool of wind...". Although centrifugal forces play a major role in tornadoes, and hurricanes for that matter, they are not the cause, but the effect. In any case they are not "whirlpools" like whirlpools of water, but vortices. Even in the 1960s when knowledge of tornadogenesis was in its relatively undeveloped compared to today, the difference between a tornado and dust devil, which this phenomenon would more likely be climatologically, should have been considered by the writers of what is supposed to be a science fiction series. Science fiction is more or less developed from science fact, and back then, tornadoes and dust devils were known to be caused, all or in part, by updrafts and attendant vortex stretching. One might think that, whether McGregor believed in God or not, or His presence in the spinning cloud of dust, her scientific mind should have been more disciplined before she spoke, especially in fields which she would neither specialized in, or even gave limited study to.

I always enjoyed the prospect of time travel as a teenager, and I enjoyed, and still enjoy now, this series. However I can see why many lost interest with what are, IMHO, scientific faux pas.

Also, I don't know what one author meant about the "current climate", but she is correct that including Scripture in scripts was not as controversial in 1967 as now.

This is about the 200th moronic disaster that found some way to destroy LA. Does Hollywood really hate their host city that much? At least on Independence Day (1996) they destroyed Moscow, New York and Houston, so they spread the "devastation" around. The last time they picked on Houston was that killer bee movie in the 70's, "Swarm" was it? And when have they last "done" Chicago, Atlanta, or Seattle? Or the City By The Bay? I am glad I don't have cable. I am trapped visiting someone who does, and they want to see this garbage and tweet about it.

I think after being imprisoned with this mental grief, I'll go home and watch "Gymkhata" on youtube just to balance this abomination out of my mind with another.

This is a prime example of what TV can be. I enjoy the mental puzzle it presents, instead of the mass feeding of special effects, over-driven color, and whatnot of CSI Miami and shows like it. The perps are portrayed as human beings with motives, not these diabolical one dimensional monsters you see so much.

I just watched "The Adventure of the Eccentric Engineer" featuring the late Ed McMahon who played an inventor considered formerly brilliant, but now considered senile, working in his electric model train workshop in a quest to engineer automation into the economy. The dialogue spoke of "toy" trains (which hearkens back to another memorable quote in "The Flight Of The Phoenix" (1965) concerning "toy" airplanes). The engineer "programmed" (their words) the trains to stop for gate lowing and open switches, and used a spur to send messages with the main house.

Anyway, my two cents.

Brian

I found this film to be as much a brilliant masterpiece and just as much a tear jerker as "Driving Miss Daisy". Bruce Beresford gets deep into his subject, often times closely examining things. The muffin Ben Stevenson offered to Li was one, and it was quite funny being thought of by Li as being offered horse dung. Others included dancers working with each other on technique, correcting each others' posture and steps. Details like this pull the audience into the time and place of the movie, getting them really involved. Beresford got the overall story of Li, and the development of the man, very well.

The music was so touching, especially the Chinese, music which pulls something deep in my emotional makeup. Being of Irish descent, I detected something of its character sounding quite Gaelic, particularly the meter. The classical ballet music always gets the heart racing.

I also add points for filming on location. The bold move by Beresford to film in China despite the "missing" permission of the government, was something that shows the man has guts. The ambiance of Li's childhood and adolescence would have been lost without the authentic Chinese landscape that any other location, in any other part of Asia, could likely not provide. This includes the brief appearance of one beautiful steam powered train that caught the ambiance of life there in the early '70s. With the Houston scenes at the Miller Theatre in Hermann Park, The Wortham Theater Center, and China Garden restaurant, being filmed on location, you got the feel of one of the places where Li actually lived much of his life, and the whole history of evolving events.

However, some things I don't understand. One is why Li, on arrival at the airport, was not greeted by the Academy Principal, Clare Duncan, as written in his book. He was on a scholarship and it would not be protocol for the Principal to be left out of the greeting party. There are also some things I don't understand about location management, that is, why the other outside scenes were not filmed in Houston. The Chinese Consulate, as shown, was on a very hilly street, presumably in Sydney, as was the street outside the Li apartment, stated in a critique in IMDb, as being near Darling Street there. Both could have been better filmed on location in Houston, which is notoriously flat compared to Sydney. Li described the Consulate in his book as being located on Montrose Blvd, near a Walgreens. Both locations (that I believe were in Australia), were supplied with cars, mostly American, and really BIG, with left hand drive. It must have been a nightmare to arrange for vehicles there, for obvious reasons regarding Australian traffic regulations. It should have been in Houston, with less hassle. The Academy exterior was apparently at the stunningly beautiful Carriage Works in Sydney, said to be Sydney's home for contemporary arts and culture. It is magnificent, but the Houston Ballet and Academy came from humble beginnings. In 1980 it was housed in a more earthly set of digs, a storefront in a strip mall on Colquitt Avenue, off Kirby Drive and Richmond Avenue. The building appears (GoogleMaps) to be there now as an art gallery. It may have been "borrowable" if for just for a couple of hours to quickly hang a Houston Ballet sign in front for effect, and shoot a few feet of film. If not, well, Houston is full of look-alike strip mall locations. Sydney and Houston are both beautiful cities, each in their own way, but the history of that era of the Houston Ballet would have been better set in that lowly strip mall.

I have no critique for the city not being shown as it was 30 years ago, as some here did. The Director can't do everything as budget parameters probably precluded elimination of post-1979 buildings using CGI. In the book Li referred to the Houston skyline as "spectacular", and it was so when filmed, so what's the difference? That, and use of sound stage shots for interiors, would have made NO difference in the fine quality of this picture. The main artistic problem to me lay in exterior location management for "missed opportunities" to keep the feel of Houston in 1980. Houston in the 1970s was well exemplified in "Terms Of Endearment". "Driving Miss Daisy" had that feel for Atlanta from the late 1940s to early 1970s.

Small problem with the Charles Foster portrayal. Not knowing what the man sounds like, the "Houston" accent sounded like a mouthful of taffy. Native Houstonian accents swing between a "Texas twang" and no accent at all.

Now for the biggest problem, which is no fault of the Director. That is: distribution. This picture was released in the summer of 2009. As I write this, it will not be available in the USA on DVD until the end of March, or beginning of April, 2011. This is almost two years thence, and I am flabbergasted at the idea that a quality motion picture like this, by an acclaimed Director, would have been delayed a whole year to be shown to American audiences, and that in very limited numbers of theaters. Some theaters in Chicago and St. Louis have been showing it for months, perhaps still now. It seems most likely the picture was shown in art houses, for lack of availability of the multi-cinemas, which were generally showing "Vampires Suck", "Bad Company", et cetera. Beresford's movie does paint the United States of America and her people in a very favorable light, pretty much as Li did in his book. So is it unclear if distribution was affected by anti-USA sentiments, objection by the Chinese Government, or whatever, but it is quite suspect.

OK recalling the bar fight and the one armed man..did the patrons at the bar call Jack some sort of name? Did the one armed man at the bar call Jack some sort of name? What was it? Anyone know? I vaguely recall Jack saying "no one should have to take being called a name like that.", or words to that effect. I don't think I have seen this for at least 30 years, but it was sure a memorable picture. And for Kirk Douglas designating this his favorite motion picture he acted in, well, like President Reagan said, "the best thing for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse." Perhaps that is why Kirk Douglas loved this movie as his favorite.