goodfellas :D

Yes thats it.

I just watched Letters from Iwo Jima again, indeed a great movie.
What I don't get is, if Japan was basically defeated already in March 1945, why the need to drop not 1 but 2 atomic bombs on Japan in August. I guess that part of Japan being helpless was exaggerated in the movie?

My next movie is animation again and ends in the destruction of Tokyo (for the 2nd time)

For now - the best is still Hobbit.

#7

Ivan the Terrible, Part II

Although it was finished in 1946, Ivan the Terrible Part II was only released in 1958 after years of political censorship. Part of a planned trilogy, Part II tells of Ivan's attempt to consolidate his power and dispatch his political rivals. There is a melodramatic flair to Part II, but it matches the lunacy of Ivan and the twisted, surreal world in which he operated. Black and white photography is matched with two stunning sequences filmed in color, including the show-stopping banquet scene.

akira ?

Your next movie is Akira.  The mighties part of the Japanese military was their Navy and that was pretty much destroyed by March of 1945.  I think that Japan would have surrenered eventually even without the dropping of the two Atomic bombs or a ground invavison.  Droping the two bombs was just the fastest and most cost efficient way to force Japan to surrender.  As cruel as it was it was still less cruel then the massive fire bombing that occured earlier.

Posted my 7th pick Goodfellas my next movie is also based on real life events and the villain of the movie was rightfully hanged on September 13, 1946.

Correct, it's Akira.

This movie stands out most for me because of it's soundtrack. I already like the movie a lot before the blu-ray came out, but when I heard it on blu-ray I was completely blown away again. Imo the best use of surround sound in a movie.

The Japanese Dolby TrueHD track comes with a remastered 192khz/24 bit encode with completely restored music and sound effects. You can switch between the old english track (also in Dolby TrueHD) and the difference couldn't be greater. The english track sounds flat, dull and has all sounds confined to the front. (apart from the awful english voices) The new japanese track puts you right in the movie, all speakers are active and interacting all the time. Besides the wonderfully enveloping soundtrack Akira also knows when and how to use silence to grab your attention like no other.

There is also the theory of the hypersonic sound effect, although you can't hear above 20khz, the body can still detect and be influenced by higher frequencies in other ways. I can't confirm that, although my speakers are reasonably high end, they are rated upto 22khz frequency responce, 42khz range like 99% of speakers. I can hear a big difference between the lossy dolby digital 5.1 japanese track and the lossless one, unfortunately there is no direct comparison on the disc between 48khz lossless and 192khz lossless. Yet timing between channels and quality of the final analog signal is better served by higher resolution sound, which is already apparent with the 96khz track from Baraka. I wish more movies would use HD sound, for me 2/3rds of the immersion in movies comes from sound.

All the sound in the world can't save a bad movie, luckily Akira is a great movie about rivalry, corruption, dangerous ambition, and continuous escalation that simply won't stop. Great movie, special thanks to Shoji Yamashiro for the musical score.

I got Fallen angels in the mail yesterday, and watched it last night.

Cool movie, great experience. Never seen anything like it before. Awesome use of color and camera work. Those intimate fish eye lens close up shots, half hiding behind something put you right next to the characters. Either the camera or the characters are always moving turning the whole movie into some weird dance, great music too.

Thanks for listing that one Kljesta, will definitely watch it again soon. The characters may appear strange but Christopher Doyle (director of cinematography) manages to top them in the documentary short imo.