What are your favourite films?

.

Parents
  • I only really watch old black and white movies and there’s loads of them on YouTube. I don’t have a television so I watch them on my phone or laptop. I’ve been having a feast of them over the last couple of weeks. I hardly ever know who anybody is (they all look the same, to me ;)) and I can never guess what their facial expressions etc are saying, but I love them. They always tell such wonderful stories, they’re not too long, the plot lines aren’t complicated, they always have a happy ending and they always show real caring and compassionate natures. They always teach you something about love and kindness, honesty and integrity. And the social rules are much easier to follow back then. The films that are pre code are interesting. They had more strong female characters. 

  • Me too, BlueRay.  Haven't had a TV since 2003.  I've found a channel where I can watch re-runs of old TV series from the '70s and '80s.  I've myself been having a feast of The Sweeney and Minder just recently - all filmed in the London streets I grew up in, and in a London long gone now... Worried

  • That sounds fab Tom, I love programmes from that era which showed the streets etc as they were then. I love walking around streets and looking at old buildings etc and imagining what the people were like who walked the streets years before me. 

  • I travelled around the States and Canada a few years ago.  Loved it.  If you enjoy reading, you might like 'Blue Highways', by William Least-Heat Moon.  In the mid-80s, following his divorce, he left his university teaching post and travelled around the US in a rickety old Ford van that he'd converted by installing a camp bed and a bucket for a loo!  He travelled only on the 'blue routes' on the map - the minor roads.  It's a fascinating insight into small-town life in the US, but is also about one thinking man's personal journey towards some kind of inner peace and acceptance.  I must read it again sometime.

  • That’s great and I too also have a fascination with small town America. I’m currently following a woman on YouTube who’s travelling around America and I love it when she goes through small towns, but looking them up on google earth is even more exciting! WoW, I’ve got loads of options now! Minder was ok. I only watched tv if I couldn’t get out of it so I wouldn’t say I was ever into any of the programs but some I could tolerate more than others. I am interested in looking the places up though and I love google earth. Cheers. This is way more exciting than being out ‘socialising’ with a bunch of nt’s! :-) 

  • I'm always on either Google Maps or Google Earth, looking for places I read about or see in a film.  I have a fascination with small-town America, and love just picking an interesting-sounding place at random and going down to street level to see the shops and bars, and the lie of the landscape.  iMdb gives locations for all films and TV shows listed on there.  If you liked Minder, too, there's a dedicated website where Minder nerds post pictures of locations as they are now alongside stills from the episodes.  Someone, too, has posted on YouTube the route of the car chase in the Steve McQueen movie 'Bullitt' filmed with his dashcam, juxtaposed with the footage from the movie.  That's fascinating to watch!  Check it out...

    Bullitt Filming Locations

  • Oh WoW, that’s such an exciting thing to do. I’ve been  on google maps today, as I’m researching my neighbours Home land in Africa. I’m  going to see if I can get her Home up on google maps to show her. I love what you do though, I’m going to try that myself. Sweeney was one of the programs I could watch as a kid. Most of tv I didn’t like but I did like something about that program, even though I would have been happier without a tv altogether. That’s amazing that the house is still there and how it’s social status has changed so dramatically. It’s like the human race has been evolving and evolving and we’re at a time now where it’s going round in circles and not really achieving anything much of anything. It’s time for a new level of awareness to step in. That’s us ;) 

    Actually, I’ve just realised I do a similar thing myself with books that I read. I love reading books by Irish authors, with the story based in Ireland and I look up the places mentioned, but I’ve never got them up on google maps before. I didn’t think of that. I can now re-read all the books by one of my favourite authors, and this time, look up all the places on google maps. How exciting! She’s one of only a few authors that I read and she’s dead now, so no more books, and I’ve missed reading them. I somehow got it into my head that I wouldn’t enjoy reading them again (even though as a kid I read the same book over and again) but now I know I will. I’m super excited. Thanks Tom :-) 

  • I look up the locations where these programmes were filmed, then freeze the episodes at certain points and go to Google Maps to check how they look now.  I was really surprised last night, watching an episode from Series 1 of The Sweeney - filmed in 1974.  Regan drove into a small close in Putney, near where I was born, and entered a house there.  I looked at the location on Google Maps - and it hasn't changed one bit in 44 years!  Doors, windows, fences, street signs, colours - everything as it was.  The only thing that has changed in that time is the social status of the area.  In those days, it was still a working-class neighbourhood.  Now, it's Millionaires-ville.

Reply
  • I look up the locations where these programmes were filmed, then freeze the episodes at certain points and go to Google Maps to check how they look now.  I was really surprised last night, watching an episode from Series 1 of The Sweeney - filmed in 1974.  Regan drove into a small close in Putney, near where I was born, and entered a house there.  I looked at the location on Google Maps - and it hasn't changed one bit in 44 years!  Doors, windows, fences, street signs, colours - everything as it was.  The only thing that has changed in that time is the social status of the area.  In those days, it was still a working-class neighbourhood.  Now, it's Millionaires-ville.

Children
  • I travelled around the States and Canada a few years ago.  Loved it.  If you enjoy reading, you might like 'Blue Highways', by William Least-Heat Moon.  In the mid-80s, following his divorce, he left his university teaching post and travelled around the US in a rickety old Ford van that he'd converted by installing a camp bed and a bucket for a loo!  He travelled only on the 'blue routes' on the map - the minor roads.  It's a fascinating insight into small-town life in the US, but is also about one thinking man's personal journey towards some kind of inner peace and acceptance.  I must read it again sometime.

  • That’s great and I too also have a fascination with small town America. I’m currently following a woman on YouTube who’s travelling around America and I love it when she goes through small towns, but looking them up on google earth is even more exciting! WoW, I’ve got loads of options now! Minder was ok. I only watched tv if I couldn’t get out of it so I wouldn’t say I was ever into any of the programs but some I could tolerate more than others. I am interested in looking the places up though and I love google earth. Cheers. This is way more exciting than being out ‘socialising’ with a bunch of nt’s! :-) 

  • I'm always on either Google Maps or Google Earth, looking for places I read about or see in a film.  I have a fascination with small-town America, and love just picking an interesting-sounding place at random and going down to street level to see the shops and bars, and the lie of the landscape.  iMdb gives locations for all films and TV shows listed on there.  If you liked Minder, too, there's a dedicated website where Minder nerds post pictures of locations as they are now alongside stills from the episodes.  Someone, too, has posted on YouTube the route of the car chase in the Steve McQueen movie 'Bullitt' filmed with his dashcam, juxtaposed with the footage from the movie.  That's fascinating to watch!  Check it out...

    Bullitt Filming Locations

  • Oh WoW, that’s such an exciting thing to do. I’ve been  on google maps today, as I’m researching my neighbours Home land in Africa. I’m  going to see if I can get her Home up on google maps to show her. I love what you do though, I’m going to try that myself. Sweeney was one of the programs I could watch as a kid. Most of tv I didn’t like but I did like something about that program, even though I would have been happier without a tv altogether. That’s amazing that the house is still there and how it’s social status has changed so dramatically. It’s like the human race has been evolving and evolving and we’re at a time now where it’s going round in circles and not really achieving anything much of anything. It’s time for a new level of awareness to step in. That’s us ;) 

    Actually, I’ve just realised I do a similar thing myself with books that I read. I love reading books by Irish authors, with the story based in Ireland and I look up the places mentioned, but I’ve never got them up on google maps before. I didn’t think of that. I can now re-read all the books by one of my favourite authors, and this time, look up all the places on google maps. How exciting! She’s one of only a few authors that I read and she’s dead now, so no more books, and I’ve missed reading them. I somehow got it into my head that I wouldn’t enjoy reading them again (even though as a kid I read the same book over and again) but now I know I will. I’m super excited. Thanks Tom :-)