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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

There's a nice website about it here: alanparker.com/film/bugsy-m... Here's a surprisingly good piece on the film (probably a DVD promo thing) www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNSj... www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjHT... www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgzG... www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IlD...

alanparker.com

Bugsy Malone - Alan Parker - Director, Writer, Producer - Official Website

Bugsy Malone The making of the film by Alan Parker Because of the needs of DVD, one of the dubious pleasures a director has to go through is the

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It works like a really charming middle school production. The *really* odd thing about watching it is that anytime the guys sing, Paul Williams' grown up voice appears, dubbed over them. I'm always torn between watching it as is or turning down the color and boosting the contrast. Works either way.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It's not perfect - how *could* it be? - but the ways in which much of it works are unusual enough to make it some kind of treat. If you ever see this when you're half asleep, or sick or something, you'll feel almost certain that you didn't *really* see the movie.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

September 15, 1976 - Bugsy Malone, a singing, dancing, gangster kids (including Scott Baio, Jodie Foster and Dexter Fletcher, also two "not that ones" in John Williams and Michael Jackson) shooting each other with whipped cream guns '70s picture.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

At the time, the group featured Pete best on drums, but Ringo is still present, on the cover, with his then band Rory Storm & the Hurricanes.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

They'd played The Cavern Club for the first time only that February, and had since been generating Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule with a long stint in Germany, where practice had made them razor sharp.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

It was 65 Years Ago Today . . . August 31, 1961 - The very new, local music magazine Mersey Beat, covering news about all the local Liverpool bands, publishes a story considered the 'announcement' of The Beatles, a recognition of their uniqueness, or maybe supremacy, in that burgeoning rock scene.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

August 28, 1948 - Rope, one of Hitchcock's best, not for everyone, but always for me.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

This is probably the scene that scared my dad to death when he had to walk into the movie theater to get his brother. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqEt...

youtube.com

The War of The Worlds (1953)

YouTube video by Phuck Yiu

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

August 26, 1953 - The War of the Worlds is released wide in the US. This was my first ever favorite movie, and remains on my list of top films ever. Here's a neat little scene www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM3P...

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Shoeshine (1946) Monsieur Vincent (1947) The Bicycle Thief (1948) The Walls of Malapaga (1949) Rashomon (1950) 1951 - Bupkis!! NAda!! Zip! You stole the movie camera and cinema technology, so you get NOTHing! You LOSE! Good DAY, sir! Forbidden Games (1952) Gate of Hell (1953)

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It's one of the six movies to win an Oscar for a sort of International Best Imported Picture before the category became official, the list being:

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

August 25, 1950 - Rashomon is released. This is the classic he said, she said, then he said and *then* that ghost said movie, the same scene from different perspectives - in this case at least three lies.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Even in its day it was a landmark for British film, demonstrating then what indie films strive for today, that a movie without stars and a huge budget, but one that's just a well made, honestly told story, can be a great success, both artistically and financially.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

August 24, 1946 - Brief Encounter opens in the US. A few years ago, a poll in Britain's Guardian deemed it the best movie romance of all time.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

That was the note the film left on, one stripped of the opportunity to be appreciated for the visual artistry that had just preceded it. It's a powerful close. It's not the first great anti-war movie, but the first the sound barrier lets us easily remember.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It's a good moment. But the final shot had a line of young men walking away from the camera and into clouds: the dead, each turning to look right at the audience, resentfully, angrily, even judging, these very young faces who have been sent into hell for others' political needs.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It has a famous closing shot that wasn't actually its final moment, nor was it the most potent ending. A soldier's hand reaches out from a trench to touch a butterfly, and having been seen, he's shot, shown only to us in the drop of life from the hand.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

August 24, 1930 - All Quiet on the Western Front, one of the crown jewels of the American Movie Classics film preservation cause from the 90's; it now seems less like an artifact of its day and more like a real movie.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

135. On this day in 1891, the movies sort of began. web.archive.org/web/20150828...

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

"Painterly" is the word. This is a stepping stone to their 1959, 70mm widescreen picture Sleeping Beauty in it's... well, beauty! Bambi is one of Disney's best movies due to its lavish look. August 21, 1942 - Bambi released wide in the US

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

August 20, 1998 - The accurately titled Run Lola Run was released. Only Run Lola Run Lola Run could have been more on the nose. This from writer/director/composer...editor? Tom Tykwer. It's an action film and a relationship story.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

They remain stylish, but also very personal, and usually pretty warm. This one? Not warm, but dripping with enjoyable style, and it's interesting to see Jeff Bridges in a role tailor made for Jeff Goldblum.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Coppola can make the most watchable failures. Youth Without Youth, One from the Heart, Tetro - all considered very flawed (not sure why on Tetro - it’s just great), yet even while I was conscious of what was not working, I enjoyed the experience of all of them.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

August 12, 1988 - Tucker: The Man and His Dream The screencap says something about what happened to that dream.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

So there you go. The Wizard of Oz is "of the Devil."

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Also on this day ...in 1964, James Bond creator Ian Fleming died ...in 1985, Japan Air Lines flight 123 crashed into Mount Otsuka, killing 520 of the 524 aboard ...in 2000, the Russia submarine, the “Kursk,” sank with 118 people onboard. ...in 2014, Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall died.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

August 12, 1939 - The Wizard of Oz premieres. It's an easy to dismiss movie, but only if you haven't seen it recently.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Movies & Rock day: August 11th - 2000 - Child of director Guy Ritchie and musician Madonna, Rocco, is born. Presumably Rocco Ritchie, or Rocco , if he took his mother's last name. Here they are, seen recreating the Duran Duran video: Rio.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Movies & Rock day: August 11th - 1999 - KISS get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (12 years before The Go-Gos? What's up with that?)

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Movies & Rock day: August 11th - 1973 - American Graffiti opens wide in the US

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Movies & Rock day: August 11th - 1965 - HELP! opens in New York

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Movies & Rock day: August 11th - 1964 - A Hard Days Night opens in New York

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Movies & Rock day: August 11th - 1954 - Musician Joe Jackson is born (named David Ian Jackson). He would go on to make one of my favorite one-shot film soundtracks for Tucker: The Man and his Dream.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Ingmar Bergman once said that the most beautiful landscape on Earth was the human face. This is one of my favorite images from that film

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

This at a time when UFOs were objects of ominous mystery and fear, in both movies and reality rumor, and all we know in this scene is that those might be UFOs, and these people are *anticipating* them. It's all in the faces.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Close Encounters is a gorgeous movie. This couple, it's their only shot in the whole film, and everything we need to know about them is on their faces. The hope. "It's finally happening!" "The wait really was worth it." and so on.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

August 3, 1992 - Unforgiven, a brilliant anti-violence movie, and one of the films that led me to liking westerns. This and The Road Warrior.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

August 3, 1946 - Bacall to Arms Directed by Bob Clampett, Arthur Davis & Friz Freleng

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Carl Davis October 28, 1936 – August 3, 2023 This expression, this is usually how I feel when I watch any of the 60+ silent films he scored.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Jerry Goldsmith February 10, 1929 - July 21, 2004 These are all in my Top Ten. These and his two Flint scores, but I found both of those films' artwork needlessly 'booby'.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

My sister, who hated Star Wars, needed a book report recommendation, and trusted me on this one. It became her favorite book ever at the time.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

July 17, 1959 - North By Northwest Also, on top? Not even a matte painting, but just a painting! Nothing moves, not the cars, not the people. I'd've loved it if Hitch had pulled back from this painting on a wall inside the UN, revealing Thornhill entering.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Secret Beyond the Door (1947) Nice looking movie.

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

That beats "I heard bells in the score somewhere so it's a Christmas Movie" with a stick. A big, heavy stick. I'm just sayin'...

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W. David Lichty @thinkdeliberately.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Die Hard is thirty-something today. And before everyone chimes in with the obvious, yes, yes, we all know it's a Harry Potter movie: a guy sneaks around a huge, multi-level, danger-filled building at night trying not to be caught by Alan Rickman?

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