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In the opening scene of this movie, the lead actress walks toward a pet store, and someone whistles at her (like, catcall whistles). It's an inside joke. The director cast the woman after seeing her in a diet soft drink commercial in which the same thing happened to her.

There is no musical soundtrack.

The title antagonists' motive/provocation is never revealed.

To give the sense of a terror that will continue after the movie ends, the words "The End" do not appear, the story is not resolved, and there are no end credits.

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I remember Cindy Crawford did some Pepsi commercials, but I don't remember any wolf-whistles or catcalls, so it's probably not her.  It is probably someone younger, who did a more recent commercial.      I was going to guess "Hostel", but the hostel itself isn't an "antagonist."     So, I've got nothing yet.   (I can eliminate a lot of movies where the title doesn't reference an antagonist, but that will be more useful later, I think.)     

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Absolutely positively NOT someone younger. 

You will probably not have seen this commercial. I doubt you've ever consumed the drink.

George MIGHT have (seen the commercial/consumed the drink), but I have no way of knowing for sure. 

 

By the time she made this movie, the actress was already a mom... her daughter would later become an actress as well, eclipsing her in fame, IMO.

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It sounded Hitchcockian to me.  And Tippi Hedren's daughter, Melanie Griffith, is better known than Hedren.  I'm not sure about the drink, but I'm guessing the movie is

The Birds* (which I haven't seen)

George

*which also would be the title antagonists

Edited by GeorgeStGeorge
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Sego

It's good for your ego.

Hedren starred in a commercial that appeared on the Today show, which Hitchcock was watching. He got a hold of her and signed her up. She thought it was for his TV show, not for this bizarre, music-free terror fest, where birds start viciously attacking humans for no known reason.

 

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This movie was actually renowned for its sound track

I Heard It Through the Grapevine         You Can't Always Get What You Want

Joy to the World           Good Lovin'

My Girl         Ain't Too Proud to Beg

Natural Woman         A Whiter Shade of Pale

Let's add some of the cast:

William Hurt                 Kevin Kline

Meg Tilly         JoBeth Williams

George

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4 hours ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

Home run.  :dance:

George

Wow.  Thank that one comedian in the 80s or early 90s.  He played a few notes of "Heard It Through the Grapevine", and said that young people now know it as the California Raisin theme song,  while people his age knew it from "the Big Chill."  

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After producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff became interested in the script, they offered the scriptwriter an unprecedented $350,000 for the rights. He had $106 in the bank, no car, and was trying to sell his dog because he couldn't afford to feed it, but he refused to sell unless they agreed to allow him to star in the film. They agreed, on the condition that he continue to work as a writer without a fee, and that he work as an actor for scale. After Winkler and Chartoff purchased the film, they took it to United Artists, who envisioned a budget of $2 million with an established star, particularly Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, or James Caan. When Winkler and Chartoff told United Artists that they could only get the screenplay if the writer starred, United Artists cut the budget to $1 million, and had Chartoff and Winkler sign agreements that they would be personally liable if the film went over budget. The final cost was $1.1 million. Chartoff and Winkler mortgaged their houses for the last $100,000. 

The good news:  they made a mint on it.  It was the highest-grossing movie of the year.

George

 

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The lead actor was known as a television actor and the Oscar winning supporting actor ( he got his Oscars much later) would tell the lead actor that "he was a little television actor" while on the set just to get into his head and revoke genuine reactions for the Oscar winning director. The director had been trying to make the film in 1969 after reading a newspaper article.  Based on a true story one of the dramatic (and there are many) scenes in the movie take place on the same Japanese transportation railway systems that was portrayed in the movie The Bridge On The River Kwai.

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On 9/10/2019 at 8:13 PM, Human without the bean said:

The lead actor was known as a television actor and the Oscar winning supporting actor ( he got his Oscars much later) would tell the lead actor that "he was a little television actor" while on the set just to get into his head and revoke genuine reactions for the Oscar (his Oscar came later also) winning director . The director had been trying to make the film in 1969 after reading a newspaper article.  Based on a true story one of the dramatic (and there are many) scenes in the movie take place on the same Japanese transportation railway systems that was portrayed in the movie The Bridge On The River Kwai.

The director invited Stephen Spielberg to a private screening of the film and after viewing  he said to the executives of Columbia Pictures "You'll be thinking about this for a week".   Quentin Tarantino hailed the film as "the greatest film about the Vietnam War".

The television lead actor bought gifts for the "snake beaters" who would beat cobras out of the set.

 

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Raf posting:

The only Vietnam war starring a TV star with a supporting role by an Oscar winning (later) actor that I know of is Casualites of War, though I am not aware that its director, Brian De Palma, has ever won an Oscar. He's entertaining (Untouchables, Carrie), but not Oscar winning that I know of.

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I think I became over-zealous in mentioning Brian De Palma was an Oscar winning director.   Yep, you are right Raf.  I didn't * check my facts *.  Sorry about that.  I might have put Brian De Palma in the conversation of having won an Oscar because of the other Oscar winning Directors mentioned in my post ( Quentin Tarantino has an Oscar, but not for directing but he is of course a Director). 

 Sean Penn played a Squad Sergeant in Vietnam, a true story, who took his patrol out on a reconnaissance mission and while on that mission (or a detour, as he called it) ordered his squad to kidnap a Vietnamese girl and to take her along with them so they could have some R n' R while in combat to improve morale.  After De Palma read an article in the New Yorker magazine by Daniel Lang in 1969 entitled "Casualties of War" and at the time of the story,  the United States being at the height of the war in Vietnam and due to the nature of such a story like a squat of solders, kidnapping, raping and murdering a Vietnamese girl being brought to light in the American and international public  it would have been impossible to make.  So, it wasn't until after the war and due to the success of other Vietnam era movies like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket that it was given a green light to film "Casualties of War". 

Deeply moving, riveting, and thought provoking the screen play is laid out ( as best I can see) just as the New Yorker has reported it.  De Palma's portrayal of the conflict that young men were having in Vietnam in the midst of fighting communism as well as the conflict within each man or woman stunningly documents the powerful plight that every man ( or woman ) battles  within, waging what is good or evil.  I'm not a veteran but if anyone who reads this is I take this opportunity to thank you for your service.

 

 

 

Edited by Human without the bean
clarification
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