A Movie A Day: Quint on THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS (1957)
Which way is Ireland? WHICH WAY IS IRELAND?!? Harry Comments!

I know you probably feel this was halfassed but dude you've done how many days now, I lose count, I think most of us expectedthis to go the way of One Thing I love Today or something where it would fade away pop up once or twice and fade away, glad you kept it up even during the heavy comiccon week and now your own personal heavy week, good work, keep it up

As for Spirit of St. Louis, yeah Stewart was too old, it has a bunch of filler and it's still an amazing movie, can't go wrong

I used to really like the history of aviation when I was younger and even watched this movie long before I had the attention span for it. I was disappointed to learn that Lindberg was an unapologetic anti-Semite. It's a shame when a supposed American hero turns out to be just an everyday asshole.

Really?! Man, you do need some catching up to do.

Whenever Lindy tries to call to someone from his plane, he emits this dire, high-pitched wail that goes on and on. The poor people on the ground must have thought a Nazgul was after them.

There were a couple of speeches that came to light fairly recently that depicted what a racist piece of offal he was.

Now I like writers who put their personalities and a little autobiography into their writing.

On the other hand, to cite an irrelevant example, during the final year or so of james Dean Smith's brilliant failed comic Boris the Bear, his text pieces were all these one note rants on how he wans't making enough money on the comic to print t-shirts, buy ads, or, eventually, even keep publishing the book. Never heard from him again and a great talent was lost, but that's not the point.

AMAD is a great series - I read it ever day - or sometimes catch up on two or three at once, but never miss it either way. If you're under the weather, strapped for time, have a headache, whatever. Just give us what you got. Even if it's a couple paragraphs dashed off.

I hope this message isn't too contradictory. Autobio is good. Tell us about how you related to the movie, how it fit into your life, how it affected you personally and why. fine. But writing about the actual process of writing the reviews... a bit less interesting. We get it, it's a huge commitment and something of an occasion ordeal to keep up with. I worked in a comics shop for eight years and even your dream job gets to be a bit of a bore eventually.

Even stuff like "this movie derserves a more in depth review but I'm falling asleep" is okay... just not day after day, okay? I hope that was diplomatic enough and taken in the spirit of constructive criticism it was meant as.

a real live american nazi, and to keep him a hero, they covered up the fact that he loved hitler and everything he stood for...and they also put a man to death for a kidnapping he did not commit...bet the fucker did it himself...this movie was great, but lindberg was scum

And he was able look past any of Lindbergh's political leanings to make a movie about him because he did something none of you guys would have the stones to do.

Carbine Williams. It's about a guy sent to prison after allegedy shooting a government agent when moonshing operating came under attack. I don't think they did ballistics back then. Anyway, guns are a hobby of his, and he ends up making a gun in prison not to escape, but just for ha has. When the warden finds out he's actually given permission to continue. He ends up making a weapon used by the US military, and is eventually paroled. I'm looking forward to the Von Ryan's Express review. I liked that movie even though I don't like Sinatra.

Michael Bay's things that go boom. Keep up AMAD Quint, but take it easy on yourself.

Man, I loved that movie when I was a kid. The kinda war movie that seemed to be ron perpetual Sunday afternoon showings in the UK. Not seen it for a loooong time. And SPIRIT OF ST LOUIS is great straightforward hero-worship cinema, from a time when people were allowed to have heroes amd ideals.

comes in contact with the allspark and becomes the new Megatron.

It's "Lindbergh" who flew the Spirit Of St. Louis...Charles LindBERG was the enterprising Brooklyn Deli proprietor who invented the Everything Bagel. What else could he do? Mrs. Lepkowitz kept holding up the line trying to make up her mind between poppy and sesame seeds.

You know it's true 'cause you read it on the internet!

HeadGeek, you may not be able to hold your tongue at a half-written deadline driven piece, but some of us have held our breaths for scattershot "regular" columns that never materialized from other contributors here. Good on Quint for having posted, period. "Harry's DVD Picks" could take note.

what has that got to do with the fact that lindberg was a fucking nazi...not an isolationist...he was a fucking member of the bund...he was a fucking traitor to our nation...the french shoulda shot his ass down

not lindberg...ford was a nazi too...which is why i will never drive one

Should be in a black box, and not within the article. I love the passion on the page, but it doesn't belong in Quint's AMAD, it belongs down here with the rest of us who respond to his opinions. We value your views, Big Guy, but if I were Quint, I'd be a bit put off.

Congrats, man! You seem like one of the good guys. Best of luck with the flick.

I love this picture. And you know what? It's a fantasy. It's not a document of the life of Lindbergh. It's a movie movie! Wilder crafts wonderful nuanced characters and moments but the idea that this in any way represents the real man is absurd. This is a movie that I return to again and again. I love the world of it. I agree with Harry about the magic of early aviation as portrayed in the movie. I'm a sucker for it. I'm a huge Stewart fan. I'm a huge Wilder fan. Though he's not usually thought of as a visual director, the Roosevelt Field lift off sequence is filled with suspense and elation. Every shot is perfectly chosen. It gives Spielberg in his prime a run for his money. The ECU of Stewart's eyes is hardcore. It's great moviemaking but you can't conflate movies with real life. It's all fake! Gabriel Hardman

Well done.

http://www.sheilaomalley.com/ archives/003291.html

Start your own fuckin column.

No need to insult Wilder. Now HE is a true American hero. An immigrant who fled his country for the US, became a citizen, and subsequently revolutionized his industry, making movies and Hollywood (and noir and comedy genres) infinitely better.

I agree with your point to a point. I hated "The Patriot" for the very reasons you bring up.

Do you think you are ever allowed to have a biopic stand for something greater than the man or woman? For an act to be a symbol for a larger story?

It's an interesting problem, and something writers have always struggled with. Now, white-washing a Nazi sympathizer is more clear cut as offensive, obviously. But is there a point where you can just tell a story without delving into facts that are irrelevant to the story -- which is the trans-Atlantic flight and the bravery it took to fly it?

"Amadeus" - great movie. Historically inaccurate. Should it be burned in effigy as propaganda and lies?

I've never been one for conspiracy theories, and the idea that an innocent man was executed for the Lindbergh kidnapping is definitely up there. Yes, media involvement made the case a mess (hell, reporters posed as connected criminals offering to serve as intermediaries for Lindbergh, and subsequently got their hands on and published the ransom notes... including the identifying marks that were supposed to allow Lindbergh to tell a real kidnapper's note from a fake.) There are conflicting eyewitness reports about most anything that you can question... Was Bruno Hauptmann at work or not the days in question?... that kind of thing. But all of the hard evidence points to him, and still does upon forensic reexamination today. The homemade ladder found under the child's bedroom window was made from the wood of Hauptmann's attic floorboards. He had $15,000 of the traceable ransom money hidden under his garage, and was found after passing some to a gas station attendant, who thought Hauptmann was acting suspiciously (the attendant suspected the money might be counterfeit) and so wrote his license plate number on the bill. A ton of handwriting experts, then and now, say he's the one who wrote the ransom notes. He had the address of Lindbergh's contact for the ransom delivery written in his closet (which he admitted to writing down himself because he was following the case.) And he had a history that included burglarizing homes and armed robbery. Oh, sure... if he were rich enough he could have gotten a lawyer to point to all of the interference from the press and pressure on the police and created some reasonable doubt just like O.J. did... but without a *very* sympathetic jury, he would still have been convicted today.

Plus Black Hole was top a couple weeks ago. This just goes to show we love the classics along with the Bayified movies of today

This movie is an inspiration to those who push the borders of " what's possible". People like Roz Savage, trying to cross the Pacific. Also, for more on classic flicks, check out my brother's blog WWW.CINEMAFIST.COM. Thanks!

This is one of those great, old-time HOllywwod biographical films that basically invents the character of a real person in order to make it a good movie.

But it works...and is yet another triumph for Billy Wilder. Jimmy Stewart is great as always, playing the fictional Charles Lindbergh, as opposed to the Aryan Moron "REAL" Lindbergh, who like many people, bought into the whole idea of Eugenics and that there were higher and lower physical classes of people. From what I hear, his little trip accross the atlantic was supposed to be a superiority trip, to be used all around the world to show what a WASP can do, as opposed to what he no doubt considered "mongrel" races.

Who knows what kind of man he might have been in a world with Genetics, Ancestral Mapping and the Human Genome project...he might have understood that all people are descended from a common ancestor and that that origin point was most probably Africa...or it is possible he would have remained as in-the-dark as a lot of people today, using their hate and ignorance as shields so they don't have to think for themselves or change their traditions of violence and fear.

Still, it is a great movie.

Well said Bones. More articulately than I could have put it. M-O-M: I'm not disagreeing with you about the real Lindbergh. He most likely was a nazi fuck head. That just doesn't change the fact that "Spirit" is a very entertaining, well crafted movie. I'm not going to pretend that its not just because real man it's based on had disgusting personal views. - Gabriel Hardman

aren't you, M-of-M? Lindbergh was given a pass, huh? As a response to Lindbergh's isolationist activism, Roosevelt had the FBI investigate his personal life. When Lindbergh tried to reactivate his commission in the Army Air Force after Pearl Harbor, the Roosevelt administration blocked him. He had to shop himself around to the aircraft companies as a civilian consultant, and was eventually able to take part in combat missions in the Pacific. It seems to me that risking one's life in the fight against the Axis is a pretty good indicator of where one's loyalties lie, and is a pretty good argument against charges of "treason." And as far as poor innocent Oppenheimer being victimized for being "sympathetic to socialist ideals," he was probably a member of the Communist Party USA for a while in the 30's; at least, he attended cell meetings where every other participant was a party member. If so, he was part of an organization that was taking orders from Stalin; Oppenheimer, and every other CPUSA member, was more closely aligned with that particular murderous totalitarian ideology than Lindbergh was with Nazism. Who's the hypocrite, M-of-M?

huh? Just kidding. you know, you're all right. Everyone, let give it up for that guy.

oh and In Ernest Goes to Camp, he confessed to stealing the Lindburgh baby. Case Closed.

then I shot J.R

Nazism? Where I praised Lindbergh for joining the fight against the Axis, perhaps? Or perhaps you mean Nazi in the good old '40s Popular Front sense of "not a Communist." If so, I'm guilty as charged. As for persecuting "socialists or syndicalists," plenty of socialists, union types, and other members of the non-Communist left cheerfully and of their own free will testified AGAINST the Communists during the House UnAmerican Activities Committee hearings. They remembered how the Communists had tried to subvert their organizations, and knew what we were up against better than most. The Communists called Roosevelt a warmongering fascist all during the period of the Nazi-Soviet Pact - just as they were told to do. They only changed their tune when their country was attacked - and I'm talking about Operation Barbarossa, not Pearl Harbor. Compared to this, how exactly was Lindbergh a traitor? Let me repeat this, since you clearly have reading comprehension problems: after his country (the United States, in his case) was attacked, Lindbergh made every effort to join the war effort and finally succeeded in serving on active duty. Before the war, there's no evidence he did Hitler's bidding in the same way that CPUSA members, as a matter of course, did Stalin's. So once again: you would convict Lindbergh of treason...why? As usual, freedom in a radical leftie's version of a "true democracy" would not extend to people you disagree with. Whether or not I've shown my true colors, you've shown yours, "mate." Say hello to Stalin and Mao when you see them.