New video: The Shadow

From the Youtube MARDL channel, a brief history of The Shadow. It’s the first of my hero pulp video essays.

Published in: on June 17, 2008 at 2:00 pm  Comments (8)  

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  1. On June 20, 2008 at 11:13 am Doc Quatermass said:

    Nicely done, save for the need to speed read. I thought the Baldwin movie decent compared to most superhero movies (The Rocketeer, The Phantom and Hell Boy being the best – couldn’t Batman and Superman have been set in the ’30s with the right look ala Rocketeer or Phantom, Spidey, FF, and The Hulk in the “sun-kissed Kennedy era of their birth with a look denoting the comics of the day?). Wasn’t Sam Raimi the same guy who insisted it was illogical for a high school geek to come up with web shooters (one of the cool things about petey/spidey) and thus should be imbued with biological web shooting ability – but it it took a $2000 dollar costume fore him to look Spidey cool. Please spare me the director who proffesses a love for the character. Just give me a producer that wants to do it right.

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  2. On June 20, 2008 at 8:44 pm Don said:

    I couldn’t agree with you more, Doc. The Shadow wasn’t that bad (I saw it 5 times in the theaters). I, too, am tired at the half-baked attempts at these characters… I shudder when I think of Seth Rogen’s upcoming Green Hornet film.

    Also, sorry about the speed-reading. There’s actually another Shadow history video on YouTube that’s even more in-depth than mine… but with even more quickly-passing blocks of text that’s even more dense than this one. Thank goodness for the pause button, haha.

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  3. On June 25, 2008 at 12:55 pm Doc Quatermass said:

    I had planned to go back and watch it again and pause it.

    I was talking to someone this past weekend that was telling me he had a book of the Kevin Smith script of the proposed George Clooney/Jet Li Green Hornet movie which was supposed to have been directed by Kevin Smith that I had heard about in the late ’90s. It was set during the ’40s with Nazis and was faithful to the characters and look of the time period. Then the company making it started in on all kinds of changes so as to have as many opportunities to merchandise toys and collectibles.

    I haven’t seen Seth Rogen in any thing, I hope it doesn’t turn out like Jack Black in King Kong.

    http://movies.ign.com/articles/807/807986p3.html

    http://www.matchflick.com/column/1419

    http://www.actressarchives.com/news.php?id=4702

    http://www.news.cinematical.com/2006/02/15/kevin-smith-officially-off-green-hornet-and-fletch/

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  4. On June 25, 2008 at 2:02 pm Don said:

    Sad when you consider what could have been. That Smith GH film could have been the catalyst to bring pulp back to the mainstream in a big way… 😦

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  5. On June 25, 2008 at 6:35 pm Doc Quatermass said:

    Supposedly The Rocketeer got buried by summer competition from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and didn’t do as well as it could have. Not sure why the Phantom didn’t do better, and like The Rocketeer generate sequels. I wish Disney had released The Rocketeer around Christmas (remember when that was when the new Bond pictures would come out).

    I haven’t watched The Return of Superman yet. Batman Begins was decent compared to most of the ’80s and beyond superhero properties. One could almost imagine it back in the ’30s except for that Hummer-like Batmobile (which was pretty cool). Could have done without the Shadow-like movie beginnings of Batman (the Orient and drugs) and the James Bond blockbuster ending.

    I would think that with all the pulp, OTR, Golden and Silver Age of comics, and Golden Age of Hollywood (the ’30s & ’40s) fans out there, someone would make superhero/pulp hero films aimed at that audience and the rest of the people who just go to movies as it’s the thing to do or they think it denotes sophistication the way the activity of reading does in may peoples minds, the films would still make decent money.

    http://www.comicmix.com/news/2007/06/24/the-case-of-the-chemical-syndicate/

    http://www.comicmix.com/news/2007/06/25/the-shadow-knows/

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  6. On June 25, 2008 at 7:46 pm Don said:

    The last time I got excited about a pulp-esque film, it was Sky Captain. I was hoping that it would open a floodgate of 1930’s and 40’s style adventures, but so far the only period pieces we have are Indy 4 and the next Mummy film… Hope springs eternal it seems.

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  7. On June 25, 2008 at 8:24 pm Doc Quatermass said:

    Sky Captain was pretty decent (though I thought the ending was pretty lame). I wouldn’t want to see a lot of of films with the same grey grainy CGI look. I saw the new Indy film at the drive in with Kung Fu Panda(a great animated film) and liked it. It was almost as good as Raiders. I liked the two Mummy films and have hopes for the third. looking forward to the Hellboy, sequel, also. The Dark Knight and The Punisher, too.

    I should have checked his filmography, I have seen Rogen in both Donnie Darko (2001- Ricky Danforth)
    and the “Freaks and Geeks” TV series(Ken Miller). Maybe it will be okay. Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer; Kung Fu Hustle) is listed on the IMDB page for GH.

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  8. On June 25, 2008 at 9:20 pm Don said:

    Hmmm… we’ll see. As long as it’s not campy and it’s set in the 30’s or 40’s, I’ll be ok with it.

    And yeah, I thought the ending of Sky Captain was kinda crappy too, although I thought the fuzziness of the film lent a kind of nostalgic air to it. I told my wife that it reminded me of how things look in my head when I’m reading, haha.

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