Movies That Influenced Episode VIII Viewing Party: Letter Never Sent (Unsent Letter)

Dear all,

Seems we're in a bit of a lull for spoilers post SW Celebration Europe. So. Let's start up our weekend viewing party again, and get each of the movies that Rian Johnson listed as inspiration for Space Bear under our belts. The format will be the same as before; we'll take Saturday and Sunday of each weekend to give people in different parts of the world an opportunity to view and discuss.

Bridge on the River Kwai and Letter Never Sent (Unsent Letter) are available in full on youtube. 
Twelve O'Clock High is available for free with Amazon Prime; otherwise it's available in DVD/Blu-Ray.
Gunga Din, Three Outlaw Samurai, and Sahara (1943 version starring Humphrey Bogart) are available to buy as DVD or Blu-Ray on Amazon.

Schedule is as follows:
July 23-24: Letter Never Sent (Unsent Letter)
July 30-31: Bridge on the River Kwai
Aug 6-7: Twelve O'Clock High
Aug 13-14: Gunga Din
Aug 20-21: Three Outlaw Samurai
Aug 27-28: Sahara

For this weekend's Letter Never Sent, you can select the subtitle option in the lower right corner of the video.

Looking forward!
-F

MeadowofAshes wrote:Dear all,

Seems we're in a bit of a lull for spoilers post SW Celebration Europe. So. Let's start up our weekend viewing party again, and get each of the movies that Rian Johnson listed as inspiration for Space Bear under our belts. The format will be the same as before; we'll take Saturday and Sunday of each weekend to give people in different parts of the world an opportunity to view and discuss.

Bridge on the River Kwai and Letter Never Sent (Unsent Letter) are available in full on youtube. 
Twelve O'Clock High is available for free with Amazon Prime; otherwise it's available in DVD/Blu-Ray.
Gunga Din, Three Outlaw Samurai, and Sahara (1943 version starring Humphrey Bogart) are available to buy as DVD or Blu-Ray on Amazon.

Schedule is as follows:
July 23-24: Letter Never Sent (Unsent Letter)
July 30-31: Bridge on the River Kwai
Aug 6-7: Twelve O'Clock High
Aug 13-14: Gunga Din
Aug 20-21: Three Outlaw Samurai
Aug 27-28: Sahara

For this weekend's Letter Never Sent, you can select the subtitle option in the lower right corner of the video.

Looking forward!
-F

@MeadowofAshes

Count me in! It's gonna be fun to dissect LNS together!

Removed

And this is a great website we can use to watch the film together (if anybody wants to do that): https://www.watch2gether.com

I'm game.

Damn, Twelve O'Clock High used to be available on Youtube, but apparently no more. There's only a dubbed Italian version, which might be useful to our Italian contingent if the film proves difficult to find elsewhere: Removed

Those who have iTunes, though, can rent that film from there. That's what I'll do.

This is an AMAZING idea.

I'd be willing to bet rentals/sales of these movies go up thanks to the reference. Also some of them might be available for check out from your local public or academic library (no having to pay for rental or purchase).

I love this idea! I saw Letter Never Sent on YT a couple months ago and I saw Bridge on the River Kwai a long time ago, but I haven't seen any of the other films.

I think it's interesting that most of these films involve war, hardship and inter-personal conflict. I would love to watch them and discuss what they may mean for episode VIII.

LNS is Russian movie? Wow..I didn't know that

Letter Never Sent and Three Outlaw Samurai are both on Hulu (Criterion Collection).  

I found Gunga Din on archive.org.  Being on that site indicates that it is in the public domain, but I don't know if that's true: Removed

LadyHa wrote:Letter Never Sent and Three Outlaw Samurai are both on Hulu (Criterion Collection).  

I found Gunga Din on archive.org.  Being on that site indicates that it is in the public domain, but I don't know if that's true: Removed

@LadyHa

OMG! We can watch it on that link! Awesome!

LadyHa wrote:Letter Never Sent and Three Outlaw Samurai are both on Hulu (Criterion Collection).  

I found Gunga Din on archive.org.  Being on that site indicates that it is in the public domain, but I don't know if that's true: Removed

@LadyHa Perfect! This is awesome. 

If anyone finds links to free stuff, please post so we all save a few bucks.

MeadowofAshes wrote:


If anyone finds links to free stuff, please post so we all save a few bucks.

@MeadowofAshes

All of this!

Ok, so here are links where you can watch movies online, it's free. Don't expect 1080p You need to click play few times and each time a new add will show up, just close it. If Serbian subs annoy you, you can turn them off on CC button. Link should work if you're in Europe, but I guess it might be very slow for Americans, I don't know, you can try anyway

The-Bridge-on-the-River-Kwai     Removed

Gunga Din      Removed

Sahara     Removed

p.s.You need to update java or it won't work I'll try to find other movies too

Sorry for dp
There will be add saying you need to log in to watch the movie. You don't have to, just close it. Than there will be little X above Download/click to continue/something like that, the text changes, just close it on white X and play the movie

Three outlaw samurai  Removed

Twelve o'clock high Removed

if the link doesn't work, tell me and I'll try to find another one

@vaderito Lurkers gonna lurk.

I'm excited to discuss these films with you all! We've obviously dissected LNS quite a lot already but would be good to revisit. Three outlaw samurai sounds particularly promising from a loyalty and redemption theme standpoint too...

BastilaBey wrote:@vaderito Lurkers gonna lurk.

I've noting against lurking and I do it myself. I'm just point out cut and paste jobs w/o crediting.

I'm excited to discuss these films with you all! We've obviously dissected LNS quite a lot already but would be good to revisit. Three outlaw samurai sounds particularly promising from a loyalty and redemption theme standpoint too...

@BastilaBey

And critique of samurai code of honor. That sounds like possible inspiration for critique of Jedi code of honor but no good conclusion can be drawn from just a synopsis as ING's Letter Never Sent cluster**** shows.

sooo letter never sent is on dailymotion. not sure it loads, my machine is very slow. but a great idea anyway.

not sure i can join this weekend as i'm having exams. but i'll try to join

are the subtitles for LNS on the youtube one correct?

rey09 wrote:are the subtitles for LNS on the youtube one correct?

@rey09

That's where I watched it back in February and yes, they seem pretty accurate.

rey09 wrote:are the subtitles for LNS on the youtube one correct?

@rey09

I speak Russian, I'll watch the movie today. I'll come back here and report later

bela.mesecina wrote:

rey09 wrote:are the subtitles for LNS on the youtube one correct?

@rey09

I speak Russian, I'll watch the movie today. I'll come back here and report later

@bela.mesecina

oo excellent !

So we have Andrei, Sergie, Tanya, and Sabinine. The first three die, the last survives. What I noticed about characterization was that the first three seemed to embody one specific trait that they took to the extreme. 
-Andrei is self-sacrificing to the point of committing suicide so he isn't an extra burden on the group. 
-Sergie is a brute. He has an anger problem, he's obsessed with Tanya and thinks of his feelings as love but in the ditch scene it seemed like he was considering sexually assaulting her. 
-Tanya is excitable to the point of it bordering on annoying. Any piece of good news is dance worthy. LOL.
- Sabinine seems to be a balance of the latter three and is the only character who survives as nature turns nasty. He has survival instinct, but he's not a brute. He's hopeful, but not overly excited. In the end, he is self-sacrificing, but he doesn't willfully commit suicide, he just becomes determined to see the mission through. This drive seems to come from both love of his wife, whom he has been writing to, and a duty to his country (or could be a desire for fame? Or both? I wasn't quite clear on that).

So at the end we have this sole surviving character who appears dead. Medics show up. They retrieve the document he's kept close to his heart. Is it the letter or the map? Or both? It's never made clear. Then the closing shot - his eyes open and he is figuratively reborn. I can see this being an indicator for thematic elements of Space Bear. Space Bear representing balance of the Force or integrating the shadow, the characters being put to the test and their weaker or imbalanced natures being winnowed away so that their balanced, integrated selves are reborn. And of course, I think it will be driven by love.   Or at least "something greater than oneself".

Other initial response to the film: 
I loved how the eerie, low-key humming music early on was used to create tension and foreshadow that sith was about to hit the fan.