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Back in 1954, when Akira Takarada made a big deal out of being the star of GOJIRA, he was told "You idiot! The monster's the star!". The same logic applies here.
It's not the best film ANY of those guys by a long shot...but ALL of them did worse...Price did a direct to video movie called ESCAPES that's worse than this. Lee did such craptacular movies like STARSHIP INVASIONS, END OF THE WORLD, and THE HOWLING TWO, so bad he literally apologized to original THE HOWLING director Joe Dante when they made GREMLINS TWO: THE NEW BATCH for having made it. Peter Cushing was in such dreck as LAND OF THE MINOTAUR, TENDER DRACULA, HITLER"S SON and A TOUCH OF THE SUN...the latter two so bad they've barely seen the light of day. And John Carradine was in crap by the bucketful. As far as the worst film ever, might I recommend the work of Ed Wood, and such "gems" as MANIAC (1934), THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS, THE CREEPING TERROR, and MONSTER A GO-GO for worthier contenders?
Fortunately, he didn't. And unlike, say, the 1998 GODZILLA, he cared about the project.
Many of the Japanese Godzillas have some sort of message (don't play around with nuclear weapons, don't play around with genetics, don't pollute), but in the end are about the monster fights. Kind of like this one. Even the original movie is an allegory about the atom bomb.
Wayne did most of his own fight scenes but certainly he was doubled for jumping on the horse, and any scene that required hard riding or running.
Emmerich makes a point of saying in his director's commentary that most of the seemingly unbelievable stuff in the movie really happened. And Emmerich, like Clint Eastwood in LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA depicts the Japanese as human without glamorizing their cause or politically correcting them out of some of their less appealing behaior.
Says you...the movie wouldn't work if she sucked.
He looks like he's in better shape in CROSSED SWORDS about a year or two later, but after he was unable to complete a dream project about William Tell, he gave up caring entirely and in his final swashbuckler, THE WARRIORS, he makes his appearance in MASTER OF BALLENTRAE look like it was made in his prime.
It's either die in a blaze of glory fighting the Shoshone or end up in a prison camp...they'd also have a regiment of Union Cavalry after them.
PRESCRIPTION: MURDER wasn't meant to be a pilot: It simply was so successful that people wanted more of Columbo. As a stand alone, it's a compelling clash of wits between two highly intelligent, manipulative bastards. Bastard Number One conceals his sociopathic nature under a veneer of smooth charm, and Bastard Number Two hides a bulldog tenacity under a fumbling facade. As a COLUMBO episode, you can see why they softened Columbo's agressiveness and played up the folksy eccentricity...the bastard in PRESCRIPTION: MURDER isn't someone to center a series around.
Lol!
In fact the octopus DID end up in an Ed Wood movie...BRIDE OF THE MONSTER.
Wayne wasn't as entombed in his image in 1948 as he would be within five years of this, and he was the 600 pound gorilla at Republic Pictures...he wouldn't have taken this if he didn't want to do it.
Will is implied to have died of the Simian Flu. In a scene cut from WAR OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, Colonel McCullough explains that he killed Malcom.
Tarkin seemed like he was partly motivated by an excuse to permanently rid himself of Director Krennic. A short term success that came back to bite him on the ass in the long run.
Debbie is the last remaining reminder of Martha, the woman Ethan loved and who married his brother. That eventually overcomes his hate for the Comanches.
No Deckard, no movie...K earns humanity by rescuing Deckard and reuniting him with his daughter. And Ford isn't phoning it in...Deckard wasn't the life of the party even in the original, and thirty years worth of loss and grief gnawing at him isn't going to improve his outlook.
Do check out the classic Godzilla series...especially the 1954 original. You'll get the hate for the 1998 movie a lot better...the original was no "popcorn movie" though most of the sequels were exactly that.
John Ford intended this specifically as a Stewart-Wayne vehicle...contrasting their personalities and making the point that time and experience will eventually destroy the ideals of a Stewart character and that you want a Wayne character to settle a frontier...but he can't function in a stable, tamed society.
Annie, in fact, might well have been the Final Girl for a sequel...at least after the first two. It's implied that not only was Alice sleeping with Mr. Christy, but cheating on a boyfriend doing it. And in Part Two, Ginny is most likely sexually active with her boyfriend. You didn't see a Final Girl who was a virgin untill Part Three.