[NFBWATlk] September events

[Steve Cook]

Hi All, 

 

If you are reading this, then you are invited to the below events! Feel free to share with everyone! 

 

In October, I show spooky movies! If you have any suggestions for movies to show in October, send them to movies at NFBofSC.org <mailto:movies at NFBofSC.org> . 

 

Friday, September 6, 2024

Friday Night Lights Audio describe movie starting at 8:00 PM Eastern

 

Friday, September 13, 2024

The Road To El Dorado (2000)Audio describe movie starting at 8:00 PM Eastern

 

Friday, September 20, 2024

Amadeus - Director's cut Audio describe movie starting at 8:00 PM Eastern

 

Friday, September 27, 2024 

Trivia Night 8:00 PM Eastern

 

Every Saturday at 3:00 PM Eastern, join us for SC Tech Talk on the below Zoom platform! 

 

If you are a Chapter or Division President and no longer wish for me to post this information to your list serve. Send me a message at movies at NFBofsc.org <mailto:movies at NFBofsc.org> . 

 

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Phone number: 19292056099

Meeting ID: 803 254 3777

Password: 124578

 

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Meeting ID: 803 254 3777

Passcode: 124578

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Friday Night Lighst


 

Rating: PG 13

Run time: 1 hour and 50 minutes

 

Team, and a Dream (1990) by H. G. Bissinger. The movie stars Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gary Gaines.

 


The Road To El Dorado


 

Running Time: 1 hour & 29 minutes

Rating: PG

 

In 1519 Spain, con-artists Miguel and Tulio win a map to the legendary City of Gold, El Dorado, in a rigged dice gamble (though they win the map fairly after Tulio was given normal dice from one of the opponents). After their con is exposed, the two evade the guards and accidentally stow away on one of the ships to be led by conquistador Hernán Cortés for the New World. At sea, they are caught and imprisoned and are condemned to slavery in Cuba, but they break free and steal a rowboat with the help of Cortés' mistreated horse, Altivo.

 

Their boat reaches land (somewhere in Central or South America), where Miguel begins to recognize landmarks from the map, leading them to a totem marker near a waterfall that Tulio believes is a dead end. As they prepare to leave, they encounter a native woman, Chel, being chased by guards. When the guards see Tulio and Miguel riding Altivo as depicted on the totem, they escort them and Chel to a secret entrance behind the falls into El Dorado. They are brought to the city's elders, kindhearted Chief Tannabok, and wicked high priest Tzekel-Kan. The pair are mistaken for gods when a volcano coincidentally erupts but simultaneously stops during an argument between them and they are given luxurious quarters, along with the charge of Chel. She discovers that the two are conning her people but promises to remain quiet if they take her with them when they leave the city. The two are showered with gifts of gold from Tannabok but disapprove of Tzekel-Kan attempting to sacrifice a civilian at the gods' ritual. Meanwhile, Cortés and his men reach land.

 

Tulio and Miguel instruct Tannabok to build them a boat so that they can leave the city with all the gifts they have been given, under the ruse that they are needed back in the 'other world.' Chel gets romantically close to Tulio while Miguel explores the city, coming to appreciate the peaceful life embraced by the citizens; when Tzekel-Kan sees Miguel playing a ball game with children, he insists the "gods" demonstrate their powers against the city's best players. Tulio and Miguel are outmatched, but Chel replaces the ball with an armadillo, allowing them to win. Miguel spares the ritual of sacrificing the losing team, berates Tzekel-Kan to the crowd's approval, and earns Tannabok's respect. Tzekel-Kan notices Miguel received a cut during the game and realizes the pair are not gods since gods do not bleed, hence the reason for the sacrifices. Afterward, Miguel, who has reconsidered leaving the city, overhears Tulio telling Chel that he would like her to come with them to Spain before adding he would like her to come with specifically him and to forget Miguel – straining the relationship between the two. At a party being thrown for them, Miguel and Tulio begin to argue about Tulio and Chel's conversation and Miguel's desire to stay when Tzekel-Kan animates a giant stone jaguar to chase them throughout the city. Tulio and Miguel manage to outwit the jaguar, causing it and Tzekel-Kan to fall into a giant whirlpool, thought by the natives to be the entrance to Xibalba, the spirit world. Tzekel-Kan then surfaces in the jungle, where he encounters Cortés and his men. Believing Cortés to be the real god, Tzekel-Kan offers to lead him to El Dorado.

 

Miguel decides to stay in the city while Tulio and Chel board the completed boat, before they see smoke on the horizon and realize Cortés is approaching. Suspecting the city will be destroyed if Cortés discovers it, Tulio suggests using the boat to ram the rock pillars under the waterfall and block the main entrance to the city, despite knowing they will lose the gold in the process and the warriors will not last against them. The plan succeeds with the citizens pulling over a statue in the boat's wake to give it enough speed. As the statue starts to fall too quickly, Tulio has difficulty preparing the boat's sail. Forfeiting his chance to stay in the city, Miguel and Altivo jump onto the boat to unfurl the sails, assuring the boat clears the statue in time. The group successfully crashes against the pillars, causing a cave-in, while losing all their gifts in the process. They hide near the totem just as Cortés' men and Tzekel-Kan arrive. When they find the entrance blocked, Cortés brands Tzekel-Kan a liar and leaves, taking him as a slave. Tulio and Miguel, though disappointed they lost the gold (unaware that Altivo still wears the golden horseshoes with which he was outfitted in El Dorado), know that El Dorado is forever safe. They appreciate the thrill of their adventure and head in a different direction for a new adventure with Chel.

 

Voice cast

Kevin Kline as Tulio, a con artist and Miguel's friend. He is the strategic planner, often becoming anxious and overthinking things.

Kenneth Branagh as Miguel, a con artist and Tulio's friend. Miguel is more relaxed and laid-back in contrast to Tulio's more frantic nature. Miguel becomes accustomed to the peaceful life in El Dorado and values the city's people as opposed to the gold.

Rosie Perez as Chel, a beautiful woman from El Dorado who discovers Tulio and Miguel's con and decides to play along in hopes of escaping El Dorado with them for a life of adventure.

Armand Assante as Tzekel-Kan, the fanatically vicious high priest who has a religious fixation for human sacrifices. He initially believes Tulio and Miguel are gods until he discovers the truth.

Edward James Olmos as Chief Tannabok, the chief of El Dorado who was very skeptical of Tulio and Miguel being gods, but treats them with kindness and hospitality because of the good they show to his people.

Jim Cummings as Hernán Cortés, the merciless and ambitious conquistador leader of the expedition to find gold from the empires of the New World.

Cummings also voices the cook on Cortés's ship, a warrior who gets stepped on by Tzekel-Kan's stone jaguar, and the native who warns Chief Tannabok about Cortés.

Frank Welker as Altivo, Cortés' horse who befriends Tulio and Miguel.

Welker also voices the Bull that chases Miguel and Tulio at the beginning of the movie.

Tobin Bell as Zaragoza, a sailor on the voyage to the New World of El Dorado and the original owner of the map, which he loses to Tulio and Miguel after a game of dice.

Elton John as The Singing Narrator

Anne Lockhart as Girl in Barcelona (uncredited)

Bob Bergen as Jaguar (uncredited)

Duncan Marjoribanks as Acolyte

 


Amadeus - Director's cut


 

Running Time: 2 hours and 40 minutes

Rating: R

 

In the winter of 1823, aged composer Antonio Salieri is committed to a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide, during which his servants overhear him confess to murdering Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A young priest, Father Vogler, approaches Salieri and tells him to confess his sins and find God's peace. Salieri plays two of his own melodies for Vogler, who is unfamiliar with them, and then one of Mozart's, which the priest recognizes at once. Salieri begins his confession by saying that he idolized Mozart from childhood. Salieri recounts that he prayed to God that if He allowed Salieri to become a famous composer, he would—in return—promise his faithfulness, chastity and diligence. Soon after, his father, who had not been supportive of his musical desires, chokes on his food and dies and Salieri takes it as a sign that God has accepted his vow. By 1774, Salieri had become court composer to Emperor Joseph II in Vienna.

 

Seven years later, at a reception in honor of Mozart's patron, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Salieri anxiously awaits meeting his idol. Guessing his identity, he is shocked to discover that the transcendentally talented Mozart is obscene, silly, and immature. Salieri, a devout Catholic, cannot fathom why God would endow such a great gift onto Mozart instead of him and concludes that God is using Mozart's talent to make Salieri a mediocrity. Salieri renounces God and vows to take revenge on Him by destroying Mozart.

 

Meanwhile, Mozart's alcoholism ruins his health, marriage, finances, and reputation at court, even as he continues to produce brilliant work. Salieri hires a young girl to work as Mozart's maid and thereby discovers that Mozart is working on an opera based on the play The Marriage of Figaro, which the Emperor has forbidden, owing to its subversive theme. When Mozart is summoned to court to explain, he manages to convince the Emperor to allow his opera to premiere, despite Salieri's attempts at sabotage. When Mozart is informed that his father has died, he writes Don Giovanni in his grief.

 

Salieri recognizes the dead commander in the opera as symbolic of Mozart's father and concocts a scheme: he leads Mozart to believe that his father has risen to commission a Requiem. He then plans to kill Mozart once the piece is finished and premiere it at Mozart's funeral, claiming the work as his own, forcing God to listen as Salieri is acclaimed. Meanwhile, Mozart's friend Emanuel Schikaneder invites him to write an opera for his theatre. Mozart obliges, despite his wife Constanze's insistence that he finish the Requiem, as the opera is a riskier venture. After arguing with Mozart, Constanze leaves with their young son, Karl.

 

The opera in question, The Magic Flute, is a great success, but the overworked Mozart collapses during one performance. Salieri takes him home and persuades him to continue writing the Requiem, offering to take the bedridden Mozart's dictation; the two lay down the opening of the Confutatis together. The next morning, Mozart thanks Salieri for his friendship and Salieri admits that Mozart is the greatest composer he knows. Constanze returns and, appalled at Mozart working with Salieri, demands that Salieri leave immediately. After putting away the Requiem into a cabinet, she finds that Mozart has passed away; he is unceremoniously buried in a mass grave.

 

Back in 1823, Vogler is too shaken to absolve Salieri; Salieri then surmises that God preferred to destroy His beloved Mozart rather than allow Salieri to share in the smallest part of his glory. He calls himself the "patron saint" of mediocrities; he promises, with bitter irony, to speak for Vogler and the other mediocrities of the world before God. As Salieri is wheeled down a hallway, absolving the hospital's other patients of their inadequacies, Mozart's laughter rings in the air.

 

Cast

F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri

Martin Cavani as young Salieri

Tom Hulce as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Miroslav Sekera as young Mozart

Elizabeth Berridge as Constanze Mozart

Roy Dotrice as Leopold Mozart

Simon Callow as Emanuel Schikaneder

Christine Ebersole as Caterina Cavalieri

Jeffrey Jones as Emperor Joseph II

Charles Kay as Count Orsini-Rosenberg

Kenneth McMillan as Michael Schlumberger (Director's Cut)

Kenny Baker as Parody Commendatore

Lisabeth Bartlett as Papagena

Barbara Bryne as Frau Weber – Mozart's scandalous landlady and later mother-in-law.

Roderick Cook as Count von Strack

Milan Demjanenko as Karl Mozart

Peter DiGesu as Francesco Salieri

Michele Esposito as Salieri's student (Director's Cut)

Richard Frank as Father Vogler

Patrick Hines as Kapellmeister Giuseppe Bonno

Nicholas Kepros as Count Hieronymus von Colloredo, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg

Philip Lenkowsky as Salieri's Servant

Herman Meckler as Priest

Jonathan Moore as Baron van Swieten

Cynthia Nixon as Lorl, Mozart's maid

Brian Pettifer as Hospital Attendant

Vincent Schiavelli as Salieri's Valet

Douglas Seale as Count Arco – Joseph II's counselor

Cassie Stuart as Gertrude Schlumberger (Director's Cut)

John Strauss as Conductor

Karl-Heinz Teuber as Wig Salesman

Rita Zohar as Frau Schlumberger (Director's Cut)