Back in the Saddle again...

[seawasp]

... and we restart blog postings with The Shadow, the progenitor of Batman and all the dark-cloaked avengers of Justice!

Comments

[ancientone.livejournal.com]

We missed you. We certainly hope you don't get saddle sores from the horse. So start BLOGing. we really did miss you.

[djonn]

I totally agree about the 1994 movie; I liked that film a great deal (and was also quite fond of its spiritual cousin, the Billy Zane Phantom movie).

One quibble, though -- I'd argue that the Shadow is strictly one of two progenitors of the "masked avenger" hero. Johnston McCulley's Zorro dates back even further, and the early Zorro feature films and movie serials did a great deal to put a visual stamp on the masked-hero genre.

[seawasp]

Zorro certainly had influence, but most of the imagery of Zorro seems to me to be a more flamboyant character, a swashbuckler rather than a terror in the shadows.

Both of them of course have to credit the Scarlet Pimpernel as well.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Agreeing on having enjoyed 'The Shadow' and 'The Phantom' so very much, despite poor reviews.

I very much enjoyed all the performances. I especially liked the chemistry between Baldwin & Lone. The scene with them shooting at each other always delights me. I also -really- liked the way swirling clothing was filmed - and how the pneumatic tubes were used. 'The Shadow' was very visually appealing.

[bunny-m.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the 1994 movie version, but I seem to be the exception here in that I utter loathed Billy Zane's turn as the Phantom.

I don't remember a lot* of why, just that I wanted that time back, dammit. In fact, I still want that time back, dammit.


(*)The exception being the bit in the climax with "Oh noes, don't let me fall to my death in this Dolphin-, er, I mean Shark-Infested Water"

[pedanther]

I'm with you on both sides of that: I enjoyed the Shadow movie a lot, but it took me three attempts to get all the way through the Phantom movie without getting bored and giving up, and when I did I wished I hadn't.

Part of that might have been that I was 14 when I saw The Shadow, and an adult when I saw The Phantom, and part of it is certainly that I'm more invested in the Phantom, so I took personally some of the liberties the movie took with the character. But part of it, I reckon, is that it's not a terribly good movie; I think that rather than trying to make the right movie for the Phantom they were trying to turn the Phantom into the next Indiana Jones, without understanding why Indiana Jones worked. They were definitely trying to Revive the Spirit of the Black-and-White Adventure Serials, but (a) if you're reviving a fifty-year-old genre you need to bring something new to the table, and (b) I've also seen the black-and-white Phantom adventure serial, and it's a lot more fun than the 1996 movie.

[kengr]

There's a reason my first online "handle" was "shadow". :-)

btw, I have all the radio episodes as mp3 files. I forget what site I downloaded them from, but if you are interested, I'm sure we can figure out a way to get them to you.

They total about 650 meg.