I enjoyed reading Roger Ebert’s Talk Radio Movie Review. I learned that the making of Talk Radio was influenced by the murdering of a Denver talk show host named Alan Berg. Roger goes on to discuss how actually the character Barry does not have anything else in common with Alan Berg besides that he was murdered. Roger goes on to point out that Talk Radio was directed by Oliver Stone with a “claustrophobic intensity”. I think this pairing of words really hits the tone of the movie dead on. How would you describe the tone of the movie?

On an unrelated note to Talk Radio, but on a related note to being a film student. I have been watching this awesome docu-series on Starz called The Chair, which documents two first time directors making a feature film from the same source material in Pittsburgh. It comes out on iTunes September 23rd (tomorrow), but if you are lucky like me, I have been watching online through Starz on my parents Comcast Xfinity account. Here is the trailer if you are interested:

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/talk-radio-1988

Man, what a complicated movie. Many articles that I have read says it was not Stone’s first time narrating his stance (on societal, political…) through his films. Yet it contains too much of the worldly concerns that I personally could not consume all at once.  It was literally pouring everything on to the audience and even the camera was shot in a way that makes us to intensely and continuously focus on Barry’s speech. Everything was unstable in this movie  throughout the running time and it was very evident. I could not quite grasp reasons for the disturbance that this film generates, but after I read the required reading on ANGEL, I finally (and hopefully) understood the director’s intentions.

All the uncertainties and unstableness of this film was purposely put to illustrate “the cultural disintegration and American degeneracy”.  Well, I think that explains well about the essence of this piece.

If you haven’t so, I recommend you to read the assigned article (which ISN’T long) just to get a clearer image!

From the second talk radio started, I knew it was going to be intense. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, the music and the choice long, continuous shots kept me anxious the entire time.

However, I would really have liked to have seen the film as a play, like it was originally. I feel that it would have been more powerful staged. I found the music in the film incredibly distracting and sometimes misleading. I also would have liked it if they had only focused on one of his broadcasts, not two of them. What are your thoughts?

Also, What do you think the impact was of Kent pulling the camera out on Barry?

I found a cool website that had a some fun facts about Woody Allen’s personal influences on Radio Days. For example, Woody Allen’s father was also a cab driver who never told his children what he did which can be seen in the movie where Joe’s dad also keeps his job title from him. Anyways, I really enjoyed this film because of the light-hearted tone it had throughout most of the film, making me believe I was really seeing a real typical 40’s family. In addition, the music in the film also helped deliver a strong nostalgic feeling which in contrast, helped delivered a greater punch to the more serious scenes such as the girl falling into the well. I also enjoyed the scene towards the end, when Diane Keaton was singing, “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” where the rich were longing for a normal life that they could spend time with someone who really cared for them while Joe’s family was constantly in awe and wonderment of the rich and famous.

http://www.everywoodyallenmovie.com/post/radio-days/

Voiceover , one middle-aged man to lead the audience back to his childhood in a small town life , where there are too many interesting stories surrounding the radio broadcast ...... two thieves sneaked into a family of crime happens broadcasting telephone competition a program is selected here , the thief answer all the questions in the next day, the men who returned home and found the prize money and lost but quizzes program has filled the doorway. The movie "Radio Days" makes me feel so warm and miss the old times. That is one of the truths that Woody Allen evokes in "Radio Days," his comedy about growing up in the 1940s. Another one is that glamor and celebrity meant something in those days. For millions of people living in ordinary homes in ordinary neighborhoods, the radio brought images of beings who lived in a shimmering world of penthouses and nightclubs, in dressing rooms and boudoirs.

While I was watching the film, I could feel the lively atmosphere along in the film. The music was bright and cheerful, stories were funny and hilarious; all seems cherishing the memory towards that age, those Radio Days. I could feel passion towards this popular media medium, and everyone seems so enjoyable.

Here is a link I found from the internet that analyzed Woody Allen’s films very well.

http://theblackmaria.org/2014/07/25/out-of-the-past-woody-allen-nostalgia-the-meaning-of-life-and-radio-days/

I think the most interesting point of the radio is sound effect. Listeners can imagine the plot in head thanks to sound effects. Today’s radio industry has been developed. So they have a great sound system with sound resources which can use sound directly in the radio booth. However in the past time radio industry did not have the developed sound system. So they need to make sound effects in the radio booth. I found the short film about how old time radio produce the sound effect in the radio booth. I hope you guys enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ43UC5tIOY

It amazed me after reading this article http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/RadioDays how far reaching the themes are of Woody Allen’s Radio Days . There are so many different stories told in vignettes throughout the film. The article touches on how we see two different types of lives being led; the glamorous and the modest. The movie depicts how the radio plays a big role in both of these types of lives and it acts as a connecting link between these two worlds.

There is the historical factor of the movie Radio Days which certainly was important to me. World War II breaking out with the attack on Pearl Harbor was a significant scene in the movie that stood out to me. Even more so, the Alien Invasion radio broadcast organized by Orson Welles was incorporated quite excellently. I felt a connection to this movie more so than any of the movies we have watched so far. This is actually the first Woody Allen film I have viewed and I plan on watching many more in the future.

I found this article on New York Times which talks about Woody Allen’s Radio Days. This review analyzes this film in detail. The author was born before the World War II and has experienced the radio days. He talks about his opinions about this film from a special perspective.

Here’s the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B0DE0D81E31F933A05752C0A961948260

Woody Allen is an insane genius. He has kept his at least one movie a year formula going strong, sometimes generating hits and other times misses, but Radio Days falls under the first category.

The article attached written for TCM.com discusses Allen’s use of music in films but specifically in Radio Days. Allen is quoted as saying this of the film, “It originated from an idea that I wanted to pick out a group of songs that were meaningful to me, and each one of those songs suggested a memory. Then this idea started to evolve: how important radio was to me when I was growing up, and how important and glamorous it seemed to everyone.” This film plays on nostalgia. Everyone can remember a song that they associate with a specific time in their life, whether it be a summer hit or an annoying song that wouldn’t seem to go away. There is an auditory association with a song that will always exemplify a certain time in your life.  It is no different for the characters in the film, but aside from songs it also applies to radio programs.  In the films he narrates and/or acts in, Allen is often the old souled quirky curmudgeon with major neurosis. In this film though, he might be that man in the present but we only see his childhood and how fondly he looks back on it. How fondly he looks back on radio, and the role it played in he and the people around him’s life. The details are tainted by the haze that memories tend to have, specifics aren’t as important as the evocation of a feeling, a general recollection that comes with looking back at the good old days.

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/188701%7C0/Radio-Days.html