116 R.P.M.

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MichaelB
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116 R.P.M.

#1 Post by MichaelB » Thu Nov 08, 2018 6:30 am

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R.P.M. (Stanley Kramer, 1970)

The films of director Stanley Kramer (Ship of Fools, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?) reflected social and political concerns of their time and tackled controversial subjects head on. The little-seen 1970 feature R.P.M., set amidst the turmoil of late-60s anti-war student protests, is no exception.

As activists seize control of a California college, a free-thinking, anti-establishment college professor (Anthony Quinn) finds himself in a precarious position when he’s invested as University President and must decide between restoring order or sanctioning a descent into anarchy.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition remaster
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with film historian Paul Talbot
• Interview with composer Barry De Vorzon (2018)
• Isolated music & effects track
• Theatrical trailer
• TV spot
• Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Jeff Billington, an overview of contemporary critical responses, historic articles, and film credits
• World premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited Edition of 3,000 copies
• All extras subject to change

#PHILTD116
BBFC cert: TBC
REGION FREE
EAN: 5037899071724

KJones77
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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#2 Post by KJones77 » Thu Nov 08, 2018 9:20 am

This sounds pretty good but it seems to have little to no chatter about it online.

Has ayone seen it?

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Mr Sheldrake
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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#3 Post by Mr Sheldrake » Thu Nov 08, 2018 10:20 am

I reviewed it back in 1970. I can't find the review but I'm pretty sure I dismissed it harshly. It was part of a mini-genre of campus unrest movies that included The Strawberry Statement and Getting Straight, also 1970. I re-watched both of those last year and found them interesting mostly as historical documents, although if you weren't a college student in 1970 (the year of Kent State) it might not have the same resonance.

Vachel in Valdosta
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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#4 Post by Vachel in Valdosta » Thu Nov 08, 2018 11:22 am

I remember them as well but never saw any of them at the time of their release as I was only 14 or 15 and they were rated R. By the time I caught up with them in college they seemed hopelessly dated. As Mr. Sheldrake suggests they are of interest mainly as social/historical documents. I do recall that one critic described R.P.M. as "Stanley Kramer letting his hair down" and thinking this hilarious as Kramer seemed to always sport a vintage 50's/60's crew cut in every photograph of the period.

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domino harvey
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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#5 Post by domino harvey » Thu Nov 08, 2018 11:46 am

Guess I'll have to finally watch my copy of this in advance of this release. To say I'm not optimistic would be an understatement, but I'm admittedly a little curious to see how Kramer's old school social liberal handles the late 60s youth culture's brand of leftism. And as far as 70s Kramer movies go, it couldn't possibly be worse than the Domino Principle

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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#6 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:15 pm

It could be Kramer's Zabriske Point!

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knives
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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#7 Post by knives » Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:40 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Thu Nov 08, 2018 11:46 am
Guess I'll have to finally watch my copy of this in advance of this release. To say I'm not optimistic would be an understatement, but I'm admittedly a little curious to see how Kramer's old school social liberal handles the late 60s youth culture's brand of leftism. And as far as 70s Kramer movies go, it couldn't possibly be worse than the Domino Principle
Maybe he should have gone by your last name instead.

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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#8 Post by Vachel in Valdosta » Thu Nov 08, 2018 4:22 pm

My memory of the plot details are somewhat sketchy but to add to the synopsis above ...
SpoilerShow
...I believe Quinn's college prez rides a Harley and is having an extramarital affair with student Ann Margaret.
The screenplay is by Erich Segal.

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whaleallright
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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#9 Post by whaleallright » Thu Nov 08, 2018 6:23 pm

the idea of a Stanley Kramer movie about the New Left —with Ann-Margret!—sounds totally grotesque and thus part of me really wants to see this.

funny enough, my undergraduate advisor was long working on a book about guys who seem essentially like the way the Quinn character in this film is described: New Deal era left-wing intellectuals in positions of authority at American universities in the 1960s and 1970s who have to figure out how to deal with—and crucially how to negotiate with—campus antiwar and other radical protestors to whom they're broadly sympathetic but whose disruption of campus life their new institutional roles can't abide.

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knives
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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#10 Post by knives » Thu Nov 08, 2018 7:32 pm

That description sounds infinitely better than what I imagine this could be. Too bad Phillip Roth is too busy being dead to write it.

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knives
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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#11 Post by knives » Wed Jan 09, 2019 4:39 pm

Because of this thread I did dig this out of the garbage and it's about what you'd expect. It's a lot better than the average Kramer film, but still bad. It's biggest problem is definitely Kramer himself who directs this in a totally tone deaf way though there's some real issues with the script as well. The byline is actually pretty brilliant: what if Herbert Marcuse became the president of a university. Whaleallright's description above isn't really accurate as Quinn is the instigator of the mess he's assigned to fix up and in general represents a more left type figure. Throw in some half kidding quotations of the films gaining traction at the time and this really has the making of something good. In fact up through the opening credits I was semi-hopeful. Unfortunately the film pretty quickly reveals that it doesn't know what it wants. Does Kramer want to be one of the cool kids or is he trying to tear down the Marcuse types, he's definitely against the students, is something the film never works out.

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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#12 Post by MichaelB » Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:15 pm


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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#13 Post by MichaelB » Sun Jan 27, 2019 8:06 am


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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#14 Post by MichaelB » Wed Feb 27, 2019 1:08 pm


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Ribs
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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#15 Post by Ribs » Fri Nov 13, 2020 7:50 pm

Just wanted to put a quick word in that I found this movie a bit delightful - it kind of comes apart in the end but the first hour or so is like Yojimbo but set amid student protests, Anthony Quinn going from one side to the other playing them against one another, not entirely clear where he's going to end up, selling out to the man or a hero member of the (tiny) revolution. It actually feels quite personally involved for Kramer, who probably was bearing in mind criticisms of his work (assuming these existed at the time, which I imagine they mus thave) when making a character who is ostensibly liberal but finds himself having to make compromises that don't necessarily reflect those beliefs in actually having a position of power. I like Stanley Kramer's movies a lot for the most part and this is still plainly pretty minor among those but considering I only got this due to a weird DD pricing mistake that made it less than $9 I was pleasantly surprised and liked it more then quite a few of the random movies-that-don't-exist Indicator have put out that I've picked up.

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CSM126
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Re: 116 R.P.M.

#16 Post by CSM126 » Thu May 04, 2023 5:13 pm

Finally pulled this off my kevyip and, as Stanley Kramer movies go, this is a fair sight better than IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD. In fact, this one’s actually a good movie! Anthony Quinn stars as a middle aged college professor who finds himself in a quagmire when student radicals occupy the administration building and insist he be named President to deliver their demands to the board of trustees. Quinn is supposedly a radical himself but the more he tries to understand the students the more he starts to sound out of touch with the youth. And when’s he supposed to find time to sleep with his hot grad student girlfriend played by Ann-Margaret?

RPM definitely is not on the bleeding edge of 60s college revolution. In fact, it’s downright silly more often than not. But it is entertaining in its own way - that way being if you’ve ever wanted to see how a well meaning but out of touch old man would make a movie about those crazy kids he admired so darn much. Kramer was supposedly a bleeding heart liberal but more than that he was an affable old man who wished he was still hip. RPM isn’t hip and probably never was, but it has its heart in the right place and it’s never unpleasant to watch. Quinn is the best part of the show with his typical bombastic personality, which seems well suited to an often goofy screenplay. I do wish they had used even more of that folk-pop Melanie stuff on the soundtrack though, but I am biased towards that sort of stuff anyway.

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