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mizzou43
Reviews
On Any Sunday (1971)
What a memory jogger
I was all of 17 when this film came out. I was a year from joining the Navy and owned a used Kawasaki 175. I ended up selling the bike to buy (back when you had to do that) books for high school.
I remember that year so well because, at the Missouri State Fair, the last Sunday of the fair was motorcycle racing on the (now defunct) mile dirt track. Mert Lawill was the AMA #1 plate holder that year and seeing this film just takes me back to those days.
The opening scene where the one guy is trying to teach the other one how to ride a motorcycle is much like how it goes. Too many bumps and bruises came about my introduction to the hand clutch and such.
It's funny to hear the comment about how fast the road bikes were going at Daytona when there are motorcycles that will go that fast off the showroom available now. That goes to show you how far we've come in motorcycle technology and engineering.
I finally ended up purchasing the DVD version of this film after wearing out a couple of video tape versions.
When Bruce Brown made this film, he set the standard as far as how to make a fantastic motorcycle documentary that covers all aspects of riding. Granted there are other styles of riding but this one covered the main ones. It's a shame that the follow up video, On Any Sunday II didn't do justice to the original.
Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
A textbook example of leadership at its best
During my time in the Navy, all prospective supervisors (E-5/6) were required to take a two week Military Leadership course. The main points taught in the course covered the different leadership styles and how they were or were not effective. The last day of the course, we watched "Twelve O'clock High". At first, it wasn't understood exactly the purpose of watching an old World War II movie.
20th Century Fox and Hollywood couldn't have come up with a more perfect example to display the various leadership styles than this film. While watching it at the end of the course, the facilitator would stop the film and we would discuss specific scenes. Questions such as what type of leadership style was being used by whom and how it was evident were asked. This film displayed a visual representation of how to and how not to get the most from our personnel.
Unfortunately, as things go in the military, the course was shortened to only one week and the viewing of the film deleted.
Every time I see this film on television, I am reminded of what I miss about serving this country as a part of it's armed forces. No job since has ever provided me the kinship and camaraderie I remember from those days. It's an experience that goes with the phrase "you had to have been there".