Question: I can't understand why Sonny hauled Sandy off the dance floor during the dance finale. Sure Sonny was a bit of a jerk, but he idolized Danny and would never disrespect him. Also there was nothing to suggest that he and Cha-Cha were friends. I never truly understood.
Answer: He's fall-down drunk, that's why. He's drinking during the entire dance.
Answer: Because in real life Olivia was late for work, as a result Annette had to take Olivia's place because she was her understudy.
Answer: It's a terrible moment in the story because it exposes Danny as being thoughtless. After already burning Sandy once (at the pep rally) you'd think he'd be mindful of not doing it again. This time, though, he humiliates her in front of the entire school, as well as on television. Unsure how Sandy's sitting with him in the next scene at the drive-in only slightly miffed. Imagine how this plays as a story to their children: "Hey, kids, did I ever tell you about how your dad embarrassed me in front of everybody?" I guess it's meant to be partly motivation for Sandy to change her image and outlook in order to keep Danny, but it's a terrible message (even back then). She's nothing but thoughtful and considerate, and Danny repeatedly treats her badly, but she decides she needs to reinvent herself. (Danny's makeover doesn't count given it lasts about three minutes.) It would've been better had Danny and Sandy came second because of Sandy's dancing, and that could've played on her mind.
Answer: He is so upset about Marty liking Ed Byrnes, he just drinks all night.
Answer: I think it was because Sonny was drunk and wanted Sandy to talk to Marty for him since she dumped him for Vince Fontaine at the beginning of the dance.
Answer: Well my theory is maybe since Sonny wants a girl, Cha-Cha promised him a date with a girl if he agreed to her plan.
Question: When Superman went back in time to save Lois, doesn't that mean that the people that he had originally saved are now doomed to die?
Chosen answer: No. Because the version of him *before* he time-traveled is still out doing those things. The REAL question is, what happens to that Superman, seeing as Lois no longer dies and he has no reason to travel back in time.
Answer: There are generally two methods of time travel. Skip vs Slide. When you slide through time, you are in essence rewinding or fast forwarding a tape. Time will accelerate to the desired moment. This method, the traveler will witness the rewind and will only allow one of them to exist. When skipping, you are plucking yourself from the time stream and placing yourself in the desired moment. This method, travel is instantaneous and can allow for multiples of the traveler to exist at once. Superman rewound time. He used the slide method and went directly to Lois after doing so. This means those he previously saved...died after his reversal.
Or he could have used the skip method. Like you said, it enables a traveler to pluck themself from the time stream and placing them at the desired moment allowing for two Supermen to be able to prevent both missiles from reaching their destinations.
He couldn't have used the skip method if he rewound time.
Question: What has ended up with Max? Billy promised to go back and release him, but we never see that happen, and no explanation is given for that in the Epilogue. Is Max a real figure? If he is, what has happened to him? Did he manage to escape, or did he die in prison?
Answer: Max WAS a real character, and a Dutchman in real life, rather than an English one as portrayed in the movie. He eventually got paroled and later treatment for a severe drug addiction he had too.
Answer: It's never stated what happened to Max. The film was a heavily fictionalized version of Billy Hayes' book, and the Max character appears to be fictional as well or at least a composite of other real-life imprisoned Westerners that Hayes met while in a Turkish prison.
Question: Near the end, when Dean Wormer and Mayor DePasto are in the grandstand, officially launching the parade, there is an elderly gentleman in the background (also in the grandstand, about 2 levels up, on the left side of the screen) who is making odd, excited gestures and comical facial expressions. His appearance and odd mannerisms are so striking that he draws my attention away from the dean and the mayor every time that I've seen this film, and that's a lot of times. Surely, director John Landis must have been aware of the gentleman and his antics in the background through multiple takes, so it would seem Landis intended the peculiar distraction. Who was that gentleman, and was there any significance to his appearing in the scene?
Answer: Sometimes these things get left in because it's simply the best take. (The child covering his ears before the gunshot in "North by Northwest," for example.) It could also be that John Landis cast the extra because he wanted someone with goofy expressions in the crowd. He simply could have told the extras "Ok, be excited that you're at a parade," and that's how this extra did it.
Question: When Damian learns that he is the Antichrist, he is very upset about it. Later in the movie, why does he choose to embrace who he is and his destiny?
Answer: Having lived as a "normal" boy, Damien is initially shocked to learn his true identity. After having time to adjust and being surrounded and groomed by satanic supporters, he eventually embraces his true persona.
The answer is correct, and I'm just going a into a bit more detail. During the events of the first film, Damien is normal until Mrs Baylock entered his life. She started teaching him about who he was, but he was only five or six, which would have been far too young for him to understand. He started acting more malicious after this point. After the movie ended, it skips ahead to Damien living with his uncle, aunt, and cousin. During that time, it's conceivable that the forces surrounding him decided to give him a period of peace. He was raised by his aunt (secretly a Satanist), but she might have been instructed to give him a normal upbringing so he wouldn't call attention to himself. As a result, he probably forgot about it, and started to believe he wasn't any different. Once he learned of his unholy lineage he began to remember and eventually embrace it, especially since he had several followers (Buher, Neff, and many others he may not have met yet) to help and protect him.
Question: Why was Michael killing people? There was no mention of his history, or what made him the way he was.
Answer: The only answer given in this film is that Myers is purely and simply evil. He's just doing it because he's compelled to, and doesn't seem to have any trace of humanity left inside of him. Future sequels attempted to give an explanation, but to varying degrees of success. But as far as this original film is concerned - he's just pure evil.
Answer: The movie doesn't require a back story, although subsequent sequels, and the Rob Zombie remake address your questions. Then again, what makes any serial killer kill? The topic has been studied by psychologists for decades. Often serial killers lead normal lives, at least in public.
Question: Can anyone tell me the name of the music the band is playing when chief Brody and his wife are dancing?
Answer: Teach me tonight is the name of song when Chief Brody and his wife Ellen are dancing to.
Answer: The songs are: Downtown, The Girl From Ipanema, and Teach Me Tonight.
The very first piece the Amity High School band plays, is a piece called "FANFARE." It was composed specifically for the film -> by Universal's music department head (at the time) HAL MOONEY, utilizing a small Universal staff ensemble of musicians. The composers of the other pieces: Downtown (Tony Hatch), The Girl From Ipanema (Antonio Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes), and Teach Me Tonight (Gene DePaul/Sammy Cahn). I had hoped so much when they came out with the definitive JAWS 2 score, that John Williams would have permitted these pieces to be included on the score. I think the case was that those particular pieces were not in the 'vaults' along with the John Williams score. We'd all agree, those songs are essential to the JAWS 2 narrative.
Any idea if the Teach Me Tonight arrangement from Jaws 2 is commercially available? Great instrumental in the big band style.
Question: During the opening scene, where it explains the creation of the ring, Sméagol finding and Bilbo taking it, was the entire scene animated or were live actors used before switching to animation?
Question: When the group first meet up at the dock, just as they are about to set off in the helicopter, when Roger closes the door, he then looks out of the window - eventually he gives a smiling nod. This could simply be a nod to the other group but it seems as if it may have been unintentional possibly as if he thought that the camera had stopped rolling. Curious to see if anyone could clarify it. Maybe I'm just looking too much into the film.
Answer: One of the cops that was with Joe Plato (how much you have seen of them will depend on which version of the movie you, but I HIGHLY recommend the fan made/edited 'Extended Mall Hours' cut on YouTube) asked them for cigarettes. You'll notice that Roger and Fran lit up cigarettes as they were taking off, that's what Roger was laughing at.
Question: During the Battle of the Bands near the end of the film, a band with a singer who sounds like and somewhat resembles Joey Ramone performs a song called "So Socko" (or possibly "So Psycho"). I've heard some people insist that it was, in fact, Joey Ramone in an uncredited role, but it doesn't really look like him and doesn't have Joey's stage presence, i.e, standing still throughout the performance as opposed to moving about the stage. So who was the actual singer for this particular band?
Answer: The lead singer is Rick Wilder. The band is credited as "Berlin Brats" (The Groups). The song is called "Psychotic", or sometimes listed as " (I'm) Psychotic", but it seems the middle part was cut out for the film or maybe arranged differently for the film.
Question: I'm trying to remember the song that was made famous by this film. Can anyone help me?
Answer: "Bright Eyes" written by Mike Batt and performed by Art Garfunkel.
Question: Why did Martin Scorsese wait two years to release the film?
Chosen answer: The show was recorded on Thanksgiving, 1976. The movie was released April 26, 1978, 17 months later closer to 1.5 years. The movie was not just the straight footage of the one concert, it includes various interviews, studio sessions, etc. filmed at different times. It had to be edited, produced, distribution had to be arranged. Then a release date was picked probably based on some marketing scheme - what other movies were being released around that time, etc. 17 months is not at all an unusual delay for this process.
Question: What does "mao" mean?
Chosen answer: The whole phrase is "di di mao", which basically mean go now, or hurry up.
Question: I have one question about this movie that I have never been able to figure out. When Tia was 'repairing' the cooling system, it almost hit 1,000, and Tony was trying to increase it, while Tia was trying to decrease it. Then she opens her eyes and it just goes down, but Tony is still trying to increase it. How was she able to overpower Tony's ability to increase the temperature and bring it back down?
Answer: I always figured it was because Tony had been using his powers more often than Tia whilst he was under Gannon and his team's control, so wasn't as strong as Tia was by the time they were all together at the plutonium plant, which is why she was able to overpower him telepathically. Remember, Uncle Bene talked to Tony at the start of the film about controlling his telepathy, and that he must "never energise unless it's absolutely necessary", but the moment Tony was taken by Gannon, he was no longer in control of his telepathy, so would not have been able to ration his powers like Tia did.
Question: Why does Leonard Nimoy have a brown piece of leather on the back of one of his hands?
Answer: On the DVD commentary, Director Phillip Kaufman explained that the leather on Nimoy's hand was the actor's idea and simply showed how kooky the character was. Fits the character well really.
Question: This 1978 comedy take on the Hound Of The Baskervilles featured a stellar cast of British comedy icons: Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Spike Milligan, Kenneth Williams and Terry Thomas. Yet it was not remotely funny and was a box office bomb. Biographies of cast members say the film was a low point of their careers, their acting lacks conviction, as if they know it isn't funny. So, why did they keep making this film, since, even when it was half completed, everybody knew it would be a total flop?
Answer: The actors would have no control over whether a film should continue production, particularly just because they didn't like how it was progressing. They were under contract and paid to act in a movie, regardless of the quality and would be sued if they quit. Movies are financed by studios and investors who expect a monetary return on their investment. Even if the film's quality was considered poor, producers would base their decisions on making a profit or at least recouping the costs. Halting production would be an extreme last resort.
Thank you for your informative and interesting points. I read a biography of Peter Cook which said that when the film studio executives saw the finished film they realised it just was not funny or entertaining. There was reluctance to give it a cinema release, as it was thought it would not even recoup distribution costs. It was eventually given a limited release and it bombed. I saw the film once on television, even though I am a fan of many members of the cast, I was wholly unimpressed. I think most of the cast, too, were embarrassed by the film.
Answer: Watched that scene again now and I just think it was poor writing (in what's still a classic film regardless). How none of the judges noticed that Cha Cha took another girl's (Sandy's) place even after she'd already been "tapped out" is another huge plot hole. Plus a lot of people in America were watching the dance on TV and it's not mentioned by anyone after this scene. 35 years later and that scene still bugs me (haha).