Apocalypse Now was originally issued with no credits at the start or finish, instead cinema goers were presented with a film programme. When editing the film for worldwide release Francis Ford Coppola realised handing out programmes was impractical, and so credits were included at the end.

The director had the choice of running the credits against a blank screen, or using film footage. Conveniently there was surrealistic footage of the destruction of the Kurtz compound. The explosions were shown in slow motion slightly over exposed to produce an unreal effect.

While the director was deciding what to do, many cinema goers saw this explosive ending, which gives rise to the rumour that there were two or even three different versions.

The original version is what Francis Ford Coppola intended as the ending. Colonel Kurtz is dead, the tribes-people lay down their weapons presaging an end to the madness and carnage.

There is no air strike against the Kurtz compound, so the credits running against a load of explosions is rather a red herring that the director could have avoided with more thought.

John McNally

Nick Hornby wrote a very funny novel called ‘High Fidelity’ about a bloke who was always making lists. He constantly rearranged his record collection, and thought about the top 10 guitarists or drummers, especially when he had girlfriend troubles.

OK. That’s the preamble over. Here is what you were expecting; The top 25 Science Fiction and Fantasy Films as selected by the UK’s Guardian Newspaper:
I like this list because it has my favourite film, 2001: A Space Odyssey at the top. It also has Metropolis at number 2, which I recently named as one of the most boring films ever made. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

I was pleased to see Starship Troopers and Dark Star in the top 25, two very funny Science Fiction films.

Three films I had never heard of; Spirited Away, Akira and the Princess Bride, so they are now on my must watch list.

I will also be looking out for Pan’s Labyrinth and Alphaville as I haven’t seen either of them.

What do you think of the list? Has your favourite film been missed out? Are there films here that you wouldn’t have included? If I get enough suggestions I could create another list, it’s one of my favourite hobbies.

12) “I love the smell of napalm in the morning!”

13) “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

20) “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

There’s a good quote in my favourite cowboy film ‘Unforgiven’.  A young gunman confronts Clint Eastwood, and Eastwood asks him why he works as a bounty hunter.  The gunman says “It’s a living” to which Eastwood replies

2)

7)“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

One of my favourite quotes is from the film Die Hard. 
Two FBI agents wearing sunglasses are approaching a tower block in a helicopter, preparing to machine gun the roof.

“Figure we take out the terrorists.
Lose twenty, twenty-five percent of the hostages.”

To which the second agent replies with a beaming smile;
“I can live with that.”

What’s YOUR favourite film quote?

John McNally

For those of you lucky enough not to have seen Gosford Park, here’s what happens – nothing. That’s the whole film, nothing happens. The only entertaining part is the competition among the audience to see who falls asleep first.

OK,  you’ve read this far, so you must be a film fan. Here’s what I remember about the film. It opens with views of a big English country mansion, surrounded by lovely countryside. Nothing is happening in the house or countryside.

Next scene, loads of posh cars arrive carrying people in evening dress. Some walk towards the house, others gather and talk a bit about nothing in particular, and overall nothing happens again.

Scene 3. Inside the house we listen in to a load of inane conversation. Everyone is talking about nothing much.

Dinner Time. We watch all these people in costumes eating a meal and talking about nothing much. Then just as you are about to drop off, sure enough, nothing happens yet again. 

After the Meal. Men gather in one room, ladies in the other. Once again they talk about nothing much, and yet again nothing happens.

Finally everyone goes for a stroll in the gardens, and nothing happens here either. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I don’t know anymore, because that was me fast asleep in the cinema.

Here’s a 20 second clip where they have packed in ALL the highlights. If you suffer from insomnia watch this on a continuous loop, or better still try and watch the whole film. 

Come on, you must know a film even more boring than this. Let’s name names, what’s the most boring film you have ever seen?

John McNally

It’s a good list but I would add ‘AI’ by Steven Speilberg. This is a film project that Stanley Kubrick never completed, Speilberg picked up the reins and added his usual uplifting ending, which I found very moving. Speilberg even  managed to find a way to get the Blue Fairy into the film, in a believable way.

Number 4 is ‘A Clockwork Orange’ also by Stanley Kubrick, and this plus ’2001 A Space Odyssey’ would make it into my list of top 10 films of all time.

They are both excellent films but they made an impact on me because I saw them when they first came out, when I was an impressionable teenager.

I was not the only person influenced by these films. My friend down the pub knew I painted and wanted a picture from Clockwork Orange. Unfortunately he didn’t want the subway scene I had already completed, instead he wanted a painting of Alex the main character portrayed by Malcolm McDowell.

I ended up painting two versions and will give him the choice.  The extra painting is for sale through my website: Pop Art Oil Paintings.

John McNally

What made Clockwork Orange so controversial?

It was beautifully filmed and used Beethoven as the soundtrack. The violent scenes were often in slow motion with almost balletic aspects. 

Alex and his feral gang had their own uniform of white boiler suits, black braces and a bowler hat. They even had their own language. “Horror show” meant ‘good’ or ‘wicked’ in todays terms.  The overall effect was to glorify violence and make it seem trendy and fun. Not a good message for the youth of Britain.

Clockwork Orange is still a great work of art, and one of my favourite films. I first saw it at the cinema (before it was withdrawn) at the impressionable age of 17. Because it had such an impact on me it was a natural subject for me to choose for my oil painting hobby.

One of my first completed paintings was the subway scene from the start of Clockwork Orange.

Clockwork Orange also made an impression on other males of my age, and a friend  wanted a painting of the main character Alex played by Malcolm McDowell. So I completed two paintings of Alex to give my friend a choice. 

Now I have a total of three Clockwork Orange paintings in my portfolio, and hope to sell these to other Kubrick fans from my pop art website.

John McNally

Atticus Finch gives this advice to his children as he defends the real Mockingbird of this pulitzer prize winning novel, Tom Robinson a black man falsely accused of raping a white girl.

As I read this book I remembered the film with Gregory Peck
who portrays one of the great heroes of literature, a lawyer whose lone struggle for justice pricks the conscience of a town steeped in prejudice and hypocrisy.

This book is a very well written ‘page turner’ which captures the atmosphere of the deep South in 1930′s America. A time which is drifting into the shadows of the past now that we have Barack Obama as President. Although the story is very moving and poignant there was one part that made me laugh out loud.

Tom Robinson was being quizzed at the trial as to why he ran away;
“Like I says before, it weren’t safe for any n****r to be in a – fix like that.”
“But you weren’t in a fix – you testified that you were resisting Miss Ewell. Were you so scared that she’d hurt you, you ran, a big buck like you?”
“No suh, I’s scared I’d be in court, just like I am now.”
“Scared of arrest, scared you’d have to face up to what you did?”
“No suh, scared I’d hafta face up to what I didn’t do.”

This short film extract demonstrates how it was impossible for Tom Robinson to have committed the crime, yet he was still found guilty by an all white jury.

One thing jarred in the book with me, and the only other instance I can think of is with Bart Simpson and Homer. Throughout the book the children call their father by his first name Atticus. Does anyone know how or why this happens in some families?

John McNally

CONTACT is a novel by the late scientist Carl Sagan about first contact with alien lifeforms. Sagan’s enthusiasm and belief in Alien Intelligences led to the establishment of SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestial Intelligence).

Contact was an excellent science fiction novel exploring themes of religious belief, science, rationality, faith and god. Contact is also a hollywood film staring Jodie Foster. The film version however, left out my favourite part of the book.

In the novel, the Jodie Foster character travels to the far end of the universe and talks to an Alien lifeform. The alien seems so powerful and all-knowing that at one stage she asks “Are you God?”. The alien replies that he is not god, but if you want to find him, look into pye (the mathematical formula).

Returning to Earth, scientists consider the aliens enigmatic reply, and decide to set up a super-computer to print out pye, in binary form, to trillions of decimal points. After 6 months of binary print-out, there is suddenly an excited cry, from a scientist monitoring the computer.

There amongst all the ones and zeros, was a large perfectly formed circle. Within the mathematical formula for a circle, was another circle. It couldn’t have happened randomly. It could only have been placed there, by the diety who constructed the universe.

It was God’s signature, which he left for any race who gained enough intelligence to calculate pye to trillions of decimal points. It was a lovely idea.  It’s a pity that we haven’t found any such signature, and can only sustain god through faith.

John McNally

When I choose a science fiction book I usually go for a title with ‘God’ or ‘Eternity’ or ‘Infinity’ in it. I want to travel to the furthest reaches of human imagination. I usually enjoy the book but I’m almost inevitably disappointed by the conclusion. 

I’m looking for the answer to “life, the universe and everything” (as Douglas Adams would say), but it’s obviously naive of me to think a science fiction author has got all the answers.

I’ve just finished ‘Childhood’s End’ by Arthur C Clarke, and this is the first time a books conclusion exceeded my expectations. Arthur C Clarke always tells a good story, but the ending of this book is exceptional. If Buzz Lightyear was writing this he would be justified in exclaiming “To Infinity and Beyond”.

The best visual experience I have had for travelling into infinity is at the end of 2001 A Space Odyssey. Here the ending is deliberately enigmatic, but it’s certainly uplifting, with the astronaut Dave Bowman being transformed into a “Star-Child”.

The conclusion of Childhood’s End is even better, with the whole of mankind being transformed. I don’t want to spoil the book for you by revealing any more, but I do recommend you read it.

John McNally