So, sadly, it came out at the end of February and missed its audience. Given the reputation it now has, I think it would have done really well against The Golden Child, No Mercy and Witchboard.

"We gotta do this before they reunite for The Muppet Show or Hee-Haw or something!"

…overlayed with Elton John, The Bee Gees, Leo Sayer, Bryan Ferry, Keith Moon, Rod Stewart, Jeff Lynne, The Four Seasons, Helen Reddy, Peter Gabriel, Frankie Valli, Tina Turner and The London Symphony Orchestra playing songs by The Beatles.

It’s the entire story of World War II, told in 88 minutes using film clips of Dwight D. Eisenhower, James Mason, Neville Chamberlain, Milton Berle, Hitler, Bergen & McCarthy, Mussolini, Bob Hope, Stalin, Laurel and Hardy, FDR, James Stewart and the Army of the Third Reich.

But to be clear, I know of a few things that would make this look tame, and Bamboozled like it didn't hit hard enough.

One day it will be available with a responsible set of blu-ray extras, hopefully really good ones, not just perfunctory ones. I don't need an intro by Whoopi Goldberg, but there is a definitely place for an amazing documentary on racial imagery in early cinema.

This one was 'fine' when I saw it, but as I later worked with children, I saw it again repeatedly and was surprised to find it easily rewatchable, and soon a favorite.

(edit: Also, World War 1 ended. So, you know, there's 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕.)

But it was 75 minutes long, so Spielberg had to add 15 minutes. This included one scene involving a school bus which he'd wanted for TV, but couldn't afford. The rest was stuff like the lead calling his wife, 'character' stuff for a film that 100% works, and works better, if he's just Guy In A Car.

Through 10 years of Silly Symphonies animation advanced more than it did over any other decade. Dislike the current Disney company all you like, but if you blow off Walt, especially in light of this era, then you're... well, just wrong.

Then director David Yates did every film after this one, and stripped them of any real sense that the characters had any warmth or regard at all for one another, something so rich in even the darkest of the books that only a deliberate, philosophical overshadowing makes sense of that decision.

It's a series that managed to well survive two bad owners, Chris Columbus, the 'show runner' of sorts, was one, who, after the second film, said that after this one, the kids would have to be swapped out because of their ages, demonstrating huge, fundamental blindnesses about the way cinema works.

It was the most cinematic of the films, and the last of the five to fully understand friendships in dark times, unlike the books, which persisted in that to the end.

It grows further on me every time I see it, and is the only one I'd watch outside a series play-through. So warm, character-rich and visually dazzling is this one. Of all the movies, this has the most gripping response to a character's death. It's heart stopping.