Friday, March 25, 2011

America, America (1963) Giveaway


It's giveaway time! Warner Bros. has provided me with the opportunity to give away 3 DVDs of America America (1963). You could be a lucky winner! 

You have the option of entering up to 3 times. The first entry is required and the second and third entries are optional. They just increase your chances of winning.

1. First Entry: In the comment section, tell me in a few sentences how your family came to America. And yes your family immigrated here. Even if you are 100% full blooded Native American because of the immigration over the Bering Land Bridge thousands of years ago. We all started somewhere else!

2. Second Entry: Follow Out of the Past on Facebook or follow @ClassicFilmRead on Twitter. Tell me which one you did in the comments section. If you already a follower, let me know in the comments too. It counts!

3. Third Entry: In the comment section, tell me which Elia Kazan film is your personal favorite and why.

Contest ends March 30th. Winner will be announced shortly thereafter! U.S participants only (the irony of that is crazy right?)

13 comments:

  1. For the giveaway, it's hard to chose between two films for me. Kazan's On the Waterfront and Face in the Crowd are both in my top films - one for it's brilliant realism and acting, the other for its sheer exuberance and outrageousness.

    Love the bog and I also like your Facebook page.

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  2. Hope I picked the right "comments section." :-)

    My grandma came from Norway in the 20s. Her father came over first and said after a year he would have enough money to bring my grandmother and great grandmother over to the US. He ended up sending the money over in six months, as it turns out he was a pretty good poker player.

    I follow you on twitter and just did a like on FB.

    My favorite Kazan film: On the Waterfront.

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  3. Do I qualify if my family came to North America before there was a United States! Anyway, my mum's family came here in the 17th Century. They were Cavaliers fleeing the Cromwellian tyranny. My dad's family were Hessians who came over in the 1750s. We're not sure why they came over, but it may have been the rumour of cheap land in America, then common in Germany.

    I already follow you on both Facebook and Twitter. :-)

    As to my favourite Elia Kazan film, it's A Face in the Crowd. I think Andy Griffith gave an amazing performance. Besides which, I think it is a film which has become more and more pertinent with each growing year. I mean, Lonesome Rhodes brings to mind a lot of modern day celebrities....

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  4. I'm not so familiar with my dad's side, but both my grandma and grandpa on my mom's side were born in Indonesia. But since they were both descendants of Dutch colonists and spoke Dutch they were forced to immigrate to Holland after the revolution. That's where my mom was born and about five or six years after that they decided to immigrate to the US.

    I already follow @ClassicFilmRead on Twitter and my favorite Elia Kazan film is probably On the Waterfront. All of the actors just give completely amazing and heartfelt performances.

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  5. I'm kind of a mutt, so this can get complicated! lol I think I'm getting all of this right, but my mom is the family genealogist, not me ;-D

    -Paternal grandfather's family is from Latvia, and came over in the early 1900's
    -Paternal grandmother's mother came from Latvia, and her father came from Romania. He was fluent in 7 languages and lived all around the world before settling in Princeton!
    -Maternal grandfather's family came from Ireland in the late 1700's/early 1800's
    -Maternal grandmother's mom came from Hungary in the early 1900's, and her father was born here... his great-great-etc. grandfather came to America as an indentured servant in the 1600's, from Wales.

    I follow you on Facebook and twitter

    And my favorite Elia Kazan movie is Splendor in the Grass. I love that it's softer than his other movies, but still just as intense and amazing. And Natalie Wood's performance just blows me away!

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  6. Oooh! Cool contest!

    I'm 1/2 English, 1/4 Finnish, and a 1/4 German.

    My German and Finnish ancestors (on my Mum's side my Grandpa is completely German and my Grandmother is completely Finnish) arrived in the late 1800's/early 1900's.

    My Great-Great Grandfather on my Dad's side immigrated from England in the early 1900's.

    So yeah. My family are relatively new Americans. ;-D

    I follow @ClassicFilmRead on Twitter! :-D

    And my favorite Kazan is probably East of Eden. It's positively brilliant the first time one sees it. (And always great on re-viewings). AND JAMES DEAN.

    I also REALLY like Gentleman's Agreement and Boomerang!

    Thanks! :-D

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  7. I have to blush at the fact that, even being a huge Kazan lover, I have never seen America, America. I don't really know why, but that omission has to be corrected!

    Actually, one of my distant ancestors was an American buffalo, so I am probably closest to actual American than anyone..perhaps that is one part of the family tree I shouldn't have mentioned. LOL Actually, I'm so Irish my face turns green on St. Patrick's Day. There's a little Scot in there, and some English. Everybody came over in the mid to late 1800's for the same reason so many others did -- a chance for a better life, used up farms in the old country, poverty, dreams. That's America then and now for anyone searching for those things.

    It is so hard to choose just one from Kazan's work, but "A Face in the Crowd" is my pick. I was shocked to see that Andy Griffith, known to me only as amiable Sheriff Andy Taylor, was an actor of such power. The development of that character, with the incredible performance of Patricia Neal, took my breath away.

    This is a fun competition! Thanks for the opportunity!

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  8. OOOPS! Forgot -- I'm a Facebook follower!

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  9. My maternal grandparents came to the US in the 1920s from Poland to escape the terrible things that were happening in that country.

    My paternal grandparents came from Russia in the early 1900's.

    judy(dot)greenberg(at)gmail(dot)com

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  10. I'm following you on twitter: judygr64

    judy(dot)greenberg(at)gmail(dot)com

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  11. On the Waterfront is probably my most favorite of Elia Kazan's films. The acting is fabulous and the story is compelling even today.

    judy(dot)greenberg(at)gmail(dot)com

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  12. My own family, from both the maternal and paternal sides, came from the same Anatolian lands as Kazan's family.
    I'm an Armenian and my ancestors are one in the same as the Armenians featured in America, America. This connection is also why it ranks as my top Kazan film.
    The Armenian Genocide brought my paternal great grandfather to Ellis island in 1907 after his wife and children were massacred. He remarried and established my family's roots in America.
    The remainder of my family (barely)survived the Genocide and by way of France, Greece and Syria arrived in America between the late 1920s and 1980s.

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  13. My family came from England and Germany to Pennsylvania in the late 18th century. They settled in the Wyoming River valley. Then about 1840 my 8th Great Grandfather, a doctor, moved to rural Illinois (a town named Wyoming, after their previous home) and we have been there ever since. Sprinkled in from other branches are Dutch, Swedish, and Scottish, mostly farmers. So I know they all worked hard.

    As to the other question, my favorite Kazan was always On the Waterfront. I saw it when I was young, and the strong moral conlict really struck my juvenile sense of justice. Now of course I know a great deal more about the complexity of the symbolism and political context. But it still appeals to me as a story about a flawed man trying to do the right thing.

    bradley.l.king@comcast.net

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Leave me a comment! If it is a long one, make sure you save a draft of it elsewhere just in case Google gobbles it up and spits it out.

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