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1987-06-28
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147 lines
THE MOVIE DATABASE
(Copyright Eric Balkan 1985, 1986, 1987) Edition 2.0: 5/24/87
Welcome movie fans! The Movie Database contains information on over 3500
movies, all of which are currently available on videotape. Did you ever wish
you had a list of Debra Winger's movies or director John Carpenter's movies or
could remember what movies Sally Field and Jeff Bridges made together or which
movies based on Alistair MacLean stories are available on videotape or....
A search of The Movie Database can answer those questions and many
more like them.
The typical entry in this database consists of:
- movie title
- MPAA rating
- date of release
- major cast members
- director
- scriptwriter
- original story author, if not an original screenplay
A word about MPAA ratings: Current designations are G, PG, PG-13,
R, X. There are few X-rated movies in this database because they're
mostly interchangeable. There are few PG-13 ratings, because that's a
recent development, and few G movies because of lack of interest (mine).
Note that the predecessor of R was 'M'; the predecessor of PG was GP.
(Except that an R movie of 1970 would probably be rated PG today.)
Before 1967 (?) there were no ratings, so those movies are
'NR' for not rated. I've also used 'TV' to signify a made-for-TV
movie. TV movies are basically PG or G. Some TV movies are listed
in this database as NR, because that was how the videotape producer
listed them. If I didn't know what the rating was, I left it blank.
Specifically, each entry in the database looks something like:
Taxi Driver
R
1976
Robert DeNiro
Jodie Foster
Cybill Shepherd
Albert Brooks
Harvey Keitel
Leonard Harris
Peter Boyle
W:Paul Schrader
D:Martin Scorsese
..
The title is always the first field, then the MPAA rating, then the
release date, then the cast members, then additional information.
Screenwriters are prefaced with 'W:'. If a script is based on a story
from another medium, then the original author's name appears in
parentheses, e.g. W:Francis Ford Coppola (Mario Puzo).
Directors are prefaced with a 'D:'. Producers with a 'P:'. Producers
are rarely listed, however. Directors and writers are not always listed
either, mostly because that information is not as readily available as
are the names of the cast members. (Most of the information for this
database came from catalogs supplied by videotape producers like Vestron,
Monterey, etc.) The entire entry for a movie is terminated by two
dots on a line by themselves.
There are also some designations in parentheses, on the same line as
a title or name, that have special meanings:
(*) - the movie or star or director or screenwriter got an Oscar.
(Aust) - country of origin, e.g. Australia (Only noted for a few movies)
(007) - a James Bond movie
Future editions of this database will have other special character
designations. (Your suggestions are welcome. How about BB for
baseball movies? No?)
Actually, I've begun adding classifications to the movie listings:
Action, comedy, romance, horror, etc. I've also put in a '+' if it was
above average in its class or '-' if it was below average.
The information in this directory is by necessity, incomplete. (I am
continuing to work on expanding the database.) There may also be some
errors in the database, though probably less errors than in printed
videotape directories. Wherever I was in doubt about an item of
information, I left it out rather than take a chance it might be wrong.
Still, errors do creep in. If you do catch any, please let me know and I
will correct them for future editions.
The database itself is broken down into 45 or so ordinary,
sequential, text files. These all have two letter filenames. Except
for the MFIND program discussed below, there is no requirement that
the files remain in this configuration. In fact, if you have a text
editor that can support 350K files, you may want to merge all of my
little files into one big one.
Because the database is not compressed or encrypted in any way, it
can be searched with the find/search command of most any text
editor or word processor. I created/edited the files myself with EDIX
and PE on an IBM PC, Scripsit on a TRS-80, and Epsonlink on an HX-20.
(The DOS FIND command won't do you much good, because it won't show you
the entire movie entry.)
I have also supplied, on this disk, a little search utililty called MFIND,
with a FIND xx AND/OR xx capability. It's described in MFIND.DOC.
Disclaimer: All information contained in this database has been gathered
from sources believed reliable, but cannot be guaranteed. I apologize
in advance for any errors and will correct them in future editions.
Eric Balkan
Packet Press
14704 Seneca Castle Ct.
Gaithersburg MD 20878
----------------end-of-author's-documentation---------------
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