[deeper]

When I try to download a particular quicktime file, it just opens a very long page of weird looking characters. (And sometimes freezes Safari.) I know people with pc's who can open this file without difficulty (with quicktime.) Any suggestions?
Thank you

[Wevah]

The server is most likely serving up a bad MIME-type for the document. Either download the video to disk and view it from there, or contact the person who runs the site to fix it (which is better in the long run).

[TETENAL]

Either control-click on the link to the video and select "Download to Desktop" from the contextual menu, or option-click the link which will do the same.

[deeper]

Thank you both for your help. There's obviously something messed up with the file. Looks like a text file.
bft-1.mp4.txt to be exact.

[TETENAL]

There is nothing messed up with the file, but there is something messed up with the server. The server sends the file with a text mime-tpye, so Safari adds the txt extension to the file. Get Info on the file in Finder and in the "Name & Extension" field of the Info dialog remove the .txt extension (you can not just simply remove it in Finder directly because that would just hide the extension). The file should then play fine with QuickTime Player.