Talk About Movies: Part 4

Came across an episode of The Power of Film on TCM last night. It's a documentary series about film storytelling hosted by Howard Suber. Each episode goes into a topic in which he explains how that's shown in classic films (last night's was the power of love).

He's a professor emeritus at UCLA's school of Theater, Film and Television. It was interesting to get a somewhat in-depth look into what the moviemaker was saying in their film, I'll have to find other episodes.

pointed this way

Is there an actual movie thread? (yes) I am not sure if I am a sucker for the genre but I thought Civil War was really good. I liked how they didn't actually explain the political back stories just a great view using the eyes of journalists in a true SHTF America.

Pretty much any political view can like it from look what happens if we elect Trump again to right wing preppers wet dream

I think Civil War being completely apolitical was a mistake. It's reliant on images of "people hanging! Civilians killing each other! Bombed out streets! In America, omfg!!" for impact. I found it hard to care. Alex Garland struggles with crafting believable human relationships.

The scene with Jesse Plemons was quite chilling though, and the attack on the White House itself was pretty good.

that guy has a great channel

it's good, it's good

Spoiler

Show

His last 6 months have had some exceptional guests! And prior to that was damn good!

Edgar Wright made that Sparks Brothers documentary -- a great watch.

Road House (both of them) - I had never seen the origin despite my love of martial arts films. So naturally watched them both when the remake came out.

The original really is total 80s trash. A wireless script, ridiculous plot, bad acting, gratuitous boobs, uninteresting fight scenes. Maybe there's some slight charm to just how rubbish everthibg about it is. I had an idea in my head for some reason that Swayze was a good actor - god did his performance prove me wrong. He's so wooden, barely reacting to anything from stab wounds to sex. Sam Elliot steals every scene he's in though, I did quite enjoy his stuff.

The remake has less overt trashiness. Still a fairly bad script. Decent action though. Conor McGregor is surprisingly watchable.

Civil War, Alex Garland, 2024

This is a well-made, shocking, almost-too-real tale of a group of photo journalists trying to get to Washington DC to interview the (Trump-like ) President of a never-named, apparently fascistic government that's about to be overrun by rebel forces of the "Western Front" alliance.

We are never told what the politics of either side actually are, or how a 2nd American civil war came to pass, as the story is mostly told through the eyes of the journalists: Kirstin Dunst, Wagner Moura (Narcos), Callee Spaeny (Priscilla), and Stephen McKinley Henderson (Dune). Jesse Plemons and Nick Offerman (as the President) have cameos. Offerman, Spaeny and Henderson also starred in Garland's much under-appreciated limited series, Devs...and there are some other actors from that great show in Civil War.

It's basically a road trip, with our journalists at turns evading or documenting battles and various atrocities.

Never seen Dunst so dirty and dour before, but she does a great job as the world-weary veteran war photo-journalist who takes Spaeny's character under her wing. As I still think of her as the cute girl from Bring It On, it's strange seeing her play an adult woman. (I mean, she's about to turn 42, so that's on me not her lol)

I have two opinions about this movie...the first is that it is incredibly well-shot, good script, with a propulsive narrative. Very good performances, realistic "you-are-in-the middle-of-it" battle scenes, and a third act that is astonishingly scary as we are basically witnessing a siege on our nation's capitol.

This is a masterfully made film. Garland is on top of his game here. The music is discordant and contradictory, often with happy songs or ballads over disturbing scenes, that confuses and rattles the viewer even more than the images.

My 2nd opinion is, I hated watching this. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good movie, but like last year's The Zone Of Interest, it's so realistically horrific (though with a splash of Hollywood melodrama) that I don't think I'd ever want to watch it again.

I'm not some gung-ho "America, love it or leave it", big-time patriot, you know? But I hated watching Americans fighting Americans and commit atrocities. There's a scene with Jesse Plemons (real-life husband of Dunst) -- who is some sort of paramilitary psychopath our journalists stumble across while he and his compatriots are dumping bodies into a pit and covering them with lime -- that was so horrific (there's that word again) that I found myself holding my breath through the whole thing. This is not "fun" movie-going, or a choreographed ballet of violence like in a John Wick movie - violence we know to be fake and impressive and exhilarating. No, this scene was not that. It actually reminded me of a scene in the Dennis Quaid/Stellan Skarsgaard movie about the Bosnian War, Savior, where we see a busload of fleeing, unarmed Muslims stopped by Serb soldiers, marched off the bus and executed in a brutal, horrifyling manner.

I read that Plemons, who is uncredited, played the part with only a couple of days of prep because the original actor had dropped out. He's probably one of our finest actors by this point, and he has a sociopathic charm that is so real, so horrifying, that when I watched the scene, I was not watching a movie - it seemed real. And I felt almost as scared and helpless as his victims.

Just brutal.

Another reason why I hated watching this movie was the third act - which is the siege on Washington - as we see full-on battle scenes as the Western Forces overrun the military, and later, secret service members.

You know how it's fun to see the White House blow up in Independence Day?

Well, I wasn't having fun with this movie. Watching soldiers launching rockets at the Lincoln Memorial, crumbling one corner of it, seeing helicopters and war planes screaming over the city while anti-aircraft guns fire into the sky with tracers, looking like footage from Ukraine...no, that wasn't fun, either. In fact, it surprised me how emotional it made me. An extended sequence where our journalist are following a platoon who is trying to break through the White House perimeter, with gunfire, bazookas, and tanks - again with us in the middle of it all - was chaotic and terrifying. A final stand gun battle in the halls of the White House as the soldiers try to breach the Oval Office is also terrifying.

Again, it's all incredibly realistic and well-made. But that's why I hated watching it. This wasn't Gerard Butler trying to free the President from a terrorist attack or Harrison Ford kicking Gary Oldman off his plane, you know? Somehow, it was different to me this time. Your results may vary, of course, but holy sh*t, I was shaking watching it all.

So I'm torn. Very good movie. But with how our country is right now, with divisiveness and red/blue partisanship, and on the day our former President is a defendant in a criminal trial, well...Civil War doesn't seem all that far-fetched. And I'd hate to think there are some Americans who will watch this and think, "that's what's gotta happen." Because you know they will. And that's not Garland's fault...but I'm not quite sure how responsible the movie is in the climate we as a country our in these days.

That may sound like I'm overreacting, and maybe I am, but man, this is not just an entertainment and may even be a cautionary tale. But I think I'm going to have to go see the latest King Kong/Godzilla movie to get this sour taste out of my mouth.

On another board I’ve read similar reactions to Civil War.

Dom's post is evidence of something I suspected - Civil War will naturally hit a lot harder for Americans than non-Americans. The horrors on display in the film are everyday reality for Ukrainians and Gazans. There are terrible things going on in the world right now which have a far reaching impact. If you want to see the stuff in Civil War, just turn on the news. For a film to be so parochial and completely disregard a broader context renders it largely pointless.

Ah, so any time a movie is made about a subject without acknowledging worldwide context, it’s pointless, got it.

Nice review Dom, didn’t have much interest in seeing it but do now

I'm getting the sense that the old tv show Jericho handled the inevitable violent break-up of the United States about 14 times better than this new mess.

Saw Civil War last night, and since Dom reviewed in depth, I won't. Some will find the film confusing, if trying to figure out who is fighting whom (don't worry about it).

Stay for the credits. You'll see a washed out B&W still photograph fade into clarity. It should remind you of an earlier scene in the film when the aspiring photographer shows the pictures she has shot to Dunst's character.

We need journalists and photographers. I couldn't help but think of Robert Capa's famous Spanish Civil War photo of the falling soldier or photos from the Vietnam War.

Is Garland's film about the necessity of art? About the necessity of showing us what we don't want to see no matter how brutal?

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It could be that your last point might be Garland's point as well?

John, I do think the movie is saying something about journalism and how one has to give up a part of one's humanity in order to tell/shoe the truth of what's really happening.

You're not a participant. You're an observer with a job to do.

Kevin Carter faced criticism about his Pulitzer prize-winning photo of an Sudanese girl with a vulture behind her. Carter waited nearly a half hour to get the shot before chasing the vulture away.

After winning the Pulitzer, Carter committed suicide four months later.

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I remember that

A lot of cerebral movie watchers ITT. This post is not that!

I’m catching up on the academy award nominees for movie do the year.

The Holdovers

I thought it was fine. It felt somewhat predictable and not all that original.

Throughout the movie it felt a little like Dead Poet’s Society to me.

7.5/10

I don't know about cerebral. Hell, some of us go to see every Godzilla movie.

I liked The Holdovers. I see a part of me in Giamatti's character.

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Ha! I’m sort of looking forward to the Planet of the Apes.

I don't know how Soderbergh does it. I just watched Out of Sight. J-Lo and Clooney talk in a bar while snow falls outside. What a beautiful shot.

Soderbergh makes material that might fail in the hands of others exactly right.

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I considered breaking my rule of “Only Tarantino in the theater” to see Civil War. Not so much because of the film itself but back when Pulp Fiction came out, I saw it in a 30-40 seat indie theater on a fairly small screen on its premiere date. Saw it a few times there and eventually, it moved to the big theater.

I’m pretty out of the loop on certain entertainment things and part of me thought that Civil War was an indie film that started catching a lot of heat and moved up to possible blockbuster. But nope… I was quite wrong there. That makes me want to wait now but I do find the subject interesting and Garland can bring it when he does! Might have to break my rule anyway.