Talk About Movies: Part 4
Somehow threads merged, so here's part 4 of our ongoing movie discussion.
Memento
The Prestige
Interstellar
Inception
The Dark Knight
Dunkirk
Insomnia
Oppenheimer
Batman Begins
Tenet
The Dark Knight Rises
Following
They might not all be great, but they are all worth watching. Nolan's lesser work dwarfs most filmmakers best.
30 years ago I read this little article in a skateboard magazine talking about an incredibly well made shoe commercial, wondering how to think about it as art. I always think of that article it comes to Nolan.
I'm glad he made the Odyssey and it'll be interesting to see what he does with it.
They might not all be great, but they are all worth watching. Nolan's lesser work dwarfs most filmmakers best.
Bingo.
A while back, the wife and I went through a Vietnam binge watch: Apocalypse Now, Platoon, FMJ, Deer Hunter, GMV, and a few smaller ones like Tigerland. She hasn't seen a lot of older movies or really movies in general so it is always enjoyable to go thematic and watch a ton of similar stuff. Easy to go down rabbit holes on things like war flicks.
Simultaneously we're also working through the annals of Best Pictures nominees and we turned on The Thin Red Line. Good... but sometimes Malick stuff is just so inaccessible. Don't watch his films that often and this reminded me why. Nolte was particularly good in this, interestingly enough we watched Affliction and thought he was as deserving of a nomination for TTRL.
Of course after TTRL, we had to watch Saving Private Ryan. On another level. Still so good after all these years. Probably the worst Oscar gaff amongst many gaffs that it did not win BP.
In the theater, The Thin Red Line is astounding. And I do think it may be Nolte's greatest performance.
In the theater, The Thin Red Line is astounding. And I do think it may be Nolte's greatest performance.
I think Nolte is excellent/his best performance in Warrior ; my 2 cents.
Brian Cox as the first film version of Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter was just as terrifying as the later Anthony Hopkins' version.
In the theater, The Thin Red Line is astounding. And I do think it may be Nolte's greatest performance.
The Thin Red Line is my all-time favorite film. I'll never forget being on an island when I caught it theatrically with some friends, my friends were eager to leave and I refused. Packed theater and dozens of people walked out. I was in disbelief as I was drawn in and invested in every character. My jaw was on the floor at the shots, and I'll never forget the juxtaposition of the silence that fell immediately after the two men got gunned down when Jared Leto (*******) motioned for them to scout ahead. Their bodies swallowed by the landscape. Then the visceral sights and sounds of war tearing up those hills. It rocked me to my core and made me reflect on fear I thankfully may never have to face in my time.
Echoing what Dom said, Nolte's best performance. The scene with him on the radio with Elias Koteas is aces. I'm still waiting on Koteas to become the next De Niro, dude had chops back then!
In the theater, The Thin Red Line is astounding. And I do think it may be Nolte's greatest performance.
Forget the movie. Read the book. The star of the movie is Tavolta's pencil-thin mustache. Sean Penn doesn't get to wear one.
James Jones was one of the very few non-bullshit war writers. His book doesn't survive the script.
Read the book.
Forget the movie. Read the book. The star of the movie is Tavolta's pencil-thin mustache. Sean Penn doesn't get to wear one.
James Jones was one of the very few non-bullshit war writers. His book doesn't survive the script.
Read the book.
a movie is not supposed to be a replica of the source material
The Thin Red Line is my all-time favorite film. I'll never forget being on an island when I caught it theatrically with some friends, my friends were eager to leave and I refused. Packed theater and dozens of people walked out. I was in disbelief as I was drawn in and invested in every character. My jaw was on the floor at the shots, and I'll never forget the juxtaposition of t
Koteas is always great...my favorite performance of his is in Exotica.
My favorite Nolte scene in TTRL is when he's doubting himself and his voice over matches his face so well.
Speaking of Nick Nolte at his best (and worst) :
Couldn't agree with this more. A movie should stand on its own. Source material for inspiration? Sure! Make some changes? Absolutely! It's the filmmaker's vision of the story. I made the mistake of going to see one of the Harry Potter movies with a HP fan and she ruined the night. Moments before the movie started she asked, "You've read the books, right?" I shook my head. She FREAKED and kept trying to whisper stuff they left out. Then after the movie I took an earful for not reading the books and a whole Ted talk on the stuff they left out. That was the last time I invited my friend out to a movie.
Couldn't agree with this more. A movie should stand on its own. Source material for inspiration? Sure! Make some changes? Absolutely! It's the filmmaker's vision of the story. I made the mistake of going to see one of the Harry Potter movies with a HP fan and she ruined the night. Moments before the movie started she asked, "You've read the books, right?" I shook my head. She F
lol
Was Eastwood's The Bridges of Madison County, a beautiful film, true to the novel? I don't know because I've never met anyone who read the novel.
Throne of Blood and Ran, two great adaptations of Shakespeare, don't even use Shakespeare's words and omit major sections of the plays.
In Hitchcock's Strangers on the Train Guy is an amateur tennis player. In Highsmith's novel, Guy is an architect. Would the film be improved by making Guy an architect?
And let's not mention films such as The Passion of The Christ or Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
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Forget the movie. Read the book. The star of the movie is Tavolta's pencil-thin mustache. Sean Penn doesn't get to wear one.
James Jones was one of the very few non-bullshit war writers. His book doesn't survive the script.
Read the book.
Somehow I conveyed the idea that the problem with Red Line was that it didn't replicate the book. That's not the problem, that's the cure. Red Line sucks because it sentimentalizes war. If that bothers you, read the book. If it doesn't, watch the movie.
I like Gone With The Wind for the same reasons. It shows the romantic aspects of rape, and provides remarkable, yet positive opinions of slavery. Book or movie: it's a great yarn either way. Won a bunch of Oscars.
The red line wasn't a failed adaptation. I never said it was. It was a successful drivelization.
Hmmm...I don't think the movie sentimentalizes war at all. To me, it's saying nature is implacable in the face of human folly and destruction. To me, it conveys the utter uselessness of war and how it dehumanizes us. The sentiment in the movie is personal to various characters' lives - not with regard to war.
At least, imo
Hmmm...I don't think the movie sentimentalizes war at all. To me, it's saying nature is implacable in the face of human folly and destruction. To me, it conveys the utter uselessness of war and how it dehumanizes us. The sentiment in the movie is personal to various characters' lives - not with regard to war.
At least, imo
I agree, Dom. I think most war movies sentimentalize war but not Malick's. As usual with Malick, the film displays nature and grace as opposites that may or may not be reconciled. Isn't that what we see in the main characters?
The Thin Red Line is a great film. I saw it in the theater. After I bought the DVD, I watched it and immediately watched it again, this time with subtitles to distinguish who is speaking the voiceovers, which are crucial to Malick's films.
I guess that Malick wasn't trying to make an antiwar film but using war to investigate his ideas about nature and grace and which wins out.
But I do get how someone may see almost all war movies, even ostensibly antiwar films, as romanticizing war.
How war films work and how they view war is worth thinking about.
Is Saving Private Ryan an antiwar film? It might try to be, but it fails at that.
Does The Big Red One romanticize war? No. But Fuller was a realist.
Is Paths of Glory an antiwar film? Yes.
I know of at least one critic who says antiwar films only serve to glorify war, and while I don't agree completely, I don't want to deny it either.
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For me, the romanticizing of war in many films comes from the lack of honesty about the conditions.
I had a friend who's grandfather would talk to us about how cold it was during the Korean War. He said you couldn't escape the cold. A film would have to beat that point like a dead horse to be true to the condition of even the weather. He said you were almost always cold, hungry and sleep deprived. Also, he said about half the soldiers he came across should never have had a weapon because they were borderline sociopaths with absolutely no empathy or emotional regulation. Half!. Most movies have heroes and villains, but the number of real life villains is significantly higher than movies let on. He said you didn't look or talk to anyone you didn't already know. Real wild west type stuff.
* many years ago, I had a friend who got in a bar fight, when brought before a judge, the judge told him he could choose between jail or the military. So a guy with a temper issue joins the military and is given a weapon. And he told me later he wasn't alone in the military because of the jail or military choice. Movies vastly underrepresent the bad guys or even make movies where you are suppose to root for the bad guys. No thanks.
Speaking of Nick Nolte at his best (and worst) :
Absolute travesty that they didn't mention his role in Q&A (1990) as corrupt cop Mike Brennan. He's one genuinely scary intimidating mfr in it.
