Seven Samurai (1954)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
This is perhaps the most famous foreign films of all time in America. As the title suggests, it follows seven samurai (one who only wishes he were so) who decide to defend a village against a band of pillagers. A simple plot that Kurosawa managed to tell over the span of 3 and a half hours. I have never had a problem with long movies purely because they are long. I watched Sergio Leone's movie a few weeks ago that was just as long, and I loved it. This film was a different story, and for one reason.
I have a confession to make, one that feels like a crime among fans of classic films: I don't really care for Akira Kurosawa's films. I know he's supposed to be a genius, one of the greatest directors of all time, but I find his movies tedious, and a bit boring. I do not deny his skills purely as a director. His use of a camera to tell a story was remarkable. What I don't like is how he seemed to think that movie audiences are morons, something that will turn me off a movie faster than anything else. Films that take the point of view that a point can only be made by slamming it into the viewer's mind over and over again bore me. I will admit that I am not sure whether this style of using a sledgehammer to drive a point home was unique to him or was just a characteristic of Japanese film-making of that era. I watched the 1964 horror film Onibaba several months back, and it was even worse.
My complaints aside, there is much about this film to be admired. One of the highlights is the acting, and leading the way is Takashi Shimura, a legend in Japanese film history. As far as I am concerned, he is the real draw of this movie. One of the main reasons the film is so long is that the entire first hour is used solely for the establishment of all the characters. I found most of the samurai to be fascinating, though there were two that seemed fairly interchangeable; I had a tough time telling them apart. Shimura plays the leader of the samurai, and he shines in every scene. He emotes a quiet dignity, even through his moments of shame and doubt, which I found a joy to watch. An amusing side note - he bears a slight resemblance to Yul Brynner (though much smaller), who played the same character in the American remake, The Magnificent Seven. My husband and I realized this at nearly the exact same moment.
There is a fair amount of action in this movie, the last hour is mostly dedicated to the siege of the village, and here is where Kurosawa's skills really shine. For a film made in the 1950s the siege is remarkably intense, and the movie seemed to fly by in the last 45 minutes. The editing of the last hour is noticeably different from the rest of the movie, adding to the increase in pacing, and the camera is far less static, which leads to a lot of excitement in how everything plays out. I can't wait to find out if his film Hidden Fortress is the same.
The way the story unfolds, as I already mentioned, is tedious in its execution due to the script's complete lack of subtlety. But, I did appreciate that the film maker made the decision to have the characters fully realized; there are very few two-dimensional people in this movie. Proving my preconceptions of a 1950s movie wrong, this movie isn't really about good guys and bad guys. In fact, the movie barely gives any time to the pillagers; there is more than enough personal conflict among the so-called good guys. Though I expected the outcome of the ending, it was still interesting experiencing the tone of a film that does not go for a typical happy ending. This made the payoff all the more interesting. So, even though the point of the story was so very obvious within the first 90 minutes, watching the execution of it through interesting characters play out over the 120 past that was bearable. Overall, I am glad I saw this movie. It features some of the best direction I've ever seen, and anyone who loves movies should definitely see it. But I never want to see it again.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
He can call me flower if he wants to
Bambi (1942)
Less than two months after I started working at Suncoast, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released on DVD for the first time. I never got around to buying it. Several months later, my boss gave me a copy for free. I watched it with my husband later, and the main thing I remember was how surprising it was that a movie that old still looked quite well. I was reminded of this when he and I sat down to watch Bambi last week.
I cannot stress enough how amazing the animation of the first and last minute of the film is. It is about as close to CGI I've ever seen old school animation reach, and this was made nearly 70 years ago! The multi-camera technique was used to great effect. In fact, I am now of the opinion that this is one of the most beautiful films Disney ever produced.
Bambi is one of those few Disney movies parents think twice about before they show it to their children. I've never met an adult who didn't know why. I watched this film several times when I was a kid, and I remember well the first time I saw it. I couldn't have been more than 6 or 7, and I remember feeling surprised and a general sense of sadness that Bambi's mother was killed. Watching this movie as an adult, knowing what was coming, was a vastly different experience , so much so that I now wonder if adults have stronger feelings about the movie than children.
First off, I was halfway to tears by the time the doe was born. Seeing how cute he looked while knowing what was going to happen to him was gut-wrenching. I was almost hyper-aware of how the animation took a darker tone when the story became more serious, and danger lurked. But the worst part came after Bambi's mother was shot. Hearing Bambi shout "Mother!" is one of the most haunting sounds I've ever heard in a film. All in all, this movie was a lot harder for me to handle as an adult than it was as a child.
And then I made the mistake of checking to see how different the movie was from the book on which it was based. Oh. My. God. The film was all sunshine and rainbows compared to the book. At least Disney allowed for a mildly happy ending. The book's ending is positively miserable. That certainly put things into perspective.
This is the first time I watched this movie since I was about 18. My respect for it has skyrocketed.
Less than two months after I started working at Suncoast, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released on DVD for the first time. I never got around to buying it. Several months later, my boss gave me a copy for free. I watched it with my husband later, and the main thing I remember was how surprising it was that a movie that old still looked quite well. I was reminded of this when he and I sat down to watch Bambi last week.
I cannot stress enough how amazing the animation of the first and last minute of the film is. It is about as close to CGI I've ever seen old school animation reach, and this was made nearly 70 years ago! The multi-camera technique was used to great effect. In fact, I am now of the opinion that this is one of the most beautiful films Disney ever produced.
Bambi is one of those few Disney movies parents think twice about before they show it to their children. I've never met an adult who didn't know why. I watched this film several times when I was a kid, and I remember well the first time I saw it. I couldn't have been more than 6 or 7, and I remember feeling surprised and a general sense of sadness that Bambi's mother was killed. Watching this movie as an adult, knowing what was coming, was a vastly different experience , so much so that I now wonder if adults have stronger feelings about the movie than children.
First off, I was halfway to tears by the time the doe was born. Seeing how cute he looked while knowing what was going to happen to him was gut-wrenching. I was almost hyper-aware of how the animation took a darker tone when the story became more serious, and danger lurked. But the worst part came after Bambi's mother was shot. Hearing Bambi shout "Mother!" is one of the most haunting sounds I've ever heard in a film. All in all, this movie was a lot harder for me to handle as an adult than it was as a child.
And then I made the mistake of checking to see how different the movie was from the book on which it was based. Oh. My. God. The film was all sunshine and rainbows compared to the book. At least Disney allowed for a mildly happy ending. The book's ending is positively miserable. That certainly put things into perspective.
This is the first time I watched this movie since I was about 18. My respect for it has skyrocketed.
Friday, September 11, 2009
The first three
I'm running late tonight, so I am only going to post on the first three movies I watched this month. Too bad, really, since these were three of the weakest I've seen so far. I'll catch up with the rest this weekend. I can't wait to talk about the movie I just watched: Blackboard Jungle.
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason - whoever made this movie either didn't understand why the first movie worked or didn't care. The first movie was a cute piece of fluff featuring a single woman who occasionally got into some embarrassing situations, but made up for it with her charm. Oh, and it had Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. I like the first Bridget Jones' movie, though I have noticed that it does not hold up well to repeated viewing. This second one is nothing short of a travesty. For some reason, whoever wrote this script decided it would be a good idea to take all of Jones' worst qualities and exacerbate them. The result is just appalling. Instead of being cute, Bridget Jones is just an annoying idiot who I would never want to meet. After the first 20 minutes, I was cringing at the fact that the movie kept moving from one embarrassing moment to the next. After 30 minutes, I couldn't recall why I even liked Bridget Jones. By the time Bridget was tripping on 'shrooms, I was trying to come up with a story of my own where Mark Darcy would leave Bridget and run away with me instead. This is no exaggeration. I decided to get this movie, for free, just because I like Colin Firth, but even he doesn't make this movie worth it. Heck, for most of the movie, Mark Darcy is a complete jerk. I don't care that I spent no real money on this DVD, I paid too much.
The Man in the White Suit - This was an interesting comedy starring Alec Guiness. It was one of a series of black and white Ealing comedies released in the 1940s and 1950s; The Ladykillers was another one. The movie is about a naive young scientist who invents a suit that will never get dirty and never wear out. Sounds great doesn't it? Try telling that to the textiles companies and union workers. The film is, as they say, "very British." Half way in, my husband asked me if it was supposed to be a comedy. The story moved slowly, and I didn't really laugh that much. And yet, it was a lot of fun. The satirical and ironic aspects of the plot are funny, and Alec Guiness is fantastic. The real strength to this film is its execution, and this is why even though I didn't actually laugh that much, I did find it to be funny. The choreography of all the actors in every scene is absolutely brilliant, and the editor did a great job of splicing in the reaction shots at just the right moment. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the Alec Guiness Ealing movies. It's such a treat to be able to watch someone like Sir Alec in an old British comedy.
Oh, and one of the guys in this movie actually played Alfred in Tim Burton's Batman. That was pretty cool.
The Journey of Natty Gann - I have loved this movie since I first saw it more than two decades ago. Set during the Great Depression, it's about a girl who travels from Chicago to Seattle to find her father after he was forced to leave her behind to find a job. Along the way, she picks up a wolf (ok, a dog that's supposed to look like a wolf) and a very young John Cusack. It's a fairly dark movie considering it's a Disney flick from the 1980s. I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to watch the movie so I could pretend to be Natty Gann, traveling across the country on my own, having strange, scary and wonderful adventures. After watching as an adult, I can honestly say it is barely all right (husband laughed through much of it), but I have a suspicion that kids would like it. My one real disappointment is that the movie is only available in Full Screen. Ugh. My abhorrence for that film aspect ratio aside, one of the true pleasures of this movie is its cinematography; the scenery is just gorgeous. Pan and scan really takes something away from this movie.
That's all for now. I've got class in six hours.
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason - whoever made this movie either didn't understand why the first movie worked or didn't care. The first movie was a cute piece of fluff featuring a single woman who occasionally got into some embarrassing situations, but made up for it with her charm. Oh, and it had Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. I like the first Bridget Jones' movie, though I have noticed that it does not hold up well to repeated viewing. This second one is nothing short of a travesty. For some reason, whoever wrote this script decided it would be a good idea to take all of Jones' worst qualities and exacerbate them. The result is just appalling. Instead of being cute, Bridget Jones is just an annoying idiot who I would never want to meet. After the first 20 minutes, I was cringing at the fact that the movie kept moving from one embarrassing moment to the next. After 30 minutes, I couldn't recall why I even liked Bridget Jones. By the time Bridget was tripping on 'shrooms, I was trying to come up with a story of my own where Mark Darcy would leave Bridget and run away with me instead. This is no exaggeration. I decided to get this movie, for free, just because I like Colin Firth, but even he doesn't make this movie worth it. Heck, for most of the movie, Mark Darcy is a complete jerk. I don't care that I spent no real money on this DVD, I paid too much.
The Man in the White Suit - This was an interesting comedy starring Alec Guiness. It was one of a series of black and white Ealing comedies released in the 1940s and 1950s; The Ladykillers was another one. The movie is about a naive young scientist who invents a suit that will never get dirty and never wear out. Sounds great doesn't it? Try telling that to the textiles companies and union workers. The film is, as they say, "very British." Half way in, my husband asked me if it was supposed to be a comedy. The story moved slowly, and I didn't really laugh that much. And yet, it was a lot of fun. The satirical and ironic aspects of the plot are funny, and Alec Guiness is fantastic. The real strength to this film is its execution, and this is why even though I didn't actually laugh that much, I did find it to be funny. The choreography of all the actors in every scene is absolutely brilliant, and the editor did a great job of splicing in the reaction shots at just the right moment. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the Alec Guiness Ealing movies. It's such a treat to be able to watch someone like Sir Alec in an old British comedy.
Oh, and one of the guys in this movie actually played Alfred in Tim Burton's Batman. That was pretty cool.
The Journey of Natty Gann - I have loved this movie since I first saw it more than two decades ago. Set during the Great Depression, it's about a girl who travels from Chicago to Seattle to find her father after he was forced to leave her behind to find a job. Along the way, she picks up a wolf (ok, a dog that's supposed to look like a wolf) and a very young John Cusack. It's a fairly dark movie considering it's a Disney flick from the 1980s. I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to watch the movie so I could pretend to be Natty Gann, traveling across the country on my own, having strange, scary and wonderful adventures. After watching as an adult, I can honestly say it is barely all right (husband laughed through much of it), but I have a suspicion that kids would like it. My one real disappointment is that the movie is only available in Full Screen. Ugh. My abhorrence for that film aspect ratio aside, one of the true pleasures of this movie is its cinematography; the scenery is just gorgeous. Pan and scan really takes something away from this movie.
That's all for now. I've got class in six hours.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Looney CSI
A couple of weeks ago, I complained about the selection of television DVDs I was scheduled to watch this month. It really felt like I had taken from the bottom of the barrel. Well, while things aren't that great, they are better than I imagined they would be.
First up, Looney Tunes: Volume 2. As a latchkey kid, I spent a lot of my early years watching Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, the Road Runner, and, one of my favorites, Pepe Le Pew. I have a fond place in my heart for the opening and closing music of all those cartoons. Less than two weeks in, and I have completed watching two of the four discs. My review: definitely mixed.
The biggest problem this DVD set has is that each disc is dedicated to one cartoon character, or pair of characters, like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Do you have any idea how boring it is to watch an hour and a half of nothing but Bugs Bunny cartoons? This is really too bad. I think that if each disc had a mix of all the different cartoons, this set would be epic in its greatness. The other problem is that this is Volume 2. As I wrote, I grew up watching these cartoons. I've seen a ton of them. Yet, out of the 30 I've watched so far, at least 20 were brand new to me. I have a suspicion that the first volume has some of the more well-known cartoons. I guess I will find out when it comes time to watch that one. In the end, though, these are still Looney Tunes cartoons. Individually, they are great. There was one Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner episode I had never seen before that made me laugh loud and hard.
Second, CSI: Miami Season 1. While I did not think this would be the worst television show to watch this month, I didn't really expect great things from it. 10 episodes in, and I am fairly impressed. Though, perhaps not for the intended reasons. The entire show seems to live and die by David Caruso (shout out to all the NYPD Blue fans). If you don't like him, you will not like the show. At all. I have never seen anything like him on television before. I spent most of the first couple of episodes just laughing every time he showed up. Caruso is like William Shatner speaking in monotone; he's almost campy in his delivery. Yet, after those first few episodes, he started to grow on me. After about five, I had to admit: I like David Caruso in this show. A good thing, too, because the rest of the show would be absolute torture if I did not. The rest of the cast is fairly good, though I am glad to see that Kim Delaney is about to disappear. She is incredibly boring and doesn't fit with the rest of the cast well. In some ways, this cast seems to have gelled more quickly than the cast on the original show did.
There are a few things that have annoyed/disturbed me about this show, though. First, I found it jarring to hear the characters say the same lines to describe their jobs as the characters on the original CSI did in the first season. Second, this show is ridiculously violent, even more than the original series. Third, this show preys on the audience's sympathies way too much by making so many victims children. Killing children in order to gain the interest of the audience as often as this show does is cheap and tawdry.
First up, Looney Tunes: Volume 2. As a latchkey kid, I spent a lot of my early years watching Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, the Road Runner, and, one of my favorites, Pepe Le Pew. I have a fond place in my heart for the opening and closing music of all those cartoons. Less than two weeks in, and I have completed watching two of the four discs. My review: definitely mixed.
The biggest problem this DVD set has is that each disc is dedicated to one cartoon character, or pair of characters, like Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Do you have any idea how boring it is to watch an hour and a half of nothing but Bugs Bunny cartoons? This is really too bad. I think that if each disc had a mix of all the different cartoons, this set would be epic in its greatness. The other problem is that this is Volume 2. As I wrote, I grew up watching these cartoons. I've seen a ton of them. Yet, out of the 30 I've watched so far, at least 20 were brand new to me. I have a suspicion that the first volume has some of the more well-known cartoons. I guess I will find out when it comes time to watch that one. In the end, though, these are still Looney Tunes cartoons. Individually, they are great. There was one Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner episode I had never seen before that made me laugh loud and hard.
Second, CSI: Miami Season 1. While I did not think this would be the worst television show to watch this month, I didn't really expect great things from it. 10 episodes in, and I am fairly impressed. Though, perhaps not for the intended reasons. The entire show seems to live and die by David Caruso (shout out to all the NYPD Blue fans). If you don't like him, you will not like the show. At all. I have never seen anything like him on television before. I spent most of the first couple of episodes just laughing every time he showed up. Caruso is like William Shatner speaking in monotone; he's almost campy in his delivery. Yet, after those first few episodes, he started to grow on me. After about five, I had to admit: I like David Caruso in this show. A good thing, too, because the rest of the show would be absolute torture if I did not. The rest of the cast is fairly good, though I am glad to see that Kim Delaney is about to disappear. She is incredibly boring and doesn't fit with the rest of the cast well. In some ways, this cast seems to have gelled more quickly than the cast on the original show did.
There are a few things that have annoyed/disturbed me about this show, though. First, I found it jarring to hear the characters say the same lines to describe their jobs as the characters on the original CSI did in the first season. Second, this show is ridiculously violent, even more than the original series. Third, this show preys on the audience's sympathies way too much by making so many victims children. Killing children in order to gain the interest of the audience as often as this show does is cheap and tawdry.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
*whew*
I did not mean to take this long to post anything. I suffered through a pretty bad cold for a few days, and combining that with school, I just didn't have the energy to do anything. The good news is that I have been able to keep up with my schedule, sort of. I did miss a couple of nights, but I was able to catch up the next night. The great news is that I have made huge progress on my television DVDs. I'm already half way through with the Looney Tunes boxset, and almost half way through CSI: Miami.
I am watching baseball right this minute, but I will have a post up in a few hours with my thoughts on all the DVDs I've watched since September 1. There have been some interesting moments.
I am watching baseball right this minute, but I will have a post up in a few hours with my thoughts on all the DVDs I've watched since September 1. There have been some interesting moments.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The last day of August
I've already watched 15 episodes of Looney Toons as well as the Bridget Jones sequel (*shudder*), but I will write about that later. Tonight, I will talk about what I watched the last day of August.
I found CSI Season 6's second half to be vastly superior to the first half. Three of the last four episodes were practically perfect in every way. Watching this season made me feel silly for ever spending hours fretting over whether or not Sara and Grissom might be together. Watching it this time, tt was so bloody obvious from about the third episode on that they were.
Teeth was good, as I wrote yesterday. The film is icky and scary, and has a few interesting things to say about how and why young women (and perhaps women of all ages) view their bodies. It's always fun to watch horror movies that feature a female hero/villain. I can't until I watch Aliens. And, as a woman, there is a scene in this movie that I found particularly satisfying, a sort of revenge against male film directors who so callously feature rape in their films, particularly horror films - I'm looking at you Wes Craven. Oh, and the film is delightfully funny, something that you would think impossible due to the rather sensitive subject matter. But the writing, and especially the acting, had me laughing throughout. The young woman who starred in the film, Jess Weixler, was a true find. I had never seen her before, and I found out on imdb that this was only her third movie, and the first one in which she starred. She's only been in Hollywood for six years. If she can keep getting roles with good writing like this, I really think she can go far. I look forward to seeing her in more films.
This was the second time I watched Teeth, and it was just as scary the second time. I am pretty sure it's because of the subject matter. The first time, I didn't really know what the film was about.
Though CSI and Teeth were a combined 7 hours, it was another movie that I have been thinking about all day. Sergio Leone is famous for his spaghetti westerns, but his last film was an American one, Once Upon a Time in America. I think it qualifies as the greatest film of the 1980s.
Released in 1984, the film is a staggering 229 minutes long. This may turn some people off, but near the end I wished it were even longer. It covers nearly 50 of a man's life, and I was left wanting to know so much more. The entire film is shown out of chronological order, and you have to wait nearly the entire film to understand the first fifteen minutes. Oh, but it's worth the wait. After the confusing introduction, the film, set in New York city, goes back to the main character's childhood. Even from childhood, the main character is a thug, though one gets the sense that he never had a chance to be anything else. In his youth, he falls in love with a cold and beautiful girl. He also befriends four other thugs, including one boy who becomes his best friend. The movie then fast forwards more than a decade, and from then on out, it deals with the characters as adults, cutting back and forth between the early 1930s and 1968. Even though this movie is nearly four hours long, I want to watch it again. There was just so much going on in the film, and I am quite sure I wasn't able to appreciate all of it fully.
This film deals with the larger than life themes of friendship, love and betrayal, and does so in a fine manner. The score is absolutely beautiful, even the tidbit of the Beatles' "Yesterday" is used to great effect. No synthezer music in this one. The cinematography is befitting a Leone movie, ranging from the grandiose to the intimate. The acting is superlative. James Woods gives perhaps the greatest performance of his career; in the documentary of the film (filmed a decade ago), Woods says that Leone was the best director he's ever worked with. Robert Deniro is great as usual. Joe Pesci, Treat Williams and Danny Aiello are all in very short scenes, but left very strong impressions, especially Aiello.
One important note: the main character is an animalistic gangster. There is more than one rape scene, though compared to most movies, they are not very brutal. I have a very hard time with rape scenes, as I wrote about with Sleepers, but the ones in this movie did not overwhelm me at all. I think it's because the character is so very repressed. I wrote animalistic, but really he is a repressed man who does monstrous things. Even when he's raping, there is little visible emotion. He isn't trying to degrade the woman, he just doesn't know any other way to treat them.
I have to say that though watching all these DVDs sometimes feels like a job, I am so happy I've decided to do this. Up until Monday, the surprises have been that I think some of the movies I used to like are stinkers. It was nice to watch a movie I've never seen before and love it so much. I hope this continues over the next year.
I found CSI Season 6's second half to be vastly superior to the first half. Three of the last four episodes were practically perfect in every way. Watching this season made me feel silly for ever spending hours fretting over whether or not Sara and Grissom might be together. Watching it this time, tt was so bloody obvious from about the third episode on that they were.
Teeth was good, as I wrote yesterday. The film is icky and scary, and has a few interesting things to say about how and why young women (and perhaps women of all ages) view their bodies. It's always fun to watch horror movies that feature a female hero/villain. I can't until I watch Aliens. And, as a woman, there is a scene in this movie that I found particularly satisfying, a sort of revenge against male film directors who so callously feature rape in their films, particularly horror films - I'm looking at you Wes Craven. Oh, and the film is delightfully funny, something that you would think impossible due to the rather sensitive subject matter. But the writing, and especially the acting, had me laughing throughout. The young woman who starred in the film, Jess Weixler, was a true find. I had never seen her before, and I found out on imdb that this was only her third movie, and the first one in which she starred. She's only been in Hollywood for six years. If she can keep getting roles with good writing like this, I really think she can go far. I look forward to seeing her in more films.
This was the second time I watched Teeth, and it was just as scary the second time. I am pretty sure it's because of the subject matter. The first time, I didn't really know what the film was about.
Though CSI and Teeth were a combined 7 hours, it was another movie that I have been thinking about all day. Sergio Leone is famous for his spaghetti westerns, but his last film was an American one, Once Upon a Time in America. I think it qualifies as the greatest film of the 1980s.
Released in 1984, the film is a staggering 229 minutes long. This may turn some people off, but near the end I wished it were even longer. It covers nearly 50 of a man's life, and I was left wanting to know so much more. The entire film is shown out of chronological order, and you have to wait nearly the entire film to understand the first fifteen minutes. Oh, but it's worth the wait. After the confusing introduction, the film, set in New York city, goes back to the main character's childhood. Even from childhood, the main character is a thug, though one gets the sense that he never had a chance to be anything else. In his youth, he falls in love with a cold and beautiful girl. He also befriends four other thugs, including one boy who becomes his best friend. The movie then fast forwards more than a decade, and from then on out, it deals with the characters as adults, cutting back and forth between the early 1930s and 1968. Even though this movie is nearly four hours long, I want to watch it again. There was just so much going on in the film, and I am quite sure I wasn't able to appreciate all of it fully.
This film deals with the larger than life themes of friendship, love and betrayal, and does so in a fine manner. The score is absolutely beautiful, even the tidbit of the Beatles' "Yesterday" is used to great effect. No synthezer music in this one. The cinematography is befitting a Leone movie, ranging from the grandiose to the intimate. The acting is superlative. James Woods gives perhaps the greatest performance of his career; in the documentary of the film (filmed a decade ago), Woods says that Leone was the best director he's ever worked with. Robert Deniro is great as usual. Joe Pesci, Treat Williams and Danny Aiello are all in very short scenes, but left very strong impressions, especially Aiello.
One important note: the main character is an animalistic gangster. There is more than one rape scene, though compared to most movies, they are not very brutal. I have a very hard time with rape scenes, as I wrote about with Sleepers, but the ones in this movie did not overwhelm me at all. I think it's because the character is so very repressed. I wrote animalistic, but really he is a repressed man who does monstrous things. Even when he's raping, there is little visible emotion. He isn't trying to degrade the woman, he just doesn't know any other way to treat them.
I have to say that though watching all these DVDs sometimes feels like a job, I am so happy I've decided to do this. Up until Monday, the surprises have been that I think some of the movies I used to like are stinkers. It was nice to watch a movie I've never seen before and love it so much. I hope this continues over the next year.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
August, We hardly Knew Ye
*whew*
I made it! I finished the last day of August watching Teeth, Once Upon a Time in America, and 7 episodes of CSI. The real problem was due to the television issue. It wasn't too difficult to watch one movie a night, but trying to stick to a schedule for television proved to be a bad idea, which is why I spent the last three and a half days cramming so much TV to meet the deadline.
And it didn't help that I was sick and hurt Sunday, so I didn't really watch much.
Anyway, I've spent the last 11 hours sitting on the couch watching DVDs practically nonstop, so I'm off to bed. Will do a huge write up tomorrow.
I made it! I finished the last day of August watching Teeth, Once Upon a Time in America, and 7 episodes of CSI. The real problem was due to the television issue. It wasn't too difficult to watch one movie a night, but trying to stick to a schedule for television proved to be a bad idea, which is why I spent the last three and a half days cramming so much TV to meet the deadline.
And it didn't help that I was sick and hurt Sunday, so I didn't really watch much.
Anyway, I've spent the last 11 hours sitting on the couch watching DVDs practically nonstop, so I'm off to bed. Will do a huge write up tomorrow.
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