Comment Archives: Stories: Movies
Re: “The Deer Hunter's Vietnam remains troublesome, but its maimed Middle America is more affecting than ever”
No one reliable seems to have reviewed the film Makhmalbaf made in Israel, shown in Rotterdam last month. An Iranian expat working in Israel is quite an intriguing concept.
Re: “The Deer Hunter's Vietnam remains troublesome, but its maimed Middle America is more affecting than ever”
ARGO does strike me as a film that could have been made in the early '80s although the opening cartoon about the CIA's meddling in Iranian affairs probably would have been left out back then. (Its inclusion does show a shred of perspective, I think.) In my dreams, Jafar Panahi or Mohsen Makhmalbaf, rather than Ben Affleck, would've directed it.
Re: “The Deer Hunter's Vietnam remains troublesome, but its maimed Middle America is more affecting than ever”
I must admit, I have never had the nerve to sit down with HEAVEN'S GATE. (When it made the revival rounds, I was away when it played in Houston.) So THE DEER HUNTER was my first brush with unadulterated Cimino. (I'd seen DESPERATE HOURS and YEAR OF THE DRAGON, fwiw.) With historical distance, it's shocking that anyone found this to be an anti-American film. It's patriotic to a fault, if only by comparison. (The Viet Cong, who are presumably fighting a war of liberation, clearly have nothing better to do that play sadistic games with their prisoners and gamble.) The "God Bless America" singalong after Nick's funeral didn't strike me as ironic; it was more an attempt to assuage their grief and convince themselves that they love their small-town life, despite all.
Oddly, I kept thinking of ARGO as I was watching this. In 1978, it's ugly and frustrating, but entirely understandable, that THE DEER HUNTER would depict the North Vietnamese as shouting, unsubtitled, bloodthirsty animals. It's not excusable, but one can see it as a panic reflex. On the other hand, Affleck and Co. had the benefit of being 35 years out from the Iranian hostage crisis, and did everything in their power to avoid any shred of historical perspective. If they'd had access to a time machine, I suspect they'd have gone and retrieved Charlie Daniels '78 to do the soundtrack. "Go To Hell, Ayatollah!"
Re: “The Deer Hunter's Vietnam remains troublesome, but its maimed Middle America is more affecting than ever”
I've never seen THE DEER HUNTER, but I should add that I'm a big fan of John Woo's BULLET IN THE HEAD, which has been described as an Asian take on its themes and structure, with Vietnam standing in for fears of the mainland Chinese takeover of Hong Kong in 1997.
Re: “The Deer Hunter's Vietnam remains troublesome, but its maimed Middle America is more affecting than ever”
i come from the pittsburgh area and am descended from a line of immgrant steel mill laborers and so this movie is close to my heart.
Re: “The Deer Hunter's Vietnam remains troublesome, but its maimed Middle America is more affecting than ever”
Great comment, Steve. Your description of HEAVEN'S GATE is almost exactly how I feel about THE DEER HUNTER. The other night on TCM I watched THE DEER HUNTER — a movie I saw in high school and college and loathed both times — and was haunted by it for days afterward. Back then, the movie's macho mysticism pretty much stood for everything I hated, and truth be told, the Vietnam scenes are still close to ruinous for me: this time around, I was entranced until it cut to Vietnam, and soon I remembered abruptly why I hadn't liked it before.
But that whole first hour in the steel town, including that lengthy wedding setpiece evidently modeled on THE LEOPARD, is so lyrical and detailed and deeply felt that I was completely absorbed. Michael really nails it when he talks about "the landscape in 3D" — Zsigmond's multiplane shots remind us how many levels of living go on in this community. And while I still don't like the Vietnam segments, especially the hysterical, wholly implausible reunion of Mike and Nick, the post-Vietnam scenes in the town are hugely affecting. The movie isn't really about Vietnam or its impact on the home front: it's about a disappearing way of life where the bonds of male friendship, work ethic and community are the heart of America, and what happened when those bonds were tested in the late 1960s. You can argue that's a simplistic, even juvenile vision, but I don't think you can separate it from what's powerful about the movie. The scene that tears me up is earnest, big-hearted lug George Dzundza suddenly sobbing into his skillet of eggs — maybe his only moment alone in the movie, major devastation evoked by just one glimpse inside a minor character.
The shot I can't get out of my head is De Niro (back when he was the most electrifying actor in movies) coming home and tiptoeing around trying not to face any of his welcomers. He peers from behind cover at the woman he pines for — man, I'd forgotten how luminous Meryl Streep is in this — while the distance between and around them is clearly measured: scrub, road, cars, Streep, painfully huge "Welcome Home" banner. With that solemn, simple, tentative Stanley Myers guitar theme playing, it's about as powerful a depiction of loneliness and disconnection as I've ever seen in a movie.
HEAVEN'S GATE is one of those movies that benefits enormously from its terrible reputation. As storytelling it's diffuse and meandering and bloated, and while it has a great cast (Isabelle Huppert!) it lacks the matinee-idol chemistry that would ignite the conflicts. (Everybody seems to be in the wrong role.) As a gifted director's attempt, however, to create in every single moment the damnedest movie the world has ever seen, with the budget to go for it, it comes close enough often enough to *look* like a masterpiece. Show it to people in sequences, and you just might convince them.
Re: “The Deer Hunter's Vietnam remains troublesome, but its maimed Middle America is more affecting than ever”
What do you think of HEAVEN'S GATE? It seems like THE DEER HUNTER's reputation has fallen, in part due to accusations of racism, as HEAVEN'S GATE's rep has risen. I seem to be one of the few people who thinks HEAVEN'S GATE is somewhere in between fiasco and masterpiece - it's starting to become so underrated that it's in danger of becoming overrated, if that makes any sense.
Re: “Silver Linings Playbook: the implausibly cute side of bipolar disorder”
thing is...i think the author of this wanted to tell with the "200 lb more" that from a lot of different sides, it shows kinda glamourous side. It has nothing to do with the weight or whatever. It's just that character are cute & sexy and so might be the movie with not showing any pushed dark side, no ?
Re: “Rediscovered singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez embraces newfound fame through the doc Searching for Sugar Man ”
I don't know why you're giving @bobsguns such a hard time - it is always interesting and surprising when a musician from your country is unknown to you, but HUGE somewhere else. The most common course, is an American band or singer gets big locally, then nationally and then internationally, so yeah, it's strange when someone fails at home but makes it big somewhere else.
Re: “Zero Dark Thirty: Torture's not the most troubling thing about Kathryn Bigelow's Hollywood death strike”
Thanks, Jim.
And yes, I would say, the movie is well worth seeing. It is a gripping and intelligent movie, and perhaps just as important, it is now at the center of a national debate. Not to say that a film's "importance" equals a recommendation per se. But no one would be bothering with ZD30 if there were no "there" there.
To put it another way: certain of 2012/13's Oscar films are utterly disposable. (I'm looking at you, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.) But like LINCOLN and AMOUR, ZERO DARK THIRTY will leave you with a lot to mull over even if there are aspects of it that you don't entirely like.
Re: “Zero Dark Thirty: Torture's not the most troubling thing about Kathryn Bigelow's Hollywood death strike”
The extent Michael's digging into it tells me it's worth seeing — I don't think he'd spend that much time unpacking its content just to dismiss it. I read it as saying he's got major problems with it, but thinks it's worth seeing and grappling with rather than just brushing it off.
This is one of my favorite kinds of reviews: something that seriously takes to task a movie I admire, sharpening my reasons for liking it by challenging them. Me, I thought it was an improvement over THE HURT LOCKER — less inclined to spell out its themes, more troubling for letting us lose our bearings sometimes (which explains the fury of the debate it's creating). And the action scenes, as always with Bigelow, are blunt, immediate and scary as hell: like the people in them, before and behind the guns, she's there completely in the moment, and she registers everything that's happening clearly enough that we can chew over (and suffer) the implications later. Just because she juxtaposes torture with the fruits of intelligence gathering doesn't make the movie an endorsement of those methods — it's a dishonest discussion if you don't consider the possibility they bring results, if only to weigh them.
Re: “Zero Dark Thirty: Torture's not the most troubling thing about Kathryn Bigelow's Hollywood death strike”
So is the movie worth seeing or not?
Re: “Lovable indie Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench could only exist as a musical”
What was your grade for Dancer In The Dark?
Re: “Challenging the sodden mythmaking of Beasts of the Southern Wild”
Interesting perspective. I think Zeitlin is redeemed in not suggesting that Wink's parenting nor the underlying culture of the Bathtub are necessarily correct or desirable. The harsh outlook on life is something that extends not just to gender roles, however, but rather into more of a libertarian view of ultra-individuality. If anyting, it may be considered a fascinating commentary on today's Randian philosophy. This is what it looks like, people, here in the Bathtub.
Re: “Rediscovered singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez embraces newfound fame through the doc Searching for Sugar Man ”
well im a 24 yr old youngster from South Africa, I've only ever known democracy and a multicultural society and i still grew up with this music, know every song backwards, i just heard it somewhere and thought it was amazing! I am a fan of 70's music but my mates also loved listening to it, we would listen to Nirvana, Eminem and oddly Rodriguez his music is awesome, lyrics are up there with the best... a lot of us didnt even know he was that popular here, back in the day.
@bobsguns. Theres a big difference between a robotic stage presence by a skinny blonde drone and an introverted, nearly blind and almost deaf 70 year old, eccentric musician. some people must not like music if a '60 minutes' interview is all they need to see when judging ability. Id much rather go for someone who CAN actually write (properly), play and sing music, instead of someone having a cheeseburger while waiting for the computer to do it for them.
you are right about one thing though, impossible as it may seem to you, individually we can all fit in a phone booth... My condolences for being American. Atleast youve got american idol to keep your mind off your blatant 'size' problems oh and carbohydrates but hey, atleast you can brush up on those, top drawer, music skills.
Re: “Even without an Oscar nod, the engrossing Barbara is too good not to find a U.S. audience”
It was a pretty decent year, and I did see 10 or 15 films I liked better than Barbara (some of them experimental / avant-garde films). This in no way diminishes my recommendation. This film is very much worth seeing.
Re: “Even without an Oscar nod, the engrossing Barbara is too good not to find a U.S. audience”
I wonder why Barbara isn't even made it to your '2012 Top 10 List' on 'Academic Heck' site.
Re: “Silver Linings Playbook: the implausibly cute side of bipolar disorder”
As a statistic only 35% of those with bipolar are significantly overweight. And if you need a real world example of a beautiful girl with the condition, look at Demi Lavato ... She's come out openly to try to help others who are suffering.
Re: “A duet for jaded wiseguys on the topic of Les Misérables, the movie”
Hey Mr. Pink:
I finally got to see “Les Mis” the other day with Jenny McMillion. Her opinion: This movie may well revive the lost art of the filmed musical. She loved it. My feelings were a little more mixed.
I was generally disappointed with the quality of the singing (Anne Hathaway’s uniformly strong performance being one of the exceptions). The film’s pacing, moreover, seemed rushed, like being hurried through a guided tour of Notre Dame – “OK people, walking, walking … there are the flying buttresses, there’s the nave, and there’s the exit to the Seine … have a nice day.” No wonder few of the actors got beyond caricature – one exception was Samantha Barks as Eponine, who put it all together as a singing actress. The kids who played Gavroche and the young Cosette were also wonderful.
Despite all the shortcomings, I still teared up at the end. Victor Hugo never fails to tug at the old heartstrings.
Re: “Silver Linings Playbook: the implausibly cute side of bipolar disorder”
I think the comments people are leaving in response to Erickson's statement regarding weight gain are missing the larger point. (And with handles like "InsideBiploar" and "AboutBipolar," this isn't so surprising. Once we begin taking our disorders on as markers of identity, we are just flip-flopping the stigma, so we *become* our health problems. That is hardly conducive to talking about them honestly, because identity politics never permits any open discussion, only the defensive standing of ground based on whose got the more authentic experiences.)
A whole lot of medications for atypical psycho-chemistry cause weight gain. This is especially true in cases that require multiple medications, where there may be compounded side effects or contraindications that physicians deem acceptable under the circumstances. This is not everyone's experience, no. But it is common.
The bigger point Erickson was making about SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, I think, is that mental disorders were sort of dropped into the film as the slightly rougher edges on the main couples' broken hearts -- just plot devices that were not treated with any real gravity or consequence. Stalking becomes a rom-com "meet cute." The dance contest becomes a kind of healing breakthrough that conflates scrappy underdog triumph with actual psychological wellness. In short, bipolar disorder, mania, depression -- and mourning, actually -- are all just window dressing and spray-on gravitas for a movie that's about getting two cute, quirky kids together at the end. The movie doesn't care how it happens, and has no commitment to exploring the (very real) issues it nicks and grazes on the way there.
That anyone with bipolar disorder would look at SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and see some sort of reflection of their own struggle...well, that's just mystifying. It's like confusing THE WIZARD OF OZ with The Weather Channel because there's a cyclone there. It's just a cheap device.