Movies

[irishjayhawk]

Yeah, so I saw a lot of movies this weekend.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Mediocre, at best. Slow and dragged on. Shorten it to 2 hours and it's golden. It's not, so it fails.

Michael Clayton - Amazing. Everything about it is awesome. However, it's VERY complex and mind bending. You have to think, so be prepared. I still feel like I'm missing key details of exactly what happened. Gotta see it again.

Across the Universe - Perfect is one word that comes to mind. It just works. And, contrary to many people I bet, the movie is best viewed sober. Trust me.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by QuikSsurfer

Knock this shit off. Lets keep it to movie talk.

Anyone see Pineapple Express yet?

No, but I will soon. I had no idea the hippie looking stoner was James Franco.

[Sure-Oz]

Finished "there will be blood" admitted it was long and took awhile to get going...not a whole lot of 'wow' factor but i liked it, the end was kinda crazy. id say its worth seeing once

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by Sure-Oz

Finished "there will be blood" admitted it was long and took awhile to get going...not a whole lot of 'wow' factor but i liked it, the end was kinda crazy. id say its worth seeing once

Man, I've seen it several times already, and the nuances of DDL's performance has gotten better with each subsequent viewing. Just an amazing film, IMO.

[Baby Lee]

Here's a strange of observations I happened upon yesterday [and it's gonna take two posts]. I had finally watched The Deer Hunter all the way through this weekend and [as I often do] sought Ebert's insights to augment my own
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...903090301/1023

Originally Posted by Roger Ebert

March 9, 1979
Michael Cimino's "The Deer Hunter" is a three-hour movie in three major movements. It is a progression from a wedding to a funeral. It is the story of a group of friends. It is the record of how the war in Vietnam entered several lives and altered them terribly forever. It is not an anti-war film. It is not a pro-war film. It is one of the most emotionally shattering films ever made. It begins with men at work, in the furnace of the steel mills in a town somewhere in Pennsylvania. The klaxon sounds, the shift is over, the men go down the road to a saloon for a beer. They sing "I Love You Bay-bee" along with the jukebox. It is still morning on the last day of their lives that will belong to them before Vietnam.

The movie takes its time with these opening scenes, with the steel mill and the saloon and especially with the wedding and the party in the American Legion Hall. It's important not simply that we come to know the characters, but that we feel absorbed into their lives; that the wedding rituals and rhythms feel like more than just ethnic details. They do.

The opening movement is lingered over; it's like the wedding celebration in "The Godfather," but celebrated by hard-working people who have come to eat, dance and drink a lot and wish luck to the newlyweds and to say good-by to the three young men who have enlisted in the Army. The party goes on long enough for everyone to get drunk who is ever going to, and then the newlyweds drive off and the rest of the friends go up into the mountains to shoot some deer. There is some Hemingwayesque talk about what it means to shoot deer: We are still at a point where shooting something is supposed to mean something.

Then Vietnam occupies the screen, suddenly, with a wall of noise, and the second movement of the film is about the experiences that three of the friends (Robert De Niro, John Savage and Christopher Walken) have there. At the film's center comes one of the most horrifying sequences ever created in fiction, as the three are taken prisoner and forced to play Russian roulette while their captors gamble on who will, or will not, blow out his brains.

The game of Russian roulette becomes the organizing symbol of the film: Anything you can believe about the game, about its deliberately random violence, about how It touches the sanity of men forced to play it, will apply to the war as a whole. It is a brilliant symbol because, in the context of this story, it makes any ideological statement about the war superfluous.

The De Niro character is the one who somehow finds the strength to keep going and to keep Savage and Walken going. He survives the prison camp and helps the others. Then, finally home from Vietnam, he is surrounded by a silence we can never quite penetrate. He is touched vaguely by desire for the girl that more than one of them left behind, but does not act decisively. He is a "hero," greeted shyly, awkwardly by the hometown people.

He delays for a long time going to the VA hospital to visit Savage, who has lost his legs. While he is there he learns that Walken is still in Vietnam. He had promised Walken -- on a drunken moonlit night under a basketball hoop on a playlot, the night of the wedding -- that he would never leave him in Vietnam. They were both thinking, romantically and naively, of the deaths of heroes, but now De Niro goes back in an altogether different context to retrieve the living Walken. The promise was adolescent stuff, but there is no adolescence left when De Niro finds Walken still in Saigon, playing Russian roulette professionally

At about this point in a review it is customary to praise or criticize those parts of a film that seem deserving: the actors, the photography, the director's handling of the material. It should be said, I suppose, that "The Deer Hunter" is far from flawless, that there are moments when its characters do not behave convincingly, implausible details involving Walken's stay and fate in Vietnam, unnecessary ambiguities in the De Niro character. It can also be said that the film contains greatly moving performances, and that it is the most impressive blending of "box office" and "art" in American movies since "Bonnie and Clyde," "The Godfather" and "Nashville." All of those kinds of observations will become irrelevant as you experience the film. It gathers you up, it takes you along, it doesn't let up.

"The Deer Hunter" is said to be about many subjects: About male bonding, about mindless patriotism, about the dehumanizing effects of war, about Nixon's "silent majority." It is about any of those things that you choose, if you choose, but more than anything else, it is a heartbreakingly effective fictional machine that evokes the agony of the Vietnam time.

If it is not overtly "anti-war," why should it be? Hell, we're all against the war . . . now. What "The Deer Hunter" insists is that we not forget the war. It ends on a curious note: The singing of "God Bless America." I won't tell you how it arrives at that particular moment (the unfolding of the final passages should occur to you as events in life) but I do want to observe that the lyrics of "God Bless America" have never before seemed to me to contain such an infinity of possible meanings, some tragic, some unspeakably sad, some few still defiantly hopeful.

[Baby Lee]

So then I headed over to IMDB for a some more info on the film. When I go the user's comment section I com across this

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077416/...t/96469105?p=1

Originally Posted by Commentor on IMDB

Feb 3 2008
Sidema77, please read this review of the movie that I wrote for one of my classes a year back. Hopefully it will help you understand more about the movie and what the director was trying to do.

Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter is a three hour epic of a movie that can easily be broken down into three parts. It is the story of a group of friends who are shipped to Vietnam and have their lives changed forever in different ways. I wouldn’t go so far as calling this an anti-war film, and is by no means a pro-war film, but what it is, is one of the most emotionally shattering films ever made. The film begins as we are introduced to our three major characters, Michael,(Robert De Niro) Nick,(Christopher Walken) and Steve(John Savage) who are just finishing their shift at the steel mill in a small town in Pennsylvania. It is their last day of work before they are shipped off to Vietnam. The three then go to the local bar, have a few drinks and play pool before they attend Steve’s wedding.
The film takes it’s time with these opening scenes so we can step into the lives of these three hard working middle class men so we can feel for them for what happens to them later. There is some foreshadowing during the wedding reception and superstition for events to come as Steve and his new wife must drink from a special cup and are told, “If you don’t spill a drop, good luck will come to you for the rest of your lives.” The camera then focuses on a close up of the bride’s dress as we see a few drops land on her dress unnoticed. After the party, the friends minus Steve go up to the mountains to go deer hunting. In these scenes we are awarded with some of the best sceneries with excellent music as Michael moves himself away from the other hunters to go on his own and lands himself a deer. The deer is tied down to the hood of Michael’s car as the friends go back to town to the bar for a beer.
In the bar the camera slowly moves from close up shots of each of the friends as they watch and listen to one of them play the piano. As soon as he is done playing the piano, the film cuts right into Vietnam in the middle of action which is done perfectly. The quick cut from a group of friends drinking and having a good time to quickly cut to the war in Vietnam shows how fast things have changed; one minute your having a good time, and the next thing you know, your in a place you regret going to. We get a brief scene of the three main characters reuniting together after an attack on a Vietnamese village and what comes next is one of the most horrifying and best acted sequences in a film as the three or taken prisoner and forced to play Russian Roulette as their captors gamble on who, or who will not blow their brains out.
The game becomes a symbol to the film and that is that it touches the sanity of men forced to play it, and to the context of this story it makes a good ideological statement to the war it’s self. De Niro’s character Michael is the one to somehow find the strength to keep himself, Savage, and Walken going as he turns the tables around on their captors and escape. The three are then split up again as they try to climb up a later from a helicopter as they float on a log down a river. Michael returns home and is somewhat surrounded by silence as he is greeted back like a hero awkwardly by the townspeople. While on another hunting trip he realizes that he can now not shoot a deer. He now knows what it is like to be hunted and to have your innocence taken from you. Another important scene that occurred in Vietnam is that of Michael placing Steve who is wounded and out cold on the hood of a jeep so he can be taken to a hospital. Steve is placed on the hood of the jeep the same way the deer that Michael shot was tied down to the hood of his car. Michael learns that Steve is back in town at a VA hospital, and when he goes to visit him, he is shocked that he is confined to a wheelchair due to having his legs removed from his injuries. He also learns that Nick is still in Vietnam, and after making Nick a promise not to leave him there, Michael travels to Saigon to get Nick who he finds still playing Russian Roulette professionally. The film ends in a shocking and sad note as only one of the friends will return back home alive.
The Deer Hunter’s acting, photography, and the way the director handles the material given to him really makes what this film is. It is one of the most impressive blending of box office and art I have seen next to The Godfather. I do not think that this movie is for everybody for example, anybody who is looking for non-stop war action such as Platoon or Saving Private Ryan should stick with those films as they will be disappointed with this film. I can see people complaining about the films lack of war action, but all of that is irrelevant to the story’s main focus of what happens to these three friends that their lives will change in ways that they would never know. Another thing that may bring this movie down to some is the movies some what slow start which lasts a little over one hour. To me this strengths the movie more because I actually feel for the characters and want them to survive and that is the movies main point.
The movie is about male bonding, life, and the dehumanizing effects of war. The Deer Hunter was the first movie to capture and deal with the horrors of Vietnam and I still think that this is the best. This is not a war film but a film about the soldiers of war and how they are effected by it when returning home. The film won five of the nine academy awards it was nominated for including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in A Supporting Role for Christopher Walken. Robert De Niro sadly did not win his nomination for Best Actor which is a real shame because he really shines in this movie and once again proves himself in being one of the best actors in film history. I easily give this film 5 stars out of 5 stars and should be viewed by anybody interested in a good and powerful story, timeless directing, and some of the best acting put on film.

Pacino kisses De Niro's shoes everyday.

Is it just me, or is this poster either very in tune with Ebert, or a plagarist?

[QuikSsurfer]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

Man, I've seen it several times already, and the nuances of DDL's performance has gotten better with each subsequent viewing. Just an amazing film, IMO.

QFT

One of my favorites.

[Sure-Oz]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

Man, I've seen it several times already, and the nuances of DDL's performance has gotten better with each subsequent viewing. Just an amazing film, IMO.

I probably will watch it again with someone that hasn't seen it before...my gf suprisingly liked it and the looks on her face when DDL performed on certain scenes was priceless. Esp towards the end...

He did a great job in that movie and i was suprised i liked it myself, the way it started off i wasn't sure if i'd stay interested, glad i did. I will probably buy it when the price goes down sometime. (bluray)

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

So then I headed over to IMDB for a some more info on the film. When I go the user's comment section I com across this

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077416/...t/96469105?p=1

Is it just me, or is this poster either very in tune with Ebert, or a plagarist?

You should reply to that dude's comment with the link to Ebert's review.

[Nzoner]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

So then I headed over to IMDB for a some more info on the film. When I go the user's comment section I com across this


Is it just me, or is this poster either very in tune with Ebert, or a plagarist?

I think you should see if Ebert has an e-mail you can forward this to.

[Sure-Oz]

One more thing...the music was excellent! (there will be blood)

[noa]

Originally Posted by QuikSsurfer

Knock this shit off. Lets keep it to movie talk.

Anyone see Pineapple Express yet?

Saw it yesterday. I thought it was pretty funny. The action scene at the end got a little too long for my taste, but I was laughing basically any time James Franco or Danny McBride were talking.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

You should reply to that dude's comment with the link to Ebert's review.

Go to page three.

[Jenson71]

Reading just one page of IMDB boards is pretty tiring.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Nzoner

I think you should see if Ebert has an e-mail you can forward this to.

Sent to The Answer Man with appropriate hyperlinks.

I guess the most troubling thing about this minor incident, is that the poster said he submitted this for a class.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by noa

Saw it yesterday. I thought it was pretty funny. The action scene at the end got a little too long for my taste, but I was laughing basically any time James Franco or Danny McBride were talking.

So what's the real word? I've been assuming it was going to be the shit. Then Phillips and Roeper both panned it, Lyons was meh, while Shailes panned it too, and they gave it an A- at AV Club, but some of the staff had to get on record as not liking it in another column.

Seems like the consensus is it starts strong, but the action stuff is putting people off [including, possibly, one noa].