movies

[redbirdjazzz]

Appaloosa- Was this flick ever in theaters? I'd never heard of it until I watched it yesterday. Ed Harris pulled of a pretty good traditional Western with shades of a film noir potboiler.

It was in theaters in October 2008, but I don't know how long it stayed; I saw it with my grandma. Really interesting twist on the "Man with No Name" motif (normally the hero—named or not—has to do such horrific things to save the town that he isn't fit to live in it when he's done). I thought it dragged a bit at times, but overall, I really enjoyed it. As you'd expect with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen, the acting is absolutely top notch.

[SHOW]

I was expecting it to go that route but instead of how brutal Virgil Cole was you got how socially inept he was.

I enjoyed it.

[SHOW]

I loved how Everett took that mantle so Virgil could settle down, albeit awkwardly, as you said.

I'd forgotten that Jeremy Irons was in it too. He sure plays a kickass bad guy.

agreed about Irons, but i felt he was almost wasted in this movie.. i enjoyed it as a whole and
i can't stand rene zellwlehrehreger and she almost ruined it for me, but harris and viggo
were great together so i was still entertained.. i just felt they need to make Irons character
way more evil to justify the entire movie's premise.. i don't know

++ Zellweger was adequate, in my opinion, but not nearly good enough to hold up against Irons, Mortensen and Harris. You're right that they definitely could've done more with Irons' character, too. That said, I bought the DVD when it was on Amazon's Black Friday sale, so those things didn't overwhelm the good for me.

[lukethedrifter]

Speaking of Zellwegger- and I agree that in general she sucks-

[SHOW]

WTF with a cultured woman showing up in town with a dollar to her name?? I figured the correct answer when she was asked if she was a whore was "not yet."
As for Irons, I thought the initial scene took care of what kind of man he was as well as setting the tone of the times. That is, that solid workers just weren't dispensable enough for things like the justice system. Then him getting pardoned and re entering town as a bona fide businessman was probably historically accurate.

[redbirdjazzz]

Speaking of Zellwegger- and I agree that in general she sucks-

[SHOW]

WTF with a cultured woman showing up in town with a dollar to her name?? I figured the correct answer when she was asked if she was a whore was "not yet."
As for Irons, I thought the initial scene took care of what kind of man he was as well as setting the tone of the times. That is, that solid workers just weren't dispensable enough for things like the justice system. Then him getting pardoned and re entering town as a bona fide businessman was probably historically accurate.

[SHOW]

Someone in her situation would most likely have been either a mail-order bride, a teacher, or a whore, maybe a nurse.

Bragg's situation is not unrealistic in my understanding, although I do wish there had been some more development of his character, or at least more chances for Irons to show off his evil-doer voice. I'm at least mildly interested in reading the Robert B. Parker book it was based on now.

[lukethedrifter]

[SHOW]

Someone in her situation would most likely have been either a mail-order bride, a teacher, or a whore, maybe a nurse. Exactly. It wouldn't have been that difficult to make her entry into town "fit" better. Because of that and after seeing her carousing in the creek with the gunslinger brother, I began to think she'd been a plant and that threw me off. Poorly done imo esp because I like what he did with making Zellwegger's character needy instead of plain malevolent. Or alternatively, an faultless ingenue.

Bragg's situation is not unrealistic in my understanding, although I do wish there had been some more development of his character, or at least more chances for Irons to show off his evil-doer voice. I'm at least mildly interested in reading the Robert B. Parker book it was based on now.
The other story failure, I felt, was Cole not recognizing that the Shelton(?) bros being in town meant something was up.

I'd like to read the book as well.

[ghostrunner]

This guy did a five-part write-up of Inglourious Basterds that I felt nailed it.

http://toddalcott.livejournal.com/

To whatever degree he's forcing the audience to examine themselves, I'm not that impressed. Do people really get excited because they're watching Hitler get shot full of holes? And if they are, are they really the type to stop and think about the situation critically? I don't see it. To me it just seems like he thought it would be cool, and so he did it. Or maybe that's just what I hope. The whole irony thing bores me. Don't waste my time.

By contrast I thought the scene at the end with Raine carving the swastika was poignant, in a way. The Allies have made a deal with this monster, but Raine wants to make sure he doesn't get off scot free. I didn't see that as Tarantino trying to make us complicit in something, just that Raine wanted some justice short of killing him. Had Raine himself not been so cartoonish, it would have been even better. Which isn't to say I didn't like PItt's performance, because I thought he did great at what he was asked to do.

I kept thinking what a great movie it would have been if he had simply played it straight. The alternate history was fine, as was the usual unconventional Tarantino structure. But there's too much in there for me that takes me out of the experience.


My favorite critic's take, for good measure:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/scree ... terds.html

[The Third Man]

To whatever degree he's forcing the audience to examine themselves, I'm not that impressed. Do people really get excited because they're watching Hitler get shot full of holes? And if they are, are they really the type to stop and think about the situation critically? I don't see it. To me it just seems like he thought it would be cool, and so he did it. Or maybe that's just what I hope. The whole irony thing bores me. Don't waste my time.

Well, taste aside (I don't have a problem with people not enjoying the film, my only beef is with people who dislike it because they think it's some exploitative wish fulfillment revenge fantasy and nothing deeper), I don't know that what a mass audience reads into a film should have any bearing at all. I know people that think Taxi Driver is "badass." I think the idea that Tarantino is only putting things in because they're cool is underselling how film literate he is, though - the guy has probably seen more movies in his life than any three people on this forum combined. I don't know if this applies to you, but I thin ka lot of people are hasty to apply his talk-show personality to his movies, and since he comes off like a hyperactive, dorky manchild on TV, they assume he's not capable of critical thought, but I've always felt he is simply far more comfortable expressing himself through film, his medium of choice, than through conversation or writing.

[omaha_red]

Appaloosa- Was this flick ever in theaters? I'd never heard of it until I watched it yesterday. Ed Harris pulled of a pretty good traditional Western with shades of a film noir potboiler.

It was in theaters in October 2008, but I don't know how long it stayed; I saw it with my grandma. Really interesting twist on the "Man with No Name" motif (normally the hero—named or not—has to do such horrific things to save the town that he isn't fit to live in it when he's done). I thought it dragged a bit at times, but overall, I really enjoyed it. As you'd expect with Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen, the acting is absolutely top notch.

[SHOW]

I was expecting it to go that route but instead of how brutal Virgil Cole was you got how socially inept he was.

I enjoyed it.

[SHOW]

I loved how Everett took that mantle so Virgil could settle down, albeit awkwardly, as you said.

I'd forgotten that Jeremy Irons was in it too. He sure plays a kickass bad guy.

agreed about Irons, but i felt he was almost wasted in this movie.. i enjoyed it as a whole and
i can't stand rene zellwlehrehreger and she almost ruined it for me, but harris and viggo
were great together so i was still entertained.. i just felt they need to make Irons character
way more evil to justify the entire movie's premise.. i don't know

++ Zellweger was adequate, in my opinion, but not nearly good enough to hold up against Irons, Mortensen and Harris. You're right that they definitely could've done more with Irons' character, too. That said, I bought the DVD when it was on Amazon's Black Friday sale, so those things didn't overwhelm the good for me.

i've been trying to watch as many "recent" westerns as possible.. but there just
aren't many made.. at least decent ones..

the remake of "3:10 to Yuma" was great until the end

"the Proposition" was the dirtiest, grittiest "western" - (it's made in aboriginal australia")
i've ever seen

"Appaloosa" was really well made and a good story

but i just watched one last weekend called "The Claim" with Sarah Polley, Natassjia Kinski
and Peter Mullan that was outstanding.. one of those haunting, ominous movies that
most people would hate because it's too slow and nothing happens.. but man what a
great movie.. a hidden gem for sure.. at least for me

it's also known as "Kingdome Come"

[cardsfansince82]

Depending on your definition of Western, I think The Proposition and The Assassination of Jesse James are by far the best of the past decade. 3:10 to Yuma and Appaloosa were ok.

[lukethedrifter]

The opening scene of The Proposition needs to be experienced in a theater. Or maybe with everybody having big screens and surround sound the experience is good enough at home. I don't have those things so I'm sticking by my lead sentence. For me.

[The Third Man]

This is one of my favorite pieces of movie music:

[/youtube]