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OT: Movies/TV Shows

zeke said:
Malick graduated Harvard philosophy summa cum laude and then used his Rhodes Scholarship to study philosophy at Oxford, with a particular emphasis on Heidegger, Kierkegaard, and Wittgenstein. He went on to teach philosophy at MIT.

If you want to dismiss him (or one of the great american authors) as first year philosophy students, maybe because i described some general themes of the film in broadstrokes when they could be delved into endlessly (and have been by scholars all over the place), that's up to you.
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As Chief Wiggum famously said,
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MindzEye said:
That Malick is deeply educated on the matter doesn't stop the premise from being schlocky and overly contrived.

and let's be real here, the film is based about as loosely on the book as SPR is on the real events that "inspired" it. The film is Malick's philosophically driven masturbatory re imaging of the book.
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Exactly. When I go to see a movie (especially a war movie) I'm going to see a movie, not a "meditation" on the meaning of life by some self-important twat of a director. I want the movie to be about what it's about, to have a beginning a middle and an end and I want some fucking closure. In order for one to be sucked into a movie one has to care about the characters in it. Malick never made me give a shit about any character in TTRL.
 
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
This!

First and foremost, Spielberg didn't insult his audience or try to show them how clever he was. And no matter how many war movies you'd seen prior to SPR, NOTHING (short of being a veteran of actual combat) could possibly prepare you for that first 30 minutes. A cinematic masterpiece is one that affects you like no other film has ever affected you before. Spielberg took a well worn story about an event that many movies before have tried to recreate, and did something totally different with it. It blew the audience away and every scene that comes after that opening sequence is built on that visceral reaction. I've seen lots of war movies, read lots of books about war, and have a high tolerance for blood and guts but the first time I saw that in a theatre, when I saw that soldier on the beach who had been disemboweled, holding his bloody entrails in his hands and screaming for his mother, I was genuinely disturbed. That's what a great movie can do. That's the power it has in the hands of a skillful director.

Thin Red Line just bored the shit out of me. The only power it had was to induce the desire in me to take a nap.
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Spielberg spoon fed it to everyone, and asked nothing from the audience in terms of participation….which is fine, for what it is.

That’s not what Terrence Mallick sets out to do, or delivers….and you get out of it, what you’re willing to put in.

If you go in expecting a Spielberg type experience, you’ll unquestionably think it’s shit….which is fine, the hilarious thing is no one can admit that’s what’s taking place. They have to protect their ego’s by pretending it’s Malick that’s the problem, lol.
 
MindzEye said:
Sure there is. Cheap, pop philosophy masquerading as deep and thoughful.



I'm taking the words of reviewers on this, but allegedly the movie is a huge departure from the book and the philosophical tones of the movie aren't remotely similar to those of the books and are created out of more or less whole cloth by Malick.


A much better words version of my issues with the movie can be found here:



and the dismount
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This review is a chef's kiss to Malick's entire, regrettable and completely unnecessary career.
 
Montana said:
Spielberg spoon fed it to everyone, and asked nothing from the audience in terms of participation….which is fine, for what it is.

That’s not what Terrence Mallick sets out to do, or delivers….and you get out of it, what you’re willing to put in.

If you go in expecting a Spielberg type experience, you’ll unquestionably think it’s shit….which is fine, the hilarious thing is no one can admit that’s what’s taking place. They have to protect their ego’s by pretending it’s Malick that’s the problem, lol.
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I went looking for a Terrence Mallick experience. Still left the theatre disappoint.
 
Montana said:
Spielberg spoon fed it to everyone, and asked nothing from the audience in terms of participation….which is fine, for what it is.

That’s not what Terrence Mallick sets out to do, or delivers….and you get out of it, what you’re willing to put in.

If you go in expecting a Spielberg type experience, you’ll unquestionably think it’s shit….which is fine, the hilarious thing is no one can admit that’s what’s taking place. They have to protect their ego’s by pretending it’s Malick that’s the problem, lol.
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Malick is the problem. All of his movies are overwrought and we shouldn't act like he's the only director who makes his audience do some work. Christopher Nolan routinely does this with his manipulation of time and space in his films. A lot of people hate him for it because they just want a linear chronology to the films they watch. But Malick doesn't just want people to think. He belittles his audience. He's this "artiste" and his ego makes him lord it over the peasants in the audience. Nolan is clever. Malick needs us to know how clever he is.
 
CH1 said:
I went looking for a Terrence Mallick experience. Still left the theatre disappoint.
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…and that’s fine, I’ve had that same experience with it. I just never felt the need to claim it was shit, he sucks, he doesn’t know philosophy, or get emotional about it at all….I’m also more than open to the fact I didn’t get those movies, and someone else might have.

(I’ve also completely reversed my opinion on a film before, because of a film analysis or review I took in, that enticed me to go back and rewatch it, seeing it through a very different lens)

In fact I’d say my ‘Tree of Life’ viewings over the years have all been their own unique experience every time I’ve gone back to it, with different ideas, and questions to wrestle with and ponder afterwards.


I’d definitely never walk away from a single viewing of a high end movie, and think I had the definitely assessment of it tho, and no other possibilities were possible. That’s mental, imo.
 
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
Malick is the problem. All of his movies are overwrought and we shouldn't act like he's the only director who makes his audience do some work. Christopher Nolan routinely does this with his manipulation of time and space in his films. A lot of people hate him for it because they just want a linear chronology to the films they watch. But Malick doesn't just want people to think. He belittles his audience. He's this "artiste" and his ego makes him lord it over the peasants in the audience. Nolan is clever. Malick needs us to know how clever he is.
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comparing Malick to Nolan tells you everything you need to know.

I enjoy Nolan’s stuff, but he’s the mainstream’s idea of what a ‘smart’ movie is….which is still pretty damn basic.
 
Some stuff, whether it's music, painting, movies, etc, from masters of those respective genres does occasionally suck.

Very few artists bat 1.000 and the bigger the swing, the bigger the potential whiff.
 
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
Exactly. When I go to see a movie (especially a war movie) I'm going to see a movie, not a "meditation" on the meaning of life.
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That’s a you problem for going to a Terence Malick movie then, if you just wanted a war movie where things go 💥

If you’ve seen his other movies, why would you go in expecting Saving Private Ryan?
 
CH1 said:
Some stuff, whether it's music, painting, movies, etc, from masters of those respective genres does occasionally suck.

Very few artists bat 1.000 and the bigger the swing, the bigger the potential whiff.
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absolutely, but I’ll again point to claiming “the art & artist are shit”, as a crutch for those who don’t get it, or it didn’t connect with. (Some of the commentary on the film in this thread, kinda tells on people that they didn’t get it, as well)…..while zero people have been able to concede it just wasn’t for them, they didn’t get what the hype’s about, and have no interest in rewatching it to try and figure it out.

Which is more than fine…..but everyone seems to need to protect themselves by claiming it’s Malick, not them.

There is tons of art I don’t get, especially with paintings, music on any deep level, plenty of literature (try as I might)….but I don’t feel it necessary to pretend it’s the art that’s the problem. I’m okay accepting others have unlocked what makes it work, particularly for them, and all the power to them.
 
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I agree about giving works a re-watch, and I often do but in this case, I really hated the voice over, and I know I will hate it again, so I will re-watch something else instead.
 
CH1 said:
I agree about giving works a re-watch, and I often do but in this case, I really hated the voice over, and I know I will hate it again, so I will re-watch something else instead.
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See this is a bang on fine take…I’m the same way with plenty of “great” flicks.

In fact I’ve kinda held off talking too much about Thin Red Line specifically, even though I recall loving it….because of some of your comments on it, and I’m waiting to rewatch it, to see what my updated opinion of it is.

(It’s currently streaming on D+, and Tree of Life is available on Kanopy, for your library card holding streamers out there.)
 
I stumbled across Sorry to Bother You on my streaming service last night and gave it a watch. I had not heard of it before, so went in completely blind. Wow, what a ride. That movie really deserves a larger footprint. Felt like I had stumbled onto a Gilliam movie.
 
I recently re-watched Caché by Haneke. (Excellent again)

And the first two seasons of Von Trier’s The Kingdom (still holds up as spooky/funny) just so I could watch the long waited season 3, which is predictably ho-hum
 
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