OT: Movies/TV Shows

[Montana]

so went in completely blind.

Nothing beats this experience with film, and it’s a damn shame it isn’t a more common experience.

 

[LeafGm]

Nothing beats this experience with film, and it’s a damn shame it isn’t a more common experience.

Movie trailers and ads do their best to make sure it’s a rare experience.

It’s why I avoid them like the plague if I have even the tiniest bit of interest in watching a movie.

 

[WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou]

Movie trailers and ads do their best to make sure it’s a rare experience.

It’s why I avoid them like the plague if I have even the tiniest bit of interest in watching a movie.

Some trailers give away so much of the movie that there's scarcely any point watching the film. A trailer is supposed to make you want to see the movie, not tell you the movie and reveal the entire plot.

I asked about this once and was told that in many focus groups the majority like to know how a movie will end prior to deciding if they will go and see it or not. Fucking triggered snowflakes ruining yet another thing.

 

[zeke]

"The mission is the man".

The whole story of SPR is about the juxtaposition of masses of lost lives against the attempt to save one life and all the moral and philosophical arguments such things entail. SPR was far better at telling the audience what it was about than TTRL because Spielberg wasn't trying to be clever or take the piss with his audience. He clearly has his ego in better check than Malick and it shows.

That said, I do have a couple of quibbles with SPR using hackneyed Hollywood movie tropes like the inevitable wise cracking guy from Brooklyn who is apparently standard issue in any US infantry platoon and the naïve hick with the photo of his sweetheart back home in Bumblefuck Kansas.

SPR purported to be super realistic but the story was completely fake propaganda.

And yes it was all cliches.

 

[WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou]

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.

Basic and yet everyone who hated Dunkirk hated it because it didn't follow a linear chronology so for a lot of people, even Nolan is too cerebral. There's a fine line between artsy and unwatchable. The Thin Red Line was not marketed as an art house film. It's budget was not art house. But like most art house films it did not impress most of its paying customers, many of whom would never have bothered going had they known what it was going to be like ahead of time. It did not have mass appeal even though it was shown in every multiplex in North America.

 

[WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou]

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?

I thought that perhaps he had humbled himself and learned something in the 20 year hiatus. But no, he just got more full of himself.

 

[Montana]

Movie trailers and ads do their best to make sure it’s a rare experience.

It’s why I avoid them like the plague if I have even the tiniest bit of interest in watching a movie.

100% it makes me seethe how much they’re happy to (ostensibly ruin) a directors movie in trailers l, just because they know it means more people will see it.

Like you, my interest in a film is directly correlated to how little, if any, of the trailer I’ve seen.

 

[zeke]

Uh, yeah they would and they did.

In WW2 Elmer, Clyde, and twins Rolon and Rulon, were all killed within a few months of each other in 1944. Their parents then successfully petitioned for their fifth son Boyd, who was also on active duty, to be released from service. Their sixth son, Elton, who had not yet reached conscription age, was exempted from military service.

The three Butehorn brothers of Bethpage, NY, Charles, Joseph, and Henry, were all deployed during World War II. After Charles was killed in action in France in November 1944 and Joseph was killed in action in the Pacific in May 1945, Henry, who was serving with the Army Air Forces in Italy, was ordered home by the War Department.

And after WW2 the US instituted the "Sole Survivor" Policy which specifically exempted people from serving if they were the last surviving member of the family.

Yes they were ordered home.

But no rescue party was ever sent after them, risking their lives for them.

 

[zeke]

I'm not duped by pretty trees and thoughtful poems as voice-overs.

Yeah who needs cinematography or thoughtfulness in a movie.

 

[Montana]

Basic and yet everyone who hated Dunkirk hated it because it didn't follow a linear chronology so for a lot of people, even Nolan is too cerebral.

People can enjoy what they like, but yeah that’s a tough beat if the lack of linear chronology bucks one off Dunkirk…I fucking loved it. Same with 1917.

There's a fine line between artsy and unwatchable.

A thin red line, if you will.

The Thin Red Line was not marketed as an art house film. Its budget was not art house. But like most art house films it did not impress most of its paying customers, many of whom would never have bothered going had they known what it was going to be like ahead of time.

that’s fair….studio wants $$, and if I’m not mistaken I think they did well with it.

They also gave Clooney above the title billing despite being nearly fully cut out of it, lol.

It did not have mass appeal even though it was shown in every multiplex in North America.

Made $100m from a $50 budget….for a Malick movie that has to feel like a huge success I’m guessing.

 

[WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou]

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.

I'm not saying that I didn't "get it", with regards to TTRL. I got it, I just didn't care about it. And if a movie can't make me care about it or its characters then it has failed. Was it well made? Sure. But I didn't care about anyone in the story so all of that was wasted.

To use a more appropriate analogy...

"When compared to the fact that I might very well be dead by this time tomorrow, whether I had watched and understood The Thin Red Line today was pointless, empty. When compared to the fact that I might be dead tomorrow, everything was pointless. Malick was pointless. Whether I also watched The Tree of Life or Heaven's Gate or not was pointless. It just didn't make any difference. It was pointless to the movie, it was pointless to every person who saw it, pointless to everybody in the whole world. Who cared? It was not pointless only to me; and when I was dead, when I ceased to exist, it would be pointless to me too. More important: Not only would it be pointless, it would have been pointless, all along."

 

[LeafOfFaith]

People can enjoy what they like, but yeah that’s a tough beat if the lack of linear chronology bucks one off Dunkirk…I fucking loved it. Same with 1917.



A thin red line, if you


that’s fair….studio wants $$, and if I’m not mistaken I think they did well with it.

They also gave Clooney above the title billing despite being nearly fully cut out of it, lol.


Made $100m from a $50 budget….for a Malick movie that has to feel like a huge success I’m guessing.

Typically you need to assume an amount equal to the budget for advertising the film, so if those were the numbers, it’d be considered a break even that was dependent on its afterlife on tv and dvd sales to turn a profit.

 

[zeke]

The idea that it's not a well liked movie is kinda bizarre. It makes pretty much every top 10 War movie list out there. It's at 80% on RottenTomatoes for both critics and audience scores, which is amazing for such an intentionally hard movie. Scorcese ranked it #2 of all movies from the 90s. Not sure what you guys are talking about.

 

[WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou]

Billy Bob Thornton recorded over three hours of voice over for it, none of which was used....Adrian Brody thought he was the protagonist of the film only to discover his part had been cut down to 5 minutes, when he arrived at the premier. Micky Rourke, Bill Pullman and Lucas Haas all filmed significant roles, but were cut out entirely. Clooney and Travolta also filmed significant amounts, but were cut down to the aforementioned cameo's.

So even the people in the movie had no fucking clue as to what Malick was trying to accomplish with it.

 

[WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou]

Personally I think the voiceover was great as far as voiceovers go. And I'm not sure any war movie has done as good a job dwarfing the meaningless of war in the natural world around it.

not to mention that given that it was filmed just after the US had decided to get back into the foreign war business for real, the timeliness seems appropriate.

War isn't meaningless to you if you're getting shot at. And a good movie would make the viewer feel as though they are being shot at.

 

[Montana]

I'm not saying that I didn't "get it", with regards to TTRL. I got it, I just didn't care about it. And if a movie can't make me care about it or its characters then it has failed. Was it well made? Sure. But I didn't care about anyone in the story so all of that was wasted.

I know, I’m saying that.

…..and if it didn’t make you care about it, it’s fine not putting in the effort to get it. That’s

To use a more appropriate analogy...

"When compared to the fact that I might very well be dead by this time tomorrow, whether I had watched and understood The Thin Red Line today was pointless, empty. When compared to the fact that I might be dead tomorrow, everything was pointless. Malick was pointless. Whether I also watched The Tree of Life or Heaven's Gate or not was pointless. It just didn't make any difference. It was pointless to the movie, it was pointless to every person who saw it, pointless to everybody in the whole world. Who cared? It was not pointless only to me; and when I was dead, when I ceased to exist, it would be pointless to me too. More important: Not only would it be pointless, it would have been pointless, all along."

How dare you.

 

[Montana]

So even the people in the movie had no fucking clue as to what Malick was trying to accomplish with it.

they often don’t, and some don’t care to, that’s not their job.

 

[zeke]

Scorcese's list by the way:

1. The Horse Thief (china - actually an 80s movie that came to america in the 90s)
2. The Thin Red Line
3. A Borrowed Life (Taiwan)
4. Eyes Wide Shut
5. Bad Lieutenant
6. Breaking the Waves
7. Bottle Rocket
8. Crash (the good one)
9. Fargo
10. Tie between Heat and Malcolm X

 

[WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou]

SPR purported to be super realistic but the story was completely fake propaganda.

And yes it was all cliches.

The action scenes were super realistic. That's why so many veterans who saw it had PTSD from it. I doubt they suffered an attack of PTSD watching "The Longest Day".

And as I pointed out elsewhere in this thread, the concept of pulling soldiers out of action when their siblings had been killed was an actual thing so I'm not sure where "propaganda" comes in.

 

[zeke]

The action scenes were super realistic. That's why so many veterans who saw it had PTSD from it. I doubt they suffered an attack of PTSD watching "The Longest Day".

And as I pointed out elsewhere in this thread, the concept of pulling soldiers out of action when their siblings had been killed was an actual thing so I'm not sure where "propaganda" comes in.

The movie's entire theme was about the illogic and heroism of a mission risking a bunch of lives to go find one soldier to bring him back for his mother's sake.

Nothing like this ever happened.

"Ordering Home Private Ryan" wouldnt be much of movie, obviously.