I'm just curious as to people who have seen this movie's impression of it compared to PTA's other work. I'm a fan of Boogie Nights, Magnoila, and Punch-Drunk, and I was just wondering if Hard Eight can hold a candle next to those other films. Basically, is it engaging and worth the time to view it? Thanks.
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I would reccomend you see it by virtue of your affinity for all of PT Anderson's other films.
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You should really see it. I think from a screenwriting standpoint, it's a wonderful script, especially for a first-timer. The characters and their relationships are developed first, and plot second. A plot really only begins to form about mid-way through...later developments give the first half more weight, but until then, we're just watching the characters going about their business, yet as uninteresting as that sounds, it's constantly engaging (in my opinion).
Then, from a director's perspective, again for a first feature, this is really an achievement. It bears the PTA stamp found in all of his movies--But, you can see that he has progressively gotten better. This is like PTA in the final stage of germination before becoming a full-fledger (In fact, in my personal opinion, I wouldn't say he truly hit his peak until PDL--again, my opinion). And yet, almost everything we enjoy about his style and storytelling is evident here.
Absolutely worth a look.
The script is rather bland and ill timed. The dialog is his most amateur and the narrative is one of his weaker ones (the whole movie felt 40-50 minutes too long in general) but as you said, great for a first time. I'd say everything else was delivered beautifully.
sharei think it's a good film,but everyone should take into account that Anderson's film was called "Sydney" and his cut of the film was a lot longer.Then the studios basically chopped it up,renamed it(against PTA's wishes)and released it in a limited engagement.I hope one day PTA will see fit to release a Director's Cut with his original edit and vision included.It would probably be a completely different film.Still good though,PTA is awesome.I really can't wait to see what he does next.
shareAnderson's cut of the film was what was actually released, but as a compromise, the name given to the studio cut needed to stay. So what you see when you watch the only version of Sydney/Hard Eight that's ever been available to the public is what he always intended for audiences to see.
He says as much in this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3M7STLU4i0