Why this film receives so few attention?
what happened when it was released?
shareThe movie was released in 60 theaters nationwide and only grossed $635,096. Apparently the studio didn't believe in it and dumped the movie with very little fanfare. I haven't seen the movie, but figure that with Ang Lee behind it, it couldn't possibly have been that bad. Given his successes since then, it's all the more surprising that this was treated the way it was.
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Movie as a business is really unfair sometimes. This is no doubt a wonderful film, it deserves to be viewed, discussed and studied by many people.
share"This is no doubt a wonderful film, it deserves to be viewed, discussed and studied by many people."
For sure it is a wonderful a film. The more I think about it, I would say it is a masterpiece. It's best technique is understatement, and there is no morales at all. When Jewel is irritated about why they allow Black John to come into the house and why he is not working on the fields George Clyde is just laughing. I don't think he has deep morales himself about the question of slavery but he has seen the sign of the times. And Roedel begins to see them also. He believes in slavery because he has never learnt anything else, but he listens to John's thoughts without ever saying anything against it cos he begans to underdstand there is a lot of truth in it. The film's technique is understatement and it moves on with the unspoken word.
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"They don't give you the leads, they don't give you the support, they don't give you dick." (Dave Moss)
chandler-47, wonderful, what your pick up is the bit I haven't caught in my three viewings!
This film tells a very important story about America and about war.
I reckoned a lot the sentence Black John said to Roedel after George's death, 'I feel free'. It says so many in so many different levels. Literally Black John is free because he has no more a master of him. But his strong emotion tells us there is more. From his pain of losing George he realized the equality between them, hence he is a slave no more in his heart? Or he sees his freedom a result of George's final sacrifice for him? Or now he can escape from the emotional bond between him and George? And why not 'I AM free' but 'I FEEL free'?
Right at this moment we aslo see Roedel's tear. How true! For Roedel, after loosing Jack Bull, he is also 'free'. So many unspoken words and emotional torrent convert in a short and quiet scene.
I also notice the exact sameness in Roedel's first and final appearance and the parallel between the opening and ending wedding. How peaceful, how serene they are comparing with the main body of the story. To me the final scene represent Roedel's rebirth and is definitely symbolical. When I watched again the opening moment, Roedel's horse riding and listened to the beatiful music, my eyes almost wet.
And the final moment, Black John's departing just overwhelmed me. So many things told by a simple camera move, so many beauty of humanity revealed here.
"I reckoned a lot the sentence Black John said to Roedel after George's death, 'I feel free'. It says so many in so many different levels. Literally Black John is free because he has no more a master of him. But his strong emotion tells us there is more. From his pain of losing George he realized the equality between them, hence he is a slave no more in his heart? Or he sees his freedom a result of George's final sacrifice for him?"
I have only seen this movie one time (I'm going to buy it on dvd when it's getting cheaper). Unfortunately this scene was mixed together with the attempt of Mackesson to kill Roedel. So I was mainly focussing on this.
The first - very deep - emotion of John is simply the realizitaion his life will not be the same as before. It's like when you lose a job. A world breaks down, but there might be a better chance. John was protected by George Clyde and now he is not protected anymore. This is a feeling of deep depression.
After this shock he realizes he has won something, and this is freedom. But it is not easy to walk on your own feet if you weren't allowed to do this before. I think this is why he says he "feels free". He simultaneously knows it is not easy to "be free" after the time of being a slave.
Ang Lee's movies are very naturalistic or realistic. Not much symbolism here. He just edits the material in the way he wants you to see it ;)
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"They don't give you the leads, they don't give you the support, they don't give you dick." (Dave Moss)
>> Apparently the studio didn't believe in it and dumped the movie with very little fanfare<<
That's pretty much right on, but add to it the fact that the studio was FULLY behind this film originally as it had then up-and-coming/semi-established Matt Damon in the "Jack Bull Chiles" role. Damon dropped out for reasons I cannot recall (probably another film...I have the data in my archives somewhere) and they then cast Skeet Ulrich in the role and things started going downhill soon after. The film even got released long after it's original intended release and for a while there was thoughts it would not be released at all.
Mike
The acting was subpar at best. The subject of the movie is really interesting, but the movie itself was just plain bad.
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