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Tabbycat's Replies
-Midnight Mess
-Drawn and Quartered
-The Neat Job
The remaining two are throwaways.
I always skip past them.
Look — if I went ‘round — saying I was emperor — just cuz some moistened bink lodged a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!
>> first I can recall where there's a scene after the credits.
That’s a great whole separate topic.
Do you want the first post on that (at Ferris Bueller) or shall I have at it?
JSYK, Blazing predates Ferris by thirteen years.
I think you missed the point.
The raft guide was not dumb, but weak.
Obviously very experienced (watch him swim cross-current like a motorboat), he well knew the risks of a freezing Class V river — far better than his greenie charges. Do you take fat middle-aged city-folk newbies on a Class V ... without even a basic swim test? No. Do you let these same newbies overload your SOTAR’s on said river? No.
Unless, that is, you let a wealthy manipulative bully like Dan Cutler make your decisions for you.
Maybe because you neeed the business, or maybe because you’re just too weak to say no.
Or both.
Having rafted myself, it’s obvious the man playing the guide was in fact a real-life one pressed into service. He certainly ain’t no actor (“Chilko’s no swimming hole!”)
It’s an indy film, not a Marvel sequel.
It opened in five theaters.
That’s what you get in 2011 — and probably less than that today.
No one goes to the theater much anymore to see indy films. They play in theaters only to qualify for awards. I was dying to see this when it first came out, but couldn’t. And then I forgot all about it for eight years until it showed up on Prime.
Movies are a crowded landscape today.
It’s almost impossible for even a good one to get any traction.
Wondered the same thing.
Very shaky obviously handheld “still” scenes where they could easily have used a tripod.
Just looks sloppy lazy.
Credits show it is “Two Lane Blacktop”, released in 1972 — about a decade before Forrest and Jewel are seen watching it in a theater.
Great movie, BTW.
Director Monte Hellman called it “The only existential allegory ever released by a major studio.”
Indeed.
< If it had been a theater release, it would have bombed. >
Well ... yeah.
That’s the whole point.
Nobody over 30 goes to the theater anymore because all they offer is Guardians of the Garbage XVII.
And when they do try to play something for thinking adults, it tanks. Because we’re all at home watching Netflix, hulu, and Prime. And we like it.
Remember Annihilation?
Annihilated.
Does he turn down his hearing aid to blot out the wife’s blathering?
The entire movie has everyone not just drinking, but drinking martinis — multiple shots of pure alcohol. When Frank first takes his office filly out, he orders two rounds of them. That’s a lot of hooch for a young woman, who mentions being drunk before even finishing her second.
I’m not an expert on mid-50’s drinking, but from what I’ve read this seems accurate. The movie makes the point that many drank heavily back then for good reason.
“I want this goddamned invesigation stopped now.
Is that clear?”
[tape of president Nixon obstructing justice]
No chance something like that can be excused or explained.
For Nixon or any successive president.
Game over.
<< I don't think Woodward had any leverage in the process at all. >>
Oh yes he did.
He knew Felt’s one and only reason for being there: bad things were happening in the offices of the federal government and he didn’t feel right about it at all.
It’s clear from actual accounts that lawbreakers often don’t know the exact point where the line was crossed. The frog simply wakes up one day and the pot is hot. Watergate is unusual in that White House counsel John Dean did say at one point, “Mr. President, that would be illegal.” For others there’s only a growing awareness of offensive odors, and possibly no one with whom they can discuss their concerns privately. Doubly true for the second man at the FBI: it’s lonely at the top.
Felt wanted Woodward’s investigation to succeed, but he did not want to do the investigating for him. That would make him a snitch and an instigator, which conflicted with his decades-old sense of loyalty to his employer. He had to do it “his way,” which meant keeping Woodward “in the right direction, but that’s all” by confirming what Woodward dug up if true.
Not hard to understand, really.
We can wish for all bosses and leaders to be heroes
But if they were, we wouldn’t need the word.
“If anything, you could argue the movie was pro-Trump because it showed how dangerous letting strangers in was.“
Not ultimately.
In the end the blind school folk “take the high road” and let the unknown woman and her kids in despite the danger. Because it’s the right thing to do. Of course.
For those not seeing the allegory:
- central theme is whether to show compassion for outsiders or stay safe by shutting them out
- the more paranoid characters like Malkovich are shown to be a-holes , even if later proven right
- death is caused by malevolent belief — seeing horrors that are not real
- crazy people see beauty and harmony in the deadly belief instead of the truth that it’s deadly
It’s an allegory for sure, and a none-too-subtle one.
Probably pitched to Netflix as just that.
Cut the words “her tit.”
This is a family newspaper.
Always loved how Dustin played this one to his Graduate-like awkward comedy genius. Trying so hard to make non-threataning small talk he actually insults theshe didn’t want to offer him in the first place.
Garage freak?
What kind of a crazy f*cking story is this!
“The people involved should always go with what works best, whether scripted, improvised, or flubbed.”
Great quote.
Wish all directors agreed.
P.S. I’ve always assumed that was a genuine flub.
One thing the original was mos def NOT was generic.
I had never seen anything remotely like it.
The remake is all loud music, yelling and shoot ‘em up.
Once the squibs fly I’m not even paying attention.
Plus ... where’s the atmosphere?
Any sense of isolation and silent, unseen threat in the dark?
Best description I’ve read of the original is “Rio Bravo” meets “Night of the Living Dead.”
It’s half horror movie.
Not here. All action, no horror makes Jack a dull flick.
And the original has a HUGE payoff in the ending, when the condemned convict has finished helping defend the fort — including the cops detaining him. Austin Stoker says, “I’d be honored if you’d accompany me” — true character revealed in battle. Nothing like that here.
About an hour in I realized the entire movie was just an anti-Trump allegory, with fear of “dangerous outsiders” standing in for racist deplorables against illegal immigrants. Damn near turned it off.
That lame line probably seemed right clever to a twenty-something Hollywood hipster hanging out with unemployed screenwriters all day at Starbucks.
Just watched the Blu-Ray again tonight listening to Stallone’s excellent commentary.
(Very articulate and insightful.)
He actually mentions the many unusual shots, many involving minimal natural light (in one case an entire cave lit by two matches tied together). Many shots are quite dark, partly due to the very short daylight hours of the Canadian winter (sunsets occur at 2:30 P.M., and all day is gloomy). The forest scenes have a particularly subdued hue that adds to the atmosphere. In one brilliant scene, all six of the policemen chasing Rambo wear white hats which really stand out in contrast. Without them, the actors would be hard to follow in the gloom.