Tommy Lee Jones

He shot up a whorehouse in Rolling Thunder just because his buddy asked him.

that's why i'm voting for it. "i'll just get my gear."

the missing is heavy and brutal and not very good, but i really liked it for some reason. it has about 45 plot turns.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Got Cobb today. Thoughts?

i remember the nyer raved at the time i think so i saw it but what i remember most is fucking robert wuhl is in it and that tommy lee jones isn't right for the part, duvall would've been better, or maybe have lawrence tierney play old cobb and ray liotta play young cobb. i'm not sure there's a great movie to be made about cobb but if you're going to do it i think you need to embrace the bastard, treat him like henry hill (maybe rogers hornsby is yr jimmy conway figure), not just a crazy coot who was racist and a little psycho but o look there's some sadness there. there's at least a dozen baseball bio pics that are better.

The clips I've seen of Wuhl are appalling. Apart from his one-note acting, the guy's just terrible to look at.

yeah I do remember a few critics sticking up for it in '94 (it was supposed to lead to a Best Actor nod).

btw the author of Cobb (ie the guy Robert Wuhl played) proved to be a big liar.

This is an encouraging opening:

"The first thing that you should know before watching Tommy Lee Jones’s The Homesman is that it operates under the fundamental assumption that everyone who took part in the settling of the American West was, by almost any contemporary standard, insane.... The second thing you should know is that this madness is not, absolutely, thought of as a bad thing in the film—that there is, in the final reckoning, even something a little defiant, a little triumphal in it. It’s an indivisible possession, a good-luck charm, a means for getting through the days without end."

http://www.reverseshot.com/reviews/entry/1933/homesman

the trailer for 'the homesman' sold me on it. great cast, looks suitably dark and unpredictable, and i completely trust his directorial instincts after 'melquiades estrada'.

You might be disappointed, who knows - I thought this was a dreadful movie tbh.

compared to what? best classical western since what, Open Range?

(and hence mostly funded by Europeans)

at the end you even get Meryl Streep bringing a little edge to a Beulah Bondi role.

I thought it was a mess and wtf was that dancing about? Open Range is more like it, get those bastards that shot Tig!

wtf was that dancing about?

john ford to thread

at the end? the man is a dancer.

also shd be seen in a theater (Rodrigo Prieto)

your affection for Open Range never fails to catch me off guard.

it's a 3-star western but i'll take em where i can

The Homesman now available for home viewing

Saw The Homesman a couple of days ago, thought it was really terrific. I thought it had its own thread, but search doesn't bring it up. Anyway, one little bit that has stayed with me is how much Meryl Streep has to put across in about 3 minutes of screen time, and how well she does it. Her character has to make a judgment call on an awful lot of information flying at her with zero notice, decide how much of it is the truth and how much of it she'll accept whether she thinks it's the truth or not. It's all there in her face -- a noteworthy performance, I thought, worth getting her for a couple days' work.

^this man has the right ideas

I'm full of 'em.

I could have sworn this movie had its own thread.

I have a high tolerance for implausibility when it comes to junky thrillers--why fight it?--but Double Jeopardy is some kind of preposterous.

i love that movie!

I haven't gotten to Tarantino's chapter on Rolling Thunder yet--fully expect him to go overboard--but it is good, with a very unusual, almost catatonic lead performance from William Devane (who's usually at the more florid end of the acting spectrum--and does lots of celebrity-testimonial commercials nowadays). Very proud that I recognized Paul A. Partain from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Franklin), one of only seven films he ever made (one of only five that didn't have the word "chainsaw" in the title).

I find it funny that Shakey said TLJ is "awful" and could only justify this by saying he kept getting cast as hard-assed cop characters that Shakey found boring. TLJ kept getting cast in those parts because Hollywood kept making films filled with hard-assed cops and Jones did them very well, bringing an extra touch of humanity to them that worse actors couldn't achieve.

xp

Enjoying Tarantino’s podcast, but guy certainly (nothing new) enthuses over some undeniable crap. Rolling Thunder is legit pretty good though. Dig the vibe and performances. Remember watching a VHS rip of it a few times during my college years.

I bought Rolling Thunder on Blu-Ray a couple of months ago and yeah, it's pretty dark and fucked up. (Written by Paul Schrader, so...surprise, dark and fucked up!) Jones and Devane are both really good.

(xxpost) Also, even if that is your objection, you can hardly lump No Country in--a cop, yes, but far from hard-assed.

I'm finding the book useful, annoying--the way he uses italics is sometimes ridiculous--kind of random in the films that get chapters, informative (the title aside, there's lots of good making-of background on the films he writes about), and, for better and worse, true to his own films. My guess is he's a better podcaster than author.

I was surprised to see Schrader in the opening credits--don't think I knew that. Happily, was able to watch it for nothing on Tubi.

Written by Schrader for John Milius apparently. Final product not purely Schrader’s though, the other credited screenwriter did a pass on it. It’s a good script too, lot of quietly potent lines in there. Exploitation done with some gravitas.

Think I’ll rewatch it tonight if it’s streaming, been a while.

John Flynn was a cut above the usual exploitation director. He also directed The Outfit of course but also a trio of B-flicks in a row (Best Seller, Lock Up, Out For Justice) which aren’t amazing but are good genre movies.

Probably the kind of journeyman director that Tarantino loves, and the kind they don’t really make anymore to an extent.

TLJ rules.

Alfred I thought of you when I came across this recently but forgot to post it

https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/167/lot/69314

Is Rolling Thunder the one where Schrader's original script had a Travis Bickle cameo?

Definitely thought of Taxi Driver while watching, especially the last 10 minutes.

My goal of watching every film beforehand that gets its own chapter will be put to the test with Paradise Alley.

Alfred I thought of you when I came across this recently but forgot to post it

https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/167/lot/69314

― omar little

I hope you like squab!