kathryn bigelow

I AM AN F-B-I AGENT!

she is my mom's favorite director

i remember liking Strange Days when it came out. I was 14.

Near Dark, of course, but Point Break has batshit-awesome action scenes.

oh wait shit i missed Point Break up there, dang

i always have to watch strange days when it's randomly on cable.

Strange Days has that awful disturbing rape sequence, right? Glah.

Near Dark is the pick btw.

yeah that's the one. also starring angela basset's arms.

Looking good in that pic.

Near Dark is on hulu! i will watch it tonight.

Strange Days, easy!

Strange Days has that awful disturbing rape sequence, right? Glah.

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, October 21, 2008 6:22 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

oh yeah i forgot about that :-/

Near Dark for me.

"We keep odd hours."

I remember how Strange Days was promoted as The Future as we were understanding how far the Information Highway would eventually stretch.

hurt locker is pretty good!!

can i get all name-droppy and say when i interviewed her she was super intelligent, articulate and gracious?? and awesome?

I remember catching a screening of STRANGE DAYS and feeling physically torn between groans and lulz pretty much all the way through. Yet it feels as though if I go back and watch it now it might actually be better than it was then. Is that possible, or did it just suck ass?

I remember how Strange Days was promoted as The Future as we were understanding how far the Information Highway would eventually stretch.

And now Ralph Fiennes is everywhere on huge TV screens.

^^ lol

Pretty much peaked with NEAR DARK then.

1. Point Break Indo (2009)
aka "Point Break 2" - USA (working title)
!

wow where are all the POINT BREAK fans???

POINT BREAK was and is awful.

point break is point great!

stfu rogermexico

lol get one functioning suck-o-meter

roger I believe you are now entering the DANGER ZONE

ya roger, get a dangerzone-o-meter. get ONE of them.

strange days does kind of suck and is sort of cringe-y about race sometimes in addition to the really hard-to-watch rape stuff, but then it is also kind of awesome? but i can't really defend that point of view. it's definitely ambitious.

its heart is in the right place!

^^^ should've been a pull quote on the poster

I still haven't seen the loveless

I think I'm one of 5 people who saw near dark in the theatres

i still have strange days on tape

angela bassett is very beautiful and compelling in it! i have seen it so many times.

I've never understood how she could have been married to James Cameron.

come on, two brainy '80s action directors at the top of their games, it seems like a natural fit

james cameron is a douche but he did make aliens

Good while it lasted, I guess.

if james cameron or ridley scott would just agree to make another aliens movie i would forgive them everything

ridley scott just signed on to make a film version of "the forever war"~

i know... he should make it aliens meets the forever war. as far as i'm concerned. that's what he should do.

i think kathryn bigelow's relative lack of work is a stain upon hollywood considering she's ten times better than some of these d-bags they put in the director's chair for big-budget action flicks.

anyway strange days is really good, i totally like it and anything that's wrong with it has more to do with some lame plot points and less to do with the directing. point break and near dark are great. i've heard k-19 is better than its non-existent rep might suggest. blue steel is solid. the trailers i've seen for the hurt locker look really good.

anything that's wrong with it has more to do with some lame plot points and less to do with the directing.

true!

k-19 is quite good, very thrilling and tragic. it's honest about trying to work in a very restrictive political culture w/o being all nutty red dawn about it or dimly allegorical like enemy at the gates was.

but everyone delivers in these goofy boris badenoff accents. whoever decided on that, way to ruin a movie.

I only saw the '87-91 trio, so ND. It's time to do a fullout gay remake of Point Break.

why duz poll expire before we see Hurt Locker?

I think I'm one of 5 people who saw near dark in the theatres

I'm one of the other four then.

wtf @ hurt locker trailers being in italian

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

A fair result.

hurt locker is indeed pretty good - maybe the only completely unpretentious Iraq movie yet?

and apparently Summit Entertainment has no idea when they're going to release The Hurt Locker. You can't even find it on their site.

http://blog.spout.com/2008/09/17/kathryn-bigelow-interview-the-hurt-locker-toronto-2008/

urrrrrrgh i wish they would release it already

It's screening once in NY next month. Speculation is they'll save it til fall?

ya i hope they don't just bury it. i'm sitting on a big feature here. also it's a good movie!!

Blue Steel would be a pretty good movie if not for the fact that for some reason they decided to make Ron Silver super-yuppy in it, rather than just a normal creepy stalker dude.

The Hurt Locker is very fine; I think it gave me a mild PTSD case. Out June 26. Never foregrounds the politics of the war except in one line of dialogue: "If he wasn't an insurgent, he is now."

Bigelow did an interview/Q&A after at Lincoln Ctr; very good-humored and glamorous.

I spied movie blogger Jeff Wells noisily taking pics throughout talk; the figure he strikes is very ... sepulchral.

i feel like it's kind of got a weak last third but yeah, it's very good.

as fine as Renner was, i don't find what makes Sgt. James tick all that fascinating.

Will relish ILE discussion of what Gavin Smith called "the love scene" btwn the 3 principals.

the bar scene in near dark! bill paxton has never been better imo

http://www.avclub.com/articles/kathryn-bigelow,29544/

^^^interview re: the hurt locker

looking forward to rewatching it when it sees a proper release.

great US b.o. opening on 4 screens.

Armond got a pointed dig in in his rave:

Bigelow’s focus on male psychology won’t satisfy anti-war protestors, who have been curiously becalmed during the Obama administration.

http://www.nypress.com/article-20010-the-hurt-locker.html

jeez what a movie

between seeing the hurt locker and reading dexter filkins' 'the forever war' this week, i have ptsd.

so excited to see this

is it as good as the reviews seem to indicate

It's very good, but has more familiar elements than the ravers seem to acknowlege. I'm not complaining.

a friend of mine suggested it has elements of 'the wages of fear', which is true imo. there are some cliches, in particular the angle that leads to james heading off on his own that one night, but that's upended pretty nicely not longer after, and i like how the film is bookended by a couple of pretty terrifying failures.

"Bigelow’s focus on male psychology won’t satisfy anti-war protestors, who have been curiously becalmed during the Obama administration."

They were pretty becalmed during the latter part of the Bush administration too so I'm not sure what's so curious about it.

Yeah, I thought about The Wages Of Fear too. Obviously not a one-to-one parallel but the vibe during the defusing set pieces is kind of similar.

the movie was very good.

stereotypes cliches of soldiers/men characters?(the coward,thinker,logical,brave)
check.
an ending with superficial psychology?
check.
emotionaly impotent/infantie soldier - good at battle,bad at life?
check.

but the movie was good.
cause it doesnt get too deep into the the traps of the cliches, cause bigelow know how to keep the tension high, cause the script is accurate and the level of bullshit-talk that try to resolove the "meaning" of the movie is low.
i mean,some (hollywood) flicks would do so much better if characters would talk LESS,and give the director and the visual style do their job.

some sequences,like the one with the snipers in the deserst are perfect example of movie making.

and yes,The Wages Of Fear indeed.

I uh whoah. I've never seen any of these movies and never heard of most of them. I guess I have a new Netflix mission, since my current picks have been disappointing me a lot.

Just watched this, and had no real expectations, and it was actually really really good.

saw this over the weekend, and don't quite get the universal critical praise, but it was good. It never really lapsed into complete cliche, tho hinted often. Maybe it's tough to make a war movie w/out doing this? Do I have to go to war to get better?

This morning my dream was like a Katheryn Bigelow movie crossed with 80s DePalma crossed with, um, some cheesy set that's supposed to look like NYC, and I think it starred Jodie Foster and Jeff Goldblum as detectives and Prince as the psychopathic but relatable villain (who was also sort of Jodie's secret love interest, I guess?).

This was pretty excellent I thought, though I got to agree with this:

It never really lapsed into complete cliche, tho hinted often.

There were a few characters who you just knew who were going to get killed the minute they were introduced.

did anyone else feel like it turned into an episode of lost at the end

haha i've actually never seen a full episode of lost!

it felt like a lost flashback sequence with evangeline lilly, back in the usa livin' a normal life type thing

i wasn't looking forward to seeing this, even though i wanted to (makes sense, right) but it turned out to be really really good. not a bad performance at all, especially anthony mackie. it's certainly thrilling but never 'fun' for a second, so something that has escaped other war movies is apparently captured here. it's funny, the couple scenes where it ended up in 'conventional' gun fights were the most relaxed and familiar of the movie, i felt myself calming down, tbf

that said, i read a bunch of the early buzz from national security/gwot blogger types, and they all loved it, but they also had some nitpicky accuracy beefs which did ring out to me when i saw it, "no way would this happen" kind of stuff.

haha, not only did it have evangeline lilly, it had a goofy scene of ennui in the supermarket followed by his deciding his obsession was far more important than his kid - classic Lost turns!

good stuff though, just saw it tonight - found those tense shootout scenes to be well directed

seriously I ctrl+f "hot" and NOTHING

is this one of them secret gayerman threads what

The colonel who talked w/ Eldrige has a total serial killer face.

heh, funny you should say that, considering a certain TV show he showed up in

Will watch this tonight.

noted

haha, not only did it have evangeline lilly, it had a goofy scene of ennui in the supermarket followed by his deciding his obsession was far more important than his kid - classic Lost turns!

exactly!!

like, a total "should i go back there" thing!

centuries of dramaturgy now assumed to have originated with "Lost"

lol unbanned too soon

let me guess morbs, u havent seen either

but yes, what i was saying is that centuries of scenes featuring evangeline lilly actually began with "Lost"

damn this was tense

I liked it a lot

A fantastic film. Jeremy Renner gives the best performance of the year.

Are there films starring Renner that people would recommend between this and Dahmer (which he was amazing in)? Is Neo Ned worth renting?

This guy may give Viggo Mortenson a run for his money in the macho-but-not-an-asshole category.

I didn't realize he was the Dahmer guy until checking his filmography.

I can't remember him at all from Assassination of Jesse James or Lords of Dogtown.

the only thing I know him from is that cop show on ABC that started airing after Lost, called The Unusuals ... he plays an ex-Yankees ballplayer turned detective ... s'aight, not great, I probably wouldn't go outta my way to watch it but I'm a Lost junkie so I kept it on a few times

he was in 28 weeks later, too

Yeah, playing a similar character -- likeable, non-arsehole military guy.

in hurt locker he's kind of an asshole! but still likeable

anyone else find the DVD-selling kid plotline a little garbled?

Not garbled so much as unrealized. It's more interesting dramatically if Beckham is a smiling kid who likes the soldiers yet participates in the insurgence.

yikes, finaly saw Strange Days. The last half hour in particular is aggressively stupid.

Angela Bassets' arms look great in that last half hour though.

That's the best thing I can say about it. A really terrible ending to a pretty stupid movie.

This made me think of Point Break, which made me think of this thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJdF8DJ70Dc

watched near dark for the first time last night, so awesome. "he's so ugly it makes my GUMS ACHE!"

what a coincidence, donna! next Wednesday let's do K-19 and The Loveless.

Finally saw The Hurt Locker and want to change my vote to it. One of my faves of the year.

hurt locker was great!!

wow max saw a good film!

She did K-19? That turned out to be a pretty solid flick. It probably got sunk due to its lousy title.

There were a bunch of times that Bigelow's choices in Hurt Locker had me muttering to myself "100% pure adrenaline" or other quotes from Point Break. Especially the drinking scenes. She loves to shoot scenes of dudes hangin' out.

aw morbs

this ruled

\m/

sniper scene - a++++++++++

heart to heart in the car between sanborn and james, near the end - a+++++++++++

was beckham's reappearance in james' mind? or not?

i'm from "the big apple"

geraghty's total lack of forgiveness - a+++++++++

i think the idea is that the body-bomb wasnt actually beckham and that beckham had been alive the whole time

^^^ yeah

yeah that's what i think too. but it also occurred to me the way james just strode away that he might be thinking "wtf - am i seeing ghosts? don't react, just keep movin"

btw i saw this on a 6x5 inch blurry headrest monitor that i had to keep wiping smudges off of, for that genuine crappy military hardware vibe

i love how this movie is all about the simple physics of situations. can you imagine what the "script" looked like in pre-production? so few movies have the balls to just be about people's and things' physical relationships to each other in space and how that affects their brains

this ruled

― crabRCISE (gbx), Friday, August 28, 2009 12:32 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

my take on the ending wasn't that james gave up his family for another tour (tho he could have) but that he'd just been called back up

he gave that whole speech to his kid about only loving one thing

oh i totally read that he was peaceing on his family because he just loved being a bomb guy ~so much~

sure, but plenty of dudes have to go back for multiple tours whether they want to or not - i just saw it like well, he got called back, but he gets off on it so it's like gettin thrown in the briar patch

same diff i guess - maybe i just want to believe he liked being home with his son and wouldn't have given it up - he actually seems remarkably sane around the house all things considered

the cereal box shots are so classic - look to the left.. cereal boxes. look to the right... and i'm like please motherfucker show us the cereal boxes on that side too... and YES there they are. the movie's a lot about looking, obviously, and this is his new landscape. is it safe? it's just cereal. just fucking cereal.

i think the idea is that the body-bomb wasnt actually beckham and that beckham had been alive the whole time

This was a brilliant plot point which played with action movie conventions. This kid the hero's formed a bond with has been murdered by the villains (he thinks), so obviously the hero goes out for revenge... But it turns out that to try and apply such logic to a something as fucked up as Iraq is just demented. The whole situation has been completely misread, James was just trying to force moral certainty on to a set of circumstances where there is none.

yeah that's what i think too. but it also occurred to me the way james just strode away that he might be thinking "wtf - am i seeing ghosts? don't react, just keep movin"

I think it was a hard-arsed decision not to pursue the friendship anymore. He'd experienced the trouble getting close with civilians can get you into by that point.

yeah that makes sense too

love the jack-in-the-box his son's playing with at the end.. it's like the original folk-art IED

I think it's been mentioned the writer is a war correspondent, yeah?

The facts of his return don't matter much, the action is Renner character's home now. I wonder if he will pull any Richard Jenkins-type acting prizes this year.

i think the idea is that the body-bomb wasnt actually beckham and that beckham had been alive the whole time

This was a brilliant plot point which played with action movie conventions.

And also the whole "All Arabs look the same to me" attitude a character like Renner might have had, at least before acctually going to the Middle East.

Loved this film at the time, and the more I think back on it, the better it gets.

i read some military blogs that criticized this or that technical or operational detail (these do kinda stick out once you're told, i won't ruin it), but thought it got the vibe, the feel, and the emotion mostly right.

― goole, Tuesday, November 17, 2009 1:40 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

oh now i'm curious about that stuff

― itdn put butt in the display name (gbx), Tuesday, November 17, 2009 1:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

ha maybe i'll pull up the bigelow thread and go ruin it there

― goole, Tuesday, November 17, 2009 1:42 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

ok here goes!

ok i wrote out a bunch of shit and then scrapped it, here are two of the things i read on it:

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/07/21/the_hurt_locker_recommended_but_with_reservations

http://armyofdude.blogspot.com/2009/07/review-hurt-locker.html

I'm looking forward to seeing The Weight of Water at BAM, but curious at the lack of comments about here.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
With Catherine McCormack, Sean Penn, Sarah Polley, Elizabeth Hurley

(2000) 113min

"...an intelligently made (and beautifully edited) picture... There's always something to watch for, either in the performances or in the way the scenes are so thoughtfully joined." —Salon

Bigelow's The Hurt Locker has been on of the most highly acclaimed American films of 2009. This rarely shown earlier Bigelow thriller juxtaposes an 1873 crime in New Hampshire with the present-day story of a journalist investigating the case, and contains ax murders, lesbianism, incest, a hanging, and a storm at sea, all enhanced by the directror's visual acuity.

Look for J. Hoberman's review of that one.

goole: huh, you're right, those posts make a ton of sense. i'll admit that i thought the lone humvee thing was weird (after having read just a single article by chris hedges on the terror of the humvee convoy), as well as the EOD guy as expert sniper thing---50 cals are practically artillery. also, and this is going to sound just terrible, it's always nice to read 'normal-guy' military blogs. i've got a couple friends who are officers (in the marines and rangers) and it's nice to be reminded that they are not the only thoughtful guys in the service

http://www.villagevoice.com/2002-10-29/film/salvage-lot/

is there a hurt locker thread?

don't think so

ta. I have only briefly read this, and i'm really not sure what her point is, but the idea that Valley of Elah is a more meritorious film in almost any way is obviously a red flag.

http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2009/0911/0911fil2.cfm

film of my year so far btw.

Mine too.

yikes, finaly saw Strange Days. The last half hour in particular is aggressively stupid.

― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Thursday, August 13, 2009 9:09 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha, too true.

there are some plotting problems, sure, but 'strange days' is a fine film.

http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=6800

is a not-good review.

one problem is with the red herring, when sizemore says that there's a whole army of bad cops and the rapper was deliberately taken out. later he says naaah just messsing, the cops were just two bad apples. i got the impresh that k-bigs added a deliberate eye-roll there.

and the thing with the police commissioner turning out to be ok stank too.

nonetheless, f the haters.

just saw strange days last week, thought it was incredibly well-directed

my biggest problem was prob the ending?

yeah.

the ending is pretty weak but it's a damned good film imo and surprisingly ralph fiennes makes for a good somewhat sleazy antihero.

k-bigs should do bourne 4 imo. her new one sounds great -- about the 'triangle' on the borders of brazil, bolivia, and somewhere else iirc, last seen in MIAMI VICE (2006).

yeah I'm sure this career boost will mean she might be in danger of doing some real shit w/ plastic Damon.

did not see that reaction coming.

damon isnt plastic hes a real boy

then why was he most convincing in Team America?

damon might not even be in bourne 4. she could re-cast it w/ jesse eisenberg or whoever.

almost lol

You guys, help me out here! I just saw "Hurt Locker" and kind of feel like I watched a different movie from everybody else. I mean, this totally works as an action movie, the sequences are well-paced and suspenseful, was not sorry to spend 2:10 watching it, etc. But: this totally read to me as a bog-standard mismatched-pardner movie: by-the-book Sanborn paired uncomfortably with his-methods-are-unorthodox-yet-he-gets-the-job-done James. OK, one has seen this before. But the seemingly fearless unorthodox dude actually suffers deeply and feels tenderly towards scaredy-cat kid soldier and plucky Iraqi kid! Wait, I've seen that before too. And then the two guys learn from each other's differences and have a heart-to-heart! "How do you ... TAKE THE RISK?" asks wide-eyed by-the-book Sanborn. Is he referring to defusing bombs or...... committing to his girlfriend and having a son? It's intentionally ambiguous because we are learning a LIFE LESSON! Oh btw in case you didn't catch the point that unorthodox dude with a deep soul possesses hi-test psychological insight they help you out by NAMING HIM WILLIAM JAMES. Having succeeded at all this movie then goes for broke by portraying the relative emptiness of civilian life in possibly the laziest way imaginable --- the good old LOL WALL OF CEREAL shot.

90 minutes in I was like, "I will give KB credit for this, though, they didn't go for the corny "bomb with a visible digital clock on it so they know exactly how many seconds they have until it goes off" scene." Oops!

I guess you can imagine a much better version of this movie, modeled after the night-time Haji hunt and its aftermath, one which doesn't let itself get distracted from the fact that its protagonist is a dangerous fuckup who on the one hand possesses desperately needed technical skill, but on the other hand whose lack of self-knowledge and self-control is so severe that HE is the device that might get anyone near him killed. The movie hints at this but could have looked straight at it, by, e.g., letting James kill Sanborn. (I will concede that KB makes a good move by leaving open the possibility that James actually does kill Sanborn before the end of the tour.)

Again, not a bad movie! But a well-placed corny action movie built out of spare parts that more or less makes sense. It is similar in many ways to, and about as good as, "Enemy at the Gates." (Though its corniness does refrain from psuedopodding off a corny love story as in EatG.)

Anyway, I'm obviously wrong about all this, since everyone else on earth found much to praise about this movie and the ideas and performances contained in it. But I am sincerely confused about what I missed.

I opened this thread hoping it would be about a female gigalo

Guayaquil, most of your complaints have merit, which is why I had it as low as #9 on my list for the year. But if something this good is going to top polls and win Oscars, I'm not going to gripe given the alternatives.

"given the alternatives"

i.e. the first Tarantino movie since Pulp Fiction that stands to please audiences, critics and Oscar voters alike

betcher ass

wow, you really hated inglourious basterds eh?

what was the worst scene, for you?

nice try *kiss*

http://www.anvari.org/db/fun/Misc/Animated_Kiss.gif

also Eric, I can't see IB winning Best Picture over a "socially significant" Clooney vehicle, no cussin' way.

Up in the Air's plane's gotta land sometime soon imo

Actually, if I were going to give my Oscar vote to a successfully exciting action movie in which a lot of stuff blows up, and which carries an unsubtly presented and somewhat conventional, but basically sound, "message," I'd vote for District 9. Its plot makes much less sense than that of Hurt Locker but Sharito Copley gives a vastly more complicated performance than anyone in Hurt Locker. Copley conveys more character vomiting black bile all over a sheet cake than Renner does in his heart-to-heart pep talks.

need to watch my D9 screener (whispers are it's racist)

Copley ran out of tricks about two-thirds of the way through, to my eyes. Renner had no tricks, and he's easier on the eyes.

i think the hurt_locker has a decent shot at best director. best film? no, but it'd be an infinitely better choice than inglorious bastereds.

up in the air not out in uk yet but ima bet it suuuuucks.

renner really wasn't that terrific tbh. thinking man's nathan filion.

I'll take the stupid man's Nathan Filion, plz.

he was fine... served his purpose. better than (say) brad pitt.

the german guy in in-in-inglorious was ok but not, like, AMAZING. zach galifiakianakis or peter capaldi just as or more deserving imho.

had to google Nathan Filion.

OFCS also didn't list Richard Kind for supporting actor, wtf

the guy from inglourious basterds should win some kind of award just for speaking like 6 languages

maybe we can give him the special language award

Actually, I take it back, any Oscar vote for a movie about bonding between a pair of very different men under adverse circumstances, men whose claim to heroism is in some ways earned and in some ways problematic, should obviously go to Anvil! The Story of Anvil. Indeed this is the best movie I saw this year in any category.

Zach G. wins the award for actor most likely to appear in movies Morbs will bash without seeing.

I don't think I knowingly encountered that guy til Up in the Air

Uptown Theater in Minneapolis actually put ...

Zach Galifianakis in
UP IN THE AIR

... on its marquee.

haha, not only did it have evangeline lilly, it had a goofy scene of ennui in the supermarket followed by his deciding his obsession was far more important than his kid - classic Lost turns!

Uh no. The whole point of him walking through the supermarket is showing how unconnected he is with life here. Due to the war and his experiences with it, he's unable to connect with his life here. See how he tries to talk about it but his girlfriend not being interested (nor would she understand if she listened anyway, which isn't really her *problem*, how the fuck can you understand if you haven't been in that shit). It's not that his kid is not important, it's just that his life is in the warzone. He doesn't know anything else, nor can he cope any other way. He's in fact unable to cope with life in our world. This war/the army fucked people up for life. You can get out (like the guy who ultimately decides he wants a kid after all). Of course he has an obsession and that's the war (or dismantling bombs). He chooses that over his kid, so I guess in a way I understand your point. But it's not that easy. He doesn't choose, he has no options.

I love the interaction with the Beckham kid. It's so interesting in so many ways. The way he/you are unsure if this was the kid or not. Did he die or was it still the same kid? Does it matter anyway? The way he tries to find out and gets in so much trouble.

I fucking loved this movie soooo much. It's about how fucking disconnected this is. How the war is all little fucking moments that make the whole war but are also life'n'death decisions for the soldiers themselves. It's about different types of soldiers (Guy Pearce being so careful but it doesn't mean shit cause he fucking dies anyway, about the cowboy just going for it, for the young guy who is all macho but in the end is just scared as fuck,...) I think this was an awesome movie. Just so emotional. I loved the sniper scene as well: they are just sitting there in the dry heat, flies moving across their lips, they finally share a juice and some other soldier drinks the other one. I mean, hell, it doesn't mean shit in a way, but it all DOES mean something.

Okay, I'm probably just showing how much a fan of Bigelow I am. I didn't even know she was married to JAMES CAMERON. WTF!

renner really wasn't that terrific tbh. thinking man's nathan filion.

More like: thinking man's Benjamin McKenzie.

in the absence of a HURT LOCKER thread, lemme just say that all other merits aside there are some really stunning shots in this pic

Just rewatched this yesterday - still pretty awesome.

this one for instance:

http://www.brickthrewglass.com/images/stories/Movie_review_pictures_film_07_05_09/The_hurt_locker_movie_review_stills_2009.JPG

the cinematography owed a lot to three kings imo.

in what way?

iirc three kings was all reversal-style saturated colours and shit, looked nothing like this? but i saw it a long time ago.

washed out shaky handheld cam

Don't dis Shakey when he ain't here to defend himself.

i can see that in the palette but the big shots felt several orders of magnitude more composed, down to the placement of each random piece of trash in the street.

russell's a lot shaggier in his composition, and his eye is much more on his leads (characters in situations!) than on the surrounding context (situations containing characters). he's working with big stars, and even if the effect is ultimately ironic he does give them a lot of john wayne shots.

i dont remember three kings looking washed out at all

prefer ironyfree John Wayne shots of John Wayne

xp

like this is just a trailer but there's not a shot in here that would be congruous with what's going on visually in THL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5-BTvCMjAA&videos=w4My-ym0I7c&playnext_from=TL&playnext=1

was thinking this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baFi5NVslIE&feature=related

vs this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEgYrjH_xNw

(have a pretty big crush on the 'net atm)

similar scene but two very different visual treatments of it imo

yeah, that three kings scene is not as handheld-y as I thought on second viewing.

hurt locker was very good but there was an odd contrast between the tense realism of the action scenes and some of the more stereotypical movie tropes in the rest of the movie (e.g., the maverick who plays by his own rules, the adorable rapscallion kid who bonds with the maverick).

the action scenes werent THAT realistic

i dont remember three kings looking washed out at all

― I'm FINNISH!!!! (s1ocki), Monday, January 25, 2010 7:39 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

it used loads of different stocks. some of it was supersaturated. i think it was more... cartoony than THL, visually.

well obviously i don't know if the action scenes were really realistic, but they seemed more sparse, believable, different and thus more "real" than the rest of the movie - less reliant on cinematic tropes

tropes tropes tropes

i definitely get what you're saying about the crazy maverick thing, that's why im not really as nuts abotu dude's performance as everyone else seems to be... it's a pretty classic "bad boy" lethal weapon type role

i think the performance was good (though mackie and the young dude were better), it was just kind of a cheesy role

i don't think his role is entirely dissimilar to his role in '28 weeks later' (not an insult) and i kinda think what takes his role in this up a couple notches for me is his acting during the disarming scenes and when he gets a little more fucked up w/r/t that kid towards the end. i don't think his work is great on a christoph waltz level but i think he deserves most of the cred he gets.

the set pieces are pretty amazing though, especially dude trying to disarm the bomb in the car while his crew is freaking out about guys with video cameras filming them and the slow, loooooong-distance shootout in the desert

"situations containing characters" is otm

just saw this last night. **SPOILER** loved the way the two biggest stars in the movie, Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes, are killed off within 5 minutes. didn't have a clue who was in the movie before i watched it and was kinda siked about watching a Guy Pearce movie.

it's the "executive decision" of iraq war suspense movies

The whole point of him walking through the supermarket is showing how unconnected he is with life here.

liked this scene with long shot of the cereal aisle. all the meaningless choices of civilian life compared with the life or death choices of the war.

this and the other movie i liked a lot this year, Crazy Hearts, can be easy bashed for their cliches but both do a whole bunch of little things that overcome that.

i don't think his role is entirely dissimilar to his role in '28 weeks later' (not an insult) and i kinda think what takes his role in this up a couple notches for me is his acting during the disarming scenes and when he gets a little more fucked up w/r/t that kid towards the end

Yes. He's very subtle.

love the cereal aisle shot. it doesn't bang you over the head. it's partly subjective -- for him, this is an alien landscape. jason reitman couldn't do it without a shitty dig at consumerism or whatever but it's more subtle than that.

true

hey nrq, vote in my poll : D

i liked how brian geraghty's character at the end just left renner with a "fuck you, asshole" or whatever it was he said.

guys with video cameras filming them

i loved that detail

niggas gettin ready to put them up on youtubs

that was dope

the "shoot the guy or not shoot the guy" stuff was so freakin' nail-biting, it's rare that suspense scenes are predicated on that particular scenario

renner really wasn't that terrific tbh. thinking man's nathan filion.

― j/k and the fa™an (s1ocki), den 23 december 2009 17:26 (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol good call. still he more or less carried this imo. had much higher hopes for it i guess. it was tense and goodlooking and taught us war is fucked up, but not in a very subtle way.

So this was quite good, but to me it really tails off as it goes on (culminating in a deeply unsatisfying ending.) Also a couple of the sequences (the Renner on the hunt for Beckham's killer? family? esp.) felt like they were cut in from a different and not as good movie. Very strong first third though (esp. through the UN building sequence).

u know what is one great thing the movie does?

it shows you these crazy impressive futuristic weird padded suits meant to protect u from a blast.. and undercuts them immediately by having a guy die in one in the first scene.

thought the hurt locker was really gripping but maybe a little more conventional than the reviews seemed to acknowledge, down to the ending and the hapless psychologist who might as well have a "dead meat" sign pasted to his back. "the slow, loooooong-distance shootout in the desert" that nick refers to was pretty outstanding, though.

near dark is one of the great 80s movies, though.

though, though.

EOD team turning into extreme-distance snipers was a bit odd.

Yeah that whole sequence is a bit weird. British mercs/intelligence guys are just a little too incompetent and then Mackie/Renner being super-sniper team is a bit too convenient. Still an effective scene, but I felt again like wait is this the same movie?

I don't know about you, but I looked forward to Ralph Fiennes getting his.

LOL yes that's always a plus.

how long were they supposed to have been out in the desert sniping and why did they stick about so long anyways; also I guess tht dude cd snipe because he used to be a ranger?

why did they stick about so long anyways

they were pinned down by the bad-guy snipers

they were out there for at least a few hours

don't want to get into it cs who cares but didn't they kill the bad guy snipers pretty early on in the fight then it seemed like they were out there for hours afterwards just looking into the distance; iunno, I've no real problems w/tht scene

it's the one where renner goes looking for beckham at night and the scene where they go out into the alleys after the suicide bombing tht I think are dud

yeah it definitely slacked off towards the end. what it did so well at first was showing them dealing with these partly mundane but obviously extremely dangerous everyday tasks, and then all of a sudden it turns into rambo

it shows you these crazy impressive futuristic weird padded suits meant to protect u from a blast.. and undercuts them immediately by having a guy die in one in the first scene.

and also underlines that as long as someone can make and sell these expensive suits there's gonna be war

at the end when the heavy metal music started playing and it was like 365 LEFT I thought the would explode and the movie title would fly out of the explosion towards the audience

the = he

this movie was pretty good but it would have worked better as a video game

I thought the same about Precious

Left 4 Dead 3 based on a novel by Sapphire

at the end when the heavy metal music started playing and it was like 365 LEFT I thought the would explode and the movie title would fly out of the explosion towards the audience

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Friday, February 12, 2010 7:15 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the = he

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Friday, February 12, 2010 7:15 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

which "the"?

when the 365 DAYS LEFT part was displayed I thought the main dude walking all slow towards the desert would explode and the main credits would fly out and that dude from acdc would be screaming in the background

not really the most enlightening post to clarify but then again I hate my job

How did I miss that Bigelow was the director of the ridiculous/ridiculously great video for New Order's "Touched By The Hand Of God"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMYBQeukrJk

i didn't get excited at all with hurt locker, thought it was meh

point break otoh is awesome

Bill Paxton would have been fresh off 'Near Dark' in that video, I think.

saw hurt locker last night and what Ste said tbh

love the cereal aisle shot. it doesn't bang you over the head

you think? pretty sure i have a bruise this morning.

Finally saw the Hurt Locker, which I really liked.

I do wonder if Jeremy Renner's character ended up leaving his family again because the way his wife cleaned mushrooms was beyond the pale. Who soaks them in a tub of water?

POINT BREAK was and is awful.

this is true. but it has tremendous camp value, leading to replay value.

the hurt locker is thought-provoking and a directoral gem. but it has no replay value.

^wack

PB is NOT awful... It's silly, but that's sort of inherent in the concept.

yeah ppl have weird definitions of 'awful'

the delivery of the dialogue -- which was badly-written to begin with -- was wooden. the action scenes were great, but that's rarely enough to make me love a movie.

should be enough to make the movie not awful!

also Keanu at his most bee=yoo=tee=ful

Do you really want that dialogue rendered with layered ambiguity?

I'm so hungry I could eat the ass end out of a dead rhino

vet sues THL's makers, claiming he's the model for Sgt. James.

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/03/wants_money.php

Musta been bored in the cereal aisle.

Heh, that URL isn't biased at all!

i find her really attractive.

links to Boal article and the suit document at Carpetbagger:

there are similarities — Sergeant Sarver says he rolls up his sleeve just like Will James, Mr. Renner’s character, a quirk that some military watchers said was inauthentic — as well as things that seem far-fetched, like the idea that Sergeant Sarver was the sole source of phrases like “war is a drug.” Also, Jimmy Fallon is quoted in the lawsuit (in an interview with Mr. Renner, he described him as a “messed up” soldier). Happy reading.

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/a-lawsuit-for-hurt-locker-in-time-for-oscars/

preface to Boal's article, at playboy:

Six years ago we asked writer Mark Boal to patrol Baghdad with ace bomb tech Staff Sergeant Jeffrey Sarver, who was part of an elite unit that protects troops from improvised explosive devices. Boal chronicled the experience in "The Man in the Bomb Suit," an investigative report that appeared in our September 2005 issue and was the first of a three-part series sent from the sidelines in Iraq. His piece was so powerful that it inspired last summer's war thriller The Hurt Locker, which is now nominated for nine Academy Awards. Take a look back at the story that started it all.

see this is why most writers fabricate their magazine articles

nik cohn didn't have to sweat this shit

considering the result of that lawsuit from those nomadic vampires bigelow had to deal with a few years back, i don't think she has much to worry about.

Finally saw Hurt Locker last night, really really liked it. I don't know if I was sold on the ending though, seemed a bit heavy-handed, what with the blasting guitars and all. I almost feel like it would have been more effective to just end it after the supermarket ennui bit. Minor complaint though, the rest of the movie was just so well made.

"I do wonder if Jeremy Renner's character ended up leaving his family again because the way his wife cleaned mushrooms was beyond the pale. Who soaks them in a tub of water?"

I usually soak mushrooms in water, following my mom's example. Is this wrong?

agreed ^^^^^^, except i'm not sure the supermarket scene would have provided an effective ending. but otherwise, yeah. (xp)

(xp to jon)

So anyway.

when i created this poll i was kinda mourning her lack of work and semi-disappearance.

I was just rereading your posts on that and thinking "If only he knew!"

"this movie was pretty good but it would have worked better as a video game

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Saturday, February 13, 2010 12:16 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I thought the same about Precious

― da Wesley CRUSHER (latebloomer)"

Steve Martin ripped this ILX joke off tonight.

congrats latebloomer

i never clean mushrooms at all as it ruins the "texture"

i find her really attractive.

― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Thursday, 4 March 2010 09:44 (5 days ago)

^ This was me all last night

i admit when i heard was she was 58 was like all o_o

Wikipedia: Bigelow [...] played the role of a newspaper editor in Lizzie Borden's 1983 film Born in Flames.

O_O

Born in Flames is a 1983 documentary-style feminist science fiction film by Lizzie Borden that explores racism, classism, sexism and heterosexism in an alternative United States Socialist Democracy.

I saw that like 10 years ago. It has Adele Bertei (of NY No Wave fame)! I need to see it again.

i never clean mushrooms at all as it ruins the "texture"

When I bother to clean mushrooms, all I do is wipe their tops quickly with a damp cloth or paper towel. Soaking them will make them very wet and limp when cooked.

http://www.projo.com/photos/20090731/lb0731_bigelow_07-31-09_GHF75GK.jpg

MAKES U THINK

kathryn bigelow, male gigolo

^^what I think every time I see her name

me too ha

Alex Cockburn:

If you want a signifier of the changed image of empire, and imperial adventures in foreign lands, think about last Sunday’s six Oscars for The Hurt Locker, including ones for Best Movie and Best Director. The film’s director, Kathryn Bigelow, said at the end of her acceptance speech, “I'd like to dedicate this to the women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world and may they come home safe.”

Suppose Bigelow’s former husband, James Cameron, had won Best Director for Avatar. There is surely no way Cameron would ever have dedicated his Oscar to any soldiers, American or Canadian, serving as members of the imperial coalition – volunteers all – in Iraq or Afghanistan, unless they had defected to the other side or mutinied and been put in the brig or were facing a firing squad for treason. There is also surely no way that any movie about a serving unit in Iraq would have been in the running for an Oscar back in Bush time....

Jeremy Scahill writes an item in The Nation about Blackwater’s role, as disclosed by Ryzik and the author of The Hurt Locker’s screenplay, Mark Boal, made haste to contact him to deny that Blackwater had ever been hired in any capacity. Boal, apparently, supervised all such hiring of military and security consultants. Scahill asked him about comments made by the film's director, Kathryn Bigelow, in other interviews, mentioning the presence of Blackwater personnel on set, including as technical advisers. “It's possible,” Boal conceded, “that at some point somebody on set worked for Blackwater, but we never hired Blackwater.”

The New York Times writer Melena Ryzik describes how Mackie showed her how the Blackwater men trained him to hold his weapon. “If you're a trained killer,” Mackie told Ryzik, “you're very precise.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn03122010.html

I haven’t seen The Hurt Locker and

YAHH TRICK YAHH

Suppose Bigelow’s former husband, James Cameron, had won Best Director for Avatar. There is surely no way Cameron would ever have dedicated his Oscar to any soldiers, American or Canadian, serving as members of the imperial coalition – volunteers all – in Iraq or Afghanistan, unless they had defected to the other side or mutinied and been put in the brig or were facing a firing squad for treason.

The same is true of QT or any of the other nominees whose films were not about the experience of soldiers in Iraq. Not really sure what the point is here.

this kind of washes over me. i was against the war, seven years ago. at this point, however, idk what the fuck should happen. on the whole, i don't think "defecting to the other side", getting involved in the whole "blowing up civilians" and "sectarian violence" scene, is something i'd salute.

Enough of talk about a new era, led by Chavez of Venezuela, Morales of Bolivia, and other progressive leaders.

lol

Rented Dahmer starring Jeremy Renner.

Are there films starring Renner that people would recommend between this and Dahmer (which he was amazing in)?
― da croupier, Saturday, August 8, 2009 6:44 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

a little trip to heaven!

28 weeks l8ter

THE LOVELESS was robbed

just watched this, still reading the thread but

how long were they supposed to have been out in the desert sniping and why did they stick about so long anyways; also I guess tht dude cd snipe because he used to be a ranger?

― chris nibbs (cozen), Friday, February 12, 2010 10:46 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

you can tell its a while because of the sand that builds up on sanborn's face

so this movie was pretty great! agree w/ ppl upthread who mention that the movie almost lets itself be submerged by cliches but manages to keep its head above water

felt the first half was a ton more interesting than the second half. the first scene where guy pearce gets killed was the most suspenseful scene I thought, since you're not familiar w/ any of the characters - you have no idea when/if the bomb's going to blow up. after the three principal characters are established you realize that bigelow has to keep all three of them alive for the ~story~ which keeps the tension low.

liked renner's character much better in the first half when you think he's just some locked-in aspie who only cares about defusing bombs. he gets boring when you find out he has real ~feelings~ and actually cares about ppl.

the symbolism was a little heavy handed, like eckridge and cambridge having such similar names, and cambridge's name obviously being meant to evoke his higher education, how the nerd doesn't 'get it' until the end but pays for it w/ his life, etc.

and obv. the cereal isle is a direct lift from demolition man (love the wide angle lens tho)

good film tho, glad it won

I also really liked the editing and cinematography, everything was framed really tight but you always maintained a sense of the overall scene, unlike the bourne movies

the shot of the fly climbing all over the dude's eyelash was great, wonder how long they had to film the dude to get that detail

found it boooring, tbh. maybe there was all this *deep* stuff going on, i dunno. tigerland better.

btw I tracked down the playboy issue in pdf with the mark boal article, if anybody's interested

*just* the article or what?

no the whole thing, skins and all

you dont need protection just to read playboy u fool

:( it was the only way I could look at nude pics of jessica canseco

Post it

Point Break is one of the greatest action films ever made.

http://www.mediafire.com/?b1gtk6rv1of0bdr

Sarver was apparently notorious in the EOD community even before this movie came out.

Strange Days was about an hour too long. It reminded me of this as well: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/plotsummary

the loveless is streamable on netflix, lil overly ruminative/slow but dafoe was p captivating & i enjoyed it

also she looks like iggy pop here

http://parallax-view.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/bigelowportrait-trim.jpg

the music was v lynch-ian & this is interesting, montgomery was co-writer

Relentless by Eddy Dixon, a compelling rockabilly blues whose shimmering, hiccupping guitar intro and underbeat are echoed in the scores to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Wild at Heart, and Mulholland Dr. This is no surprise: Monty Montgomery became a producer for Lynch not long after The Loveless, co-produced Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart, and portrayed the enigmatic “Cowboy” in Mulholland Dr.;

so Boal & Bigelow are making a film on the Osama hit (I'm queasy already), which the GOP is convinced will be President Quisling's October surprise next year. They're crying that the filmmakers were given classified data:

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/la-et-0811-bin-laden-movie-20110811,0,7043293.story

judging by The Hurt Locker's box-office take, I wouldn't bank on her movie having any popular effect, though I can't imagine overt political moves like that are even in her wheelhouse anyway. unless I missed indicators otherwise?

i was about to post s.thing about how much military assistance the transformers movies have had, then had the sobering thought that only one of them was released under bush.

judging by The Hurt Locker's box-office take, I wouldn't bank on her movie having any popular effect, though I can't imagine overt political moves like that are even in her wheelhouse anyway. unless I missed indicators otherwise?

i don't know what its box office take is, but i'd think it being her post-oscar-winning-exciting-war-film follow up, about or tangentially about the killing of OBL would make it a p big thing. isn't it the one she had a huge, p solid iirc cast for, also?

i think the one with the big cast 'circling' is 'triple frontier' or w/e. dunno if this has been cast even.

This is Kathryn Bigelow, not the Coen Brothers or whatever. The relatively low box office of "Hurt Locker" was an anomaly. She makes movies to be seen (that is, "Strange Days," "Point Break," "K19," though admittedly no one saw the last one). So I wouldn't expect a big we got Osama epic from a high profile Oscar winner to slip into theaters quietly.

Yeah, what did happen to "Triple Frontier," the South American drug trade epic written by Boal that may have been set to star Tom Hanks?

it's the sort of thing where it's spoken of as a real thing that will happen, but you feel it... may not

it was going to lens after the 'hunt for OBL' film but then OBL got got, so you'd imagine no-one's schedules line up now

The relatively low box office of "Hurt Locker" was an anomaly.

eh? do you think Strange Days and Point Break were box office smashes or something? and i've never even heard of K19.

i think 'point break' was a legit hit. and 'strange days' and 'k19' were sure as hell supposed to be. the latter was meant to be a big summer movie.

Point Break was the 15th biggest hit (worldwide) of '91.

http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=pointbreak.htm

but a low box office for a bigelow film hardly seems like an "anomaly". seems more like the norm tbh.

She makes movies to be seen

as opposed to most filmmakers

The Hurt Locker made more than $30 million in DVD sales. It's a hit.

as opposed to most filmmakers

har har. How about this: she makes big-budget mainstream movies designed to be seen by millions. She's no indie auteur who understands her place in the tiny corner of the world that Hollywood has allotted for her.

This could only be good if it ends with a long quasi-philosophical monologue by OBL to the SEALs who have come for him, like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. Also, OBL should be played by Steve Buscemi (assuming he can grow out his beard long enough).

Bigelow and Boal, who both won Oscars in 2009 for their Iraq war movie "The Hurt Locker," responded to King in a statement issued through Sony Pictures.

"Our upcoming film project about the decade-long pursuit of Bin Laden has been in the works for many years and integrates the collective efforts of three administrations, including those of Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama, as well as the cooperative strategies and implementation by the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, the dangerous work of finding the world's most wanted man was carried out by individuals in the military and intelligence communities who put their lives at risk for the greater good without regard for political affiliation. This was an American triumph, both heroic and nonpartisan, and there is no basis to suggest that our film will represent this enormous victory otherwise."

oh thanks I was getting worried.

i have zero interest in seeing that film.

President Quisling's

Dude, you are pretty much aware that since you've started using this nickname I've now downgraded you to the intellectual equivalent of the tea party moron that stands outside the local bookshop shouting at people. You're smarter than this.

yeah i like bigelow a lot but boy i wish she was doing something else

feh i don't like the marketing speak but it could be this generation's 'spartan' (2004) #psyched #castvalkilmer

cast kilmer as obl

iirc no americans died in the op, which is kind of undramatic

mamet shd script as elaborate con

iirc no americans died in the op, which is kind of undramatic

― we started this punning display name shit (history mayne), Thursday, August 11, 2011 1:29 PM (14 minutes ago)

a zillion dollar helicopter got caught on a fence and had to be demo'd iirc

perhaps the actually assassination sequence will be cut as a thrilling montage where footage from 9/11 is edited in.

also the actual assassination

it's a start. i guess someone could seem to be dead and then not be dead...

better yet, the guy who iced osama could end the film confronting a huge supermarket row of breakfast cereal.

xp

hoping 4 a "bullet-time" sequence where as the bullet hurtles thru the air it turns into the first plane hitting the tower and then when the plane slams into the tower the bullet enters osamas grill

This was an American triumph

10 years after the guy actually did send our country to its final doom. Lock stable, etc.

& johnny cash "hurt" plays during the bullet time sequence

"I've now downgraded you to the intellectual equivalent of the tea party moron"

O I AM FORTUNE'S FOOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYFhFYoDAo4

yup.

<3 Bigelow but this is such a horrible idea on a bunch of levels.

what levels

nobody cares anymore level

what other levels

spoonfed by a lying government level

i'll happily watch this shit, not gonna lie

zero dark thirty is such a misconceived title. i'm sure it refers to something relevant, but it sounds like word salad. it's not even memorably odd. any two of those words would have worked fine, but all together, they're a complete mess.

what a disaster for kathryn bigelow

FROM THE GOVERNMENT THAT BROUGHT YOU SAVING PRIVATE RYAN AND BLACK HAWK DOWN

i hope theres a scene where one of the seal team guys has bin laden in his sights, but then he aims his gun in the air and empties his mag while unleashing an anguished scream

why would he? we got to win this time.

"oh-dark-thirty" is . . . not an uncommon phrase, esp. if you know anyone who's ever been in the military, or a cop.

was gonna see this until i heard the title. if only bigelow had left off one of the words. maybe it could have been an oscar contender? now, nothing

I'm sure it will be changed to Anticlimactic Head-on-Pike

you forgot "obama's"

(not his head, but his 'presentation')

Can't believe I got to Now It Can Be Sold before Morbz

yes, that's what i was saying, max. thanks for the clarification.

http://liberationfromthelie.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/too_many_words.gif

shoulda been named Osama Bin Got 'Em!: The Movie

s1ocki, as a furriner you might not understand that an extrajudicial hit on a defanged, dialyzed jihadist belongs to all of US.

osama bin livin (but not anymore)

shoulda been named BAM!

is liam neeson in this?

this movie could have been a hero but now because of its name its going to be a zero... dark thirty

http://i11.tinypic.com/53ucxtl.gif

New trailer out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXkccpnoetw

Apparently James Gandolfini is playing Leon Panetta

Great cast. Still a terrible idea.

i thought Gando didnt want to be typecast as sociopaths?

i was dead-set against this when it was announced but im gettin kinda pumped for it now

i don't know what the film will be like, but the whole marketing campaign is just giving off this bloodthirsty vibe that i can't handle.

it cant possibly be as repulsive as the actual mobs of people wildly celebrating OBL's death

dat mark strong?

this woman is absolutely toxic.

i've met her and i can assure you she is not

she is like 6 feet tall no?

ya. and very very intelligent, and warm

that sounds gross. she was super nice is what i mean

"tall... and warm... and soft..."

why because she look intersting

why isn't this movie just called "we got him"

lovely, intelligent, good looking artists making some of the most advanced work of american imperialist propaganda are among the worst people on planet earth.

i think there's a pretty long line before k-bigs

even in HOLLYWOOD there's a long line

i have to admit that given her evident smarts that her approach to these subjects might be a little more critical, but like most folks she hides behind the "i'm just interested in the human drama" line.

i didn't know jessica chastain iced osama

yo is it true osama bin laden got iced by jessica chastain after a geopolitical beef?

she can rappel into my bedroom at night anytime

what if it ends up being shot and edited like tree of life

transcendentalism & We Got Him doesn't get studio money

ya it was a joke dog

what if it ends up being shot and edited like tree of life

― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), Friday, October 12, 2012 10:57 AM (50 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

shot of OBL peeking out into hallway / cutaway to water rushing over a waterfall / elegaic handheld shot of the tip of a submachine gun grazing a blade of grass / close up of OBL wearing inscrutable facial expression / close up of navy seal looking pensive / "mother, brother, guide me..." / scene of OBL, wearing free-flowing white robe, walking on a desolate beach as unseen seagulls cry on the soundtrack

...shot of american flag flapping in the breeze against a overcast sky / in long shot, a man kneels in a field / obama VO: "who started this?" / in a steadicam shot, a silhouetted obama wanders through a postmodernist beach house, randomly pressing his hands to the glass walls / in truncated handheld shots, revelers outside the white house hoist beers and cheer / obama: "who put this evil within us?" / another shot of water rushing over a waterfall / a lone sunflower sprouts in the courtyard of OBL's compound / fade to black.

credits begin: "starring burt macklin, FBI"

disgusting that this is even being made

yeah, disgusting that every war movie ever got made too

but it is actually pretty good news for self-righteous message board posters

disgusting that this is even being made

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, October 12, 2012 11:20 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

somebody was going to make this movie, sooner or later.

or maybe you were referring to my malickian treatment?

nah that was pretty good

when will a filmmaker present a fair, balanced portrait of awesome dude osama bin laden and how he was unfairly assassinated by the gross old usa

oh c'mon n/a that's not quite fair.

in a steadicam shot, a silhouetted obama wanders through a postmodernist beach house, randomly pressing his hands to the glass walls / in truncated handheld shots, revelers outside the white house hoist beers and cheer / obama: "who put this evil within us?"

amateurist this is the greatest

curious how many of the people criticizing this for being jingoistic propaganda are simultaneously jizzing themselves over spielberg's lincoln movie

curious how many of them have seen it

curious how many of the people criticizing this for being jingoistic propaganda are simultaneously jizzing themselves over spielberg's lincoln movie

― congratulations (n/a), Friday, October 12, 2012 11:33 AM (31 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this seems like a non-sequitir... can you explain?

sure, the lincoln movie is likely going to be just as much jingoistic propaganda as zero dark thirty

I hate Spielberg

get another strawman

i actually don't think that the lincoln movie will have much to do with jingoism.

i say that as a spielberg agnost.

making a movie like United 93, or even, like, The Social Network, seems to really get people divided and anxious just about the subject matter being tackled in a film at all, but reactions seem to change a lot, for better or worse, once people actually see the thing. i definitely get a basic vibe from the trailer, but i'm not gonna act like i know exactly how it'll be.

social network's awfulness sort of transcended its "take" on the particular topic (though that was part of it)

making a movie like United 93, or even, like, The Social Network, seems to really get people divided and anxious just about the subject matter being tackled in a film at all, but reactions seem to change a lot, for better or worse, once people actually see the thing. i definitely get a basic vibe from the trailer, but i'm not gonna act like i know exactly how it'll be.

― some dude, Friday, October 12, 2012 12:38 PM (41 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

I viewed the Social Network is a lightweight comedy, dunno why anybody took it seriously

as

it didn't really present itself as a lightweight comedy tho.

it might have made a decent silent film.

basically I don't trust bigelow to handle this subject matter in a compelling way - I could be wrong! but the films I've seen of hers don't fill me with hope. and I am not enthusiastic about a celebration of the US doing extrajudicial targeted assassinations.

i thought of united 93 as a kind of romcom

xpost LOL

what shakey said, honestly. but i'll still see it.

would want to see soderbergh's take on this.

I don't get why this subject alone would be disgusting. I mean KB has tended to not be jingoistic? Hurt locker wasnt at all IMO. K19 was a grim super depressing military flick. Idk this looks good.

I hate to be all "won't somebody think of the children!" but I really think it is "too soon" for almost anybody to make a quality film about this subject. there's too much external shit wrapped up in it - the current election, for ex.

i don't think it's a disgusting subject at all i just think it would almost impossible for a filmmaker to short-circuit the bloodthirst that is kind of embedded w/in it. even if it ended on a note of futility rather than triumphalism.

xpost

they actually pushed it back to december so that folks wouldn't think they were trying to influence the election. which is all kinds of weird when you think about it.

Social Network is totally funny. Uptight nerds get uptight! I'm just being honest about my reaction. I imagine my having no vested interest in/engagement with Facebook probably had something to do with me finding all the "drama" basically silly.

i didn't say it wasn't funny (or rather, doesn't try to be--i don't think it's actually funny), just that it isn't a "lightweight comedy"

social network is a really fun movie imo

let's agree to disagree, you philistine.

social network is not very funny but it is fun

the right stuff was criticized by some because it was seen almost as a campaign ad for john glenn.

they were making WW2 movies during the war. apocalypse now was pretty soon after vietnam. idg the idea that there needs to be a waiting period until subjects can be tackled.

the idea of a waiting period for art is ridiculous

Can we at least get 6 months between Tyler Perry movies?

the idea of a waiting period for art is ridiculous

sometimes you have to wait for good art

sometimes the art is ... the wait itself

seems like art based on how people about something right after it happens would be just as valuable as art based on longer reflection (albeit in a different way) but hey what do i know

yeah well not every movie is Medium Cool

I was hoping thread revival was due to Blue Steel's 20th anniversary Blu Ray release.

sometimes you have to wait for good art

― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, October 12, 2012 1:59 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah and sometimes you don't, what's your point shakey mo collier

like I said:

I really think it is "too soon" for almost anybody to make a quality film about this subject

maybe someone could do a good job at this stage altho no one springs to mind. Bigelow is not that person.

yes, an intelligent and extremely talented filmmaker is the last thing we need

i have my qualms about this but shakey you make me want to buy out a row on opening night

eh you like her a lot more than I do s1ocks

shakey you need to watch point break again.

^^

mm no thanks I've seen that movie enough. the only thing I've liked of hers is Near Dark, several of her movies I've hated. haven't seen Hurt Locker.

ALL THIS TIME ARGUING ABOUT LATTER-DAY KAT-BIGS AND YOU HAVENT SEEN HURT LOCKER

*throws hat on ground*

lol seriously

*pisses on hat*

how many shitty films of hers do I have to sit through before I don't have to watch any more?

shakey really knows how to play the long game w/r/t trolling

it smells like pee in here now

yeah, hat's off to him for that. my hat-throwing had a double meaning i guess.

http://jamesbond007.net/seconds/Oddjob.jpg

I'll show myself out...

you must not have seen k-19 either (no one did iirc.)

i think i'd be anticipating this more if it were fiction, but it still looks good. the night-vision shot at the end makes me think (hope?) that there'll be a long and very quiet and tense creepin' with goggles scene.

i hope it's scored to "mama told me there'd be days like this"

i saw k-19 w/ my mom, weirdly enough.

i saw hurt locker and while i'm not exactly gonna knock it i wasn't really in the fan club.

"creepin' with goggles" is actually the LL cool J song that will appear over the end credits btw.

sure, the lincoln movie is likely going to be just as much jingoistic propaganda as zero dark thirty

― congratulations (n/a), Friday, October 12, 2012 4:35 PM (Yesterday)

so basically any movie about any well-known historical event is 'jingoistic propaganda.'

early ZDT roundup (is there a dedicated thread?)

http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-kathryn-bigelows-zero-dark-thirty

Seeing the trailer for this on a big screen made me more excited for this. Tbh, going to be tough to get used to Chris Pratt without the Pratt-falls.

realize that I had been dreaming of a movie called "Perfect Dark Thirty" after the n64 game

oh god there was actually a sequel called perfect dark zero

perfect dark zero dark thirty

not nearly as riveting as The Hurt Locker; suffers from being "important." Don't sweat the torture, it's all worth it in the end.

and really, gays, Chastain is not that good an actor yet.

Don't sweat the torture, it's all worth it in the end.

stop quoting from John Kerry's confirmation hearings

My film class watched Strange Days tonight. I was always pretty forgiving of its stupidity, but how did I never notice how awful the acting (Angela Bassett being the exception) was until now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFeWsDpy9y0

nope

words on Detroit

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4753-the-daily-kathryn-bigelow-s-detroit

So nobody who has seen and has any thoughts on this film? Saw it this morning, it's deeply upsetting, and not solely for reasons they intended, I think. Points for calling it a rebellion, for clearly showing police brutality, not just in the central scenes, but throughout the story. But there are things that just simply doesn't make sense, and as in Zero Dark Thirty I get the feeling that the film thinks it's critical of the state, but ends up covering the really dirty stuff up.

I have no interest in this one but I feel the need to rewatch ZD30, I've never really bought the notion of it as CIA propaganda despite Boal and Bigelow's moves

One thing that's completely fucked up is having a 30-year old man playing Carl Cooper, the 17-year old teenager who fired the starting pistol that began the whole thing. After Tamir Rice, that's honestly just unacceptable.

My two most hated moments in Zero Dark Thirty is of course when it's indicated that a lead from torture leads to the next step in the investigation, but also when a state official reprimands a CIA agent because of what happened in Iraq. I mean, that's critical of the CIA but it's completely letting Bush and Cheney off the hook for knowingly picking and choosing their intelligence.

i've only seen zd30 once and iirc crucial info which helps bag bin laden comes from ahem 'enhanced interrogation', which didn't happen in real life, so assuming my recollection is correct i'm happy to remain on the 'fuck kathryn bigelow' train despite believing point break to be a masterpiece

We were going to see Detroit but i read a few things like this http://thegrapevine.theroot.com/i-walked-out-of-detroit-because-wtf-man-1797338083 and we decided not to and then didn't even go to the movies after all.

I kinda get the idea that white people should see and think over this film, since it's a telling example of racism and white privilige both in it's story and in it's production. The more I read about it, the more this whole thing becomes a symptom of something very, very wrong. The responses that this was not Kathryn Bigelow's story to tell is mostly so damning because it still hasn't been told by black people before. The book on the events was written by a white writer, and relied mostly on interviews with the white people present, including the perpetrators. It honestly got me thinking how fucked up it is that there isn't a whole (recognized) subgenre of black testimonials. Like with the Holocaust, people read diaries, biographies, it's acknowledged that it's important that we delve into the experience of the Jews. But who does this with black Americans? Why is there no standard collection of diary entries from, like, any of the riots? Why was the first (?) African-American film on slavery Nate Parkers Birth of a Nation? I mean, at some point these stories should become everyones to tell, that, for me, is the importance of something like Son of Saul. But there's a whole first level of testimony that has been suppressed.

Btw I might be majorly wrong about this, of course, and if so I would love some examples of this kind of thing. Will read more.

I mean, right, there's 12 Years A Slave. But this feels like discussion for another thread.

i feel like the answer to these questions might be 'racism'

just a hunch

Yeah, the answer is clearly racism, I know that. And Steve McQueen is British.

Detroit seemed to go on forever. I think it took half-an-hour before there was even an effort to sketch in any of the characters. About all I got out of the whole thing was the Dramatics connection.

k-19 is quite good, very thrilling and tragic. it's honest about trying to work in a very restrictive political culture w/o being all nutty red dawn about it or dimly allegorical like enemy at the gates was.

but everyone delivers in these goofy boris badenoff accents. whoever decided on that, way to ruin a movie.

― goole, Wednesday, 22 October 2008 17:35 (ten years ago)

Liam Neeson just reverts to an Irish accent by the end. Side effect of the radiation, probably.

find me one liam neeson movie where he doesn't just give up the accent before the end, i challenge anyone

cannae be done!

thats not an irish accent

is he serious is he not ooooOoOoh

ullans?

point break is fantastic. zero dark thirty is torture propaganda that is good for me to poop on

"The Loveless" would be halfway watchable if anyone other than DaFoe could act. Robert Gordon absolutely stinks. The extended, languid takes garnished with bad dialogue almost seem like a blueprint for Refn's "Too Old To Die Young".

I found A House of Dynamite gripping. The structure of it worked especially well.

I liked it, but was ambivalent about the structure. I enjoyed seeing all of the different perspectives and understand why a more straightforward narrative might've made it difficult to juggle all of them at once. But I feel like the stop-and-start saps the momentum, especially since the second and third segments don't really complicate what you've already seen in the first one. And the ending does not provide a reward for the patient viewer.

i saw "the movie written by the guy who tried to cover up the NBC sex scandals? no thanks" and that's where Im at

All the air goes out of the movie each time we circle back to the beginning.

Every time Bigelow cut to an Ike photo on the wall, I laughed louder.

There was the strange feeling shortly into this of "oh, this is a normal president." Makes sense that this would've been in pre-production a few years back, and it feels much more made for a Harris administration than the ones we've got.

But I dug it. Then again, I dug Don't Look Up, and both seem similar as far as finding a dramatic way to put us through something out there that could end the world.

It's if Bigelow made the film for a future J. Hoberman book.

*as if

I enjoyed the loops back, and didn’t feel it missed anything by not complicating things — nor that it was trying to, as the premise of the entire film is about people trying to make decisions about individual, incomplete perspectives on extremely limited information. That we “learn” some things again, learn more things through some characters, and see different perspectives through others is meant to broaden our understanding of the individual confusions, not confer a readerly omniscience of which the participants are deprived.

One woman in my screening did scream “WHATT??!¡” at the ending, to punctured-balloon laughter from other punters.

This isn't spoiling anything important, but I imagine the budget involved in staging a gigantic Civil War reenactment for reasons tangential to the plot (versus having the same character at Target or something).

Timeloop structure bad, politics also bad but that was to be expected. Some fun scenes of good actors being TENSE.

The tense Deputy National Security Adviser managed to get on my nerves in a major way.

The movie is a direct lift of Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario. Regardless of what you might think of her earlier books (speculative nonsense or illconsidered propaganda from a Joe Rogan repeat guest) it’s worth checking out, especially if you have any remote interest in this.

I didn’t mind the loops in the movie, and sometimes I found the callbacks legit clever (especially when you learn what happens on that SECDEF call). I think a case can be made that as you go up levels of power and decision making, the actual decision-makers are worse and more ill-prepared for their jobs. This doesn’t allow for a satisfying movie where the president is the main character of act 3, but maybe that’s the point?

Legit worried that folks’ takeaway from this isn’t “nuclear war is bad, we should avoid it” but “hfs we need to spend a trillion dollars on better interceptors like now!"

I couldn't really blame anyone for that takeaway - the decision to make the attack come from an anonymous, unknowable source was presumably made to avoid the film becoming propaganda, but it has the opposite effect. Without a power taking responsibility, there can be no diplomatic alternatives, no way to reason - yes retaliating w/o knowing you're hitting the correct perpetrator is madness, but then it's a mad world, the US has unseen enemies and they are not interested in negotiating.

Meanwhile in the real world afaik sti only one country in the world has used nukes as a weapon of war.

The movie is a direct lift of Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario.

i have read the book but have not seem the bigelow movie. villeneuve has the option for the book iiuc, and I assume everyone involved has lawyers, so maybe not a *direct* lift?

https://deadline.com/2024/04/nuclear-war-movie-denis-villeneuve-legendary-dune-part-two-bestselling-book-1235876114/

given the production timeline the bigelow thing might also be based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_2020_Commission_Report_on_the_North_Korean_Nuclear_Attacks_Against_the_United_States?

At least one of those situation rooms depicted in the movie is under the now-razed East Wing.

the decision to make the attack come from an anonymous, unknowable source was presumably made to avoid the film becoming propaganda, but it has the opposite effect. Without a power taking responsibility, there can be no diplomatic alternatives, no way to reason

idk, i took it more that if we knew who the aggressor was, the movie would just be about how we dealt with that particular situation. maybe my biases are showing but i felt like the movie was more interested in conveying the idea that nuclear weapons are an unsolvably dangerous problem, not because america has Big Bad Evil Enemies who can't be reasoned with, but because our shit doesnt work and everyone involved is a fallible human, from the button-pushers in Alaska to the president. and when the chips are down they will start barfing, bickering with each other, committing suicide, or all three.

like the country who launched couldn't have known that we would be unaware of who launched - it wasnt an evil devious plan, its just the inherent incompetence which is baked into human-run systems, but which few decision makers are humble enough to account for. idk if i really get much of a politics out of it beyond "there is no safe way for nuclear weapons to exist." like the statistics about how owning a gun "for protection" makes it exponentially more likely that you will due by gunshot - the very existence of systems designed to protect us will ensure our destruction. i loathed the politics of Bigelows war on terror films and again maybe i'm seeing what i want to see, but i enjoyed how this takes such a dim view of the national security state.

obv "nuclear weapons are bad" isnt a groundbreaking take, but when i was expecting some 24-ass "there are bad people in the world who will stop at nothing to get us" type shit, it was nice to instead get "everyone tasked with keeping us alive is going to be fucking around yakking about baseball games and potato chip crumbs until it too late"

And focusing almost entirely on 18 minutes really drives home the reality that if/when this happens, it’ll likely be over before we know it’s begun.

Well I mean does anyone really expect the national security state to be able to stop an already launched nuclear weapon? The horror is preordained from the get go, the only real dilemma is whether to launch some nukes yourself to add to the carnage, and I feel like the film gives a hawkish viewer enough of an argument to go "yes, they should". But either way, Chicago's toast, and nothing anyone in govt did has any influence at all on that - the reasons are unknowable, because the enemy is unknown.

given the production timeline the bigelow thing might also be based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_2020_Commission_Report_on_the_North_Korean_Nuclear_Attacks_Against_the_United_States?

It's a different scenario (that book also has Trump as president and acting accordingly), but the author is a good bsky follow if you're into this: @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social

Timely viewing in the wake of this news.