― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:30 (eighteen years ago) link
this is kinda otm -- it's there in the movies -- but the horseshit bits are outnumbered by the highly exciting moments. or, they're *both* there. same way fall-flat bits of unfunniness and misanthropy coexist with real chills in hitchcock.
otoh, is 'saving private ryan' really that smug? it has those terrible bookends, and the matt damon bits are really annoying, but i've seen far less convinving movies about war.
― N_RQ, Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:34 (eighteen years ago) link
The first time I saw Duel I knew it was supposed to be "atypical" Spielberg but I still spent probably half the movie waiting for some insipid deus ex machina to rob me of all my actual emotions and replace them with spoonfed lotus blooms. This is what he's done to his legacy.
― TOMBOT, Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:38 (eighteen years ago) link
Looking at that list above I realize I've disliked a LOT of his movies, without even really realizing they were Spielberg flix. I mean the only movies that I like in that list are Raiders, Last Crusade, Duel, Catch Me If You Can (and that's not even an active like because I forgot I saw it until recently) and...uh...well, I don't actually like Jurassic Park at ALL but Jeff Goldblum dresses fantastically in it so I'll give it a little bit of a pass (THAT FINAL SHOT OF THE T-REX AND THE RAPTORS IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST SHOT IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF CINEMATOGRAPHY AND DIRECTION AND THAT IS A STONE COLD FACT PEOPLE). I'd like Saving Private Ryan better if the bookends were deleted and it was about a half hour shorter.
Dr. Morbius, how about you discuss the "disturbing adult themes" in, say, Catch Me If You Can?
― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― Anti-Pope Consortium (noodle vague), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:42 (eighteen years ago) link
jaws fucking rules ally. jpark3's pretty great, the best of the bunch no doubt. poltergeist was pretty great. band of brothers was incredible. into the west was rousing fun.
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:44 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:44 (eighteen years ago) link
Jaws does NOT fucking rule!
― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:47 (eighteen years ago) link
UNIFIED WORKS suck anyway
ie his refusal to end his recent movies unyuckily is the price he is prepared to pay for the chance to shoot [x] idea
i don't buy this really, but i wd admire SS lots if i discovered this is where he's secretly at
― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:48 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:52 (eighteen years ago) link
oh, begone intentionality! i think most movies are compendia of bits with lots of redundancies put in to keep front office happy. it's always been like that(?). spielberg is a total enigma as a man -- i have read a biography of him and know NOTHING about him.
but cutting through or ignoring the 'greatest generation' blah i've been impressed by the action scenes in the saving private ryan/band of brothers projects.
as with albums, ignore the rubbish bits.
― N_RQ, Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:53 (eighteen years ago) link
My hyperbole is totally correct, watch JP again and wait for it...that final shot of the freaking T-Rex. Claymation dinosaur, why you ruin shot all the time? I would've liked Jurassic Park better if there was no dinosaurs, but instead Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider.
Anyway I am still interested in finding out how Spielberg classics like Catch Me If You Can or The Terminal or The Lost World explore more disturbing, dark, and adult themes than Bamboozled and are more complex than The Big Lebowski! I'll give Morbius Soderberg.
XPOST ARGH STOP IT WITH THOSE MORPHED ANIMALS
― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:53 (eighteen years ago) link
Does this make him classic, or just Darryl Zanuck reborn?
I stick with my B+ assessement. He has good chops, and a consistent record. I like him OK, but nothing he makes excites me much.
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:54 (eighteen years ago) link
aimless -- steve is hurt, but he will try to improve his record for next semester.
― N_RQ, Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:57 (eighteen years ago) link
― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 28 July 2005 14:59 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:00 (eighteen years ago) link
what's your point here exactly? that people in film school like him because he's successful? wtf does that have to do with anything
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:04 (eighteen years ago) link
>how about you discuss the "disturbing adult themes" in, say, Catch Me If You Can?<
No, not a classic. Quite a decent Missing/Inadequate Dad Complex meditation (major Spielberg motif), tho, with both Leo and Walken putting in unusually deep performances before returning to check-cashing roles.
The Terminal: America as Last Best Melting Pot AND Dubya's Fortress ("America is closed").
JP2 was the last of his I skipped.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:04 (eighteen years ago) link
I think Walken's performance in Catch Me If You Can is completely immemorable, as immemorable as he gets, at least. Also, I'm not sure how I understand in what way Savion Glover's character in Bamboozled is any more of a "2-D sketch" than Leonardo DiCaprio's character here (note: this does not imply that DiCaprio's character IS a "2-D sketch"). And yes, the 25th Hour beats the crap out of both of these movies, and anything Spielberg's done in, oh, 10 or 15 years. I was keeping off the sucka punches on the "Spielberg more provocative than Lee" comment but if you wanna kick yourself in a metaphorical discussion-genitals go ahead!
― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:15 (eighteen years ago) link
Not quite. Film schoolies love him because he is the archetypal film school product. Speilberg sat through all the same classes, learned all the same rigamarole as them and then he went out and became the Nu Robot Overlord of films. It sprinkles fairy dust (read: imagined money & power) over the whole film school experience.
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:20 (eighteen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:30 (eighteen years ago) link
Never said that. But Lee can't really fake provocation regularly anymore. Cine-hipsters turn to City of God, Y Tu Mama Tambien etc for that pose now.
Yeah, Walken's much more memorable sleepwalking through gangster and vampire roles, or SNL. Hey, he recites lines off the expected beats!
I was quite moved by the ending of The Terminal and chilled by A.I.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:35 (eighteen years ago) link
By the same token Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't make $250 million as an actor by being chopped liver, either. Although it is rather hard to pin down exactly what his talent was. Your point being?
― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:46 (eighteen years ago) link
― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:46 (eighteen years ago) link
what i like about the scene is it's a little naturalistically sloppy. the guys talk over one another, some interruptions, there are these very subtle shots which really make it work thoroughly (the quick side-eye Porkins in the background gives Indy while he's thinking, facing away from the camera, in the foreground. Indy getting psyched talking about the Staff of Ra and Brody smiling, looking at him, approvingly and seeing his excitement about the upcoming quest. the perfect moment for the John Williams score to make an appearance as the agents look at the depiction of the ark unleashing its power.
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 August 2023 22:13 (nine months ago) link
And if we're to the point of saying Flags of Our Fathers is superior to Saving Private Ryan, sorry, disembarking this train
Letters from Iwo Jima & Flags of Our Fathers (you can't split them apart), but again, not a fan of Saving Private Ryan regardless.
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 22 August 2023 22:14 (nine months ago) link
You can absolutely sever Letters From Iwo Jima from Flags of Our Fathers. The former feels like a movie from a different filmmaker, and it’s immeasurably superior to the latter
― beamish13, Tuesday, 22 August 2023 23:15 (nine months ago) link
dern's performance in JP is all mumbles, chuckles, little asides to herself, thinking out loud, thinking silently, laughter of various kinds (fond, knowing, anxious), remaining half-inside conversations while pulled half-outside by something she's professionally obsessed with, and finally: screaming. imo it does manage to be competitive with the guy who says "hitler's a NUT!"
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 22 August 2023 23:19 (nine months ago) link
book actually had the balls to kill Hammond though which the movie didn't.
these are two different characters with the same name: one is a cartoon villain created only to be killed and the other is a tragic self-portrait
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 22 August 2023 23:33 (nine months ago) link
xxp respectfully disagree - as mentioned, one of the core ideas of the film is needed to address the power cinema has in re-writing history, something Iwo Jima has been criticized for by its detractors.
― birdistheword, Tuesday, 22 August 2023 23:35 (nine months ago) link
Hammond in the book is i believe fairly megalomaniacal, rather than the wrongheaded avuncular guy in over his head. i don't disagree btw that Laura Dern is a better actor in JP than the fella with the pipe in ROTLA, especially when it's put like that, but i think the overall execution of the latter film is very gripping in ways that JP is not with use of character. i won't dispute the sheer entertainment value of JP obv.
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 August 2023 23:58 (nine months ago) link
Classic
Amazing how Spielberg has always gotten all the credit for his cinematographer's work— Russ (@Russ__ATX) December 19, 2023
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 19 December 2023 14:02 (six months ago) link
lol, not that stupid response, this:
on Spielberg's birthday thinking about one of his hardest-ever shots pic.twitter.com/mG7FiZQCB3— Brendan Hodges (@metaplexmovies) December 18, 2023
brb, double checking to make sure I didn't accidentally follow that first poster
― stephen miller is not your friend (Eric H.), Tuesday, 19 December 2023 14:35 (six months ago) link
Isn't that a variation on his famous shot in Jaws?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_zoom
― clemenza, Tuesday, 19 December 2023 14:45 (six months ago) link
It is, but there's a lot more going on in terms of movement, framing, etc. Especially when the camera pulls back behind the *other* camera.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 19 December 2023 14:54 (six months ago) link
I'd never seen "Bridge of Spies" before, but I think I really love Spielberg in this sort of ... I guess almost post-modern mode. The movie has the rhythm and vibe of a classic '40s film - much of it I could imagine Academy aspect ratio and black and white - yet is filled with virtuoso Spielberg shots and modern FX and other more contemporary trademarks. He's been in this mode for a bunch of movies in a row, since "War Horse" more or less, with his weaker recent stuff (The BFG, Ready Player One) the conspicuous exceptions/deviations.
I think I mentioned on the relative thread that I bet Spielberg could have made a compelling version of "Killers of the Flower Moon."
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 4 January 2024 01:45 (five months ago) link