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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 23, 2021 19:43:14 GMT -5
The Godfather films are well made and well acted; but, I personally don't care for films that glamorize criminals and murderers, which is why I have issues with some of Scorsese's films. Super criminals are one thing (your Dr Mabuses, Moriaty, Goldfinger, etc); but, mob families and actual criminals....no. As character studies, there some really interesting stuff and Coppola and Scorsese are top directors and stylists; but, they rarely seem to give the same love to more admirable figures. That is one of the thigs I like about some of Michael Mann's films, like Heat, as he looks at both sides (though Thief is pure crime, but levels of virtue).
I think the problem, for me, is growing up idolizing adventure heroes and seeing police as heroes on 70s tv shows, while Hollywood was busy embracing anti-heroes. It's one of the reasons I was more than ready for Star Wars.
Scorsese is betty with putting social commentary into his films and showing the figures as brutal monsters; but, he does also go overboard in trying to make them look glamorous and endearing, when most of the actual people he is depicting (or drawing inspiration from) were real psychotic killers and parasites. Coppola seemed more enamored with that whole power structure and in the idea of these being the modern equivalents of royal houses and feuds.
As for Citizen Kane?
I like about 2/3 and then think it should have ended, as I find it goes on too long and loses the thread. It's a tremendous character study; but, I think the narrative could have used tightening.
Love the classic SNL skit, about Kane's additional "last words."
Rosebud.....Henri....with mustard.........
ps it annoys the heck out of me that I can find every clip of any mediocre SNL bit from Lorne's current tenure, officially, on Youtube; but, they block anything and don't provide much of anything from the classic years.
You know, when it was creative and edgy....not tired, cliched and EVERYTHING read off a teleprompter. (Yeah, they always read lines off a teleprompter or cue cards; but, not ever sketch and the performers were so much better at improvising things).
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 23, 2021 19:48:05 GMT -5
The first 2 Godfather movies were nothing short of great. There have been more than a few movies/shows I had no interest in watching that I loved once I did watch them. I have this week off on vacation and am wondering what classic Movies I should watch. Any suggestions ? if you want a different take on the genre, try Get Carter, with Michael Caine, The Long Good Friday, with Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, and Mesrine, with Vincent Cassell. Also, Yakuza, with Robert Mitchum, Brian Keith and Ken Takakura. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 23, 2021 19:57:05 GMT -5
Do you like Westerns, Icctrombone ? If so, try The Searchers, Fort Apache, Shane, Tombstone, The Shootist, Unforgiven, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Silverado, Ulzana's Raid, Winchester .73 (with James Stewart) The Man from Laramie. War movies? Paths of Glory, 1917, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Steel Helmet, Battleground, They Were Expendable, Pork Chop Hill, Twelve O'Clock High Detectives? Maltese Falcon, Chinatown, The Big Sleep (either one), LA Confidential Adventure? Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, Northwest Passage, Only Angels Have Wings, The Professionals, King Kong, SF? The Thing from Another World, War of the Worlds (either version), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (either), The Giant Behemoth, Noir? The Big Heat, Gilda, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, Out of the Past, Gun Crazy, Crossfire, Nightmare Alley Mixed genre? To Have and Have Not, The Sea Wolf, Key Largo, Brute Force, The Lost Weekend, Shadow of a Doubt, The Third Man, Strangers on a Train, Notorious, The Stranger, Touch of Evil, Vertigo |
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 23, 2021 20:08:43 GMT -5
I watched Rio Bravo a few months ago. So good.
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Post by berkley on Feb 23, 2021 20:45:18 GMT -5
The original Scarface is worth a look for its historical significance and for Paul Muni's performance, which seems very modern to me compared to other film actors of the time
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 23, 2021 23:27:35 GMT -5
I watched Rio Bravo a few months ago. So good. Oh, yes indeed. And if you liked Rio Bravo, you might also like Rio Lobo and Assault on Precinct 13. |
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Post by junkmonkey on Feb 24, 2021 8:46:03 GMT -5
I never saw Citizen Kane. Is it worth it ? Absolutely. It's one of the all-time best. Other suggestions to watch (or rewatch, as the case may be): Sunset Boulevard Chinatown Any Alfred Hitchcock The French Connection The Bridge on the River Kwai Dr. Strangelove Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein
Yep all of the above Citizen Kane is genius (but I'm a big Welles fan - I'd add The Magnificent Ambersons, Lady From Shanghai and Mister Arkadin to the list) but Blazing Saddles? Really? Have you watched it recently? I watched it a couple of years ago with my daughter - "It's great!" I told her, "Very funny." (I hadn't seen it since I saw it in the cinema when it first came out and we had both seen, and enjoyed immensely, Young Frankenstein a couple of weeks before). After the initial funny gag of the black labourers conning the white bosses into singing The Campdown Ladies we sat there in stony silence. Unfunny mugging, endless rape 'jokes', dated references that had me struggling to find context (and were incomprehensible to her) Gross homophobic caricatures. She gave up and left. I struggled through to the end but I doubt if I will ever want to revisit. It hasn't aged well at all. |
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Post by The Captain on Feb 24, 2021 11:30:49 GMT -5
Absolutely. It's one of the all-time best. Other suggestions to watch (or rewatch, as the case may be): Sunset Boulevard Chinatown Any Alfred Hitchcock The French Connection The Bridge on the River Kwai Dr. Strangelove Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein
Yep all of the above Citizen Kane is genius (but I'm a big Welles fan - I'd add The Magnificent Ambersons, Lady From Shanghai and Mister Arkadin to the list) but Blazing Saddles? Really? Have you watched it recently? I watched it a couple of years ago with my daughter - "It's great!" I told her, "Very funny." (I hadn't seen it since I saw it in the cinema when it first came out and we had both seen, and enjoyed immensely, Young Frankenstein a couple of weeks before). After the initial funny gag of the black labourers conning the white bosses into singing The Campdown Ladies we sat there in stony silence. Unfunny mugging, endless rape 'jokes', dated references that had me struggling to find context (and were incomprehensible to her) Gross homophobic caricatures. She gave up and left. I struggled through to the end but I doubt if I will ever want to revisit. It hasn't aged well at all. I haven't watched Blazing Saddles in a very long time, so maybe my recollection of it is off. Now I'm not sure if I want to go back to check it to see. What you wrote about it is how I felt when I rewatched Animal House after a long break; it didn't hold up well at all, and I found myself wondering if it was ever really funny or if I was too young the last time to know any different. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 24, 2021 11:56:45 GMT -5
Most Mel Brooks films that aren't Young Frankenstein suffer from the same problems, in my opinion: musical skits that aren't that funny and last too long, too many potty jokes used willy-nilly, many jokes that just aren't funny and should have been left on the cutting room's floor, and too many references to things that are quickly dated. They compensate with an iconoclastic take on things, successful fourth wall-breaking gags and plenty of quotable lines. Mel roughly strikes a .500 in my book; I often like the idea of his films more than the films themselves. (Kind of like James Bond flicks, really).
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Post by brutalis on Feb 24, 2021 12:07:35 GMT -5
Any movie is a product of the times. No matter how much we LOVED it at the time any movie can and will feel dated. Especially when viewed years later and our growth as an individual has grown. We can't see anything in the same light of perception as the original time we saw it.
Like Robin William's says: reality, what a concept?!? Always evolving, always changing even at this very moment...
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Post by impulse on Feb 24, 2021 13:37:42 GMT -5
Any movie is a product of the times. No matter how much we LOVED it at the time any movie can and will feel dated. Especially when viewed years later and our growth as an individual has grown. We can't see anything in the same light of perception as the original time we saw it. Like Robin William's says: reality, what a concept?!? Always evolving, always changing even at this very moment... Very great points, and to add onto it, it's not just personal growth, but society has grown, as well. Especially with the mass proliferation of the internet as we know it, social development is far more refined than even a few years ago. Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds would be downright offensive if released today. Homosexuality used to be the butt of a joke all the time. Even as recently as the late 90s, American Pie had a bunch of students setting up a hidden camera to covertly watch girl undress. It was presented as a joke har har, not a huge invasion of privacy. A lot of stuff ages out of its context and that is more rapid than ever with current technology. In short, don't rewatch Blazing Saddles.  |
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Post by berkley on Feb 24, 2021 14:45:37 GMT -5
I usually find I'm a little more lenient than most people I know towards dated attitudes or ideas in various media but everyone reacts differently: most recently for me, I found Robert Altman's MASH a bit hard to take in the way the Margaret Houlihan character was treated in the film. We're meant to side with Hawkeye and Trapper John because she's "regular army" and a hidebound stickler for the rules and the sort of strident, demonstrative patriotism that defended the Vietnam War that was ongoing at the the time the film was made and released (though not of course in the movie itself, which was set in the Korean War).
Anyway, so far, so good. But the manner in which the two male protagonists express their contempt for her attitude is very much targetted twards her sexuality and her femininity and really does not make them come across in a sympathetic way, seeing it now in the 2000s. It didn't spoil the film for me, but those scenes did feel uncomfortable, to say the least.
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 24, 2021 15:06:10 GMT -5
Most Mel Brooks films that aren't Young Frankenstein suffer from the same problems, in my opinion: musical skits that aren't that funny and last too long, too many potty jokes used willy-nilly, many jokes that just aren't funny and should have been left on the cutting room's floor, and too many references to things that are quickly dated. They compensate with an iconoclastic take on things, successful fourth wall-breaking gags and plenty of quotable lines. Mel roughly strikes a .500 in my book; I often like the idea of his films more than the films themselves. (Kind of like James Bond flicks, really). I thought that History of the World Part 1 was a great film. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Feb 24, 2021 15:51:19 GMT -5
Most Mel Brooks films that aren't Young Frankenstein suffer from the same problems, in my opinion: musical skits that aren't that funny and last too long, too many potty jokes used willy-nilly, many jokes that just aren't funny and should have been left on the cutting room's floor, and too many references to things that are quickly dated. They compensate with an iconoclastic take on things, successful fourth wall-breaking gags and plenty of quotable lines. Mel roughly strikes a .500 in my book; I often like the idea of his films more than the films themselves. (Kind of like James Bond flicks, really). I thought that History of the World Part 1 was a great film. I loved the part about the XV commandments! |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2021 16:22:16 GMT -5
One of the most underrated movies over the past 20 years that I never get tired of is Apocalypto.
It's like Van Damne's Hard Target starring Mayans. I don't care if Mel Gibson gets trippy in the head, his movies are good.
Watching it again tonight...
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