Author Topic: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013  (Read 35202 times)

Bondo

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #110 on: March 09, 2013, 03:47:21 AM »
I liked For All Mankind and part of it is just the pure awe of space travel. However, there was that added bit at the start with Kennedy's speech that the subsequent images confirm which is the notion that at one point in our history, we, and by we I mean a collective population organized by a government, could do something great. It stands out as that much more important amid a time when the government can't do anything at all to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. It would be wrong to cynically give up on the idea of accomplishing great things, rather, knowing they are possible, it should make us that much less tolerant of those that say we can't do it.

Verite

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #111 on: March 09, 2013, 03:55:13 AM »
I can only imagine that this was something that showed up on Bondo's list, for he has such a keen eye and a definitive interest in stories like this. And if that is the case than I would like to thank him for bringing this film to our attention. Then again if it wasn't him, then I would like to thank whoever would be appropriate.

Looks like it was george96.  #90 on his list.
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oldkid

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #112 on: March 09, 2013, 11:35:05 AM »
I'm with Lobby and Martin.  1SO, although all that you say is true, it misses the point of the film.  There will always be films that we can know ahead of time that we will just not buy into.  No matter how wonderfully made, the film won't convince us that it is worth the time or trouble.  I won't say we shouldn't watch such films.  I guess I was waiting in your review to say, "But, it was beautiful" or "it was well made" or something.  Instead you talked about what the film didn't say or do.  That seems like a strange response to me.
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1SO

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #113 on: March 09, 2013, 01:02:04 PM »
It was a strange review. Not my typical style for sure. I actually thought once I got my personal prejudice out of the way the rest would be my usual over-intellectual film analysis. However, the response shows my reaction was still closely tied to my backseat driver analysis. Would I still be iffy-sniffy if space exploration led to the cure for cancer or the technology that unleashed the personal hovercar? Probably not. I gave the film an above average rating. I did like it. My review came directly from the thoughts I had while watching, which only further shows this was not a transporting, lyrical experience for me like Baraka or 2001. It was the best possible souvenir of an interesting period in World History. That's all I got.


Johnny got His Gun
Like many people of my generation, I first heard about this film through the groundbreaking video by Metallica, which would accent the lengthy guitar bombast with images and dialogue from the film. I'd seen the video so many times, I avoided the film because I knew it would just be a longer version, fully spoiled. Plus, the title and plot sounded better suited to a 9 minute musical sledgehammer than a 110 minutes cinematic one.

There is a lot of overdone style to the film. You wouldn't be surprised if it were directed by young Oliver Stone. Instead we have the single feature of acclaimed writer Dalton Trumbo. He's a much better writer, but there's a freshness to the film and its approach to narrative I gradually warmed up to. Timothy Bottoms does not have a strong voice to give much oomph to his dialogue, which is unfortunate because half the performance has Bottoms without everything else. (Though he doesn't give much oomph while whole either.) From his beginning realization to his final pleas for mercy, he never makes the situation sound any more dire than a flat tire. Some of the other unfamiliar faces are also rather flat. Thank heaven for the gravitas of Jason Robards and the perfectly pitched Donald Sutherland.

The other great performance is Diane Varsi as a saintly nurse who ultimately breaks through and forms an attachment with what's left of the wounded soldier. She comes in all quiet and dutiful and full of religion and the symbolic anti-war lecture of the film finds its humanity. Despite my problems, it gains power in the (spoiled) ending and I liked this quite a bit.
RATING: 8

PeacefulAnarchy

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #114 on: March 09, 2013, 01:07:35 PM »
First Dodesukaden and then this. Maybe your best approach to the films on my top 100 is to watch them not knowing they're on my list.  ;)

Antares

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #115 on: March 09, 2013, 01:25:07 PM »
We simply shouldn't have spent these billions with so many domestic problems more in need of Federal Funding.

So would you also eliminate The National Endowment for the Arts?
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1SO

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #116 on: March 09, 2013, 01:34:12 PM »
I don't think I said that. Did I say that? Seems my correct response would be to say that the lack of funding for the NEA is a domestic problem.

Antares

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #117 on: March 09, 2013, 01:47:23 PM »
What I got from that line was that the country wasted all those billions chasing man's age old dream, as opposed to funding programs to benefit the poor.

My question merely poses the quandary over financing the arts over programs for the poor. One could say that at least the scientific funding pays more dividends down the road as opposed to artistic endeavors. The space race brought about so many technological advances that you and I use every day and most likely, added to everyone's life expectancy.

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Space Race - Advances in technology and education

Technology, especially in aerospace engineering and electronic communication, advanced greatly during this period. The effects of the Space Race however went far beyond rocketry, physics, and astronomy. "Space age technology" extended to fields as diverse as home economics and forest defoliation studies, and the push to win the race changed the very ways in which students learned science.

American concerns that they had fallen so quickly behind Russia in the race to space led quickly to a push by legislators and educators for greater emphasis on mathematics and on the physical sciences in U.S. schools. America's National Defense Education Act of 1958 increased funding for these goals from childhood education through the post-graduate level.

The scientists fostered by these efforts helped develop for space exploration technologies which have seen adapted uses ranging from the kitchen to athletic fields. Dried and ready-to-eat foods, stay-dry clothing, and even no-fog ski goggles have their roots in space science.

Today over a thousand artificial satellites orbit earth, relaying communications data around the planet and facilitating remote sensing of data on weather, vegetation, and human movements to nations who employ them. In addition, much of the micro-technology which fuels everyday activities from time-keeping to enjoying music derives from research initially driven by the Space Race.

The USSR remained the undisputed leader in rocketry, even up to the end of the Cold War. The U.S. became superior in electronics, remote sensing, vehicle guidance, and robotic control.

How many lives have been saved over the last 35 - 40 years just because of the advances made in satellite imagery forecasting hurricanes and tornadoes. We would have learned how to do all that eventually, but it was advanced more rapidly because of the space race with the Russians.
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Jared

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #118 on: March 09, 2013, 02:14:51 PM »
The Man Without a Past

My 5th Kaurismaki and perhaps my favorite, although I thought all the movies in his Eclipse set were decent too.

Basically this is the story of a man who is savagely beaten and left for dead who somehow recovers. He then has to get a life together, despite not having any idea who he is or anything. He ends up falling in with a very poor community, most of the people living in what appear to be shipping crates renovated into homes and left on the beach. The movie follows him through his struggles and attempts with finding a place to live, employment, and romance....all while the viewer wonders if he is somehow going to eventually come across his past somehow.

Generally trauma induced memory loss is one of those things that I never can really get behind in movies. I guess Im just way too used to it being used as a lazy subplot in crappy tv shows. Like anything, it works when it is done well though, and I guess that is just something Ive rarely felt exposed to. This was a nice discovery, with a lot of good acting by some of the director's regulars.

Rating Project Score: 7
« Last Edit: March 09, 2013, 02:16:50 PM by Jared »

smirnoff

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Re: March Madness - Communal Watchlist Group Marathon 2013
« Reply #119 on: March 09, 2013, 02:28:26 PM »
After the Wedding (Susanne Bier, 2006) -

Wow. Just wow. Second film in a row now that has just blown me away. The only other Susanne Bier film I have seen was In a Better World, one that I really loved. I may have enjoyed this one even a little more, which is hard to have done, but the story here is just dynamite, and Bier handles it to perfection. Really well done to the point that I really struggle to come up with ways to describe it. There really wasn't anything that was really amiss, though I must say the eyes thing started to get too noticeable and annoying. But that is just a small annoyance, especially when compared to the gripping nature of the story and the rest of the film as a whole. Very powerful, and amazingly good.

***1/2 - Great (Very near a Masterpiece grade)
Project Rating: 9/10

Bier is just a breath of fresh air isn't she. :)

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

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