love

Author Topic: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts  (Read 395790 times)

Bondo

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 23082
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1900 on: December 20, 2012, 09:14:31 AM »
The way I take the Ally Sheedy thing is that it shows that she COULD be the "pretty" girl prom queen type. It makes how she ultimately portrays herself seem that much more a choice. While I think the film is in large part a film of how people are stereotyped by others and feel pressured to live up to that, her character more than the others seems to have chosen her role. It takes one step back on the idea that our lives are determined for us.

Beavermoose

  • Godfather
  • *****
  • Posts: 5006
  • Samsonite! I was way off!
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1901 on: December 20, 2012, 09:16:03 AM »
We want more verdicts! We want more verdicts!

90s bracket took 2 years.
80s is at 3.5 years!

We can do it!

BlueVoid

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1841
    • Movie Fodder
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1902 on: December 20, 2012, 09:50:28 AM »
We want more verdicts! We want more verdicts!

90s bracket took 2 years.
80s is at 3.5 years!

We can do it!

And the FEB bracket is on pace to take about 15. :)

Good job on the verdict guys! I was totally oblivious that it was verdict discussion last night. :) I think you came down on the right movie. Fun way to reach a consensus.
Former blog on FlickChart: The Depths of Obscurity
Letterboxd 
iCM
Twitter

mañana

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 20862
  • Check your public library
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1903 on: December 20, 2012, 09:54:28 AM »
Like a fine wine, the brackets must be meticulously savoured.
There's no deceit in the cauliflower.

Sandy

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 12075
  • "The life we build, we never stop creating.”
    • Sandy's Cinematic Musings
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1904 on: December 20, 2012, 10:15:28 AM »
Any girl would wish to be considered pretty, even if she had walked away from that merry-go-round of unreachable expectations as a show of defiance. She found herself in a safe place where she could trust enough to look at that side of herself.


It's a girl thing. :)

BlueVoid

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1841
    • Movie Fodder
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1905 on: January 05, 2013, 08:04:10 PM »
The Elephant Man
This film oozes with humanity. I wasn't expecting this from David Lynch. A film with a straight forward narrative! The movie takes its name for it's main character, John Merrick,  a disfigured man who is dubbed the 'Elephant Man' and is paraded around as a sideshow freak. Everyone thinks he is mentally incapacitated, and treats him like an animal. The real horror is that he is not, but an intelligent, feeling human being.

This movie is full of feeling. John Hurt does a fantastic job portraying the unfortunate looking man, and the incredible makeup job helps. Knowing that this is based on a true story, and knowing that there are people out there who have disfigurements and suffer the same scrutiny and consciousness makes the emotional impact of the story that much more indelible. It's impossible not to feel some sort of sympathy for John. Lynch is subtly cynical in playing on these sympathies. On the one hand you have the rough and tumble peasants who want to gawk at him and are cruel to him. Kicking and laughing at him as if he were a toy put on Earth for their amusement. On the other hand you have the high society folks, who have taking a liking to John. They too come and gawk, but bring gifts and talk with him, all as the newspaper boasts of their benevolence. Both are using John for their own entertainment in a way. True, one makes John feel good, the other makes him feel like an animal. Is either acceptable though? Shouldn't John be treated like anyone else, not as a creature to be marveled at?   

Lynch crafted a fantastic character study. It is layered, intense and full of emotion. He plays with your feelings like a puppeteer, pulling the strings and making you dance between feelings of despair, rage and happiness. It's an expertly crafted character gem.



Cat People
I had my doubts going into this movie. First off, before I knew anything else about it, the title alone gave me misgivings. 'Cat People'. It sounds like a bad Saturday morning cartoon. This was written by the same guy that wrote 'Taxi Driver'? Then the details started to come in and I started to become even more apprehensive. The poster with the highly stylized, rain drenched catlike woman, complete with overly 80's print for the title. It's classified as an 'erotic horror', and yep, that would be David Bowie doing the music. One thing is certain, this was going to be a ride.

The opening shot solidified by apprehensions. There is a camera pan across a desolate wasteland, clearly long ago in the past, where there are barely clothed people painted like cats, tying a woman to a tree. A black panther creeping up to her to do who knows what. The entire scene was reminiscent of a hair-metal's album cover come to life. The surrealistic atmosphere put me off guard. Where in the world was this thing heading?

The story is no less bizarre then the style. It begins with Irena (Nastassja Kinski) reuniting with her long lost brother Paul (Malcolm McDowell). The two were split up when their parents died and sent to live with different foster parents.  It turns out that Paul has a secret, which he is excited to share with Irena. He turns into a jaguar when he has sex and the only way to turn back into a human is to kill someone. It turns out this affliction runs in their blood, and has for many generations and that Irena also has the same condition. Irena is confused by all of this, and creeped out by her newly reunited sibling and flees him, seeking the comforts of Oliver the local zookeeper who has crush on her.

Have I mentioned this is a really bizarre movie? It's also painfully dumb on top of its many questionable cinematic expositions. For example, why have Oliver be a zookeeper? Apparently this fairly large zoo in a fairly large city is run by a handful of people. Anytime there is an animal on the loose, the zookeeper is apparently the most appropriate person to call, not Animal Control. It was just a little over the top. For a movie that takes itself all too seriously, there were too many comical and groan-worthy situations.

The undertones of sexual frustration and incest were more disturbing than anything. Paul Schrader went for something big, but completely missed the mark. I'm at a loss with this movie. It's an odd movie. It is definitely strange, but not strange enough to be enjoyable for its weirdness. It toes the line of absurdity, but takes itself serious enough that it doesn't have a good time. It has its moments where I can see where this movie may have gone had it been put on the right track making it all the more of a jumbled mess. It's fitting that Bowie did the music for this. It fits perfectly, and serves as more a overly long music video to one of his more out there songs.


Verdict: Well, one was actually good. The Elephant Man moves on. It's a shame Cat People made it this far.
Former blog on FlickChart: The Depths of Obscurity
Letterboxd 
iCM
Twitter

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1906 on: January 05, 2013, 08:09:12 PM »
Cat People vs. Elephant Man

Cat People
I remember hearing rumors in the 80’s about Cat People, that it was kind of odd and had a fair amount of nudity.  Good to know the rumor mill of the 80’s was fairly accurate.

There’s a lot to love about Cat People.  Right from the beginning it drops you into two contexts that are difficult to understand and they don’t explain much.  In fact, a clear idea of what is going on in the film doesn’t come until 2/3 of the way through, although much of it we could work out by then.  The mood is somber and dark which is fun for this kind of genre film. Certainly a fan of 80’s music would appreciate the score and soundtrack. While the special effects in general isn’t much, the transformations scenes are quite good a la American Werewolf in London.  It is well paced, and an interesting plot that keeps us going.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have much else going for it.  Like the generally poor reading of poorly written lines.  The awful editing and occasional bad cinematography.  Is there any real reason for all the nudity except for titillation? There’s a lot in the film that you just say, “Why?”   Why must the brother be so creepy, projecting his lust for his sister from the first moment?  Why doesn’t Irene kill the zookeeper—I know I wanted to.  How did the zookeeper know that she would be in the country home?  That was just a guess.  In general, there’s a lot of silliness. 

But for the sake of the good stuff, I’ll give it a pass. 3/5

Elephant Man
I haven’t seen this film for almost 30 years, and now I wonder why.  It is a magnificent blend of art and popular film, filled with great performances and amazing photographic art.  The story is so human and powerful.  In fact, I would go so far to say that this is possibly the most powerful film depicting human compassion I have seen. 

Just watching Anthony Hopkins in this film is watching a master.  Just the day before I had finished Howards End, where Hopkins plays a sympathetic character who has very little compassion, but you believe and sometimes love him despite his faults.  Here, he plays a man so full of compassion that he is convincingly condemning himself for having so “little” of that which his fellow human beings have none.  His empathy is infectious, and we are leaving the film wanting to give more dignity to those who receive none.

And this film, possibly more than any other, showcases the brilliance of David Lynch.  This is not to say that it is his best film (although it would certainly be in the running), but that everything that is wonderful about David Lynch is found in this film.  His storytelling, his unique visual perspective, his transformation of actors into full blooded human beings, the mystery of unanswered questions—all can be found here. 

The Elephant Man is that rare film which deserves all the acclaim, and perhaps a bit more.  If it won the brackets for the best film of the 80’s I couldn’t be more pleased.

Comparison
Whoever put poor, poor Cat People—a decent, but unremarkable horror film—against the truly magnificent Elephant Man should be maligned as a poor film judge.  They really don’t belong on the same level.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

jbissell

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 10915
  • What's up, hot dog?
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1907 on: January 06, 2013, 12:23:59 AM »
Cat People (Paul Schrader, 1982) vs. The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980)


Cat People

This definitely is a perfect 80s erotic-horror-thriller. The Moroder score is tremendous and was easily the best part, along with Bowie’s closing theme (best known to most from QT’s use in Inglorious Basterds). Paul Schrader’s camera has no problem with leering at Natasha Kinski, and really, who can blame him? For a film set in New Orleans that’s all about sex, I was surprised at how non-steamy it all felt. Malcolm McDowell gets to play his usual creepy self, as Kinski’s brother and soulmate(?!?). Only Home Alone dad can stand in the way of McDowell and Kinski coupling. Well, and the fact that McDowell has killed a bunch of prostitutes and ends up confined to the zoo, where he rips off poor Ed Begley, Jr.’s arm. I was ready to chalk up Cat People making it this far to some highly dubious decision-making but I thoroughly enjoyed the final 30 min. Kinski finally gives in to her nature and Schrader gives us a wild dream sequence, an absolutely killer pool scene (both in suspense and nudity), some surprisingly transformation effects, and I totally CINECAST!ed up ending that ties into the ritual from the beginning of the film. If the whole film had been like that I would’ve loved it. At least it's made me very interested in checking out the original.




The Elephant Man

Certainly a side of David Lynch that I haven’t seen (I imagine The Straight Story to be more like this than his other work?), but definitely not my favorite side. It’s certainly a very good film but part of me feels like it leans on the standard emotional pulls. Lots of tears and lessons learned about the value of people, most notably in the theatre scene at the end. Slow clap. There’s a few sequences that really screamed Lynch – an elephant nightmare and an all-too-real nightmare of a party where Merrick is poked and prodded and you just want to kill all these sonsofbitches. My heartlessness aside, the black and white cinematography is absolutely stunning, definitely reminding of Eraserhead. The performances are good across the board. Nice to see Hopkins not completely chewing the scenery. John Hurt has the hardest job, working around all those prosthetics but he definitely provides Merrick with endless humanity. Super weird that Mel Brooks produced this.



Verdict
This wasn’t really all that close. Despite my emotional pushback at The Elephant Man it was thoroughly engaging and a solid final 30 min. is not enough for me to advance Cat People. The Elephant Man goes 3-0 this round and moves on.

Cat People 6.5/10
The Elephant Man 8/10

Sam the Cinema Snob

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26795
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1908 on: January 06, 2013, 10:19:55 AM »
Yea, the original Cat People is a lot better than the '80s one. It has its moments, like Jbissel points out, but overall, The Elephant Man is a much much better film.

Corndog

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 17025
  • Oo-da-lolly, Oo-da-lolly, golly what a day!
    • Corndog Chats
Re: 1980s US Bracket: Verdicts
« Reply #1909 on: January 06, 2013, 10:27:18 AM »
Never seen either, but I'm glad to see The Elephant Man advance so maybe it will spur me to finally watch that one. Nice posts and good job!
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

 

love