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Author Topic: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon  (Read 75499 times)

smirnoff

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Re: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon
« Reply #530 on: June 17, 2011, 07:39:57 AM »
I don’t know if it’ll make my top 100 in reality, but it will be there in spirit.

That's a great line. Really wonderful.

Yeah, I like that :)

fransisco4

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Re: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon
« Reply #531 on: June 17, 2011, 08:29:57 PM »

Theme—2/5—I must have missed the theme between the explosions.


Well, there's fate and free will, and the parental figure thing. I once read a review that linked the battle between T-800 and T-1000 to the practical vs. CGI effects, that was pretty interesting.

oldkid

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Re: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon
« Reply #532 on: June 17, 2011, 11:57:38 PM »
Thanks, that's helpful.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

oldkid

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Re: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon
« Reply #533 on: June 18, 2011, 10:55:21 AM »
Fight Club



Technical—5/5—Really well made.  The editing was amazing.   Brad Pitt puts in his best performance.   Edward Norton is excellent.  A lot of imagination went in here as well.



Interest—5/5—The main person that is responsible for my interest in this film is Chuck Palahniuk, the writer of the book, Fight Club.  It is his ideas and narrative that drives this film and kept me on the edge of my seat.  What would happen next?  Even on my second watching, I am fascinated at how the plot is so interwoven.  Of course, there’s a lot to see and experience as well.  It is a feast for the mind.

Tension—5/5—With confusion comes tension.  To create tension, one must create mystery.  And this movie had a lot of mystery and the plot leading up to the final scene was just white knuckles the first time we watch it.

Emotional—3/5—Pretty weak on the emotional side.  Anyone with an ounce of testosterone can feel the satisfaction of the fight club and Tyler’s lifestyle.   But is there really any connection with people here?

Characters—5/5—Which is not to say that the characters weren’t well developed.  They were perfect for what they were.  There was so much detail to every main character that we totally bought them, even if their emotional side wasn’t really explored. 



Theme—5/5—Responses to consumerist society.  For more detail, check out my article The Gospel According to Fight Club.   

Ethics—5/5—This film is like a really complex sermon that ends with a question.  It begins by presenting the evils of consumerist society and then presenting a way out.  But it doesn’t end there, like most sermons.  Rather it draws out the idea of rejecting consumer society to it’s logical conclusion.  Then we have to wonder, at what cost do we want change?

Personal—5/5—Fight Club really struck me.  No, not literally.  But it parallels some of the thinking I had in rejecting consumer society.  Perhaps I didn’t go to the ultimate conclusion, but that’s because I’m not as warped as Chuck P.



I think Fight Club is one of the great post modern films, and it really resonated with me.  So it’ll remain in my Top 100.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2011, 11:02:48 AM by oldkid »
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

oldkid

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Re: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon
« Reply #534 on: June 19, 2011, 02:08:34 PM »
Seventh Heaven



Silent films are often only half of a film.  I mean, there’s no sound.  Any text is breaking up the action.  And the music is usually not spot on at all or too spot on.  Because of the breaking of the visuals, the likelihood is that the story will be melodramatic.  This doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate silent films.  It’s just that they have to be really good, top notch, for me to really appreciate them.  Maybe this means that I don’t watch as many silent as I do later films.  But it is also a credit to filmmakers that I have a number of silent films on my list for potential top 100s: Sunrise, Metropolis, City Lights and this one by Frank Borgeze.

Technical—4/5—Well done for the time, but nothing magnificent.

Interest—5/5—There is so much charm at the beginning of this film it immediately catches you.  As the film moves on, the emotional state of everyone is powerfully realized and you can’t turn away.

Tension/Emotional—5/5—I loved that the narrative is told through the eyes of the woman and we are put through all the emotional  paces she is.  The final fifteen minutes put me through the wringer.  What fantastic storytelling!



Characters—4/5—Although there isn’t much time to give the characters much depth, it isn’t necessary to.  They are as realized as they need to be in the film, as much as they need to be to pull us with them.

Theme—2/5—It’s a love story.  Not much unique theme there.

Ethics—2/5—I’d have to see it again, but I can’t recall anything interesting ethically.

Personal—2/5- Not much personally.

I really enjoyed this film.  The emotional impact was powerful.  And it will go on my short list of silent I’d be happy to watch again.  But it probably won’t make my top 100.


"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon
« Reply #535 on: June 19, 2011, 02:26:46 PM »
What? How is a silent film half a film? Just because it doesn't have synchronized dialogue? Are black and white films half a film because they don't have color? Are 4:3 films half a film because they aren't widescreen? And this is neglecting the fact that many silent films have musical scores accompanying them.

While I'm glad you liked the film, I think you're selling silent films short if you see them as often half a film. There are plenty of silent films that weave fantastic, gripping and rich stories without the use of synchronized dialogue, which should make them all the more amazing of a film.


oldkid

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Re: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon
« Reply #536 on: June 19, 2011, 03:02:25 PM »
Wow, I never know ahead of time what I'm going to get in trouble with.

A silent film is taking run time from the film as a whole to give dialogue, which literally shortens the film.  When I was saying "half" I was really referring to run time, although "half" is hyperbole.  The other difficulty is that the dialogue is separate from the visual, and black screen has a different "mood" than the filmed visual.  So it's just an extra step.  None of this would have been a problem is subtitles would have been invented back in the day or if they had just skipped dialogue altogether, which some silents came close to doing (e.g. The General).

I'm not trying to slam silents in any way.  I'm just saying that they have a difficulty to overcome and so they have to work harder than more recent films.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon
« Reply #537 on: June 19, 2011, 03:22:10 PM »
True enough, especially in terms of runtime. I will say that I don't see it as a deficient that they have more to overcome more, I think it actually makes a lot of silent films much more creative than their modern counterparts as they have to find more ways to communicate through images instead of dialogue.

1SO

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Re: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon
« Reply #538 on: June 19, 2011, 04:35:01 PM »
Part of the complete triumph of Murnau's The Last Laugh is that the visuals tell the story so completely there isn't a single dialogue card in it.

oldkid

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Re: Oldkid's Ultimately Cool (And Long) Top 100 Marathon
« Reply #539 on: June 19, 2011, 04:44:36 PM »
I love Murnau.  Now I have to see The Last Laugh.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

 

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