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Poll

What's your favorite film by Sydney Pollack?

The Slender Thread
0 (0%)
This Property Is Condemned
0 (0%)
The Scalphunters
0 (0%)
Castle Keep
0 (0%)
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
6 (19.4%)
Jeremiah Johnson
2 (6.5%)
The Way We Were
0 (0%)
The Yakuza
0 (0%)
Three Days of the Condor
7 (22.6%)
Bobby Deerfield
0 (0%)
The Electric Horseman
0 (0%)
Absence of Malice
0 (0%)
Tootsie
10 (32.3%)
Out of Africa
2 (6.5%)
Havana
0 (0%)
The Firm
1 (3.2%)
Sabrina
0 (0%)
The Interpreter
0 (0%)
Sketches of Frank Gehry
0 (0%)
Amazing Grace
0 (0%)
haven't seen any
1 (3.2%)
don't like any
2 (6.5%)
other
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 30

Author Topic: Pollack, Sydney  (Read 3088 times)

GothamCity151

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Re: Director's Best: Sydney Pollack
« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2010, 08:40:48 PM »
Tootsie

oneaprilday

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Re: Director's Best: Sydney Pollack
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2010, 11:21:22 PM »
I don't really like any of these.

1. Tootsie




2. The Firm
3. The Way We Were




4. Sabrina
5. The Interpreter

maņana

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Re: Director's Best: Sydney Pollack
« Reply #12 on: October 16, 2010, 11:25:37 PM »
I don't really like any of these.

Tootsie
The Interpreter
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Mandrake

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Re: Director's Best: Sydney Pollack
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2010, 02:07:59 PM »
1 Tootsie
2 Absence of Malice
3 Three Days of the Condor
4 The Firm
55 Random Hearts

Antares

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Re: Director's Best: Sydney Pollack
« Reply #14 on: March 18, 2011, 06:13:21 PM »
Three Days of the Condor
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
The Slender Thread
Jeremiah Johnson
Out of Africa


Bobby Deerfield   
This Property Is Condemned    
The Way We Were
The Electric Horseman
Tootsie


Absence of Malice
The Interpreter
The Firm
Sabrina
« Last Edit: September 24, 2011, 08:55:07 PM by Antares »
Masterpiece (100-91) | Classic (90-80) | Entertaining (79-69) | Mediocre (68-58) | Cinemuck (57-21) | Crap (20-0)

StudentOFilm

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Re: Director's Best: Sydney Pollack
« Reply #15 on: March 18, 2011, 06:31:10 PM »
1. Three Days of the Condor
2. Tootsie
3. They Shoot Horses Don't They?
4. The Way We Were
5. Absence of Malice
6. Jeremiah Johnson
7. The Yakuza
8. The Firm
9. The Slender Thread
10. Out of Africa
11. The Interpreter
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1SO

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Pollack, Sydney
« Reply #16 on: November 12, 2012, 12:37:43 PM »
1. They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
2. Tootsie
3. The Way We Were
4. The Firm

5. The Scalphunters
6. The Slender Thread
7. The Interpreter
8. Jeremiah Johnson
9. Out of Africa
10. Absence of Malice
11. Three Days of the Condor
12. Sabrina
13. The Yakuza
14. Castle Keep

15. Bobby Deerfield
« Last Edit: July 19, 2018, 12:01:00 AM by 1SO »

pixote

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Re: Director's Best: Sydney Pollack
« Reply #17 on: November 12, 2012, 01:02:09 PM »
I feared as much.

pixote
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1SO

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Re: Director's Best: Sydney Pollack
« Reply #18 on: September 11, 2013, 11:22:42 AM »
The Slender Thread
* * 1/2

The continuing enigma of Sydney Pollack, who almost always is clueless as to what should be included in a movie and what should be excluded to make it good. He's a big fan of the mundane process, with no desire to make any of that process exciting. (It can't JUST be process. It MUST also be mundane.)

At its core we have a two-handed thriller about a crisis volunteer (Sidney Poitier) who gets a phone call from a possible suicide attempt (Anne Bancroft). It's a theatrical idea, even more so because of Poitier's mannered physicality. Few actors speak so much dialogue with their arms and hands. What funny is for all that hard work, Poitier's greatest gift is his face. His expressions are terrific.

During the phone calls, the camera stays with him while Bancroft remains a voice. It hits the familiar beats. Center square on my Bingo card of predictions was where Poitier gets frustrated and dares Bancroft to stop wasting everyone's time and just do it already. (Of course, you have to have that scene. It gives the film variety.)

All the good acting moments happen in the first half, letting the drama peter out with procedure (trying to trace the call) and motivation. The motivation, what drives Bancroft to suicide is the one aspect where the movie straight up fails. It's hitched to an outrage of a reveal followed by a lot of piety spewed out by Steven Hill as Bancroft's cold husband. Hill doesn't get to play a character, just a moral position. Either way he's terrible.

AAAutin

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Re: Director's Best: Sydney Pollack
« Reply #19 on: September 11, 2013, 11:41:57 AM »
9.) HAVANA
8.) THE FIRM
7.) TOOTSIE
6.) JEREMIAH JOHNSON
5.) THE INTERPRETER
4.) THE YAKUZA
3.) THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR
2.) SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY
1.) THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY?