Cinemascope
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Posts posted by Cinemascope
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Yes, that is the scene, and I agree it is absolutely horrifying.
I don't think any reasonable person could find anything remotely funny about that. It was a scene that (as many by Kubrick) was supposed to highlight the theme of dehumanization, a recurring one throughout much of his career.
And I also don't think that comparing it to silly scenes from comedies that are all about innuendo does in any way lessen the shock and horror of finding out that there are people in this day and age who would find such gang-rape scenes to be "funny".
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I take musicals seriously because it's my favorite genre. But when I mean I take them seriously it means I care a lot about them. And as for deep examination, I don't think anyone here has advocated exactly that.
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Do I understand why someone would be offended by the actions in A Clockwork Orange? Definitely. But I can't take their outrage seriously if they ever found the scene in Deliverance something to laugh about
OK, so why the comment about not taking someone's outrage seriously if they found the Deliverance scene something "to laugh about"?
I don't think anyone on this thread has expressed outrage about one but found the other one "something to laugh about".
And I certainly think that a male can experience just as much psychological suffering due to rape as a woman can. For males it carries an added stigma if they identify as straight, I suppose. But it's definitely just as painful for either gender, I would imagine.
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And just who found the scene in Deliverance to be "something to laugh about"?
This isn't about "cheap shots". It's about the fact that I'm genuinely puzzled as to the point (if any) you are trying to make. To me it seems like you're comparing apples and oranges.
And the thing that kubrickbuff referred to specifically isn't remotely funny by any stretch of the imagination. Imagine the woman you care for the most in the whole world getting gang-raped and tell me how you'd feel if other people were watching and laughing hysterically at that sight.
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Wonder if it might happen again with the high-def formats.
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That will be a day worth looking forward to!
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So does anybody know of cities beside NY getting the Ennio Morricone film retrospective?
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Well yeah I thought the comment had been for me specifically.
And, generally speaking, I feel that whatever flaws SOTS may or may not have, it would be best to treat it just the same way as Disney has treated all its animated films. I love "Zippy-Dee-Doodah" and all the other songs!
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Yes but the point is that the Disney Co. has withheld the release of Song of the South on home video.
And I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that comment about a "D.W. Griffith Flaming Cross Award".
Sure we can talk about Dumbo and Birth of a Nation but those movies are out on video.
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I can't wait to see Three Little Words again.
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So what are you saying? That you also think scenes like the one in Clockwork Orange are funny?
There's a huge difference between the insinuation or suggestion about the possibility of something happening (usually to unwilling males) and the actual depiction of rape in graphic detail.
I'm sure the difference is not lost on you.
Look at the scene from A Clockwork Orange and imagine the same thing happening to a woman you know...
Now do you understand why someone would have reason to be offended by the suggestion that this could in any way shape or form be "funny"?
The ultimate irony is that Kubrick was depicting the very dehumanization that would allow people to commit such acts so casually -- and here we are in these boards in the 21st century, witnessing that very same dehumanization.
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This is true. It's just interesting to see that now even conservatives are turning against her.
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You aren't hurting my feelings, you are simply suggesting a degree of callousness I never thought was possible.
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I don't think that rape is funny, but in the movie it is.
No, it isn't funny... a scene like that can *never* be funny. If you think it is funny then you really are sick in the head.
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The suggestion that it could happen to a guy in prison has been played for laughs, however cheap (usually has more to do with homophobic anxiety than with the act itself).
But when it actually happens it isn't a comedy. Remember Deliverance?
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By BRYAN REESMAN
Published: March 4, 2007
AMONG the glories of the rising tide of DVD sales was the wave of discs that revived lost or overlooked works by filmmakers like David Lynch, Werner Herzog, Dario Argento, Jess Franco and Takashi Miike. Now some of the companies that brought those movies into homes are getting pulled under and may take future releases down with them.
Full story at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/movies/homevideo/04rees.html?ref=movies
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It's been a few years since I last watched Topkapi but I'd sure like to watch it again soon.
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Here's an essay that does a good job of detailing the changes in his outer behavior that started around 2005:
August 24, 2006
Critic's Notebook
Mission Imperative for a Star: Be Likable
By CARYN JAMES
Sumner Redstone, the 83-year-old chairman of Viacom, is old and cranky and enough of a loose cannon to have blurted out what ordinary people have been thinking for months, that Tom Cruise is out of control. It?s always fun when someone in Hollywood is blunt. Mr. Redstone cited Mr. Cruise?s distracting off-screen behavior as the main reason Paramount Pictures (owned by Viacom) chose not to renew its contract with his production company.
Yet Mr. Redstone soon fell into the usual showbiz doublespeak, when he said of Mr. Cruise, ?As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal.? He got that backward, at least from the moviegoers? perspective. Tom Cruise?s real problem is: We just don?t like him anymore.
Losing his likability is the cardinal sin for any movie star, and Mr. Cruise?s began to plummet even before his couch-jumping days. In the annual Harris poll charting America?s favorite movie stars, done every January, Tom Hanks ? the essence of likability, genial on talk shows, a nice guy on screen ? was ranked No. 1 for the last two years. Mr. Cruise hasn?t even been in the Top 10 since the poll in 2004, when he ranked No. 5.
What stars like Mr. Hanks and Julia Roberts have is a connection to the audience that shines through the characters they play and has the audience on their side. Even the best actors sometimes use their likability as a wink to the audience: Meryl Streep as the wicked fashion editor in ?The Devil Wears Prada? is more endearing than a villain should be, partly because it?s fun to watch Ms. Streep do comedy.
The essence of Mr. Cruise?s appeal going all the way back to ?Risky Business? and on through crowd-pleasers like ?Jerry Maguire? was a fresh-faced, unpretentious exuberance, a glee that practically leapt off the screen and that even worked in unlikely roles like the outraged, paraplegic Vietnam veteran in ?Born on the Fourth of July.?
Mr. Cruise had that energy and connection as recently as 2004, and his last terrific acting job, in ?Collateral.? He played against type as a villain with graying hair and he had to share the starring role with Jamie Foxx, but his audience was happy to see him really acting again instead of just outrunning some ?Mission: Impossible? fireball.
But in the last year his life has become a public relations debacle as he has gone into full Scientology mode, and he has come to seem self-righteous and intolerant (most conspicuously in his angry confrontation with Matt Lauer on ?Today? about prescription drugs). He now seems too strange and remote for the average moviegoer to relate to.
This summer a Forbes magazine list named Mr. Cruise as its most powerful celebrity, but that calculation was based on income and media presence, obviously not on common sense. While Mr. Cruise?s last two movies have done well around the world, he wasn?t the only, and maybe not the main reason, for their success. This year?s Cruise film, ?Mission: Impossible III,? is part of a self-propelled franchise; last year?s, ?War of the Worlds,? was a Steven Spielberg movie. The roles didn?t demand much, and Mr. Cruise seemed to coast through them, assuming the audience would coast with him.
Today?s Tom Cruise is the opposite of a Teflon celebrity; he can?t seem to get anything right, not even baby pictures. While Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie expertly and quickly stage-managed the sale (for charity no less) of their daughter, Shiloh?s, baby snaps, Mr. Cruise and Katie Holmes have been secretive and elusive about their 4-month-old daughter, Suri. There are reports that Annie Leibovitz has photographed baby Suri for Vanity Fair, but no pictures have arrived yet, and into the void comes more tantalizing gossip, including a widely circulated report from a British tabloid that David and Victoria Beckham were invited to see Suri but were forbidden to use baby talk because Scientologists think goo-gooing is bad for babies. True or not, a report like that alienates fans.
Such distance isn?t necessary. John Travolta may fly his own jet, but he creates the impression of remembering where he came from. More instructive, when he is asked about his devotion to Scientology, he explains patiently and good-naturedly, without antagonizing anyone.
But Mr. Cruise has done so much damage to his image that his camp?s best efforts at spin now seem hollow. When word filtered out that the entity known as TomKat had stopped on the road to aid at the scene of an accident recently (O.K., they just stopped and waited until the police arrived) the incident invited speculation bout how carefully orchestrated that little news item might have been, and reminders that Mr. Cruise had, conveniently enough, helped stop a mugging in 1998 and rescue a family at sea in ?96, as if he were a volunteer action-hero.
Before ?Collateral? he hadn?t challenged himself as an actor since 1999, when he played a ponytailed self-help guru who does television infomercials in the daring Paul Thomas Anderson ensemble film ?Magnolia.? It was a role that may have cut too close, revealing how illusory a celebrity?s public image is. These days he is like a charlatan who can?t manage to dupe anybody. He seems desperate to maintain his stature as one of the world?s biggest movie stars, even as he morphs into something no movie star can afford to be: a guy you wouldn?t want to know.
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It really wasn't so much in the details, maybe, as much as in the general sense of intolerance that his attitude suggested. A lot of it is difficult to convey in words, because you'd probably have to watch the video to really see how aggresive he was -- I am not sure I think it was a morning interview with Matt Lauer -- about putting down certain things while at the same time defending Scientology.
I can certainly post lots of links but I don't think it would be much different that what you could dig up on any search engine... but I'll look around.
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But many John Wayne movies are also John Ford films. And there's a lot to Ford that may be too subtle to catch on first viewing -- it certainly was for me.
Did you get to watch Directed by John Ford last time it aired? If not, maybe you would be interested in catching it next time it shows. It really does a good job of pointing out some of the strengths of Ford as a director, as well as those of JW as a frequent star of his movies.
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I feel so borough-less
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I don't mean to sound too cynical here but I fear the reason we occasionally see some boxed sets at super low prices is just because the video companies want to make a fast buck now and know that many people will be buying these titles again once they've switched to a high-definition format (Blu-Ray or HD-DVD).
With a lot of the best-known titles that are likely to be among the first of the classics to be put on high-def format, I may as well wait until the HD version.
But if you like having them in regular DVD then more power to you.
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Oh I thought Till the Clouds Roll By looked wonderful -- considering we'd been stuck for years with horrible PD copies.
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These days almost every new movie receives lots more attention in the channels that belong to the same corporation.
I think that's the reason we saw so many promos for The Good German on TCM - it was a WB film.
Three Comrades (1937)
in General Discussions
Posted
I like it a lot, great cast!
btw I think it's a 1938 release