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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 8:40 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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http://tinyurl.com/2ou7lf
Ebert adds The Best Years of Our Lives to his list of Great Movies with this perceptive review. (In which he rightly lauds Harold Russell's untutored but exceptionally powerful performance as the handless Homer. But unfortunately ignores Dana Andrews's seminal contribution just as everyone else did.) |
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| Trish |
| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:37 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2438
Location: Massachusetts
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bart wrote: BTW, like the notion of YotD and Fido as a double-feature and the sort of misleading connection it creates. LOL.
and funny enough It was just by accident that I should see them so close together. They both became available for me at the library on the same day. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:29 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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billyweeds wrote: Syd wrote:
Gordon Pinsent should NOT be considered for supporting actor. He is the male lead, is in virtually every scene of the movie, and is even more the focus of the story than Julie Christie (who is also a lead).
So true. Christie's is more a supporting performance than Pinsent's.
I'd term Christie the female lead. Obviously Pinsett is the male lead. Dukakis is the supporting actress. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:23 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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| Edited the disputed statement out of the Away From Her post. Am too tired, too bereaved and too slammed by deadlines for the paper of record and local drama critics circle. Happy couching, happy viewing. |
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:07 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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inlareviewer wrote: Edited the disputed statement out of the Away From Her post. Am too tired, too bereaved and too slammed by deadlines for the paper of record and local drama critics circle. Happy couching, happy viewing.
Inla,
Its always a blast when you drop in. I hope thedemands of the real world don't keep you away from this critical Middle Earth for too long. |
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I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:21 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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Location: Lawrence, KS
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jeremy wrote: Inla,
Its always a blast when you drop in. I hope thedemands of the real world don't keep you away from this critical Middle Earth for too long.
Jeremy, that's very kind. Have long regarded Third Eye as a recreational oasis, and am partial to Middle Earth, being a former hobbit (shin transplants, dontchaknow?). Thanks ever so. |
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 4:26 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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Finally!
Too bad they released it on HD DVD & not Blu-Ray™  |
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It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 7:16 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 8:16 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: http://tinyurl.com/2ou7lf
Ebert adds The Best Years of Our Lives to his list of Great Movies with this perceptive review. (In which he rightly lauds Harold Russell's untutored but exceptionally powerful performance as the handless Homer. But unfortunately ignores Dana Andrews's seminal contribution just as everyone else did.)
Well, he doesn't explain about why son Rob disappears from the movie entirely after the first homecoming scene. And to be honest, I think Russell gives a bad performance, terrible line readings throughout. Though some of his scenes work just because of the brute truth of the situation (his response to the kids who want to peek at a monster through the window, or his courage in letting his girl help him take off his hooks). |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:31 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Salt Lake City
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ehle64 wrote: Finally!
Too bad they released it on HD DVD & not Blu-Ray™
That will change soon as more studios move towards Blu-Ray exclusively, as Warner announced they are going all Blu-Ray this year. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 11:45 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: billyweeds wrote: http://tinyurl.com/2ou7lf
Ebert adds The Best Years of Our Lives to his list of Great Movies with this perceptive review. (In which he rightly lauds Harold Russell's untutored but exceptionally powerful performance as the handless Homer. But unfortunately ignores Dana Andrews's seminal contribution just as everyone else did.)
Well, he doesn't explain about why son Rob disappears from the movie entirely after the first homecoming scene. And to be honest, I think Russell gives a bad performance, terrible line readings throughout. Though some of his scenes work just because of the brute truth of the situation (his response to the kids who want to peek at a monster through the window, or his courage in letting his girl help him take off his hooks).
We had this conversation about Russell before I think, right, Joe? Have you seen the movie again since then and retained your opinion about his performance? |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:34 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| No. In fact, I saw the movie only once, over a decade ago. It really didn't do anythiing for me. Granted, it's not crappy Judgement at Nuremberg, but I still think it fits in the same so-prestigious-you're-not-supposed-to-criticize-it category. Which is not to say I'm putting it down just because "you're not supposed to." I hate to diss a movie you love, but with this picture we're on opposite sides of the fence. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:50 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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A MIGHTY HEART
I finally saw this film and admit it's a well done piece about a terrible event. I'd put off watching it because I'd felt it would be a downer.
The dvd has some good extras.
Angelina Jolie puts in a very good but not great, performance. The story is so compelling however, I don't think this presents a problem. I found the film gripping from start to finish.
I was put off by some overly sentimental and/or heavy-handed moments.
A big plus is the casting of some of India's best actors in add'n. to the actors playing Am. journalists and American Embassy personnel. Daniel Pearl's real parents play themselves. An excellent ENSEMBLE cast.
Finally I can't think of a better actor to play the ill-fated Pearl than Dan Futterman. |
Last edited by mo_flixx on Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| Marilyn |
| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:14 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8210
Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
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| yambu |
| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:28 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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Matewan is a mess. Based on a true event - a violent coal miners strike in 1920's WVA - Chris Cooper, in his first film role, is the plain-talking"Wobbly" organizer, who gets to deliver a great plain-talking speech. But not even James Earl Jones, a coal worker brimming with integrity, can save this obvious, draggy yarn. There is a young preacher, God's wunderkind, apparently, who delivers a sermon so juvenile, it should have driven out his congregation. The two strike breaker thugs (one of them is NYPD's Det. Medavoy) are just nasty, nasty. There are three scenes of them having meals in their reluctant boarder's home, where they gleefully taunt their host (though they don't ever knock the food). Then, for no apparent reason, they show up drunk at the poor kid's sermon. I mean, these guys are nasty.
To make sure you understand that all these strikers are in this thing together, an Italian mandoliner draws in a white guitarist and a black harmonica player, and together they make spontaneous harmony.
In between, Cooper spends lot of time stoking campfires while ruminating, in a home-spun way, on the workers of the world. |
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