Edward
Bartender
- Messages
- 25,081
- Location
- London, UK
Is this still happening in the UK, movies being cut and censored? I remember it was a huge thing it the 70's and 80's. In Australia too.
To an extent. Much less so than back then, though. The moral panic has moved on to video games and the web now.
Spielberg, however, I love. Thing with Spielberg is, aside from being technically undeniably good director, he's sincere. I too would consider cloying sentimentality corny if not downright insulting, if the man didn't feel it himself. He's... Rather, he was making movies the way a kid would, and it is a honesty I can only feel respect for - as I do for any kind of truth. Early Spielberg, for example, is still unrivaled. Duel, Jaws, Indiana Jones trilogy... Coincidentally, while I think Schindler's List is a very important film - I cannot think of any other director that would be able to deal so well with such subject - Empire of the Sun is one of the finest (war) movies I've ever seen, one that I find entirely devoid of Spielberg's trademark cheap emotional manipulation, which he did in fact use in List, dosing it just enough so to have everyones full attention.
Jaws may be something of a joke nowadays but I still get chills running down my spine while listening to Shaw's character Quint monologue about the sinking of the Indianapolis and how they delivered the bomb. Sure, Shaw's a great actor but I believe it takes a really good director to recognize the mans genius and the effect it will produce, to leave him talking for 5 minutes straight.
To be fair, he's done some decent stuff. Schlinder he kept it reined in enough not to ruin it (likely because so many of the folks depicted are still alive, and he was replicating true events...). One of the best moments he ever filmed, actually, was in.... was it Jaws or Jaws II[/I]? Where the parents all rush their kids out of the water after the shark attacks, and there's that image of one mother futilely looking for a kid who's no longer there... beautifully played. I think that's why he annoys me so much - I know he's capable of better.
Odd Pitt fact: he's a major devotee of Charles Rennie Macintosh, and became the trustee of a fund raising effort to restore the architect's original Glasgow School of Art building after it was gutted by fire earlier this year. Okay, back to famous people in flight jackets. I meant to be seeing Fury this weekend, looking forward to seeing if the jackets can hack it.
I discovered recently he's a qualified architect and designed his own house, which is the root of his admiration for CRM. Interesting guy.
Being a Rock n Roll and Hot Rod car fan i thought it was quite good. Unfortunately in the UK we had no concept of what was happening in the USA back then, we had Teddy Boys who caught the bus to work and Rockers on their motorbikes. No teenagers with fancy cars, most kids parents did not have their own transport, their just was not the money in the UK at that time.
Most Americans describe the film as fairly accurate to some extent.
There's an element of cultural unfamiliarity, possibly, but I found it so, so dull...
I have to say that if the story was that good would you have noticed zipper pulls? is it because of our interest in jackets and flying gear we pick up on things like this?
I do love a good story and I think a good story can carry a film so minor discrepancies do not affect my enjoyment. I have not seen this film but I probably would not have noticed the zippers on the jackets.
When I saw the original King Kong, I thought everything about this film was perfect, a fantastic story, great music and some good actors. The fact that I knew Kong was a model did not detract from the story, and I will watch it again and again
Ha, well, that might say a lot about it... I agree, though - a good enough story otherwise, and I doubt I'd notice while watching the film (as distinct from poring over stills). Funnily enough, I remember having this discussion a couple of years ago on here when some looney troll (who's been banned since - as had the other half dozen names under which he's cropped up over the years) had a fit about Aero making the A2s for The Monuments Men and claimed it would ruin the whole film.... lol