Most overrated movies?

[LizzieMaine]

Whatever good there was in Capra's work came from Robert Riskin, who wrote the scripts for his best 1930s films. After they had their falling out -- prompted both by political incompatibilities and Capra's need to hog credit beyond that which was legitimately his -- there was no restraint on Capra's taste for regressive schmaltz.

Capra's autobiography, "The Name Above The Title," is a textbook example of ego run rampant. A very satisfying takedown of his self-made legend is "Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success," by Joseph McBride, a book that peels off the varnish to reveal the thin veneer beneath.

 

[Bushman]

It's a Wonderful Life.
Jimmy Stewart's endless whining just grates on me to no end.

Nooooo, my favorite Christmas movie!

 

[Harp]

I was about to say The Sound Of Music myself. When we screened it a few years back, it came with what the contract called "compulsory fun bags" that we were required to hand out to the audience. That's all you really need to know about that picture. I love Rodgers and Hart. I loathe Rodgers and Hammerstein.

I adore The Sound of Music. Last night-around midnight NPR played Julie Andrews' opening score,
love her voice, and the story is nothing less than Shakespearean. Where else but in Shakespeare,
or, the Bible are such themes found? The human heart is scaled to its summit, plumbed to the depths
of soul, where the divine spark inheritance enflames love and vanquished hate?

 

[Seb Lucas]

I adore The Sound of Music. Last night-around midnight NPR played Julie Andrews' opening score,
love her voice, and the story is nothing less than Shakespearean. Where else but in Shakespeare,
or, the Bible are such themes found? The human heart is scaled to its summit, plumbed to the depths
of soul, where the divine spark inheritance enflames love and vanquished hate?

Even Christopher Plumber supposedly called the film, "The Sound of Mucus". On the money as far as I am concerned. You can find great Shakespearean themes in episodes of Happy Days or Mork and Mindy...

 

[Harp]

Even Christopher Plumber supposedly called the film, "The Sound of Mucus". On the money as far as I am concerned. You can find great Shakespearean themes in episodes of Happy Days or Mork and Mindy...

"You speak an infinite deal of nothing."
The Merchant of Venice

 

[Bushman]

I never cared for "Gone With the Wind." It's a poorly aged, long-winded (pun intended), and irreconcilably boring movie that romanticizes treasonous aristocrats, and demonizes American soldiers. There's very little about it I like, the bulk of that being Cary Grant.

 

[Harp]

I never cared for "Gone With the Wind." It's a poorly aged, long-winded (pun intended), and irreconcilably boring movie that romanticizes treasonous aristocrats, and demonizes American soldiers. There's very little about it I like, the bulk of that being Cary Grant.

Trust me, I was in the Green Berets and American GIs are demons.
I was, of course, one of the few exceptions, a fact I attribute to innate angelic qualities bequeathed
by membership in first grade Sister Mary Therese's Huckleberry Hounds reading group.

And, Vivien Leigh alone is worth watching GWTW.

Cary Grant was not in the flick at all, but Vivien Leigh is in this classic.

 

[LizzieMaine]

GWTW is four hours of empty spectacle -- a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Plus Ashley Wilkes is a dink.

I could do without the whole Movie Cult Of The South that ran from "Birth Of A Nation" to "Gods and Generals." It did more to perpetuate the historical fraud of the "Lost Cause" than any other force in popular culture.

 

[Harp]

-- a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
It did more to perpetuate the historical fraud of the "Lost Cause" than any other force in popular culture

The carnage inflicted by the war is staggering, its strategy and tactics still studied; and, within this cauldron
the United States forged singular from plural. Hellish slaughter, nothing less.
Martha Mitchell, Southern Belle embellished the romance of History and the inherent human dynamic
between male and female to great effect. GWTW as film is consequently caught between fact and fantasy,
though the underlying history can be seen and heard throughout the production.
And women have as a rule told me that Rhett Butler returned to Scarlet O'Hara, and I have argued differently.

 

[belfastboy]

GWTW is four hours of empty spectacle -- a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Plus Ashley Wilkes is a dink.

I could do without the whole Movie Cult Of The South that ran from "Birth Of A Nation" to "Gods and Generals." It did more to perpetuate the historical fraud of the "Lost Cause" than any other force in popular culture.

Funny how Hollywood is so good at perpetuating fraudulent narratives.......I guess if you have to be good at something......

 

[Turnip]

I would say they just produce what they think to sell best, trying to fit the expectations of as many as possible best possible.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Rhett lost me when he shot the pony. The pony wasn't responsible for what happened. He was.

 

[Harp]

Rhett lost me when he shot the pony. The pony wasn't responsible for what happened. He was.

Passion offers Rhett valid recourse as legal defense and moral refuge due to incapacitation following
his daughter's death-had he delayed this act, said would constitute forfeiture, and render such defense invalid.
Once forfeited, Passion is difficult retrieve; becoming subjective and opens motive to conjecture.
So, we can absolve Rhett.

Gable's back and Lizzie's got him.

 

[tonyb]

1966. Castle A.F.B.
Getting ready to go overseas I had some spare time and went to the base theater.
This was the only film playing. Filmed in
black & white. I had heard of Capote
but was not familiar with this story but
I like "film noirs" so I went in.

Without a doubt this has to rank as the most depressing film I have ever seen.
View attachment 100089
The visuals and acting are excellent. but it's not something I would have on my list of watching again.
I realize that part of the reason was also where I was and what was happening in the world at the time.
In the 28 years as a news journalist, having talked with many people
on death row. I cannot get excited or enjoy watching these films.
Same with Schindler's List.

I gotta part company with you on this one, but I appreciate that your emotional reaction to the film didn’t blind you to the “excellent” “visuals and acting.”

“Capote,” the 2005 Philip Seymour Hoffman vehicle that covers much of the same territory, is more than a bit depressing as well, but I forgive it as I forgive “In Cold Blood” (released in ’67, per IMDB), and for the same reason: the subject matter *is* depressing. Both films address a crime that in the end claimed six human lives, four of them innocent, and “Capote” shines a light on what a duplicitous, self-serving character Truman Capote was.

“In Cold Blood” is a great book that, more than any other in recent times, changed the way nonfiction tales are told. It’s straightforward, it’s evocative, it’s lyrical. For that reason, the crime and its telling — in print and on film — is deserving of examination.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Note that, in the same way that those two volcano disaster films and two asteroid-strikes-earth films came out at virtually the same time, Capote has a doppelganger in Infamous (2006).

The identical story - how Truman Capote and Harper Lee went to Kansas and researched In Cold Blood - but with Toby Jones as Capote, Sandra Bullock as Lee, Jeff Daniels as the sheriff, Lee Pace(!) and Daniel Craig(!) as the killers, and a solid supporting cast as Capote's Manhattan friends (who figure more importantly in this telling). While Jones' take on Capote is a bit more caricatured than Hoffman's and not Oscar-worthy, I find that I mostly prefer Infamous. Anyway, the two films make for a really fascinating comparison.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Yeah, I know of that film but I’ve avoided it, mostly out of fear that it would disappoint. Your take on it has me reconsidering. I’ll search my pricy cable service to see if it’s available “free” (hah!) to me.

I’m a great fan of Capote’s work but certainly not of his character. He might have been big fun on a night on the town, but woe be to any person who trusted him with anything of personal importance. I, like most of us, I suppose, have known similar personalities. I find them easy enough to get along with, and often enjoyable company, provided I remain mindful of their weaknesses.

 

[belfastboy]

I gotta part company with you on this one, but I appreciate that your emotional reaction to the film didn’t blind you to the “excellent” “visuals and acting.”

“Capote,” the 2005 Philip Seymour Hoffman vehicle that covers much of the same territory, is more than a bit depressing as well, but I forgive it as I forgive “In Cold Blood” (released in ’67, per IMDB), and for the same reason: the subject matter *is* depressing. Both films address a crime that in the end claimed six human lives, four of them innocent, and “Capote” shines a light on what a duplicitous, self-serving character Truman Capote was.

“In Cold Blood” is a great book that, more than any other in recent times, changed the way nonfiction tales are told. It’s straightforward, it’s evocative, it’s lyrical. For that reason, the crime and its telling — in print and on film — is deserving of examination.

I remember watching it on TV not knowing much about it except based on the book. I found the movie scary, chilling, depressing and it really impacted me viscerally. I watched it again 35 years later and I thought it still an impactful movie just not as impactful as I knew the arc.

 

[tonyb]

I remember watching it on TV not knowing much about it except based on the book. I found the movie scary, chilling, depressing and it really impacted me viscerally. I watched it again 35 years later and I thought it still an impactful movie just not as impactful as I knew the arc.

If memory serves, a couple-three of the minor characters portrayed themselves in the film. And the filmmakers used several locations where the actual events took place, including the Clutter house, where the murders occurred, and the actual courtroom, where the killers were tried and convicted and sentenced to death.

I’m torn on that. It may leave the film more “authentic,” which is arguably a virtue in the telling of a “true” story, but it kinda borders on voyeurism. Do I really have to see the actual bedroom where a 16-year-old girl was shot in the head at close range? If I were among the surviving Clutter family and friends, I’d find that distasteful at best.

 

[Bushman]

Trust me, I was in the Green Berets and American GIs are demons.
I was, of course, one of the few exceptions, a fact I attribute to innate angelic qualities bequeathed
by membership in first grade Sister Mary Therese's Huckleberry Hounds reading group.

And, Vivien Leigh alone is worth watching GWTW.

Cary Grant was not in the flick at all, but Vivien Leigh is in this classic.

Haha, I always get Gable and Grant mixed up for some reason.

 

[belfastboy]

Whatever good there was in Capra's work came from Robert Riskin, who wrote the scripts for his best 1930s films. After they had their falling out -- prompted both by political incompatibilities and Capra's need to hog credit beyond that which was legitimately his -- there was no restraint on Capra's taste for regressive schmaltz.

Capra's autobiography, "The Name Above The Title," is a textbook example of ego run rampant. A very satisfying takedown of his self-made legend is "Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success," by Joseph McBride, a book that peels off the varnish to reveal the thin veneer beneath.

My anecdotal observation is that 'ego run rampant" is almost a prerequisite for inclusion into Hollywood's ranks.