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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

Patrick Murtha

Practically Family
Messages
651
Location
Wisconsin
I watched Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas last night, and had an ambivalent reaction to it. It is cinematically exciting, without any question, and very well performed. But a question that arises for me is, why should I care about these people or what happens to them? They're just vile. Although I rather like the fact that Ray Liotta's Henry Hill turns informer because he's afraid for his hide, not because he has any "moral awakening," still, I'm left with an emptiness that I don't feel when I'm watching The Sopranos (obviously influenced by Goodfellas) or, to pick other gangster films starring Robert DeNiro, The Godfather Part II or Once Upon a Time iin America. No one's death or danger in Goodfellas moved me. And one of the most celebrated elements of the film, Joe Pesci's Oscar-winning performance as the nut gangster Tommy, I felt functioned in a dramatically inert way. The character has no shadings and no interiority, and once you've established (as Scorsese does early) that he'll do anything, where do you go with that?* I did like his send-off stylistically, but then I liked the whole film stylistically. It was the emotional connection that wasn't there for me.

*Here's how another film goes about it: In the classic Kiss of Death, Richard Widmark's Tommy Udo, a character closely related to Pesci's Tommy, commits one utterly memorable barbarity and that's it. We spend the rest of the film being apprehensive whenever he's in the scene, but director Henry Hathaway doesn't push it. He just wants us on edge. Scorsese keeps upping the ante with his Tommy, scene by scene. It's operatic, but there's a sense of diminishing returns because the same fact ("He's nuts!") keeps getting demonstrated.
 

imoldfashioned

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,979
Location
USA
Zemke Fan said:
A very powerful and often overlooked film.

Very true--I'm a huge Atom Egoyan fan. I really want to listen to his commentary for the film. I like the Pied Piper theme in that very much--you could apply it to several of the story threads.

The acting is very strong too; I'd watch Ian Holm read the phone book and Sarah Polley is wonderful--one of her first films I think.
 

Mr_Misanthropy

Practically Family
Messages
618
Location
Chicago, Illinois
The War

Right now I'm watching "The War", 1994, with Elijah Wood and Kevin Costner. It's a great story, and it's too bad it isn't more well known. I'm surprised it wasn't nominated for one of the major awards. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. Of course, there a LOT of recommendations to go through in this thread. lol
 

ghostdog

New in Town
Messages
12
Location
Malaysia
I just watched Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious two nights back. It was really hard to get a copy of the DVD, since last I checked, Amazon didn't have it anymore. It was a great watch nonetheless.

Still in a noir mode these days since I got my first fedora, so tonight I think I'm gonna watch 'Where the sidewalk ends'. Any Loungers seen that one yet?
 

Patrick Murtha

Practically Family
Messages
651
Location
Wisconsin
ghostdog said:
Still in a noir mode these days since I got my first fedora, so tonight I think I'm gonna watch 'Where the sidewalk ends'. Any Loungers seen that one yet?

Yes, that's a very fine noir. I'm a huge Dana Andrews fan.
 

Spiffy

A-List Customer
Messages
388
Location
Wilmington, NC
Jovan said:
Any reason in particular?

Pretty much because of the scene in the courtroom where Toby Maguire makes William H. Macy cry. It just starts me off, and then Fiona Apple's cover of Across the Universe starts, and I'm just a horrible weepy mess.

I promise that I'm pretty normal the rest of the movie!
 

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