Post by jrod on Dec 28, 2007 5:20:36 GMT
Something I wrote up a little earlier today. I'd be curious to hear some of your thoughts.
Spoilers to Lost in Translation, Sopranos
Some people really need things spelled out and put in a neat little package.
Floating around youtube right now, there is a video that determines the famous "whisper" at the end of Lost in Translation. It slows it down, blocks out other sounds, and between the sounds and lip reading you can make out exactly what it is that Bill Murray says to Scarlett Johannsen.
This is one of my favorite movies, certainly one of the 3 best of this decade so far in my opinion. It is one of the best directed, written, and acted movies I have seen and the cinematography is even more impressive. It is also incredibly entertaining to me, and a lot of the feeling involved (the movie's soul) comes from the subtle and ambiguous storyline and character study.
If the video on youtube has correctly interpreted the whisper, which is debateable, I don't really get what that is supposed to prove. It was an artistic decision left out of the film by Sofia Coppola because it didn't belong. Some odd examples coming, but they both stick with me for some reason....Back to the Future III has a cold blooded murder cut from it because it doesn't fit. Terminator 2: Judgement Day had several Michael Biehn dream sequences cut from it because the love scenes were only suited for the first movie. What I'm saying is that it was left out for a reason.
I can't imagine why anyone that likes or loves the movie would want this revealed...and I can't imagine anyone that didn't like or even hated the movie to waste so much time on it.
Now that we are wrapping up 2007, all those year in review articles, shows, podcasts, etc bring up the Sopranos debate again. Is Tony alive or dead? I won't go into detail, because its really pointless. The scene leaves several red herrings that would indicate a death, which of course also work as a plot device to indicate the paranoia Tony will have to live with until the end of his life (be that in 25 seconds or 25 years).There are hints and there is no proof.
How it is not obvious to anyone that the director intentionally left an ambiguous ending is beyond me. Did people even WATCH the freaking show? Jack Bauer isn't around to wrap up every little loose end by the end of each season, and there isn't monologging suppervillians to reveal every aspect of the plot like in a Bond film. We will never know who killed Tony's horse (season 4) and we will never know what happened to the Russian in the "Pine Barrens" episode (season 3). We will never know what happened to Tony even a millisecond after the screen went black. Get used to it.
David Chase (Sopranos creator) gave an interview to GQ in which he only emphasized what was in the episode. Red herrings again in both directions. He talks about the "never saw it coming" theme that was there the whole season, which several journalists, including Bill Simmons (the Sports Guy) who is among my favorites took to mean "he's dead". CNN chose to look at a part in the interview that said there was no Da Vinci code, nothing to decode from the scene, what you see is what you get, etc. They were nice enough to post an article titled "Sopranos creator says Tony is alive and well". How stupid. The interview leaves just as much in the air as the episode.
In closing, art is what it is. It only cheapens it if people think that an "addendum" such as a youtube clip or an interview is necessary. These "conclusions" were left out for a reason. Let's leave them that way.
Spoilers to Lost in Translation, Sopranos
Some people really need things spelled out and put in a neat little package.
Floating around youtube right now, there is a video that determines the famous "whisper" at the end of Lost in Translation. It slows it down, blocks out other sounds, and between the sounds and lip reading you can make out exactly what it is that Bill Murray says to Scarlett Johannsen.
This is one of my favorite movies, certainly one of the 3 best of this decade so far in my opinion. It is one of the best directed, written, and acted movies I have seen and the cinematography is even more impressive. It is also incredibly entertaining to me, and a lot of the feeling involved (the movie's soul) comes from the subtle and ambiguous storyline and character study.
If the video on youtube has correctly interpreted the whisper, which is debateable, I don't really get what that is supposed to prove. It was an artistic decision left out of the film by Sofia Coppola because it didn't belong. Some odd examples coming, but they both stick with me for some reason....Back to the Future III has a cold blooded murder cut from it because it doesn't fit. Terminator 2: Judgement Day had several Michael Biehn dream sequences cut from it because the love scenes were only suited for the first movie. What I'm saying is that it was left out for a reason.
I can't imagine why anyone that likes or loves the movie would want this revealed...and I can't imagine anyone that didn't like or even hated the movie to waste so much time on it.
Now that we are wrapping up 2007, all those year in review articles, shows, podcasts, etc bring up the Sopranos debate again. Is Tony alive or dead? I won't go into detail, because its really pointless. The scene leaves several red herrings that would indicate a death, which of course also work as a plot device to indicate the paranoia Tony will have to live with until the end of his life (be that in 25 seconds or 25 years).There are hints and there is no proof.
How it is not obvious to anyone that the director intentionally left an ambiguous ending is beyond me. Did people even WATCH the freaking show? Jack Bauer isn't around to wrap up every little loose end by the end of each season, and there isn't monologging suppervillians to reveal every aspect of the plot like in a Bond film. We will never know who killed Tony's horse (season 4) and we will never know what happened to the Russian in the "Pine Barrens" episode (season 3). We will never know what happened to Tony even a millisecond after the screen went black. Get used to it.
David Chase (Sopranos creator) gave an interview to GQ in which he only emphasized what was in the episode. Red herrings again in both directions. He talks about the "never saw it coming" theme that was there the whole season, which several journalists, including Bill Simmons (the Sports Guy) who is among my favorites took to mean "he's dead". CNN chose to look at a part in the interview that said there was no Da Vinci code, nothing to decode from the scene, what you see is what you get, etc. They were nice enough to post an article titled "Sopranos creator says Tony is alive and well". How stupid. The interview leaves just as much in the air as the episode.
In closing, art is what it is. It only cheapens it if people think that an "addendum" such as a youtube clip or an interview is necessary. These "conclusions" were left out for a reason. Let's leave them that way.