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Post by Michael on Feb 21, 2006 5:55:18 GMT
American History X (1998; Kaye) *****/5 A former neo-nazi skinhead tries to prevent his brother from following the same wrong path he did. I don't give 5 star ratings usually, but my goodness did this film merit it. The film is so utterly poignant, and Edward Norton's performance is one of the best I've ever seen. The use of black and white for scenes in the past tense and color for scenes in the present was brilliant. This is one of the most powerful films ever made, and one of the best of the 90's. This post is a joke right? I started watching watching this movie on TV, and I just now turned it off because of how God damn horrible it is. What the hell would make you think this movie is so great? It's one of the worst I've ever seen, period.
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Post by Vercetti on Feb 21, 2006 6:13:22 GMT
Personally, I thought American History X was great (three stars), though I wouldn't say the BW/Color was brilliant. I liked it's use in Memento more in regards to present/past.
For a moment I thought Anasazie was back.
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Post by Michael on Feb 21, 2006 6:15:18 GMT
Personally, I thought American History X was great My question is, why?
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Post by Vercetti on Feb 21, 2006 6:17:49 GMT
It's a well structured film driven by a good direction and most of all, performances. It's not the average film that deals with it's subject matter, and it actually said a lot more about racism then Crash did. It's one of the many films I have been trying to fit a rewatch in. It's hard to believe the Norton in 1996's Primal Fear was in this two years later.
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Post by Michael on Feb 21, 2006 6:42:57 GMT
The entire thing felt extremely corny to me. It felt like something Southpark would do a parody of, actually. I thought the acting was above average at best, and the subject matter isn't anything that interests me at all. Very shallow...a "surface" film, as I call them.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 21, 2006 9:39:02 GMT
Glad you watched and loved The New World, Omar! Due to film making this week, and the fact that I've started watching Heimat (got through four hours so far), my Proviewing will be little this week.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Feb 21, 2006 16:27:29 GMT
In my opinion, American History X is a worthless film.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 21, 2006 16:48:58 GMT
Nothing like a bit of elaboration, there, Wet Dog. As a social comment, I find it rather frivolous stuff, just as much as Crash, to maintain a sense of comparison. It is, however, a well-acted and powerful film to which I merit one star.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Feb 21, 2006 17:25:25 GMT
;D Just thought I'd interject.
Since I haven't seen the film in years, I'm going to post something I wrote for another forum shortly after last watching it, which must be three or four years ago.
I guess I still agree with this;
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Post by Michael on Feb 21, 2006 19:41:09 GMT
In my opinion, American History X is a worthless film. Thank you.
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Post by Vercetti on Feb 21, 2006 20:52:16 GMT
In my opinion, American History X is a worthless film. Thank you. For what? Is this a vote? ------------------ Match Point - (Woody Allen;2005;UK/USA/Luxembourg) An Irish man moves to London where he becomes acquainted with a family. However when he begins a relationship with a woman, he begins another affair with her brother's girlfriend.I didn't know what to expect from this film but I was pleasantly surprised. It didn't even feel like a Woody Allen film. The story proved to be gripping, while wonderfully supported by it's actors, most notably Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Scarlett Johansson. I feared the ending as I felt that little connection from the beginning was going to aim for a predictable ending, but Allen swerves away from it, saving the film. The opera music used also sets a wonderful melancholy mood.
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Post by Michael on Feb 21, 2006 21:35:38 GMT
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 21, 2006 22:00:42 GMT
Glad you liked Match Point, Vercetti. That's another one for me to "fight" against. It's interesting that you should mention Allen's venture into opera music, which replaces his usual jazz riffs to give the film a weightier punch. Didn't you find the final episode, with the introduction of the two coppers, an awkward U-turn into the comic? I think I would have preferred the film to go all the way into darkness, and not hovering about neither here nor there. In this sense, I find Crimes and Misdemeanors far superior in its amalgamation of the sinister and the comic. Meyers grated on me; I found his accent unbearable, and none of the characters were likeable. I realise that this may have been intentional, though I can't help but think Meyers' pure English accent was a way of making the film accessible to Allen's hardcore American audience. Hopefully, his next film, Scoop will ring a little more true. By the synopsis, though, I'm not holding my breath.
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Post by Vercetti on Feb 21, 2006 23:29:41 GMT
I know DVC, that's why I had a sentence after the "For what?" You made it feel like it was a contest to see how many disliked the film.
Capo, it didn't feel like a big U-turn for me. Slightly I felt a little more humor but otherwise I felt it was executed wonderfully. I loved the scene where Meyer's tells the police about the affair.
I guess it's just that difference, because I liked the characters. And it's odd how my emotions fluctuate. I felt very sorry for Nola in those last few scenes for her considering her situation, but at the same time, oddly enough I was rooting for Chris during his scene doing the sin.
I love how he rationalizes to the old woman. The innocent are sometimes slain to make way for grander schemes. You were collateral damage.
I saw some of Crimes and Misdemeanors, but just a little.
Oddly enough Capo, Allen considers Match Point a bad film, because no one sees his movies anymore, though that's a weak opinion on why it's bad to me.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Feb 22, 2006 1:45:39 GMT
"Match Point" is one of few recent films to split me down the middle, probably the last film to do so with such an effect was "Dogville". I really didn't know who to support in the second half, and I loved how it seemed that Meyer's character seemed to switch personalties with Nola in the second half. In the beginning, he was the one who was obsessed, but in the end, it was her obsession that led to everything. But as for the ending, I ended up supporting Meyers. I love it when films like this (and "Dogville") are able to distinguish what kind of person you are through such extreme representations. At least that's what I got from it. Metropolitan(1990/Whit Stillman) [First Viewing] A group of upper-class Manhattan twenty-somethings hold group discussions on things from Jane Austen to Luis Bunuel.It starts out as an almost wannabe Woody Allen film, but soon reaches territory of its own. By the end of it, this low-budget film manages to be very funny, and it serves as a heavy influence to filmmakers like Wes Anderson or Noah Baumbach. I was greatly reminded of "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Squid and the Whale" while watching this. All three films are about characters who seem to exist in their own time and world. A rare film where all the Fitzgerald inspired characters manage to be unlikable, yet still engagingly funny.
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Post by Vercetti on Feb 22, 2006 4:27:27 GMT
I just watched the HBO documentary Dealing Dogs, which was a very hard thing to sit through. Some evil cocksuckers really deserve to be brutally murdered.
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Omar
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Post by Omar on Feb 22, 2006 5:46:03 GMT
On the Waterfront(1954/Elia Kazan) [First Viewing] An ex-boxer fights against the tyranny of mob bosses on the docks of New York.Truthfully, this is a film driven by performances, but it's realistic approach and on location filming were revolutionary at the time, and still makes it look good today. It's often considered to be an allegory in support of the communist witch hunts of the 1950's, but at it's heart, it's a film about honor and non-conformity. The taxi cab scene and the closing sequence on the dock ('Without your heaters your nothin!') are now legendary, and rightfully so, for they are some of the most compelling scenes in classic Hollywood history.
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Post by Vercetti on Feb 22, 2006 5:48:55 GMT
Glad you loved it. I love the taxi cab scene, as well as the scene near the end where Terry and Edie find that person in the alley. Normally a lot of music from the golden years of Hollywood seem to have a generic flow, but the music in that film really touched me.
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Post by Michael on Feb 22, 2006 5:59:18 GMT
On the Waterfront was the only film I've ever watched twice in one day. The funny thing is, I don't even think Brando's best acting came in the taxicab scene. I thought his best acting was during the final scene, when he was on the dock, confronting his union bosses.
"You take them heaters away from you and you're nothin', you know that?...You take the good goods away and the kickbacks and the shakedown cabbage and them pistoleros and you're nothin'. Your guts is all in your wallet and your trigger finger - you know that?...You give it to Joey. You give it to Dugan. You give it to Charley, who was one of your own. You think you're God almighty. But you know what you are?...You're a cheap, lousy, dirty, stinkin', mug! And I'm glad what I've done to you. And I'm gonna keep on doin' it!..."
You can actually view the film 2 ways...as an allegory for anti-communism...OR a film that deals with non-conformity and man's struggle to stay moral. Elia Kazan has however, admitted numerous times to being a huge conservative.
Which begs the question...can you enjoy a film, and disagree with its message at the same time?
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