tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post7360690029592840255..comments2023-11-05T02:01:53.847-06:00Comments on Antagony & Ecstasy: JACK AND THE SUBMARINETimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09491952893581644049noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-38501905208067261232014-01-17T19:12:41.568-06:002014-01-17T19:12:41.568-06:00Hurray for validation!a dozen years later but it s...Hurray for validation!a dozen years later but it still feels good. Most of the people in my class brought in clips of art films, but I should mention that my best friend brought inn the single most graphic scene from "Romance"as her clip just to throw everyone off, and I've always loved her for it. This was the same school where my screenwriting prof put down my screenplay while lavishing praise on the most deliberately depressing and manipulative script I've ever read. <br />Rick - I'm going to have to go back and watch that scene again. I love subtle, dramatic zooms.Brian Malbonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01908354298411555211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-85462076715558962312014-01-17T15:44:23.727-06:002014-01-17T15:44:23.727-06:00@Brian- "while discussing plot-pointless plea...@Brian- "while discussing plot-pointless pleasantries, the camera continues to zoom in, slowly, so slowly you almost don't notice it, cross-cutting back and forth between Baldwin and Jones"<br /><br />"The Exorcist" also employs this technique in a few key scenes, usually with conversations with authority figures like doctors or detectives.<br />A scene between Ellen Burstyn and Lee J. Cobb has them sitting at a dining table, chatting. Cobb is warm, caring and conversational.....but as his "kindly older gentleman" mask begins to slip and the hardened detective begins asking more probing questions, the camera slowly zooms in (so slowly you barely notice) and the cross-cutting between the two speeds up.<br /><br />I really love "The Exorcist", is what I mean to say.Rick Rischehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04099343670647861471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-34231399578781499602014-01-17T13:15:35.683-06:002014-01-17T13:15:35.683-06:00I think I love this film primarily because it is s...I think I love this film primarily because it is such a non-action action film. I am excited and on edge watching what is going on on-screen, but very little of it outwardly "exciting". Indeed, among the most compelling scenes for me is the very quiet discussion Connery and Neill are having in his stateroom about driving an RV to Montana whilst the subs circle each other within a few yards. Zero "action" is happening, but damn, am I worked up!<br /><br />I am also partial to so many of the bit parts that make it work: Fred Dalton Thompson, Scott Glenn, and especially Richard Jordan. His little exchange with Baldwin after the national security briefing is worth the price of admission, IMHO. Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08377504727468770408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-29850052346965281002014-01-17T10:31:57.097-06:002014-01-17T10:31:57.097-06:00ConciseStatement- The new movie is getting surpris...ConciseStatement- The new movie is getting surprisingly "meh, not bad" reviews. Which is almost disappointing to me, because I'd hoped for exactly the thing you describe, but it sounds like it's a firm step up from <i>The Sum of All Fears</i>.<br /><br />And I go back and forth on whether I prefer this movie or <i>Crimson Tide</i> (which is probably my favorite TS movie as well). They seem so similar, and yet it's so hard for me to compare them.<br /><br />Jeremy- Of course I am! I'm not sticking to a "this film on this date" schedule, since I don't know when I'm seeing the new one, but the whole thing should be done by this time next week.<br /><br />Brian- What jackass professors. Many years ago, for my own editing class, I brought a <i>From Russia with Love</i> clip for discussion, and it was well-received, if not with any undue enthusiasm. In fact, most of the presentations were on some kind of action cinema, if I remember correctly. Also, one kid did Tarkovsky's <i>Mirror</i>, which was a ballsy choice if nothing else.<br /><br />By which I mean, that sucks that you got shot down, because that's a perfectly sane reading of that moment.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09491952893581644049noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-5377385192696109562014-01-16T22:30:09.699-06:002014-01-16T22:30:09.699-06:00Tim, I've decided I like your retrospectives u...Tim, I've decided I like your retrospectives unannounced and surprising. What a great treat to click on your link while waiting for a movie and find a review of one of my favorites!<br /><br />In my second-year university film editing class, we were assigned to bring in a clip of a movie where the editing really meant something to us. I choose this one, and the scene I choose was Baldwin's first meeting with James Earl Jones - while discussing plot-pointless pleasantries, the camera continues to zoom in, slowly, so slowly you almost don't notice it, cross-cutting back and forth between Baldwin and Jones, while the slow build of the score ads an ominous feel to the scene. Before we've even gotten to the submarine talk out anything regardingthe soviets at all, we've moved into close ups of both men and the tension is so thick on my first viewing I was entranced and more than a little scared. And all that while talking about four-year olds and teddy bears.<br /><br />My professor didn't agree with my sentiment. Most of my film professors didn't like my ideas about film very much.Brian Malbonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01908354298411555211noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-83015543690858783352014-01-16T22:05:20.297-06:002014-01-16T22:05:20.297-06:00Goddamn, do I miss John McTiernan.
This is a grea...Goddamn, do I miss John McTiernan.<br /><br />This is a great film, but ya know I always liked the Ford Jack Ryan movies too, particularly Patriot Games. Will you lookin' at those films as well? Jeremyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12219137212221355997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14812333.post-74574797477334457672014-01-16T20:13:04.174-06:002014-01-16T20:13:04.174-06:00I've got a bad feeing the new Jack Ryan film i...I've got a bad feeing the new Jack Ryan film is about to exemplify the horrific degradation of popcorn cinema writing between 1990 and 2014.<br /><br />Of course this is a good film, but I grew up with the more bang-'splodey Crimson Tide, which, along with The Last Boy Scout, is my favourite Tony Scott film. It contains Gene Hackman coiffing Prosecco, filling in The Times Cryptic Crossword and delighting us with Wildian witticisms such as "They're fuelling their missiles! We don't have time to fuck around!"<br />Part of the reason I love that film so much is that he's not necessarily wrong - he's just conservative, a hawk and thus deeply unlikeable. Therefore the film, perhaps unintentionally, reveals the horrible truth that getting you on side in politics really is just down to personality.TheConciseStatementhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14734678336303615613noreply@blogger.com