Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +3

[Puck]

Interesting take, but that's a lot of ammunition to unload on a dumb Chinese movie.

I guess people are getting irritable and impatient under lockdown.

From the Toronto Star, I see filming is slated to resume in Ontario on Tuesday. I suppose the same will hold true soon in the rest of the country and around the world. But I doubt it will be a strong rebound at first. 2020 is going to be a slow year.

 

[Puck]

 

[kihei]

Once upon a Time in the West (1968) Directed by Sergio Leone 8A

Few movies have been called a masterpiece more than this one. Watching it again, Once upon a Time in the West seemed like a flawed masterpiece, but I would be a fool not to recognize its amazing strengths. Problems in continuity pop up after key scenes--after the big showdown on the train; Cheyenne somehow getting out of jail and returning to the fray--and they are jarring. My presumption is that Leone may have envisioned an even longer movie than the nearly three hour film that emerged and, as a result, certain scenes got left on the cutting room floor. Why this is more than a nit-pick is because the film has a real style dependent on rhythm and flow, and these lapses disturb it. But, wow, so much goes right in this tale of revenge as two questionable characters loosely join forces to protect a damsel in distress (Claudia Cardanale). When the revenge finally arrives it is so perfect that it comes as a shock. I don't think our central troika of actors--Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda--are the equal of Clint Eastwood, Lee van Cleef and Eli Wallach in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but they will do. Fonda, nearly as averse to playing bad guys as Tom Hanks, finds real menace in Frank, the darkest character of his career. Robards never before played a tough guy in his life, but acquits himself well. And Bronson fits his role perfectly though he actually isn't required to do much acting other than a squinty-eyed glare that is very effective. This is the movie where the eyes have it. I have never seen a movie before or since with such a focus on characters' eyes and faces. Much of the tension in the film is communicated by close up, by the viewer just staring into a giant screen at people's eyes to such a radical extent that it seems almost like an avant garde technique. From the opening credits scene, totally unexpected and maybe the best opening scene in movie history, Leone takes a highly stylized approach to almost every confrontation, something that could have backfired but works beautifully instead because the movie is so all of a consistent piece (except for the glitches mentioned earlier). Throw in a host of key Western themes that have been in circulation since John Ford started to direct Westerns, and the movie is a very impressive work that some would argue is Leone's crowning achievement. I still prefer The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but Once upon a Time in the West is among the best Westerns of all time, too.

 

[Chili]

Once Upon a Time in the West is my favorite western. It's like opera meeting the old west. The opening sequence is unforgettable. Morricone's music for the key characters sets the mood. Fonda, Robards, Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Lionel Stander...great cast.

Classic.

 

[Osprey]

It's been so long that I don't remember anything about Once Upon a Time in the West except the opening.

Speaking of which, kihei mentioned that the cast is not quite the equal of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but the one thing that the latter doesn't have is Jack Elam. I mean, are you even a proper western if you don't have Jack Elam?

Interesting take, but that's a lot of ammunition to unload on a dumb Chinese movie.

At least he didn't unload on us for encouraging him to watch it.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) - 8/10

The re-make probably holds up better and likely has more suspense but I love the aesthetic of an American 70s thriller and this delivered. There's some pretty funny dialogue in there which at times is a bit over the top and detracts from the movie....it's hard to take everyone seriously when they're acting like a caricature of a middle aged New Yorker lol but Walter Matthau and the British villain are very good.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I can never discuss Westerns without being both amazed and disappointed that McCarthy's Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West hasn't been made into a film yet - it's the very best of art in the Western genre that I have personally enjoyed. The author is open to it and I'm sure there are ambitious filmmakers who would be more than willing to attempt it.

How rewarding could this look on the screen in the hands of a tasteful, stylish director?

“A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools.”

 

[kihei]

Once Upon a Time in the West is my favorite western. It's like opera meeting the old west. The opening sequence is unforgettable. Morricone's music for the key characters sets the mood. Fonda, Robards, Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Lionel Stander...great cast.

Classic.

Mine is McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Very different approach, though.

 

[NyQuil]

I can never discuss Westerns without being both amazed and disappointed that McCarthy's Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West hasn't been made into a film yet - it's the very best of art in the Western genre that I have personally enjoyed. The author is open to it and I'm sure there are ambitious filmmakers who would be more than willing to attempt it.

How rewarding could this look on the screen in the hands of a tasteful, stylish director?

It's already been done.

 

[Jevo]

One thing I really like about Once Upon A Time In The West is the music, and how the score doesn't just set the tone for the film, but also the pacing. Supposedly Morricone was asked to make the music before the film was made, and then Leone edited and shot the music to that music, instead of the other way around. It gives it a certain feel that very few other movies have, and when people call it opera-like, I think this is what they are referring to.

I also really love Leone's close ups. They were already a staple of his before Once Upon A Time In The West, but he takes the usage of them to a new level here. Very few directors dare go as close as Leone did, especially with such a wide frame. But he makes it work extremely well, and he makes Charles Bronson not moving a muscle in his whole face feel very emotional while doing so. I think it speaks volumes about his talents as an editor, how he's able to extract so much emotion from actors in a scene where not much is shown on the surface.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

It's already been done.

'Good God almighty.'

 

[Live in the Now]

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) - 8/10

The re-make probably holds up better and likely has more suspense but I love the aesthetic of an American 70s thriller and this delivered. There's some pretty funny dialogue in there which at times is a bit over the top and detracts from the movie....it's hard to take everyone seriously when they're acting like a caricature of a middle aged New Yorker lol but Walter Matthau and the British villain are very good.

The remake is pretty bad. Watched that a few months ago and some of the lines Travolta has are so bad. Sooooo bad.

 

[Osprey]

I can never discuss Westerns without being both amazed and disappointed that McCarthy's Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West hasn't been made into a film yet - it's the very best of art in the Western genre that I have personally enjoyed. The author is open to it and I'm sure there are ambitious filmmakers who would be more than willing to attempt it.

How rewarding could this look on the screen in the hands of a tasteful, stylish director?

After reading that entire excerpt, a simple period would be reward enough.

Thanks for reminding me why I hate Cormac McCarthy's writing, though .

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Interesting take, but that's a lot of ammunition to unload on a dumb Chinese movie.

I find myself with less and less patience for aggressively stupid things.

*edit* There's a certain forum on this site I should really be avoiding for the sake of my own mental health but somehow I keep ending up going back there. No doubt it's a major contributor to my fraying patience. I'm sure you know the one I mean...

 

[Chili]

Mine is McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Very different approach, though.

That's a good one, long time since I have seen it, seem to remember an easy pace. Don't remember the music from that film (probably why films like Once Upon, Good the Bad The Ugly, The Graduate come to mind right away). First person I think of from that movie is Keith Carradine. He's in another one of my favorites Emperor of the North.

 

[kihei]

That's a good one, long time since I have seen it, seem to remember an easy pace. Don't remember the music from that film (probably why films like Once Upon, Good the Bad The Ugly, The Graduate come to mind right away). First person I think of from that movie is Keith Carradine. He's in another one of my favorites Emperor of the North.

The music was a major contributor to the film's great sense of atmosphere, consisting mostly of songs from Leonard Cohen's first album.

 

[Chili]

The music was a major contributor to the film's great sense of atmosphere, consisting mostly of songs from Leonard Cohen's first album.

If I listen to the music it may trigger some memories of the film. Definitely enjoy Leonard Cohen's music.

Edit: Just listened to 'The Stranger'. That set a great tone for the movie.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

After reading that entire excerpt, a simple period would be reward enough.

Thanks for reminding me why I hate Cormac McCarthy's writing, though .

Sheer insanity.

 

[nameless1]

That is accurate. Right now, time has no meaning, and everything is in the doldrums, just like the middle of a Tarantino movie.


The last 10 minutes will be a carnage though. Well, it was nice to have talked to you guys.

 

[Osprey]

Sheer insanity.

Sheer insanity is that entire "paragraph" that you posted being a single sentence. McCarthy has perfected the art of writing, all right... the art of writing run-on sentences .

“A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools.”

 

[kihei]

I think it's a sentence fragment as he seems to be missing a main verb. Had McCarthy used one it would have been a legit sentence, surprisingly, not a run-on. All he needed to do was to add "gathered" after "a legion of horribles" at the start of the sentence.

 

[nameless1]

Every time I tried to read that "sentence", my brain just says "nope".

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Sheer insanity is that entire "paragraph" that you posted being a single sentence. McCarthy has perfected the art of writing, all right... the art of writing run-on sentences .

I will not stand up and vouch for the man's sanity. I will defend him as one of - if not the one - most important American artists, dead or alive.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

At least he didn't unload on us for encouraging him to watch it.

It's actually one of those things that's been sitting in my Netflix queue since forever and I just decided to finally bite the bullet and watch it for myself. Was not a fan.

I've got Netflix, Prime and Telus massive everything cable package, and there are roughly five million movies and tv shows my wife and I have put on watchlists at some point or other. I'm trying to make the effort to finally watch all the shit we've tagged before we go through anything else.

*edit* And pshaw, you run-on sentence amateurs. Try some Kerouac.

 

[Osprey]

Wind River (2017) - 7/10 (Really liked it)

A local game tracker (Jeremy Renner) assists a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) in investigating a girl found dead in the snow on a Wyoming indian reservation, barefoot and miles from civilization. It's a character-driven neo-Western mystery directed and written by the writer of Sicario and Hell or High Water, who was inspired to make the film to bring attention to the treatment of women on reservations. It was one of the last films distributed by The Weinstein Company, ironically enough. It's a little slow and in no rush to get to the end, but I didn't find it boring. The acting is very good across the board. I loved that it's set entirely in the snow, some of it set in the mountains. A lot of the film feels a bit familiar, especially if you've seen other modern thrillers set on reservations, but the complexity of the characters and delicate handling of the subject (and loss, in general) help it to overcome those and be a pretty good thriller.