I’m partial to
and
because they are truly spectacularly bad movies.
I see what you did there. Well played…
Kinda liked Christine, myself, but then I guess I’m pretty much a Carpenter fanboy.
It is a good adaption, as is Carrie. I am not a King fan particularly, so it has to go a mile extra to please me.
It’s funny, I never think of Shawshank (or Stand by Me for that matter) as a “Stephen King story.” As for The Shining, I find that more of an interesting movie to look at – it’s Kubrick after all – than a movie that tells a great story.
I hear you Jason, and that is actually what I enjoy about it. It is a tonally cool, haunting film; it doesn’t feel like it is a Stephen King ™ Movie.
Hey, that’s great…glad she enjoyed it. I really loved it, too. After I wrote that little blurb I ended up watching it again (something I rarely do), and it definitely rewarded a second viewing.
That’s one I haven’t seen that I’ll be putting on my list. I have a hard time seeing how it’ll get past The Lady Eve, but I’ll definitely give it a shot.
Well, “uncensored” may be overstating it. I’m sure it was still censored, but there were two cuts of the film: the theatrical release, and a pre-release cut that was given to various censorship boards for review. The pre-release cut was assumed lost, but a print was found in 2005. The pre-release cut is 75 minutes (the theatrical release was 71 minutes), and as far as I can tell is pretty much considered the canonical cut of the film now. It’s the one Amazon and TCM and the DVD versions all use, so I assume that’s the one you saw.
There’s a pretty good run-down of the changes here: Baby Face | Electric Sheep – reviews
The uncut version offers an entirely different moral slant and an open ending. Restored is the extended exchange between Lily and Cragg early on in the film. The bit that was missing is Cragg’s elaboration of an extract from Nietzsche’s Will to Power (it should be noted that this is not a book actually written by Nietzsche, but a series of fragments from his notebooks edited together and published by his sister after his mental breakdown). Cragg suggests that ‘All life is exploitation’, and that Lily could ‘exploit herself’ and ‘use men to get the things [she] want[s]’. Presumably, this nihilistic philosophy and the exposure of the labour market system were too much for the censors, especially as they were used to rouse a woman to action. This exchange entirely shifts the emphasis, from ‘free yourself from systems of exploitation’ in the uncut version to ‘freedom can only exist in reference to pre-written moral codes’ in the cut.
Thanks for all that info. Appreciate it!
edit: Also, cool website. I had not been there before, and need to explore it now.
I think the TV mini-series The Stand is one the best King adaptations. I also like Salem’s Lot as well. TV movies can be good too!
These are my Grandpa options for the Weekend. I need to narrow it down.
Never Seen:
Seen too long ago and needs to be rewatched. Pronto:
Any advice appreciated.
Heh, other than “The Wind And The Lion”, I have not seen a single one of those. And The Wind And The Lion was so long ago, I can only remember the setting, and literally nothing else (other than Connery was definitely not Bond-like). :-)
edit: Now that I’m thinking more about it, I seem to recall that Connery’s acting seemed a bit wooden to me at the time, although I could easily be mistaken, since I was in my 20’s when I saw it, and I may have been expecting something different than it actually was.
As an aside, I’ll just mention that one of my favorite Connery performances was a Hitchcock film: “Marnie”.
It brought out his more sensitive side, and it is also one of my favorite Hitchcock films.
The Wind and the Lion is a very good movie, you’ll enjoy it.
Yeah, I’ll do that one. It’s a Milius and I have never seen it…just always slipped through the cracks. Probably Army of Shadows too. Seriously, I’d be obliged to any other personal recommendations off that list. it’s my current watch these now, bubby list.
I have never seen that and need to. If you want a Psychological mind-f*** of a film with him and directed by Sidney Lumet see this. You will be haunted for weeks.
Thanks. Never heard of it, but it definitely sounds intriguing, so on the list it goes.
Because of this thread, my list of films I need to see has never been longer than it is right now.
I love The Professionals. One of the great closing lines in movie history.
I ended up watching Army of Shadows this past weekend. I am still digesting; I’ll try to speak to it in the War Films thread later. It was fantastic, but the way it unfurled, languidly almost, was very different for Melville, based on what I have seen. It was fantastic; the cinematography with its bleached color, really gave a feeling of grey, drab, futility to Occupied and Vichy France.
The performances were superb. But it felt during some scenes for me, where suspense and drama were supposed/expected to be generated, that they were more matter of fact. Different from other Melville films I have seen. I need to think about this one more, maybe see it again.
Woah, does that by any chance include a non-3D version on the disc? I do have a 3D Panasonic plasma (from 2013, the last year they made them), but I’ve been thinking about picking up a copy of the film in any case. Where did you find it at that price? Amazon?
BTW a fun movie from slightly later is the brilliant To Be or Not to Be, directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Jack Benny, Carole Lombard and a very young Robert Stack in a smallish role.
Yeah it comes with the non-3D version as well. I got my copy (which is in a metal case) on eBay.
Did you end up watching The Wind and the Lion?