See, it didn’t make it more real for me, it actually made it more fake in a way by just destroying the 4th wall so to speak. It completely wrecked my suspension of disbelief by showing me that all the people I had just bought into being these people were actually actors doing a job for money (granted, a noble job, but still a part). Spielberg did such a good job with that film that I was completely sucked it, absolutely and completely. Having the “hey, everything you just saw was a movie!!” coda pulled me right back out. I know it’s obvious that it’s just a movie, but I was really hooked. I didn’t need any more to remind me how important and tragic the topic was.
I’m the farthest thing in this world from a Spielberg fan. Schindler’s List has to be, hands down, the movie that has tried the HARDEST to be an art film I’ve ever seen. Every character in that movie is very drastic and over the top. Amistad, however, was a good movie.
I think you mean 1941. 1942 was a pretty good vertical shoot 'em-up, however :D[/quote]
I’m referring to the enhanced DVD version… [size=2]yeah[/size][size=1] right[/size].
That’s why Life Is Beautiful is such a fantastic film. I loved Schindler’s List, but it’s hard for me to ever sit down and watch it, because all in all, it’s still goddamned depressing. Life Is Beautiful, still unavoidably depressing in many parts, is a ridiculously upbeat commentary on the human spirit. I’ve never been so affected by a subtitled film, it loses nothing in translation.
Just saying, “Bon giorno, principesa!” brings me a smile.
(and yes, I don’t know how to spell in italian.)
I was out shopping today and nearly bought Schindler’s List, but then thought I didn’t particularly want to watch it, and then figured that it would probably sit on my coffee table for months before I got around to steeling myself for it.
So I bought Ferris Bueller’s Day Off instead.
I actually had exactly the same reaction. Just sat there thinking, ‘okay, the Nazis were horrible, evil people, we know that, what new stuff are you going to bring to this?’ Once I realised it was a true story I relented a bit but still couldn’t bring myself to get too emotionally involved. I think the relationship between the two (‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘The Pianist’) is similar to that of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘The Thin Red Line’.
I really wanted to like The Thin Red Line, but all I can say is four words:
Nick Nolte reading poetry.
I never made out to Schindler’s List, but I’m thrilled to finally be able to take advantage of the DVD’s pause and frame by frame advance for when I masturbate to it.
I did actually pick up the widescreen DVD last night and saw a collector’s edition as well. Those 65$ collector DVDs seem like such a ripoff. It includes a gigantic case, a booklet, and the soundtrack. Seems pricey.
edit: Loved Thin Red Line. Also, I was really disappointed in The Pianist. I woun’t deny that it was a great film, but I felt like Polanski was taking his turn at doing Schindler’s List, seeing as how he was one of the directors approached to originally direct it (along with Scorsese I heard… that would have been interesting - Pesci in Fiennes role??) but passed because it was too personal. I felt like the real story of the Pianist was keeping the main character hidden and the network that helped keep him alive. The film really short-changed that to get in the “me too” glimpses into the horrors that occurred during the Holocaust.
Thin Red Line is great.
Really couldn’t be doing with ‘Thin Red Line’, just felt like a poor man’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’.
Saving Private Ryan was a 20 minute movie stretched to 2+ hours. Thin Red Line was a really great movie based on a really great book.
That’s interesting, I actually felt the exact opposite.
I thought the Thin Red Line was fantastic, but then, I’ve already said that.
When I walked out of the Pianist, I was actually angry at Spielberg for using black and white in Schindler’s. The B&W made it seem like it was euphemising the situation. Polanski’s use of color made The Pianist a contrast to most brooding, dark Holocaust films–some of the worst scenes in Polanski’s ghetto looked like perfect summer days. Which made me think, that’s how it would really look. Brody’s character feels more real to me, too–he doesn’t have some grand agenda to save everybody. He’s a coward sometimes! He just does what he needs to do to survive.
Just wanted to weigh in with what a BS argument this is: “other directors could have done Raiders.”
No. No, no, no. Gawd. Haven’t we seen enough crapass ripoffs of swashbuckling action flicks? There was one, I think a Quartermain license, that was sooooo rotten…
Spielberg does deserve genius status, whatever that means. He’s made more terrific movies than all but a handful of directors. And his stuff will stand the test of time because of the details. Jaws is not a special effects triumph in today’s context, but the movie is eminently watchable for everything else. The suspense works, but I’ll always appreciate the little scenes that Spielberf just nails. In the case of Jaws, that riff between Dreyfuss, Schneider, and Shaw getting drunk, talking about tattoos and scars, and then going into Quint’s retelling of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the sharks was just epic.
Fair enough, but you can’t give Spielberg props for that scene without also giving major recognition to John Milius, who was brought in specifically to write it.
Nope:
At the story’s conclusion, the robots that have inherited the Earth use David’s memories to reconstruct, in virtual form, the apartment where he had lived with his parents. Because his memories are subjective, the mother is much more vividly realized than the father, and his stepsister’s room is not there at all; it is just a hole in the wall.
For Ms. Maitland, the film would end with David preparing a Bloody Mary for his mother, the juice a brighter red than in real life: “He hears her voice, and that’s it. We don’t see him turn to see her.” Kubrick, however, wanted a coda in which the new race of robots, because of a technological limitation, cannot keep the mother alive after reviving her. The movie would end with David in his mother’s bedroom, watching her slowly disappear.
Ms. Maitland was displeased this scenario, and was furious with Kubrick for insisting on it. “It must have been a very strong visual thing for him,” she says, "because he wasn’t usually stupid about story. He hired me because I knew about fairy stories, but would not listen when I told him, ‘You can have a failed quest, but you can’t have an achieved quest and no reward.’ "
I’d give Robert Shaw some props, too. The crusty ship captain may be a cliche, but I completely bought into his performance.
Weird. This is the only thread I could find that was specifically about this movie.
I love these 20-years-later oral history pieces.
If you had only waited until March 8, then it would have been a 20-year necro exactly.