Jason's Blog, page 134

Impala

Lion

Assignment for an encyclopedia in the mid 90s.

Leonard Cohen, stand up comedian

Old strip, no title

-Hey?! What are you doing?!
-Dirtying the bed, huh?! Get out!
-Poor l'il doggie...
 

McCabe, Mrs. Miller and Reds

 McCabe and Mrs Miller.

I haven't sen that many Altman films. Just this one, The Long Goodbye and Short Cuts. Personally I find them a bit hard to like - they're just too slow and not very fun. But that's a matter of personal taste. At least they're films for adults, something that hardly exists anymore. I liked the use of Leonard Cohen songs and the ending is very effective, despite the obviously fake snow storm. And I'm still curious about his film Nashville - I'll watch it if I find a copy.

Reds

A big budget three hour epic about an American communist? How the hell did this movie get a greenlight? By Warren Beatty being a big star at the time, I suppose. Anyway, it's pretty good. It takes its time, making us care about the characters. I must confess I don't know much about John Reed and the Wobblies and all that, only what I've picked up from reading Dos Passos. The film has lots of political arguing and so on, but there's also the good old reuniting of two people in a train station scene, always a classic.

Duel in Dumbstone

-Mister Bullock...
-This town ain't big enough for both of us.
-Huh?

The Bad and The Beautiful

Kirk Douglas is a ruthless film producer. Also starring Lana Turner and Dick Powell, directed by Vincente Minnelli. 
Ah, classic Hollywood! About Hollywood! In black and white! There are three stories, told in flashbacks, almost like a film noir. The film looks great. There are the 50s cars, and even, in one scene, you can see the iconic Hopper gas station pumps, and the Hollywood stuff is intriguing, like seeing that they did previews and asked for viewer comments even then, but the actual story, or stories, is less interesting and a bit hard to care about.

Heist

Gene Hackman and Delroy Lindo steal a bunch of gold for Danny DeVito. Or do they? Also starring Sam Rockwell, written and directed by David Mamet. 
If you say you're gonna do the job, do the job. Since it's a Mamet film you know there's gonna be a twist. You wait for the twist. Is there gonna be a twist? There is a twist. What's the twist? I'm not gonna say. You're just too hip to be happy. Does the film have the Mamet lingo? Yes, it does. It has the Mamet lingo. It's poetry. Okay? It's fucking poetry. Is it a better film than House of Games? No, I think I still prefer House of Games. How long is a Chinaman's name. Okay? Okay.

Tombstone, director's cut

Rewatched the film and... still don't like it. The dialogues are just too silly and modern sounding. Okay, the film is more authentic than John Ford's version, but there are a lot of characters and backstory, and I think you really need to simplify or re-invent this story to make it work. Neither Kurt Russel here or Kevin Costner in his film manage to make Wyatt Earp into an interesting figure. Again, it's Doc Holliday that steals the show; Val Kilmer has the best lines of dialogue and his deathbed scene is the best scene of the film. Not sure if the director's cut brings anything new to the film, and anyway, I thought Kurt Russel was the one calling the shots after the original director had been fired early in the filming, not George P. Cosmatos.

Steve Martin