Please stay with me for a while; I intend to wander around for a bit, but I might make a worthwhile point now and then.

My politics is far closer to Jane Fonda's than John Wayne's. But as a film critic, I try to avoid letting my personal feelings affect my realization and evaluation of performance. Wayne many terrible films, just as anyone who made 150 films over 4-5 decades. If you cannot recognize and separate performance (acting ability) from scripted characters and situations, you have no business commenting on acting ability. If you hate Jane Fonda's politics, and you cannot set your attitude aside, you will never see the amazing performance she gives in Klute or other films. If you hate John Ford westerns, and cannot set aside that attitude, you will never appreciate a John Wayne performance.

For those of you who think some sort of censorship caused pre-1970's films to be less than those after, and that literature was never censored: learn something! There was no code against anything in films prior to 1934. And if you think you could own a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover or Brave New World (in Ireland), Ulysses (James Joyce), Tropic of Cancer, Howl, Fanny Hill, The Diary of Anne Frank (in Lebanon), Candide, Animal Farm, forget it! ... These and many others have been banned by governments throughout the world.

As for technical innovations... phooey. All filmmaking is a tool for storytelling. When Birth of a Nation was made, the story was an offensive racist evil thing... still is. But the technical innovations DW Griffith used were far more amazing than any film made since. I choose to respect technical innovation, but love the art of telling a good story with interesting characters well. If you are so 21st century that you cannot sit through an older film and enjoy it, it is your loss, and your lack of patience affects the reputation of great films in no way. Your world view is stifled by the blinders you choose to wear. I choose to be open and learn about eras which preceeded my own life. I have never known a day in my life which occurred before the dropping of two atomic bombs on civilians, yet I hope to understand the days, the weeks, the months, the years, the centuries, the millenia which preceeded that set of acts. Without that knowledge today is baffling.

The reason I own so many DVDs from the past ten years is because I find going to a theater painful. I've written at length about seat kickers, cell phones, standing and blocking my view during closing credits, talking, and all the other things which makes theater-going so miserable. When I can buy a DVD for less than two tickets (not including popcorn), why should I bother going?

If you like comic book films, films where the CGI overwhelms a horrendous script, fine. But you are avoiding the fine literature, the fine art of filmmaking. You have chosen to watch comic books rather than novels (and no, graphic novels do not count). I taught a college course on comic books for nearly two years, three units, at California State University, Sacramento. I love comic books and know their importance. But Captain America is not Huckleberry Finn (and Huck Finn is not The Inferno, despite the similarity in structure).

If you choose to remain ignorant in the history of film, do not engage in discussing it. You ought to close your mouth and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

..and she ate dogpoo  really.. 

Quoting VibroCount:

Quote:
Please stay with me for a while; I intend to wander around for a bit, but I might make a worthwhile point now and then.

My politics is far closer to Jane Fonda's than John Wayne's. But as a film critic, I try to avoid letting my personal feelings affect my realization and evaluation of performance. Wayne many terrible films, just as anyone who made 150 films over 4-5 decades. If you cannot recognize and separate performance (acting ability) from scripted characters and situations, you have no business commenting on acting ability. If you hate Jane Fonda's politics, and you cannot set your attitude aside, you will never see the amazing performance she gives in Klute or other films. If you hate John Ford westerns, and cannot set aside that attitude, you will never appreciate a John Wayne performance.

For those of you who think some sort of censorship caused pre-1970's films to be less than those after, and that literature was never censored: learn something! There was no code against anything in films prior to 1934. And if you think you could own a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover or Brave New World (in Ireland), Ulysses (James Joyce), Tropic of Cancer, Howl, Fanny Hill, The Diary of Anne Frank (in Lebanon), Candide, Animal Farm, forget it! ... These and many others have been banned by governments throughout the world.

As for technical innovations... phooey. All filmmaking is a tool for storytelling. When Birth of a Nation was made, the story was an offensive racist evil thing... still is. But the technical innovations DW Griffith used were far more amazing than any film made since. I choose to respect technical innovation, but love the art of telling a good story with interesting characters well. If you are so 21st century that you cannot sit through an older film and enjoy it, it is your loss, and your lack of patience affects the reputation of great films in no way. Your world view is stifled by the blinders you choose to wear. I choose to be open and learn about eras which preceeded my own life. I have never known a day in my life which occurred before the dropping of two atomic bombs on civilians, yet I hope to understand the days, the weeks, the months, the years, the centuries, the millenia which preceeded that set of acts. Without that knowledge today is baffling.

The reason I own so many DVDs from the past ten years is because I find going to a theater painful. I've written at length about seat kickers, cell phones, standing and blocking my view during closing credits, talking, and all the other things which makes theater-going so miserable. When I can buy a DVD for less than two tickets (not including popcorn), why should I bother going?

If you like comic book films, films where the CGI overwhelms a horrendous script, fine. But you are avoiding the fine literature, the fine art of filmmaking. You have chosen to watch comic books rather than novels (and no, graphic novels do not count). I taught a college course on comic books for nearly two years, three units, at California State University, Sacramento. I love comic books and know their importance. But Captain America is not Huckleberry Finn (and Huck Finn is not The Inferno, despite the similarity in structure).

If you choose to remain ignorant in the history of film, do not engage in discussing it. You ought to close your mouth and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Yeah totally ignorant like im currently rebuilding my dvd collection but i will have it online by the end of this year when i should have it back up to about 700.

Question have you ever seen Badlands or 10 Rillington Place?

So you think those events did not occur ?
You must be kidding me hal9g.

I think we should stop this discussion right now then, cannot be bothered to discuss serious matters vs ignorancy.

cheers
Donnie

Quoting FilmAlba:

Quote:


Yeah totally ignorant like im currently rebuilding my dvd collection but i will have it online by the end of this year when i should have it back up to about 700.

Question have you ever seen Badlands or 10 Rillington Place?

I saw Badlands in Austin, Texas in 1973, and on TV a half dozen times since. I saw 10 Rillington Place once. Both are fine. Neither is a favorite of mine. I'm sorry, I have little fascination with serial killers or drawn out chase scenes. Sorry. What's your point? I suspect I've seen hundreds of times more films than you. I've probably made many more films than you. One of my film teachers was Robert Nelson, for whom I made the short film Firetruck. I doubt your experience exceeds mine, even if you manage to find a few dozen films you've seen that I have not. I've been a jurist at a few film festivals, and still correspond with a few filmmakers. Do we really need to compare our privates?

I know you will respond to this with another challenge, as you have done every time I've failed to ignore you. For now on, I will attempt to resist, but your posts are sitting ducks.



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Edited to mention that I added my 700th DVD in 2004.

Quoting VibroCount:

Quote:
Quoting FilmAlba:

Quote:


Yeah totally ignorant like im currently rebuilding my dvd collection but i will have it online by the end of this year when i should have it back up to about 700.

Question have you ever seen Badlands or 10 Rillington Place?

I saw Badlands in Austin, Texas in 1973, and on TV a half dozen times since. I saw 10 Rillington Place once. Both are fine. Neither is a favorite of mine. I'm sorry, I have little fascination with serial killers or drawn out chase scenes. Sorry. What's your point? I suspect I've seen hundreds of times more films than you. I've probably made many more films than you. One of my film teachers was Robert Nelson, for whom I made the short film Firetruck. I doubt your experience exceeds mine, even if you manage to find a few dozen films you've seen that I have not. I've been a jurist at a few film festivals, and still correspond with a few filmmakers. Do we really need to compare our privates?

I know you will respond to this with another challenge, as you have done every time I've failed to ignore you. For now on, I will attempt to resist, but your posts are sitting ducks.



----

Edited to mention that I added my 700th DVD in 2004.

Well i had the idea of converting my whole film collection to hidef so i regrettably sold off the majority of my DVD's. The release of hidef titles was and is still slow and pricey it was starting to get annoying given with DVD i had been used to watching like 400 to 500 films a year.

Im 23 coming up for 24 and i estimate i have seen about 2000 odd films.

Quoting Kulju:

Quote:
Quoting FilmAlba:

Quote:

Im 23 coming up for 24 and i estimate i have seen about 2000 odd films.

So you're a boy who have seen some films....and sound like one.

You give him way too much credit!

Quoting Alien Redrum:

Quote:
Quoting scotthm:

Quote:
Who do you know that reads the Bible for entertainment?

Plenty of people. I have a friend, who's Jewish, who just recently started reading the Bible. He's not looking to convert, he's just reading it for no other reason that he's never read it and it's got some good stories in the mix.

Technically speaking, I guess "one" could be considered "plenty". 

Quote:
You do realize that the people "suffering" are just actors, right? And it's make believe and not real, right?

Do tell....

Quote:
Have you even seen, say, any of the Saw films, or films similar to it?

No.  I've read synopses of some (and similar films) and have concluded that I'm not interested, but I don't see any need for you to get offended that I don't share your fascination with the macabre.

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