The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Resurrecting the Movies thread...
HerrKaiser:
--- Quote from: MaineWriter on December 27, 2008, 06:08:33 pm ---
No one wanted to see Valkyrie. Poor Tom Cruise, I think his day has passed.
--- End quote ---
While the film opened with mixed reviews, it came in a surprising 4th place for Christmas weekend box office sales...a very good showing. And Tom Cruise, imo, remains huge box office and has much more left in his stellar career.
I thought Valkyrie was quite good. It was well paced, extremely intense and nerve-racking; in spite of my having read two bios on von Stauffenberg and knew the story quite well, the director had me on edge the full 2 hours.
Casting was overall superb. Cruise looked strikingly similar to von Stauffenberg, and his performance was a B+, imo; he came across very well. His stiffness was completely in character with von Stauffenberg.
Unlike most 'historical' films, it did not suffer the typical Hollywoodization by signifcantly altering historical fact, which was a pleasure. There was some obvious scripting that had to have been infused by the writers' imaginations, but overall, the history was solid.
The two areas that could have been better were the portrayal of Hitler as a munchin like creature, silent and brooding, slow and seemingly 'not all there'. This was inaccurate; while it did not majorly distract from the core film, it would have been better, imo, to portray Hitler as the strong and powerful and intense persona he was, and his being assassinated would have seemed all the more intriguing.
The other part that was under represented was the executions at the end. Hitler and his gang brutally murdered the conspirators and the killings were bloody, torturous and horrendous scenes of mayhem which did not get shown.
serious crayons:
I was reminded tonight of another movie I really enjoyed in 2008, though I think it was released in 2007: Charlie Wilson's War. I've seen it twice and would love to see it again sometime. I'm baffled that it didn't win any big awards.
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: oilgun on December 30, 2008, 12:16:16 pm ---I loved ORLANDO and that's when I became a fan of hers as well. I knew her from the films of Derek Jarman before that, but ORLANDO sealed the deal. Did you see her in LOVE IS THE DEVIL? She is unrecognizable as Muriel Belcher, one of Francis Bacon's drinkling buddies.
--- End quote ---
Friend, you never cease to amaze me! No, I haven't seen Love is the Devil, but it has zoomed to the top of my must-see list!! Did you think Lord Orlando was credible as a man? I still think you must be some bigwig in the Toronto Film Festival!!
oilgun:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on December 31, 2008, 02:14:03 am ---Friend, you never cease to amaze me! No, I haven't seen Love is the Devil, but it has zoomed to the top of my must-see list!! Did you think Lord Orlando was credible as a man? I still think you must be some bigwig in the Toronto Film Festival!!
--- End quote ---
:laugh: No, I'm afraid not a bigwig in anything, lol! In fact my attendance at the TIFF has been reduced to seeing just one or two films. I used to buy the pass and sit through 3 or 4 films a day for 10 days but it became to much after a while.
Anyway, another reason to watch LOVE ISTHE DEVIL: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon is Daniel Craig's famous (& lingering) full frontal in the bathtub scene. He plays George Dyer, Bacon's rough-trade lover.
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: oilgun on December 31, 2008, 01:03:41 pm ---Anyway, another reason to watch LOVE ISTHE DEVIL: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon is Daniel Craig's famous (& lingering) full frontal in the bathtub scene. He plays George Dyer, Bacon's rough-trade lover.
--- End quote ---
To quote Terri Garr: "Woooff!!" I don't think I've seen a full frontal (in the movies 8)) since Richard Gere in Breathless! Of course, there was Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights, but that was just too freaky to enjoy!
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