Author Topic: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie  (Read 12184 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie
« Reply #10 on: April 05, 2006, 10:56:42 am »
I've been mulling over Aguirre and Jack and there are several verry odd exchanges between them. First, Jack says Aguirre thinks he can control the weather and keep the sheep from getting struck by lightning. Then, Aguirre rides up after getting an eyeful and says, Not unless you can cure pneumonia. Aguirre perhaps thinks Jack is some kind of alien being and looks on him as an aggressor. He even uses his binoculars to check on Ennis.
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Offline sparkle_motion

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Re: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie
« Reply #11 on: April 05, 2006, 11:46:25 am »
Brandon, I completely agree. Those bikers were HORRIBLE actors. That whole scene seemed forced. I love the Ennis part, don't get me wrong, but not the biker part.
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Offline David

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Re: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie
« Reply #12 on: April 05, 2006, 11:59:35 am »
The only line I didn't like was when Alma asks Enis why Jack can't come in for coffee.  "He's from Texas"    Alma: "Texans don't drink coffee?"

Yes, I know it got a lot of laughs, but the dialog just seems incomplete.   Or maybe just frustrating.   If I were Alma I would grabbed him by the apples and slowed him right down!   Then maybe she would have gotten a straight answer from him. 

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Re: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie
« Reply #13 on: April 05, 2006, 12:24:12 pm »
The couple of lines that I don't like, but actually enjoy how much I don't like them (if that makes any sense)... are the ones where the two herds of sheep have gotten mixed together and they are pulling them apart and Ennis shouts out two lines... something like, "yeah, and what if we wanna work for Aguirre again, hunh?" and "we gotta stick this thing out, Jack!"

The reason they always irk me is because they painfully sound like ad libs... like Heath is desperately trying to be a true actor and be in character at every moment and... yeah, it just seems like way too much for me.  Just way too much.  All the same, I somewhat enjoy it... but in this weird sadistic way, like it's just so over the top that it amuses me.  I don't know.

I'm prepared to get lambasted for my knock at the god that is Heath Ledger's performance... but, hey, that's just a couple of the lines that really don't feel right for me.  Just because they sound so much like ad-libs... not like natural things someone would say... just things someone would say when they are attempting to be natural.  If you get me.

Offline henrypie

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Re: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie
« Reply #14 on: April 05, 2006, 12:49:26 pm »
David, I completely agree about "We gotta stick this one out, Jack."  It rings ever so slightly false to me.

And FrontRanger: I think he looks up the mountain at Ennis through his binoculars very pointedly, to show Jack that he's watching.  Everything.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie
« Reply #15 on: April 05, 2006, 12:55:45 pm »
I actually like all the lines mentioned above, except the Bobby one (and the bowl of Trix doesn't help -- I was totally baffled by that interaction for a long time) and the coffee one, which doesn't quite make sense to me either. Why would Ennis say "he's from Texas" in response to an offer of coffee?

But OK then. Speaking of hardhats. Let me preface by saying that I totally subscribe to the Heath-is-God viewpoint, his performance is exquisite, I'd put it against anything done by Sean Penn or Brando or anyone else in the history of movies, he has gone from being an actor I hardly noticed to being my favorite actor, he definitely should have won BA as I've argued many many times ...

But. There are two deliveries of his that I don't like.

I don't like when he says he's dropping the girls off at the grocery store and suddenly briefly sounds Australian. That makes me cringe. I'm not blaming him so much, because I'm sure it's hard to maintain a foreign accent while doing everything else (as Heath has implied in interviews). But with all the care that's taken to every other detail, I don't see why they didn't just redo that scene or the sound or whatever. (Actually that whole scene seems a little bit "off" to me, perhaps because as was discussed elsewhere it was originally supposed to go in a different part of the movie.)

And the other is in the otherwise phenomenal "can't quit you" scene. He obviously is great in every other way in that scene. But I don't like the way he says "if I should come to know them" because he says "them" rather than "'em," which I think Ennis would actually say.

Come to think of it, I'm not crazy about that whole line. I love Ennis getting jealous and angry about Jack's trips to Mexico. But threatening murder seems a bit much, even if we know he wouldn't actually carry it out.







Offline newyearsday

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Re: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie
« Reply #16 on: April 05, 2006, 01:01:48 pm »
I've always felt that when Jack is talking to Ennis in the "tent don't look right" scene, he kind of falls out of his accent a little bit on the "Well it ain't goin' nowhere. Let it be!" line. Or he is somehow a little inauthentic here. It just feels a bit too staged to me. The positioning of the actors or the way it plays out. But I do love the way he and Heath end the scene, with Heath warming his hands over the fire and Jake smiling so big.

I don't like when he says he's dropping the girls off at the grocery store and suddenly briefly sounds Australian. That makes me cringe. I'm not blaming him so much, because I'm sure it's hard to maintain a foreign accent while doing everything else (as Heath has implied in interviews). But with all the care that's taken to every other detail, I don't see why they didn't just redo that scene or the sound or whatever. (Actually that whole scene seems a little bit "off" to me, perhaps because as was discussed elsewhere it was originally supposed to go in a different part of the movie.)

Wow, I didn't know it was supposed to go in another part of the movie. Is that what people were talking about when we had the point made that he could have made that story up to go and see Jack? B/c as it is, it was before the reunion.

I also cringe a little bit when he reverts to the Aussie accent in the word "shirt" as in--look in the top pocket of my blue shirt" right after the reunion kiss scene.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie
« Reply #17 on: April 05, 2006, 01:19:36 pm »
The shirt line, yes. Why didn't they fix those? ??? That one they could have easily rerecorded later, because he's not even onscreen when he says it.

>>Is that what people were talking about when we had the point made that he could have made that story up to go and see Jack? B/c as it is, it was before the reunion.

My understanding -- and I may have the details wrong -- is that it originally was going to go post-reunion. Which makes somewhat more sense. On the other hand, that way doesn't make perfect sense to me, either. Why would he only be out HALF the night? Why would he tell her to bring home round steak? If Jack has driven all that way to see him, wouldn't they at least spend the whole night together?

That said, I think otherwise everyone in the movie does a fantastic job of sounding authentically Western, at least to my Midwestern ears.

Offline Nicole

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Re: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie
« Reply #18 on: April 05, 2006, 01:51:03 pm »
I've always felt that when Jack is talking to Ennis in the "tent don't look right" scene, he kind of falls out of his accent a little bit on the "Well it ain't goin' nowhere. Let it be!" line. Or he is somehow a little inauthentic here. It just feels a bit too staged to me. The positioning of the actors or the way it plays out. But I do love the way he and Heath end the scene, with Heath warming his hands over the fire and Jake smiling so big.

I actually love that exchange - it makes me laugh.  I love Jake's delivery there.  Isn't it interesting that we all have such different likes/dislikes about the movie?  I love that!
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Offline David

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Re: Minute Detail - IMO The Worst Line Delivery in the Movie
« Reply #19 on: April 05, 2006, 02:54:09 pm »
Nicole,  I agree with you.  I love that scene.  Heath and jack argue like a married couple, how sweet!      Plus that little laugh Jack has at the end.    Gotta love it!   :-*