My favorite film. I think the zither music works. It is jarring, but that’s the point: the main character (and most of the Americans) in the film don’t know what they are doing, the English are useless, the Russians are plotting and the French don’t care. The evil of the Nazis has gone, but evil remains in Vienna and Cotton’s character - whilst decent - has no idea what to do. With his cheap Western-novel world-view he is morally at sea in a post-war world which is jauntily proceeding with his involvement but without his understanding. [pointy head off]
This is probably one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie. I recently saw Rogert Ebert talking to Martin Scorcese about it on his show, and they both thought that this scene was brilliant.
If you think about it, the conversation is the turning point of the movie. Frances McDormand buys the guy’s sob story, but later finds out from a friend that it was all bullshit. This revelation prompts her to be more skeptical of information that is given to her, and leads her to question William H. Macy for the second time, which eventually brings about his arrest.
If the conversation with the Asian guy had not happened, chances are that William H. Macy’s character would have been able to dodge the law.
Also, no one has mentioned that the old guy is Private Ryan. From the beginning, it looks like he’s having a flashback, and that it’s supposed to be Tom Hanks, but at the end, it’s Matt Damon - he wasn’t even there through most of the film! And then, here’s this old guy freaking out, asking his wife if he’s a good man? WTF is she gonna say to that? Standing around all those graves, husband breaking down asking “Am I a good man?” She’s gonna say what, "Well honey, there was that time . . . " The ending was too sappy and sentimental for me and marred an otherwise excellent film.
Like in Sleepy Hollow (which wasn’t that great, but hey). They had to explain the entire movie at the end, including flashbacks just in case you were too dumb to figure it out. I hate that!!
Raiders of the Lost Ark: We’re given to believe that Indy is able to ride the back of a U-Boat all the way from the mid-Atlantic to the island of Malta, without the sub ever submerging (during a secret mission) and drowning him, and without any Germans in the conning tower seeing him.
The Magnificent Ambersons: The tacked-on “penitent” ending, which Welles had nothing to do with.
Back to the Future: The crypto-racist scene where Marvin Berry calls his cousin Chuck. “Isn’t it great that white kid went back in time so the black folks could have their music?”
OK, everyone chill out. Narration and flashbacks are not inherently bad. They are only bad when they are abused by incompetent filmmakers. If you want to see excellent examples of narration and/or flashbacks, just look at:
There’s nothing wrong with narration. What I object to is narration that gives away the story and is tacked on under the assumption that the audience is unable to think.
I think you’re reading a little too much into that, Five. It was just a joke that Chuck Berry would be inspired by his own song. It’s not as if Berry started Rock n Roll or anything.
For what it’s worth, Chuck Berry seems genuinely amused by the time travel concept of being inspired by his own creations. There’s also a Quantum Leap episode called “Good Morning, Peoria,” where Sam Beckett teaches him The Twist. Go figure.
Anatomy of a Murder was a very good film, but I cringe at the scene in the courtroom where the judge admonishes the spectators not to react to certain aspects of the case; for example, the word “panties.” Preminger at this point inserts gales of laughter (badly edited at that) which spoils the whole mood.
I so agree with Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element. What a detraction!
Not that White Men Can’t Jump was a “good” movie, but the whole basketball scam motif was entertaining. However, the Rosie Perez/Jeopardy! subplot was ridiculous. Better to have left that whole thing on the cutting room floor.
Sccoby-Doo Syndrome: “So Mr. Elkins was the ghost all along?” It’s true, however, that a lot of the movie-going public is dumb-as-doorposts, so you have to coddle them.
Now that several people have complained about “Scooby Doo,” let me bring up the Sixth Sense. Do you think Sixth Sense has a “Scooby Doo” ending? Would the movie have been better if it had ended with Malcom and Cole’s last conversation?
I wasn’t sure at first, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of leaving Malcom’s true identity a secret and letting bright viewers figure it out for themselves. After all, do we want to see a version of Blade Runner where we learn Deckard is a replicant at the end? Of course not. You can enjoy Sixth Sense and Blade Runner without knowing the true identity of the main characters, but the knowledge certainly adds an extra dimension of interest to the story.
That would not be Chuck Berry, but Chubby Checkers, who appears as himself in this episode, trying to get the radio station to play his new single, “The Twist.”
I thought that the ending was good. Without it, poeple wouldn’t have liked it so much. At least they didn’t have a voiceover or extraneous conversation SPELLING OUT exactly what the deal was. Kinda like The Usual Suspects. They were both well-done.
I have always thought the way The Truman Show ended was perfectly awful. Truman has found the “edge” of his world and …what? He makes the “choice” to go outside? That is hardly surprising. What happens then, that’s what would be interesting, how does it change the character? It ruined the movie for me.
I recently saw Nell, and while I adored it, the part that bothers me is that they never REALLY explain just HOW the one girl dies…(I’m not going to go into much detail-spoilers, you know?)I wouldn’t have known only I read the book based on the screenplay and saw a website about it…
And in Mrs. Brown, the actors hired to play the Prince and Princess of Wales (Bertie and Alix) looked NOTHING like them.
The woman who played Alix especially, as Princess Alexandra was known for her beauty and her charm. She didn’t look as plain and frumpy as that woman!
I’ll admit that the “Corbin? Corbin? Corbin my man?” was extraordinarily grating, but ya gotta love the scene w/him & the stewardess where he goes, “Girl I swear, I aint neva felt this way befo!” and immediately goes back to munching.
DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE CELL
Re KJ’s post–
that part was ridiculous. But my first thought was, if that pipe was laying there, why didn’t he use that to begin with??
However I didn’t think this was the only stupid part in the movie; in the end they didn’t even need the damn woman to find the girl and that sucked. And why did it take the cop seeing that symbol in fantasy world before he figured out to research that? he saw it on the ground at the dude’s house!
