My family and I rented Heaven’s Gate years ago. We even got the director’s cut, which came on two VHS tapes. At the end of the first tape, not one of the five of us in the room could bring ourselves to insert the second. My god, what a boring, stupid waste of time that film was!
I agree with you that it was beautifully framed. Kudos to the cinematographer, whom I hope went on to more worthy work. That was the most gorgeously shot cockfight I have ever seen.
It’s funny you mention the barn dance scene, because that was where it became quite clear that I was watching one of the most inept pieces of shit ever created.
The barn is full, I mean FULL of people. Our hero and his young lady step out to the porch for a few words in private. We here the festivities end, and about a dozen people exit out of the door behind them over the space of about 10 seconds. Then our couple re-enter the building, which is now shown to be miraculously EMPTY. The 200+ people in attendance have somehow VANISHED. It was so jarring visually I could no longer suspend my already shaky disbelief. Fortunately for all of us, my memories of this film beyond this are quite hazy, or I could go on and on.
Another film the five of us couldn’t sit through was Highlander. We shut it off pretty quickly, soon after the ancient Scots warrior talked about being so frightened in the face of the enemy, “I nearly peed my kilt!” Years later, I rentd it again and watched the whole thing. I was very, very sorry.
Vilmos Zsigmond has had quite an illustrious career. His credits include McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Deliverance, The Sugarland Express, Close Encounters of the Third KindThe Witches of Eastwick*, Fat Man and Little Boy, The Two Jakes, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Maverick, and The Ghost and the Darkness, among others.
I liked Highlander, especially the transitions. Of course, I had to overlook Sean Connery as a Spaniard, and Christopher Lambert as a Scotsman.
It was an assigned film for AP Psychology. I went to a “progressive” school where I could take things like Anthropology, advanced Physics and Calc (though I hear those are common in most public schools). For the most part, I think I received a stellar education and was far better prepared for college than many people who went to the public school in my school district. Some of our teachers were really big on showing us things that they thought would make us think, that weren’t PC, and that they felt would shock us out of some sort of apathy. I thought they did a great job, except for this film.
If I recall correctly, the school did send permission forms to our parents explaining the movie, telling them it was really graphic and that they had the option not to let their kids see it. For the most part, the parents who sent their kids to the private school I went to were pretty liberal, and many had even seen the film. Most agreed to let their kids see it, my mom included. I’m not sure why - perhaps they thought it would scare their kids out of being vigilantes. Or maybe they just didn’t remember the film. I recall thinking, “What the hell was my mom thinking,” while I was watching the movie. It was one of the most awful, most memorable experiences I had in any classroom.
As usual, I see a lot of great movies on this list. I too am appalled at Goodfellas being mentioned; to me it’s in the same tier as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, and I’d call it the best film of the last 20 years. It isn’t a movie I expect everyone to like, but I would expect most of those people to not see it.
A few I hated, despite being loved by others: A Clockwork Orange, Before Sunrise, Million Dollar Baby.
Not in any district I went to. I had to go outside school (to local university) for physics and calculus.
As for the film (A Clockwork Orange) the book was full of meaning and foreboding about this postmodern, violent, socially disrupted world that was coming to pass. Burgess wrote it in part as a telling of his wife’s rape (the scene at “Home”) and the book focuses less on the sex than the depravity and extreme narcissism of the narrator, Alex.
Kubrick is reported to have desired to make the film because it would be a way of combining pornographic sex with a serious plot. Kubrick was a hell of a visual stylist and cinematographer (the highlights of 2001: A Space Odyssy) but wasn’t much on making sympathetic characters that you’d want to connect with. (Though I connected with Jack in The Shining; I really wanted him to kill that obnoxious kid and his annoying effing shrew of a wife. :eek: )
It’s definitely not the most appropriate film for a high schooler, and especially one who has been traumatized by physical or sexual abuse. Sorry you had to endure that.
So did the American printing of the novel, for a long time. Just a few years ago they included it, and it boggled my mind that I’d been missing it all along. Very creepy.
I was going to put it in a spoiler, but nah. You gotta read the book.
Some people noted that they hadn’t seen the MST3K version of Manos: the Hands of Fate.
The MST3K version isn’t any better. It’s that bad. The “evil doctor” and his henchman on MST3K even apologize to the gang about showing them this movie.
This doesn’t really count since it wasn’t a theatrical release (hence I didn’t mention it earlier), but I have seen a film worse than Manos or any of the movies I listed in my last post. Much, much worse.
Ankle Biters. It’s about midget vampires. It sounds like it might have some humor value, right? It doesn’t. Manos is high art compared to this.
I saw the film version of Godspell, and had a similar reaction. I was still waiting for them to quit farting around and get on with the story when the curtain came down.
I just saw a movie today that I have to add to the list. I took a client to see Because of Winn-Dixie. I have literally had root canal surgery that was less excruciating. The only way the movie could have been saved is if the dog had gone rabid at the end and eaten the kid’s face off. If that had happened i’d have gone out of theater whistling and put in on my top ten list. Sadly, the real ending was too nauseating even to speak of.
Oddly, it had Dave Matthews in it for some reason. He even plays guitar and sings a lot. It does not help relieve the sucking.
Passion of the Christ - don’t get me wrong, I love violence in general (Clockwork Orange and Silence of the Lambs are my absolute favorites). Ten minutes of this filth made me ill.
Tears of the Sun - it tries to be sentimental, and succeeds for a while. Then the action is introduced, and the sun does indeed cry at fighting scenes so halfassed that they could only belong in spoofs.
[Nitpick]It wasn’t Universal. It was United Artists that was destroyed by** Heaven’s Gate**.[/Nitpick]
If you want to find out more about the troubled production of the film, read Final Cut by Steven Bach. Bach was one of the people in charge of United Artists at the time of the Heaven’s Gate fiasco and he offers an excellent inside account of the decisions that led to the disaster. Also, it’s a good example of the principle of the “slippery slope” at work in Hollywood.
Say it. This film sophomoric, pretentious, apocalyptic screed served up every imaginable stereotype, yet had the audacity to think itself profound. Hardly trenchant or original.
The Sweetest Thing is seriously the worst piece of crap I’ve ever seen. Have the writers ever met a real woman? How the hell did they get big-name actors to be in that awful wreck on celluloid? Oh, God, I’d rather see the gyno than watch that movie again.
The movie was about how different teenagers experienced the same environment differently. A bit like Roshomon except that Roshomon was about how people can remember the same facts differently and this was about how they experience the world differently on a purely emotional level. The characters maybe seemed shallow because the movie’s focus was on whatever its characters were focused on, and not so much they themselves. The boy who turned out to be the killer experienced his environment as an overwhelming crush of hostile humanity (the high school appeared very crowded and loud in his scenes - you’ll remember the scene in which the volume of the cafeteria chatter rises until he has to cover his ears). The scenes you mentioned in which the school appeared empty were from the perspective of one of the oblivious jock victims to whom the school was idyllic and all that registered to him was the beautiful music in his headphones and the occasional friendly face. [/hijack]
