That was all Kubrick, the book is in three parts, the first is boot camp and only around 15 pages. The other two parts (retaking of Hue, then later an ambush out on trail leaving friends to die) were smashed together for the ‘in country’ half of the film. Both are worthwhile, but I’d give an edge to the film if pressed.
The Maze (1953) For some reason, a gif from this movie (the horrific reveal at the end) appeared in my Facebook feed, and I realized I haven’t thought about this movie since I was a little kid. (I’d actually never seen it but I recall my mother describing it.) So I searched, and hurrah! it’s on YouTube.
Minor Scottish noble is called back to his crumbling castle suddenly, on the death of his uncle. He sends his fiancee a letter abruptly breaking off their engagement, so of course she tracks him down at the castle. He’s rude and secretive and there are lots of locked doors, secret passages, “you mustn’t ever go in that room”, and odd noises in the hallways at night. Very gothic.
Actually quite fun in a cheesy way. And only 80 minutes long. In 3D, so there are obligatory shots of things being thrust at the camera.
I just watched The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. The best thing I can say about it is that I borrowed the dvd from a library so at least I didn’t have to pay anything to see it.
This movie was directed by Guy Ritchie, who has made by a lot of good movies. And it was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who has made a lot of bad movies. This is very much a bad Bruckheimer movie.
The plot is mostly a series of improbable obstacles getting thrown into the story followed by a series of improbable solutions. The action sequences are unbelievable (the main characters just walk around killing German soldiers who apparently are unable to shoot their weapons). And the characters appear to be acting at random; I was never able to figure out why any of them were doing what they were doing.
More precisely, he filmed the American edition rather than the British edition:
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021). I had seen the first one and thought it was OK, though rather forgettable and I watched this one mostly for completion sake. Although there were some fun moments and I liked the callbacks to certain scenes from the comics, on the whole I did not particularly enjoy it. I have to admit that it did not help that it is partially based on a comic book arc (Maximum Carnage) that I do not like. I was interested in how they were going to handle the Carnage origin story and their take on it was pretty good.
Although I am happy to have it as reference, especially with another sequel coming out, I do not think I will be watching it again.
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OTOH, local tax dollars were probably spent to purchase it.
I just finished rewatching the extended LOTR movies. These movies have really aged well and seem to get better each time (this is my third). I recently re-read the books (last time was in the 60s) and despite all the whining about the movies not following the books to the letter, I found the books to be a slog. I think Jackson did an outstanding job of editing out the glurge and basically rewriting some aspects of the story.
Kubrick is one of my favorite directors, and I believe Barry Lyndon stands as one of his masterpieces. Yes, it’s a slow burn, and there are moments where the pacing feels almost tedious, but as Steven Spielberg said, it’s “possibly the most beautifully shot film in history.” The way Kubrick uses natural light and frames each scene like a painting, combined with John Alcott’s breathtaking cinematography, turns those slow moments into something mesmerizing.
I do think Ryan O’Neal might have been a bit of a lightweight choice for the lead, but he held his own, especially during the film’s more humorous scenes.
What elevates the entire experience for me, though, is Kubrick’s brilliant use of Handel’s Saraband throughout the soundtrack. The recurring theme of this hauntingly beautiful piece underscores the inevitability of fate and the relentless march of time, adding layers of meaning to the narrative. It’s reminiscent of how Kubrick used Strauss’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and The Blue Danube in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the music not only complements the visuals but deepens the thematic resonance of the film.
Kubrick had an unparalleled gift for selecting music that doesn’t just accompany the visuals but elevates the entire cinematic experience. His ability to create such a profound fusion of sound and image is a big part of what makes his work linger in your mind long after the credits roll.
Not a slog for me, but there are some sections that drag.
Besides, Tolkien splits the narrative into “Sam Frodo” and “Everyone else” and I love Peter Jackson’s edited together version of the story.
My wife did a re-read once where she went every-other-chapter in books 2 and 3 so she could edit the story to her own method. It mostly worked, though I don’t remember if it totally works. She probably had to adjust for the timeline to make sense.
Probably an inapt word. Portions of it, particularly all of the poetry and songs, just became tedious. But it was a fairly fast and entertaining read for all that. My eldest son has always been a LOTR nerd, and still is, in his 50s. I never mention the movies in his presence, as he will go on in exhaustive detail about the omissions in the films, whereas I think they stand alone very well. He’s obsessed with Tom Bombadil, for instance, who was completely absent in the trilogy.
Ah. I meant to find out what music that was. Every time it repeated, it reminded me strongly of another piece of music (totally blanking now on what it was) that was something way out of left field. So, every time it played it took me completely out of the movie and distracted me from the story. And I wouldn’t have said it was about fate so much as that Barry could not escaped what he intrinsically was. As he kept saying, now he’d be a gentleman. And he never was.
Something Kubrick left out of Thackery’s Barry Lyndon was that he was descended from aristocracy, but it was the ancient Irish aristocracy extinguished by the English. That makes the story part of a larger genre where the Irish view the world as a locked door and their only means of entry is to batter it down, usually with their skulls.
Even if you choose to sympathize with Barry, at one point he blows it: literally with smoke in his wife’s face. A classic tragedy of a man who gets what he everything he wants, but now what he needs - the ability to get out of his own way. Where Barry Lyndon fails, for me, is that he never reaches a moment of self-awareness. Even the voice of innocence, when his son asks him and his wife to reconcile as he’s dying, can’t reach him. He just gets drunk and stays that way.
A beautiful movie, but a similar story was better told in Breaking Bad.
I think I understand why Tolkien did it that way, and arguably he was right to do so, but it wouldn’t have worked to do the movie that way.
Why did he? Very unusual choice in my opinion.
It helps us, the readers, experience and feel what the viewpoint characters are experiencing and feeling (which is something books do better than movies).
Frodo and Sam are off on their own, making the long journey through Mordor, without any idea what’s going on in/with the rest of the world; and we get to share their sense of isolation. And while we’re with the other characters, all they know about Frodo and Sam is that they are (we hope) still alive and okay and in possession of the Ring (and not vice versa) and on their way to Mount Doom; but we have no way of knowing that.
At least, that’s my interpretation of why he did it. I don’t remember Tolkien himself explaining why he structured it that way.
If I understand what you’re saying right, I don’t think that it’s unusual. Here are some books that have alternating chapters like this. It’s also done in some television shows where there are two plotlines being followed:
- Ursula K. Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed
- Becky Chambers: A Closed and Common Orbit
- Adrian Tchaikovsky: Children of Time, Dogs of War
- Brian Aldiss: Greybeard
- Charlie Jane Anders: The City in the Middle of the Night
- Neal Asher: Gridlinked
- John Brunner: The Shockwave Rider
- Paul McAuley: Something Coming Through, Into Everywhere
But perhaps you mean something different.
Alternating chapters?
In television shows, it’s alternating plotlines. One scene tells what happens with one group of characters, then a second scene shows what happens with a second group, then the first group is shown again, then the second, etc.
Right. That is what I would expect. In the Two Towers and Return of the King, however, Tolkien did not do that. He wrote all of Frodo and Sam’s adventure in consecutive chapters and all of everyone’s story in consecutive chapters.