[quote=“scherpschutter, post:2333, topic:1923”]I love it; I just can’t resist the idea of two macho men winning a war within a few hours by blowing up the entire enemy army
A film that makes me feel young again when watching it, like Mackenna’s Gold[/quote]
Yes, wonderful idea, when someone like Tarantino does it. Or someone else who has ideas.
But this is a film without any ideas and especially without one interesting character. I do not care for boring people killing hundreds of other boring people without any real pronblems.
Well, still I will maybe try it again if I stumble over it.
Oh, and sorry Scherp, but MacKenna’s Gold is another catastrophe. Except maybe for the scene of your fondly remembered ex-avatar.
Can you really judge a film on the last 40 minutes? Especially if it’s 2 1/2 hours. Meaning you may not have seen even half of it. Most of it is actually not killing. So you should try it again.
In fact only 30 min before I fell asleep (last thing I remember is Burton fighting against 2 others in a cable car). But it is exactly how I remembered it.
Well, some films are different when you visit them again, others don’t.
The action was ok, I have seen much worser, but far from being impressive. But the concept for the action scenes … was their any concept?
[quote=“Stanton, post:2340, topic:1923”]No no, it was already a waste of time when I first saw it back in the 80s.
I have read btw also the novel a few years earlier, and it was also disappointing. Like al Maclean novels. They have interesting plots, but the story development is lousy.[/quote]
I read somewhere that it wasn’t based on a novel; it was an original script by MacLean, he developed the novel later.
You’re right about MacLean and his novels. He’s a mediocre writer, he has good ideas (for stories), but doesn’t know how to fashion them into a compelling narrative; I read a few novels when I was young and a few more later, because many students were fond of them. Where Eagles Dare is of course a silly story, completely unbelievable, badly balanced, and with a storyline that is so confusing that many people still wonder who was on what side during this or that scene. The direction by Hutton is weak, almost totally absent in some scenes (or so it seems, apparently Eastwood gave him a hand on a few occasions, when Hutton had absolutely no idea what to do with a particular scene). I don’t think there was much of a concept concerning the action scenes. But who cares about all this, I was entertained when I was young and was entertained ever since (and I’ve seen it at least half a dozen times).
I also read that it’s one of the favourite movies of the Coen Brothers;
Just checked Amazon.de. They are all oop. Most of them you can get via marketplace for 1 cent (+ 3 € shipping costs, which are of course part of the sellers calculation)
MacLean was massively popular in the 60s and 70s here in the Uk but he has become one of those ‘forgotten’ authors really. You only see his books in Charity shops these days. A similar fate to others of his era: Hammond Innes, Desmond Bagley and, to a lesser extent, Wilbur Smith.
When I was a student myself, we were told to read a Maclean or Konsalik novel and compare it to Tolstoy or Dostojevski. It can be very instructive to compare The Guns of Navarone to War and Peace, not the entire novels, but some aspects of them. So later, when I had become a teacher myself, I told students to do the same thing, so maybe I was responsible for the whole thing.
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:2350, topic:1923”]Students like the craziest things
When I was a student myself, we were told to read a Maclean or Konsalik novel and compare it to Tolstoy or Dostojevski. It can be very instructive to compare The Guns of Navarone to War and Peace, not the entire novels, but some aspects of them. So later, when I had become a teacher myself, I told students to do the same thing, so maybe I was responsible for the whole thing.[/quote]
The Reckless Moment, it’s my third Max Ophuls film, and this doesn’t compare well with the other two I’ve seen (Madame de… and Letter from an Unknown Woman).
A lot of work lately but was able to see a something
Barbet Schroeder “More” 1969
Strange movie for the time, I didn’t find it boring or anything, even if shot in what can be called a more pretensious French style which isn’t always a good thing. The story unfolds in two parts one before Ibiza and the other in Ibiza. The actors go quite well, scream queen Mimsy farmer it’s just perfect in the the part (i think it’s her best piece of acting but I’ve not seen all her pictures), and also klaus Günberg. I find it a strange film for the time, cause in 1969 the awareness of drug addiction and abuse wasn’t a cool thing (I’m only supposing I was not even born) to talk about. Visually the film it’s very good with a great photography work, the music of course it’s even better known than the film, being a Pink Floyd soundtrack (at the time they were just a small band really). what I most like in the film it’s the lack of a moral tone (except in the end with the funeral scene and the suicide/relegion comment), both two main characters stand for what they were, it’s up to the viewer to take it’s own conclusions, also nice it’s what the director doesn’t show us about the plot and it’s up to us to wonder.
Barbet Schroeder got some nice films from the ones I’ve seen it’s best work it’s IMO “Our Lady of the Assassins”, but this really deserves a view, all dreams will eventually end in one way or another, even the best ones
Funny thing while watching the film I was always remebering of “Trainspotting” go figure.
Schroeder must have been a great Floyd fan, because they also did the soundtrack for another of his films, La Vallée. That soundtrack (the album is called Obscured by Clouds) is way better than this one, which mainly consists of tracks they had not used for previous albums with only a limited number of new tracks.
True, they were still a sort of cult band in those days. Things started to change a little with two albums they made shortly afterwards, Atom heart mother and Meddle, but they only became world famous after The Dark Side of the Moon
And with a few exceptions of the main theme in some scenes (that would have some music anyway), the music/songs are not an important part of the film.
I guess that when they became famous any record from the past was an important for the fans and if it was connect to a film, the film would be so, even if a mor obscure one like More. The movie itself got some cult status in Portugal during th 80’s but for the wrong reasons (pink floyd connection, drug use etc etc)
A revenge movie that sets out like many others, but developes into one that’s really hard to imagine
Apart from the dispicable French horror movie Martyrs probably the most gruesome and graphically violent film ever made outside Asia
It’s about a man who discovered that his daughter, who died of a overdose, was abused by the porn industry
He’s now after the scumbags who drugged and raped her in front of a camera
A sort of 8MM meets Hardcore (and there are also some similarities to the Belgian production The Intruder/De Indringer)
Subtle it ain’t, but hard to resist
If you happened to like Death Wish only a tiny bit, you’ll love this one …
Though I liked the theatrical version when i first saw it, this is the definitive cut. Though it is over 3 hours length with some 40 minutes added, the film is much better, far more thoughtful than the first cut. Adds many more subplots and explanantions as well as more graphic violence. Also jumples around the order of some scenes. Different characters get more closure. And the structure has become more of a suspenseful build up than complete action.
Wild River (Elia Kazan)
Both Lee Remick and Kazan call this their favorite movie of those they were involved in. Montgomery Clift stars as a Government agent sent to persuade an old matriarch to sell her land so the Tennessee River can proceed to be flooded in 1930’s Tennessee. A nice film. Not a very complicated film but it doesn’t really need to be. It’s competently directed and wonderfully acted. Nice little piece of Americana.
Yes, there is a concept
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