The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)

[stanton]

@Wobble

I wished Peckinpah had directed The Glory Guys as I thought that could have been much better with him at the helm.

Yes, the film is not bad, much better than the forgettable Viva Villa, but with Peckinpah on the chair it could have become a great film.
6/10 for The Glory Guys
3/10 for Viva Villa

[stanton]

@scherpschutter

Well, those lines are brief and strictly to the point. I remember a study group at the university in which the difference between dialogue in movies and literature was discussed. Most participants agreed that longer dialogue lines and wordy conversations that worked perfectly well in literature, didn’t work on the screen. A few examples were shown, often taken from movie adaptations of classic novels, and indeed, even if those lines or conversations were based on works by illustrious authors like Henry James, Fjodor Dostoïevski or Gustave Flaubert, they sounded dull, uninspired. A few exceptions were mentioned, Dickens for example, and Jane Austen. It’s often said that Jane Austen wrote her dialogue lines as if she had the later adaptations for the large and the small screen in mind.

For me film is, in its impact on me, closer to music than to literature.

Many, actually too many people, still view films like they were illustrated books.

The Wild Bunch is a true film in every respect. Telling a story in images …
Leone and Peckinpah, they were great for that.

[LooneyElmerFudd (Wilco Vedder)]

Well, how’d you like to kiss my sister’s black cat’s ass?

[scherpschutter]

@stanton

For me film is, in its impact on me, closer to music than to literature.

Interesting remark. I have a good friend, teaches literature in High School, who always says that he isn’t interested in song lyrics. In his view they must ‘sound’ good, but not necessarily mean anything: to me lyrics are music as well, he once told me, and if the lyrics try to be meaningful, they distract from the music. Maybe dialogue has a similar function in films: like the lyrics in a song, they must not distract from the visual narrative.