Author Topic: Film poll, week 2 (Read 12452 times)

Ocicat · **on:** October 10, 2007, 05:09:07 PM

Okay, Serenity got past Strangelove in the first week's poll by just one vote - much to my personal disapointment. So Serenity is in again this week, where we have what seems to be some pretty heavyweight competition...

DKT · **Reply #1 on:** October 10, 2007, 05:20:27 PM

Tough call. I've seen 4 out of 5 of the movies this time, so in that way I feel like I can vote more informedly. I've narrowed it down to 2 and neither one of them is Serenity.

Russell Nash · **Reply #2 on:** October 10, 2007, 06:05:19 PM

OK, I bought LoA a while back, but haven't watched it yet. It's the only one of the list I haven't seen so I guess that means I have to watch it tonight.

How are you running the polls? The winner carries over each week and then the films with the most wins go into a final poll?

Ocicat · **Reply #3 on:** October 10, 2007, 10:01:35 PM

Quote from: Russell Nash on October 10, 2007, 06:05:19 PM

How are you running the polls? The winner carries over each week and then the films with the most wins go into a final poll?

There probably will be a finals style runoff, but I'm not sure yet how it will be done. Depending on how many films win polls, a runoff could be great. Or we may end up with one clear undefeated champion without a runoff. In any case, that's six months away!

Heradel · **Reply #4 on:** October 10, 2007, 11:44:23 PM

Have people not seen Lawrence of Arabia?

Russell Nash · **Reply #5 on:** October 11, 2007, 06:38:13 AM

Quote from: Ocicat on October 10, 2007, 10:01:35 PM

Quote from: Russell Nash on October 10, 2007, 06:05:19 PM
How are you running the polls? The winner carries over each week and then the films with the most wins go into a final poll?

There probably will be a finals style runoff, but I'm not sure yet how it will be done. Depending on how many films win polls, a runoff could be great. Or we may end up with one clear undefeated champion without a runoff. In any case, that's six months away!

But You're going with a winner stays on kind of thing?

Russell Nash · **Reply #6 on:** October 11, 2007, 06:51:30 AM

Quote from: Heradel on October 10, 2007, 11:44:23 PM

Have people not seen Lawrence of Arabia?

It's one of those classics that's always there, but not. I've never seen it on TV. Many video stores don't have a classics section. It's in a class with Citizen Kane, Gone With the Wind, and Casablanca. (All of which I have seen) I just never got around to it. And I didn't last night either. The wife came home late and tired from work and didn't want to sit through an epic.

Heradel · **Reply #7 on:** October 11, 2007, 07:11:48 AM

Quote from: Russell Nash on October 11, 2007, 06:51:30 AM

Quote from: Heradel on October 10, 2007, 11:44:23 PM
Have people not seen Lawrence of Arabia?
It's one of those classics that's always there, but not. I've never seen it on TV.

It's length is probably the reason for that, though I think I saw it once on TCM, but that's the only station that has the means to devote that much airtime to any one thing. I don't think it scores well with women, as the only woman in the film is a camel. It's probably the greatest film without romantic love.

Russell Nash · **Reply #8 on:** October 11, 2007, 07:26:11 AM

Quote from: Heradel on October 11, 2007, 07:11:48 AM

Quote from: Russell Nash on October 11, 2007, 06:51:30 AM
Quote from: Heradel on October 10, 2007, 11:44:23 PM
Have people not seen Lawrence of Arabia?
It's one of those classics that's always there, but not. I've never seen it on TV.
It's length is probably the reason for that, though I think I saw it once on TCM, but that's the only station that has the means to devote that much airtime to any one thing.

It's also something you have to be in the mood for. I put it in a couple of months back, but the beginning is classic British slow. Lots of background and nothing happening. I don't always mind that, but after wrestling a pair of kids into bed, I wanted something that didn't require complete attention and thought.

Maybe tonight.

Quote

I don't think it scores well with women, as the only woman in the film is a camel. It's probably the greatest film without romantic love.

There's no romantic love in Citizen Kane. Just a rosebud fetish.

Simon · **Reply #9 on:** October 11, 2007, 01:36:54 PM

I gotta say, as a Brit I've seen that particular Lean epic more times than I can count... I love it love it love it.

It is practically the definitive British Epic, it being a movie about stiff-upper-lipped soldiers. Personally I think Lean did a better job with Brief Encounter and Doctor Zhivago, but they dont have the balls-out magnificence of LoA. Stands proud in history too - since the film crash at the end of the 60s, Britain's film industry has never had the money to make movies on this scale again, so it stands as a totem.

The thing I like about these period of British films, is they haven't been infected with the Auteur disease we later picked up form the continentals... Unlike Mike Leigh, Ken Loach or Nicholas Roeg it doesn't wear "this is one man's vision" on it's sleeve.

On the other hand, The Third Man (Carol Reed and Graham Greene) is the BIG classic of British Film... This one only comes second.

Ocicat · **Reply #10 on:** October 11, 2007, 05:11:17 PM

Personally, I voted for Cuckoo, which holds a special place in my heart. But Lawrence is amazing. And no, not that many Americans have actually seen it. But even if more people voting in the poll had seen it, lovers of epics might still be voting for Return of the King. As the climax of three epic movies, it's pretty hard to beat for scope. Of course it's faster paced and more modern. And the grandeur of Fantasy might be easier to appreciate than the grandeur of history.

lowky · **Reply #11 on:** October 11, 2007, 06:17:37 PM

I'm an action junkie, I voted for Pulp Fiction. Is it high cinema? By no means. Is it an action packed violence filled movie? Yes. I think I caught part of LoA a long time ago, and as a kid didn't appreciate it at all. I should probably watch it again but *shrug*.

Russell Nash · **Reply #12 on:** October 11, 2007, 06:18:11 PM

Quote from: Ocicat on October 11, 2007, 05:11:17 PM

But Lawrence is amazing. And no, not that many Americans have actually seen it. But even if more people voting in the poll had seen it, lovers of epics might still be voting for Return of the King. As the climax of three epic movies, it's pretty hard to beat for scope. Of course it's faster paced and more modern. And the grandeur of Fantasy might be easier to appreciate than the grandeur of history.

Return of the King just left me cold. The special effects were just not as good as the other films. The final large battle looked like a cartoon. It was just a let down.

Heradel · **Reply #13 on:** October 11, 2007, 06:48:09 PM

Quote from: lowky on October 11, 2007, 06:17:37 PM

I'm an action junkie, I voted for Pulp Fiction. Is it high cinema? By no means.

It isn't?

Quote from: lowky on October 11, 2007, 06:17:37 PM

Is it an action packed violence filled movie? Yes.

Since when has violence been a sign of low cinema? It's more graphic than most, but Tarantino is part of the latter age of filmmakers, and he doesn't feel the need to make horrible acts look less than they are. Not to blame earlier filmmakers for hiding it, they couldn't get away with it or it didn't make sense in the context of the piece.

Or low anything for that matter. Oedipus, Hamlet, Macbeth, the original Grimm's fairy tales, and, well, the Bible all have scenes of violence as bad as anything in Pulp Fiction, and in some of them worse.

I obviously voted for Lawrence, which has more than it's fair share of death and destruction (though the blood is fairly cartoonish). One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest(which I still need to see the entirety of, I read the book though) has a major character get lobotomized and has a fair bit of EST (I know it does have some value, but not in the way applied in that book) the former I'd hold to be worse than anything that Tarantino portrays, and at least Tarantino lets there be some redemption in the piece.

It mimics the forms of the —sploitation flicks that Tarantino grew up on, but it's high cinema with a low veneer.

DKT · **Reply #14 on:** October 11, 2007, 07:39:48 PM

After much deliberation, I voted for Pulp Fiction. Out of all the movies listed, it's the one that's influenced me the most, I think. It was Tarantino at the top of his game and I've yet to enjoy another of his movies as I did that one.

The other possibility was RotK, which I liked a lot, but is not my favorite of the LotR series (that'd be Fellowship). Cuckoo's Nest is also excellent. I'd put all of them about Serenity.

I need to see Lawrence of Arabia sometime...

Heradel · **Reply #15 on:** October 12, 2007, 03:07:38 AM

Maybe we should have a side poll about whose actually seen the all the options.

Alasdair5000 · **Reply #16 on:** October 12, 2007, 09:03:56 AM

I went with Pulp Fiction on this one, although this round was way tougher than last time, have to say. My reasoning was that Laurence of Arabia is a classic (And I encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to do so. And if you're a director geek like I am, trust me you're in for an absolute treat), Pulp Fiction, for me at least, is a pretty clear date stamp for a very different kind of cinema.
Whilst I am very aware that Tarantino cherry picks references like a demented magpie, Pulp Fiction, especially following Reservoir Dogs suddenly seemed to open up a new seam of popular cinema. Not quite an action movie, not quite a thriller, not quite a comedy and easily one of the most eccentric movies of the last twenty years it's dizzyingly well structured, astoundingly well acted and shot and an amazingly lean piece of film making.

lowky · **Reply #17 on:** October 12, 2007, 01:05:49 PM

I do have to say on the subject of Tarantino that imho some of his best work involves collaboration with Robert Rodriguiz. Grindhouse and From Dusk Til Dawn.

Russell Nash · **Reply #18 on:** October 12, 2007, 02:04:00 PM

Quote from: Heradel on October 11, 2007, 07:11:48 AM

Quote from: Russell Nash on October 11, 2007, 06:51:30 AM
Quote from: Heradel on October 10, 2007, 11:44:23 PM
Have people not seen Lawrence of Arabia?
It's one of those classics that's always there, but not. I've never seen it on TV.

It's length is probably the reason for that, though I think I saw it once on TCM, but that's the only station that has the means to devote that much airtime to any one thing.

I didn't quite get this fully the first time I read it, but I watched Part 1 last night (up to the intermission). It was 2 hours and 15 minutes! For the first half!!

The first half is amazing, although Peter O'Toole is overacting like crazy.

The one thing I'm really getting out of it is how amazing camels are.

Russell Nash · **Reply #19 on:** October 13, 2007, 08:15:16 PM

After watching for 3 hours and 40 minutes I thought the movie ended to soon. Since I couldn't wait for Return of the King to end, I voted for LoA.

Simon · **Reply #20 on:** October 18, 2007, 09:31:02 AM

WOOH!

More important than the RotK, is that LoA beat that ugly pile of Whedon poop, Serenity....

I am much pleased, it wouldn't be fair to say I hate that movie (I enjoyed every second at the cinema)...But I rank it slightly behind Fortress in terms of SF movies worth remembering. And it doesn't have Peter O'Toole in it.