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Post by Reactionary Rage on May 16, 2019 19:51:10 GMT
What do we think?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2019 20:36:20 GMT
I've lost interest in him over the years. But I loved his first two films.
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Sneelock
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Post by Sneelock on May 23, 2019 19:59:51 GMT
I liked "Thin Red Line" a lot but I can't really speak beyond those three. I've sat down to watch others but on TV at home while other people are talking about things unrelated to the movie I'm watching.
I think he's a pretty singular guy. As much as I loved "Badlands" I adored "Days of Heaven" and tried to see it on the big screen every chance I got. I can see why people rankled at his narrative devices in "Thin Red Line" but I found it "literary" in a way that might be accused of feeling stagey & unnatural but strikes me as being very cinematic. like "days of heaven" I felt like he was taking an "omniscient" approach into the characters minds and that's a hell of a trick.
I'd really like to see "tree of life" in a theater or when nobody is home. I don't know if "the new world" really clicks with me or not. hard to tell.
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Post by daveythefatboy on Jun 9, 2019 9:45:01 GMT
My favorite filmmaker. I get why his recent films leave people cold, but I love them.
I’d probably pick Badlands as my single favorite film.
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Jun 9, 2019 10:17:33 GMT
The only one I ever saw was Badlands, which I watched because it was 'inspired' by Charles Starkweather, about whom I was writing a long piece for Murder Casebook. I was fascinated by Charles, the 'teenage spree killer' with his 14-year-old girlfriend, largely because he was at the intersection of a hell of a lot of American cultural tropes and myths to the fore in the 1950s: rock & roll, cars and guns, James Dean and the emergence of the teenager/rebel, the vastness of the Mid-West, the lure of the Road, an obsession with thrills and death, even the American class system (Charlie was a garbageman, white trash, and some of his 12 victims were among the middle and upper classes he served). And made all the more poignant and resonant by the way he explained himself to a psychiatrist when awaiting trial and execution, his dreamlike fantasies of Death, which he considered to be an entity with which he had regular conversations, his gift for a soundbite ('If I get the chair, Caril should be sitting on my lap') and occasionally brutally clear insights, all published in one of the three fine books about his crimes. But Mallick reinvented, and in fact completely changed the story for his time, and I actively resented it. Of course, this is an unfair criticism of a work of fiction, but it coloured the way I saw the movie, and I didn't really like it, although others I knew and respected absolutely loved it. I never saw any of his other movies because he was basically after my time.
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Post by Reactionary Rage on Jun 9, 2019 10:33:18 GMT
I tried with Tree of Life but gave up after that. I just thought that movie was a bit silly.
He’s been very productive in recent years but I can’t say I feel like I’m missing much. Partly because it feels like our worldviews are too far apart.
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Post by rankingted on Jun 9, 2019 12:33:34 GMT
I’ve only seen Badlands which has a dust blasted, widescreen, curdled fairy tale quality that makes it a deserved classic. I dunno, something about the reputation of his movies doesn’t encourage me to investigate further.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2019 12:35:45 GMT
I’ve only seen Badlands which has a dust blasted, widescreen, curdled fairy tale quality that makes it a deserved classic. I dunno, something about the reputation of his movies doesn’t encourage me to investigate further. Give Days of Heaven a go. It's such a beautiful film to watch that it can be enjoyed just on that level, although the narrative is quite powerful too.
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Post by daveythefatboy on Dec 22, 2019 11:18:08 GMT
Just came back from A Hidden Life - and it is a flat-out masterpiece. His best film since Days of Heaven.
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Post by oleandermedian on Dec 22, 2019 18:15:30 GMT
The only one I ever saw was Badlands, which I watched because it was 'inspired' by Charles Starkweather, about whom I was writing a long piece for Murder Casebook. I was fascinated by Charles, the 'teenage spree killer' with his 14-year-old girlfriend, largely because he was at the intersection of a hell of a lot of American cultural tropes and myths to the fore in the 1950s: rock & roll, cars and guns, James Dean and the emergence of the teenager/rebel, the vastness of the Mid-West, the lure of the Road, an obsession with thrills and death, even the American class system (Charlie was a garbageman, white trash, and some of his 12 victims were among the middle and upper classes he served). And made all the more poignant and resonant by the way he explained himself to a psychiatrist when awaiting trial and execution, his dreamlike fantasies of Death, which he considered to be an entity with which he had regular conversations, his gift for a soundbite ('If I get the chair, Caril should be sitting on my lap') and occasionally brutally clear insights, all published in one of the three fine books about his crimes. But Mallick reinvented, and in fact completely changed the story for his time, and I actively resented it. Of course, this is an unfair criticism of a work of fiction, but it coloured the way I saw the movie, and I didn't really like it, although others I knew and respected absolutely loved it. I never saw any of his other movies because he was basically after my time.
I watched this series on Netflix recently, The End of the ****ing World,* which was full of affectionate references to Badlands. Always in a humorous, self-mocking register, as road trips have been all but impossible in the UK since the horse and cart went out of fashion, of course. *The first season – didn’t watch the second, which apparently is rubbish.
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