Monday, December 13, 2004

This is my lame blog

I'm bored as hell so I'm creating a blog.

I'd like to focus on movies.......but it doesn't really matter

Here's one I just saw--Terrence Malick's "Badlands", 1973.

I think the pacing, while probably slow by most Hollywood-weened moviewatcher's standards, is perfect. There’s so much I like about this movie, especially after reading some reviews of it on IMDB.com. I’m finding out that my favorite movies are the ones that strive for realism; they’re easier to believe, or rather it’s easier to suspend your DISbelief and it makes for a more rewarding and important experience. Subtlety is the key with good movies, I think. Nothing over the top. This is a very mature and intelligent movie and it makes me want to watch Thin Red Line again, and I want to see Days of Heaven (his other movie) too. Here's a great user review from IMDB that made me think a whole lot more about what I'd already seen:

"Malick's masterpiece, 18 November 2004 Author: Vicenzo-V- SPOILERS

In Natural Born Killers the protagonists has to be bald, he needs to wear sunglasses and a leather jacket, he's used to swearing in every sentence and his childhood, of course, has been very unhappy. With his girlfriend, who shares the exact same personality, he drives across America and kills everything with a pulse, accompanied by loud rock-music in the background. If you hadn't noticed, Mickey's a very bad man. It's easy to distance yourself from such a character, since he isn't remotely like you -- in fact, he's like nobody you've ever met. What makes Kit in Terrence Malick's Badlands a much more interesting character is the unpredictability of his speech, behavior and violent outbursts. From the outside he's not only incredibly handsome, he also appears to be a decent, if somewhat simplistic, lower-class man. In the course of the film we'll learn that the only thing wrong with him is that he suffers from a set of morals that are completely unacceptable. Which is the one thing that links him with Holly, who's otherwise the polar opposite to Kit's character. When Kit kills Holly's father, her reaction can only be described as indifferent. We don't understand why she reacts like this, but we're given two clues -- she's complimented by Kit's affection, whom she idolizes like a movie-star, and her child-like naivety prevents her from seeing the consequence of Kit's actions. If the relationship between Kit and Holly leaves you completely cold that's intentional -- once they're on the road it doesn't function as an emotionally satisfying love-story, instead Holly accentuates the absurdity of Kit's actions -- not by reacting to them the way we would, but in exactly the opposite way. What follows is a road movie with irony in every frame -- the respecting way in which he addresses his victims never matches his blunt and horrifying acts, and there's always a serene beauty and calm surrounding them. Kit's victims die in agonizing pain while they're comforted by the sound of birds. In a scene of surreal and unsettling brilliance, Malick shows that there's a fine line between an innocent girl and and a sadistic accomplice. When Kit is arrested and will probably end up in the electric chair we're not supposed to feel bad about it. We're supposed to be disturbed by the fact that most Americans are in the possession of a gun, and that they're all one loose wire away from becoming like Kit. 10/10"

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home