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The Modernist

Film Club

Postby The Modernist » 08 Jan 2008, 17:56

see end of thread for updates
Last edited by The Modernist on 13 Aug 2010, 13:42, edited 10 times in total.

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Davey the Fat Boy
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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 08 Jan 2008, 18:02

I'm in.

I was hoping this idea would be brought up again.
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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Sneelock » 08 Jan 2008, 18:33

would you rather be roomates with Sabu or Michael J. Pollard?

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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Matt Wilson » 08 Jan 2008, 19:18

Speaking of Bonnie & Clyde--there's finally going to be a two-disc deluxe version on DVD in March. I've waited for this title since the dawn of DVD and only now, as DVD sales dwindle and the format threatens to be rendered archaic by Blu-Ray do they condescend to give us a proper spit-and-polished edition.

I haven't seen it in years and am looking forward to being reintroduced. Though I suspect that the film's visceral thrill has long been eclipsed by subsequent action films (some would say as early as The Wild Bunch a mere two years later) I've always seen it as a signpost of things to come in American cinema. I think Biskind even used it as an example (along with The Graduate) of a foreshadowing of the explosion of auteurist US films in the '70s.

I used to love it.

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Davey the Fat Boy
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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 08 Jan 2008, 19:22

Bonnie & Clyde was never really an action film. It shouldn't be diminished in the least.
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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Matt Wilson » 08 Jan 2008, 19:35

Davey The Fat Boy wrote:Bonnie & Clyde was never really an action film. It shouldn't be diminished in the least.


I beg to differ.
In 1967 it was the definition of "action." Find me a Hollywood movie from that time (or before) which contained scenes as grisley as the shoot-em-ups portrayed in Penn's movie. It set the standard for on-screen violence to come. The Wild Bunch is the same way. One can split hairs and say Bonnie & Clyde is a "gangster film" and The Wild Bunch is a "western" but by definition they're both action films as well.

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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Snarfyguy » 08 Jan 2008, 19:43

I would have said Bonnie and Clyde was novel in its depiction of violence, rather than action. Heck, The Wages of Fear has more *action*.

Or maybe I mean suspense. Strike that last comment.
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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Matt Wilson » 08 Jan 2008, 19:46

Snarfyguy wrote:I would have said Bonnie and Clyde was novel in its depiction of violence, rather than action. Heck, The Wages of Fear has more *action*.

Or maybe I mean suspense. Strike that last comment.


It's easy to strike most of the things you say.

:lol:

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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 08 Jan 2008, 20:03

Wilson Schmilson wrote:
Davey The Fat Boy wrote:Bonnie & Clyde was never really an action film. It shouldn't be diminished in the least.


I beg to differ.
In 1967 it was the definition of "action." Find me a Hollywood movie from that time (or before) which contained scenes as grisley as the shoot-em-ups portrayed in Penn's movie. It set the standard for on-screen violence to come. The Wild Bunch is the same way. One can split hairs and say Bonnie & Clyde is a "gangster film" and The Wild Bunch is a "western" but by definition they're both action films as well.


Having brief moments of action does not make a film an action film. Bullit was an action film. The Dirty Dozen was an action film. The James Bond films were action films. Bonnie and Clyde ? Not so much.
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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Matt Wilson » 08 Jan 2008, 20:13

Davey The Fat Boy wrote:Having brief moments of action does not make a film an action film. Bullit was an action film. The Dirty Dozen was an action film. The James Bond films were action films. Bonnie and Clyde ? Not so much.


Bullitt?
It's slow paced and contains less action scenes than Bonnie & Clyde. Let's see: There's the car chase and er, the airport chase ending in the one time that Bullitt fires his gun in the whole film and that's it. You see how easy it is to argue semantics, Davey? Let's drop the 'action' tag since it's caused you so much grief and just say the action "sequences" (once so extreme) have been rendered, uh, not so shocking since then.

How's that? Surely the way I worded it now won't cause you any consternation.

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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Sneelock » 08 Jan 2008, 20:15

I can settle this once and for all because I worked in a video store. you take a movie and you put it in the action section and then it's an action movie. yes, "Turtle Diary" is an action movie. hope this helps.

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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 08 Jan 2008, 20:45

Wilson Schmilson wrote:
Davey The Fat Boy wrote:Having brief moments of action does not make a film an action film. Bullit was an action film. The Dirty Dozen was an action film. The James Bond films were action films. Bonnie and Clyde ? Not so much.


Bullitt?
It's slow paced and contains less action scenes than Bonnie & Clyde. Let's see: There's the car chase and er, the airport chase ending in the one time that Bullitt fires his gun in the whole film and that's it. You see how easy it is to argue semantics, Davey? Let's drop the 'action' tag since it's caused you so much grief and just say the action "sequences" (once so extreme) have been rendered, uh, not so shocking since then.

How's that? Surely the way I worded it now won't cause you any consternation.


The point of my original comment was that Bonnie and Clyde does not rely on thrills to keep the audience's attention. There is no reason for it's appeal to have diminished because it was never that kind of film in the first place.

Bullit exists for the car chase. The fact that it's pacing is slow by today's action standards has diminished it's appeal.

Capiche?
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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Sneelock » 08 Jan 2008, 20:46

hmmm. but I LOVE 'Bullitt' and I'm not crazy about action movies. for me it's a star vehicle or a detective movie.
our movies are limpid pools and we see what we like in 'em.

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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Matt Wilson » 08 Jan 2008, 21:04

Davey The Fat Boy wrote: The point of my original comment was that Bonnie and Clyde does not rely on thrills to keep the audience's attention. There is no reason for it's appeal to have diminished because it was never that kind of film in the first place.

Bullit exists for the car chase. The fact that it's pacing is slow by today's action standards has diminished it's appeal.

Capiche?


And I never said that Bonnie and Clyde relys on thrills to keep the audience's attention either--that's something that you read into it. What I meant was (and what I clarified in my last post) is that the "action sequences" which were once so shocking (have you ever read the New York Times review of the film?) have been long since made to seem tame.

And Bullitt doesn't exist just for the car chase--it wasn't even hardly mentioned in the original script. I could take just as much issue with you refering to that as a mere "action" movie as you seem to with Bonnie & Clyde. At least pick a film you can properly spell before sounding off on it next time.

Comprende?

Sneelock

Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Sneelock » 08 Jan 2008, 21:06

Davey The Fat Boy wrote:Capiche?

Wilson Schmilson wrote:Comprende?


Ticonderoga!

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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby the masked man » 08 Jan 2008, 21:37

sneelock wrote:
Davey The Fat Boy wrote:Capiche?

Wilson Schmilson wrote:Comprende?


Ticonderoga!


Gesundheit.

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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 08 Jan 2008, 21:47

Wilson Schmilson wrote:What I meant was (and what I clarified in my last post) is that the "action sequences" which were once so shocking (have you ever read the New York Times review of the film?) have been long since made to seem tame.


We'll talk about it more when it comes time to discuss it. But I will say that having seen it recently, the violence is no less visceral now than ever. But it will never shock you or I the way it once did simply because we've seen it and we know not only what is coming - but how it will be depicted.

Yahtzee.
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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Matt Wilson » 08 Jan 2008, 21:55

Fine, you finally typed something that makes sense.
Hair-splitting over semantics is always dull, Davey. Surely we can find commonality in our shared love of the picture rather than debating the definition of 'action film.' You wrote a fine review of Two-Lane Blacktop the other day. I look forward to your take on Bonnie & Clyde. Though it isn't really the type of movie one has to think too much about. Its initial appeal lay in the counter culture's embrace of the outlaws as filmic folk heroes. Much like The Graduate and Easy Rider when you think about it. And despite Penn's director title it's really Beatty's movie. His project, anyway--and he was the one who hired both Faye Dunaway and Arthur Penn as well as raised the money to make it.

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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 08 Jan 2008, 22:05

Wilson Schmilson wrote:Fine, you finally typed something that makes sense.


Now you try it. I always enjoy firsts.

:P
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Re: Film Club revisited

Postby Matt Wilson » 08 Jan 2008, 22:09

Davey The Fat Boy wrote:
Wilson Schmilson wrote:Fine, you finally typed something that makes sense.


Now you try it. I always enjoy firsts.

:P


Okay, how's this: Davey the Fat Boy is utterly full of shit.

Not bad, eh?

:P


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