What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

The Secret of Kells

You know what I think?

Utterly Delightful!

How inspired to do the animation in the style of medieval illuminations. And the story was great too. Those Vikings were terrifying.

Repo, you HAVE to see Song of the Sea now. You have to.

I liked Secret of the Kells better. Both were good, but I thought Kells nailed it on the story. Beautifully illustrated too.

S.

The Killing (1956)

A while ago I decided to try and watch all the movies by a specific director to see if I could discern their style and growth and what makes them great. I chose Stanley Kubrick to start with. His first feature length film was called "Fear and Desire" and it felt like a student film. It did showcase Kubrick's love of the tight shot on the face of the actors but other than that the story was weak and the message of the movie a bit loud, as you would expect of a college student.

Next he made a movie called Killer's Kiss which I was unable to get a copy of.

So I moved on to his third film The Killing released in 1956. The improvement and growth is immediately apparent. This is a much better film. Based on a book by Lionel White and a script by Jim Thompson, although only listed for dialog in the credits.

This is a heist/noir story and I found it quite enjoyable. While I don't think it's as sophisticated as some of the classics of the genre, it kept my interest and I felt the tension throughout. Kubrick continues using very tight shots and builds a sense of claustrophobia by filling the frame with clutter, often objects between the viewer and the actor. This imparts the emotion of needing to break free of the cage the characters feel themselves to be in and gives an emotional element to their desire to pull off the theft.

The relationship between George Peaty, played by Elisha Cook Jr., and Sherry Peaty, played by Marie Windsor, almost steals the show and it's great to watch them. She is such a total bitch!




Next up is Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory is excellent.

The Killing is a good little movie. Sterling Hayden is good as Johnny Clay, the ringleader.

I watched The Martian on demand yesterday.



I really liked it. I thought the jeopardy of the situation was developed nicely so that the film wasn't just all about sitting watching Damon's character wait to be rescued. All that and a well deserved happy ending made The Martian a good watch for this satisfied customer.

My second movie in today's Kubrick double feature

Paths of Glory (1957)

Based on the book of the same name by Humphrey Cobb and with a screenplay credited to Kubrick, Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson who you will remember did the "dialog" on Kubrick's previous film, The Killing.

The story, on the surface, is of three soldiers picked out of their units to stand trial for cowardice in the face of the enemy. The penalty for such a crime is death by firing squad. What I think it's really about is the monstrous inhumanity in large institutions and the the tendency of people in positions of power to treat the people below them as merely objects and not people at all and to see the primary purpose of these objects as being to, if not increase their own power, at least maintain their current status.

Time and again we see people swallowing their own conscience because to act in accordance with it would be to damage their own careers or power. In fact the only character in the whole movie who shows unwavering moral courage is the artillery commander who refuses the order to fire on his own troops. Even Col. Dax, the character played by Kirk Douglas, has moments where he backs down from what is right in order to maintain command of the 701st battalion.

I have seen the movie before and I often ponder the meaning of the final scene where the men of the 701st sit in a bar room and taunt and mock a terrified German girl brought on stage to sing for them but then begin to sing along with her and to finally break down in tears. I think it's a refection of the movie's theme. The soldiers at first treat her as an object but then through her song and it's emotion see her as a person and then the sorrow as they realize that they are themselves objects caught up in the relentless war machine. All suffering together. I think it's poignant that this revelation comes from the only female character in the whole movie.

As to Kubrick's development I noticed several interesting things. First, it is the first time I've seen him use wide shots where the principal characters are dwarfed by the space they are in. This is done mostly when the remorseless inhuman machine is most prevalent. The huge rooms of the army HQ mostly but at it's most horrible when the soldiers are being marched to the firing squad the whole manor, grounds and open sky show just how minuscule they are.

Second, in The Killing I noticed his use of the "point of view" shot where we see the action as if looking through the character's eyes. This is used more frequently here as is the shot where we either follow the characters movement while looking over his shoulder or we watch him advance as we back up in front of him. The great scene with Dax moving through the trenches just before the attack on The Ant Hill is a prime example of all of this.

Lastly, this seems to be Kubrick's first use of large and grand crowd scenes. The attack across no man's land especially. There are lots of extras involved in those shots and while he had crowd scenes in The Killing it is much more involved here.

This movie is justly viewed as a classic. The story is great, the acting is great, and the look and feel is great.

Deadpool, oh god Deadpool. Such a fantastic film, so deliberately mocking current superhero films. A masterpiece! I'm not sure how well it will hold up 10 years from now, but after that opening weekend I don't think anyone cares.

I enjoyed The Killing, and Sterling Hayden is the goddamn bomb.

Personally I am disappointed Deadpool is doing so well. I was thinking this would be the film the law of diminishing returns would catch up to superhero genre films. I was totally wrong. I don't mind they make a good superhero movie once in awhile. There are just so many being made and most don't appeal to me. The only reason I would like them to make less is so they can start making more of something else.... Anything else.... I just like good movies with original ideas.

However, I am happy for Ryan Reynolds. He hadn't seemed to able to carry a movie up to this point and it seemed as if his window might close as his star faded. Obviously this should reboot his career as this is probably the role he was born to play.