I just wonder: was the abstraction on purpose? Or did PTA set out to do something else and reviewers celebrated what he actually failed at?
If it was on purpose, I wonder why since PTA is capable to do complex characterizations and the story could have been so much richer with it.
Thatâs exactly why for me the last M:I film was such a disappointment: too much personal stuff, too little fun.
To wonder about that is to succumb to the intentional fallacy. What is on offer is the completed work, and that is what must be judged.
I sensed that was how you were thinking. We can never know intentions, so to compare the finished product to intentions surmised from press releases, interviews, and leaked memos is fruitless/pointless. As I have said before, I edited Mankiewiczâs interviews, and have read a great many by other Hollywood directors, and they always disparage works that did poorly at the box office, even when their interlocutors are full of praise for them, and trying to extract the secret sauce that makes them so special.
Hitchcock said to Truffaut that ROPE was a stunt, and that he had no idea why he indulged in it. ROPE, as I am sure everyone knows, was not a success. At the time of release, however, Hitchcock penned an article for Popular Photography (November 1948) entitled âMy Most Exciting Picture,â where he wrote:
âRope is a picture in which material has been created definitely for camera movements. Scenes were planned for visual strength, which in turn was blended with movement. The continuous flow of action meant that the eye was occupied constantly. And the elimination of the conventional shifting camera excites the audience by making the picture flow smoother and faster.â
Okay Sir Alfred, which is: a stunt or a film of visual strength?
It would have been richer, but richness in this area may well have come at the sacrifice of depth in other parts of the film. You like rich characterizations and story, so OBAA fails the SAF Richness Test. That doesnât make it a bad film.
That is my main quarrel with the film: where was that depth? For me, the whole film was surface thrills, a PTA action film with the most overused trope at the center: the love of a father for his child.
In its engagement with issues of race, resistance (individual and communal), authoritarianism, imposition of governmental power.
The relationship of two fathers with their daughter. The film engages with a common issue among young people today: the estrangement of young people with their biological fathers with whom they share genes, but not values, and the simultaneous closeness they feel with those who share their morality. Blood-and-soil ties versus ethical ties.
Not to prolong our different views on that film but⌠those two fathers - I donât see any depth in the depiction of their conflicts. Both remain surfaces which are used to wring humor out of. The underachieving stoner, the self-deceiving soldier. Of course, the daughter wants to stick with the nice one, not the brutal egomaniac.
But I want to be clear: it is well directed, acted, shot and edited. It just is, IMO, a very minor work in PTS´s filmography, overpraised as so many films are during award season, but fitting into the polical atmosphere right now and therefore overshowered with accolades.
Weird but it will make it all easily available (unless they want a pay wall):
I think that they are moving it to be more accessible, which would counter-indicate a paywall.
Then again, YouTube for free means ads every five minutesâŚ
âBorisââŚ
Well, he is invincibleâŚ
âThere are a lot of people Iâd like to thank for this award, like our sponsor, Nord VPNâŚâ
Licensing makes money. And for all that what was paid but wonât yield returns before the next film comes, they need to milk it.
Oh they will. Terrestrial licenses should also be renewed for a whole range of markets, those rights will still make decent small change. The real money would come with new productions thoughâŚ
Insane. Therefore typical of these times.
Canât be all that long until one party just adds the entire African continent and their firstborn offspring to the offerâŚ
I donât know where to put it so here we go:
This is what I gave myself for this Christmas, but in case of young children visit this site, ofcourse I ment this is what I got from Father Christmas:
All of the films will be available starting January 15.
The headline should have read:
Diamonds Are Forever and 25 other James Bond Movies Get Netflix Release Date
But who I am I to quibble during the holidays?
