The second gif made me think: does Obi-Wan not finish off Anakin because on some level he still believes he is the one?
And then juxtapose Obi-Wan’s feelings with Yoda’s comment that maybe they have been reading the prophecy incorrectly.
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Without Anakin the emperor would have killed Luke, so…
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Great review @MrKiddWint and great viewpoints everyone! There is some hope on the original cut being released soon!
I was watching clips of Revenge of the Sith at my movie theater, and I do have some positive viewpoints of it.
First, above all, Ian McDiarmid owns the role of Emperor Palpatine. He’s so charmingly evil, he’s always a joy to watch. However, his best performance is here. The character development for him is one the reasons that ROTS is more positively remembered among the prequels. Even though The Rise of Skywalker shouldn’t have brought him back, there was NOTHING wrong with Ian McDiarmid’s performance. He fits the role as much as any of the original trilogy cast does with their iconic roles.
The lightsaber fights are at their best here. The opening fight with Count Dooku and the Jedi alone is better than any of the lightsaber fights in the Sequels. Plus, it has Sir Christopher Lee, in a great cameo and story foreshadowing. Sure, the General Grievous fight is over the top in CGI, but it helped push movie tech forward. Also, while the Obi-Wan vs Anakin goes on for a bit too long, remember this was going to be the last SW movie at the time. I hope the lightsaber fights can come back to this style in future SW movies.
John Williams never disappoints with his music. ROTS is one of his best, in my opinion. It’s hard to pick a favorite for me. It saddens me that he won’t compose more SW music anymore, for various (but fair reasons).
The prequel trilogy leads (Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme) are at their best acting here. The dialogue is a bit off at times. However, George Lucas has self-admitted that he isn’t the best at writing dialogue. He does however, know how to world-build (pun intended) for others to follow off of him. And make better stories and characters than even he has, at times.
The Chewbacca cameo is great fan service, and actually makes sense in the plot.
So, to make a long story short, ROTS is still great in many ways 20 years later. Hopefully this successful re-release will give us a Force Awakens re-release later this year.
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SALEM’S LOT (2024)
In spite of having to size down the material, large chunks of characterisation and development ending up on the cutting room floor, as a film this works quite well. Yes, it leaves out the gradual descent, the vignettes of small-town-life or the ominous presence of the Marsden house as the infamous spot any community has and tries to ignore. But it’s doing a good job of delivering the story beats and does its own thing with the finale.
As an adaptation it’s not ‘definite’ (few King adaptations are), but it’s entertaining, and for those who may come to King through this there’s a wealth of undiscovered territory to be explored if they pick up the book. Recommended.
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On the Beach.
Not abundant with laughs. Terrifying, though.
Nevil Shute seems to have dropped out of fashion, which seems a pity since he had a lot to say.
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THE SEA WOLVES (1980, dir. Andrew V McLaglen)
Oh dear, is this a pedestrian affair. This film tells the true story of Operation Creek, a secret attack on a covert German radio station aboard a merchant vessel in some Goa harbour. They transmitted vital information to a network of German submarines operating in the Indian Ocean and were instrumental in the sinking of a great number of Allied merchant ships.
The film largely follows actual events such as they happened in late 1942 and up until March 1943. Some of the backstory of the German spies feeding the information to their radio station was changed to make it a bit more spy vs spy and add an element of Bond into the mix. But the main storyline of the British Raj old geezers taking up Schmeisser SMGs to trade their gin-tonic war with some crucial action only they as civilians could undertake remains intact.
There’s plenty of adventurous derring do in this tale, no doubt about it. But the whole story is told overlong, winding, even downright boring. The cast is too big, the names are too big for characters who feel flat and leave us in effect largely cold. Storywise this should have been told a lot trimmer.
For a production that uses actual locations extensively, there’s comparatively little to actually see here, much less to marvel about. Yes, this is India, not some backlot. But it might as well have been. Production values seem very hit-and-miss and the action itself is staged positively dull. The majority of close quarters fighting goes to Moore and rarely was he put in scene less convincingly. Only the one fight Peck had to deliver - dealing with two types half his age - was even worse.
The whole film suffers from an unfocused plot that cannot concentrate on a few important characters. Instead, it tries to portray the whole operation as a kind of tribute, tries to be documentary and entertainment. And hits neither tone.
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Ditto for Stanley Kramer.
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I remember seeing the poster at my favourite cinema and definitely wishing to see it after enjoying THE WILD GEESE so much.
But the movie was gone after one or two weeks. Many decades later, in 2019, I saw it was on offer as a digital copy for 3,99 Euros, so I bought it. And watched it. And had the same experience as you.
I still like the poster, though. The power of good marketing.
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I did actually see this - part of it - in some butchered-to-death version back in the 90s or early 00s on RTL, if memory serves. Didn’t get the entire film, so I thought it unfair to judge. But had I spent my pocket money on this in 1980 I’d have been deeply disappointed. Which happened rarely in the cinema in those days.
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It was aired at the BBC in the nineties if I remember correctly, but I already saw it on vcr when I rented it in the eighties, because… well… it had my movie hero Roger in it, but like all movies where he was one of a bigger cast his part was always a little dissapointing and he always seem to miss the final climax (Escape to Athena, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves) where he isn’t anywere to see (this probalby is not good English sorry about that, but you know what I mean).
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16 posts were merged into an existing topic: The De Palma Conversation
I appreciated and respected Casualties of War. (Trying to think of a better way to express that. “Liked” or “enjoyed” aren’t really appropriate for such a violent film.)
IMO, other than in the Back to the Future trilogy, Michael J. Fox never got a fair shake as an actor. He was typecast in the Alex P. Keaton mold and had to fight for roles that would challenge others’ perception of him.
When I read Stephen King’s “Apt Pupil” (part of the Different Seasons novella collection), I thought Fox would have been brilliant in a film adaptation. I also always wished he could’ve played James Cagney in a biopic. 'Twas not to be.
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That would have been very interesting!
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And he really named it COLOSSUS.
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Mod note: De Palma posts moved to its own topic.
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I remember that Simmel tv vehicle ‘Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein’ being savagely vilified for its off narration explaining what’s happening on screen. Turns out ZDF was just 50 years ahead of its time.
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Not watched it yet, but I kind of expected it - it’s a bag of crisps of a film.
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May I suggest an alternative Fountain of Youth?
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