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A corellation to my recent "Is Matt Damon Hot?" post is that suddenly I am flooded with rec's for both "Courage Under Fire" and "Saving Private Ryan" and I just have to say: no.
Also - since I stated I have never seen Colin Farell in a movie that did not suck - I am being pimped high and low on "Tigerland" and I just have to say: no.
See - I don't like real-life based movies. I really don't like them. I've seen "Saving Private Ryan" because it is important to see it and I have done my duty and now I never ever have to see this movie again. Ever. I refuse to watch it again and this refusal is for my own sanity. I know that war is terrible and I know there are atrocities committed and I know that on the battlefield there is nothing clean or neat when there are bodies being ripped apart. I just don't want to see it in technicolor glory in surround sound with actors all around. I know it is realism - I just don't like it - I find it upsetting and more so then it probably should be.
I'll watch all the documentaries you want me to watch. Real footage - yes, hard to handle- yes, difficult to take - I can take it. Gimmee. I'm not so into the "dramatization" of the events, though.
But, y'know - I'm like that about everything. I am not a fan of movies based on true stories, unless that true story is about a murder. For some reason, stuff like "Fatal Vision" and "Heavenly Creatures" escape my dislike of docudramas and biopics.
Oh lord - I really hate biopics. I just - well - I *know* that person is not Audrey Hepburn and no amount of melodrama is gonna make me think otherwise. I remember going to see some movie a few months ago - maybe "Team America: World Police" and every single trailer was for any upcoming Biopic: there was "Alexander" and there was "The Aviator" and there was "Finding Neverland" and I was so disappointed. If it hadn't have been for the Sponge Bob trailer - I coulda stayed in line in the lobby for popcorn and not missed a thing.
I watch movies to escape. To enter a world that is not my own. Sometimes, sometimes there are movies that are important to see, that offer an insight into humanity and they are not an escape. I'll watch them - but they just sap the life right out of me. For every "Welcome to the Dollhouse" I would rather have a "Donnie Darko" - because is you are gonna go bleak - do it in a fantastical way with a resident christ figure and make me love him. I'll watch WttDh, but dammit - I already lived through enough of that - I don't need to see it again.
But - speaking of documentaries - I saw two really great ones on Encore this past week.
The first one was Don McGlynn's "The Howlin' Wolf Story" - it will be rerun on Encore/Starz True Stories again on December 28 and 29th and is just - see - this is what a look at someone's life should be. This is why those cursory overviews that "Biography" does will never be satisfying to me. McGlynn interviewed everyone still alive -let me rephrase - he interviewed everyone still alive who was important to Chester Burnett (normally these looks at blues legends ends up with pop stars just being fanboys and we never get to know the subject) and then he found *great* footage and we get uncut, full length performances. This is also why I don't like biopics - not when we can do stuff like this instead.
This next documentary may have changed my life - at the very least I wish I had seen it before the VVC Master Class, I might have saved myself some embarrassment (at least the cutting room floor revelation would have been in private). "The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing" is a documentary about film editors and the development and importance of their craft, and once I got over my disappointment that this was not the Ice Skating movie, I was just enthralled. For one thing - I get what they are talking about - I get it!!! And what they do and how they do it is just do freaking cool and the movie references everything and they interview directors and then their editors and Quentin Tarantino basically come right out and says he wants his editor to be his mommy - but a lot of the other editors do allude to the fact that by the time the film-maker gets to them, he/she is a beat down, shell of a man/woman. They need the editor to pull it all together.
Also - this movie confirms my opinion that James Cameron is a dumbass. AND! XXX was influenced by cubism! For real - it was - there is this whole Vin Diesal motorcycle stunt and why they did what they did - well actually it did not work for me - but they had real and valid reasoning! This is the best movie ever. Seriously -- the guy who edited "Cold Mountain" - Walter Murch - is a nut! In the good way - he has to stand a certain way when he is working and he keeps his finger on his keyboard key to cut like he is drawing in a Western and while I really don't care for his style of movie and pacing at all --- I totally get what he is talking about. Also - apparently he has a new theory about film editing every single day and so do I. Well not about film editing but every single other thing - I have a theory about it.
"The Cutting Edge" repeats on Encore December 23 and 31 and again January 14th and I cannot recommend it - especially to vidders - highly enough.
So there ya have it: I am down on dramatizations of real-life and while I don't need a reason for not liking something other than not liking it - I think it is important to note that I actually do watch more real-life programs (documentaries) than anything else. So I don't think it is that I hate reality. Perhaps I just hate reality when it is scripted?
Next Documentary I watch - "The Fog of War" Robert S. McNamara, Vietnam and what the hell were we thinking?
Also - since I stated I have never seen Colin Farell in a movie that did not suck - I am being pimped high and low on "Tigerland" and I just have to say: no.
See - I don't like real-life based movies. I really don't like them. I've seen "Saving Private Ryan" because it is important to see it and I have done my duty and now I never ever have to see this movie again. Ever. I refuse to watch it again and this refusal is for my own sanity. I know that war is terrible and I know there are atrocities committed and I know that on the battlefield there is nothing clean or neat when there are bodies being ripped apart. I just don't want to see it in technicolor glory in surround sound with actors all around. I know it is realism - I just don't like it - I find it upsetting and more so then it probably should be.
I'll watch all the documentaries you want me to watch. Real footage - yes, hard to handle- yes, difficult to take - I can take it. Gimmee. I'm not so into the "dramatization" of the events, though.
But, y'know - I'm like that about everything. I am not a fan of movies based on true stories, unless that true story is about a murder. For some reason, stuff like "Fatal Vision" and "Heavenly Creatures" escape my dislike of docudramas and biopics.
Oh lord - I really hate biopics. I just - well - I *know* that person is not Audrey Hepburn and no amount of melodrama is gonna make me think otherwise. I remember going to see some movie a few months ago - maybe "Team America: World Police" and every single trailer was for any upcoming Biopic: there was "Alexander" and there was "The Aviator" and there was "Finding Neverland" and I was so disappointed. If it hadn't have been for the Sponge Bob trailer - I coulda stayed in line in the lobby for popcorn and not missed a thing.
I watch movies to escape. To enter a world that is not my own. Sometimes, sometimes there are movies that are important to see, that offer an insight into humanity and they are not an escape. I'll watch them - but they just sap the life right out of me. For every "Welcome to the Dollhouse" I would rather have a "Donnie Darko" - because is you are gonna go bleak - do it in a fantastical way with a resident christ figure and make me love him. I'll watch WttDh, but dammit - I already lived through enough of that - I don't need to see it again.
But - speaking of documentaries - I saw two really great ones on Encore this past week.
The first one was Don McGlynn's "The Howlin' Wolf Story" - it will be rerun on Encore/Starz True Stories again on December 28 and 29th and is just - see - this is what a look at someone's life should be. This is why those cursory overviews that "Biography" does will never be satisfying to me. McGlynn interviewed everyone still alive -let me rephrase - he interviewed everyone still alive who was important to Chester Burnett (normally these looks at blues legends ends up with pop stars just being fanboys and we never get to know the subject) and then he found *great* footage and we get uncut, full length performances. This is also why I don't like biopics - not when we can do stuff like this instead.
This next documentary may have changed my life - at the very least I wish I had seen it before the VVC Master Class, I might have saved myself some embarrassment (at least the cutting room floor revelation would have been in private). "The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing" is a documentary about film editors and the development and importance of their craft, and once I got over my disappointment that this was not the Ice Skating movie, I was just enthralled. For one thing - I get what they are talking about - I get it!!! And what they do and how they do it is just do freaking cool and the movie references everything and they interview directors and then their editors and Quentin Tarantino basically come right out and says he wants his editor to be his mommy - but a lot of the other editors do allude to the fact that by the time the film-maker gets to them, he/she is a beat down, shell of a man/woman. They need the editor to pull it all together.
Also - this movie confirms my opinion that James Cameron is a dumbass. AND! XXX was influenced by cubism! For real - it was - there is this whole Vin Diesal motorcycle stunt and why they did what they did - well actually it did not work for me - but they had real and valid reasoning! This is the best movie ever. Seriously -- the guy who edited "Cold Mountain" - Walter Murch - is a nut! In the good way - he has to stand a certain way when he is working and he keeps his finger on his keyboard key to cut like he is drawing in a Western and while I really don't care for his style of movie and pacing at all --- I totally get what he is talking about. Also - apparently he has a new theory about film editing every single day and so do I. Well not about film editing but every single other thing - I have a theory about it.
"The Cutting Edge" repeats on Encore December 23 and 31 and again January 14th and I cannot recommend it - especially to vidders - highly enough.
So there ya have it: I am down on dramatizations of real-life and while I don't need a reason for not liking something other than not liking it - I think it is important to note that I actually do watch more real-life programs (documentaries) than anything else. So I don't think it is that I hate reality. Perhaps I just hate reality when it is scripted?
Next Documentary I watch - "The Fog of War" Robert S. McNamara, Vietnam and what the hell were we thinking?
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