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Post by En on Apr 26, 2003 18:48:54 GMT -5
*chuckles* No. If there's a Shakespeare play I care enough about to give it a retooling... it's Macbeth, the runt of the litter  I might try redoing R&J someday, but that's not where I am right now.
*hits the dinger bell* DING DING DING... that's a huge reason that I like Fight Club so much. Because it's about doing something worthwhile, something bigger than oneself, something to set people free and let them be more themselves, and yet all the time, something that lets one be oneself, too. The narrator in the film discovers himself AND helps others, and has a very noble project for the world. He's the kind of hero we need right now: subversive, smart, yet ultimately a good guy (in the existential sense!).
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Post by En on Aug 6, 2003 12:35:36 GMT -5
Okay... I just finished Lawrence of Arabia last night (and as Robin put it, it was a total sexy-old-man fest: Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole, Anthony Quinn...  ).
I think I really liked it. I also think it disturbed the hell out of me.  O'Toole plays Col. T.H. Lawrence, who is (I'm for real here) exactly what a hero would be if a Ravenclaw were discovering a Slytherin side, but using it to be what he thought was Gryffindorish. Okay, that was confusing, sorry. The gist of it is, this guy who really loves the desert and the cultures of the Bedouin gets an idea for how to take Arabia back from the Turks (this is WW era) and he goes and does it, totally against all odds.
He's got human frailties, like sleeping in, but also an intense daring that allows him to do the militarily impossible. He becomes a hero to Arabs and Brits alike, but once he is a hero, he has a terrible experience (a string of them actually) and goes into a kind of shock... it's all very strange but very real, human....
Has anyone else seen this? Thoughts?
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Post by coldmercurywitch on Aug 6, 2003 21:08:16 GMT -5
Yeah, I've seen it a few times. First time I was really little and was made cover my eyes at some parts (which I'm sure anyone who has watched the movie can guess).
It is a very disturbing movie. Some of his experiences are horrorfying, and some of his sacrifices took great courage and character. You described him perfectly, En, in terms of houses.
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Post by En on Aug 7, 2003 11:56:42 GMT -5
I liked that the movie was ambiguous about whether Lawrence was good or bad, crazy or brilliant... but I'm still confused about what I think.
The thing that really interests me in retrospect is the stuff about Lawrence being a transplant into Arab culture. And after a while, he realises he really is British, not Arabic -- which is fine as long as he's just being around them and helping them do what they want, but he becomes uncomfortable when he realises he can never be an Arab, and that British ways of doing things (like the provisional government in Damascus) don't work for Arabs, and some Arabic ways of doing things don't work for him.
Eh. Anyway. *is hungry to hear other people's thoughts about the film* Need... more... input....
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laci
3rd Year
Learning, without thought, is a snare; thought, without learning, is a danger.
Posts: 120
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Post by laci on Aug 7, 2003 20:39:17 GMT -5
oh hey, Lawrence of Arabia, i've seen it multiple times, every time its disturbing. i bought the DVD for my dad because he loves the movie as do i. i have to watch it again now, even tho its so long, i'll put a half a day away for it.
to me the movie just spoke volumes about how things go from good to bad real quick, just falling apart. you see his character and being just melt away. the constant trials and setbacks, being completely engulfed in war just leaves him in ruins. one of the most disturbing scenes was when he first comes back to the British general and says "i killed a man today", the geneal says that happens which to he replies something like that i enjoyed it, i enjoyed killing the man. or the two twin brothers he loses, who promised to serve him with their lives and in the end both die, partly because of him. he feels this giant responsiblity no? when that dream, that vision for the arabs falls apart, when the British general's warning about what will happen if the arabs are allowed self rule, thats when its all over. i have to watch it again tho, got clear up somethings. oh yeah and Peter O'Toole was excellent in that movie
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Post by En on Aug 8, 2003 6:51:55 GMT -5
Yeah yeah! I was trying to think what other thing I knew that had a tone a lot like Lawrence, and you just reminded me:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
--from "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats
Anyway, yeah. I'd been thinking about descent-into-madness books the last couple of days for recommendations for a friend, and this is another kind of descent story -- eh. Descent into politics, which is almost the same thing. 
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Post by Will on Aug 28, 2003 19:51:13 GMT -5
School Ties. Wow. Just bloody wow. There were times when I just wanted to...Well, that doesn't matter right now. It's a good movie. At least I think so...
Just want to point out Remember the Titans for the 29747493202th time. It moved me.
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Post by En on Oct 11, 2003 12:17:35 GMT -5
Michael Collins. I know it's kind of Oliver Stone-y in the way that it sets up a theory for how Mick died, but I can't help loving the way Liam Neeson plays Mick. Smartass, but only skin-deep over his patriotism, which is of the noblest and dearest kind. Alan Rickman (Snape) plays Eamon Devalera, the first president of the Irish Republic and one of the most controversial figures in history.
The one thing I wish was different: there's a moment when the boys are fleeing a warehouse and there's a little bit of crazy fast Irish music in the background, and that scene hit me harder than all the rest, and I finally realised it was because that was one of the few uses of actual Irish music in the film
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Post by KoNeko on Dec 16, 2003 9:45:08 GMT -5
Hmmm, did I mention Bowling for Columbine? Brilliant stuff, if you like the whole Michael Moore philosophy. If you don't, then you'll spent the entire time complaining about what a hypocrite he is...
Oh, and South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. I'm a biggish SP fan, and in among all the swearing and violence the message does get brought across... and I like the songs ;D
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Fox Birch
Gryffindor Alumni
beauty lost
Posts: 7,556
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Post by Fox Birch on Dec 16, 2003 20:35:29 GMT -5
Braveheart all the way. aside from being a huge mel gibson fan, the movie is just really touching. yeah i guess it's kind of a guy film, but the whole concept of giving everything you have for freedom, something better, is just really moving to me. that they were able to break free from something that was so... confining is something i can really respect.
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Post by KoNeko on Dec 17, 2003 9:41:19 GMT -5
*nods* Yeah, I cried at the end when he saw his wife in the crowd... 
The whole "breaking out of confines" thing is a reason why I liked Dead Poets and oh! Anyone seen Toy Soldiers? It's got Sean Astin in it- and he's like a prep school boy whose school gets taken over by terrorists (). It's quite a good movie, not really uberserious or heavy although it's not supposed to be funny or anything, although they make it out so that private school boys at snobby boarding schools spend most of their time parading around in their underpants, trading in illicit alcohol (disguised as mouthwash) and hiding pornography under their beds.
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Natz
Ravenclaw Alumni
Posts: 4,269
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Post by Natz on Dec 30, 2003 6:25:52 GMT -5
I saw a film called toy soliders but i don't remember there being a boarding school in it. Are there two versions of it? I saw 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' a few days ago and i thought it was very good although the ending was quite sad and the scenery was amazing and so were the swords. |
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Post by sparksy on Apr 10, 2004 21:35:04 GMT -5
Sadly, I find that whenever I watch a good movie, it becomes my favourite for a while until I find a better one. As of right now, I have forgotton my favourite movie (or maybe I just don't have one.....what DID I have for dinner last night?).
One of my favourite movies, tho, is The Italian Job. I loved all of the special effects and such. And most importantly, I loved the idea of Napster and Napping, that was hilarious.
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Calavera Diablos
Ravenclaw Alumni
Draws grown men wearing underpants outside their trousers
Posts: 1,547
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Post by Calavera Diablos on Apr 12, 2004 2:16:19 GMT -5
My all-time favourite movie is also "Fight Club" for the same reasons En described. I love Tyler's speech just before he "dissapears", about people creating leather clothes and drying strips of venison on the abandoned remains of a highway.
However, since I should bring up a different movie, I'd have to say "Jacob's Ladder". It has mind jarring Francis Bacon-esque imagery as the protaganist is pulled between a self inflicted struggle between salvation and redemption. The story was non-linear and confused the hell outta me at first, but when everything falls into place, you just sit there in a state of awe.
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Julian Blake
Slytherin Alumni
[ Raptus Regaliter ]
Posts: 751
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Post by Julian Blake on Apr 16, 2004 5:25:17 GMT -5
My favourite trilogy of films has to be the Orginal Star Wars films, thought I did hate ESB (Empire Strikes Back)
But my favourite films that I have to watch again and again and again are Disneys Freaky Friday, and Sister Act.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsey Lohan, what more could I ask for, they are a fantastic duo in this film
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I might try redoing R&J someday, but that's not where I am right now.
).
O'Toole plays Col. T.H. Lawrence, who is (I'm for real here) exactly what a hero would be if a Ravenclaw were discovering a Slytherin side, but using it to be what he thought was Gryffindorish. Okay, that was confusing, sorry. The gist of it is, this guy who really loves the desert and the cultures of the Bedouin gets an idea for how to take Arabia back from the Turks (this is WW era) and he goes and does it, totally against all odds.
