Posted on 09/15/2011 6:04:44 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Yeah, they handed it over to Robert Wise to edit it to a happy ending. Wise went on to be a pretty great director (The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Haunting, West Side Story, I Want to Live) but I heard from people who knew him that you never wanted to bring up Ambersons to him. It was a sore subject.
I find people over look Casablanca’s comedic value. It’s a damn funny movie, very dry humor, but really funny. And a great yarn.
I don't think it's movie snobs who talk about it that way. Their opinion is that it's a nice example of the studio system at its peak with a bunch of great character actors and some nice quotable lines, but a creaky plot. And Michael Curtiz was never more than a workmanlike director.
There used to be a lot more of the cult of Bogart, but that's faded now.That said, there are some great Bogart performances--Petrified Forest, Maltese Falcon and Treasure of the Sierra Madre come to mind.
A TV writer friend of mine has been going on in her blog lately about this compulsion people seem to have to go on the internet and rant about how much they hate some movie or TV show (or anything, really) and then getting even angrier when someone simply says "Well, I liked it.
It is a good film, even a great film. But “greatest”??
I watch many movies, especially ones from the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. It was a very different time and place to make movies back then.
To be fair, I should order the deluxe edition of Kane.
There are a number of movies from old that I would rate equal to or higher than Kane. “All About Eve” is a spectacular movie, Bette Davis is AMAZING in that film!
And if you want to go a little more modern, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” has always been one of my top five, I could watch that movie ten times in a row and not get bored in the least.
But “greatest”?
Even though many people aren’t into the genre, and it is a long film, I have the 60th anniversary Collectors edition that has about 9 hours of extras...
Set-wise, acting-wise, story line... in toto, the Greatest movie ever made was IMHO Gone With the Wind
Had GWTW been made 25 years after the end of the Civil War, people would have a different appreciation for it.
“There used to be a lot more of the cult of Bogart, but that’s faded now.That said, there are some great Bogart performances—Petrified Forest, Maltese Falcon and Treasure of the Sierra Madre come to mind.”
“The Caine Mutiny”—his performance blew my mind.
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Oh, yeah! Forgot about Caine. Also “The African Queen” and “In a Lonely Place.”
Also in Old Movie News, I hear the 3D Imax reworking of “The Wizard of Oz” is mind-blowing. I don’t much like 3D, but that I want to see.
I have the Ultimate Wizard of Oz restoration.
It was a three-way (three colors from the original technicolor reels), digital frame by frame restoration, along with an enhanced soundtrack. It took hundreds and hundreds of terabytes of disk space to digitize it.
It’s good! It’s VERY good! What they went through to make that movie, it took hundreds, if not thousands of people and shots.
Funny you should mention it because I was bored so I watched it again about a month ago.
Wow, way to resurrect an old thread! The ide of "greatest" film is so subjective as to be ridiculous. It's one reason I don't care for the Oscars. Why choose a "best" when some films and performances ore equal? For example, how could Peter O'Toole not win for Lawrence of Arabia? Because the winner was Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird. Both deserved to win. Both are splendid films.
One person's idea of "the greatest" might seem ludicrous to someone else. For example, I would never place Cat on a Hot Tin Roof anywhere near my top 5. It is well cast (featuring Liz Taylor in her prime!), and Richard Brooks did a good job of trying to wrap up the story. But, like all Tennessee Williams plays/films, it's all about the fact that someone in the story is...gay! So what? I have to say TW's plays really do little for me these days (but hats off to director Richard Brooks for trying to "fix" the play).
Sure, lots of people don't appreciate Citizen Kane. However, it will always be held in high esteem by cineastes because of its dazzling style, and storytelling methods which were unlike anything seen up to that time. Add the fact that it was directed by and starred a 25-year old Orson Welles, and you have a film and backstory that will always be interesting (to some).
I'm a huge fan of classic films. I have many, many favorites. Kane may be my favorite, but 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood is a close second. Today, I received my Amazon pre-order of the 1925 silent classic The Big Parade and the 1953 film From Here to Eternity on Blu-ray.
Kool!
And I totally agree, what works for one might not work for another.
For instance I am waiting for the Ultimate whiz-bang collectors edition of the Directors cut of... “Bonnie and Clyde”. A film I would rate as very high up there, maybe the BEST-ACTED film of all time.
Ingrid Bergman is a “yawner”? :)
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