Posted on 07/05/2005 7:47:27 PM PDT by CaptIsaacDavis
Speak the truth, brother!
I dont think you have to project much with Wells. He was a far Leftist.
"It was very faithul to the novel."
It was?
I don't recall the novel navel gazing with a divorced father struggling with his ex, his children and modern day angst.
The tone and the plot resolution were faitful. Much more so then the earlier versions anyway.
I know this. The film sucked for many reasons other than Well's ideological ignorance.
I disagree. Where were the gas clouds? Where were the plaintive radio transmissions? Whay was it set in this era? What the hell did a family have to do with anything? I could go on, but I have made my point. The film sucked and had very little to nothing to do with the original story.
I didn't see Sith, had a feeling it was best to wait until video release. Thanks for confirming.
Also, I've seen only one movie in the last year that was worth a damn and that was The Aviator. I went in with low expectations based on Gangs, but was pleasantly surprised.
For the same reasons they set various shgakespearean adaptations in the rpesent. It gives the timeless themes a different context and spin. Obviously technology is going to be different. Again the Holocaustic tone is much closer to the novel then the 1953 version.
I can't believe you just compared Spielberg to Hitchcock. For that matter, I can't believe you compared the Spielberg of the 1970s to the Spielberg who has lived in a bubble of his own design for the last quarter century.
You indict yourself - the scenes you mention were never in the original novella and had nothing to do with Wells, his personal vision or the meaning of life. This film was largely a portrait of a disintegrated modern family fleshed out by wooden actors that are full of themselves. It blew and you know it. Just go watch 'The Lord of the Rings' and quit trying to make something of nothing.
I'm pefectly aware the scenes I mentioned weren't in the novel. If you want slavish letter perfect reudctions of literary works go watch Masterpiece Theater. Spielberg did what an adapter is supposed to do. Honor the material's spirit but interpret it through the prism of the adaptor.
He's up there. You can take one of his movies to a film school to teach cutting, editing, and general principles of direction. Frankly his natural command of the medium approaches the classical Arts.
Also the broken family is a long standing Spielberg theme going back to The Sugarland Express. Just as Hitchcock's was his 'Unjustly accused man on the Run'.
Even with your wide brush it sucked. It was poorly shot, badly edited and rife with confused plot lines. The only thing that was truly new and worthwhile were the cool sound effects. We can always rely on Spielberg for cool sound effects.
Yes. Of course. Stevie lives out his own failures and tries to get us all to comiserate. I don't care. I don't find that uplifting, challenging, universal or in any way indicative of fine art. I only see an rich boy with a festering splinter in his butt.
Fine, fine. Anyway this movie is destined for cult status once the inital flurry dies down. Its fans are just as passionate as its detractors. I've met plenty of both.
He's sterile. He doesn't have the perverse personal demons that drove Hitchcock. And he doesn't have the dark optimism of say, a Frank Capra.
What he's got is a body of previous work he morbidly self-references -- that scene of the bodies floating was taken and expanded from Empire of the Sun's opening.
He's also got is a fair amount of technical skill and the burden of a hundred million dollar budget that fairly effectively wiped any humanity out of the picture.
We live in a society full of morons and we elected krinton twice. Nothing more needs to be said.
Puleeeeze. I know Hollywood is as anti-Christian at times as you can get but this seems majorly hyperbolic.
I liked the movie. It certainly kept one's attention.
(Although I thought they could have edited out 4 or 5 of the young girl's screams.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.