What Movies Have You Seen Lately?

Quote: gamerfreak

Apocalypse Now and Taxi Driver are probably tied as my favorite movies of all time.

40 years ago I loved them. Can't
watch either one now, very dated.
Not many movies stand the test
of time. One that does is North
by Northwest. And another Cary
Grant movie, Mr Blandings Builds
His Dream Home. Still relevant
and funny almost 75 years later.

I think the thing that illustrates best the problems with 'Apocalypse Now' is that it repeated Joseph Conrad's error in his novel 'Heart of Darkness', HoD hereafter. The movie is not a film version of HoD but borrows from it extensively.

In HoD he has Kurtz moan "the horror! the horror!" which shows that Conrad is not an English speaker, though he wrote all those novels in English. An English speaker would say "horrors! horrors!" and many people have pointed this out besides me btw, although you may beg to differ. So it just adds to the many problems this movie has in the 'unrealistic' category to have the Brando character repeat the mistake. Credit to Brando for an acceptable take on it.

I also never understood why "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" was supposed to be comic genius. So there.

Quote: odiousgambit

I think the thing that illustrates best the problems with 'Apocalypse Now' is that it repeated Joseph Conrad's error in his novel 'Heart of Darkness', HoD hereafter. The movie is not a film version of HoD but borrows from it extensively.

In HoD he has Kurtz moan "the horror! the horror!" which shows that Conrad is not an English speaker, though he wrote all those novels in English. An English speaker would say "horrors! horrors!" and many people have pointed this out besides me btw, although you may beg to differ. So it just adds to the many problems this movie has in the 'unrealistic' category to have the Brando character repeat the mistake. Credit to Brando for an acceptable take on it.

I also never understood why "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" was supposed to be comic genius. So there.

The reason the Napalm line is so genius because he just casually slips it into his conversation, its not like a punch line, just something that the Kilgore says then keeps talking. I think the delivery is perfect.

And, honestly the whole Horrors controversy (that may be too strong of a word) doesn't matter that much to me, its a line, he says it great and it is what it is. I read the book in High School, I don’t remeber many details (I only read it after learning that Apocalypse Now was supposed to be a modern take on it).

It would be an odd characterization to set Vietnam in 1899 like the book.

Kurtz seemed literary to me anyway. He seemed like a guy most likely to be a voracious reader, not watching the sitcoms.

I think you're suppose to question whether he is insane compared to the insanity of the war.

Quote: odiousgambit

I think the thing that illustrates best the problems with 'Apocalypse Now' is that it repeated Joseph Conrad's error in his novel 'Heart of Darkness', HoD hereafter. The movie is not a film version of HoD but borrows from it extensively.

In HoD he has Kurtz moan "the horror! the horror!" which shows that Conrad is not an English speaker, though he wrote all those novels in English. An English speaker would say "horrors! horrors!" and many people have pointed this out besides me btw, although you may beg to differ. So it just adds to the many problems this movie has in the 'unrealistic' category to have the Brando character repeat the mistake. Credit to Brando for an acceptable take on it.

I don’t understand this critique. Both lines seem equally reasonable for a native English to me.

Quote: Evenbob

40 years ago I loved them. Can't
watch either one now, very dated.
Not many movies stand the test
of time. One that does is North
by Northwest. And another Cary
Grant movie, Mr Blandings Builds
His Dream Home. Still relevant
and funny almost 75 years later.

I think this is just a function of you not liking old movies/TV.

I was not alive when either movie came out, but I think they hold up exceptionally well. Particularly the practical SFX in Apocalypse Now. CGI has not even come close to looking as good as what they did in that movie.

Quote: gamerfreak

I don’t understand this critique. Both lines seem equally reasonable for a native English to me.

You're perhaps influenced by Brando, who was given some tough lines and must have realized whispering it like that makes it semi-OK, but who do you know who would be so stuffy as to say "the horror!" out loud after witnessing something, say, a really bad traffic accident?

Quote: gamerfreak

I think this is just a function of you not liking old movies/TV.

And yet I named two old movies I
liked. ApoNow I saw in the theater
and thought it campy fantasy,
Now it just seems silly. Same
with Deer Hunter. We didn't
think about Vietnam the way
they were portrayed in
these movies.

Quote: odiousgambit

You're perhaps influenced by Brando, who was given some tough lines and must have realized whispering it like that makes it semi-OK, but who do you know who would be so stuffy as to say "the horror!" out loud after witnessing something, say, a really bad traffic accident?

I really don’t think it’s that weird of a line. Especially since his character has gone completely insane.

The line is from the 1899 book the movie is based on. It’s also not that different than the famous Hindenburg “oh the humanity!” line.

I guess you can argue it should have been modernized.

Quote: Evenbob

And yet I named two old movies I
liked. ApoNow I saw in the theater
and thought it campy fantasy,
Now it just seems silly. Same
with Deer Hunter. We didn't
think about Vietnam the way
they were portrayed in
these movies.

For sure it’s fantasy, but for what some may think is campiness, others see as stylization.

I was also born in the 90’s and have no preconceived notion of what the Vietnam War was like, other than guns and bombs in a hot swampy jungle.