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03-30-2008, 02:22 PM
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#151 of 164 
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John Rice
Member
Location: Colorado
Join Date: Jun 2000
Local Time: 02:37 PM
Local Date: 11-18-2008
Posts: 8,466
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Re: The Great March HTF Historical Drama/Epic Challenge
24) The Assassination of Jesse James... (2007) - 
Perceptions are interesting. I read over and over how this film still glorifies James, though less than previous ones, and what a sleazy scumbag Ford is. To me, James comes across as the charismatic, repugnant individual he most likely was, and the type of person I have learned to avoid like the plague. Little more than a bullying, intimidating punk who not only believes he is entitled to commit the crimes he does, but that others should admire him for them. Ford is just someone who gets pushed around alot and has delusions of grandeur.
I admire the deliberate nature of this film, but in the end I think it is just too long. It really doesn't need almost 160 minutes to get the story and mood across. I also tend to think people take the full film title too literally. I sense more than a slight irony to it.
They flutter behind you, your possible pasts.
Some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost.
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03-30-2008, 04:26 PM
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#152 of 164
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Member
Location: Sarnia, Ontario
Join Date: Dec 2003
Local Time: 04:37 PM
Local Date: 11-18-2008
Posts: 965
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Re: The Great March HTF Historical Drama/Epic Challenge
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03-30-2008, 04:40 PM
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#154 of 164
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2000
Local Time: 04:37 PM
Local Date: 11-18-2008
Posts: 12,549
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Re: The Great March HTF Historical Drama/Epic Challenge
My list:
Aguirre, The Wrath of God ****
Angels and Insects *** 
The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford ***
Atonement ***
Berlin Alexanderplatz ***
1860 ***
Gettysburg ***
Hiroshima ***
The Lady and the Duke ***
Love in the Time of Cholera ***
Mansfield Park ***
Maria Marten ***
The Naked Prey ***
The Other Conquest ***
Regeneration ***
Rome Against Rome **
The Round-Up ***
Sharpe's Rifles ***
Troy ***
19 films in all, with three revisits.
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03-30-2008, 06:46 PM
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#155 of 164
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Member
Join Date: Feb 2002
Local Time: 04:37 PM
Local Date: 11-18-2008
Posts: 9,723
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Re: The Great March HTF Historical Drama/Epic Challenge
Decided to crack the shrink wrap on my Herzog-Kinski box set that's been on my shelf for years, and was quite pleased I finally did:
AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (1972)
Kinski as the mutinous titular character, seizing control of a Spanish quest into the Amazon to search for the fabled gold city of El Dorado. For someone who has watched countless kinetic, CGI-fest, action pics over the years, Herzog is like a breath of fresh air. He really understands film is a visual medium and allows the camera to linger over a scene, sometimes for nearly unbearable lengths of time. This allows the viewer to really be immersed in the story and setting, with time to take in everything about the scene from not only the acting and dialogue, but also the location and surroundings.
Many modern moviegoers might complain about the slow pace, but it really works for this film and is probably actually necessary to fully illustrate the journey that was perilous and pain-staking at best, which then slowly descends into madness and futility. The opening shot of the caravan descending the mountain was not only breathtaking, but foreshadows the psychological descent that follows. The fact that Herzog reportedly did not plan a single shot, but just framed and shot every scene spontaneously while on locaiton, is a testament to his directorial gift.
COBRA VERDE (1987)
Kinski and Herzog meet for the last time in another story of one man's descent into madness set during the 19th Century African slave trade. Kinski is Francisco Manoel da Silva, a.k.a. Cobra Verde, a much-feared outlaw who comes to be employed on the plantation of a Brazilian sugar baron. During his short employment, Verde manages to impregnate all three of the baron's daughters, so the father seeks his revenge. But rather than kill him outright, a plot is hatched to send him to Africa to negotiate sales of slaves from the demented King Bossa, who has murdered every white man sent to his kingdom in the past decade. Verde manages to escape from the King before he can be put to death and trains a rebel force to depose the monarch.
However, he soon finds that one King is as bad as the next and quickly falls out of favor with the new monarch, while his contacts back home continue to doublecross him as they never had any intention of him succeeding in his task in the first place. As alliances crumble all around him, Verde's mental break is complete as he's "chased" by a crippled boy down the beach as he tries desperately to escape the madness that has enveloped him.
Not as iconic, perhaps, as Aguirre, this film is still quite an achievement in filmmaking from the opening scenes of drought and devastation in the South American deserts, to the heartbreaking scenes of slavery and their treatment, to the finale of crippled slaves signifying the crippling effects of slavery on the continent, as well as on humanity itself. Kinski & Herzog may have had a stormy and troubled relationship, but it resulted in some wonderful moviemaking.
I think I might watch Nosferatu later tonight (after it gets dark). |
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03-31-2008, 02:06 PM
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#156 of 164
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Member
Join Date: Feb 2002
Local Time: 04:37 PM
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Posts: 9,723
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Re: The Great March HTF Historical Drama/Epic Challenge
NOSFERATU: PHANTOM DER NACHT (1979)
Another visually stunning film from Werner Herzog as he takes on Bram Stoker's Dracula tale. He takes the vampire's look from Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu, but by and large it's an original take on the vampire tale and may now be my favorite "serious" vampire film.
As with the prior two Herzog films I watched (and probably with most of his films I haven't yet seen), he really lets the film breathe, letting the visuals and landscapes linger on-screen to create an atmosphere that practically becomes a character on its own. Harker's journey to Castle Dracula was especially stunning, with the bleak, yet beautiful, countryside and the gathering dark storm clouds signifying Harker's transition from his safe, colorful world, into the darker, foreboding, and even pitiful world of Dracula.
Kinski is amazing as the Count. Seemingly a huge departure for him, to play the character with movements so methodical and deliberate, speaking softly, slinking in and out of rooms as if he barely exists at all, from his other roles I've seen that fairly burst with energy and emotion, on the verge of rage barely contained (and sometimes not). Definitely a different take on the usual vampires of film, most of which seem to be snarling, shrieking, and crashing through doors and windows (I just watched "30 Days of Night," so perhaps that's coloring my recollection a bit  ). Even the Count's death scene was refreshingly subtle. The sun alights on his form and he convulses and curls into a ball on the floor. No melting flesh. No spontaneous combustion or explosions. (Though I was a but confused whether the Count was dead at that point, or just trapped and blinded to be finished off by Van Helsing's stake?)
Some may find this version rather slow and ponderous, but if you're truly taking in the whole of the visual feast served up by Werner Herzog, you shouldn't have time to be bored. My only regrets were some of the casting choices. I found Renfield endlessly annoying (though that may just be the character itself, rather than the actor), and I didn't think the actors portraying Harker or Van Helsing really had any kind of screen presence.
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03-31-2008, 03:45 PM
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#157 of 164
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Member
Location: Sarnia, Ontario
Join Date: Dec 2003
Local Time: 04:37 PM
Local Date: 11-18-2008
Posts: 965
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Re: The Great March HTF Historical Drama/Epic Challenge
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03-31-2008, 03:52 PM
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#158 of 164
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Member
Location: Sarnia, Ontario
Join Date: Dec 2003
Local Time: 04:37 PM
Local Date: 11-18-2008
Posts: 965
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Re: The Great March HTF Historical Drama/Epic Challenge
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