Re: *** Official GRAN TORINO Discussion Thread
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Rob Foss
Your distinction is a false one. There's no purist distinction to be made between an audience discovering a film for themselves & one where the mindless masses have been allegedly driven to it by a blizzard of hype - at least not in the examples you give. There's always a crossover.
|
It's not a "false distinction", as confirmed by the fact that you yourself continue to make it, but under different headings ("platforming" vs. general release). And that's fine; it just reflects a different context from the one in which my remarks were initially made.
One of the essentials of the platforming strategy is that the film strike a chord with the small group of critics and viewers to which it's initially shown. If it doesn't, it never makes it beyond the platform release. There are plenty of examples of platform releases that stalled that way, even from the mighty Miramax of old (remember
The Shipping News?).
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Rob Foss
That you don't perceive any hype or marketing to have been responsible for their success only goes to show just how well those people did their job.
|
I never said I don't perceive any marketing angle. Nor have I missed the difference between platform strategies today and the pre-internet age. It's not as if platform openings are a new thing. You're making way too much out of a passing reference to
Unforgiven.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Rob Foss
Flags was well received critically, so was Changeling, the latter even more so outside the US. Blood Work aside I don't know what your sources are for a statement like '[those] .. are not especially well-regarded films in the Eastwood canon' but the critical & even box office response strongly suggests otherwise. Changeling is well on the way to a $100 million worldwide gross & Flags/Letters were highly placed on almost all Top 10/Films of the Year lists from the major reviewers.
|
I listed some of my sources
previously. What are yours?
I note, BTW, that you conflated
Flags with
Letters from Iwo Jima, which I didn't mention. The latter did indeed make many critics' top 10 lists. I do not believe the same can be said of
Flags, but if someone can point me to a compilation of major critics' top 10 lists from prior years, I'm happy to review it.
As for
Changeling, it should ultimately do good business, but your phrasing is pretty strained. It's "well on the way to a $100 million worldwide gross"? Great;
Gran Torino is well
over that domestically, with foreign just beginning and domestic continuing.
Million Dollar Baby did twice that.
Mystic River did over $152 million worldwide. Meanwhile
Changeling has stalled at less than $36 million domestic after 11 weeks in release ($82 million worldwide), which is still better than the $33.6 million domestic for
Flags.
I am not trying to suggest that the caliber of these films equates with their box office, domestic or otherwise, but I didn't pick them at random.
. It was mostly Thoa. Check the scene where Walt locks him up at the end. I thought the female was mostly good.
