*** Official THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Michael Reuben]

So, if BB is nominated for Best Picture and Fincher for Best Director, both of which appear likely in light of the DGA and PGA nominations, will that raise it in your estimation?

 

[ErichH]

Agree - After the experience of the theater cut and it's broken delivery, the extended and it's documentary really give you the impression something was there. The studio cut him at the knees so many times, it's amazing anything made it to the screen. There are fantastic sections in the film, mixed with takes that were obviously not finished (even in the theater version)
You can smell the studio shutting the project down at every turn.

I can see why many think Button is flat. The distance in emotion is there for a purpose, and it's not to please everyone in a generic sense.

Comparisons to Kubrick are not far off the mark, but it's a little early in a career. No one will ever have the time Kubrick was allowed to work on a single project.

 

[Chad R]

Probably not. But I was really just pointing out the comparison doesn't fit the point. I can't recall anyone leveling those claims at Spielberg who's always been embraced by critics and audiences alike. JediFonger's argument is that Fincher has enjoyed cult status for so long, that now people who dismissed him will go back and judge his previous films differently. A notion I still disagree with. His film's got proper vetting when they were released.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Yes you have, and it's apparent that you and I have very different understandings of Forrest Gump. To me it is the essence of that film that it portrays a turbulent time in American history through the eyes of a man who was unchanged by it. (Indeed, that's what certain critics found so objectionable; they didn't like seeing their beloved 60s "belittled", which I don't think the film did, but never mind.) To me, the essential difference in the relationship between the two protagonists and the world -- active vs. passive, changing vs. unchanging (except for the one change in Forrest I have previously noted) -- is so central to the two stories that it informs everything else and renders secondary any other similarity you may care to point out. That's why I only fleetingly thought of Gump when sitting in the theater at BB. Even the hummingbird/feather comparison only occurred to me later.

I hate limiting narratives, but if I were forced to choose, I'd say that Gump was about love, mostly unrequited love. I feel somewhat confident in saying this, because I'm repeating what Robert Zemeckis said when the film was released. The narrative of Gump resolves when the (mostly) unrequited love of Forrest for Jenny becomes the shared love between Forrest and their son.

BB is about mortality and, more specifically, about how the experience of mortality shapes our experience of the world. The narrative resolves when Caroline, having received the full knowledge from both parents of everything they learned from their very different journeys through mortality, is left with the question of what to do with the rest of her life -- the same question that the film poses to the viewer.

With respect to the Oscar nominations, I was just giving you a hard time for using Spielberg's awards credits as a seal of approval. Probably the only thing on which we can agree is that the comparison between Spielberg and Fincher is inapt. Fincher has never aspired to be a populist entertainer, although he sometimes succeeds in being one anyway. It appears that BB will be one of those times.

 

[Chris Atkins]

So my wife and I revisited BB on blu-ray last night (second viewing for both) and both of us were completely mesmerized. I thought this was a great film on first viewing, and believe it to be a masterpiece now. Bravo!

 

[TravisR]

I watched it again about 2 weeks ago and had the same reaction.

 

[JediFonger]

^same. i'd zip around scenes in Blu-Ray. did u guys notice all of the clocks placed in the film? yeah kind of hammering the message home. but then there are more subtle references like the hummingbird or time-related stuff in various scenes. it's very densely packed per usual fincher film