Classic Movies I’ve Never Seen and Will Not See (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

George C. Scott owns Strangelove for me as well. Everyone is great in it but Scott’s performance is my favorite.

 

[bmasters9]

I sat next to a terrified small child whose mother was telling him throughout the film that if he looked away, he would go to hell, and that he should be grateful for Jesus’s sacrifice. Surely telling a five year old that they’re going to hell for being scared at an “R” rates movie is over the top.

What would possess that mother to act like being frightened of such violent images warrants possible hellfire for her son?! I think she might have been somewhat of a fundamentalist Christian.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yes, I think a church group bought the majority of the tickets to that opening day showing and were there as a group gathering. There were far too many people with small children grouped too close together for it to have been a coincidence. I’m talking a sold out afternoon show in an auditorium that held probably 350 people with at least 50 and probably closer to 100 small kids.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

The Passion Of The Christ is certainly polarizing, especially across religious lines.

I loved it. Since I was part of its intended audience, it worked for me on an emotional level like no other film I’d seen before it.

To me it’s a classic, but I can see how many others wouldn’t agree and would have no desire to ever see it.

Dare I ask your opinion of "Last Temptation"?

 

[Tino]

Dare I ask your opinion of "Last Temptation"?

Why not? Haven’t seen it in a long time but I remember liking it a lot. Bought the Criterion Blu but haven’t re watched it yet.

 

[roxy1927]

Oh my. You have LOA in the house and are waiting to watch it for the first time? I'm hoping you have one of those video projector things with a humongous screen. The advancements in this technology are supposed to be amazing. I have a puny 65" TV so it seems pointless. I saw Harris's restoration in the late 80s several times at the Ziegfeld. Unforgettable.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Why not? Haven’t seen it in a long time but I remember liking it a lot. Bought the Criterion Blu but haven’t re watched it yet.

My slight reluctance came from your mention that you were in the "Passion" target audience.

As I'm sure you recall, "Last Temptation" got a lot of controversy in 1988, and it seemed like there was a huge overlap on the Venn diagram that had "people offended by 'Last Temptation'" in one circle and "loved 'Passion'" in the other.

Not being judgmental toward you or anyone, but the list of people who like both movies seems to be really small!

To me, both are about affirming faith, so I never understood the negativity that some religious audiences aimed at "Last Temptation"...

 

[Matt Hough]

I crossed a picket line to get into The Last Temptation of Christ and I couldn't understand what they felt was so terrible. (I crossed one to get into Life of Brian, too.)

 

[bujaki]

I thought Last Temptation was one of the most religious films I had ever seen (I'm not religious at all); Passion of the Christ, which I forced myself to see, was torture porn as far as I was concerned. Yes, I do understand that the passion and crucifixion were bloody affairs, but to show them so lovingly on the screen reminded of Saw movies and their ilk. I saw the first Saw movie and decided that torture porn was not for me. Ditto Gibson's film: once watched, never again.

 

[bujaki]

I crossed a picket line to get into The Last Temptation of Christ and I couldn't understand what they felt was so terrible. (I crossed one to get into Life of Brian, too.)

I crossed the picket lines at the Ziegfeld in NY. Poor priests and nuns with their rosaries and pickets. A most religious experience for me. So was the book. Last Temptation, not Life of Brian.

 

[cinemiracle]

George C. Scott owns Strangelove for me as well. Everyone is great in it but Scott’s performance is my favorite.

George was a great actor-saw him on stage in NYC many decades ago.

 

[Matt Hough]

I thought Last Temptation was one of the most religious films I had ever seen (I'm not religious at all); Passion of the Christ, which I forced myself to see, was torture porn as far as I was concerned. Yes, I do understand that the passion and crucifixion were bloody affairs, but to show them so lovingly on the screen reminded of Saw movies and their ilk. I saw the first Saw movie and decided that torture porn was not for me. Ditto Gibson's film: once watched, never again.

Our feelings about these two films are identical.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Our feelings about these two films are identical.

Agree with both of you!

 

[Tino]

Agree with both of you!

I don’t.

I never got the “torture porn” comments. Then or now. Probably because as I said I was the intended audience so for me it was more of an incredibly emotional powerful visceral experience.

Like I said, polarizing.

 

[roxy1927]

Having been raised a Catholic I would never go near either film. I've had to deal with quite enough of this ridiculousness from when I was a boy in a conservative religious family. A much better and accurate film which teaches this same story would be Sister Mary Ignatious Explains It All For You. Have not seen the film but I saw the original Off-Broadway production with the pitch perfect Elizabeth Franz who originated the role. It was all too true and I was practically on the floor I was laughing so hard. Of course it helps having gone to a parochial school with nuns and priests who everyday would be going through their own unhappy existence trying to outdo Our Lord in His Agony.

Speaking of George c Scott I was never a fan of his on film including Patton(lots of map reading as a neighbor when I was a boy put it) and Strangelove(he's trying too hard to be funny when Sellers is effortless.) However as noted above his stage work was quite astounding. Saw him in both Death of a Salesman and Present Laughter. In Salesman he had me in tears performing with the great Teresa Wright and sons James Farentino and Harvey Keitel. It has stayed with me to this very day. And then he in Noel Coward's Present Laughter was absolutely wonderful in difficult sophisticated comedy. A very wide impressive range. The Coward was especially surprising.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Just started to watch They Might Be Giants on disc for the first time and like the performances and the quirky story. Will listen to the Anthony Harvey and Robert Harris commentary the next time I see it.

 

[MartinP.]

Such a great movie. There is a reason it won "Best Picture".

That also goes for the Best Picture winners one doesn't like.

 

[steve jaros]

IMO, Mel Gibson is a helluva film maker, underrated because of his awful anti-semitic tirade around 2005 or thereabouts.

But to me, Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto are two of the best movies of the past 20 years. A+ work.

 

[roxy1927]

He is also monstrously homophobic. He is an extreme parody of a religious hypocrite. You know he's the type if he apologizes he's lying through his teeth and it's only PR.

 

[Tino]

He is also monstrously homophobic. He is an extreme parody of a religious hypocrite. You know he's the type if he apologizes he's lying through his teeth and it's only PR.

I don’t agree with that opinion and forum rules forbid us from discussing it further.