Blu-ray Review The Magnificent Ambersons Blu-ray Review (Criterion) (1 Viewer)

[bujaki]

deleted

 

[Robert Crawford]

I think The Magnificent Ambersons is a great and haunting movie despite its famous re-cutting and tacked on ending. It is about nostalgia for the past, about the way times change and not always for the better. It has been said that by the end of the move we are nostalgic for the beginning of it. I think that would have been the case even with Welles' intended ending, although I have no doubt that production concept would have been executed more powerfully per Welles. In a weird way and because of its overall theme, if any movie can still remain great with a botched ending, this one is it.

Film appreciation is subjective so I'm happy for you that you think this much of "The Magnificent Ambersons".

 

[Will Krupp]

I happened to be in my mom's attic this past weekend and, quite accidentally, came across one my favorite games from childhood which was still stored up there for all these years.

I whipped out my phone to take a picture of it so I could send it to "the girl next door" since we spent SO many nights enraptured by this game when we were kids. She got so excited!

Anyone else remember this one?


It was so much fun (though I doubt the electronics still work!)

My first acquaintance with Welles came from his Merv Griffin appearances and yes, I would run around the house grabbing clocks in hopes he could make them work if I held them up to the TV.

 

[Brian Kidd]

I happened to be in my mom's attic this past weekend and, quite accidentally, came across one my favorite games from childhood which was still stored up there for all these years.

View attachment 55479

I whipped out my phone to take a picture of it so I could send it to "the girl next door" since we spent SO many nights enraptured by this game when we were kids. She got so excited!

Anyone else remember this one?


It was so much fun (though I doubt the electronics still work!)

My first acquaintance with Welles came from his Merv Griffin appearances and yes, I would run around the house grabbing clocks in hopes he could make them work if I held them up to the TV.

YES! It was a very cool game. A complete game goes for a fortune these days on the secondary market.

 

[RBlenheim]

I wish there existed a clip from the Dinah Shore Show in which Orson Welles appeared, and he proceeded to analyze the very process of art (at least as far as the domination of men in the field in the past) as (and I'm summing up an old memory here) a male honoring a female whom he thinks is his superior. As politically incorrect today as it would be, it was an incredibly provocative discussion with all the guests. (Another old Dinah Shore Show I wish existed was the one that Sam Peckinpah appeared on, and Dinah Shore was a real fan of his work, and told him "The Westerner" was, to Shore, the finest television program of all time.)

 

[Brent Reid]

I prefer the outtakes to the final commercial. Teehee.



AAAAAAaaaaahhhh, the FFFFffrenshhhhh... *hic*

Citizen Tanked.

Citizen Caned.

 

[JohnRice]

The Magnificent Ambersons tends to strike me as a lost opportunity for a lot of people. It's easy to try to come off as oh-so-discerning by trashing it, but that's the loss. It's a great opportunity to learn more about how movies can go wrong when there are too many cooks in the kitchen, or when un-creative beancounters stick their big fat heads into things.

I suggest, for anyone interested, to watch the movie. Then read the novel, and you might also read The Turmoil, an earlier Tarkington novel with a very similar theme. Get a greater understanding of what the film could have, and should have been. What it hopefully was intended to be by Welles. Understand what Tarkington was concerned about with industrialization and the consequences of it, both for individuals and all of society. Notice the parallels between it and Once Upon a Time in the West, which is set almost 50 years earlier, but deals with similar influences of the late industrial revolution.

As far as Arau's TV remake, I think it's worth at least a watch. I saw it twice when it came out, so it's been quite a while. There wasn't much I liked about it, but there are things to like. Bruce Greenwood (a seriously under appreciated actor) is excellent as Eugene. Gretchen Moll is actually pretty good as Lucy, as I recall. I seriously disliked Jonathan Rhys Meyers as George, and I despised the not-so-subtle Oedipal element that was tossed in. However, it includes critical story elements from the novel that were deleted from the original, such as actually explaining how Eugene continued to build wealth as all the Ambersons went bankrupt.

Plus, there's still a lot of Welles' great, innovative cinematic contributions in the original, even if it ended up being damaged so severely by the studio.

 

[JohnRice]

Maybe others disagree, or are too lost in the "wrongs" to appreciate the "rights", but this is an awesome scene with a profound message...

 

[Cranston37+]

Here's an article published yesterday about the continuing search for the lost Welles cut. Not too much new but I found it interesting to know that the search does continue...

http://www.wellesnet.com/lost-magni...Z0tbyidcA44O7yeLpfJU_6S5lw0UDr81BMU5T0wh06SLw

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Here's an article published yesterday about the continuing search for the lost Welles cut. Not too much new but I found it interesting to know that the search does continue...

http://www.wellesnet.com/lost-magni...Z0tbyidcA44O7yeLpfJU_6S5lw0UDr81BMU5T0wh06SLw

I saw it too on Wellesnet and wish them luck on their search in Brazil.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Some interesting updates on website Wellesnet about the missing footage of Ambersons. The chances are very slim of finding it but you never know.

Pandemic delays Brazilian search for lost 'Magnificent Ambersons'

Filmmaker Joshua Grossberg has been looking for the lost, longer version of "The Magnificent Ambersons" for more than 25 years.

www.wellesnet.com

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Website Wellesnet is reporting that an ambitious plan to reconstruct The Magnificent Ambersons to better resemble Orson Welles’ original vision is underway with animation and voice actors set to approximate the scenes cut by RKO before the film’s release in 1942. The project should be completed in 2022 which is Ambersons 80th anniversary.

'Magnificent Ambersons' reconstruction to use animation for lost scenes (wellesnet.com)

 

[richardburton84]

Website Wellesnet is reporting that an ambitious plan to reconstruct The Magnificent Ambersons to better resemble Orson Welles’ original vision is underway with animation and voice actors set to approximate the scenes cut by RKO before the film’s release in 1942. The project should be completed in 2022 which is Ambersons 80th anniversary.

'Magnificent Ambersons' reconstruction to use animation for lost scenes (wellesnet.com)

Just saw this earlier today. While I find the concept a bit questionable, I nonetheless wish them luck in their endeavor.

 

[mBen989]

Should we tell him the cutting continuity doesn't correspond to either of the preview cuts?

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Website Wellesnet posted a nice seven minute video on restoration of stained glass window as seen in the film. Surprised it's still here and in one piece after 80 years.

Video: 'Magnificent Ambersons' stained glass windows preserved (wellesnet.com)

 

[roxy1927]

Back in the 70s a friend insisted I had to see Citizen Kane and we went to see it at the Regency. I thought it was fine. Then it was followed by The Magnificent Andersons which I was barely aware of. At the end of it I was stunned. One of those Oh My God moments where I never thought a film could be so beautiful and powerful. Kane in comparison seemed to be a film experiment in search of emotion.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Saw Kane and Ambersons for the first time when i was 14 years old when one of local tv stations had some of the RKO films to show late night. I saw alot of classic films for the first time when our local tv stations had them in the 1970's and as a kid the commercial breaks did not bother me at all.

 

[battlebeast]

Website Wellesnet posted a nice seven minute video on restoration of stained glass window as seen in the film. Surprised it's still here and in one piece after 80 years.

Video: 'Magnificent Ambersons' stained glass windows preserved (wellesnet.com)

Very cool! I love videos like this!

 

[RobertMG]

Saw Kane and Ambersons for the first time when i was 14 years old when one of local tv stations had some of the RKO films to show late night. I saw alot of classic films for the first time when our local tv stations had them in the 1970's and as a kid the commercial breaks did not bother me at all.

 

[RobertMG]

Saw the beginning of the film once but stopped 5 minutes in - so today I got the Criterion disc, just for the heck of it I pulled up the NYT's review and was shocked the really good review it received!

Do not know thought who the reviewer T.M.P was it is not though "THE" Bosley Crowther

With only two pictures to his credit, last year's extraordinary "Citizen Kane" and now Booth Tarkington's "The Magnificent Ambersons," Orson Welles has demonstrated beyond doubt that the screen is his medium. He has an eloquent, if at times grandiose, flair for the dramatic which only the camera can fully capture and he has a truly wondrous knack for making his actors, even the passing bit player, behave like genuine human beings. And yet, with all his remarkable talent, Mr. Welles still apparently refuses to make concessions to popular appeal. The Capitol's new film, however magnificently executed, is a relentlessly somber drama on a barren theme. In a world brimful of momentous drama beggaring serious screen treatment, it does seem that Mr. Welles is imposing when he asks moviegoers to become emotionally disturbed over the decline of such minor league American aristocracy as the Ambersons represented in the late Eighteen Seventies. While one may question Welles' choice of theme, as well as his conception of the Tarkington novel, it must be admitted that he has accomplished with marked success what he set out to do. For "The Magnificent Ambersons" is a dignified, resourceful character study of a family group, which incidentally reflects the passing of an era.This time Welles does not participate as actor, but he does lend his impressive voice as an off-screen narrator, setting the scene and introducing the characters in much the same manner as he used to do on the radio. As the film opens, town gossipers are busily passing around word that beauteous Isabel Amberson is giving up fun-loving Eugene Morgan, because he imbibed too much and crashed through a bass fiddle, to marry the stuffy but more socially acceptable Wilbur Minafer. Their marriage produces one son, George Amberson Minafer, a devilish, spoiled brat for all his beautiful golden curls, who imbues the elder townspeople with one burning desire—to witness the day that George gets his "come-upance." With the collapse of his grandfather's fortune George gets his "come-upance" with a vengeance in young manhood. But before fate delivers its humbling blows, the vain, arrogant youth cruelly wrecks the tender bittersweet romance that has been renewed between his now widowed mother and her old suitor, himself a widower and father of the girl whom George loves. Tim Holt draws out all of the meanness in George's character, which is precisely what the part demands. As the mother, Dolores Costello proves that she is too beautiful and capable an actress to remain inactive for such long periods. Agnes Moorehead, playing the role of a romantically frustrated aunt, is splendid. Other fine performances are contributed by Ray Collins, Anne Baxter and the veteran Richard Bennett as the grandfather. Joseph Cotten, who has shown fine promise, gives an adequate though not distinguished performance as Eugene Morgan, a role which is not too well written.All in all, "The Magnificent Ambersons" is an exceptionally well-made film, dealing with a subject scarcely worth the attention which has been lavished upon it.
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, screen play by Orson Welles; based on the novel by Booth Tarkington; produced and directed by Mr. Welles for RKO Radio Pictures. Eugene Morgan . . . . . Joseph Cotten Isabel Amberson . . . . . Dolores Costello Lucy Morgan . . . . . Anne Baxter George Amberson Minafer . . . . . Tim Holt Fanny Minafer . . . . . Agnes Moorehead Jack Amberson . . . . . Ray Collins Major Amberson . . . . . Richard Bennett Wilbur Minafer . . . . . Donald Dillaway Bronson . . . . . Erskine Sanford