Topic: The Movie Thread

Jack Nicholson is still the best Joker for me. That '89 Batman film is my fave.

The problem with Jack Nicholson is that he only ever plays Jack Nicholson. He's kind of the opposite of one of those actors who disappears into their role.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy It looks mostly like the bones of several already told comic iterations, most stuff from The Killing Joke, less the Red Hood.

Ahh ok then @KALofKRYPTON , I'm not that big of a comic buff so I wouldn't know of any of the scenes were lifted/inspired from them

Halloween 2018 (DVD) - We watched this as a family last night (all adults here). I actually thought it was pretty good. I don't usually do horror films (last one I watched was the original Nightmare on Elm Street, for the first time, on Halloween), but it was a nice change of pace to watch something that was a bit smaller in scope without a bunch of flashy CG, and it managed to keep my attention from one tense moment to the next.

@RR529 If you've never seen the 1978 original, do yourself a favor and watch that sometime. It's one of the best horror movies ever made. Very little gore, but long in brilliantly sustained suspense.

Halloween 2018... I dunno. There were too many moments that felt like they were going for comedy, which conflicted with the tone. The crazy doctor was a terrible plot twist. They showed a bit too much during the death sequences. It was like a worse version of Halloween H20.

I was in a bit of a war movie mood after listening the Knockback episode on the subject. So I perused Netflix and decided to give Apocalypse Now a try. Although I had heard of the movie, I had no idea it was actually a Vietnam War based movie. The title is a bit misleading, but I can see what they were trying to do with it.

I’m not what you’d call a Francis Ford Coppola aficionado, in fact in looking him up just now after watching this film, I didn’t realize he is Nicholas Cage’s uncle. That explains a lot about why Cage keeps getting roles, but I digress.
I have seen “Patton”, as a kid when my dad was watching it and it bored me. I tried watching “The Godfather” once too several years ago and found it dull as well. I think I wasn’t mature enough for Coppola at the time. That said, “Apocalypse Now” is not a movie that you want to plop down and be entertained by. In fact I had to make myself endure through some parts of it that dragged. Films from the 70’s have a whole different vibe and Coppola seems to have mastered of the art of the psychedelic artsy presentation of the time.

For those unaware, the movie is a Vietnam War piece, yes, but much like “Saving Private Ryan”, the war is a backdrop to the focal story of one man’s central mission within that war. Now clearly there is loads and loads of unstated but obvious commentary on the Vietnam war, and war in general, that is weaved throughout this tale of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) who’s given a classified mission to go into enemy lines to find and terminate a rogue American officer Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who reportedly has gone insane.

Some sections of the movie are fantastically shot, with impactful imagery of war and its chaos. There were a few of the combat sequences that had me feeling a lot like I do when I play an online multiplayer shooter, which I almost never do — but when I do, it feels like this movie portrays battle. That is, a bunch of people in their late teens or early twenties running around dropping F-bombs as they chaotically shoot and destroy with little to no knowledge of what the real objectives are. Throwing themselves into harms way, acting like immature jerks fueled by a strange need for destruction.
One of the most poignant scenes involves a cold blooded mowing down of some civilians on a boat when one of the soldiers gets a bit trigger happy as they are inspecting their boat for hidden supplies. The scary part is that this isn’t a video game, it’s real life.

There is a constant theme throughout of the war driving people into madness and this is effectively portrayed, but by the time we get to the final act, it is all just a bit too much. There is definitely a crescendo of deranged imagery and ideas. It’s like Willard is descending further and further into the depths of hell itself, gradually seeing all sanity depart from everyone around him. It’s quite disturbing, but makes for a somewhat unsatisfying climax when he arrives at his destination. I won’t spoil it, but the whole last section dragged on and seemed to be going a measure too far. It works I guess as an art piece, but as far as coherent narrative, the well crafted fabric of the previous 2 hours started to unravel and just barely holds together to get you through to the end.

It’s difficult to judge the movie through modern eyes, since filmmaking has changed and we viewers are a little less patient with all the psychedelic tones and slower pace of storytelling. Compared to other movies from the era, however, it holds up better than most. I can see why it’s considered a classic.
And just look at this cast list:
Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Larry Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, and ... Harrison Ford!
What a dream team of actors that is!
And the acting does not disappoint. If for nothing else than to see these guys in their early roles (well, except for Brando who was already rather far into his career at that point), it’s more than worth it.

If anyone else has seen it, I’d be curious what you thought of the ending. For me I just thought it was too .... weird. I mean I see that Kurtz has become something of a pagan god-like leader and descended into early insanity, but I don’t quite get why he didn’t just kill Willard. Did he want to die? Was he hoping to “convert” him to his cult? And all the metaphysical poetic stuff was a little over my head. I liked how he was portrayed as rebelling and abandoning his duties because didn’t agree with what the army was trying to tell him to do and he felt justified to murder those officers who he get were double-agents. That was the more interesting storyline, but then when you finally meet him in the end, he’s just a crazy sadistic cult leader.

@Th3solution I've never seen Apocalypse Now, but I'm aware that it's considered "a big deal" by film buffs (an old college friend of mine would never stop talking about it, which is probably why I've steered clear of it, in all honesty). I really enjoyed reading your thoughts, thank you, because I get a sense that you're reacting to it the same way I would if I tried to watch it now.

A lot of what you've described is making me confident that I'd be hugely uncomfortable watching it. If I'm ever brave / stable enough to give it a shot, however, then I'll let you know what I think of the ending (which I didn't click the spoiler tags for; I'll wait to be surprised).

@RogerRoger Well, I know from your other posts and comments that you have a soft spot for animals, so I feel I need to warn you that there is some disturbing imagery with animals there. Very graphic and shocking actually. So although it is a classic, and has a lot of valuable things to say about war, the human psyche, the fragility of civilization, and corruption breeding more corruption, I feel it my duty to say it may not be worth it for you due to a couple scenes, one major one in particular.

@Th3solution Kurtz wants to be killed. He knows that he is no longer a creature fit to live in a society. He understands his role as a sort of God-King is untenable, and he also understands the significance of ritual sacrifice. Notice how shots of his killing are interspersed with shots of the water buffalo's slaughter.

@Th3solution That seals the deal; will actively avoid. Especially given that, whilst it may indeed be a classic with a lot to say on the subjects you've listed, we've now subsequently had hundreds of films tackle the same issues, many of which I've been able to watch.

Thanks for that, buddy.

@RogerRoger No problem. I’d hate to have you go out of your way and be disgusted and haunted by it. Since you’re going to avoid it, feel free to read the spoilers about it, if you’re curious.
@Ralizah Thanks for that interpretation. That makes sense. I think there is a part where Willard’s narration even says something that alludes to him wanting to die. It’s all just a bit strange though, the way they tie him up at first and appear to kinda torture him and behead his mate. I guess that was because that other guy was about to call in an airstrike and although Kurtz wanted to die, he must not have wanted his “people” to be destroyed. I can’t help but wonder though if he was hoping Willard would take over his position as cult leader, and for a second I thought he was going to stay after he kills Kurtz and the people bow to him, but then they leave on the boat at the very end. It’s an interesting symbolism showing the beginning where Willard is shown to be a little on the edge of sanity himself and not being able to function back home and feeling more comfortable back in Vietnam, similar to Kurtz, but in the end Willard is able to slay him demons, so to speak, and move on with his life. At least that’s the implication I got out of it.
And as for the scene I was alluding to with @RogerRoger that you also reference where they show the water buffalo ritualistic sacrifice in concert with Willard hacking Kurtz with the machete, that whole sequence was painful to watch, but I guess it does drive home your theory about him giving himself up in self-sacrifice, like the buffalo. And on that subject — as I was researching that particular scene in order to respond to Rog about whether he should see the movie, I read that it was indeed a real water buffalo being slaughtered that they filmed (it was not CGI obviously since the technology did not yet exist to make it look that realistic). Man, that was just so shocking to see, as usually movies pan away and you might hear the sound of a groaning animal and the sound of metal hitting flesh, but no... to show the entire process of the native swinging and hacking away as he decapitates a live animal... man that was brutal. That would never fly nowadays. In fact I read the American Humane Society has placed Apocalypse Now on their list of “Unacceptable” films. Obviously there could not be a “No animals were harmed in this film” disclaimer on the movie. Nevertheless, apparently the scene was not fabricated or specially arranged for purposes of the film, rather that indigenous tribe in the Philippines where they filmed the movie was already going to be having a ritualistic slaughter of the buffalo and so Coppola decided to film it live, at the tribe’s permission. Given there were no laws against it in the Philippines, he was allowed to. Something that could not have been done in the U.S., even then. Anyways, the point is, it sounds like it was maybe an unplanned happenstance that the tribe was having the ritual and Coppola took advantage of it to put it into the film
Either way, what a bizarre movie.

@Frigate She was fine in it - the film itself could've done without the unnecessary departure from the game's narrative.

@Frigate Oh, sweet. I actually really enjoyed the film, and was hoping they'd do another (especially since they left things on a bit of a cliffhanger) but then I'd read that it wasn't a certainty. Glad they worked out whatever they needed to work out. Thanks for the news!

Not just Endgame but I'm also really looking forward to John Wick 3 next month. Has anyone watched Atomic Blonde or Peppermint? I heard they're a bit like John Wick but with a female protagonist instead.

@WanderingBullet I enjoyed Atomic Blonde for what was and preferred it to John Wick 2.

@JohnnyShoulder Cool, is it on Netflix? I didn't renew my subscription. I was actually thinking of buying the Blu-ray when it's cheap.

So this is pretty cool. Ma Dong Seok is going to be in Marvel's The Eternals movie. His movie The Outlaws is still one of my favourite Korean movies of all time.

https://www.thewrap.com/marvel-studios-ma-dong-seok-the-etern...

@WanderingBullet Not sure if it is on Netflix, I imagine it would be on one of the streaming services though.

Last night I watched The Commuter. It was an impulse buy, basically because I like Liam Neeson but also because I was curious just how similar it'd be to his previous "trapped on a moving vehicle and forced to figure stuff out and stop the villains" flick, Non-Stop.

Turns out, it's almost identical.

But that's no bad thing. I'll happily watch Mr. Neeson all day, he always gives a great performance, and beyond that I was in the mood for a bit of a silly, escapist thriller.

I look forward to the next one, which will have to be either a boat or a bus now.