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160.33.20.11
In Reply to: When was the last time you saw a really good (current) film in a movie theater? posted by PdL on August 16, 2005 at 20:03:55:
Last weekend I saw War of the Worlds. Not a perfect film. It suffers from the cliches that characterize Spielberg's work, (the re-use of stock situations from his earlier movies, self consciously theatrical or cutesy lines, self consciously precoscious little kids, self consciously cutesy camera and editing cheats, etc.).Yet the film is also dense, in the best sense of the word- more so than any film I've seen this year, anyway. Images are sometimes layered in multiple meaning, as Spielberg composes with the logic and structure of poetry and nightmare. References to other films abound, but are never clumsey or out of place. Never just "thrown in", they are organic to the film, and often transcend themselves to enrich the whole.
And this is to say nothing of the obviously first rate craft on display. Impeccable and inventive production design, cinematography, sound, special effects, and often brilliant stageing and editing, with solid performances from virtually all on board.
Ultimately the film feels as though something's missing from the last act- as if a scene or two were shot and then cut. But apart from this and the Spielbergisms I mentioned earlier, it ranks as one of the most formidable movies of at least the last few years. Why this film has been overlooked by so many is puzzling. Its far smarter, far richer, than the failed summer popcorn fodder its being taken for.
Follow Ups:
jbmcb, I understand why things like that can be seen as objectionable. I see that most people are annoyed by other seemingly improbable points. For example, "what do these dopey martians want- first they insinerate people then they harvest them for food?- and why bury these machines underground for a million years instead of attacking before mankind could conceivably put up some kind of resistance. Or how is it with all our sewers and subways that no one had ever found any of the dormant tripods before?" Those kind of critiques are for more prosaic films with less interesting concerns. ID4 for example. Or rather, these kinds of critiques are the right questions, but the real answers are unwelcome.I am no huge fan of Spielberg's movies in general, but when I look at War of the Worlds I know without any doubut that I'm watching the work of a major and important master of cinema, and frankly its exciting. When he made this one he was breathing film like a fish breaths water.
I think if you come at this film expecting science fiction, i.e. a completely plausible and logical story about a technology's impact on society or some particular characters- a story grounded in a world of 1 + 1 = 2, then you will be frustrated. This is not Gatica or Jurrassic Park or Aliens. Take it on its own terms and you'll be amazed at what you find there. As I said, this film is a poem, a nightmare. Its logic is the quintessentially cinematic logic of dreams. That's not meant as some high brow blanket apologey for simple plot holes. War of the Worlds comes from the same place as Night of the Living Dead. In short, for those who like to categorize, despite the aliens and machines and death rays, War of the Worlds is a horror film, not a science fiction movie. And a surprisingly disciplined and small scale and intimate horror film at that, given its nominal subject matter.
The answers to your objections, like the answers to the examples I just outlined above, are clues to what the real business of this film is. In otherwords, yes, what's up with a hard ass emt guy who looses it, (or doesn't), in a cellar? Despite the unfortunate Jurassic Park raptor retread action, that sequence, with its talk about eyes, seeing, its business with mirrors and blindfolds and shut doors, is the awful quiet eye of a movie who's overall story structure mimmics the storms that begin the film. And when you look at that family at the end, and ask why they're presented the way they are, listen also to the what the music is doing underneath the image. Like I said, this film is dense!
Towards the end I thought the characters started behaving unrealistically. The old horror film thematic crutch of "people running around like chickens with their heads cut off then getting into trouble" motif. I also thought it a lame plot device that an EMT guy would loose his head like that, those guys are pretty tough when it comes to stressful situations.
I also didn't like how Boston seemed relativly untouched compared to NYC. The family they meet up with look like they just got out of a spa.
/*Music is subjective. Sound is not.*/
Whoops, I wrote a reply to your post jbmcb, but it went under my first post by mistake.
It's only a film...you know, Hollywood.
If you want characters to act realistically, see March of the Penguins.
The effects were pretty good but War of the Worlds as a film is only average Hollywood fodder, IMHO, right down to the hug in the street at the end?
Yawn.
d
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