Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by halfnote (A) on March 31, 2007 at 22:17:09

In Reply to: I like this kind of explanatory detail.... posted by afilado on March 31, 2007 at 10:58:51:

Your challenges were, in my view, entirely appropriate, and pointed. My first post was intented only to suggest that this film had much greater merit than some had bestowed upon it. I employed shorthand in an instance where more expansive and specific arguments were really in order. I left a lot, "unsplained."

With regard to the idea that a derivational work ought to bring something "new" to a story's treatment, I guess I would have to agree -- otherwise, why bother? Interesting cases in point are the recent remakes of "Psycho" and "King Kong," I found the first pointless and gratuitous; the second, an earnest, and sucessful, attempt to put more flesh on the bones of the original story.

In the case of "The Departed," I can't really say, since I have not seen the original film upon which it was based.

Even so, taking the film on its own terms and without reference to its predecessor, I think it packs a wallop. There's a lot going on there. It has, in my mind, an allegorical, almost mythical quality to it, disguised in the wrapper of a crime thriller. If Scorcese cribbed this from the original (was it "Internal Affairs"?) shame on him! If he saw this in a story which lacked this dimension, it bears testament to his superior artistic vision.