Last night we watched the film "Dr. Strangelove OR How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." It was directed by Stanley Kubrick, who I believe to be one of the greatest filmakers ever. The discussion afterwards ranged all over the place, covering several topics briefly. I'd like you all to feel free now to explore things more in depth.There were so many good topics that came up last night (Nazi's. Communists, whether Evan is anti-American or not, whether human beings can be perfected, passifism, fear, security, paranoia, American History) that it's hard to pick one to start with. But my favorite thing about last night is that we sat there and watched a movie that is 43 years old which accomplished its purpose in us still today. That happened because of 2 reasons. 1. The art itself was great 2. We were willing to access it Now, a notion exists within all of us young people that this movie is the exception to the rule. That most older films don't actually have that number 1 quality to them, and therefore we don't have the 2nd quality when approaching them.
This kind of thinking puts us into a downward spiral that never fully appreciates the past, always just wants the latest and greatest thing. Learning from yesterday seems boring and almost impossible at times. Let's think about it. They were trying to do very similar things, which is to get their thoughts/ideas/stories across through a motion picture. Most of us believe that we do it much better now, so we'd rather browse the new release wall than to scan the older sections. Frankly (sorry Dan) I don't agree that we always do it better now. Especially since most films I see are simply re-creations of older ones who had a lot more original ideas.
Once again, we see that great art requires discipline on our part in order to engage with it. If it's spoon fed, it's nothing great.
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5 comments:
Dr. Strangelove is on TCM right now, so I'm watching it again. I also watched The Shining last night and must agree with your assessment of Kubrick's greatness.
Well, I've seen "A Clockwork Orange" several times, and it only enhances his brilliance for me tenfold.
I've never seen a director take on such a wide variety of topics while employing so many different film styles. Tarantino movies have some differences, but he always hits the violence button hardest, that's kind of his thing. As soon as I feel like I've figured out Kubrick's "thing" I see a film where he does things totally differently (and still succesfully).
As much as I love guys like Wes Anderson and Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem), if they keep making the same movie their genius levels will be called into question.
And yeah, examine Kubrick's stuff absolutely, examine it all. I feel that in some of his films they only accomplish their goal when the viewer digs and examines.
So to exercise our minds a little, I propose that we all watch another old (pre 1970) movie before the next MOM meeting. I am going to watch "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." If somebody watches one, just include it in a comment here and also what you thought of it.
Good idea. I just ordered "The Seventh Victim" from Netflix. It's a horror movie from 1943, produced by legendary horror producer Val Lewton. My Oxford prof was a big fan of his, and this is his favorite of his movies.
Is that the "lego" version of you? pretty hilarious. I also rented "The Last Picture Show" which looked like it might be good too.
Here are a few films I've watched recently and a numeric rating fromo 1-10 (1 being the worst) for each one:
King Kong - 6.5
Harry Potter, Goblet of Fire - 4.5 (sorry christine and buddy, but the movies just don't do it for us at all)
Match Point - 6.5
just in case anybody cared. if anybody wants to follow suit, i'd be interested.
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