Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Hi Mark Well I suppose I ought to plead guilty to a tendency towards grand philosophical statements. But really it was a gut feeling which I analysed. I left the cinema feeling depressed. I agree the movie was a plausible evocation in terms of the aesthetic dimension. It did look great and I agree that was a big plus. Also I love them thar old Protestant hymns and I were reared a Catholic in Northern Ireland! But I have come to the conclusion that there is something slick and sick about the Coens and I tried to give voice to that. I also enter a note that here I have been very influenced by Comrade Proyect. My reading of Mattie at the end of the film is debatable - granted. Perhaps the brilliance of the acting of the younger Mattie bewildered me. Maybe the feistiness survived. But the lines about Frank James were unmotivated apart possibly from the fact that he did not stand up. This was a bad man, but then so was Younger. I thought it strange that we ended so strongly with the Quantrill connection and the "lively times" that the old men had had. comradely Gary Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I admit that my criteria is weighed heavily for a plausible evocation of a time, place and situation I've not experienced and am not likely to experience. As soon as that vision of Fort Smith came onto the screen, I was predisposed to like it. And the introduction of Mattie was a wonderful, feisty and, to me, a very realistic character... I certainly don't think we can extrapolate such a movie about such people into some grand philosophical statement about human nature. After all, a flick about the Donner Party or the Franklin Expedition isn't necessarily advocating cannibalism, is it? But I think you misread the Mattie as depicted in the new movie. As what you call "an old maid," she was as headstrong as feisty as she was a kid. What nice few lines at Frank James to close the movie. I think nobody in the theatre saw her moving Cogburn's body as anything simply acquisitive or lacking in tenderness. Still, I have a lot of affection for the old movie, too. ML On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 7:06 PM, Gary MacLennan wrote: > == > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > == > > > I opted for two hours or so of air conditioning to get away from the heat > wave that has swept over Brisbane since the flood. So Let us be honest > here, > I read Lou’s review and the subsequent posts with great care. But I sat > down there quite prepared to enjoy the film. I recently caught the > original > on cable and though it is not my favourite Western it is still pretty good. > > > > > So how does the Coen Bros remake shape up (IMHO)? Well it looks beautiful > and has a great score. The acting of the lead, Hailee Steinfeld, is > astonishingly good. The film itself seems an odd mixture of the Revenge and > the Professional Western. Mattie wants to revenge her father, while all > the > other characters only move for money. But they do take a pride in being > professional bushwhackers. > > > > So much for the aesthetics, what about the truth claims that the film makes > about humanity and life? And what about the ethics of the film? Where is > the moment of redemption or hope for humanity? Well for me the film > crashes > out here. This is yet another exercise in the discourse of “Humanity is a > piece of shit”. I got the kind of feeling I get when I watch a Scorsese > movie where even the gangsters are not likable. > > > > Cogburn’s redemptive moment when he saves Mattie’s life was undercut by the > final scenes. It seems he had saved her to become an embittered, crippled > “old maid”. All the wonderful liveliness of the young Mattie had leached > away. The gesture of having Cogburn's body relocated seems motivated not > by > tenderness as in the original film but by sheer acquisitiveness. > > > > In the Hathaway version Cogburn and Mattie forge a real friendship. She > also > bids a touching farewell to the Leboeuf character who dies saving her life. > > > > I thought about the post saying that “revolutions make people better’, > which > was on the list. I thought of the courage and camaraderie of Tahrir Square > and contrasted it with the hopeless nihilism of the Coen vision. It is the > absence of the hope for revolution that produces the kind of films the Coen > Bros make and guarantees them an audience. > > > comradely > > > Gary > > Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu > Set your options at: > http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/markalause%40gmail.com > Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == I opted for two hours or so of air conditioning to get away from the heat wave that has swept over Brisbane since the flood. So Let us be honest here, I read Lou’s review and the subsequent posts with great care. But I sat down there quite prepared to enjoy the film. I recently caught the original on cable and though it is not my favourite Western it is still pretty good. So how does the Coen Bros remake shape up (IMHO)? Well it looks beautiful and has a great score. The acting of the lead, Hailee Steinfeld, is astonishingly good. The film itself seems an odd mixture of the Revenge and the Professional Western. Mattie wants to revenge her father, while all the other characters only move for money. But they do take a pride in being professional bushwhackers. So much for the aesthetics, what about the truth claims that the film makes about humanity and life? And what about the ethics of the film? Where is the moment of redemption or hope for humanity? Well for me the film crashes out here. This is yet another exercise in the discourse of “Humanity is a piece of shit”. I got the kind of feeling I get when I watch a Scorsese movie where even the gangsters are not likable. Cogburn’s redemptive moment when he saves Mattie’s life was undercut by the final scenes. It seems he had saved her to become an embittered, crippled “old maid”. All the wonderful liveliness of the young Mattie had leached away. The gesture of having Cogburn's body relocated seems motivated not by tenderness as in the original film but by sheer acquisitiveness. In the Hathaway version Cogburn and Mattie forge a real friendship. She also bids a touching farewell to the Leboeuf character who dies saving her life. I thought about the post saying that “revolutions make people better’, which was on the list. I thought of the courage and camaraderie of Tahrir Square and contrasted it with the hopeless nihilism of the Coen vision. It is the absence of the hope for revolution that produces the kind of films the Coen Bros make and guarantees them an audience. comradely Gary Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
