Simon: I'm trying to put this as delicately as I can... How do I know you won't kill me in my sleep? Mal: You don't know me, son. So let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you'll be awake, you'll be facing me, and you'll be armed.

'Serenity'


Buffista Movies 3: Panned and Scanned  

A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.


Jars - Oct 19, 2004 11:05:15 am PDT #4815 of 10001

Dude, Where's My Car?, Speed 2: Cruise Control and Cold Mountain. A trinity of awfulness that I wish I had never sat through.


§ ita § - Oct 19, 2004 11:08:27 am PDT #4816 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Jesse : Dude! You got a tattoo!
Chester : So do you, dude! Dude, what does my tattoo say?
Jesse : "Sweet!" What about mine?
Chester : "Dude!" What does mine say?
Jesse : "Sweet!" What about mine?
Chester : "Dude!" What does mine say?
Jesse : "Sweet!" What about mine?
Chester : "Dude!" What does mine say?
Jesse : "Sweet!" What about mine?
Chester : "Dude!" What does mine say?
Jesse : "Sweet!" What about mine?
Chester : "Dude!" What does mine say?
Jesse : "Sweet!" What about mine?
[later]
Chester : [angry] "Dude!" What does mine say?
Jesse : [screaming] "Sweet!"

Ah, comedy gold.


Jessica - Oct 19, 2004 11:08:47 am PDT #4817 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

Chinese Fooooooooooooooood.


Steph L. - Oct 19, 2004 11:10:36 am PDT #4818 of 10001
I look more rad than Lutheranism

No and then! No and then! No and then!

And then and then and then and then and then and then and then?


Frankenbuddha - Oct 19, 2004 11:11:04 am PDT #4819 of 10001
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"

Wasn't it a Buffista who noted that DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR? and MEMENTO were basically the same movie?


Steph L. - Oct 19, 2004 11:11:36 am PDT #4820 of 10001
I look more rad than Lutheranism

I think it was Rio.


Jesse - Oct 19, 2004 11:12:12 am PDT #4821 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Plei, no?


§ ita § - Oct 19, 2004 11:12:25 am PDT #4822 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

No and then!


Jessica - Oct 19, 2004 11:13:42 am PDT #4823 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

I think it was Rio.

Yep, she's the one.


Nutty - Oct 19, 2004 11:28:18 am PDT #4824 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

what else could they do? Just not make a movie about it at all? Is there any ending that you would have found satisfying? Or would they all have fallen flat because of the disparity in medium?

I don't know. I've been mulling it over, and I've realized that unfaithful adaptations have a better chance of being liked (by me, certainly not the general public) if they don't lay claim to the source text. I am a lot less resentful of an unfaithful adaptation if it is shamelessly unfaithful than if it claims resonance by false association. Or, if it can justify its unfaithfulness on a basis other than filmic need for brevity. ("It looked really cool" can, under certain circumstances, qualify.)

I think to do a successful take on an extremely long, intricate story, one has to make an extremely long, intricate movie/series, or else tell only part. Trying to tell the main thrust of an epic in 2 hours, merely by shaving it naked of all its context and weight, makes for an extremely top-heavy storyline, full of characters who get one or two iconic lines/images, and (in this case) a fair amount of illogic.

I think a smaller story set in the overall Troy context would have been something possible to do well. One main character, one plotline, one viewpoint. For one thing, it would result in a hell of a lot less irrelevant backstory to cram in.