'Shindig'
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.
Ultimately, I think film is an emotionally manipulative medium, so I don't necessarily think that's an automatic strike against a picture
I think it's a strike against the picture when the emotional manipluation becomes transparent to the audience. Same as editing, sound design, or any other element intrinsic to the medium. If it's good, it shouldn't call attention to itself.
I have no problem with it, as long as it's good.
Good emotional manipulation is Dickens and Spielberg at his best. Bad emotional manipulation was the book The Horse Whisperer. All the time I was reading it, I cried at the points the author wanted me to, but afterwards, I just felt dirty and pissed off at him, because they weren't good cries, if you know what I mean. I won't read a Nicholas Evans book again, just because that experience left such a bad taste in my mouth.
When no moppet is available, I guess he makes do with Tom Hanks.
I'd mention Dakota Fanning, but she's far too creepy to be called a "moppet." My theory is that she's one of the Martians in disguise, and that in the last act, she will rip Tom Cruise's head off with her bare hands.
I have a question about the resistance to emotional manipulation.
My problem is when you can see a big, neon sign that says, "Emotionally Manipulative Scene" blinking on and off in the upper left hand corner of the screen. I'm fine with movies drawing an emotional response when it seems to be an organic part of the movie, but most Spielberg movies I've seen (the first Raiders is sort of an exception) don't feel organic. They feel like the director is poking at my emotional response centers via the film, and while I'm crying I'm also hating him for making me cry.
Jessica said what I was about to say, but with more words and more sense.
she will rip Tom Cruise's head off with her bare hands.
Tom does this scene without CGI or a stunt-double.
He got it in one take, too.
I have a question about the resistance to emotional manipulation. I don't quite get it. I have no problem with it, as long as it's good. Go ahead, fuck with me, is my motto with the arts. I love Dickens' novels and that's what he was all about. I don't mind intellectual manipulation, emotional manipulation, pop songs making me get up and dance--go ahead, make me think, make me feel, why not? Of course, if the film or book is bad, I don't like it, manipulation or no.
I agree with Sean that film is a manipulative medium, but Speilberg tends to anvilicious about it. It was the girl in the pink coat that did it for me. The first time I saw her, I knew what was coming and I just got mad for having to sit through another Speilberg schlockfest. He got points for having Ralph Fiennes play a Nazi that was so evil and so hot at the same time. It was confusing.
I love Minority Report. Logical fallacy, cop-out ending, emotional manipulation, The Cruise--I acknowledge its faults, but the sheer coolness of the visuals and some of the plot twists (like when they kill off Colin Farrell's character. Dude!) win me over every time. Plus Samantha Morton is fucking incandenscent in that flick.
I think Schindler's List is a great film, but Spielberg nearly lost me in the breakdown scene because the string-pulling was so blatant. I cried anyway, but then it left a bitter taste in my mouth afterward, marring the experience significantly.
Also, what Calli said.
Tom does this scene without CGI or a stunt-double.
And why not? A flesh wound! Nothing some Flintstones chewables and a treadmill can't fix!