That movie is the one thing that makes Charlton Heston tolerable to me (not his performance, just the fact that he pushed so hard for it to be made -- studios were already getting a little tetchy about Welles and Heston's enthusiasm for the script and the director made it very hard for them to turn Welles away).
Buffista Movies 5: Development Hell
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.
What's the big deal about "Plastics"?
Aside from the line in The Graduate?
That's what I mean. Why is it A Famous Line?
Why is it A Famous Line?
For me, it's all about delivery. Well, that combined with the 1960's idea of technological advances being The Thing.
That's what I mean. Why is it A Famous Line?
I think, in part, because "plastic" was a huge perjorative term in the sixties representing all the values the counterculture was against. So it's basically Satan sidling up to you and saying, "Please to sell your soul right here and now."
Also, it's a funny scene. Other than that, I don't know.
Sidenote: there was a TV ad in the seventies that parodied that scene that was promoting the plastics industry.
I think that Casablanca is up there on the Source of Most Famous Movie Quotes list. The AFI show didn't even start showing all of them.
For Sean: Famous Swedes in History--Queen Christina, Greta Garbo, Raoul Wallenberg, and the Swedish Chef.
Bork, Bork, Bork!!
Kathy: No Ingrid (or Ingmar) Bergman? Oh the humanity!
Frank: I was going for a broad spectrum--ruler, actress, diplomat/martyr, and icon (can you guess who's my favorite Muppet?).
Love "In The Heat of The Night"...I have lots of Poitier love. And it's a crime story, too. Although I liked "Gump" in the theater, I'm older now and subsequent attempts at rewatch have convinced me it's an unpleasant little film that does not belong as the best of anything. "Plastics" is funny to me because it is so random and because if you're following Ben's story, he has big questions that need more than a one-word answer. And stuff.(I'm not sure that's where Buck Henry intended the humor to come from, but it does, imo. And, yeah, plastics were The Next Big thing, like "One word, Benjamin, cyber-space. " Or "fiber-optics".) And I think I'd do Dustin Hoffman or Katharine Ross in that movie. *love* them. Liked "King of Comedy" better thaqn Raging Bull, too. Though I liked RB well enough, there are enough bio-pics now that I can't see it like it must have looked in 1980. Does that make sense?
And, yeah, plastics were The Next Big thing, like "One word, Benjamin, cyber-space. "
I was trying to think of a current analogue, and I like this one.