Oh, wow. I'm just watching RED for the first time. Is this a phenomenal cast or what? (Yeah, I know, this is news, huh?)
Seriously. One of my favorite movies of last year.
PS: Ernest Borgnine is still alive?
That was *exactly* my reaction!
Simon: Captain's a good fighter, he must know how to handle a sword. Zoe: I think he knows which end to hold.
'Shindig'
Buffista Movies 7: Brides for 7 Samurai
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.
Steph L. - Apr 19, 2011 8:43:01 am PDT #14123 of 30000
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
Laga - Apr 19, 2011 2:25:25 pm PDT #14124 of 30000
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
watching Crash (1994) it's weird.
Jessica - Apr 19, 2011 3:06:12 pm PDT #14125 of 30000
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
1994 is the car sex one, right? Not the racism one? (I'm too lazy to Google.)
tommyrot - Apr 19, 2011 3:10:15 pm PDT #14126 of 30000
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
1994 is the car sex one, right?
Yeah. Based on the Ballard book.
eta: 1996, actually.
Connie Neil - Apr 19, 2011 3:21:12 pm PDT #14127 of 30000
brillig
PS: Ernest Borgnine is still alive?
Honestly, I kept thinking, "but wait, he's dead! Isn't he?" I anticipate a bunch of parts for him from casting directors who had the same reaction, who'd been thinking, "Boy, Borgnine would be perfect here."
Laga - Apr 19, 2011 3:26:04 pm PDT #14128 of 30000
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
Yes the car sex one. What was the point of that?
Steph L. - Apr 19, 2011 4:12:39 pm PDT #14129 of 30000
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
Yes the car sex one. What was the point of that?
People like to get their freak on in ways that other people don't? James Spader is a freak who likes to get his freak on?
What's the bar you're setting for a movie to have "a point"?
DavidS - Apr 19, 2011 4:19:31 pm PDT #14130 of 30000
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Yes the car sex one. What was the point of that?
Ballard's book is one of the most respected and influential in the entire genre. His intro to the French edition is (I think) one of the key philosophical texts of the last fifty years. It's an essential media critique.
As for the movie, it does a good job of relaying the story and themes of the book, but doesn't have the same impact since the book is written in a radical style (specifically, in the manner of what Ballard would call the hidden literature of medical and scientific texts).
Ballard's value, I think, is the way he exposes narratives and environments that we choose to elide over because they're not part of the media driven story we're participating in. In Crash he's particularly interested in how we've elided over, or folded in, the amount of death inherent to freeway travel. If that many people died because of war or disaster it would be a central cultural focus, but because we've institutionalized it then it becomes invisible. But it still exists and then we fetishize that death and damage.
But he's also interested in the ignored landscapes of access roads and loading docks and airport hospital wings which stand empty but ready to receive hundreds of victims at a time. This world that our eyes pass over without ever taking in.
Frankenbuddha - Apr 19, 2011 5:52:37 pm PDT #14131 of 30000
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Whereas Cronenberg's primary interest is how our perception of reality becomes our reality. In the early movies, this would literally manifest itself in physical form, but he seems to have become far more interested in how our personal mental perception becomes a reality, either through hallucination or a shared belief system (almost always non-religious, though), or both.
I'd put Crash in the shared belief system category.
tommyrot - Apr 20, 2011 5:16:08 am PDT #14132 of 30000
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
I was a little disappointed by Crash. IIRC, the reason for my disappointment was it wasn't as weird as the book. I think maybe I'll see it again.
ION, anyone seen Your Highness?
From what I've heard, it's basically a bunch of dick-jokes. And it's very funny, apparently.