Wow, I missed a lot of shittalk and sarcasm about Kubrick (and, to some extent, about me) while I was gone.
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and, to some extent, about me
Sorry, man! I wasn't trying to run you down. I really was curious about your charge of "facile nihilism."
Talking smack about Kubrick actually turned up a pretty wide set of opinions, though. (Including a previously unsuspected Barry Lyndon fandom contingent.)
This is waiting at home for me. It looks like something you would like, Hec. Also, smonster.
Indeed, I'm all over that Southern Gothic death trip.
It opens with Lionel Barrymore playing a suave, banker-like Satan in his Art Deco hell.
Lionel Barrymore as Satan is an interesting casting choice. Though Laird Cregar in the first Heaven Can Wait owns that role.
70's paranoid cinema (yes - everyone IS out to get you) at it's most drive-in friendly,
I actually SAW Race with the Devil at a drive-in! It was on a crazy double bill with some musical at a theater in some small Vermont town, and we went just for the drive-in experience.
I actually SAW Race with the Devil at a drive-in! It was on a crazy double bill with some musical at a theater in some small Vermont town, and we went just for the drive-in experience.
Heh, so did my sister, which is how I heard about it. I think it was on a double-bill with Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry.
Lionel Barrymore as Satan is an interesting casting choice.
He's obviously playing it rather broadly for comic effect. There's more than a little Count Floyd in his performance.
Sorry, man! I wasn't trying to run you down.
No worries! I didn't read anything as hostile. Just regret that I wasn't around to take a stand for my side. And there was so much good discussion (including the sarcasm and smacktalk) that I wish I'd been around for that, too. Just for the record, I do think Kubrick's movies have philosophical content (as opposed to the idea that they're not about anything), even to the point of putting the story a little too far into service to the idea. I don't even think he buries his ideas in subtext. It's that other thing, the one that's above the subtext. What's the word for that?
I really was curious about your charge of "facile nihilism."
You wanted to know if I thought that there was room for well-considered nihilism, right? Easy answer: Sure, I guess. But I'm not going to take even the most philosophical nihilists all that seriously. I mean, it's one thing to go the Nietzche route and propound the deconstruction of a system one sees as failing - that's the destructive-as-creative act, a contrary position that makes most sense in the context of a few hundred years of German idealism. But it's quite another to suggest that removing one system negates all others. Is there a serious thinker with this position?
There's some cool stuff coming up on their [TCM's] schedule
They had A Bicycle Thief on in the wee hours this morning which I had my dvr pick up for viewing most likely this weekend. I still have Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Third Man on the queue, as well as a basic-cable broadcast (and therefore edited) of Eastern Promises to watch at some point.