tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post6861189264561590131..comments2024-03-24T13:26:57.317-07:00Comments on Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule: THE 2011 WHITE ELEPHANT BLOGATHON---- ALAN PARKER'S THE LIFE OF DAVID GALEDennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-88571807861952283722011-04-11T23:59:13.754-07:002011-04-11T23:59:13.754-07:00Alan Parker's films, every single one of them,...Alan Parker's films, every single one of them, are far more skillful and compelling than any of your banal insights combined.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-35629080359989589962011-04-06T01:35:02.364-07:002011-04-06T01:35:02.364-07:00well, not the only problem, but the biggest one
Y...<i>well, not the only problem, but the biggest one</i><br /><br />Your parenthetical aside sums up what is wrong with most bad films, and Parker does indeed make some bad films. <br /><br />Somehow, I missed your entry on the 1st, so my reply is tastelessly late, and I apologize. This is one of the most interesting reviews in the Blogathon, and of course an Alan Parker film is an interesting choice.<br /><br />For whatever reason, I hold some strange affection for some of Parker's films. "Shoot the Moon" and "Angel Heart" mostly, but I think "Road to Wellville" has a B-grade charm, at least during the few blissfully Broderick-free moments. But Parker's films always teeter toward the immature and sloppy, both in sentiment and craft, and I cringed at the mere idea of Parker trying to tackle an issue like capital punishment with the usual everyone-is-both-innocent-and-guilty sensibility he seems to love.<br /><br />Like others, I can't quite get on board with the idea that Alan Parker is the reason liberals can't have nice things, if only for the fact that a quick glance at his oeuvre shows his cultural relevance is nearly 30 years out and narrow in scope.Staciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05250238254417726987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-46820285536569399212011-04-05T12:34:44.620-07:002011-04-05T12:34:44.620-07:00I was depressed to realize, once again, that the g...<i>I was depressed to realize, once again, that the greatest danger to liberalism isn't the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Andrew Sullivan, but blowhards like Alan Parker and Michael Moore—the thugs of humanism</i><br /><br />Over the course of the few years I've been reading this blog, this is easily the stupidest thing I've read here.<br /><br />Wow. It burns.Chrisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-5676276406534252292011-04-04T14:03:32.754-07:002011-04-04T14:03:32.754-07:00"After years of mounting dumb junk like, Pink..."After years of mounting dumb junk like, Pink Floyd: The Wall, "<br /><br /><br />say what?t-h-o-rnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-30674740888927179382011-04-03T14:44:51.387-07:002011-04-03T14:44:51.387-07:00Mr. Cazallio,
It has often been said that a passi...Mr. Cazallio,<br /><br />It has often been said that a passionately reasoned hatred masks a much more inarticulate terror of having to confront the similarities of one's most secret and vulnerable self with the object of one's outward contempt...and as dimestore Freudian as that may sound, for all of your ardent and lovingly rendered critiques of Mr. Parker's crass aesthetic shallowness and crude mediocrity as a director, there must be something in his "sustained ugliness" to have moved you enough to symbolically align the seasons of your life with his...which would make you something of a closet disciple devoted to heralding the worthlessness of his work, rather than having the intellectual courage to merely ignore him, as all untalented artists eventually must be.<br /><br />That reveals to me a psychological irony far more telling than discussing even the worst of anybody's creative output whether sacred or profane, and pointedly insinuates that Alan Parker's films have, in actuality, risen to the highest levels of art, if we define "art" as something that boldly and powerfully reveals through the means of fiction a truth that "reality" itself conspires to deny.<br /><br />Is Richard Attenbourough an innocent in your eyes? The Merchant-Ivory boys? Hugh Hudson? Adrian Lyne? Tony and Ridley Scott?<br /><br />Roland Joffe directing torture porn? Kubrick hiring Tom Cruise?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-6787657905728548732011-04-03T09:43:08.829-07:002011-04-03T09:43:08.829-07:00Don, I'd forgot about that! But as soon as you...Don, I'd forgot about that! But as soon as you mentioned it I realized that it must have been Parker's brilliant homage to those wacky transitions between scenes in the 1966-68 <i>Batman</i> TV series! Who cares if they're totally inappropriate, right? Wham! Zap! Zoom! One giant step closer, Bat-fans, to the awful Texas execution Gale-a being thrown by the evil governor and the good-ol'-boy warden! Will our misunderstood professor make it out alive, or will Bitsey Bloom have to watch him go BOOM??!!Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-53966777899295900612011-04-03T08:35:21.537-07:002011-04-03T08:35:21.537-07:00Dennis, your outrage is contagious, and utterly ju...Dennis, your outrage is contagious, and utterly justified. And don't forget the hilarious "spinning camera" technique, which is used to signal the flashbacks!Don Mancinihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16697303770099289489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-28684119836520207562011-04-02T19:28:47.579-07:002011-04-02T19:28:47.579-07:00Is it a terrible film? Kind of. Is it a good film?...Is it a terrible film? Kind of. Is it a good film? Just a little bit. It has good elements with its cast, and some surprising twists, but the overall feel of this film just doesn't work and came off a bit too cheesy for my taking. Good Review!Dan O.http://www.dtmmr.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-83228515411127124022011-04-02T15:13:17.895-07:002011-04-02T15:13:17.895-07:00Paul: In the immortal words of Bitsey Bloom, "...Paul: In the immortal words of Bitsey Bloom, "No! No! No-o-o-o-o-ooo!"<br /><br />I was actually glad to get the assignment (certainly more so than I would have been to get <i>Triumph of the Will</i>)-- <i>Gale</i> is one that I've always been curious about but never been able to muster the energy to actually see. I honestly didn't expect it to be good, given my history of reactions to Parker's movies, but it was so much more profoundly bad than even I expected, and had so much less raw energy than even bad Parker usually has, that I was genuinely shocked. I think of the ire stirred up by <i>Sex and the City 2</i> last year and it makes me think something's wrong that there wasn't at least as much outrage over this. Maybe it's better than it just quietly sinks, forgotten, but I will say it was a lot of fun for me to write about nonetheless.Dennis Cozzaliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-14845162507105372782011-04-02T12:21:55.322-07:002011-04-02T12:21:55.322-07:00I guess this is the part where the person who subm...I guess this is the part where the person who submitted this title fesses up. Well, that person was me. Sorry about that, but like you, I was angered by this movie and consider it one of my least favorites of all time. I guess I submitted it for the same reason someone submitted <i>Triumph of the Will</i>- because it's an odious work that holds potential for an interesting review. And you definitely delivered. Thanks again for participating.Paul C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02699493473242261477noreply@blogger.com