Look at the disparity between dates!
The Movie Thread
- Thread starter Maddox
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Look at the disparity between dates!
I used to love this movie back when I was single. I connected with the older guy kind of vibing with the young, feminine Scarlet Johansson. That energy is what we often talk about that's missing from girls over 30.
100% agree. Pretty much anything Russell Crowe was in at the height of his career was pretty based and he always oozed masculinity and he's a very talented artist. Gladiator, the Insider, Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind, 3:10 to Yuma, American Gangster and Master and Commander are all must watches.
Don't forget LA Confidential. Awesome in that one too.
Totally. I loved her character because she was feminine, innocent, adventurous, and down-to-earth. Those are qualities that most men look for in a woman.
I found this end clip. Don't watch if you haven't seen this movie.
Every man that has ever connected with a woman knows this feeling. It hits you hard. It's incredible acting by both of them.
Many pajeets have contributed to this list. In place of the three Indian movies I would put three more heavily masculine movies that have themes of Christian struggle in them:
Excalibur (1981) - Arthurian movie but with clear-cut distinctions between good and evil, the search for the Holy Grail and the dying of the "old ways". Christian ethos dominates, especially on the topic of personal honor. The duel between Gawain and Lancelot over Guinevere's faithfulness exemplifies this. It was toned down in gratuity after the direction was taken from a jew and given to an Englishman. The original script was supposed to be some kind of R-rated Lord of the Rings live-action movie. No political correctness or jewishness, but the editing is a bit of a drag.
The Searchers (1956) - Western story about the dangers of frontier life in the early 1800s from the Comanches, the most brutal and sadistic of the native American tribes. It was based on the Alan Le May novel which itself used the 1836 abduction of Cynthia Ann Parker by Comanches as a central plot element. John Wayne's sentiments about the tribe and their practices used to be everyday common knowledge to the pioneers, but today it is considered "hate speech". No degeneracy and nothing gratuitous is shown, only described.
The Mission (1986) - A tale of redemption for a slave trader in the Amazon basin. It shows the chaos of differing governments, Catholic and Secular, and their approach to the natives, the folly of how much of the historical attempts to convert them had been, both by the natives own inclinations and the differing strategies by the converters attempting to build a new Christian civilization in South America. You don't have to like jesuits to enjoy the film, but its a rare look into that time with some historical accuracy on how interwoven faith was to the age of exploration. The theme of penance is strong throughout the film, which is very rare. The sentimentality of Irons character is contrasted by the brutality of DeNiro's. Due to the racial realities it portrays it would likely never be made today either.
Indeed, I was going to edit and then life happened
. Romper Stomper is an aussie film which started it all off which is also worth watching.Yes, one thing that was unique about the movie is that the dynamics are often with Murray leading and Scarlett just being there. It isn't some kind of intellectual sparring match. They don't give all the funny lines to Scarlett to prove some point that women are funnier than men. She enjoys the company of Murray's character for who he is. She simply is not as funny as him and often does just laugh at things he says. But she has a certain presence and aura that he enjoys as well.
We know that her character is intelligent and can be funny too. But it isn't shoved down our throats. There are movies with similar themes to this one (movies like Annie Hall and Before Sunrise) where they make the women a lot more overly 'funny' or push them to go back and forth with the men in terms of dominating the convos.
A rare case maybe where a film written about a woman presents gender dynamics closer to what is based.
Well, there is some politics. There is this overt conflict between Aubrey and Stephen, with Aubrey being the conservative traditionalist, who prefers to stick to what he learned, appreciating and honoring teachings that he himself has doubts about, whereas Dr Stephen tries to argue in favor of a "blank slate", borderline Marxist view, where he believes men can be engineered without violence to follow a vague idea of common sense, their duties ad commitments notwithstanding.
It's a sensible discussion and the way it's resolved, Stephen becomes more united to Aubrey's philosophy and politics, rather than the other way around. It's a fundamentally traditionalist movie, overall. You are right though, it is one of the greats, I watch it a couple of times every year. There is not a single throwaway character, and none of their positions are taken for granted or left unexamined, which marks truly great writing in my mind. Master and Commander is pure art. It's the last big Christian movie, I'd say. There is nuance, but the fundamental catharsis is the two main characters reuniting in true, platonic male friendship.
I don't thin being political necessarily makes a movie bad, but if the political messaging is cheap and dishonest, the product loses its value.
You are right that the conflict between traditionalism vs modernism is there, but to the movie's credit, this was a conflict that existed in that era, and the characters state their positions in terms that would be typical of the time. It's interesting that the same conflict still feels up to the minute, but they do a good job of presenting it in its historical context.
Another point. The movie is based on a series of books by Patrick O'Brian, 20 books in all. The movie actually combines major plot elements from two different books, with additional details and lines taken from others. You could imagine the result of this approach to be a hodgepodge story line, but as you said, the story and the characters all fit together perfectly. It really is an exceptional movie.
For realism, they even trained the cast to actually sail a ship like that, with all the complex sail handling and climbing in the rigging.
Yeah, correct. Films naturally deal with political content if they are period pieces, as most of the history we know is known to us because the events recorded were political in nature.
It's not the case for Master and Commander, but I could even appreciate a movie if its subject were people I disagree with politically.
I love the movie "Reds" from 1981, by and with Warren Beatty. It's about American socialists, and Beatty himself is a lefty, but I like the movie because it deals with the subject matter honestly. The arrogance and decadence of 1910s socialists is depicted very explicitly, as are the character defects that play into their ideological zeal. There's a lot to take away from it, regardless of the personal politics of the maker or the main characters.
I wouldn't be able to tell you the thought process of Beatty when he made it. However, consciously or subconsciously, he produced a very honest and introspective piece or art.
Likewise, I don't know the politics of Peter Weir. I assume he is some sort of Catholic, but whatever he is, he took his characters seriously and gave them all a fair shake, without trying to force his personal politics into it.
Apparently it's from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I wonder if it's any good.
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Think I should watch this film again. I was 32 when I first saw it and it didn't make much of an impression. But that last scene was pretty good.