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sampeckinpah-19251984
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The Hateful Eight (2015)
If you want deepness of characterization and meaning, and if you respect kinetic elements of cinema - you will not find any
This film is bad and here are the reasons:
1 - drawn out chapters where nothing meaningful happens,
2 - scenario that has no back story or deeper characterization of dramatis personae, and
3 - one of the biggest crimes a film maker can do - anti-film language that lacks in virtuosity of mise-en-scène.
So yes, this is an anti-film, a boring theatrical play in which you even do not have interesting movement of actors and camera.
After the initial hype ''oh, I'm watching the Tarantino's film!'' you get sleepy because of boredom, because Quentin is doing his usual anti-film thing where they talk and talk and talk, and at the end of the film all that drawn out intro of first 3 chapters serves absolutely no purpose.
If your criteria for films is low you could not even say that this film is of so-so quality.
Considering what you expect from a film, from any film - do you expect real characters and real situations that have some significance to human existence, by which you can have at the same time fun and be deeply touched by human drama, and enjoying yourself and film because of that drama, because, you see, that is deeper form of fun.
Or you wanna cartoonish buffoonery that is empty and meaningless. This film holds no deeper meaning and even if we accept that and say ''I'm in for the fun, for the ride'' your fun is gonna be ruined to great extent by empty scenario and boring, utterly boring, direction and visual output.
Please take this seriously into account - this is not a film but theatrical play, this is an anti-film, one that is against anything kinetic in cinema. Just imagine masters of the 1940's Hollywood and their masterful command of mise-en-scène in long shots where they conduct a ballet of actors moving combined with delicate tracking shots. In this film you will not find that visual beauty of ''moving'' cinema but anti-film language.
All that proves that film is visually in decadence and decline for decades. If you want fun and at the same time meaning, deepness and poetry stick to visual masters like Peckinpah or Kubrick, even with great craftsmen like Siegel.
The main problem of this film, despite boring film language and scenario, is that you see Quentin and not movie characters. Everything is shallow and forced. You simply do not care for any of those characters in this film, because their back stories are non-existent. You simply do not care will they live or die.
That has nothing to do with ''are the characters likable or not'', are they ''good'' or ''bad''. We know in our lives that ''good'' and ''bad'' are intertwined in every one of us. Great, or at least good, film must have some kind of deeper characterization for us to appreciate the situations our heroes are in. In this film you will not find any.
At the end of this review I will ask you to think about Peckinpah's ''bad'' guys. You see, Peck loves all his characters, even the ''bad'' ones. He does not discards them easily, and if, and when, they die those deaths have some meaning, meaning to the plot, meaning to the characters... Watch Sam's films, I implore you.
Cross of Iron (1977)
Long live Germany
Attractive sensual Eva utters ''Long live Germany''.
This is the best film depicting ordinary Germans fighting for regime that has no moral ground. ''Long live Germany'' are crucial words, crucial because many Germans fought for Germany and not for Adolf Hitler, although he changed the oath not for Germany but for himself personally. Miserable Bohemian corporal had the nerve to spit on German military tradition and patriotism and destroyed the moral ground of the people, country and army. That moral bankruptcy and corruption shapes the whole atmosphere of this great film, and strife for survival of ordinary troopers becomes deeply existential drama where the only thing they are fighting for are their lives, or, when officer caste member is in question, vague sense of duty and honor shaped into piece of metal called Cross of Iron.
Atomski zdesna (2014)
Artificiality across the board representing boredom and uninterestedness of the director
This is a soulless film where its soullessness comes both from author's intentions and from the poor script we are subjected to.
His intention is to point out to the local Balkan ex Yugoslavia mentality in modern neoliberal ruthless capitalist reality and at the same time to partly and superficially give assessment of the 1990's wars where in a dirty messy conflict laden with deep historical background director decided to take side and to use this failed comedy as a cynical dethatched political exploitation piece, exploiting the divide and heightened emotions of the people representing ex YU republics and in the end proving that ruthless capitalists are not his bland merchant protagonists but himself.
Do not expect character development or any deepness from this film, it stays on the surface level of caricature, of undeveloped unsympathetic and forced characters. Expect no great revelations, no deep point, just banality and a sense of hollowness if you endure long enough to the end credits.
The visual aspect is so-so, a conventional uninspired run of the mill close and medium shots film without any deep building of space, without visual virtuosity or excitement. Bland as its scenario, bland as actors willing to participate and take cash for this. When it comes to the color texture of the film they look like they were deliberately processed to look bleak but the added visual sterility makes the whole experience even more artificial representing total boredom and uninterestedness of the director in this project.
Don't waste your time on this because it can be better spent on nose picking or sheep counting.
Heroes and Villains: Napoleon (2007)
Great, worthy, honest, realistic - Napoleonic!
I agree with the previous review - this is really the best of TV. It was done in cinematic way with the hand of director who knows his work and who penetrated deep into the time he is depicting, into the motivation of characters and into visuals of it all - ruins of the old regime, chaos, violence, uneasiness and psychosis of fear where the border between life and death is thin and unsure. Anyone who loves or likes Napoleon and his era shall be pleased and aroused, because to the Bony we love, in these 59 minutes of TV joy, was done justice. He is superbly, more masculine and ruggedly performed by Tom Burke. Performance I would for the rest of my life connect with him as a reference point. There is no weak point in acting here, we have fine British actors doing their tasks great. And one of the main points in every Napoleon film is VIOLENCE. Fighting sequences are realistic, brutal. Director brought it masterly. This film/drama is not politically correct or incorrect, nor is it weak, emasculated and ''sterile''. Napoleon and his actions make you grow your testicles, and female characters are similarly to men ambitious, opportunistic and realistic. This will stay in the TV anthology as one of the masterpieces dedicated to great Napoleon.