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kenjariSo this turned out to be the weekend of violent movies.
The Departed
This was, without doubt, the finest movie Other Kenjari and I watched this weekend. The direction was terrific, as one would expect from Scorsese, and the acting performances were great. Even Leonardo DiCaprio; it appears that he is much better as an ensemble actor: when he has other people to work off and with he's usually quite good, when he has to carry the whole film by himself he's not that great. He even did a respectable Boston accent. Scorsese did a terrific job of making The Departed really feel and look like a Boston story. I know that only parts were shot on location, but he made the most out of the location work and shots of the city so that the film never lost its sense of place. Fully engrossing from start to finish, the story had great suspense and some genuine surprises, too.
The Proposition
The main draw of this film about outlaws in the Australian outback during the late 19th century was the fact that Nick Cave wrote the script as well as the score. The music is beautiful - subtle, bleak, haunting. I'd actually had the soundtrack well before I saw the movie and greatly enjoyed listening to it. The movie goes very well with the music. It's a somewhat slow, contemplative film with a few scenes of brutality. And the script is clearly the work of Nick Cave - who else would have a hard-bitten bounty hunter who discusses Darwin with random strangers, or a vicious outlaw gang leader who quotes lyric poetry and waxes sentimental about the bonds of family? Plus, the relationship between the local lawman and his refined wife, with its combination of tension and real caring, is the kind of thing the recurs throughout Cave's songs.
300
This film had its moments of greatness, and then it had its other moments. Visually, it was terrific. It had beautiful cinematography with amazingly composed shots. It was exciting and stirring in some ways.The battle sequences were wonderful - well choreographed with a fighting style that was lots of fun to watch. And there were attractive people to look at. However, thematically, 300 is a mess. Sometimes is seemed to be making some statements, but it never really followed through with them or gave them any true substance. And, having also seen Sin City, I have to say that Frank Miller has some interesting issues. For one, he has some rather strangely conflicted attitudes towards women - he appears to have no trouble depicting strong, powerful, tough, capable women, but he also seems to insist on putting them in squicky sexual situations (even when it causes apparent character inconsistencies, as with Gorgo). Two, Miller also has a strange fascination with physical deformity, which he carried to a rather ridiculous level in the depictions of the Persian army. Odd and excessive facial piercings, ok; a giant ogre-like guy, mmm...sure I'll let you have that one; a guy with lobster claws for hands, now you're just being silly.
Our movie selections for this weekend turned out to have a couple of interesting connections, aside from the violence:
All three films had only one substantial female character.
Ray Winstone appeared in both The Departed and The Proposition. David Wenham appeared in The Proposition and 300.
The Departed
This was, without doubt, the finest movie Other Kenjari and I watched this weekend. The direction was terrific, as one would expect from Scorsese, and the acting performances were great. Even Leonardo DiCaprio; it appears that he is much better as an ensemble actor: when he has other people to work off and with he's usually quite good, when he has to carry the whole film by himself he's not that great. He even did a respectable Boston accent. Scorsese did a terrific job of making The Departed really feel and look like a Boston story. I know that only parts were shot on location, but he made the most out of the location work and shots of the city so that the film never lost its sense of place. Fully engrossing from start to finish, the story had great suspense and some genuine surprises, too.
The Proposition
The main draw of this film about outlaws in the Australian outback during the late 19th century was the fact that Nick Cave wrote the script as well as the score. The music is beautiful - subtle, bleak, haunting. I'd actually had the soundtrack well before I saw the movie and greatly enjoyed listening to it. The movie goes very well with the music. It's a somewhat slow, contemplative film with a few scenes of brutality. And the script is clearly the work of Nick Cave - who else would have a hard-bitten bounty hunter who discusses Darwin with random strangers, or a vicious outlaw gang leader who quotes lyric poetry and waxes sentimental about the bonds of family? Plus, the relationship between the local lawman and his refined wife, with its combination of tension and real caring, is the kind of thing the recurs throughout Cave's songs.
300
This film had its moments of greatness, and then it had its other moments. Visually, it was terrific. It had beautiful cinematography with amazingly composed shots. It was exciting and stirring in some ways.The battle sequences were wonderful - well choreographed with a fighting style that was lots of fun to watch. And there were attractive people to look at. However, thematically, 300 is a mess. Sometimes is seemed to be making some statements, but it never really followed through with them or gave them any true substance. And, having also seen Sin City, I have to say that Frank Miller has some interesting issues. For one, he has some rather strangely conflicted attitudes towards women - he appears to have no trouble depicting strong, powerful, tough, capable women, but he also seems to insist on putting them in squicky sexual situations (even when it causes apparent character inconsistencies, as with Gorgo). Two, Miller also has a strange fascination with physical deformity, which he carried to a rather ridiculous level in the depictions of the Persian army. Odd and excessive facial piercings, ok; a giant ogre-like guy, mmm...sure I'll let you have that one; a guy with lobster claws for hands, now you're just being silly.
Our movie selections for this weekend turned out to have a couple of interesting connections, aside from the violence:
All three films had only one substantial female character.
Ray Winstone appeared in both The Departed and The Proposition. David Wenham appeared in The Proposition and 300.
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