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| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 11:46 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| While I've never been a fan of Ebert's, I think his take on Taxi Driver's conclusion is really great, maybe the best bit of movie evaluation he's done. Pretty much altered my reading of the ending entirely. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 6:13 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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mo_flixx wrote: I love Paul Schrader.
BLUE COLLAR was a fantastic movie with the one of the best soundtracks of all time. Other faves include "An American Gigolo," and "Mishima."
He's hit a rough patch, but I really do think Schrader has proved himself to be one of our most interesting writer/directors.
I haven't seen these others -- never even heard of Blue Collar -- but Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters was a very impressive, inventive film. I loved the staging and think I gave a mini-review a month or two back when I watched it. I've been meaning to watch the extras on the Criterion disc. I enjoyed Schrader's commentary on the film. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 7:23 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| Alarming: I finally got around to watching The Notorious Bettie Page this evening, and then found that she had a heart attack yesterday and is currently in critical condition. |
Last edited by Rod on Sat Dec 06, 2008 7:50 am; edited 1 time in total
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| tirebiter |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 7:41 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4011
Location: not far away
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| Bummer. At least she's stuck around long enough to be a witness to her own cultural canonization. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 8:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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She used to attack people with knives, something the movie omits (well, it was after the events depicted). She was pretty fucked up and seemed never to get help for it. She wasn't crazy about the bio pic, by the way.
But I was. Liked it much more than I expected to. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 9:10 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| I'm not so surprised if she was unbalanced later in life, if as the film portrays she was sexually abused and gang-raped. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:01 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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Joe Vitus wrote: She used to attack people with knives, something the movie omits (well, it was after the events depicted). She was pretty fucked up and seemed never to get help for it. She wasn't crazy about the bio pic, by the way.
But I was. Liked it much more than I expected to.
Apparently Hugh Hefner had helped her in later years. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:07 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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gromit wrote: mo_flixx wrote: I love Paul Schrader.
BLUE COLLAR was a fantastic movie with the one of the best soundtracks of all time. Other faves include "An American Gigolo," and "Mishima."
He's hit a rough patch, but I really do think Schrader has proved himself to be one of our most interesting writer/directors.
I haven't seen these others -- never even heard of Blue Collar -- but Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters was a very impressive, inventive film. I loved the staging and think I gave a mini-review a month or two back when I watched it. I've been meaning to watch the extras on the Criterion disc. I enjoyed Schrader's commentary on the film.
gromit --
Here's a link to "Blue Collar" at the imdb.com . You can even watch a coming attraction for it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077248/ |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:23 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Rod wrote: I'm not so surprised if she was unbalanced later in life, if as the film portrays she was sexually abused and gang-raped.
Indeed. A messed-up life. But an iconographic one, if that makes up for anything. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:25 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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mo_flixx wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: She used to attack people with knives, something the movie omits (well, it was after the events depicted). She was pretty fucked up and seemed never to get help for it. She wasn't crazy about the bio pic, by the way.
But I was. Liked it much more than I expected to.
Apparently Hugh Hefner had helped her in later years.
For all of Heff's debatable qualities, he seems to have a decent personality, and has always been there for women in need. When Linda Lovelace left her husband, she went to the Playboy mansion, and Heff took her in. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:25 am |
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It seems like Schrader and Scorcese didn't see it as obvious either.  Seeing that they didn't mean it as a fantasy, makes the ending just silly for me. And I'd like to know how he could have survived those gunshots.
As a fantasy, the ending is very good because it illustrates very simply the deluded ambitions of the psycho hero of the movie to be acclaimed as a hero.
One of the people who read my book, and is in the Canadian movie industry, had a big criticism of my hero who had killed a pscho killer and the hero's girlfriend when he came upon them screwing in his apartment, being hailed as a hero by the press and the cops when he returned to NYC to face the music. I told him that I tempered it with the scene in the nightclub when he was asked to stand up and be acknowleged. Max was very embarrassed by this but had to stand up and was greeted by little applause and a number of boos.
I wonder what he thought about the ending of Taxi Driver?
I liked Taxi Driver, but it's not a movie that had any WOW factor for me. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:27 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I'll have to trust people that Schrader has other things to his credit than Taxi Driver. The only other things I've encountered are Cat People, American Gigolo, and Hard Core. All of which I tried to watch and none of which I could make it through. With Cat People, I tried repeatedly. Crapola. |
Last edited by Joe Vitus on Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:31 am; edited 1 time in total
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:31 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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Joe Vitus wrote:
For all of Heff's debatable qualities, he seems to have a decent personality, and has always been there for women in need. When Linda Lovelace left her husband, she went to the Playboy mansion, and Heff took her in.
I remember learning that he gave money to feminist causes (including those for the legalization of abortion) in the 1960's. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:32 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I was just about to add that to my post. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:40 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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More on BLUE COLLAR --
A quick check at amazon.com shows that both the movie and soundtrack have been discontinued. Prices for both are very high. |
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