Last night I wrote a couple of paragraphs for this blog, and then decided against posting at all. I had written about two wonderful German words, schadenfreude and treppengedanke. The former means to take pleasure in the suffering of others. The latter, (treppen means stairs, gedanke means thoughts) means to pour over what you said, or wanted to say, in a social situation. For example, if you were fired from your job and are thinking of what you should have said by going over the whole conversation in your mind, that's "treppengedanken." A very poetic image. Going up and down the stairs of your thoughts about something that happened.I went on and on about that, then said to hell with it and just signed out. I do that a lot. What I just wrote above is a more concise and better post.
Now for something completely different. I'm a big fan of movies, and I like to think that my taste is refined. Sure, I enjoy the first two movies of the Blade series (not the third one, despite Jessica Biel, who couldn't act her way out of a paper bag) and the original Dune, directed by David Lynch. I have my guilty pleasures. But I know a great movie when I see one. If you're lucky and gently coax me, I might just post my list of the 100 Greatest Movies According to Me.
Coax me...oh, yeah...coax...coax...
I'm also a big fan of classic movie special effects, before CGI fucked things up. Sure, computers can and have been used to produce some magnificent special effects. King Kong was full of amazing stuff, as was the Lord of the Rings series. Then again, LOTR used a lot of conventional make-up. And I just read in The New Yorker magazine that most of Arnold Schwarzenegger is done through CGI these days.
There's a short and fun conversation in Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece "Death Proof" where Stuntman Mike, played by the wonderful Kurt Russell (I would seriously consider screwing him) explains how special effects used to be done, at least related to cars. Naturally, no computer effects were used back in the day. People would actually drive cars and ride horses and get into accidents and situations that sent people flying all over the place. It was really happening. For my money, that makes an action sequence so much more interesting. But "conventional" special effects really grab me in another area, make-up.
My favorite all-time movie effect (and I have many) is from American Werewolf in London. Witness the first transformation scene, done by Rick Baker, where David Naughton turns painfully into, well, a werewolf. An American one, at that. And in London. It's full of neat tricks and painstaking craftsmanship, and it really leaves an impression.
Compare that with any of the transformation scenes from more recent werewolf movies. Like the sequel, American Werewolf in Paris, or Underworld; they suck. Although Underworld has a good moment or two, thanks to actual make-up effects briefly used. And the final scenes in London, where the werewolf tear-asses through Piccadilly Circus, makes the little hairs stand up on the back of my neck. And those little hairs have strict orders not to do anything.
So let this be the first in a series of posts, now and then, about good old-fashioned special effects. Strictly speaking, the American Werewolf in London isn't my only favorite...a lot come in for a tie. The most disturbing, and most effective, special effect in movie history may have to go to the dog with a human head from the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. That fucking thing haunted me for weeks. Actually, it still does. The still doesn't do it justice. Then there is the spider/human head (AKA "Norris Spider") from the John Carpenter remake of The Thing.
A general discussion about movies may be fun, too. People can post replies in the comments section and then I can point out where you're wrong and where you're right. Ha! I'm told that Apocalypse Cow, a friend of the blog, doesn't like the movie, "Magnolia." That may have to be covered at some point. Let's just keep it civil.
7 comments:
Apoco cow also does not like the movie 'Fight Club'. I think he was dropped on his head as a child.
Perfect example of CGI ruining a film- Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace. I had no fear or concern about the robotic CGI army. None. Compare that with the sheer awe and just a little bit of terror when you see the super star destroyer crawling across the screen in New Hope, and boom, there's the difference.
I loved LOTR because of Peter Jackson's melding of CGI and normal special effects. They didn't have to have the actors flopping about in prosthesis, or have to order 55 gallon drums of KY for the guys in the orc suits because things chafed so much, but they did, to make things look more real. Star Wars I and LOTR I were only 2 years apart, and effectively were shot at the same time, more or less.
And no, I didn't like Magnolia, because I felt it was pretentious for the sake of being pretentious.
I also didn't like Fight Club, because the ending was weak and flawed. I honestly don't think they knew where to go with it, and just kind of dropped it.
No surprise here, but I agree with my brother on both Magnolia and Fight Club. But I also totally agree with Apocalypse Cow's take on The Phantom Menace. Actually, Episodes I, II, and III are all flawed because of the effects. A good example of this is Yoda's big fight scene with Count Dooku. Mercy. And just for the record, I could have lived a long life and been satisfied with never seeing Jabba the Hutt slithering around the Millennium Falcon, chatting with Han Solo.
And LOTR is just perfect, in terms of effects. I'll leave it at that.
The ending of Fight Club represented a logical conclusion to the rest of the film. He was essentially building up an anarchist movement, and with an eye on Anarchists of the first quarter of the last century, the movie ended with an act of terrorism. When the Fight Clubs become "Operation Mayhem," Tyler finds himself the leader of an anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist, even a Luddite revolution. In one scene, an Attorney General is threatened with castration if he doesn't back of his investigation of OM. For my money, that's what revolution looks like. And ending the movie with a huge act of terrorism makes perfect sense, logically and aesthetically. But that's just me.
It's also MUCH better than the book.
The pretentious criticism of Magnolia is one I've heard a lot. I have a hard time with criticizing anything as "pretentious" because of how I view life. It's full of pain and has no objective purpose and it's all about loss and eventual non-existence. For my money, it's hard to be pretentious when faced with that reality. I mean, isn't "The Godfather" one and two pretentious? After all, it's about a bunch of mobsters. I don't see pretention, I see artistic sureity.
Apocolypse Now could easily be seen as pretentious! (ducking)
I finally remembered one of the best combinations of makeup and actor performances I've ever seen. Its Lon Chaney in "The Penalty". he plays a double amputee, and the effect was made by strapping his legs in a leather apparatus. At one point in the film, he climbs the wall using just his arms and pegs in the wall. Simply amazing. See it in this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOLPRfTNdAI
I probably need to see Magnolia again, but it seemed like an overblown excuse for a BU film major's senior project. And I've seen my share of those. It plodded, and the character developments were unsurprising and it seems to hit you over the head with its points, over and over and over.
Were you perhaps distracted or annoyed when you first saw Magnolia? I don't know what film school flicks you've seen!
While I can't remember ever watching Magnolia, I totally agree with Darren, that LOTR is perfect the way it is.. The images will forever be burned into my brain. Enough said.
What about Alien? When that thing popped out of that guy's stomach? That was a pretty piece of special effects. Also, ANY of the Die Hard movies, include some superb special effects, without CGI.
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