Yes, I'll concede that The Sand Pebbles is an ungainly and tedious snooze fest that should have been edited with a meat cleaver. But it also showcases what I consider to be the most heartfelt and honest performance of Steve McQueen's career.It's without a doubt his best work.
For that reason alone, The Sand Pebbles can be forgiven its many problems.
Rick Ryan | | Email | Homepage | 08.23.07 - 11:00 am | #
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Rick, thanks for stopping by.
One reason I enjoy doing these Oscar posts is it gives me the opportunity to cover so many different movies in one post. However, that's also the problem. In any given Oscar post I cover between 50 and 60 movies that I have seen and as a result usually only have enough room for a sentence or two for each. Even the ones I end up picking only get a paragraph. If I'm not crazy about a movie I may come off a bit flippant but I certainly would caution anyone not to take these comments as full-fledged reviews.
You should write up The Sand Pebbles on your site . I'd be interested in reading it.
Jonathan Lapper | | Email | Homepage | 08.23.07 - 2:04 pm | #
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Very interesting observations Jonathan and I enjoyed reading them even if we don't totally agree on some films. I love a lot of British cinema from this period, including films like Darling, Alfie, Far from the Madding Crowd, Georgy Girl and Richard Lester's films.
I also like The Sand Pebbles, The Grauate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf more than you, but I agree with a lot of your thoughts about the Oscars. I think they're often totally useless awards that mean nothing in the long run.
You selected some terrific films as your personal favorites from each year! I haven't seen Playtime and obviously I should so many thanks for the recommendation.
Looking over these lists of films I'm still astonished at the quality of the Oscar nominees compared to recent years. The Oscar nominees of the last 20 years (or more?) have been questionable at best and plain horrible too damn often.
Maybe it's just me, but I just cant fathom the popularity of most stuff coming out of Hollywood these days.
Cinebeats | | Email | Homepage | 08.23.07 - 2:57 pm | #
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Kimberly,
Thanks for the feedback. As I said in my response to Rick these Oscar posts don't allow for fleshed out analysis of each individual film but I try to signal when I like a movie by saying it's notable or commenting on a performance and I definitely like Alfie, Far from the Madding Crowd, Georgy Girl and Richard Lester's movies. In fact that's the reason I wanted to take a few sentences to write about how influential Lester was. Darling I'm not a big fan of or The Sand Pebbles but every other one you mentioned I definitely like.
As for Darling I haven't seen it in a few years but I didn't like the characters very much. At the time they didn't seem very interesting to me. I say "at the time" because it could be different if I watch it again. Now with Georgy Girl I love the characters, especially Lynn Redgrave, of course, and poor befuddled James Mason. Charlotte Rampling, while excellent didn't interest me as much because she seemed so one-note.
And since both you and Rick mentioned The Sand Pebbles and I have a friend for which The Sand Pebbles is her favorite movie I'm beginning to feel isolated in my feelings for it. I guess I need to see that one again as well.
As for the Oscars they often keep films in the spotlight for decades that don't deserve to be there. As I do these posts I am often appalled when I look at what the Best Picture Oscar has gone to. So far I have covered 42 years and I have been in agreement a whopping eight times. And it gets much worse. I already have all my picks in drafts waiting to be fleshed out and over the next 37 years I am only in agreement three(!) times. There might be a fourth with one that I'm wavering on.
Also just because I mention a movie is worth seeing mainly for the performances doesn't mean I don't think it's worthwhile. Acting and film are my first loves and because I have acted so much and love it so much I sometimes fixate on it. Hence all the references to performances in this and all my other Oscar posts. I love watching a great performance.
And finally, it takes me a while to see current movies because I just don't care that much. Here's the usual scenario: Someone finds out I know a lot about movies and they start asking me about this or that in theatres now or released in the last one or two years. I say "I haven't seen it yet" to about 90% of their questions and they get confused and I explain that there are still so many films from the early 1900's through the 1970's that I haven't seen yet and so those movies from 2006 and 2007 are just going to have to wait. With so many great classics from past decades still awaiting my first viewing I just don't care that much if I haven't seen the latest "must-see". And add on to that how many movies are praised to the hilt upon release only to fall into the memory hole of mediocrity years later and it doesn't seem that unwise to wait a bit.
Jonathan Lapper | | Email | Homepage | 08.23.07 - 4:05 pm | #
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As I mentioned above, even if we may disagree on some films (I love David Lean's epics!), I really do enjoy reading your thoughts and your criticisms seems well thought out.
The Sand Pebbles does have some "bloat" to it. I happen to like it's understated anti-war sentiment that gets sort of lost at times and I'm also nutty about McQueen so my bias about his performance could cloud my judgment a bit.
It's fascinating to consider why people so often have different reactions to various films. I think a lot of it has something to do with our backgrounds and what aspects of cinema generally interest us.
I love good performances too and I enjoy how you point out ones you liked in your post. I didn't realize you were interested in acting and that's fascinating to know. It gives me another insight into how you approach writing about films.
If I had stayed in college and focused on film, I would have probably ended up as a cinematographer since that is often where a lot of my focus is when I'm watching a movie. I can often ignore bad performances and poorly plotted movies if the photography is amazing.
Cinebeats | | Email | Homepage | 08.25.07 - 11:24 pm | #
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Kimberly,
Always good to hear from you. My personal McQueen favorites are Bullitt and The Great Escape which I've probably seen ten times at least. I also enjoy The Blob very much.
As for acting, despite a successful college and community theatre "career" I dropped out of it right after leaving college due to youthful waywardness. I'd like to get back into it but only as an actor in a film I write and direct (and edit and do the music for) and that is nowhere on the horizon so for now I will satisfy my love for movies by writing about them.
I mentioned your blog twice in Jim Emerson's comments section on Scanners on "The Stepford Critics" as an example of great posting and commenting. I hope people who have never been to your site read it and give you a look. Not that you need it being a pretty popular destination already but I just thought in the context that sites like yours and Dennis' and Jim's and The Siren's should be mentioned as you are all so good at engaging in discussion with commenters on your respective sites.
Jonathan Lapper | | Email | Homepage | 08.26.07 - 9:59 am | #
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McQueen made a lot of terrific films. I really like his performance in Love with a Proper Stranger, The Thomas Crown Affair, Papillon and The Getaway a lot too.
I wish you the best of luck with whatever you put your time and energy towards! I'd love to be able to go back to college myself and hopefully someday I'll be able to.
Last but not least, thanks so much for the kind words about my blog over at Jim's site. I posted a long-winded comment over there last night but it hasn't show up yet. Jim's been posting a lot of good stuff lately and it's hard to keep up.
Cinebeats | | Email | Homepage | 08.27.07 - 1:16 pm | #
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Kimberly,
I kept putting off replying here until I saw your comments on Scanners but I still don't see anything there. Which post did you comment on?
And I know what you mean by it's hard to keep up. It may sound strange but I feel I have to comment on posts I read, like a compulsion almost, and when I go to Scanners and see Jim has posted for the fifth time in three days I think, "Stop posting so damn much!" give me a chance to catch up. Of course I don't comment on everything but I like the feeling of being in discussion about film with so many members of the community.
Jonathan Lapper | | Email | Homepage | 08.27.07 - 9:46 pm | #
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