For your consideration: Here, you see Frank Sinatra and some guy name Laurence Harvey circa 1962 in the original version of "The Manchurian Candidate." It was on TCM the other night, so Gindo and I watched it. You know something? It was fucking great! I know there's that knee-jerk, "I had so much fun watching old movies with my girlfriend" cliché, but this movie was legitimately cool. It got nominated for an Academy Award that year (Angela Lansbury for Best Supporting Actress). Why not a bigger award? It was up against movies like "To Kill A Mocking Bird," "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Miracle Worker," & "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane." And before you make any of the Murder She Wrote jokes that I did, yes, Angela Lansbury has apparently always been old, but in this movie she was positively terrifying.You know who else was good? Fucking Frank Sinatra! Like Ginny said, it's too bad that all these singers who want to be in the movies now can't act. I'm not saying Old Blue Eyes is the best actor in the movie, but he's not too bad. Unlike a few others in movies these days.
Now, here's what was most riveting about the movie. Go watch it, then I want you to go watch No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood. What do they have in common? Yes, they're all three dark dramas. Yes, they're all three well-acted, with interesting (if convoluted) plots. But here's what I liked best about them:
No soundtrack.
No radio symphony providing swelling emotional/musical cues. No studio-rock playing edgy guitars during chase scenes. No insipid pop-covers during montages. No, just fucking acting, drama, and suspense. Both of the latter two movies were a couple of the most compelling films I've seen in a while, and it took me a while to figure it out. But finally, it hit me: the director of the film wasn't trying to tell me how to feel about a certain character or situation through musical cues. Instead, I just got to watch the movie and make up my own mind.
Why can't more movies be like that?
3 comments:
because i don't want to go to the movies to feel! if i have to feel, i'd like to at least know what i'm supposed to be feeling. stupid feelings.
I would suggest, if you haven't seen them, that you rent and or catch ALL the other movies you named for that year. You'll love EVERY one of them for very different reasons. WHTBJ is a B&W thriller that will leave you a little edgy about stairwells . . . .and LoA is loooooooong. . . . KA
Yeah, I'm going to pass on Lawrence of Arabia. It seems like hours out of my life that I would never get back.
Post a Comment