Movie Tastes

[quasigeostrophy]

Thinking about the WWII parts of Cryptonomicon got me thinking more about the various genres of media I like. I don't read much in the war genre at all, but Stephenson made those parts of his book palatable to me via his sense of humour and the specific angle (cryptography) being of interest to me. I tried Tom Clancy, and I can appreciate some of the Jack Ryan stuff (though I prefer the abridged movie versions in his case). I'm the same way with movies. I don't like too many war movies, westerns, or musicals. In each case, however, I do have a couple of exceptions.

In the war movie genre, two of my favourites are Kelly's Heroes and Das Boot. I like the former for its tongue-in-cheek approach to the hidden Nazi gold story, and the latter is a great suspense/claustrophobia tale that happens to be set in war. Oddly enough, both are related to large plot elements in Cryptonomicon.

As for westerns, three of those stand out: Once Upon a Time in the West, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and A Big Hand for the Little Lady. The first one of those is, to me, the classic spaghetti western, with all the clichés. Butch Cassidy and Big Hand are only set in the west. They don't belong in the genre, IMHO, for any other reason. The former was one that I studied as an undergrad in my production and (particularly) screenwriting classes until I knew it forward and backward. The latter also belongs to one of my favorite types of film - the big con with the hilarious plot twist.

Musicals: First on my list is My Fair Lady, which I love for the language geekery plot, as well as the cast performances and costuming. The recent adaptation of Chicago is another favorite, but I think it's just a major component of my love for Fosse stage productions. I can't think of too many others I really would go out of my way to watch, but I don't avoid most other musicals, unlike westerns and war flicks.

Comments

[explodingcat.livejournal.com]

I thought "Little Shop of Horrors" was a fun musical. I probably prefer the more recent of the film versions.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I have yet to see either version of that. Perhaps it is time for that to change...

[supergee.livejournal.com]

The only war novels I like are satires--Catch-22 of course, and Hanging On, a hilarious book Dean Koontz wrote before he became famous.

[lightning-rose.livejournal.com]

If that pointless, goofy bicycle/raindrops scene is ever edited out, I'll happily watch BCATSK again. I'm serious, that one scene makes the whole movie unwatchable for me. What was the director thinking?

ABHFTLL is a gem. I love the near realtime aspect and the way the plot is woven around a single hand of poker. If it's ever released on DVD, I'll be there! :)

If you've never seen it, another non-western you might enjoy is Little Big Man. Twenty years before Dances With Wolves Dustin Hoffman stars as Jack Crabb, a white man torn between his life as a Cheyenne (who raised him after his family was massacred by another tribe) and his life in the white world. The movie is funny and sad and ultimately very moving. And it's probably the first Hollywood movie to portray Native Americans in a positive manner.

I have a hard time classifying Chicago as a musical. To me, a musical is a movie or play in which the cast suddenly bursts into song and/or dance for no apparent reason. In Chicago, the musical scenes are almost all figments of Roxy's imagination. But it is a breathtaking roller coaster of a movie.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I don't really mind the bicycling scene. It shows Butch being close to Etta as well, and the character of the scene, particularly the song, along with the rest of the score, is one of the things that keeps it from being a stereotypical western to me. YMMV, obviously. :-)

I'll have to check out Little Big Man. I did like Dances with Wolves, mostly for the cinematography, though. And I like Dustin Hoffman.

I agree completely about Chicago.

[lightning-rose.livejournal.com]

Another non-musical is Dancer in the Dark, starring Bjork. As in Chicago, the musical numbers are all in Bjork's characters imagination. She plays a factory worker, single mom, obsessed with (ta-da) musicals who goes to great sacrifice to save her son from the same degenerative blindness she suffers from.

It's a very powerful and moving film but has an ending that left me crying in the theatre long after the credits had ended. The couple in front of me left early and I could see she was very distressed.

[catzen.livejournal.com]

Musicals: First on my list is My Fair Lady

Have to admit: I really enjoy this movie. (Also, believe it or not, the German dubbed version was *excellent*. They used Berliner dialect / High German as the equivalent to Cockney / Standard English. It worked astoundingly well -- songs and all.)