Hal Ashby

Started by j_scott_stroup04, December 17, 2003, 08:47:17 PM

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Ghostboy

Saw 'Being There' this evening. I agree with everyone who's posted and liked it, and disagree with people who felt otherwise, but I've had far too much wine since watching it and don't particularly feel like arguing its case. It's on par with 'Network' as far as brilliantly subtle satire (although I think this is better than 'Network' overall).

Pubrick

Quote from: GhostboyIt's on par with 'Network' as far as brilliantly subtle satire (although I think this is better than 'Network' overall).
upon reading that sentence i reacted in this wise..

to the first part:  :shock:

then, to the bracketed part: :yabbse-shocked:

it really isn't better than network. it's lazy, it's a one man vehicle with a one-note joke carried over one too many acts. i liked it (being there), but it ain't no revelation, which i think network is.

it's cute and all, but not gutsy.
under the paving stones.

soixante

I'll take Being There over Network.  Being There doesn't use a sledgehammer to make its points they way Network does.  Network's characters are prone to giving long speeches that are too on-the-nose.  Pauline Kael's original review in 1976 will shed more light on this subject.
Music is your best entertainment value.

Alethia

nah i think network is just a little bit better

MacGuffin

The Next to Last Detail
Sequel to '70s classic in the works.
 
Variety reveals that a sequel to the 1973 classic The Last Detail is in the works. Two stars from the original Hal Ashby-directed dramedy, Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid, are keen on reprising their roles. Morgan Freeman is said to be up for the role first played by the late Otis Young.

The trade reports that Darryl Ponicsan, author of the original Detail novel, has written a sequel, Last Flag Flying.

Variety got their information from none other than Quaid. "It's a moving revisitation of our characters re-captured by our relationships," said Quaid, who added that Nicholson's character will run a bar in the story. "All three are anxiously awaiting a final script before committing," according to Variety.

The Last Detail followed U.S. Navy lifers Billy "Bad Ass" Buddusky (Nicholson) and "Mule" Mulhall (Young) who are assigned to transport naive young petty thief Meadows (Quaid) from their Norfolk base to a brig up north. The kid's looking at the next several years in jail so Buddusky and Mule decide to treat Meadows to one last wild weekend. Managing to be both raucous and bleak, The Last Detail remains a profane but poignant study of liberty lost.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

cowboykurtis

Being There is up there with my favorites.

I think the only way the film works is if you recognize the comedy. I do believe this is a satire, however people get much to bogged down by the enigmatic ending. I dont think I've ever laughed so hard at a film as I did when first viewing this. I think sellers saw the comedy in this as well ( i believe he self solicited the part). The simplcity is what makes it work so well. The tone never shifts and essentially its the same joke throughout the film (one may argue that wes anderson employs this same comedy technique in his films). The satire grows from the absolute absurdity of the situation, as it does with network (which i do think is a superior film). Sellers is absolutely brilliant -- one of kind magic.
...your excuses are your own...

soixante

Sequel to Last Detail -- please, no.

Ashby's best film -- Shampoo.
Music is your best entertainment value.

Bethie

I was just on allmovie.com and this little factoid popped up: "The script for Harold and Maude was originally the 20-minute long graduate thesis of UCLA grad student Colin Higgins, who showed it to his landlady, coincidentally the wife of producer Edward Lewis." I decided that was my signal to post in this thread.

man I love Ashby. I'd consider Harold and Maude AND Being There as two of my favourite films.  The Last Detail, Shampoo, Coming Home are the other Ashby films I've seen. I really like the guy.

I want to revisit Shampoo again soon because after initial viewing I shrugged it off as only okay but the film crosses my mind a lot and I think I would benifit from another viewing.
who likes movies anyway

soixante

Quote from: BethieI was just on allmovie.com and this little factoid popped up: "The script for Harold and Maude was originally the 20-minute long graduate thesis of UCLA grad student Colin Higgins, who showed it to his landlady, coincidentally the wife of producer Edward Lewis." I decided that was my signal to post in this thread.

man I love Ashby. I'd consider Harold and Maude AND Being There as two of my favourite films.  The Last Detail, Shampoo, Coming Home are the other Ashby films I've seen. I really like the guy.

I want to revisit Shampoo again soon because after initial viewing I shrugged it off as only okay but the film crosses my mind a lot and I think I would benifit from another viewing.

I've seen it about 15 times, and I find new things to appreciate every time.  A masterpiece, one of the greatest films ever made, in my opinion.
Music is your best entertainment value.

Redlum


http://home.earthlink.net/~emulsional/ashby.htm

Really interesting page here. Perhaps most of its quite well known though. How Ashby, after being refused the outtakes at the end of Being There, personally went to projection booths with his ending, and spliced it in.
\"I wanted to make a film for kids, something that would present them with a kind of elementary morality. Because nowadays nobody bothers to tell those kids, \'Hey, this is right and this is wrong\'.\"
  -  George Lucas

cowboykurtis

Quote from: ®edlum
http://home.earthlink.net/~emulsional/ashby.htm

Really interesting page here. Perhaps most of its quite well known though. How Ashby, after being refused the outtakes at the end of Being There, personally went to projection booths with his ending, and spliced it in.

The worst part of that paticular story is hiw it ended - the studios fucked Ahsby for breach of contract - not "properly delivering" the film - he was never paid a dime for his directorial efforts on Being There.

personally, I do not like the blooper's during the credit - the resonance of the ending becomes diffused.

i think they originally intended for tv commercials to be running, which (in my opinion) wouold be more appropraite.
...your excuses are your own...

cron

says actor bruce dern " what happened to hal ashby, both what he did to himself, and they did to him, is as repulsive to me as anything i've seen in my forty years in the industry."

from easy riders raging bulls

if you have the book you know i haven't read it
context, context, context.

life_boy

Quote from: soixanteI've seen it [Shampoo] about 15 times, and I find new things to appreciate every time.  A masterpiece, one of the greatest films ever made, in my opinion.

I'd like to hear more...

MacGuffin

Karlovy high on Ashby's 'Maude'
Festgoers applaud 1971 cult film
Source: Variety

Czech auds gave Hal Ashby's 1971 cult romancer "Harold and Maude" five minutes of sustained applause at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival on Monday, bringing a tear to the eye of thesp Bud Cort.

Fest veterans reported never seeing such a response to a 36-year-old pic -- but this one, and most others in fest's New Hollywood section, is still unknown in the Czech Republic owing to Cold War censorship in the 1970s.

Journalists packed a conference room Tuesday to hear tales of how the pic, along with Monte Hellman's "Two-Lane Blacktop" and Peter Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show," came together in the days before corporate marketing strategies drove production, when film was "provocative" and political, "covert or overt," in the words of Cort.

Cort, Hellman and Cybill Shepherd, along with Daily Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart and executive editor of features Steven Gaydos, shared tales of Hollywood in those days, including then-shocking nude scenes, creative risk-taking and a different world of moviemaking. One example offered was that Ashby's tale of a teen's affair with an 80-year-old woman was greenlit in a two-minute conversation in a car.

Hellman, who fascinated fest auds with his 1971 cult road movie, said, "It was a very unusual time ... I've never before or after experienced being given final cut."

Along with the collapse of the studio system, recalled Bart, the birth of revolutionary films was accompanied by rampant drug use.

Bart deadpanned that "better cinema resulted from a substantial intake of very good pot," but he also added that "in the end, so many, like Hal, were defeated by drugs."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

tpfkabi

I was going through some unmarked VHS tapes and found one where I recorded Harold and Maude off of TCM, so I ended up watching it. Great, great film.
Criterion really needs to issue a special edition DVD of this film.
I'm sure Wes Anderson and Bud Cort would do a commentary at least...

While looking up info on it I just found out that today they have finally released a limited vinyl edition of the soundtrack - a soundtrack was never released in the US and only an incomplete (not including the songs Stevens composed specifically for the film) version was released in Japan.

"What was interesting was, I'd done that project, I'd kind of put it behind me. But then, over the years it's just taken on so much importance. It's a milestone, and a part of people's memories, which they love... and I love it too. Other things disappear or assume smaller proportions. Harold and Maude just gets better and means more and more. It's the rarest thing. A film that gets better with age."


-Yusuf

Finally. The never-before-released soundtrack to the masterpiece Hal Ashby film.

Vinyl Films Records is honored to announce the release of the Holy Grail of unreleased soundtracks, Harold and Maude. Thirty-six years after its initial release, every one of Cat Stevens' masterful songs from the film are compiled in one incredible package. In addition to such classics as "Miles From Nowhere", "Where Do The Children Play?" and "Trouble", the album includes the two songs written specifically for Harold and Maude, "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out" and "Don't Be Shy", along with alternate versions of both Harold and Maude tracks.

Over two years in the making, the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Harold and Maude comes with an extensive 40-page full-color booklet filled with never-before-seen photographs and an oral history of the making of the film and the music, as told by the filmmakers and participants. Also included is a bonus 7" single with unreleased versions of "Don't Be Shy" and "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out", two suitable-for-framing posters, and much more!

Available only on 2500 copies of Limited Edition Vinyl.


I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.