Sean Penn

Started by NEON MERCURY, August 07, 2003, 10:26:49 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Vile5

Dead Man Walking
Sweet and Lowdown
The Thin Red Line
"Wars have never hurt anybody except the people who die." - Salvador Dalí

Ernie

Quote from: P
Quote from: ebeamanI can't imagine Sean Penn in a DGG movie, he's just so intense..
i think u'll find that DGG is not always gonna be "dreamtime/sleepy" ppl. just like PTA left the coked up characters behind in PDL.

Hey, I'm all for that. I hope you're right too...there are some scenes in ATRG that hint at a talent for some more hyped up stuff. Also more accessible too. He's said in the past that he absolutely hopes to do some big budget stuff in the future, he just doesn't want to be stuck with that. I really can't wait, it's going to be cool.

Anyway, I've been going on a sort of Sean Penn binge since my first post in this thread...he's really becoming one of my favorite actors, he's really amazing, here's what I've loved so far....

-At Close Range (very scary)
-Bad Boys (wow!)
-State of Grace (w/ gary fucking oldman...wow!)
-The Thin Red Line (finally saw it!)

NEON MERCURY

Quote from: ebeaman
Quote from: P
Quote from: ebeamanI can't imagine Sean Penn in a DGG movie, he's just so intense..
i think u'll find that DGG is not always gonna be "dreamtime/sleepy" ppl. just like PTA left the coked up characters behind in PDL.


-The Thin Red Line (finally saw it!)



...cool then you saw the greateast war film ever ..and my fav.....Penn performance

MacGuffin

Sean Penn won best actor at the Venice Film Festival for his role as a terminally ill university professor in 21 Grams, a film about loss and redemption in middle American which is already being tipped for an Oscar nomination.
"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

Pubrick

what'd i tell ya..

let the bandwagon jumping begin.
under the paving stones.

aclockworkjj

haha...I just watched Colors the other night.  Completely forgot about this movie, as I haven't seen it in years.

Edit:
and I am watchin' Hurlyburly right now, what a underrated flick.  What a great cast.

soixante

Penn is great.  He was the perfect stoner in Fast Times.  He was a great cokehead in Falcon and the Snowman.  He was great in At Close Range.  He was a great macho LAPD officer in Colors.  He was convincing in Casualties of War, with his New York accent, and his sense of command and menace.  He was great in Carlito's Way.  Great in Dead Man Walking, Thin Red Line, Hurlyburly.  Great mentally challenged guy in I Am Sam.  The reviews for Mystic River are fantastic, and now 21 Grams is getting a lot of notice.  Looking back over his career, he has done great work for more than 20 years.  He has to win an Oscar one of these days.  Maybe this will be his year.

Has this guy ever been off his game?

Also, his brother Chris is pretty fucking good too -- Reservoir Dogs, Short Cuts, True Romance.
Music is your best entertainment value.

MacGuffin

Quote from: soixanteHas this guy ever been off his game?

"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

budgie

All the years of talk about The Thin Red Line had me staying up to watch it the other night. I trusted you all. You all lied to me.

Two good things:

Sean Penn.
The shot of the baby parrot - genius.

Otherwise the unremitting eulogising and white man's self-wonder-pity, the excruciatingly bad acting and the naff philosophizing made me guffaw, yawn and abusive by turns.

Change my mind, so I can salvage.

rustinglass

i want to see the full version so bad!
I love the score
"In Serbia a lot of people hate me because they want to westernise, not understanding that the western world is bipolar, with very good things and very bad things. Since they don't have experience of the west, they even believe that western shit is pie."
-Emir Kusturica

Pwaybloe

Quote from: budgieChange my mind, so I can salvage.

I thought the beginning alone was worth a movie by itself.  Two AWOL soldiers trying to recreate home with an island tribe was pretty fascinating.  The rest of the movie was equally fascinating.  

There was a lot of sweaty, shirtless guys, though.  That should be worth something to you.

Pubrick

budgie.. it must be a guy thing.

like most great movies i know, it's all about the last 20mins.. in this case the sean penn final moments about "never leaving this room" or whatever, and the dude looking back at the island and asking his soul to let him be inside it.

another great highlight is all the lines up to and including "Have you passed through this night?". and the whole nature-law thing through the movie. this was the first and only time where i was overwhelmed by the immediacy of impending mortality, and i freaked out. jim caviezel is ekzellent also, in his embodiment of christ-consciousness. and it's great how malick shifted the focus of the story to him instead of Fife (adrien brody).
under the paving stones.

budgie

Quote from: Pbudgie.. it must be a guy thing.

like most great movies i know, it's all about the last 20mins.. in this case the sean penn final moments about "never leaving this room" or whatever, and the dude looking back at the island and asking his soul to let him be inside it.

another great highlight is all the lines up to and including "Have you passed through this night?". and the whole nature-law thing through the movie. this was the first and only time where i was overwhelmed by the immediacy of impending mortality, and i freaked out. jim caviezel is ekzellent also, in his embodiment of christ-consciousness. and it's great how malick shifted the focus of the story to him instead of Fife (adrien brody).

You know, I think you're right: it might be a (certain type of) guy thing. It is quintessentially Male Romantic, and that's what bugged me, tho normally I go for that (dunno, maybe I've changed). The nature-law thing, as you call it, is just such a tired philosophy to me. I can see its appeal, tho, and the use of the setting did stir me. I also realise that we're looking through the eyes of various white western idealists, and normally too that would appeal, because in some ways it was a critique of that romanticism. But I didn't find anything to challenge it ultimately, it felt reaffirmed. That is a problem for me, but only because I want to strip it away and expose it I guess. But OK, at 19 years old I loved those ideals (so maybe it isn't only a guy thing, even if it's at the root of the culture). Maybe I wasn't listening attentively enough to this movie, I can't be sure.

The tone didn't help with that though. The self-conscious poeticism and the naff narration. I had trouble not seeing through it all, like I had trouble not seeing through the mannered performances, the types and yes, the religiosity. I think this was because it had no relief (except in Penn, and maybe I'd have liked it more with more emphasis laid on his relationship with Caviezel). I just kept thinking 'oh, lighten up', and it made me laugh.

Thanks, that's enlightening. I did like the first scenes in the grass too, by the way. I think this all has a bearing on your like/my disregard for Kubrick also. The same aestheticization of pain and, as you say, mortality. We're just feeling it in different styles.


As for sweaty men... well, see, this is the same thing. Looking at naked sweaty men indiscriminately has no effect whatever. It's all about the context. If the style and philosophy is all wrong, I remain unmoved. Maybe that's just a girl thing. Or a budgie thing.

meatball

For some reason, my mind built up a block against this guy. There was something about him that made me not like him. Now, I've been checking out some of his movies -- and damn, the guy is good.

Henry Hill

One of my favorites, if not my favorite Penn performance has to be as Meserve in CASUALTIES OF WAR. It was an amazing performance by a young actor, such as he was back then. He was so believable in that film. I cringe each time I watch it, but he is awesome.