Ain't Them Bodies Saints

[jenkins]

today i made a decision with a degree of value portrayable like this:

[visiting the margaret herrick library] ≤ [mistake of not having visited before through all this time in los angeles and being familiar with the academy and everything]

it's the academy's library of movie materials -- production materials, theory books, history books, scripts, posters, marketing, hand-written letters, etc. it's a goddamn treasure chest, and i just today thought of going to visit!!

well, no one's nominated me as mayor of los angeles. what a wonderful place. i stared around at books, then i headed toward where you have to go to write down which scripts you want to look at. i had to go to a computer to check script availability, but there was a sign that listed newly arrived scripts, and the top of the ifc list had ain't them bodies saints

now, i've been couple-times nominated as the mayor of spotting a token. my script request list went:
1. ain't them bodies saints
2. the blue angel
3. scarlet empress

^the first three scripts i knew i had to see when i had access to what felt like any script i could think of

the atbs script:
was binded by a yellow textury thing, common for scripts, i just don't remember the texture's name
inside the binder, the pages were normal
date listed was 8/2012,
as a "pink" draft, with "blue" and "white" drafts mentioned as previous drafts
94 pages
begins with PROLOGUE, the movie's opening scenes,
with i think script/movie differences, because an opening truck conversation was expanded in size, pretty sure
words are complimentary to the intended tone,
as in the the tone of the script suggests the tone of the movie
noticed it was common to mention when someone was thinking about something,
i guess to prepare for a future shot of the person,
and because, like i said, the prose echoes the vibe,
the only bummer i had was all those "and then" statements,
overall enjoyed reading it very much. i read 30% of it
in the academy's library
hell yeah

blue angel script:
doesn't exist, "no comprehensive scenario was ever made of the film"
this was an "authorized translation of the film continuity"
with an intro from von sternberg that says "none of the distinctive features that fill the film are indicated in the story by Mann"
and the book also had mann's original story,
this was a book not a script binder
ehh, kinda cool

(cooler)
scarlet empress script:
amazingly tall book, appropriate for scripting format in
October 12, 1933
with a similar texture for its binder as atbs had
title page had CATHERINE THE GREAT (<--crossed out in pencil!),
with THE SCARLET EMPRESS written above (in pencil)
enjoyed the hell out of seeing this
example of dialogue i adored --

CHILD: I don't want to be a queen
mother I want to be a toe dancer.

[Mel]

Few tidbits of mine. The other day ATBS crossed my mind for no apparent reason and I started wondering what is pulling me back to this film, what I liked about it and so on. I don't have definite answer.

Honesty towards characters - going where they take you and not the other way around. Characters doesn't feel squished into the story. It starts with characters and ends with characters. Does that make sense, since I have trouble explaining it?

[tpfkabi]

This weekend was a free Showtime weekend for DISH.
ATBS played at least twice. Last night it played at 7pm and was followed by...
The Master.
I recorded it, but haven't watched it yet.
Perfect timing, too.
I was planning to use a Redbox rental on the film, but it seems it was just removed from most of the locations around here.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Rewatched this tonight and realized I never left a review here, so I'll write something brief.

The magic of this movie is how strangely engrossing it is, and how fast it feels, while the actual plot barely moves. I'm still not sure how Mr. Lowery pulled it off. At least some of it must be the editing. The rest is probably the way it's filled with so many small meaningful moments and never lingers on them for long; you quickly realize that you need to pay attention, and that these moments are clearly what the movie is about.

Some of them are a minute-long story that Bob tells, that's written so sparsely and perfectly you immediately want to play it back. My favorite is his story about Ruth screaming and him telling her that at the end of the day they're just two people in a room. I just butchered it with that paraphrase, but that scene blows me away. (Much is said about the visual beauty of the movie, but I honestly think the writing is its secret strength.)

Then there are the moments between Ruth and her daughter. I was taken aback by how much they moved me, because I'm rarely moved by scenes like that, but for example the scene of them walking and the daughter holding onto her dress really gets to me for some reason.

[Reelist]

I finally popped in the blu ray and watched this for my third time, and what's that saying? I forgot..I had gone through a stretch of watching no movies at all for a couple weeks, and with the house to myself and fall looming this seemed like just PERFECT thing. I really felt like I got it this time, whereas on the first viewings I was wrapped up in your decision making process as a director and thinking "is this a GREAT movie?" from beat to beat. I understood where the characters were coming from and how much that defined the path in front of them. Mostly, it became clear to me how much of a rat bastard Bob is, and how bad he is for Ruth even though they have such a powerful bond from being rebellious together. She is the crux of the story, and it's rare you see a movie with these thematic elements that has a single mother at the forefront. As an audience, we are begging to see them go out with a bang and have their last hurrah, but you took a moral stance by telling this in the way where it turns out the best for Ruth, and I applaud you for that. The characters are all deeply linked with a backstory that we never get to find out, but can feel the weight of in every scene.

There's such a dark, dark tone to everything, and visually it's almost colorless. I read somewhere that you wanted the entire movie to look like "an old piece of wood." I get that vibe, but in a lot of places I had issues with the yellow light. It seemed to take precedence over all the other color choices. I wonder how much you intended it have that look in the beginning, or it just turned out that way?

There's one criticism I will give and it's something that's taken me out of the film every time: When Bob gives the monologue into the mirror. Was that Casey improvising? He seems to be pulling words out of thin air and not even sure of what he'll say next. The movie is picking up such a pace at that point and it just kind of stalls there. I have to say it's quite painful to watch.

[pete]

Bradford Young is staying upstairs in an AirBnB from my DP in LA, who himself just shot Krisha. I WANT THEM TO BE FRIENDS

[Ghostboy]

Thank you for watching it a third time! This movie is difficult for me to talk about - I am super proud of it but can't watch it or think too much about it without my stomach winding up in knots over all the mistakes and other issues I have with it - but in the spirit of revisiting it...

I finally popped in the blu ray and watched this for my third time, and what's that saying? I forgot..I had gone through a stretch of watching no movies at all for a couple weeks, and with the house to myself and fall looming this seemed like just PERFECT thing. I really felt like I got it this time, whereas on the first viewings I was wrapped up in your decision making process as a director and thinking "is this a GREAT movie?" from beat to beat. I understood where the characters were coming from and how much that defined the path in front of them. Mostly, it became clear to me how much of a rat bastard Bob is, and how bad he is for Ruth even though they have such a powerful bond from being rebellious together. She is the crux of the story, and it's rare you see a movie with these thematic elements that has a single mother at the forefront. As an audience, we are begging to see them go out with a bang and have their last hurrah, but you took a moral stance by telling this in the way where it turns out the best for Ruth, and I applaud you for that. The characters are all deeply linked with a backstory that we never get to find out, but can feel the weight of in every scene.

Great, that's exactly what I was getting at with the heart of the thing, and it's the one thing I do feel we got mostly right!

There's such a dark, dark tone to everything, and visually it's almost colorless. I read somewhere that you wanted the entire movie to look like "an old piece of wood." I get that vibe, but in a lot of places I had issues with the yellow light. It seemed to take precedence over all the other color choices. I wonder how much you intended it have that look in the beginning, or it just turned out that way?

For better or worse, totally intended. We talked about it looking like a piece of wood, and also like we were shooting the whole thing through a glass of bourbon. I do love the look of it, although I wish we'd roughed it up a bit more at times and gotten messier.

There's one criticism I will give and it's something that's taken me out of the film every time: When Bob gives the monologue into the mirror. Was that Casey improvising? He seems to be pulling words out of thin air and not even sure of what he'll say next. The movie is picking up such a pace at that point and it just kind of stalls there. I have to say it's quite painful to watch.

The movie has too many monologues in the last 30 minutes, and this doesn't help - although I like this one and it usually goes over pretty well. But I know exactly where you're coming from. I wrote four different monologues for this scene and we just shot all of them, and Casey mixed them together and added his own things as well, like the hummingbird line. We stitched it together from two different takes. So it was written, but written with an eye towards elaboration.

Pete, my wife was in KRISHA! The connections never end.

[polkablues]

Now available on Netflix Streaming, guys (in the US, at least).

[Jeremy Blackman]

Rotten Tomatoes made a list:

50 MOVIES & TV SHOWS TO NETFLIX AND CHILL THIS VALENTINE'S DAY

ATBS is #3.

[Shughes]

Does anyone know where to view the Ross Brothers' behind the scenes film online? It isn't on the UK release(s) as far as I can see and the site that was hosting it back when it was mentioned in this thread no longer has it.

And is there anywhere else to view the deleted scenes or other material surrounding this film? I'm not keen to import the US versions of the DVD/BluRay as I don't have a compatible player nor do I really watch any films via DVD these days. Though I would like to see St Nick also.

I loved The Master style teasers posted by GB a while ago and my love for this film grows with every viewing. The more I read about the making of it the more I want to discover.